The teaching of geography as a course was formalized in the early years of the 1920s in the University under the College of Education. The course was offered to meet the needs of students pursuing the degree of Bachelor in Education. During the 1930s, it was transferred to the College of Liberal Arts and was combined with the then newly created Department of Geology and Geography. For five decades the discipline did not possess a distinct identity until the year 1983 when the three-way split of the College of Arts and Sciences formally led to the creation of the Department of Geography under the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. As the only Geography Department in the Philippines, we hope to bring Geography to where it should be – at the center of decision-making in our country.

Geography focuses on the study of the Earth as the home of humans. As a holistic discipline, it examines human-environment interactions, spatial processes, and development of places and localities. It studies the physical and human processes of the Earth and investigates how these produce different landscapes.

Geography uses geographic techniques such as spatial analysis, cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and statistical methods to explore and comprehend the complexities of natural and cultural systems and how they relate to each other. See our research and extension agenda here. Geographical knowledge brings a better grasp of the factors that lead to the transformations of everyday spaces at different scales – local, regional, global (see the research interests of faculty members). We take an active role in propagating Geography in order to raise awareness on how daily lives are influenced by human-environment interactions and empower localities in facing the challenges of an increasingly globalizing world (see our awards and recognition)