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Social Anthropology and African Studies

Entry requirements


A level

B,B,B

Accepted in place of A levels with the following grade equivalencies: D2 = A*; D3 = A; M2 = B. Combinations of A levels and Principle subjects are accepted. NB required subjects must be offered (see A level Section)

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32

5,5,5 in Higher Level subjects.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DMM

BTEC Extended Diploma: DMM plus B at A-level. BTEC Diploma: DM, plus B at A-level. BTEC Subsidiary Diploma: D, plus BB at A-level.

Accepted in place of a non-required A level with the equivalent grade.

UCAS Tariff

120

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

Anthropology

African studies

Studying undergraduate Social Anthropology and African Studies will enable you to develop a distinctive set of skills and attributes, which will really help you to stand out from the crowd.

The range of African societies today and in the past are enormous: from egalitarian communities to elaborately hierarchical empires. There are extremes of wealth and poverty; ancient oral cultures exist side by side with old traditions of literacy and state-of-the-art electronic media; successful local exploitation of Africa’s massive pools of biodiversity contrasts with the famines we are all too familiar from the news. The staff who teach our undergraduate Anthropology and African Studies degree have lived and taught in countries beyond Western Europe, and have a range of language skills acquired through intensive ethnographic fieldwork.

In Social Anthropology, you will learn how to search for, select from and evaluate sources of information, weigh up arguments, and present your findings effectively. As an anthropologist however, you will also become sensitive to the assumptions and beliefs that underlie behaviour in a range of social and cultural contexts.

After a thorough grounding of modules in the first year of your degree, we offer a wide range of optional modules to study in subsequent years. In the final year, you develop a dissertation on an anthropological topic based on your interests, in consultation with a supervisor with relevant expertise.

**Why study this course?**

**Immerse yourself in a unique perspective** - The Department of African Studies and Anthropology is the only one of its kind available at both undergraduate and postgraduate level allowing you to explore the disciplines in entirely new and exciting ways.

**Exceptional learning resources** – You will have access to a range of learning resources including environmental and material culture teaching collections at the University of Birmingham; the Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology Museum; the Eton Myers Collection and the Danford Collection of African art and artefacts

**Taught by the very best** – You will study alongside some of the finest minds at university. Times Higher Education ranked the Department of African Studies and Anthropology 2nd in the country for its performance in the latest Research Excellence Framework exercise, whilst our Department of Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology was ranked in the Top 10.

**Top 15 for Anthropology in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023**

**Top 10 for Anthropology in the Guardian University Guide 2023**

**2nd Times Higher Education ranked the Department of African Studies and Anthropology 2nd in the country for its performance in the latest Research Excellence Framework exercise**

Modules

First-year modules cover a broad base of the subject and are designed to introduce you to ways of studying at university. By the final year the modules you take will become more specialised and reflect the research expertise of the academic staff. More detailed module information can be found on the ‘Course detail’ tab on the University of Birmingham’s coursefinder web pages.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

University of Birmingham

Department:

Department of African Studies and Anthropology

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

56%
Anthropology

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Anthropology

Teaching and learning

100%
Staff make the subject interesting
81%
Staff are good at explaining things
81%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
60%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

64%
Library resources
67%
IT resources
88%
Course specific equipment and facilities
63%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

95%
UK students
5%
International students
21%
Male students
79%
Female students
78%
2:1 or above
12%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
B
B

African and modern middle eastern studies

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

94%
UK students
6%
International students
24%
Male students
76%
Female students
93%
2:1 or above
9%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

B
B
B

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Anthropology

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£20,000
high
Average annual salary
98%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

17%
Protective service occupations
11%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
8%
Welfare and housing associate professionals

This is a pretty flexible degree and a good one if you want to keep your options open. Just over 1,250 graduates completed anthropology degrees last year, and they were well spread out across a whole range of jobs — many industries have jobs that can be done by anthropology graduates and unlike a lot of degrees, there aren't many jobs we can point to and say ‘graduates from this degree do that job’. Management, marketing, housing and recruitment jobs are the most popular, though, and many graduates go into the education or social care sectors. Graduates are also rather more likely than average to work in London, or to go overseas to work. This is quite a popular subject at postgraduate level, and if you want to go into research, you'll need to think about postgrad study - and it's one of the few where numbers are on the up at the moment.

African and modern middle eastern studies

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£20,000
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

18%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
15%
Teaching and educational professionals
9%
Other elementary services occupations

Very few graduates take this subject and so we don't have much data to go on when looking at what graduates do with this type of degree. If you are interested in studying this subject, then it's a good idea to go on open days and talk to tutors about what you might expect from the course and what previous graduates did.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Anthropology

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£20k

£20k

£25k

£25k

£29k

£29k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

African and modern middle eastern studies

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£20k

£20k

£26k

£26k

£32k

£32k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here