 will be taught online. Thank you everyone, I can see a lot of people coming in and I hope you can still hear me all clearly. These are quite extraordinary times as you know and I hope all of you are safe and well, the time I see that you have accepted an offer in international journalism, so I'll be looking forward to meeting you as I am the convener of the degree. At this, let me first tell you a bit about SOAS. It's an extraordinarily vibrant place. Students from over 100 countries come to SOAS. We have enormous outreach. We have a very strong student body. Devika, I see that you're interested in media and development. That's again, I convene that degree and we can talk about that in a bit. We also have a very dedicated and extraordinarily resourceful staff. Dr. Dina Matta, who is the head of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. I am the chair. We also have Matthi Pokhionen. Between us, Dina, Matthi and myself, we cover the Middle East, we cover Africa, we cover Asia. My interest is in journalism and South Asia. My work has been focused on various ethnographies of television. Matthi works on digital technology. Dina works on political communication. We also at SOAS have an enormously talented, resourceful people who work in various other areas of the world, which the media center might not cover. So you have the opportunity to have second supervisors across any of your areas of interest, in areas which we might not be able to provide you personal guidance. So you'll be very well looked after. It's also a very small community. So you have a lot of professorial time. Not only do we have weekly teachings, we also have office hours. We also have, you'll also get your personal tutors, one amongst the staff members. You'll have very close communication to work on your dissertation plans. So the year goes by quickly. It's a very packed year. The first two terms are teaching terms and you will find yourself quite busy each week, three to four days. We'll be back with classes. We also, the center will have weekly seminars where we invite several intellectuals and academics from across the world, but focus mainly on the UK. You will also get the opportunity to attend seminars, conferences, across all the universities of London, especially in the Bloomsbury area, like the LSE work back, but also many of you will be interested in development studies. You can attend conferences there. Many of you might be interested in Arabic studies and you'll be able to attend conferences there or the Indian Institute or South Asia. So there's a host of activities going on. We also have a very active students union. Hundreds of activities to take part in. It's a very vibrant community. It's a pleasure to work here. I also must say that personally, I'm quite invested in SELAS because I did my masters here in the anthropology department. There was no media center at that point of time. I did my masters and my PhD here and the learning graph, I was a journalist for about 10 years prior to that the learning graph kind of shows up. So I'm happy to now answer any questions that you might have. You can use the audio or ask me questions and I'll try and answer online. Please do go ahead. If there are any queries, I'm happy to answer. Lara, you have just asked that you do not have really an academic background for media journalism. Is that a problem? No. As long as you have a decent first degree to one, that shouldn't be a problem. What I'll be looking for is a good statement of purpose that tells me why you want to do the degree and what you're looking to get out of it. If I can see that I can provide you a decent year that I can theoretically empower you, show you a bit of practice, make you learn to critique and understand the world, I'll be happy to have you. Titha, you've just asked if you're a lot of secondary supervisors. In certain situations, yes. When and if we cannot provide you with a secondary supervisor that you might have to work with and we feel that there is a need, yes, but you will have to get permission from the secondary supervisor. It is allowed, but it's not necessarily common practice. Lara, you have just asked, still when can you apply? Well, June and July would be a good time, but even if you finish your bachelor's in July, you can still apply and we can look at your earlier first two years' grades and then take a decision and your university might be willing to give us some kind of idea of what you will be graduating with. And we can offer you also, if we can't do all this, a conditional position hoping that you get a certain grade. Lara, you've asked whether Corona will change the situation at the start. This is the question on everyone's mind, I guess. It could very well be possible that we have to change the mode of delivery of teaching. That is, we cannot do class teaching as we normally do. We will have to provide online teaching. You will remember, this is for everyone here, that if that does happen and we are not able to hold classroom teaching, we already have a very solid online platform where our distance learning technology comes in. So we will ensure that all of you get your weekly lectures, your weekly assignments. We will be marking you online. We'll have regular conversations online. The entire platform will move to the digital and online and do remember that SERVAS is particularly suited for this because we already have a strong center which has been providing distance learning for quite a while now. Lisa, you are asking whether you'll be able to pick up some of our media courses. Yes, you will be provided you have an authorization from the Center of Labor and Activism and Development, but yes, of course you can. I think the CAS form should be available at this point of time. You can apply, Tita, that you ask when you can do it. You can, but sorry, you have already received your acceptance, haven't you, Tita? So what is the CAS form? I'm not very sure, Tita. Lara, you are asking for your certificate for English level. I think that you have to arrange. We don't do that at SERVAS, your English level certificates. That the tests, IELTS, I think is a test. That is your responsibility to provide to us your test results. Ah, yes, Tita, I understand. Okay, so I think that should be very quick. Tita, if you send, the moment you send me your marks, I will ensure that your CAS form gets to you ASAP. That shouldn't be a hassle and I'll make sure that I send your personal letter and to get your visa done. So by August, if you apply for your visa, end of August your visa should be worked through. And do remember, Tita, that if we do go on an online platform and then you can actually start the degree in India and you will not need a visa and this for everyone again. Devika, I don't think there'll be a delay in the date of admission. At the moment, there's no such plans. We do plan to start in the end of September as we are planning. Any more questions? Tita, you've asked how does the Office of Career Services work? It's a very vibrant place. Students are welcome there from the very beginning. You go to them with their, with what career options you are thinking of and they try and help you and give you all the options that there are. There are sometimes placements, there are open day events which are organized where students can go and meet some of the recruit people. So a lot of advice comes through. Also in the center for media, we will help you with getting your internships. We work with people in the industry. For example, in journalism, I work very closely with a BBC journalist, Mahmood Satik, and he'll also be your mentor. So there'll be a lot of advice on hand. Yes, Devika, once the Corona thing gets over and we are allowed to begin, of course, we'll move to campus. Lara has asked what I liked about the masters at SOAS. Okay, so I came to SOAS in 2003. I was a journalist for 10 years prior to this in India and also in England. So I got a scholarship to do the masters and I took a sabbatical for a year. And my masters were so eye-opening, so made me become so political, made me think so differently and that I couldn't go back to my former job, which was with a television company in India. Moffi will know it. It was with NDTV. I was the bureau chief in Calcutta. Your parents might remember me from the early 2000s. So I did a PhD here then and I got funding to do a PhD. And once I finished the PhD, I was offered a postdoc in Heidelberg in Germany for three years and I went away. And as I was finishing it, the position came up in SOAS and I took that on. So, yeah, I have had a fantastic time here and cannot recommend it highly now. So Adya Munna, you were asking what kind of places people who global media and communication, this, our students in the last 10 to 12 years have gone to so many different places, NGOs, television companies, newspapers, agencies, you name it, we have the UN, a lot of people have been recruited. So in my eight years of teaching, there's not one student of mine who has been unemployed for any length of time or under employed. So we are up there with the best in London as far employment goes. Any other questions? Lara, we do not have any exams, we do not have any kind of a media. Ours are always written assignments and 15,000, 10,000 word dissertation right at the end. Lisa, I mean, I am a perfect example that SOAS puts on a good pathway for the academic world. I was a journalist, as I said, for about 10 years. I switched my streams, did my PhD and now I'm a tenured academic at SOAS. Any more questions? Any more questions, anyone? Are you all very, are you all happy? Do you want, yeah. Is there campus recruitment? At this point of time, no. I mean, are you asking about recruitment for post studies? Is that the question, and yeah. The career services will be able to better tell you there are open days, yes. But this is a process which goes on throughout the year that you meet various people, you get advice. Some start working while doing their masters for a short while each week. You know, it's a fluid one, but the careers people guide you for this and there are open campus recruitment days. Titha, the accommodation provided by SOAS is quite close to the campus. There are two halls, Paul Robson and the other one, I'm just flipping the name, one is mainly for undergrads and Paul Robson is for master students. The very adequate, there's a flat share system with a common kitchen. Four or five students share flats, and they all have their rooms and which is around with a surrounded kitchen. The rooms have ensuite facilities and I remember them from my student years many years ago. It was very good then, must be much better now. Again, Lara, this depends from person to person. Some people who have an academic background can manage some social science and humanities might be able to manage better. But initially I would say it's not a good idea at least in the first term because you're getting used to a huge amount of reading and things. So I wouldn't recommend it very highly, especially the first term, the three first three months of work as you settle down. From the third session onwards, third and fourth sessions, yes, you can take up part-time work. I mean, in fact, your visa, if you're not from the UK, allows you 20 hours to work. The average strength, again, it varies from class to class. In the first term, if you are with me, you will have about 20 students. In the second term, it goes down to about eight to 10 students because that's when the core group comes together. So if you're doing journalism with me, the only the core group 10 students will remain. Otherwise in the first term, where there are other students from so I will be interested in journalism are allowed in. So yeah, so it never, not more than 20, not less than eight. Any more questions? Okay, I wouldn't be able to name it right or fan. For example, but I could tell you some from, because I don't teach global media. I will be able to tell you from international journalism. One of my top students is now working with the Reuters, another one with international development, just joined the UN in Dhaka. One of my earliest students would be with the New York Times. She's one of the top editors there. I have students in the government UK who lobby businesses. You know, each and every student here are well employed. So yeah, as you and the New York Times, you name it, it's all there in our. I mean, this is impossible question to answer because all courses have different content. It depends on which course and what content and which taking, but that's not something which can be put out right now. It's a theoretical degree. It's very difficult to talk about this casually in a chat of this sort. Titha, I will not be able to comment on the work permits and student visa and what will be the situation because I have had no communication. That's just, I really don't know. I knew that we're going back to giving a one year work permit after your masters as it was done previously. I don't know if there's any changes there. I'm sorry, I really, that is something for the government procedures, which I have no idea about right now. Elisa, the straight answer is yes. There are student newspapers, the student bodies. We will work with you on online work producing content. Yes, so there is absolutely opportunities to work in all of those. Devika, again, this is a question which is broader than what I can tell you as a class, as a series which you might be eligible for, but there are also scholarships which go beyond, so as for example, Felix, and this is something which you need to do a bit of research on and find out what you are eligible for without knowing what your background is, I will not be able to immediately say. Visek, I'm delighted that you have accepted an offer. I am the person who teaches the degree media and development, and alongside, Mati Kokyon and I am the convener, and I handle the theoretical aspects of the degree, while Mati will look at more of the practice-based element and he'll take it into the digital world of digital activism and its ethics. So you can expect a 60-40 division, 60 in the theoretical understanding and 40 of practice, I mean, but this is a very rough one, and we have really increased the digital footprints and what we can do with digital activism in the degree from this year onwards. So we are also very excited about it because it's changing a lot of things. But yeah, so I think 60-40 would be a good balance if it's not a 50-50. Liza, which degree is better with subjects? That is a question which I shouldn't kind of answer in that way because I think it's an unfair thing on Sussex and so has its own advantages in Sussex, I'm sure will have theirs. So as is at the center of London, which obviously kind of puts it in that place, it's part of the Bloomsbury Colleges, which is the Crème de la Crème of Educational Institutions in the UK. What a very radical way of looking at things. It's staff, again, you would have done your research. I'm not running down Sussex in any way. Sussex also has a very, very strong faculty, but so has its strong points in where it's located, its active students body, its regional focus in the global South, our theoretical engagement with the world. And again, as you asked me to compare, Sussex will have theirs and they will have to speak for themselves and you will have to make it with your mind. All we can say is that both universities are very good universities. We have a regional, theater-based focus and Sussex would have theirs. And I hope you do choose us, but I will not run down or say this is better or that is better. Titha, you are saying we expect to offer two optional modules, but yes, Titha, you are right. You are and you can do a bit of research on those modules and also come here and then we can decide. You will have time to decide on that. Abhishek, yes, you can. We organize people to come over here. For example, I have communications directors of the Red Cross coming in or other international organizations. We have media professionals in the BBC and others all coming in. Yes, so there are the conversation with the industry continues in very strong terms. Titha, indeed, it was very wonderful to email you and I look forward to talking with you too. You have my email address on the website. You feel like and you need to know anything, do email me and I'll be able to answer your questions. And yes, we will see you soon. Thank you very much.