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21 October 2010 |
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 News
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• Funding
cuts
Following the publication of the Browne Review and the Comprehensive
Spending Review, the severity of the funding cuts facing higher education
has become clear - although the full shape of things to come will not be
known until the Coalition responds to Browne and, more precisely, until LSE
gets its grant letter next year.
Given the unprecedented severity of the cuts, the School is keen to
communicate with staff and students as effectively as possible as it charts
these difficult waters. In yesterday's Student News, an e-bulletin
similar to this was sent to all of LSE's students, Director Howard Davies set
out some basic points. Those interested in reading it can find it
here.
As the Director says in his address to students, LSE makes decisions
collectively. Over the next few months the School's key decision-making -
notably the Academic Board and the Council - will be faced with some very
tough choices.
While much of the press coverage has focussed on Browne's proposals to
raise graduate contributions, less attention has been paid to his proposals
to cut the teaching budget for universities by up to 80 per cent, with
public funding devoted in future almost exclusively to science, medicine and
engineering. As a result LSE is set to lose all its teaching grant - some £9
million per annum. As the Director commented to students: 'It is extremely
disappointing that Lord Browne has adopted such an instrumentalist view of
higher education, one that diminishes the value of the humanities and social
sciences.'
The CSR, announced yesterday, referred to '40 per cent savings from
reform of higher education'. While details are yet to be set out, teaching
funding will bear the brunt. The 'science' budget has been protected. We
do not yet know what that means for our research funding, which is currently
about twice as large as our teaching grant.
The School, ultimately through Council, will have to make decisions about
its financial structure that will affect generations of staff and students
to come. We need to set in place a structure that will sustain the School in
the long term and ensure that students can continue to come here whatever
their financial means. In that context Browne's progressive proposals to
raise the threshold for repayments and for a uniform maintenance loan were
welcomed by the Director in his address to students. The loan arrangements
are in some ways more generous, and the repayment arrangements do not kick
in until a higher earning level. All that is positive.
We are now busy revising financial forecasts in the light of the new
realities. There are some real challenges ahead, and we plan to communicate
frequently to you through Staff News and other appropriate channels
in the months to come.
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• And the award goes to...
Nicola Martin, head of the Disability and Well-Being Service at LSE,
has been nominated for a RADAR People of the Year Award.
RADAR is the UK's largest disability campaigning organisation, aiming to create a just and equal society whose strength is human difference.
This year, RADAR is looking for the very best practice in disability
equality - to identify the organisations and individuals who are 'ahead of
the curve' and can show the way forward.
At LSE, Nicola aims to embed disability equality across the School, as
part of the equality agenda. She also plays a key role in developing an
international organisation of 700+ members, who are all working towards
disability equality in post compulsory education.
Nicola said: 'As the chair of The National Association of Disability
Practitioners (NADP), I am the known face of the organisation alongside the
president, Mat Fraser. The nomination is really for all the members of NADP
- we work as a huge and rather formidable national-international team.'
The award ceremony will take place in Battersea on Monday 29 November.
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• Pathways
to Law shortlisted for excellence award
Pathways to Law, a programme run by LSE’s Widening Participation team, has
been shortlisted in the ‘Equality and Diversity’ category for the Law
Society’s Excellence Awards 2010.
The Pathways to Law scheme, a project run in conjunction with The College
of Law and The Sutton Trust, targets state school pupils who are the first
generation of their family to attend university and provides support
throughout years 12 and 13 and beyond. It is backed by universities, law
firms and The Law Society, enabling a varied programme of lectures,
seminars, advice sessions, and e-mentoring, plus an invaluable law firm
placement.
LSE jointly runs the programme with UCL for students in the London region,
and is now recruiting 75 students for the next phase. Since it began in 2007, more
than 1,100 students have participated in the scheme, with 200 students
graduating through the LSE programme.
For more information about the Pathways to Law scheme or LSE’s Widening
Participation activities, please email Niaomi Collett at
n.collett@lse.ac.uk or visit the
Widening Participation website.
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• LSE
wins funding for open source learning project
LSE has been awarded funding for a short project to adapt and make available
a range of digital and information literacy teaching materials.
The 'Developing Educators Learning and Information Literacies for
Accreditation' project, or 'DELILA' , has been awarded funding by the
university IT advisory body 'JISC' and the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
The project is part of a wider programme to convert and release teaching
materials to enable students undertaking HEA accredited qualifications to
re-use and adapt them for their own purposes.
The DELILA project, which began in September, is run in partnership with
the University of Birmingham and will bring together learning technologists,
specialist librarians and educational developers.
The director of the project is LSE's Dr Jane Secker from the Centre for
Learning Technology. Commenting on the award, Dr Secker said: 'I'm really
pleased to receive funding for this project. LSE runs many exciting courses
in the digital literacy programme and by making the resources available to
the wider education community we hope to share best practice, encourage
collaboration and improve staff skills.'
For further information, contact Jane Secker at
j.secker@lse.ac.uk or visit the
project website.
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• ICEF graduation ceremony
On 16 September, the tenth graduation ceremony of the International
College of Economics and Finance (ICEF) took place in Moscow, Russia.
ICEF was established in 1997 as a joint venture between LSE and the
Higher School of Economics in Moscow, with LSE sharing responsibility for
academic management and the appointment of teachers. Since then almost 550
have graduated with bachelors degrees and 36 with masters degrees from ICEF.
The School was represented at the graduation ceremony by LSE pro-director
Professor Janet Hartley, LSE ICEF director Professor Richard Jackman, and
director of External Study Rosie Gosling.
This year, the ICEF was also awarded the status of Affiliate Centre of
the University of London International Programmes. For more information
about the ceremony, visit the
British Embassy website.
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• SMEs and the Economic Crisis
LSE Enterprise academic director Julius Sen has been appointed an
international expert to the small and medium enterprise (SME) Economic
Crisis Management Centre, and was invited to speak at the 36th International
Small Business Congress (ISBC) held in Taiwan this October.
The ISBC brings together policy-makers and practitioners from SMEs around
the world. The four-day congress enables them to build relationships,
brainstorm solutions and consider sustainable development.
Julius spoke on the importance of effective data, information and
consultation for policymaking in the SME sector and also moderated a session
on SME opportunities in responding to the changes in the external
environment.
More
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• BIOS
News out now
The latest issue of the BIOS Newsletter features Emily Jackson on the
British government’s plans to regulate IVF, and her reflections on the
possible consequences of the abolition of the Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Authority.
Meanwhile, entering the last stage of the VOICES project, we follow Ilina
Singh through the experiences and challenges of ‘writing around’ the outcome
of this project for her forthcoming book on ADHD.
Elsewhere, Christoph Rehmann-Sutter and Renzong Qiu report on some of the
main findings of the three year BIONET project, which involved several BIOS
members and recently concluded with a major publication on the governance of
European-Chinese biomedical research collaborations.
To read the newsletter, visit
www.lse.ac.uk/bios.
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• Academic abroad
Dr Ken Shadlen, reader in the
Department of International Development at LSE, visited Mexico
City last week, giving two lectures at the national university (UNAM).
On Wednesday 13 October, Dr Shadlen presented '¿Quién Gobierna la
Propiedad Intelectual en América del Norte?' ('Who Governs Intellectual
Property in North America?') to a seminar on Elites and NAFTA.
On Thursday 14 October, he gave a public lecture on 'La Economía Política
de la Propiedad Intelectual' ('The Political Economy of Intellectual
Property'). |
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 Notices
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• IT Services update
IT Services has experienced significant teething problems with the introduction
of Windows 7 across the School. Most of these problems have been
resolved, but the teaching-desk PCs have been particularly hit. This may
have affected some of your lectures and seminars.
IT Services has worked round the clock to resolve this but appreciate
that these problems have been frustrating for staff and students, and we
apologise sincerely for the inconvenience caused to those affected. We still
have concerns about the use of some PowerPoint presentations and statistical
applications and are prioritising these.
We have informed students, via Student News, that this is an IT
problem and that we are working with our academic colleagues to resolve it
and ensure that the new desktop, which offers the most up-to-date
applications, works smoothly.
Please email
ITS.feedback@lse.ac.uk if you have any ongoing concerns.
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• USS
changes
All members of staff at LSE eligible for membership of the Universities
Superannuation Scheme (USS) will have received information through the post
this week on proposed changes to the Scheme. The period of consultation
formally commenced on Wednesday 20 October and will last for a minimum of 60
days - ending on Wednesday 22 December.
The consultation follows a decision of the Joint Negotiating Committee on
7 July to recommend a package of proposed changes to USS, a recommendation
subsequently agreed by the USS trustee board. The scheme’s participating
employers are now required to provide information and consult on the
proposed changes in accordance with the statutory regulations.
The pack contains all the information you should need, and further
information can be found on the
USS consultation website. If you wish to make a response to the
consultation, you should please do this through the consultation website.
If you have not received a pack or if, having read the consultation
documentation, you are still unclear about the proposals, please email
fin.div.pensions@lse.ac.uk
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• Get
your nominations in….
LSE’s Nominations Committee, which is chaired by Peter Sutherland, would
like to invite nominations for the following:
Independent members of the Court of Governors
We are looking for individuals who can play a leading role in the School,
not only through the Court’s externally focused representations and
strategic discussions, but also potentially as a member of the Council (the
governing body) and its sub-committees.
The deadline for nominations is Wednesday 17 November. For more
information, visit
Governor Search.
Honorary Fellowship
The Court of Governors may elect as an Honorary Fellow of LSE any member of
the School whose achievements are of conspicuous merit, or any person,
including members of the School, who has rendered outstanding service to
LSE.
The deadline for nominations is Wednesday 17 November. For more
information, visit
Honorary Fellows Nominations.
Honorary Doctorate
The LSE Council may award an Honorary Doctorate to ‘persons who have made an
outstanding contribution to the increased understanding, or appreciation of
“the causes of things” and their practical application in the social
sciences or related fields.’
The deadline for nominations is Friday 11 February 2011. For more
information, visit
Honorary Degree Nominations.
All completed nomination forms should be sent to Joan Poole, Planning and
Corporate Policy Division, at
j.a.poole@lse.ac.uk.
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• Staff portrait date
Nigel Stead, School photographer, will be holding another staff portrait
photo session on Tuesday 26 October.
The session will be held in room G.19, Old Building, from 11am-1pm and
2-4pm.
New staff (or old staff who need to update their existing pictures) can
turn up at any time in the given time slots and there is no need to book.
All pictures are in colour and in a digital format and will be supplied
to each department/centre on a CD. Hard copy prints will not be provided.
Pictures will be sent after post production, which can take up to two weeks
after the shoot.
The cost is £15 per head charged to the department/centre and staff are
asked to bring their budget codes with them on the day.
More sessions will follow in November. For more information, contact
Nigel Stead at n.stead@lse.ac.uk.
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• Practice
lecturing workshops
The Teaching and Learning Centre is offering all new academics the
opportunity to attend a half-day workshop to practice lecturing.
The sessions will provide participants with the opportunity to practice
lecturing, and get feedback from colleagues and the session leader.
Each participant will be asked to deliver a five to eight minute lecture,
which they are planning to give in the coming year. This will be recorded on
video, reviewed and replayed with the group (max six people). You can bring
any materials you would use (e.g. handouts, PowerPoint, exercises etc) to
test out on your colleagues.
Workshops will take place on:
- Monday 1 November
2-5pm
- Tuesday 2 November
2-5pm
- Thursday 25 November
10am-1pm
- Thursday 25 November
2-5pm
Venue details will be sent nearer the time. To confirm your attendance or
for more information, email
tlc.events@lse.ac.uk.
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• Eprint
and Microsoft Office 2010
Eprint, the Reprographics Department’s online print submission system,
does not currently support Microsoft Office 2010, which is being installed
on PCs across campus. This means that, at present, Microsoft Office 2010
documents cannot be uploaded to the Eprint library.
Reprographics are investigating an upgrade of Eprint to resolve this
issue but in the mean time, documents created in Microsoft Office 2010
should be converted to PDF before being uploaded to Eprint.
If you are unsure how to convert to PDF, please phone Reprographics and
we will talk you through the process. Reprographics apologises for any
inconvenience that this may cause.
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• Ask a Nobel laureate
Want to know how it feels to be a Nobel laureate? Well now is your
chance to find out.
Nobelprize.org have set up two web pages where you can post a video or
text question to the 2010 Nobel laureates, which include LSE professor
Christopher Pissarides (pictured).
You can post your questions on either
YouTube or
Facebook. Questions
will be answered in December 2010.
For more information about the 2010 Nobel prizes, visit
Nobelprize.org. |
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 Research
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• One
in eight children still have upsetting experiences online, new
Europe-wide study shows
More than one in eight children have been bothered or upset by online
content finds a new report based on interviews with 23,000 young people
across Europe. However researchers stressed that the majority of children
had no upsetting experiences on the internet and indeed were often
comfortable doing things that some adults consider risky.
While 12 per cent of children said they had been bothered or upset by
experiences online - including encountering pornography, sexual or bullying
messages and potentially harmful user-generated-content - another finding
was that their parents were often not aware of the risks to which their
children had been exposed. For example, where a child had been bullied
online, more than half of parents did not realise this had happened.
The EU Kids Online project based at LSE also found that children are
going online at ever-younger ages - an average of seven in Sweden and eight
in several other Northern European countries, including the UK.
More
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• Kosovo:
four futures
With the recent United Nations general assembly resolution calling for
renewed talks between Belgrade and Pristina over Kosovo, LSE academics
Spyros Economides and James Ker-Lindsay have written an article examining
the four most likely future scenarios for the contested territory.
The article, which was written with Dimitris Papadimitriou of the
University of Manchester, appears in the October-November issue of Survival,
the journal of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
The article argues that the two most plausible options are some form of
enhanced independence for the northern Serb-populated areas, in return for
eventual Serbian recognition of Kosovo's statehood. Or, better still, some
form of territorial readjustment that would allow these areas to remain a
part of Serbia, in return for independence and membership of the United
Nations.
To read the full article, visit the
IISS website.
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• Research opportunities
Candidates interested in applying for any research opportunities should
contact Michael Oliver in the
Research Division at
m.oliver@lse.ac.uk or call ext 7962.
The Research Division maintains a regularly updated list of
research funding opportunities for academic colleagues on their website.
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• Research e-Briefing
Click
here
to read the Summer edition of the Research Division newsletter. To sign up for
research news, recent research funding opportunities, research awards that
are about to start, and examples of research outcomes, click
here. The next issue is out
at the end of October 2010.
More
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• Latest opportunities from LSE Enterprise
LSE Enterprise offers you the opportunity to undertake private teaching
and consultancy work under the LSE brand. We help with bidding, contracts
and other project administration, enabling you to focus on the work itself.
To see the latest opportunities click
here or visit
http://twitter.com/lseenterprise.
If you would like us to look out for consulting opportunities in your
field, email your CV and summary of interests to
lseenterprise.consulting@lse.ac.uk
Email exec.ed@lse.ac.uk to be
added to our Executive Education database. |
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 Events
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• Congo/Women - Portraits of War: the Democratic Republic of
Congo
Congo/Women is a photography exhibition and educational campaign that
raises awareness of the widespread sexual violence facing women and
girls in the DRC.
The exhibition features powerful photographs by award-winning
photojournalists Lynsey Addario, Marcus Bleasdale, Ron Haviv and James
Nachtwey, that convey the strength and courage of Congolese women.
The exhibition is currently open and runs until Wednesday 27 October in the Atrium Gallery, Old
Building. Visitors are welcome during weekdays (Monday-Friday) between
10am-8pm, with the exception of the evening of 20th October when general
admission closes at 6pm. The exhibition is free and open to all.
For more details on this exhibition and to see the schedule of upcoming
exhibitions for Michaelmas term, click
here.
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• New event announced....
Greece is Changing
On: Monday 8 November at 6.30pm. The venue will be confirmed to
ticketholders.
Speaker: George Papaconstantinou, Greek finance minister
This event is free and open to all however a ticket is required. One ticket
per person can be requested from 10am on Monday 1 November.
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• Other events include....
Israel Confronts its Past: the 'new historians' and their critics
On: Monday 25 October at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New
Academic Building
Speaker: Professor Avi Shlaim, fellow of St Antony's College and
professor of international relations at the University of Oxford
Re-engineering the Economy for Real People
On: Tuesday 26 October at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement
House
Speaker: Samantha Heath, director of London Sustainability Exchange
State of Emergency: the way we were, Britain 1970-1974
On: Wednesday 27 October at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Dominic Sandbrook, author, commentator and broadcaster
Lunchtime concert
On: Thursday 28 October at 1.05pm in Shaw Library, Old Building
Performer: Jadran Duncumb, guitar
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• CATS
Tenth Anniversary Event
The Centre for the Analysis of Time Series (CATS) is celebrating its tenth
anniversary this year, and will be holding an event at LSE on Friday 29
October, to mark the occasion.
There will be an afternoon of talks covering a broad range of CATS’
research - from climate model uncertainty, ocean systems, valuation and risk
in the finance sector, and robust decision making in insurance.
Speakers will include:
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Pauline Barrieu (LSE)
- Tim Palmer (Oxford University, ECMW)
- Ralph Rayner (ImarEST, Consortium for Ocean Leadership, LSE)
- Richard Max-Lino (Quest4 Consulting Ltd)
The afternoon talks will begin shortly after 2pm, and will be followed by
an evening reception from 6-8.30pm.
If you would like to attend the event, please RSVP to
Lyn Grove at l.grove@lse.ac.uk or
Eva Moratinos at e.moratinos@lse.ac.uk.
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• Podcasts of public lectures and events
Economic Growth, Human Welfare and Inequality
Speaker: Lord Turner
Recorded: Monday 11 October, approx 83 minutes
Click here to listen
Wealth Creation in Developing Countries
Speakers: Professor Paul Collier and Andrew Mitchell
Recorded: Tuesday 12 October, approx 70 minutes
Click here to listen
Power Shift: west to east
Speakers: Professor Michael Cox and Professor Arne Westad
Recorded: Wednesday 13 October, approx 90 minutes
Click here to listen |
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 60
Second Interview
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• with..... Professor Luc Bovens
I was born in Leuven, Belgium - a town with 50 per cent more rainfall than London, and a country in which politics centre on whether the mayors in a few small villages south of Brussels take their oaths in Flemish or French. I lived in the US for half my life - Minnesota and Colorado.
I'm currently head of the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method. My interests in philosophy and the social sciences are much too broad for my own good. My latest work is on the Vatican’s policy on condoms for HIV discordant couples, on some puzzles around analysing two-by-two contingency tables, and on burden-sharing in EU refugee policy.
What I like best in this world is a wicked comedy act, a clever philosophical puzzle and a strong cup of coffee - I'm not quite sure in what order.
Forget about daily complaints
and little frustrations, what do you
actually love about LSE and what
would make it an even better and
more unique institution?
I love the challenge of teaching
philosophy to a class with a
majority of non-native English
speakers, while the central heating
system is rattling, the jackhammers
on Portugal Street are going full
blast, and Sikh Dhol drummers are
celebrating Vaisakhi. It makes one
feel alive! Seriously, it is in this
fertile space where stimulation
touches on frustration that ideas
hatch best and I would not want to
give it up for anything. How to make
it better? How about investing in
some palm trees on the plaza and a
huge screen with a projection of the
sun - remember that installation art
piece by Olafur Eliasson in the Tate
Modern a few years ago?
What would you do with the
money if you won a substantial
amount on the Lottery?
I would first have to buy a
ticket. But if I did win, I think
that I would use it as a down
payment for a studio flat in London
- that’s not asking for too much is
it?
What book are you currently
reading and which have you enjoyed
most?
I finished Elif Shafak’s
The Forty Rules of Love. It’s a
beautiful novel that introduces the
reader to Sufism without having to
learn classic Persian or struggle
through volumes of Rumi quatrains in
antiquated translation. The best
book ever? Give me a classic and a
contemporary pick. How about
Ecclesiastes for being an
antidote to smugness and Márquez’s
Love in the Time of Cholera
for the best opening line ever
written: ‘It was inevitable: the
scent of bitter almonds always
reminded him of the fate of
unrequited love’?
If you could change one thing
about yourself, what would it be?
Now we’re getting personal,
aren’t we? I have been noticing
clear signs of the onset of old-age
attention deficit disorder recently.
Fish-oil tablets are not doing the
job. So yes, I’d ask the djinn in
the bottle for a dose of mental
focus.
What difference, if any, would
a female director of LSE make?
With Martin Luther King, I dream
that, one day, people will be judged
by the content of their character
and not by the colour of their skin,
nor, let me add, by their gender,
sexual orientation or what have you.
The difference a female director can
make to the School will be strictly
proportional to the content of her
character.
Where in the world have you
always wanted to go but never quite
made it..... yet?
I hate travelling. Too much
hassle and it makes me jittery. But
I wouldn’t mind biking the Hebrides
from top to bottom around summer
solstice. I am not sure - can it be
done? |
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 Training
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• Academic,
personal and professional development courses for staff
Courses on offer next week include:
- Tuesday 26 October
Lyx for LaTeX - creating academic articles
and bibliographies
PhD: presenting to an academic audience (middle years and endgame)
Introduction to e-journals and e-sources
- Wednesday 27 October
PhD: purposeful networking (getting started)
Lyx for LaTeX - advanced topics
Moodle basics training
- Thursday 28 October
An Introduction to Learning Technologies: how they can benefit your
courses
For a full listing of what is available and further details, including
booking information, please see
www.lse.ac.uk/training. |
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 Media
bites
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• Financial
Times (20 October 2010)
Time needed to illuminate all the detail
Julian Le Grand, social policy expert at LSE, added: 'In the
recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s, inequality and relative poverty
actually fell. This was because, while top and average incomes dropped,
low incomes, buttressed by price-indexed benefits, did not.'
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• Bellingham
Herald (20 October 2010)
Britain’s deficit-cutting plan includes losing 490,000 jobs
'It's going to be in stages. You won't see overnight a closure of a
school or some great service suddenly being withdrawn,' said Iain Begg,
a professor at LSE. 'The government has left itself room for
manoeuvre.'
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• Bloomberg
(18 October 2010)
The Pulse
Lord Meghnad Desai, Professor Emeritus of Economics at LSE, talks about
the UK government's deficit cutting plans.
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