The School of Oriental and African Studies: Institution Main

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is a dependent of the University of London. It is the only Higher Education institution in the EU specialising on Asia, Africa, and the Near and Middle East.

The School was founded in 1916 as the School of Oriental Studies, and in 1938 it also became the centre for African Studies. The Scarbrough Report of 1946 recommended that the whole field of Asian and African studies should be developed in London in contrast to a restricted range of programmes in other universities, and there was a considerable expansion of the School’s activities. In addition, after the Hayter Report of 1961, increased attention was given to the development of the social sciences.

Today SOAS has a large concentration in Europe of academic staff (c. 300 academics) who provide teaching and support for undergraduate and postgraduate studies – more than 350 undergraduate degree combinations and over 115 postgraduate programmes are available in social sciences, arts, humanities and languages, all with a distinctive regional focus and global relevance.

More information on the history of the institution can be found here. 

Institution: SOAS, University of London

Founded: 1916

Type: Public institution

Location: London, UK

Website: http://www.soas.ac.uk/

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds a wide range of public events from conferences to lectures, workshops and concerts. Furthermore, it hosts an ever changing series of exhibitions at the Brunei Gallery and its own collection on permanent display in the Foyle Gallery.

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