Anthropology
Entry requirements
A level
For First Year Entry a minimum of 3 A Levels at BBB. For Second Year Entry a minimum of an A in the subject selected for Single Honours plus BB, or AB in the subjects selected for Joint Honours plus a further B. GCSE in English or English Language is also required.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
For entry into First Year, a minimum of 32 points required, including at least 5,5,5 at HL. For entry into Second Year, a minimum of 36 points, including at 6, 6, 6 at Higher level in subject(s) selected. English at a minimum of Standard level required.
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
A minimum of 5H with 3 at H2 AND 2 at H3 OR AAABB, obtained in a single sitting. (The grading within band B must be at B2 or above). Also required: O in English or English Language
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Minimum entry requirement: DDM in related subjects.
Second year entry may be possible in most school based subjects. A minimum of ABB overall in Adv Higher is required. Adv Higher at A in the subject selected for Single Honours or AB in the subject selected for Joint Honours.
For entry to Year 2: Satisfactory completion of HNC Social Sciences (120 SCQF credit points). B in all Graded Units. Curriculum to include: Students should take units A and B of the discipline/s they wish to study at university, e.g. Psychology A (FK8D 34) and B (J030 34). For Joint honours programmes, students must take A and B for both disciplines. Where Anthropology units are not available student may still be permitted to enter the single honours degrees conditional on them taking both first and second year University compulsory courses consecutively in their second year. Entry to joint honours will not be permitted under these circumstances.
Scottish Higher
Applicants who achieve AABB or better over S4 and S5 are likely to be made an offer of admission. This may be unconditional or it may be conditional, dependent upon academic profile. Good performance in additional Highers / Advanced Highers may be required. Note: we do not double count a Higher and Advanced Higher in the same subject, but we do consider that a B at Adv Higher is equivalent to an A grade at Higher. National 5 English at minimum grade C
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
**Ranked:
2nd in Scotland (Complete University Guide 2024)
4th in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2024)
6th in the UK (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023)
83% Student satisfaction (NSS 2023)**
Anthropology is a broad exploration of humankind and what it means to ‘be human’. Our anthropology programme at Aberdeen will let you gain a deeper understanding of the cultural and ethnic diversity in societies all over the world. Our courses examine the connections among all aspects of life – family and kinship, economic systems, political and religious institutions, human-animal and ecological relations – and the way in which they come together to create whole ways of living within an increasingly global and postcolonial world.
At Aberdeen, our degree draws on the expertise of staff specialists on South America, Tibet and South Asia, the Pacific and the circumpolar North from Scotland and Siberia to Canada. It provides students with training in interview and social research skills, research design, ethnographic reporting and museum skills, culminating in a supervised fieldwork or library-based dissertation project of the student’s choice. The skills you will develop in critical thinking and analysis will give you a deep knowledge and understanding of human behaviour which can be applied in business and many other fields. In year 2 our students enjoy an opportunity to study abroad in our exchange partner universities.
Our graduates work in NGOs and development organisations, research, education and consultancies. Many are employed in policymaking, politics, charities, media, journalism, business and public sector organisations in a host of roles with international and cultural contexts.
You will enjoy a special, warm welcome at the University of Aberdeen and benefit from excellent teaching, the international impact of our research, and a global experience as part of our friendly and vibrant international community. You will love our beautiful campus and great facilities for learning, sports and leisure, and many opportunities to develop extra skills, broaden your horizons, and gain the competitive advantage in the career path you choose.
Modules
Anthropology is a diverse field of study that will provide you with unique insights into the differences in human behaviour from a cross-cultural perspective. You'll learn about the beliefs and attitudes of societies all over the world and will study themes such as ethnicity and nationalism, anthropological approaches to religion, colonialism, society, nature and morality.
Assessment methods
Students are assessed by any combination of three assessment methods - Coursework such as essays and reports completed throughout the course; Practical assessments of the skills and competencies they learn on the course; Written examinations at the end of each course. The exact mix of these methods differs between subject areas, years of study and individual courses. Honours projects are typically assessed on the basis of a written dissertation.
Tuition fees
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Extra funding
View the University of Aberdeen Online Prospectus programme page to find out about any scholarships and funding you may be eligible to apply for.
The Uni
University of Aberdeen
School of Social Science
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction 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.
Anthropology
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.
Anthropology
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
This is a pretty flexible degree and a good one if you want to keep your options open. Just over 1,250 graduates completed anthropology degrees last year, and they were well spread out across a whole range of jobs — many industries have jobs that can be done by anthropology graduates and unlike a lot of degrees, there aren't many jobs we can point to and say ‘graduates from this degree do that job’. Management, marketing, housing and recruitment jobs are the most popular, though, and many graduates go into the education or social care sectors. Graduates are also rather more likely than average to work in London, or to go overseas to work. This is quite a popular subject at postgraduate level, and if you want to go into research, you'll need to think about postgrad study - and it's one of the few where numbers are on the up at the moment.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Anthropology
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
£23k
£25k
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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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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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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