When it comes to archaeology, few places in the UK have more to offer than Winchester. It was Roman Venta Belgarum (the market place of the Belgii tribe) and the Anglo-Saxon capital of the Kingdom of Wessex. These days, Winchester is better known for its outstanding medieval architecture and institutions, including the splendid Cathedral, Bishop's Palace and Winchester College. Along with regional monuments such as Stonehenge and Fishbourne Roman villa, these provide a rich teaching resource located within easy travelling distance from the University.
However, we do not just focus on our immediate environs; our staff are currently working as far afield as Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Scandinavia, a number of Mediterranean countries and the Caucasus, as well as in the UK. Students have the opportunity to join staff on many of these research projects.
The Department is the home for a range of humanities, science and vocationally-based undergraduate Archaeology programmes.
Three Masters programmes are run from the Department (one jointly with History), while research students are accepted in any subject area for which we have staff expertise.
Quality and Satisfaction
In the most recent Quality Assurance Agency audit of university archaeology teaching, we were one of only four departments to be awarded the maximum 24/24 grade, while in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, 75% of our work was rated as being of international relevance.
We are also one of only two UK Archaeology departments that are Institute for Archaeologists (IfA)Registered Archaeological Organisation (RAO), in recognition of our high-quality teaching of practical skills.
According to the most recent Guardian ranking of top universities for Archaeology courses, over 90% of our students was satisfied with the teaching, while our value-added score is 8 (out of 10) - on a par with Cambridge and Oxford.