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School of Law

BA Law and... Combined Honours Degree

Duration: 3- or 4- years

Overview

2013 Entry Requirements

  • A Levels: A*AA
  • IB: 38 (7/6/6)
  • BTEC: DDD
  • Access to HE: Minimum of 30 Level 3 Credits at Distinction
  • Scottish Highers: AAAAA
  • Scottish Advanced Highers: AAA
  • Irish LC: 360 points from 5 Higher level subjects at grade C1 or above
  • Advanced Placement: 4 5 5 (Two semesters - UCAS Group A) plus US HSGD with GPA 3.0
  • Euro Bacc: 85%
  • French Bacc: 15/20
  • German Abitur: 1.5
  • Italy DES: 85/100
  • Austria Mat: 1.5
  • Polish Mat: 80%

Subjects Preferred: No

Interview Policy: Candidates with 'non-standard' qualifications may be invited.

The Law Department at SOAS is one of the most highly-regarded law departments in the UK for the quality of both its teaching and research.The Guardian University Guide (May 2001) placed SOAS as the top Law Department for undergraduate studies in the UK and the Department received a 5 rating in the 2001 government assessment of research in all British universities. 

The Department has an unrivalled concentration of specialists in the laws of Asian and African countries, with additional areas of expertise in the areas of comparative law, human rights, transnational commercial law, environmental law, international law and socio-legal method. Lecturers in the Department maintain close links with professional practice and frequently have first-hand knowledge of the latest developments in business, government and international organisations. Each year, the Department attracts a number of distinguished lawyers as Research Fellows or Visiting Instructors. 

A thriving research community includes the East Asian Law Centre; the Group for Ethnic Minority Studies (GEMS), the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL) and the South East Asian Legal Studies Group. The Department also has close links with the internationally-renowned Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) and the Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University, with which it publishes the London-Leiden Series on Law, Administration and Development.

Key Information Set Data

The information for BA, BSc, or LLB programmes refer to data taken from the single subject degrees offered at SOAS; however, due to the unique nature of our programmes many subjects have a separate set of data when they are studied alongside another discipline.  In order to get a full picture of their chosen subject(s) applicants are advised to look at both sets of information where these occur.

Combinations

May be combined with
  • Arabic+ MT16 BA/LWA
  • Bengali+ TM41 BA/BeL
  • Burmese++ MTCH BA/LWBU
  • Chinese+ MT11 BA/LWCH
  • Development Studies LM91 BA/LWDVS
  • Economics LM11 BA/LWEC
  • Geography** LM71 BA/LWGE
  • Georgian MT19 BA/LWGN
  • Hausa+ MTC5 BA/LWHA
  • Hebrew+ MQ14 BA/LWHE
  • Hindi+ MTCJ BA/LWHN
  • History MV11 BA/LWH
  • History of Art/Archaeology
  • Indonesian++ MTDH BA/LWI
  • Korean+ MTDL BA/LWKO
  • Linguistics MQ11 BA/LWLG
  • Nepali+ MTC3 BA/NELW
  • Persian MTD6 BA/PLW
  • Politics VM31 BA/HAAL
  • Social Anthropology LM61 BA/SALW
  • South Asian Studies TMH1 BA/SASLW
  • South East Asian Studies TMJC BA/LWSEA
  • Study of Religions MV16 BA/SRLW
  • Swahili+ MTD5 BA/SWLW
  • Thai+ TM31 BA/THLW
  • Turkish+ MTC6 BA/TULW
  • Vietnamese MT1H BA/VLW
    ** Taught at King's College, London
    *** Taught at Birkbeck College, London

Structure

All students take 4 course units a year. You are required to complete at least 5 units in the subject to be named first in the degree title and at least 4 units in the second-named subject (8 & 5 respectively in a 4-year degree).

Year 1

If the other subject has 3 compulsory units (most language courses), then you must take as a core 1st year unit

Or

If the other subject has 2 compulsory units, then you must take both

Year 2, 3 and 4

If you have not taken Introduction to Law and Legal processes in year 1 you will take it in year 2. There are no other compulsory Law units in the degree.

Programme Specification

Teaching & Learning

Year abroad

If you choose to study a language, you will spend your 2nd or 3rd year abroad.

Teaching & Learning

The two-subject BA Honours degree allows you to study law from an interdisciplinary perspective (i.e. law and another discipline ) or to study law and to develop or acquire linguistic skills at the same time (i.e. law and a language).

Most law units are taught through a mixture of lectures and seminars or tutorials; on average one 2-hour lecture a week and 1 tutorial every two weeks. Where a course has a relatively low number of students, it is likely that it will run entirely on a seminar basis. However, given the relatively small size of the total student intake, all courses will involve a degree of student participation. Students are expected to prepare for classes and to contribute to classes.

Assessment in the second course subject will be subject to the rules and regulations of the appropriate department

Destinations

Graduates are thus extremely well-placed for a wide-range of careers, both in law and also within other fields, ranging from multinational business and commerce, development work overseas, for governmental and non-governmental organisations, the diplomatic corps, as well as local careers, working in an increasingly multi-cultural climate. SOAS Law provides an educational experience unmatched in both its breadth and the specialist knowledge it imparts on its graduates.

Graduates have gone on to work for a range of organisations including:

Aga Khan Foundation
British Council
Chiomenti Studio Legale
Citigroup
Crown Prosecution Service
DLA Piper Middle East LLP
Federal High Court
Financial Times
House of Lords
KPMG LLP UK
Linklaters
London Probation
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mission of the Republic of Uganda to the UN
Refugee Council
South African Institute of International Affairs
The Guardian
Trowers and Hamlins
UNDP
United Nations Secretary General's
Types of roles that graduates have gone on to do include:
Regional Rural Development Adviser for Asia
Journalist
Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Islam
Senior Associate
Professor of Law
Legal Counsel
MENA Regional Coordinator
Research Assistant
Barrister
Head of Special Crime Unit
Gulf Correspondent
Contract Risk Manager, Attorney at Law
Senior Consultant
Solicitor in the Immigration Department
In house Lawyer
Assistant General Counsel APAC
Marketing Manager
Fundraising and Business Development Manager
Programme Specialist
Advisor on Genocide Prevention

For more information about Graduate Destinations from this department, please visit the Careers Service website.

A Student's Perspective

SOAS is a unique British university, as it adopts a global view, but specialises in Asia, Africa and the Middle East: something it is very good at. This is evident in the passion and expertise of the teachers, the interests of the students and the many colourful exhibitions and cultural events regularly hosted here.

Nunons Tagoe-Borllons