The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, founded in 1949,^[1] is the sole postgraduate academic institution in the United Kingdom devoted to the study of the Commonwealth. It is also home to the longest-running interdisciplinary and practice-oriented human rights MA programme in the UK.

The Institute is a national and international centre of excellence for policy-relevant research, research facilitation and teaching. As a member of the University of London's School of Advanced Study, the Institute aims to address the challenges confronting the modern Commonwealth through the development of effective, evidence-based policy solutions with a focus on human rights, the rule of law, media freedom and climate change.

The institute's library is an international resource holding more than 190,000 volumes, with particularly impressive Caribbean, Southern African and Australian holdings and over 200 archival collections.

Notable academics

• Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, senior research fellow in international relations
• Krishnan Srinivasan, fellow from 2002 to 2008
• Susan Williams, senior research fellow

List of directors

• 1949–1957: Keith Hancock
• 1957–1965: Kenneth Robinson
• 1966-1983: WH Morris-Jones
• 1983-1993: Shula Marks
• 1998–2000: Professor Pat Caplan
• 2009–2022: Professor Philip Murphy
• 2022–2023: Professor Sue Onslow
• 2023–Present: Professor Kingsley Abbott

Notable alumni

• Richard Fell