A Royal opening for LSE's newest landmark building

HRH The Princess Royal has officially opened LSE's newest building, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, previously known as the Land Registry building.

The Future of London within the UK

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will discuss the role and future of London within the Union at this event on Wednesday 22 May.

Dr Andrea Vedolin

Dr Vedolin, a lecturer in the Department of Finance, wishes she could resist reading too many gossip magazines: 'My days would be so much more productive!'

The fourth call for contributions to the Strategic Review has now gone out and we hope students will be as active and constructive in their responses as they have been for the previous three.

The question now set is 'Which three big issues facing the world do you think the School should seek to solve?' As before please reply to strategy@lse.ac.uk. The deadline is Friday 17 May.

The results of the third call for contributions will go up on the website on Friday but here are some of the headlines: 58 per cent of respondents said the lecture had not had its day, 27 per cent thought it depended on the type and quality of the lecture, and 15 per cent that the lecture had indeed had its day.

We are also moving to organise focused discussion groups looking at a number of the key questions emerging from the Review. The first session took place before Easter and looked at the structure and composition of the School. Others will follow over the course of this term.

The latest university rankings have rated LSE as the best university in London.

Using a variety of measures such as research quality, graduate prospects and student satisfaction, The Complete University Guide 2014 has ranked LSE as the top university in the capital and third best UK university overall, behind Oxford and Cambridge.

In terms of subjects, the Guide rates the School as the best place in the UK to study social policy and joint-best for economics and philosophy. All subjects offered by LSE were ranked in the top ten and most were in the top five.

The Guide also ranks LSE as the joint-top institution in the UK in terms of research quality.

Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of LSE, said: 'Producing excellent research and teaching is central to the School’s mission but we are also pleased that, as these rankings indicate, so many of our students go on to fulfilling careers. Of course, there is more to a university than what can be captured in a league table, but it is always nice to have the hard work of our staff and students recognised.'

LSE has been named one of five of the ‘Best Universities for Employability’ in a recent article by QS.

LSE is top of the list which also contains the University of California, Berkeley, University of Melbourne, National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University, China.

Library Services have begun a new archive project to catalogue, digitise and promote the papers of Lionel Robbins (pictured).

The project, 'The Economist and the Wider World: the papers of Lionel Robbins (1898 - 1984)’, will cover a wide range of subjects, including his work at LSE, as a trustee for the National Gallery, director of the Royal Opera House, writing the 1963 Robbins Report on Higher Education and heading the economic section of the War Cabinet.

Highlights uncovered so far include his American diaries with records of the Bretton Woods conference, letters from public figures including Henry Moore and Harold Wilson, correspondence with other eminent figures at LSE including Karl Popper, James Meade and Nicholas Kaldor, and poems reflecting on his experiences during World War One.

Lionel Robbins was closely connected with LSE for over 50 years as student, professor, chair of the Department of Economics, and chairman of the Court of Governors during his career as an economist, public servant and patron of the arts.

A landmark renewal of philanthropic support has brought the cumulative giving of one of the School’s valued and long-standing donors to over £1 million.

Bill Bottriell (pictured) (BSc Economics 1978) has been influential in providing opportunities for underprivileged UK students to study at LSE through the Bottriell Scholarship.

To date, the scholarship has helped 20 students realise their dreams of higher education in a variety of subjects, regardless of their financial means.

Bill has had a long-standing association with the School and is currently a member of the LSE Court of Governors and the School's Development Committee. Following his studies, Bill co-founded London IT recruitment business, SThree, with Simon Arber in 1986, and in 2005 it was floated on the London Stock Exchange.

He commented: 'As an alumnus myself, I feel a moral imperative to ensure that the next generation of bright and enthusiastic young minds aren’t denied the same experiences I benefitted from due to circumstances outside their control. I am confident my scholars will go on to do great things and to give others the same chance that they were given.'

Nabila Ramdani (pictured), PhD candidate in the Department of International History, has been listed as one of the most influential Twitter account holders in the world, by France’s national news agency, AFP (l'Agence France-Presse).

Some 6,000 Twitter accounts across 120 countries are listed by the new AFP e-diplomacy site, including heads of state and government departments.

A team of LSE students - Jason Kolsevich, Larisa Burakova, James Gibson and Jonathan Li - have won the National 2013 KPMG International Case Competition (KICC).

As one of the world’s largest student case competitions, KICC draws some 6,000 students from more than 300 universities in 23 countries to compete against each other, developing solutions to realistic business scenarios. The initiative brings to life the complexity, challenge and satisfaction KPMG professionals experience every day, while working with some of the world’s most notable organisations.

As national winners, the team travelled to Spain at the beginning of April to represent KPMG UK in the KICC global finals, unfortunately losing out to team Australia.

Michael Andrew, global chairman of KPMG International, said: ‘This competition is a great way to develop students and build their business and leadership skills. I congratulate team UK.’

Twenty seven students from LSE, the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and Sciences Po in Paris, are collaborating on a project that addresses three pressing issues facing Europe and European governance today.

Based on an idea by Hertie School students, ‘Europe 2025’ is about bringing international public policy students together with policy-makers from across Europe to infuse the debate on Europe with a fresh international perspective and political imagination.

The students are tasked with engaging their European peers using a web-based dialogue, analysing their findings, and then drawing up policy briefings that capture the political imagination, cultural currents and authentic beliefs of their peers on three distinct topics:

• The Founding Narrative: towards a new raison d’être of the European Union
• Redesigning Europe: towards a new European Union
• Governance Innovations: towards better governance in Europe

The students will submit and present their papers at the upcoming Berggruen Symposium in Paris on Tuesday 28 May. The audience will include the French president, François Hollande, as well as a long list of prominent European policymakers, past and present.

Professor Naila Kabeer joins LSE's Gender Institute

Professor Naila Kabeer (pictured) will be joining LSE's Gender Institute as a member of faculty in the 2013-14 academic year.

Professor Kabeer is currently professor of development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Prior to that, she was professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, where she worked for many years.

Her publications include Reversed Realities: gender hierarchies in development thought, The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi women and labour supply decision-making in London and Dhaka and, more recently, Gender and Social Protection in the Informal Economy.

Professor Kabeer will contribute to the MSc programmes in the Gender Institute, especially the MSc Gender Development and Globalisation.
 

Couples tend to save significantly more as the risk of divorce increases according to new research published in the latest edition of The Journal of Human Resources.

The research by Dr Berkay Ӧzcan from LSE and Dr Libertad González from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona found that for every ten per cent increase in the risk of divorce, families increase their savings, as a proportion of household income, by two percentage points.

Expanding our vision of museum education and perception

Dr Simon Hayhoe (pictured), centre research associate in the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences, has produced a new paper which investigates the experiences of blind visitors to museums and galleries.

The study, published in the Harvard Educational Review in March and funded by the US-UK Fulbright Commission, provides case studies of the experiences of visually-impaired visitors to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dr Hayhoe found evidence that, for the blind visitors he interviewed, proximity to works of art is as important as perceiving the art itself. This questions, in part, beliefs that art is a purely visual culture. Because of these findings he believes museums and galleries should broaden arts education for the visually impaired. More
 

We would like to inform all students of the access arrangements on the main School campus for each of the public holidays in May 2013:

The Library will be open as follows:

• Monday 6 May: 24 hour opening - staffed services 11am-6pm
• Monday 27 May: 24 hour opening - staffed services 11am-6pm

Study areas and computer facilities will be available in the Old Building at the following locations and at the following times on production of LSE ID Card:

• Shaw Library, Fourth Floor Restaurant, teaching rooms and B.25: 8am to 5pm

Postgraduate students, based on their current level of access, will be able to gain entry to School buildings at the following times on production/use of the LSE ID Card: 8am-5pm.

Halls of Residence are open throughout with staff cover as normal. Normal term time arrangements for the halls will apply.

Emergencies will be dealt with by a team of Security staff on duty at the Old Building reception desk in Houghton Street. They can also be contacted, in an emergency, by telephone on 020 7955 6555.

To help reduce the negative environmental impact of using disposable cups, LSE Catering is selling new environmentally friendly smart mugs.

The mugs are retailing at £8.50 (including a free tea, coffee or hot chocolate).

Smart mugs are sold and accepted in:

• LSE Garrick
• 4th Floor Café Bar
• Café 54
• Mezzanine Café
• The Bean Counter
• SDR Café Bar (members only)

Information Management and Technology (IMT) is recruiting students to work part-time in the Laptop Surgery and IT Training programme.

The following vacancies are available:

• Laptop Surgery IT advisor (Summer School 2013)
• Student training advisor (Michaelmas and Lent terms 2013-14, continuing LSE students only)

Interviews will take place on:

• Wednesday 15 May for student training advisor
• Thursday 23 May for Laptop Surgery IT advisor

Pay - c. £13/hour.

Applications are now being accepted for the Thailand Government Scholarship scheme, a partnership between the Royal Thai Embassy in London and the LSE Asia Research Centre.

The scholarship aims to promote better understanding of, and knowledge regarding, Thailand. LSE students selected for the scholarship will visit Thailand and spend a minimum period of one month and a maximum period of two months at a host institution, where they will engage with relevant research and programmes on Thailand and gain cultural exposure and understanding of the country. Scholars will also be able to conduct any project of their interest on Thailand as part of their study programme at LSE.

Successful applicants will visit Thailand and complete their scholarship no later than the end of December 2013. The scholarship provides travel, accommodation and subsistence costs. Scholars are required to submit a report of their project to the Asia Research Centre within two weeks of their return.

Applications are invited from LSE PhD students for mobility bursaries to visit one of the School's institutional partners (Columbia University, New York; the National University of Singapore (NUS); Peking University, Beijing; Sciences Po, Paris; or the University of Cape Town) in order to work informally with an advisor on their PhD thesis, research and/or on related publications and presentations, and to introduce them to the academic culture, professional contacts and employment opportunities of another country/region.

For 2013-14, up to ten bursaries are on offer to visit one of the above listed five partner institutions. For any one partner institution, up to two flat rate bursaries of £2,500 are available.

Students registered for PhD studies at any LSE department and who have already been upgraded to full doctoral student status are eligible to apply. Each visit should be a minimum of two months and a maximum of three months in duration.

The LSESU Global 21 Society has just launched a new website for The London Globalist and the third edition of its international affairs magazine.

The title of this year's magazine is 'The Self and the Other: identity in crisis'.

Training and development opportunities for students

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• LN989 Exam Writing Skills

• Using Freedom of Information Requests for Research

• Deans Briefing for Final Year Students: question and answer session

• Exams Five: revise and de-stress

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.
 

Using Outlook signatures for standard email replies

Many Outlook users save time by creating email ‘signatures’ to automatically add their name, title, organisation and contact details at the bottom of messages.

Signatures also are the quickest way to send out standard messages or standard responses. They can be as long or as short as you wish, and include web links, photos and formatting if required. Typically, they are a complete message, ending with the name and contact details of the sender. Standard message ‘signatures’ are created and used just like any other signature, the only difference is in the amount of text they contain. You can create as many different signatures as you need. A guide on how to create, change and use signatures is available here.

Skip fit lessons

Security officer and former boxer Daniel Beckley is running skip fit lessons for all staff and students at LSE. Build up your fitness, burn calories and increase your stamina, all within an hour.

The next lessons will take place from 1-2pm at the Badminton Court, Old Building, on Tuesday 14 May, Tuesday 21 May, Tuesday 4 June, Tuesday 11 June, and Tuesday 25 June.

Just turn up on any of these dates with your own skipping rope. All lessons are free.

For more information, email Daniel at d.beckley@lse.ac.uk.
 

For Sale - Baby Belling 121R mini cooker, white

Ideal for a bedsit/studio flat. Two hobs, oven/grill, shelf and grill pan. Plugs into electric socket via a normal 13 amp plug (no need to wire it into a special cooker point).

Bought new for OAP in January and only used a few times. Cost was £280, will take £150. Would need to be collected from E17 postcode, preferably by car due to weight.

For more information, email c.j.hackshall@lse.ac.uk.

New Event - The Future of London within the UK

On: Wednesday 22 May at 6.30pm. Venue will be confirmed to ticketholders.
Speaker: Boris Johnson (pictured), Mayor of London.

'The 'State Of The Union' series has seen people from Alex Salmond to Martin McGuiness and Michael Heseltine discuss the future of the United Kingdom and one part within the greater whole.

In this event Boris Johnson will discuss the role and future of London within the Union.

LSE students can request one ticket via the online ticket request form which will be live after 6pm on Tuesday 14 May until at least 12noon on Wednesday 15 May. More
 

The Philosophy of Mental Illness
On: Tuesday 7 May in the 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Dr Matthew Broome, associate clinical professor of psychiatry and consultant psychiatrist in early intervention in the Division of Mental Health and Wellbeing at the University of Warwick Medical School, Dr Bonnie Evans, researcher in the Centre for the Humanities and Health at King’s College London, and Professor Tim Thornton, professor of philosophy and mental health at the University of Central Lancashire.

Trafficking Networks and Threats to Security in West Africa: the case of Mali
On: Wednesday 8 May at 6.30pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Speaker: Dr Kwesi Aning (pictured), head of academic affairs at the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Centre in Accra.

On: Thursday 2 May at 6pm in room TW1.G.01

As the financial crisis continues, politicians are struggling to find ways to bring their national economies back to pre-crisis growth rates, while economists are supporting them with old and new ideas on how to spur growth.

In order to better understand the case for growth and some current sceptical perspectives, LSESU Oikos London has invited a panel of experts to discuss the question 'Can we have prosperity without growth?'

Panellist include:

• Francesco Caselli, Norman Sosnow Professor of Economics at LSE
• Nicholas Oulton, senior visiting research fellow at the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE and consultant to the Bank of England
• Roderick Smith, Royal Academy of Engineering Network Rail Research Professor of railway engineering at Imperial College and chair of the Future Railway Research Centre
• Andrew Simms, fellow of nef (the new economics foundation).

On: Friday 3 May from 12-1.30pm on the LSE campus. Room will be confirmed on booking.
Speakers: Trish Hiddleston (pictured), Dr Jenny Kuper, and Dr Géraldine André

In this guest practitioner seminar Trish Hiddleston, Dr Kuper and Dr André will review the international legal framework around child rights and how this is implemented at regional and national levels.

'Bottom-up' approaches from social sciences, especially from anthropology, towards children's rights will be discussed and examples of research on child labour in Sub-Saharan Africa will be presented. How child rights are applied internationally and nationally will be addressed through illustrations of work within the child rights legal framework and related research.

The Battle For Universal Jurisdiction: impunity v. justice

On: Tuesday 7 May from 6.15-7.45pm on the LSE campus
Speakers: Hugo Relva, legal adviser at Amnesty International, and Christopher Keith Hall, senior legal adviser at Amnesty International.

This guest practitioner seminar is part of a series developed in partnership with Amnesty International (AI) to consider the role of civil society in developing international human rights law.

In this seminar, two experts will talk about how AI used the arrest of former President Augusto Pinochet to strengthen the use of universal jurisdiction as a tool for international justice and how it has addressed the numerous attacks on this rule of international law.

The speakers will trace the development of universal jurisdiction from the drafting of the Convention Against Torture, through to the present day and the conceptual shift occurring at national level. This is a unique opportunity to hear from expert practitioners about the role of civil society in the development and operation of international human rights law.

The seminar is organised by the Centre for the Study of Human Rights. Email Sara Ulfsparre at s.ulfsparre@lse.ac.uk to indicate your intention to attend. You will be notified of the location on the morning of Tuesday 7 May.
 

Reason, Knowledge and Values Colloquium 2013

On: Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 May in the Wolfson Theatre, Basement, New Academic Building

The Department of Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method is hosting this Colloquium, where undergraduate students will offer answers on questions such as: Does life have a meaning? Does morality depend on religion? Can computers think? Are low wages exploitative? Is induction a good method for science? Are scientific theories true?

This is an excited event where undergraduate students from different careers, different LSE departments and from other universities will be the speakers.

This event is free and open to all. For more information, visit personal.lse.ac.uk/morett/Colloquium.htm.