Winter 2017-2018 Issue
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We are delighted to turn more applications from under- represented students into offers. Minouche Shafik, new Director of LSE, on the School’s successes in Widening Participation p4 Issue 17, Winter 2017/18 Celebrating volunteering and philanthropy at LSE FOCUS ON HIGHLIGHTS: Arena: combating WIDENING disinformation in the Expanding horizons: information age p14 PARTICIPATION: Annual Fund Study LSE leads the way in Abroad travel LSE Supporter Roll social mobility p4 bursaries p10 2016/17 p23 LSE and Sutton Trust Sustainable economic partner in providing growth through evidence- Pathways p6 based research: the IGC in India p12 1 Contents REALISING POTENTIAL: FOCUS ON WIDENING PARTICIPATION LSE leads the way in social mobility p4 Alison Wetherfield Foundation supports lawyers of the future p5 LSE and Sutton Trust partner in providing Pathways p6 Hammering out a new world – the Fabian Window at LSE p7 Scholarship news p7 VOLUNTEERING Alumni news p8 My LSE story: Manuel Geggus, vice-president of the German Friends of LSE p9 ANNUAL FUND Expanding horizons: Annual Fund Study Abroad travel bursaries p10 Annual Fund breaks £1 million barrier again p11 Cover story: LSE leads the way in social mobility p4 RESEARCH INNOVATION Sustainable economic growth through evidence-based research and policy p12 IGC in India p13 Arena: combating disinformation in the information age p14 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP My LSE story: Manuel Geggus (second from right), Kuwait Programme celebrates vice-president of the 10th anniversary with five-year German Friends of LSE p9 renewal p15 Support for postdoctoral fellowships with Greek and Cypriot focus p15 LEGACY GIVING “Heir hunter” urges people to take control of their Will p16 Why I am leaving a legacy to LSE p17 PLACE AND PURPOSE Lecture theatres named in honour of new gifts p18 A new School of Public Policy at LSE p19 Why I am leaving a legacy Marshall Building granted to LSE p17 planning permission p19 ENDOWMENT LSE’s endowment: an essential means for our long-term ambition p20 DONOR SPOTLIGHT Stefan Guetter p21 LSE SUPPORTER ROLL 2016/17 Lecture theatres named in from p23 honour of new gifts p18 Donor Spotlight: Stefan Guetter p21 2 Dear Friends It’s my great pleasure to provide my first welcome for Impact. Since being an LSE student in the mid-1980s, I like to think I have always been aware of the contribution made to the School by volunteers and donors around the world. Since becoming Director this academic year, I know my appreciation of the impact of that contribution has been confirmed and advanced. Your support considerably enhances our efforts to achieve and subsequently maintain excellence in all that we do – from the creation and dissemination of LSE’s world class research, to the provision of an LSE education and an exceptional student experience in a campus befitting a world leading social sciences institution. As you will see from our cover story, LSE’s commitment to widening participation continues to be recognised, with the School increasing its proportional intake of disadvantaged students more than any other high-tariff English university over the last five years. Philanthropy can and does help in our efforts to improve social mobility, and on pages 4-7 we hear from some of those who generously support us in this goal, including the Alison Wetherfield Foundation and the Sutton Trust. We also have some very recent good news, with the announcement on page 12 that the International Growth Centre, based at LSE, has been awarded $4.2 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a collaborative project helping to ensure evidence-based research can inform poverty alleviation in the Bihar region of India. Dr Jonathan Leape, Director of the IGC, outlines why this collaboration means so much. LSE supporters sharing their stories in this issue include Professor Sir Charles Bean, who on page 17 outlines his reasons for leaving provision for a legacy gift to the School in his Will. Charlie’s relationship with LSE reaches back almost 50 years as a student, academic, Governor and philanthropic supporter. While Impact is not an annual report, in this issue we place on record LSE’s sincere gratitude to you for your support in the last academic year. Our Supporter Roll begins on page 23 and lists the volunteers and supporters whose gifts of time, expertise and financial philanthropy to LSE in 2016/17 are helping to enhance the School for current and future generations of students, alumni, staff and friends. Impact is an opportunity to collectively celebrate the successes and recognise the challenges facing our School. I thank you for your role in achieving the former, and am grateful for your support as we overcome the latter. Best wishes, Minouche Shafik LSE Director 3 Realising Potential: Focus on Widening Participation LSE leads the way in social mobility The success of LSE’s “More work is required to promote fair access to higher education, but we can be proud Widening Participation that our efforts to date at LSE have been (WP) programme has recognised,” commented Catherine Baldwin, Director of Recruitment and Admissions, and been recognised on a Interim Director of Advancement, at LSE. “Our national level. use of ‘contextualised data’ with regard to prospective students has significantly aided our A report published in September by REFORM, efforts to widen participation at the School.” an independent thinktank, assessed the This report follows news earlier this year that measures adopted by 29 leading universities LSE has invested more in widening participation to increase access to higher education. and student support as a proportion of its It revealed that LSE has increased its home undergraduate fees than any other proportional intake of disadvantaged students English university. more than any other high-tariff English university over the last five years. “LSE has a longstanding commitment to fair access and widening participation LSE also made significant progress against – recruiting students with the highest its Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) academic and intellectual potential, More work is required benchmark for this work and improved by 4.5 regardless of their background,” said LSE percentage points over five years – four times Director Minouche Shafik. “We are delighted to promote fair access more than the University of Bristol who were that concerted effort and recent initiatives second best on this measure. have helped turn more applications from to higher education, The report’s authors attributed a large talented but under-represented students but we can be proud part of LSE’s success to its introduction of into offers. We will continue to monitor and contextualised admissions – whereby the build on this work, seeking out the most that our efforts to university takes an applicant’s background and effective ways we can attract exceptional circumstances into account – and recommend students from all parts of society.” date at LSE have been other institutions consider what lessons to The work in Admissions is just one part of LSE’s draw from this practice. recognised. commitment to widen participation, including a comprehensive outreach programme, a Catherine Baldwin, Director of Recruitment generous financial support package and wide- and Admissions ranging on-course support for LSE students. We are delighted that concerted effort and recent initiatives have helped turn more applications from talented but under-represented students into offers. Minouche Shafik, LSE Director 4 Realising Potential: Focus on Widening Participation Alison Wetherfield Foundation supports lawyers of the future Students have described the Alison achievement this included students being Wetherfield Law Programme as engaging the first generation in their family to attend and inspiring, after 2016/17 saw another 33 university, having parents in lower socio- young legal minds benefit from the initiative. economic categories, as well as being from low income backgrounds. The programme, funded by a three- year grant from the Alison Wetherfield “I would like to express my thanks to the Foundation, provided specialist classes Alison Wetherfield Foundation for funding this for Year 12 students, delivered by LSE’s initiative over the last three years,” said Kirsty Law faculty. Since December 2014, 94 Wadsley, Head of Widening Participation. I would like to students were recruited across three Alison “Its support has benefited students from express my Wetherfield Law programmes, giving them backgrounds least represented in higher the opportunity to undertake three law education. I am delighted to say we will be thanks to the masterclasses and a mentoring scheme. taking the lessons learned and applying these Meanwhile hundreds of others attended the through our future work, not least on our Alison Wetherfield programme’s annual conference. Pathways to Law initiative.” Foundation for Study support sessions were delivered by The Alison Wetherfield Foundation raises specialists across a number of LSE services money to support projects that help funding this divisions, as well as subject-in-action activities. with the education and development of disadvantaged young people, and for Every state school in London was initiative over the research and programmes to improve social approached, and the most recent cohort inclusion and diversity. It was established last three years. included students from 27 different schools, in 2012 in memory of Alison Wetherfield, a with selection based on a number of leading employment lawyer in Japan, the UK Kirsty Wadsley, Head of Widening criteria. In addition to academic Participation and the US who died in the same year. 5 Realising Potential: Focus on Widening Participation LSE and Sutton Trust partner in providing Pathways This year LSE and the Sutton Trust, in partnership with Deutsche Bank, launched a new programme which seeks to widen access to the fields of banking and finance. Pathways to Banking and Finance complements the equivalent Pathways to Law programme, set up in 2006 with the College of Law (now the Legal Education Foundation) to widen access to the legal profession.