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MA Languages and Cultures of South Asia

Duration: One calendar year (full time); Two or three years (part time, daytime only)

Overview

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Michael Hutt

Michael J Hutt

Convenor

Minimum Entry Requirements: Minimum upper second class honours or equivalent

Start of programme: September intake only

Mode of Attendance: Full Time or Part Time

This degree provides a coherent combination of courses in South Asian languages and their associated literatures and cultures; it leads to an advanced level of understanding of one aspect of South Asian civilization, together with a broader appreciation of the linguistic and literary culture of the subcontinent. The ‘Directed Readings’ courses, available in several modern languages, have a flexible curriculum which allows them to accommodate the interests of individual students or groups of students. The MA will provide, inter alia, an appropriate training for students wishing to proceed to postgraduate research in South Asian studies; its focus on South Asian language, culture and literature distinguishes it from the interdisciplinary perspective of the MA in South Asian Area Studies on the one hand and the MA in Comparative Literature on the other.

Structure

Learn a language as part of this programme

Degree programmes at SOAS - including this one - can include language courses in more than forty African and Asian languages. It is SOAS students’ command of an African or Asian language which sets SOAS apart from other universities.

Students take three taught courses, one of which is considered a major, and complete a 10,000 word dissertation related to the major.

Candidates who wish to take a language at other than introductory level will be assessed at the start of the term to determine the most appropriate level of study.

Part-time students (two years) will take two courses in the first year (normally their Minors) and the Major and dissertation in the second year; part-time students (three years) take one course per year, and their dissertation in the third year.

Choosing the Courses

Applicants are asked to specify their preferred major subject and to give an alternative, as not all courses are available every year and practical considerations such as timetabling may limit choices.

Once enrolled, students have two weeks to finalise their choice of subjects, during which time they may sample different subjects through attending lectures etc.

Students must take TWO courses from List A of which one must be the major and ONE language course from List B.

LIST A
Majors or Minors
This course is available as a minor only
Majors together/ Minors individually

These courses can be considered as majors only if both half-unit courses are taken together. Separately they will be considered as minors.

Majors together/ Minors individually

These courses can be considered as majors only if both half-unit courses are taken together. Separately they will be considered as minors.

LIST B
Minors only

Programme Specification

Teaching & Learning

How to apply

How to apply
Scholarships

For further information visit the Scholarships section

D.G.E. Hall Scholarship

Application Deadline: 2013-03-22 00:00

Felix Scholarships

Application Deadline: 2013-01-31 00:00

A Student's Perspective

I chose SOAS because of the reputation of the language courses. The South Asian languages that are offered at SOAS are the best option if you’re not able to go to the region. For the first time I was able to study Asia from an Asian perspective through Asian literature.

Tora Toreng, University of Oslo