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| Why LSE?Page contents > What we study | | Why choose LSE? | Who chooses LSE? | Undergraduate students by domicile | Total students
What we studyLSE seeks to promote the impartial pursuit of knowledge and understanding about how people organise themselves into, and interact within, social groupings. The social sciences offer a number of ways of investigating and thinking about these questions: they do not teach you a 'right' (or left, or centre!) way to solve the world's problems. The focus of our teaching is on helping you to learn some of the different ways to test your – and other people's – ideas: and, in the words of our motto, rerum cognoscere causas, 'to understand the causes of things'. In most of our degrees, we expect students to take at least one course in a subject outside their particular specialism. The School offers courses not only in economics and political science, but also in a wide range of social science subjects, taught within a number of departments and interdisciplinary institutes. It is the only university in the UK specialising in the study of the social sciences, and has a worldwide reputation in the field. The UK's Higher Education Funding Council has rated the majority of the School's departments and institutes in its top two categories of excellence for research; departments have achieved outstanding results in the HEFCE/QAA teaching quality assessment/subject review exercises; and a range of independent and authoritative assessments have judged the School to be among the world's leading institutions for study of the social sciences. Several subjects have been pioneered at LSE (eg, Anthropology, International Relations and Social Policy). There is more information about the range of subjects studied at LSE in the Choosing a course section. While aiming for the highest standards of independent judgement, we seek to make our work practical and relevant to the real world. Teaching draws on the insights derived from the staff's current research. This can be an exploration of theoretical or technical developments in an academic subject, but much is also applied to topical and practical concerns:
These are just some of the questions different members of staff are currently investigating. Many past and present members of staff act as expert advisers to political parties, the Civil Service and policy pressure groups. Among those are Professor Timothy Besley, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and Professor David Metcalf, chair of the independent UK Migration Advisory Committee. Emeritus Professor Lord Desai is a regular speaker in House of Lords debates and Emeritus Professor Lord Wallace is a front bench spokesman on international affairs. Emeritus Professor Lord Layard, founder of the Centre for Economic Performance, is a prominent expert on happiness and well being. The School's international reputation and London location ensure that in times of crisis it is to LSE that the media turn first for a response. LSE director Howard Davies is a regular contributor to national and international media on financial markets and regulation. Professor Willem Buiter (political economy), Professor Conor Gearty (human rights), Professor David Held (globalisation), Professor Dominic Lieven (Russia), Professor Anne Power (housing policy), Tony Travers (London and local government) and Professor Danny Quah (the weightless economy) will all be familiar names to the average news addict. Why choose LSE?
These qualities derive from the variety of its staff and students (about half our undergraduate students come from outside Britain, and about half the student body are postgraduates), from its active academic debate on current social, economic and political concerns, and from the easy interchange of ideas between the School and the world outside. Government, Parliament, the business and financial institutions of the City, the Law Courts and the media are all on the School's doorstep. Each year, there are many influential outside speakers at the School (politicians, business leaders, industrialists) as well as leading academics from all around the world who visit to participate in teaching, to give public lectures and to pursue their own research. LSE is compact and full to the brim with students and staff – this just contributes to the vitality and friendliness of the place. LSE offers you the opportunity – and the challenge – to study different ways of understanding human society together with people from all parts of the world, with radically differing experiences, views and beliefs, in an atmosphere that encourages you to question ideas and to seek solutions to problems. If you welcome the stimulus of new experiences and ideas in a lively capital city – then choose LSE. Who chooses LSE?Students who choose LSE are intent on experiencing an active and varied undergraduate programme. The structure of our degrees emphasises the need for self study and rigorous intellectual skills where an individual student's opinion matters. If you are the kind of student who enjoys being challenged – intellectually, socially and personally – then LSE is an institution you should consider for your undergraduate degree programme. The School has around 3,800 undergraduate students drawn from all over the world, and from all social, educational and ethnic backgrounds. Approximately 1,200 new students enrol in September each year. Our students go on to all sorts of careers. By far the largest single group of graduates went into further academic study or vocational training (mainly for law). The next largest group is those who work in financial services, mainly as trainee accountants; others work in various aspects of finance, for banks, insurance companies and stockbrokers. However, there is a broad range of employers and types of work represented in our graduate destinations: management trainees (for example, in health and local authorities, retail, media, marketing, transport, engineering, food and drink, software and electronics companies), personnel officers, researchers and analysts, publishers and booksellers, lawyers, charity and social workers and civil servants. Undergraduate students by domicile
Total students
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The London School of Economics and Political Science – LSE – offers a unique opportunity to study the social sciences in a university institution with a worldwide academic reputation, while enjoying the cultural, social and recreational facilities of one of the world's great capital cities.
The School's location in central London is fundamental to its identity. When you choose to be an undergraduate at LSE, you are choosing not only a course of study, but a place to live and work for three years. LSE looks out over the London skyline, rather than over green fields. It is stimulating, cosmopolitan and very much a part of the 'real world'.
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