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Start your undergraduate or postgraduate journey at one of our UK colleges or US centres.
Direct entry to industry leading universities
Your pathway to 15+ top ranking universities.
Study and work in Canada, with one of our vocational courses.
Discover top universities in the UK for studying abroad.
Discover top universities in the US for studying abroad.
Study abroad in Australia.
You can easily apply online via our application form.
Are you joining us soon? We recommend checking out our pre-arrival guides to help you prepare for your arrival!
Birkbeck's geographic data science postgraduate course will provide you with advanced scientific and technical training in capturing, analysing and visualising geospatial information.
Apply NowDegree
MSc (Hons) Geographic Data Science
Start Dates
October
Thanks to increasing computing power and wealth of digital data, we can record and store an unprecedented amount of information about the world. Geographic information plays a crucial role in our society, contributing to planning, analysis and management in sectors as diverse as transportation, insurance, banking, telecommunications, logistics, energy, retail, agriculture, healthcare, urban planning and scientific research.
On this course, you will learn how to analyse and extract insights from geospatial data, uncovering the underlying patterns and factors that can help address the big challenges we face in the twenty-first century. You will work with real-world data on a number of domains and problems, such as simulating the dynamics of change in the natural and built environment, identifying suitable locations for renewable energy power plants, predicting crime hot-spots, and producing effective maps to visualise natural- and human-geography applications.
The emphasis is on enabling you to think analytically and develop new skills that have real-world applications for your work and career. You will acquire key data science skills that are in high demand in industry and important tools for research in the field:
– Geographic information systems, such as ArcGIS and QGIS
– Scientific programming in Python
– Geo-statistical and modelling in R
– Map-making and cartography
– Big Data management with spatial databases, such as SQL and NoSQL
– Web mapping and development
– Remote sensing and analysis of satellite imagery
We offer this course as a Master’s, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate. For the Diploma and Certificate you study fewer modules and do not complete a dissertation. The Diploma and Certificate are aimed at professionals and researchers who work with, or wish to work with, geographically referenced data. They are ideal if you are interested in studying at postgraduate level for personal or professional reasons, but don’t yet want to commit to a full MSc.
This is the only research-led MSc in geographic data science offering all teaching sessions after 6pm.
This course equips you with geospatial skills that are in high demand according to the UK government.