Undergraduate Law Student Information Guide
Undergraduate Law at SOAS
The Department’s undergraduate degrees are designed to provide a solid legal grounding in legal theory and practice as well as developing students’ capacities for independent and critical analysis. In addition students have the opportunity to select courses from a range of regional and trans-regional options that particularly reflect the School's expertise and students’ interests.
Law may be studied as a single subject course (LLB) or in combination with another subject (BA plus additional subject).
Those wishing to pursue a career in law usually opt for the LLB, which is recognised by the Law Society and the Bar for the purpose of completion of the academic stage of legal training. Please click on the link below on more information on careers after graduation Graduate Career Destinations
Degree Structure
BA Two-Subject Degree
Applicants for the BA two-subject degree also have to satisfy the admission requirements for the other subject chosen.
Home Faculty for a two subject degree
Students taking a two-subject degree have a designated ‘home’ Faculty, which will be the Faculty in which the department for the first named subject of your degree is located. Your ‘home’ Faculty Office is where your student pigeonhole is located.
Coursework (essays, etc.) should be submitted to the appropriate Faculty Office for each course – e.g. coursework for an arts course should be submitted to the Arts and Humanities Faculty Office, and that for a language course submitted to the Languages and Cultures Faculty Office, regardless of your ‘home’ Faculty. Please see further details regarding coursework submission later in this handbook.
LLB Honours Degree
Exemption from the academic stage of legal training
The SOAS LLB is normally recognised as a Qualifying Law Degree for the purpose of the completion of legal training in England and Wales, provided the required subjects have been taken and passed. It is also recognised for similar purposes in a number of other Commonwealth jurisdictions. The relevant bodies may have requirements for recognition over and above the School's criteria for the award of the degree. It is the responsibility of students intending to seek exemption from the academic stage of legal training to satisfy themselves that their qualifications will meet the requirements of the relevant professional bodies.
Certificate in Law
The Certificate in Law is offered as an award in its own right and an entry qualification to the School’s undergraduate programme for students whose background is not adequate for direct entry into the undergraduate programmes. Those contemplating the Diploma in Law should bear in mind that on completion of the Certificate, admission to the BA / LLB programme is on a competitive basis and that successful completion of the Diploma will not guarantee entry to the undergraduate programme.
Law Course Units
Please note that not all courses listed will be available every year. Please contact the relevant course convenor or Faculty Office.
GUIDELINES FOR STUDENTS
Bloomsbury Learning Environment (Moodle)
BLE is run on Moodle, a virtual learning environment which is used to make reading lists and other course information available online. Log-on to BLE. For further information about BLE, contact ble@soas.ac.uk. During the busy registration period, all students will have access to all courses within their registered departments. From the second week of term, students will only have access to courses they are registered for. If you don’t have access to any of your courses on BLE, there is likely to be a problem with your registration. In this case, please contact the faculty office as soon as possible.
ASSESSMENTS
Marking criteria are available on the faculty website. Please note that coursework cannot be reassessed and appeals against the academic judgment of markers will not be accepted, nor will requests that work should be re-marked.
Submission of coursework:
Please see the SOAS undergraduate regulations for the current year, available at Degree Regulations for information about the regulations relating to coursework (submission, late submission, resubmission, plagiarism and word count). Please note that you must undertake all elements of assessment and examination prescribed for each course you are taking and must submit sufficient work for each assessment to enable it to be assessed or examined.
If you are unable to meet a course deadline and wish to request that the Examination Sub-Board waive or reduce the penalty for late submission, the procedure is as follows:
1. Go to the Faculty Office (R201) as soon as you think you might have a problem meeting the deadline.
2. Collect and complete a Late Submission Request form.
3. You may contact relevant members of staff to support your claim - for example a student counsellor or tutor.
4. Attach any supporting evidence (e.g. medical notes or letters from a tutor) to the form. All information provided will be handled sensitively and confidentially.
5. Submit the form (with supporting documentation) to the Faculty Office as soon as possible and no later than the School deadline.
All applications will be considered by the July meeting of the Examinations Board to determine appropriate deductions. The Board will determine what is acceptable evidence and ‘good cause’ in consultation with Registry and the Associate Dean where necessary.
Please note that ONLY the Sub-Board of Examiners have the authority to remit the penalty for late submission. Individual members of staff or tutors have no powers to grant extensions or to waive the penalty. All requests should be made through the procedure described above.
If you have any questions about these procedures, please ask at the Faculty Office.
On-line submission of course work:
All coursework in the faculty is submitted online. Please follow the following link for instructions on how to submit your course work on-line: On-line coursework submission
Students who fail to meet the attendance and coursework requirements stated above.
Programme Convenors will inform the Head of Registry of the names of students who fail to meet the attendance and coursework requirements. The Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) of the relevant Faculty or Faculties will review each case, and will decide what further action should be taken. The School may withdraw permission to take examinations or terminate the degree courses of students who persistently fail to meet the attendance and coursework requirements. Please see the SOAS Undergraduate regulations for the current year, available at Degree Regulations, for more information.
Minimum Attendance Requirement
In practice students are required to attend at least 80% of each element of the course. If a student does not meet this requirement, the student may have his or her registration terminated and the School is required to inform the relevant funding and other authorities of the student's de-registration. For more detailed information students should refer to the Degree Regulations for BA or LLB Students Registering at the School of Oriental and African Studies in and after September 1994 - a copy of which can be obtained from the Registry or via the SOAS website.
If you are having difficulties maintaining the required level of attendance, preparation or participation please make an appointment to see your personal tutor to discuss the issue. We are not insensitive to the pressures many students face during their degree but we cannot assist you until you have explained the nature of the difficulties you are encountering and the School has explored what, if any, solutions might exist.
KEY CONTACTS
For faculty contacts see http://www.soas.ac.uk/lawsocialsciences/keystaff/
For department contacts see http://www.soas.ac.uk/law/staff/
ug-law-enquiries@soas.ac.uk
For Registry contacts see http://www.soas.ac.uk/registry/
For Student Services contacts (Welfare, Counselling, Disabilities, and Mental Health and Wellbeing) see http://www.soas.ac.uk/studentservices/contact/.
N.B. For information on making appointments and drop-in times, see http://www.soas.ac.uk/studentservices/appointment/.
For Library contacts and information see http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/law/
For Careers contacts and information see http://www.soas.ac.uk/careers/about/
KEY DATES
For terms and other key dates see http://www.soas.ac.uk/about/keydates/.
For events at SOAS see http://www.soas.ac.uk/about/events/ and http://www.soas.ac.uk/careers/events/
KEY LOCATIONS
For a map of the SOAS’ campus, please see http://www.soas.ac.uk/visitors/location/maps/.
Teaching at SOAS takes place on different sites. For more information on how to find rooms, see http://www.soas.ac.uk/timetable/teaching-and-meeting-rooms/finding/.
