FAQs for Current Students

Yes! This webpage includes all the relevant links, including to term dates, exam period dates, dates for course selection open and close and dates for when you need to pay your fees. There are three terms at LSE: Autumn Term, Winter Term and Spring Term.

The Student Services Centre can provide you with a letter of registration to prove you are an LSE student. These letters are typically used for things like council tax, opening bank accounts, applying for visas and other similar situations. You can request a letter here. 

PhD students should contact the PhD Academy to request a certificate or letter.

Council tax is a tax that each household/individual pays for local services such as bin collection and full-time students are typically entitled to some form of exemption or discount, but this depends on your individual circumstances and you must check with your own local council. You can find out more here, and how to request a letter from the SSC to provide to your local council. 

You can order a new one! Please view this webpage for more information. 

All students must follow their programme regulations for their year of entry. For example, if you started your programme in September 2024, you will follow the 2024  programme regulations, and it will set out which courses you are allowed to take. Any changes for new students in later years will not apply to you. You can view all programme regulations here in the LSE calendar. Your academic mentor will oversee your course selection and so you can speak with them about what you'd like to study and the courses you're thinking of choosing. 

You should ask your academic mentor in the first instance. You must ask a potential reference in advance of putting their name and contact details on an application form for their permission to do so. It is good practice to let them know in advance of any upcoming applications, when they can expect to contacted and provide them with any information that would be helpful. It is unreasonable to expect a reference to be completed with only a few days notice, so please be mindful of timelines and make sure you provide your reference with enough notice. You can also ask previous academic mentors, your class teachers or academic staff who have taught you for a reference where relevant. Professional Services staff will not be able to provide an academic or character reference. 

If a company requires a verification of your qualifications, this is a separate process they should undertake and you should send the company this link. Departments and academic staff will not be able to provide official verification of qualifications or marks. 

If you have a question about your time here at LSE and you're not sure who to ask, you can get in touch with your academic mentor. For administrative queries, you can also contact your programme manager - they can explain administrative processes at LSE and will able to point you to the right team and help you find the answers. The undergraduate programme manager can be contacted on sociology.ug@lse.ac.uk and the MSc programme managers can be contacted on sociology.msc@lse.ac.uk 

Your Academic Mentor is a key point of contact in your academic department. Their role is to keep an overview of your academic progress and overall wellbeing during your time at the School. They can provide guidance and coaching on the wide range of academic and pastoral topics that might come up during your time at LSE. They can share their experience, answer questions and help you play a part in LSE’s academic community.  

You should attend meetings with them, be willing to enter into discussions about your courses and the wider world, possibly in a one to one setting, or maybe in a group with other mentees. Bear in mind that they won’t always have the answer to all your questions but they will listen to you. When they don’t know themselves, they will be able to direct you to the most appropriate team in the School. Click here for more information. 

We will issue most final transcripts during the week after results are released. It takes a little time to issue transcripts so please do not worry if your transcript is not immediately available, it will become available soon. Final transcripts are issued using a system called Parchment (formerly known as Digitary CORE) which allows you to share your transcript electronically.  Your Parchment transcript will be uploaded to the system within three weeks of you award being confirmed. You will receive an automated email when it is ready for you to access and share. 

Hard copy transcripts are normally dispatched within five working days from receipt of your order. Please remember to allow additional time for delivery if you have requested that your transcript be posted to you. 

All academic staff hold weekly office hours which are designated for meeting with students to discuss your studies, matters related to an individual course or assessment, or more general queries at your time at LSE. These take place in person and are bookable via the Student Hub.   

Personal timetables are viewed in Student LSE for You. Your timetable will be available once you have selected your courses in LFY. During the first few weeks of term, there may be changes to your timetable for some courses to make sure you are offered maximum flexibility in your course selection. When your personal timetable is published on LSE For You, it will sync to your Student Hub in-app calendar. 

For summative work submitted in Autumn or Winter term, you can expect to receive qualitative feedback on a summative feedback form via email within five term weeks of the submission deadline, where students submit their work on time. For other summative assessments:

• Feedback on January exams will normally be provided within six term weeks following the end of the exam period. Where given, exam feedback will be in the form of collective feedback, with an overview of each question from the markers, not as individual feedback. 
• Feedback on Spring Term assessments and exams will normally be provided within four term weeks of the following Autumn term, for continuing students (1st and 2nd year undergraduate students only). Apart from dissertations, feedback for graduating students is not usually provided, in line with LSE's Academic Code. 
• Feedback on dissertations and capstone projects will normally be provided within four weeks of the final mark being made available to students.

Students can view some past exam papers through the library catalogues as linked here.