Programme Code: M102

SOAS is unique as the only higher education institution in the UK specialising in the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The School also has the largest concentration of specialist faculty concerned with the study of these areas at any university in the world. SOAS is consistently ranked among the top higher education institutions in the UK and the world and it also offers a friendly, vibrant environment for students in a diverse and close-knit community.

In addition to fulfilling the requirements of a QLD, the SOAS Senior Status LLB also provides students with an overview of legal systems in Africa and Asia creating a truly global, and consequently unique, Senior Status LLB. The Senior Status LLB is a condensed degree, allowing students to complete a 3 year undergraduate programme in 2 years. This is an intensive course of study, suitable for high performing graduates. The Senior Status LLB consists of undergraduate modules taught alongside the traditional 3 year LLB students

While providing our students with a solid grounding in key legal principles and methodologies, we seek to do more than that. The SOAS Law Degree aims to produce highly skilled, civic minded and critically engaged graduates, who can contribute to their communities and societies in myriad ways. In the first year our students are introduced to the core elements and principles of the English legal system, and provided with the key analytical skills necessary for undertaking a demanding law degree program. During this first year students will also be introduced to elements of legal principle and practice from other countries.

However, in the second year our students will be even more fully immersed in the distinctively SOAS program. Our students can choose from a wide array of optional courses that draw on the unique research expertise of our staff. The emphasis we place on choice, and research-led teaching, will allow our students to pursue a number of distinct specialisms as their degree progresses, but whichever path they choose to focus on the courses they study will all be imbued with that distinctive SOAS dimension, that stresses critical engagement and understanding of the role of law in the world at large. In an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, the SOAS law degree truly responds to the needs of a new generation of law students.

The degree provides students with a wide range of analytical and transferable skills and is suitable for any profession in which a non-specialised degree is required. The degree structure provides students with a qualifying law degree for the purposes of both the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board and exempts students from academic stage of legal training.

Please visit our International Students pages for details of our individual country requirements.

Year 1

Compulsory Module

Year 2

Compulsory Module

AND

Guided Option

Choose a module(s) from the List of Year 2 Options below to the value of 60 credits

OR

Open Option

Choose related Language or Non-Language open option modules to the value of 30 credits

• Language Open Option Modules
• Non-Language Open Option Modules

AND

Guided Option

Choose a module(s) from the List of Year 2 Options below to the value of 30 credits

OR

Guided Option

Choose a module(s) from the List of Year 2 Options below to the value of 30 credits

AND

Choose a module(s) at another University of London (UoL) if not taught at SOAS to the value of 30 credits

List of Year 2 Optional Modules

UoL Options

Up to one 30-credit level 5 or level 6 LLB module in Law taught at another University of London Law School - King’s College, LSE, QMUL, UCL and Birkbeck - subject to approval and provided that a similar module is not taught at SOAS.

Programme Specification

• Senior Status LLB - Programme Specification 2019/20 (pdf; 397kb)

Important notice

Teaching & Learning

Contact Hours

All full-time undergraduate programmes consist of 120 credits per year, in modules of 30 or 15 credits. They are taught over 10 or 20 weeks. The programme structure shows which modules are compulsory and which optional.

As a rough guide, 1 credit equals approximately 10 hours of work. Most of this will be independent study (see Approaches to teaching and learning at SOAS). It will also include class time, which may include lectures, seminars and other classes. Some subjects, such as learning a language, have more class time than others. In the Department of Law, many undergraduate modules have a weekly two hour lecture or seminar. Some modules may also had an additional hour of smaller group classes weekly or fortnightly.  

More information is on the page for each module.

Knowledge

• Students are required to attend all classes, study extensively on their own and together with other students, and prepare themselves to participate in an informed way in discussions. Students are also required to undertake assessed coursework and, in the ILLP module, to participate in assessed mooting (oral legal argument).
• The usual format of classes is 2 hours of lectures per week, plus 1 hour of tutorial per week

Intellectual (thinking) skills

Critical thinking is fostered in all module units offered in the Programme, in that all units introduce information and ideas that need to be assessed critically and analysed in context. Students are encouraged not simply to summarise evidence and arguments but also develop their own assessments as to the relative value of different strategies / arguments / evidence.

Subject-based practical skills

Through tutorials and coursework, particularly in instruction concerning the answering of problem questions and the compulsory mooting component of the Introduction to Law and Legal Processes (ILLP) course unit. The production of word-processed text and its presentation is not taught as such, but coursework is required to be produced in word-processed form; some subject based practical skills are specifically taught in the ILLP module unit.

Transferable skills

• Through preparation for seminars, essays, course work, and examinations.
• Through individual and /or joint seminar presentations and class participation.
• Through preparation for seminars, through discussion in seminars, through correction of formative assessment by tutors and through preparation of answers to exam questions.
• Through the formation of study groups.

Assessment

These skills are assessed as part of the normal assessment of coursework and unseen examination.

Tuition Fees

Full details of undergraduate tuition fees can be found on the Registry's Undergraduate Tuition Fees page.

Fees for 2019/20 entrants. The fees below are per academic year. Please note that fees go up each year. 

Graduate Destinations

How does a degree in Law help with my career?

The Law department at SOAS provides students a thorough, specialist knowledge of comparative law, human rights, environmental law and international law.  Students also develop a range of skills valued by many employers including: critical judgment skills; problem-solving skills; the ability to formulate sound arguments; and the ability to interpret and explain complex information clearly.  

Who do graduates work for?

SOAS Law graduates have gone on to pursue careers directly related to law, or used their skills and expertise to get take up professional and management careers in both the private and public sectors.  The Law degree programmes have also enabled graduates to continue in the field of research either at SOAS or other institutions  

Destination of 2015 graduates (Undergraduates: single honours degrees and Senior Status LLB degree)

All undergraduate students are contacted 6 months after graduation (so for undergraduate students this is in January) to find out what they were doing - working, studying or something else, such as travelling. We find out this data in the summer, so here is the latest information from the 73 known destinations of the 2015 UK, EU and International graduates of single honours and Senior Status LLB studies within the department

Example employers

Example occupations

Useful Sites

• LinkedIn Alumni
• Prospects: What do graduates do
• Sector profile: Law
• Options with your degree: Law
• What do London Graduates do

 Job Profiles

• Occupational profiles for 600 career areas on Prospects
• Postgraduate study information and database on Prospects
• For more information about careers, visit Careers Tagged

Relevant Links

• The Law Society
• The Law Society of Scotland
• Solicitors Regulation Society
• Law Central Applications Board
• Law Careers
• The Bar Council
• Bar Standards Board
• The Faculty of Advocates
• The Honourable Society of Grays Inn
• The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
• The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn
• The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple
• Legal Hub
• Council for Licensed Conveyancers
• The Institute of Barristers' Clerks
• The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
• The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs
• Institute of Paralegals

Related Information

• Careers Service
• Graduate Careers Case Studies

External Links

• SOAS Alumni Relations
• SOAS Students' Union
• Find the Careers Service on Facebook!

• How to Apply
• UCAS website
• Request a prospectus
• Got a question - use our enquiry form (opens a new window)
• Funding options
• English language requirements
• Tuition Fees
• Admissions Contacts