Politics and International Studies

The Politics and International Studies programme from SOAS University of London willtrain students to design, research and write a successful doctoral thesis.

Those who have completed the doctorate will be familiar with the conceptual and methodological aspects of political research and qualified as experts in their field.

Employment

In the last REF cycle (2014-2020), about a quarter of our PhD graduates of this Politics and International Studies programme from SOAS University of London embarked on successful academic careers, taking up positions in universities in the UK and across the world, including the LSE, University of Cambridge, University of Birmingham, Queen Mary University of London, Lahore University of Management Sciences, the American University in Beirut, Korea University, Abu Dhabi University, Sabanci University, the American University of Sulaymaniyah, University of Freiburg, Sciences Po, Leiden, and the Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin.

Many of our PhDs have found employment in non-academic institutions,including theCrisis Management Initiative, the Open Society Foundation, the Institute for Druze Studies in Haifa (Israel), the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar (Senegal), the Centre for Alternative Policy Research and Innovation in Freetown (Sierra Leone), the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi (India) and the Centre for International Digital Policy at Global Affairs Canada. Other PhD graduates have gone on to work as foreign-policy officials in the UK, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Nigeria, South Korea and Egypt

• The primary building block of the PhD programme is the relationship between student and supervisor. Students are admitted on the basis of the expressed willingness of at least one member of staff to serve as the main supervisor for the student’s project.

• From the student’s entry in the programme, the supervisor assumes primary responsibility for monitoring and supporting the student’s progress towards the completion of the degree. Every research student also has an associate supervisor, another member of staff with a close interest in the student’s region and/or sub-field of the discipline. The Department’s research tutor oversees the PhD programme and is available for discussing general problems.