Exploring mainly Heterodox type Economics, Monetary Reform, Environmental Sustainability, and Climate Change. It is a resource of Internet articles, and also promotes awareness of a futuristic modern universal Paradigm known as TFE, or Transfinancial Economics which is probably the most advanced, and most "scientific" form of Economics in the world .
LONDON — THE city has changed. The buses are still dirty, the people are still passive-aggressive, but something about London has changed. You can see signs of it everywhere. The townhouses in the capital’s poshest districts are empty; they have been sold to Russian oligarchs and Qatari princes.
England’s establishment is not what it was; the old imperial elite has become crude and mercenary. On Monday, a British civil servant was photographed arriving in Downing Street for a national security council meeting with an open document in his hand. We could read for ourselves lines from a confidential report on how Prime Minister David Cameron’s government should respond to the Crimea crisis. It recommended that Britain should “not support, for now, trade sanctions,” nor should it “close London’s financial center to Russians.”
The White House has imposed visa restrictions on some Russian officials, and President Obama has issued an executive order enabling further sanctions. But Britain has already undermined any unified action by putting profit first.
It boils down to this: Britain is ready to betray the United States to protect the City of London’s hold on dirty Russian money. And forget about Ukraine.
Britain, open for business, no longer has a “mission.” Any moralizing remnant of the British Empire is gone; it has turned back to the pirate England of Sir Walter Raleigh. Britain’s ruling class has decayed to the point where its first priority is protecting its cut of Russian money — even as Russian armored personnel carriers rumble around the streets of Sevastopol. But the establishment understands that, in the 21st century, what matters are banks, not tanks.
The Russians also understand this. They know that London is a center of Russian corruption, that their loot plunges into Britain’s empire of tax havens — from Gibraltar to Jersey, from the Cayman Islands to the British Virgin Islands — on which the sun never sets.
British residency is up for sale. “Investor visas” can be purchased, starting at £1 million ($1.6 million). London lawyers in the Commercial Court now get 60 percent of their work from Russian and Eastern European clients. More than 50 Russia-based companies swell the trade at London’s Stock Exchange. The planning regulations have been scrapped, and along the Thames, up go spires of steel and glass for the hedge-funding class.
Britain’s bright young things now become consultants, art dealers, private banker and hedge funders. Or, to put it another way, the oligarchs’ valets.
Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, gets it: you pay them, you own them. Mr. Putin was absolutely certain that Britain’s managers — shuttling through the revolving door between cabinet posts and financial boards — would never give up their fees and commissions from the oligarchs’ billions. He was right.
In the austerity years of zero growth that followed the 2008 financial crash, this new source of vast wealth could not be resisted. Tony Blair is the latter-day embodiment of pirate Britain’s Sir Walter Raleigh. The former prime minister now advises the Kazakh ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev on his image in the West. Mr. Blair is handsomely paid to tutor his patron on how to be evasive about the crackdowns and the mine shootings that are facts of life in Kazakhstan.
This is Britain’s growth business today: laundering oligarchs’ dirty billions, laundering their dirty reputations.It could be otherwise. Banking sanctions could turn off the financial pipelines through which corrupt officials channel Russian money. Visa restrictions could cut Kremlin ministers off from their mansions. The tax havens that rob the national budget of billions could be forced to be accountable. Britain has the power to bankrupt the Putin clique.
But London has changed. And the Shard — the Qatari-owned, 72-floor skyscraper above the grotty Southwark riverside — is a symbol of that change.
The Shard encapsulates the new hierarchy of the city. On the top floors, “ultra high net worth individuals” entertain escorts in luxury apartments. By day, on floors below, investment bankers trade incomprehensible derivatives.
Come nightfall, the elevators are full of African cleaners, paid next to nothing and treated as nonexistent. The acres of glass windows are scrubbed by Polish laborers, who sleep four to a room in bedsit slums. And near the Shard are the immigrants from Lithuania and Romania, who broke their backs on construction sites, but are now destitute and whiling away their hours along the banks of the Thames.
The Shard is London, a symbol of a city where oligarchs are celebrated and migrants are exploited but that pretends to be a multicultural utopia. Here, in their capital city, the English are no longer calling the shots. They are hirelings.
The London School of Economics was founded in 1895[31] by Beatrice and Sidney Webb,[32] initially funded by a bequest of £20,000[33][34] from the estate of Henry Hunt Hutchinson. Hutchinson, a lawyer[33] and member of the Fabian Society,[35][36] left the money in trust, to be put "towards advancing its [The Fabian Society's] objects in any way they [the trustees] deem advisable".[36] The five trustees were Sidney Webb, Edward Pease, Constance Hutchinson, William de Mattos and William Clark.[33]
LSE records that the proposal to establish the school was conceived during a breakfast meeting on 4 August 1894, between the Webbs, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw.[31] The proposal was accepted by the trustees in February 1895[36] and LSE held its first classes in October of that year, in rooms at 9 John Street, Adelphi,[37] in the City of Westminster.
The School joined the federal University of London in 1900, becoming the university's Faculty of Economics and awarding degrees of the University from 1902.[37] 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;[31] the building was opened in 1922.
Friedrich Hayek, who taught at LSE during the 1930 and 1940s
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. LSE and Cambridge economists worked jointly in the 1920s—for example, the London and Cambridge Economic Service—but the 1930s brought a return to the dispute as LSE and Cambridge argued over the solution to the economic depression.
LSE's Lionel Robbins and Friedrich Hayek, and Cambridge's John Maynard 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 Hayek's views were based on the Austrian School of Economics with its emphasis on free trade and anti-interventionism, while Keynes advanced a brand of economic theory now known as Keynesianism which advocates active policy responses by the public sector.
During World War II, the School decamped from London to University of Cambridge, occupying buildings belonging to Peterhouse.[38]
The School's arms,[39] including its motto and beaver mascot, were adopted in February 1922,[40] on the recommendation of a committee of twelve, including eight students, which was established to research the matter.[41] The Latin motto, "Rerum cognoscere causas", is taken from Virgil's Georgics. Its English translation is "to Know the Causes of Things"[40] and it was suggested by Professor Edwin Cannan.[31] The beaver mascot was selected for its associations with "foresight, constructiveness and industrious behaviour".[41]
LSE continues to have a wide impact within British society, through its relationships and influence in politics, business and law. The Guardian describes such influence 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.[42]
Recently, the School has been active in opposing British government proposals to introduce compulsory ID cards,[43][44] researching into the associated costs of the scheme, and shifting public and government opinion on the issue.[45] 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.[46][47]
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,[48] Independent Police Commission,[49] Migration Advisory Committee,[50] UN Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation,[51] London Finance Commission,[52]HS2 Limited,[53] and advising on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics[54] The Sunday Times' recent profile of LSE for the 2008 Sunday Times University Guide commented:
There are many who have achieved in the world of politics, business or academia who can trace their success to the years they spent at LSE. Inspired by tuition from academics who are often familiar faces, if not household names, LSE students take their first steps to greatness in the debating chambers, cafes, bars – and even occasionally in their seminar groups – during three or four years of studying.[55]
The School is heavily targeted by employers and its graduates are in great demand despite the current economic climate. It has ranked in the top four best global universities according to employers for the past five years.[56] The vast majority of LSE students are engaged in employment or further study within six months of graduating and the School is listed first for employability in the 2012 Sunday Times Good University Guide.[57] The most common sectors for LSE graduates to work in within six months of graduating are banking, finance and accountancy; development, NGOs and international organisations; consultancy; education; and central and local government.[58] In addition, the average starting salary of graduates who have completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees with LSE is significantly higher than the overall national average salary with £28,100 (undergraduates) and £35,400 (graduates).[59]
Professor Craig Calhoun took up the post of Director in September 2012. Its previous Director, Professor 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).[60] She is also a former Convenor of the Department of Geography and Environment, and served as Deputy Director from 1998–2004.
Calhoun's predecessor, Sir Howard Davies stepped down after controversy regarding the school's links to the Libyan regime. In February 2011, LSE had to face the consequences of awarding a PhD to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, one of Muammar Gaddafi's sons, while accepting a £1.5m donation to university from his family.[61]
In March 2011, Howard Davies resigned over allegations about the institution's links to the Libyan regime.[62] 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.[62]
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.[72] 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.[72]
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.[72]
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.[72]
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.[72]
The director is the head of LSE and its chief executive officer, responsible for executive management and leadership on academic issues. The director 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 School’s current director is Craig Calhoun.
In the financial year ended 31 July 2011, LSE had a total income (including share of joint ventures) of £233.7 million (2009/10 – £220.92 million) and total expenditure of £214.84 million (2009/10 – £201.69 million).[72] Key sources of income included £114.71 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2009/10 – £106.61 million), £29.65 million from Funding Council grants (2009/10 – £30.62 million), £24.07 million from research grants and contracts (2009/10 – £23.87 million) and £6.04 million from endowment and investment income (2009/10 – £4.81 million).[72] During the 2010/11 financial year LSE had a capital expenditure of £47.0 million (2009/10 – £10.6 million).[72]
At year end LSE had endowments of £81.72 million (2009/10 – £72.63 million) and total net assets of £365.59 million (2009/10 – £337.23 million).[72]
Admission to LSE is highly competitive.[citation needed] In 2012, the school received 17,500 applications for 1,200 undergraduate places.[73] This means that there were approximately 14.6 applicants per place, with UCAS permitting undergraduate applicants to apply to no more than five institutions. Most programmes have typical offers of A*AA-AAB at A level, with new undergraduates in 2013 arriving with an average of 541 UCAS points (equivalent to over AAAA at A level).
Entry standards are also high for postgraduate students, who are required to have (for taught Master's programmes) a First Class or Upper Second Class UK honours degree, or its foreign equivalent.[74] The applications success rate for postgraduate programmes varies, although most of the major courses, including Economics and Law, consistently have an acceptance rate below 7%.[citation needed] Some of the very top premium programmes such as the MSc Finance and the MSc Financial Mathematics have admission rates below 5%.[75][76]
LSE is dedicated solely to the study and research of social sciences, and is the only university in the United Kingdom to be so. LSE awards a range of academic degrees spanning bachelors, masters and PhDs. The postnominals 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 and 4 BA programmes (including International History and Geography).[77] LSE is the only British university to teach a BSc in Economic History. 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.[78] Courses are split across more than thirty research centres and nineteen departments, plus a Language Centre.[79] 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, certain departments are very small (90 students across three years of study), ensuring small lecture sizes and a more hands-on approach than other institutions. Since September 2010, it has been compulsory for first year undergraduates to participate in LSE 100: Understanding the Causes of Things alongside normal studies.
In conjunction with New York University's Stern School and HEC Paris LSE also offers an executive global MBA called TRIUM. This is globally ranked second by the Financial Times and strives to meld the strong social sciences, management strategy and financial accumen providing senior executives a well rounded view.
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 in order to enable some colleges to award their own degrees. LSE was granted the power to begin awarding its own degrees from June 2008. Students graduating between June 2008 and June 2010 have the option of receiving a degree either from the University of London or the school. All undergraduate students entering from 2007 and postgraduate students from 2009 received an LSE degree.[citation needed]
LSE does not award annual honorary degrees in common with other universities. In its 113-year history, the school has awarded fifteen honorary doctorates to established figures such as Nelson Mandela (Doctor of Science, Economics).
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, LSE had the highest percentage of world-leading research of any British higher education institution.[80] The Independent Newspaper placed LSE first in the country for its research, on the basis that 35% of its faculty were judged to be doing world leading work, compared to 32% for both Oxford and Cambridge respectively.[81] Furthermore, according to the Times Newspaper, LSE ranks as joint-second (with Oxford) by grade point average across the fourteen units of assessment submitted, behind only Cambridge.[82][83][84] According to these RAE results, LSE is the UK's top research university in Anthropology, Economics, Law, Social Policy and European Studies.[85][86]
The main library of LSE is the British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES), located in the Lionel Robbins Building.
It is the home of the world's largest social and political sciences library.[citation needed] Founded in 1896, it is also the national social science library of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth and all its collections have been recognised for their outstanding national and international importance and awarded '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 an impressive room in the Old Building contains the university's collection of fiction and general readings for leisure and entertainment. The Fabian Window, also located within the library, was unveiled by Tony Blair in 2003.
In 2013, the school purchased the Women's Library, Britain's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement and a UNESCO classified resource. It will open at the school's main site in summer 2013.
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.
The LSE Summer School was established in 1989 and has expanded extensively with more than 4,400 participants in 2011. The Summer School offers over 60 courses, from the Accounting & Finance, Economics, English Language, Law, International Relations, Government & Society and Management departments, and takes place over two sessions of three weeks, in July and August each year. LSE also offers LSE-PKU Summer School in collaboration with Peking University. Courses from both summer schools can be used as credit against other qualifications. In 2011 the Summer School accepted students from over 115 countries, from some of the top colleges and universities in the world, as well as professionals from several national banks and major financial institutions. As well as the courses, accommodation in LSE halls of residence is available, and the Summer School provides a full social programme including guest lectures and receptions.[93]
The iXXi Briefings are private discussions which are attended by 40 experts from within LSE and elsewhere and are chaired by Lord Desai. At the briefings speakers talk for 15 minutes before discussion is opened to all attendees. iXXi briefings provide an opportunity to for the LSE to exhibit its resources and engage with experts and prominent figures. The iXXi Briefings are run by LSE Enterprise.[95]
LSE ranked 3rd overall in the Sunday Times University Guide cumulative ranking over a ten-year period (1997–2007),[102] and ranked 3rd in the Complete University Guide 2014.[103] A number of departments also ranked among the top three in subject rankings, including but not limited to Law (2nd), Philosophy (2nd), Economics (2nd), Accounting and Finance (2nd), History (3rd) and Geography (2nd).
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 methodology which hindered social science institutions.[104] In January 2010, THE concluded that their existing methodology system with Quacquarelli Symonds was flawed in such a way that it was unfairly biased against certain schools, including LSE.[105] 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."[105] 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'.[106] LSE has continued to attain these lower rankings (reaching 68th in 2013), which place it behind eleven other British universities, with this being described as a 'pleasing improvement' by LSE.[106][107]
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. LSE is ranked 25th globally for Reputation[108] and often scores well in the social science specific section of the ranking.
The Fulbright Commission has stated that LSE is "the world’s leading dedicated social science institution".[109]
In the 2011–12 academic year there were 9,300 full-time students and around 700 part-time students at the school. Of these, approximately two-thirds came from outside the United Kingdom. LSE has a highly international student body,with over 145 countries represented.[110]
Over half of LSE's students are postgraduates,[111] an unusually high proportion in comparison with other British institutions. There is approximately an equal split between genders with 51% male and 49% female students.[111]
LSE has its own students' union (LSESU), which is affiliated to the National Union of Students and the National Postgraduate Committee, as well as to the University of London Union. The students' union 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,[112][113] which made international headlines.
In 2013, LSESU moved into a purpose-built new building on the Aldwych campus,[114] having moved out of its former East Building and Clare Market sites.
The Union is responsible for the organisation and undertaking of entertainment events and student societies, as well as student welfare and issues regarding accommodation and other matters. As of 2013, there are over 200 societies, 40 sports clubs, a Raising and Giving (RAG) branch and a thriving media group.
The Media Group is a collective of four distinct outlets, each with their own history and identity. A weekly student newspaper The Beaver, is published each Tuesday during term time and is amongst the oldest student newspapers in the country. The Union's radio station Pulse! has existed since 1999, and the television station LooSE Television has existed since 2005. The Clare Market Review one of Britain's oldest student publications was revived in 2008 and has gone on to win many national awards. Students also get access to London Student, which is published by the University of London Union.
In various forms, RAG Week has been operating since 1980, when it was started by then Student Union Entertainments Officer and now New Zealand MP Tim Barnett.
Affiliated with LSESU, LSE Athletics Union is the body responsible for all sporting activity within the university. It is a member of British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS). In distinction to the "blues" awarded for sporting excellence at Oxford and Cambridge, LSE's outstanding athletes are awarded "purples".
There are 12 LSE halls of residence in and around central London, of which 10 are owned and operated by LSE and one is operated by Shaftesbury Student Housing. Together, these residences accommodate over 3,500 students.[115] In addition, there are also eight intercollegiate halls shared with other constituent colleges of the University of London, which accommodate approximately 25% of LSE's first-year undergraduate students.
The School guarantees accommodation for all first-year undergraduate students, regardless of their present address. 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 Houghton Street 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 domestic and foreign, male and female, and, usually, undergraduate and postgraduate. New undergraduate students (including General Course students) occupy approximately 36% of all spaces, with postgraduates taking approximately 56% and continuing students about 8% of places.
Grosvenor House Studios
The largest LSE student residence, Bankside, opened in 1996 and accommodates 617 students across eight floors overlooking the River Thames and located behind the popular Tate Modern art gallery on the south bank of the River. The second-largest residence is based in High Holborn, was opened in 1995 and is approximately 10 minutes walk from the main campus. Other accommodation is located well for London's attractions and facilities – 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 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 Northumberland House, on Northumberland Avenue into a new residence on 2 June 2005, and the accommodation opened to students in October 2006.
The newest accommodation development is Northumberland House, a Grade II listed building, located between the Strand and Thames Embankment. It was formerly a Victorian grand hotel and lately government offices.
The closest residence to the Houghton Street 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.
There are also eight intercollegiate halls and some students are selected to live in International Students House, London.
Andrew Bond, the father of Ian Fleming's James Bond
Jim Hacker, the fictitious Minister and Prime Minister of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (in which the Prime Minister is regularly derided by his Permanent Secretary for not having attended Oxford or Cambridge)
The character Alexis Meynell, from the BBC television drama series Spooks which follows the work of a group of MI5 officers working in the organisation's headquarters
^ Jump up to: ab"London School of Economics". Beginnings: The History of Higher Education in Bloomsbury and Westminster. Institute of Education. Retrieved 23 July 2009.
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