London, United Kingdom
DURATION
2 up to 4 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 25,320 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas student fees | home student fees: GBP 12,220 per year
Key Summary
Introduction
The MA in African Studies and Intensive Language from SOAS provides students with competency in language skills and intercultural awareness and understanding. Familiarity with the region will have been developed through a combination of the study of language, history, cinema, politics, economics or law.
Students in this postgraduate degree programme will develop their ability to engage with and explore relationships between indigenous African aesthetics and contemporary literary theories.
Why study African Studies and Intensive Language at SOAS?
- SOAS is ranked 1st in London and 9th in the UK in the Complete University Guide 2023 for Middle Eastern and African Studies
- We are ranked 6th in the UK for employability (QS World University Rankings 2023)
- Top 10 in the UK for African and Middle Eastern Studies (Complete University Guide 2023)
- Modern Languages and Linguistics at SOAS has been ranked 10th in the UK in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
- 4th for research environment - with 100% of our research ranked as 'internationally excellent' and 85% as 'world-leading' - and 8th for research outputs in the REF 2021
- You will be eligible to apply for internships, available to students starting 2023/24
Duration
Two calendar years (full-time), four years (part-time)
Admissions
Program Outcome
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge
- Students will acquire knowledge and critical awareness of current issues and/or insights into Africa from the perspective of at least two social sciences and/or humanities disciplines
- The student will have the opportunity to gain knowledge or further knowledge of an African language
- The student will gain specialized and in-depth knowledge in one particular area of the study of Africa and from a disciplinary perspective.
Intellectual (thinking) Skills
- Students will develop a critical and analytical approach to issues relating to Africa in the disciplinary areas chosen
- Students will develop skills in synthesizing materials from a variety of sources and presenting these in writing and orally in an academic context
- Students will have the opportunity to research topics which have been little commented on in the secondary literature and thus develop research skills by working on primary sources.
Subject-based Practical Skills
- Students will gain specific knowledge of aspects of African life, which will prepare them for working in Africa
- The specialist knowledge developed in the individual courses will allow students to add an academically grounded perspective to their particular subsequent work context
- If a student takes an African language they will have a strong practical skill, which will help them in any context where the language is used and which will also be of benefit if they need to learn another language in the future.
Transferable Skills
- Through managing their studies students will develop the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility
- In researching and writing coursework and the dissertation students will develop research and writing skills
- Students will develop the skills of independent learning required for continuing onto a research degree or for professional development.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Graduates of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics leave SOAS not only with linguistic and cultural expertise, but also with skills in written and oral communication, analysis and problem solving.
Recent School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics graduates have been hired by:
- Africa Matters
- Amnesty International
- Arab British Chamber of Commerce
- BBC World Service
- British High Commission
- Council for British Research in the Levant
- Department for International Development
- Edelman
- Embassy of Jordan
- Ernst & Young
- Foreign & Commonwealth Office
- Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
- Middle East Eye
- Saïd Foundation
- TalkAbout Speech Therapy
- The Black Curriculum
- The Telegraph
- United Nations Development Programme
- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
- Wall Street Journal