London School of Economics
| London School of Economics Logo | |
| Motto | Rerum cognoscere causas To know the causes of things |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1895 |
| Endowment | £44 million [1] |
Academic staff | 1,303 |
| Undergraduates | 3,810 |
| Postgraduates | 4,760 |
| Location | , , |
| Campus | Urban |
| Director | Sir Howard Davies |
| Affiliations | University of London, Russell Group, 1994 Group, EUA, ACU, CEMS, APSIA |
| Mascot | Beaver |
| 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 university and a constituent college of the federal University of London, located on Houghton Street in Central London, off the Aldwych and next to the Royal Courts of Justice.
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 £20,000 bequest from Henry Hunt Hutchinson left to the Fabian Society. As an intellectual movement Fabians believe in the advancement of socialist causes by reformist rather than revolutionary means. The LSE was established based on the Fabian tradition with the aim of bettering society, and focused heavily on issues of poverty and inequality. This led the Fabians, and the LSE, to be one of the main influences on the UK Labour Party. [2] While the LSE's initial reputation was of being a socialist-leaning institution, this began to change in the 1940s, with LSE Director Lionel Robbins fighting hard to remove the LSE from its Fabian roots, resulting in many public arguments with his own LSE economists such as Beveridge, the future father of the welfare state and the National Health Service in the UK.
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 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.[3] 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 begain 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 pound 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 Lionel Robbins, LSE redefined the study of economics and the new conception of the study of economics as "a science which studies human behavior 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. Further more under Robbins, Friedrich August von 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 2 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. During these years Harold Joseph Laski, a professor of international relations at the LSE also helped to push through revolutionary theories regarding the study of international relations. 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 affect 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 UK's Financial Services Authority and 40% of undergraduates at the LSE apply for careers in investment banking. 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 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 pounds, 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 pounds, and will increase the campus space by 120,000 square feet, in a highly crowded area of London. To date, just over 80 million pounds have been raised under the scheme including funds for various new Scholarships, including a 2 million pound fund for Cypriot students, set up by LSE alumnus and BSc Economics Graduate, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of the EasyJet and Easy group companies.Programmes and Admission
The LSE is exclusively dedicated to the study of social sciences and has no natural science programs. Numerous traits of the LSE, such as its world class academic research, exclusive 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 economics, political science, international relations, anthropology, sociology, and social policy. The school also has world class departments in law, international history, economic history, accounting and finance, social psychology, human geography, and philosophy of science.
There is fierce competition for entry to the degree programmes at the LSE. On average, 12 candidates apply for every available place at the undergraduate level [6]. 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, Geography and Environment, Government, Industrial Relations, Information Systems, International History, International Relations, Law, Mathematics, Manheim Centre for Criminology & Criminal Justice, Media and Communications, Operational Research, Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, Social Policy, Social Psychology, Sociology, and Statistics.
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[8]. 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 [9].The Trium Global EMBA
TRIUM is the only EMBA programme to integrate an international socio-political, economic dimension into its entire MBA curriculum. LSE, one of the leading social science institutions in the world, brings its unparalleled expertise in this arena to the programme.
Whitefield Consulting Worldwide, a global MBA consultancy, has ranked the TRIUM Executive MBA programme as second worldwide, ahead of Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, and London Business School respectively.
The Class of 2006 which began its first TRIUM module in London, September 5-17, includes 53 senior executives representing 18 different nationalities. With an average age of 40 and 16 years of work experience, these executives are currently employed as chief executives, presidents, vice-presidents and managing directors of multinational companies and entrepreneurial ventures around the world. [10]Student Body
There are nearly 7,000 full-time students and around 750 part-time students at the university. Of these, 38% come from the United Kingdom, 18% from other European Union countries, and 44% from more than 130 other countries, giving it the highest proportion of international students in the world.[11]
52% of the student body are postgraduates, an unusually high proportion for most universities. Postgraduates are divided between Taught-Masters (MSc) and Research students (MPhil, PhD). Around 48% of all students are women.
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 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, and Nelson Mandela.
The student newspaper is The Beaver, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Other media outlets are PuLSEfm, The Script, and LooSE, a student-operated TV station.Accommodation
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, Grosvenor House is the latest addition 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.
Located in the heart of London between the Strand and Thames Embankment, Northumberland House is a magnificent Grade II listed building, and 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 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. [14]The British Library of Political and Economic 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.
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.
General Rankings
The LSE has often been characterised as 'MIT of the Social Sciences' and as a 'Grand Laboratory of the Social Sciences' to give a flavor both of its specialist nature and its contribution and periodic academic dominance of the social sciences. The school is generally regarded as the one of the leading social science institutions in the world.
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 materials.
A Review of Teachers opinions conducted by the Times placed the LSE as the best University in the UK to study Economics.
In the 2005 Times Higher Education Supplement, THES World University Rankings ranked the LSE 2nd in the world after Harvard for the social sciences, 4th in the world according to recruiters' eyes, 9th in the world for arts and humanities, and 11th in the world overall.
The 2004 THES World University Rankings also ranked LSE 2nd in the world for the social sciences and 11th in the world overall, as well as 10th in the world for arts and humanities (the employers' rankings of world universities did not feature in the 2004 rankings).
The Guardian's 2006 University Guide ranked LSE the 3rd best university in the UK. [16]
Economic Contribution and History
LSE vs. Cambridge
The 1930s economic debate between LSE and Cambridge is well-known in academic circles. Rivalry between academic opinion in LSE and Cambridge's case 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.
Within the context of increased protectionism and "beggar thy neighbour" devaluation policies being implimented by all major economies, recovery was only possible with the early implimentation of these 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.
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. [17]
Economic Impact
Some of the most specific and important contibutions 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, who's most famous contribution was the development of the Hicks-Hansen IS-LM model, now a standard macroeconomic Keysian starting point for all University economists.
Friedrich von Hayek, one of the greatests advocates of economic Liberalism, his literature came to define much of economic policy in the UK and US following the adoption of Hayek's economic philosphy by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. 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
Robert Mundell has mainly researched in the field of Optimal 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 employement and inflation. Even more importantly, it is one of the most effective models of stagflation which was a particular problem for many developed economies.
Economic Research Ranking
IDEAS Economic Research Assessment January 2006
UK level - The most widespread and in depth analysis of research recently published is the January 2006 IDEAS assessment of worldwide Economic research institutions. Inside the UK this placed four LSE research departments in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively, followed then by departments from Warwick, Cambridge, UCL and York further down the list.
Global Level - The same analysis at a Global level placed the London School of Economics and Political Science as the 3rd best University Economics research department in the world. In doing so, the department beat off competition from such institutions as MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, the IMF and other LSE research departments.
Other Research Assessments
A Ranking published in the JEEA (Journal of European Economic Association) places the LSE 20th in the world, 2nd in Europe, and 1st in the UK. Another study by Coupe, places the LSE Economic department 15th in the world, and the number 1 institution outside the US.
EconPh.D conducted an economic research ranking broken down by subgroup and created an overall ranking, both of which included acknowledgement to co-authoring:
| Specialisation | World Ranking | Outside US Ranking |
| Econometrics: | 2nd | 1st |
| Trade & Development Economics: | 4th | 1st |
| Economic History and Thought: | 5th | 1st |
| Labour & Consumer Economics: | 8th | 1st |
| Business Economics: | 9th | 1st |
| Microeconomic Theory: | 11th | 3rd |
| Public Economics: | 12th | 2nd |
| Macroeconomics: | 13th | 1st |
| Financial Economics: | 13th | 1st |
| Overall: | 7th | 1st |
Yale University's analysis on the impact of Econometrics research from the top 100 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.
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).Notable alumni and faculty
LSE alumni and former staff include fourteen Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Peace and Literature, thirty-eight heads of state or heads of government, including six current heads of state or government (Italy, Denmark, Kenya, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Kiribati), sixty-four current British Members of Parliament, and twenty-nine current peers of the House of Lords. Notable former students include an American President (John F. Kennedy), a German Chancellor, the Danish Queen, two Canadian Prime Ministers, the Norwegian Crown-Prince, and several billionaires and celebrities. A British Prime Minister (Clement Attlee) also taught at LSE.
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 the five are the LSE, Imperial College, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and University College London, and it describes them as the "super-elite" (with all five being members of the Russell Group which might be termed, oxymoronically, the "standard-elite").
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." [18]
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.Notes
- "LSE: A History of the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1895-1995", Oxford University Press, June 1, 1995.
- "Determined Challengers Keep Heat On The Elite", The Times Higher Education Supplement, October 28, 2005
- "Outstanding library and archive collections receive national recognition", MLA News, October 28, 2005
- "1969: LSE closes over student clashes", BBC News
- "JEEA Published Ranking", "Source: Table 3 of Pantelis Kalaitzidakis, Theofanis P. Mamuneas, and Thanasis Stengos (2003)"
- "Top 200 universities: evolution over time", "ULB 6/17/02"
- "EconPh.D Net Dec 1, 2005", "EconPh. D Net"
- "Cowles, Yale", "Francisco Cribari-Neto, Mark J. Jensen and Álvaro A. Novo, "Research in Econometric Theory: Quantitative and Qualitative Productivity Rankings," Econometric Theory, 1999"
- "HERO 1996", "UK Research Assessment Exercise 1996"
- "HERO 2001", "UK Research Assessment Exercise 2001"
- "IDEAS Research Assessment UK top 20% of Departments & World top 5% of Departments", "IDEAS, University of Connecticut, Top 20% UK institutions"
External links
- LSE website
- British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES)
- LSE Students' Union website
- LSE & Columbia Alliance
- LSE STICERD
