South African director on why foreign students must return home, the UK’s damage to the arts, and his N-word row
When outspoken South African professor Adam Habib took over last year as director of Soas University of London, an elite research university next to the British Museum in central London, it seemed like a poisoned chalice. For some time, the university, which focuses on the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, had been widely rumoured to be at risk of going under. Habib says that when the pandemic hit in 2020, bringing fresh uncertainty about income from international students, Soas was already in “deep financial crisis”. And as an institution usually regarded as staunchly leftwing (despite counting Enoch Powell among its alumni), there was no guarantee a Conservative government would want to step in and save it.
Moreover, Soas specialises in social science and humanities, which many academics believe the government has no real interest in backing. Last year, ministers pushed through controversial cuts to arts and humanities subjects, in order to invest more in science, engineering and maths. There are fears they may inflict more damage in 2022, with ministers considering plans to limit the numbers of students studying for degrees in non-priority subjects in an attempt to rein in student loan debts.
