SOAS University of London: A World-Leading Center for the Study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. SOAS stands as one of the world's leading institutions dedicated to the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

A Storied History Rooted in Imperial Training and the Expansion of Learning

The School of Oriental Studies was founded in 1916 at 2 Finsbury Circus, London, the then premises of the London Institution. The school received its royal charter on 5 June 1916 and admitted its first students on 18 January 1917. The school was formally inaugurated a month later on 23 February 1917 by George V. The school's founding mission was to advance British scholarship, science, and commerce in Africa and Asia, and to provide London University with a rival to the Oriental schools of Berlin, Petrograd, and Paris.

The school immediately became integral to training British administrators, colonial officials, and spies for overseas postings across the British Empire. For a period in the mid-1930s, prior to moving to its current location at Thornhaugh Street, Bloomsbury, the school was located at Vandon House, Vandon Street, London SW1, with the library located at Clarence House. Its move to new premises in Bloomsbury was held up by delays in construction and the half-completed building took a hit during the Blitz in September 1940.

In 1940, when it became apparent that a return to London was possible, the school returned to the city and was housed for some months in eleven rooms at Broadway Court, 8 Broadway, London SW1. In 1942, the War Office joined with the school to create a scheme for State Scholarships to be offered to select grammar and public-school boys with linguistic ability to train as military translators and interpreters in Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and Turkish. Lodged at Dulwich College in south London, the students became affectionately known as the Dulwich boys. One of these students was Charles Dunn, who became a prominent Japanologist on the faculty of the SOAS and a recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun. Others included Sir Peter Parker and Ronald Dore.

In recognition of SOAS's role during the war, the 1946 Scarborough Commission (officially the "Commission of Enquiry into the Facilities for Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies") report recommended a major expansion in provision for the study of Asia and the school benefited greatly from the subsequent largesse. The SOAS School of Law was established in 1947 with Seymour Gonne Vesey-FitzGerald as its first head. Growth however was curtailed by following years of economic austerity, and upon Sir Cyril Philips assuming the directorship in 1956, the school was in a vulnerable state.

Academic Structure and Diverse Programs

A college of the University of London, the School's fields include Law, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Languages with special reference to Asia and Africa. SOAS is divided into three colleges: the College of Development, Economics and Finance; the College of Humanities; and the College of Law, Anthropology and Politics, which includes the SOAS School of Law.

SOAS, University of London is divided into three colleges. These are further divided into academic departments. The College of Humanities houses the School of Art, the School of History, Religions and Philosophies, and the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. It offers courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with an emphasis on Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. A gift from the Alphawood Foundation in 2013 created the Hiram W. The SOAS Department of Linguistics was the first ever linguistics department in the United Kingdom, founded in 1932 as a centre for research and study in Oriental and African languages. J. R.

The College of Law, Anthropology and Politics houses the School of Law, the departments of Anthropology and Politics and International Studies, and the centres for Gender Studies, Media Studies, the London Asia-Pacific Centre for Social Science, the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, the Centre of Taiwan Studies and a number of department-specific centres. One of the largest individual departments, the SOAS School of Law is one of Britain's leading law schools and the sole law school in the world focusing on the study of Asian, African and Middle Eastern legal systems. The School of Law has more than 400 students. It offers programmes at the LL.B., LL.M. and MPhil/PhD levels.

The university offers around 350 bachelor's degree combinations, more than 100 one-year master's degrees, and PhD programmes in nearly every department.

The SOAS School of Law: A Unique Global Perspective

The SOAS School of Law has an unrivaled concentration of expertise in the laws of Asian and African countries, human rights, transnational commercial law, environmental law, and comparative law. Although many modules at SOAS embody a substantial element of English common law, all modules are taught (as much as possible) in a comparative or international manner with an emphasis on the way in which law functions in society. Thus, law studies at SOAS are broad and comparative in their orientation. All students study a significant amount of non-English law, starting in the first year of the LL.B. course, where "Legal Systems of Asia and Africa" is compulsory.

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A Hub for Area Studies and Language Training

SOAS is a centre for the study of subjects concerned with Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It trains government officials on secondment from around the world in Asian, African and Middle Eastern languages and area studies, particularly in Arabic & Islamic Studies - which combined with Hebrew formed the major bulk of classical Oriental Studies in Europe - and Mandarin Chinese.

Its Language Centre offers an unparalleled range of non-European languages such as Persian, Thai, Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Cantonese and more, taught from beginner to advanced levels.

The SOAS Library: A National Resource

The SOAS Library, located in the Philips Building, is the UK's national resource for materials relating to Asia and Africa and is the largest of its kind in the world. The SOAS library is a library for Asian, African and Middle Eastern studies. It houses more than 1.2 million volumes and electronic resources for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and attracts scholars from all over the world.

Growth and Evolution

The school has grown considerably over the past 30 years, from fewer than 1,000 students in the 1970s to more than 6,000 students today, nearly half of them postgraduates. In 2011, the Privy Council approved changes to the school's charter allowing it to award degrees in its own name, following the trend set by fellow colleges the London School of Economics, University College London and King's College London. In 2012, a new visual identity for SOAS was launched to be used in print, digital media and around the campus.

Campus and Facilities

The campus is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London, close to Russell Square. It includes College Buildings (the Philips Building and the Old Building), Brunei Gallery building, 53 Gordon Square (which houses the Doctoral School) and, since 2016, the Paul Webley Wing (the North Block of Senate House). The SOAS library designed by Sir Denys Lasdun in 1973 is located in the Philips Building.

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The school houses the Brunei Gallery, built from an endowment from the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam, the leader of a country whose human rights abuses are ongoing, and inaugurated by the Princess Royal, as Chancellor of the University of London, on 22 November 1995. Its facilities include exhibition space on three floors, a book shop, a lecture theatre, and conference and teaching facilities. The Brunei Gallery, opened in 1995, provides a 40-room conference venue at a convenient, central London location.

The school hosted the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, one of the foremost collections of Chinese ceramics in Europe. The SOAS Centenary Masterplan conceived the development of two new buildings and a substantial remodelling of existing space to realign and develop the entrance and two areas within the Old Building. The cost estimates for the Centenary Masterplan settle at around £73m for the total project.

Leadership and Governance

Since its foundation, the school has had ten directors. The inaugural director was the linguist Edward Denison Ross. The SOAS Board of Trustees sets policy, mission, and purpose for the university. The Trustees are also responsible for overseeing the management of resources and upholding SOAS's role.

A Politically Active and Diverse Community

SOAS is renowned for its political scene and radical socialist politics and was voted the most politically active university in the UK in the Which? University 2012. Recent campaigns include students for social change, women's liberty and justice for cleaners. The nature of the School places diversity at the centre of life at SOAS. As such we are committed to providing high-quality education to all, regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, nationality, or national origin, gender, religion or belief, sexual identity, sexual orientation, or any other factor not relevant to academic achievement.

SOAS has a student body of which many are committed anti-Zionists. The SOAS Students' Union was the first students' union to carry out a referendum, in 2005, to support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement for goods stocked in the Students' Union, and in 2015, the SOAS Students' Union held a referendum in which its members voted to adopt the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions directions more generally in the university. In 2022, students occupied the management section of the university for nine days, citing the university's investments in Israel amongst other reasons, which led to the university spending £200,000 in their eviction. After Israel's war in Gaza. university management suspended seven students protesting the university's investments in Israel and partnership with Haifa university, a university in Israel with three military colleges and a military base on campus. These students stated that the suspensions were arbitrary and a "targeted act of political repression", whereas the university replied that the students were a "threat to the SOAS community". In the same period, a lecturer reported that security had removed a poster with the Palestinian flag from her door. SOAS has an active Jewish Society which is explicitly anti-Zionist. In 2024, and in the context of university protest camps established around the world relating to Israel's war in Gaza, SOAS director Adam Habib hosted a high-level meeting about antisemitism on campus, extending an invite to various Jewish academics on campus, but excluding any representation from the Jewish Society. In December 2020 The Guardian reported that SOAS refunded a student £15,000 in fees after he chose to abandon his studies as a result of the "toxic antisemitic environment" he felt had been allowed to develop on campus. Examples of matters he considered anti-Semitic are, according to the Guardian report previously cited, that being pro-Israel was described as "Zionist", the student body's public support of the BDS movement, and that his proposal to write a thesis on perceived anti-Israel bias at the UN led to a response that, in his words, "he was covering up Israeli war crimes and was a white supremacist Nazi". He additionally stated that he had seen "anti-Semitic graffiti" on campus, but did not specify what this was, leaving it unclear as to whether or not he considered statements for example in support of the BDS movement as anti-Semitic.

The SOAS Student Union was established in 1927, and has a long history of activism: campaigning against the introduction of both student loans and later student fees; raising funds for the Algerian victims of the Algerian War of Independence against France in 1959; and successfully campaigning for the school to divest from fossil fuels. SOAS Students’ Union is a bustling and diverse environment, which offers support and representation for all SOAS students. It is our role to make sure that all our students’ - be they international, home, part-time or full-time - voices are heard. We do this in two ways, first via the elected officers on the Union. We have four sabbatical co-presidents who work full time to represent you. They attend School committees and lobby management on issues raised directly by students. Representation also occurs at a course level. SOAS has one of the best Class Representative schemes in the country (the model for a number of other Universities). Each class has a representative who attends departmental meetings and is a vital part of decision-making processes on the lowest level. Not only does this ensure students voices are heard on every level, but that more students can be involved democratically with the direction the Students’ Union chooses. There are many other ways students can get involved with the Union. We have approximately two hundred clubs and societies, covering sport, dining, political debate, cultural issues and everything in between. We want to get students involved, and if the particular interest you have is not represented then it is easy to set up your own society. It is our job to make your life in London easier, more interesting and packed with things to do. In addition to all of this the Union runs the bar in SOAS, a popular meeting place for students and a Café - convenience store which is the cheapest place to buy your pens and papers in the area.

Student Life and Support

SOAS has multiple smaller sports teams competing in a variety of local and national leagues, as well as occasional international tournaments.

Some programs help students to work part-time on campus alongside their full-time study. Education Co-Creator Internship: This is a 64-hour scheme for SOAS undergraduates interested in the education sector. Santander Micro-internship: This is a remote 60-hour Santander Universities initiative, targeted towards SOAS students looking to develop an entrepreneurial career. Campus Brand Ambassador roles: Depending on availability, students may also take up a job to represent employers such as CMS, Clyde & Co, BDO, Vantage, Dentons, PwC, Barbri, Linklaters, Freshfields, and BCLP on campus.

The primary accommodation for undergraduates is Dinwiddy House, which is located on Pentonville Road. This contains 510 single en-suite rooms arranged in small cluster flats of around six rooms each. A few minutes walk from Dinwiddy House and also on the Pentonville Road is Paul Robeson House, the second hall of residence. SOAS students are eligible to apply for places in the University of London intercollegiate halls of residence. The majority of these are based in Bloomsbury such as Canterbury Hall, Commonwealth Hall, College Hall, Connaught Hall, Hughes Parry Hall, International Hall and International Students House, while further afield are Nutford House in Marble Arch and Lillian Penson Hall in Paddington. A number of SOAS postgraduate students also apply for student accommodation at Goodenough College.

Study Abroad Opportunities

Prestigious SOAS, or School of Oriental and African Studies, is the UK’s only university to specialize in the study of Asia, Africa, and the Near and Middle East. “The world’s university” aspires to tackle global problems and broaden students’ views. Located in central London, the leafy, intellectual Bloomsbury district campus is full of museums, cafes, parks, and grand architecture. In addition to outstanding academics and a prime location, your program also includes IFSA excursions and activities (no extra costs) that give you cultural insights tourists often miss.

A full course load for academic year students is 120 SOAS credits, comprised of any combination of 15- or 30-credit modules. Semester students at SOAS take exactly 4 modules (classes) whether attending in Spring or Fall. Find the classes you need fast with CHART. Please review syllabi and course materials when registering for direct-enroll classes. Certain classes may have a one-off lab or field trip fee disclosed in the syllabus or during the first meeting of the class. These fees are not included in your IFSA program fee. More emphasis on independent learning. More advanced instruction and work than you’d find in a class at the same level in the United States. Less personal access to professors. Choose classes from one department to avoid scheduling conflicts. Full access to the university’s robust academic support system and resources, including an assigned advisor for academic support. You must be at least 18 years of age. Eligibility requirements can vary among host institutions. semester credit hour system. You will also have access to an unofficial transcript in your IFSA Student Portal. The transcript reflects classes taken, credits attempted, and grades earned during your term abroad. This service is included in your study abroad program at no additional cost.

Activities and excursions are designed to pull you into the communities you visit and encourage cultural connections of every kind. Below are a selection of activities and excursions from previous terms; options may vary for your program. West End Theatre Performance: No time in the UK would be complete without a trip to the West End, London’s famous theatre district. Shows are chosen that provide context or different perspectives on London/the UK/Europe. Sustainability Garden: Visit a community garden started to rewild urban space and respond to the challenges of urban sustainable food production in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. By speaking to gardeners, learn more about the impact of sustainable practices on the biodiversity of urban areas and how they’re trying to widen participation in their local community. Stonehenge and Bath Visit: Stonehenge has stood on Salisbury Plain for around 5,000 years and it’s still unknown how the prehistoric monument came to rest there! Make up your own mind during this visit and discover the fascinating theories behind these rocks. You’ll learn about Stonehenge from the fascinating exhibits and be able to enjoy a virtual sunrise as it rises over the prehistoric stones! Afterward, travel to the Roman city of Bath for a walking tour of this World Heritage city once home to Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Gainsborough, Lord Nelson, and Beau Nash. Piers and Queers Brighton Trip: Since the 18th century, Brighton has become a cosmopolitan place of recreation, escape, and freedom. A destination for people who didn’t conform. With an LGBTQ+ population now estimated at 15%, Brighton celebrated England’s first civil partnerships, and hosts the UK’s largest Pride event as well as Europe’s first Trans Pride, rightly earning its title as the LGBTQ+ Capital of Britain. Piers and Queers is a tour of Brighton from LGBTQ+ perspective. This colorful 90-minute walk along the beach and historic city center takes in more than 200 years of history including Regency Dandies, 1950s lesbian and gay life, and political activism. Big Welsh Weekend: Delve into the rich history of Wales and explore its unique culture and its complex relationship with the rest of the UK on a weekend that takes in the famous Tintern Abbey, the historic Raglan Castle, the Blaenavon coal mines, and St Fagan’s, a museum that has preserved buildings and cultural practices from Welsh history. Yorkshire Adventure: Explore the vibrant and historic county of Yorkshire on a weekend trip where you’ll discover how this English region has contributed to the UK’s cultural landscape.

Students live in flats (apartments) provided by IFSA or in housing provided by SOAS. SOAS residence halls: SOAS has partnered with Sanctuary Students to offer housing at Dinwiddy House. The residence is mostly single ensuite bedrooms arranged in flats with shared kitchen and dining facilities, with a limited number of twin occupancy rooms.

A "School for Diplomats"

This lively and diverse university is known colloquially as the 'school for diplomats' as it attracts so many international students who are passionate about world affairs and who go on to lead very internationally-focused careers. Even the character for Indiana Jones was inspired by a SOAS lecturer! As the only institution in the UK that specializes in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East, SOAS University of London has a unique academic approach in courses like non-governmental organizations and development to international politics, music, anthropology, economics, art history and the comparative religions.

The most interesting aspect of being a student at SOAS is the diversity of the students on campus. They are from all over the world. You’ll have access to the SOAS Library, considered the UK’s national library for Asian and African studies. You’ll quickly become active on-campus through the bustling Students’ Union, home to a number of clubs and societies with organized events like world music concerts, guest speakers, panel discussions, and even a produce co-op. Situated on one charming campus, you’ll be located in the intellectual and literary Bloomsbury quarter, a London neighborhood rich in culture-which is also home to the Arcadia London Center! The newly developed North Block is part of the iconic Senate House library building.

SOAS: Shaping Current Thinking

SOAS is a remarkable institution. With our vast repository of knowledge and expertise on our specialist regions, we are uniquely placed to inform and shape current thinking about the economic, political, cultural, security and religious challenges of our world. Our programmes are taught by respected academics engaged in fieldwork and research which influences government policy and the lives of individuals across the globe.

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