Geography: View as Study Focus?

[TheWanderingScholar]

I have a question to the forum.

How do people view geography as a focus of study in other countries beside the United States?
I am just curious because in different books I have read, it is said mentioned that different countries respect geography more than the U.S. does. I want to see proof or that claim but I have not been able to find proof via Google so I decided to drop by here and ask the question here.

When I mean respect I meant respect as a discipline among academia and other people.
Focus of study=major, concentration, and etc.

So how is geography focus study at the university level viewed at in other parts of the world?

EDIT: Clarification

[chenda]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'respect geography'.

Are you talking about its perceived status in the realm of academia, or its influence on other academic disciplines, or theories of geographical determinism or something else ?

[henrik]

What do you mean by "focus of study" and which stage of education do you mean? Elementary? Majors in universities?

[TheWanderingScholar]

@chenda: In the realm of academia and public.
@henrik: Focus of study=major, concentration, and etc. And on a university level.

[jacob]

http://www.geografi.aau.dk/
http://www.ruc.dk/uddannelse/fag/geografi/
http://studier.ku.dk/bachelor/geografi- ... nformatik/

It's available at the BSc and MSc levels.

(The idea of a "major" is US-centric.)

[tzxn3]

I'd evaluate whether what you're studying is useful to you, rather than concerning yourself with how other people perceive it.

[jacob]

@tzxn3 - Depending on what "useful" means, I disagree with that. If other people perceive the education useful, it's more likely to be useful to you in terms of opportunities to work with other people. Unless you're just studying it for personal interest.

Compare physics to engineering. If you study physics most people, including yourself, will have a hard time defining what the use of the education is: "What can you do with that?" With engineering, it's much easier to give a definite answer. With a degree in geography, you have to tell other people why it's worthwhile to work with you. If the degree is in geology or international relations, it's more obvious.

It seems that geography is one of those open-ended educations. Powerful if you get to use it, but hard to get to use it in the first place.

[tzxn3]

@jacob – I agree perception will often be a factor in evaluating usefulness.

However, I believe growing up in an environment with people preoccupied with social status has introduced bias into my thinking which has led me to place too much emphasis on social perception. I feel it's better to discount perception than be anxious about it and let it overwhelm other factors.

It's likely that OP's experience is different, though.

[henrik]

In Estonia you can get BSc and MSc degrees in geography in most if not all universities. Sometimes there are additional specialisation options in GIS, environmental aspects etc that extend the "classical" body of geography. You can also get both degrees in "earth sciences", which seems to be a combination of geography with further specialisation in geology, oceanography and meteorology.

As for "respect", it seems to me to be more alive and fashionable now that there are new fast changing aspects to it (environment, climate science, location based services) and thus also more employment opportunities in the field. That said, the number of applications to BSc classical geography in the largest university was 2.2 per opening last year, compared to 6.9 in law, 5.1 in Spanish, 5.1 in Scandinavian languages based on Norwegian, 7.1 in English, 9.0 in physiotherapy:)

[TheWanderingScholar]

So more popular than here in the states yet not exactly mainstream.

@tzxn3: I am not so worried about social status, just curious about about how different countries view geography as a BSc and MSc level course of study.