Anthropology BSc
London, Bloomsbury
Anthropology BSc (2025)
This programme looks at the environmental, cultural, social and material culture aspects of human beings, as well as their evolution. It will help you gain a broad set of skills including: critical reasoning; the ability to search, analyse and synthesise various materials; collaborative group work; and oral and written communication.
Study mode
Duration
UK tuition fees (2024/25)
Overseas tuition fees (2024/25)
Programme starts
September 2024Application deadline
31 Jan 2024UCAS course code
Entry requirements
- Grades
- AAB
- Subjects
- No specific subjects. At least two A level subjects should be taken from UCL's list of preferred A level subjects.
- GCSEs
- English Language and Mathematics at grade C or 5, plus any Science (Single Science, Biology, Chemistry or Physics) required at grade B or 6 (Combined Science at grades 6, 6).
Contextual offer information
- Grades
- BBC more about contextual offers
- Subjects
- No specific subjects. At least two A level subjects should be taken from UCL's list of preferred A level subjects.
- GCSEs
- English Language and Mathematics both at grade C or 5, plus any Science (Single Science, Biology, Chemistry or Physics) required at grade C or 5 (Combined Science at grades 5, 5).
- Points
- 36
- Subjects
- A total of 17 points in three higher level subjects, with no higher level score below 5.
Contextual offer
- Points
- 30 more about contextual offers
- Subjects
- A total of 15 points in three higher level subjects, with no higher level score below 5.
UK applicants qualifications
For entry requirements with other UK qualifications accepted by UCL, choose your qualification from the list below:
Equivalent qualification
Pass in Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 30 credits at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit, all from Level 3 units.
BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma (QCF) or BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (RQF - teaching from 2016) with Distinction, Distinction, Distinction.
D3,D3,M1 in three Cambridge Pre-U Principal Subjects
A,A,B at Advanced Highers (or A,A at Advanced Higher and B,B,B at Higher)
Not acceptable for entrance to this programme.
Not acceptable for entrance to this programme.
Successful completion of the WBQ Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate plus 2 GCE A levels at grades AAB
International applications
Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.
Access and widening participation
UCL is committed to widening access to higher education. If you are eligible for Access UCL you do not need to do anything in addition to the standard UCAS application. Your application will be automatically flagged when we receive it.Undergraduate Preparatory Certificates
The Undergraduate Preparatory Certificates (UPC) prepare international students for a UCL undergraduate degree who don’t have the qualifications to enter directly. These intensive one-year foundation courses are taught on our central London campus.
Typical UPC students will be high achievers in a 12-year school system which does not meet the standard required for direct entry to UCL.
For more information see: ucl.ac.uk/upc.
English language requirements
The English language level for this programme is: Level 2
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Information about the evidence required, acceptable qualifications and test providers can be found on our English language requirements page.
A variety of English language programmes are offered at the UCL Centre for Languages & International Education.
Course overview
In the first year, you take compulsory modules covering the three branches of the programme: evolutionary and environmental anthropology, social anthropology and material culture.
Evolutionary and environmental anthropology focuses on contemporary human-environment interactions and human evolution.
Social anthropology explores social and cultural differences and their determinants across local and global contexts.
Material culture studies human, social and environmental relationships through the evidence of people's construction of their material world.
Your first year also includes qualitative and quantitative methods training, and a three-day field trip to discover ethnographic research and participant observation in ritual, landscape, and techniques.
Your second year includes compulsory modules, Anthropological Research Methods and Being Human, and you can select five optional modules.
In the third year, you select five optional modules and complete an independent research project for your dissertation.
What this course will give you
UCL Anthropology is one of the few departments in the country that combines evolutionary and environmental anthropology, social anthropology, material culture and medical anthropology to give you a truly broad-based anthropology degree.
You will also be studying at one of the world's top universities for the subject (ranked 4th in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023).
During your studies you can learn practically by engaging with objects, photographs and films in the UCL Ethnography Collections, hominin and primate specimens in the Biological Anthropology Collection, as well as writing for our in-house print magazine and student-run blog, the Anthropolitan.
Your teaching will draw on our staff's cutting edge research, examining topics such as the cultural consequences of new digital media, social and environmental sustainability, how people and things interact on NASA space missions, and many more.
Teaching and learning
In each year of your degree you will take a number of individual modules, normally valued at 15 or 30 credits, adding up to a total of 120 credits for the year. Modules are assessed in the academic year in which they are taken. The balance of compulsory and optional modules varies from programme to programme and year to year. A 30-credit module is considered equivalent to 15 credits in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
Upon successful completion of 360 credits, you will be awarded a BSc (Hons) in Anthropology.
Modules
Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability is subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.
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In the first year, you take compulsory modules covering the three branches of the programme: evolutionary and environmental anthropology, social anthropology and material culture.
Your first year also includes qualitative and quantitative methods training, and a three-day field trip to discover ethnographic research and participant observation in ritual, landscape, and techniques.
Your second year includes compulsory modules, Anthropological Research Methods and Being Human, and you can select five optional modules.
In the third year, you select five optional modules and complete an independent research project for your dissertation.
Optional modules
Optional modules
Your learning
Our teaching comprises lectures, tutorials, seminars and laboratory classes. Small-group tutorials, group work and student-led activities are an important element of many modules. Ongoing feedback is given to help you improve your written work.
Your first year also includes a three-day field trip, paid for by the department, to discover ethnographic research and participant observation in ritual, landscape, and techniques. The Individual Studies module in your third year can involve fieldwork to gather primary data for dissertation research projects.
Each week, around 9-12 hours of a student’s time is spent in a mixture of tutorials, seminars, lectures, laboratory or studio-based classes, workshops or periodic supervision sessions, with a further 25-30 hours in independent study.
Assessment
Your modules may be assessed by written coursework, examination, presentations, journals, lab books, multimedia tasks, quizzes and dissertation research projects. Examinations are normally unseen and their formats vary according to the module.
Accessibility
Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing team.
The foundation of your career
Former graduates work in diverse fields, such as journalism, film-making, TV, law, museums, social work, international development, NGOs and the voluntary sector, police, probation, refugee work, user experience research, advertising, design, PR, marketing, music industry, accountancy, local government, HR, teaching, and as cultural advisors for multinationals.
To find out more about what you can do with an Anthropology degree, how we support you and hear directly from our graduates, check our Careers page on our website.
Employability
The broad range of research methods skills and analytical perspectives offered by the UCL Anthropology programme gives our graduates an unusually wide range of career possibilities, many of them directly related to the discipline's cross-cultural focus and to our blending of the social and biological sciences.
Fees and funding
Fees for this course
| Fee description | Full-time |
|---|---|
| Tuition fees (2024/25) | £9,250 |
| Tuition fees (2024/25) | £34,400 |
The fees indicated are for undergraduate entry in the 2024/25 academic year. The UK fees shown are for the first year of the programme at UCL only. Fees for future years may be subject to an inflationary increase. The Overseas fees shown are the fees that will be charged to 2024/25 entrants for each year of study on the programme, unless otherwise indicated below.
Full details of UCL's tuition fees, tuition fee policy and potential increases to fees can be found on the UCL Students website.
Additional costs
The optional module `ANTH0032 Atapuerca and Human Evolution in Europe' includes fieldwork in Burgos, Spain; where students need an additional visa to travel to Spain, its cost will be covered by the student.
A guide including rough estimates for these and other living expenses is included on the UCL Fees and funding pages. If you are concerned by potential additional costs for books, equipment, etc., please get in touch with the relevant departmental contact (details given on this page).
Funding your studies
Various funding options are available, including student loans, scholarships and bursaries. UK students whose household income falls below a certain level may also be eligible for a non-repayable bursary or for certain scholarships. Please see the Fees and funding pages for more details.
Scholarships
The Scholarships and Funding website lists scholarships and funding schemes available to UCL students. These may be open to all students, or restricted to specific nationalities, regions or academic department.
Next steps
Your application
Our typical student’s interests are not limited to the cultures, societies, biology, or behaviour of people in the past. The department is proud of its humanitarian ethos and welcomes those interested in the present and future. This can be a desire to work with urban or indigenous communities dismantling colonial or institutional forms of structural violence - to exploring human philosophies through the objects, technologies and ideologies that we produce and consume.
How to apply
Application for admission should be made through UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service). Applicants currently at school or college will be provided with advice on the process; however, applicants who have left school or who are based outside the United Kingdom may obtain information directly from UCAS.
Selection
For further information on UCL's selection process see: How we assess your application.
The department has a long-standing policy of encouraging applications from those with non-standard qualifications. If you are such a candidate you may be asked to provide supplementary evidence of your suitability for the programme, for example by submitting an essay. All applications are considered on their own merits and offers may be tailored to your specific circumstances if we believe you have potential.
Got questions? Get in touch
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