Good afternoon everybody. I am Reg Cline-Cole
and I’m Admissions Tutor for Anthropology
and African Studies, so the Department of
Anthropology and African Studies. I’ll be
talking to you this afternoon about the Anthropology
Programme.
Now Anthropology at Birmingham is our latest
edition. It’s new. We’ve been around for
fifty odd years but we’ve only been teaching
anthropology for the last seven, eight years
or so. So it’s our latest addition to our
teaching which – and this is not a boast
or anything – which is the latest addition
to sort of world class teaching and research.
Now I’ll leave you to take a quick look
at rankings et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I know we all live or die by rankings, but
fairly quickly, we’re not doing too badly.
Now a big advantage of studying anthropology
at Birmingham is the fact that we are actually
a fairy small department. The advantage is
that you get the kind of attention that you
would expect in much more famous other places
– I won’t mention the names. So you get
the kind of attention – the disadvantage
is of course that you can’t hide because
lecturers know you and you can’t hide. If
you’re not in class, we know. And when you
turn up for your personal tutorials, we would
already have heard everything that we need
to hear before you even start talking. So
advantages and disadvantages, but clearly
one of the biggest advantages is that we have
a store of expertise, well established expertise
in anthropology, and all my colleagues in
anthropology, about eighty percent, eighty
five percent in fact of the staff members
are anthropologists by training in the department.
So all of my colleagues do active research
and anthropology in various parts of the world,
mostly in Africa.
So anthropology then in Birmingham is part
of a suite of programmes, research programmes
and teaching programmes that we offer. And
here I have highlighted the areas of anthropology
that we specialise in, a fairly wide range.
I have also tried to call your attention,
at the bottom right, to our expertise in areas
of literature, orality and culture, and also
the arts, which although not anthropology
strictly speaking, compliment anthropology
quite well. So anthropology at the top left
complimenting as in between, and I would,
if it’s the only thing you do after you
leave here and before you leave Birmingham,
please visit Room two two four where we have
our African arts and artefacts collection,
and which people who end up in Birmingham,
studying anthropology, end up using a lot.
So please, you can poke your head round the
door, if you have a spare five minutes or
so, it’s worth the time and worth the effort.
Now I am hoping all of you have already been
down to the desk – my colleagues are down
at the desk. If you haven’t it will be worth
going down on your way out, and collecting
a mass of documentation which we’ve prepared
for you. But I mentioned the desk because
it is one of my favourite places on Open Day
because without exception I get to deal with
this particular encounter, several times.
Somebody comes up to me at the desk, or whoever
is at the desk, and says something along the
lines of “I am really very interested in
anthropology and I would like to study it”.
Pause. “What is it?”
Well what it is is an opportunity to be able
to study human society, to be able to explore
the human experience. And in Birmingham we
try and understand, we try and learn about
anthropology, we try and study and teach anthropology
by comparing life, social, cultural life across
the world. And our main hope is that it would
encourage us to question things that we take
for granted – what is normal? What isn’t?
What is exotic and why? Why do we all believe
that the way we do things is the only right
way of doing things? Why is a different way
not necessarily different, quite often wrong,
according to a lot of people?
So these are the sorts of questions that we’re
interested in. And what we try and do is to
get people first of all to realise that anthropology
is not something that concerns distant places
and distant cultures only. We can study anthropology
of all parts of the world. It’s not just
about primitive populations, and I use the
word advisedly.
So a big part of our approach then is to try
and get our students to learn how they might
actually immerse themselves in this culture
so these various cultures and societies that
they study, that it is by trying to understand
people’s worlds from their perspective.
It is about 
trying to develop complex understandings by
deliberately asking difficult questions, awkward
questions about why people do things.
So a favourite description of ours is that
the anthropology that we do is the anthropology
of thick description. This is what comes from
careful, long term study and deliberation
if you like. Now it is a kind of anthropology
which is, while at the same thematic, we look
at the big things – I’ll come to those
in a moment – but also comparative. So it
is about theories, concepts, practises on
the one hand and how these compare across
space and over time. So ethnography, ethnographic
research is a key part of what we do.
Now in the department, this department, we
concentrate on social anthropology and cultural
anthropology. There is some linguistic anthropology
on offer but our two main areas are social
and cultural. And this is a colleague of mine
– she’s given me permission to take her
name in vain for the purposes of this talk,
a colleague of mine who works in Northern
Niger and has done since the nineteen nineties.
I use this ‘cause it’s a good, it’s
a standard example of how we operate in the
department. She’s been working with the
same society since the nineteen nineties,
learnt the language, the whole works and is
even now actually consulted by the national
government about what goes on in this particular
area. Now we all have similar stories to tell
about the areas that we work on and about
the sorts of things that we’re interested
in. My point here is clearly that when I talk
about the description and immersing ourselves
in culture, I’m not just making an idol
boast, I am actually talking about what we
do.
So, how do we go about teaching all of this
in a structured way? We have two kinds of
degree programmes – a single honour. Archaeology
and anthropology is the only single honours
degree that we offer. But we do have anthropology
as part of a number of joint honours offerings.
And my left and your right you see all the
different subjects that you can combine anthropology
with. Anthropology and African Studies is
in-house, taught in this department. Archaeology
and Anthropology Programme is run, is administered
by our colleagues in Archology and I suspect
you will be meeting them soon if you haven’t
already done so.
So other than the Archology and Anthropology
Programme, Anthropology in Birmingham, and
that is a joint enterprise, one way of thinking
about it. Half of a degree more often than
not, and you combine it with whatever you
do choose to, that is available. And you can
either do this equally fifty percent anthropology
and fifty percent A Another subject or you
can in years two and years three major in
anthropology and minor in the others or major
in something else and minor in anthropology.
Now in a sense a focus of joint honours is
A, that it actually creates an opportunity
for more able academic students to be able
to combine distinct but related disciplines
and therefore the grades for the joint honours
programmes, as we will see shortly, tend to
be higher than those for single honours. It
is to allow people hedge their bets. Somebody
once said to me – I hadn’t thought about
it that way – one of the students said to
me a few years ago “When I decided to do
joint honours programme with anthropology,
involving anthropology is because I wanted
to hedge my bets” she said. And it is true,
it’s one way of thinking about it. You don’t
need to give up your second subject, just
because you want to study anthropology. It
has an added advantage as well. It does actually
prepare our students for research, dissertation
research, extended research, and I’ll come
back to that in a moment. It prepares them
for that by offering opportunity for them
to combine some really imaginative but separate
and different things.
So anthropology as joint honours then for
the most part, and the structure of the degree
is that, and again this is the reason I asked
about visiting the desk downstairs, the degree
has, in each of the three years, has a distinct
set of core or compulsory modules. We decide
those on your behalf unfortunately. Then around
those you get an offering, a selection and
I’ll show you examples of optional modules
which you can add, tailor if you like, to
suit your needs, to reflect your particular
interests. Each degree programme, and with
an extended piece of research or dissertation,
ten thousand words, or an extended essay,
independent study, five thousand words. And
as I say, come to that in a moment.
But first the offerings. And these are examples
of the offerings in bold, the core modules,
the compulsory modules. And as you can see
we have thought fairly carefully about that.
Anthropology of Africa by the way is for those
people who are combining anthropology with
Africa. If you’re not combining anthropology
with Africa you don’t need to do Anthropology
of Africa as a module, as all the others are
there. At the bottom, just a selection f the
kinds of modules that are available that would
allow you to think about how you contextualise
a specialised area of anthropology. Anthropology
is about looking at particular societies,
particular places, particular structures at
particular times. The other things help you
to situate that within a broader context.
After war, there was still a world out there.
My colleague needs to surface needs to surface
now and then from the North of Niger you know,
to deal with the rest of the world, as I did
do from the North of Nigeria where I spent
most of my research time. So the kinds of
things that we’re taking about then are
selections there.
Second and third years, again, in bold, the
module options, and I’d like to emphasise
a couple of things here. First, good selection
of thematic modules. Nobody, but nobody is
going to force anybody to do Africa if their
main interest is anthropology. So plenty of
thematic modules but also a set of wide ranging
optional modules worth considering. And as
I say most of my colleagues are anthropologists
and there is plenty on offer.
Now I mentioned dissertation earlier on, examples
of the kinds of themes that students have
studied in recent years, and this is just
a selection. And I’ve selected these again
to emphasise the fact that our offerings range
well beyond the boundaries of the continent
of Africa. And one of my favourite is the
relationship between the spoken and written
word in Homer, South African praise poetry
and contemporary slam poetry. Can anybody
think just from the list of degrees that I
put up earlier, can anybody suggest what this
particular candidate was studying? Anybody?
Yes, confusing isn’t it? They were really
interested in African Studies and Caribbean
Studies, in black culture generally, but they
were also interested in the classics as well
as in anthropology. They were combining classics
with anthropology. But it’s just one example
of the sort of things I was talking about.
So plenty of possibilities there.
Again, we try and encourage people to identify
areas they’re interested in and we offer
specialist supervision to help them to realise
a particular quote, unquote, “dreams”
of contributing to knowledge. I still remember
my dissertation as an undergraduate. I’ve
still got it, nicely bound. It’s the first
thing I ever wrote that I was really proud
of, but more importantly that I could keep,
which I spent a lot of time.
Now, I’ve said a lot of things about what
we do in Birmingham. But you don’t have
to spend all your time in Birmingham. The
degree offers the opportunity of spending
time abroad if you’re so inclined. Again,
it’s not automatic. We try and make sure
that the people who do go abroad are people
who can cope academically, culturally and
a whole range of other ways. So you need to
do well, to perform well in your first year.
You need to score an overall average of sixty
and that then qualifies you to apply with
the possibility of spending time abroad. You
will then be interviewed, you will then be
assessed and a final decision will be given.
So the opportunity is there, it is not an
automatic opportunity. It’s not a right.
So that opportunity is there, but that aside,
many students opt to conduct their fieldwork
for their dissertation abroad as well – Africa
and the Caribbean, in Asia. Or somebody said
“In London. That’s a long way from Birmingham”
they said. So opportunities then for doing
that. Now plenty of information, additional
information using – you can get from the
link there and you should already have. So
you can study in Birmingham, you can go away
while you’re studying anthropology in Birmingham,
but we also try and bring anthropologists
and anthropology specialisations from a whole
range of parts of the world to Birmingham
to help to diversify the student experience.
These are just examples of lists of annual
research seminars that we have in the department,
right? In addition to those we have an annual
Cadbury Conference – yes, as in Cadbury
as in the chocolate, as in up the road. We’re
tight, us and Cadbury! They pay for this annual
workshop and we bring people in from all over
Latin America, Africa, mainland Europe, North
America as well.
Now each year it’s a different theme and
the idea is to try and capture people who
are starting out in their careers and give
them an opportunity to get away from the mundane
everyday responsibilities of their home institutions,
spend several weeks here and repair them with
experienced academics, not just from Birmingham
but from a whole range of other places. And
then we have an end of term, if you like,
workshop, which is usually an international
workshop and we’ll bring people in. So we
try and do our best to expose you to as many
perspectives as possible. We try and create
opportunities for people to be able to realise
their full potential. Our aim really is to
try and help you to be the best that you can
be. That’s all we can actually do. An important
part of that is to provide us, provide you
with the kinds of opportunities that are necessary.
Now one way of doing this obviously is to
teach and offer opportunity for you to learn.
In other words is to provide plenty of support.
As academic support, every module tutor will
be willing to talk to any and every student
who would like to discuss a lecture or the
seminar or the reading or whatever. There’s
nothing an academic likes better than coming
across somebody who is interested in what
they do – because we are self absorbed.
We want to feel that everybody is as interested
in what we’re interested in, as much as
we are. And then we go home and our families
set us straight.
But we do support you along the way, academic
tutors. We also have personal tutors. Each
person is assigned a personal tutor at the
start of the year, and you meet with that
person once a term, and that’s your first
port of call if something is going wrong or
is likely to go wrong, or if you just want
to talk. Believe it or not, we are capable
of listening. So there is that. In addition
to that, the university also has professional
wellbeing officers. The school has professional
wellbeing officers who you can consult for
all sorts of other things – mental health
issues. They’re much more qualified. We
are not qualified to deal with those things,
they are. And school officers are unbelievably
good. I’ve worked with them for several
years. I used to do welfare, and I would not
hesitate to recommend my child, my mother,
or sibling, whatever, to talk to the two people
we’ve got at the moment. They’re really
very good. So we do our best then to try and
help people to develop into rounded human
beings if you like.
Why would you want to spend x thousands by
the end of your third year, of pounds, to
study anthropology? What will you do? What
can you do? Well there’s a whole range of
possibilities. Again, the sheets that I’ve
been handing out will provide you with additional
examples. But here, we’ve combined just
a list – it’s not a comprehensive list
– of the areas that our students have gone
into and all the sorts of things that they
end up doing. So we’ve got all of those
and we’ve got some more. I suspect the ones
that people are likely to have heard of will
be the ones in the media, who tend to be the
most visible ones and the ones who fly the
flag for us, right? But bank management, it’s
not a bad thing is it? My brother tells me
differently. He used to be one and gave it
up. But there’s a whole range of possibilities.
I suppose the point that I am trying to make
here is that there’s all sorts of possibilities.
Really, you can retrain if you want or you
can learn on the job, you can do a whole range
of possible things.
How do I get in? The University of Birmingham
now runs a system of personalised offers.
I will talk about grades in a moment, but
in fact what the University now does is to
create an offer for each individual applicant,
taking into account how well you’ve done
in your GCSEs, taking into account the kinds
of recommendations your teachers are writing
for you, taking into account the sorts of
things that you want to do et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. So a personalised offer. And the
offers will cover both standard academic qualifications
as well as quote, unquote “alternative”
academic qualifications, a whole range of
possibilities, and I’m happy to talk to
anybody who would like additional information.
But it would also be useful because the University
has spent a phenomenal amount of time and
effort and resources to set this up. It’s
set up an offer calculator which you can actually
play around with yourself. You go online,
you can put in your details and you get some
idea of what your chances are of being offered
a place. So please, I would encourage you
to try that or talk to me obviously at the
stand downstairs later on. I will be more
than happy to talk.
Now, typical offers then – that’s the
sort of thing that we’re talking about for
anthropology. Other qualifications considered,
international baccalaureate, there’s a whole
range of other things. We look at all of those
as well. But getting in, these are the sorts
of things that we are actually looking for.
Having said all that, and despite the fact
that we’ve tried to produce as much in the
way of paper support as possible, I would
still encourage you to get in touch. There’s
only so much we can contribute to damaging
forests. So get in touch. Emails, texts. Heather
Cullen, my colleague who’s responsible for
dealing with all of enquiries et cetera would
respond, and if she isn’t on seat, there
are other colleagues who will do, will respond
pretty promptly.
And finally then, personal statement. There’s
no blueprint. I wish there was. If I could
come up with a blueprint of what a perfect
personal statement would look like, believe
me, I wouldn’t be standing here. I would
patent it and retire on the proceeds. But
there are a number of key things that I think
we need to think about. Why are you interested
in the subject? Could be any reason. You might
just like the name. There’s nothing wrong
with that. There’s no right or wrong answer.
The important thing is for you to think about
why you want to do what you want to do.
Now parents – and I am one – and I have
been through this myself. Parents, this is
not for you. Candidates, you really need to
think very carefully about what you want and
why you want and be able to come up with arguments
that will convince not just us but maybe even
more importantly, parents. And if you can
do that, this becomes a lot easier, I promise
you. But these are the sorts of things that
I think you need to think about.
I want to be a millionaire. Good. What am
I going to do about it? What have I done about
it? I want to study anthropology at Birmingham
or at Cambridge or at Oxford. Brilliant. What
have you done about it? What do you propose
to do about it? What have you read? What kind
of research have you done? Who have you spoken
to? What is it that you find attractive or
interesting about it? What is the programme
like in Birmingham? University College London?
Or in Cambridge? That is the bit that’s
changed quite radically in the last five,
eight, ten years. Certainly in the last five
years.
Each university now has masses of information
on its programmes – aims, objectives, modules
et cetera online. And when people come in
we ask them and it takes us all of three minutes
to work out whether or not they’ve taken
the trouble of checking on what they’re
doing. So please use the resources that are
there for you. What is it about your experience
that helps you stand out from the crowd? What’s
the extra selling point that you have? Now
these are the kinds of things it seems to
me that we need to think about.
Now I know you only write a single personal
statement and this needs to be acceptable
by three institutions at the very least. Think
about the institutions that you ultimately
want to target and make sure the personal
statement speaks to what each of those institutions
has to offer. It is possible and it can be
done fairly easily. Focus on the subject and
the discipline and focus on the specific programme
or programmes throughout your personal statement.
And if you get it right – and it’s fairly
easy to get it right, thousands do every year
– then the chances are that you might see
me in September, October next year. Now whether
that’s a good thing for you or not I don’t
know but I would encourage you then, whether
or not you look forward to seeing me in September
to go to the website and spend a bit of time
looking at the applicant information.
Thank you very much. I’m happy to take questions.
