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Updated: Human Osteology Postgraduate Courses in the United Kingdom

14 Aug

Note: I originally wrote this post a few years ago in order to outline the available human osteology/bioarchaeology postgraduate courses in the United Kingdom as a guideline for the degree fees and topic availability.  However since then a number of substantial national and international changes have occurred.  These include, but are not limited to, the increase of undergraduate tuition fees to £9000.00 per academic year; the general increase of the price of Masters degrees; the new availability of student loans for Masters students; changes to Disabled Students Allowance from the 16/17 academic year onward; the transfer of some Student Finance grants to loans; the Government White paper released in May 2016 outlining challenges and changes needed in higher education, etc.

One of the more important changes was the outcome of the referendum in the United Kingdom whether it to remain or not a part of the European Union, this resulted in a very tight result in which the majority voted to leave the European Union.  This process will take many years, but the Government of the United Kingdom recently stated that it would guarantee European Union funding for projects signed before the Autumn Statement until 2020.  Doug, of Doug’s Archaeology, has an interesting and somewhat depressing post on what Brexit could mean for archaeology as a sector more generally. 

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Whilst I was doing some light research for another article I made a quick list of every course in the United Kingdom that offers human osteology as a taught masters (either as an MA, Masters of Arts, or as an MSc, Masters of Science) or offer a distinctive human osteology module or component within a taught masters degree.  Human osteology is the study of human skeletal material from archaeological sites.  Human osteologists study bones to identify age, biological sex, pathology and pre- and post-mortem trauma alongside other avenues of research in human behaviour and activity, such as investigating diet and mobility of post populations.  The subject is generally only taught as a Masters level within the United Kingdom.

Within the list England as a whole is well represented within the universities highlighted, Scotland only comes in with two entries whilst Wales and Northern Ireland, as far as I know, offer no distinctive osteological courses at the Masters level.  Further to this the reader should be aware that some universities, such as the University of Leicester, offer commercial or research centers for human and animal osteology yet run no postgraduate courses that provide the training in the methods of osteoarchaeology.  Thus they are excluded from this list.

This information is correct as of September 2016, but please expect at least some of the information to change, especially in relation to course fees for United kingdom, European Union, and international students.  It should be noted here that the education system in the United Kingdom is internationally well-regarded and the educational institutions are often in the top 10% in world league tables; however it can be very expensive to study here, especially so in the consideration of prospective international students.  Please also take note of the cost of renting (especially in London and the south of the country generally) and the high cost of daily living compared to some countries.  The list is not an exhaustive attempt and I am happy to add any further information or to correct any entries.

Other Sources & Prospective Student Advice

As well as the list below, the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology also have links to human osteology and bioarchaeology courses in the United Kingdom.  You check the list out here.  The British Archaeological Jobs and Resources (BAJR) site, ran by David Connolly, also has a plethora of useful resources to check as well as an active Facebook group which is a great place to ask for advice.  I’ve also written a second post to compliment this one which entails what you, the prospective student, should keep in mind when looking at degree courses to pursue. You can check out that post by clicking the title here: Questions to remember when considering a postgraduate course in human osteology.

skull-saxon

An example of an archaeological skull. Image credit: source.

Courses in the United Kingdom, please note that the fees stated are for full time students.  For part time students the price is normally halved and the course carried out over two years instead of the usual one year that is common for Masters within the United Kingdom.

MA/MSc Degrees in England

Bournemouth University:

  • MSc Forensic Osteology (UK/EU £5500 and International £13,500, from 17/18 UK/EU £5750 and International £14,000).
  • MSc Biological Anthropology (UK/EU £5750 and International £14,000, from 17/18 UK/EU £6000 and International £14,500).

University of Bradford:

University of Cambridge:

  • MPhil Human Evolution (amazingly there are 18,000 skeletons in the Duckworth Collection!).

Cranfield University:

UCLAN:

University College London:

University of Durham:

University of Exeter:

  • MSc Bioarchaeology (Offers choice of one of three core pathway topics, including human osteology, zooarchaeology and, new for the 16/17 academic year, Forensic Anthropology) (UK/EU £6900 and International £15,950).

Universities of Hull and York Medical School:

  • MSc Human Evolution (A very interesting course, combining dissection and evolutionary anatomy) (UK/EU £6650 and International £15,680).

University of Liverpool:

Liverpool John Moores University:

University of Manchester:

  • MSc Biomedical and Forensic Studies in Egyptology (course under review).

University of Oxford:

University of Sheffield:

University of Southampton:

University of York:

MA/MSc Degrees in Scotland

University of Dundee:

University of Edinburgh:

The following universities offer short courses in human osteology, osteology, forensics or zooarchaeology

Short Courses in England

Cranfield University:

University of Bradford:

  • On occasion run a palaeopathology course, please check the university website for details.

University of Sheffield:

Note: I am still genuinely surprised there are not more short courses, if you find any in the United Kingdom please feel free to drop a comment below.

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A University of Hull and Sheffield joint excavation at Brodsworth carried out in 2008 helped to uncover and define a Medieval cemetery. Image credit: University of Hull.

A Few Pieces of Advice

A piece of advice that I would give to prospective students is that I would strongly advise researching your degree by visiting the universities own webpages, finding out about the course specifics and the module content.  If possible I’d also visit the department and tour the facilities available and seek advice from the course leader with regards to potential research interests.  I would also always advise to try to contact a past student and to gain their views on the course they have attended previously.  They will often offer frank advice and information, something that can be hard to find on a university webpage or from a course leader.  Also please do be aware of the high cost of the United Kingdom tertiary education as prices have been raised considerably in the past few years and are likely to rise again, especially so in comparison to cheaper courses on the European continent.

Finally, if you know of any other human osteology or bioarchaeology Masters or short courses in the United Kingdom please do comment below or send me an email and I will add it to the list here.

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New Introductory Short Courses In Human Osteology Announced for 2014

18 Nov

Oxford Brookes University is playing host to a new one day introductory human osteology course in 2014.  The course is due to run on the 11th of April 2014 and will be staffed by the former knowledgeable organisers of  the University of Sheffield human osteology short courses.  The price of attending the one day event costs £120 falling to £100 for concessions and can be booked through the Oxford Brookes shop here.  For anyone that is interested have questions to ask, or simply wish to engage with the course providers, they are advised to head over to and join the friendly Facebook group for updates.  It is hoped that this one day course will lead to further short courses in human osteology at Oxford Brookes University.  I will update this when more information becomes available, although there are hopes a five day long course will run after the one day event.

Humanosteoanb2014

The poster for the Human Osteology short course at Oxford Brookes University in April 2014 (click to enlarge).

In other news the University of Sheffield is still running its own human osteology short courses.  The next installment of the 3 day long course runs from the 10th to the 12th of April 2014 and costs £180 to attend (£120 for concessions).  The course will be delivered by Dr Diana Mahoney Swales and Lizzy Craig-Atkins, both For further information or to book a place please contact Dr Lizzy Craig-Atkins at e.craig-atkins@sheffield.ac.uk or join the Archaeology at the University of Sheffield Facebook page for updates.

Further to the above two courses Bournemouth University are also offering a 3 day human osteology short course in April 2014.  The course runs from 29th of April until the 1st of May and it is priced at £300 to attend (with a 10% discount for  BU alumni or students).  Importantly this course highlights both the archaeological and forensic value of human remains, with both ancient and modern populations and case studies being considered and studied in this short course.  Bournemouth University has a well respected and dedicated laboratory for studying the remains of archaeological skeletal remains.

It has also come to my attention that Luton Museum is holding a 1 day course in advanced practical human osteology on the 21st of June.  The cost to attend this day long course is £75 and it includes a free meal.  The Luton Museum team regularly run human osteology events and has been a regional store for human remains for 80 years, it is also expected that information on further courses to appear at the Luton Museum website for future events.  The Luton course is ran by Dr David Klingle, a human osteology associated with the University of Oxford, and Tim Vickers, the collections care officer at the museum.

All four of the intensive courses detailed above are open to anybody who is interested in acquiring knowledge of human skeletal anatomy and are taught by professional human osteologists.  The participant will get to learn new skills, utilize the knowledge of the practitioners and apply the skills learnt when studying actual archaeological human skeletal material.  I for one have attended the university of Sheffield’s short course previously, before I proceeded onto the MSc in Human Osteology and Funerary Archaeology, and I found the course invaluable.  If you are curious about human skeletal remains in the archaeological record and want to find out exactly what they are used for and what you can tell from them, then plunge right in and join a course!

skull-saxon

A chance to get face to face with humanity’s past.

If you have always been interested in the human skeletal and want to develop this further, then take a look at my earlier post on human osteology courses in the UK at the Masters level.

Furthermore if you know of any other short courses in the UK please comment below or send me an email and I will add it to the list here and to my UK human osteology blog entry.

Further Information

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