DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY IN BRIEF

The Department of Geography was one of the four foundation departments of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Administration established in 1977 The Department offers courses leading to a single honours degree in Geography. This is with a view to afford the graduate of geography to fit into different fields of human endeavour in the private and public sectors of the economy. The courses are designed to examine the spatial dimension of the Physical, Economic, Social and Political forces which are evident in the organisation of human societies and activities. In particular they look at the interaction of these forces and how they change over time and operate at different scalar levels.

The undergraduate course in Geography is designed to provide training in the theory and practice of Geography with emphasis on thorough grounding infield techniques and the manipulation of modern tools. Over-specialisation is avoided at this level. Every five years the department reviews its programme. This review is based on External Examiners report, and such reviews have reflected the talents of our various external examiners. These have brought our courses to match those taught in other Universities. The Department has continued to teach those courses it started with in 1978 but has reviewed the content of some courses and included new ones. Local field studies courses are conducted every year for the 100 and 300 level so as to encourage the students cultivate an inquiring mind and to develop skills in the retrieval and Interpretation of geographic data. With the introduction of computers as tools to make the study of geography more effective world-wide, a course in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is now introduced and is made compulsory for both students majoring in Geography in the Social Sciences Faculty and those from the Faculty of Education so that they can make best use of a computer as a system in establishing a geographic database for the purpose of storing, manipulating, analysing and synthesizing spatial information quickly and effectively. The inculcation of awareness of responses as well as the dominant issues of development in the immediate environment and the role of Geography in National development are emphasised.

The Department produced its first graduates in 1980. Since then, the Department has been producing graduates in increasing numbers. This syllabus in Geography therefore, is aimed at producing graduates infused with an enthusiasm to make a meaningful contribution to society.

Since the establishment of the Department in 1977 it has successfully gone through all the NUC accreditation exercise. In the 2006 nationwide accreditation, the University and by extension the department ranked 1^st along with Bayero University Kano.