This study examines the motivations and career goals of geography graduate students and the extent they are prepared in transferable skills. Women and students specializing in geographic information science and technology are primarily motivated by career opportunities in the private sector, whereas doctoral students express a preference for…

Within Australia most Departments of Geography have been merged with programmes in Environmental Studies or Earth Sciences, and have been cast as multidisciplinary contributors to the increasingly vocational concerns of universities. One outcome is that named Geography programmes for postgraduates are not growing in institutional prominence in…

This symposium brings together multi-national assessments of the current state of and challenges facing postgraduate education in geography. Contributors from Europe, Australia, South Africa and the USA identify ways in which restructuring of educational systems and wider political contexts affect programmes within the field. While highlighting…

Enrolments in doctoral degrees in South Africa mirror international trends and there is a strong national policy emphasis on these higher qualifications to fulfil needs, not only of the academy, but also of the economy and broader society. There are significant constraints, however, including the historical legacy of apartheid that has left the…

This paper discusses reforms in postgraduate education in geography in the Netherlands in the context of Europeanization and globalization. Europeanization and globalization have resulted in challenges as well as opportunities for students and universities. In terms of internationalization, Europeanization and the global economic crisis have…

We investigated the hypothesis that interdisciplinarity is being explicitly taught behind the facade of traditional disciplines. We interviewed 14 academics (seven geographers and seven agricultural scientists) about their teaching in the inherently interdisciplinary field of natural resource management. Our teachers were generally well informed…

Postgraduate geography education in the USA is growing and changing. In recent years, the number of postgraduate programs has increased at both the doctoral and master's levels. Interest in improving and reforming doctoral education has increased dramatically both inside and outside geography, and geography has been involved in these reforms.…

Learning is a developmental journey, and geography curriculum plays a key role in supporting student progression. In this article, we argue that the concept of "self-authorship" is a useful guiding principle in supporting curriculum revision and reform. A series of international case studies illustrate how self-authorship can be enacted in…

We take a fresh look at geography curricula and their appropriateness to the demands of the 21st century. We reflect on the purpose, content and relevance of undergraduate geography curricula in an age of "supercomplexity". Geography curricula, by their nature, are varied and multiple, with different countries often privileging different types of…

Higher education institutions in Norway have implemented reform as part of the Bologna Agreement. The reform also aims to follow up students more closely and to change the way in which they learn by increasing the amount of formative assessment, including grading. This paper presents a case study of a first-year methodology course in geography, in…

Postgraduate education in geography, especially at the Master's level, is undergoing significant changes in the developed world. There is an expansion of vocationally oriented degree programmes, increasing recruitment of international students, integration of workplace skills, and the engagement of non-traditional postgraduate students as…

South Africa's higher education system has undergone significant change since the end of apartheid. A central theme in the debates on higher education transformation has been the tension between the global imperatives of development and the need for universities to respond to the legacy of apartheid. This paper explores this tension by considering…

Rather than assuming New Zealand's educational sectors and institutions will be active and effective contributors to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) the authors ask instead: "Are New Zealand's school and university sectors actually in a position to respond programmatically to the UN initiative?" The…

This paper discusses the Geography Faculty Development Alliance (GFDA), a five-year project begun in 2002 with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The purpose of the foundation is to improve professional development opportunities for early-career geography faculty members in U.S. colleges and universities, and to improve the…

The declaration of the "United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development" (ESD), Resolution 57/254, February 2003, provides the best yet occasion for higher education institutions (HEIs) to "green" their curricula. The idea for the Decade emerges from a progression of high-level international conferences, beginning with Stockholm,…