Geography degrees are ‘soft option for posh but dim’ people, says Oxford professor

An Oxford professor has called geography degrees a "soft option" chosen by "posh but dim" students.

Geography Professor Danny Dorling laid into his own subject in a journal article, branding it "the core subject of imperial domination".

Writing in the "Emotion, Space, and Society" journal, he said geography students had "some of the narrowest and poshest social profiles", and often end up in banking.

He said the subject had become seen as "“a soft option" for posh students who are "not actually that good at maths, or writing, or reading, or science, or imagination".

“Many head out to banking, advertising and management and make the world an even worse place,” Dorling wrote.

Dorling, Oxford's Halford Mackinder professor of geography, also called his subject a bit of a colonial relic, highlighting the imperial roots of most departments.

"We understand so much from our position on high", Dorling wrote, saying there's still an echo of "we can train someone to govern the whole of Nigeria."

The professor also added that: "Most of the world doesn’t have many geography departments. It is a very British-centred thing. If it was a more international subject, our journals would be full of people writing from different places, whereas they tend to be dominated by British and American voices.”

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