Title

HR Organisational and Lifelong Learning
The schedule of courses for the new academic year is now online. Last year, there were 90 events for 800 delegates covering 30 different topics.

Dr Alice Evans

Alice, Department of Geography and Environment, likes to focus on the present, though she does have a slight yearning for a zip-line death slide from her childhood...

 Research

 LSE in pictures

 Events

 Training and jobs

 Notices

LSE named University of the Year for Graduate Employment

LSE has won University of the Year for Graduate Employment in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2015. The newspapers’ latest league table judged LSE as the top university for employability due to the School’s strong graduate prospects despite not having traditionally high-employment faculties, such as medicine and engineering.

This year saw a 6.3 point increase in LSE’s graduate employment rate – the biggest increase in the top ten ranked universities - with 83.4 per cent of graduates in a professional role within six months.

LSE ranked second in the world for social sciences

The School has kept its position as second in the world for social sciences, according to the latest global university league table.

The QS World University Rankings has, for the second year running, ranked LSE ahead of Oxford and Cambridge and just behind Harvard in its 'social sciences and management faculty area'. The latest overall rankings also rated LSE as the sixth best university in the world for employer reputation and seventh for the size of its international student body.

Members of the BIEE were invited to nominate the individual whom they believe has made the greatest contribution to British energy economics during the last decade. The committee was unanimous in recommending that Lord Stern should receive the prize. It was noted that his 2006 Review of the Economics of Climate Change has been the most influential single piece of energy economics published over the last decade, with important implications for both government policy and company strategies.

Lord Stern said: “It’s a tremendous honour to be given this award by the British Institute of Energy Economics. The Institute has played a leading role in public discussion of issues around energy and the economics of energy for a very long time. Indeed I think it has defined in many ways what a serious discussion on those issues should be.”

Now in its fifth year, the Top Employers for Working Families Benchmark continues to provide employers with comprehensive and detailed insights into their flexible working and work-life integration policies and practices, giving them the opportunity to see how they measure up against other organisations. The London School of Economics and Political Science has just won the award for the second year running amongst an illustrious list of ten top scoring organisations, including American Express, Deloitte and Centrica.

The panel of judges said: "[This work] concerns itself with a field of literature which is well developed, but it does add value both in the analysis and in the narrative around the case study. The distinction between the connect-disconnect modes of engagement on the one hand and the ‘galvanic surge’ on the other is an important and original insight with wider significance, as the writer ably suggests in the conclusion. The ‘alternating current’ metaphor is powerful and useful."

LSE Health and The Commonwealth Fund convene experts working group on high-need, high-cost patients

An international experts working group met at LSE on 11 and 12 September in preparation for The Commonwealth Fund’s Annual International Symposium, where international policymakers will discuss high-need, high-cost patients. The Symposium will be in Washington, DC from 19-21 November. The research shaped by these meetings will culminate in a report by LSE Health and The Commonwealth Fund providing recommendations to health ministers and other policymakers.

Across health systems in industrialised countries, as few as 5-10 per cent of patients are responsible for more than 50 per cent of the total cost of healthcare. These 'high-need, high-cost' patients are likely to suffer from chronic diseases and multiple or complex conditions, often combined with behavioural or mental health problems and socioeconomic challenges. LSE Health and The Commonwealth Fund have launched a two-year project to compare international integrated delivery models for the care of high-need, high-cost patients and identify best practices in improving health and social care while controlling costs associated with this population.
 

All LSE staff are invited to an event to celebrate the official opening of the new media studio at LSE. The event will include BAFTA award winning film maker Roger Graef in conversation with Conor Gearty. They will discuss Graef's films, the impact they have had, and the challenges faced by film-makers today.

This will take place on Tuesday 30 September from 6–7.30pm followed by a drinks reception and will be held in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building.

Staff portrait dates

If you're in need of a staff portrait, make a date to go over to G19 in the Old Building on Monday 6 October or Thursday 9 October, any time between 11am and 1pm or between 2 and 4pm.

Portraits will cost departments £15. All pictures are colour digital files. Pictures will be received a few weeks after they have been taken, giving time for post-production work.

More sessions will be available towards the end of term.
 

Malicious emails attempt to trick you into giving away your passwords and other valuable information. There are some quick ways in which you can identify a scam email:

• Generic greetings such as ‘Dear customer’.
• Urgent wording, threat of action unless you do something now.
• Short, vague message.
• Requests for your personal information.
• Poor spelling and grammar.

Check out LSE Catering’s restaurants, cafés and pub. With tastes and budgets to suit everyone – explore them all and discover your favourite.

LSE Chill is an open performance night, organised by LSE Arts which takes place on the last Friday of every month during term time – singers, bands, actors, poetry readers and aspiring comedians all welcome.

LSE Perspectives is a monthly online gallery that features photographs taken by LSE students and staff, and LSE Arts is looking for submissions for their next gallery

So if you have taken any artistic images on your travels, in your home town or even just here in London, why not submit them for LSE Perspectives so that they can be shared with the LSE community.

Call for internal envelopes

If you have any internal envelopes lying around your desk, please send them back to the Post Room. The team is running low and needs a good supply in order to keep the post moving around the School effectively.  Time for a desk autumn clean!
 

Communications Division office

Work is now underway on the fourth floor of Tower Three preparing the offices for the newly-formed Communications Division.

Currently, the Design Unit and the office of Adrian Thomas, Director of Communications and Public Affair, are still located on the fourth floor but can only be accessed by Tower Three. Academic Partnerships, the India at LSE blog and the Africa at LSE blog have temporarily moved to the third floor of Tower Three.

If you have any questions or you're uncertain where a member of the Communications Division is located, call Maddy on x7582.
 

Ink cartridge giveaway

The Middle East Centre has six unopened HP Officejet 940 ink cartridges to give away. They are magenta, cyan, yellow and black and are suitable for models HP Officejet Pro 8000 and 8500. If you can put them to good use, get in touch with Sandra Sfeir on s.sfeir@lse.ac.uk.
 

1. In any new or existing Word file, type the text you wish to re-use and apply any formatting required.
2. Select the text.
3. From the Insert tab, open the Quick Parts list and select AutoText. The General dialog box opens.
4. At the bottom of the box click Save Selection to AutoText Gallery.
5. The first two words appear as the default name.
   a. If the first 4-6 letters of the default name are unusual, keep it.
   b. Otherwise, change it to something short and memorable.
6. To insert the text into any Word document:
   a. If you kept the default name, start typing it. A small box appears displaying the name and beginning of your saved text. Press ENTER to insert it.
   b. If you changed the name, type it and press F3. The short name is replaced with the AutoText entry.

This week's picture features
Clare Market campus during Summer School.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

International investment kept residential development alive in central London in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and remains important, a leading housing expert told a conference at LSE earlier in September.

Christine Whitehead, professor of housing economics at LSE, pointed out that international buyers purchasing properties off-plan, gave developers the cash flow and the confidence to go ahead with major projects that otherwise would have stalled. These developments included some thousands of affordable homes, which were secured through planning agreements negotiated before the financial crisis.

Professor Whitehead said: “Concerns that international money pushes up demand and prices for homes in the capital, putting homes out of the reach of ordinary Londoners, are – outside central London – largely misplaced. The evidence is that there have been big effects at the most expensive end of the market but that international money is involved in only around seven per cent of transactions across London. Unhappily there are many other more important factors, notably continuing poor supply, that make London’s housing system increasingly dysfunctional.” More

'Cross-national survey: methods of design and analysis' - on Monday 15 December 

Cross-national surveys such as the European Social Survey (ESS) are one of the most important resources of comparative social science. Their design and analysis raises many distinctive methodological challenges, especially ones related to questions of comparison and comparability between countries.

This one-day workshop examines the state of the art and recent developments in the design and statistical analysis of cross-national surveys. The topics covered include critical steps in the design and implementation of such surveys, methodological innovation in the ESS, cross-national equivalence of measurement in survey questions, modelling of survey non-response across countries, and statistical modelling of cross-national survey data.

The workshop is sponsored by the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods under its Methodological Innovations Projects programme. The workshop is free but places are limited and registration is essential - register here.
 

HR Organisational and Lifelong Learning (OLL)

HR OLL has published a new schedule of courses for 2014-15 academic year, following last year's success which saw 90 training events for 800 delegates covering 30 different topics.

Following a retender exercise over the summer to refresh our external training providers, and taking into account feedback from staff and course evaluations, a number of new courses have been introduced. These include Career Development and Marketing Yourself, and Managing Under Pressure. A few programmes are still under development and will be advertised shortly.

Feedback is always welcome so do contact the team and let them know what you think about the training or if you would like something else included.

Information about each course and how to book can be found on the links below. A comprehensive list of other development opportunities for this academic year can be found here.

If you have any queries please email hr.learning@lse.ac.uk.

Leadership and Management Development
Introduction to Management
Managing Performance Positively
Recruitment and Selection
Step Up Programme
Strategic Thinking
Managing Under Pressure

Personal Effectiveness
Assertive Communication
Balancing Work and Being Mum
Balancing Work and Being Dad
Career Development and Marketing Yourself
Dealing with Difficult Situations
Developing Your CV and Interview Skills
Managing Stress in Yourself and Others

Equality and Diversity
Equality and Diversity Awareness
Unconscious Bias (to follow)

Independent Online Language Learning (eLang)

LSE Language Centre has a new Independent Online Language Learning. The course aims to set participants up as independent online language learners, teaching them the skills to study effectively outside of the language classroom.

Participants will:

• Learn the skills to become an effective online language learner

• Gain the confidence to use online language resources and tools

• Develop or improve Digital Literacy with regard to language learning

• Create an ePortfolio consisting of all your online language tasks

The course costs £30. Further details, including how to sign up, can be found here.
 

Courses scheduled for next few weeks include:

• Moodle Basics training
• Excel: Using pivot tables to analyse data
• Using learning technologies in your teaching

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

• Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics: Conflict and Peace Studies, Department of Government
• Assistant Professor in Management: Employment Relations or Human Resources Management, Department of Management
• Assistant Professor in Gender and Contemporary Culture, Gender Institute
• Assistant Professor in Media and Communications, Department of Media and Communication
• Careers Consultant: PhD and Postdoctoral Research Staff, LSE Careers Service
• Deputy Head of Academic Partnerships, Academic Partnerships
• HR Adviser, Human Resources
• Marketing Coordinator, Academic Registrar’s Division
• Research Officer, Middle East Centre