10th October 2005, 11:20 PM
I think that it would be fair to say that simply because the industry is fragmented and compartmentalised, universities will apply a wide brush in an attempt to cover all main subject matter. In other words, students are given at least (I would hope) an understanding of the many arms in archaeology. One would imagine, that seeing as fieldwork in the commercial world can be seen as the main bread winner for the mass of practising archaeologists, that universities would ensure a good standard of field training- I`m not convinced that that`s universal by any means.I do believe, that many universities running degrees in archaeology are obviously out of touch with the standards required in the real world.I have worked alongside people who graduated from a uni that has a commercial unit-the standard of graduate is clearly way ahead of the norm. I would like to see more university involvement....controlled involvement.....