Department of History of Art and Archaeology

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Duration
2-years (full-time), 4-years (part-time, daytime only)
Start of programme
September
Attendance mode
Full-time or part-time
Location
On campus
Fees

Home: £12,220
International: £25,320

Entry requirements

We will consider all applications with 2:2 (or international equivalent) or higher. In addition to degree classification we take into account other elements of the application such as supporting statement. References are optional, but can help build a stronger application if you fall below the 2:2 requirement or have non-traditional qualifications.

 

See international entry requirements and English language requirements

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The MA History of Art and Archaeology of East Asia and Intensive Language is a two-year programme, combining the strengths of the MA History of Art and Archaeology of East Asia with intensive language training in Chinese, Japanese or Korean.

You will study the arts of China, Korea and Japan, exploring a wide range of East Asian arts and material culture, from Chinese archaeology to Japanese prints, Korean installation works to Buddhist monuments, in historical and contemporary periods.

By the end of the programme, which includes a summer language school abroad, you will have received sufficient instruction to reach near-proficiency in the language.

Why study MA History of Art and Archaeology of East Asia at SOAS?

  • SOAS is ranked 15th in the UK for Arts and Humanities (QS World University Rankings 2023)
  • We are ranked 12th in the UK for Modern Languages (QS World University Rankings 2023)
  • We are ranked 6th in the UK for employability (QS World University Rankings 2023)
  • We partner with the British Council to offer a School of Arts student an internship at the Venice Biennale
  • We partner with the Chu Te-Chun Foundation to offer a paid internship at the Venice Biennale
  • We offer exclusive School of Arts-led internships at the Rietberg Museum, Zurich (2 places available)
  • You can apply for a SOAS Co-Creator internship in the Special Collections of the SOAS Library
  • Internships, field-trips, museum and storage visits, talks by curators, artists and other practitioners

Use our combined courses tool to see a breakdown of course structure

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Teaching consists of a combination of lectures and seminars. Classes are normally between two and three hours per week for each course. Teaching methods include lectures with discussion, seminars (at which students present papers) and museum visits. Students at all levels are expected to take an active part in class presentations. A particularly important element is the training of the student's visual memory.

In addition to their studies on the MA programme, students at SOAS can participate in a wide range of research seminars, lectures and conferences that regularly take place in the School and in the University of London.

Contact hours

All Masters programmes consist of 180 credits, made up of taught modules of 30 or 15 credits, taught over 10 or 20 weeks, and a dissertation of 60 credits. The programme structure shows which modules are compulsory and which optional.

As a rough guide, 1 credit equals approximately 10 hours of work. Most of this will be independent study, including reading and research, preparing coursework, revising for examinations and so on. It will also include class time, which may include lectures, seminars and other classes. Some subjects, such as learning a language, have more class time than others. At SOAS, most postgraduate modules have a one hour lecture and a one hour seminar every week, but this does vary.

Assessment

For each of the taught modules, assessment is primarily by course work and a range of assessment methods are employed. These usually consist of short essays, reports, presentations, annotated bibliographies, journal entries or a combination thereof. Some modules will also be assessed by unseen examination in the form of a slide test. For details on how modules are assessed, consult the individual module page on the SOAS website.

Additionally, for each HAA degree pathway, 60 credits (of 180) are assigned to a dissertation which consists of three assessed components: one 300-word summary of the research project (worth 5%), one 700-word annotated bibliography (worth 9%) and a dissertation of 9,000-10,000 words (worth 86%). 

SOAS Library

SOAS Library is one of the world's most important academic libraries for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, attracting scholars from all over the world. The Library houses over 1.2 million volumes, together with significant archival holdings, special collections and a growing network of electronic resources.

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Title Deadline date
Tibawi Trust Award
Felix Non-Indian Scholarship
Felix Scholarships
Sasakawa Studentships
Sochon Foundation Scholarship

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Students in the School of Arts develop a ​​critical and theoretically informed approach to global arts and culture. In addition to an intercultural awareness and practical expertise, graduates gain a wide portfolio of transferable skills which are especially sought after in the creative and cultural industries.

Recent School of Arts graduates have been hired by:

  • Christie’s
  • Christine Park Gallery
  • Crisis
  • Design Museum
  • Hong Kong Museum Of Art
  • India Foundation For The Arts
  • Japanese Gallery
  • Museum of East Asian Art
  • Music in Detention
  • National Gallery
  • Pan Arts
  • People Projects Culture & Change
  • Roundhouse Trust
  • Somerset House Trust
  • Songlines Magazine
  • Sotheby's
  • South Asian Art UK
  • Stratford Circus Arts Centre
  • Taiwan Embassy
  • The Alliance for Global Education
  • The British Embassy
  • The National Museum Of Korea
  • The Royal Collection
  • Victoria and Albert Museum

Find out about our Careers Service.

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