• LSE runs its first Orientation Festival

The Orientation Festival has replaced the old student induction as a welcome to LSE, ensuring that all students, new and old, get off to a flying start.

‘There is still a great deal more to come,’ explains Michelle Ward from the Student Services Centre. ‘The Orientation Festival is currently underway: make sure you check out all the other events that are coming up, like Party in the Park on Thursday. LSE Director, Sir Howard Davies, will also be speaking to you next Wednesday (7 October) to wish you well in your time here.’

As well as the School Orientation, departments will also work in tandem to introduce students to their academic staff and requirements. 'Staff right across LSE will help you find your way around in these first weeks, so just ask if you get lost or cannot find a room. The New Arrivals website also has lots of important information to help you on your way, including support services available to students and details of the mentoring scheme,' Michelle added.

A help desk will be available for the rest of the week in the foyer of St Clement’s building, with campus tours also running from here. Look out for the additional help points as well, which can be found on Houghton Street and outside the New Academic Building. Lastly, don’t forget to check out the recently refurbished social spaces, The Quad, The Three Tuns, and The Underground. To see what they looked like before, take a look at this slide show.

• Escape - your new Library social space

Following building works during the summer, a new social space for students, named Escape, has opened in the Library entrance area. It provides an area outside the library study environment, where students can take a break from their studies, relax with their friends, chat on their mobile phones and even have a snack. This new facility is aimed at encouraging students to take a break when they need to, as well as preserving the main library space as a quiet and studious environment.

Library staff worked with the architects, project manager and Estates colleagues to agree the final design and to maintain Library services throughout the building works. SU education and welfare officer, Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang, was a key member of the planning group, to provide the student perspective - ‘The SU welcome the completion of the Escape social space and feel it is an excellent resource for students to relax in and take a break during their study, without disturbing other users of the library. As a member of the planning group, I am confident that Escape will go some way to addressing student need for informal social space and prove to be a valuable and much utilised resource for library users.' More

• It pays to study at LSE finds Sunday Times guide

LSE graduates earn on average almost £30,000 a year when they start work - the highest rate in the UK - found the University Guide 2010 published earlier this month.

The Sunday Times publication put LSE top of its table with an average of £29, 253 - ahead of Imperial, UCL, Oxford, King’s and Cambridge. However the average for those in full-time work is higher still, show LSE’s own figures, at £29,707.

Fiona Sandford, Head of Careers, said: ‘Our average has increased from the previous year and we also know that our graduates prefer to be choosy about which jobs they take - the proportion doing ‘non-graduate’ work is very low at just over four per cent. So I’m happy to say the prospects are good, in spite of the recession.’

The guide also rated LSE strongly in research (third best in the UK). Overall, LSE was ranked ninth.
 

• Food and drink @ LSE - loyalty cards now available

LSE’s catering services provide a diverse range of food and drinks for all tastes and budgets. The School has a number of catering venues to choose from, details can be found here.

You can also get a massive 50 per cent off at your favourite venue with a catering loyalty card. Pick up your card at any of LSE’s cafes or restaurants and collect a stamp when you spend £2 or more. Once you have received a stamp from each of the eight venues you will be rewarded with your discount. It’s as simple as that (conditions apply).

• Help make a difference… LSE’s Widening Participation team needs you

Widening participation aims to raise aspiration and attainment in young people from London state schools. The team deliver a number of projects that aim to encourage young people from under-represented backgrounds to aim for a university education.

The projects, however, need enthusiastic LSE students to be inspiring role models and help contribute to the success of the programmes. There are various opportunities: flexible and regular, on site and in schools, academic and personal development.

So how do you get involved? Find the Widening Participation stand at the Festival Fair, look out for posters around campus or attend one of their information presentations:

• Thursday 1 and Friday 2 October at 1pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, NAB
• Monday 5 October at 12.10pm and Tuesday 6 October at 1pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building

• Be part of ITV's The Krypton Factor

The 2010 version of ITV1's show The Krypton Factor is currently being developed. The show creators are in the process of testing the new games, and are looking for intelligent, young people to help them make sure the difficultly levels are right and that people will enjoy playing them.

If you would like to be one of the first to play the games, then contact Brian on brian.lavery@itv.com or 020 7157 3829. The first day of testing is on Thursday 1 October but if you cannot make that day, there may be other sessions coming up in the future.

• Volunteering Fair

Tuesday 6 October at 6.30-8.30pm in The Atrium, Old Building

This is an ideal opportunity for students wishing to undertake volunteering to meet with a range of organisations to find out about the volunteering opportunities they have available. To register for the fair visit http://careers.lse.ac.uk

There will be a pre-fair seminar to find out about making the most of the volunteering fair on Monday 5 October at 12-1pm in D502. More

• Fiesta, Party, Teuf, 派對

Thursday 1 October, 9pm-1am, in the Quad
A truly international welcome bash! There’s a word for ‘party’ wherever you’re from. Come and show everyone how you like to get down in your homeland. Expect special guest DJs, dancers, percussionists and bongo drums!

Don't miss out... buy your tickets from www.lsefestival.com
 

• Michaelmas 2009 Events leaflet

The Events leaflet for Michaelmas term is now available on online. Highlights include lectures by:

• Dr Justin Yifu Lin, chief economist and senior vice president at the World Bank, who will deliver the first lecture series on The Future of Global Capitalism
• Professor Noam Chomsky who will speak on the current state and future of human rights
• Stephen Dubner and Professor Steven Levitt who will launch their new book Superfreakonomics at LSE in November

You can also keep up to date with the latest information through the LSE Events email information service which enables you to receive email notification of new events and public lectures at LSE when they are announced. You can also get daily updates on Twitter, which will inform you about the posting of transcripts and videos, the announcement of new events and other important event updates. More
 

This is your opportunity to put your questions to the School - perhaps you want to know more about the new student services centre, the careers service, the library or even the catering facilities. Or maybe you just have suggestions on how to improve your time here?

Each week, we will include a selection of the questions received, along with the relevant answer from the School. If you would like to submit a question, please email Nicole Gallivan at n.gallivan@lse.ac.uk

• Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Service Society (HKPASS)

HKPASS focuses on promoting awareness of local public affairs and social service opportunities from Hong Kong, Asia’s World City. HKPASS is one of the few student societies at LSE that puts such a high emphasis on public affairs and social service and over the past decade, we have organised talks given by distinguished guests from all over the world, from a wide range of sectors and backgrounds. Through these, we hope to broaden our members’ opportunities to expand their social horizon to different walks of life.

Claim to fame -

1st runner up for LSESU best society event award

Approx number of members -

170 members

Society president -

Michael Lok (LLB year two)
m.h.lok@lse.ac.uk

Famous alum -

Dr Wong Yick-ming, DBE, JP, executive director of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, Honorary Fellow of LSE

Biggest event or achievement -

Lecture by Donald Tsang, the chief executive and head of Government of Hong Kong SAR

Big event coming up? -

We organise a series of seminars and public lectures over the year and they all feature distinguished public figures with a close link to Hong Kong. All such events will be advertised on our website as well as the LSE Public Lectures homepage.

Why should people join this society? -

Whether you are a believer in a certain political ideology; an advocate of the importance of community service or you simply want to meet and exchange ideas with people - you will find our events truly worth-going-to and satisfying.

Website? -

www.lsehkpass.com

Each week we will feature one of the support services available to students. This week, it's the Financial Support Office.

• Financial Support Office

One of the support teams based in the Student Services Centre is the Financial Support Office. There are five of us in the team, and between us we administer scholarships, studentships, School prizes and hardship funds. We are also responsible for managing funding from the various Research Councils, and for dealing with LSE Bursaries for Home UK and EU students.

At this time of year we are already thinking about what scholarship funding is available for 2010 entry, but we are also supporting any students with an immediate problem with their finance - especially those with difficulty accessing money in their bank accounts, or with a delay in receiving their loans or grants from other sources. We expect all students to have their funds in place before they arrive, but we know that sometimes arrangements do not work as they should.

You can email us at any time on financial-support@lse.ac.uk or visit us at our drop in session every week day in term time. We are normally on the counter at the Student Services Centre from 1-2pm. For this week only (w/c 28 September), we are in the Atrium from 1.30-2.30pm. More