Asian and South Asian Studies

What do you come out with? BA

Why do it? Because Asia is a vast region rich in history, politics, culture, art and languages. Because the UK education system is largely focused on the West and you’re fed up with this and keen to know more about the East. And because it is a great career move as China is one of the biggest global economic players and speaking Mandarin or Cantonese would be a fantastic business asset. Read Wild Swans by Jung Chang, The Middle Kingdom by Andrea Barrett and The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan for inspiration.

What's it about? At the School of Oriental and African Studies you have more choice than anywhere else. You can do Korean, Japanese and Chinese combined with any of 20 subjects, including economics, law, politics and music; South-East Asian studies, including Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese; or South Asian studies, including Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. At Oxford and Cambridge students study standard Chinese or Japanese as well as the classical form of those languages. At Edinburgh, you can take Sanskrit as well. You can combine Chinese with economics and Japanese with linguistics. At Leeds you can learn Chinese, Japanese, Mongol, Thai or Indonesian languages. Sheffield offers Chinese, Japanese and Korean, plus dual honours in one of these languages with another subject such as business, sociology, politics or music, or a European language. Sheffield also runs three year regional East Asian degrees (single and dual honours) with optional language modules. Cardiff offers a range of Asia-based modules within its other degree programmes and has specialist teaching in Sanskrit.

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How long is it? Three or four years. Students on four year courses spend a year traveling or living abroad.

What are the students like? Hardworking and broad minded. A lot of Asian studies students who come from the West say they chose the subject because they thought many of the degrees on offer were too Europe and USA-centric. The drop out rate for learning difficult languages such as Japanese and Chinese is pretty high but it is by no means impossible to learn these languages from scratch at degree level. I’m told that what students lack in natural aptitude they make up for in tenacity. They are often adventurous types as they spend a lot of time travelling to and living in the cultures they are studying, which can only improve their language skills and confidence. Students with Asian backgrounds also take degrees in Asian studies to either cement existing linguistic skill or as a way of exploring their heritage. On the whole students of Asian studies are a sophisticated bunch who probably disscuss Confucius for fun and enjoy taking yoga classes.

How is it packaged? SOAS does 80 per cent exams to 20 per cent coursework. At Edinburgh, continuous assessment ranges from 25 to 50 per cent.

What A-levels do you need? SOAS favours a modern language if you are studying a language. At Edinburgh anything goes. The same goes for Sheffield.

What grades? BCC to ABB depending on which course you opt for at SOAS; BBB at Sheffield and for Sociology with South Asian Studies at Edinburgh. BBC at Leeds or BBB for Chinese and Japanese as well as a good GCSE language mark.

Will you be interviewed? Sometimes at SOAS and Leeds. Not normally at Sheffield.

Will it keep you off the dole? It has excellent graduate prospects. Cambridge has 100 per cent employment rate for its graduates; Oxford has 99.4 per cent; Cardiff 96.9 per cent; SOAS 96.7 per cent; Manchester 93.9 per cent. Graduates go into the law, banking, business, management, journalism, foreign office work or teaching. A lot of them go to work in the Far East. One graduate I spoke to had just done a stint in a face paint factory before she goes off to do her Masters degree as SOAS.

What do students say? “I’ve been fascinated by Asian culture since I was little. I chose Cardiff because it is one of the few universities which teaches Sanskrit. And then when I got there the Sanskrit classes were amazing because there were only about five of us and we got to know the tutors really well,” says Amy Griggs, who graduated in Asian religious and theological studies from Cardiff last year.

“You could pick and choose all the units you wanted. I really liked it for that reason but because I didn’t do a language I didn’t get to travel which was a shame,” says Tom Goldberg, a 2008 SOAS graduate.

"East Asian Civilisation makes you realise how focused our education is on the Western World," says Aphra Macdonald, second year, Edinburgh.

Where's best for teaching? Cambridge came top with 4.38 out of 5 in the National Student Survey. Oxford got 3.92; Cardiff 3.89; SOAS 3.84; and Leeds 3.76.

Where's best for research? Cardiff scored highest with 3.00 in the Research Assessment Exercise; SOAS 2.75; Oxford 2.60; Cambridge 2.40; Leeds 2.35.

Where's the cutting edge? Some say the cutting edge for Asian studies is all about exploring and engaging in the differences in culture between East and West to provide a solid basis for business relationships. East Asian Studies and Management is available for the business minded at Sheffield, where students are equipped in marketing, IT, management information systems, behaviour at work and accounting as well as languages and Asian culture.

Who are the stars? Robert Ash, Professor of Taiwan studies at SOAS, is researching the economic development of Taiwan since 1949; Professor Roel Sterckx, an expert in Chinese cultural history, Chinese language and civilisation, Chinese thought, philosophy and religion at Cambridge; Professor Tim Wright at Sheffield specialises in the economic development of China since the 1949 revolution.

Added value: Sheffield’s music department has a specialist each in Chinese and Korean music.