London’s School of Oriental and African Studies was already struggling as modern language study declines in UK
For more than 100 years, the School of Oriental and African Studies has been a fixture in Bloomsbury, central London, and among the world’s academic elite, its former students range from David Lammy, the Tottenham MP, to Enoch Powell.
The school’s founding in 1916 was part of Britain’s imperialist project, to train and educate colonial administrators and officers for their future posts. Enoch Powell’s brief time at Soas saw him learn Urdu so – the Conservative leadership candidate thought – he could some day become viceroy of India. But even after Soas shed that role, as Britain shed its empire, the school remained determinedly international, able to attract staff and students from around the world.
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