SOAS University of London
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London - /ˈsoʊæs/)[5] is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London.
"SOAS" redirects here. For other uses, see SOAS (disambiguation).Motto
Knowledge is Power
1916
£53.9 million (2023)[1]
£103.0 million (2022/23)[1]
The Princess Royal
(as Chancellor of the University of London)
605 (2022/23)[3]
535 (2022/23)[3]
6,295 (2021/22)[4]
3,400 (2021/22)[4]
2,890 (2021/22)[4]
Urban
SOAS is one of the world's leading institutions for the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.[6][7] Its library is one of the five national research libraries in England.[8] SOAS also houses the Brunei Gallery, which hosts a programme of changing contemporary and historical exhibitions from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East with the aim of presenting and promoting cultures from these regions. The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £103.0 million of which £7.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £89.7 million.[1]
SOAS is divided into three colleges: the College of Development, Economics and Finance; the College of Humanities; and the College of Law, Anthropology and Politics, which includes the SOAS School of Law. The university offers around 350 bachelor's degree combinations, more than 100 one-year master's degrees, and PhD programmes in nearly every department. The university has educated several heads of states, government ministers, diplomats, central bankers, Supreme Court judges, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and many other notable leaders around the world. SOAS is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
The School of Oriental Studies was founded in 1916 at 2 Finsbury Circus, London, the then premises of the London Institution. The school received its royal charter on 5 June 1916 and admitted its first students on 18 January 1917. The school was formally inaugurated a month later on 23 February 1917 by George V. Among those in attendance were Earl Curzon of Kedleston, formerly Viceroy of India, and other cabinet officials.[9]
The School of Oriental Studies was founded by the British state as an instrument to strengthen Britain's political, commercial, and military presence in Asia and Africa.[10] It would do so by providing instruction to colonial administrators (Colonial Service and Imperial Civil Service),[10] commercial managers, and military officers, as well as to missionaries, doctors, and teachers, in the language of the part of Asia or Africa to which each was being posted, together with an authoritative introduction to the customs, religions, laws, and history of the people whom they were to govern or among whom they would be working.[10]
The school's founding mission was to advance British scholarship, science, and commerce in Africa and Asia, and to provide London University with a rival to the Oriental schools of Berlin, Petrograd, and Paris.[11] The school immediately became integral to training British administrators, colonial officials, and spies for overseas postings across the British Empire. Africa was added to the school's name in 1938.
Second World War[edit]
For a period in the mid-1930s, prior to moving to its current location at Thornhaugh Street, Bloomsbury, the school was located at Vandon House, Vandon Street, London SW1, with the library located at Clarence House. Its move to new premises in Bloomsbury was held up by delays in construction and the half-completed building took a hit during the Blitz in September 1940. With the onset of the Second World War, many University of London colleges were evacuated from London in 1939 and billeted on universities in the rest of the country.[12] The School was, on the Government's advice, transferred to Christ's College, Cambridge.[13]
In 1940, when it became apparent that a return to London was possible, the school returned to the city and was housed for some months in eleven rooms at Broadway Court, 8 Broadway, London SW1. In 1942, the War Office joined with the School to create a scheme for State Scholarships to be offered to select grammar and public school boys with linguistic ability to train as military translators and interpreters in Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and Turkish. Lodged at Dulwich College in south London, the students became affectionately known as the Dulwich boys.[14] One of these students was Charles Dunn, who became a prominent Japanologist on the faculty of the SOAS and a recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun.[15] Others included Sir Peter Parker and Ronald Dore. Subsequently, the School ran a series of courses in Japanese, both for translators and for interpreters.[16]
National rankings
68=
52
28
508=
401–500
![Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs[91]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Martin_Griffiths.jpg/79px-Martin_Griffiths.jpg)
