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SOAS

Hi,I’m currently in year 13 and have an offer at SOAS to study law next year.However i’m struggling to find much about the university and when i do some say they love it and some say they hate it.However something i can’t seem to find is how the social life is? This would be a big factor for me choosing it or going to my other offers like :city uni of london or birmingham.
Could someone give me there honest opinion
Thanks

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Social life is what you make of it. You can find (or avoid) social life at any uni. Especially for one in London, where there is so much available to do - it's completely down to you how involved in that you get.

As for the uni, I was not in that department while there so can't comment on it specifically, but in my area the lecturers were absolutely fantastic, incredibly dedicated, always so happy to be teaching and sharing what they know and just so invested in the teaching of degree students (which is not always a given in universities). So on that front I had an excellent experience and it was really formative for me, and I'm deeply indebted to my lecturers and have a huge amount of respect and gratitude for them.

However the admin is terrible there. Just absolutely awful - I know a lot of students on TSR complain about uni admin processes and procedures and timelines, but I've been at multiple universities as a student and worked at another as a non-academic staff member and SOAS was bar none flat out the worst. So this is not a spurious comment, I've got a fair bit of comparative perspective there.

It's a real shame as it completely tarnishes the otherwise fantastic work the lecturers are doing. I will contend I don't necessarily think this is out of malice or ineptitude on the part of the admin staff (at least not necessarily...the latter perhaps a touch at times...) but simply that their administration is run by a skeleton staff and there simply aren't enough people to deal with it (which causes delays and worse, errors, largely due to things having to be cross covered by non-specialists whenever one person is on annual leave or off sick). That said if you don't need to engage with the admin staff for any reason (which I didn't for a fair bit of the course to be fair) it's a non-issue. It's just very frustrating as usually if you need the admin side of the uni to do something for you, it's usually something urgent or that makes a significant financial difference to you personally.

Reply 2

SOAS Student Rep

Official Rep

Hi Congratulations for you offer at SOAS! I'm a final year undergraduate at SOAS and the social life is great. Campus is very lively and fun as there's people from all over the world so you can immerse in different cultures and there's over 165 societies you can join e.g sports, cultural society, rock climbing, debating etc. They have loads of events throughout the year including boat balls, masquerade balls, games nights etc and SOAS is a great place you can meet new people and make lifelong friends. Hope this helps!

Reply 3

EEJ-H

Original post by Anonymous #1

Social life is dead 😆

Here's an overview:
Pros:
Good programmes / lecturers and most staff are amazing ppl and super smart / very cultured place and they have lots of unique societies / in the middle of London so location is good

Cons:
Worse administration ever, security are aggressive / lots of strikes / no social stuff / internships are pretty lacking and eh / grades takes about a month or longer to get back / place is ran by a dictations weirdo and very few amenities

Unless you're doing a language course there are better unis however you can put this as a number 3 or 4 option

Reply 4

excess-kerchief

Original post by EEJ-H

Social life is dead 😆
Here's an overview:
Pros:
Good programmes / lecturers and most staff are amazing ppl and super smart / very cultured place and they have lots of unique societies / in the middle of London so location is good
Cons:
Worse administration ever, security are aggressive / lots of strikes / no social stuff / internships are pretty lacking and eh / grades takes about a month or longer to get back / place is ran by a dictations weirdo and very few amenities
Unless you're doing a language course there are better unis however you can put this as a number 3 or 4 option

Would you say it’s better than city?

Reply 5

EEJ-H

Original post by excess-kerchief

Would you say it’s better than city?

Haven't been City so I cannot say but I think there's more academic focus possibly 🤔

Reply 6

SOAS Rep Marjaan

Official Rep

Original post by excess-kerchief

Would you say it’s better than city?

Hi @excess-kerchief,

I hope you are well.

I cannot speak on behalf of City but, as a SOAS Law Student, I can give you my take on studying law at SOAS.

SOAS is unique and is known as the World's University because we specialise in the areas of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. When studying law at SOAS, you get more than just the traditional English Legal system, you learn about law from a globalised perspective which (in my opinion) is more interesting. We have modules on Islamic Law and Legal Systems of Asia and Africa (you can find the list of all the optional modules here).

In terms of employability, SOAS is recognised for attracting international talent and we're ranked 6th in the UK for employability (QS World University Rankings 2023). Studying law at SOAS gives you an advantage particularly if you are interested in practising internationally or in the fields we specialise in. Our graduates have gone to work at Clifford Chance, A&O Shearman and the United Nations.

All of this is to say, that studying law at SOAS is different to studying at other universities and if you use that to your advantage there is no limit to how well you can do in your career but it is up to you to put the effort in.

Overall, no one can decide what university is better for you so you need to do your research. I would highly recommend booking a campus tour and speaking to our students on Unibuddies so that you can make the best choice for you.

For some extra reading, as part of your research, here are some blogs from our SOAS Law Alumni who went on to practice as an Islamic Finance lawyer and another who went on to become an Associate with the Litigation, Arbitration & Regulatory team in DLA Piper's Dubai office.

I hope this helps 🙂