An Ensemble of Halves
Lilli Hill, BA Music and World Philosophies
“The single honours BA Africa and Black Diaspora studies programme has been scrapped, undermining the very name “School of Oriental and African Studies.”
In front of me a santur is placed, and I am asked to make a sound. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing or how much pressure to apply to the mezrabs (sticks used for playing), but I am assured that there is no rush; when someone is practising it is their turn. I try and I do, quiet and meek, but I create a sound nonetheless. Slowly, we make our way round the class and each person inherits the space, with us holding a continued hush in the process. In just one class, I am shown through example the expertise and value within my department. Sadly, like many areas of SOAS, this value is something waning away as a prolonged impact of the pandemic.
By the start of the 2022 academic year, the BA Music programme had been scrapped, along with 60 other programmes and 247 modules. SOAS in its transformation plans said that this was its only option to ensure high-quality learning and teaching. In the two weeks that I have been a student here, my experience has been reflective of this high-quality goal, but I am left with questioning what the cost to the university is, and will continue to be.
SOAS heralds itself as a one-of-a-kind university, with one of five national research libraries in the UK and teaching a breadth of languages that is not offered anywhere else. This is something in decline: we’ve lost language modules and the ability to take a course with the language centre for free, not to mention £6.5 million worth of staff. Most disheartening of all, the single honours BA Africa and Black Diaspora studies programme has been scrapped, undermining the very name ‘School of Oriental and African Studies’.
Ultimately, this comes down to an issue of funding leaving the question, what is Director Adam Habib doing about this?
The seemingly obvious response would be to take on more students, especially international students who pay higher fees. In its magnitude, UCL takes on roughly 23,000 international students a year (54% of its total cohort), and with each of them paying on average £22,150 this brings in an eye-watering £514 million to the University each year. In comparison, SOAS’s 1,362 international students make up only 26% of the intake, and even accounting for home students, it would take SOAS seven years to make what UCL makes each year from its international students alone.
So, why not increase the student population by accepting more foreign students? This would firstly pose a physical challenge considering that SOAS sold one of its few buildings during the pandemic for a £9 million booster, and secondly an institutional challenge with Habib’s reluctance to take on more internationals. Habib claims that international fees are skewed and unjust, and should instead work on a sliding scale reflective of countries’ incomes. A noble and respectable aim, yet unlikely to bring the financial boost that the university needs.
Another solution could be something that Habib has advocated for: systemic and institutional change. We cannot hide away from the problem that is facing us, and despite his actions to generate a cash surplus of £11 million in 2021, this is small change in the long run. In fact, the university has been reported as being “structurally unprofitable”, suggesting that the system that requires change is within university walls.
And sadly, this may be due to the fractured foundations that SOAS was founded upon: to be an extension of the British colonial state. Over a hundred years on, SOAS maintains this legacy by animating one of Habib’s fears – that we are draining countries of their own
