About us

We've been teaching part-time evening geology degrees from a central London location since 1840, always with a focus on providing accessible courses. This led us to embrace online education in the 1990s and now most of our undergraduate Geology and Planetary Science with Astronomy degrees and certificates in higher education, and some of our postgraduate courses, are available for face-to-face evening study in central London or via distance learning. This means that for most courses, you can attend 100% of classes in person, 100% online, or any mixture of the two (blended learning).

We have an active community of over 300 undergraduate students, based around the world. These students are all ages and from all backgrounds. They may be looking to change or improve their careers, realising a long-held dream to study in this field or developing a personal interest in geology or planetary sciences.

The department is a member of University Geoscience UK, the subject association for geoscience departments, linked with the Geological Society.

Find out why our department could be the best place for you to study Earth and Planetary Sciences:

• Flexible study pathways and course levels
• How our distance learning works
• Our academics are involved in research across the globe and the Solar System
• Our courses provide varied fieldwork opportunities.

Stay up to date with our news

You can keep up to date with what's happening in the department by following our Twitter channel @BBKEPS, checking our news feed or attending the annual Science Week where academics from our department talk about their research. Our students also have the chance to attend and participate in two lecture series run at UCL: Astrobiology and Space Exploration (APEX) meetings and Earth Sciences seminar series.