Pedagogy and Practice: The Provision and Assessment of Archaeological Fieldwork Training in UK Higher Education

With significant job losses across the UK heritage sector resulting from the recent economic crisis and subsequent austerity measures, and UK higher education on the brink of effective privatisation, the teaching of applied archaeological techniques and its relationship to graduate employability has never been more keenly scrutinised. In February and March 2011 the author collected data relating to the provision and assessment of fieldwork from all 44 UK higher education institutions (HEIs) then offering archaeology (or closely related) degree programmes. The results indicated that there were 4,718 undergraduate students (approximately 1,591 per year group) on those programmes, being taught by a total of 708.61 full-time equivalent academic and support staff. An average of 66.47 per cent of staff in each department were actively engaged in archaeological fieldwork. The results also demonstrated the diversity of approaches to assessed fieldwork training across the sector, with over a quarter reporting either no fixed policy, or no requirement. Of the rest, the greatest numbers required four or six weeks. Thirty-two per cent of HEIs reported that their fieldwork was mostly UK-based with some overseas projects, while 30 per cent predominantly worked in their home region. In terms of assessment, 41 per cent of respondents assessed their students in the field — giving either an overall mark or individual marks for each task — supported by assessed written work, predominantly in the form of site diaries.