London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specializing in the social sciences, located on and around Houghton Street near Aldwych in central London. Fabian Society members Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw founded it in 1895. It became a member institution of the University of London in 1900 and gained its own degree-awarding powers in 2008. It is a single-campus, city-center school without a traditional quad or suburban grounds.

LSE has about 25 academic departments and institutes covering economics, government, international relations, law, sociology, anthropology, accounting, finance, statistics, social policy, geography and gender studies. Research centers include the Centre for Economic Performance, STICERD, the Financial Markets Group, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE IDEAS and the International Inequalities Institute. The British Library of Political and Economic Science is one of the largest social science libraries in the world.

The school has about 12,000 students, and more than half are postgraduates. Around 70 percent come from outside the United Kingdom, representing some 150 countries. LSE counts 18 Nobel laureates among its alumni and staff, most of them in economics, including Friedrich Hayek, who taught there. Alumni include financier George Soros, former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

Most graduate students take one-year taught MSc programs. Research students follow MRes/PhD tracks with a year of structured coursework before the thesis. Double degrees run with Sciences Po, Columbia University and Peking University, and the TRIUM Global Executive MBA is offered with NYU Stern and HEC Paris. The year has three terms: Autumn, Winter and Spring. Doctoral funding comes mainly from LSE PhD Studentships and UK research council awards.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, London School of Economics and Political Science lists 157 graduate programs across 30 subjects: 122 master's programs and 32 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in politics & international relations, communication, media & journalism and economics. London School of Economics and Political Science holds rank 29 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.