UPHESC Assistant Professor Geography Syllabus 2026

UPHESC Assistant Professor Geography Syllabus

The written exam has two parts: General Knowledge (30 questions, the same for all subjects) and Geography (90 questions). Both syllabi below are the official ones of the Uttar Pradesh Education Service Selection Commission, Prayagraj.

Part 1: General Knowledge (30 questions, 90 marks)

Compulsory for all disciplines. Download PDF (0.3 MB)

Unit 1: Current Affairs

• Major events and current affairs: national and international
• Personalities in news
• Sports news
• Current research in the field of science

Unit 2: Teaching and Research Aptitude

• Teaching: nature, objectives, need, methods, evaluation and factors affecting teaching
• Research: meaning and methods
• Data: source, collection and analysis
• Role of UGC in qualitative development in higher education

Unit 3: Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

• ICT: meaning, advantages and disadvantages
• Basics of internet and e-mailing
• General abbreviations and terminology

Unit 4: People and Environment

• People and environment interaction
• Environmental degradation: causes and solutions
• National and international efforts for a better environment
• Environmental control

Unit 5: Indian History and Geography

• Salient features of Indian culture
• Indian National Movement (1857–1950)
• Origin of the universe and the solar system
• Indian geography (general)

Unit 6: Indian Constitution and Economy

• Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles
• Indian political system: legislature, executive and judiciary
• Election Commission and Public Service Commission
• Population, poverty, unemployment; planning and development; income tax
• Agriculture, industry, trade; money, currency, banking and capital market

Part 2: Geography (subject code 36) – 90 questions, 270 marks

The Geography paper is at post-graduate (Master's) level. The complete official syllabus is below. Download Geography syllabus PDF (0.3 MB)

Unit 1: Geomorphology

Fundamental concepts; Endogenetic and Exogenetic forces; Denudation and weathering; Geosynclines, Isostasy, Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics Theories; Mountain Building, Concept of geomorphic cycle; Landforms associated with fluvial, glacial, arid, coastal and karst cycles, Modern Geomorphologists, Applied Geomorphology.

Unit 2: Climatology

Composition and structure of the atmosphere; Heat budget of the earth, Horizontal and Vertical Distribution of Temperature; Atmospheric pressure and general circulation of winds; Monsoon, jet stream and local winds; Tropical and temperate cyclones; Classification of world climates; Koppen's and Thornthwaite's schemes and features of World Climatic Regions.

Unit 3

A- Oceanography

Ocean Bottom Topography, Ocean deposits; Coral reefs; Temperature and salinity of the oceans; Density of ocean water; Tides and ocean currents. Tsunami.

B- Bio and Environmental Geography

World distribution of plants and animals; Forms and functions, Conservation and management of ecosystems;. Principle of ecology; Human ecological adaptations; Influence of man on ecology and environment; Global and regional ecological changes and imbalances; Environmental degradation, hazards Problems of pollution, ozone depletion and climate change, and their remedial measures, environmental management and conservation; Biodiversity and sustainable development; Environmental policies; Environmental education and legislation

Unit 4: Geographic Thought

General character of Geographic knowledge in India and world during the ancient and medieval period; Geographical Knowledge in Vedas, Epic Periods, Puranas and Samritis. Foundations of Modern Geography and contributions of Indian and Western scholars; Dichotomy and dualism; Determinism, possibilism and Neo determinism Man and Environment, Areal differentiation and spatial organization, Quantitative revolution. Locational analysis; radical, behavioural, human and welfare approaches.

Unit 5

A- Population Geography

Factors and Patterns of world population distribution; Growth and density of population; Patterns and processes of migration; Theories of population growth, Population -resources region.

B- Settlement Geography

Site, situation, types, size, spacing and internal morphology of rural and urban settlements; Process and pattern of urbanization; City-region; Primate city; Rank-size rule; Settlement hierarchy; Spatial Pattern, Christaller's Central Place theory,; August Losch's theory of market Centres; Concept of Smart City and smart village, Development of Urban Centres.

Unit 6: Economic Geography

Sectors of Economy: primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary and Quinary activities, Natural resources: renewable and non-renewable, conservation of resources. Major Crop production and producing area, Sri Ann, Measurement of agricultural productivity and efficiency, agricultural revolution, agricultural types and typology; Crop combination, Monoculture and diversification; Theories of Agricultural Location; Von Thunen's Model. Agricultural systems and regions of the world. Classification of industries: Weber's and Losch's approaches; Resource based and footloose industries. Major Energy and Mineral resources production and producing areas. Major Industries: Their production and producing areas. Models of transportation and transport cost: Accessibility and connectivity.

Unit 7

A- Political Geography

Heartland and Rimland theories; Boundaries and frontiers; Nature of administrative areas and Geography of public policy and finance.

B- Social Geography

Ethnicity; tribe; dialect; language, caste and religion of India and World; Concept of social well-being. Social Groups and Organisation, social action.

C- Cultural Geography

concept of Culture, cultural Realm Areas and Cultural Regions of the World; Human races; Habitat; Economy and Society of tribal groups; Diffusion of Cultural innovations; Human Development and their Index; Impact of Globalization on Indian Society and Culture.

Unit 8: Regional Planning

Regional concept in Geography; Concept of planning regions; Types of regions; Methods of regional delineation; Regional planning in India; Indicators of development; Regional imbalances; Evolution, nature and scope of town planning with special reference to India, and Fundamentals of Town and Country planning.

Unit 9: Geography of India

Location, Shape and Size, Physiography and Physiographic divisions; Climate: Its regional variations; Mechanism of Indian monsoons and rainfall patterns, Tropical cyclones and western disturbances; Drainage System, Floods and droughts; Vegetation types and vegetation regions, Forest and wild life resources, deforestation and their conservation, Major soil types; Irrigation and multipurpose projects. Agriculture and its regionalisation; agro-climatic zones; agro- ecological regions.; Population distribution and growth, Demographic attributes: sex-ratio, age structure, literacy rate, work-force Urbanization; Indian Society- Racial, linguistic and ethnic diversities; religious minorities; role of diaspora, major tribes, tribal areas and their problems; Land, surface and ground water, energy, minerals, rare earth elements, biotic and marine resources and their conservation, Energy crisis; major industries and industrial regions, New industrial policies; Special Economic Zones; Tourism including eco -tourism. Transport and Communication; national and foreign trade; Trade balance; Trade Policy; Export processing zones; Five Year Plans; Integrated rural development programmes; Panchayati Raj and decentralised planning;

Unit 10

A- Cartography

Types of maps Techniques for the study of spatial patterns of distribution; Choropleth; Isopleth and Chorochromatic maps and pie diagrams; Mapping of location specific data; Accessibility and flow maps. Topographical Maps-types and features; Map Projection-graticules, types, construction and salient features of map projections,

B- Statistical Methods

Data sources and types of data; Frequency distribution and cumulative frequency; Measures of central, tendency; Selection of class intervals for mapping; Measures of dispersion and concentration; Standard deviation; Lorenz Curve; Methods of measuring association among different attributes; Simple and Multiple correlation; Regression. Nearest- neighbour analysis; Scaling techniques; Rank score; Weighted score; Sampling.

C- Remote sensing and GIS

Its principles, development and application; Development of Remote Sensing of India; Features of Indian and Foreign Satellite; Computer application in mapping; Digital mapping; Geographic Information System (GIS).

How to prepare

• Match the official Geography syllabus unit by unit with your Master's notes and mark weak units first.
• Solve previous UPHESC/UPESSC Assistant Professor Geography papers (Advt 51 re-exam of April 2026 is the most recent).
• Do not leave GK for the end: Teaching and Research Aptitude and ICT are scoring units of the GK paper.
• Practise MCQs under time limits because of negative marking (-1 per wrong answer).

Syllabus PDFs of all 43 subjects are on UPHESC Assistant Professor.