SOAS to Lose Further Specialisation
Bruno Linders, BA Politics & International Relations
SOAS is predicted to cut 30-50 modules within the School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics (SLCL). While the number of languages being taught is staying the same, the number of classes beyond beginner level is being reduced by 13, meaning students of some languages will now have less opportunity to achieve full proficiency. This is not limited to SLCL; similar changes are happening across all colleges and departments.
Many students enrol in SOAS excited by the possibility of studying a language and specialised modules as part of their degree, but these opportunities are declining. Athena (3rd year IR and Glob. Dev.) said ‘This is why I came to SOAS. A speciality school where I could choose niche subjects and do a language available nowhere else. SOAS should lean into what makes it special rather than generalising like every big university around us which we can’t compete with anyway.’
Under the ‘Size and Shape’ policy introduced in 2022, the university conducts annual audits of all modules. Those that do not have fifteen or more registered students (five for languages) are set for evaluation, repackaging, or elimination. Geographically specialised subjects become broader in scope and theme, as similar content is merged to increase class sizes in order to meet this threshold. These policies were laid out in SOAS’ 2021 strategy plan, ‘Reimagining SOAS for the 21st Century’, to optimise, organise, and increase cost-effectiveness of the university’s offerings.
These structural changes followed as a result of the financial instability SOAS faced in the late 2010s. Reforms to UK university funding in 2012, financial mismanagement under Vice-Chancellor Valerie Amos (2015-2020), and Covid-19 resulted in 247 modules being cut. In the 2021 strategy plan, under current Vice-Chancellor Adam Habib, SOAS stated that to reach financial viability they would need to grow to a student body size of 6,478 students. However, SOAS’ Financial Statements revealed 5,631 full time students enrolled in 2024-25. This year's intake stagnated at 5,647, missing targets set by management according to multiple Heads of Departments across colleges.
The consolidation of modules, as well as focusing on pushing up UG numbers has resulted in larger class sizes. Academic staff within the Politics Department stated if current enrolment figures are sustained, current calculations suggest average enrolment per module for second and third year UG students could be 100+, and 45+ for PG modules. The increasing module sizes has resulted in increasing student to staff ratios. In 2015, the student to staff ratio (11.6:1), was impressive in comparison to today’s 15.8:1. SOAS ranked 5th for the student to staff ratio in 2015, whereas currently it ranks in the 41st position. This has led to overworked professors who struggle to respond to individual student emails or requests.
The Guardian University Guide 2005 ranked SOAS the 4th best university nationally, beating LSE, UCL, and Kings. Today, SOAS ranks 116th on the same list. The ranking affects SOAS’ prestige, UG and PG intake, and, most importantly, international students, who pay higher fees and are generally more ranking oriented. SOAS tried to rectify issues by bringing in Guided Options in 2022 to streamline module choice and simplify administration. Yet some students say it has reduced freedom of module choice, and the specialisation of their degrees which SOAS is known for.
This sentiment is not universal. Internal statistics report region specific modules have lower enrolment rates than those with generic titles. Additionally, SOAS is not immune to wider trends occurring in universities across the country. The most popular UG degrees currently are engineering/IT, medicine, law, and business and finance. Meanwhile, interest is declining in languages, art, and music - subjects that SOAS has been historically renowned for. By universalising or cutting unpopular modules - for example the Africa specialisations and niche culture studies - SOAS is therefore hoping to appeal to the broader student market. However, if a university built on specialisation loses its specialist modules, perhaps both SOAS’ prestige and long-term enrolment numbers could be negatively impacted.
Ilana Webster-Kogen, Head of the School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics, together with the College of Humanities, wants to expand the language availability for all SOAS students to increase their holistic education. Integrating languages within all Guided Options lists, she envisions not only a way to expand interest in her own department, but to create a truly unique SOAS degree. Together, they are advocating to have ‘exit awards’ for those who complete the third year of a language. This would allow a non-language degree to reflect language achievement, eg. BA Politics with Chinese. A student would leave SOAS with a specialised degree and an exit award in their chosen language.
Regarding this decline in specialisation in SLCL, a spokesperson from SOAS University has commented:
‘As one of the world’s leading providers of non-European and lesser-taught languages, languages remain central to our mission, our area-studies approach, and our academic identity.’
‘As part of an ongoing academic review, we have identified modules with consistently low student enrolment. We anticipate that the closure of these modules will have limited impact on students given the large number of modules that will remain on offer. Although we have removed some language modules, we will still be teaching 25 languages at SOAS.’
Although, it should be noted that this figure of 25 includes options from the Language Centre, which cannot be taken for credit and requires a separate fee outside of your tuition.
Questions remain. Is it a financially viable strategy for SOAS to continue to focus on niche subject areas? Will the marketing department and student recruitment be able to sell SOAS as the school for everything from Chinese to Hausa, to cultural, political, and legal studies? Despite these questions, all professors The Spirit has spoken to stated that Habib’s policies have stabilised the universities finances and that change has long been needed within SOAS. Perhaps the bigger question here is: Is a university like SOAS viable in the current financialised structure of UK education, in which student numbers are the main focus rather than education and research?
