IB Social & Cultural Anthropology

Applications Open: Now

Applications Close: 27 February 2026

Entry Requirements: - 5 GCSE's 4 or above including English and Maths

How to Apply

Internal students - Please apply via Applicaa using this link - https://skinnerskentacademy.applicaa.com/year12

External students - Please apply via KentChoices using this link - https://www.kentprospectus.co.uk/login. Please note - after sending your application, you'll receive a welcome email from Applicaa asking for further information.

The DP Social and Cultural Anthropology course offers an opportunity for students to become acquainted with anthropological perspectives and ways of thinking, and to develop critical, reflective knowledge. Social and Cultural Anthropology has a distinctive approach to intercultural awareness and understanding, which embodies the essence of an IB education. Anthropology fosters the development of citizens who are globally aware and ethically sensitive.

The Social and Cultural Anthropology course, for both SL and HL students, aims to:

• explore principles of social and cultural life and characteristics of societies and cultures

• develop an awareness of historical, scientific and social contexts within which social and cultural anthropology has developed

• develop in the student a capacity to recognise preconceptions and assumptions of their own social and cultural environments

• develop an awareness of relationships between local, regional and global processes and issues.

Part 1: Engaging with anthropology

• The language of anthropology

• The practice of anthropology

• Anthropological thinking

Part 2: Engaging with ethnography

• The body; Plastic Surgery in Brazil

• Belonging; Residents of Harlem, New York

• Production, exchange and consumption; The Trobriand Islanders

• Higher Level: Classifying the world; The Yanomami of the Amazon and The Bushmen of the Kalahari

Part 3: Engaging in anthropological practice

• SL: Limited fieldwork (observation, second data collection and critical reflection)

• HL: Fieldwork

A combination of external exam papers and internal assessment.

Standard Level:

• 40% Paper 1 (1 hour 30 minutes)

• 40% Paper 2 (1 hour 30 minutes)

• 20% Internal assessment (30 hours) This component is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB at the end of the course.

Higher Level:

• 30% Paper 1 (2 hours)

• 45% Paper 2 (2 hours 30 minutes)

• 25% Internal assessment (60 hours) This component is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB at the end of the course.

General Entry Requirement for The Skinners’ Kent Academy Sixth Form

Minimum of GCSE grade 4 (G4) in English and Mathematics plus 3 other GCSEs at grades 9-4

Subject specific minimum entry requirements are:

Social and Cultural Anthropology: G6 in either GCSE English or History

Taken in combination with other subjects and depending on your pathway of study this course can lead to higher education and/or apprenticeships

A high proportion of anthropology graduates work in the public and not-for-profit sectors, all branches of the Civil Service, local government, charities, central government bodies, universities, international organisations, such as the United Nations (UN), museums and voluntary organisations.

Anthropology graduates also pursue roles in:

• advertising;

• conservation;

• health and social work

• heritage management;