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Social Anthropology and History

Entry requirements


A level

A,B,B

A Level History, Medieval History or Ancient History is preferred but we welcome applications from candidates who can demonstrate an interest in and an aptitude for the study of history and politics. Acceptable subjects include: Ancient History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Business Studies, Classical Civilisation, Drama and Theatre Studies, Economics, English Language, English Language and Literature, English Literature, Environmental Studies, Geography, Government and Politics, History, History of Art, Law, Medieval History, Modern or Classical Languages, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Religious Studies, and Sociology. If you are not studying one or more of the above then please contact us to discuss your application. If you are not taking A level History then we will require GCSE History grade 7 and at least one humanities subject at A level or equivalent.

Accepted in place of A levels with the following grade equivalencies: D2 = A*; D3 = A; M2 = B. Combinations of A levels and Principle subjects are accepted. NB required subjects must be offered (see A level Section)

GCSE/National 4/National 5

GCSE History grade 7 if not taking A Level History

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

32

6,5,5 in Higher Level subjects. Please see A Level details above for subject information.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DDM

BTEC Extended Diploma: DDM, plus an A at A-level in the required subject/s mentioned above. BTEC Diploma: DD, plus an A at A-level in the required subject/s mentioned above. BTEC Subsidiary Diploma: D, plus AB at A-level, including an A in the required A-level subject/s mentioned above.

Accepted in place of a non-required A level with the equivalent grade.

UCAS Tariff

128

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Subjects

History

Anthropology

Social Anthropology is the study of human social and cultural diversity. If you want to understand the past to prepare for your future in a changing world, studying History is the way forward.

This undergraduate degree course combines the contemporary, critical, and globally comparative perspective of social anthropology with historical study of modern, early modern and medieval Britain, Europe and the wider world. After a thorough grounding in both disciplines in the first year of your degree, you will be able to follow your interests by choosing from a wide range of optional modules in your second and third years. Your degree will culminate in a final year dissertation in either Social Anthropology or History.

Staff at Birmingham teaching Social Anthropology and History have an outstanding reputation for excellence in both teaching and research. This degree will provide you with valuable skills in analysis, research, reasoning, and time-management, equipping you to present yourself confidently orally and in writing, wherever your future takes you.

**Why study this course?**

**Immerse yourself in a unique perspective** - The Department of African Studies and Anthropology is the only one of its kind available at both undergraduate and postgraduate level allowing you to explore the disciplines in entirely new and exciting ways.

**Exceptional learning resources** – You will have access to a range of learning resources including environmental and material culture teaching collections at the University of Birmingham; the Eton Myers Collection and the Danford Collection of African art and artefacts.

**Taught by the very best** – You will study alongside some of the finest minds at university. Times Higher Education ranked the Department of African Studies and Anthropology 2nd in the country for its performance in the latest Research Excellence Framework exercise (based on grade point average).

**Present day application** - We believe in history as a practical and engaged endeavour that speaks to questions of social inequality, community belonging and even climate change. As a Birmingham student you have opportunities to learn about the uses of history such as through a placement in the heritage sector on our Professional Skills module.

**Unparallelled opportunities** – Equipping you with skills that employers value is a priority for us. Make use of free language tuition, Arts Internships and the opportunity to Study Abroad.

**Top 10 for Anthropology and Archaeology in the Guardian University Guide 2023**

**Top 10 for History in the Complete University Guide 2023**

**2nd Times Higher Education ranked the Department of African Studies and Anthropology 2nd in the country for its performance in the latest Research Excellence Framework exercise**

Modules

First-year modules cover a broad base of the subject and are designed to introduce you to ways of studying at university. By the final year the modules you take will become more specialised and reflect the research expertise of the academic staff. More detailed module information can be found on the ‘Course detail’ tab on the University of Birmingham’s coursefinder web pages.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

University of Birmingham

Department:

Department of African Studies and Anthropology

Read full university profile

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.

80%
History
56%
Anthropology

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.

History

Teaching and learning

86%
Staff make the subject interesting
91%
Staff are good at explaining things
84%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
72%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

72%
Library resources
91%
IT resources
79%
Course specific equipment and facilities
64%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

98%
UK students
2%
International students
41%
Male students
59%
Female students
97%
2:1 or above
9%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
A
A

Anthropology

Teaching and learning

100%
Staff make the subject interesting
81%
Staff are good at explaining things
81%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
60%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

64%
Library resources
67%
IT resources
88%
Course specific equipment and facilities
63%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

95%
UK students
5%
International students
21%
Male students
79%
Female students
78%
2:1 or above
12%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

A
B
B

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.

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.

£20,000
med
Average annual salary
96%
med
Employed or in further education
66%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

12%
Business, finance and related associate professionals
12%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
9%
Teaching and educational professionals

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.

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.

£20,000
high
Average annual salary
98%
med
Employed or in further education

Top job areas of graduates

17%
Protective service occupations
11%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
8%
Welfare and housing associate professionals

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.

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.

£20k

£20k

£26k

£26k

£30k

£30k

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.

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.

£20k

£20k

£25k

£25k

£29k

£29k

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.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
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UCAS Points: 120-136
Lower entry requirements
University of Sussex | Brighton and Hove
History and Anthropology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 120-147
Nearby University
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UCAS Points: 112

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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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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