28th November 2008, 02:45 PM
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article2403006.eceArts/humanities graduates in general it appears have poorer prospects for renumerating their debt than other kinds of graduates, not just archaeologists. Clearly it's made worse by the fact that out of all of them archaeologists are paid significantly less. But I don't think this is the fault of the universities, is it?
One thing I have noticed whilst currently working in a Geography dept (as an Archaeologist I hasten to add), is that in order to competitively work in the commercial sphere of environmental monitoring etc, a Master's degree specialisation is required (they also get paid more, and have similarly high levels of personal responsibility and broad skills base). The dept runs a couple here, with high levels of employment afterwards.
Obviously the major difference is that their field work does not always require as high staffing levels, but they do have high post-ex and infrastructure costs.
Having said all that, my undergraduate degree at Edinburgh (99-03) required over 12 weeks of field work in 4 years to pass, not to get a first or anything, just to pass (doesn't mean however that I'm a good field archaeologist...I'll freely admit that now). It could be museums, excavation, surveys...anything that could be considered relevant experience for archaeological work and done in the vacations. Once passed as suitable by the dept it was up to you to follow your interests. It also helped that at the time the dept had a unit attached, which subsequently went private. Having spoken to close friend who have attended the most illustrious archaeology dept set near the fens in the SE they only required 1 week of field work, although I suspect in his case the rest of the time was spent discussing tautologies of Something with a well-buttered crumpet in one hand! I think I was lucky at Edinburgh (similarly in Glasgow it seems, both you'll note have/had archaeological units attached presumably helping to drive this requirement). Again this forced people to find out what aspect of archaeology they really enjoyed. This may have changed in subsequent years but the differences between field work between depts is wide
On this issue I agree, David, closing this gap in practical experience/training is hugely important. Perhaps a way to link apprenticeships and commercial experience back into academic depts. Regaining the closer links across the board between academic depts and units would be beneficial for both I think.