School of Oriental and African Studies

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The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
SOAS Logo
Motto Knowledge is Power
Established 1916
Type Public
Endowment £20 million [1]
President The Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws QC
Principal Professor Paul Webley
Pro-Director Professor Peter Robb
Students 4,300[1]
Undergraduates 2,250[1]
Postgraduates 2,055[1]
Location London, United Kingdom
UK University Ranking 2006 6th (Guardian); =18th (Times); 11th (Daily Telegraph); 10th (THES)
Affiliations University of London, ACU, 1994 Group
Website http://www.soas.ac.uk
SOAS Crest

The School of Oriental and African Studies (commonly abbreviated to SOAS) is a College of the University of London.

Contents

[edit] Background

SOAS was founded in 1916 as the School of Oriental Studies at 2, Finsbury Circus, London, England, the then premises of the London Institution. Africa was added to the school's name and remit in 1938 and the school shifted to Thornhaugh Street, which runs between Malet Street and Russell Square, in 1941. The institution's founding mission was primarily to train British administrators for overseas postings across the empire. Since then the school has grown into the world's foremost centre for the exclusive study of Asia and Africa. A college of the University of London, SOAS fields include Law, Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages with special reference to Asia and Africa. SOAS today is a source of some of the most influential and innovative thinking in many fields of the social sciences and humanities, principally, but not exclusively in relation to Asia and Africa. SOAS consistently ranks among the top ten universities in the UK league tables and was ranked 44th in the world according the Times Higher Education Supplement. The SOAS Library, housed in a building designed at the beginning of the 1970s by Sir Denys Lasdun, is the UK's national resource for materials relating to Asia and Africa and is the largest of its kind in Europe.

Russell Square campus
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Russell Square campus

The school has grown considerably over the past thirty years, from under 1,000 students in the 1970s to nearly 4,000 students today, approximately half of them postgraduates.

[edit] Campuses

The entrance to the Brunei Gallery.
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The entrance to the Brunei Gallery.

The school also houses two galleries: the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, one of the foremost collections of Chinese ceramics in Europe, and the Brunei Gallery, completed in 1995, which stages temporary exhibitions of both historical and contemporary materials which reflect subjects and regions studied at SOAS.

The main campus was moved to a new, purpose-built home, just off Russell Square in Bloomsbury in 1938, and has much expanded since then. The present library building was added in 1973, the Brunei Gallery in 1995, and an extension to the library building opened in 2004 (the second phase of this expansion is due to be completed in 2006).

A new campus at Vernon Square in Islington was opened in 2001.

Library
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Library

[edit] Reputation

In 2003 The Daily Telegraph produced a "table of tables" showing the average position attained by universities in the different newspaper and employer rankings. SOAS was placed in 11th position, putting the School at the top of what the newspaper called the "First division". Thus SOAS was outstripped by Oxbridge, London rivals Imperial, LSE, and UCL, and the Universities of Warwick, Nottingham, York, Bristol, and Manchester. On the other hand, SOAS fared better than the other 85 universities in the table, including King's College London, Durham, St Andrews, and Edinburgh.[2]

In 2004 and 2005, SOAS was rated fourth in the United Kingdom in the Guardian universities league table.[3] In the 2006 table, SOAS is in sixth place with 76.47 percent, narrowly beaten by UCL and Imperial, who scored 77.46 percent and 77.03 percent respectively.[4] In the Guardian 2006 subject tables, SOAS was placed 3rd for Anthropology, 4th for Economics, 3rd for History and History of Art, 6th for Law, 5th for Music, 3rd for Politics, and 3rd for Theology and Religious Studies.

In The Times table, SOAS has done less well, in 2006 sharing 18th place with Leicester and St Andrews.[5] In the subject tables SOAS was placed 11th for Anthropology, 12th for History, 13th for Politics, and 18th for History of Art and for Law. More disappointingly, perhaps, SOAS was placed fourth for East and South Asian Studies, after Cambridge, Oxford, and Nottingham, and fifth for Middle Eastern and African Studies, after Oxford, Durham, Birmingham, and Exeter.[6]

The latest Times Higher Education Supplement world rankings (2006) place SOAS joint 70th in the world, 20th in Europe and 10th in the UK. In 2004 SOAS was ranked 44th in the world, placing it seventh in the United Kingdom, and 11th in Europe. In 2005 SOAS shared 103rd position in the same table, and was thus 15th in the United Kingdom, and 38th in Europe.

After only five years as Director and Principal of SOAS (and three years as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London), Colin Bundy has accepted appointment as Warden of Green College, Oxford.[7] Professor Bundy's immediate predecessor, Sir Tim Lankester KCB, was Director and Principal 1996-2000 and left the School to become President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.[8] His successor, Paul Webley, was Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor and Professor of Economic Psychology in the University of Exeter.

[edit] Department of Linguistics

The SOAS Department of Linguistics was the first ever linguistics department in United Kingdom, founded in 1932 as a centre for research and study in Oriental and African languages. J R Firth, known internationally for his original work in phonology and semantics, was Senior Lecturer, Reader and Professor of General Linguistics at the school between 1938 and 1956.

[edit] Faculties at SOAS

[edit] Faculty of Law and Social Sciences

The Faculty of Law and Social Sciences consists of five academic departments

  • Department of Economics
  • Department of Development Studies
  • Department for Financial & Management Studies (Called CeFiMS also offers distance learning courses)
  • Department of Politics and International Studies
  • The School of Law

[edit] The Faculty of Arts and Humanities

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities contains five Departments

  • Anthropology and Sociology
  • Art and Archaeology
  • History
  • Music
  • Study of Religions

The Faculty also administers the Centre for Media and Film Studies and MA in Gender Studies

[edit] Faculty of Languages and Cultures

The Faculty of Languages and Cultures consists of seven academic departments:

  • Department of Linguistics
  • Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa
  • Department of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia
  • Department of the Languages and Cultures of Japan and Korea
  • Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East
  • Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia
  • Department of the Languages and Cultures of South East Asia and the Islands
  • The Language Centre

Note: At present, where The Language Centre employs its own staff and administers language only courses, the respective departments manage language acquisition in their courses. In the near future (the date is TBC), all language acquisition will be brought under the remit of the new School of Languages.

[edit] IFCELS

IFCELS (International Foundation Courses and English Language Studies), lies outside the university's faculty structure and runs a number of foundation courses for students wishing to enter higher education in the UK.

Located in the Faber building, this department is one of the largest departments in the school with currently over 250 students.

[edit] Students' accommodation

Many SOAS students are accommodated in the college's own halls of residence: Dinwiddy House (located on Pentonville Road in Kings Cross) and Paul Robeson House, a block away from Dinwiddy House, on Penton Rise; SOAS students are also eligible to apply for places in the University of London intercollegiate halls of residence, such as Connaught Hall.

Most students in college or university accommodation are first-year undergraduates. The majority of second and third-year students and postgraduates find their own accommodation in the private sector.

[edit] OpenAir Radio

SOAS runs its own radio station, OpenAir Radio, based on the 5th floor of the Russell Square Building. The initial Restricted Service Licence ran from November until 16th December 2005, and broadcast on 101.4FM over a three mile radius in the Camden/Central London area. The remit of the station is world music, culture and current affairs, with programmes focusing on Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. OpenAir programmes include everything from local news to international media analysis, and cookery programmes to DJ sets.

OpenAir Radio is currently not broadcasting, however the website can be accessed online at www.openair.org.uk.

[edit] Global Partnership

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), the renowned and the largest professional accountancy body that offers Chartered Certified Accountant qualification worldwide, have signed a global partnership agreement to enable ACCA’s members and affliates worldwide to take the SOAS's Postgraduate Diploma in Public Financial Management. (Please click: [2])


[edit] Students' Union

SOAS Students' Union is known for its political activism. It is often very outspoken about the Middle East, primarily taking the pro-Arab position, and is known among the students' union movement as being a very radical union.

[edit] Notable alumni

See also: Category:Alumni of the School of Oriental and African Studies

[edit] Notable members of staff

See also: Category:Academics of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2004/05. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
  2. ^ University rankings: the table of tables. The Daily Telegraph (25 June 2003). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
  3. ^ SOAS Ranked 4th the Guardian University League Table. School of Oriental and African Studies (19 April 2005). Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
  4. ^ Institution-wide. The Guardian (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
  5. ^ Top universities league table 2007. The Times (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
  6. ^ Times Good University Guide Subject Tables. The Times (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
  7. ^ Oxford Blueprint, Vol 6, Issue 11. University of Oxford (1 June 2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
  8. ^ About SOAS: Sir Tim Lankester KCB. School of Oriental and African Studies. Retrieved on 2006-08-13.


Recognised bodies of the University of London

Birkbeck | Courtauld Institute of Art | Central School of Speech and Drama | Goldsmiths | Heythrop | Imperial | Institute of Cancer Research | Institute of Education | King's | London Business School | LSE | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | Queen Mary | Royal Academy of Music | Royal Holloway | Royal Veterinary College | St George's | SOAS | School of Pharmacy | UCL
Listed bodies

University of London Institute in Paris | School of Advanced Study | University Marine Biological Station, Millport
The 1994 Group (of smaller British research universities)
Bath | Birkbeck | Durham | East Anglia | Essex | Exeter | Goldsmiths College | Lancaster | Leicester | Loughborough | Queen Mary | Reading | Royal Holloway |
School of Oriental and African Studies | St Andrews | Surrey | Sussex | Warwick* | York
* Also a member of the Russell Group
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