Applied Archaeology Leiden University

Overview

The master's specialisation in Applied Archaeology offers you an academic programme to start your professional career in archaeology.
This unique specialisation is a collaboration of Leiden University and Saxion University of Applied Sciences.

Applied Archaeology will teach you:

• How to execute critical and reflective research in a professional context;
• To develop a sense of how archaeology and heritage management are intertwined;
• How to apply prospective and excavation methods and give professional advice on the results of (prospective) research;
• To take into account the academic, societal, ethical and financial considerations of a project;
• How to present archaeological information to a variety of stakeholders;
• The best ways to contribute to societal debates and to the future of archaeology.

You will not merely be an archaeology student at our Faculty; you will be part of a lively, multifaceted and international community. Through direct and personal access to researchers experienced in archaeology and heritage you will improve your archaeological skill set, while forming and expanding your academic perspective on archaeological techniques. The MA Applied Archaeology offers a perfect blend of theory and practice.

What you will learn

Graduates will be able, taking a given research question as their starting point, to collect the relevant archaeological source material and to interpret that material in the framework of the research question, if necessary in association with different source material. They will have an unparalleled knowledge on what it takes to organise, plan and undertake an excavation in the Netherlands.

Career prospects

The broad array of skills that you will acquire as an archaeologist will make you an attractive target for a wide range of employers. These skills will equip you for a variety of positions in the Netherlands or abroad, in government or in business. They will also make you an objective, critical and, above all, articulate and creative thinker. Creative thinkers have the ability to draw logical and accurate conclusions from incomplete information, and to come up with practical and original solutions. This ability will make you a great fit with many different professions.

Your archaeology master's can be a stepping-stone up to a career in almost every sector of the job market. It is the winning combination of practical knowledge and academic skills that fuels employers' demand for Leiden University's archaeology graduates.

Examples of jobs

• Field archaeologist
• Project leader
• Policy maker on heritage and archaeology

Accreditation

Accredited by NVAO, the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders.