About LSE

Contributor(s): | Find out about how you can visit The London School of Economics and Political Science:  Visit LSE

Contributor(s): Christine Lagarde | “Be curious about what you can give back to the world and how you can use your time here towards that goal." This year's Welcome address comes from Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the European Central Bank. President Lagarde shares the qualities that LSE students will need to help them make the most of their time at LSE and the opportunities that await.

Contributor(s): | Find out about how you can visit The London School of Economics and Political Science: https://www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse/meet-visit-and-discover-LSE/visit-lse/visit-lse

Contributor(s): | This year's Welcome address comes from Lord Victor Adebowale, a governor at LSE. Lord Adebowale shares his thoughts on the importance of making positive change in the world, and what it means to belong at LSE.

Contributor(s): | null

Contributor(s): Martin Tomkinson, Mary Evans, Ted Parker, Guatam Appa | During the closing years of the 1960s, a series of student protests erupted at LSE. Against a backdrop of international unrest and rapid social change, the sit-ins and occupations became headline news. Several students were arrested, others banned from the premises, riot doors were installed, and an LSE porter lost his life. Here are recollections of those events from some of those who were there.

Contributor(s): Dame Minouche Shafik | In the centenary year of the first votes for women in the UK, LSE's Towers buildings on Clement's Inn are being renamed after three leading campaigners from the women's suffrage movement. Find out more with LSE Director Minouche Shafik.

Contributor(s): Professor Simon Hix, Dr Paul Stock, Professor Peter Trubowitz, Baroness Amos, Professor Fawaz Gerges, Professor Michael Jacobs, Dr Lisa McKenzie, Professor Robyn Eckersley, President Juan Manuel Santos | LSE was founded with the aim of understanding the causes of things and for the betterment of society. This ideal is still at the heart of LSE and we know whatever new challenges 2017 brings, our students will be prepared for bright futures in world-changing roles.

Contributor(s): LSE | This film celebrates LSE in 2015. What does 2016 hold for all of us?

Contributor(s): Salma Raheem, Professor Linda Mulchahy, Maria Carvalho, Louisa Green | A new PhD Academy opened at LSE provides doctoral students with a specially designed space that includes a common room, a teaching room and central services all in one location for the first time in the School’s 120-year history.

Contributor(s): Rod McAllister, William Pine, Julian Robinson, Tracy Meller, Lord Rogers, Ivan Harbour | A film about the LSE Centre Buildings Redevelopment, the largest ever building project LSE has commissioned in its 120 year history.

Contributor(s): Sue Donnelly | On the eve of demolition work on the east side of the road, LSE Archivist Sue Donnelly shares the secrets of Houghton Street, LSE's iconic thoroughfare, from inside the East Building.

Contributor(s): Sue Donnelly | 2015 marks the centenary of the birth of Arthur Lewis, LSE’s first black academic and the first black person to win a Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979. LSE Archivist Sue Donnelly discusses Lewis’s achievements at the School, the academics who influenced him the most and how the Second World War boosted his career.

Contributor(s): | 2014 was another extraordinary year for LSE. We saw accolades for our staff, students and graduates, a stellar array of public lectures and events, and the opening of our state-of-the-art, multiple award winning Saw Swee Hock Student Centre. As we are about to enter 2015, and LSE’s 120th year, here is a short film which gives a glimpse of the School’s rich history, our dynamic student body and some of the exciting developments which have taken place. …And there is plenty more to come. Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year! Professor Craig Calhoun - Director and President, LSE.

Contributor(s): Amelia Thomson, Nadia Shamsad, Professor Paul Kelly, Jay Stoll, Kim Kooner, Sonia Thind, Professor Craig Calhoun, Revd Dr James Walters, Christopher Le Brun | LSE Faith Centre commissioned a new stained glass window reflecting the ancient tradition of the desert as a symbol of spiritual significance. Staff and students reflect on its meaning to them and their reactions to the Centre as a whole. President of the Royal Academy, Christopher Le Brun, then discusses his experience of designing the window.

Contributor(s): LSE students and staff, building occupants and users | Vox pop interviews with people who are occupants or visitors of the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, by Rod McAllister and William Pine, commissioned by LSE Estates Division.

Contributor(s): Jonathan Leape, Professor Luc Bovens, Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, Professor Michael Cox, Professor Piers Ludlow | LSE100 is an innovative new course set up as part of a major series of initiatives to improve teaching at LSE. It introduces first year undergraduates to the fundamentals of thinking like a social scientist, by exploring some of the great intellectual debates of our time from different perspectives. In this film, Director of LSE100, Dr Jonathan Leape, sets out the thinking behind the course. "No issue can be understood through a single lens," he says. "We need to be able to adopt different perspectives to understand fully what is involved in a particular issue". Focussing on questions such as "How should we manage climate change?" and "Why are great events so difficult to predict?" LSE100 offers students the chance to explore different approaches to evidence, explanation and theory used in the different social sciences taught at LSE -- from anthropology to economics, from statistics to international relations. Leading academics at LSE, all of whom teach on the course, comment on its intellectual value. Professor Luc Bovens, head of the department of philosophy, says, "These various social sciences involve a common core. So why not try and teach the common core?". Professor Bovens also stresses the creativity that comes from interdisciplinary working: "I think a lot of good thinking comes about in the social sciences when things become interdisciplinary -- when people start using economic techniques in order to do international relations, for example." Following a successful pilot in 2010, the course is now compulsory for all first year students. In the film, made possible by HEIF4 funding, students discuss the value of the course, both to their own understanding of the social sciences and also to employers looking for students who can work well in groups, write cogent arguments and see an issue from a range of perspectives. Professor Nicholas Stern comments, "I think it is an absolutely fascinating course and I think it is the right way to start your life in the social sciences and your life at LSE."

Contributor(s): Rachel Leighton, Candice Holdsworth, Professor Anne West, Damian Roberts, Mike Lucas, Sarah Leighton, Ailsa Lucas | Graduation is one of the best and busiest times of the year for students and staff at LSE, and this latest film from the "Stories from LSE" series tells the story of a graduation day through the eyes of Rachel Leighton and her family. A student in social policy, Rachel graduated last year with a 2:1 and was joint winner of the Janet Beveridge award for conspicuous achievement in final examinations. The film features Rachel's parents and sister who came down for the big day, and spoke of Rachel's journey from small market town to big city. "We live in a rural market town of about 6-7000 people," says her stepfather. "It is quite cloistered. We brought her down here three years ago and the three years have just flown past -- she really has got a lot more confident." Rachel is keen to put her experience to good use and encourage greater participation in higher education following graduation. "What I really want to get into is widening participation to universities -- getting children from non-traditional backgrounds into higher education," she says. The move is supported by Professor Anne West of the department of social policy. "I think she is eminently suited to a career in widening participation ..above all she is very optimistic and very positive and I think that young people who might not have considered going to higher education will find that very comforting." The film takes viewers through the day, from gown fitting and graduation photograph to getting her degree from Sir Howard Davies, then director of the School. Damian Roberts, registry manager who oversees the graduation ceremonies, explains how LSE runs its graduation ceremonies and comments, "It is really nice to be involved in this positive emotional side to the student experience."

Contributor(s): Sophie Giscard D'estaing, Andrew Rajanathan | LSE is known for having one of the most active student bodies in the world and LSE is working to create a world class building that will feature the best facilities for students and will enhance the student experience. In this short film, LSE students Sophie Giscard D'estaing and Andrew Rajanathan set out to discover why the School is building a new students' centre and what the building will look like. 'It's a shame to lose a very old building' comments Andrew after a tour of the St Philips building, which will be demolished to make way for the new centre, 'but it's not very practical right now is it? The corridors are really small and it's quite dark and dingy. I can see now why they want to change it.' The architects working to create a far more open and engaging building are Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey. But the new build is about more than designing a more accessible building. 'What we always hear from our societies is that they need bigger and better facilities to expand, to develop' says Aled Dilwyn Fisher, general secretary of the LSE Student's Union. 'The ambition will continue to grow and our facilities have to keep up with that. Having this new students centre on campus will show that LSE is committed to the student experience and in providing the best for its students.'Students from the Media Group agree that there is a need for new and improved student facilities. 'We're getting an editing room' says Mark Richardson, head of Loose TV. 'That's going to be an amazing resource to draw from. If you can't edit properly you're not going to be able to produce a professional production so having a professional style production room will be really good and will really take the society forward in the future.''We want a world class building, the best in the UK and we've set some very high environmental standards for this building' says Julian Robinson, head of Estates at LSE. 'I see this as an absolute career highlight. It's going to be very hard to top this building.

Contributor(s): Paul Krugman | LSE's motto, 'To know the causes of things' is exemplified in its lively public events programme. Every term up to 90 often high profile speakers come to the School to explain, examine, and debate important economic, social and political issues. This short film provides a taster of the exciting events programme which has brought luminaries such as Nelson Mandela, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Alan Greenspan, George Soros and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia to LSE. With an emphasis on stimulating open debate the School provides an environment where even contentious issues can be discussed freely. It gives a platform to prime ministers, top academics and economists, for example, but it also provides students and members of the public a rare opportunity to put their questions to these speakers. As Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman explains in the film: 'The LSE is in some ways better than any place in the world. If you give a speech at Oxford, Cambridge or even Princeton, you are not in the middle of things. Here you are at the core of a lot of activity – overlapping policy, business [and] academia.'