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UCL Institute of Archaeology Annual Monitoring Report for 2006-07
Chair of IoA Teaching Committee Overview
Undergraduate degrees: BA in Archaeology, BSc in Archaeology, BA
Archaeology, Classics and Classical Art (ACCA), BA in Egyptian Archaeology
1. Student recruitment and performance
We had an intake of 57 undergraduates in 2006-07. This was spread as follows: BA
in Archaeology 62%; BSc Archaeology 18%; BA ACCA 4%; BA Egyptian
Archaeology 18%. Our BA intake is consistently our highest but, ACCA apart (2
students), the other degrees had a healthy intake. Many more prospective students
however applied to the Institute than we were able to take due to College Admissions’
rules on not accepting students with lower qualifications than their specification.
In total we taught 87 undergraduate courses in 2006/07. All of our undergraduate
degrees comprise core courses specific to each year, and options with some
constraints specific to the degree undertaken or the year of the degree - there are for
example specific First Year options. ACCA is a four-year degree and the others are
conventional three-year degrees. Our students performed well: the majority of our
students received 2:1 marks and degrees, while in 29.8% of courses 40% and above of
the students achieved First Class marks. Third class marks were generally rare but –
some 13.8% of courses had >5% of marks classified as Third Class. For the four
degrees that we offer the median marks for the core courses, and for the option
courses according to student year, are given in Tables 1 and 2. These tables indicate
consistent, good student achievement throughout the years of an undergraduate
degree, with a slight increase in achievement for the core courses in the second and
third years. There was however a drop in achievement for Second Year core courses
for the ACCA intake and this has been a subject of review (see below).
Table 1 Core Course median marks achieved by students by degree
Core
courses
1st year
2nd year
3rd year
4th year
BA/Bask
Median
%
65
67
66.25
n/a
No. of
courses
5
3
2
BA Egyptian
ACCA*
Median
%
66
67
66.25
n/a
Median
%
65
54.5
67
65
No. of
courses
5
2
2
No. of
courses
5
1
1
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* ACCA is our only interdepartmental degree (we are the parent department). Core and options for this
degree taught in other departments are not included in our statistics.
Table 2 Options: median marks achieved by student year
Options
Median No. of
%
courses
1st year
67
5
nd
2 year
67
28
3rd/4th
66
42
years
2
When Second/Third Year options are grouped into the main themes/area that the
Institute provides options in, the results indicate consistently strong students and
results across the full range of subject specialisms (see Table 3).
Table 3: Grouped option courses by specialisms
Subject specialises
Median %
Medieval
69
No. of
Courses
3
Near East
68
5
Early Prehistory
68
2
Environmental
Archaeology
68
5
European Prehistory
Method and Practise
in Archaeology
General Themes
Egypt
Africa
67
67
6
7
67
65.5
65
3
9
4
Americas
The Emergence of
Bronze Age States in
the Aegean
65
65
5
1
South and East Asia
and the Pacific
62.75
4
Roman and Greek
60
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Student Course Evaluation Forms. The majority of our courses score highly – a score
of 4 out of 5 or above. Those that score less than 4 are critically reviewed. Students
particularly praised staff enthusiasm and knowledge and our small group and tutorial
teaching. Students also highlighted for praise courses that made substantial use of
electronic learning resources e.g. the College integrated digital resource: Moodle.
2. Difficulties experienced and action taken
The ACCA degree has been withdrawn due to low recruitment numbers – likely due
to it being a four-year degree, and student difficulties in excelling in some of the
courses. A new three-year BA degree in Classical Archaeology and Classical
Civilisation will be introduced with effect from 2008/09.
In order to further increase high calibre recruitment and address important current
trends in Archaeology and archaeology teaching we will introduced two new BA
degrees: Archaeology with a Year Abroad (with effect from 2009/10) and
Archaeology and Anthropology (2009/10).
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The Third Year Core Course ‘Field Archaeology’ gained a student evaluation of 3.3
(and a solid median mark of 66% for a total of 71 students). The Course
Coordinator and our Fieldwork Committee have reviewed its syllabus and a new
course has been instituted for 2007/08.
We taught such a wide range of courses in relationship to our student numbers that the
number of students on each course did not always reach the guidelines recently
introduced by College with regard to the minimum numbers of students required on
courses for a course to run. A Syllabus Review Working Party was established to
consider and introduce bienniality for option courses. One result of bienniality is that
Second and Third Year students are taught together and the size of classes is thereby
viable – thus allowing us to continue to offer students an exceptional diversity of
specialist options. At the same time yet more detailed coursework criteria were
instituted for EACH of First, Second and Third Year coursework - clarifying the
greater insights required of the coursework in succeeding years and thus allowing
Second and Third Year students to take the option courses together.
3. Reports of External Examiners
Several of the External Examiners commented upon the high quality of course
content, structure and teaching. The very detailed, excellent feedback to students on
submitted work was also commented upon. Our administrative arrangements for
examinations were noted as excellent by several examiners. The increased need for
diversity in examination methods has been raised in recent years by External
Examiners. Our system of double marking all courses versus introducing second
‘monitoring’ for large courses was commented upon as differing from current trend.
Actions: An occasional lack of consistency and tendency towards Class borderline
marks noted in marking has been addressed by our Syllabus Working Group, the
institution of yet more detailed marking criteria (see above), and the introduction of
new monitoring procedures for second ‘marking (see below). The Syllabus Working
Group has implemented a list, and definitions and learning outcomes of a wide range
of assessment types and course teachers will be encouraged to continue to develop
diversity and innovation in their assessment methods. Parity of feedback is also
ensured by the new very detailed marking criteria.
4. Resource Issues
Overall there were no major issues concerning resources. Practical courses have been
isolated as needing more ‘laying out space’ for artefacts, environmental
samples/material. Action: We have a rolling programme of room refurbishment with
this in mind and one room has already been revamped with these issues in mind.
5. Good practice and prizes
Our Staff-Student Consultative Committee minutes and procedures have been cited
within College as a model of good practice. The College Transitions Officer has
praised our First Year Induction as a model of good practice. Professor Thilo Rehren
achieved a Provost’s Teaching Award for excellence and innovative practice in
teaching.
6. Major changes envisaged
The introduction of Turnitin for the majority of our courses for the detection of
plagiarism was implemented in 2007/08. The introduction of three new BA degrees:
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Classical Archaeology and Civilisation; Archaeology and Anthropology; Archaeology
with a Year Abroad (see above)
7. Forward looking recommendations
Three new degrees are to be introduced (see 6). Staff training in Moodle has been
recommended by the Staff Development Committee and will be instituted in 2007/08
(see 1)
8. Summary of peer observation
98% of our 61 staff members have completed Peer Observation for 2007/08. This
was carried out according to College Guidelines and individually many helpful
suggestions were made e.g. for regional courses, PowerPoint course templates with
timelines and maps to highlight the locations of each week’s lecture.
Dr Sue Hamilton
Chair of Teaching Committee
Institute of Archaeology
April 29th 2008