Course summary

Our BA Archaeology and Geography with Foundation Year will equip you to study past humans and environments through texts, objects and landscapes. This course teaches you how to use a range of evidence - from prehistoric pottery to marine sediment, temporal registers and geographical information - to explore the past. You will gain practical archaeological and geographical experience by participating in a fieldschool where archaeology and geography are brought together by situating sites within the context of landscapes. You will also acquire critical and analytical skills by studying and comparing data and methods from the two disciplines of archaeology and geography. Upon successful completion of the Foundation Year, you can automatically progress on to our three-year, full-time, evening study BA Archaeology and Geography. We also offer part-time Foundation Year degrees which allow you to spread out your Foundation Year studies over two years. As the 'Foundation Year' is made up of 120 credits, as a part-time student you can take 60 credits in each of your first and second years before starting the main four-year BA Archaeology and Geography. This means that you can take six years to complete the part-time degree with Foundation Year. Highlights

• Our Foundation Year degrees will fully prepare you for undergraduate study and are ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didn't achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree.

• Birkbeck was ranked in the top eight universities in the UK for its History research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

• Department of History, Classics and Archaeology research is unique in its range across geographical and chronological boundaries. We are the only university department in London to include historians, classicists and archaeologists investigating every period from prehistory to the early twenty-first century. We see the study of the past as crucial for our understanding of present-day society, culture and politics.

• We are at the heart of academic London with access to unparalleled research resources. Situated very close by are: the Institute of Classical Studies, with its library, training facilities and seminars; the British Museum, with its extensive collection of classical antiquities; and the British Library, the largest national library in the world.

• The department is home to thriving student societies and a number of affiliated research centres that actively run seminars, conferences and other events where some of the world's best scholars present their latest research.

• The unique strength of the Department of Geography is the breadth of research interests of our staff. This means that we offer a very wide range of courses in both development and globalisation as well as allowing students to engage with other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology.

• heritage manager

• archaeologist

• museum/gallery curator

• higher education lecturer.

Course details