Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology
Archaeologists study ancient cultures and reconstruct the past based on material remains. These remains are mostly buried and thus usually found during excavations. The real work, however, begins only after the fieldwork is done: analysing, comparing, hypothesizing, assessing ... Archaeology is an interdisciplinary domain that calls on various auxiliary disciplines.
What
Archaeologists use tangible remains to reconstruct the past: how people lived and what their living environment looked like. As a student of Archaeology, you gain insight into how cultures evolved throughout history, and into human interaction with their living environment. For this purpose, you will have various auxiliary sciences at your disposal: history, geology, biology, anthropology ... In addition, we introduce you to the most recent photographic techniques, geophysical methods and satnav measuring equipment for the detection of material remains. You will learn to deal with the science of archaeology, archaeological literature and archaeological resources critically and independently. You will learn where to find these resources, which techniques and methods to use to examine them, how to evaluate them, and how to report your research results in the form of a scientific paper.
For whom
Although entering the Archaeology programme does not require specific prior knowledge, the following characteristics might come in handy:
First and foremost, you have a wide interest in “all things past”: you want to gain insight into the cohesion, evolution and characteristics of past civilisations. And at the same time, you find pleasure in the search for answers on current situations and structures: how did these come into being? Secondly, the prospect of spending hours on end in the open does not deter you: during that time you will investigate material remains of ancient cultures meticulously and scientifically. And thirdly, you realise that archaeology is an interdisciplinary field of study, calling on historical, art-historical, geographical and natural science techniques. An affinity with these sciences will give you a head start and will help you master the learning contents of some of our course units more easily. Fourthly, good spatial skills will serve you well. And last but not least, an aptitude for foreign languages is not unimportant either. After all, studying archaeology entails reading and processing foreign language-texts independently.
Structure
Bachelor
The Bachelor’s curriculum contains three types of programme-specific course units. The course units focusing on knowledge and understanding offer overviews of historical periods and large archaeological regions; the methodology course units offer introductions to geology, archaeobotany (the study of botanical remains), archaeometry (the study of remains by the application of natural scienc techniques), and physical anthropology (the study of human remains);
the practice-oriented course units contain supervised exercises with a focus on setting up and conducting independent research, fieldwork, material studies practicals, and excursions (a visit to an archaeological site, a museum, an exhibition...).
In addition to the programme-specific course units, the first-year curriculum also contains a number of general introductory course units in Philosophy, Historical Criticism and Anthropology. The second-year curriculum offers a choice of minors, containing coherent sets of course units from another, complementary discipline. Right from the start, you will come into contact with the multifaceted practice that is archaeology as well as various scientific disciplines. As you progress, however, traditional lectures will make way for more seminars and independent work. The supervised exercises programmed in the third-year curriculum ultimately culminate in an independent piece of work, i.e. the Bachelor’s paper.
Master
The Master’s programme contains the actual discipline-specific expertise. You learn to conduct specialised academic research in an independent manner. With the Master’s degree under your belt you are able to take up senior positions successfully, e.g. leading excavations or co-ordinating projects. Proof of having earned that degree is in the Master’s dissertation, i.e. your independent graduation piece containing your research results. Equally important is our programme’s practical component, which prepares you for field archaeology and archaeological research. For that purpose, you participate actively in excavations, archaeological drillings and prospections. You get the opportunity to embark on an international work placement, too.
Labour Market
Many of our graduates find employment in academic research: at universities, in museums or other academic-scientific institutions. Archaeological heritage management is an important outlet for our graduates as well. In the spatial planning sector, too, archaeologists are in demand. Private archaeological companies and study centres charged with assessing sites with heritage value also hire archaeologists. Alumni with a Flemish Archaeology diploma are in high demand abroad as well. In addition, there are considerable employment options outside the traditional archaeological sectors. Our alumni also end up in administrative positions, in the public as well as in the private sector, in commercial positions, in the public relations sector, the cultural sector, at libraries or in journalism.
Take a look at interesting testimonials by some of our graduates on www.durfdenken.be
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- Motivation: our four-year curriculum is aimed at (prospective) students with a critical and academic attitude. A strong interest in material culture and in the interaction between man and landscape throughout history is recommended.
- Multidisciplinarity and multiperspectivism: we train our students to become critical and professional archaeologists who are able to work in a team. We teach our students the necessary skills to be creative and to become accomplished problem-solvers.
- Building bridges: the study of archaeology is at the intersection of material culture studies, landscape studies and the study of the history of humankind. This fascinating interaction is the focus of our study programme. In addition, we teach our students to apply analytical methods and theoretical concepts. In so doing, our study programme bridges the gap between the humanities and the exact sciences.
- Talent development: our students can to a certain extent tailor their curriculum to their own interests.
- Broad employability: not only do our graduates possess advanced archaeological knowledge, they can also be valuable employees in other disciplines due to their solid methodological knowledge.
Strengths
- Motivated team of lecturers: our team consists of motivated lecturers who combine a teaching assignment with conducting internationally recognized research.
- Internationalization: we encourage our students and lecturers to engage in international experiences. We participate in international fieldwork projects and integrate short study stays abroad into our curriculum in a structural manner.
- Multidisciplinarity: the combination of archaeological and basic science course units makes for a curriculum that attracts students with diverse backgrounds in terms of prior education.
- Integration with the professional field: we keep abreast of new developments thanks to our close ties with the local and international professional field.
- Upon graduation: our programme focuses on understanding and being able to apply the principles of landscape archaeology and material culture studies. This means that you are well-prepared for national and international jobs in the public and private sector.
Challenges
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Focus on quality: we strive for premium-quality education and want to involve our students and alumni more closely. In so doing, we want to focus on the following actions:
- bringing (prospective) students into contact with our alumni in a structural manner;
- continuing to encourage our students to respond to the various feedback options and to participate in student surveys about the quality of education;
- highlighting the specific profile of our study programme with a focus on the desired prior knowledge;
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Study load: we want to continue to focus on clear communication: what do we expect from our students and what can our students expect from us? We want to:
- point out to our (prospective) students the desired basic prior knowledge in terms of exact sciences and foreign languages;
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inform our (prospective) students about and support them in the development of solid study methods (learning to stagger the workload)
As a study programme, we provide: -
scheduled feedback moments during the dissertation writing process;
- an ongoing commitment to assess the study programme continuously and adjust it where necessary, for example by converting term course units into full-year course units.
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Study efficiency: we have noticed that students often postpone their Master's dissertation until the resit examination period or even later. This is an aspect that we will work on together with the students:
- regularly bringing our Master's students together in integration seminars so that they can learn from each other;
- continued emphasis on the importance of the Master's dissertation;
- encouraging our Master's students to start working on dissertation on time.
Tailored coaching programme: As stipulated in the quality improvement plan, the study programme in liaison with the faculty and the Education Department, is set to eliminate the weaknesses within a reasonable time frame. The study programme delivers regular progress reports to the Education Quality Board.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022. Programme quality was validated by a quality review, i.e. a screening of the Education Monitor by the Education Quality Board. The Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This information was last updated on 01/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.