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The establishment of the School of Geographical Sciences of Guangzhou University in 2004

In 2018, the School of Geographical Sciences of Guangzhou University and the University of Cincinnati signed a 2 + 2 undergraduate jointly training contract

2019 Undergraduate Graduates

Faculty of the School of Geographical Sciences

Planetarium and Labs operated by the School of Geographical Sciences.

Mission

The School of Geographical Sciences integrates teaching, research, and consulting services into its development and offers courses of arts and sciences, with an outstanding competence in socioeconomic services. Over the past five decades, the subject of geography has been one of the key subjects of "Geography, Environment and Sustainable Urban Development in South China" of Guangzhou University’s goal in developing as a world-class university. The School of Geographical Sciences is a discipline with outstanding competence in serving local socioeconomic development. The school aims to educate the students into more pragmatic citizens, enrich their knowledge in both arts and science, enable them to become critical thinkers, and prepare them for employment or further academic training. The school currently is one of the most important institutes in geography, resources and environment in South China.

The School of Geographical Sciences will continue to stress both theoretical and practical capacity in all of the PhD programs. The school will provide a pleasant educational experience for students through innovative teaching and serving to society. The school will increase its popularity as a research university through faculty scholarship, research activities, international collaborations, enrolling outstanding students, the organization of national and international conference and symposium, exchanges between faculty, and serving to academic and professional organizations.

General Description

The history of School of Geographical Sciences of Guangzhou University could be traced back in 1953. It is merged by the Department of Geography of Guangzhou Teachers College for Amateur Studies (the predecessor of Guangzhou Education College as well as Guangzhou Normal College) and the Department of Geography of Guangzhou Teachers’ School (predecessor of Guangzhou Teachers’ College) in 1956. In 1977, Guangzhou Normal College established the Department of Geography, and in 1984, Guangzhou Education College established the Department of Geography. In 2000, Guangzhou University was established. The two geography departments from the former Guangzhou Teachers’ College and Guangzhou Education College were merged into the Department of Geography under the Faculty of Science. In 2004, the School of Geographical Sciences was established.

The school covers four majors: science, engineering, teaching and management and it currently has three departments which include geography, geographic information science, and resource planning and management. It offers five undergraduate majors: geoscience, geographic information science (GIS), physical geography and resource environment, human geography and urban planning, and land resources management. The college offers master degrees in physical geography, human geography, cartography and geographic information system, urban and rural planning, land resources management, curriculum and teaching theory, architecture and civil engineering (regional planning), resources and environment (surveying and mapping engineering) and curriculum & teaching (geography). In 2018, the school and the University of Cincinnati established a "2 + 2" joint training program for undergraduate students in geographic information systems. Since 2017, it has jointly trained doctoral students with the University of Padova in Italy. Since 2015, the post-doctoral research field of “geostatistics and spatial analysis” has been established under the post-doctoral research center of “statistics”. At present, there are 789 undergraduates, 172 postgraduates and 8 postdoctoral fellow in the school.

The school has insisted on all-round, multi-level and wide-ranging international and domestic collaborations, and built a multi-level teaching and research platform. It has established academic collaborations with overseas academic institutions from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. The school has established the Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Center for National Conditions Monitoring and Comprehensive Analysis, the Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Center for Rural Water Environment Non-point Source Pollution and Comprehensive Treatment, Guangzhou University-Birmingham University Service Industry and Urban Development Research Center, Guangdong Provincial Urban and Immigration Research Center, The MOE Key Laboratory of Water Quality Safety and Protection in the Pearl River Delta, Resource Environment and Regional Planning Laboratory affiliated to the Provincial Center for Experimental Teaching Demonstration on Resource Environment and Regional Planning”, the Science Base of the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Guangdong Luofushan Teaching Base for Physical Geography affiliated to Guangdong Practical Teaching Base for College Students in Guangdong Province. The school also has other research and development institutions such as the Research Center for Public Safety & Geographic Information Analysis, the Research Center for Human Geography and Urban Development in South China, the Institute for Land Resources and Coastal Research, the Research Center for Urban Ecology and Environmental Remote Sensing, and the institute for Climate and Environmental Change.

The school currently has 81 faculty members to include one academician of IEAS, two faculty supported by "Special Support Program of Guangdong Province”, two outstanding teachers of Guagndong Province, two faculty supported by Provincial Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists, and two Pearl River Scholars. In total, the school now consists of 21 professors, 23 associate professors, and 22 lecturers. Among them, 63 own doctoral degrees. The school has seven doctoral supervisors and 38 master supervisors. Over the past 5 years, it has obtained 186 research grants to include National Key R&D Programs, National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Natural Science Foundation. Among these programs, 46 are state-level projects, receiving a total 73.654 million yuan funding. Over the past five years, faculty has published 513 academic papers to include 121 SCI/SSCI papers and 25 books / textbooks and obtained 9 patent grants and 16 computer software copyrights.