London School of Economics and Political Science

About London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is an elite public research university located in central London and a prestigious member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by prominent members of the Fabian Society—Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw—LSE was conceived to promote social reform and the empirical, rigorous study of human society through its founding motto Rerum cognoscere causas ("To understand the causes of things"). Widely regarded as the world’s foremost specialist institution dedicated exclusively to the social sciences, LSE is a core constituent of the Russell Group, CIVICA (the European University of Social Sciences), and the "Golden Triangle" of elite British research universities. LSE operates a vibrant, pedestrianized urban campus clustered around Houghton Street, Clare Market, and Lincoln’s Inn Fields, situated on the historic boundary of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden—moments from Covent Garden, the Royal Courts of Justice, and Fleet Street. The campus features state-of-the-art architectural landmarks, including Grafton Architects’ Stirling Prize-winning Marshall Building (44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields) housing the Departments of Accounting, Finance, and Management; Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ 13-storey Centre Building housing Government, International Relations, and Public Policy; O’Donnell + Tuomey’s award-winning brick-faceted Saw Swee Hock Student Centre housing the LSE Students’ Union (LSESU); and the world-renowned British Library of Political and Economic Science (BLPES), founded in 1896 as the world’s largest social science library holding over 4 million print volumes with a striking helical spiral ramp designed by Sir Norman Foster. LSE’s academic influence is peerless: it has been home to 9 Nobel Memorial Prizes in Economic Sciences (including Sir Arthur Lewis, Friedrich Hayek, Sir John Hicks, Ronald Coase, Amartya Sen, and Christopher Pissarides) and 21 Nobel laureates in total. Its alumni and faculty include over 40 world leaders, dozens of UK Cabinet ministers, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, European Commission leaders, and the architects of the modern welfare state inspired by LSE Director William Beveridge's 1942 Beveridge Report. Over 70% of the student body hails from outside the United Kingdom, representing more than 140 countries and making LSE one of the most culturally cosmopolitan and intellectually rigorous academic communities on Earth.