 Thank you everybody for joining us today and this is our alumni and current student panel, but at the moment, pretty much more on alumni panel at this point. But some of some of the people on the panel have only just recently finished their studies with us and so they'll be able to give you a very up to date kind of take on on their time and so us and so thank you for joining us, we hope you found today's open day. It gives you a lot of experience knowledge, a bit more background to our programs, a chance to interact with the academic staff but also with student ambassadors. And to learn a bit more about so as our programs and whether they're going to see you and that's really what these events are about is kind of really learning about our program. And whether you will be the right fit for us but also whether we will be the right fit for you in terms of what you would like to study with us, but also what you would like to do after your studies and that leads us very nicely on to our alumni panel today so I'm just going to go through a few quick housekeeping rules for you, I'm sure many of you have used in numerous times over the last couple of years as I think we've all become very accustomed to various different digital platforms but if you're not as familiar with it. If you just scroll across either the bottom of your screen or the top of your screen depending on how you have your zoom configured, you will see there are various different icons that you can use there. And so the main icon that you'll be using today probably will be the chat function, which is a speech bubble box where you can put in there any particular questions that you might have that you might want to pose to all of our panelists or some of our panelists. You might want to quickly pop a message in there now just to let us know where you're calling in from today, what brought you to today's session and also maybe what subject areas you're interested in. So do feel free to pop that in there. If you do have any problems with the audio or with the video, and what I would say is not to sound too IT like but if you can leave the room and then re-enter, that will probably solve some of those issues. And we have set up the session today that will allow you to do that so it will allow you to exit and then re-enter without any problems. The other thing you can do is if you hear any feedback in terms of the audio that might be a problem with our microphones. So just to pop a quick message into the chat and then we can have a look at that for you. And then the other option that you have if you just move two icons over from the chat box is you have the raise a hand function. So we do want this session to be as kind of engaging as possible. And we do really want to hear from you. So if you would like to ask your question via microphone, you can do the raise a hand function just to let me know that you would like to raise a question. And then I can invite you to switch your video on if you would like to. You can keep it off if you prefer and then to have your microphone unmuted. So what I thought I would do today is maybe just have each of our alum slash current students introduce themselves, give a quick background to what they studied at SOAS, what brought them to SOAS, maybe what they're doing now and what career aspirations they might have in the future as well. And then just really just to open up to any questions you might have about the students experience of SOAS, things they liked about SOAS, things they might like to see explored further at SOAS. It's a very kind of open forum here and and it's SOAS we do take on our students perspectives and our alumni's perspectives on our programs and how they could change over time. And there's always areas in which we can look at improving. And so I think it's really great to have that open dialogue with our alumni and with our current students and also with our students who will be joining. So as I say, do feel free to pop a quick message in the chat just to say your name and where you're calling in from and possibly a subject area that you haven't interested. And then what I'll do is I'll go around the room and introduce each of our panelists to you or they will actually introduce themselves but I'll call on them to kind of give a quick intro. And if there's anything else you need you let us know. And one other final thing I should let you know is that we are recording this session. So just to make everybody aware of that we always like to make anybody attending our sessions know that we are recording them, and that will allow you to listen back to these sessions afterwards we will send for links around to everybody but it also allows any students who weren't able to make the session today, maybe they're in a different time zone, and maybe they've got work commitments maybe they're in classes to access this at a later time. So again, thank you all for attending today I hope this is be a very informative session for you. And I'll probably kick off by kind of going around the room and just having everybody introduce themselves. So, Patrick, would you like to introduce us down first. Hello everyone. I guess, old age before youth and anything else I'm obviously the oldest on the panel. I'm from Mansfield, I'm coming in from Hong Kong. And I studied East area studies which sounds not named these days but anyway that was what it was called and it actually really was Chinese history politics and anthropology. I was an MA, and I started in 1988. And I actually finished around about 91 because I did it kind of part time because I was self funded. So I did all the courses in one year because I was working at the same time. And then I did my vibral, you know, thesis the following year. So it was an interesting year to be doing the interesting period because of course this is 88 to 89 90 so it was an interesting time but a long time ago the ancient history. What are you doing now Patrick, what kind of a question. I'm a writer and a photographer. That wasn't exactly planned and perhaps when I get a little bit further down the line I'll talk a little bit about how you may be looking at your life as you go forward. A lot of you've got a lot ahead of you hopefully. But I used to run events and have regional events for lawyers and in house council which are kind of lawyers inside big companies but of course that all went a drift during COVID so actually one of our panelists said she's from Dubai. That was the last time I did an event and actually in February 2020 I was in so as library because that was one of the few places that you know this is all pre coded to some degree the way it happened to London after Hong Kong so yeah so currently I'm writing a published a book on photography which based on photographs I took in 86 so a couple of years before I did the MA so as and I'm currently finishing off a novel. Oh great. Fantastic. And so maybe we'll move next to Alexandra. Hi everyone I'm Alexandra or Alex is also fine I mostly go by Alex. Nice to talk to you all I'm joining you from Ottawa in Canada. So it's morning for me which is why I'm drinking my coffee. I did the MA in international studies and diplomacy program. I did it from 2017 or 2018. So quite recently, I saw that already there's someone in the chat who's interested in that program so happy to share my experience. So I actually, I used to be a journalist so that's interesting that Patrick mentioned that I did that actually before going to so as to do my master's so I did my master's as a bit of a career change. I did my undergrad in journalism in Canada, and I had been working as a daily reporter but I realized I didn't want to do that anymore so if anybody is wondering about, you know, going back to school after having been out of school for a while I took eight years off I think before I went back to my master's. I can definitely discuss about that. I'm working now that I finished I work for Global Affairs Canada so for the Department of Foreign Affairs trade and international development for Canada, and I'm a policy analyst. So I absolutely would not have gotten my job without the masters that saw us and the studies I did specifically the fact that I got to do international law as part of my studies is really cool. The masters programs equivalent in Canada don't actually offer that unless you're already a lawyer, which I'm not. So, and I actually get to I use international law on my job every day so the fact that I had that experience was really, really great. While I was at so as I did a bunch of stuff. So I was the student representative for my cohort. So, at the beginning of the year they always elect someone from the class a class representative to kind of speak on behalf of the students with the faculty and also with the Student Union all that kind of stuff to be your representative so I did that. So that was my experience of anyone's interest in that I was also a student ambassador. So that meant I gave tours on campus and I did talks like this on campus to people either student perspective students or sometime visiting lecturers or visiting international students all that kind of stuff. So the CISD program so the programs at the Center for international studies and diplomacy is you get to do the mix of practical along with the theoretical which is why I decided to go to so as and I highly like I think that's the best part well there's that and also the fact that all of your classmates are from somewhere I think we in our group of about 100 people we had like 70 different countries represented which is of course another great thing about so as specifically if you're planning to work in international affairs because your your classmates are going to be your the future diplomats and the people you're going to be working with. Yeah, so I will leave it there but I'm happy to ask to answer any questions I'll take a peek through the chat and yeah. Nice to talk to you all. Thank you Alex and then maybe had deal you could go next. Sure hi everyone my name is Hadid Hamid and I did my studies my master's degree and so as in development studies from 2014 to 2015. And at that point in time I have been working for five years. So that's where I did my postgraduate development studies specifically. I really think and I would highly recommend the fact that you actually get a chance to work a bit before deciding to go for a postgraduate degree because I feel like it really helped me understand what I wanted to get out of the program. And it really added the richness that I was looking forward to in joining such a diverse program as well. I'm currently working as a senior manager in the program for people on planet at Expo 2020 Dubai you may have heard of that. So it's been keeping me very busy but I can definitely credit so as to a lot of things that have happened in my career ever since. Every single position I've ever held has really looked at so as to have added a lot of value to my profile. The fact that this is one of the highest ranked development programs in the world really does come in handy and it really helps to have that in your back pocket when you're applying to a job. And coincidentally two of my bosses had either studied briefly at SOAS done a semester or a year or had done a postgraduate degree there themselves. So it really helped to have people in the field recognize the value of that degree and understanding what you bring to the table when you say that you're a SOAS graduate. I'd love to elaborate on all of that but I don't want to take too much time and I'm very happy to answer all of your questions. We'll definitely return to some of those points. I think they're really kind of interesting areas and definitely I think there are a few heads nodding here so definitely there's that shared experience. So maybe next we can go to Himali if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Yes, you are. Hi, I'm Himali De Silva and I'm from Sri Lanka. I did my masters in financial and financial law in 2007. And to my knowledge I think there are only two other Sri Lankan SOAS graduates. Both were friends or women and we've all loved our experience at SOAS. Right after my master's joined the Lloyd Consulting in the technology arm in London and then I was seconded out to the US practice as well. And then I worked for KPMG Consulting afterwards. I was a management consultant for about 15, 16 years. And now I am a startup owner one promoting circular consumption in Sri Lanka and the second helping businesses and personal brands build and grow their brands. My time at SOAS was invaluable for many of the reasons the others touched on as well. The student body, the academic body, just the culture itself walking into campus, both campuses actually because I used to have half at Russell Square, half at Kings Cross. I love my time at SOAS and I will definitely say the fact that I have a master's in finance and financial law versus just a master's in either one has set me apart. Thank you. Any questions I'm happy to answer. Thank you and we'll definitely be coming back some of this and I should let you know that we actually have two cheapening scholars with us this year who are both from Sri Lanka. So after their time with us this year they will be actually returning back to Sri Lanka. So definitely happy a couple more. To your to your to your kind of network, if you will. So then maybe I can go to Jeffrey next. Actually, I am recently graduating from SOAS. And last year I did the handmade in Southeast and Pacific Asian studies. It is really a special program. And as an area study students I'm able to get explored to courses and module from various department. Not only from an art history background, but apart from art history I also did courses, of course, or language and politics and etc, many, many different kinds. So, I guess I will be, yeah, I may be able to answer, oh and also especially for the more hybrid and online mode of study in SOAS. Perfect. Thank you Jeffrey. And then maybe we can then move to Jenny. Hi, I'm Jenny. I've been at SOAS for a while. I did my BA from 2016 to 2020 in Japanese and Korean, and my MA in Japanese studies from 2020 to 2021. And now I'm currently a PhD student at SOAS as well. And I'm researching into accessibility technology for people with disabilities and how that can kind of help in the workplace in Japan to kind of put it in a nutshell. Obviously I've been around a long, long time here now. So any questions about SOAS and how it works and that kind of thing I can probably answer. And yeah, happy to answer any questions so. Great, perfect. And maybe Insini, you can go next. Hi everyone. My name is Insini. Sorry about my internet being on and off so I've been in and out. So I did my MSc in development studies at SOAS between 2020 and 2021. So I recently just got my dissertation results. And my time at SOAS has been fantastic and it's been great hearing every other people's experiences pre-pandemic SOAS because I could hear like I could literally see that, you know, times were really different in terms of like student experience and all of that. But I absolutely loved my experience at SOAS despite the pandemic and the support, all the support that the faculty and the school at large, the wellness team, all of that that has been granted to us. So and I'm calling in from Kenya. I just moved back to Kenya was in London for the between 2020 September to September 2021. Yeah, so before doing my MSc in development studies, I was working for the government of Kenya for one year. I was specializing in development, partnership development, specifically in coordinating partnerships in the most marginalized regions in Kenya, which is the northern part of Kenya. Yeah, so that's basically my main area of expertise. And after graduation, hopefully I am looking to go back to my former job. If not that's probably similar position with more experience with more knowledge and understanding on what development actually means. Yeah, and I'm happy to be able to answer all the questions that you guys have in terms of on in development in the Masters of Masters in Development Studies course. And yeah, so I think that's all I kind of that's all I have to say for now. Thank you so much and there was definitely a lot in there and we'll definitely draw some of that out I think during the session and then we also have Amani. So if you'd like to introduce yourself Amani. Hi, I'm Amani. Unlike everyone else I've only done my undergraduate at SAS. I did a BA in international relations from 2017 to 2020. I recently joined the student recruitment department at SAS. Again, same as Jenny can't get rid of me. During my time at SAS, I was a student ambassador which was pretty vital for me to get this job. And I think similarly to other people it's helped me figure out what I want to do as a career so definitely a valuable experience. Thank you. And then I should introduce myself as well. I'm Kim, I'm head of the student recruitment team here at SAS. I have worked in higher education for about 30 years now so maybe showing my age a little bit there. I've worked with students from all around the world. I've been lucky enough to travel to over 30 countries to meet students to tell them a bit more about programs in the UK studying in the UK, and more recently at SAS though I haven't been out on the road so much due to COVID. But I think one thing I really love about SAS is quite how many students we engage with and how open those students are to engaging with us through lots of different platforms, particularly in the last two years where you know there has been such a major change and I think that that's something that really brings a lot of students to SAS is that idea that you'll be able to share experiences, perspectives, ideas. And that you will be coming from, but you'll be coming from different perspectives but that's the idea that everybody's open and wanting to understand more. I always say at SAS that you might not always agree with every single person and every single opinion that you hear, but it's being really open to kind of that discussion. And at SAS we think that our students and our alumni are as vital as our staff in terms of the programs that you take and what you take away from the program and the learning that you do within the programs. Because it's, you know, we always say it's one third the academic staff and it's one third your peers who you're sitting alongside alongside and then also it's one third the environment that ability to interact with people and also facilities wise you know having things like the library resources, but I think definitely people are at the heart of so ask if anything. And that's really helpful to bring everybody today so maybe we can go through some of the questions and I apologize every I thought you had the option to do the questions to everybody but it might look like you can't so what I'll do is I'll read through some of the queries that have come into the chat box and then we can pose it on a wider scale to everybody. So it's lovely to see that we've got people joining from lots of different places in the world so we've got people from London coming in, people from Mumbai people from Italy, Edinburgh. Hopefully it's not too cold in Edinburgh at the moment. North Carolina, South Korea. So we definitely got a lot of people and it looks like we've got quite a range of subject areas that you guys are interested in as well. So some would be more minded towards maybe a particular sort of area studies, so things like studying Chinese Japanese. So those who are thinking of studying more international studies and development and politics so quite the range. And I think maybe that's one thing I can quickly pose to our panel in that, how did you guys think about the very interdisciplinary approach that you take at SOAS. I mean obviously if I start with you Patrick you took a program that was, you know, a very wide and broad program and you've got to study quite a few different aspects and a few different disciplines, but maybe with a regional hat on I would say. Sure. Actually, I want to pick up on one of my fellow panelists said earlier about being curious about, you know, the kind of, I think actually Kim you made this point as well of being SOAS being a place of many different diverse views and discussion and I think that's very important. And so I think that's what I really took out of the program that I did and if there was one discipline that I wasn't familiar with, which was part of the course was anthropology, Chinese anthropology, and that has really shaped the way I look at my career afterwards because really it opened my eyes to the fact that the companies that I was working with and I think quite a range are kind of like anthropological subjects and if you take it from that perspective and realize that obviously I've been lucky enough to also travel like yourself Kim for many different cultures. You know, there are certain core values which I think I'd like to get on to a bit later if we do have time that are underpinning the way that different cultures work, but anthropology was crucial to me. And also to pick up on that fact that what I really appreciated studying at SOAS were the friends I've made and they've been lifelong friends. And the fact that, you know, the bedrock has been a curiosity and a willingness to share ideas. So that's what I'd like to answer your question with. Perfect. And then would anybody else like to add to maybe if they feel that whilst they were able to be a specialist in a particular discipline that they were also able to maybe dip in, tip their toes into some other areas whilst they were at SOAS? I mean, I might, I used to attend all the talks on like and go through the downstairs and see all the pottery and all the exhibitions and even the common room used to have, because I think deafims is a separate part when I started finance and financial nor was it a core cultural subject. So we have our own little thing, but we manage I think the culture still absorbs when you're sitting there seeing even the protest or the cultural things that used to happen in the courtyard. So it was amazing. I could be studying finance but I still got a massive dose of culture from just being at SOAS. Right. Yeah, I think everybody kind of feels that. So as you kind of you just take it in from around you. I know that many people in the past have said, you know, they'll be walking around SOAS and they'll hear maybe seven different languages in the space of half an hour. There's been many instances where they've heard just music coming from different buildings and thought, what is that? What, you know, what's happening here? What kind of instrument is that? And they've gone in and kind of seen an instrument they've never seen before being played and then had a bit of a discussion about it and kind of what culturally it stands for. So I think that's really, yeah, it's definitely an added part of SOAS and the experience that you get. Sorry, I was just going to add that as part of the MA and I think Alexandra said in the chat as well, Alex, sorry, and that you can audit courses and go to lectures that aren't a part of your program. You can take open options as well for credit as well as auditing in addition. So I'm, although I was within the East Asian languages and cultures department with Japanese studies, I actually took a translation module from the linguistics department and Korean, modern Korean literature from the Korean department. And I also took a course called transnationalizing queer, trans and disability studies, which was obviously crucial for my own future research to have that kind of good background. But that was from the gender studies department. And without that kind of interdisciplinary approach that's so common at SOAS, I wouldn't have been able to kind of get that background in time without doing kind of additional courses and additional time before starting my PhD. Whereas because I have that good solid background from my MA all the way through, I was then able to kind of go straight into my PhD with everything that I needed. So I found that really, really useful as well. Yeah, that's great. And then maybe we have had a question in that comes, maybe a few of you have touched on this in your intros to say, did you find it hard to return to academia after being out of academia for a while. Maybe Alex, I can throw that over to you in the first instance. Sure. Yeah, I am. It's a great question, Georgia. Yes, it was definitely challenging. I'm not going to lie. Specifically, I was not expecting the high amounts of reading that we had to do how many, how many, you know, just how many like, yeah, what's called journal articles that we'd be expected to read every single week. I think part of that is maybe because we don't do that kind of style really in Canada, it's much more practical focus. So I was used to doing like maybe one journal article or two a week and suddenly I was doing like 10 or 15. So I found that quite challenging. But there's a lot of resources on campus which I did take, I did take advantage of so I'm sure most of you probably have heard of like skimming and learning how to, you know, do the articles and all these techniques. I had never learned that before I didn't do that in my bachelors. So literally I went to, there's the writing center, and I presumably there's the same resources that you can access online. And I worked with kind of, I did a session with a coach for about an hour and was like look I haven't done academia for for like eight years at this point I was a journalist so I've been writing every day but it's a completely different style of writing. And yeah they just kind of gave me some tips they gave me lots of lots of help and they were there whenever I need it and I figured it out by like November by about this time in the year I got I got up to speed I figured it out I kind of have that good grounding. And it was okay and I should say I finished with a distinction at the end of the at the end of the year so I did I did make up for it. I did make up with it. Part of it I guess is also the fact that you don't have to do any of your exams, and really assignments until almost the end of the year. So by that point you really kind of know your, your stuff. So I was able to make up for the fact but I will say the first month and a half I was definitely feeling overwhelmed. Sorry, I'm just going to add into that. I only had a two year gap between my bachelor's and my master's, but the challenging aspect wasn't getting back into academia it was actually applying for jobs towards the third the third semester of going into the consulting or the, you know, investment banking program, but source career counselors have a lot. They really help place you and the name itself carries so much weight when you go for interviews. So, highly recommended to anyone. Thank you. And then maybe you can add to kind of the break within so I know you had a break. I'd love to dovetail on that. My break was about five years between my undergrad and when I decided to do my program and actually while it was challenging in a lot of respects it was really enriching because you can actually relate practically what you're reading, especially since I had come from a background of development prior to that. I was working in monitoring evaluations as part of the Ministry of International Cooperation back in Egypt, which is home. And so it really helped me relate a lot of the concepts that I had already been interacting with and seeing it on a higher level. At that point in time, looking at it theoretically getting more well rounded approach to it. I think it was very useful. I did find it challenging in terms of aligning what I was used to because I studied my I did my undergrad at the American University in Cairo in political science with a specialization of an international law and I double minded in economics and business. But the formatting that I saw it so I was quite different. We were used to more intimate class settings. I came to see that it was more of an auditorium full of 150 people. And then the tutorials which were the the chance that you could get to have a more intimate discussion on these things so that was the biggest adjustment I would say, but I wouldn't say that taking a break is too challenging to thwart anyone off before pursuing their studies again. Yeah, and then maybe just I mean that's all great experience and advice and there's so many good points you made within that. I mean one thing I would say to do is unfortunately we don't offer them yet for all of our programs but we will be extending them is that we do have what they call mixed which are massive open online courses. And I've actually taken two of us is mixed over the period just because I think I was in a Netflix wormhole. And I was like I need to need to probably be watching something other than Tiger King or whatever else is on. But I had been out of academia, I've been out of academia for many, many years now and I and my daily life I write reports and business plans and strategies and all of these different things but I don't write academically so I think when I first took the meat. It kind of gives you a guide it says it's going to take about two hours of your time up per week and it'll be a five week. Moog can you can start at any time you want I would say it probably took me more like four to five hours per week. Because just again getting my head around the reading, reading something in a different way. Also reading something and again this kind of goes to the interdisciplinary side of things with a number of different kind of perspectives. And I think that's probably another challenge that we give you at SOAS but hopefully it's a challenge that all of our students want to to rise to is that we don't teach you in silos. We don't believe that you are coming into study one subject and that subject lives on its own in its own little world. And so, you know, you actually have to kind of think I am going to be a specialist in international studies and diplomacy or I am going to be a specialist in finance and management or I am going to be a specialist in art. But I also need to know everything else that affects that I need to know if I'm doing a law program how it's affected by economics how it's affected by politics how it's affected by anthropology. And so I think that that's another challenge that our students have so you'll have the challenge of coming back into academia, but you'll also have the challenge of, you know, taking a very broad look at things. But we do have all the staff to help you and I'm really happy Alex that you mentioned about the additional services that you use I don't think our students use them enough. I always tell the students, you know, whether you're an international student or whether a UK student, there's all of these different facilities to help you with essay writing exam preparation, even as simple as note taking. And I do know one lecturer so as to, he doesn't like anybody to take notes in his classes. So he's, if he sees you taking notes, he's like no, I want active listeners I want you engaged with what I'm talking about. I want you to be engaging with each other. So he supplies a lot of notes afterwards for you. But I think that I remember I saw one of his classes and everybody just looks stunned when he was just like, no note taking no scribbling away on a note pad I want you, I want you really engage so I think that is things that you should definitely take on as a student to figure out whether you come to SOAS or whether you go elsewhere is to really use all of those facilities that are there for you. And there are pros and cons to coming directly into your masters from your undergraduate but there are also lots to be gained from going and knowing I always say the SOAS program are a bit of a two way street and that when you're applying for them we are looking at you as do you have the background that we want and you know how you add to our cohort but a lot of times we're also thinking do we have what you want. So what are you hoping to get out of the program where you hope in this program takes you and sometimes we have an excellent, excellent applicant and they have just the right background but they want something that we can't give them. And so we kind of go back to them and say you know this is what you stated you wanted is that exactly what you want or you know how else can we help you what avenues are you interested in but it's very much about making sure that that is something that matches with our students so that you know what you've taken a program that you'll get to that end goal but maybe we can actually maybe then turn this background to something Patrick said is that you might not you might not know what your end goal is or the world happens around you and things change all the time so maybe I can just pose the question to our alumni in the various different roles that you've had since you graduated. How do you think so as helped you to I guess direct that career path that you've had or possibly redirect it in some instances. Kim can I pick up on a couple of things and then see your question. I am a big note taker, and it's good that certain things haven't changed that so as because actually I'd be pretty missed if I was told I couldn't take notes because that's one of the ways that people can look and I'll tell you very quickly just a quick anecdote. When I started at the course which was an English language course and I'm glad that so as it probably changed this way. The late professor Stuart Shram did it in Mandarin for the first term, because he wanted to get rid of some of the students now I'm actually quite a tenacious person. So I sat through it I could understand a little bit because I lived in China. So, you know, obviously, that's probably light years away from the way that you guys organize it now and I don't think anybody should be able to get away with that today. But very quickly, what I'd like to say I've given a bit of thought to this because obviously, you know, I'm 57. And, you know, I've got a little bit of experience to catch up and what I thought last night what would I actually have found useful to hear on a alumni and a student talk when, you know, when I was 20, 24, however old the various people are and even that's a bit older as well. Because I'm a slow learner. And the first thing I wanted to do is actually talk about a journey. I think everybody should get a copy of this and you probably can't see it but how will you measure your life by Clayton Christensen. And what he had to say was, I had thought the destination was what was important, but it turned out it is the journey. Life is a journey. So basically one of the things that you really need to have as life skills and I just very quickly talk through those. I think curiosity. This is from Egon Zender, which is actually a kind of company that hires CEO. So, you know, a lot of you are probably very ambitious and there will be CEOs listening and maybe CEOs to come but curiosity is by far the most important trait that they look for. And so I think most people who end up and so as I've got that quality, and then that leads to insight. And then you need to actually be able to communicate so learning communicative skills are very important as well. And then determination the resilience because we all, I mean, I think most people realize this with COVID that, you know, obviously everybody has had their own very personal experience of that. Terrible things happen. But the other thing that I think is really important is to have a moral compass. And I'm going to come back to what Clayton Christensen said he said that he was at university at Harvard actually with Jeffrey Schilling now Jeffrey Schilling was the CEO who took Enron into complete disaster and ended up in prison. And in my experience, I think, you know, all of our lives will be quite diverse, etc. But you do have to set a moral compass and that will do you an awful lot of good in the long term. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, there's a lot to think about there and definitely I think all of those things also are kind of approaches that so as takes as well. In many of the things that it looks at. And many of the areas that we we try to to kind of look at the challenges that we hope our students will look at kind of maybe some of the ways in which we can overcome them. No, we obviously know that some of these challenges that are there in the world are much bigger kind of things. But everybody doing this more amount to it can help. So yeah, I definitely think that there's a lot within that and I definitely think that all of those qualities are things that I've seen within our students, particularly across so many of the countries that we have students joining us from. So maybe I can just quickly just revisit some of the questions and thank you everybody for answering a lot of the questions that are in the chat. I think we've had some questions that are more around kind of again so as facilities and I think everybody's touched on it that we have, you know, a great library facility and a lot of the resources that are there. Maybe I can pose this to kind of Jeffrey and maybe also to Jenny, because I obviously know that you were studying in the time of COVID. We have special librarians within our library, who are able to really get hold of lots of different resources for students. How did you think they helped you in your last year or so with us. Maybe I will start with this first, because last year when I'm doing with the citation. It's already getting better but but during the term time. The accessibility to libraries quite limited, but I think in the foreseeable future that will really happen again, probably won't. And so, but even that happens. Actually it's quite easy to order the books that you would like all night, and they will basically get them reserved for you at the front decks and you just need to go in and pick them up. And as same as many university. We have a lot of subscription on all the e journals. So, especially if you're looking into something that published more recently journal papers, usually they are all available or not even books. Lots of them have have ebooks. And so I would say that should be a lot of issues for you. So as we got also if you're doing area studies and looking into something specific about your region we got so good, got a quite a good archive. Very special different kind of materials. So you might also find something that you would want here in the special sections of the library. And then you could just request from the librarians and make a booking so it's actually pretty smooth and easy. I would say. Can I add something. Yeah, sure. On the issue of library I think of for journal articles and books that so as does not have subscription to. You can actually go to the librarians and they give you an email of someone who specifically would help you get access to the journal articles or the books that you're looking for. So there's always that special. How do I put it. Yeah, special access if you really need the book or the journal articles so there's always access to all the articles on the books that you need it so as. Great. And then I think another query that we've had come in is, I think we've already answered it a few times but maybe we could go in a bit more detail about finding jobs after you finished your studies. Some of you would have only just recently finished and maybe starting to return home to your home countries or thinking about staying in the UK and others of you would have finished some time ago so I would anybody like to talk about maybe how they look for jobs in that final part of their studies and maybe was the first job you went into after your studies. Was that the ideal job that you thought it was going to be or was there kind of a bit of movement and a bit of changing here and there. Maybe I can ask Alex to come in on that one. Sure. So I know that the question was specifically asking about the UK. In my case I happened to be in London during the about the only two years when the postgrad visa was removed. I couldn't stay unless I got an actual job offer but that has that restriction has been revoked now I just managed to get those those two years when you know during the Brexit years when that didn't exist anymore. So I personally I wasn't actually looking to stay in the UK I knew I was going to be going back to Canada. So I didn't but but friends who did stay. There was there's a list so there's actually I'll say two things and because so there's two ways to kind of stay and some people don't know about the second way so I'll explain it to you guys. And these are friends of mine who have done it who are still in the UK now. So one is that there is a list of approved employers that can change your visa from a T for which you have if you're an international student studying to a T to which means that they can stay at work so you can actually the list is available online. You can look at it. You can see kind of all these 5000 or 10,000 or however many is a long list of companies that have been pre approved to do that. And so it's easier for them to do the application for you to stay than a company that's not on that list. So number one I would target those ones if your goal is really stay. Also, all of you will have the option. If you are an international student to stay just via the changes to the visa so it won't be as critical for you. But the other way which people often don't know. So as is one of the schools that can sponsor you. If you want to start your own company to stay through visa through that program. There's a there's a little there's like a branch within it. They have I think up to 12. Kim might know the exact number but there's a certain number of spots that so as can sponsor people every single year and one of my colleagues from my cohort did that got one of those thoughts. And basically you need to be able to come with a kind of a business plan of what you're going to do, you need to have like a very thought out plan. You don't once you get the visa you don't actually have to be making money off of your job off of your company or whatever it is you're doing to stay so I know to actually to former so as grads who did this they got the visa they want. They're actually both American they're both in the US so this is how they stayed and they got their visa through so as sponsoring it so you get two years for that, but then they also ended up working on it and they worked for other companies because it's just no good for as well so they but you have to regularly do reports to show what you're doing and to show that you're and that you're really focusing on it so one of them actually her project was the center for for feminist foreign policy which maybe you've heard of and you know so as is quite a big sponsor that so she wasn't actually making money off of that. I think she was working on the side but she was doing regular work and was able to stay in the UK with that. And so that's so those are the two comments I will say, and and I'll let other people speak. And then her money, maybe I can have you give your experience. I like sponsored my work visa and I got my offer before I actually set for because I had an undergrad from Monash and I joined sauce my masters and the thing is it's called milk rounds and you're applying for consulting and investment bank. There's several rounds you have to apply while you're doing your masters and go through several rounds of it and I remember I got my offer before I set for my final exam. Now the fact is the sauce name carried weight, because Monash is an Australian University, and I don't think it is. I can't remember exactly but I remember when I was trying to apply for some of the investment banks. When I wasn't even coming up, though it's like number 21 in the world, for some reason this is in 2007. Monash was not coming up in the list, and then when I checked up it's because Australian education system is different from the UK. So you do your three undergrad and then you're invited to read for your Honours Degree to get your distinct you know your first class to one to two. Australia doesn't do that you go for fourth year if you want it. So I had a three undergrad but I didn't, I didn't take my offer to do my Honours because I think why would I waste another year. And that was a problem when I was applying for English universities, even though I had a distinction average my undergrad, the university name wasn't coming on the list. So luckily I was studying at SA, so I went through. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely I really grateful to you for mentioning about starting that process early. Obviously we know that as a student coming into a program you're going to have lots to do in terms of a program and really talked about how challenging it is and how interdisciplinary it is. But really starting that kind of career journey and looking for careers at the start of your studies is as important as the end of your studies and often I do find that our students don't access the career services as early as I think they should do. And in particular, I know with finance because I have a few friends who kind of work in finance that there are particular periods of the year that that finance looks to kind of do its main recruiting and that happens across many different industries and many different sectors. Even in education ourselves we look to employ people at particular times of the year that it's going to work best for our next year of operating. So I think it's really important that students do visit our careers advisory service do work in one to one appointments with them they can do everything from interview prep to looking at personality test to looking at presentation styles to just looking at how you write your CV. I think in the UK, everybody has a different idea about how they write their CV. And I think when you put the international context into that, it changes wildly as well and I've seen quite a few different CVs over the years because a lot of students put a CV into their applications and I can tell you I've probably seen about 100 different iterations of a CV, and then everybody's looking for something different because some employers don't want to see any more than one page. So I'm now getting to the stage of my career, I'm thinking, you know, I've, I've been out working for, you know, 25 years, how am I going to put 25 years on one page. But in some instances, you need to be able to do that. So I think that that's really where these kind of services come in and definitely it's worth why you think that I should probably add that we do have the graduate route these years. So apologies, Alex, that that wasn't available for the two years that you're with us, but it makes things a lot simpler for our international students because it means that you can stay in the UK for up to two years, whether you found a job or are looking for one. And so it gives you maybe a little bit more breathing room though I'd start to still say, kind of build those networks early and get some experience in. And then as I say that allows you to apply to a visa and you apply to the visa first, and then you apply to jobs afterwards and you will be able to, when you're looking for jobs in the UK you'll see that it might say do you have the right to work in the UK. And previously what our international students were finding is that they, they couldn't take that box. So some employers would say if you don't have the right to work in the UK we will sponsor. You know, to be honest with you that's quite a lot for an employer to be doing so most employers would just say if you don't have that. Unfortunately, you can apply to this role. So now it means that the world is your oyster in terms of those roles and that you can apply to as many of them as you would like so it just makes the process a little bit more simple in terms of actually applying for jobs you still have to work it's hard to get them and I would say that, if anything there will be a wider field and in a way that will bring its own challenges because you'll have people with again lots of different backgrounds and perspectives and experience that you'll be going up against in terms of working, but it takes that initial kind of barrier down for you. I just wanted to add two things quickly. One, I studied finance and I was a banker before I thought I applied only for investment banking jobs but one consulting job. I just thought, oh, the source told me apply to Deloitte did I ended up taking the consulting job, not the banking job, and half the graduates who are with me were Oxbridge or like you know the top tier universities who had all done masters also to get in. And they had studied languages philosophy. They don't when you're going into graduate programs, it's not about what you study it's how will you do what, like your culture your interest, they're really testing your personality because you need to remember you're competing with the best in the best of the best in the world for these kind of jobs. So it's not about having done finance. It's about having done something well so even if you are passionate about a language source you can still go for the banking job. Well maybe not banking but consulting you definitely can. And the second thing is I got a five year work permit from Deloitte, and then I converted it into my residency so your work years count towards your British residency. I'm a British permanent resident, like, still up now. So I just wanted to highlight it's not a only two year thing if you can continue to work for five years you can get your UK residency to. Yeah, definitely. And so it gives you that two years at first kind of experience but from that you can build other links and it could be that you stay with the same employer. It could be that two years or it could be that you now have, you know, some experience under your belt that makes you more employable to somebody else I know, again, just to kind of pick up on the financing just about a few friends. It's very common to see the PWC move to EY move to Deloitte back and forth. Definitely that helps you get that to be the door. Maybe we've had a question that is, can anybody give me a typical day at SOAS. I'm not sure there is such a thing as a typical day at SOAS, but would anybody like to maybe say what their experience of a day at SOAS would be. Well, I can just go here. Sorry. Yeah, Hedela would you like to go? you and sorry to interrupt. I think the beauty of SOAS being located right in the heart of London gives you an unlimited amount of options of how you can shake your day. Basically you have a lot of flexibility in your schedule as well and how you actually pick classes. I was lucky enough to have classes three days a week but really intense back-to-back schedule and it really allowed me to fully immerse myself in all the on-campus activities and the lectures that I could attend. There were lots of parties and networking options as well which I would really recommend that anyone who's going now hopefully with things easing up and people being more physically located on campus definitely do that. Networking is one of the most important things that you can get out of this experience and it definitely helps you in leveraging your connections to any kind of job opportunity in the different parts of the world because again you're in a melting pot of cultures at SOAS and especially if you're looking at something like development or international relations, your colleagues are going to be situated in all parts of the world that you're going to want to find yourself in either in a year's time or right away or a few years down the line. So definitely invest a lot of the networking opportunities that SOAS provides you with. I know it didn't really serve much in answering what a typical day looks like but it really is what you choose to make of it at SOAS. That's the answer I would give. Would anybody else like to come in? Yeah I just want to add to that. No so I'm just going to say that I miss the lunches at the tropical diseases I used to stick in there most at least once a week. The Department of Tropical Diseases has probably got the best canteen. I also just wanted to add that in addition to sort of the networking there's also a massive social life at SOAS. The JCR is our junior common room at SOAS and it's pretty much buzzing all the time whether it's sort of the lady selling vegetarian lunches or there's people playing pool downstairs there's always something going on, some sort of society or event happening in the day or at night. So as well as being in the heart of London and there's so many things to explore and so many things to do there's so many things to do outside as well and so the societies and the sporting opportunities are pretty much endless. Yeah I mean that that's probably to be honest with you that's probably the answer is that there is no such thing as a typical day at SOAS and and hopefully now we are also moving back to maybe how SOAS was pre the pandemic which is very eclectic something happening all the time. Each of our departments used to host at least two events a week if not more and all the student societies would host events we've got about 200 different student societies that you can join. They really range from everything in terms of being charities and doing various different areas of activism through to some more social enjoyment through to more particular areas of academia so there's quite a few things that they do and even over the pandemic they kept up quite a few online events and when they could return to in-person events did those as well so yeah the answer is there's no typical day. I would say typically in a course maybe if you're thinking about how many days per week you would be in informal classes that usually falls over two to three days but again because of our very interdisciplinary approach that can actually easily spread over four days depending on how broad you're doing your studies in. Maybe one of the things I think is possibly something that everybody's done when they're at SOAS at some point particularly in the last few years is probably had the lunch the free lunch from the Hare Krishna so that's probably something that everybody's done and that's also one of my favorite things whenever anybody asks me about SOAS like what's one of your favorite things and I'll say it's that if you go outside at lunchtime you'll see everybody from senior management to academic staff to the students to staff who work in our canteen because they're not serving anybody because no one's eating their lunch everybody's eating outside with you know their own Tupperware or a plate and I just think it's somewhere where everybody comes and talks at the same time and yeah it's just really really a community feeling so I think that's really great as well. We probably only have time for a couple more questions though I know that we've had a lot of questions answered in the chat maybe one we could quickly go back to was part-time study unit which I know has come up a couple of times and so maybe Patrick I think you can come in on that as well in that how did you feel it was to do a part-time study and did you feel you could work alongside that was that quite a lot to juggle and then maybe we can also have that more widely out to the rest of the group even if you did full-time study a lot of you in this group particularly I know Jeffrey, Amani, Alex, Jenny you've all done student ambassador work and how did you feel it was kind of trying to make sure you kept a good balance in terms of your work life and your studies? Yeah I still remember the trauma actually walking towards an examination I felt I was all prepared for and that was I was working but I had a flexible job so and I was working kind of quite late because sometimes we were managing people who were calling it was a call centre actually so calling people in the States or whatever and my employer who employed me for five or six years or three or four years before then we're very I think you know I was not bad at managing people but fairly indulging in the world we hope that I'd get it out of my system it was tough you know I still remember walking towards my examination when I was doing Chinese history thinking oh my god unfortunately I got through but it wasn't easy I have to say. Yeah I just wanted to as Kim mentioned about the student ambassador program I think what's really good about it is it's very flexible so they will send out emails with jobs that are available so you can do things such as campus tours helping out with open days helping out with events or what's really good is that if you have a very heavy workload say in time too you don't have to sign up to the event so it's not mandatory that you have to do you know a certain number of hours per week you can sign up to as many or as little of these events as you want and if you have a less busy time and you can sign up for more and it's just it's a really good way to meet people not only in your course but in other courses as well I remember I made so many of like my best friends at university were on the student ambassador program as well and it's just it's really good to learn about the university as well in general. And just to add one final point I think so as was great because I did communicate that I was working I did talk to my tutors and you know I don't think they gave me an easy ride but at least you know I was able to defer my thesis as well otherwise I'd best have to go so communications are really important if you do feel that you're overwhelmed talk to people. Yeah and I think that's probably where we're going to kind of finish up but I think that's really important and I think definitely the communication so us does make some allowances and in particular courses we do realise that some of our courses we do have more people who are working coming into them that's just like the natural flow particularly in a lot of the CISD the international studies and diplomacy program a lot of it is people who are still either part-time in their previous role or still want to keep an arm in that so we kind of are aware of that and we make changes to our schedules where possible and again because of the small group teaching aspect and so as we're able to do that I know with development studies even though it's one of our biggest departments during COVID what they did is they actually asked their students where are you going to be listening in from so are you going to be in the UK or are you going to be in more in kind of East Asia or South East Asia or are you going to be in South Asia so they could actually plan their seminar groups around that and so they weren't asking you to get up at the crack of dawn or stay up ridiculously late and thank you very much back because you have stayed up late for us today but in terms of that they were very aware and then the other thing I would like to say whether it's part-time work whether it's full-time work whether it's your thinking of doing a part-time program versus a full-time program whether you're thinking of auditing modules I know that's come up in the chat whether you're thinking of trying to combine quite a few different areas of study I think the really important thing is to talk to us about that as you go through the application process to use our academic staff as your guides to what is possible and what's not possible I think we've also touched on it here today is that coming back into studies you know yet a lot more reading than maybe you expected to have and some of our modules have up to 200 hours worth of reading so even when you've decided yes so as is where you're going to come to and you've decided which program you're on you then have another decision to make of which modules you're going to take and all of our staff can guide you through that process in saying you know these are all great modules to take but they all have 200 hours of reading can you do can you do that much in your time and then auditing we allow you to order up to three additional classes in a year but if I'm honest with you I don't know anybody who can order three additional classes in a year because it's a lot to take in you don't have to do the exams or the coursework but we do want you to engage instead of being able to engage in that you need to be doing the reading you need to be going to the lectures and going to the seminars so again when you're at SOAS we present you with a lot of options and you'll probably have more options than you know what to do with at some times but we'll then help to guide you through that process and there's again there's pros and cons to both part-time and full-time part-time means you can maybe do a few more things take a few more classes but it also means you're going to spend more time in your classes so depending on how you sit financially that is something you have to think about and also possibly one year behind in terms of entering the workplace but at the same time if you're doing a full-time course it can be a lot to take on it's very intensive but I don't think anybody in the UK would ever tell you otherwise in terms of our master's programme so the great thing is to come to more of these events to speak to us to speak to our alumni to speak to our current students and just try and find out what really works best for you and so with that we'll probably end the session here and I thank you all so much for your attendance and all so much for your guidance and your experience of SOAS as our alumni and thank you everybody who's been listening in today we hope that that gave you a bit more insight into what it's like to be at SOAS I think the main takeaways are that you will study anything and everything that there's no typical day and that really you will learn from the staff but also from your peers and also just from the environment that you're in because you will be both in London which is an amazing city to be studying in and to live in but you'll also be in a community aspect where you're meeting students from 135 other countries with a range of different backgrounds and perspectives, ideas, hopes, you know aspirations moving forward and and it's really a great place to be and a great environment to be in it's challenging but it's also hopefully uplifting at time and will just help you to decide what you want to do in the future and not just in terms of career but also just in general I think I've I've been at SOAS now for two years and I think my perspectives on many things have changed over that time and I know during my life my perspective on many things have changed as well so hopefully this can just be one part of your your journey as Patrick referred to in terms of where you go so if anybody has any last comments that you'd like to have if not we'll probably leave it there today and let everybody go on with them everything else they have going on there's a lot of different time zones that people are in I know so thank you again everybody who stayed up late all got up early thank you everyone thank you so much everyone thank you