London School of Economics

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The London School of Economics and Political Science
Motto	Rerum cognoscere causas To understand the causes of things
Established	1895
Faculty	1,303
Students	8815 [1]
Undergraduates	4020 [1]
Postgraduates	4795 [1]
Location	London, England, UK
Campus	Urban
Director	Sir Howard Davies [1]
Mascot	Beaver
Affiliations	University of London, Russell Group, EUA, ACU, CEMS, APSIA, 'Golden Triangle'
Website	www.lse.ac.uk

The London School of Economics and Political Science, often referred to as the London School of Economics or simply the LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London. Located on Houghton Street in Central London, off the Aldwych and next to the Royal Courts of Justice. It describes itself as 'the world‘s leading social science institution for teaching and research'. [2]

Contents 1 History 2 Programmes and admission 3 Student body 4 Campus life 5 Accommodation 6 The British Library of Economics and Political Science 7 General rankings 8 Economic contribution and history 8.1 LSE vs. Cambridge 8.2 Impact on economics 9 Notable alumni and faculty 10 A new lobby 11 Public transport 12 Notes 13 References 14 External links

[edit] History

LSE was founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw, with funding provided by private philanthropy, including a bequest of £20,000 from Henry Hunt Hutchinson to the Fabian Society. The Fabians believed in advancing socialist causes by reformist rather than revolutionary means. The LSE was established to further the Fabian aim of bettering society, focusing on research on issues of poverty, inequality and related issues. This led the Fabians, and the LSE, to be one of the main influences on the UK Labour Party. [3]

While LSE's initial reputation was that of a socialist-leaning institution, this had changed by the 1960s, with LSE Director Walter Adams fighting hard to remove LSE from its Fabian roots. This led to many student revolts, which also involved Lionel Robbins, who had returned to LSE as chairman of governors, having been a member of staff for many years.

The school was founded with the initial intention of renewing the training of Britain's political and business elite, which seemed to be faltering due to inadequate teaching and research - the number of postgraduate students was dwarfed by those in other countries. A year before the founding, the British Association for the Advancement of Science pushed for the need to advance the systematic study of social sciences as well. In fact, Sidney and Beatrice Webb used the curriculum of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (best known as Sciences Po), which covered the full-range of the social sciences, as part of their inspiration for molding the LSE's educational purpose.{1} LSE was opened in October 1895 at No. 9 John Street, Adelphi.

The school expanded rapidly and was moved along with the British Library of Political and Economic Science to No. 10 Adelphi Terrace after a year. The LSE was recognised as a Faculty of Economics within the University of London in 1900. The school began enrolling students for bachelor degrees and doctorates in 1900, as it began to expand into other areas of social sciences, including international relations, history, philosophy and sociology. The school moved to its current site near the Aldwych - not far from Whitehall - in 1902. The Old Building, which remains a significant office and classroom building, was opened on Houghton Street in 1922. Over the years the LSE has continued to expand around Houghton Street with a £30 million refit of the "Public Trust Building" to serve as LSE's newest academic building. The building is planned to open to students in October 2008.

During these years and under the directorship of William Beveridge, future father of the welfare state and the National Health Service, LSE redefined the study of economics and the new conception of the study of economics as "a science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses" is looked to as the norm. LSE in this sense must be looked at as the father of modern economics studies. Under Beveridge, Friedrich Hayek was appointed as a professor and he brought about the ascendancy of the LSE through his famous debates with John Maynard Keynes. The famed Keynes-Hayek debates which occurred between Cambridge and the LSE still shapes the two major schools of economic thought today as nations still debate the merits of the welfare state versus an economy solely controlled by the market. LSE's influence upon modern economics is undeniable since it both formed the very basis for economic thought as well as shaped modern perception of free market economics. Hayek's works continue to influence the study of economics across the globe. At the other extreme, during these years Harold Joseph Laski, a professor of political science at the LSE was influential in British politics as an advocate of far left policies. Many renowned world leaders including John F. Kennedy studied under his guidance.

Anthony Giddens, the former director of the LSE stands as the creator of the 'Third Way' followed by both Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. His policy created a balance between the traditional welfare state and the belief in total free market economics; the Third Way was credited to have helped the prosperous economy of the United States during the 1990s under the guidance of President Clinton. This policy is being put into effect by governments all across the world as free market economies continue to deal with wealth inequalities and bettering the welfare of the general population.

The current director of the school, Sir Howard Davies, was formerly head of the Financial Services Authority and 40% of undergraduates at the LSE apply for careers in investment banking; and he has accepted a further five year term starting in 2008. The top 10 employers of LSE graduates are principally Accounting, Investment Banking, and Law firms [4].

An article by The Guardian describes the LSE's overwhelming power when it states that "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." [5]. "The strength of the LSE is that it is close to the political process: the present director Sir Howard Davies moved there from running the Financial Services Authority and the current governor of the Bank of England, 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, not to mention Lord Saatchi and Lady Howe."

Under a recent fund raising scheme, called the "Campaign for the LSE", which is seeking to raise £100 million, the LSE has purchased another building, the New Academic Building. This will be redeveloped into a ultra-modern educational building, at a total cost of over £30 million, and will increase the campus space by 120,000 square feet, in a highly crowded area of London. To date, just over £80 million have been raised under the scheme including funds for various new scholarships, including a £2 million fund for Cypriot students, set up by LSE alumnus and BSc Economics Graduate, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of the easyJet and easyGroup companies.

[edit] Programmes and admission

The LSE is exclusively dedicated to the study of social sciences and offers no natural science programmes. Numerous traits of the LSE, such as its world class academic research, specialisation in the social sciences, highly qualified and international students, and central location in London, make it an attractive environment in which to study the social sciences.

LSE is regarded as Europe's premier institution to study anthropology, economics, gender, international relations, operational research, philosophy of science, political science, sociology and social policy. The school also has world class departments in accounting and finance, economic history, human geography, international history, law, and social psychology.

There is fierce competition for entry to the degree programmes at the LSE. On average, around 12.5 candidates apply for every available place at the undergraduate level, making it the most competitive university in the UK to gain undergraduate entry into [6], although differing application procedures between institutions make the significance of this statistic difficult to assess. The school applies the same high entry requirements to all students. Plans are afoot to increase the number of places offered, by expansion allowed by the purchase of additional faculty buildings [7].

The LSE offers over 120 MSc programmes and over 30 BSc programmes. Since these programmes are all within the social sciences they closely resemble each other and students often take courses in other departments. Many students also engage in a practice known as "auditing" where students regularly attend lecture series' by professors even though they are not formally enrolled in the class. The intake sizes of many of the masters programmes are unusually large for this level, and some cohorts contain well in excess of 100 students.

Courses are taught in over thirty research centres and twenty-one departments, including Accounting and Finance, Management, Anthropology, Economic History, Economics, The Development Studies Institute, the European Institute, the Gender Institute, Geography and Environment, Government, Industrial Relations, Information Systems, International History, International Relations, Law, Mathematics, Mannheim Centre for Criminology & Criminal Justice, Media and Communications, Operational Research, Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, Social Policy, Social Psychology, Sociology, and Statistics.

LSE offers the TRIUM Global Executive MBA programme jointly with Stern School of Business of NYU and HEC School of Management, Paris. It is divided into six intellectually rigorous modules held in five international business locations over a 16-month period. Whitefield Consulting Worldwide, a global MBA consultancy, has ranked the TRIUM Executive MBA programme as second worldwide. The Financial Times' most recent rankings of executive MBA programmes placed TRIUM as fourth worldwide. [8]

The process of postgraduate admissions to the LSE is conducted on a rolling basis, as opposed to the more usual deadline system. Applications are accepted from mid-October and the evaluation process begins in mid-November. Applications are considered as they "roll in" and the candidate can receive one of three outcomes; outright acceptance and rejection, or placement on a waiting-list/interim decision. The admissions process continues without any set deadline until the number of places have been allocated. This process does give a higher probability of acceptance for early applications over late ones. Also, the consideration process ends once the places have been allocated, thus all applications in queue for consideration are returned with the notification that since the programme is full, neither an acceptance nor rejection can be given. The applications success rate for the programmes vary by their size, although most of the major courses have an intake of approximately 5%-10% of applicants[9]. Entrance standards are high for postgraduate students (particularly for those seeking external funding), who are usually expected to have (for taught Master's courses) a First Class or Upper Second Class UK honours degree, or its overseas equivalent [10].

[edit] Student body

There are nearly 7,800 full-time students and around 800 part-time students at the university.[11] Of these, 34% come from the United Kingdom, 18% from other European Union countries, and 48% from more than 130 other countries, giving it the highest proportion of international students in the world.[12]

51% of the student body are postgraduates[13], an unusually high proportion for most universities. Postgraduates are divided between Taught-Masters (MSc) and Research students (MPhil, PhD). Around 49% of all students are women.[14]

The students' union lists over 160 societies catering to a very diverse range of interests.^{[citation needed]} The SU is widely regarded as the UK's most politically active - a reputation it has held since the famous LSE student riots in 1968/69.^{[citation needed]}Future politicians cut their teeth in the ruthless world of LSE student politics - centred around the weekly Union General Meeting (to which any student may turn up and vote)- the last meeting of its kind in the country - a politically charged, often raucous, tour de force. LSE politiques pride themselves on the Union's democratic tradition and high rate of student participation. For its size, the LSE SU records the highest level of voter turnout in students' union elections in the country.^{[citation needed]}

LSE students are also unusually heavy users of their campus library with borrowing rates four times the national average. [15]

[edit] Campus life

The LSE moved to its present day campus in 1902 at Clare Market and Houghton Street. In 1920, King George V laid the foundation stone of the Old Building, the principal building of the LSE. The LSE has gradually increased its ownership of adjacent buildings creating an almost continuous campus. The campus is just under 30 buildings, connections between which have been established on an ad-hoc basis with often confusing results. The floor levels of buildings do not always equate, leading to an individual being on a different "floor" after passing through a hallway. The campus also has a series of extension bridges created high on the upper floors to connect the upper of several buildings. The experience of crossing through the LSE has been likened to an M.C.Escher painting^{[citation needed]}.

The LSE campus went through a renewal under former Director Anthony Giddens (1996-2003). Recent projects include a renovation of the main library of the LSE. The British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES) is currently the world's largest library solely dedicated to the social sciences.[16] Other buildings of note include the Peacock Theatre, which serves as a large lecture hall during the day, but is a west-end theatre house at night (complete with bar and box office).

The LSE is also a public lecture venue organised by the LSE Events office. These weekly lectures are regularly given by prominent speakers, including ambassadors, authors, CEOs, and heads of state. All events are open to the public, although very popular lectures are often ticketed (for free) with priority tickets going to students. Past speakers have included Bill Clinton, Vicente Fox, Jack Welch, Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, and Gerhard Schroeder.

The student newspaper is The Beaver, which dates back to 1949. Other media outlets are The Script, PuLSE FM, a student radio station and LooSE, a student-operated TV station.

[edit] Accommodation

The LSE owns 10 residential accommodation facilities in and around central London - consisting of both dormitories and apartments. Students also may live in one of eight intercollegiate facilities shared with other constituent colleges of the University of London.

The LSE guarantees housing only to first-year undergraduate students, though postgraduates may also apply with a reasonable chance of success. None of the residences are at the Houghton Street campus - the closest is at Grosvenor House, within a 5 minute walk, while the farthest residences are 45 minutes away by tube or bus.

LSE accommodation is offered on a random basis within quotas set out for each hall. In each residence, there will be a mixture of students; home and overseas, men and women, undergraduate and postgraduate. New undergraduate students (including General Course students) will occupy about 36% of all spaces. Postgraduates take approximately 56% of spaces in LSE halls and continuing students about 8%.

One of the closest residences to the LSE campus (not more than 5 minutes walk), located on the eastern side of Drury Lane at the crossroads of Great Queen Street and Long Acre, Grosvenor House which opened in 2005 is one of the latest additions to the LSE residences, offering single, twin/double studios as well as spacious one bed flats. Two minutes from Covent Garden, Grosvenor House Studios is central to London's Theatreland. Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square are only a short walk away.

The School opened a new 360-bed student residence adjacent to Trafalgar Square. Planning permission was approved by Westminster City Council on 2 June 2005 and a fully refurbished Northumberland House was opened in October 2006.

Located in the heart of London between the Strand and Thames Embankment, Northumberland House is a magnificent Grade II listed building, (formerly a Victorian grand hotel and lately government offices) it is a short step away from the main strip of the West End theatres and five minutes from Picadilly Circus, Leicster Square, Covent Garden and Oxford Circus. Northumberland House will provide students with the ideal base from which to explore the capital's thousands of sights and attractions.

There are also eight intercollegiate halls which accommodate students from the LSE as well as the other colleges of the University of London. These halls provide the opportunity to meet and socialise with a greater diversity of students. Approximately 20% of the School's first year undergraduates are accommodated in the intercollegiate halls.

In general, the residences on offer reflect both the old and the new of Central London in terms of architecture, combined with a high degree of interior modernity and security. [17]

[edit] The British Library of Economics and Political Science

The Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science (also known as the British Library of Political and Economic Science) is the world's largest social sciences library. It is the national social science library in the UK and responds to around 5000 visits from students and staff each day. In addition, it provides a specialist national and international research collection, serving over 12,000 registered external users.

The Library collects material on a worldwide basis, in all major European languages. The extensive collections range from a European Documentation Centre to 90,000 historical pamphlets, with over 95% of Library stock available on open access. 50 km of shelving, enough to stretch the length of the Channel Tunnel, house over four million items including 31,000 past and present journal titles. The Library subscribes to approximately 15,000 e-journals, just part of its electronic information provision.

Unusually for an academic library, all materials are housed in a single site, the Lionel Robbins Building, named after the prestigious economist who studied, taught and was a governor of LSE.

Following a stunning multi-million pound building redevelopment overseen by Foster and Partners, this is a superb environment for individual and group study. 1,600 study places include 450 networked PCs and 226 laptop drop-in points. Starting in October 2006, the library is open 24 hours a day during term time. Its only drawback is the plumbing, with toilets that become 'out of order' with alarming frequency.

The Lionel Robbins Building covers 20,000 square metres. The fourth and fifth floors are home to LSE Research Lab - bringing together the School’s leading research centres.

The building was commended in the 2002 Civic Trust Awards - given to outstanding examples of architecture and environmental design in major city areas of the UK, taking into account the benefit each project brings to its local area as well as the quality of its design. The Library is also home to a number of national and regional initiatives, including the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences which has been indexing social science literature since the 1950s. [18]

[edit] General rankings

The LSE has often been characterised as a 'Grand Laboratory of the Social Sciences' to give a flavour both of its specialist nature and its contribution and periodic academic dominance of the social sciences. The school is generally regarded as one of the leading social science institutions in the world.

LSE is the largest recipient of funding for social science research in the UK. League tables published by British newspapers consistently rank the LSE inside the top four academic institutions in the United Kingdom. In the most recent national research assessment (RAE 2001), the LSE came second after Cambridge for the quality of its research - and top if only the social sciences are taken into account. Since the LSE only offers programmes in the Social Sciences, it often cites this last ranking in its promotional material. It is considered the best university in London, along with Imperial College.

In the 2006 Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), LSE was ranked "3rd in the world" after Oxford and Harvard for the social sciences (2nd in 2005 and 2004), "19th in the world" for arts and humanities (9th in 2005, 10th in 2004), and "17th in the world" (11th in 2005 and 2004) overall. [19]

The Guardian's 2006 University Guide ranked LSE the 3rd best university in the UK. [20]

The Sunday Times University Guide 2006 also ranked LSE the 3rd best university in the UK. [21]

LSE was ranked fourth overall in the 2007 Times Good University Guide. The subject league tables were as follows: 1st in the UK for both Economics and Accounting and Finance; 2nd for Business Studies, Politics, Geography, Social Policy and Sociology; 3rd for both Philosophy and Anthropology; 4th for Law; 5th for History; and 6th for Maths.

LSE's MSc Management program ranked 8th in the 2006 FT European Masters Ranking (4th in 2005).[22]

LSE is ranked 1st in the world for philosophy of social science and joint 2nd in the world for philosophy of science. [23]

[edit] Economic contribution and history

[edit] LSE vs. Cambridge

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. For LSE and the historical economists, economic theory's application was of greater significance than economic theory itself. The consequence of LSE's approach to economics was greater innovation through receptivity to new ideas, and a style of economics with a strong applied and practical orientation. LSE and Cambridge economists worked jointly in the 1920s - for example, the London and Cambridge Economic Service - but the 1930s returned to dispute as LSE and Cambridge argued over the solution to the economic depression.

LSE's Robbins and von Hayek, and Cambridge's Keynes were chief figures in the intellectual disagreement between the institutions. The controversy widened from deflation versus demand management as a solution to the economic problems of the day, to broader conceptions of economics and macroeconomics. Robbins and von Hayek's views were based on the Austrian School of Economics with its emphasis on free trade and anti-interventionism, an approach Robbins (but not Hayek) later acknowledged as inappropriate to the timing and circumstances of the 1930s economic depression.

Within the context of increased protectionism and "beggar thy neighbour" devaluation policies being implemented by all major economies, recovery was only possible with the early implementation of more Keynesian-like policies. The UK formed the Sterling Bloc and devalued in 1931, and this was largely responsible for the rapid recovery, contrary to the beliefs of free-trade economists such as von Hayek. The situation is widely accepted to be a prisoner's dilemma (see Game Theory) in which a global policy of free trade and cooperation would have resulted in an optimum recovery path; the point argued by Robbins and von Hayek, though this path is rarely achieved in practice.

Cambridge was acknowledged to be right within the context of the times, but from a longer term perspective the LSE philosophy has achieved a measure of dominance in modern economic thought, with the advent of game theory and developments in trade theory. Many of the liberal ideas of the Austrian School of Economics, fostered at the LSE, in tandem with the growing Chicago School of Economics, have influenced much of modern liberal economics.

The measure of the validity of von Hayek's argument is the growth of international free trade organisations and agreements such as those achieved in the GATT rounds (later to become the World Trade Organisation), which have as their goal the promotion of these policies in order to avoid the repetition of the globally sub-optimal reaction that took place in the 1930s, as advocated by Cambridge at the time. [24]

[edit] Impact on economics

Some of the most specific and important contributions to our understanding of economics made by the LSE can be found in the individuals and their work listed below, who lectured, researched or studied at the LSE. While most of these economists were eventual recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economics for particular theories or works, listed below are the works which had the most impact on modern economic modelling and thought:

John Hicks, whose most famous contribution was the development of the Hicks-Hansen IS-LM model, now a standard macroeconomic Keynesian starting point for all University economists.

Friedrich von Hayek, one of the most eminent advocates of economic Liberalism, his literature came to define much of economic policy in the UK and US following the ostensible influence of Hayek's economic philosophy on Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, although there are significant questions as to the extent that the actual policies of these politicians actually comported with their free market rhetoric. Implementation of his philosophy led to key economic developments, such as the reduction in unionisation, observed by Bean and Crafts as the primary cause of stagnation during the previous 25 years which for all other European nations had been a period of prosperity. He also famously predicted the collapse of communist Eastern Europe and its subsequent fragmentation.

James Meade won the prize for his groundbreaking work on trade theory.

William Arthur Lewis, developed the important Dual Model of the economy that would eventually prove the foundation of much of economic industrialisation theory, and formed the basis for Heywood's "revisionist" view on French industrialisation in comparison with Britain. Lewis also pioneered work into the importance of "terms of trade" in trade theory.

Merton Miller received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (jointly) in 1990 for pioneering work in the theory of financial economics.

Ronald Coase received the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1991 for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy.

Amartya Sen made many contributions to development economics, including pioneering studies of gender inequality, and he always takes care to write "her" rather than "his" when referring to an abstract person. Sen chose to leave the LSE for Oxford; he was not permitted to teach his famous course on poverty within the Economics department.

Robert Mundell has mainly researched in the field of optimum currency area, and his work remains one of the pillars of analysis in the assessment of the effectiveness of a single currency. While political tests, such as those in place in the UK for the decision to join the Euro, bare little to no resemblance to the key OCA criteria contributed to by Mundell, economic theorists use the OCA criteria in literature as the most effective method of analysis for the success of a single currency.

The Mundell-Fleming model was also an effective extension of the IS-LM analysis to factor in the impact of international equilibrium, and is the basis of analysis over the relative merits of fixed or floating exchange rates.

George Akerlof is perhaps best known for his article, "The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism", published in Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1970, in which he identified the severe problems that may afflict markets characterized by asymmetrical information.

Also of note is the LSE economist A.W. Phillips, who, while never receiving a Nobel Prize for his work, made his most well-known contribution in the Phillips curve, which he first described in 1958. The Phillips Curve has proved instrumental in the further understanding of government economic policy regarding employment and inflation. Even more importantly, it is one of the most effective models of stagflation which was a particular problem for many developed economies.

Beyond the great academic contributions, the general work of the university and its graduates continues to have a large impact on the field of economics. The IDEAS Economic Research Assessment January 2006 placed the London School of Economics and Political Science as the 3rd best University Economics research department in the world, and the best outside the US.

Yale University's 1999 analysis on the impact of Econometrics research, analysing the work of the best 100 Economics Ph. D graduates, from institutions across the globe, placed the LSE as 1st in the world, and as the only institution with over 2000 pages of published research to its graduates' names. [25]

The UK Research Assessment Exercise has rated the LSE Economics department as 5*A (the top grade) in the last two audits (1996 and 2001). Many other non-governmental rankings exist, generally placing LSE economic research labs and departments amongst the top 20 in the world, and mostly in the top position outside the US [26]. Where concentration areas within economics are considered, the LSE is ranked generally amongst the top 12 research institutions in the world.[27]

[edit] Notable alumni and faculty

See List of London School of Economics people

LSE alumni and former staff include fourteen Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Peace and Literature, thirty-four heads of state or heads of government, including five current heads of state or government (Italy, Denmark, Kenya, Kiribati and Costa Rica), twenty-eight current British Members of Parliament, and forty-two current peers of the House of Lords.

Famous alumni include the American president John F. Kennedy, the international banker and statesman David Rockefeller (whose family, along with the Rockefeller Foundation, financially supported the institution in the postwar period), the former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, two Canadian Prime Ministers (Kim Campbell and Pierre Elliot Trudeau), Cherie Blair (wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair), the Norwegian Crown-Prince, the first Governor of Australia's central bank Nugget Coombs, several billionaires including George Soros, and celebrities such as Monica Lewinsky, Robert Kilroy-Silk or The Rolling Stones' frontman Mick Jagger.

The British Prime Minister Clement Attlee also taught at the LSE. The Philosophy Department was founded by Sir Karl Popper and has served as a place of study for well-known philosophers of science such as Paul Feyerabend and Imre Lakatos.

With the appointment of both Tim Besley and Andrew Sentance to the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England, which is responsible for setting interest rates and managing inflation in the UK, a total of six former LSE graduates, researchers and professors now sit on the panel that governs UK monetary policy. The other LSE affiliated members comprise of Governor Mervyn King, Chief Economist Charles Bean, Deputy Governor Rachel Lomax and external member David Blanchflower

[28]

[edit] A new lobby

Recent press reports have identified the LSE as part of a new group of universities which has started to act as a self-conscious elite lobby and pressure group: known commonly as the 'G5'. According to the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES), the five are the LSE, Imperial College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and University College London, and it describes them as the "super-elite" (as all five are already members of the elite Russell Group).

The 'G5' have begun to meet regularly and formally to plan their own path through the upheavals that are currently transforming British higher education, and to lobby for their own particular interests in maintaining the standards at the sharp end of tertiary education in the UK.

It has been reported in the THES that "The group, which calls itself the G5, warns that without more money to support its high-quality teaching, its members will turn away British undergraduates and focus instead on overseas and postgraduate students, whose fees cover most of the full cost of their courses. The new group has been meeting in secret for a few months. Few vice-chancellors know of its existence as a fully fledged grouping. The G5's goal is to secure extra state cash above the £3,000 student top-up fees likely from 2006 to cover the full costs of home and European Union undergraduates on their courses. The G5 group will make a case for special treatment for its members.

Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial, said: "Imperial does not have any cheap courses. We will press the government to recognise this or lift the [£3,000] cap [on fees]. If they say our courses are too high quality and too expensive, we will not reduce our quality. We will have to look at expanding the number of postgraduates and overseas undergraduates we take." [29]

These five colleges have been noted to share the following attributes which appear to have been the common binding factors: strong research outputs, high teaching ratings, many famous names in public life, a major impact on global affairs and policy, and big international standing in academia. They also have some of the most influential and active student unions, with the overall University of London Student Union standing out for notable activism against successive governments, ranging from the 1968 storming of Downing Street, to recent protests over the War on Iraq and student "top-up" fees.

The LSE is also member of a new group known as the Golden Triangle, made up of Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE, Imperial and KCL. The last four are each notable colleges of the University of London, and are often regarded as universities[30] in their own right. All have made progress towards gaining the right to award their own degrees.

In 2007, the LSE was granted the power to award its own degrees.[31]. In a statement from Director Sir Howard Davies, has announced that while the LSE, UCL and Kings have decided to remain within the University of London, students entering the LSE from 2008 onwards will receive degrees issued by the LSE rather than the University of London. This would apparently contradict the terms of membership of the University of London, and presumably some new basis of membership has been agreed, which allows the LSE to award students its own degrees. Additionally, the LSE will begin to use its own formal academic wear (gowns etc.) and award its own certificates.

[edit] Public transport

The nearest London Underground stations to the main building are Temple, Covent Garden and Holborn since Aldwych does not run anymore.

[edit] Notes

1. "LSE: A History of the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1895-1995", Oxford University Press, June 1, 1995.
2. "Determined Challengers Keep Heat On The Elite", The Times Higher Education Supplement, October 28, 2005
3. "Outstanding library and archive collections receive national recognition", MLA News, October 28, 2005
4. "1969: LSE closes over student clashes", BBC News
5. "JEEA Published Ranking", "Source: Table 3 of Pantelis Kalaitzidakis, Theofanis P. Mamuneas, and Thanasis Stengos (2003)"
6. "Top 200 universities: evolution over time", "ULB 6/17/02"
7. "EconPh.D Net Dec 1, 2005", "EconPh. D Net"
8. "Cowles, Yale", "Francisco Cribari-Neto, Mark J. Jensen and Álvaro A. Novo, "Research in Econometric Theory: Quantitative and Qualitative Productivity Rankings," Econometric Theory, 1999"
9. "HERO 1996", "UK Research Assessment Exercise 1996"
10. "HERO 2001", "UK Research Assessment Exercise 2001"
11. "IDEAS Research Assessment UK top 20% of Departments & World top 5% of Departments", "IDEAS, University of Connecticut, Top 20% UK institutions"

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2004/05. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.

[edit] External links

• LSE website
• British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES)
• The Beaver website
• LSE Students' Union website
• LSE & Columbia Alliance
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Society at the LSE
• LSE STICERD
• Austrian Society at the LSE
• LSE for foreign students on iAgora - Reviews by former Erasmus and other international students in LSE on iAgora.

Coordinates: 51°30′50.40″N, 0°07′0.12″W