Key dates and opening times

Term dates

The academic year at SOAS consists of three terms, the first two roughly 11 weeks long and the third usually eight weeks in length. The autumn and spring terms include a reading week.

Opening hours

School

The School buildings are open from 8:00am to 9:30pm Monday to Friday. On Saturdays, Main College Building is open for access to library between 9:00am to 5:00pm and Brunei building for the Gallery between 9:00am to 5:00pm (after that for staff and students library access only).

The School is closed on Sundays.

Library

The Library is open 8:00am to 11:30pm from Monday to Friday, and 9:30am to 10:30pm  on Saturday and Sunday. For times when the Main College Building is not open, please access though main door using a valid card as issued.

The Library may be open during School closure days. Please see the Library opening times below for more information.

Term dates for 2022/23

Postgraduate taught students

Masters students are expected to work on their dissertation throughout the summer
– for these students, this period between the end of Term 3 and the programme end
date is not classed as a vacation. For Masters students, only the Christmas and Easter breaks
are vacations.

Postgraduate research students

Taught course term dates do not apply to SOAS research programmes. SOAS
research degrees are year-long programmes with the enrolment running from the
first day of the academic session until the day preceding the first day of the next
academic session (September to September).

Students who wish to take a break during the academic year should contact the Doctoral School for more information about requesting annual leave.