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School of Society and Culture

BA (Hons) Anthropology

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UCAS tariff 104 - 120 Contextual offers
A contextual offer is an offer to study at university that takes personal circumstances that may affect grades into account.
UCAS course code L610
Institution code P60
Duration

3 years

(+ optional placement)
Assessment breakdown 100% coursework
Course type

Full-time
Study location Plymouth

Immerse yourself in the variety of cultures on our doorstep and beyond to build your understanding of the world and your role in it. Learn by doing, whether that’s collecting stories from refugees housed in the region, working with local communities to understand how different people engage with sport, or using our location to explore the importance of the sea to coastal communities.

Anthropology at Plymouth combines social and applied anthropology in a unique offer that allows you to explore topics of personal interest, gain professional skills and vocational training, and learn by participating in real fieldwork.

Welcome to Anthropology, the most scientific of the humanities, and the most human of the sciences.

Personalise your degree

At Plymouth, your degree really is what you make it. Choose to study optional modules from across the school.

Year 2 icon
In your second year...

Choose to swap in up to two modules from across the school.
School of Society and Culture stick or swap graphic
In your final year...

Dive deeper into your subject by sticking with our selection of options or swap in another module from across the school.
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Achieve your final degree certificate

If you've studied three optional modules from the same second subject area, you can choose to add this to your degree certificate.

Careers with this subject
As an anthropologist, you will possess many skills. You will learn how to communicate clearly and coherently, and how to work effectively alone or in groups. At Plymouth, you will become fluent in qualitative research, able to navigate the practicalities and ethics of data-collection. Above all, anthropologists become expert translators, brokers, and negotiators between different cultural groups – be they religions, ethnicities, classes, genders, etc.
This will allow you to pursue many different career options. Anthropologists have worked as consultants and directors in the following contexts, all of which are becoming more important in the age of globalisation:
  • Museum Curatorship
  • Environmental Conservation
  • Development
  • Public Health and Epidemic
  • Advocacy
  • Market Research
  • Inclusivity and Human Resources
  • Engaging in Multiculturalism Campaigns
  • Journalism
  • Fiction Writers

Key features
  • All our modules rely on 100% coursework. We want to create inclusive learning environments, designing forms of assessment that reflect real working conditions and truly test the skills anthropologists will need to apply in their future careers.
  • Learn anthropology through an innovative, hands-on approach. Throughout your time with us, you will get many opportunities to participate in real anthropological research.
  • You will be taught by research-active anthropologists, who constantly publish work in renowned academic journals, ensuring your course is based on cutting-edge developments in the field.
  • Take part in two major, funded field trips that enable you to practice core anthropological skills, and get to know your colleagues better. Travel to London and Oxford to visit various ethnographic museums, and take part in an international field trip to carry out fieldwork in a non-British setting.
  • Shape the way anthropology is taught. Many of the subjects we teach are directly proposed by students themselves. That’s why you’ll learn about marine ethnography, humour and laughter, conspiracy theory, and anything in between.

Course details

  • Year 1

  • In your first year, we introduce you to the core of the discipline. You will learn how to think like an anthropologist, comparing data from across the worlds to make solid statements about human behaviour. You will also have the chance to start actually doing your own ethnographic fieldwork, not just reading about it!

    Core modules

    ANT4001
    Introduction to Anthropology 20 credits

    This introductory module provides students new to anthropology to the core topics, goals, theories, and methods of the discipline. Students will learn foundational skills related to how to understand and analyse forms of human life socially, culturally, and morally different from their own. They will also learn how to compare different societies in order to produce solid arguments about the human condition.

    100% Coursework

    ANT4004
    Fieldwork and Ethnography 20 credits

    In this module, students will learn how to conduct an ethnographic project from inception to completion. We will focus on training methodological skills, familiarising ourselves with anthropological ethics, and producing anthropological arguments using the ethnographic evidence we ourselves collect.

    100% Coursework

    ANT4005
    Cultural Practices in Context 20 credits

    This module is geared toward fieldwork and independent study in a museum and/or gallery context. Following a Fieldtrip to public collections in London and/or the Southwest students complete an Object Report on an object of their choice seen in situ. This module will include 2, 2 hour talks that introduce our School and programme level employability related opportunities and support, including details of the optional placement year.

    100% Coursework

    SOC4002
    Social Identities and Inequalities 20 credits

    This module explores how and why social inequalities influence lived experience and social identities. It focuses on a range of substantive issues, such as poverty, social class and hierarchies, health, gender and sexuality, family and kinship, neo-colonialism and 'race', and violence and ethnicity. This module explores how these influence culture, social identities and lived experience throughout the life-course.

    100% Coursework

    SOC4003IE
    Body Relatedness and Identity 20 credits

    This module draws on a range of sociological and anthropological sources to examine how societies across the world perceive, transform, control and use the human body. The module's themes are designed to help students appreciate the body as central to the way humans experience the world. Seminars explore the disciplining and surveillance of bodies, the development of "habitus", bodily adornment and transformation, gender and sexuality, biopolitics, the commercialisation of the human body, and the body as a window on wider symbolic-cultural orders. In discussing these topics, first-year students will learn important social science skills, namely the ability to compare different socio-cultural contexts and engage in productive, multidisciplinary discussions.

    100% Coursework

    ANT4007
    Becoming Human

    This module introduces students to interdisciplinary approaches concerned with ‘how we became human’. The module examines the unique characteristics of Homo Sapiens, focusing on evolutionary changes, tool use, mythology, social organisation, equality and inequality, intersubjectivity and symbolic culture (art, ritual, language and myth). Students will be introduced to key theories on human evolution, the evolution of language and its relationship with symbolic thought, while investigating social structures, behaviour, and gender dynamics. Practically, the students will be taught key study skills in bibliographic research, interdisciplinary methods, academic research, writing and presentations.

  • Year 2

  • In your second year, you will further develop your social scientific research skills, and get to practice more advanced ethnographic fieldwork techniques (such as multi-species and multi-sensory ethnography, and participant observation of digital worlds). You will be also able to explore many specialist subjects, and start to identify the topic you’d like to explore for your dissertation.

    Core modules

    ANT5003
    Applying Anthropology 20 credits

    In this module, students are acquainted with advanced ethnographic research techniques, including reflexivity, netnography, multi-species relations, narrative analysis and multi-sensory ethnography. They also explore the interplay between methods and writing. Building on their existing skills, students develop a research project that applies these advanced concepts and methods.

    100% Coursework

    ARH5001
    Collecting and Exhibiting Cultures in the 19th and 20th Centuries 20 credits

    This module examines historical and contemporary cultures of collection, exhibition, and display. Drawing on interdisciplinary debates, students will learn to discuss and analyse the politics and ethics of art ownership, theft, looting, and repatriation.

    100% Coursework

    SOC5009
    Contemporary Theories of Society and Culture

    The module introduces contemporary theoretical disputes framed within the context of classical and early modern theories of society and culture. These debates are linked to historical events and social and cultural research that reciprocally influenced contemporary theoretical change. Foundational disciplinary questions are broached, and formative critical workshops assist in developing theoretical argument, analysis and evaluation.

    Optional modules

    HIS5005
    Research Methods in Visual, Material and Oral History 20 credits

    This module investigates the use of oral, material & visual sources as a means of investigating the past. Also, the contextualisation of historical sources and questions in the wider historiographical literature.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

    SSC500
    Stage 2 Professional Development, Placement Preparation and Identifying Opportunities 0 credits

    This module is for students in the School of Society and Culture who are interested in undertaking an optional placement in the third year of their programme. It supports students in their search, application, and preparation for the placement, including developing interview techniques and effective application materials (e.g. CVs , portfolios, and cover letters).

    ANT5008MX
    Brave New Worlds: Ethnography of/on Online and Digital Worlds 20 credits

    This module teaches students how to use ethnographic methods to make sense of the internet, which we now increasingly inhabit. Students learn how to navigate and analyse platforms such as Facebook or TikTok. They study how these technologies transform our relationships, identities, and ideas of truth. The module also examines the socio-cultural and ethical aspects of digital worlds (e.g. Second life).

    100% Coursework

    ANT5009
    Medical Anthropology

    By systematically comparing ethnographic data from across the globe, this module shows how shared ideas of wellness and illness/affliction develop, and how individuals work to maintain their wellbeing by transforming, training, inscribing, feeding and thinking about their bodies. Medical Anthropology studies how illness, disease and death are locally explained, experienced, and acted upon, and examines how western and non-western medical traditions interact with bio-medical institutions

    SOC5006
    Gender, Sex and Sexuality

    This module introduces students to the sociology of gender, sex and sexuality. It interrogates these concepts with particular reference to identity, activism, social justice and social change. It develops an understanding of the similarities, differences and intersections between gender, sex, sexuality and other social signifiers of difference/diversity including ‘race’, ethnicity, dis/ability, class and age.

    SOC5007
    Race, Nation, Empire: Understanding Identity and Belonging

    This module explores how intersecting ideologies of racism, nationalism, and imperialism relate to contemporary struggles over identity and belonging. In doing so, the module seeks to provide students with a critical understanding of the ideological bases of some of the most urgent issues facing contemporary societies, including: the fracturing of nation states after loss of empire; the racist backlash against postcolonial migration; and the rise of neo-nationalism.

    ANT5001
    Different Ways of Knowing: The Anthropology of truth, post-truth and conspiracy

    This module explores the nature of knowledge and truth from a cross-cultural perspective. How do ideas of truth differ culturally, and change over time? How do people produce, guard, and destroy knowledge? After an introduction to phenomenology and ontology, students will be able to engage with different systems of truth and knowledge - from oral history, to scientific debate, to prophecy and conspiracy.

  • Optional placement year

  • Gain valuable on-the-job experience through our optional placement year. We will support you in your second year in deciding whether to take this opportunity, and assist you in finding a placement and being prepared for it.

    Core modules

    SSC601
    School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Placement Year

    Students have the opportunity to gain work experience that will set them apart in the job market when they graduate by undertaking an optional flexible placement year. The placement must be a minimum of 24-weeks (which can be split between a maximum of two different placement providers) and up to a maximum of 48-weeks over the course of the academic year. The placement is flexible and can be undertaken virtually, part or full time and either paid or voluntary. Students will have the option to undertake their placement year abroad. This year allows them to apply and hone the knowledge and skills acquired from the previous years of their programme in the real world.

  • Final year

  • In your final year, you will work closely with your personal supervisor and use all the skills you’ve learned to produce an anthropological dissertation on a topic of your choice. At the same time, you will also take on the role of live consultant to apply anthropology to solve a particular problem, ideally in an area in which you wish to work or pursue further study.

    Core modules

    ANT6006
    Anthropology on the Ground 20 credits

    In this module students take on the role of a live consultant in a professional setting. Working with partners in industry, governance, or civil society, students will apply anthropology to solve a particular problem, ideally in an area in which they wish to work or pursue further study.

    70% Practicals

    30% Coursework

    SOC6005
    Dissertation

    This module provides students with the opportunity to undertake their own sociological, criminological or anthropological research project, working independently but under the supervision of an academic member of staff.

    Optional modules

    SOC6001
    Media, State and Society 20 credits

    The media occupy key arenas whereby various social groups compete with one another to set public, political, commercial and cultural agendas. This module examines the relationship between media, state and society. It covers a number of substantive topic areas such as environmental issues, terrorism, war reporting, gender, crime and violence.

    100% Coursework

    SOC6002
    Food, Culture and Society 20 credits

    This module aims to provide a critical understanding of sociological issues relating to food and foodways, (the beliefs and behaviours surrounding the production, distribution and consumption of food both on an individual and collective level). The module encourages critical reflection and practical experience of research in the area of food and foodways, with a focus on lived experience.

    100% Coursework

    ANT6008MX
    Coastal Cultures: Marine Anthropology in the age of climate change and mass extinction. 20 credits

    Using ethnography, we analyse how coastal communities use the sea – not only as a source of livelihood, but as a key ingredient in the construction of their identity and place in world. Drawing on a range of cases from across the world – from Polynesian sorcerers, to Japanese whale mourners, to Cornish surfers – we study how coastal communities are responding to climate change, sea level rise, pollution, and extinction.

    100% Coursework

    ANT6002
    Different Ways of Knowing: The Anthropology of truth, post-truth and conspiracy 20 credits

    This module explores the nature of knowledge and truth from a cross-cultural perspective. How do ideas of truth differ culturally, and change over time? How do people produce, guard, and destroy knowledge? After an introduction to phenomenology and ontology, students will be able to engage with different systems of truth and knowledge - from oral history, to scientific debate, to prophecy and conspiracy.

    60% Coursework

    40% Practicals

    ANT6009
    Medical Anthropology

    By systematically comparing ethnographic data from across the globe, this module shows how shared ideas of wellness and illness/affliction develop, and how individuals work to maintain their wellbeing by transforming, training, inscribing, feeding and thinking about their bodies. Medical Anthropology studies how illness, disease and death are locally explained, experienced, and acted upon, and examines how western and non-western medical traditions interact with bio-medical institutions.

    CRM6015
    Global Conflict, Genocide and Crimes of the State

    This module explores the issue of global (in)security in the context of state and non-state conflict. Theoretical and conceptual understandings of crime, violence, victimisation and justice will be used to interrogate acts such as war crimes and terrorism. The module will address the history of such crimes and will critically explore State and international responses.

The modules shown for this course are those currently being studied by our students, or are proposed new modules. Please note that programme structures and individual modules are subject to amendment from time to time as part of the University’s curriculum enrichment programme and in line with changes in the University’s policies and requirements.

Personalise your degree
All our degrees have a wide range of optional modules and there is even the opportunity to study modules from any of the School of Society and Culture 's subject areas.
You could graduate with one of the following personalised course title combinations:
 
Anthropology with Art History

Modules

    ARH5002MX
    Imagery in Online and Offline Worlds: Film, Television and Video Games 20 credits

    This module provides students with a comprehensive understanding of current approaches towards mass media and visual culture. Particular emphasis will be put on medium-specificity, content analysis and audience studies.

    100% Coursework

    ARH6002MX
    Questions in Contemporary Art 20 credits

    The module introduces and examines selected questions raised in the last three decades in contemporary art. Case studies drawn from art history, critical and cultural theory, and where appropriate related disciplines, will be examined.

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with Creative Writing

Modules

    ENG5010MX
    Writing Creative Nonfiction: Autobiography, Travel Writing, Reportage 20 credits

    This module introduces students to the key concepts and issues in contemporary works of creative nonfiction, or 'life writing'. Included in our readings will be works of memoir and autobiography, travel writing, personal essays and reportage. The module is entirely taught in workshops where we experiment with producing our own works of creative nonfiction and learning to refine them, as well as critically evaluate and contextualise them.

    100% Coursework

    ENG6008MX
    Features Journalism Workshop 20 credits

    This module offers students an in-depth experience of professional writing. We will explore technique in features and literary journalism; music reviews, opinion columns and longer immersion features as well as other contemporary works of non-fiction feature writing, both short- and long-form, from sub-genres including profiles and interviews, autobiography and columns, travel writing, and reportage. We will learn to research and produce our own works of professional nonfiction and critically evaluate them.

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with English

Modules

    ENG5002MX
    Gothic Fictions: Villains, Virgins and Vampires 20 credits

    This module looks at eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels to trace the variety and scope of literary contributions to the Gothic. It begins by discussing the origins of the Gothic novel, then moves to the heyday of the genre in the revolutionary 1790s, on to authors writing in the early and mid-nineteenth century, through to the decadence of the 1890s.

    100% Coursework

    ENG6005MX
    American Crime Writing 20 credits

    This module considers the development of twentieth-century American crime fiction from hard-boiled detectives, to myths of the mafia, and postmodern reinventions of the genre. This module will explore the cultural contexts of American crime writing, prevailing conventions of the genre, as well as challenges to those conventions.

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with History

Modules

    HIS5009MX
    Middle Kingdoms: Themes in Early Modern Asia 20 credits

    This module introduces the history of early modern Japan (c.16th-19th centuries). At one level, it explores key questions shaping the histories of the late Sengoku (‘Warring States’) and Tokugawa Japan. Building on these questions, it then situates the Japanese experience in a trans-regional perspective with reference to early modern China, Korea, Ryukyu, as well as Europe.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

    HIS5014MX
    Dunkirk to D Day: The Second World War in Europe 20 credits

    The module examines the Second World War in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean from 1940 to late 1944.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

    HIS6002MX
    Piracy and Privateering, c.1560-1816 20 credits

    This module explores piracy and privateering activity in the seas around the British Isles and further afield from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the end of the second Barbary War in 1816. This course focuses on the social history of piracy and privateering, the organisation of pirate society, and the economic impact of piracy and privateering.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

    HIS6006MX
    America, the United Nations and International Relations 1945 to the present 20 credits

    This module provides a detailed examination of the relationship between the United States of America and the United Nations in the management of international relations from 1945 to the present.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with Criminology

Modules

    CRM5009MX
    Crime, Harm and Culture 20 credits

    The module aims to provide students with a critical appreciation of harm and crime by exploring relevant issues from film, television, music, fiction literature and art. By applying a criminological lens to different forms of popular culture, students will be able to examine a variety of media forms in terms of its content and its contemporary political, social and economic context using different theories and concepts.

    100% Coursework

    CRM6016MX
    Green Criminology: Climate Justice and the Planetary Crisis

    This module will address theoretical perspectives, methodological issues, and empirical research related to the field of green criminology, including applied concerns, such as policy and social/political praxis, through a range of concepts, topics, and themes that are central to green criminology.

Anthropology with International Relations

Modules

    PIR6009MX
    Mao to Now: the Politics of Modern China

    This module introduces students to politics in China. It provides them with the analytical skills and historical understanding to examine the structure of the contemporary Chinese state, looking in particular at Maoist legacies, nationalism and ideology, the relationships between party, law, state and market, and China’s involvement in international affairs.

    PIR6007MX
    Global Environmental Politics 20 credits

    This module examines the problem of environmental degradation and its implications for our global political economy. It discusses the major debates in political thought around the primary causes of environmental degradation. The module outlines the major attempts to build international regimes for global environmental governance, and the difficulties and obstacles that such attempts have encountered. A range of ideas, critiques, policy proposals, innovations in governance, and templates for political activism within the environmental movement are critically evaluated.

    100% Coursework

    PIR5009MX
    Refugee Studies 20 credits

    This module focuses on the political, economic and social context of forced migration and considers the complex and varied nature of global refugee populations. It analyses responses at international, national and regional level and engages with a range of challenging questions around international co-operation, the framework of international protection, humanitarianism and the causes of displacement.

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with Politics

Modules

    PIR6009MX
    Mao to Now: the Politics of Modern China

    This module introduces students to politics in China. It provides them with the analytical skills and historical understanding to examine the structure of the contemporary Chinese state, looking in particular at Maoist legacies, nationalism and ideology, the relationships between party, law, state and market, and China’s involvement in international affairs.

    PIR5013MX
    Politics Beyond Parliaments 20 credits

    This module analyses the role of civil society and the public sphere in democratic governance and in democratization from a variety of theoretical perspectives.

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with Sociology

Modules

    SOC5005MX
    Globalisation and Social Justice 20 credits

    This module investigates the key debates of globalisation and critically evaluates, in terms of its economic, political, socio-cultural and legal dimensions, the causes and consequences of a globalising world. It furthermore explores a range of international social justice issues to examine the relationships (causative and ameliorative) between policies and (in)justice

    60% Coursework

    40% Practicals

    SOC6004MX
    Health, Medical Power and Social Justice 20 credits

    This module considers a range of issues concerning health, illness and medical power in contemporary society. The module seeks to develop an understanding of the impact of ‘medicalisation’ on everyday life, as well as the importance of social divisions, such as age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. There will be a focus on a range of sociological perspectives on health with an opportunity to focus upon areas of particular interest.

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with Law

Modules

    LAW5009MX
    Environmental Law 20 credits

    The module provides an examination of key themes in environmental law, with a focus on the generation, application and enforcement of this law within a critical and applied context.

    100% Coursework

    LAW5011MX
    Intellectual Property Law

    This module focuses on the law and concepts of intellectual property, examining in addition related legal themes of information access, dissemination and control.

    LAW6018MX
    Law, Literature and the Screen

    To introduce students to fictional and factional representations of the legal order in prose, film and TV, and to examine the inter-connections between law, literature and the screen.

    LAW6012MX
    Public International Law 20 credits

    A module that focuses on the primary legal principles of the public international legal order, before exploring a range of substantive areas, such as, for example, the use of force, the law regulating the conduct of war, International Human Rights, International Criminal Law and International Environmental Law.

    100% Coursework

Anthropology with Policing and Security Management

Modules

    CRM6011MX
    Security Management 20 credits

    This module provides students with a critical insight into the professional domain of security management. It provides an overview of the theories, policies, procedures and practices that underpin the work of the security manager, and focuses upon a career-relevant knowledge and understanding of this significant area of expertise.

    70% Coursework

    30% Tests

    CRM5009MX
    Crime, Harm and Culture 20 credits

    The module aims to provide students with a critical appreciation of harm and crime by exploring relevant issues from film, television, music, fiction literature and art. By applying a criminological lens to different forms of popular culture, students will be able to examine a variety of media forms in terms of its content and its contemporary political, social and economic context using different theories and concepts.

    100% Coursework

    CRM5003MX
    Harm in the 21st Century 20 credits

    This module explores the global challenges of harmful behaviours and activities in contemporary society by considering specific areas of concern for criminologists. By drawing on real-world examples in everyday life, the module examines how social problems and issues have arisen due to processes of globalisation that have changed the social, political and economic landscape of the 21st century.

    100% Coursework

Entry requirements

UCAS tariff

104 - 120

Contextual offers: Typically, the contextual offer for this course is 8 points below the advertised tariff. A contextual offer is an offer to study at university that takes into account individual circumstances that are beyond your control, and that can potentially impact your learning and your exam results, or your confidence in applying to university.

Check your eligibility for a contextual offer

UCAS tariff
Typical offer will be 104 points, minimum of 2 A levels, General Studies accepted.
IB
26-28 points
BTEC
Grade DMM
Access courses
Pass a named Access to HE Diploma (including GCSE English and Maths grade C/4 or above or equivalent) with at least 33 credits at Merit and/or Distinction.
T level
Merit in any subject.
GCSE
Mathematics and English language grade C / 4. If you do meet this criteria please seek further advice with the admission team on admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.
Other
14-19 Diplomas are accepted. Other combinations and non-A level qualifications also considered.
Short of the entry requirements for this course? Don’t worry you may be able to engage with an access course to prepare you for possible entry onto this programme for the following year.
We welcome applicants with international qualifications. To view other accepted qualifications please refer to our tariff glossary.

Fees, costs and funding
2024-2025 2025-2026 *
Home £9,250 £9,535
International £17,100 £17,600
Part time (Home) £770 £795
Full time fees shown are per annum. Part time fees shown are per 10 credits. Please note that fees are reviewed on an annual basis. Fees and the conditions that apply to them shown in the prospectus are correct at the time of going to print. Fees shown on the web are the most up to date but are still subject to change in exceptional circumstances. More information about fees and funding.

*UK Government announcement on tuition fees

Following an announcement in November, the government has confirmed its intention to increase undergraduate tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year.

Subject to final Parliamentary approval (expected in early March 2025), the tuition fee for UK students is increasing to a maximum of £9,535 from 1 August 2025. This change applies to current and new students at the University of Plymouth. The Student Loans Company (SLC) has confirmed loans for tuition fees will be increased accordingly.

Undergraduate scholarships for international students

To reward outstanding achievement the University of Plymouth offers scholarship schemes to help towards funding your studies.

Additional costs

This course is delivered by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business and more details of any additional costs associated with the faculty's courses are listed on the following page: Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business additional costs .

Tuition fees for optional placement years

The fee for all undergraduate students completing any part of their placement year in the UK in 2024/2025 is £1,850.
The fee for all undergraduate students completing their whole placement year outside the UK in 2024/2025 is £1,385.
 Learn more about placement year tuition fees

How to apply
All applications for undergraduate courses are made through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service).
UCAS will ask for the information contained in the box at the top of this course page including the UCAS course code and the institution code.
To apply for this course and for more information about submitting an application including application deadline dates, please visit the UCAS website.
Support is also available to overseas students applying to the University from our International Office via our how to apply webpage or email admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.

Gain hands-on experience

Art History - Collecting and Exhibiting Cultures
Visual literacy

We place a strong focus on teaching you how to professionally work with images and objects. We ask: How and why are objects displayed in the way they are? Should the Elgin Marbles be returned? How are museums dealing with their colonial legacy?
Female intern or student on laptop/computer. student is completing an internship, placement, mentorship or work experience.
Gain valuable work experience

Take on the role of a consultant, and apply your anthropological training to solve a particular problem with our vocational training module. We'll help you identify your strengths, build a professional CV, and find a work-placement with our partners.
Minecraft
Learn digital skills

We are innovative in our use of digital media to teach anthropology and excel in giving students the skills needed to communicate anthropological insight through a range of virtual platforms and technologies. Mastery of digital is key to employability.

Gain valuable professional experience through targeted work placements

Anthropology at Plymouth is unique in the UK because it offers students vocational training and professional placements. We use our local and global networks to offer our students work placements targeted on a topic of their choice. Recently, our students have used their anthropological knowledge to improve the work of many institutions, from a Cornwall-based company developing software for marginalised groups, to NGOs seeking new forms of dementia treatment, to Malaysian NGOs developing eco-tourism and other similar environmental projects.
Additionally the School of Society and Culture provides exciting partnerships with external organisations, offering students the opportunity to undertake internships, placements and volunteering. Find out more about internship opportunities with the School of Society and Culture
Anthropology trip to London 2020
Natasha Beadon - BA (Hons) Anthropology student

Opening your eyes to opportunity

Natasha used skills gained from her anthropology degree to sidestep into a career in marketing.
"Having a degree is great, but having experience will put you above other applicants. If you’re unsure of what you want to do after university, then consider applying for an internship to help make that decision easier.” – Natasha, BA (Hons) Anthropology student

Learn anthropology from experts who are passionate about teaching

The staff at Plymouth are truly passionate about teaching Anthropology. Our open-door policy ensures that our students are not just numbers, and over their course we get to know them, their interests, and their strengths. The course is designed so that students have a real impact in deciding what subjects they wish to learn.
At Plymouth, we learn by doing. Throughout three years studying Anthropology, our students gain experience engaging in real ethnographic research. They have produced exciting analyses of a range of phenomena, including person-centred care, gender relations in gyms, religious belief amongst students, migration and integration in Plymouth, political activism, rewilding, marine pollution, extreme sports, and digital worlds such as Minecraft. Our course also focuses on teaching students the knowledge and skills they need to develop complex and sophisticated anthropological projects, and some of our students now work as researchers for prestigious NGOs and public institutions such as the NHS.

What our students think

Our lecturer has always been on hand both to aid us academically and care for us as individuals.” – Gregor Sime, Anthropology

Our staff regularly appear in Plymouth’s Student Union Teaching Awards, having been nominated for Best Teacher, Best Thesis Supervisor, and Best Personal Tutor.
2021 NSS results
Our BA (Hons) Anthropology degree is:
  • 1st in the UK for teaching on my course, assessment and feedback, academic support and student voice
  • 3rd for overall satisfaction

Where can anthropology take you?

As an anthropologist, you will possess many skills which will allow you to pursue many different career options.

  • Museum Curation square

    Museum curatorship

    Anthropologists are leaders when it comes to thinking about new forms of curatorship, or navigating restitution issues or colonial legacies.
  • Hiking in nature square

    Environmental conservation

    Anthropologists tend to be especially good at understanding local approaches to the environment, as well as tricky issues of governance, like poaching.
  • Development for Anthropology (square)

    Development

    Anthropologists have always been instrumental in showing that effective development is one that “fits” local culture and understands local needs.
  • Face masks square

    Public health and epidemic

    Anthropologists are key in designing health campaigns that embrace local understandings of health, disease and death.
  • Protest square

    Advocacy

    Anthropologists represent groups who lack the voice or power to defend themselves. They fight for the weak, the poor, the misunderstood, and have been key players defending indigenous rights.
  • Marketing

    Market research

    Anthropologists have a strong understanding of how people imbue things with value, and are very important for companies developing and marketing new products.
  • Inclusivity for Anthropology (square)

    Inclusivity and human resources

    Anthropologists are particularly good in thinking about representation, and in creating inclusive and fair workspaces.
  • Multiculturalism for anthropology (square)

    Engaging in multiculturalism campaigns

    Anthropologists are excellent at leading projects and policies that promote the strong aspects of multiculturalism without reproducing its pitfalls and failures.
  • Stack of newspapers square

    Journalism

    Anthropologists’ ability to think critically and write clearly has made them excellent journalists, particularly regarding issues such as capitalism and politics. Anthropologists were key in predicting and describing the financial crash of 2008.
  • Fiction writing for anthropology (square)

    Fiction writers

    With such a sensitive grasp on the way humans behave, anthropologists have produced outstanding fiction and become excellent writers.

Featured modules

Join the Plymouth Cold Case Unit

The Plymouth Cold Case Unit (PCCU) investigates unsolved missing persons cases. We uncover new evidence which can be used by the police to solve these cases while giving students experience and skills – including investigative, analytical and social – to launch them into rewarding careers.
We are a student-led, expert-guided group with international connections and access to facilities and training at both the University of Plymouth and Locate International.
Applications are open to all foundation and year 1 students in the School of Society and Culture.
Staff and students from the Cold Case Unit work on the Salcombe Man case

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Meet our experts

Dr Ivan Tacey

Ivan has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork with Batek and Manya’ tropical foragers of Peninsular Malaysia since 2007. His research explores how environmental degradation, socio-political marginalization and relations with outsiders have transformed these indigenous peoples’ religions and lifeways. Ivan has lectured in anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and anthrozoology at universities in France and the UK. He is a member of the executive board of the International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism and their journal Shaman. Alongside anthropology, Ivan is a collector of rare soul, jazz, hip-hop, afrobeat and afro-Brazilian music and has run several sound-systems in the UK and France
Ivan Tacey rechecking data with Batek friends in Kelantan, Malaysia
Ivan rechecking data with Batek friends in Kelantan, Malaysia
Brian Campbell in Ceuta
Brian in Ceuta

Dr Brian Campbell

Brian's primary research looks at the relationship between Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus in Ceuta, a small Spanish enclave-town in North Africa. He is particularly interested in the local concept of “convivencia”, the idea these religious groups should live together in harmony. The opportunities and fears presented by “convivencia” strongly influence Ceutan life and politics. Brian also conducts plenty of multidisciplinary research on conservation, focusing on the conflict between bird-hunters and environmental NGOs in Malta, where he is from. Of late, he has become interested in migration issues in the Mediterranean, on right-wing nationalism in Spain and Malta, and the fortification of Europe’s southern borders.