Mature students - SOAS

Hey,

Are there any mature students currently at SOAS or thinking of applying for September 2025 ?
If so why did you want to apply to SOAS, what subject and (if you are a current student) what have your experiences as a mature student been like so far?

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

juybee

Hi!

So, I regret choosing SOAS. I feel I was blind sided. I'm only in 1st year but heres how I see it so far. I ended up in UCL halls which means theres only a few SOAS students and there are some mature students but they are mostly post grads. In SOAS itself and my course, the impression I've got is a lot of people are immature and fresh out of high school.

There isn't any specific support or events or societies for mature students. Tbh its super isolating and the admin is atrocious here. You've probably heard about it and I didn't think I'd be effected but here I am.

As soon as I arrived I knew I made the wrong decision. The societies are really bad and there are some really REALLY weird people. Probably gonna be like that at any uni unfortunately.

I wanted to apply because I have an interest in languages and thought they had great teaching resources... rn I am learning nothing and feel very restricted. I also thought they had a good reputation abroad (unsure if this is true). I'm not really getting any of those opportunities that I thought I would be getting. I've reached out to the study abroad team multiple times expressing my keen interest anddddd crickets. Other unis seemed to have more opportunities, were more open and even provided more support and funding. I picked SOAS because I still love Korean. I dont want this stupid uni to ruin my love for it so I think I'll have to push through. But I KNOW I deserve better.

I'm also supposed to be doing IR but dropped (not officially cuz the admin wants to ignore me and screw me over 🤣). The classes are super big and not worth the time. I should've listened to people when they said that degree is pointless (it really is) but I just wanted to get more bang for my buck. Not getting any bang at all RN.

Tutors are... unapproachable. Staff... yeahhhh. I've met one OK head of department so far but hes IR so no use to me anymore.

I wrote some emails and somehow got student wellbeing and disability service calling me, PESTERING me (of which they should've done in the first week, HECK BEFORE then and UNPROVOKED). I was complaining, criticising and they did not care to address the issue but instead made it as if me and my mental health was the issue and made wellbeing get in touch with me 🤣🤣🤣. There are still ISSUES and my condition is declining because of this university. Yes my mental condition is the cause and explanation for your contempt actions 🤧 This university has absolutely no logic in any of their actions and purely do not give a damn about you or your disability or your feelings or your struggles. I do not feel welcomed here.

I think for us, anywhere its gonna suck being older because you cant escape the fresh out the teens, unhygienic, loud, obnoxious, immature students. I REALLY miss working. Sure people out in the real world can also be like this but to an EXTENT and you would spend significantly less time around them. But we deserve an education.

If you come here, be prepared to do it all yourself. Also higher ups found Palestine events to be burdensome so take that as you will. 🥶

Don't make the same mistake I did, especially since your time is valuable.

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by poetic

No longer at SOAS, did my CertHE there a couple years ago as a mature student. It was during COVID so slightly different experience as it was all online. Academically I found it a great experience, I was in a pretty small subject area (Sanskrit) and there was a real mix of students of different backgrounds, mature undergrads, school leavers, postgrads - and everyone had pretty unique reasons for being interested in the subject which helped bring a lot of different perspectives :smile:

That said in other departments with bigger cohorts it might be quite different as per the above users experiences :frown:

Admin was absolutely awful though. Sadly the admin problems are very real and, having studied at other unis, are specifically worse at SOAS than other unis. Granted it's quite possible to go through the course without needing anything from that side of things (I nearly made it through the course without having to deal with it...), but if/when you do it's extremely difficult and frustrating (and often the reason you need them to get stuff sorted is with big ticket problems like finance related things, programme related things, etc). It's a shame as I found the academics so excellent and the lecturers were all so keen to share their knowledge and engage with students, they're really let down by the central admin :s-smilie: