Archaeology at the University of Southampton Open Day, 5-6 July 2013

Owing to a last-minute change of staff plans, I find myself down to give two talks about Archaeology and the department itself, and conduct tours round our main Archaeology building (otherwise known under the alluring title of building 65a). A range of artefacts and publications by staff will be available for guests to look at, together with a selection of student dissertations, so that people can get an idea of the high quality work our undergraduate students produce.  Staff and current students will also be on hand to answer any questions.

Being “on show” like this makes you realise just how important communicating what we do to the wider public (including interested potential students) is. It’s a chance for us to emphasise the range of jobs our graduates go on to take, not just in the heritage sector, but in a wide variety of occupations (70% of our graduates take jobs in careers such as the Civil Service, the police, teaching, management, conservation, the armed forces, and even computer animation). The range of transferable (i.e. life) skills that we embed into our assessment methods (not just essays, seminars and exams, but also presentations, posters, journals, museum displays, practical reports, etc.) is something I hope I can convey successfully to our visitors.

The University is fully-booked for both Open Days , so there will be plenty of people for us to meet and discuss Archaeology at the University of Southampton with. For the last two years, I have been visiting schools and sixth-forms with presentations demonstrating the value of an Archaeology degree. It is also good, however, to have visitors to our department, so that we can show them our Facilities and some of our collections, and answer those questions that only a visit to a place will prompt.  I’m writing this blog the night before the first Open Day, so there is always the niggling worry that I’ve forgotten something, or the killer question will be asked.  Bring it on!

If you can’t make the open day and want to keep up to date then follow us on twitter @sotonarch and read our blog at http://blog.soton.ac.uk/archaeology