Department of Geography, University College, Thiruvananthapuram was established in 1976. It was started with a B.A. Degree course with a sanctioned strength of 30 students. The postgraduate degree course (M.A.) was started in 1984 with a sanctioned strength of 10 students. By understanding the current nature of Geography and the importance of the subject in scientifically analyzing the spatial patterns of various phenomena, the University has changed the subject from the Faculty of Arts to the Faculty of Science in 1994. Now the department is a full fledged with 10 faculty members who have specialized in various branches of geography. The Department currently offers B.Sc. and M.Sc. programmes in Geography. This is the only department under the University of Kerala which offers postgraduate course in Geography.
The B.Sc. and M.Sc. syllabus of this department are on par with the UGC syllabus and offers moderns tools and techniques. The department has a well equipped Cartography and GIS (Geographic Information System) Laboratory. This includes Survey of India Topographic sheets of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana on 1:250,000, 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 scales. There are number of survey equipments like chain, plane table, dumpy levels, clinometers, prismatic compasses etc. The GIS lab has 10 PCs with latest configurations with peripherals like laser printers, scanners and an internet connection.
The Department acquired modern tools like Digital Planimeter, Mirror Stereoscopes, Digital Handycam, Hand held GPS receivers, Digital Satellite data of IRS 1A, IRS 1B, IRS 1C, IRS 1D and LANDSAT satellites. The GIS and Digital Image Processing software procured by the department include INTERGRAPH and ERDAS IMAGINE in addition to free and open source software like QGIS. The students are trained to use these instruments and software as part of their curriculum.