One type of institution doesn’t really fit anywhere on the typical academic map. Among them is SOAS University of London. It is tucked away in central London’s Bloomsbury neighborhood, near Russell Square, and just a short stroll from the British Museum. It is located in an area of the city that is both historic and restless. In contrast to the opulence of some older London colleges, the buildings are modest. However, it is more difficult to measure the significance of what has been taught, discussed, and determined inside those walls.
Britain’s need to project power throughout its empire led to the founding of SOAS, formerly known as the School of Oriental and African Studies, in 1916. By today’s standards, the original goal was straightforward: teach military officers, intelligence agents, and colonial administrators the languages and customs of the people Britain planned to rule. It was an open and purposeful tool of empire. Earl Curzon, a former Viceroy of India, was one of the guests when George V inaugurated it in February 1917. SOAS has not attempted to conceal this origin story, and there is something almost unique about an organization that is willing to be open about its own complex beginnings.
The school moved to Christ’s College in Cambridge during World War II before coming back to London. It conducted programs to train military translators in Persian, Turkish, Chinese, and Japanese, creating a generation of linguists that the War Office actually needed. Charles Dunn, one of those students, went on to become a renowned Japanologist and return to SOAS. That storyline has a certain poetic quality: having been trained as a wartime interpreter, he devoted his professional life to expanding his knowledge of the culture he had been trained to navigate strategically.
The years following the war saw growth. SOAS benefited from the 1946 Scarborough Commission’s recommendation to significantly expand Oriental studies. In 1947, a law school opened. In the 1970s, there were fewer than 1,000 students enrolled; today, there are over 6,000, with almost half of them being postgraduates. Currently, the university offers PhD tracks in nearly every department, over 100 one-year master’s programs, and about 350 bachelor’s degree combinations. One of England’s five national research libraries, it has the largest collection of its kind with a focus on Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Sir Denys Lasdun designed the library, which is located in the Philips Building. It feels more like a living archive of civilizations than a university library.
The alumni that SOAS produces are truly remarkable. Supreme Court justices, central bankers, heads of state, government ministers, and recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps no other university of its magnitude has had such a subtle impact on world affairs. Compared to Oxford or the LSE, the institution does not publicize this with the same fervor. It seems that SOAS is more interested in the work than the brand.
However, writing about SOAS would be lacking if it did not address the political climate that seems to permeate the organization on a regular basis. For decades, students have been actively involved in international politics, sometimes in ways that cause genuine conflict. In 2005, the SOAS Students’ Union was the first in the UK to hold a referendum in favor of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Debates concerning the university’s partnerships and investments, especially with regard to Israel and Gaza, have resulted in student occupations, suspensions, and public arguments that have garnered national media attention in recent years. There are legitimate arguments on both sides of the antisemitism debate on campus. It’s unclear if SOAS has successfully navigated all of this or if the organization is still learning what responsible leadership entails in a highly politicized setting.
The variety of interests the school has is reflected in the physical campus. The Brunei Gallery, which was established in 1995 by Princess Anne thanks to an endowment from the Sultan of Brunei, features exhibitions from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East on a rotating basis. A Japanese-style garden constructed during the Japan 2001 celebrations sits peacefully above the city on the roof. It’s not much, but it’s the kind of detail that seems typical of SOAS: something particular, something merited, something that didn’t require an announcement.
By international university standards, SOAS is not a large institution, with an annual revenue of £116.1 million as of 2024–2025. However, it feels much larger than its footprint indicates due to the breadth of its coverage, which includes languages, law, social sciences, humanities, politics, and the cultures of over half of the world’s population. It remains to be seen if it can maintain that level of academic depth while handling the financial and social challenges that UK higher education as a whole faces. However, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the world appears to require SOAS more than it did a century ago.
