Course Essentials
Welcome to your exciting course in Geography! My name is Gregg McIntosh and I will be your course director. I look forward to meeting you during the Welcome Week induction session and the ‘meet your tutors‘ session at the end of the week.
Gregg McIntosh
Course Director
Your Teaching Timetable
Teaching for your course will begin w.c 21 September 2026.
To help you plan your first few weeks, you can view an overview of the teaching activities for your course.
View your first semester teaching timetable.
On a mobile device, click the arrow next to “Search” at the top right of the page to view your timetable.
If your course is taught in groups, the overview will show activities for all groups. You will only need to attend sessions for your allocated group.
Once teaching begins, your individual timetable and group allocation will be available in MyTimetable provided you have completed online registration and created your computing account.
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Your Semester 1 Modules |
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The Big Picture* |
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Behaviour, Body and Biology |
*All Foundation Year students take The Big Picture during Semester 1. The module includes shared lectures and smaller seminar and pastoral groups.
Seminar groups are arranged broadly by subject area so that discussions, examples, and activities can connect to your intended degree course.
The Unitimetables page shows an overview of all scheduled teaching for the module. You will not be expected to attend every seminar shown there.
Your confirmed lecture, seminar, and pastoral group will be available in MyTimetable once course registration and group allocations have been completed.
Key dates
Academic Calendar: Semesters
View key dates for this Academic Calendar for 2026-27 including when teaching starts and finishes and when you break for holidays.
Welcome
Please join us for the Welcome Week, where we will tell you about the key information you need to know about your course, explain your timetable, how assessments work and how to best engage with the exciting learning we have planned.
We will tell you about the various services and support the University provides and that will make your studies fun and fascinating.
You’ll get to meet your fellow students from all of our courses and you’ll meet your Personal Academic Tutor (PAT), who will be there to guide you through your studies alongside the rest of the friendly academic and technical team that is here to support you.
Getting started
Your Course
In your first semester, you will study two 30 credit modules. The first, ‘The Big Picture’, will introduce you the questions, problems and challenges that drive current societies and scientific research and innovation.
You will explore how these big ideas apply to your subject in seminars that link to the lectures introducing each idea. This will be a great opportunity for you to get to know your fellow students while discussing and debating some of the most pressing and intriguing ideas of today.
The module ‘Behaviour, Body and Biology’ will bring students from Science, Psychology and Sports together to explore how behaviour and biology shapes us as humans (as an example of an animal) and our interactions with the world. This will be a great opportunity for interdisciplinary learning.
In your second semester, you will be introduced to becoming a Level 4 student in higher education and develop yourself as a learner through three small Success Modules (5 credits each), which you will choose from a selection according to your interests.
The Success Modules are largely delivered online, giving you flexibility as you settle into your new life as a student.
The module ‘Interdisciplinary Communication Skills’ (15 credits) you will learn how to bring across ideas in your subject area effectively and with confidence, especially in the digital age.
The module ‘Foundations of Science’, led by me (Gregg McIntosh), covers the basic scientific knowledge you will need and includes practicals and field trips that will introduce you to the core skills and methods that will allow you to jump into your next year of studies with confidence.
Blackboard
All your learning materials, lecture slides, reading lists, and assignment briefs will be available on Blackboard, our virtual learning environment. You'll be able to access Blackboard when you have set up your computing account.
To help you prepare
As you prepare for joining us, there are some short online courses you can complete on our Learning Skills Hub that will help you get ready.
You will find many other modules on the learning skills hub page that will help you get familiar with student life and how to get the most out of your studies, including modules about neurodiversity and dealing with anxiety.
Your Must Do Tasks
Once you have been invited to register for your course, there are some key tasks you'll need to complete to make sure you are ready to become a CCCU student.
Registration invitations are sent towards the end of August. We'll send yours to the email address you used when you applied, so please check this inbox regularly to make sure you don't miss any important information.
Pre-course reading
You don’t have to ready any textbooks to prepare, but if you want to get into the mindset of biochemistry drives all life on the planet, I recommend you read the book What is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology by Addy Pross
International student success programme
International students: don't miss out! Make sure you register for our international student success programme which provides practical advice on preparing to live and study in the UK.
Contact details
Have a question?