The London School of Economics (officially
The London School of Economics and Political
Science, often referred to as the LSE) is
a public research university located in London,
England, and a constituent college of the
federal University of London. Founded in 1895
by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, Beatrice
Webb, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw
for the betterment of society, LSE joined
the University of London in 1900 and established
its first degree courses under the auspices
of the University in 1901. The LSE started
awarding its own degrees in 2008, prior to
which it awarded degrees of the University
of London.
LSE is located in Westminster, central London,
near the boundary between Covent Garden and
Holborn. The area is historically known as
Clare Market. The LSE has more than 11,000
students and 3,300 staff, just under half
of whom come from outside the UK. It had an
income of £354.3 million in 2017/18, of which
£31.6 million was from research grants. One
hundred and fifty-five nationalities are represented
amongst LSE's student body and the school
has the second highest percentage of international
students (70%) of all world universities.
Despite its name, the school is organised
into 25 academic departments and institutes
which conduct teaching and research across
a range of legal studies and social sciences.LSE
is a member of the Russell Group and is sometimes
considered a part of the "Golden Triangle"
of universities in south-east England. For
the subject area of social science, LSE places
second in the world in the QS Rankings, tenth
in THE Rankings, and eighth in the Academic
Ranking of World Universities. LSE is ranked
among the top fifteen universities nationally
by all three UK tables, while internationally
LSE is ranked in the top 50 by two of the
three major global rankings. In the 2014 Research
Excellence Framework, the School had the highest
proportion of world-leading research among
research submitted of any British non-specialist
university. The LSE is also a member of academic
organisations such as the Association of Commonwealth
Universities and the European University Association.
LSE has produced many notable alumni in the
fields of law, history, economics, philosophy,
psychology, business, literature, media and
politics. Alumni and staff include 53 past
or present heads of state or government and
20 members of the current British House of
Commons. As of 2017, 26% (or 13 out of 49)
of all the Nobel Prizes in Economics have
been awarded or jointly awarded to LSE alumni,
current staff or former staff, making up 16%
(13 out of 79) of all laureates. LSE alumni
and staff have also won 3 Nobel Peace Prizes
and 2 Nobel Prizes in Literature. Out of all
European universities, LSE has educated the
most billionaires according to a 2014 global
census of U.S dollar billionaires.
== History ==
=== 
Origins ===
The London School of Economics was founded
in 1895 by Beatrice and Sidney Webb, initially
funded by a bequest of £20,000 from the estate
of Henry Hunt Hutchinson. Hutchinson, a lawyer
and member of the Fabian Society, left the
money in trust, to be put "towards advancing
its [The Fabian Society's] objects in any
way they [the trustees] deem advisable". The
five trustees were Sidney Webb, Edward Pease,
Constance Hutchinson, William de Mattos and
William Clark.LSE records that the proposal
to establish the school was conceived during
a breakfast meeting on 4 August 1894, between
the Webbs, Louis Flood and George Bernard
Shaw. The proposal was accepted by the trustees
in February 1895 and LSE held its first classes
in October of that year, in rooms at 9 John
Street, Adelphi, in the City of Westminster.
=== 20th century ===
The School joined the federal University of
London in 1900, and was recognised as a Faculty
of Economics of the university. The University
of London degrees of BSc (Econ) and DSc (Econ)
were established in 1901, the first university
degrees dedicated to the social sciences.
Expanding rapidly over the following years,
the school moved initially to the nearby 10
Adelphi Terrace, then to Clare Market and
Houghton Street. The foundation stone of the
Old Building, on Houghton Street, was laid
by King George V in 1920; the building was
opened in 1922.
The 1930s economic debate between LSE and
Cambridge is well known in academic circles.
Rivalry between academic opinion at LSE and
Cambridge goes back to the school's roots
when LSE's Edwin Cannan (1861–1935), Professor
of Economics, and Cambridge's Professor of
Political Economy, Alfred Marshall (1842–1924),
the leading economist of the day, argued about
the bedrock matter of economics and whether
the subject should be considered as an organic
whole. (Marshall disapproved of LSE's separate
listing of pure theory and its insistence
on economic history).The dispute also concerned
the question of the economist's role, and
whether this should be as a detached expert
or a practical adviser. Despite the traditional
view that the LSE and Cambridge were fierce
rivals through the 1920s and 30s, they worked
together in the 1920s on the London and Cambridge
Economic Service. However, the 1930s brought
a return to disputes as economists at the
two universities argued over how best to address
the economic problems caused by the Great
Depression.The main figures in this debate
were John Maynard Keynes from Cambridge and
the LSE's Friedrich Hayek. The LSE Economist
Lionel Robbins was also heavily involved.
Starting off as a disagreement over whether
demand management or deflation was the better
solution to the economic problems of the time,
it eventually embraced much wider concepts
of economics and macroeconomics. Keynes put
forward the theories now known as Keynesian
economics, involving the active participation
of the state and public sector, while Hayek
and Robbins followed the Austrian School,
which emphasised free trade and opposed state
involvement.During World War II, the School
decamped from London to the University of
Cambridge, occupying buildings belonging to
Peterhouse.The School's arms, including its
motto and beaver mascot, were adopted in February
1922, on the recommendation of a committee
of twelve, including eight students, which
was established to research the matter. The
Latin motto, "Rerum cognoscere causas", is
taken from Virgil's Georgics. Its English
translation is "to Know the Causes of Things"
and it was suggested by Professor Edwin Cannan.
The beaver mascot was selected for its associations
with "foresight, constructiveness and industrious
behaviour".
=== 21st century ===
LSE continues to have a wide impact within
British society, through its relationships
and influence in politics, business and law.
The Guardian described such influence in 2005
when it stated:
Once again the political clout of the school,
which seems to be closely wired into parliament,
Whitehall and the Bank of England, is being
felt by ministers.... The strength of LSE
is that it is close to the political process:
Mervyn King, was a former LSE professor. The
chairman of the House of Commons education
committee, Barry Sheerman, sits on its board
of governors, along with Labour peer Lord
(Frank) Judd. Also on the board are Tory MPs
Virginia Bottomley and Richard Shepherd, as
well as Lord Saatchi and Lady Howe.
Commenting in 2001 on the rising status of
the LSE, the British magazine The Economist
stated that "two decades ago the LSE was still
the poor relation of the University of London's
other colleges. Now... it regularly follows
Oxford and Cambridge in league tables of research
output and teaching quality and is at least
as well-known abroad as Oxbridge". According
to the magazine, the School "owes its success
to the single-minded, American-style exploitation
of its brand name and political connections
by the recent directors, particularly Mr Giddens
and his predecessor, John Ashworth" and raises
money from foreign students' high fees, which
are attracted by academic stars such as Richard
Sennett.As of 2006, the School was active
in opposing British government proposals to
introduce compulsory ID cards, researching
into the associated costs of the scheme, and
shifting public and government opinion on
the issue. The institution is also popular
with politicians and MPs to launch new policy,
legislation and manifesto pledges, prominently
with the launch of the Liberal Democrats Manifesto
Conference under Nick Clegg on 12 January
2008.
==== 2010 to present ====
In the early 2010s, its academics have been
at the forefront of both national and international
government consultations, reviews and policy,
including representation on the UK Airports
Commission, Independent Police Commission,
Migration Advisory Committee, UN Advisory
Board on Water and Sanitation, London Finance
Commission, HS2 Limited, the UK government's
Infrastructure Commission and advising on
Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012
OlympicsCraig Calhoun took up the post of
Director in September 2012. Its previous Director,
Judith Rees, is also chair of the school's
Grantham Institute on Climate Change, an adviser
to the World Bank as well as sitting on the
UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water
and Sanitation and the International Scientific
Advisory Council (ISAC). She is also a former
Convenor of the Department of Geography and
Environment and served as Deputy Director
from 1998–2004.
In February 2016, Calhoun announced his intention
to step down at the end of the academic year,
in order to become president of the Berggruen
Institute. In September 2016, Bank of England
Deputy Governor Dame Nemat Shafik was announced
to replace Professor Julia Black as the School's
director. Shafik began to lead the LSE in
September 2017.
==== Controversy ====
In February 2011, LSE had to face the consequences
of matriculating one of Muammar Gaddafi's
sons, while accepting a £1.5m donation to
the university from his family.In March 2011,
LSE director Howard Davies resigned over allegations
about the institution's links to the Libyan
regime. The LSE announced in a statement that
it had accepted his resignation with "great
regret" and that it had set up an external
inquiry into the school's relationship with
the Libyan regime and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi,
to be conducted by the former lord chief justice
Harry Woolf.In 2013, the LSE was caught in
a furore over a BBC Panorama documentary on
North Korea, filmed inside the repressive
regime by undercover journalists attached
to a trip by the LSE's Grimshaw Society, a
student society of the international relations
department. The trip had been sanctioned by
high-level North Korean officials. The trip
caused international media attention, as a
BBC journalist was posing as a part of LSE.
There was debate as to where this put the
student's lives in jeopardy in the repressive
regime if a reporter had been exposed. The
North Korea government made hostile threats
towards the students and LSE, after the publicity,
which forced an apology from the BBC.In August
2015, it was revealed that the university
was paid approximately £40,000 for a "glowing
report" for Camila Batmanghelidjh's charity,
Kids Company. The study was used by Batmanghelidjh
to prove that the charity provided good value
for money and was well managed. However, the
university did not disclose that the study
was funded by the charity and claims made
by the report have since been discredited.
== Campus and estate ==
Since 1902, LSE has been based at Clare Market
and Houghton Street in Westminster. It is
surrounded by a number of important institutions
including the Royal Courts of Justice, all
four Inns of Courts, Royal College of Surgeons,
Sir John Soane's Museum, and the West End
is immediately across Kingsway from campus,
which also borders the City of London and
is within walking distance to Trafalgar Square
and the Houses of Parliament.
In 1920, King George V laid the foundation
of the Old Building. The campus now occupies
an almost continuous group of around 30 buildings
between Kingsway and the Aldwych. Alongside
teaching and academic space, the institution
also owns 11 student halls of residence across
London, two public houses, a West End theatre
(the Peacock), early years centre, NHS medical
centre and extensive sports ground in Berrylands,
south London. The School's campus is noted
for its numerous public art installations
which include Richard Wilson's Square the
Block, Michael Brown's Blue Rain, Christopher
Le Brun's Desert Window.Since the early 2000s,
the entire campus has undergone an extensive
refurbishment project and a major fund-raising
"Campaign for LSE" raised over £100 million
in what was one of the largest university
fund-raising exercises outside North America.
This process was begun with the £35 million
renovation of the Lionel Robbins Building
by Sir Norman Foster to house the British
Library of Political and Economic Science
(BLPES), the world's largest social science
and political library and the second largest
single entity library in Britain, after the
British Library at King's Cross.
In 2003, LSE purchased the former Public Trustee
building at 24 Kingsway, and engaged Sir Nicholas
Grimshaw to redesign it into an ultra-modern
educational facility at a total cost of over
£45 million – increasing the size of the
campus by 120,000 square feet (11,000 m2).
The New Academic Building opened for teaching
in October 2008, with an official opening
by Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
on 5 November 2008. In November 2009 the School
purchased the adjacent Sardinia House to house
three academic departments and the nearby
Old White Horse public house, before acquiring
the freehold of the grade-II listed Land Registry
Building at 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields in October
2010, which was reopened in March 2013 by
HRH The Princess Royal as the new home for
the Department of Economics, International
Growth Centre and its associated economic
research centres.
=== Saw Swee Hock Student Centre ===
The first new building on the site for more
than 40 years, the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre,
opened in January 2014 following an architectural
design competition managed by RIBA Competitions.
The building provides new accommodation for
the LSE Students' Union, LSE accommodation
office and LSE careers service as well as
a bar, events space, gymnasium, rooftop terrace,
learning café, dance studio and media centre.
The building, designed as a showpiece for
the City of Westminster and Midtown was recognised
as having a low environmental impact receiving
an 'Outstanding' status under BREEAM, and
in 2012 was one of three winners of the New
London Award in the Education category. In
May 2014 the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre
won the RIBA London Building of the Year Award.
=== Expansion ===
It is currently embarking on redevelopment
and expansion with the development of a £120
million new facility designed by Rogers Stirk
Harbour & Partners following the completion
of a global design competition managed by
RIBA Competitions. Once complete in 2018 the
new development - the Global Centre for the
Social Sciences
- will house the Departments of Government,
International Relations and the European Institute
and feature a new square at the centre of
the campus.In September 2013, LSE purchased
the freehold of 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, previously
the home of the Francis Crick Institute's
laboratories until 2016. The building will
be demolished in 2017 to make way for the
new Paul Marshall Building which will house
academic departments (Management, Accounting
and Finance), sports facilities and the new
Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social
Entrepreneurship. In 2015, LSE brought its
ownership of buildings on Lincoln's Inn Fields
to six with the purchase of 5 Lincoln's Inn
Fields on the north side of the square which
has since been converted into faculty accommodation.On
15 November 2017, LSE announced that it has
achieved contract completion on the purchase
to acquire the Nuffield Building, which is
adjacent to the Lincoln's Inn Fields, from
the Royal College of Surgeons. According to
the contract the building will be transferred
to LSE after renovations in 2020.
=== Transport ===
The nearest London Underground stations are
Holborn, Temple and Covent Garden. Charing
Cross, at the Trafalgar Square end of Strand,
and the City Thameslink entrance at Ludgate
Hill are the nearest mainline stations, whilst
London Waterloo is a walk or bus across the
River Thames. Buses to Aldwych, Kingsway and
the Royal Courts of Justice contain stops
which are designated as 'alight here for LSE'.
== Organisation and administration ==
=== Governance ===
Although LSE is a constituent college of the
federal University of London, it is in many
ways comparable with free-standing, self-governing
and independently funded universities, and
it awards its own degrees.
LSE is incorporated under the Companies Act
as a company limited by guarantee and is an
exempt charity within the meaning of Schedule
Two of the Charities Act 1993. The principal
governance bodies of the LSE are: the LSE
Council; the Court of Governors; the Academic
Board; and the Director and Director's Management
Team.The LSE Council is responsible for strategy
and its members are company directors of the
school. It has specific responsibilities in
relation to areas including: the monitoring
of institutional performance; finance and
financial sustainability; audit arrangements;
estate strategy; human resource and employment
policy; health and safety; "educational character
and mission", and student experience. The
council is supported in carrying out its role
by a number of committees which report directly
to it.The Court of Governors deals with certain
constitutional matters and has pre-decision
discussions on key policy issues and the involvement
of individual governors in the school's activities.
The court has the following formal powers:
the appointment of members of court, its subcommittees
and of the council; election of the chair
and vice chairs of the court and council and
honorary fellows of the School; the amendment
of the Memorandum and Articles of Association;
and the appointment of external auditors.The
Academic Board is LSE's principal academic
body, and considers all major issues of general
policy affecting the academic life of the
School and its development. It is chaired
by the director, with staff and student membership,
and is supported by its own structure of committees.
The Vice Chair of the Academic Board serves
as a non-director member of the council and
makes a termly report to the Council.
==== Director and president ====
The director is the head of LSE and its chief
executive officer, responsible for executive
management and leadership on academic issues.
Since 2013, the addition of the name 'president'
has also been adopted alongside signalling
an additional title more widely understood
when travelling or undertaking business globally.
The director and president reports to and
is accountable to the Council. The director
is also the accountable officer for the purposes
of the Higher Education Funding Council for
England Financial Memorandum. The LSE's current
director is Dame Nemat Shafik, who replaced
interim director, Professor Julia Black, on
1 September 2017.
The director and president is supported by
a deputy director and provost who oversees
the heads of academic departments and institutes,
three pro-directors each with designated portfolios
(teaching and learning, research and planning
and resources) and the School secretary who
acts as company secretary.
=== Academic departments and institutes ===
LSE's research and teaching is organised into
a network of independent academic departments
established by the LSE Council, the School's
governing body, on the advice of the Academic
Board, the School's senior academic authority.
There are currently 27 academic departments
or institutes.
=== Finances ===
The LSE group has an endowment (as of 31 July
2016) of £119M and had a total income for
2015–16 (excluding donations and endowments)
of £311M (£293M in 2014–15) with expenditure
of £307M (2014–15 £302M). Key sources
of income included £177M from tuition fees
and education contacts (2014–15 £167M),
£25M from funding council grants (2014–15
£22M), £32M from research grants (2014–15
– £27M) and £5.3M from investment income
(2014–15 £4.7M).The Times Higher Education
Pay Survey 2017 revealed that, among larger,
non-specialist institutions, LSE professors
and academics were the highest paid in the
UK, with average incomes of £103,886 and
£65,177 respectively.
==== Endowment ====
The London School of Economics (LSE) is aiming
to increase the size of its endowment fund
to more than £1bn, which would make it one
of the best resourced institutions in the
UK and the world. The effort was initiated
in 2016 by Lord Myners, then chairman of the
LSE's Council and Court of Governors. The
plan includes working with wealthy alumni
of LSE to make large contributions, increasing
the annual budget surplus, and launching a
new, widescale alumni donor campaign. The
plan to grow LSE's endowment to more than
£1bn has been continued by Lord Myners' successors
at the LSE. The LSE has stated that currently
"limited endowment funding constrains our
ability to offer 'needs blind' admission to
students".
=== Academic year ===
LSE continues to adopt a three-term structure
and has not moved to semesters. Michaelmas
Term runs from October to mid-December, Lent
Term from mid-January to late March and Summer
Term from late April to mid-June. Certain
departments operate reading weeks in early
November and mid-February.
=== Logo, arms and mascot ===
The school's historic coat of arms is used
on official documentation including degree
certificates and transcripts and includes
the motto – rerum cognoscere causas, a line
taken from Virgil’s Georgics meaning "to
know the causes of things", together with
the school's mascot – a beaver. Both these
symbols, adopted in February 1922, continue
to be held in high regard to this day with
the beaver chosen because of its representation
as "a hard working and industrious yet sociable
animal", attributes that the founders hoped
LSE students to both possess and aspire to.
The school's weekly newspaper is still entitled
The Beaver, Rosebery residence hall's bar
is called the Tipsy Beaver and LSE sports
teams are known as the Beavers. The institution
has two sets of colours – brand and academic
– red being the brand colour used on signage,
publications and in buildings across campus
and purple, black and gold for academic purposes
including presentation ceremonies and graduation
dress.
LSE's present 'red block' logo was adopted
as part of a rebrand in the early 2000s, before
which the school's coat of arms was used exclusively
to represent the institution. As a trademarked
brand, it is carefully protected but can be
produced in various forms to reflect different
requirements. In its full form it contains
the full name of the institution to the right
of the block with a further small empty red
square at the end, but it is adapted for each
academic department or professional service
division to provide a cohesive brand across
the institution.
== Academic profile ==
=== 
Admissions ===
Admission to LSE is highly competitive: the
school received 18,000 applications for 1,600
undergraduate places in 2016, or 11.25 applicants
per place. All undergraduate applications,
including international applications, are
made through UCAS. LSE had the 4th highest
average entry qualification for undergraduates
of any UK university in 2015-16, with new
students averaging 537 UCAS points (pre-2017
tariff), equivalent to just below A*A*A*A
in A-level grades. The university gives offers
of admission to 37.0% of its applicants, the
3rd lowest amongst the Russell Group. For
2017 entry, the university was one of only
a few mainstream universities (along with
Cambridge, Imperial College, Oxford, St Andrews,
UCL, and Warwick) to have no courses available
in Clearing.Postgraduate students at the LSE
are required to have a first or upper second
Class UK honours degree, or its foreign equivalent
for master's degrees, while direct entry to
the MPhil/PhD programme requires a UK taught
master's with merit or foreign equivalent.
Admission to the diploma requires as UK degree
or equivalent plus relevant experience. The
intake to applications ratio for postgraduate
degree programmes is very competitive; the
MSc Financial Mathematics had a ratio of just
over 4% in 2016.31.6% of LSE's undergraduates
are privately educated, the ninth highest
proportion amongst mainstream British universities.
In the 2016-17 academic year, the university
had a domicile breakdown of 33:18:50 of UK:EU:non-EU
students respectively with a female to male
ratio of 52:47.
=== Programmes and degrees ===
LSE is the only university in the United Kingdom
dedicated solely to the study and research
of social sciences. LSE awards a range of
academic degrees spanning bachelors, masters
and PhDs. The post-nominals awarded are the
degree abbreviations used commonly among British
universities.
The School offers over 140 MSc programmes,
5 MPA programmes, an LLM, 30 BSc programmes,
an LLB, 4 BA programmes (including International
History and Geography), and 35 PhD programmes.
Other subjects pioneered by LSE include anthropology,
criminology, social psychology, sociology
and social policy; with international relations
being first taught as a discipline at LSE.
Courses are split across more than thirty
research centres and nineteen departments,
plus a Language Centre. Since programmes are
all within the social sciences, they closely
resemble each other, and undergraduate students
usually take at least one course module in
a subject outside of their degree for their
first and second years of study, promoting
a broader education in the social sciences.
At undergraduate level, some departments have
as few as 90 students across the three years
of study. Since September 2010, it has been
compulsory for first year undergraduates to
participate in LSE 100: Understanding the
Causes of Things alongside normal studies.From
1902, following its absorption into the University
of London, and up until 2007, all degrees
were awarded by the federal university, in
common with all other colleges of the university.
This system was changed in 2007 to enable
some colleges to award their own degrees.
LSE was granted the power to begin awarding
its own degrees from July 2008. All students
entering from the 2007-8 academic year onwards
received an LSE degree, while students who
started before this date were issued University
of London degrees. In conjunction with NYU
Stern and HEC Paris, LSE also offers the TRIUM
Executive MBA. This was globally ranked third
among executive MBAs by the Financial Times
in 2016.
=== Research ===
In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework,
LSE had the joint highest percentage of world-leading
research among research submitted of any institution
that entered more than one unit of assessment
and was ranked third by cumulative grade point
average with a score of 3.35, beating both
Oxford and Cambridge. It was ranked 23rd in
the country for research power by Research
Fortnight based on its REF2014 results, and
28th in research power by the Times Higher
Education. This followed the Research Assessment
Exercise in 2008 where the School was placed
second equal nationally on GPA, first for
fraction of world-leading (4*) research and
fourth for fraction of world-leading or internationally
excellent (3* and 4*) research in LSE's analysis
of the results, fourth equal for GPA and 29th
for research power in Times Higher Education's
analysis, and 27th in research power by Research
Fortnight's analysis.According to analysis
of the REF 2014 subject results by Times Higher
Education, the School is the UK's top research
university in terms of GPA of research submitted
in business and management; area studies;
and communication, cultural and media studies,
library and information management, and second
in law; politics and international studies;
economics and econometrics; and social work
and social policy.
==== Research centres ====
The School houses a number of notable centres
including the Centre for the Analysis of Social
Exclusion, the Centre for Climate Change Economics
and Policy, the Centre for Macroeconomics,
Centre for Economic Performance, LSE Health
and Social Care, the Financial Markets Group
(founded by former Bank of England governor
Sir Mervyn King), the Grantham Research Institute
on Climate Change and the Environment (chaired
by Lord Stern), LSE Cities, the UK Department
for International Development funded International
Growth Centre and one of the six the UK government-backed
'What Works Centres' – the What Works Centre
for Local Economic Growth.
==== LSE Institute of Global Affairs ====
In late 2014, LSE hired Erik Berglöf, former
Chief Economist and Special Advisor to the
EBRD to establish a new Institute of Global
Affairs with seven regional research centres
focusing on Africa, East Asia, Latin America
and the Caribbean, the Middle East, South
Asia, South East Asia and the United States.
It is joined by the LSE IDEAS think tank,
which in a global survey conducted by the
University of Pennsylvania in 2015 was jointly
ranked as world's second-best university think
tanks for the third year running alongside
the LSE Public Policy Group, after Harvard
University's Belfer Center for Science and
International Affairs.In February 2015, Angelina
Jolie and William Hague launched the UK's
first academic Centre on Women, Peace and
Security, based at the School. The Centre
aims to contribute to global women's rights
issues, including the prosecution of war rape
and women's engagement in politics, through
academic research, a post-graduate teaching
program, public engagement, and collaboration
with international organisations. Furthermore,
in May 2016 it was announced that Jolie-Pitt
and Hague would join Jane Connors and Madeleine
Rees as Visiting Professors in Practice from
September 2016.
=== Partnerships ===
LSE has academic partnerships in teaching
and research with six universities – with
Columbia University in New York City and University
of California, Berkeley, in Asia with Peking
University in Beijing and the National University
of Singapore, in Africa with the University
of Cape Town and Europe with Sciences Po in
Paris.Together they offer a range of double
or joint degree programmes including an MA
in International and World History (with Columbia)
and an MSc in International Affairs with Peking
University, with graduates earning degrees
from both institutions. The School also offers
joint degrees for specific departments with
various other universities including Fudan
University in Shanghai, USC in Los Angeles
and a Global Studies programme which is offered
with a consortium of four European universities
– Leipzig, Vienna, Roskilde and Wroclaw.
It offers the TRIUM Global Executive MBA programme
jointly with Stern School of Business of New
York University and HEC School of Management,
Paris. It is divided into six modules held
in five international business locations over
a 16-month period. LSE also offers a Dual
Master of Public Administration (MPA) with
Global Public Policy Network schools such
as Sciences Po Paris, the Hertie School of
Governance and National University of Singapore.
The school also runs exchange programmes with
the Cornell University - Samuel Curtis Johnson
Graduate School of Management, University
of Chicago - Booth School Of Business, University
of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business,
Emory University - Goizueta Business School
University of Michigan - Ross School of Business,
Yale University - School of Management, Duke
University - Fuqua School of Business
Peking University - Guanghua School of Management,
HEC Paris, Northwestern University - Kellogg
School of Management through the Global Master's
in Management programme and an undergraduate
student exchange programme with the University
of California, Berkeley in Political Science.
LSE is the only UK member school in the CEMS
Alliance, and the LSE Global Master's in Management
is the only programme in the UK to offer the
CEMS Master's in International Management
(CEMS MIM) as a double degree option, allowing
students to study at one of 30 CEMS partner
universities. It also participates in Key
Action 1 of the European Union-wide Erasmus+
programme, encouraging staff and student mobility
for teaching, although not the other Key Actions
in the programme. The School is a member of
the Association of Commonwealth Universities,
the Association of Professional Schools of
International Affairs, the European University
Association, the G5, the Global Alliance in
Management Education, the Russell Group and
Universities UK, and is sometimes considered
part of the 'Golden Triangle' of universities
in south-east England, along with the University
of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, University
College London, Imperial College London, and
King's College London.
=== Libraries and archives ===
The School's main library, the British Library
of Political and Economic Science is located
in the Lionel Robbins Building and contains
over 4 million print volumes, 60,000 online
journals and 29,000 electronic books. The
Digital Library contains digitised material
from LSE Library collections and also born-digital
material that has been collected and preserved
in digital formats. Founded in 1896, it is
the world's largest social and political sciences
library and the national social science library
of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. Its
collections are recognised for their outstanding
national and international status and hold
'Designation' status by the Museums, Libraries
and Archives Council (MLA). BLPES responds
to around 7,500 visits from students and staff
each day. In addition, it provides a specialist
international research collection, serving
over 12,000 registered external users each
year.
The Shaw Library, housed in LSE's Founders
Room in the Old Building contains the School's
collection of fiction and general readings.
It also hosts a weekly series of lunchtime
music concerts and press launches and is the
home of the Fabian Window which was unveiled
by Tony Blair in 2003.
In 2013, LSE purchased the Women's Library,
Britain's main library and museum resource
on women and the women's movement and a UNESCO
classified resource from London Metropolitan
University, moving the resources and artefacts
into a new purpose-built facility within the
Lionel Robbins Building complete with its
own reading room and exhibition space. Several
subject specific libraries also exist including
the Seligman Library for Anthropology, the
Himmelweit Library for Social Psychology,
the Leverhulme Library for Statistics, the
Robert McKenzie library for Sociology, the
Michael Wise Library for Geography and the
Gender Institute Library. Additionally, students
are permitted to use the libraries of any
other University of London college, and the
extensive facilities at Senate House Library,
situated in Russell Square.
=== LSE Summer School ===
The original LSE Summer School was established
in 1989 and has since expanded to offer over
70 three-week courses in accounting, finance,
economics, English language, international
relations, government, law and management
each July and August. It is advertised as
the largest and one of the most well-established
university Summer Schools of its kind in Europe.In
recent years, the School has expanded its
summer schools both abroad and into executive
education with the LSE-PKU Summer School in
Beijing (run with Peking University, the LSE-UCT
July School in Cape Town (run with the University
of Cape Town) and the Executive Summer School
at its London campus. In 2011, it also launched
a Methods Summer Programme. Together these
courses welcome over 5,000 participants from
over 130 countries and some of the top colleges
and universities around the world, as well
as professionals from several multinational
institutions. Participants are housed in LSE
halls of residence or their overseas equivalents,
and the Summer School provides a full social
programme including guest lectures and receptions.
=== Public lectures ===
Public lectures hosted by LSE Events office,
are open to students, alumni and the general
public. As well as leading academics and commentators,
speakers frequently include prominent national
and international figures such as ambassadors,
CEOs, Members of Parliament, and heads of
state. A number of these are broadcast live
around the world via the School's website.
LSE organises over 200 public events every
year.Recent prominent speakers have included
Kofi Annan, Ben Bernanke, Tony Blair, Gordon
Brown, David Cameron, Noam Chomsky, Bill Clinton,
Philip Craven, Niall Ferguson, Vicente Fox,
Milton Friedman, Muammar Gaddafi, Julia Gillard,
Alan Greenspan, Tenzin Gyatso, Lee Hsien Loong,
Boris Johnson, David Harvey, Jean Tirole,
Angelina Jolie, Paul Krugman, Dmitri Medvedev,
Mario Monti, George Osborne, Robert Peston,
Sebastián Piñera, Kevin Rudd, Jeffrey Sachs,
Gerhard Schroeder, Carlos D. Mesa, Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva, Aung San Suu Kyi, Amartya Sen,
George Soros and Rowan Williams. Previously,
the School has hosted figures including Nelson
Mandela and Margaret Thatcher.There are also
a number of annual lecture series hosted by
various departments. These include but are
not limited to the Malinowski Memorial Lectures
hosted by the Department of Anthropology,
the Lionel Robbins Memorial Lectures and the
Ralph Miliband programme.
=== iXXi Briefings ===
The iXXi Briefings (from 9/11, written in
Roman numerals) are private discussions which
are attended by around 40 distinguished people,
chaired by Lord Desai. At the briefings, two
speakers talk for 15 minutes each before discussion
is opened to all attendees, operating under
Chatham House Rules. iXXi briefings provide
an opportunity for the LSE to exhibit its
resources and engage with experts and prominent
figures. The iXXi briefings are run by LSE
Enterprises.
=== Rankings and reputation ===
In overall national rankings, the LSE consistently
places as a top 15 University, ranking 3rd
in the Complete University Guide 2017, 12th
in the Guardian University Guide 2017 and
8th in the Times/Sunday Times Good University
Guide 2017, placing it 7th in the Times Higher
Education Table of Tables 2017. The LSE also
ranked 3rd overall in the Sunday Times University
Guide cumulative ranking over a ten-year period
(1998–2007). LSE is one of only eight universities
(along with the other members of the G5, Bath,
St Andrews and Warwick) to have never left
the top 15 in one of the three main domestic
rankings between 2008-2017. According to data
released by the Department for Education in
2018, LSE was rated as the best university
for boosting graduate earnings, with male
graduates seeing a 47.2% increase in earnings
and female graduates seeing a 38.2% increase
in earnings compared to the average graduate.The
QS World University Rankings for 2015-16 saw
LSE move up 36 places from 71st to 35th globally
in the overall ratings and keep its number
one position in the UK for social sciences,
as well as being ranked second in the world
for social sciences for the third year in
a row. The 2016–17 rankings saw the LSE
placed 37th overall and again retain its social
science rankings, as well as ranking 6th for
employer reputation. LSE is ranked 53rd in
the world (and 7th in the UK) in the 2017
Round University Ranking. The 2016-17 Times
Higher Education World University Rankings
ranked LSE 25th globally and placed it 5th
in the country. When looking specifically
at social sciences, Times Higher Education
ranks LSE at 15th globally and 4th in the
country. LSE was also ranked 24th for reputation
by Times Higher Education in 2016. However,
the Academic Ranking of World Universities
placed the LSE 151–200 and 16–21 nationally
for 2016–17, while the US News & World Report
Best Global Universities 2017 placed it 261st
globally and 30th in the UK. The citation-based
CWTS Leiden Ranking placed LSE 90th worldwide
and 16th in the UK.
In addition to ranking the LSE second in the
world for Social Sciences and Management,
the QS World University Rankings by Subject
2017 ranks individual LSE departments third
in the world for Geography, Communication
and Media Studies, Politics, and Social Policy
and Administration. It is ranked in the top
ten for Anthropology, Development studies,
Accounting and Finance, History, Philosophy,
Law, Economics, and Business and Management
Studies, in the top 30 for Psychology, and
the top 40 for Statistics. ForeignPolicy.com
ranked LSE's International Relations Department
as having the only non-US programme in the
top ten for master's degrees in international
relations in surveys of US academics in 2011
and 2014.
Disparities between national and international
league tables have caused LSE to offer public
explanations for the difference, including
the statement in 2012: At mid-2012, LSE has
seen pleasing improvements over the last couple
of years in our standing in all the main global
rankings: those produced by Times Higher Education,
QS and Shanghai Jiaotong University [the Academic
Ranking of World Universities]. We have also
seen good rises in the domestic UK rankings.
But we remain concerned that all of the global
rankings – by some way the most important
for us, given our highly international orientation
– suffer from inbuilt biases in favour of
large multi-faculty universities with full
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics) offerings, and against small,
specialist, mainly non-STEM universities such
as LSE.
In the THE-QS World University Rankings, the
School was ranked 11th in the world in 2004
and 2005, but dropped to 66th and 67th in
the 2008 and 2009 edition. The School administration
asserts that the fall was due to a controversial
change in survey method which was detrimental
to the ratings of social science institutions.
In January 2010, THE concluded that the method
employed by Quacquarelli Symonds, who conducted
the survey on their behalf, was flawed in
such a way that bias was introduced against
certain institutions, including LSE. A representative
of Thomson Reuters, THE's new partner, commented
on the controversy: "LSE stood at only 67th
in the last Times Higher Education-QS World
University Rankings – some mistake surely?
Yes, and quite a big one." Nonetheless, after
the change of data provider to Thomson Reuters
the following year, LSE fell even further
to 86th place, with the ranking described
by a representative of Thomson Reuters as
'a fair reflection of their status as a world
class university'.In the 2012 rankings, LSE
was 69th in the QS table, 47th in the Times
Higher Education table and in the range 101-150
in the ARWU table. It has since risen in the
QS and Times Higher Education tables due to
changed methodology, while the ARWU remains
unchanged. LSE has continued to attain these
lower rankings (reaching 69th in 2013/14),
which place it behind eleven other British
universities, with this being described as
a 'pleasing improvement' by LSE. In the (now
separated from QS) THE 2014 ranking the school
climbed up to 32nd in the world.
In its first world ranking prepared by the
US News & World Report 2015, the school was
ranked 328th in the world, and 32nd in the
country. In 2016 ranking, the school moves
upward to 327th in the world, but drops to
33rd in the country. Nevertheless, the school
was the only one of its type to finish in
the top 200 universities, and was thus stated
to be the best "medium sized specialised research
university" in the world. The 2017 US News
& World Report ranks LSE 261st in the world
(tied with the International School for Advanced
Studies, in Italy, Pohang University of Science
and Technology, in South Korea, and the University
of Oregon, in the United States).According
to Wealth-X and UBS's "Billionaire Census"
in 2014, LSE ranked 10th in the list of 20
schools that have produced the most billionaire
alumni. The LSE was the only UK university
to make the list.
In the 2017 National Student Survey, LSE came
145th out of 148 for overall student satisfaction.
== Student life ==
=== 
Student body ===
In the 2015–16 academic year there were
10,833 full-time students and around 700 part-time
students at the school. Of these, approximately
7,500 came from outside the United Kingdom
(approximately 70% of the total student body),
making LSE a highly international school with
over 160 countries represented. LSE had more
countries represented by students than the
UN. 32% of LSE's students come from Asia,
10% from North America, 2% each from South
America and Africa. Combined over 100 languages
are spoken at LSE. Over half of LSE's students
are postgraduates, and there is approximately
an equal split between genders with 51% male
and 49% female students. Alumni total over
160,000, covering over 190 countries with
more than 80 active alumni groups.
=== Students' Union ===
The LSE Students' Union (LSESU) is affiliated
to the National Union of Students and is responsible
for campaigning and lobbying the School on
behalf of students as well providing student
support and the organisation and undertaking
of entertainment events and student societies.
It is often regarded as the most politically
active in Britain – a reputation it has
held since the well documented LSE student
riots in 1966–67 and 1968–69, which made
international headlines. In 2015, the School
was awarded the top spot for student nightlife
by The Guardian newspaper due in part to its
central location and provision of over 200
societies, 40 sports clubs, a Raising and
Giving (RAG) branch and a thriving media group.
In 2013, the Union moved into a purpose-built
new building – the Saw Swee Hock Student
Centre on the Aldwych campus.A weekly student
newspaper The Beaver, is published each Tuesday
during term time and is amongst the oldest
student newspapers in the country. It sits
alongside a radio station, Pulse! which has
existed since 1999 and a television station
LooSE Television since 2005. The Clare Market
Review one of Britain's oldest student publications
was revived in 2008. Over £150,000 is raised
for charity each year through the RAG (Raising
and Giving), the fundraising arm of the Students'
Union, which was started in 1980 by then Student
Union Entertainments Officer and former New
Zealand MP Tim Barnett.Sporting activity is
coordinated by the LSE Athletics Union, which
is a constituent of British Universities & Colleges
Sport (BUCS).
=== Student housing ===
LSE owns or operates 10 halls of residence
in and around central London and there are
also two halls owned by urbanest and five
intercollegiate halls (shared with other constituent
colleges of the University of London) within
a 3-mile radius of the School, for a total
of over 4,000 places. Most residences take
both undergraduates and postgraduates, allhough
Carr-Saunders Hall and Passfield Hall are
undergraduate only, and Butler's Wharf Residence,
Grosvenor House and Lillian Knowles House
are reserved for postgraduates. Sidney Webb
House, managed by Unite Students, takes postgraduates
and continuing students. There are also flats
available on Anson and Carleton roads, which
are reserved for students with children.The
School guarantees accommodation for all first-year
undergraduate students and many of the school's
larger postgraduate population are also catered
for, with some specific residences available
for postgraduate living. Whilst none of the
residences are located at the Aldwych campus,
the closest, Grosvenor House is within a five-minute
walk from the School in Covent Garden, whilst
the farthest residences (Nutford and Butler's
Wharf) are approximately forty-five minutes
by Tube or Bus.
Each residence accommodates a mixture of students
both home and international, male and female,
and, usually, undergraduate and postgraduate.
New undergraduate students (including General
Course students) occupy approximately 55%
of all spaces, with postgraduates taking approximately
40% and continuing students about 5% of places.
The largest LSE student residence, Bankside
House, a refurbished early 1950's office block
and former headquarters of the Central Electricity
Generating Board, opened to students in 1996
and is fully catered, accommodating 617 students
across eight floors overlooking the River
Thames. It is located behind the Tate Modern
art gallery on the south bank of the river.
The second-largest residence, the High Holborn
Residence in High Holborn, was opened in 1995
and is approximately 10 minutes walk from
the main campus. It is self-catering, accommodating
447 students in flats of four our five bedrooms
with shared facilities. Other accommodation
is located in the surrounding area – Butler's
Wharf is situated next to Tower Bridge, Rosebery
Hall is located in the London Borough of Islington
close to Sadler's Wells, and Carr-Saunders
Hall, named after the LSE professor, is approximately
5 minutes from Telecom Tower in the heart
of Fitzrovia.
Since 2005, the school has opened three new
residences to provide accommodation for all
first-year students. Lilian Knowles, independently
operated in Spitalfields, is home for approximately
360 students and opened in 2006. It is located
in a converted Victorian night refuge; the
remnants of which can still be seen on the
outside facade. It is a common stop on Jack
the Ripper tours as one of his victims is
commonly believed to have been a one-time
resident. Planning permission was sought to
convert the Grade II listed Northumberland
House, on Northumberland Avenue into a new
residence in June 2005, and the accommodation
opened to students in October 2006. It was
formerly a Victorian grand hotel and lately
government offices.
The closest residence to the Aldwych campus
is reserved for postgraduate students and
is located on the eastern side of Drury Lane
at the crossroads of Great Queen Street and
Long Acre. Grosvenor House, converted from
a Victorian office building, opened in September
2005. The residence is unique in that all
of its 169 rooms are small, self-contained
studios, with private toilet and shower facilities
and a mini-kitchen.
== Notable people ==
LSE has a long list of notable alumni and
staff, spanning the fields of scholarship
covered by the school. Among them are eighteen
Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Peace and
Literature. The school has over 50 fellows
of the British Academy on its staff, while
other notable former staff members include
Brian Barry, Maurice Cranston, Anthony Giddens,
Harold Laski, Ralph Miliband, Michael Oakeshott,
A. W. Philips, Karl Popper, Lionel Robbins,
Susan Strange, Bob Ward and Charles Webster.
Mervyn King, the former Governor of the Bank
of England, is also a former professor of
economics.
In the political arena notable alumni and
staff include, 53 past or present heads of
state, 20 members of the current British House
of Commons and 46 members of the current House
of Lords. Former British Prime Minister, Clement
Attlee taught at the school from 1912 to 1923.
In recent British politics, former LSE students
include Virginia Bottomley, Yvette Cooper,
Edwina Currie, Frank Dobson, Margaret Hodge,
Robert Kilroy-Silk and former UK Labour Party
leader Ed Miliband. Internationally, Brazilian
defence minister Celso Amorim, Costa Rican
President Óscar Arias, Japanese Prime Minister
Taro Aso, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, architect
of the Indian Constitution and eminent economist
B. R. Ambedkar, President of India K. R. Narayanan,
President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen, Italian
Prime Minister and President of the European
Commission, Romano Prodi, French Foreign Minister
and President of the Constitutional Council
Roland Dumas as well as Singapore's Deputy
Prime Minister and Chairman of the International
Monetary and Financial Committee at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), Tharman Shanmugaratnam
all studied at LSE. A notable number of LSE
students have also played a role in the Barack
Obama administration, including Pete Rouse,
Peter R. Orszag, Mona Sutphen, Paul Volcker
and Jason Furman. Physician Vanessa Kerry
and American journalist Susan Rasky are also
alumnae of the LSE. Notable American Monica
Lewinsky pursued her MSc in Social Psychology
at the LSE.
Business people who studied at LSE include
the CEO of AirAsia Tony Fernandes, former
CEO of General Motors Daniel Akerson, Director
of Louis Vuitton Delphine Arnault, founder
of easyJet Stelios Haji-Ioannou, CEO of Abercrombie
& Fitch Michael S. Jeffries, Greek business
magnate Spiros Latsis, American banker David
Rockefeller, CEO of Newsmax Media Christopher
Ruddy, founder of advertising agency Saatchi
and Saatchi Maurice Saatchi, hedge fund managers
George Soros and Michael Platt.
Nobel Laureates associated with the London
School of Economics
== Notes
