Anthropology with a Year Abroad BSc

London, Bloomsbury
Anthropology with a Year Abroad BSc (2024)

The UCL Anthropology BSc combines evolutionary and environmental anthropology, social anthropology, material culture and medical anthropology to give you a truly broad-based anthropology degree.

You will gain the skills to respond to the challenges that our world faces today from conflict and poverty to climate change and racial discrimination and gender bias.

Your third year will be spent abroad at one of our many prestigious partner universities.

UK students International students
Study mode
Full-time
Duration
4 academic years
UK tuition fees (2024/25)
£9,250
Overseas tuition fees (2024/25)
£34,400
Programme starts
September 2025
Application deadline
29 Jan 2025
UCAS course code
L603

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 4, plus any Science (Single Science, Biology, Chemistry or Physics) required at grade B or 6 (Combined Science at grades 6, 6).

Contextual offer information

Contextual offers are typically one to two grades lower than the standard offer. Grade and subject requirements for contextual offers for this programme will be published in Summer 2024.

Points
36
Subjects
A total of 17 points in three higher level subjects, with no higher level score below 5.

Contextual offer

Contextual offers are typically one to two grade boundaries (equivalent to A levels) lower than the standard offer. IB Diploma grade and subject requirements for contextual offers for this programme will be published in Summer 2024.

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

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



You will learn practically by engaging with objects, photographs and hominin and primate specimens in the UCL Ethnography and Biological Anthropology Collections, as well as writing for our in-house print magazine, the Anthropolitan.

You will also benefit from teaching informed by the department's cutting edge research which explores topics including the cultural consequences of new digital media, social and environmental sustainability and interactions on NASA space missions.

What this course will give you

This programme explores the evolutionary, environmental, social and cultural aspects of being human, and our relationship with the material world.

You will gain a broad set of skills including critical reasoning, the ability to search, analyse and synthesise various materials, collaboration and communication.

You will study at one of the world's top universities for the discipline (UCL Anthropology ranked 4th in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023).

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 with a Year Abroad.

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.

In the first year, you'll study compulsory modules covering:

Evolutionary and environmental anthropology, which explores human evolution and contemporary human-environment interactions.

Social anthropology, which explores social and cultural differences and their determinants in local and global contexts.

Material culture, which studies human, social and environmental relationships through the construction of the material world.

Your first year will also include training in qualitative and quantitative research methods and a three-day ethnographic field trip.

Your second year includes compulsory modules, Anthropological Research Methods and Being Human, and you can select five optional modules.

Your third year will be spent abroad at one of our partner institutions in, for example, Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Chicago, Melbourne, Oslo, Paris or Tokyo.

In the final year, you will return to UCL and select five optional modules and complete an independent research project for your dissertation.

Your learning

Our teaching comprises lectures, tutorials, seminars and laboratory classes. Small group tutorials and collaborative group work are an important element of many modules.

Your first year will include an all expenses paid three-day ethnographic field trip.

The third year Individual Studies in Anthropology module can involve fieldwork to gather primary data for dissertation research projects.

Students will typically spend 9-12 hours per week in tutorials, seminars, lectures, laboratory or studio-based classes, workshops and supervision sessions and a further 25-30 hours on independent study.

Assessment

Assessment varies by module and combines written coursework, examinations, presentations, journals, laboratory notebooks, multimedia assignments, quizzes and a dissertation research project. Examinations are normally unseen.

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

UCL Anthropology graduates work in a diverse range of fields including Accountancy and financial services, Media, IT, Technology and communications, Performance and creative arts, Publishing, Journalism and Teaching. Many also pursue further academic study. (Graduate Outcomes survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of UK and EU graduates in the 2020/2021 cohort).

Find out more about what you can do with a degree in anthropology from our recent graduates on our careers web page.

Employability

UCL Anthropology students graduate with valuable skills in qualitative and quantitative research methods, interpretation and analysis, cultural awareness and interpersonal communication and time and project management.

The broad range of methodological 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

UK students International students
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 ANTH0032 Atapuerca and Human Evolution in Europe module includes fieldwork in Burgos, Spain. Students requiring an additional visa to travel to Spain are responsible for covering its costs.

The cost of a visa can range between £65 to £350 depending on destination. Students are advised to research costs before committing to the fieldwork.

In addition, please note that if you study abroad during your programme at UCL, this is likely to incur additional costs. Studying abroad may cost between £200–£1,000 per month depending on where you choose to study. The cost of studying abroad can be difficult to predict as it will depend on your priorities and choices. There is more information available on the UCL Study Abroad website.

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. Such candidates may be asked to provide supplementary evidence of their suitability for the programme by, for example, submitting an essay. All applications are considered on their own merits and offers may be tailored to your specific circumstances if we believe you demonstrate potential.

Got questions? Get in touch

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