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Overall the LSE as university is constantly ranked among the top in national and global evaluations [i] (Guardian, 2006; SundayTimes, 2006; THES, 2006). The Times Higher Education Supplement even ranked it 3rd in the world for the social sciences (THES, 2006). Especially for philosophy of sciences the LSE is evaluated as the best university in the world (Leiter, 2006). While the LSE ranked 4th among a specialized European rating for Masters in Management in 2005 it came in 8th in 2006 (FinancialTimes, 2006).
Economic Autonomy
LSE’s business model works. It does cater almost exclusively to the financially well off, but we live in a capitalist system and there is nothing wrong with charging for quality. For the fiscal year ending July 2005 33% of the overall income came from overseas student fees, and only 18% came from ministerial grants (HEFCE and JISC). Another 15 million pound (11%) was brought in especially for research (35% of this from UK research councils and 37 from UK ministries, the EU as well as charities). Additionally, the LSE Enterprise (see below) already contributes about 1 million pounds in profits to the LSE’s balance, and its manager is determined to see this figure raise quickly (LSE management 51).
Website
In the international ranking for website quality it achieved a respectable 343 (of 3000) in the global and a 24 in the national ranking (Webometrics, 2006). This ranking does however express the historic evolution of the website amongst non-techies. In the international G(oogle)-Factor rating (Hirst, 2006) – measuring how many web-links at other university sites point to the LSE website – the 205th place reflects the School’s efforts quite realistically [ii]. The 4icu [iii] website popularity ranking shows the LSE at the 18th position.
3.1.8.1. Teaching and Learning
When it comes to student satisfaction, the LSE did not make it into the top 50 of UK universities (Guardian, 2005). This is most likely due to the fact that mostly British undergraduate students would be motivated to fill out this survey. Amongst them, voices of disappointment can be heard, as they complain that most lectures are given by PhD students (some of them foreigners who do not speak fluent English): “two thirds of the teaching there is awful and one third brilliant and nothing in between” (Guardian, 2006). Also, it is perceived that the academic super-stars are too busy to deal with freshmen questions, and that the great amount of foreign students lower the learning curve and fosters cultural ghettoization (ibid.). Professors are also aware of the problems of taking in well paying students based on credentials of which the legitimacy is hard to prove [iv].
As mentioned in the history section (1.3.4) many of the LSE’s graduates have become widely recognized scholars, politicians and economists. The career services at the LSE report that almost all students use their services and subsequently find work in the field they desire once they have graduated.
3.1.8.2. Research Results
The comprehensive national Research Assessment Exercise carried out in 2001 assessed the LSE’s research performance with the two highest possible grades for all categories submitted (except one third highest).
In economics LSE researchers are the editors for one of the most prestigious international journals- ‘Economica.’ Overall, the LSE ranks 24th in the “ISI Web of Knowledge Citation Index” for the publishing of economics and business papers and 70 for all social sciences. Together the LSE has published more than 3000 papers, which have been cited more than 16000 times and on an average of 5.3 times per paper (Table 3.1.1.).
Table 3.1.1. – LSE Scientific Output in ISI (ISI, 2006)
For now the LSE’s open access repository holds only about 500 papers. It is positive that the LSE has setup an OA server and as the publications mentioned in the next national research assessment (REA 2008) will be required to be put onto the server (LSE management 52), usage should become standard practice by then.
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[i] Even though the global Shanghai ranking put it only on rank 219 because of its relative recent birth and non-science specialization (which makes e.g. the number of Nobel prize winners among alumni less).
[ii] However, it has to be said that these rankings are highly biased towards Anglophone universities because the majority of very good universities are Anglophone.
[iii] As of 15.Feb.2007. 4icu explains its ranking with the following statement: The ranking is based upon an algorithm including three unbiased and independent web metrics: Google Page Rank, total number of inbound links and Alexa Traffic Rank.
[iv] One Professor is very outspoken in his assessment: “Virtually every Chinese applicant to LSE boasts "the highest exam scores in their province." Apparently it has not occurred to the LSE admissions office that there could not possibly be that many provinces in China. Naturally, most of these PRC students do very poorly and fail out of the program, and, when they do, many confess to having purchased or otherwise fabricated their exam scores and transcripts before they applied for LSE. He continues “at LSE, we have an enormous problem of plagiarism among our Asian students”. (Kanazawa, 2006 )
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