📖Introduction

The University of Birmingham is a public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham, and Mason Science College, making it the first English civic or 'red brick' university to receive its own royal charter. The University have a long and proud history of firsts, at the University of Birmingham; they were the first – and are now one of the largest - civic universities in the UK.

At Birmingham, the institution teach and research across the full breadth of academic disciplines, creating a vibrant community with multi-disciplinary opportunities for research and education. The University is a truly international community consisting of more than thousands of staff, students, and alumni. The student community is not only one of the largest of any UK university, it is highly diverse, with 82 per cent of home undergraduate students from state schools, 32 per cent from a BAME background, and 35 per cent in the first generation of their family to attend university.

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📖Program Curriculum

In essence, the MRes provides rigorous research skills with a broad human geography focus. In total, it consists of four modules – the Research Project (worth 120 credits), two human geography related research modules (Doing Human Geography and Theoretical Themes for Geographers, each worth 20 credits) and a Research Design module (also worth 20 credits and available from the College of Social Science).

Research Project
The fundamental module is the Research Project. This is the main component of the MRes programme. It will provide the academic training and research-based learning in human geography.

The research project involves study within the student’s own area of interest, but within the overall context of human geography. The project will be closely supervised by a relevant member of staff and can be in any appropriate area.

The Research Project will be a maximum of 20,000 words.

Research Design
Related to the research project, the Research Design module is taken from the generic university-wide MA in Social Research. The intention is to enable students to develop an appropriate research design for their project and consider, evaluate and interpret the value of the varied forms of evidence that they may collect. Such activity would also be integrated into human geography-specific training provided through the two ‘subject-substantive’ modules (see below) offered by the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The Research Design module covers a number of different themes including i) introduction to concepts and varieties of social science research design; ii) research questions associated with design, methodology and warranting practices; iii) research claims and conclusions that can be reliably drawn from different kinds of evidence produced by different designs; iv) key design features, such as groups, timing and measurement; and v) detailed analysis of a range of research designs.

The overall intention is that students write an individual report (4,000 words; Semester 1) describing a set of research questions relevant to their own area of research (i.e. the Research Project), suggesting two or more alternate designs, and assessing these alternatives in terms of issues such as rigour, practicality, ethics, sampling, and validity.

Doing Human Geography
The Doing Human Geography module is designed to integrate theoretical perspectives and methodologies through the medium of guided student research projects. By the end of the module students are expected to have therefore developed a good grounding in methodologies in Human Geography; are able to design and write a journal style article; can appreciate the main ethical problems that are addressed by Human Geographers; have an understanding of the interplay between theory, techniques and research design; can demonstrable an ability to be able to practice critical reasoning, can apply concepts and methods to particular geographical problems and are able to exercise and demonstrate independence of thought and judgement; and finally are able to develop essential generic and transferable skills for undertaking research in Human Geography.

Assessment is via a project presentation (20%) and a 4,000 word research project proposal (80%).

Theoretical Themes for Geography
The Theoretical Themes for Geographers module aims to provide a strong theoretical foundation for geographical research within the social sciences; to explore the use of social, cultural, political and economic theory in geographical texts; and to provide a structured space for the close reading of original texts both in geography and in the wider social sciences. Consequently, on completion of the module, students should be able to identify different theoretical approaches in geography and appreciate how these relate to broader philosophical, political and methodological stances in the social sciences; identify theoretical and methodological frameworks for their own research; and produce a review of bodies of theory relevant to their own research.

Assessment is via a 5,000-word essay (100%).

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🏫About University of Birmingham, England

Effective leadership is a hallmark of the University of Birmingham. Today, the institution have a global reputation as a rich and diverse institution known for inspirational thinking, financial stability, and strong local, national, and international partnerships. Its heritage as the original ‘redbrick’ is combined with one of the most compelling and ambitious agendas in higher education. The University has been transformed in recent years, characterised by major investments in academic staffing, investment of £1 billion in campus facilities, strong and improving outcomes for its students, annual growth in research performance, and bold new moves such as establishing the only university-run secondary school and sixth form in the country, and opening a new campus in Dubai.

The single biggest investment that the University has made in recent years is in people. Since 2015 the University have expanded its academic staff numbers by more than 500, including world-class researchers and teachers, leading early-career academics (including through a much-emulated Birmingham Fellows scheme), and Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellows, its innovative scheme to enhance cross-disciplinary working. The University are developing an enviable reputation for attracting some of the finest minds in the world to teach and research at the University.

🏠 Accommodation

You will need to book the accommodation after you have been accepted.

You can choose to live on campus or off campus in private accommodation.

How to book:
  • Make a booking online after you have been accepted (in this case please let us know your choice when you apply).
  • Register when you arrive - its not possible to reserve a room before arriving. You can arrive a few days before and book it
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💰 Fees

Application Fee:

442 RMB

Tuition fee:

20,340 GBP per year

20,340 GBP in total

❓✅❌ Entry Requirements

You are not eligible to apply to this program because:

The minimum age is 18.

English fluency is required.
You need to be either:
- A native English speaker
- Studied in English at high school or a degree
- Have passed IELTS level 6.5 or TOEFL 95 or above.

Minimum education level: Bachelor's.

The program is competitive, you need to have a high grades of Average A, 70%, or a high GPA.

All students from all countries are eligible to apply to this program.

Is this not correct? You can edit your profile or contact us.
Or see the list of programs you are eligible for here .
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📬 Admissions Process

3 Steps to Apply to a University

Application step 1

Application step 2

Application step 3

Please choose the programs here , "You are advised to select 2-3 programs to increase your chances of getting accepted.

Required Documents:

  • Passport
  • Graduation certificate
  • Passport size photo
  • Official transcript
  • Personal statement
  • English certificate (You can take the English test online)
  • Guarantor letter
  • 2 Recommendation letters

Preparing documents:

You can start your application now and send the application documents during your application. Some documents you can send later if you don’t have them right away. Some more info about preparing application documents is here

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Application process:

Applying Online is simple in just a few steps. More information is available here.

The first steps are to choose the programs, pay the application fee and upload the application documents.

Once submitted to Global Admissions, we will review your application within 2-3 days and proceed to the university or ask you for further clarification

After it has been processed to the university you will receive your unique application ID from each university.

The university may contact you directly for further questions.

We will then follow up each week with the university for updates. As soon as there is any update we will let you know. If you have made other plans, decide to withdraw / change address at any time please let us know.

After you have been accepted you will receive your admissions letter electronically and asked to pay the non-refundable deposit to the university.

Once you have paid the deposit the university will issue you the admissions letter and visa form to your home country.

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Here is some more information about the enrollment process after you have been accepted.

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