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The academic year 2012/13 has been busy for staff and students alike. We have had a very successful visit by the Internal Quality Review, commending the Department for its openness and inclusivity, for our enthusiastic and articulate students, for the accessibility of the staff, the effective pastoral support provided to the students, and the commitment of staff to teaching. All the students the IQR team met were very positive about the Department and were appreciative of the high quality teaching delivered by staff.

This was the penultimate term ahead of the UK's all important REF (Research Excellence Framework) submission. Preparations reached a feverish state at certain times during the year. The Department's REF team is grateful for the patience and responsiveness of staff. We are going into the important submission period quietly confident that the Department has done everything it can to remain at the very top of the field.

In April our administrative team was joined by our new Undergraduate Administrator, Jolanta Skorecka. For the first time in three years we now have a full compliment of administrative staff and we are looking forward to creating a smooth and effective experience for students and staff across all areas of academic life in the department.

The past academic year has seen a number of staff- and student-led innovations that will become fixtures in the calendar for the next few years. The first year BSc students were taken again to an away camp in February, accompanied by a number of staff. Undergraduate students at all levels were hugely active again in running the Anthropology Society. We had very successful debates this year between members of staff as well as new events such as a staff/student ball.

This term is always tinged with sadness as we say goodbye to our final year undergraduate students, several of whom were successful in winning coveted studentship funding at UCL, LSE and Cambridge. It is still too early to know whether we were able to match our examination success from last year, when
almost 60% of students received first-class degrees, but the headhunting of our students by leading colleges in the UK confirms our standing as a Department leading the training in anthropology in the country.

Enjoy your summer!

Professor Susanne Kuechler
Head of Department

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