Skills at Master's Level in Geography Higher Education: Teaching, Learning and Applying

Abstract

The perceptions of ‘skills’ at taught Master's level between course directors (teaching of skills), alumni (learning and use of skills) and employers (the skills requirements) were compared within the field of development and environment studies. The findings underline some of the commonalities and discrepancies between what is taught, what is learnt and what is required in terms of skills. The results are discussed in relation to the growing diversity of students doing Master's courses, what constitutes Master's level, benchmark standards and employability. Furthermore, in light of the growing numbers of taught Master's courses, the paper also highlights the lack of pedagogic literature on taught postgraduate level teaching and learning, a need to improve benchmark standards for the teaching of skills at Master's level and support for staff development programmes.

Keywords:

• Skills
• geography
• Master's
• environment studies
• development studies

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) Subject Centre for funding this study through their small-grant projects. We would also like to thank the following people who participated in the study: Phil Collins, Andy Johnson, Paul Gready, Nigel Bell, Kathleen Baker, John Northridge, Peter Glaves, Dolores DeMercado, Emma Barfoot, Debbie Ovenden, Nick Greenwood, Michael Begley, Adrienne Watson, Dinah Langley, Liz Wilkinson, Eve Billingham, Ruth Payne, Steve Bell, Stuart Johnson, Tanya Mennie, Bill Fleming, Ben Ruddin, Joanna Saville and Jonathan Latchford. Finally we would like to thank the anonymous referees for their useful feedback.