Alphawood Online Scholarships: SOAS-Alphawood Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art

SOAS-Alphawood Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art (Online) 

The new Alphawood Online Scholarships commencing within the 2024/25 academic year will provide for:

• Tuition fees - scholars’ SOAS tuition fees will be paid in full for the online Postgraduate Diploma programme and the cost of any English Language support
• Maintenance – an allowance will be paid to the scholar to help contribute to the costs of living and studying in your home country (allowance will reflect local living costs)

‘Asian Art in the Museum’ 2025 (in London) 

Alphawood Online Scholars are expected to study ‘Asian Art in the Museum’ as their second supporting course. This is an intensive two-week summer school held at SOAS in London in July 2025. The Alphawood Online Scholarship will cover all the costs associated with this supporting course, including: tuition fees; travel costs; visa fees; accommodation; and maintenance (daily allowance for living costs). If a scholarship recipient is unable to attend Asian Art in the Museum they can complete their postgraduate diploma by taking the Independent Study Project in Asian Art History online.

Candidate Eligibility Criteria

To be considered for one of the new Alphawood Online Scholarships, you must have first received an offer of study for the Online Postgraduate Diploma programme.

You are encouraged to complete and submit an application for this programme as a first priority, and then begin developing your application for a Alphawood Online Scholarship, as set out below.

The following eligibility criteria apply to all prospective applicants to the Alphawood Online Scholarships scheme this year: 

• You should normally be resident in one of the following countries: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, Singapore, Thailand or Vietnam 
• Applications will be considered from candidates who are not normally resident in these countries, provided you can demonstrate your intention and capacity to return or relocate to the region to pursue employment, teaching, further study or to otherwise make a direct and positive impact in the countries listed above regarding the objectives of the remit given above. Please include evidence of this in your personal statement

English Language Requirements – Direct Entry

For direct entry to the online PGDip programme, candidates should meet SOAS’ minimum requirements and provide evidence of their English Language proficiency at the point of application. This could be either:  

• an approved English Language test result (IELTS for UKVI or equivalent) together with the date the test was taken (within the last two years)  
• an overall IELTS score of 6.5 (minimum of 6.0 in all sub-scores) or equivalent; and/or  
• evidence of prior undergraduate study, at an English-language university, where possible   

Details of SOAS requirements are available here: English language requirements | SOAS. 

English Language Support

Successful applicants who do not meet the minimum English-language threshold for entry onto the online Postgraduate Diploma programme in 2024/25 will not be eligible to take up a Alphawood Online Scholarship at that time.    

Instead, you may be offered online English Language training depending on your individual needs. Preference for training may be given to applicants that can evidence their proficiency in English Language within the last 2-years – as indicated by an IELTS or equivalent test result.   

If you are not able to provide such evidence, please give a reason in the relevant section of your application form. 

Candidate Assessment

Applications for award are assessed by a Selection Panel comprised of members of SOAS staff with pertinent academic and professional experience and convened as a function of the Alphawood Online Scholarships Panel.

The Panel will assess candidates on the information provided in both the Application for admission to the online PGDip programme (academic references, transcripts, personal statements and other relevant information) and that contained in the SOAS-Alphawood scholarships application.  

The Panel will assess applicants on the basis of the following criteria: 

• previous degree and experience in Southeast Asian Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture from ancient to pre-modern times, including study of the built environment, sculpture, painting, illustrated texts, textiles and other tangible or visual representations, along with the written word related to these, and archaeological, museum and cultural heritage studies
• interest in (and engagement with) the objectives of the programme of study
• potential for personal growth and development with the scholarship award
• intentions following completion of their studies at SOAS
• interest in (and engagement with) the objectives of the Alphawood remit
• perceived potential for direct and positive impact in the field and in the region
• the potential for of advancing the field of study within the remit
• in consideration of expressed financial need for a scholarship to support Diploma study at SOAS 

There are two steps to the application process.

• STEP 1 – Application for Admission to the online Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art

All candidates considering an application for a Alphawood Online Scholarship are first asked to complete their application for admission to the online Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art programme available via the following link: Online Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art | SOAS 

Please read the relevant guidance on the SOAS site before you start your application. 

As it may take several weeks to assess applications for admission and to offer a place in the relevant programme, we strongly recommended that applicants should complete and submit applications for admission to SOAS as early as possible – and by 19 July 2024 at the very latest. 

• STEP 2 – Application for an Alphawood Online Scholarship

After submitting an application for admission to the Online SOAS-Alphawood Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art, applicants should then apply for a Alphawood Online Scholarship through the Alphawood Online Scholarships online application form. 

Please note that applicants should complete and submit this Application Form in one sitting. It is not possible to save drafts of this form, nor to return to a partially complete form at a later date for revision. 

As such, all applicants are recommended to make note of the questions and work on responses in a separate document until fully satisfied with the responses. Applicants may then return to the Online Application Form to input and submit these final responses. 

Applicants should use the Personal Statement section in their scholarship Application to demonstrate their interest in the objectives specified in the Alphawood remit, as defined above. They should also demonstrate their intention to pursue employment, teaching, further study, research or to otherwise make a positive impact in areas of the remit after studying at SOAS. 

Applicants should produce an original text of which they are the sole author. The use of AI and Large Language Models (such as ChatGPT) in preparing the application process will be detrimental to your application. Applications will be run through AI detection tool. We want to hear your voice and engage with your ideas, reflections and proposals.

The deadline for applications for a Alphawood Online Scholarships this year is Friday 30 August 2024. 

• Apply for an Alphawood Online Scholarships through the Alphawood Online Scholarships online application form