Our Roadmap to 2030The University of Birmingham are looking for practitioners in ESG, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainability who have a challenge or piece of work that could be supported by a student on one of their Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) courses.
Professional Placement for Undergraduate Students from Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES)
The Professional Placement Module is open to all students in GEES and aims to bridge the gap between students’ academic studies and their professional life. It should be mutually beneficial, allowing the placement provider to undertake additional activities, while providing the student with valuable workplace experience.
Logistics
- The placement will be 1 day per week for 11 weeks from January to April 2026
- The student will have support from the University as well as your organisation.
- The placement should consist of a specific project, or projects, that the student will work on and can take a variety of formats, for example:
- Research project
- Scoping study
- Improving systems and processes
- Providing an outsider’s view of the organisation
- Exploring new publicity/funding angles
- Creating public engagement materials
- The placement student is expected to produce a Project Report for their course at the end of the placement.
If you are interested in hosting a placement student then please complete the relevant form at the bottom of this page (which contains some additional information) and return to Lesley Batty (l.c.batty@bham.ac.uk) by 17th November.
A research project for a MSc Climate Change Adaptation and Policy student
Students on the programme MSc Climate Change Adaptation and Policy have the opportunity to undertake a Dissertation with Placement. The aim is for students to have the opportunity to work on an applied problem, and to gain experience working with practitioners to build skills they will need in their future careers. UoB also hope that these projects could support new, longer-term relationships and collaborative research projects between UoB and the wider net-zero and climate adaptation community.
Logistics
- This placement would run from June to August with the student working full time on their dissertation for final submission end of August.
- UoB will arrange internal academic co-supervision to complement the external practitioner’s interests.
- Projects should involve a research question or questions for students to address during their dissertation. This could draw on existing data linked to your ongoing projects or involve data collection and analysis on a new topic. Example topics could be:
- Evaluation of climate mitigation or adaptation strategies you have implemented
- Co-design of a pilot study into an impact or intervention of interest with Birmingham academics and the student
- Collection and/or analysis of organisational ESG data
If you are interested in hosting a student for a research project then please complete the relevant form at the bottom of this page (which contains some additional information) and return to Ruth Geen (r.geen@bham.ac.uk) by 17th November.
If you are interested
The University of Birmingham (UoB) can work with your organisation to determine suitable activities and outputs, and so even if you are interested but do not have a concrete idea, please do get in touch with Lesley Batty (l.c.batty@bham.ac.uk) regarding the Undergraduate Professional Placement or Ruth Geen (r.geen@bham.ac.uk) for the Masters research projects.
If you are interested in hosting a student then please use the relevant form below and send to Lesley or Ruth by the 17th November.
Return to Lesley Batty (l.c.batty@bham.ac.uk) by 17 November.
Return to Ruth Geen (r.geen@bham.ac.uk) by 17 November.
