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3.1.3.1. Students
Born as a result of a philanthropic endeavour, the School started with only a few courses and grew both rapidly but organically (in the sense that new courses and careers were added when resources were secured). Today the LSE has about 7800 students and plans to grow to about 9000 once a new building which has recently been acquired will be ready for use. The composition of the student body has always been exceptional. For example its strong research focus traditionally results in a very high percentage of PhD students. With about 600 teaching staff, the student-teacher ratio is about 1:13. Furthermore the LSE employs ~800 administrative staff and about 200 people purely dealing with research (ConStat, 2006).
3.1.3.2. Location
The School’s location in the centre of London brings two decisive advantages. First and foremost, it is literally very close to the heart of English politics and media and second – given the distinguished cultural attractions in this area - it adds enormously to the School’s attractiveness for its clients and employees (LSE multiple 18). Nevertheless, its centrality also brings the disadvantage that it is extremely difficult for the School to expand, as real estate in this area is amongst the most expensive in the world (LSE management 19). It is one of the achievements of the School’s current director that he managed to identify and buy a new building which will add 10200 square metres to the School (LSE web 4).
3.1.3.3. Specialisation
From its genesis, it was clear that the LSE had a very clear specialisation and would only focus on social sciences. Given the concrete aim of its founding fathers to change and better society all subjects are studied with a relatively concrete application in mind. Today the LSE consists of 18 disciplinary departments and 5 research institutions. Naturally by far the two most developed subjects are economics and political sciences, which are taken (at least partially) by the majority of LSE students.
3.1.3.4. Business-Model
The LSE’s business model is straight-forward: Based on its high reputation and banking on the strength of the current senior academics (LSE administration 20), the LSE attracts foreign students who pay a decisively higher tuition fee [i] than British students (LSE Faculty 21). In 2003/04 the LSE had 62% (Howard, 2006) of its student body coming from abroad, or what is internally referred to as ‘cash cow students’ (LSE multiple 22). Additionally, the School is run (organisationally) like a professional private business, and all administrative staff interviewed have plausibly represented this understanding. Even though the good financial standing of the School speaks for itself, the speed and distant efficiency of the programmes taught (especially in the undergraduate and master degrees), is perceived by many students as lowering the educational experience (LSE multiple students 23).
3.1.3.5. Finance
Among the universities researched in the project, the LSE is outstanding for its financial situation. It receives less than 20% of its budget from the state, and more than 40% from tuition fees. Figure 1 nicely summarizes LSE’s balance. The School’s social science focus is in this ratio surely a big advantage, because when it comes to financial planning and sourcing (big) science projects (physics, etc.) naturally have exponentially higher costs and are traditionally state funded.
3.1.1 Figure - LSE Balance (LSE 2005 Annual Report )
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[i] which is many times paid by scholarships
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