Archaeology
Entry requirements
A level
Required subjects: A Levels: no specific A Level subjects required. GCSEs: English at C or 4.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
36 points with 665 at HL. Required subjects: HL: no specific subjects required. SL: English at 5.
Scottish Higher
ABBB by end of S5 or AABB/ABBBB by end of S6. BBB must be achieved in one year of S4-S6. Required subjects: Highers: no specific Higher subjects required. National 5s: English at C.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
Archaeology is the study of the human past from our origins several million years ago to recent times.
While historians are primarily concerned with oral, written and transcribed accounts of the past, archaeologists use material remains to study the lives, societies and cultures of past peoples.
**What the programme covers**
This programme:
* covers current thinking on some of the best known and most spectacular archaeological sites
* considers the most pressing questions in archaeological research
* provides an introduction to the tools and skills archaeologists use to reconstruct the past
Our teaching is multidisciplinary, reflecting the broad range of disciplines that underpin archaeological method and theory.
You can study a broad range of time periods and different approaches to reconstructing the past. These include:
* human evolution
* later hunter-gatherers
* the first farmers
* the later prehistoric societies of the Iron Age
Our geographical scope reaches from the north of Scotland over central and southern Europe, the western and eastern Mediterranean to Egypt and the Near East. We also specialise in osteology, the study of the skeletal remains of humans and animals.
In Years 3 and 4 you can choose to specialise in a specific time period, geographic area or culture.
**Practical skills**
We emphasise the importance of training in practical archaeological skills.
You will have an opportunity to gain hands-on experience of artefact identification and analysis in practical sessions using artefacts from our own Vere Gordon Childe collection.
**Fieldwork**
At the end of Year 1, you will complete 3 weeks of archaeological fieldwork. In later years of study you will also have the option to complete:
* further fieldwork
* projects in heritage management and public engagement
* lab-based analysis of archaeological remains
Tuition fees
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The Uni
Central area campus
School of History, Classics and Archaeology
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.
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.
Archaeology
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
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.
Archaeology
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.
Top job areas of graduates
Want to do a job in the arts - with lots of the great outdoors? Try archaeology! There don't tend to be many archaeology undergraduates out there (just under 700 graduated in 2015) - but it's quite a popular subject at postgraduate level. In fact, over a quarter of archaeology graduates take some kind of further study when they graduate - usually more study of archaeology. When you look at the stats, be aware that junior jobs in archaeology are not always well paid at the start of your career, and that temporary contracts are not uncommon. Thankfully, though, unpaid work, whilst not completely gone, is less common than it used to be. The archaeology graduates of 2015 found jobs in archaeology, of course, but also management and heritage and environment work, as well as more conventional graduate jobs in marketing and the finance industry.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Archaeology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£22k
£27k
£30k
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 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.
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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.
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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
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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?
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