In July 2016, Valerie Amos, the Director of SOAS, announced that a mid-term review of the £15 million Alphawood-funded Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme (SAAAP) had been commissioned from Prof. Shearer West, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. Prof. West prepared a report which Amos publically released. The report makes for shocking reading. Amos also announced her own plan to restructure SAAAP. Unfortunately, this plan ignores some key recommendations of the reviewer and would enshrine some of the very flaws which have hindered SAAAP. In summary, these deficiencies are:
- Failure to restore credibility to the Alphawood Scholarships. (I note that the managerial intimidation of students and collusion in rigging the scholarship candidate selection process which we uncovered in May was not fully known to Prof. West at the time of the review.)
- Significant weakening of Southeast Asian expertise in the oversight of SAAAP
- Conflicts of interest permitted to continue to interfere with decision-making
- Personal friendship with the donor trumps academic expertise as a qualification for authority
- Limitation of SAAAP remit to “ancient to pre-modern art” remains vague and subject to abuse
The SOAS Students’ Union and I wrote a letter to Amos detailing our concerns. See it here. We have not received a reply to this letter. It remains to be seen whether the problems that have plagued this programme in the past will continue or not.
