Pluspunten
Great student buzz, politically active student body, great library - access to rare Middle Eastern, African & Asian literature and resources, lots of interesting talks & events challenging British colonial history & euro-centric/Western view of the world, high quality scholars.
Minpunten
Place always seems a few yrs behind their competitors, major restructure since increase in fees still outstanding, small institution that struggles to embrace change, a lot of staff have been with the organisation for many yrs and the general mindset is complacent and unwilling to implement more efficient working practices, students are not regarded as customers and as a result the service culture is very poor. Have had many jobs in my life and worked in higher education for a while and staff at SOAS are by far the most incompetent, rude and impolite. Staff are holding onto 15 year old procedures and are resistant to change, many are fed up with the place creating a bad vibe but are unable to move on due to having de-skilled and being aware that they would not last in a different organisation, let alone in the private sector. The systems infrastructure is a joke, as part of my job I have to use 5 different systems which do not talk to each other which results in repetitive and tedious tasks. Chronic underinvestment in IT infrastructure and campus facilities.