Teaching Program
The teaching program in archaeological sciences aims to build for its students research leadership skills. Training includes students from Israel and overseas to meet the academic research challenges in the interdisciplinary integration of archaeology with the natural and exact sciences, through the transmittance of a comprehensive background in both archaeology and the natural and exact sciences.
Upon graduation, student competencies will include:
- Creative and critical thinking;
- Successful function in global, cross-cultural, and diversified environments;
- Understanding archaeological sciences in Israel and abroad;
- Acquiring skills in state-of-the-art research approaches and methods in archaeological sciences;
- Understanding past human cultures, their relationships with changing environments and the social mechanisms that underlie coping with changing environments through time and space;
- Acquaintance with current laboratory methods and instrumentation pertinent to address research questions in archaeological sciences;
- Ability to plan and execute archaeological research in the field and the laboratory, including carrying out of experiments and general research design in archaeological sciences;
- Conducting research according to principles of scientific ethics, as well as social and community responsibility;
- Ability to carry out excavation using modern tools by obtaining a certificate of “Specialist/Excavating Archaeologist”, accredited by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
This is a two-year program in which the first year will be dedicated to taking courses and the second year will be devoted to conducting research towards a thesis. Passing to the thesis stage will be determined based on: (1) successful completion of at least 90% of the coursework, and (2) approval of a research proposal. Students not fulfilling this passage conditions, and those that a-priori choose the non-thesis track will take courses also during the second year of studies to fulfill the required credits quota towards the degree.
Study tracks and required course credits:
Track A: M.Sc. with thesis: 32 sh in courses + 4 sh of thesis
Track B: M.Sc. without thesis: 36 sh in courses
The study program includes mandatory and elective courses – see table.
Students who studied and successfully passed similar courses or other programs in recognized academic institutions will be allowed to file an application for an exemption from 3 courses at most, i.e. an exemption of 6 semestrial weekly hours in total.
Graduates will receive a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree. This degree will be given under the following conditions:
- The student has completed his/her studies according to the demands of the school and the Graduate Studies Authority, both in terms of the required quota of courses and in terms of the composition of courses.
- The student received a passing grade in each of the courses (at least 65).
- The final weighted average will be calculated as follows:
Thesis track:
Grades of courses studied in the framework of the program – 50%
Thesis grade – 50%
Non-thesis track:
Grades of courses studied in the framework of the program – 70%
Final exam – 30%
- The student has cleared all of his or her debts to the university.