Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first female First Minister, will speak at LSE on Monday 16 March. Request your ticket from 6pm tonight.

Easter exam preparation sessions

Sign up for these free sessions for advice on revision strategies and preparation for exams.

Tina Dall-Hansen

Danish student Tina has recently launched the North Sea Consultancy Network, a networking platform between Scandinavian students at LSE, UCL, Imperial and KCL.

The Saw Swee Hock Student Centre has been recognised by the 2015 Civic Trust Awards with a 'Special Award for Brick'.

The award, sponsored by Derwent London, recognised SAW as an exemplar project, demonstrating excellence in overall design and construction using brick.

The judges’ comments include:

Richard Baldwin, Head of Development for Derwent London: "It should act as an inspiration for other student buildings. The Saw Swee Hock Student Centre is a clear winner. The architects have achieved a superb and beautifully crafted building and client, planners and contractors deserve credit for their commitment to an outstanding contribution to the city fabric."

David Prichard, Chair of the Civic Trust Awards National Panel: "LSE’s Saw Swee Hock Student Centre is a masterly composition on an incredibly constrained site where O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects have surpassed their client’s expectations with an exceptional, striking building."

The Centre Buildings Redevelopment

LSE’s Centre Building Redevelopment will create a state of the art, flexible, and highly sustainable academic and teaching building, designed by renowned architects Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners.

Demolition is programmed to start at the end of the Summer term 2015 and the building will be completed by late 2018. This will be a major construction project for the School and as such there will inevitably be some disruption and noise over the next few years.

More on how the School will manage this, the routes that will be shut and alternative routes around campus, as well as further details on the construction process and demolition plans, can now be found on the Estates Division’s webpages. Please check the pages and visit our FAQ section which give more detail on the School's plans.

The Capital Development team are also holding a drop-in surgery ever Wednesday afternoon from 2-5pm, open to all, in the CBR Exhibition Space in Clare Market Any questions or concerns can also be emailed to Estates.Centrebuildings@lse.ac.uk.
 

LSE student wins prize for most innovative Library idea

On Monday 9 February the Library and LSESU hosted Re-Imagining Your Library, designed to maximise student discussion, debate and dialogue regarding important Library issues.

As part of the event, the Library invited students to make suggestions about its services. MSc Regulation student Anup Aryal (pictured) provided the most innovative idea - that the Library could provide data on the most read articles and books to help students choose which sources to consult. Anup received a £30 Waterstones book voucher as his prize.

The Library will now work with the LSESU to discuss ways in which the feedback from Re-Imagining Your Library can be implemented.

Check out the LSESU image gallery and blogpost from the event.
 

The results are in....

On Thursday 5 March, the new Sabbatical and part-time Officers were elected to lead LSESU: 3,895 students voted, making this the highest turnout ever.

Nona Buckley-Irvine was re-elected as General Secretary and is joined by Jon Foster as Education Officer, Katie Budd as Activities and Development Officer, and Aysha Fekaiki as Community and Welfare Officer.

Find out who won the part-time positions here.
 

Volunteering Week Victory

Another Student Volunteering Week has come and gone, and what a brilliant one it was.

Over eight days, the LSE Volunteer Centre invited seven charities onto campus, raised almost £4,000 with LSESU RAG, posted inspiring student-written blogs, held a photo competition in LSE halls with the LSESU and gained almost 100 signatories for an “education for all” petition.

Read our overview on the week on the Volunteer Centre blog.
 

New Gearty Grilling online

A new Gearty Grilling video, part of the series of short video debates between Conor Gearty, director of the IPA and professor of human rights law, and leading researchers at LSE, is now online.

This week Francesca Klug (pictured), Professorial Research Fellow, discusses human rights and the Magna Carta. More
 

Did you know? LSE once had a British Rail locomotive named after it, which was unveiled at Euston station in 1985. You may recognise its nameplate as it now lives in the George IV pub on campus. How did this come about?

At its meeting last week, Academic Board agreed to amend the end-date for Lent term 2016 from Wednesday 23 March 2016 to Thursday 24 March 2016.

This means that Lent term 2016 week 11 teaching can take place up to and including Thursday of that week. The website has been updated to reflect this decision.

The deadline for applications to the School’s research project opportunity for undergraduates, LSE GROUPS, has been extended to midnight on Sunday 15 March… But only 15 places remain.

The Teaching and Learning Centre is running its popular free exam preparation sessions over the term break again.

Are you confused about careers or wondering how to find fulfilling work?

Come to the LSE Undergraduate Careers Week next week (16-20 March) for a range of networking events, seminars and other activities designed to help you consider your career options and get your career journey off to a great start.

LSE is delighted to announce the launch of two new award schemes for taught graduate students starting at LSE in autumn 2015.

LSE Graduate Bursaries
At least 175 new LSE Graduate Bursaries of £10,000, supported jointly by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the School, are available for 2015 entry.

The LSE Bursaries cover a wide range of one and two-year master’s programmes at LSE. The funding is designed to encourage progression into taught postgraduate education by under-represented students from the UK and rest of the EU, who started their undergraduate programmes in 2012-13, and who were charged higher fees at a university in England. The LSE Bursaries will be awarded on the basis of financial circumstances and socio-economic background.

LSE 120th Anniversary Scholarships
To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the founding of the School, LSE will be offering 120 Anniversary Scholarships for taught master's students from the UK starting at LSE in 2015.

The awards will vary in value, based on financial need, and are designed to help with fees and living costs. The minimum award will be £3,000 and the maximum award will be worth £25,000. Priority will be given to students from the UK who are applying for their first master's programme and to recent graduates who were eligible for a maintenance grant during their undergraduate studies.

LSE Research Festival 2015 and LSESU are looking for participants for an exciting public engagement event. Have you ever wanted to discuss your research with a wider audience? Do you want to develop your public engagement or presentation skills? Then apply for the upcoming Social Science Soapbox on our website.

Whether you want to filter contacts, sort an inventory, or create a chart from statistical data, avoid errors by observing these basic rules.

1. Place labels in the top row of the dataset
In order to sort, filter or use other database features, your data must be labelled at the top of each column (rather than at the left of each row).

2. Format labels differently from the data
This not only makes your dataset easier to read, but also helps Excel distinguish labels from data.

3. Remove Empty Columns or Rows within the dataset
Excel understands blank columns and rows as the borders of a dataset. So, for example, if you sort a dataset, any data beyond a blank row or column will remain unsorted.

4. Remove Surrounding Data
Keep distinct sets of data on separate sheets. If you must keep them on the same sheet, ensure that each set is surrounded by empty rows and columns.

5. Each column should hold just one type of data
Data in any single column should be of a single type, such as birthdates, surnames or currency amounts.

Designing the Urban Commons is an ideas competition calling for new ways to stimulate the city’s public and collective life. It is organised by Theatrum Mundi at LSE Cities and will be launched on Wednesday 25 March.

Entry to the competition is free, open to anyone, and invites diverse teams to work together. Architects, community organisers, performers, artists, activists, and even ordinary citizens are all encouraged to take part. The deadline for applications is Friday 1 May.

The competition brief will ask teams to transform existing land, architecture or infrastructures across London into common spaces, or to carve out new urban commons either as physical places or online. Commons are not static pieces of architecture. We are seeking designs through which the social act of commoning could take shape. We want to enable citizens to co-produce urban resources. This could be in the form of culture and knowledge or housing, energy or democratic processes.

The ten winning proposals will be awarded £300. The winning schemes will be exhibited in June simultaneously at LSE as part of the London Festival of Architecture, and in Berlin as part of the MakeCity Festival. The winners will also be invited to present their visions to the public at the V&A's Friday Late in June.

The British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG) holds a Research Presentations Day each year at which women postgraduate students are invited to give short presentations of their research work to a general audience.

A prize of £100 is offered for the presentation judged ‘best’ in terms of quality and ability to communicate the subject to an educated but general audience.

CoreNet Global, the world's leading association for corporate real estate (CRE), has launched its first-ever student challenge.

Students from around the world are invited to think creatively about a problem facing CRE professionals in companies like Google, AT&T, Duke Energy, AstraZeneca, Whirlpool, or many others.

Your innovative ideas could help CRE departments in large corporations solve a problem. Whether graduate or undergraduate, full-time or part-time, studying a related subject or not, all students are welcome to submit their ideas. There are no registration fees and the winning team will win $10,000 (US) and also another $10,000 (US) for their Institution.

• Registration Deadline/Round One Submissions Due - 31 July 2015
• Teams to Confirm their Final Round Participation - 11 September 2015
• Challenge Finalists Announced - 14 September 2015
• CoreNet Global Academic Challenge Final Round (Los Angeles, CA) - 18 October 2015
• Awards Presentation and Recognition Dinner (Los Angeles, CA) - 20 October 2015

The General Election is weeks away and with a Spending Review to follow this is a critical time to advocate for social science.

The Campaign for Social Science recently launched The Business of People, a landmark report which sets out the value of social science to the UK’s society and economy and makes key recommendations to policy-makers. Read the new report.

On Monday 16 March the Campaign for Social Science visits LSE to present the report and discuss its relevance to the School. Social scientists of all disciplines are encouraged to attend. Lunch will be served from 12.30pm before the main session at 1-2pm.

The panel includes Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of LSE, Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Chair of Economics and Government at LSE and President of the British Academy, and from the Campaign for Social Science, Professor James Wilsdon, Chair, and Ceridwen Roberts OBE FAcSS, Board Member.

LSE Choir and Orchestra Spring Concert

Don’t miss out on this year’s LSE Choir and Orchestra Spring Concert taking place on Tuesday 17 March at 7.30pm in St Andrews Holborn.

The LSE Choir, conducted by Andrew Campling, will perform Coronation Mass by W A Mozart. The LSE Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Taylor, will perform Thomas Hyde, Serenade in A (World Premiere); Malcolm Arnold, Clarinet Concerto No 2; and Neilsen, Symphony No 1.

Tickets are £7 and can be booked online.
 

NEW EVENT - A lecture by Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland

On: Monday 16 March at 11am on the LSE campus - venue will be confirmed to ticketholders.

Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s first female First Minister and the first female to lead any of the devolved UK administrations.

Tickets will be released at around 6pm on Wednesday 11 March and LSE staff and students will be able to request a ticket via the online ticket request form. Check the event listing for details.
 

On: Tuesday 17 March from 6.30-8pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Matthew Connelly (pictured), Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2014-15.

"Big data" poses a massive challenge to the democratic accountability. Over the last four years the US has quadrupled the amount of information that it classifies annually. This growth has become unmanageable, causing massive leaks, an unprecedented number of prosecutions, and a dysfunctional declassification system that is breaking under the strain.

Luckily, the information revolution has also provided citizens with the means to address these challenges, such as crowd-sourcing the otherwise impossible task of creating a virtual archive of declassified government documents.

By mining this data, we can detect patterns in classification and declassification, and automated tools to identify records that really do have to be kept secret. No longer just a tool of surveillance, data-mining can also help preserve the principle of open government.

On: Wednesday 18 March from 6.30-8pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Professor Alexander Pantsov (pictured), Edward and Mary Catherine Gerhold Chair in the Humanities at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

Other forthcoming LSE events....

VIP: Visual International Politics
On: Monday 16 March at 6.30pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Speaker: Professor William A Callahan (pictured)

How to Run a Government
On: Monday 16 March at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Sir Michael Barber

The Global Transformation: history, modernity and the making of international relations
On: Tuesday 17 March at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Professor Barry Buzan, Professor Craig Calhoun, Dr George Lawson, Professor Juergen Osterhammel, and Dr Ayse Zarakol

Above the Parapet - Women in Public Life
On: Wednesday 18 March at 6.30pm in the Shaw Library, 6th floor, Old Building
Speaker: Roza Otunbayeva (pictured)

Alexander Baillie (cello) John Thwaites (piano)
On: Thursday 19 March at 1pm in the Shaw Library, Old Building

LSE Works

The eighth LSE Works lecture takes place on Thursday 12 March and will be given by CASE’s Professor John Hills (pictured) and Dr Polly Vizard on ‘Changing Patterns of Inequality in the UK’. The event will be chaired by Bharat Mehta, Chief Executive at Trust for London.

LSE Works is a series public lectures that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's academic departments and research centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy.

A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed at LSE Works.
 

Celebrate the approaching vacation early with the last Chill of the term.

Join LSE Arts for some live music and free drinks. Acts on the night include the Instrumental Variables, The Barbershop Chorus, and The Critique of Pure Rhythm.

For more information, click here.
 

On: Saturday 14 March from 11am-7pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building.

The LSESU Hellenic Society, in collaboration with the LSESU Russian Society, has organising its third Annual Hellenic Forum.

Speakers invited to share their vision on Greece’s economic and socio-political path in the next two decades, include:

• Mr Konstantinos Bikas, Ambassador of Greece to the United Kingdom
• Mr George Cambanis, CEO and Global Shipping and Ports Leader, Deloitte Greece
• Mr Nikos Drandakis, Founder and CEO, Taxibeat
• Dr Panicos Demetriades, Professor of Financial Economics at Leicester University and former Governor, Central Bank of Cyprus
• Mr Stylianos Lambrou, entrepreneur and Co-founder, Heart Cyprus and Social Airways
• Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis, Associate Professor of Political Economy, LSE
• Mr George Taniskidis, President, Core Capital Partners, and former Chairman and Managing Director, Millenium Bank
• Ms Kristina Marie Tremoni, Founder and Director, EdosaFakelaki.org
• Dr Miranda Xafa, CCEO, E.F. Consulting LTD, and former Board Member, International Monetary Fund

On: Tuesday 17 March from 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building.

Lisa Bridgett (pictured), Global Director of Sales and Marketing for NET-A-PORTER.COM, the online luxury fashion retailer, will talk about how the company continuously combines technology and creativity, retains its start-up environment and incubates new businesses within the NET-A-PORTER GROUP.

Privatizations: auction and market design during a crisis

On: Tuesday 17 March from 6-7.30pm in the Cañada Blanch Room, Cowdray House
Speaker: Professor Vasiliki Skreta (pictured), Professor at the Economics Department, University College London.

This talk has three main goals. First to offer a framework to think about the costs and benefits of privatizations, based both on theory and on empirical evidence. Second, to provide insights from economic theory on how best privatizations should be organized. Third, to give an account of privatizations in Greece, both pre and during the crisis.

All Hellenic Observatory Seminars are open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. More
 

LSE Circles Choir

You are invited to hear the LSE Circles Choir perform on Wednesday 18 March from 4.15-4.45pm in the Faith Centre, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre.

The choir will be raising funds for North London Samaritans. If you can’t come to the concert, please consider making a donation at northlondonsamaritans.org.uk.

On: Wednesday 18 March from 6.45-7.45pm in the Sixth Floor Studio, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre.

The non-auditioned choir of LSE students, staff and alumni will perform a range of unaccompanied choral music from the Renaissance to twentieth century, including Monteverdi, Elgar and Barber.

You are invited to lunchtime Praise and Worship sessions with LSE Rejoice every Friday at 12-1pm in the LSE Faith Centre, second floor of Saw Swee Hock Student Centre.