History

The Post Graduate Department of Geography of the Kannur University was established in 2003 with an intake of 12 students and housed in a rented building at Edat about two kilometres from Payyanur town towards south.  The Department has been shifted to Swami Anandatheertha Campus of Kannur University in 2007. The sanctioned strength of the students for the M.Sc Degree has been increased to 17 from the academic year 2012-13 onwards. In addition to this one seat has been sanctioned to accommodate students from Lakshadweep islands. The course is being offered under Choice based Credit and Semester System. The design of the semesters is in such a way that the students learn topics common to the general M.Sc. course in Geography of the University and specific application oriented topics on Geoinformatics. In the final semester, the students have to undertake a project and a field study. From the inception of the department  in 2003, 201 students have been graduated from the department. Out of these  students 12 has qualified UGC JRF and 28 have qualified UGC National Eligibility Test. The Department has been recognized as a research center of the University in the year 2009. PhD Degree in Geography has been awarded to 8 candidates, who have undertaken their research in the Department.  1 research scholar has already submitted thesis to the University and is awaiting results.  At present 8 research scholars are pursuing research under the three research supervisors of the department. The department has organized various national seminars, workshop and outreach programmes during the period.

The Department of geography with a vision of achieving excellence and to promote professional education in the field of geography, has been developing itself with better infrastructural facilities and qualified faculties  for undertaking a full range of degree programmes from post graduate to Ph.D courses in Geography. The Department was able to conduct academic and research oriented activities in many emerging and frontier areas of geography and there are many objectives to be fulfilled in this regard. In the field of research oriented activities the Department has successfully completed two minor projects funded by Kannur University. Behind every successful achievements of the Department the infrastructural facilities and sincere effort of faculties always stood as a strong support. At present the Department of Geography is well equipped with the basic infrastructural facilities which include smart class rooms, library, GIS and Remote Sensing lab, Cartography lab, and Geodesy lab. The Department is planning for conducting multiple courses in future which requires development of the Department of Geography as a Center of Excellence.