 Hi everyone and welcome to this introduction to SOAS University of London. This presentation is designed for school and college students who are thinking about options for the future and possible university choices. My name is Laura and I am a UK and EU student recruitment officer here at SOAS. So this presentation will give an introduction to us, but SOAS is basically a specialist university offering humanities, social science and language programs, taught from a global perspective and focusing on the regions of Africa, Asia and the Near and Middle East specifically. And I will go on to talk a little bit more about our courses and the university in this short presentation. So to start I'll give you an overview of what SOAS is like as a place to study. So we're a comparably small university. We've got just over 6,000 students on our campus and we're based in the heart of London's Bloomsbury area. So our size adds to our very friendly community atmosphere where you get to know other students and staff really well. And we have a very diverse and very international student population. So just over half of our students are from overseas from around about 135 different countries. And this makes SOAS a really interesting place to study as it's a real melting pot of cultures with our students bringing lots of perspectives and different experiences to discussions both inside and outside classroom. And because of this international student body, students can also make a real network of friends from across the globe. So our degrees are very flexible with lots of combined degrees available and options for language study. And we were in the top 50 world universities for Arts and Humanities in the QS 2020 World Rankings. So moving on then to have a look at some of the undergraduate degree programs we offer at SOAS. Here are our general subject areas at undergraduate level. So we offer more regionally and culturally focused degrees. So for example, a BA in East Asian Studies or a BA in languages and cultures. And on these programs, students can tailor their degrees to the regions that are interested in looking at by taking modules related to the languages, the history, the music, the politics and lots of other aspects of culture in those regions. And other programs are more discipline focused. So for example, History of Art, Economic, Law, World Philosophies. And these focus on particular subjects that allow students to look at particular regions or things in the modules that they choose. And we also teach many different African Asian and Middle Eastern languages within our programs. So these can be taught from beginner level or from a more advanced level if a student already has some experience in the language. And languages as a main component in your degree often involve the opportunity to study abroad for a year. And that's generally in the third year of what becomes a four years of degree program is a language as a main component. So most of our degrees can also be combined with other subjects and languages. And this is a popular option for our students. And our most flexible and open degrees are the Global Liberal Arts and the Creative Arts programs with many of the modules that are available across our undergraduate curriculum, available on these particular programs for students who have multiple interests. And we also have a foundation year in Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities and another one in Business, Management, Economics and Law. And these programs are designed for students who perhaps don't meet the grades for direct entry or who would just benefit from an additional year of study before beginning their main degree program. So moving on now to talk a little bit about our location in London. So as you can see on the map there, we're very centrally located in London in a lovely area of London called Loomsbury, which is very leafy and green with lots of parks and squares around. We're also very easily located within easy reach of lots of transport. So we've got about five or six different tube stations within a five to 10 minute walk from us. We've also got Houston station, Kings Cross station and St Pancras stations for national and international rail links and they're all about a 10 to 15 minute walk away from us as well. And then for shopping, we're about 10 minutes away from Oxford Street, Totland Court Road and another shopping centre that's local called the Brunswick Centre. And then as you can see the little yellow houses on the map there are all indicative of our student accommodation, various student accommodation options that our students have. So they're within about a two to 45 minute travel time from SOAS as well. And you can see a lot of the main sites in London there on the map so they're really easily accessible too. So this is the lovely leafy precinct area just outside the front of SOAS. So we have three main buildings all on one site in a kind of informal pedestrianised University of London campus area. And we're surrounded by a lot of the other universities that make up the University of London as well. So as well as having that smaller SOAS community experience, you also get to experience a bit more of the wider University of London buzz as well being located where we are. So just to the right on this image is our SOAS main building and on the left hand side is our SOAS Brunai Gallery building. And in the background on the left hand side is our third building which is the Paul Webley wing which is the northern wing of a bigger building called Stenet House. And the rest of that building is University of London owned and managed. So this image shows a photo of Torrington Square which is again part of the pedestrianised space around the Bloomsbury universities. So you can see SOAS main building just to the left there and straight ahead is Stenet House and the closer part of Stenet House is part of SOAS is the Paul Webley wing of SOAS. And Torrington Square itself hosts a really fabulous farmers market every week on a Thursday which is really popular with students and also with staff as well. So that offers lots of different meals that you can choose from including things like Italian, Thai, seafood, so lots of different options there. Our facilities at SOAS include the SOAS Library and this is one of only five national research libraries in the country due to its collection of national importance and it's located at the heart of our main building. So the library houses over 1.3 million resources and is the biggest library in Europe for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. And as a SOAS student you'd also have access to a wide variety of online resources and also you'd have access to the other University of London libraries as well including the Stenet House Library and also libraries in places such as LSE, Kings, UTL. But a lot of students find that they do have all of the resources that they need in our own library because as you can see it is a very big library with a lot of resources there. The main building is also home to the Students Union with its junior common room and bar and we'll talk a little more about that in a moment. The SOAS Refactory which is the main place where you can get lunch and dinner and lecture theatres, seminar rooms and informal study spaces. So this is a view from the centre of our second building which is called the Paul-Webbley Way. It's the newest of our SOAS buildings as it was opened in September 2016 as part of our Centenary celebrations that year. And this main atrium has various facilities that students can access as well as a lot of informal study space. So it is home to the Student Hub which is a one-stop shop where students can go for any administrative needs or inquiries they have. So for example if students need a letter to confirm they're a student or to pay their fees they can go to the Student Hub. There's also the Careers Service which offers lots of career support including workshops and one-to-one appointments. And it also has an online cap form with information on jobs and paid internships. And also finally the Student Advice and Well-being Centre which offers one-to-one appointments and drop-in sessions to support students with things including finances, accommodation, immigration and advice for international students, disabilities and specific learning differences, mental health and well-being and also mentoring. And the building also houses two of our lecture theatres, lots of teaching classrooms and other informal study spaces as well. Here is our Brunei Gallery Lech Theatre which is in our third building. This building also houses various teaching classrooms and informal study spaces as well and it's also home to the Brunei Gallery. And this is an image of the gallery. So it's public gallery, it's split over two levels and it's open five days a week and free to get into. And it has changing exhibitions in there that rotate every two months or so and they're all focused on Africa, Asia and near Middle East. And upstairs we have a Japanese roof garden which is a nice sort of tranquil spot to go to to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The Brunei Gallery is part of Newviem Mile which is a group of 14 museums and galleries which are between Bloomsbury and the River Thames area. We have various options for accommodation for students. So some of our students do choose to go into accommodation and some choose to commute in if they're living in London already. But for those that do choose accommodation it generally ranges between 152 to 299 pounds per week at the moment. Our SOS only undergraduate halls is a place called Dinwidi House and this is about a 20 minute walk away from SOS's main site, so the halls are near Kings Cross. And that's usually flats of between five to seven students each with their own room and ensuite around a main sort of kitchen and social area. And there are lots of other options that we have for accommodation as well with other accommodation providers. And we also have spaces in intercollegiate halls where you might be sharing with students from other universities of London Unis, which is a really nice way to meet even more students from other places. And depending on the halls that you go for, they're usually between about a two and 45 minute walk or public transport away from SOAS. And the majority of them are within walking distance. So some students might prefer rented accommodation, private rented accommodation. And a lot of our second and third year undergraduate students do move into their own housing in various parts of London in those years. So as well as the SOAS accommodation office, students can also access the University of London housing service for help with finding accommodation. And that also has properties that it lets out to students called student homes. And in this case, with the student homes, the students will deal with the University rather than the landlord directly. So it adds kind of another layer of security for students. And in general, rents in the private sector for students vary from about £120 to £220 per week plus bills. Finally, we'll move on to having a look at our students union, which is really central to student life at SOAS. So many of the students at SOAS are very politically and socially active and the student union really reflects this. So there's a lot of ways to add value to a SOAS degree and you can get involved with things like charity work and campaigning through the student union, as well as over about 200 diverse societies that you can be part of. And for any individual kind of SOAS region, for example, Korea or the Middle East, there's probably about 20 different sports, music and cultural societies that you can be part of, as well as some random societies too, so you can see that the NAP Society and the Real Health Society. And there's always different things happening in the student union, so there's things like film screenings and talks and live music that are always going on. And then there's also the University of London Student Central, which is based just around the corner from SOAS, literally a two-minute walk away. And that has a whole other set of societies that are often quite different from the ones at SOAS that students can be part of, as well as other facilities like the gym, swimming pool that students can sign up to, bars, a shop and a cafe. And they're accessible to all University of London students, which includes the SOAS student community. And if you'd like to find out more about the extracurricular activities at SOAS or indeed at the University of London Student Central, you can visit the two different websites for those and those are shown on the screen there. So this is a lovely image of some of our students at Freshers Fair at the beginning of the year, which is where students can sign up to become part of the societies at SOAS. Thank you very much for listening to this presentation. If you do have any further queries about studying at SOAS, please feel free to contact us at studyatsoas.ac.uk or feel free to browse our website for further information on degrees and other information about the University.