Skip to main content

University of Reading Cookie Policy

We use cookies on reading.ac.uk to improve your experience. Find out more about our cookie policy. By continuing to use our site you accept these terms, and are happy for us to use cookies to improve your browsing experience.

Continue using the University of Reading website

  • Schools and departments
  • University of Reading Malaysia
  • Henley Business School
  • Applicants
  • Students
  • Staff
  • Alumni
Show/Hide navigation
University of Reading
Mobile search categories
  • Study and life
  • Research
  • About us
  • View courses
  • Home
  • Study and life
    • Study
    • Student life
    • Accommodation
    • Open Days and visiting
    • International and EU students
  • Research
    • Themes
    • Impact
    • Innovation and partnerships
    • Research environment
    • Get involved
  • About us
    • Business
    • Working with the community
    • Visit us
    • Strategy
    • Governance
    • Contact us
  • Applicants
  • Students
  • Staff
  • Alumni
  • Schools and departments
  • University of Reading Malaysia
  • Henley Business School
  • View courses
mask
Close
CHOOSE A SUBJECT
Undergraduates
Postgraduates

Subjects A-B

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Science
  • Archaeology
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Building and Surveying
  • Business and Management, Accounting and Finance

Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Classical Studies
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environment

Subjects F-G

  • Film, Theatre and Television
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Foundation programmes
  • French
  • Geography
  • German
  • Graphic Communication

Subjects H-M

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • International Development
  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
  • Italian
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
  • Medical Science
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Museum Studies

Subjects N-T

  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physics
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Science foundation programmes
  • Spanish
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Surveying and Construction
  • Teaching
  • Theatre

Subjects U-Z

  • Zoology

Subjects A-C

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Sciences
  • Archaeology
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Business (Post-Experience)
  • Business and Management (Pre-Experience)
  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Ancient History
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Conservation of Buildings
  • Construction Management and Engineering
  • Consumer Behaviour
  • Creative Enterprise

Subjects D-G

  • Economics
  • Education
  • Energy and Environmental Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Science
  • Film, Theatre and Television
  • Finance
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Geography and Environmental Science
  • Graphic Design

Subjects H-P

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • Information Management and Digital Business
  • Information Technology
  • International Business Studies
  • International Development and Applied Economics
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Management
  • Medieval Studies
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Microbiology
  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate
  • Planning
  • Plant Sciences
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Project Management
  • Psychology
  • Public Policy

Subjects Q-Z

  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Social Policy
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Strategic Studies
  • Teacher Training
  • Theatre
  • Typography and Graphic Communication
  • War and Peace Studies
  • Zoology

BA MUSEUM STUDIES AND ARCHAEOLOGY WITH STUDY YEAR ABROAD PV16

View all

Full Time: 4 Years | including a study year abroad

This is an exciting opportunity to study BA Museum Studies and Archaeology with Study Year Abroad at an undergraduate level.

Learn to think and research like a museum professional while gaining hands-on experience at our three on-site museums and on archaeological digs.

This joint honours course combines the contemporary theory and practice of museum studies with the academic and practical study of archaeology. At the University of Reading, our expertise in archaeology starts with the earliest humans and spans up until the medieval period. We focus mainly on British, European and Near Eastern archaeology, but also explore other regions across the world.

Our Department is ranked in the top 10 UK universities for Archaeology (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2019). The Department of Archaeology also has an outstanding track record for student satisfaction, with satisfaction scores of 90-100% for the quality of our courses in every National Student Survey between 2010 and 2018.

Central to the course is the hands-on experience you will gain at our on-site museums. The University has three museums – including the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology – in which you can gain experience as a volunteer while you learn. As well as museums we also have a number of special collections, including art and rare books.

You will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to be a museum professional by considering the environment that artefacts are displayed in, how they are catalogued and the meanings they hold for different audiences.

Our museum teaching staff are all practising professionals, including curators, conservators and archivists, and use a combination of problem-solving and enquiry based learning techniques in their teaching. You will be given the opportunity to conduct your own research throughout the course, and in your final year, you will design, create and evaluate your own exhibition.

Study year abroad

This four-year degree course includes a year's study at a university abroad in your third year, giving you the opportunity to develop valuable professional and international experience. 

Placements

Placements are an excellent way to enhance your work-related skills and develop a network of contacts, as well as strengthen your employability prospects. We provide opportunities for you to undertake placements in a variety of contexts.

Opportunities are available working across the archaeological, heritage, planning and museum sectors including: research institutions, government organisations, local planning authorities, archaeological consultancies, field units, specialists and archivists. Our teaching staff have great connections with conservators, learning specialists and funding and policy specialists, as well as with a large number of museums, including local institutions such as the Reading Museum, the River and Rowing Museum, and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers' Museum of Technology.

Alternatively you can choose a placement in a non-related business or industry, exploring different career options and enhancing your employability by drawing on the many non-vocational, transferable skills you obtain from a Museum Studies and Archaeology degree.

Past placement examples include:

  • Traineeship with Oxford Archaeology
  • Traineeship at the Field School
  • Archaeological science placement at QUEST, the University of Reading’s scientific consultancy company
  • Volunteering at the Ure Museum, Cole Museum of Zoology and the Museum of English Rural Life
  • Human remains placement
  • Mediterranean Palaeoclimate Project placement
  • Hominin Skeletal Morphology placement
  • Archaeological Graphics placement
  • Lithics Reference Collection placement
  • “Developing Experimental Archaeology for Research and Training” placement
  • “The Ecology of Crusading: Isotope Analysis and Faunal Remains” placement
  • Summer Enterprise Experience and Discovery internship scheme

We have a dedicated member of staff in charge of placements, who can provide you with advice and support.

More information on the study abroad and placement selection process.

Students opting to undertake a standard three-year degree course will also have the opportunity to take a fully-credited placement or to spend a single term at one of our partner Universities abroad. Recent options include the Universities of Malta, Aarhus (Denmark), Torún (Poland) and the University of Florida in Gainesville (U.S.A.).

Typical offer A Level BBB | IB 30 pts overall

Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we will guarantee you a place if you achieve one grade lower than the published offer.

Typical offer

BBB

OR

to qualify for an Academic Excellence Scheme offer:

  • GCSE minimum requirement: three A* and three A
  • Example profile: A*A*A*AAABBBBC  

International Baccalaureate

30 points overall

BTEC Extended Diploma

DDM

Extended Project Qualification

In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study, we can now include achievement in the EPQ as part of a formal offer.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with no component below 5.5

For information on other English language qualifications, please visit our international student pages.

Alternative entry requirements for International and EU students

For country specific entry requirements look at entry requirements by country.

International Foundation Programme

If you are an international or EU student and do not meet the requirements for direct entry to your chosen degree you can join the University of Reading’s International Foundation Programme. Successful completion of this 1 year programme guarantees you a place on your chosen undergraduate degree. English language requirements start as low as IELTS 4.5 depending on progression degree and start date.

  • Learn more about our International Foundation programme

Pre-sessional English language programme

If you need to improve your English language score you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree.

  • Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme

What will you study?

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3
  • Year 4

Year 1

Core modules include:

  • Museum history, policy and ethics
  • Presenting the past
  • Archaeology today: methods and practice

Optional modules include:

  • Ancient empires: Mesopotamia, Egypt and Rome
  • Forensic anthropology and the archaeology of death
  • Revolutions in human behaviour: 4 million years BC to the present
  • Contemporary world cultures: an introduction to social anthropology
  • Greek History: war, society, and change in the Archaic Age
  • Roman History: the rise and fall of the Republic
  • Ancient song
  • Texts, readers, and writers
  • Economy, politics and culture in the Roman World
  • Introduction to Quaternary science

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 2

Core modules include:

  • Break into the museum: work placement
  • Careers for archaeologists
  • Curatorship and collections management

    Core modules include:

    • Curatorship and collections management
    • Break into the museum: work placement
    • Museum learning and engagement
    • Artefacts in archaeology

    Optional modules include:

    • Ice and fire: the European Palaeolithic
    • Medieval Europe: power, religion and death
    • Rome's Mediterranean empire
    • Archaeology fieldschool joint honours
    • Archaeologies: past, present and future
    • Forensic archaeology and crime scene analysis
    • Archaeological science
    • Bioarchaeology
    • Late Quaternary environmental change and human activities

    Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 3

Study abroad

Year 4

Core modules include:

  • Display design, planning and creation: project module

Optional modules include:

  • Dissertation
  • The archaeology of crusading
  • The Neanderthals
  • Emergence of civilisation in Mesopotamia
  • Emergence of civilisation in Mesopotamia
  • Human activities in settlements and landscapes
  • Biological anthropology
  • Coastal and maritime archaeology
  • Vikings in the west
  • Tropical rainforests, climate and lost civilisations
  • Hidden heritage: investigating and interpreting historic buildings and landscapes
  • Anatolia and the Aegean
  • Archaeology and topography of ancient Greece
  • British school at Rome undergraduate summer school
  • Gender in classical antiquity
  • Late antique Egypt
  • Pioneers of classical archaeology
  • Saints and holy men
  • Technology in the ancient world
  • Transformations of Helen
  • Urban life: the archaeology and anthropology of Roman cities

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

How much will it cost?

New UK/EU students: £9,250* per year

New international students: £16,890 per year

* UK and EU fee changes

UK undergraduate fees are regulated by the government. These fees are subject to parliamentary approval and any decision on raising the tuition fees cap for new UK and EU** students would require the formal approval of both Houses of Parliament before it becomes law.

From 2020, the UK government may link tuition fees to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

**EU students

For more information on fees, loans and grants for EU students, see fees and funding for home/EU students.

Additional costs

These course fees cover the cost of your tuition. Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK and other EU countries may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

* UK and EU Fee Changes

Subject to the Government passing legislation to raise the minimum fee cap, we will raise undergraduate tuition fees from £9,000 to £9,250 for new UK/EU students applying to start courses in the 2017/18 academic year. You will not be affected by this rise if you have deferred entry to the 2017/18 academic year. The Government will confirm future arrangements for EU students in due course.

The tuition fee will remain £9,000 per year for the full duration of this course if you start in the 2016/17 academic year or have accepted an offer but deferred your entry until the 2017/18 academic year. This is unlike other institutions who are planning to raise fees midway through courses.

For further information, please see our webpage on the Teaching Excellence Framework and future tuition fees.

Additional costs

These course fees cover the cost of your tuition. Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK and other EU countries may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

What career can you have?

This degree can lead to a variety of careers. The course is an ideal foundation to begin your career in heritage management, commercial archaeology, and research, as well as disciplines such as teaching, business, publishing and marketing.

You will gain a broad range of subject-specific and transferable skills spanning the humanities and sciences. The majority of employers consider your attitude and abilities to be even more important than the subject you choose to study (CBI Skills Survey 2014). Our curriculum is designed with this in mind, giving you not just knowledge in subjects you are passionate about, but also the qualities that employers really care about – qualities that are transferable to a diverse range of careers.

As a Museum Studies and Archaeology graduate you will develop strong transferable skills, and gain first-hand experience in handling objects, delivering presentations, and investigating other cultures in depth. Your practical experience of archaeological techniques will also give you skills in analysis, problem-solving, working in teams and fieldwork.

You will learn to think and research like a museum professional, and your three years’ experience of working within a multifaceted organisation will make you highly employable in any sector.

We have long-established, excellent relationships with employers within the heritage, archaeology and related sectors. Previous employers have included the Australian government, the National Trust and the Science Museum.

About the Departments


  • Visit the Department of Archaeology website
  • Visit the Department of Classics website

Contextual offers


We make contextual offers for all our courses.

Take the next step


How to apply

Come to an Open Day

Get a prospectus

Ask us a question

Chat to our students

Related Courses

  • BA Museum Studies and Archaeology PV14
    Full Time: 3 Years
  • BA Museum Studies and Archaeology with Professional Placement PV15
    Full Time: 4 Years | including a professional placement
  • BA Museum Studies and Archaeology with Placement and Study Abroad PV17
    Full Time: 4 Years | including a placement and study abroad
  • BA Archaeology V400
    Full Time: 3 Years
  • BA Museum and Classical Studies P1Q8
    Full Time: 3 Years
  • BA Ancient History and Archaeology VV41
    Full Time: 3 Years
  • BA Archaeology and History VV14
    Full Time: 3 Years
  • BA Archaeology and Classical Studies QV84
    Full Time: 3 Years
  • BSc Archaeological Science F420
    Full Time: 3 Years
More
View all Museum Studies courses

Ready for more?

How to apply
Visit an Open Day
Get a prospectus
View courses
  • Charitable status 
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies
  • Terms of use
  • Sitemap

© University of Reading