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About Us

Founded in 1928, the Department of Geography at Durham is one of the leading centres of geographical research and education in the world.

The Department was ranked joint first for research quality among UK geography departments in REF2021. The most recent QS rankings for Geography placed Durham 16th overall in the world. The department is recurrently ranked in the top handful of programmes in the UK by various league tables; for example we were ranked 1st in the 2025 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, and 4th in the 2025 Complete University Guide.
Meet Our Staff
Sunset on Field Trip
A postgraduate discussing research in Pakistan

World-leading research

The most recent Research Excellence Framework found we produced the most world-leading research publications and were top for overall research power in the discipline nationally.

Explore our research
Our success as a department is a measure of the open, inclusive environment we foster for students and staff. Every day I am energised by our research and teaching on everything from border security, finance, and urban transformation to hazards and sea-level rise. To be a member of Durham Geography is to be welcomed by a community that wants you to succeed and creates an environment to make it happen.

Professor Colm O'Cofaigh
Head of Department

Top-class facilities

Our ambition is to provide an outstanding education experience for each and every one of our undergraduate and postgraduate students, and for the Department to be a key research node in global networks, known for its agenda-setting research across the range of our specialisms. With over 60 academics, 40 researchers, 40 professional support, administrative and technical staff, 750 undergraduates and 130 postgraduates, we teach and research across the discipline. Our specialisms span from Antarctica, Greenland and the Arctic to Bangladesh, China and the emergent economies, whilst continuing to attend to the closer to home, the North East region in which we are located.

We are fortunate to enjoy a superb research and teaching environment in a wonderful City, with top-class laboratory and IT facilities in a supportive and collegial atmosphere. At our core, our strength is drawn from all the people - staff and students - who together create and sustain the vibrant scholarly community that makes Durham Geography.


  • Research Clusters

    Our research clusters are focused on ideas. They act as centres of gravity for collective research activity and provide the foundational means through which we generate the diversity, vibrancy and innovation that underpins our research.
    Research Trip Cropped
  • Virtual Library

    Our staff and postgraduate students are innovative, creative scholars. Some of their research takes final form in high-impact articles or books - the standard fare of academics - but a considerable amount of our activity works in other mediums.
    A research student Reading a book in Bill Bryson Library

Research Clusters

Our research clusters are focused on ideas. They act as centres of gravity for collective research activity and provide the foundational means through which we generate the diversity, vibrancy and innovation that underpins our research.
Research Trip Cropped

Virtual Library

Our staff and postgraduate students are innovative, creative scholars. Some of their research takes final form in high-impact articles or books - the standard fare of academics - but a considerable amount of our activity works in other mediums.
A research student Reading a book in Bill Bryson Library

Contact Us

Founded in 1928, the Department of Geography at Durham University is one of the leading centres of geographical research and education in the world.

Department of Geography
Durham University
Lower Mountjoy
South Road, Durham
DH1 3LE, UK

Tel: +44 (0)191 3341800
Fax: +44 (0)191 3341801