 Hello everybody, welcome to today's webinar. Today we'll be looking at the application process. This webinar is geared towards prospective postgraduate students. That is a similar one running this afternoon for undergraduate students, but hopefully everyone in today is a prospective postgraduate student interested in applying to SOAS. My name's Dan. I work in the UK student recruitment team. I'm joined today by two of my colleagues Laura and Lisa. They're going to be in the background answering your questions as we go. You are able to submit those questions using the questions and the chat box that's available to you. So as we go through the session today, as I'm talking to you, please do feel free to pop any questions you have into the chat. Laura and Lisa will do their best to answer as we go through. And then at the end, we also have some time set aside for Q&A too. So as we get started, I thought a nice introduction would be to show you some of the sort of key subject areas that we focus on at SOAS. As a university, we're world renowned for our study of research into Africa, Asia and the Middle East. You'll see that there's a whole variety of different subject areas available. And we truly have hundreds of different degrees that are available for students to come and study. There's so much choice and so much availability and that really is something that's very special about what we have on offer at SOAS. So hopefully within here, you might be able to pick out something that you're interested in. Our website has a full detail of all of the different courses within each of the subject areas. So just because you see one area here, that will actually break down into a whole number of different courses as well that are available within it. So if you're interested in a kind of particular area, but you don't know the exact course that you're looking to study just yet, I'd recommend having a look on the website, drilling down into the courses that are available. And then within there, you can actually look at the modules that are available, the program specification and get a really good understanding and overview of what that course will be like for you when you come to study with us. A couple of the highlights and some of the things that we're really most known for are development studies you'll see on here. We also have specialisms in law, in economics, politics, gender studies, and then some really fantastic regional specialities that aren't available at too many other universities. So you might like to check out some of those or something that you're interested in as well. Once you've found that subject that you're interested in, it's important to then start thinking about whether you'll be able to apply to study with us. And one of those, one of the most fundamental things to consider at the beginning is the entry requirements that we're asking for. The people for students wanting to come on to our regular master's degrees, we're looking for a minimum of a sort of high 2-2 or international equivalence in your bachelor's, your undergraduate degree. For lots of people, it is very, very helpful to have some previous studies that are related to your program where possible. Now we do realise and understand that some students, you might study one thing, undergraduates, and then you might work for a few years or your interests might develop and change and we understand that, we appreciate that and know that sometimes your undergraduate course won't translate directly to what you do come and actually study. So that is the opportunity in your personal statement, your supporting statement to talk about that and I'll come onto this in a little bit. But if you do have previous studies that relate to your program, that is fantastic. That is something that can definitely help you with getting to where you need to be. Alongside this, you might also find that there's some work experience that you've done. So if you've taken some years out of study since your undergraduate degree, you've worked in a particular discipline or profession, that might have broadened your interests and your scope and opened up some new opportunities for you and we can see that work experience as actually being crucial and helping you to actually develop your interests and to decide which program you might then want to come on and study at postgraduate level. Some of the courses might specify some particular experiences that you might need to have had or that would be helpful as well. It's worth looking out for any of those specific program, program specific entry requirements that are asked for. You can find all of these types of things again on the websites. If you head on to those subject pages, you'll see a heading and a box for entry requirements and this will stipulate everything that's needed for the particular course that you're interested in. So do make sure that once you've found the program that you're particularly interested in, that you explore any of the specific entry requirements that are needed for your course. Some students may find that they want to take part in a pre-masters program. As I've asked, this is called the FTPS, Foundation Diploma for Postgraduate Study. This is really designed for international students who want to study for a postgraduate taught degree or even a research degree at later stages at a British university. But it's for those who may need to, who maybe are sort of wanting to develop a number of different things. So firstly, it could be that you have an undergraduate degree already and that might meet the requirements of entry, but you're looking to develop your English or your academic study skills to allow you to succeed at the UK University at SOAS that you might be wishing to come to. So that will help you to really prepare for master's study. It could be that you have a full undergraduate degree, but you're wishing to actually change the focus of your study. So you might have studied one thing at undergraduate level and you're wanting to completely change that for postgraduate study, but you haven't got the sort of necessary background experience or that work experience that we've touched upon that might have indicated why that change is happening. So this will again help you to develop and deepen your knowledge of the relevant sort of subject area that you're then looking to study. Or it could also be that your previous studies haven't actually allowed you to meet the academic entry requirements. So this could be based on the degree you've done and if it doesn't sort of meet what we're asking for in our entry requirements, then this program will help you to sort of apply and add value to your academic performance. So that pre-master's year will really act as a foundation for you to be able to move onto the course that you're looking for. And there is a good level of progression on from those courses. So students who do actually achieve a minimum level of academic and English language performance on the FTPS, the pre-master's are guaranteed progression onto many of our postgraduate programs. And they will also actually receive a 10% discount off their tuition fees. So that's also a nice little bonus as well. So this might be one thing for you to bear in mind and consider. So now moving on to how to apply. Firstly, looking at taught master's courses. There is an online application form and online application hub. And this is the main place where you'll be submitting your application. There's a variety of things that you'll be asked to submit. And firstly, we'll look for some general biographical information about you. So information about you, maybe where you've studied before, any suitable work experience that you wish to include, contact details, that sorts of stuff. There is then a box that asks for your choice of program. And you'll notice that we ask you for a first and second choice. Now you only have to submit a first choice, which is for everyone. But some people may wish to then be considered for a second choice if for any reason they weren't eligible for their first or primary choice. So you'll only be considered for that second one if you choose to submit one. And B, if you weren't eligible for your first choice, of course. So you don't need to worry about that too much if you see the box that says second choice and you haven't thought about a second one. But it's just there for those students who might wish to submit one. Now, importantly, as I touched upon earlier, there is the opportunity to submit a supporting statement. And this is really a section that will allow you and your interest to come through. With this supporting statement, you have a thousand words roughly to tell us about your interest in the course, why you want to study the course, why you're suitable for it. And this allows you to really personalize the application. And that's something that is so incredibly important. Lots of the information on your application will be just sort of quite general about you and might be quite numeric or in short form answers. Whereas this supporting statement really does allow you to flourish and to shine through and to show us why you will be suitable for the course that you're looking to study. In addition, you can ask for a CV or resume where possible, try to have this as up to date as possible. If there are any gaps, then this can leave us wondering what you were doing during that time. So please do try to complete it as much as possible. Don't worry if maybe you were doing some work that wasn't quite exactly relevant to the postgraduate course you're going on to. All of this helps us to build up a picture of who you are as an applicant, as a prospective student, what your experiences have been so far and how that will contribute to that wider application that you're making and how you will fit in as a student so as. In addition, we'll ask for information about your previous academic qualifications. Depending on where you are in the journey, this could be your current transcripts as they stand. We might have already graduated and have your full certificates and full transcripts then in which case you can submit all of those. If you are a current postgraduate student and don't have all of these documents completed fully then you'll be able to send them into our admissions team at a later date. So just use your transcripts as they stand at the moment. Something else that we will ask for is for you to demonstrate your English language proficiency. It's worth noting that if you do need to demonstrate this potentially if you're an international student maybe you're doing this through an exam that tells that we don't require that information and the results immediately but it will be required at some point in the application process. So you can submit your application to begin with without those results but if you are having to demonstrate them again you will need to send that in at a later date. However, if you have already taken these exams, you have your schools already please do submit them it just again adds to your application gives us a better understanding of where your English language proficiency sits potentially any extra support that might be needed or extra courses you can take and again I'll touch upon these in a little while. Something which can be a little bit different from university to university is that we are not asking immediately up front for references. There is the opportunity there is the possibility sorry that the admissions team might read your application and they might need some clarification about certain things so they can send further questions or they may also ask you then to submit a reference and submit the details for a reference. So maybe have someone in mind who you can approach but just be aware that you don't have to submit this as part of the application. So for those students who are maybe considering one of our online or distance learning masters the application is similar but slightly different so there is a different form that you need to submit. This is found on the specific pages for the online and distance learning masters courses. This online application form again covers general information about you, contact details, those things that we've already mentioned. There is again a personal statement but take note that this is actually 500 words so it's shorter than the one previously talked about. Again though the personal statement still serves for you to explain your interests in the course, your desire to study it where that interest has come from and for you to really explain how you will develop your academic abilities and to study and how suited you'll be to study that course as well. So again make sure that you do place some importance on that personal statement and you use that really as the opportunity to make the personal element of your application come through. Again there will be some supporting documents that you'll need to submit things like transcripts or certificates from previous studies and I'll talk a bit about supporting documents as well on the next slide and again information there about English language proficiency so you'll see that some of it is similar to the things I've already spoken about but there are some slight changes so just make sure that you're using the right application form for the course that you're intending to study. With supporting documents just know that we will require a certified English translation if the document is not natively in English. So there will be two things there that we're going to ask for one will be the original copy of the documents in its original language and then secondly will be that certified English translation our website does detail places of translation companies and people that you can use so if this is the case for you then you can check on there. We will also have to cross-check all international qualifications and institutions using the NARIC database so that's something as well just to be aware of this is just to ensure that the institution you've studied at and the qualifications you've studied at are all legitimate if the admissions team did have any questions about this afterwards then they'll get in touch with you directly so that's not something for you to worry about really at this stage but it's just something to be aware of and alongside that as well with those documents that you submit and this applies to everyone we do need scanned original copies sometimes you might find that with the university transcript or certificate it can be stamped by that issuing universities registry that's also really helpful so as much with all of those documents they need to be the scanned originals if you do have any issues with that then you'll need to contact the admissions team separately to sort of ask about that and ask about how you can source those documents if needed so with your application once you've submitted it as I've mentioned the admissions team will then be considering it your whole application is considered before any sort of decision is reached and communicated to you so you do need to make sure that you've submitted a full application as much as possible and this will ensure that there's as little opportunity for delays to take place so that typical response time that turnaround time is around four to six weeks but during busier times for example when we approach the deadline for submission of applications this can be a little bit longer rest assured though if you have submitted an application the admissions team will be getting to it they will get back to you but sometimes this can take a little while especially as I say when it's a busy time of year you'll receive that information by email and you'll be able to access a offer you'll be able to access a link in your offer letter and this is how you'll be able to then reply to your offer so once you receive that click the link that's in there and it's really important that you read your offer letter in full detail as well because this might contain any other conditions of your offer so make sure that you understand everything that's contained within and if you do need to ask any questions about this again you'll be able to to accept your offer you will then have to pay a deposit currently for home students this stands at £1,000 and for international students overseas students this stands at £2,000 there are some exemptions though so for students who are going to be fully funded by an official sponsor or scholarship it is possible for us to waive the deposit we will need however for evidence that that is the case you've made that application or are making that application but that is something for you to be aware of and you can contact the admissions team about that for the deposit waiver then once this is done it's time for you to really prepare for your studies and for different people this will look like this will be individual to you really so it might be that you're completing your current undergraduate degree ensuring that you get the best results there for some international students this might be that you need to apply for a study visa submit a request for a CAS so you can begin that process when it's time more information about those two particular things as well are available on our website in the international students section so you can look at the timelines and how to go about those if needed it might be the case that you'll be moving to London to study and you might need to start thinking about accommodation as well there's a whole host of different resources that are available to support you in preparing to join us at SOAS now just moving on to some information about English language requirements and you might remember I touched upon these previously when we're talking about submitting your application so just to give you some more information about this for students who are looking at direct entry onto our postgraduate courses you can see the typical results that we're asking for the typical scores we're asking for in those English language tests there are other ways and alternative sort of qualifications which can demonstrate English proficiency as well there's a whole list of these available on our website but I've selected three which might be relevant to some of you and these are available and valid for different lengths of time as well so it could be that you've completed A level English or perhaps international baccalaureate English or you might have studied and obtained a degree recently from a certain English medium university as well so that's a couple of other ways but if you do need to complete one of those English language tests again there's lots of information on our website about them there is a link just at the bottom of the slide there it's very easy to find all of that and then you can find out how to go about completing one of those tests as well for some students they might be asked and this can be a condition of your offer which is to complete a pre-sessional or an in-sessional English course and that can supplement your that's to improve and supplement your English proficiency or if you're looking to begin on one of the pre-masters programs the FDPS that I was talking about earlier then there are lower English requirements for this course there are a few additional courses run by our foundation college which may be of interest to those of you who need to develop your English proficiency first off is the access to English language studies program this is an online 11 week program it's also the training course to really prepare you to come and study at SOAS it's designed to bridge the gap between roughly students who are at 4.5 in IELTS and to bring them up to a 5.5 and this is designed for entry onto the pre-masters or onto the ELAS program which is the second one on the screen so the ELAS English language and academic studies is a language and study skill development program designed for international students taking place over three or six months it's for those who hold a first undergraduate degree and are wishing to pursue a related postgraduate course so that is a master's a postgraduate degree which is related in a similar area and field of study to that undergraduate that's designed for students who are currently sitting around a 5.5 on the IELTS to bring them up to the required scores so it might also be good just to talk briefly about funding your studies there is further information available in webinar format we do have a fees funding and scholarships webinar coming up so this isn't going to be in full depth but I'm just going to touch upon some of the aspects that will be important for you to be considering and the dates of those future webinars will be shared at the end so firstly it's important to think about the tuition fees for our regular postgraduate degrees there are three bands of fees so depending on which subject you study it will be in a particular band for home students the fees range from 11,980 pounds up to 17,000 for international students this ranges from 23,400 to 24,650 for our pre-masters that's 15,400 and for online distance learning again there is a range here depending on which program you take but that's currently well for this year 2021-22 the current fees for 2022-23 are just being finalised that's sitting at 10,270 to 12,000 so I'd expect a small increase in that further coming year the online distance learning as we spoke about earlier is a flexible module by module system as well so there is a pay by module option which is available but the numbers that you see there are the total fees once all of those modules are considered just to highlight a little bit about funding as well because I know that this can be a barrier for many students who are wishing to access postgraduate study and it's really important to think about how you might actually be able to fund your time at university for home students depending on where in the four nations you are and which awarding body you'll be applying to there is a non-means tested loan which is available so for example in Student Finance England that could be applied to but as I say there are some slight differences across the four nations and the different bodies so I would just make sure that you check the relevant information to you the Student Finance England loan is available and that is just a set amount which is paid to you so it's non-means tested so it's just a set number this can be used towards your tuition fees you might wish to use some of its supplement living costs as well it's up to you how that money is divided up and it's paid directly to you as opposed to being paid directly to the university if you're familiar with the undergraduate student loans system for overseas students this really does vary depending on the country that you're in but often there is some country specific financial aid which is available I've highlighted two of the big examples here such as US Federal Loans or Indian Cradella Loans but again depending on the country that you're based in I would seek out some information about this we do have lots of information again on our website as I've mentioned so there are some more examples on there as we go into further detail so you might wish to explore that and similarly you might find it helpful to think about scholarships and other sort of awards which are available at SOAS we offer many scholarships ourselves I've highlighted two particular ones here one is the International Postgraduate Scholarship this is available for students from a number of different regions across the world and we're looking to come and study at SOAS it's a partial fee waiver so note it's not a full cover of all of the fees it's just a partial fee waiver but hopefully that is enough to help many of you to access the postgraduate course that you're looking for again eligibility criteria information about how to submit an application for this is available on the website as is the case for all of these other opportunities that are listed here and that I'll mention for home students SOAS Master Scholarships there's around 40 awards usually available for this and again it's not a full cover of fees it's just a partial amount there's a number of these usually allocated for across a number of different subject areas as well so you can check out the information about that see if you're eligible to apply there are also a number of external funding opportunities with people that we have partnerships with so there's the Achievement Awards there's also the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship and the SAID Foundation just to name a handful of what is available as I say though do check the website that link just at the bottom there there's a full table it will give you information about who is eligible to apply for a particular award or scholarship deadlines, information for submitting and eligibility criteria as well so do make sure that you check all of that out just before we go on to the question and answer I just wanted to highlight a couple of key dates for your diaries as well for things you might wish to know we have a number of open events coming up which may be of interest to you so firstly is our postgraduate open evening this is originally scheduled to be on campus we are currently assessing the situation in the UK to ensure that we can deliver this hopefully successfully so we'll continue to monitor that and if it does need to be moved online then that is a possibility as well but as things stand currently today that's still scheduled to be on campus that's in late February we then have a couple of online events the first being the global challenges forum this is a fantastic online forum which explores a variety of different themes of study and research that are available at SOAS so that's quite a good introduction to the multi-disciplinary aspects of learning which are available at our school postgraduate taste today this is to give you an insight into what each of the courses are like what you can expect to study on a particular programme to meet academics to find out from them what it's like to study the subject you're interested in there's also an event specifically for postgraduate offer holders so for those who have submitted an application or have been made an offer by this date they'll be sent an email invitation to come on to campus as long as that's possible and safe to attend our offer holder reception so this is a good way to meet other offer holders to meet current staff, current students again to introduce you to SOAS and to the campus if you hadn't had the opportunity to visit so far so I would really encourage you to look out for these events to consider some of them and similar to today in a similar format there'll also be some more webinars which are running, these are a selection of dates some of these will be running twice under a variety of different times as well so you can visit our website for more information and to sign up for those we have careers employability and alumni later this month these funding and scholarships as I mentioned earlier today is in the 9th of February there's an accommodation webinar a meet our students webinar and also an applying for a student visa webinar as well which I touched upon earlier today so if you have any questions about applying for your visa or requesting your CAS that's a very helpful one to go to and I'd recommend so that does bring me to the end of my slides and now we still have some time for question and answer hopefully we've been able to submit questions I'll just open up the box now to see what we've got so Laura would you like to turn your camera on and your microphone on join me for some of the questions hopefully my camera should be switched on hi everyone I'm Laura I also work in the student recruitment team we've had a question about under what circumstances are we allowed to defer an offer so if you have received an offer from us then you would like to defer it you are able to do so by one year provided you meet all of the conditions of your offer so those are the main circumstances where you'd be allowed to defer I see there was also a question asked today and Laura it looks like you've answered this during the session but in case anyone hasn't seen it as this is a quite important thing that I didn't actually mention someone's asked about whether there's an application fee as a requirement to apply for postgraduate programs so I should have touched upon this there is no application fee for applying to our postgraduate programs so that really is a benefit and does open that up to lots of you as I did mention though for you to accept your offer there is a requirement to pay the deposit and a short eligible for the waiver we've had another question about if we don't have an relevant work experience for a certain degree that can demonstrate our interest in it through how we've structured our academic studies is that still okay absolutely so we don't require work experience obviously we do have work experience that's relevant to your program please do you mention it in your application you can mention it in your supporting statement as well but we understand that not everybody has work experience that is relevant to their particular program so if you've got other evidence of experience through your academic studies in a relevant area please do you mention that that's really important and the admissions tutors will be definitely looking at your academic experience in your previous degrees or qualifications and also how they relate to the program as well so definitely there's a question that's come through about whether the passing statement differs in structure from undergraduate and postgraduate so for undergraduate as many of you will have done the personal statement that goes through UCAS is about 4000 characters which translates roughly to 500-ish words so in short that personal statement is often shorter so you have more opportunity to yeah you have sort of a wider opportunity to write and explain your interests and what you're wanting to study in the statement that you submit for us and the statement you submit for us just goes directly to us at SOAS as a university or is previously the one you submitted if you had applied to multiple universities at undergraduate level through UCAS then you'd have been sending off one statement to potentially up to five universities so this will just be sent to us you can tailor it and customise it to SOAS in particular and the exact program that you're wishing to study so that's one way in which it differs you may also find that it becomes more academic as well and you're able to talk about more academic topics to talk about research that you've done and this is something that probably wouldn't have been possible at an undergraduate level so there are a couple of ways in which it differs however there are probably similarities as well we are looking for you to talk positively about yourself about your accomplishments about your interests in the course I think that's really important to convey and hopefully I made that point in the presentation but if not again I'll stress it now we really want to know why you are interested and suitable for the course that you're applying to so you could list off 100 different qualifications that you have and why that makes you excellent but if you're not talking about the specific course that you're applying to and actually why you're interested in that then that will be a little bit of a downfall so I'd make sure to highlight that as well so we've had a question from Britt is the postgraduate open evening also going to be open for international students so we also have a virtual open evening for postgraduate students so that is absolutely open for international students any of our on campus open events are also open to international students obviously if you can be in the UK or if you're already in the UK and want to attend those you're absolutely welcome to attend as well they're open to everybody one person has asked whether there's a time limit to reply to offers and link to that how much time is required to pay the deposit as well this will all be communicated to you in your offer letter so once you receive that from the admissions team as I said during the presentation it's important to read that very carefully because that will also include information about when you will need to reply and as I said there will be a link in there to actually go about replying but yeah, make sure you read that communication in that letter very thoroughly to get all of that information and we've had a question from Lolita what does the phrase about English medium universities mean if an undergraduate programme at a Chinese university is taught in English is this proof of English proficiency so with our sort of English requirements and with all the universities in the UK we now require all students who've been educated outside of one of the main UKVI list of majority English speaking countries to submit a SELT that is relevant to the study of academic English so on our English requirements page on our website you'll be able to see exactly which of the SELT tests we consider the IELTS is one of them but we consider a range of other tests as well but I'd also recommend checking on the UKVI list of majority English speaking countries to see if the country where you have studied is listed there because if it is we may be able to accept that in your sort of prior studies in place of one of those SELT English language tests if you've completed a minimum of three consecutive years at degree level with one of the UKVI recognised countries and that was no more than two years ago we might be able to consider an exemption but it's always worth checking with our admissions team on that as well Someone's asked a question might be specific to their circumstances but I can answer a little bit more generally if they gain admission to the Development Studies Masters so ask and complete it successfully could they then apply for an LLM I think the important thing to highlight here is that it's really important to actually if your end goal is to then be applying for an LLM is to actually find out what the specific entry requirements and the criteria for the LLM that you're looking for actually are it might be the case that you do need some legal qualifications and I don't have them up in front of me so I'm not going to say exactly so I would recommend just having a look there but it might be the case that you need a background in law you might need a qualifying law degree to be able to go on to do that so that might be more important than your actual Masters degree so I think my answer for this is just make sure that you actually check what the entry requirements are for that LLM first and then we've had a question from Joshua about how the fee is paid as an international student do you need to pay your deposit first and on getting to so as you can then pay the remaining fee gradually before you graduate so so as you'll need to pay your deposit initially when you accept your offer and then once you start so as that will be deducted from your first fee payment so you can either pay your fee in full for the year at the beginning of the year when you're in Rome or you can choose to pay it in two instalments so if you do choose to pay it in two instalments you'll pay half of your fee in September when you enroll and then the other half of the fee by the end of January so that's the usual structure there are some exceptions to that so for example if you're a UK student and you're in receipt of the UK Government student loan then you would be able to pay it in three instalments but the majority of students it would be in the two instalments or at the enrolment time at the beginning of the year further question if extenuating circumstance means that grades on our transcript are affected but the required grade could still be met will this be considered yes importantly our admissions team will consider your entire application if you're finding if you've got grades on your transcript and you're only part way through your undergraduate course for example and maybe with COVID or a variety of different other situations that have obviously arisen you've had a big difficulty here and it has caused your grades to drop but overall you think you'll still be able to meet the entry requirements then it is still worth considering an application you can speak to our admissions team to get sort of further information and advice about this where possible you might be able to think about other ways in which you can enhance your application as well so there's a variety of different things that we spoke about before potentially if there's any relevant work that you've done or reasons for wanting to go on to study in that area if there's anything that you can do as well to sort of build up your grades maybe thinking about extra research and study as well then that will be helpful but I will say that we do very much consider the whole application as much as possible so don't worry too much there and we've had a question from Bysenck are there any constraints about the application to the departments so it's worth always having a look at the specific entry requirements for the program that you're applying to because some of our programs may say that they prefer a certain academic background in a certain discipline but for the majority of departments as long as you can sort of make reference to your interest in the program it's always good to draw upon similarities between previous programs that you've studied and skills you've gained from those programs and how you can link them into the program that you're applying to at SOAS but for the majority as long as you can sort of show your interest and link it back to your previous studies that's what we're looking for but do have a look at the entry requirements on each individual program page just in the instance that it is a program where we do look for a certain academic background A question about the supporting statements someone's asked whether they should outline a rough dissertation proposal in the statement for the program that they're applying to or if that's not necessary as it's a taught degree and not a research one as you said there as it is a taught degree that you're applying to it's not expected that you'll be coming into this with a research proposal or dissertation proposal as such however you can use that supporting statement to highlight your interest in the course you might like to touch upon areas which you might want to research you could mention this but you don't need to use that space to basically highlight it and use it as a you don't need to highlight an entire dissertation proposal sorry I should say within that supporting statement but you know if you've already got an idea of an area that you think is relevant to the course you're applying to that you think you might then want to be going on to do some research and your dissertation into then that could be something that's good to talk about that shows the admissions tutors that you're forward planning that you're thinking about the course and that you've already got ideas coming into it which is fantastic however being a taught degree for anyone who's thinking that they don't actually have that in mind that's absolutely fine it's designed so that as you go through the course you'll be able to pick up different interests to explore different research and topic areas from there you can develop more of a dissertation proposal that you'll actually use in the year but if you do have some ideas that you might want to talk about then you can use a little bit of that space to touch upon those yeah and we've got another question from an applicant who is an international student who asks if I've completed GCSE in English and have studied a BA at a university in London, does this count as an English requirement so provided that your studies were at least three years and on your BA program and it was no more than two years ago that sounds like it could count towards the English requirement so obviously the admissions team will need to do a full assessment but as long as they can see information on your undergraduate degree and also on your GCSE in English in your application that should be fine and then if for any reason they did need you to complete another English language test they would just ask you to do that as part of your offer conditions but that does sound like it should be alright as long as it was within the last two years that you studied that BA again a question about the supporting statement and this might have been answered in some of the bits that we've said already but someone's asked for some general do's and don'ts for the supporting statements so there isn't a set document as such which outlines all of these it really is a personal statement supporting statement because it's personal it's down to you too as hopefully I've highlighted to convey why you're interested in the course I think it's important to use language which highlights your interest very positively try not to be too negative it can be sometimes easier to talk about yourself in a slightly negative way or to put yourself down but you do need to practice using that positive language to describe yourself as you would for example say with a job application or similar so you want to talk about your skills and your abilities in here again I would make sure that you tailor it to the course that you're looking to study and I think it's important to use the space that you do have available to you and to actually structure your statement in a way which is conducive to showing your sort of structure in a way which highlights different areas or different points so you want things to flow closely and for the person reading it to see a connection between everything that you're writing so the more that you can kind of plan this and write out a structure, write out a plan in advance, I think that will help you when it comes to actually writing it as well as otherwise you might just type down everything that you're thinking and it could come out as one long sort of incoherent bit of awful so where possible you want to really structure that so in a sense and you've got different paragraphs for different sections and things that you're talking about and I would advise you to remember that it is an academic sort of piece of work, it's being read by the admissions tutors from the courses they want to know about your academic abilities and your academic interests as well importantly so that's just to highlight a couple of I guess a little bits of advice around that so hopefully that helps but to fully answer the question what's not a set list of dos and don'ts or sort of a set document for that and we've had another question I think this might have been mentioned but will there be open days and so ask for postgraduate programs yes definitely so we've got one on the 23rd of February and then we also have some online open events I think they're online taster days that are going ahead on the 16th of March you can find out more information about those on the SOAS website you can register for those events on the SOAS website as well so that would be the 23rd of February and then some taster days are happening on the 16th of March I've just popped that slide back up for anyone who wants to get down those dates and there's also the link just at the bottom there as well for you to sign up for them as well sorry Laura as you said there's a question about the deadline for postgraduate applications as well so the deadline for our taught masters programs is the 30th of June 2022 so well 30th of June this year I should say so still a few months to get those in however I would advise that where possible you try to get those applications in sort of earlier where possible towards the end and towards that deadline the admissions team get a lot busier it can take a little bit longer to actually get a reply back to you so the sooner you can get that in hopefully the sooner you can get a reply you can get the ball moving and actually start the process and thinking about what you then need to do to prepare to join us in the autumn just to highlight that again the 30th of June and just to add to that as well if you do happen to be a prospective PhD student looking to apply for the PhD programs the deadline for those programs is the 15th of June okay we've had a few questions about sort of the likelihood of being accepted onto a postgraduate course with certain grades or the likelihood of being accepted with with certain experience it's very difficult to sort of give an indication of likelihood your application will be assessed as a whole so we'll look at your academic achievements and grades from your previous qualifications we'll look at your supporting statement we'll look at your CV this will all be considered by academic admissions tutors in the department so they'll be looking for sort of keen interest to study the program relevant experience if you have it in a certain in a certain field relevant academic experience and if you have sort of done particular modules and things if you have written a dissertation in a certain area that can all go towards supporting your application but it is very difficult to say sort of just with sort of a brief overview of grades what the outcome will be for academic admissions tutors when they look at your applications a question about students who are applying to SOAS but are going to be also applying for a scholarship and what happens if they are unable to get the scholarship to sort of support themselves and do recognise that postgraduate degrees and study can be very expensive and it's difficult for some people to reach there are a number of awards which we do have available and I did touch upon some of these in the presentation but there's a full list of those available on the website so it's important to have a look at some of those some of those are internal which are awarded by SOAS and some of those are external awarded by a variety a number of different organisations so it's important to I would recommend if you will be reliant on those to apply for as much as you can which you are eligible to so I would make those applications most of those are done most of those are awarded based on merits and academic ability the quality of the statement that you submit so it's important to as much as possible focus on submitting the best application for those as well if it's that important to you that you get them in terms of support that we can offer if you don't then get that anticipated scholarship which you are hoping for unfortunately it is a little bit limited it's such a competitive environment there are so many different people applying for all of those different things and I do think it gets harder unfortunately each year as we go on more and more people are interested in postgraduate study which is fantastic but it does slightly reduce those number of opportunities which are available for each person so unfortunately it does become a little bit harder and aside from all of the awards and scholarships which we are able to offer ourselves there isn't as much that we are able to do beyond that but we have got a lot of different resources highlighted on our websites so again I would just urge you to take a look at those consider what you're eligible for both within scholarships but then also within other other means of funding such as through governments or other agencies which are out there as well we've had a few questions on the applicant to offer ratios also acceptance rates for certain programs as well so we don't have sort of a set quota in terms of kind of how many students we accept on to programs a year it really varies year on year it really depends on the individual application and how well that goes towards meeting sort of how academics feel you'll perform on the program whether they feel you'll be a successful student on the program whether you have all of the attributes that they would look for in a student on the program so we don't have any set ratios or acceptance rates but it's really about every individual application and making those applications as strong as possible for the programs A question here from Joshua about accommodation and whether there is family accommodation available on campus there's a number of different providers of accommodation and some of those I do believe have sort of family size accommodation which is available again unfortunately I'm going to say it's important to have a look on the website here and to actually see which ones of those have something available I believe that there will be some of those which you might wish to consider International Student House I think has some but I would check on the websites and see which of those are available and you've also asked about submission of transcripts is it possible to use an unofficial transcript during the admissions process and then to supply the official one later depending on what you mean by unofficial transcript as such if you're part way through studies of say an undergraduate course then if you reach out to your university or provider and ask them for a transcript in its current form that will be able to show your grades so far then that is something which you can submit and use as part of the application and then once you have completed the course you can then submit any certificates and full transcripts afterwards We've had a question from Ella who's asked when does the 2022-23 academic year start so that will start for the majority of programs on Monday the 26th of September 2022 there are certain programs at postgraduate level which will start a little bit earlier than that so programs for MA law courses and also economics postgraduate courses as well will have a preliminary module which will start with an earlier start date in September so more towards the beginning of September so those are the only ones where there will be an earlier start date from the start of term but the majority of programs will start on the 26th of September 2022 A question with a fairly sort of specific scenario but maybe relevant to anyone who's considering applying for a scholarship or getting funding for their course what happens to someone who is waiting for a scholarship and the deposit has been waived but they're unable to actually get the scholarship but are still interested in coming and then paying the deposit and the fee so what happens in that scenario so if your deposit is initially waived because you are applying for one of those methods of funding but you're unable to get them then to fully enroll you will need to then have paid the deposit and to be in the payment of fees as well and the way in which you go about doing that is a couple of different ways that you can pay there are sort of platforms and bank transfers that you can use but the information the specific way in which you pay that money is listed online and there will be links to it from your offer letter I believe as well so in the area where it will ask you to pay the deposit that will give you information about how to pay that so if it was initially waived but you're then unsuccessful in gaining that scholarship or funding you will then still be asked to pay that and we've had a question from Alex on roughly how many students are accepted onto a course so if you wanted to so as I said it does vary sort of year on year and it does depend on each individual application but if you wanted an idea of your particular programme it would be worth contacting the department just to see how many students have been on the programme in the most recent year so it's always good to contact the relevant academic course convener who can be found on the programme page on our website and they'll be able to give you an indication of the most recent intake number so I'd advise you to do that we are nearly 11 so we'll have to wrap up now but I think it's time for one last question Laura would you be able to talk a little bit about I think it's probably quite a good one to end on about classes next year and whether we think they're going to be in person online what that kind of structure might look like so next year we'll be focusing on small group teaching in person and we'll also have some aspects of blended learning so that's to embrace sort of the benefits and advantages of online learning as experienced by our students and by our staff over the last few years we've had some very successful experiences and students have really enjoyed sort of the mix of blended learning so yeah I'd say it's going to be sort of focus on small group teaching and then aspects of blended learning too and that will that will be sort of communicated to incoming students during the course of this year going forward as well. Fantastic, thanks so much thank you to Laura, Lisa Kim as well in the background for helping out and answering some of those questions as we go through thanks to everyone for attending that does bring us to the end I've just popped a email address which is study at sowas.ac.uk into the chat so if you do have any questions afterwards that you wish to ask feel free to drop us an email there otherwise that brings us to the end of the session today thank you very much