Birkbeck is a world-class research and teaching institution, a vibrant centre of academic excellence and London’s only specialist provider of evening higher education, serving over 19,000 students annually. The Department of Earth Sciences at Birkbeck forms a joint Research School with its counterpart at University College London and was ranked third of all Environment and Earth Science Departments in the UK during the 2006/7 Research Assessment Exercise of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.