• Calling all international students – it’s time to shine!

The deadline for The International Student Awards 2010, a major competition run by the British Council, is approaching. All international students at LSE are eligible to enter.

Now in its eighth year, the competition is open to all international students in the UK and aims to celebrate international students and the contribution they make to communities across the country. Unlike other student competitions, it doesn’t focus just on your academic achievements - it’s your chance to share your stories about your activities outside the classroom and your exciting new life in the UK.

In 2008, LSE student Malvika Saraogi, who is from India, was a runner up in the awards thanks to her inspirational story of student life in the UK.

• Join the student panel

Would you like the opportunity to give your views about School services and your experiences at LSE? The student panel is recruiting members, any current students are welcome to join. For more information and to join the panel, click here.
 

• Fitness First student offer

Fitness First on Fetter Lane are offering LSE students a free week’s use of the club with full use of the club and all facilities at any time of the day. The first ten students to take up full membership will also receive:

• One personal training session
• A 30 minutes sun bed session
• A goodie bag
• Free towel hire for the duration of your membership

• Business and Management Fair

LSE's Business and Management Fair is on Tuesday 3 November from 6.30pm.

It is the perfect opportunity for you to meet with a variety of companies including: Accenture, L'Oreal, Orange, Procter & Gamble, Tesco & Which? and many more….

• Recently announced LSE public lectures and events include:

• Andrew Ross Sorkin award-winning chief mergers and acquisitions reporter for The New York Times on 5 November

• Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar who will speak on The Reform of the International Financial System

• Journalist John Cassidy who will speak on How Markets Fail: the problem of rational irrationality

• Professor Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic, whose lecture is entitled First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: the double death of neoliberalism and the idea of communism
   

• Film society film screening - 'Fallen Idol'

Q: Cycle parking is now banned/impossible all along Houghton Street, in front of Clement House, along St Clement’s Lane, and probably in several further places. This is a serious reduction in facilities in practical terms, if not formal terms. There have been several occasions this term when it has not been possible to find a bike parking place on site without using railings where it is prohibited. Why are there not more places?
Rachel Bells, undergraduate

A: As part of delivering the LSE Environmental Policy we will be publicising those cycle parking spaces that are available more effectively. For example, the spaces under the Towers are currently underused (a full list will be available on the updated Sustainable LSE website shortly).

We are working hard to provide appropriate cycle parking through active dialogue with the London Borough of Camden and the City of Westminster as well as liaising with the Mayor's office on the new London-wide bike rental facilities being installed over the next year. In addition, we are incorporating more cycle parking into the design of the new Student Services Centre.
Liane Fredericks, residences sustainability officer

• LSESU China Development Society

The China Development Society aims to promote a global and in depth understanding about China's economic and social development by organising lectures with a wide range of prominent speakers including well known scholars, professionals in the financial services industry and China-related businesses, as well as journalists and writers.

Claim to fame -

We are the only society on Chinese economy, politics and social matters in LSE.

Approx number of members -

600

Society president -

Howard Chi
07794 090258
h.chi1@lse.ac.uk

Biggest event or achievement -

The annual China Development Forum, the first China-themed forum run by students in London, and the acclaimed 'Tea and Knowledge Lecture Series' are the jewels in the crown of the society. Career events are also run throughout the year.

Big event coming up that you would like to highlight? -

China Development Forum 2010: 'China: a changing role' on 23 January 2010.

Why should people join this society? -

CDS is dedicated to providing detailed insight into China - its economical, political, international relations and various other development issues. It is also a society that greatly values the exchange of ideas and the diversity of its opinions.

Website -

A senior member of the School highlights an important issue for students.

• Robin Hoggard, Director of External Relations

Over the course of this week, LSE will host a variety of public lectures, including Noam Chomsky, Wilfred Martens the former prime minister of Belgium, the president of Ecuador, the CEO of the London Stock Exchange and the Israeli deputy foreign minister.

A few students have questioned whether we should allow someone from the Israeli Government to speak here. We think it is right to do so. The School’s commitment to free speech is strong and is indeed set out in our Code of Practice on Free Speech, which states that ‘The School authorities will not deny use of the School premises to any individual or body or persons connected with their beliefs, views, policy or objectives subject to a number of provisions such as whether the individual is likely to break the law or whether there is a risk of physical harm to those at the School or damage to School property'.

We have issued an invitation through the Palestinian office in London, to senior figures in the Palestinian government to speak at LSE.

Each week we will feature one of the support services available to students. This week, it's the Language Centre.

• Language Centre

The Language Centre provides a range of services and courses to support your studies and enhance your experience at LSE.

If English is not your first language, the Language Centre offers a comprehensive Insessional English for Academic Purposes support programme. To allow this programme of support to be delivered most effectively, departments are divided into academic clusters. If they think you will benefit from support, you can register for a weekly class covering all the aspects of academic writing you will need during your studies at LSE. There are also skills/option classes focussing on presentation skills, pronunciation, seminar skills, social and business English.

If all you need is proofreading for a key piece of work or an important application you can submit this to them online. They will give you an estimate of the time it will take to complete the task (on average seven working days) and an estimated price, for you to agree, before the work is started.

The Modern Foreign Language Certificate Course programme, runs from November through to June each year, and offers extra curricular courses to LSE students. They currently offer Arabic, Business Chinese, Mandarin, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.

The Centre’s Teaching and Learning Facilitators are always available during opening hours to help with any queries regarding courses and your language learning. For instance in helping you find a Tandem Learning partner. They also have a pageflakes site where they have put links to various online language resources and generally very interesting things about the languages the Centre teaches.