24th February 2013, 05:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 24th February 2013, 05:29 PM by Doug.)
AcademiaTrowl Wrote:Doug your numbers include Forensics Science students,according to UCAs there are around 500 Undergrads doing single hons BA in archaeologyand about 250 BSc, but that does not include duel Honâs students (the bread andbutter of many departments). But your right the numbers has not been affectedby fees. One of the problems facing archaeology departments as nicelyillustrated in this piece posted by BAJR is that elite Universities are puttingpressure on recruiters to up entry grades so they can move up the national and internationalleague tables, then attract better students, more endowments, more researchmoney, and better staff... in theory.
Actually no, my numbers do not include forensic science students that would put numbers somewhere around 12-15,000 students. It is impossible to separate out Forensic from archaeology but there is very little cross over. So my numbers are a little bit off but not that much.
Better students, pressure, etc. I completely get where you are coming from but I don't think the numbers support this theory. First, UCAS ([FONT=&][I]Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) [/FONT][/I]is a good indication of interest from students but I did not use those numbers as I looked at total students (data from HE stats). The UCAS tend to have poor coverage of non-UK students, about 15% of the total number of archaeology students. UCAS also tends to exclude mature students as well. They primarily focus on full-time undergraduate courses every year and my numbers looked at both undergrad and postgrad.
Even then Archaeology had a 4.2 ratio of applicants to acceptance (again, more traditional students). Also, looking at their tariff's which I know does not translate directly into AAB, BBB, etc. but there appears to be no shortage of students with good enough grades to make it into "higher end" universities (average tariff was 280). Probably because each year there is a record number of top students. Ah, the joys of grade inflation. 10-20 years ago an AAB or BBB (well their equivalent) meant something now they are a dime a dozen.
Yeah there will be pressure to only accept AAB (or equivalent, not everyone is ranked the same) but when everyone has one of those there will be very little pressure on departments.
This all of course does not mean that someone with an eye to cut programmes that are not performing (however one defines such a silly notion) will not look towards archaeology. It just means that student numbers will have very little to do with these (at least loss of full time students- low numbers to begin with might be a problem).
PS- I forgot to mention that the number of Non-UK students has done up about 1% of the total (e.g. was 15% last year, now 16%, etc.) each year for archaeology students. These students don't need AAB (because they pay so much money) so even if there is a slight drop in UK students will be made up with by everyone else.