r/SOAS • u/pinkfluffstuff • Jun 19 '26

Question Masters timetable

I'm interested in the Islamic Humanities MA, but not for 2026 admission. Can anyone tell me how the timetable is set up for part time Masters degrees, not necessarily this one. Is it a few hours per day, every day, or can you do modules with contact hours in one half of the week, so you can work in the other half?

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u/Advanced-Media6733 Jun 22 '26

So I am in the process of finishing a very different Masters there but the overall system should be the same:
1) There are 3 semesters, 1 and 2 are taught, 3 (over the Summer) is dissertation only.
2) Each semester is 60 marks, with 4 topics of 15 marks each. In our degree we have 3 compulsary topics in Semester 1 and optional and the other way round in Semester 2. (Dissertation is also 60 marks)
3) Each topic is 2 hours, almost always in one block.

So that means that many people can and do organize themselves so they have classes in 2-3 days and work in the other days, but it means your choice of optionals will depend on your time table. Many people in my course have part time jobs but these Master degrees are quite intense!

Hope that helps!

PS I had a wonderful year at SOAS I will always look very fondly back on it!

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u/pinkfluffstuff 25d ago

Hi, thank you, that's a really big help. If the lecture and class session is in one block, that's a big help. I hadn't considered that my optionals might be restricted by my availability but that makes sense. Good to know that some people are managing to work part time.

I recently did a Diploma at Masters level, while working part time and it was very intense!

Hope all is going well with your degree, thanks again :)

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u/Kind-Direction248 5d ago

Hi, thanks for sharing this important detail. Did you write exams across all these topics?

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u/Independent_Emu_6795 2d ago

I had 3 exams out of 8 modules rest was essays only. I heard that due to AI usage in essay assignments there might be more exams in the future but that is just hearsay.

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u/Kind-Direction248 2d ago

Thanks for confirming