Archaeology MA

Our flexible MA Archaeology course prepares you for a career in research, the commercial sector or heritage management.

Study at the UK's top university for archaeological research

The University is in the top 50 in the world for Archaeology (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2025, Archaeology. The University of Reading is ranked 49th in the world).

The University of Reading is ranked 1st in the UK for research quality and research outputs in Archaeology (Times Higher Education Institutions Ranked by Subject, based on its analysis of the latest Research Excellence Framework, 2021).

What you'll study

This course allows you to discover archaeology for the first time, or deepen your existing knowledge. You'll gain an effective grounding in archaeological practice and research.

Choose from a variety of options, including:

* specialisms from the palaeolithic to medieval period

* theoretical approaches and contemporary challenges

* heritage practice

* professional placements

* integrated social and scientific approaches

post-excavation and graphics skills.

Research opportunities

As part of your degree you can take an optional research and enterprise placement module. You'll be placed with a member of staff at Reading, or gain experience of working in an external environment such as the British Museum or Oxford Archaeology.

You may also have the opportunity to participate in staff research excavations and state-of-the-art scientific analyses in research projects, in Europe, including:

For more information, please visit our programme page: https://www.reading.ac.uk/ready-to-study/study/subject-area/archaeology-pg/ma-archaeology