 All righty, thank you so much to everybody for joining us today. We're really excited about this afternoon or this evening session and wherever you're joining from and we'll be looking at why choose SOAS. So this is a really or hopefully will be a very helpful presentation if you're at the outset of your research into where to study across different levels or even if you've already applied and are starting to whittle down the universities that you might choose from. We'll talk through some of the main things that sort of distinguish or differentiate the SOAS experience and then there'll be just some brief information slides in terms of how you might want to take forward an application and different things that we look for but the main idea of today is just to give you a really brief insight into what we're about as an institution. I'm joined on the call today by my colleagues Dan and Rachel and alongside Dan and Rachel we work together in the recruitment and admissions office at SOAS and so if at any point you think of any questions or you want to know some more information about points that are raised you can use the questions box in the panel on your screen to submit those and then as we go through Dan and Rachel we'll be able to answer and reply and we'll also have some time for a more open Q&A at the end of the presentation. So do let us know, ask away if you have any questions and we'll be sure to pick those up. The other thing to say is that today's session is being recorded so please don't worry about frantically taking any notes or making sure to note stuff down. We'll circulate this along with answers to your questions and different helpful links that should help you to take your research forward if you need to. The only other thing to say is if you are a current applicant who has questions about your specific application that are perhaps more detailed or narrow and personal to your specific circumstances please do follow up by email. If you are an applicant you should have received correspondence that will give you access to the admissions email address and those are really the best email addresses to follow up to make sure that we can get you the tailored help and support that you need and then towards the end of the presentation we'll make sure we give you the more general email address that you can follow up and get in contact with. So let's begin and I think before we sort of talk about the specific reasons why you might want to choose SOAS it's useful just to say at the beginning in terms of who are we and what do we embody as an institution. The main thing to know is that SOAS is a specialist institution so SOAS stands for the School of Oriental and African Studies and we are a specialist institution with academic and research expertise in the regions of Africa Asia and the near and middle east and then within that specialism all of the programs that we offer sit across the arts humanities and social sciences. In terms of then why you might want to come and study with us the first thing that we like to point to is our location so if you do join SOAS you'll have the opportunity to study in the heart of central London. SOAS is located in Bloomsbury which is a beautiful leafy part of central London close to lots of recognisable landmarks and just around the corner from other really well known London based institutions such as UCL and Birkbeck and this map here then just gives you a little bit better of an idea of where exactly you'll find us you can see us in the little blue ring there and if you have ever visited London and you've gone along to the British Museum then you'll know exactly where we are we're just around the corner it's a wonderful museum and definitely something that you should go and visit if you do decide and to come and see what we're about in person or to visit the campus the British Museum is well worth a visit and in terms of museums it's worth noting that SOAS is home to its own exhibition space called the Brunei Gallery and we'll talk about that in just a second but the Brunei Gallery makes up part of London's Museum Mile which is a collection of about 14 museums and galleries that run all the way from Bloomsbury right the way down to the Thames and closer to the River Thames on the map then you'll see lots of very instantly recognisable landmarks like Big Ben and the London Eye the Parliament and you'll have the chance to explore all of that if you do choose to join us as a student it's also worth highlighting that we have a really convenient location in terms of transport links be that in terms of the troop or picking up the Piccadilly line to go to Heathrow Airport or Kings Cross and Euston stations if you want to make the most of your time in the UK and travel further if you ever very conveniently located no matter where you want to explore and of course London is a city that's really designed for an excellent for students and that's reflected in its ranking as the best city in the world in the 2022 QS world best cities ranking for students and part of what makes London so great is that it's a really cosmopolitan and a really diverse city you'll see lots of different nationalities and backgrounds represented you would hear more than 300 languages spoken if you had a walkabout for long enough and there's always lots going on I mentioned the museums and there's also always lots of festivals music performances arts events taking place across the city and you won't just sort of have the support of the SOAS community or the wider University of London community but you'll also have the support of the students at and a whole host of institutions across the capital there's about 350 000 students in London for you to get to know and connect with so there'll always be something to do and it's also worth them just pointing out the vast array of businesses and NGOs and organizations international organizations that call London home and so in terms of navigating and thinking about future job prospects or employability beyond that then there's lots of opportunities to sort of tap into these networks to apply for work experience and really make the most of being in the city another reason why you might want to think about applying to SOAS or choosing to study with us is the facilities that you'll have access to as a student and we know that those facilities really impact on your learning experience and so hopefully these next few slides will just give you a little bit of a flavor of some of the facilities that you can use but firstly I just wanted to show you this little snapshot of our campus so SOAS has its own little sort of campus pedestrianized area that you can see on the screen here and as part of our little area we have three main buildings and so on the left of the screen the red building the red brick building is the Brunei gallery that I mentioned and just a second ago and that's home like I said to an exhibition space in addition to teaching rooms and breakout areas on the right of the screen you'll see a much taller building and with the sort of cross pane windows that's the main SOAS college buildings and that's where you'll find the majority of our academic offices the library the students union space and finally towards the back left hand corner of the screen hopefully you can see a little white building at the back or a very tall white building if you could see the full picture but that's the poll web viewing and that's the third component of our campus and within that we have key student services and more sort of teaching buildings that you'll be able to access but it's a very lively area and Thursdays we welcome a farmers market that sets up in between SOAS and our neighbours UCL and Birkbeck there's always lots going on and lots for you to do and when we think about SOAS sort of facilities one of the main things that our students and people that you speak to will probably mention is the SOAS library so this is located in our main college building and it's one of the most impressive resources that we have at SOAS it has featured in some films and TV shows so it might look familiar but it is an extremely extensive archive of resources of volumes and materials related to our key regional specialisms of Africa Asia and the near and Middle East and so it's one of five national research libraries in the UK and that's going to its importance and the significance of the resources that we have relating to those areas and it happens to be the largest East Asian library collection in Europe and so if you are invested and interested in these regions then you should be able to find every resource that you could wish for within our library. The library you can guess from the previous picture is a huge huge space that spans six floors and each of those floors is dedicated or sort of focused on a specific regional area and across that we have more than 1000 student workspaces that you can utilise if you want areas for quiet study aim to move through your coursework. Another area that's worth mentioning and I just mentioned this a second ago is the Paul Webley wing and that sits within the sort of larger Senate house building that's home to a different sort of parts of the wider University of London group. The Paul Webley wing is the newest addition to our SOAS buildings and it opened in 2016 during the time that the University was celebrating its centenary year and perhaps if you have started your research into SOAS as an institution you'll have come across pictures this picture or pictures like it that show our students relaxing and then making the most of this nice nice bright open atrium space and that space is used a lot by our students for different events for just general relaxation for informal study information there's lots of different things and just off of that is where you'll find key student services the student hub advice and wellbeing career services so it's likely if you have to access support as a student during your time on campus that you'll come to find what you need within the Paul Webley wing and like I mentioned it's also home to more traditional teaching areas lecture theaters seminar rooms a cafe lots of different spaces that you can make use of and finally then just to give you some more information on the Brunei gallery that I mentioned it is part of the London Museum Mile and the exhibition space is over two floors and hosts changing exhibitions that are in some way related to our key regional specialisms of Africa Asia or the Middle East and as a student you'll have free admission to the gallery another really fun or sort of different thing that you'll have access to is the Japanese roof garden at the top of the Brunei gallery and that's a really nice space just to escape the hustle and bustle to have your lunch and the peace and quiet and just take a moment out of your day studying and as always we do have within the Brunei gallery again typical teaching and lecture spaces where you may take some of your classes during your time at SOAS if you come to study with this perhaps the other thing to mention if we consider student facilities and the spaces that you'll have access to is student accommodation and I know if you're a student considering joining us from further afield and perhaps from another country and the student accommodation will be one of your top priorities and really has the ability to influence your experience for the positive or sometimes unfortunately for the negative and so we work really hard to improve our students with lots of different m halls of residence options lots of different m preferences that you can select from to make sure that those options meet your needs and help you to have the best experience and we do that by working with a number of different accommodation providers and we review those regularly at the moment our halls of residence just to give you a little idea in terms of price point our halls of residence range from between 157 to 299 pounds per week and all of the accommodations that we offer our students are within a two to a 45 minute journey time from campus so in some cases you'll be able to roll out of bed and turn up at your class within the five minutes span but all of those accommodations are within a reasonable commute and short walk of the SOAS campus to keep things nice and simple like I mentioned there's various room types available so whether you have a preference for a single or a shared room case or accommodation on suite whatever that may be I would really encourage you to go along to our website where we'll update the different accommodation options that we have available and provide lots more detailed guidance and advice in terms of what that application process looks like and the sort of service and options that you can expect as we look ahead to the new academic year and of course those options do cater to students with sort of who need adapted living accommodation and we also have couples and families housing available although that does tend to be in a much much smaller number generally speaking applicants are able to apply for student accommodation in the spring this time last year it was March that our students could apply ahead of ahead of a September start and you to be able to do that you need to have selected SOAS as your firm choice the only other thing to mention is that of course you don't have to stay in student accommodation and lots of our students choose to live in private rented accommodation offers a different type of experience and SOAS is nice and convenient for lots of different transport points so you have lots of different options in terms of the different areas and parts of London that you could look to find private rented accommodation like I mentioned any questions please do head over to our website and there you'll also find the email address for our accommodation manager if you would like to follow up and get specific advice relative to your situation another reason why you might choose to join us at SOAS is a really diverse and active student community is really international and our students have a well-deserved reputation for being very very active and really engaging to make a positive difference both within the SOAS community and further afield this screen then just gives you a little snapshot of SOAS in numbers and a better idea of our student body and what that looks like but as I said it's a very international student body we have students join us from more than 135 countries so lots of backgrounds and cultures represented within that and across our student body about 54 percent of our students are international which is something that we're really proud of and something that we really think contributes to the richness of the learning and student experience at SOAS and within that student body it's about a 50-50 percent split between undergraduate and postgraduate which again just really adds to the life experiences and the knowledge and the different perspectives that our students bring generally speaking in the normal year we have just over 6,000 students join us on campus and we're really excited we've been we've loved over term one of this year seeing our students return and join us again after the pandemic and we're really hopeful to continue that as we move into term two after the festive break and we also in addition to our on-campus learners we have a distance learning cohort of about 4,000 students and those are students who are pursuing online master's study from around the world and again it's great to hear the perspective that they bring the different life experiences that they contribute and that aspect in terms of distance learning is growing all the time so depending on your professional or your personal commitments if you're thinking about master's study it could be a good option for you as I mentioned SOAS students have a very well-deserved reputation for being really active and engaged and there's lots of different ways that you can get involved in student life as a SOAS student or a student union oversee more than 100 different student societies and those range from sports-based societies to political societies, music clubs, different subject-based groupings to the more sort of niche ones things like origami society or drag society and SOAS so whatever your interest you should be able to find a group of people who share that and if not the student union can support you to find those people to set up societies and to connect across the community in terms of the facilities again the student union has in terms of facilities again the student union has access to a common room a shop there's a bar always very lively your students spend time there and host lots of different events different live music film screening events the students are always engaged in campaigning and promoting and fighting for causes that they feel really passionate about so there's lots to get involved with as a student and lots of ways that you can contribute to the community as I've mentioned previously in the presentation SOAS is part of the wider University of London grouping that encompasses 18 member institutions and I'm sure you'll know many of them but the main thing to emphasise here is that membership that overarching affiliation just gives you access to even more resources and student connections during your time as a student at SOAS so if you want to go and use other libraries to supplement your learning or to access resources in a different area for example then that is very much possible and if you want to find out more about the student community aspect and how you can engage through overarching University of London societies and I'd really encourage you to hop along to the student central website on the screen there which will have lots more information and finally then before we move on to the academic side of things another reason why you might want to think about SOAS or to do more research and consider it as an option for study and if you are considering in study in the UK or pursuing further options is the fact that we are a globally recognised institution with really strong rankings in our specific area of the arts and humanities like I said before SOAS is pretty small in comparison to a lot of other UK higher education institutions being only about 6000 students on campus but we are definitely mighty when it comes to our impact and we see our researchers our professors our alumni go on to influence policy and to shape thinking in regards to different and pressing issues within our societies today and you can see that when you research the work of our centres and our institutes across different subject areas and I would really encourage you to go online and look at the work that those centres are doing look at the different events that we're hosting the majority of them are virtual and free to connect with and are listed on our events page but they'll give you a really good and brief snapshot into the positive work and the high profile work that our academics and alumni are engaged in. They just briefly on that note wanted to touch on our rankings and of course rankings are not the be all and end all and they shouldn't be the sole basis of any decision making but what they can do is really help speak to the strengths of a particular institution and indicate the sort of quality of the learning experience that you can expect and one of the things that we're really proud of is our ranking within the global top 50 aim for arts and humanities subjects according to the qs world rankings by subject in 2021 and within that some of our subjects are even higher if we look at things like development studies so as currently ranked fifth in the world for development studies by the same ranking just as it ranks 21st in the world for politics and international studies and if we look closer to home and analyze that ranking then six of our subjects currently feature in the UK top 10 as well as the institution sitting overall within the top 40 UK universities according to the times good university guide. I just wanted before we move on to highlight the final note on the screen which is our student and staff ratio and we're really proud of the fact that that is so small and so as you should never be in a seminar or a tutorial with more than 12 to 15 students and we hope that that small scale teaching environment really gives you the opportunity to engage with your peers to engage with your professors and to feel confident in sharing different perspectives and hearing different insights and exploring your subject in much more detail. If we move on then to the the nitty gritty of academics at SOAS hopefully this next these next few slides will help you to think about whether SOAS could potentially be a good fit for you academically and across the different study levels and subject areas that we have and before we look at each of those in detail I just thought it'd be useful to look at the different subject levels that we have available. The first one being undergraduate where we have about 250 single or joint honors degree programs available. The majority of these last three years which is typical for higher education institutions in England although some of them are four years and that's because those programs incorporate a study abroad here. Now at the moment at SOAS that applies to students who are pursuing a language degree that incorporates the compulsory year abroad and also to students on our LLB law with study abroad pathway. We do hope to review these and we're looking at them all the time to make sure that we're offering our students the best possible opportunities but at the moment that is the framework for study abroad and where those opportunities lie. At postgraduate level then we offer top masters programs and research PhD programs beyond that. At the top masters level we have about 150 different degree pathways and combinations and the vast majority of them are one year's full time although they can't extend to two years full time where students pursue an intensive language pathway and you'll see those clearly labeled on the website and it is worth saying that you do have the opportunity to pursue part-time postgraduate study at SOAS if you are a home student or a student who does not require a student visa to come to the UK to study. And the one thing to emphasize if we look at the 250 options at undergrad and the 150 options at postgrad is the flexibility of the SOAS learning experience. We really want you to have the opportunity to tailor your learning experience to your specific academic interests and needs, be that in terms of the specific degree pathways and combinations that you take or in terms of the modules that you use to build up your curriculum. The third pathway that we have available is for foundation and we have distinct pathways within our foundation offering. The first one being the BA BSC with foundation year that's designed as a domestic foundation year for students who perhaps have studied A level but just fallen short of the grade requirements or studied IB and just fallen short of the grade requirements and it's designed to just give you that extra year of preparation as part of a year zero if you like that allows you to progress directly through year one, year two and year three of undergraduate study beyond that. For students joining us from further revealed from abroad who perhaps don't have the required academic level of attainment today or need additional English language support to arrive at the necessary level of study of English language sorry we do offer an international foundation program called the ICC and equally for students in a similar boat who are looking to pursue master's study we do also offer a pre-master's these are both standalone qualifications the international ICC foundation and the pre-master's that you can take that qualification to progress to undergraduate or postgraduate study a number of excellent universities in the UK and they all as well as progressing to SOAS programs and they all last 10 months they just follow the normal academic calendar so those are the two options to be aware of at foundation and finally if you are thinking that you would like a distance learning option then we have those available at master's level and currently there's about 20 online courses that you can find listed on the website and those cover six different broad subject areas generally speaking our distance learning courses last anywhere from two to five years and that flexibility and the different options are designed to acknowledge that students are perhaps completing master's distance learning study alongside ongoing professional or personal commitments and so that should help you to fit your study in around those ongoing commitments another thing that distinguishes distance learning is that there's multiple entry points so you're not tied to the one traditional September intake and for students who consider finance to be a barrier and there is the option with distance learning to pay as you go on a module by module basis this next slide then and I won't read out each and every subject on the list but it just gives you a really detailed overview of what the subject areas that we teach are within our specialisms and sort of focus on Africa Asia and the Middle East and what you'll see is that some of them are more traditional in the sense of being discipline focused be that economics or law whereas some of them maintain a more regional and area specific focus and if you want to see the specific pathways that are available then the best thing to do is to head over to our website but the one thing that we do stress in addition to the flexibility afforded by SOAS degrees is that interdisciplinarity and as well we want our students to understand how these different subjects intersect and interconnect and impact on one another so we can consider each subject in a vacuum but they are all impacting and intersecting and that we hope that that's something in that our students will value the opportunity to look beyond their specific subject area. In terms of the languages that we offer you can see on the screen here that our language offering is very closely linked to our regional specialisms so you won't find for the most part any of the sort of typical western modern languages offered at most universities across the UK but what you will find is a variety of languages that pertain to our regional academic specialisms so absolutely our students have the opportunity at undergraduate level for example to pursue Japanese or a degree in Korean or Arabic again we have intensive language pathways at Masters but in some cases these languages might just be one optional module that you pick up as part of your studies to complement your learning and to give you a brief insight into the language of the region but all of the teachers on our language programmes have real-life lived experience in these countries and a high degree of expertise in these languages. Thinking in more detail then about the support that we offer to you to help you succeed within those specific degree areas and programmes one of the questions that we often get is in terms of contact hours and that does vary programme by programme certainly if you're on a language-based course you're likely to have more contact hours and that's due to the interactive and often intensive component of language learning. I spoke a little bit about it earlier in the presentation but one of the really great things about SOAS is the small class sizes and that low student to teacher and student to teacher ratio and so you should find yourself in seminars and tutorials with lots of opportunities to engage, to interact, to put forward your viewpoints, to discuss competing arguments and to really get to know your professors and your peers. Every student at SOAS will have an advisor or a tutor to help guide your academic journey and to provide just some independent insight and overview in terms of your module choices and selection and how you're building your learning modules and pathway and in terms of broader support there is specialist guidance and support available across a range of areas. Play things like finances or immigration advice for international students, for students with additional learning needs, their support that you can access as well depending on what that specific need is and I would really encourage you if you are at the point of doing more research to go onto the website to engage with the well-being hub and or service and to sort of really dig into what support would be available in your situation to help you succeed. The other thing to mention is in terms of career support and we know when you're making decisions that opportunities beyond study in terms of employability and graduate pathways are very much front and center in students' minds and the career service at SOAS works to support you in that and in making those decisions and planning for the future and one of the main ways that they do this is by giving you access to our digital platform Careers Zone which is really a one-stop shop for listings of jobs, internships and volunteering opportunities available both during or after study and each year we welcome a number of top employers and organizations such as the Civil Service, PWC, the NHS, the Bank of England to our Careers Fairs those have been virtual but we very much look forward to when we can begin to host those companies and organizations on campus and again that's designed to give you opportunities to engage with top employers and the variety of organizations and people that we host really speaks to the sort of wide array of graduate jobs that our students move into after their time with us and if you want information or sort of more detail on the types of jobs that our students do move into then if you go on to each of the individual subject pages that you're considering on our website you'll be able to see a sample list there. One of the other ways that we help to support you is through alumni workshops or different sessions if you do join us at SOAS you'll eventually become part of an alumni community of more than 53,000 students from 190 countries so we're very well represented internationally and we want to create opportunities for you to engage with those alumni they're doing really amazing things they're making positive impacts in lots of different sectors and we want to make sure that you can access them in terms of advice and building connections and thinking more broadly about what life post study will look like and then the other thing to mention is the sort of tailored support that you can get be that country specific advice or CV guidance and even things like practice or mock interviews as you prepare for full time graduate employment you can access lots of support like that to make sure that you're as prepared as possible for moving into employment beyond your studies and of course there's lots of information on the website just briefly then so we can try and leave as much time for questions as possible in terms of the entry requirements that we look for for students who are considering study at SOAS and this is just very brief but please be reassured there's lots of information on the website based on where you're applying from and the qualifications that you study to date at undergraduate level most of our requirements range from three A's at A level all the way through to ABB with our highest tier of course being our LLB law program and just to give you an idea of typical equivalence for IB students that means we typically look for a range of between 33 to 37 depending on the course that you're applying from we do accept a wide range of international qualifications and there's lots more information on the website that includes qualifications such as the European baccalaureate or the US high school diploma in combination with AP exams or SAT or ACT tests at postgraduate level the main requirement is that you must have at least the equivalent of a UK high 22 for our admissions team to begin considering and reviewing your application and alongside that we will take into account particularly at postgraduate level in any relevant work experience that you highlight as part of your application if you are an international student then you may have to provide proof of English language proficiency and we have again much more information in terms of which students that is and possible exemptions on our website but just to give you a little idea of the typical level that we would look for the IELTS score that you can see on the screen which is 6.5 overall 6.5 in writing and six in other sub scores is the mark that you would need to qualify or to meet the institutional level whereby you could start at the traditional start date in September and just be able to access free and ongoing support in terms of English language through your studies we do accept a wide range of tests and again you can find more information on our website as well as alternative qualifications in some circumstances and for students who perhaps just fall shy of that requirement then we do have pre-sessional courses available prior to our September academic year start date and we'll be sure to update our website with lots more information about our pre-sessional offering as we get closer to the new academic year beginning in September 2022. This slide then just gives you your brief snapshot of tuition fees I won't read them out but you can see them on the screen and the main thing to note is the difference in fees for home or international students and also at postgraduate level the tuition fee is banded so it will fall into three categories one of three categories based on the specific program that you've selected and applied for. Finally then just one last thing to point out as I mentioned our online distance learning programs at master's level give students the option to pay on a module by module basis and that can be a really helpful added flexibility for students who are perhaps concerned about the financial costs attached with further study. Finally then just a note on funding and scholarships we have lots of information in terms of the range of scholarships and awards that are available to support students on our website. Please bear with us our scholarships team are working hard to update the website as soon as they can and we're very hopeful that that will be set to go come the new year but we are working to update those and it has to be said that in terms of so as the majority of funding is focused on master's level study or postgraduate study across master's and our PhD programs and just two examples that are confirmed to run next year are the international postgraduate scholarship which operates as a £3,000 fee waiver to offer holders from eligible countries and selection for that is based on a statement that you write in addition to previous academic merit and we'll also be running a similar partial fee waiver scholarship for UK master's applicants based on statement merit and any relevant work experience but there's lots of information available on the website and like I said full details over wide range of scholarships will be available and updated shortly on the website but if you do head over there today or in the coming weeks what you will see is a good indication of funding that was available last year. We also work with different organisations and sponsor scholarship bodies sorry to offer students funding opportunities be engaged with Chievening we have a large cohort of Chievening scholars with us this year which we're really excited about we offer the Commonwealth Shared Scholarships each year we have students with us from the Said Foundation which gives opportunities for students from the Levant region of the Middle East to come and study with us as part of one year of master's study and each year we do receive a large number of funded students sponsored students who have their tuition funded by the ministry in their own country for example students coming for the Middle East and we can absolutely accept that so if you have any questions about that do feel free to get in touch and we'll be very happy to walk you through that process. Finally then just some useful resources that might help you pay me some further research you've heard from me chatting for quite a while but if you want to hear from our students then please do head over to our chat with the student uni buddy page you'll be able to hear from students across a wide range of subjects and from a wide range of M countries about their own experiences on different programmes and it's so asked more generally if you would love to get a flavour of what the campus is like well it's a bit more difficult to visit then you can also check out our virtual tour which will give you a little flavour of what our corner of Bloomsbury looks like and finally you can find details of our upcoming events and open days on our website and I've listed them at the bottom of the page we do have an upcoming virtual open day for undergraduates on Saturday the 15th of January and we're looking forward to our next postgraduate open evening in mid-February but those are updated regularly so do check them out. I think I'll stop there while we've still got some time for questions and I know my colleagues Dan and Rachel have been responding to your questions as we've gone through so I think what I'll do is I'll pass over to Dan and Rachel if they want to highlight some of the questions that have been popping up and just a reminder that anything that we don't get to through the session we'll be sure to follow up by email to answer your questions and to provide a recording of everything that we've talked about. Great thank you very much Laura there's been some lovely feedback for you as well people have recognised it's been a really information filled session so there's been some great questions coming in. One that was asked sort of towards the start and you might have touched upon a little bit but could be a good one to talk about further is whether there are any jobs on campus that are available while studying. Yeah absolutely so I mentioned it briefly in terms of the career support that we offer our students but we do offer a full listing of different part-time employment, internships, volunteering, graduate roles via our digital platform called Careers Zone and we do have a lot of students who work part-time to support their studies and to just provide a little bit more extra income. One of the ways that you can do that or one of the sort of most flexible ways you can do that is by becoming a student ambassador just as an example and as a student ambassador you can sign up to different events based on your availability and it's flexible around your work and study schedule and what you would be doing is representing the university at key events so that might mean showing prospective students around as part of a tour on an open day it might mean speaking with visiting school students and sharing your perspective or just supporting when ad hoc events but that can be one of the most flexible and better ways to get involved and to provide some additional income during your time as a student but of course we advertise lots of different ways and means that you can do that on the Careers Zone platform. Great thanks Laura this is something you do sort of highlight but maybe we can talk about a bit further again is with regards to scholarships and sort of financial aid opportunities particularly for students who are international. Yep absolutely and so the main thing to say is that we are working to update those opportunities as displayed on our website so please do bear with us and we're hopeful that come January they'll be up to date and ready to go when you can see the scholarships website on the screen hopefully. In terms of the funding that we do have available it's primarily focused on postgraduate level at SOAS and the awards that we do offer be that from a SOAS perspective or in conjunction with external organisations range from partial fee waivers all the way through to full tuition fees and in some cases maintenance as well and the main thing to highlight is that each of these scholarships has their own eligibility criteria and different stipulations attached and so you can see the example on the screen there for the international postgraduate scholarship there's different categories or awards available based on the domicile of the student and also as part of that selection process we would then look at the motivations that they've highlighted in a statement in an academic attainment to date and there's specific criteria that differs for each scholarship and the other thing to mention is that they are highly competitive we do receive a large number of applications each year so I would just bear that in mind in terms of planning and researching and trying to make financial calculations about studying and sort of planning and budgeting as best you can but we encourage you to check those out to apply and yeah hopefully the information will be available and ready to go for September 2022 entry in coming the new year in early January at the very latest. Okay we've had a couple of questions about sorts of tuition fees so if we start with one which is how do we pay the tuition fees and what is the breakdown of this? Absolutely so if you are a home student then we have students every year who join us and are funded by student finance and if you have any questions about what the sort of conditions or guidelines are around accessing funding from Student Finance England then we have lots of information on our website and the SFE website also has a really comprehensive breakdown of the support offered and how you can access that. If you are a self-funded student then you have the option to pay your tuition fees in two installments so that's something to think about and for our online distance learning master's students as I mentioned then they have the flexibility either to pay their tuition fees as I've talked about before or to pay on a module by module basis but that flexibility only applies to our online distance learning students. Great thank you and in a kind of related way someone has asked about whether they will be considered as a home or international student based upon the EU settlement status so I appreciate you know you're not going to be able to give an exact answer without making you know more detail but could you maybe advise how they could sort of find out about this? Yep so generally we do know some students will be in a bit more of a difficult situation based in terms of residence or nationality or whatever that looks like and just to as Dan said well we can't speak to individual cases the main thing to reassure you if you have any doubt is that what our admissions team will do is if they look at your application and they think okay this could be a bit more complicated or want a bit more detail in terms of assessing the particular fee status of a student what they'll do is they'll get in touch with you and they'll ask you to complete what we call a fee status questionnaire that asks lots of different details and asks for you to provide relevant information and taking that information into account they'll then make a decision and follow that up. If you are an international student who is looking for more information generally and wondering how different circumstances might apply to you then a really great website to check out is UKISA which stands for the UK Council for International Student Affairs it can help you think through likely outcomes or provide guidance based on your specific circumstance and I'd really encourage you to really useful resource it's completely impartial but it gives you just insight into some of the common concerns and questions that international students might have but just be reassured that if we have any doubt we wouldn't automatically make a decision and that's it we'll ask you to complete a fee status questionnaire and we'll take all of the information that you provide into account in reaching a decision on your fee status and of course do get in touch if you've got any questions about your specific circumstance email is the best thing to do for those particularly sort of more personally specific questions and situations. Great another one sort of link to money as well this is more to do with cost of living so we talk a bit about sorts of cost of living for students who are maybe being in London and specifically would sell us. Yep absolutely the one thing to see is it's difficult in this format to provide a detailed point by point budget breakdown and of course there are lots of ways that you can supplement your income as a student part-time work be that being a student ambassador as we mentioned it is important to be mindful of the costs of living associated with being in a global city like London they are elevated but certainly they're manageable. I would say the main things to be aware of is if you are an international student who would have to apply for student ESA to come and study with us be mindful that there is a maintenance and requirement that you must show that you are able to fund yourself and your living whilst you are a student and that's important to bear in mind and we do have for home students who would be funded through the student finance company there is a maintenance allowance typically associated with that which is higher for institutions in London compared to out but certainly it's something to be mindful of and there's much more information on our website in terms of what that breaks down to and detailed accommodation costs but typically all things and it's likely to be over £1,000 in a month if we look at accommodation and travel and food and everything bottled into one and we have like I mentioned a detailed breakdown of that on our website but there's lots of ways that you can budget and supplement your income through part-time work. So quite an important one that's come through now can you talk about how SOAS has dealt with Covid and sort of including within that the sort of prospect for students who are interested in doing a year abroad? Yep absolutely so the main thing to reassure you in terms of Covid is that since the start of the pandemic the institution has, I apologize if you could hear the hustle and bustle of London outside my window hopefully it's not too distracting and the main thing to be here today is that SOAS has been taking lots of precautions and continues to take lots of precautions and make efforts to mitigate any sort of increased risk posed by the pandemic we did have a period of completely online learning in common with all UK institutions at the height of the pandemic and since the start of this academic year so for September 2021 we've been seeing our students come back to campus in most circumstances come to the UK for their study which has been really encouraging and how we've operated so far in this current term is that our large-scale teaching so in terms of lectures where you're likely to be around many more students those lectures have taken place online and where possible we've had our small-scale teaching so in most cases things like seminars and tutorials have taken place in person because it's much easier to facilitate social distancing and to help make sure that everybody feels safe and supported in where those numbers are smaller and alongside that for term one we've had a small number of students continue to in or begin their studies online and then from term two all of our students will be here and we're hopeful to move to more and more in-person face-to-face teaching particularly at that smaller scale as restrictions ease of course we keep we continue to take that into account and to watch restrictions and how they are changing and we'll be sure to follow all the relevant guidelines and to make sure that we adapt our teaching accordingly if anything does change but certainly we're moving towards more face-to-face engagement and to making sure that our students can have or get back some elements of that traditional campus experience but in terms of being on campus we continue to write through this whole term we've had face masks in place increase ventilation social distancing number caps just lots of things to help our students feel safe as they come on to campus and engage with their learning for the in-person components it's likely as we move through and look ahead to the new year that there will still be some element of um digital engagement we've found that that's worked well in some cases lots of our students have really appreciated um having lectures online for example and what we're keen to do is take forward the really great elements that we've learned from this past um few months in this past term and sort of blend that with all of the face-to-face engagement that we know where students value and appreciate and really helps them to succeed in terms of study abroad we continue to review that if you are um thinking of September entry next year then the best thing to do is just to keep checking the website to keep um updated and stay informed but if you are thinking of study abroad then and you're thinking about September entry it's likely that you do your study abroad after your second year of study um and so in that sense there's lots of time left to evolve and hopefully for the situation to improve from travel restrictions and risks associated with that to ease but we have had some disruption um understandably due to travel bans and travel restrictions but we're hopeful that as we move forward and as things open up that there will be more and more of those opportunities returning great thank you um i'm going to roll probably about four or five questions into sort of one here so lots of people have been asking about um sort of when is a good time to make an application and then off the back of that how long does it take to hear back from the admissions team perfect so our applications are open now that's the one thing to um encourage you with and certainly um our undergraduate level do be mindful of the UCAS um equal consideration deadline in January at SOAS we'll continue to accept applications and review them beyond that but do be mindful of that equal consideration and it's likely if you're a prospective undergraduate student joining the call today from a UK school then it's very likely that your teachers have set an even earlier deadline um but we will continue to review applications beyond that we review our applications as they come in so if you would like to be considered for September 2022 entry i'd really encourage you to get that submitted and get the ball rolling in terms of postgraduate admissions our applications are open and there's lots of sort of detailed advice about how to apply online through our website um on the website itself but it's a free online application via the SOAS website that will allow you to select both the first and the second choice program and again very similarly I would say get that application in and specifically if you are thinking of applying for any funding or scholarships whatever that looks like the earlier your application the better because what that means is that you're giving yourself ample time to receive a decision and to make sure that you can also have the information or the decisions that you need to meet any relevant deadlines for those external scholarships so really the earlier the better and in terms of decision making um from the SOAS side from our admissions team it will generally take between four to six weeks for you to receive an update after submitting your completed application please make sure when you submit your applications that it has all the required information in it all the documents that and we need and what that means is that you can avoid any unnecessary delays that our admissions team have all the documents that they need and are able to assess and make a holistic decision based on all the information that you've provided but generally speaking decisions can take anywhere from four to six weeks and our admissions team are working hard to review those as thoroughly and as efficiently as possible I'm very mindful of the time and so Dan I don't know if there's maybe one more question um that we can try and answer before we end the session yeah still um still plenty of unanswered ones but we'll do our best to get back to you all afterwards um maybe one final one to end on is whether the job opportunities that are available at SOAS and in London will they be equally available for both international students and home students is there any difference there so there's no um in terms of during your study in terms of during your studies if you want to work um the only thing to be mindful of as an international student studying here on a student visa is that there is a cap on the amount of time that you can um work each week currently 20 hours a week there is a cap so that's the only thing that is worth bearing in mind or sort of differentiating um between certainly during your time as a student and then beyond that we're very very excited about the reintroduction of the graduate route visa and for students who are already with us on a student visa for their studies which will really help give international students the opportunity to pursue um graduate employment in the UK and if you do have any questions about the graduate route visa and which is kicking off this year um then I'd really encourage you to um consult the UK BI website again there's lots of information online which as we sort of head towards the reintroduction of the scheme there's lots of information in terms of eligibility criteria and what that will mean for you as an international student looking to and pursue employment in the UK after your studies but in terms of during the one thing to be mindful of if you are an international student studying with us on a student visa is just that weekly cap on the amount of hours that you can work and we've got lots of information on our website to help you move through that. Alrighty I think what we will do then is we'll end the session here I'm really sorry that we haven't um had the time to reply to each and every um question specifically if you are already an applicant who has submitted an application and has the question about your specific case then you should in correspondence from SOAS have access to the admissions email address that you'll need if you are still having trouble please get in touch with us via our email address let me see if I can find it here study at soas.ac.uk and we'll make sure that your query gets directed to the right person or the relevant team at SOAS and as Dan's mentioned we'll work hard to get this recording of the session and to make sure that the questions we didn't answered can get answered in follow-up but thank you so much for joining us have a lovely evening and we really hope to see some of you at SOAS next September