London School of Economics (LSE) Ranking

April 1st, 2007
Tags: LSE, Economic Universities, Economic Education

London School of Economics and Political Science is the only world-famous university of United Kingdom that specializes in social sciences. It has a long history from its foundation in 1895 and recognition as a college of University of London in 1900. Its entrants are welcomed to “the greatest university in the world dedicated to the social sciences”. During its existance the School has created one of the best master program in economics, business, finance and management. Its departments offer focused and determined education for student of many countries (about 8000 students). It is often considered as the best economic university in the world.

Location of LSE

LSE is located on Houghton Street in Central London, not far from Aldwich Theatre and near the Royal Court of Justice.

LSE Rankings

London School of Economics is often referred as the biggest laboratory of social sciences - it’s justly, because it greatly contributes and even dominates the world social sciences studies.

LSE is the largest recipient of funding for social science research in the UK. League tables published by British newspapers consistently rank the LSE inside the top four academic institutions in the United Kingdom. In the most recent national research assessment, the LSE came second after Cambridge for the quality of its research - and top if only the social sciences are taken into account.

According to Highest Education Supplement (THES) LSE was ranked as the 3rd after Harvard and Oxford for the social sciences. (Data of 2006)

Guardian’s 2006 Highest Education Guide and Sunday Times University Guide 2006 also ranked it as the 3rd best university in the world.

LSE was ranked fourth overall in the 2007 Times Good University Guide. The subject league tables were as follows: 1st in the UK for both Economics and Accounting and Finance; 2nd for Business Studies, Politics, Geography, Social Policy and Sociology; 3rd for both Philosophy and Anthropology; 4th for Law; 5th for History; and 6th for Maths.

LSE famous economists

LSE alumni and former staff include fourteen Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Peace and Literature, thirty-four heads of state or heads of government, including five current heads of state or government (Italy, Denmark, Kenya, Kiribati and Costa Rica), twenty-eight current British Members of Parliament, and forty-two current peers of the House of Lords.

Notable former alumni include an American President (John F. Kennedy), and the international banker and statesman David Rockefeller, whose family, along with the Rockefeller Foundation, financially supported the institution in the postwar period. Other alumni included a German Chancellor, the Danish Queen, two Canadian Prime Ministers (Kim Campbell and Pierre Elliot Trudeau), the Norwegian Crown-Prince, the first Governor of Australia’s central bank (Nugget Coombs), several billionaires (including George Soros), and celebrities such as The Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger.

The British Prime Minister Clement Attlee also taught at the LSE. The Philosophy Department was founded by Sir Karl Popper and has served as a place of study for well-known philosophers of science such as Paul Feyerabend and Imre Lakatos.

With the appointment of both Tim Besley and Andrew Sentance to the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England, which is responsible for setting interest rates and managing inflation in the UK, a total of six former LSE graduates, researchers and professors now sit on the panel that governs UK monetary policy. The other LSE affiliated members comprise of Governor Mervyn King, Chief Economist Charles Bean, Deputy Governor Rachel Lomax and external member David Blanchflower

The list of most famous LSE economists unclude Friedrich von Hayek, a prominent ideologist of liberalism, whose views influenced the policy of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. The others are James Meade, Merton Miller, Ronald Coase, William Arthur Lewis - all of them nobelists.

LSE’s World Biggest Library

London School of Economics has the largest library of social sciences in the world, receiving about 5000 students and staff members every day. Its shelving is 50 km long - and that is quite enough to stretch the length of Channel Tunnel. Library keeps archives of about 90′000 historic pamphlets, 31′000 journal titles, it subscribes over 15′000 electronic journals. Being equipped with networ PC’s, laptops, this is a great centre of individual and group studies.

LSE library