Opinions on SOAS?

I'm thinking of applying for one of their anthropology joint courses.
What's the place like? Is it too busy or okay? I've heard stuff about protests causing some issues.
Are the people friendly? How's the diversity?
Is the library super crowded or is it okay getting a place to study in there?

Reply 1

arhhm

- Nice place, smaller uni compared to others but lovely location
- Not too busy
- People are friendly but the admin needs a lot of work
- Very diverse, all the societies are very active too
- Library isn't crowded and you always have the chance to use UCL's library 2 mins away w your soas card

School of Oriental and African Studies

London

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Never did any modules in the anthropology department while I was there, but in general my experience was that the lecturers are very good and really engaged in their subject and in teaching others about it, but the admin side was really, really poor. I mean in general uni admin is always a bit rubbish but SOAS has managed to probably managed to be the worst of the unis I've been at for the general admin side of things. However most students probably won't run into too many major admin issues (my particular situation meant I had to engage with that side of stuff a lot more and had to deal with the fallout of it not working much more).

Also as a bonus, they offer a huge range of quite uncommon languages, many unique to SOAS. If you are interested in the anthropology of a particular region and may want to continue to graduate work, it's an excellent way to get started on language skills in preparation for fieldwork later!

Reply 3

SOAS Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post by TeaOnRice

Hi, I'm a final year undergraduate at SOAS. It's a very friendly place in the heart of London near to the British Museum and British Library. Although the campus is small, consisting of 3 buildings, it gives a close, community atmosphere. The protests haven't caused major issues as classes can be carried out virtually. The people are so nice and the university is extremely diverse, with people from all over the world! You can join over 100 societies and immerse in different cultures in societies like MENA, Desi, UN, Consulting and a range of sports. The library isn't super crowded as there's 6 floors, each floor specialising in a different region and it has over 1000 study spaces! Hope this helps :smile: