Welcome! This component of the departmental webpages aims to serve the information needs of potential, current and past graduate students in Geography, National University of Singapore (NUS).

The Department of Geography at NUS is ranked among the top Geography departments in the world, and the number one in Asia. As a top ranked Geography department in a leading global university, Geography faculty and graduate students collaborate on a wide-range of research projects that advance knowledge and its application, have high impact and are internationally respected for their quality. The Graduate Student programme in Geography aims to enable the Department to continue to be at the forefront of education and research internationally and to enhance the experiences and professional development of graduate students.

Research in the Department is clustered into three groups: Politics, Economies And Space (PEAS); Social and Cultural Geographies (SCG); and Tropical Environmental Change (TEC). More information on the research activities within these groupings – and research in general in the Department – is available via the departmental Research webpage. The boundaries between the research groupings are neither fixed nor impermeable, however, and research often takes place between members of different groups (e.g. in the area of Nature and Society).

Many of the graduate research students in the Department are funded by a range of scholarships awarded by NUS. For full-time PhD students these scholarships are open to citizens of any countries. For full-time research Masters students, only Singapore Citizens/Permanent Residents are eligible to apply for scholarships.

Current Ph.D. and Masters students in the Department are researching a wide range of topics. But life in Geography at NUS is not all about work and rankings. Our graduate students enjoy a rich and varied social life in one of the most diverse, culturally, and advanced, technologically, cities in the world, at the centre of an extremely dynamic and exciting region. Our graduate students also receive support to enable their participation in international conferences and research networks. Geography graduate students have also produced a video that provides a flavour of life within the Department from their perspective.  The video is available here.

Graduate students get-together

If you already hold or in the near future expect to receive a good Honours degree and/or taught MSc in a relevant discipline, and would like to find out more about the range of opportunities for research in Geography available in NUS, then please contact either myself, as Graduate Studies Coordinator, or one of the faculty researching in your area of interest. If your enquiry concerns the applications procedure, including application deadlines and scholarship details, or component of our research degrees or on joint PhD programmes with other institutions, then please contact in the first instance Pauline Lee. Pauline is the member of administrative staff in the Department of Geography with responsibility for Graduate student affairs.

We are always pleased to receive updates from former graduate students: as with all visitors, you will receive a warm welcome on your return to the Department and are encouraged to attend social events organised by faculty and graduate students, including our excellent research seminars, reading group meetings and Graduate workshop.

I look forward to seeing you in Geography at NUS!

Paul Kench
Department Graduate Studies Coordinator, NUS
August 2024