BA/BSc Business, Management, Economics and Law with Foundation Year

This module introduces the core skills required for successful university study. You will develop oral, written, visual, analytical, and team-working skills, with a focus on critical thinking, academic reading and writing, and independent study.
Focused on the skills required for university, the module acts as a focal point for the Foundation Year, supporting your transition to undergraduate study. Tutors act as academic mentors, helping you progress across your modules and assignments. Assessment is based on a portfolio that develops week by week, allowing you to apply seminar learning and build a body of work that clearly demonstrates your progress as a university student.

This Academic Practice module supports your transition through the Foundation Year by developing the core skills needed for undergraduate study. You will build oral, written, visual, analytical, and team-working skills, including academic writing and research, referencing, critical reading and thinking, independent study, and exam preparation.
The module connects with themes across your other Foundation Year courses, giving you opportunities to apply these skills in context. Assessment is based on an Independent Study Project (ISP) and a reflective piece on the academic process. The ISP allows you to explore a topic of your choice, develop research skills, and produce a substantial piece of independent work, supported by weekly guidance through the research process.

The contemporary world is awash in numbers, but many of us remain cautious in using them. How can we learn to think with and about numbers in making decisions? Data and Critical Thinking develops exactly this ability to reason using numbers, allowing you to marshal their power in argument.
This is not a mathematics course: rather than focusing on calculation, you will engage with fundamental statistical ideas and explore how numbers are used in everyday life. By the end, you will be able to think more clearly, reason more sharply, and argue more effectively about the numbers that surround us – and perhaps even to enjoy yourself as you do so.

This module develops core skills in digital technologies and media, including basic coding, web design, video production, and the use of AI tools. It also introduces key concepts for understanding the impact of digital technologies on contemporary society.
You will apply these skills by creating a digital portfolio and are encouraged reflect on your online self-presentation across social media and other platforms. The skills developed support your work across the Foundation Year and prepare you for undergraduate study.

This thematic module introduces key debates in the contemporary world, including inequality, diversity, migration, human rights, global justice, environmental change, and democracy. Drawing on SOAS’s unique perspective, it explores the economic, political, and cultural history shaping the modern world.
The module develops critical thinking by challenging students to re-examine their assumptions and engage critically with regions and issues central to SOAS expertise.

This module introduces key theories and concepts relating to culture, identity, and power. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it explores how different forms of power shape outlooks and opportunities, how cultures are studied (including one’s own), and how cultural contexts influence key theoretical ideas.
Seminars use a range of media to encourage discussion and reflection. Assessment invites students to apply theoretical concepts to cultural examples of their choice and to reflect on their own educational experience.

In this module, you will receive lectures from experts across Law, Economics, Finance, and Management, followed by seminars that explore these subjects in greater depth.
The module introduces key ideologies, theories, methods, and schools of thought that shape these disciplines, while developing the academic skills needed for their study. Assessments invite you to compare how different disciplines address real-world problems and debates.

This interdisciplinary module prepares students for degrees in Business, Management, Economics, or Law at SOAS. Lectures from across these departments introduce key areas of expertise and how each discipline approaches its subject matter.
The module builds foundational subject knowledge and helps students make an informed choice of degree pathway.