University home > Unit and programme catalogues in 2023/24 > Programme catalogue > Faculty of Arts > Department of Anthropology and Archaeology > Archaeology and Anthropology (BA) > Specification
Programme code | 1ARCH001U |
---|---|
Programme type | Single Honours |
Programme director(s) |
Neil Carrier
|
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
School/department | Department of Anthropology and Archaeology |
Teaching institution | University of Bristol |
Awarding institution | University of Bristol |
Accrediting types: |
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. (www.archaeologists.net/Accredited_Degrees) (www.archaeologists.net/Accredited_Degrees) |
Relevant QAA subject benchmark groups |
Anthropology (2019) (benchmark statement)
Archaeology (2022) (benchmark statement) |
Mode of study | Full Time |
Programme length | 3 years (full time) |
This section sets out why studying this programme is important, both in terms of inspiring you as an individual and in considering the challenges we face. It describes how this degree programme contributes to:
This programme aims to provide students with a theoretical and empirical understanding of issues and debates in the three interrelated fields of archaeology, biological anthropology and social anthropology. The degree allows for an increasing degree of specialisation in one or more of these fields, after a basic grounding in all three. A characteristic of the degree scheme will be its combination of theoretical and empirical work. All students will carry out a piece of fieldwork (in Year Two of a full time degree), as well as a 30 credit dissertation (Year Three, for full time students), which will normally involve an original project in one of the three fields, or combining two or more of the fields. The principal aim of the programme is to equip students to understand and interpret human (and primate) social and cultural behaviour, past and present, as studied by archaeologists, social anthropologists, and biological anthropologists, and to learn the practical skills associated with these fields at a level appropriate to undergraduate study. The programme will therefore develop students' interest in and knowledge and understanding of human social behaviour, cultural heritage and biological origins, and help them to appreciate the interconnections between the three approaches to the study of human beings, with a combination of theoretical approaches, practical experience and methodological training.
The learning outcome statements shown below for your programme have been developed with reference to relevant national subject benchmarks (where they exist), national qualification descriptors (see the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) and professional body requirements.
Teaching, learning and assessment strategies are listed to show how you will be able to achieve and demonstrate the learning outcomes.
This programme provides opportunities for you to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, qualities, skills and other attributes in the following areas:
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning/teaching methods and strategies |
---|---|
|
Acquisition of knowledge and understanding through seminars, tutorials, fieldwork and directed reading. Independent learning is achieved through written coursework, practical exercises and the dissertation. |
Methods of assessment (formative and summative) | |
The breadth and depth of the student's knowledge base is tested through a variety of formative and summative methods of assessment. These include written coursework , seminar presentations, seen and unseen examinations, a field project and a dissertation. It is anticipated that most dissertations will be based on a small-scale piece of ethnographic, biological or archaeological, research, utilising one approach and methodology or attempting a synthesis of two or more approaches. |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning/teaching methods and strategies |
---|---|
|
These intellectual skills and attributes are developed through the students' reading, oral presentations, methodology classes, fieldwork in groups and individually undertaken, tutorials and seminars, lectures, written assignments, including essays and dissertations, and through preparation for examinations |
Methods of assessment (formative and summative) | |
Formative assessment takes place in tutorials, seminars, and practical classes and field trips. Summative assessment is through essays, practical exercises, examinations and the dissertation. |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning/teaching methods and strategies |
---|---|
|
Seminars and tutorials are used to develop oral communication by requiring students to engage in class discussions and to make oral presentations. Analytical skills and written communication are developed through written assignments, assessed coursework, examinations and the dissertation. The dissertation in particular develops skills of planning and project management. Practical work will give students the knowledge and skills to undertake further work or research in archaeological excavation, the analysis and cataloguing of finds, an understanding of heritage management, scientific skills associated with biological anthropology and the ability to carry out ethnographic work and analyse the results. The extent to which these skills are developed will depend on the pathway chosen through the degree. |
Methods of assessment (formative and summative) | |
Through the essays and examinations the skills of written communication, presentation and problem solving and analysis will be assessed. Project management is assessed in particular through the dissertation. Oral skills and team working are assessed both formatively and summatively through seminar presentations. Practical skills are developed through the field study, and through method courses in each field. |
Embedded within the curriculum |
The curriculum includes a range of support for students to enhance their employability through embedded learning. Employability skills are embedded across all degree programmes, allowing students to graduate with an impressive range of transferable and analytical skills. For example, independent research projects will develop a student’s ability to research, whilst regular in-class discussions challenge students to think critically and creatively through dialogue with their peers. Further assessment and activities will equip students with further transferable skills, including digital, problem-solving, analysis, organisation, presentation and communication skills. |
---|---|
Co-curricular opportunities |
|
This section describes what is expected from you at each level of your programme. This illustrates increasing intellectual standards as you progress through the programme. These levels are mapped against the national level descriptors published by the Quality Assurance Agency.
Level C/4 - Certificate |
The structure of the degree programme has been designed to engage the student in a cumulative process of developing skills and knowledge through a sequence of complementary stages. At Level C, students gain a knowledge of the three fields of study (archaeology, biological and social anthropology), their methods, theories and areas of interest. |
---|---|
Level I/5 - Intermediate |
Level I offers a more advanced grounding in each of the three fields, and adds a mandatory field study. This will combine archaeological and ethnographic methods, and will give students an opportunity to begin to put their theoretical knowledge to the test and to design and carry out, as well as present, empirical data. It will also provide an opportunity to raise ethical considerations in carrying out research with human populations. There will be the opportunity for students to begin to specialise on one or more of the three fields if they wish to do so. |
Level H/6 - Honours |
At Level H, students are expected to tackle more advanced work in all three fields. Those who wish to do so can specialise in one or more of the three fields, and gain an advanced level of knowledge and expertise in their chosen field. Alternatively, students can continue to combine their studies so as to give an advanced but more general view of archaeology, biological anthropology and social anthropology. The dissertation acts as the culmination of the student's progress through the degree programme, as s/he applies the appropriate technical, methodological and intellectual skills that have been developed to a piece of research devised in consultation with and supervised by one or more staff advisors. |
For information on the admissions requirements for this programme please see details in the undergraduate prospectus at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/ or contact the relevant academic department.
Undergraduate Students
Success as an undergraduate student depends on you being able to make the transition to self-motivated, independent learning. Programmes are designed to assist you in this development, in many cases by starting with units in which timetabled teaching, such as lectures and practical classes, provides the foundations of knowledge and skills in a subject, moving on to individual research-based work. Over time you will be expected to take increasing responsibility for your own learning, guided by the feedback on your work that you will receive.
Postgraduate Students
Taught postgraduate students are generally studying for one academic year. This is a longer year than for undergraduates, normally culminating in a research project. In a one-year full-time programme your workload will be distributed as evenly as possible, but this will depend on the precise arrangements for your programme. You will be expected to take responsibility for your own learning, guided by the feedback on your work that you will receive.
All students
At the heart of your studies at every level there must be regular and disciplined individual reading, reflection and writing and it is this skill of independent studies, above all others, that will serve you best when you leave the University.
Most programmes use credits and a 20-credit unit broadly equates to about 200 hours of student input. This includes all activities related to the teaching, learning and assessment of taught units.
A component of this is the time that you spend in class, in contact with the teaching staff, which includes activities such as lectures, laboratories, tutorials, problem-solving classes and fieldwork. Some of this activity may be online and could consist of activity that is synchronous (using real-time environments such as Blackboard Collaborate) or asynchronous (using tools such as tutor moderated discussion forums, blogs or wikis).
In some programmes there are field courses and/or placements that will take place in concentrated periods of time.
Outside scheduled activities you are expected to pursue your own independent learning to build your knowledge and understanding of the subjects you are studying. Such independent activities include, reviewing lecture material, reading textbooks, working on examples sheets, completing coursework, writing up laboratory notes, preparing for in-class progress tests and revising for examinations.
We recognise that many students undertake paid employment. To achieve a sensible balance between work and study, you are advised to undertake paid work for no more than 15 hours per week in term-time.
UG Professional Programmes in the Faculty of Health Sciences
For these professional programmes, full time attendance is compulsory unless absence is formally approved. Academic activities are timetabled throughout the 5-day week and student workload is around 40 hours per week on average. Where possible, students in the early years are permitted Wednesday afternoons for sport and extra-curricula activities. This is usually not available in later years of professional programmes as when a student progresses through their curriculum there is an increasing exposure to clinical and professional activities. Students in clinic or on placements may need to stay later than core times of 08.00 – 18.00 or even overnight to observe out-of-hours activities. There may also be an occasional need to work or travel to clinical placements at the weekend. This increasing exposure to clinical activities means that students on these professional programmes often have longer term dates than the University standard. Individual years within programmes are likely to vary in length (for example because of the timings of placements) and further information on this will be found in individual programme information. Another important point to note is that many of the assessments sit outside the standard University examination timetable and are likely to be more frequent, meaning that students will need to engage in revision activities and self-directed learning (including when on clinical placements).
Health Sciences Assessment Statement
Please select the following link for a statement about assessment in the Faculty of Health Sciences. This is University of Bristol access only.
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/health-sciences/chse/documents/FHS%20Assessment%20and%20Feedback%20statement%202021.pdf
The BA is a three year programme. A characteristic of this degree scheme is the fieldwork component. All students take part in an ethnographic and archaeological field school during their second year of study. The degree combines practical work and skills training, methodological training and theoretical work in three interrelated fields of study, i.e. archaeology, biological anthropology and social/cultural anthropology. Students will all be required to take some units in each component at each level, but will have the opportunity to opt for different pathways through the degree, allowing for a considerable degree of specialisation in one or two of the three areas. The dissertation is a piece of academic work with a minimum of 7,000 and not exceeding 9,000 words of text, including footnotes but excluding appendices and the bibliography. It provides students with the opportunity to write at length and in some detail on a topic essentially of their own choice; the subject may be in one of the three fields covered, or combine methods and materials from two or more fields.
For more on the staff involved, please see: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/school-of-arts/people/group/dept/2243e
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
List A | |||||
Peoples, Culture and Language | ARCH10017 | 20 | Mandatory | A | TB-1 |
List B | |||||
Discovering the Past | ARCH10015 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-1 | |
List C | |||||
Material Culture (C) | ARCH10013 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-1 | |
List D | |||||
Evolution in Action | ARCH10014 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-2 | |
List E | |||||
Archaeological Practice | ARCH10016 | 20 | Mandatory | E | TB-2 |
List F | |||||
20 CP From Bristol Futures, UWLP or Faculty Wide Units | OPEN | 20 | Optional | ||
Certificate of Higher Education | 120 |
Students taking ARCH25500 (Study Abroad) will choose one unit from lists A-C
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
List A | |||||
Anthropological Methods | ARCH20048 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-1 | |
List B - Choose one unit from this list | |||||
The Anthropology of Gender and Childhood | ARCH20070 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Early Human Origins | ARCH20005 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
How Societies Evolve | ARCH20064 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Lives on the move: Migration and Mobility from a Global Perspective | ARCH20066 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
List C - students must take ARCH20059, they will have the opportunity to select ARCH20070 via List F. | |||||
Post-Excavation Analysis | ARCH20059 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
List D - Choose one unit from this list | |||||
Britain AD | ARCH20068 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Anthropology and Contemporary Capitalism | ARCH20065 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Evolution and Human Behaviour | ARCH20058 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Engaging with collections | ARCH20071 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Playing Cultures: sports, games and bodily practices | ARCH20072 | 20 | Optional | C,D | TB-2 |
List E | |||||
Social Theories | ARCH20057 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-2 | |
List F - Choose either: | |||||
Choose an additional 20 CP from list D (for a balanced workload) or from list B above, OR 20 CP of University Wide Language Programme (UWLP) or Faculty Wide Units | OPEN | 20 | Optional | ||
Study Abroad (60cp) | ARCH25500 | 60 | Optional | TB-4 | |
Diploma of Higher Education | 120 |
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
List A Select ARCH30048 | |||||
Museums and Heritage: Critical Perspectives Not available in this year | ARCH30048 | 20 | Mandatory | ||
List B - Select ARCH35022 | |||||
Dissertation | ARCH35022 | 40 | Mandatory | B | TB-4 |
List C - Choose 20 CP from this list | |||||
Introduction to Forensic Anthropology | ARCH30039 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Human Challenges | ARCH30034 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Cultural Heritage of the Built Environment | ARCH30051 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
Stimulating Anthropology: Drugs and Society | ARCH30040 | 20 | Optional | TB-1 | |
A Planetary Caribbean: Land. Sea. Sky. Plantation. Plot | ARCH30053 | 20 | Optional | C | TB-1 |
List D - Choose 20 CP from this list | |||||
Anthropology of Disability and Difference | ARCH30049 | 20 | Optional | TB-2 | |
Work placement in Archaeology/Cultural Heritage | ARCH30046 | 20 | Optional | D | TB-2 |
List E- Choose 20 CP from this list | |||||
Sociolinguistic Anthropology: Language, Culture, and Society Not available in this year | MODL30016 | 20 | Mandatory | ||
List F | |||||
20 CP From Bristol Futures, UWLP or Faculty Wide Units – OR choose an additional 20 CP from lists C and D above | OPEN | 20 | Optional | ||
Archaeology and Anthropology (BA) | 120 |
Unit Pass Mark for Undergraduate Programmes:
For details on the weightings for classifying undergraduate degrees, please see the Agreed Weightings, by Faculty, to be applied for the Purposes of Calculating the Final Programme Mark and Degree Classification in Undergraduate Programmes.
For detailed rules on progression please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes and the relevant faculty handbook.
Please refer to the specific progression/award requirements for programmes with a preliminary year of study, the Gateway programmes and International Foundation programmes.
All undergraduate degree programmes allow the opportunity for a student to exit from a programme with a Diploma or Certificate of Higher Education.
Integrated Master's degrees may also allow the opportunity for a student to exit from the programme with an equivalent Bachelor's degree where a student has achieved 360 credit points, of which 90 must be at level 6, and has successfully met any additional criteria as described in the programme specification.
The opportunities for a student to exit from one of the professional programmes in Veterinary Science, Medicine, and Dentistry with an Award is outlined in the relevant Programme Regulations (which are available as an annex in the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes).
An Ordinary degree can be awarded if a student has successfully completed at least 300 credits with a minimum of 60 credits at Level 6.
The pass mark for the professional programmes in Veterinary Science, Medicine and Dentistry is 50 out of 100. The classification of a degree in the professional programmes in Veterinary Science, Medicine, and Dentistry is provided in the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
Please note: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if he/she takes full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided.
University of Bristol,
Senate House,
Tyndall Avenue,
Bristol, BS8 1TH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)117 928 9000