Institute of Commonwealth Studies

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The Institute of Commonwealth Studies was founded by the University of London in 1949 to promote academic study of the Commonwealth of Nations and its constituent countries. It became part of the School of Advanced Study in 1994. It is currently housed at 27-28 Russell Square, Bloomsbury, but there are plans to move it out of this grade II listed building into nearby Senate House during 2006.

The institute has a library containing 190,000 items and over 140 archive collections, including material by Ruth First and other anti-apartheid campaigners. It offers several postgraduate programmes, including an MA in human rights, and is a major international centre for studying the history, politics, sociology and law of anglophone Africa, the anglophone Caribbean and other areas formerly part of the British Empire.