The London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Cape Town became institutional partners in May 2010. Both institutions aim to form partnerships with a small number of high-quality universities across the world in order to broaden their academic reach by creating innovative opportunities for students and promoting world-class research dealing with problems and issues that are relevant on a national and international scale.
LSE and UCT have complementary expertise and foci, with strong track records in bridging research and policy communities. Both are located close to their national parliaments and produce evidence-based research that informs policy. The close relationship between LSE and UCT will allow for genuine, systematic and sustained institutional exchange and capacity development at both the intellectual and organisational levels.
Exchanges
Academics from both institutions undertake collaborative research in the areas of management, health, cities and constitutional law. PhD exchanges have also been set up to enable students from LSE and UCT to spend a term/semester at the other institution.
LSE-UCT July School
This partnership has also resulted in the LSE-UCT July School, an innovative two-week programme which provides students, graduates and professionals from across the globe an exciting new opportunity to study important social sciences issues relevant to Africa today. The first School took place in 2013 at the University of Cape Town.
Both parties hope to attract support for a range of collaborative capacity building and other initiatives across the African continent both on bilateral basis and, with our other institutional partners, on a multilateral basis. These might include training programmes for African university teachers, visiting scholar fellowships and research workshops for doctoral students.