Archaeology/Scottish History
Archaeology and Scottish history together form an exceptionally rich field of study, examining Scotland's past through the material evidence that survives in the ground and the documentary and scholarly record that historians work with. Archaeology, as the University of Glasgow describes it, is the study of how people in the past interacted with their world through a detailed study of their objects, sites, monuments, and landscapes. Scottish history is the analysis of the formation of the Scottish nation, the complexities of its political, religious, and cultural development, and Scotland's role in the broader sweep of British and world history.
Together, the two disciplines give you complementary tools for reconstructing and interpreting the past.
At the University of Glasgow, this part-time programme allows you to pursue both subjects with academic depth at a pace that suits your existing commitments. You will develop skills in archaeological survey, field methods, and the analysis of material culture alongside the archival research, source criticism, and narrative construction that historical work demands. The combination means you can approach Scotland's past from multiple angles, using both the physical evidence of how people lived and the textual evidence of how they understood and recorded their world.
A year abroad is built into the programme, giving you the opportunity to pursue study at an international partner institution.
Graduates from this combination go on to careers in heritage and conservation, museum and archival work, field archaeology, historic environment consultancy, education, broadcasting, and writing. Many pursue postgraduate study in archaeology, Scottish history, medieval studies, or heritage management, developing specialist expertise for academic, curatorial, or professional careers in the field. The combination of material and textual analytical skills the degree develops is genuinely distinctive and valued wherever detailed understanding of the past is needed.