LSE continues to climb the world reputation rankings

The School has risen to 25th in the third annual Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings.

Computer tip of the week

Check out the first of a weekly series of quick tips on using Windows and Microsoft Office, the standard operating system and application suite, written by LSE's IT Training Team.

Nico Nalbantian

Nico, a final year law student, took part in last year's LSE-PKU Summer School: 'Being able to study in China’s capital was not an opportunity I was going to let slip by.'

LSE has risen to 25th in the third annual Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings. This represents a year-on-year increase for the School, which was previously ranked at 29th in 2012 and 37th in 2011.

The rankings are based on a survey of nearly 17,000 experienced, senior academics from almost 150 countries. Participants are asked to name a handful of universities that they believe to be the best in the world.

LSE is the fifth highest UK university in this year’s rankings and one of only nine UK institutions in the Top 100. The School is also bucking the trend for western institutions which tend to be dropping down the rankings.

Commenting on the rankings the Director of LSE, Professor Craig Calhoun, said: 'It is great to see LSE continues to be held in high esteem and that the importance of social sciences is increasingly being recognised around the world.'

Professor Christopher Pissarides (pictured) has been appointed personal economic advisor to the newly-elected president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, who was sworn in on Thursday 28 February.

Nobel laureate Professor Pissarides will head a small team of economists who will advise the new government on all aspects of economic policy.

Professor Pissarides said: 'Cyprus is going through very difficult times. The banking sector is nearly bankrupt because of exposure to Greece and government debt is soaring. The troika of the IMF, ECB and EU is requesting far reaching reforms and fiscal austerity. They are challenging times and being in the middle of it should be exciting.'

LSE announces Cape Town July School

LSE and the University of Cape Town (UCT) have announced the launch of the inaugural LSE-UCT July School.

From 1-12 July, the two-week summer school-style programme will offer a range of exciting university-level courses taught by outstanding faculty from two of the world’s leading institutions for teaching and research, on the beautiful UCT campus.

The LSE-UCT July School will be the first such collaboration between leading institutions in Europe and Africa and builds on the continuing success of the LSE-PKU Summer School in Beijing, now in its tenth year.

This innovative new programme will provide students, graduates and professionals from across the globe with an exciting opportunity to study important social science issues relevant to Africa today.

Full and partial bursaries are now available to African nationals who wish to join the programme, thanks to the generous funding of Standard Bank. A number of bursaries are also available for current LSE students wishing to attend, supported by the LSE Annual Fund. More
 

One of Britain’s leading NGOs tracking the health of democracy, human rights and freedoms in an evidence-based way is moving to LSE. The Democratic Audit is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and is moving from the University of Liverpool to be hosted within LSE's Department of Government. It will now be co-directed by Dr Jonathan Hopkins and Professor Patrick Dunleavy.

The latest edition of Global Sociology, by Robin Cohen and Paul Kennedy, features 22 'Global Thinkers', six of whom are or were LSE staff members or have passed through LSE at some point.

The feature which runs throughout the textbook provides analyses of the important research undertaken by these key thinkers in sociology and related disciplines, and provides some background to current sociological thinking.

Sustainable Projects Fund: winners announced

The winners of the 2013 LSE Sustainable Projects Fund have been announced. £14,000 was awarded to kick-start seven student and staff-led projects that will improve environmental sustainability within the LSE community.

The winning entries included campus bike service points, a study of LSE recycling behaviours, and a pilot for maths modules to include environmentally themed worked problems.

Julian Robinson, director of Estates, said, 'We are delighted to support these projects, which will positively contribute to the life of the School whilst improving its environmental impact. The strength and variety of all the applications was a testament to the huge wealth of talent and creativity at the School.'

The Sustainable Projects Fund is an LSE prize-fund for student and staff-led projects that enhance sustainability at LSE. It is run by the LSESU Sustainable Futures Society. The money comes from a 10p ‘tax’ on bottled water sold by LSE Catering. Funds are awarded annually by an independent judging panel including students, senior academics and the director of Estates.

For more information on the Fund and the winning projects, click here. The 2014 Fund will open for submissions in autumn 2013.
 

And the winners are....

As part of Student Volunteering Week 2013 the Volunteer Centre @ LSE Careers ran a photography competition with two £125 vouchers up for grabs as prizes.

There were two categories:
1. LSE students volunteering. Students were asked to enter their best examples of LSE students volunteering in the community, either in the UK or abroad.
2. Helping others. This was a chance for students to use their imagination. The entries did not need to contain images of LSE students volunteering, but they had to fall in to the topic of 'helping others'.

A4 internal envelopes

The Post Room kindly asks staff to return all internal A4 envelopes to them in room KGS.03, King's Chambers.

The envelopes are recycled and stocks are running low.
 

LSE has convened a working group to look at knowledge exchange and impact activities across the School. As part of this process, it has commissioned a survey to find out what knowledge exchange and impact related activities LSE staff currently undertake, the support they get from Departments/Research Centres and the School on these activities, where staff feel that LSE excels, where we could do better, and where and how LSE could improve its knowledge exchange and impact activities.

Please take 10 minutes to respond to this survey, which can be found at www.research.net/s/MJFP6Y3.

Hay Festival Beirut 8-10 May

The Hay Festival Beirut is looking for participants for this year’s event. The programme is in preparation but will have a focus on literature, the graphic novel, development and human rights issues.

Guests this year include Baroness Helena Kennedy, Hanif Kureishi, Hannah At Shayk, Karl Ove Knausgardm, Mouhammed Hanif, and Philip Mansell.

For more information on how to participate, email Noita Sadler, external relations executive, at n.j.sadler@lse.ac.uk.
 

Tell us what you think - Staff News feedback survey 2013

The Press Office has put together a short survey for you to let us know how you feel about Staff News. It will be an important way for us to find out how we can improve the newsletter for you.

The survey is open to all staff and should take no more than five minutes to complete. To take part, visit www.survey.bris.ac.uk/lsewebsite/staff_news_2013.

How do I change the default font for new Word documents?

1. Locate the template Normal.dotx (Office 2010 or 2007) or Normal.dot (Office 2003). On an LSE computer, it is in H:\LSEsetup\templates. On a private computer, open Windows Explorer or My Computer and type Normal.dotx or Normal.dot into the search box in the upper right corner of the window, just below the Close icon. Then press Enter on the keyboard.

2. Open the template by right-clicking on it and selecting Open. (Double clicking on a template creates a new document based on the template rather than opening the template itself. The file name must end with the file extension .dotx or .dot rather than .docx or .doc.)

3. From the Home tab, right click on the Normal icon in the Styles cluster and click Modify.

4. Change the font settings as required.

5. Click OK to close the dialog box.

6. Save and close the template.

Well how about the next best thing? Playing for the LSE Staff Cricket Team.

Games take place throughout the summer on Wednesday afternoons at LSE's well-appointed Sportsground in South West London. New players needed and welcome.

Cupcakes, gateaux, tray bakes.... whatever your forte, please help Comic Relief by entering your cakes in LSE’s inter-departmental bake off on Friday 15 March.

Departments and support units across the School are being asked to donate cakes for sale and also have the opportunity of entering a 'Show Stopper' that will be judged by a senior LSE staff member.

Working in an office at a computer for prolonged periods of time can lead to tension, stiffness, and stress throughout the body. Yoga stretches can be done at your desk anytime, and can help reduce strain that develops from sitting for long periods of time, typing, and staring at the computer screen.

In these sessions we will target neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, hamstrings and the lower back. The techniques will be easy to follow and will be practiced seated and standing. No yoga mat, special attire, or previous yoga experience is required.

Benefits:

• Reduced stress and muscle tension
• Clear your mind
• Relieve neck and back pain

The next session is on Wednesday 13 March from 12.10-12.55pm in room 2.04, Tower One. The sessions cost £8 but if you book one week or more in advance, you pay £7. Please note that a PayPal transaction fee of 45p will be added for single early bird bookings, 70p for two bookings.

LSE Perspectives

March's LSE Perspectives gallery is now online. You can view the gallery online here.

This week's offer is for GAIL's Kitchen, a new restaurant located nearby in Bedford Square.

The restaurant is offering LSE staff their first drink free (house beer or wine) with any food ordered. Just show your LSE staff card.

Look out for a review in The Beaver very soon. For menus and more information, visit www.gailskitchen.co.uk.

Strengthening our Economic Competitiveness Abroad: advice from the front lines

LSE academics are invited to join Business Forward for a conference call featuring Jose Fernandez, US assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, on how the United States can create jobs and improve our international economic competitiveness.

The call will take place on Wednesday 13 March at 10am EST, is free of charge and not for press purposes. Interested persons should contact Benjamin Sacks on 07774 804258 or email b.k.sacks@lse.ac.uk for RSVP and dial-in information.

This week's picture features the new signage on the rear entrance to 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields in Portugal Street.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

EU commitment needed on preventing mass atrocities

The EU needs to strengthen its commitment and tools to prevent mass atrocities, such as those perpetrated in Syria, according to a new report by the Task Force on the EU Prevention of Mass Atrocities which was co-chaired by LSE's Professor Karen E Smith.

The report highlights that mass atrocity prevention is rarely mentioned in core EU documents despite the EU’s commitment to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing, as well as to promote human rights. Its development, conflict prevention and crisis management policies, for example, do not sufficiently focus on mass atrocities, even though these crimes threaten the achievement of the EU’s core goals.

The EU’s intelligence gathering and warning functions also do not systematically take into account the possibility of these types of crimes taking place.

The Task Force calls for the EU to make an explicit commitment to prevent mass atrocities and to incorporate this into the next update of the European Security Strategy as well as existing strategies for human rights and conflict prevention. More

On: Monday 11 March from 6.30-8pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Clare Hemmings, professor of feminist theory in the LSE Gender Institute.

In this lecture, Professor Clare Hemmings will chart the significance of Emma Goldman’s revolutionary thought for a contemporary analysis of sexuality, gender and revolt.

Throughout her life (1869-1940) and work, Goldman centred sexuality as both key to how capitalism functions (particularly for women), and as a privileged site for political transformation.

Other forthcoming events include....

Unintended Consequences of the New Financial Regulations
On: Monday 11 March at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Dr Jon Danielsson (pictured), director of the Systemic Risk Centre at LSE, Professor Charles Goodhart, emeritus professor of banking and finance with the Financial Markets Group at LSE, and Matt King, managing director and global head of credit products strategy at Citi.

Does Eastern Europe Still Exist?
On: Tuesday 12 March at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Anne Applebaum, Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2012-13 academic year.
 

On: Thursday 14 March from 12.30-1.30pm in room CON 1.04, Connaught House (a change to the email invitation venue)

The LSE branch of the Association of University Administrators is hosting this debate, entitled Is HE administration a profession?

Simeon Underwoood, LSE academic registrar and director of academic services, will argue for, and Chris McClelland, deputy HR director, against. Charlotte Knights, department manager in the Department of Economics, will chair.

All AUA members and non-members are welcome attend and participate. This should prove to be a lively topic and a good opportunity to hear the thoughts of LSE staff on HE administration.

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Literary Festival: Women Writing History
Speakers: Molly Crabapple, Professor Mary Evans, Vicky Featherstone, and Kate Mosse
Recorded: Wednesday 27 February, approx. 86 minutes
Click here to listen

Islamic Finance and Shari`a Compliance: reality and expectations
Speakers: Tan Sri Dato' Azman bin Hj. Mokhtar, and Dr Frank Vogel
Recorded: Wednesday 27 February, approx. 90 minutes
Click here to listen

Growing the Productivity of Government Services
Speakers: Leandro Carrera and Professor Patrick Dunleavy
Recorded: Thursday 28 February, approx. 91 minutes
Click here to listen

Training and development opportunities for staff

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• Dealing with Difficult Personal Issues

• Safe Posture and Avoiding RSI

• Writing for Blogs

• Balancing Work and Being Mum

• Overcoming Procrastination

• Citing, Referencing and Creating a Bibliography

• Research Division Funding Focus: open calls for research fellowships

• Introduction to Government, Intergovernmental and Archival sources

These are just some of the events running next week. To receive a monthly list of all events, subscribe to the staff training and development email by clicking here. To find out more about training and development across the School and for links to booking pages, see lse.ac.uk/training.
 

Google Scholar Citations training workshops

As part of an ongoing, School-wide effort to enhance the profile and impact of LSE research, workshops are being run for academics, research staff, and PhD students on setting up a Google Scholar profile.

These short sessions will discuss how you can use Google Scholar Citations (GSC) to enhance your research visibility. The workshops will work through creating a profile, understanding the citation scores it provides, linking to co-authors and managing alerts.

There is no need to book, feel free to join any of the sessions below, although please note that some sessions may be more relevant to particular groups. As a guide to rough numbers attending, you can sign up via the links below.

Workshops will take place on:

• Thursday 14 March, 1-2pm, room NAB 2.08 (for all staff)

• Tuesday 19 March, 1-2pm, room CON 1.06 (aimed at PhD and early career researchers)

• Wednesday 24 April, 2-3pm, room OLD 3.21 (aimed at research staff)

• Tuesday 14 May, 1-2pm, room OLD 3.21 (aimed at PhD and early career researchers)

For more information, email Sierra at s.williams4@lse.ac.uk.
 

One in four people are likely to experience mental health difficulties in any given year, so it is very likely that if you’re a manager you will need to support staff experiencing mental health difficulties at one time or another.

The Staff Counselling Service in collaboration with the Health and Safety Team are running a one day course for managers on Tuesday 19 March, to raise awareness of mental health issues and to give practical tips on how managers can support their staff.

Below are some of the vacancies currently being advertised to internal candidates only, as well as those being advertised externally.

• Accounts assistant, Residential and Catering Services Division
• Carpenter, Estates: facilities and projects
• Chair/reader in contemporary Turkish studies, European Institute
• Communications manager, Information Management Technology Division
• Executive assistant to the director, PCPD: directorate and support team
• LSE fellow in global politics, Government
• LSE fellow in government, Government
• Lecturer in social policy, Social Policy
• Lecturer in social psychology/economic psychology, Social Psychology
• Lecturers in management, Management
• Marketing administrator, ARD: student administration
• Pay administrator, Human Resources
• Postdoctoral fellows (up to five positions), Anthropology
• Principal research fellow (adaptation), Grantham Research Institute
• Research development manager, Research Division
• Research officer in economic history, Economic History

Nicole wants to hear from you!

Do you have some news, an achievement, or an aspect of LSE life that you would like to share? If so, then I would love to hear from you, contact me at n.gallivan@lse.ac.uk or on ext 7582.

The next edition of Staff News is on Thursday 14 March. Articles for this should be emailed to me by Tuesday 12 March. Staff News is emailed every Thursday during term time and fortnightly during the holidays.