Career Planning
Student Reviews Indicate Low Level of Satisfaction with London School of Economics
By John Paget
Oct 21, 2008 - 2:33:22 AM

An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com reveals that students and alumni at the London School of Economics only give a 5.7 score (out of 10) for their university education. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and inter-active website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures). It publishes regular reports on universities around the world.

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was established in 1895 and is a specialised university that provides undergraduate and graduate courses in the social sciences. The LSE has about 7,800 full-time students and over 800 part-time students. The School has a high proportion of international students, with only 34% of students coming from the United Kingdom (UK). It is located in the Central London and has an urban campus

The survey is web-based and covers 67 questions on the following categories: campus, university facilities, library, housing, dining, teaching, student experience and the city. Responses are from 0 (poor) to 10 (excellent), and there is also a question on whether the person would want to study at the university again.

There are currently 6 student reviews for the LSE (till 14th October 2008). Five of the 6 reviews (83%) said they would study at the LSE again. However, the overall student rating (based on 173 questions) was 5.7 out of 10, which is low compared to other universities

Overall, the LSE Library and City (London) scored highly in the reviews (9.2 out of 10) and the Teaching at the LSE scored poorly (5.8 out of 10). The low score for Teaching is reflected in the more detailed responses, for example, both contacts with the teachers (class work) and lecturers / professors were considered to be poor (1.3 out of 10).

Even though the sample size is small, it is interesting to note that the AllAboutUni.com survey results are validated by a second independent source. Each year final-year undergraduate students in the UK are asked to assess their student experience via the government's National Student Survey. The LSE received a score of 115 (out of 200), which was a poor performance compared to the other universities in the UK(107th out of 119 universities),  especially compared to some its peers e.g. the Universities of Cambridge (172), Oxford (167), Warwick (130) and the University College London (126).

In response to these poor results, the LSE commissioned a Teaching Task Force to raise the status of teaching at the LSE and satisfaction levels among students. In July 2008 the Teaching Task Force announced that 40 recommendations would be implemented and £2 million extra money would be made available for the initiative.

Source: http://www.allaboutuni.com/site/serv_publications.php