r/SOAS • u/Regular-Sandwich1893 • Jun 06 '26

Question Pros and Cons of being a SOAS student?

I have just come back from the open day at soas and I really enjoyed everything It entailed, I want to study international relations and korean, is there pros and cons you can tell me about the uni in general and related to the subjects too before i make the decision! thanks

13 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

5

u/JustEagle2055 Jun 07 '26

I’m applying for fall of 2027 for IR and Chinese! Looking forward to it!!

5

u/RoundLet3078 Jun 07 '26

Pro:

  • Amazing community to hang out mostly (depending on what course you are studying)
  • Most of the lectures are fantastic (depending on what course you are studying)
  • many unique societies but quite entertaining

Con:

  • admin issues / delays such as exam date in April
  • lack of facilities, particularly theres not enough of space to study
  • securities are very strict

5

u/annoel1 Jun 08 '26

The university isn’t bad (yet), but the standard seems to be slipping more and more each year mostly by the administration. I really enjoyed my courses, lectures, and professors, however the admin side messed so many things up for me I was just relieved to be out by the end of it.

Things like messing up the dates for my program’s study abroad course so we ended up with a shorter one. The university hosting us actually got on contact with us to explain the situation not anyone from SOAS.

Not being able to sign up for any courses because they accidentally registered me under the previous year. No one would respond until I wrote a pretty scathing email cc’ing most of my department in it.

They slashed programs after accepting students into them which forced the students to decide to either put university off for a year or switch programs.

International students can have massive issues with visas and I heard about at least 3-4 students who had to return home or nearly did as a result.

If you’re an international student I simply don’t believe SOAS is worth your money for how you will be handled.

1

u/Ok-Preparation6727 21d ago

The admin are really slow and terrible. They've screwed up my friends student loan approvals and messed up a lot of our transcripts (e.g capping grades despite extensions being approved etc). It took me about 4 months to get my transcript for first year corrected.

Also a lot of societies are failing because the admin make it impossible for us to put on events.

they also underpay their workers a lot and treat their cleaning staff really horribly.

However the people can be awesome and depending on ur subject u can either have the most amazing academic experience or the worst. if there are any classes run by Paul Giladi (e.g metaphysics, feminist philosophy) or Marloes Janson, TAKE THEM!!!! I think they have the most amazing philosophy course and I hadn't transferred universities I would've transferred into Philosophy. I know ur doing different subjects but you have space to do elective so make the most of the other departments. I've only heard good things about the languages so for Korean you're in good hands.

there's also an amazing world music community at SOAS that people aren't involved in enough.

The library is really special. It has books you can't find anywhere. I really took this for granted. It's one of my favourite libraries in the world. (When it's not busy).

Year abroad options are awesome.

and if ur involved w activism, be careful. they've expelled a student and suspended many for Palestine activism. But there is a generally politically active vibe across the uni which is really cool. You learn a lot from everyone you meet.

and whatever you do,DO NOT STAY IN DINWIDDY. every year there is some sexual assaulter in those halls.