Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology

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.

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 elective sets, 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.

• Your bachelor's degree also provides access to other master's programmes beyond those mentioned above, including a Master’s Programme in Teaching (in Dutch: een educatieve master). You can find an overview under the 'Further Studies' tab.

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