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What next?

Watch Dr Duncan Garrow explain how you can continue your studies further after our free, online course 'Archaeology: from Dig to Lab and Beyond'.

We hope that this course has provided a taster of archaeology, both during a large excavation and after, in the lab.

Want to study further?

Now that you’ve mastered some essentials, why not study archaeology at university? The University of Reading offers a BA Archaeology, and your completion of the online course will stand you in good stead to study the subject at undergraduate level.

At Reading, you’ll be joining a department that’s receives consistently high student satisfaction, with 100% satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2019. You’ll also benefit from the Department’s close links to industry, including Oxford Archaeology, The Museum of London, The British Museum, Historic England, Wessex Archaeology and York Osteoarchaeology and you will have access to a range of opportunities to enhance your employability.

The great thing about our archaeology course is that it helps students gain an array of new skills as well as build on existing ones, which will prepare them for any career they choose. Here is what some of our graduates have had to say about their time at University of Reading:

Tim Ager (Managing Director of Celestix Networks – a high tech IT security firm) “Business is about understanding people, and archaeology taught me that in order to understand people you need to understand their culture first. The analytical nature of the course and the patience needed to excavate and assess finds has also taught me how to approach challenges in a methodical manner”.
Lizzi Hollis (Community Fundraiser, Marie Curie Cancer Care) “Even though I decided not to pursue a career in archaeology, my time studying it was invaluable, giving me confidence to talk about a subject assertively. I was given huge support from the department in pursuing my dreams. I learnt invaluable transferable skills (such as working in a team and how to communicate a message to a variety of different people, regardless of age, ability, or knowledge) through my time as a trainee supervisor at the field school – this is a skill I use every day as a fundraiser”.
Robert McNeil (Head of Media & Communications, The Migration Observatory, University of Oxford – an impartial and independent migration analysis centre) “My archaeology degree and the skills I learned while undertaking it have been fundamental to a career as a journalist and media specialist … archaeology proved to be useful – a degree somewhere between the arts and the sciences, which provides a grounding for dealing with scientists as well as communicators”.
Alice Rose (Osteoarchaeologist for Oxford Archaeology – a commercial archaeological excavation company.) “I would not be where I am now without studying skeletal anatomy and palaeopathology at Reading, which allowed me to pursue an MSc in Palaeopathology at Durham. It was also due to connections with Reading University and skills learned through the field school and other excavations that I gained a job at Oxford Archaeology”.

You can find out more about BA Archaeology at the University of Reading here.

The ‘real’ Field School

Keep updated on events by checking the Field School Website or via one of our social media channels Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.


Get extra benefits, upgrade your course

You can now get extra benefits by upgrading this course, including:

1. Unlimited access to the course

Go at your own pace with unlimited access to the course for as long as it exists on FutureLearn.

2. A Certificate of Achievement

To help you demonstrate your learning we’ll send you a Certificate of Achievement when you become eligible.

Find out more


If you enjoyed Dig to Lab and Beyond, you may be interested in joining us on another of our courses on FutureLearn: Rome: a Virtual Tour of the Ancient City. The five-week course explores the architecture and topography of ancient Rome. Using on-site footage combined with a unique digital model of the ancient city, it looks at different categories of buildings and the way that the Romans used them. You can enrol now.

Follow UniRdg_OOCs on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for the latest news on all our upcoming free, online courses.

From all of us here at the University of Reading, we want to say a big thank you for joining us on the course.

We hope to see you soon!

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