In anthropology, you consider what it means to be human by exploring culture, history, arts, biology and evolution. Our comprehensive programme gives you a new perspective on the human world, providing a depth of insight into social and cultural difference and giving you an understanding of the history and behaviour of your species – invaluable to any employer. 

The School of Anthropology and Conservation uses a stimulating mix of teaching methods, including lectures, small seminar groups, field visits and laboratory sessions. You are taught by research academics at the forefront of their fields while our excellent student-to-staff ratio ensures a high level of academic support.

We are one of the largest and long-established groups of anthropologists in the UK. Our expertise spans the full breadth of the discipline and includes an innovative group of primatologists, a team who excel in paleoanthropology and a centre for human ecology pushing the boundaries of environmental change research.

Our Anthropology degree gives you the exciting opportunity to spend a year abroad. Previous students have been to Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czech Republic and Finland. Studying and living in a different culture can be a transformational experience, both on a personal and professional level.

Whether your background is in arts, humanities or sciences, you will find our BSc in Anthropology an exciting, stimulating and rewarding opportunity.

Our degree programme

In your first year, you are introduced to anthropology, its foundations and its leading thinkers. Optional modules allow you to expand on areas of particular interest, which may include violence and conflict, or human physiology and disease. You can also benefit from practical learning through lab-based sessions and a number of visits away from campus.

In your second and final years, you take compulsory modules that further your understanding of the key areas of biological and social anthropology. You study issues such as power and economy, religion, cosmological imagination, and biology and human identity.

You also enjoy a wide and varied choice of modules enabling you to expand your perspective or develop a specialism. You can study the anthropology of gender, business, health or creativity; take modules in visual anthropology or discover more about primate communication. In your final year, you undertake a research project in anthropological science, choosing your topic with your project supervisor.

You benefit from the intellectual breadth of our programme, and the high degree of flexibility in shaping it to your interests as they grow and develop.

Year abroad

The year abroad allows an immersive experience of living and studying in a different culture. You spend a year studying at one of our partner institutions in Japan or Europe between the second and final years. You can also use this experience to start your dissertation by conducting fieldwork. 

Alternatively, you can take our three-year Anthropology degree or our four-year Anthropology with a Year in Professional Practice.

Field trips

A number of our modules include opportunities for learning and experiences outside of the classroom through field trips in the UK and abroad. Potential excursions are:

• Paris, the Musee du Quai Branly and Musee de l'Homme
• Howletts Wild Animal Park
• St Leonard's Ossuary
• London Chinese temple
• Impact Hub Westminster
• London financial district
• Canterbury Cathedral and Canterbury Tales Experience.

These may change from year to year and may incur additional costs. See the funding tab for more information.

Study resources

The School of Anthropology and Conservation has excellent teaching resources including dedicated computing facilities. Other resources include:

• climate-controlled human osteology lab housing an exceptional collection of Anglo-Saxon and medieval skeletons (>1000) and related radiographs
• a visual anthropology room
• an ethnobiology lab for studying human-related plant material
• a dedicated teaching laboratory with first-rate equipment
• an excellent fossil cast collection with hundreds of casts, including multiple entire skeletons of extant and extinct primates and hominins
• 3D imaging paleoanthropology lab with state-of-the-art equipment and expert academic support
• refurbished computer suite with 32 PCs with HD screens
• an integrated audio-visual system to help provide stimulating lectures
• student social spaces.

Extra activities

The Anthropology Society is run by Kent students and is a good way to meet other students on your course in an informal way. There are also many national societies, which are a great way to meet people from around the world and discover more about their countries and cultures.

The School of Anthropology and Conservation puts on many events that you are welcome to attend. We host two public lectures a year, the Stirling Lecture and the DICE Lecture, which bring current ideas in anthropology and conservation to a wider audience.  We are delighted that these events attract leading anthropological figures from around the world; in 2017 we hosted paleoanthropologist Professor Lee Berger, one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people.

Each term, there are also seminars and workshops discussing current research in anthropology, conservation and human ecology.