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.

Alvin Carpio

Alvin, who is doing his MSc at LSE, has been invited by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce to make a speech this week on youth unemployment.

Thank you for your responses to the second call for contributions to the Strategic Review. The results are now up on the website. You were asked a series of question on the structure, shape and composition of the School. In all 57 people replied to the call, with 32 per cent of responses from students.

The most prominent theme to emerge was the need to develop structures that promote interdisciplinarity. A number of respondents felt the departmental structure supported disciplinary excellence, but that there was room to develop systems for work crossing departmental boundaries. One economics undergraduate commented: 'My LSE life could have been more heightened if we had greater interactions with other social scientists.'

Others felt more attention should be given to defining 'core' and 'peripheral' areas of work, either in terms of disciplines or of research questions, with the 'core' prioritised over the 'peripheral'. 'There are too many departments/institutes/centres, and no discernible logic underlying the current array of (what seem to be) silos. Defend the core disciplines that make up the social sciences by organising departments around these and promoting excellent disciplinary work as the first requirement of any worthwhile inter-disciplinary endeavour,' commented one academic in the Law Department.

Another concern was that there should be a greater degree of vocational, or applied, teaching. As one MSc student in management said: 'Rerum cognoscere causas is powerful; however, equipping students with theory and tools to affect change is the ultimate apex. I truly believe LSE has the opportunity to become the leading management school in the world if it takes the additional steps to more closely align theory and practice. Students will find it engaging; staff will be rewarded knowing their theoretical constructs and models will be disseminated and applied once students leave LSE'.

The responses will all be fed back into the Review.

LSE100 has been named runner-up in the Teaching Excellence category at the inaugural Guardian University Awards on Wednesday 27 February.

LSE100 known as ‘The LSE Course: understanding the causes of things’ is the most significant reform to LSE undergraduate education in three decades. It is an innovative interdisciplinary course that introduces LSE undergraduates to the different ways of thinking like a social scientist, by exploring some of the great debates of our time from the perspectives of different disciplines.

LSE100 uses important issues of public debate to motivate investigations of research methods and the need for academic thinking. Contrasting disciplinary approaches are examined in the small weekly classes, where students investigate the methodological choices underlying different approaches. Students are called on to reach their own conclusions, and to back up their positions with cogent reasoning and relevant supporting evidence in written essays or presentations.

Dr Jonathan Leape, director of LSE100, said: 'I am delighted that LSE100 has been recognised for its innovation in this way. It’s a tribute to the tremendous team effort that has gone into developing and delivering the course.

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
 

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 are requesting far reaching reforms and fiscal austerity. They are challenging times and being in the middle of it should be exciting.'

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.

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
 

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'.

Are you travelling over the Easter break?

Please be reminded that it is a good idea to take photocopies of your passport (and visa if applicable) and a stamped copy of your Certificate of Registration with you when you travel.

International students should also review the ISIS information what to do if you need to travel overseas. Be sure to check as early as possible to see if you will need a visa. You may need a document which proves that you are a student. Some visa applications will accept the Certificate of Registration available to you from LSE for You, while other visa applications may require that you request a letter from Registry. You should check with the embassy of the country to find out if it has any special requirements.

Visit Certificate of Registration to learn how to obtain the document that you need and keep in mind that it typically takes three to five business days to process your request.
 

Student Services opening hours

Please note that the Student Services Centre hours change to 10am-4pm during the vacation period from Monday 25 March-Friday 26 April.

In addition, the Centre will be closed from Thursday 28 March-Wednesday 3 April, and on Friday 12 April. Be sure to plan any document requests and/or collection accordingly.
 

The Student Recruitment Office is looking for international student profiles to put on the LSE website. We are specifically looking for profiles of students from the following countries (however we would be happy to receive profiles for any country):

• Argentina
• Belgium
• Chile
• Colombia
• France
• Greece
• Japan
• Norway
• Peru
• South Korea
• Spain
• Thailand
• Turkey

Tell us what you think - Student News feedback survey 2013

The Press Office has put together a short survey for you to let us know how you feel about Student 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 students and should take no more than five minutes to complete. To take part, visit www.survey.bris.ac.uk/lsewebsite/student_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.

Training and development opportunities for students

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• PhD: the macro-structure of the thesis

• Exams Three: using past exam papers

• Using EndNote to Manage your References

• Excel 2010: formulas and common functions

These are just some of the events running next week. To receive a monthly list of all events, subscribe to the student 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.
 

LSE Perspectives

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

Mayor's Low Carbon Prize

The 2013 Mayor's Low Carbon Prize, in partnership with Siemens, is looking for innovative ideas from London's students to help slash London's CO2 emissions 60 per cent by 2025.

Enter and you could win a £20,000 development fund to help you realise your carbon saving idea. If shortlisted, you'll also be considered by Siemens for a paid internship opportunity, which will give you valuable industry experience.

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: Friday 8 March at 6pm in room NAB.2.06, New Academic Building

The LSESU UN Society invites you to a talk by UN Women, that will focus specifically on its role in India.

UN Women is the youngest UN Agency and, already, one of the most successful ones. Speaker, Manju Nair, will focus mainly on the astonishing progress that the agency has accomplished in India, to combat violence and discrimination against women - something that she has witnessed herself.

On: Thursday 14 March at 6.30pm in room CON.1.04, Connaught House

This panel discussion, organised by the LSESU UN Society, is on the topic of nuclear weapons and security today and will feature two international experts, Dr Rebecca Johnson (Acronym, iCAN) and James Kearney (UNA-UK) .