Egyptology and Ancient History with a Foundation Year
Swansea University
UCAS Code: VV40 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Swansea University
UCAS Code: VV40 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
GCSE/National 4/National 5
We require a minimum of 5 passes at Grade A*-C, including Welsh/English Language.
UCAS Tariff
Swansea University accepts the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales as fully equivalent to x1 A-Level.
Swansea University recognises the Welsh Baccalaureate - Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate as equivalent to one full A-Level.
About this course
Egyptology and Ancient History with a Foundation Year covers the study of Ancient Egyptian language, literature, history and culture. Studying this four-year BA degree opens up a range of exciting career possibilities by helping you to develop transferable skills, which are highly valued by employers.
You will explore Egyptian art and architecture, ancient Egyptian history and civilisation, archaeology, religion, sex and gender, Ancient and Middle Egypt; Greek and Roman history and society; warfare and empire; and learn a Greek, Latin or Egyptian language.
The Foundation Year gives you an exciting introduction to Higher Education, setting you up with the skills, confidence, and knowledge that you’ll need to be successful on your undergraduate degree. It’s ideal if you need a little more support after Further Education or are returning to education after a gap.
The foundation year of this four-year course will introduce you to the key concepts and knowledge you need to progress to the BA in Egyptology and Ancient History. Following successful completion of the Foundation Year, you will progress onto Year 1 of the BA.
You will also have the option of spending a semester abroad during the second year in either the USA, Canada, China, Hong Kong or Singapore to enhance your student experience and career prospects.
We are based in our stunning Singleton Park campus, in parkland overlooking Swansea Bay on the edge of the Gower Peninsula.
Ancient History at Swansea is ranked:
• 2nd in the UK for Student Experience (Times Good University Guide 2025)
• 2nd in the UK for Teaching Satisfaction (Guardian University Guide 2025)
• 3rd in the UK for Teaching Quality (Times Good University Guide 2025)
• Top 20 in the UK for Graduate Outcomes (Complete University Guide 2025)
• Top 51-100 in the World (QS World Rankings by Subject 2024)
Swansea University is proud to be home to the Egypt Centre, which houses over 5,000 archaeological objects from the Wellcome Collection of Egyptian antiquities.
You can gain teaching experience by leading workshops for the South West Wales Reaching Wider Partnership to enhance your student experience and career prospects or teach beginners Hieroglyphs to members of the local community during the summer.
Modules
Your first year will be spent on your Foundation, preparing you for Higher Education. Topics on this foundation including skills development and introductions to key themes on your degree, including Academic Writing and Skills Development, Critical Reflection and Problem Solving, and History, Memory and the Creation of Identity.
After successfully completing your Foundation, you’ll move on to your BA degree. You’ll study four compulsory modules and two optional modules, with topics including Greek, Latin, Gods and Heroes, Ancient Philosophy and Rhetoric and a Field Trip.
Year 3 includes two compulsory and four optional modules, with topics typically including Egyptian Archaeology, Egyptian Art and Architecture, Archaic Greece, Gender in the Roman World, and a Schools Work Placement, teaching ancient history and languages.
Your degree with culminate in year 4, with a wide range of optional modules that can include The Archaeology of Ancient Nubia, advanced levels of Greek or Latin, Pompeii and the Cities of Vesuvius, and a compulsory Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology Dissertation.
Assessment methods
We offer a variety of assessment methods within our programmes. In addition to traditional examinations and essays, examples of alternative assessment include: Essays; Presentations (individual & group); Source Analysis & Skill based assessment.
Throughout your undergraduate Egyptology and Ancient History degree, you will develop excellent research and analytical skills and learn to present your ideas effectively both verbally and in writing. For full breakdown of course structure and assessment please visit our course page: www.swansea.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/culture-communication/classics-ancient-history-egyptology/ba-egyptology-ancient-history or get in touch with us at [email protected]
The Uni
Singleton Park Campus
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if the overall teaching satisfaction score here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Archaeology
Sorry, no information to show
This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
History
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Archaeology
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
Want to do a job in the arts - with lots of the great outdoors? Try archaeology! There don't tend to be many archaeology undergraduates out there (just under 700 graduated in 2015) - but it's quite a popular subject at postgraduate level. In fact, over a quarter of archaeology graduates take some kind of further study when they graduate - usually more study of archaeology. When you look at the stats, be aware that junior jobs in archaeology are not always well paid at the start of your career, and that temporary contracts are not uncommon. Thankfully, though, unpaid work, whilst not completely gone, is less common than it used to be. The archaeology graduates of 2015 found jobs in archaeology, of course, but also management and heritage and environment work, as well as more conventional graduate jobs in marketing and the finance industry.
History
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
History is a very popular subject (although numbers have fallen of late) — in 2015, over 10,000 UK students graduated in a history-related course. Obviously, there aren't 11,000 jobs as historians available every year, but history is a good, flexible degree that allows graduates to go into a wide range of different jobs, and consequently history graduates have an unemployment rate comparable to the national graduate average. Many — probably most — jobs for graduates don't ask for a particular degree to go into them and history graduates are well set to take advantage. That's why so many go into jobs in the finance industry, human resources, marketing, PR and events management, as well as the more obvious roles in education, welfare and the arts. Around one in five history graduates went into further study last year. History and teaching were the most popular further study subjects for history graduates, but law, journalism, and politics were also popular postgraduate courses.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Archaeology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£16k
£21k
£26k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
History
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£16k
£21k
£26k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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