THOUSANDS of people have joined a campaign to try and save A-level archaeology which was started by a Worcester Sixth Form College lecturer.

Daniel Boatright launched a petition against a decision by exam board, AQA, to axe the A-level, and within days it has been signed by nearly 8,000 people.

His campaign also caught the attention of Channel 4 Time Team's Tony Robinson, who encouraged his twitter followers to sign the petition.

Dr Boatright, the college's subject leader for Archaeology, said Archaeology was not a 'soft option' but a vital tool to spark students' interest in learning and preparing skills for university courses.

He said: "AQA is extremely naïve if it believes UK students will benefit from a curriculum of only the major subjects.

"What we will be most sorry to lose is a subject capable of bringing out talents and potential in students that might have been left undiscovered.

"We have a fantastic group of students here at Worcester Sixth Form College and their opportunities to experience the rich cultural heritage of the region, country and world are being diminished."

Approximately 1,000 students are estimated to sit exams for AS and A-level Archaeology each year - a number AQA said was falling.

First teaching in the qualification will cease as of the next academic year, 2017/18.

However, current students will be able to take AS and A-level exams in 2017, and the final A-level exams in 2018.

Archaeology student Jamie Williams also backed the campaign saying: "If it weren't for this A level, I would never have found a subject that I was this excited about learning more about."

Lisette Hickman, a former A-level student at the college, said restricting people's education to the most popular subjects was wrong.

She said: "By forcing people to take 'traditional subjects', you will be telling these young people that they are not good enough or smart enough or the academic type, when they are; their strengths and passions just lie in different areas!"

However, AQA denied the decision was financially motivated and instead blamed difficulties in recruiting examiners with the right expertise after the Government reformed A-levels to remove modular assessments.

An AQA spokesman said: "Our number one priority is making sure every student gets the result they deserve – and unfortunately the number of very specialist options we have to offer in this subject’s exams creates too many risks on that front.

"Our decision has nothing to do with the importance of archaeology, and it won’t stop students going on to do a degree in it as we’re not aware of any universities that require an A-level in the subject."

A level Archaeology is one of a number of subjects that AQA will no longer offer. Others include Classical Civilisation, History of Art and Statistics.