Geographical Information Systems BSc(Hons)

What is GIS?

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) combines the skills of the geographer with information and communication technology. It is the common ground, or ‘glue’, that:

  • underpins data sharing across disciplines; and
  • embeds geography in research and applications.


GIS is helping to shape a new landscape of science – one that uses space as its defining framework. A GIS expert has the ability to handle complex space and time modelling to analyse areas such as:

  • wireless communications;
  • environmental or econometric modelling; or
  • patterns of health and disease.


What is GIS used for?

Many projects, businesses, industries, governments and organisations depend on the new geotechnologies to deal with information.

The increase in mobile devices, satellite navigation and online mapping services means that GIS is increasingly defining our everyday lives. But GIS is used in many other areas as well, such as:

  • in epidemiology to asses and model disease distributions;
  • in transport planning to optimise ambulance response times;
  • in hurricane prediction to manage disaster response and mitigation; and
  • in retail to examine customer behaviour and service planning.


Geotechnology has recently been hailed as one of the three most important emerging and evolving fields, along with nanotechnology and biotechnology. Worldwide growth of the GIS industry is predicted to reach £15 billion by 2012.

 

What can I do with a GIS degree?

There are an estimated four million people currently working in GIS at some two million different sites globally. GIS-related occupations are currently cited as one of the 12 ‘high-growth’ industries.

However, there are currently too few qualified workers to support the industry’s growth. This means that there is a huge demand for people with both:

  • a theoretical insight into the science of handling geographical information; and
  • the technological expertise of using geographical information systems.


GIS professionals enter a range of diverse and fast-changing careers – from managers, coordinators and specialists to programmers, analysts and technicians. Find out about where some of our graduates’ careers in the After you graduate section.

 

Why choose GIS at Kingston?

Kingston University has over 18 years’ experience in GIS education. We were the first university in Europe to offer a full degree in GIS and have seen over 600 students graduate from our courses. The Times Good University Guide (2004) highlighted Kingston as ‘a world leader in GIS’.

This means that we are in an excellent position to make the most of the increased awareness of GIS, spatial data and geography. GIS courses at Kingston University enjoy one of the highest employment rates for graduates.

Major organisations consistently send their own employees to Kingston or seek our graduates to fill key vacancies. Our students have recently won national Association of Geographical Information (AGI) ‘student of the year’ awards and also national entrepreneurship competitions. Read more in the Links with business and industry section.