The faculty, which was formed in 1934, is well-known by its world-famous landscape school that was created by an outstanding geographer and landscape specialist, Honoured Scientist of the RSFSR, Professor F. N. Milkov who worked at the faculty from 1950 to 1996.

The faculty is unique and specific due to the following:

• All levels of education in the field of Earth Sciences are available with a wide range of specialisations in priority areas of geography, geoecology, and tourism.
• Interdisciplinary educational programmes allowing graduates to find various employment opportunities in the field of landscape and environmental design, municipal administration and territory planning, geotechnical investigations, industrial ecology, geoinformation technologies, geodesy, and digital mapping, hydrometeorology, and tourism services.
• High level of informatisation and facilities for the study process (Certified Chemical and Analytical Laboratory, 4 modern computer classrooms, Hydrometeorological Laboratory Receiving Satellite Hydrometeorological Data).
• Various exciting extramural summer trainings held in nature reserves Galichya Gora, Divnogorie, Voronezh biosphere reserve, in Adygea, and on the Kola Peninsula.
• Eventful student life: students actively participate in such annual events as "Geographical dictation" and the online competition “Geography of the 21st century”, in one of the most successful Russian youth clubs of the Russian Geographical Society at VSU, in the national student competition in Ecology and Natural Resources Management that has been held annually for 18 years. Geoecology students have often become winners of this competition!

One of the most well-known contemporary graduates is Academician A.A. Chibilev, Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society, Head Researcher of the Institute of Steppe of the Ural Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Bachelor's degree

• 05.03.02 Geography
  Fields of study:
  • Physical Geography and Landscapes Studies
  • Social and Economic Geography
• 05.03.06 Ecology and Natural Resource Management
  Fields of study:
  • Geoecology
  • Natural Resource Management
• 43.03.02 Tourism
  Profile: Tour Operator and Travel Agency Services Techniques and Management

Master's degree

• 05.04.02 Geography
  Programme: Territory Planning and Landscape Design
• 05.04.06 Ecology and Natural Resource Management
  Programme: Ecological Monitoring and Environmental Impact Assessment
• 43.04.02 Tourism
  Programme: Planning and Project Development in Tourism

Secondary vocational education

• Tourism
•  Sustainable Management of Natural and Economic Complexes

Postgraduate Training Programmes

• 05.06.01 Geosciences
  Fields of study:
  • Physical Geography and Biogeography, Soil Geography, and Landscape Geochemistry
  • Economic, Social, Political, and Recreational Geography
  • Geoecology

Study options

• Full time
• Extramural (Tourism)

Duration

• Bachelor’s degree programmes (full-time): 4 years
• Bachelor’s degree programmes (extramural): 5 years
• Master’s degree programmes (full-time): 2 years
• Master’s degree programmes (extramural): 2 years 5 months
• Secondary vocational education (for 9th grade school leavers: Tourism: 3 years, Sustainable Management of Natural and Economic Complexes: 4 years)
• Secondary vocational education (for 11th grade school leavers: Tourism: 3 years, Sustainable Management of Natural and Economic Complexes: 4 years)
• Postgraduate training programmes (full-time): 3 years

Academic Staff

7 professors, 25 associate professors, 15 lecturers and senior lecturers

Educational facilities / resources

Research laboratories and rooms

• Certified Chemical and Analytical Laboratory
• Laboratory of Ecology and Analytics;
• 4 modern computer classrooms
• Laboratory of Geoinformatics;
• Laboratory of Geoinformation Mapping;
• Hydrometeorological Laboratory;
• Hydrometeorological Laboratory Receiving Satellite Hydrometeorological Data
• Vascular Plant Herbarium;
• Milkov Geography and Geoecology Curriculum Office;
• Hydraulic (portable) Study Laboratory «KAPELKA, KAPELKA-2, KAPELKA-3»

Key areas of research

• Basics of landscape and environmental optimisation of the natural environment
• Landscape mapping and modelling
• Territorial management organisation
• Study of socioeconomic and geographical, demographic, and economic problems of modernisation and problems of industrial, financial, and commercial globalisation
• Hydrometeorology and natural environmental risks
• Environmental foundations of water management
• Geoecological monitoring of the environmental situation
• Medical geography and human ecology
• Regional geoinformation mapping
• Bioindication and biodiversity protection
• Environmental ecogeochemistry
• Industrial ecology and radioecology

Research facilities

• Resource Centre of Radioecological Security
• Research Laboratory for Regional Problems of Natural Resources Management and Sustainable Development
• Hydrometerological Observatory
• Academic Manufacturing Centre Human Ecology

Further information

Over the past 10 years, the faculty has been annually implementing research projects funded by grants from the Russian Science Foundation, Russian Foundation for Basic Research, and all-Russian non-governmental foundation Russian Geographical Society. As a result, original information resources and databases were created in the field of environmental ecogeochemistry, and Ecological-geographic atlas of the Voronezh Region, Electronic medical and environmental atlas of Voronezh, and Vascular Plant Herbarium (VORG) were published.

International partner universities

• Sichuan Provincial Natural Resources Research Institute (People's Republic of China)
• Sichuan Institute of Nuclear Science and Geology (People's Republic of China)
• Liepaja University (Latvia)
• University of Girona (Spain)
• University of Parma (Italy)
• University of Kassel (Germany)

International programmes and projects

• “Comprehensive assessment of the soils contaminated with heavy metals in the north-west of the Sichuan province”, Sichuan Department of Science and Technologies (People's Republic of China), Sichuan Institute of Nuclear Science and Geology, Sichuan Provincial Academy of Natural Resource Sciences (2020–2021)
• Erasmus+ RUECVET “Piloting ECVET to the national VET systems of Russia and Uzbekistan”, European Commission, University of Nicosia (Cyprus), Liepaja University (Latvia), Nukus State Pedagogical Institute (Uzbekistan), Navoi State Pedagogical Institute (Uzbekistan), Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University (Ekaterinburg), Tver State University (Tver), Mendeleev Novosibirsk Chemical-Technological College (Novosibirsk), Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (Moscow) (2017–2020)
• Project Tempus 530644-TEMPUS-1-2012-1-ES-TEMPUS-JPCR "HUMAN Security (environment, quality of food, public health and society) on Territories Contaminated by Radioactive Agents" (2012–2016)