The School of Oriental and African Studies, commonly known by its acronym SOAS (/ˈsoʊ.æs/ SOH-as or /ˈsoʊ.æz/ SOH-az)), is a constituent college of the University of London in the United Kingdom specialising in teaching and research in the humanities, languages, and social sciences relating to Asia, Africa and the Middle East. SOAS currently offers over 300 undergraduate Bachelor's degree combinations, and over 70 one-year intensively taught Master's degrees. MPhil and PhD research degrees are also available in every academic department.
Founded in 1916, SOAS has produced several heads of state, government ministers, ambassadors, Supreme Court judges, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and many other notable leaders in emerging markets, future superpowers and in the Next Eleven. Located in central London, SOAS describes itself as the "world's leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East", and is consistently ranked amongst the top universities in the UK.
Read more about School Of Oriental And African Studies: History, Campuses, Academics, Student Life
Famous quotes containing the words school of, school, oriental, african and/or studies:
“And Guidobaldo, when he made
That grammar school of courtesies
Where wit and beauty learned their trade
Upon Urbino’s windy hill,
Had sent no runners to and fro
That he might learn the shepherds’ will.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“A school is not a factory. Its raison d’être is to provide opportunity for experience.”
—J.L. (James Lloyd)
“Behold the difference between the Oriental and the Occidental. The former has nothing to do in this world; the latter is full of activity. The one looks in the sun until his eyes are put out; the other follows him prone in his westward course.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The African race evidently are made to excel in that department which lies between the sensuousness and the intellectual—what we call the elegant arts. These require rich and abundant animal nature, such as they possess; and if ever they become highly civilised, they will excel in music, dancing and elocution.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)