Applied Archaeology (MA)
About the programme
In Applied Archaeology, you follow your personal interests, and choose a matching career profile and regional focus. What kind of archaeologist will you become? In the Applied Archaeology programme you get to plot your own course!
Programme overview
The introductory course Current Issues in Applied Archaeology challenges you to get acquainted with the complexity of present and future archaeology within a multicultural and ever-changing (political) environment.
In the course Prospective Archaeology you will encounter the multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary character of archaeological research and heritage management. By making your own research proposals and within your Internship Applied Archaeology you learn to make choices.
Subsequently you will take a course in Archaeological Theory and you choose an area profile, in which you will apply your practical knowledge. You can focus on the Netherlands, but also on the Mediterranean, the Near East or the Americas or Europe. Also, you follow two elective courses.
A considerable part of the programme is intended for your Thesis or Graduation project. The latter is concluded with an academic paper, for example on the modelling of a landscape or an archaeological expectation map. Please note that it is possible to write your final assignments of the three courses mentioned above, as well as the graduation project/thesis, in Dutch.
For more information, see the programme structure.
Educational methods
Tests are taken in the form of written examinations, presentations, assignments or papers. For each subject you pass you will be awarded a number of credits. One credit (ec) stands for 28 hours of study. One year of fulltime study equals 60 credits.
Instruction consists of lectures, seminars and tutorials. In the lecture the lecturer talks about his or her field. You prepare by studying articles and books at home.
However, most of the teaching in the master programme consists of seminars and tutorials, where you examine the material in more depth and discuss it with your fellow students and the lecturer.
You also carry out assignments, give presentations and write papers. An active contribution to the meetings is highly appreciated.
You are required to spend about 40 hours per week on your studies. These study activities include: lectures/seminars, practical sessions, tutorials, fieldwork, excursions (e.g. to a museum or excavation), exams, literature study, preparing presentations, and writing papers and reports.
Richard Jansen
Lecturer
"The joint venture of Leiden University and Saxion University of Applied Sciences combines theory with practice. It offers students the best of both worlds in becoming the archaeologist of the future."
"The flexibility of the programme of the Leiden-Saxion Applied Archaeology MA offers students the unique possibility to choose their own path based on different future career prospects within professional archaeology”.