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The School of Oriental and African Studies (often abbreviated to 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. 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.

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.

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.

SOAS is consistently rated as one of the United Kingdom's top ten higher education institutions in national League tables. In the most recent Guardian League Table (2005) SOAS was ranked 4th nationally out of 122 UK Higher Education institutions. This is the third year in a row that the School has achieved 4th place in the Guardian Newspaper rankings. Internationally, in November 2004 SOAS was ranked the 44th best university in the world by the THES world league table of universities (the 7th UK university, and 11th European university in the table).

The SOAS Department of Linguistics was the first 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.

Faculties at SOAS

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 of Finance and Management Studies
  • Department of Politics and International Studies
  • The School of Law

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

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.

Students' accommodation

Many SOAS students are accommodated in the college's own halls of residence; 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.

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 everthing from local news to international media analysis, and cookery programmes to DJ sets.

OpenAir Radio broadcasts on 101.4fm, and can also be accessed online at www.openair.org.uk.

Global Partnership

Notable alumni

Notable members of staff

External links

School of Oriental and African Studies | University of London | Camden | Central Asian Studies | Educational institutions established in 1916

Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos | Sgoil Eòlas an Oirthir agus Afraga

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "School of Oriental and African Studies".

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