 Hi, and welcome to the student life webinar. We're going to talk a little bit today about what it's like being a student at SOAS and what you can expect from your welcome week going forwards. My name is Amani and I work in the student recruitment team as a student recruitment coordinator. I help provide information and guidance to students who are interested in higher education. I've also recently completed my undergraduate degree at SOAS in international relations, so I hope that this webinar can offer a little bit of insight into what it's like being a student at SOAS. So just a little bit about what we're going to cover today. I'm going to give you a quick facts and figures summary of SOAS as a university, information on our welcome week, the student union, including the sports and societies you can join at SOAS and more widely in London at Student Central, information on university study and support offered at SOAS, and finally the city of London itself. So just a quick overview of the SOAS student population. We have around 6,300 students and around 4,000 distance learners, making us a much smaller university in comparison to others in London. Just over 50% of our student population are EU and international students, with students attending SOAS from more than 135 countries, which means that even though we have quite a small community, it's extremely diverse and vibrant and you're likely to meet students from all corners of the globe. We also have around a 50-50 split between undergraduate and postgraduate students, so there really is diversity in our student population. So just a bit about our welcome week. The first week you'll have at SOAS will be your welcome week, or your most commonly hear it referred to as Freshers Week. It's designed to help you transition to studying at SOAS and learn more about your department and the university, and to get involved with all sports and societies we have on offer, as well as meet new people. So it really is an exciting time for new students. You'll have the Freshers Fair during this first week, and this is where you can go and sign up to any of the societies and sport clubs you might be interested in, as well as the SOAS Freshers Fair, Student Central also hold one, so you can go and sign up to any of their clubs that you might be interested in. There's also lots of freebies, things like free food, gym membership incentives, lots of things like that just to get you interested in what's on offer. Welcome week is also when you're going through enrollment, things like just choosing your module, sorting out accommodation, if you've not already done so, picking up your student ID card and receiving your timetable. It's also where you'll have your department inductions, usually held to sort of introductory lectures or presentations given by the academics in your department. It's usually quite informal, it's just a way for you to meet the people that are going to be on your course and get familiar with what the programme is going to look like for the year, and learn about the academic support that will be provided throughout the three years or four years that you'll be at university. So a bit about accommodation options. Our main halls of residence of SOAS students are Dinwiddie House for undergraduates and Paul Ropes and House for post graduates, both situated about a 20 minute walk away from SOAS in King's Cross. We also have intercollegiate halls of residence on offer to SOAS students, which are closer to our campus and it gives you the option to live with students from other London universities, such as those from LSE, UCL and King's College London. Finally, we have a number of private halls of residence and other accommodation options, so I would recommend visiting our website to the accommodation page to see the full range of options available to you. So our students union. We have over 200 societies at SOAS, ranging from more academic clubs, such as Model UN and the Politics Society, to the more unique offering, such as Knapp Society, Cocktail, Mocktail Society and the SOAS Socapella. We also have a number of sports teams, including basketball, football and rugby, and there's an opportunity to take part in a varsity tournament every year against London Matt University. There's huge diversity in the clubs and societies we have on offer and plenty of opportunities to make friends within them. Whilst I was at university, I joined the SOAS Spirit, which is the University of Newspaper, and it allowed me to gain so many skills as well as meet lots of new people that I wouldn't have otherwise. If there's something you are interested in, but there isn't yet a society for it, you can go ahead and make your own. You just need to find around 16 other like-minded people to create it. If you visit the link that's on this page, SOASUnion.org, it will take you to our Student Union website where you can have a look at all the societies on offer. If you're studying for a University of London degree, which you will be at SOAS, you're automatically entitled to become a member of Student Central, which is just around the corner from our SOAS campus. It allows you to get involved with everything the organisation has on offer, including sports, societies, online tickets and access into their bars. We also have the Student Union, which is situated in our main building. This has the junior common room or the JCR, which is what you're often here referred to as, with the union shop upstairs and a bar and a pool table downstairs. There'll almost always be some sort of activity taking place in the JCR, from festive vegan food being sold during lunch hours, campaigning and fundraising taking place through the various different societies, to live music and film screenings in the evenings and on the weekends. So there really is something for everyone. Being such a small University, you're almost always bump into academics and other people that you know, and it just makes for a really warm and friendly environment. So about our university study and support. Obviously, one of the most important things about coming to university is studying your course. SOAS is a broadly humanities focused university, so you'll have around 10 to 12 contact hours per week for your degree. If you're studying a language degree, then you might have a bit more than that just because they are more intensive programs. You'll have independent work to do that takes place outside of those contact hours. And this can include things such as doing readings for your tutorials and seminars, presentation preparation, as well as submitting coursework for your different modules. Lecture sizes will vary depending on whether you're an undergraduate or a post graduate or whether you're taking a core module or an optional module. However, we do tend to have around 15 people in our tutorial groups, which is quite small. This is really good because it allows you to engage really well with the module, as well as have meaningful discussions with your academics and your classmates within the classroom. From September, we do aim to prioritize face to face teaching and academic activities on campus. Small group teachings such as seminars, tutorials, smaller lectures and super visions will primarily take place in person on campus. Larger group teachings such as lectures will be delivered mainly online through a mix of live and recorded content and activities that will allow students to work at their own pace. This is subject to change, of course, in line with government guidelines, so I would recommend you looking on our website for the most up-to-date information. So the university support, when you start your program, you'll automatically assign a personal tutor within your department, and they'll sort of be your first point, of course, for any academic support needs you might have or any issues you want to raise surrounding your university studies. We also have our Student Advice and Wellbeing Centre located in the poor Webly Wing, and our team can provide specialist guidance and support on things like your finances, immigration advice, housing advice, disability support, well-being support and counselling, and also professional mentoring. And finally, we have our career service. You'll have access to them during your time at university as well as when you graduate and become an alumni of SAS. They can help you find internships, part-time jobs, full-time jobs after you graduate, as well as providing services such as interview and assessment centre prep and looking over and refining your CV to help you apply to jobs. There are a number of opportunities within the university to earn money whilst you're studying. We have jobs within the Student Union Shop and Bar, and you might also want to look into our Student Ambassador Scheme, which allows you to work and represent the university of things such as open days, offer-holder days, and any lectures and seminars that might be held in the SAS campus. And finally, we're going to talk about life in London, a big part about coming to study at SAS is its location, and being in the centre of London, it is very unlikely that you'll ever get bored. So this is just a map of SAS in comparison to the rest of London. SAS is situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, and as you can see on the map, we are pretty much in central London, making it an excellent location to go to university. Our main accommodations are also on the map, as you can see with the little yellow houses, and you can see that there are various accommodation options that are incredibly close to the SAS campus. Our main SAS halls of residence, Dinwiddie House and Paul Robson House are in Kings Cross, around a 20-minute walk away from our campus, and again in a really excellent location with good transport links to the rest of London. There really are an endless number of things to do around the SAS campus. We have the British Museum just a five to ten minute walk away from our campus, places like Oxford Street and Soho or a short walk away, and there are also great places to explore and shop. Bloomsbury is also very well connected in terms of transport links, and we have stations such as Tottenham Court Road, Russell Square and Euston, all short walks away that can take you pretty much wherever you need to go. So here we have our SAS campus. The SAS campus is made up of three main buildings. On the right we have the main college building, which holds our student union, JCR, the library, the university canteen, as well as lecture theatres and seminar rooms and additional study spaces. On the left we have the Brunei Gallery, which again has study spaces, lecture and seminar rooms, as well as the actual Brunei Gallery, which hosts a programme of changing contemporary and historical exhibitions from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and this is something that is really worth checking out. If you know the area well, then you'll know that from every Monday to Saturday for the past 20 years there's a Herakrishna lunch, and this is where you're able to get a free vegetarian lunch from the store, and it is something that's hugely popular amongst SAS students and there will be a long line outside the Herakrishna store pretty much every day. In front of you you can see Senate House of which SAS occupies the north part called the Paul Webley Wing. This is a newest addition to the SAS campus which opened in 2016. Every Thursday in between this lovely green space between SAS and Birkbeck on the right and there's a food market that hosts food stalls from all around the world and it's a really great place to come with your friends for lunch. If you fancy something different, there are a number of food places in Russell Square inside the Brunswick Centre or all along Good Street where there's a food market and lots of restaurants and cafes, all of which are a short walk away. Like I said previously, there really is an endless number of things to do in London. SAS campus is only a quick tube ride away from London's west end with a range of musicals and plays on show and during the summer there are festivals such as Wireless and Lovebox if you're interested in that. There are plenty of attractions nearby as well such as the British Museum, Welcome Collection National Gallery as well as our very own Brunei Gallery. If you're from outside London you might want to take the opportunity to see some of London's sights including the London Eye, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, the Shard, Sky Garden and many many more. London is a hugely multicultural city. There are restaurants, food markets and cafes with cuisines from all over the world and you'll always find something new to go with your friends. Finally it is also worth noting that a lot of things you can see and do in E in London are free to enter or provide student discounts which is perfect for students on a budget. Finally I just want to give you a few ways you can get involved or chat to us if you do have any questions. We have Unibody which gives you the opportunity to chat with students and hear about their experiences at SAAS so far and you can find this on the on our SAAS website. On the bottom right hand side there is a section where you can chat with a student. If you're an international student you'll also have which country they're from so you can find out a little bit more about what it's like being an international student at SAAS. We also have another number of other webinars on our website focusing on things like fees, funding and scholarships and if you do have any further questions feel free to contact study at saas.ac.uk and someone from our team will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you all for listening and have a lovely day.