SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme

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Welcome

The SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme offers a unique curriculum for the study of the arts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

It combines object-based learning within a rigorous postgraduate training in the critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of art historical scholarship.

Throughout your time with us you will hear from a wide variety of specialists, including SOAS faculty and the wider academic community, museum curators, and art market professionals. We foster a learning environment in which students evaluate diverse perspectives before coming to their own conclusions.

Our students’ learning is supported by our formal association with the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum here in London, offering unique access to the collections of these museums—both physically and digitally—and to the expertise of the curators who care for them.

What we offer

We offer three distinct exit qualifications at taught postgraduate level, all available either or in person or online:

MA in Asian Art
Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art
Postgraduate Certificate in Asian Art

For those not seeking a postgraduate qualification, we also offer:

Specialist Art Short Courses
Auditing access to our postgraduate modules

For a full overview of our programme and offering, please see our prospectus.

SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme Prospectus 2026/27

View the prospectus

Scholarships and funding

Scholarship type	Course(s) supported	Eligibility
Alphawood Scholarships	Multiple	These scholarships are open to residents of the following countries: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, Singapore, Thailand, or Vietnam.
Dr Hettie Elgood Scholarship	Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art (in-person)	This scholarship is open to anyone, anywhere in the world who is not financially able to pursue the course without a full scholarship and stipend.
Ortigia Scholarship	Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art (in-person)	Must be either the first in their family to go to university or resident in a country where there is conflict, extreme challenge or adversity

SOAS-Alphawood scholarships, research and outreach

SOAS is generously supported by the Alphawood Foundation (Chicago) as part of a transformational programme whose remit is to support and advance, through study and research, the understanding and preservation of Southeast Asian Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture from ancient to pre-modern times.

This programme is designed to strengthen SOAS’s research expertise and existing institutional links to create a vibrant network linking art, archaeology and heritage organisations in the Southeast Asian region.

The Programme supported over 100 scholarships between 2014 and 2025 and funds three fully endowed academic posts at SOAS, as well as numerous research and publishing initiatives, conferences, summer programmes, lectures and workshops in London and Southeast Asia.

For more information please visit the SOAS-Alphawood Programme page.