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20 October 2010 |
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 News
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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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• Changes to Lent and summer term lengths
You may be aware that Easter falls very late in 2011 and the School
has therefore agreed to adjust the term lengths to avoid losing too many
days of teaching and revision in the summer term.
This means that in 2011, Lent term will be 11 weeks long and Summer term
nine weeks. This change only applies to 2011 and should not have any
significant effect on teaching or exams in the summer term.
For students receiving loans, bursaries, and scholarships, your third
instalment will be made available at the start of the summer term, as set
out in correspondence from Student Finance and LSE. If you think this may
cause you any problems, please contact the Financial Support Office at
financial-support@lse.ac.uk.
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• Help to improve Orientation 2011
You should, by now, have received an electronic survey asking you
to rate your experience of this year’s Orientation, so please take this
opportunity to provide your views on how Orientation could be improved for
2011.
The questionnaire will only take a few minutes of your time to complete
and you will be in with a chance of winning cash prizes of £100 and £50, as
well as a £50 tab in the Three Tuns, plus three runner up prizes of a year’s
free entry to CRUSH!
For more information about the survey and the prizes, please visit
www.lsesu.com/survey, or
alternatively come and speak to the Orientation Team on Houghton Street on
Thursday 21 October.
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• Help students reach educational success with Teach First
Teach First, a government funded organisation, is looking to recruit LSE
students and graduates to help them close the gap in educational attainment
within the UK.
It remains a fact in the UK that your social background can have an
influence on your educational attainment. Coupled with poor teaching and a
lack of inspirational role models, those from under-privileged backgrounds
continue to suffer from poor educational success.
If you sign up to Teach First, you will go into teaching for two years,
after which you will have gained Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). Teach First
is all about becoming a leader and achieving success - both for yourself and
for others.
This year, Teach First have a particular interest in those with a
background in STEM subjects at A-Level. This includes science and maths
based subjects. For more information visit
http://graduates.teachfirst.org.uk/ or email David Fosu, LSE Teach First
brand manager, at d.fosu@lse.ac.uk.
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• LSE residences available during vacations
During the student vacation periods, LSE residences are available to the
public as great value accommodation in the heart of London.
During Christmas and Easter, we have three residences open offering bed
and breakfast: Carr-Saunders, Passfield, and Rosebery. These are perfect if
you have friends or relatives coming to visit you in London and what’s more,
as LSE students, you can get a 10 per cent discount on the cost of their
stay.
Discounted rates at Christmas start from just £23.04 per night and all
three residences are excellently located for London’s major sights. Visit
www.lsevacations.co.uk/lse
or call 020 7955 7575 for more information or to make bookings.
As well as our vacation availability, we also offer a limited amount of
year round accommodation through LSE TopFloor!. Visit
www.lsetopfloor.co.uk/lse or
call for more information.
We understand it can be inconvenient having to move out of certain
residences, or move rooms, during vacation time. Additional revenue raised
through commercial trading helps to keep student rents as low as possible.
In the previous financial year, vacation trading contributed over £3.7
million to accommodation revenue. People choosing to book with LSE Vacations
are helping to provide safe, secure and affordable housing for LSE students. |
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 Notices
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• IT Services update
IT Services has experienced 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. We still
have concerns about the use of some PowerPoint presentations and
statistical applications and are prioritising these.
We are working with our academic colleagues to ensure that the new
desktop, which offers the most up-to-date applications, works smoothly.
Lecturers are informing us of any continued problems but we are more than
happy to respond to student concerns as well. Please contact
ITS.feedback@lse.ac.uk.
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• Register at the St Philips Medical Centre
LSE students living in a hall of residence are now able to register with
the NHS online, through the St Philips Medical Centre.
It is important that you register with the NHS in case you fall ill
during term-time. Registering in advance will save time and stress in
the event that you do require NHS treatment or advice.
To register online, visit www.SPMC.info.
Your registration will be processed within 14 working days.
If you are a UK resident, please make sure you give your NHS number.
Please note that if you are living in the SE1 postcode, you will not be
entitled to register at the St Philips Medical Centre.
Students who need to see a doctor/nurse as a matter of urgency, can
contact the medical centre on 020 7955 7016.
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• Current LSE undergraduate student?
You are entitled to a 10 per cent fee discount on LSE taught masters
programmes.
Find out more at the Graduate Open Evening on Wednesday 3 November from
5-8.30pm. Booking is essential so for more information and to book your
place, visit
Graduate Open Evening.
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• Join the LSE Student Panel
Would you like the opportunity to give your opinions on School services?
Would you like the chance to earn rewards or be entered into prize draws?
If so, then join the LSE Student Panel. The Panel is administered by the
School's Market Intelligence Officer on behalf of the Student Recruitment
Office and the Student Services Centre, and provides the School with a pool
of students who are willing to take part in consultations and market
research.
Any current LSE student can join the Panel. For more information or to
join, visit the
Student Panel web page.
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• Undergraduates needed to participate in experiments
Would you like to take part in experimental research at LSE? During the
course of this year, Dr Oliver Curry will be running a series of internet
and lab-based research projects, involving questionnaires, social psychology
experiments, and economic games, and he is looking for recruits. Last year
over 600 people signed up.
Depending on the study, you can expect to receive payment for your time
and effort, learn more about the experimental process, and make a valuable
contribution to research.
To register, visit the
sign up
page. You will be contacted when suitable experiments arise and can then
decide whether or not to participate.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact
Dr Oliver Curry at o.s.curry@lse.ac.uk.
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• Refurbished computer room now open
The newly refurbished computer room OLD B.25, in the basement of the Old
Building, is now open 24 hours a day, Monday-Friday during Michaelmas term.
If you would like to visit the room between 00.30am and 5am, please email
security.id.card@lse.ac.uk,
quoting 'OLD B.25 computer room 24 hour access', to enable swipe card
access.
The room will be open 24 hours a day for Michaelmas term only, after
which the Library opens 24 hours from the start of Lent Term until the end
of the exams in June. During the summer term the room will be open
Monday-Friday between 9am-midnight. During all terms, it will be open on
Saturday and Sunday from 10am-10pm.
Get real-time PC availability in OLD B.25 or any other student computer
area, on your mobile phone using LSE Mobile, or on your PC, laptop or mobile
phone browser at
lse.ac.uk/itservices/findapc.
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• Student training at LSE
Student courses scheduled for next week include:
- Excel 2010: formulas and common functions
- Excel 2010: charts
- Excel 2010: presenting and printing data
- Word 2010: essential tips and techniques
- Outlook 2010: outlook for business
- Introduction to database structure and design
- Get started with EndNote
- Participating and presenting in classes and seminars
- Managing study related stress
- Going beyond Google
- Lyx for LaTex
For a full schedule and further details, including booking information,
please see www.lse.ac.uk/training.
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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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 What's
on
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• Sparks@LSE
On: Thursday 11 November at The Freemasons Hall, Great Queen
Street, London, WC2B 5AZ
The LSESU Entrepreneurs Society present Sparks@LSE,
an
entrepreneurship conference organised by students at LSE.
The event aims to give an overview of how to turn ideas into a thriving
business. In addition, the audience will be able to gain industry-specific
advice from some of the most influential minds in their sectors as well as
obtain a credible insight into the current issues within the business
community.
The event will include lectures, panel discussions and
networking sessions, and will be led by successful entrepreneurs including:
- Edward Wray, founder and chairman of
Betfair
- Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra
Beer
- John Bird MBE, founder and editor-in-chief
of The Big Issue
- Mike Clare, founder of Dreams
All profits raised from the conference will be donated to The Microloan
Foundation, which provides women in sub-Saharan Africa with small loans to
help them establish and run a business.
Tickets are now available at the discounted price of £27. To buy your
tickets or for more information, visit the
Sparks@LSE website.
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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 events announced....
The Upside of Irrationality: the unexpected benefits of defying logic
On: Wednesday 27 October at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre,
New Academic Building
Speaker: Professor Dan Ariely, Alfred P Sloan Professor of
Behavioral Economics at MIT
This event is free and open to all however a ticket is required. One
ticket per person can be requested from 1pm on Thursday 21 October.
Greece is Changing
On: Monday 8 November at 6.30pm. The venue will be confirmed to
ticketholders.
Speaker: George Papaconstantinou (pictured), 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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• Berlusconi Explained to Posterity and Foreign Friends
Speaker:
Beppe Severgnini, journalist and columnist
On: Tuesday 26 October at 6.45pm in the New Theatre, East
Building
The LSESU Italian Society hosts this lecture with renowned Italian
journalist
Beppe Severgnini.
Silvio Berlusconi is the second longest-serving prime minister in Italy.
Mr Berlusconi’s era has been controversial and polemical. But why is it that
despite the various scandals he has been associated with, Italians still
seem to favour him?
Beppe Severgnini will attempt to answer this question by presenting his
new book, Berlusconi Explained to Posterity and Foreign Friends. In
the book, Beppe discusses the reasons why Berlusconi has risen and remained
in power for so long.
This event is open to all. Seats will be allocated on a first come first
served basis.
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• Music Society pub quiz social night
On: Monday 25 October at 8.30-11pm in the Underground Bar
The LSESU Music Society have organised a pub quiz social night, with band
performances and exciting games. There are prizes to be won, plus free
drinks, and networking opportunities with other musicians.
Just turn up with a smile and a friend. Members and non-members welcome. |
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 Society
profile
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• United Nations Society
The United Nations Society does a great deal! We go to 12+
conferences a year and run a packed
calendar of events including lectures, debates, film screenings and
networking and careers events, plus a great education and
outreach programme.
Claim to fame?
In 2010, we held the first ever Model UN Conference at LSE, a six way
coordinated crisis simulation of the war in Afghanistan.
In autumn 2009, we partnered with the UN World Food Programme for world food
day and raised over £800.
We are also one of the largest, busiest societies on campus.
Number of members?
Around 1,000
Society president?
Teddy Nicholson
e.nicholson1@lse.ac.uk
su.soc.unitednations@lse.ac.uk
Biggest event or achievement?
Last year we held the first ever LSE Model
United Nations (MUN) Conference which we dubbed 'The London Security Exercise'. We ran it together with the Grimshaw Club and the
Afghanistan Development Society and aimed for a degree of realism often
absent from MUN conferences.
It was a simulation of the war in Afghanistan
with around a hundred highly skilled delegates taking roles in the UN
Security Council, NATO, the cabinets of the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan and
finally the Taliban. It was exciting and
challenging for all involved, but a great success. For information on last
year’s conference, see www.lsemun.org.
We finished it off with the biggest LSE society party of the year - Le Gala.
We’re looking to repeat the whole thing this year, so get in touch if you’re
interested.
Why should people join the society?
We are one of the largest, most dynamic and interesting societies at LSE,
for the simple reason that the United Nations covers all aspects of what LSE
students are interested in. Aside from that, we send students to MUN conferences around the country and
the world, from Oxford and Cambridge, to New York, Paris, Singapore and
Barcelona.
Website?
www.lseunsociety.org or on
Facebook.
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 Direct
view
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A senior member of the School highlights an important issue for
students. • Howard Davies, LSE Director
Over the next few months the School's key decision-making committees will
be faced with some difficult decisions. Students sit on the Academic Board
and on Council - so their views will be extremely important.
As many of you will be aware, the Browne Review of higher education
funding and student finance, which reported last week, makes sombre reading.
Under Browne's proposals the teaching budget for universities would be cut
by up to 80 per cent according to some estimates, with funding focussed
on science, medicine and engineering. As a result LSE would lose the
entirety of its teaching grant - some £9 million. 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.
As I write, the Coalition is announcing its Comprehensive Spending Review
- and there is unlikely to be any good news in that. If reports are
accurate, budgets for universities and research could lose as much as £5
billion from a current funding level of £11.5 billion. The scale of these
cuts is unprecedented.
The School, ultimately through Council, will have to make decisions about
its funding structure that will affect generations of 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 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 are to be welcomed.
We look forward to student input. The 'Freeze the Fees' campaign might
have sounded attractive to some of you pre-Browne. But we are now busy
revising our financial forecasts in the light of the new realities. Sadly,
we were too optimistic. There are some real challenges ahead, I hope
students will help us meet them. |
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 60
Second Interview
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• with..... Professor Simon Hix
I’ve been at LSE on and off since
1987. I first came as an undergraduate,
studying for a BSc Econ in
Government and History, then studied
an MSc in West European Politics
part-time between 1990 and 1992.
I then went to the European
University Institute in Florence to
do a PhD.
I got my first academic job at
Brunel University in 1996, and then
took up a lectureship in the
Government Department at LSE in 1997
(and was promoted to professor in
2004).
My wife, Beth, is an American,
and we met when she was a general
course student at LSE. We have two
kids, Ben (aged 9) and Ruth (aged
6), and we live in Wimbledon Park in
South West London.
What advice would you give new
students coming to LSE?
Make the most of the academic
staff here at LSE. Come and see us
in our office hours. Knock on our
doors. Ask us as many questions as
you can. Get to know some of us.
What would we be most surprised
to learn about you?
I used to be the lead singer and
guitarist in a very bad rock band.
What were your best subjects at
school?
Maths and history. A strange mix,
but a good background for political
science.
If it were your last day on
earth, what would you have for
breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Breakfast: a double espresso,
freshly-squeezed orange juice and a
pain-au-chocolat
Lunch: fish tacos (preferably from
Wahoo’s in La Jolla, California)
Dinner: Korean bulgogi (barbequed
beef) and pajeon (seafood pancake)
What would you do if you were LSE
director for a day?
Abolish tenure-track contracts
and replace them with ten year
renewable fixed-term contracts. (My
colleagues will hate me for saying
that!).
What has been your most
embarrassing incident, so far?
Sending an email rubbishing a
colleague’s work that he was
accidently cc’d into. |
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