Always one of the big names of British higher education, the LSE was second only to Harvard University in The Times Higher Education/QS world rankings for social science in 2005 and only one place lower since then.

Now it is planning 20 per cent more places, having seized the chance to tackle a longstanding shortage of teaching space by acquiring former Government buildings near the school’s Aldwych headquarters.

The LSE took on a new lease of life under Professor Anthony Giddens, the academic face of Tony Blair’s Third Way, as big names arrived from a variety of other top universities.

Sir Howard Davies, his equally high-profile successor, is building on that progress, having made the move into academic life from the Financial Services Authority.

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The cosmopolitan feel that derives from the highest proportion of overseas students at any publicly funded university will continue and many of the new places will be for postgraduates, but there will be some increase in UK undergraduate places.

International

The LSE has produced 29 heads of state and 13 Nobel prizewinners in economics, literature and peace – including George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Friedrich von Hayek and Amartya Sen. The nationals of more than 150 countries take up half of the places. At the undergraduate level, only the much larger Manchester University has more applications from overseas. Its international character not only gives the LSE global prestige but also an unusual degree of financial independence. Less than a fifth of its income is from the Higher Education Funding Council.

Access

Only Oxford and Cambridge have higher entry standards. More than four British undergraduates in ten are from independent schools – one of the highest ratios in the country and much higher than the funding council’s benchmark figure. Efforts are being made to attract a broader intake with Saturday classes and summer schools. The projected dropout rate of 3 per cent is among the lowest at any university. Scores in the National Student Survey slipped a little in 2007, but applications remained healthy at the official deadline for courses beginning in 2008. Areas of study range more broadly than the name suggests. Law, management and history are among the subjects top-rated for teaching, and there is even a small contingent of scientists. Business, economics, psychology and mathematics all produced good results recently. Only Cambridge outperformed the LSE in the last research assessments, which saw half of the school’s subjects rated internationally outstanding. The school entered the highest proportion of its academics, at 97 per cent, of any university and just one subject (statistics) slipped below the top two grades.

Development

The LSE does not hide its light under a bushel: it describes itself as “the world’s leading social science institution for teaching and research”. A pan-European survey also showed the school’s students to be more active in student associations, more entrepreneurial and more open to opportunities to work abroad than those at other leading universities. The students’ union claims to be the only one in Britain to hold weekly general meetings at which every student may attend and vote, while the 120 student societies cover an unusually wide range of interests. Improvements were being made to the campus long before the opportunity arose to expand. A £30-million Norman Foster-designed redevelopment of the Lionel Robbins Building now houses a much-improved library.

The move was a welcome one since the number of books borrowed by LSE students is more than four times the national average, according to a recent survey. Additional buildings have been acquired, routes between buildings are being pedestrianised and a new student services centre has opened. Partying is not the prime attraction of the LSE for most applicants, who tend to be serious about their subject, but London’s top nightspots are on the doorstep for those who can afford them. The 3,650 residential places for 7,500 fulltime students offer a good chance of avoiding central London’s notoriously high private sector rents.

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