Program Overview

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Key Information

Duration

3 or 4 years

Start of Programme

September

Attendance Mode

Full-time

Location

On Campus

Fees

• Home: £9,535
• International: £22,870

Entry Requirements

• AAA-AAB
• (For joint degrees, the offer is based on the subject with the higher entry requirements)
• Contextual: AAB-ABB
• See undergraduate entry requirements and English language requirements for international and alternative entry requirements.

Course Overview

The BA Politics and… combined honours degree offers you the ability to combine their training in politics with another subject taught at SOAS.

This combination will allow you to learn about political phenomena or regions of their interest from multiple disciplinary angles. Alternatively, you can also combine Politics with a language which opens up the possibility of deep engagement with one of the regions or countries you are interested in, including a Year Abroad for language studies.

At the end of this joint degree, you will have developed the ability to analyse domestic political questions and current affairs across the world in their various dimensions.

For the Politics component of the joint degree, students will take the core module in Political Analysis in their first year together with Political Theory or Comparative Politics. In year 2 and 3, they will have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of regional and disciplinary modules and open options.

Students taking BA Politics with another subject must satisfy the requirements of both departments.

Why Study Politics and… (combined degree) at SOAS?

• We’re ranked 6th in the UK and 28th worldwide for Politics (QS World University Rankings 2025)
• We're ranked 3rd worldwide for Academic Reputation (QS World University Rankings 2025)

Combined Courses

• BA East Asian Studies and Politics
• BA History of Art and Politics
• BA Languages and Cultures and Politics
• BA Languages and Cultures and Politics including year abroad
• BA Linguistics and Politics
• BA Politics and Africa and Black Diaspora
• BA Politics and Africa and Black Diaspora including Year Abroad
• BA Politics and Arabic (Year Abroad)
• BA Politics and Chinese (Year Abroad)
• BA Politics and Economics
• BA Politics and Global Development
• BA Politics and History
• BA Politics and International Relations
• BA Politics and Japanese (Year Abroad)
• BA Politics and Korean (Year Abroad)
• BA Politics and Law
• BA Politics and Music
• BA Social Anthropology and Politics

Teaching and Learning

The programme provides methodological and skills training throughout and allows final year students to undertake an independent research project, such as a dissertation, supervised by an academic member of staff.

By the end of the programme students will have acquired a range of transferable skills. This includes the ability to collect and synthesise information, read and evaluate complex materials, assess the evidence for a range of different positions, construct arguments, exercise independence of judgement and communicate effectively both orally and in writing.

Contact Hours

Most of our modules are taught through a combination of lectures and tutorials. Lectures (50 minutes) provide broad overviews of the topic. They are accompanied by tutorials (50 minutes) that give students the opportunity to discuss readings and key issues in small groups.

In the final year, modules may also take the form of two-hour seminars allowing for deeper engagement with more specialised topics.

Year Abroad

If Politics is combined with a language in a 4-year degree course, students spend a study year abroad.

Learning Resources

Students also benefit from the vibrant learning environment SOAS provides more broadly. The SOAS Library is one of the world's most important academic libraries for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, attracting scholars from all over the world. Moreover, every year there is a lively events programme that attracts renowned speakers from around the world, allowing students to engage with cutting edge debates on contemporary politics.

Fees and Funding

Fees for 2025/26 entrants per academic year

Programme	Full-time
Home students	Overseas students
BA, BSc, LLB	£9,535	£22,870
BA/BSc Language year abroad	£1,385	£11,430

See undergraduate fees for further details.

Employment

SOAS Politics and International Relations students leave SOAS not only with a knowledge and understanding of the complex political and cultural issues of our time, but also with a portfolio of widely transferable skills which employers seek in many professional and management careers.

Recent graduates have been hired by:

• BBC World Service
• Bloomberg
• British Red Cross
• British Council
• Center for International Peace Operations
• Channel 4
• Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA)
• Department for International Development (DfID)
• Eversheds LLP
• Financial Times
• Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)
• Global Policy Institute
• Go East Consulting
• Grassroot Diplomat
• Palestine Red Crescent Association
• Save the Children
• UNICEF Ethiopia
• United Nations

Find out about our Careers Service.

Key Staff

Dr Tolga Sinmazdemir

Tolga Sinmazdemir is a senior lecturer in political methodology.

Research

PACT project

A ground-breaking multi-disciplinary research collaboration, PACT will create an advanced digital platform on the making of the Indian constitution (1950), one of the most influential in the global South.

Intergenerational Justice in Eastern Africa

This research will explore intergenerational justice across the social sciences and humanities.

Reframing Justice after Atrocity

Through historical and modern case studies in Latin America, Europe and Africa and the new conceptual framework of “arenas of accountability”, this project examines justice interactions that go beyond the linear international-to-national transmission of norms and practices.

Civic Infrastructures of Torture

The project is based on exclusive access this research team has been granted to the archive of PCATI, which documents torture practices implemented by Israeli security agencies.

Migration Governance and Diplomacy

This project investigates how migration governance has been influenced by “refugee crises” and how crises at large shape policy responses on migration.

Pan-African Frontiers and Identities

This multi-sited collaborative research project explores the diverse deployments of pan-Africanism as a geopolitical and policy framework both on the African continent and in the diaspora.

African State Architecture

Professor Julia Gallagher and a team of researchers lead the African State Architecture project funded by a major grant from the European Research Council.

Strategic Concept for Removal of Arms and Proliferation (SCRAP)

A comprehensive approach to realising global disarmament.

ACE: Innovative approaches to anti-corruption

Finding impactful anti-corruption strategies around the world.

Recognising the women who shaped the UN Charter

Recognising the key role of women of the Global South in establishing the equality of the sexes in the UN Charter of 1945.

Events

World order: Rethinking the past and reimagining the future

Prof Amitav Acharya discusses his new work, The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West.

Towards a democratic and just energy transition: A new wave of environmental activism in Taiwan

In this event, we are delighted to welcome Dr Chiu Hua-mei for a talk on exploring the new wave of environmental activism in Taiwan.

The role of trade unions in just transition: A case study on the development of electric motorbikes in Taiwan

In this event, the Centre of Taiwan Studies is delighted to welcome Dr Yubin Chiu on a talk exploring the development of electric motorbikes in Taiwan.

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