This report covers the 18 Master’s degree programmes listed in table 1 below. It also covers enrolment on the
Master’s Qualifying Year (see the BA/BSc report for other aspects of this programme).
A. Student recruitment and performance, and difficulties experienced and actions taken
A.1. Recruitment i) In 2007/8 the Institute of Archaeology (IoA) had a total enrolment of 205 (180.5 FTE) Master’s students plus
5 (4 FTE) Qualifying Year students, representing a slight drop in that witnessed over recent years. Some 159 of the 210 200 7/8 enrolments were new recruits, the remainder having returned for the second year of two year programmes (16), the second year of part time programmes (23), or having proceeded from a Qualifying
Year (7).
ii) The 18 Master’s programmes were delivered through 63 individual courses, comprising 58 taught courses, 3 pieces of sustained writing (dissertation, portfolios) and 2 internships. The average number of students enrolled on individual courses was 13.8. None of the Master’s programmes utilise undergraduate courses, but
Qualifying Year students do follow selected undergraduate courses and those are discussed in the Annual
Monitoring Review report on IoA undergraduate degree programmes.
A.2. Student performance i) Master’s students performed well and the completion rate was very good. Out of 182 students due to complete in 2007/8, just 4 students interrupted, and 12 deferred assessment in one or more assignments. Of the 166 students completing their studies, 28.9% obtained a distinction (slightly lower than the 35.3% of 2006/07), the remaining 71.1% were awarded pass level degrees.
ii) As can been seen in table 1, student performance varied between individual degree programmes. However, as last year, the relationship between the percentage of students who obtained a distinction in each programme and the number of students who completed each programme is broadly compatible with the expectation that smaller enrolments will be subject to greater sampling error. Consequently there is currently no reason to suspect inconsistency in provision or assessment, although this will be kept under review.
Table 1: Percentages of students obtaining particular results (excluding part 1 results)
Dist = distinction; Pass = pass; Def = deferred assessment; Fail = fail with exemptions, Abs = absent
Degree programme
MA Archaeology
MA Archaeology of London
MA Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East
MA Artefact Studies
MA Cultural Heritage Studies
MA Egyptian Archaeology
MA Field Archaeology
MA Managing Archaeological Sites
MA Maritime Archaeology
MA Museum Studies
MA Principles of Conservation
MA Public Archaeology
MSc Conservation for Archaeology and Museums
MSc Forensic Archaeological Science
MSc GIS and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology
40
33
17
17
22
40
35
16
Dist Pass
31 61
25
22
75
67
0
28
40
50
100
55
60
17
60
67
75
58
78
40
59
84
0
25
0
0
0
20
6
0
0
17
33
0
Def
8
0
11
8
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Fail
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
MSc Palaeoecology of Human Societies 0 100 0
0
0 0
MSc Skeletal and Dental Bioarchaeology 50 50 0
0
0
MSc Technology and Analysis of Archaeological Materials 29 71 0 0 iii) The mean grade for students on individual courses varied from 56.0% to 77.2% and shows no correlation with either course enrolment or the mean summary student feedback score.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Abs
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
A.3. Student feedback i) Students complete evaluation forms for all taught courses and are asked to give each course an overall score from 5 (very good) through 3 (satisfactory) to 1 (poor). In 2007/8 83.6% of overall scores were 4.0 (good) or better and written comments were frequently positive, often praising staff enthusiasm and specialist

knowledge. One course scored the maximum possible 5.0. No course was considered unsatisfactory. The average score was 4.2 and the lowest score was 3.2.
A.4. Difficulties experienced and action taken
A.4.1. Learning, teaching and examination i) The degrees that had a practical element or Placements were perceived as having heavier workloads and in the instance of the MA in Field Archaeology there were difficulties in securing Placements.
Action: The articulation between practical and theoretical elements in degrees is being kept under review. The viability of providing Placements and the viability of the format of the 2-year MA in Field Archaeology is under current discussion. A large scale review of the MSc in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums is underway and will include a consideration of the practical workload required for this programme
A.4.2. Recruitment i) The 2007/8 enrolment figures represent a slight drop in the overall number of students on Master’s degree programmes in preceding years. Those that did not meet the UCL enrolment target of 10 for 2007/08 were the
MA Archaeology of London (3), the MA Artefact Studies (4), and the MA in Egyptian Archaeology (8), the
MSc in the Technology of Archaeological Materials (9) and the MSc in the Palaeoecology of Human Societies
(1).
Action: The MA in the Archaeology of London and the MSc in the Palaeoecology of Human Societies have been discontinued. The other programmes have been kept under review and none have had <10 enrolments in
2008/09 ii) The mean enrolment on individual Master’s courses in 2007/8 was 12.2 and the mean for option courses was
10.4. Some 17 courses however had enrolments of <10 (30%).
Action: Low recruiting courses are being kept under review but it should be noted that some specialist courses play an important role in securing recruitment to IoA degree programmes.
See E. 2 (iii) below.
B. Reports of External Examiners i) The external examiners found the conduct of examination and the awards and standards to be satisfactory in all cases and the great majority of their supplementary comments were complimentary. In particular, the following were all commended by more than one examiner: the appropriateness of programme design; the high quality of course content and teaching; the detailed feedback given to students; the thoroughness of assessment and its careful linkage to the programme aims; the administrative arrangements; the variety of theoretical and practical elements; the use of flexible thematic core courses plus specialist options.
ii) Some external examiners did, however, express concern about particular issues or make suggestions for further improvement, notably: disappointment with the quality of English (1 examiner, 1 programme with a higher number of students whose first language is not English); and the need for clearer indication on coversheets for coursework that 2 nd marking has taken place (2 examiners, 2 programmes).
Action: The external examiners’ comments were referred to the February 2009 meeting of the IoA Teaching
Committee for consideration. The coursework coversheets now have an allocated space for comments from the second internal marker. For several years we have provided ‘help with written English’ via CALT and will continue to encourage students to use this facility where it would be helpful.
C. Resource Issues i) The majority of computer workstations in the Archaeological GIS and Computing Laboratory were rapidly approaching the end of their useful life and were the subject of negative student feedback in 2006/07. This was still commented upon in 2007/08 feedback forms, but to a lesser extent due to the use of Supplementary
Teaching Equipment Grants to assist with the renewal of IT facilities .
In addition we have been successful in a recent application for a grant to fund further improvements.

D. Good practice and prizes i) Dr Mark Lake achieved the Provost’s Teaching Award for excellence and innovative practice in teaching and student learning support and our Academic Administrator Ms Judy Medrington achieved the Provost’s
Teaching Award for excellence and innovative practice in student learning support. Dr Lake’s award particularly noted his organisation of the introduction of Turnitin for all submitted written work and its formative use to widen students’ consideration of good writing and the range of issues involved in plagiarism ii) New, more detailed, assessment criteria were deployed from the start of the academic year 2007/8 in conjunction with redesigned coursework coversheets, the latter also providing an opportunity for written comment from the second examiner. These developments have enhanced the transparency of examination.
E. Major changes envisaged and forward-looking recommendations
E.1. Major changes for 2008/9 i) Two new degree programmes will be offered: the MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology, which is a joint initiative of the IoA and the Department of Anthropology, and the MSc Environmental
Archaeology which replaces the withdrawn MSc Palaeoecology of Human Societies, with a syllabus designed to increase recruitment in the context of changes in staffing.
ii) The structures of the MA Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, and the MA
Egyptian Archaeology have been updated and revised for introduction in 2008/09.
iii) Additional fee elements will be introduced from 2008/09 for overseas high fee students enrolling on 4 degree programmes and for UK/EU fee students enrolling on 12 degree programmes.
E.2. Forward looking recommendations for the longer term i) A Graduate Diploma in Archaeology will be introduced from 2009/10: as a stand-alone route, it will provide an academic qualification for students who already hold a first degree in non-archaeology subjects and would like to have a further qualification or a conversion to an archaeology qualification; or as a foundation year, it provides the preparation for an MA or MSc degree in archaeology for those students who hold a first degree in non-archaeology subjects.
ii) The low recruiting option course G003 Themes in American Archaeology will be withdrawn.
iii) We have initiated discussion about the future of 7 other low-recruiting option courses, with a view to re-titling and/or reformulating 2 courses ( G006 Seminars in Later European Prehistory, G55 Model Building in
Archaeology ), and combining 6 courses into 3 revised courses ( G182 Languages Genetics and Archaeology &
G147 Evolutionary Archaeology, G021 Archaeological Computing and Statistics & G117 Spatial Analysis in
Archaeology.
F. Summary of peer observation of teaching
In 2007/8 50 out of our 51 HEFCE funded staff who were not on sabbatical, that is 98%, completed Peer
Observation of Teaching according to UCL guidelines. This was reported to the DTC in May 2008.
10 th
April, 2009
Dr Sue Hamilton
Chair of Teaching Committee,
UCL Institute of Archaeology