Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

and respected and the institutional situation is much better than in Denmark as thereare geography departments in all major universities. In Denmark there has however,not been the same argument to split physical and human geography; this is mainlydue to the fact that physical geography in Denmark is much more focused on appliedresearch than in Sweden and Norway. The reason for this is obvious; the physicalchanges in the Danish moraine and sand dune coasts and landscapes are much moreinfluenced by recent human action than the mountains and fjords of Scandinavia.Physical geographers in Norway and Sweden have concentrated their research onlandscape formations before humans entered. Danish physical geographers have hadlarge projects on present coastal reclamation and development. It is of course easyto argue that methods in geomorphology and in social geography differ greatly, butthe position geography has as a bridge between physical and social sciences hasbecome much more important in recent decades with the growth of environmentalstudies (biogeography and eco-geography), landscape studies and planning, whichalso most fruitfully can utilise GIS.With a population of less than 300 000 Iceland is too small to sustain a completeuniversity education in all fields. Icelandic students to a large extent has to go abroadto take graduate degrees. Haskola Islands (The University of Iceland) has a jointdepartment of geography and geology. There is no reason to split human and physicalgeography in a country which has to cope with active vulcanism and hot springs asintegrated parts of the daily life. Geography has a rather sound position in Iceland.Geography holds, however, its strongest relative position in Finland. It is wellestablished as a discipline in most Finnish universities and economic geography isalso taught at the Schools of Business Economy. It is interesting to note that geographyis regarded as an important discipline in the regional planning education atTampere and Joensuu Universities. This contrasts particularly to Denmark wheregeography hardly exists at the Schools of Economics and has a meagre role in planningeducation. In Finland enrolment of students in different disciplines is, as far asI know, still regulated, which could mean that geography could have more studentsthan is actually enrolled. And this is in relative terms double as many as in the otherNordic countries.The position of geography in NorwayGeography has a minor position in Norwegian universities, although MA candidatesin geography have fewer problems in getting relevant jobs than candidates from anumber of other disciplines. Of the 5 Norwegian universities (Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim,Tromso and Stavanger) geography is only taught in the first three. In the majorOslo University geography is split between two faculties; Faculty of Natural Scienceswhere physical geography is taught within the Department of Geology and Physicalgeography and Faculty of Social Sciences at which human geography is taught inthe Department of Sociology and Human Geography. We may link this split to thefact that Norway very often copies what is earlier done in Sweden, but local factorssuch as academic contradictions at the personal level also is part of the explanation.This split may have had some positive effects on academic productivity, but the grave140