London School of Economics
| Motto | Latin: Rerum cognoscere causas | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Motto in English | To understand the causes of things | ||||||||||||
| Type | Public research university | ||||||||||||
| Established | 1895 | ||||||||||||
| Endowment | £255.5 million (2024) | ||||||||||||
| Budget | £525.6 million (2023/24) | ||||||||||||
| Chair | Susan Liautaud | ||||||||||||
| Visitor | Lucy Powell (as Lord President of the Council ex officio) | ||||||||||||
| Chancellor | The Princess Royal (as Chancellor of the University of London) | ||||||||||||
| President and Vice-Chancellor | Larry Kramer | ||||||||||||
Academic staff | 1,920 (2023/24) | ||||||||||||
Administrative staff | 2,690 (2023/24) | ||||||||||||
| Students | 12,910 (2023/24) 12,430 FTE (2023/24) | ||||||||||||
| Undergraduates | 5,680 (2023/24) | ||||||||||||
| Postgraduates | 7,230 (2023/24) | ||||||||||||
| Location | London , England 51°30′50″N 0°07′00″W / 51.51389°N 0.11667°W | ||||||||||||
| Campus | Urban | ||||||||||||
| Newspaper | The Beaver | ||||||||||||
| Colours | Purple, black and gold | ||||||||||||
| Affiliations | |||||||||||||
| Mascot | Beaver | ||||||||||||
| Website | lse | ||||||||||||
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw, LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and offered its first degree programmes under the auspices of the university in 1901. LSE began awarding degrees in its own name in 2008, prior to which it awarded degrees of the University of London. It became a university in its own right within the University of London in 2022.
LSE is located in the London Borough of Camden and Westminster, Central London, near the boundary between Covent Garden and Holborn. The area is historically known as Clare Market. As of 2023/24, LSE had just under 13,000 students, with the majority being postgraduate students and just under two thirds coming from outside the UK. The university has the sixth-largest endowment of any university in the UK and in 2023/24, it had an income of £525.6 million of which £41.4 million was from research grants.
LSE is a member of the Russell Group, Association of Commonwealth Universities and the European University Association, and is typically considered part of the "golden triangle" of research universities in the south east of England.
Since 1990, the London School of Economics has educated 24 heads of state or government, the second highest of any university in the United Kingdom after the University of Oxford. As of 2024, the school is affiliated with 20 Nobel laureates.