Archaeological Practice with Professional Placement BSc (Hons)

The University of Winchester

• Spend a full year gaining invaluable experience with our industry placement
• Use our fully equipped laboratory and the latest range of industry-standard surveying equipment, including a ground penetrating radar and geoscan gradiometers
• Graduate with your own professional portfolio to impress employers
• Accredited by The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) and University Archaeology UK (UAUK).

Have you always wanted to be a professional archaeologist, getting your hands dirty and making exhilarating finds? Make no bones about it, this four-year vocational course is a great pathway into a career in the field, teaching you the necessary skills to gather, analyse and interpret archaeological evidence to truly bring the past to life.

On our hands-on programme, you use cutting-edge scientific techniques to explore history and prehistory. You go out into the field and discover real artefacts of historic importance, studying a wide range of topics from Prehistoric Europe and Roman Britain to Forensic and Maritime Archaeology. Then you make good use of your knowledge in a year-long placement within the industry and come away with a professional portfolio to impress future employers.

Our department also has a commercial research consultancy (ARCA), where you can learn from highly-trained specialist staff. The consultancy offers valuable laboratory work experience – an opportunity to combine your academic expertise with delivering high-quality commercial solutions.

In Year 1, you learn all the basics for a solid foundation in Archaeology, from prehistory to the historic period and cover topics like Archaeological Science and Fieldwork. This is topped off with an exciting four weeks at a live excavation site.

You cement your knowledge in Year 2 by acquiring practical and applied skills including in Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing and measured survey. You also dig deeper into chosen areas of study, for example in Human Bioarchaeology and the Archaeology of Popular Culture then wrap up the year with an optional field trips and another summer excavation.

Delve into what it’s really like to work as a professional archaeologist in Year 3 with a full year’s placement at an archaeological organisation and develop a Portfolio of professional practice to demonstrate your experience to future employers.

In Year 4, you engage in more vocational learning during classes on project management and cultural heritage law. You write a dissertation, often on a practical topic, such as a site survey. And there’s a final chance to study in-depth topics that really interest you, ranging from Prehistoric Wessex, through Caribbean Peoples and Cultures to Battlefield Archaeology.

The Department of Archaeology, Anthropology and Geography at the University of Winchester is one of only three academic institutes to be a Registered Organisation with the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA), a quality assurance scheme for professional practice.

With the course’s focus on vocational archaeology, it’s no surprise that many of our graduates proceed directly into a career in professional archaeology, often with commercial archaeological organisations undertaking developer funded excavation, survey work and research work.

Accreditation by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA), working in partnership with University Archaeology UK (UAUK), recognises academic programmes which provide students with appropriate workplace skills relevant to both a career in the historic environment and CIfA membership at Practitioner grade.