The London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science (commonly referred to as the LSE or the London School of Economics) is a public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw for the betterment of society, LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and first issued degrees to its students in 1902.  Despite its name, LSE conducts teaching and research across a range of legal studies and social sciences in 26 academic departments or institutes including mathematics, statistics, media, human geography, public affairs and international history and is recognized as one of the leading social science universities in the world.

LSE is located in central London, near the boundary between Covent Garden and Holborn. The area is historically known as Clare Market. It has 10,600 students and just over 3,000 staff and had a total income of £299.6 million in 2014/15, of which £27.1 million was from research grants. 150 nationalities are represented amongst LSE's student body and the school boasts the highest percentage of international students (70%) out of all British universities – ranked 2nd in the world for the highest proportion of international students. The School is organised into constituent academic departments and 25 research centres. LSE forms a part of the academic golden triangle of highly research-intensive English universities.

London School of Economics (LSE) is consistently ranked among the top universities nationally and in the world. According to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, the School has the highest proportion of world-leading research among all British universities. Its graduates are consistently ranking among the most employable by international employers ranking within the top five for the past five years.

The school has produced many notable alumni in the fields of law, economics, philosophy, history, business, literature, media and politics. Around 45 past or present presidents and prime ministers have studied or taught at LSE, and 28 members of the current British House of Commons and 46 members of the current House of Lords have either studied or taught at the School. To date, 26% (or 12 out of 46) of all the Nobel Prizes in Economics have been awarded to LSE alumni and current and former staff. Out of all European universities, LSE has educated the most billionaires according to a 2014 global census of dollar billionaires.

Campus and estate

Since 1902 LSE has been based in the historic Clare Market district of Westminster in what is now part of Midtown on the Northbank. It is surrounded by a number of important institutions including the Royal Courts of Justice, Lincoln's Inn, Royal College of Surgeons, Sir John Soane Museum, British Museum, London's Theatreland and the shops of Covent Garden and the West End.
In 1920, King George V laid the foundation of the Old Building, which remains the principal building on campus, though the focus of the campus has moved towards the adjacent Lincoln's Inn Fields in recent years. The campus now occupies an almost continuous group of around 30 buildings between Kingsway and the Aldwych. Alongside teaching and academic space, the institution also owns 11 student halls of residence across London, two public houses, a West End theatre (the Peacock), early years centre, NHS medical centre and extensive sports ground in Berrylands, south London. The School's campus is noted for its numerous public art installations which include Richard Wilson's Square the Block, Michael Brown's Blue Rain, Christopher Le Brun's Desert Window.
Since the early 2000s, the entire campus has undergone an extensive refurbishment project and a major fund-raising "Campaign for LSE" raised over £100 million in what was one of the largest university fund-raising exercises outside North America. This process was begun with the £35 million renovation of the Lionel Robbins Building by Sir Norman Foster to house the British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES), the world's largest social science and political library and the second largest single entity library in Britain, after the British Library at King's Cross.
In 2003, LSE purchased the former Public Trustee building at 24 Kingsway, and engaged Sir Nicholas Grimshaw to redesign it into an ultra-modern educational facility at a total cost of over £45 million – increasing the size of the campus by 120,000 square feet (11,000 m2). The building opened for teaching in October 2008, with an official opening by Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on 5 November 2008. In November 2009 the School purchased the adjacent Sardinia House to house three academic departments and the nearby Old White Horse public house, before acquiring the freehold of the grade-II listed Land Registry Building at 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields in October 2010, which was reopened in March 2013 by HRH The Princess Royal as the new home for the Department of Economics, International Growth Centre and its associated economic research centres.

The first new building on the site for more than 40 years, the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, opened in January 2014 following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions. The building provides new accommodation for the Students' Union, accommodation office and careers service as well as a bar, events space, gymnasium, rooftop terrace, learning café, dance studio and media centre. The building, designed as a showpiece for the City of Westminster and Midtown was recognised as having a low environmental impact receiving an 'Outstanding' status under BREEAM, and in 2012 was one of three winners of the New London Award in the Education category. In May 2014 the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre won the RIBA London Building of the Year Award.
It is currently embarking on the biggest redevelopment and expansion in its 120-year history with the development of a £120 million new facility designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners following the completion of a global design competition managed by RIBA Competitions. Once complete in 2018 the new development will house the Global Centre for the Social Sciences and feature a new square at the centre of the campus.

In September 2013, LSE purchased the freehold of 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, currently the home of the Francis Crick Institute's laboratories which will vacate in 2016. The building will be demolished in 2017 to make way for the new Paul Marshall Building which will house academic departments, sports facilities and the new Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship. In 2015 it brought its ownership of buildings on Lincoln's Inn Fields to six with the purchase of 5 Lincoln's Inn Fields on the north side of the square.
The campus has been used as a film location for television and film including Party Animals (2007) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) and is features regularly on national and international news.
Location and transport

LSE is situated in London's 'Midtown' district on the Northbank, a site bordering Aldwych and Temple Bar and spanning the boundaries of the City of Westminster, Camden and City of London. It has recently expanded to encompass much of Lincoln's Inn Fields where it now occupies seven buildings and lies adjacent to the Royal Courts of Justice and Kingsway on what used to be Clare Market. The School lies within the London Congestion Charge zone.

The nearest London Underground stations are Holborn, Temple and Covent Garden. Charing Cross, at the Trafalgar Square end of Strand, and the City Thameslink entrance at Ludgate Hill are the nearest mainline stations, whilst London Waterloo is a walk or bus across the River Thames. Buses to Aldwych, Kingsway and the Royal Courts of Justice contain stops which are designated as 'alight here for LSE'.