The Future of London within the UK

This event with Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, which was previously postponed, has now been rearranged for Monday 9 December.

Act of Remembrance

The School will be holding a Remembrance Day vigil on Monday 11 November to remember all those who have lost their lives in any conflict, anywhere in the world.

Marcus Mepstead

Third year student Marcus, who is also an LSE Sports Ambassador, is currently training as part of the British Fencing World Class Programme for Rio 2016.

Message from Professor Paul Kelly (pictured), Pro-Director Teaching and Learning

Students are encouraged to take part in a School wide consultation process on how the academic year is organised. Should the School continue with three 10 week terms: should it semesterise with two 15 week semesters; or should it consider a variation of the three terms - with something like two 12 week teaching terms and a shorter six week summer examination period?

I am keen to hear the views of all students - whether undergraduate, postgraduate taught, research or occasional - as well as students from each department and disciplinary specialism.

Why are we doing this? As part of a review of teaching and learning I want to know whether some flexibility in the structure of term dates would allow for developments that enhance students’ learning experience and improve the opportunities for department faculty to develop their teaching. The basic module structure of 10 and 20 week courses would be unchanged but changing the term structure could allow for reading and assessment weeks, mid-term assessment, improvements in feedback, end of session exams and better targeted support such as essay or dissertation writing sessions and much else. The important thing is that the School hears from students with their varied experience about what could be done differently.

The Academic Board launched a consultation process at its meeting of 16 October. The Consultation should run during the Michaelmas and Lent terms of 2013-14 with a final proposal going to an Academic Board meeting in Summer 2014.

The consultation involves students, academic-staff and non-academic staff as this issue will impact everyone. Departments will be discussing the matter at Staff Student Liaison Committees but there are other opportunities for students to share ideas and submit proposals. I am sure the LSESU will also organise a consultation.

Nick Byrne appointed to Advisory Board for British Academy project

Nick Byrne (pictured), Director of the LSE Language Centre, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the British Academy project 'Born Global - Rethinking Language Policy for 21st Century Britain'.

This new policy research project will look into the extent and nature of language needs in the labour market and the implications for language education from school to higher education.

Bernadette Holmes, Principal Researcher of the project, said: "We are delighted that Nick can play such a key role in this policy research initiative, which is seeking to influence and develop fresh approaches to the ways in which languages can be provided in higher education to enhance employability".

'Born Global' aims to provide fresh analysis to inform the curriculum and assessment debate in modern languages, and seek evidence to prove that language capability really does improve employment prospects.

Nick commented: "I’ve already been involved in one joint BIS/DfE funded policy project, and three others funded by the European Commission - ENLU, LETPP and now LUCIDE. All projects look at aspects of multilingualism and particularly its relevance to the economy."

The future of the Census

Professor Chris Skinner (pictured), Head of LSE’s Department of Statistics, has led an independent review of the methodology underlying the options for the future of the Census, on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

A Census has taken place in Great Britain since 1801. Options set out in a recent public consultation by the ONS could lead to a radical departure in England and Wales from the traditional approach that has obtained information on all individuals every 10 years until 2011.

In a report published on Friday 1 November, Professor Skinner and his team, which included Michael Murphy, Professor of Demography at LSE, and demographic consultant John Hollis, explain that although results of ONS research to date are promising, the case for replacement of the traditional census model by the more radical option - combining administrative data with compulsory annual surveys - had not yet been established.

They conclude that a number of methodological challenges that had been identified would need first to be addressed if this option is to be pursued.

The team’s full report can be found on the ONS website. An associated statement from the Royal Statistical Society can be found here.

Act of Remembrance – Monday 11 November

The School will be holding a Remembrance Day vigil at 10.45am in the Shaw Library, Old Building, on Monday 11 November.

School Secretary Susan Scholefield, Chaplain Reverend Dr James Walters, and LSESU General Secretary Jay Stoll will all say a few words, after which there will be a two minute silence at 11am, the same time that others will fall silent across the country.

Please come along to remember all those who have died and continue to die in war.
 

Good news for all second and third year undergraduates who have been waiting patiently for a bigger mailbox - IMT will be migrating all remaining mailboxes during this term, so soon you will be accessing your email on the cloud with a far greater mailbox capacity than you have now.

New students who joined the School this year were given their LSE email on Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud services. This included Outlook Online, a service that is free to educational establishments and which comes with a 25GB mailbox as standard.

Now existing students will be migrated onto this new service and soon all students will be able to access their email via the web browser on public computers on site, and through their own mobile devices.

LSE Careers invites you to….

International Organisations Day
The website for International Organisations Day is now live at lse.ac.uk/IOD - find out more about the day, the international organisations attending, and the topics they will be discussing.

The deadline is fast approaching for the Michaelmas term LSE Entrepreneurship funding competition. Whether you want to help change the world or turn a great money making idea into a reality, we want to hear from you.

You may not class yourself as an entrepreneur but if you are out making a difference in your community, or are offering a unique service or product, you could be eligible to receive funding to help scale up your idea.

We are inviting LSE students and staff to submit a business proposal that will be assessed by our specialist judging panel. Successful applicants will then be asked to pitch their idea to the panel to compete for funding for their initiatives.

The AXA Research Fund 2014 campaign supports research on life, socio-economic and environmental risks. Each fellowship comes to a total of €120,000 for two years.

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• Legal Research: finding UK legislation
• Good Writing Psychology
• Powerpoint 2010: finishing touches

Teaching and Learning Centre training events

• Preparing for Employers Numerical Tests
  Wednesday 13 November from 2-4pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
  This session will prepare you for future numerical tests you may have to undertake prior to any appointment.
• The Psychological Challenges Faced by MSc Students
  Friday 15 November from 1-2pm in room OLD 3.21, Old Building
  What are the changes involved in adjusting to being an MSc student? This presentation will include a focus on how can you cope with the difficulties and stresses of this intense programme.

All sessions can be booked via the Training and Development System, which is recommended, but if that's not possible or if an event is fully booked, you can just turn up on the day.
 

MRes, MPhil and PhD students: can you convey your research visually?

LSE Research Festival 2014 is now accepting submissions for next year’s Research Festival Exhibition. Entrants are asked to convey their research through a poster, photograph or short film. A prize will be awarded in each category.

Don’t miss this opportunity to have your work exhibited and viewed by senior academics and the general public. Last year, over 600 people visited the exhibition, and many of those involved remarked on how beneficial the experience was to their research project and their own development.

Workshops are being run later this term on making research based posters and films.

Computer tip of the week

Excel print previewing

There are times when you are creating spread sheets that they can spill onto more than one page, as with Word. Unlike Word, however, this can happen horizontally as well as vertically. This is especially true with large spread sheets.

To see if this happens with you, click View - Workbook Views - Page Break Views. You will see blue dashed lines indicating what will print on each page. You can adjust these pages by dragging the lines till you get the pages you need.

Note: the page numbers indicate if the spread sheet prints from left to right or from top to bottom. To change print direction, click File - Print - Page Setup - Sheet - Page order.

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

The gallery features 12 striking images submitted by LSE staff and students. Each image reflects a unique perspective on a particular scene.

We are always looking for submissions for future galleries. If you have taken any artistic images on your travels, in your home town or even just here in London, why not submit them for LSE Perspectives so that they can be shared with the LSE community.

The CleanTech Challenge, organised by London Business School and University College London, is a global business plan competition for clean technology business ideas.

Teams compete over three rounds for a £10,000 prize, awarded at the two-day Bootcamp finals in London. Participants are mentored by industry experts from the cleantech, entrepreneurial and related sectors.

Previous winners include team Sunuru from Holland’s University of Delft, whose idea for ‘Urban Solar Panels’ - solar panels specifically engineered to be easily integrated into an urban environment - has now flourished into a working young business.

On: Monday 9 December from 6.30-8pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building

The School is delighted to confirm that the event with Boris Johnson (pictured), Mayor of London, which was previously postponed, has now been rearranged for next month.

At the event, Boris Johnson will discuss the role and future of London within the Union.

Competition in the Online World: European and global perspectives
On: Monday 11 November at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Joaquín Almunia (pictured), Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Competition.

Burke, Oakeshott and the Intellectual Roots of Modern Conservatism
On: Tuesday 12 November at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Jesse Norman, Member of Parliament for Hereford and South Herefordshire.

Beyond "Strategic Depth"?: Islamism, Turkey's foreign policy and the Arab spring

On: Thursday 7 November from 6.30-8pm in the room 2.04, New Academic Building
Speaker: Dr Behlül Özkan (pictured), Marmara University

At this event Dr Özkan will discuss why, rather than following Neo-Ottomanist path, Turkey's foreign policy shifted towards Islamism since AKP came to power in 2002. The lecture seeks to analyse theoretical and ideological sources of Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Islamist foreign policy approach and how the Arab spring affected Turkish foreign policy toward the Middle East.

This event is free and open to all. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email Sara Masry at s.masry@lse.ac.uk. More
 

Re-negotiating the Terms of EU-Israel Partnership: normative power and international law

On: Monday 11 November from 4.30-6pm in room 2.06, New Academic Building
Speaker: Charles Shamas (pictured), Senior Partner with the Mattin Group.

In July the European Commission published "guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards." This step has been variously described as a ‘political earthquake’, a sanction targeting Israeli settlements and settlement policies, and a confrontational move to save the two-state solution and the Middle East Peace Process from final collapse.

This event will outline the actual processes that have driven EU's production of these guidelines. It will examine the role of the EU as a normative power striving to respect international law and comply with its own law while intensifying EU-Israel relations.

This event is free and open to all. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email Sara Masry at s.masry@lse.ac.uk. More
 

On: Monday 11 November from 6.30-8pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Dr Ramachandra Guha, author of Gandhi Before India and a former Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS.

The life of Gandhi is one of the most remarkable and potent in the modern era, yet few know what shaped him in his formative years.

Dr Ramachandra Guha paints a vivid portrait of a man whose ideas were fundamentally shaped before his return to India in 1915. Dr Guha explains how Gandhi was the sometimes unwilling leader in the midst of race and class, living in a world where he could develop the techniques that would undermine, and ultimately destroy, the British Empire.

On: Tuesday 12 November from 6-7.30pm in the Cañada Blanch Room, Cowdray House
Speaker: Dr Jasna Dragovic-Soso (pictured), Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The LSEE Research on SEE Visiting Speaker Programme is a series of seminars aimed at bringing research and scholarship by academics, policy professionals and other South Eastern Europe experts, to a wider audience.

Dr Dragovic-Soso is the author of Saviours of the Nation: Serbia's intellectual opposition and the revival of nationalism and co-editor of State Collapse in South-Eastern Europe: new perspectives on Yugoslavia's disintegration.

On: Tuesday 12 November at 6.30pm in the Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Dr Carrie Friese, Associate Professor of Sociology at LSE.
Discussant: Charis Thompson, Professor of Sociology at LSE.

The natural world is marked by an ever-increasing loss of varied habitats, species extinctions, and new kinds of dilemmas posed by global warming. At the same time, humans are working to actively shape this natural world through contemporary bioscience and biotechnology, as humans seek scientific solutions to environmental crisis. Cloned endangered animals in zoos sit at the apex of these trends.

In her new book, Cloning Wild Life, Dr Friese argues that cloning technologies significantly affect our conceptualisations of and engagements with wildlife and nature.

LSE's Sustainability Team presents the first Sustainability in Practice Lecture of the 2013-14 series:

Mainstreaming Sustainability: the last 20 years and the next 20 years
On: Tuesday 12 November at 6.30pm in room 2.02, Clement House
Speaker: Pooran Desai OBE (pictured), International Director of One Planet Communities.

Pooran Desai will share insight gleaned from a long list of achievements in the sustainability field, which include helping build BedZed, the UK's foremost eco-village zero-energy development, co-founding the International NGO BioRegional, and winning the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.