The department offers a dynamic and collegiate atmosphere to support research students in all dimensions of their work – from developing the individual thought process, to information-sharing on archives or conferences, to refining presentation skills, to building social and professional networks. Visit the programme website for more information
Research degrees are generally undertaken by individuals who aim to become professionals in the field of art history and/or archaeology, whether as academics who carry out research and teach in universities or as curators or educators in museums, libraries or archives, or in any number of other related areas such as academic publishing or even the commercial art world.
Career opportunities:
Students in the School of Arts develop a critical and theoretically informed approach to global arts and culture. In addition to an intercultural awareness and practical expertise, graduates gain a wide portfolio of transferable skills which are especially sought after in the creative and cultural industries.Recent graduates have been hired by:
- Christie’s
- Christine Park Gallery
- Crisis
- Design Museum
- Hong Kong Museum Of Art
- India Foundation For The Arts
- Japanese Gallery
- Museum of East Asian Art
Programme Structure
- Research topics can be considered under three headings: first, historical and contextual studies of the traditions, forms and artists of the past; second, the study of contemporary and popular visual arts; and third, the contribution of Asian and African art studies to the development of a comparative philosophy of art and archaeology.
- The opportunities for original and innovative research are therefore extremely wide-ranging. This is an area in which cooperation with scholars in Asia and Africa is possible to mutual advantage. All staff are simultaneously attached as art historians or archaeologists to the department and as regional specialists to their appropriate regional centre at SOAS.
Admission requirements
Academic requirements
We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.
English requirements
- TOEFL iBT: 100 (or New TOEFL iBT 1-6 score (CEFR-aligned), equivalent to the 0-120 score: 5)
- PTE Academic: 70
- IELTS: 6.5
Other requirements
It is expected that candidates will already have completed postgraduate taught courses in the form of a taught Masters degree (an MA, MSc or LLM, for example) and obtained good results before starting a PhD programme. Applicants will also need one reference
Fees and funding
Tuition Fees
International: 44,552 AUD / year (≈ 23,390 GBP / year)
Domestic: 9,628 AUD / year (≈ 5,055 GBP / year)
Living costs
London, United Kingdom: 2,166-4,109 AUD / month
The living costs include the total expenses per month, covering accommodation, public transportation, utilities (electricity, internet), books and groceries.
