LSE Explore: Year 12

LSE Explore includes online and in-person events.

LSE Explore includes six online academic subject tasters which are delivered via Zoom. These events will take place from Monday 27 April to Thursday 7 May 2026. Applicants can apply for one or multiple online events based on their interests. All participants will also be invited to attend an optional online admissions session.

In 2026, we are piloting Explore Extra – three in-person events at our LSE campus in London for 30 Explore students. These events will run on Wednesday afternoons in June 2026. Explore Extra is open to all eligible students within three hours travelling distance of the LSE Campus.

When you complete an application for LSE Explore, you will be asked if you are interested in attending an additional Explore Extra session on campus. Explore Extra will showcase the following departments:

• Economic History
• International History
• International Relations

If you’re invited to attend an LSE Explore Extra event and you live outside of London, your travel to and from the campus will be booked and paid for by the Widening Participation Team. If you’re invited to attend an LSE Explore Extra event and you live in London, you’ll be able to claim back travel expenses. If your travel is likely to take longer than three hours each way or would take place outside of reasonable hours (leaving home before 7.00am or returning home later than 9.00pm on the day of the event), it is unlikely that you will be invited to attend an LSE Explore Extra event. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide accommodation for participants.

Online Academic Subject Tasters

The core element of LSE Explore is our online academic subject tasters featuring six departments across LSE. Each session will have a department-specific introduction, insight from a student ambassador studying a subject in the department, and a taster lecture delivered by an academic teaching within the department.

The online academic subject taster events for 2026 are:

Monday 27 April, 5.30-7.00pm – International History – featuring a taster lecture from Professor Alex Mayhew on 'What can vegetable shows reveal about the First World War?’

Tuesday 28 April, 5.30-7.00pm – Anthropology – featuring a taster lecture from Professor Andrea Pia on ‘Why anthropology matters more than ever: the power of ethnography’

Wednesday 29 April, 5.30-7.00pm – Economic History – featuring a taster lecture from Professor Patrick Wallis on 'Making Trade Happen: Overcoming distance in a medieval world’

Thursday 30 April, 5.30-7.00pm – International Relations – featuring a taster lecture from Professor Karen Smith on ‘What is foreign policy and how is it made?’

Wednesday 6 May, 5.30-7.15pm – Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method – featuring a taster lecture from Professor Lewis Ross on 'The problem of moral luck’, and an alumni speaker

Thursday 7 May, 5.30-7.15pm – Management – featuring a taster lecture from Professor Nayat Horozoglu on ‘Sustainable Operations’, and an alumni panel

Online Admissions Information Sessions

All participants also have the chance to attend one of two online admissions information sessions. Each session will feature a talk by an Undergraduate Admissions Specialist on applying to LSE and the time for participants to ask questions. These sessions are optional and identical. These sessions will be held on:

• Saturday 9 May, 10:30-11:45am – Session 1
• Saturday 9 May, 4:00-5:15pm – Session 2

LSE Explore Extra (in-person academic subject taster events)

Some participants will be invited to attend LSE Explore Extra: three in-person academic subject tasters, each featuring one department from across LSE. Each event will include information about student support and graduate prospects in the department, testimonials from current LSE students, a campus tour, and an interactive taster seminar.

The Explore Extra events for 2026 are:

• Wednesday 3 June, 1.30-5.15pm – Economic History Explore Extra
• Wednesday 10 June, 1.30-5.15pm – International History Explore Extra
• Wednesday 17 June, 1.30-5.15pm – International Relations Explore Extra

LSE Explore events are free to attend.

Essential criteria

To be eligible for LSE Explore, you must meet all of our essential eligibility criteria (below).

If you are unsure about any of the eligibility criteria, or whether you can apply to LSE Explore, please contact ard.explore@lse.ac.uk

Personal details:

Applicants should:

• be currently in Year 12 (England and Wales), Year 13 (Northern Ireland) or S5 (Scotland)
• have always attended a UK state-funded, non-fee-paying school/college/sixth form
• be considering making an application to undergraduate study at LSE
• be able to fully commit to the LSE Explore event(s) that you are interested in.

Academic achievements and potential:

• have achieved at least grade 6 in GCSE English Language and Mathematics (or equivalent)
• have achieved a strong set of GCSE grades overall, with the majority at grades 7, 8 or 9 (or equivalent)
• be on track to achieve at least the contextual offer grades for your chosen degree programme(s) at LSE. This includes studying any required A level subjects for your chosen degree programme. Full details of LSE’s undergraduate degree programmes are available on the programme webpages

Additional criteria

For LSE Explore Extra (in-person events), if you meet the essential criteria, we will prioritise students who meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Students who are care-experienced. LSE defines care-experienced as those who have been in the care of the local authority, with foster carers, in a residential children's home, under a supervision order while 'looked after at home', or living with friends or relatives in kinship care
• Students who live in an area of low Higher Education participation. LSE primarily assesses this by looking at the TUNDRA quintile for your home postcode. Quintile 1 or quintile 2 indicate that you live in an area of low Higher Education participation. Quintiles 3, 4 and 5 indicate that you live in an area of medium to high Higher Education participation. You can check if you are in quintile 1 or 2 by entering your home postcode in this TUNDRA postcode checker
• Students who have ever been eligible for Free School Meals during their secondary education
• Students who live outside of London
• Students who are estranged from both parents
• Students who are the first generation of their family to attend university

The more additional criteria you meet, the more likely you are to be invited to attend Explore Extra.

If you are a current participant on Pathways to Law at LSE, Pathways to Banking and Finance at LSE, LSE Thrive, or LSE Springboard, you will be offered the chance to register for an Explore online event but unfortunately you will not be invited to attend an Explore Extra event.

Extenuating circumstances

Extenuating or special circumstances are also considered when reviewing applications for LSE Thrive. In the application form, you will have the opportunity to provide more details about your extenuating circumstances, such as:

• you are a refugee or asylum seeker
• you are a young carer, with significant caring responsibilities
• you are a child with parents in the armed forces
• you have experienced significant disruption to your education
• you have experienced the recent bereavement of a parent or carer
• any other extenuating circumstances that have affected your educational experiences.

Applications to LSE Explore are now closed. This information will be updated for the 2026/27 applications in due course.

LSE Explore 2025 participants said:

• "As someone from the North East of England, it is helpful to see what student life in London would be like.”
• "LSE Explore gave me a better understanding of what it is like to study the subject compared to just knowing facts about each department - I could easily gauge how interested I was in each subject based on my enjoyment of the lectures.”
• “I’ve made a decision about what I want to do based off these taster lectures.”

If you have any questions, please email Ard.Explore@lse.ac.uk and the LSE Explore team will reply as soon as possible.

Read the LSE Explore 2025 evaluation