Geographers in Scotland: what do the numbers tell us?

Ian Selmes, RSGS Education Committee 

The health of a subject might be seen in numbers and trends. Numbers include pupils in schools and students in universities studying Geography, as well as people training to teach the subject and in-subject specialist teachers becoming the next generation’s inspirers. Is Geography still a discipline in decline in Scotland, or is there a rejuvenation taking place? What does all this imply for Geography in Scotland in coming years? 

A few years ago, there was concern that Geography in Scotland was in poor health. A Scottish Association of Geography Teachers / RSGS survey in 2015 of school teachers’ perceptions of the state of Geography found that one of the main issues was a fall in the number of pupils studying the subject. Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) data showed that numbers of entries for National 5 (N5) fell 15% from 2015 to 2018, while entries for Higher fell 12%. 

The RSGS Geography of Geographical Education in Scotland (GoGES) project was created by the Education Committee to investigate who studied Geography in Scottish schools and universities from 2016 to 2021, and why they chose to study the subject or not. It reported in the Scottish Geographical Journal in 2022 and 2023. The data has now been updated and there is much to be positive about. 

School geographers 

In schools a nadir was reached in academic years 2018–19 or 2019–20. SQA annual statistical reports show that, since then, the numbers of entries to public examinations in Geography have risen markedly. For N5 there has been a 6.3% growth in the four years 2020–23, reaching 10,315 candidates in 2023. At Higher there has been a 15.3% entry growth in 2020–23, rising to 7,425 pupils in 2023. At Advanced Higher the number of entries has sprinted 38.4% in 2019–23, reaching 980 in 2023. At N5 and Higher the annual growth was faster in 2022–23 than previous years. Advanced Higher Geography entries 2021–22 had exploded by 45% before settling back slightly in the past year. Whereas in 2016 Geography had the tenth largest number of subject entries at N5, eleventh at Higher and Advanced Higher, in 2023 Geography’s ranking had improved to tenth, ninth and tenth respectively. 

Geography entries have a long-term pattern of more male than female entries at N5, followed by increasing dominance by female geographers at higher levels. This recent recovery of Geography entries to public examinations has seen a faster increase in the numbers of male pupils studying the subject, though maintaining the same gender trend. Male entries increased by 11.1% at N5 Geography, 24.5% at Higher and 60.3% at Advanced Higher for the periods mentioned above. 

University geographers 

The Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) annual reports demonstrate that the low point in registrations for undergraduate geographers in Scottish universities was in 2017 and for postgraduates in 2016. The way in which university courses are classified as ‘geography’ changed in the meantime, and 2023 data has been delayed. Nonetheless the registrations for undergraduate Geography courses in Scotland have almost doubled, reaching 3,905 geographers in 2022. For postgraduate geographers the growth has been greater, to 2,505 in 2022. 

These figures are dominated by two-thirds of undergraduate Geography being studied as a ‘natural science’, compared to one-third studying Geography as a ‘social science’. For postgraduates the dominance of ‘natural science’ geographers was up to 80%. Female geographers are also the clear majority at university, making 61% of Scottish undergraduate geographers and 59% of postgraduates. 

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) 

Just four universities in Scotland provide Post Graduate Diploma in Education PGDE for Geography: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde. From a low SFC secondary target of 45 in 2016, this rose to 61 in the years 2018–21 and then to 68, a 51% growth. In comparison the SFC target for all secondary PGDE courses at the 11 teacher training Scottish universities rose from 1,350 to 2,000 (2016–22), a 67.5% increase. 

Over a year later than the SFC targets, the Scottish Government publishes annual data on intake for ITE in Scotland, both overall and for each secondary school subject. In some years the intake for Geography PGDE has exceeded target: in 2016 it was 127% (57), 2019 it was 105% (64), and in 2020 108% (66) of target. Other years the target has not been met: in 2017 intake was 95% of target (53), in 2018 it was 85% (52), in 2021 97% (59). In 2022 the secondary Geography PGDE intake plummeted to 54% of target (37 trainees). In the same period secondary PGCE intakes for all subjects have been below target every year, ranging from 70% in 2017 (1,226 intake of 1,750 target) to 91.5% in 2020 (1,647 intake of 1,800 target). The overall intake gap has widened, being 85% in 2021 (1,527 intake of 1,800 target) and dramatically in 2022 to 61% (1,211 intake of 2,000 target). So in recent years the gap between target and intake for secondary PGCE Geography has been greater than for secondary PGDE numbers overall, which in turn has never met its targets. A consequence is that government clawback of funding for under-recruitment to PGDE courses is a major threat to providers. 

Geography teachers in secondary schools 

Every year the Scottish Government publishes its Teacher Survey. Amongst other illuminating data it records the numbers of teachers employed in each subject in local authority schools in Scotland, both those teaching as a main subject, and those teaching a subject but with a different main subject. The total of all geography teacher numbers was lowest in 2019 with 863, back in 2016 they were 871, and by 2022 overall numbers of teachers of Geographer in local authority schools in Scotland numbered 914. Numbers had risen 6% since 2019 and 5% since 2016. In the same period, numbers of geography pupils studying secondary school national qualifications in Geography have increased much faster (see above). 

Implications 

The above numbers clearly evidence that the numbers of geographers in Scotland is growing at school, increasingly at each successive level of public examinations, and at both undergraduate and postgraduate university study. This is the case for females and males, though the greater growth amongst male geography students is slightly narrowing the dominance of female geographers beyond N5. Geographical education in Scotland is now booming both absolutely and relatively. These changes have crept up but are significant in totals and trends. 

Despite this growing number of pupils and students wanting to learn Geography, the almost static numbers of local authority employed geography teachers, with a few exceptions, indicate that human resources are not following the demand. Pupil–teacher ratios must be rising, contrary to the TWPAG and SFC mandates. Moreover, the targets for ITE to train secondary school geography teachers may suggest a 51% rise since 2016, but the actual intake has rarely met the targets. Since 2020 the shortfall in trainee geography teachers has been dramatic. This suggests the geography teaching workforce is unsustainable. Poor teacher retention from retirement and change of career are also massive problems for Scottish education. 

Where might geographer trends in Scotland go in the next few years? It would help if teaching as a career were made more attractive to young people to enter and to retain current geographers. This is a matter of opportunity, rewarding salaries, quality of working life and enabling teachers to be professionals. Without inspiring geography teachers there is no next generation of inspired geography learners. 

There are manoeuvres to changing curriculum and assessment in Scottish schools through the Muir and Hayward 2022 reports and ongoing discussions, but will they result in Geography having a more central role in the curriculum? The GoGES project has shown that for learners to choose to study Geography they primarily want to see strong relevance and interest in its content (both subject matter and learning experience). All geographers have a role in these discussions and in ensuring Geography in schools and in universities becomes more central, dynamic, interesting and challenging to study. The knowledge and skills gained should provide a route into a rewarding and flexible working life. It would also help if geography specialist teachers were inspiring learners in S1–S3 so Geography gains recognition and definition before pupils choose subjects to study, not just teaching in the senior level of the school curriculum. Further help would come from employers, the public and politicians becoming more aware of Geography, of what geographical thinking and geographers have to offer as professional employees. Without such positive developments, the current geographer boom in Scotland may prove short-lived.