The London School of Economics and Political Science (more commonly referred to as the London School of Economics or LSE) is a public research university specialised in social sciences located in London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw, LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and first issued degrees to its students in 1902. Despite its name, LSE conducts teaching and research across a range of social sciences, as well as in mathematics, statistics, media, philosophy and history. LSE is located in Westminster, central London, near the boundary between Covent Garden and Holborn. The area is historically known as Clare Market. It has around 9,500 full-time students and just over 3,000 staff and had a total income of £263.2 million in 2012/13, of which £23.7 million was from research grants. The School is organised into 24 academic departments and 19 research centres. LSE’s library, the British Library of Political and Economic Science, contains over 4 million print volumes, 60,000 online journals and 29,000 electronic books. The Digital Library contains digitised material from LSE Library collections and also born-digital material that has been collected and preserved in digital formats. LSE is a global leading social sciences dedicated institution and is considered one of the most prestigious universities in the world. According to QS World University Rankings, the LSE ranks 3rd in the world in Economics and Econometrics, 3rd in Politics and International Studies, 7th in Law, 3rd in Accounting and Finance and 7th in History. Moreover, it ranks 2nd in Geography, 5th in Sociology, 2nd in Communication and Media Studies and 14th in Philosophy. According to The Research Excellence Framework 2014 LSE has “the highest proportion of ‘world-leading’ research among UK universities”. The School has produced many notable alumni in the fields of law, economics, philosophy, history, business, literature, media and politics. In the political arena, as of February 2009, around 45 past or present heads of state have studied or taught at LSE, and 28 members of the current British House of Commons and 46 members of the current House of Lords have either studied or taught at the school. To date, there have been 16 Nobel Prize winners amongst its alumni and current and former staff, and fellows of the British Academy. Out of all European universities, LSE has educated the most billionaires according to a 2014 global census of dollar billionaires. Businesspeople who studied at LSE include hedge fund managers George Soros and Michael Platt (finance), David Rockefeller, Tony Fernandes, Daniel Akerson, Delphine Arnault, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Spiros Latsis, Maurice Saatchi. LSE is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, the European University Association, the G5, the Global Alliance in Management Education, the Russell Group and Universities UK. It is sometimes described as forming part of the ‘golden triangle’ of British universities.
