LSE - Sir Howard Davies

Where my LSE people at?

Just got an email earlier about Howard Davies resigning because he took research money from the Qaddafi clan. Personally, I'm happy about this, I can't stand what he did to the school having basically turned it into a diploma mill / money pit for students. I'm all for being a money-grubbing asshole, but not when comes to education, especially for a so-called "prestigious" school. It's not a coincidence as to why LSE has been dropping in the rankings or why morale on campus has been so low.

What do you guys think? Will the downward spiral end now that this guy is out or with the 200 new degree programs they've been adding every year (in order to rake in the money while keeping a facade that admission rates are low) are the glory days over?

 

I agree, somewhat. Not a LSE student former or present but form the UK. Did my UG at Oxford and masters at UCL so aware of the problems at UCL. The amount of foreign UGs at LSE is huge and all brought over on the back of this money-spinning idea.

Absolutely agree on LSE's reputation being heading downwards for a while before this scandal hit and now even more so. UCL's definitely overtaken LSE in London but I still feel you'll find many attracted by LSE.

Believe it or not, there is helluva a lot of support for Howard Davies still!!! My younger brother is a UG at LSE and mentions the impact this has had.

Bad times..

 

I'd actually argue otherwise. The fact that he chose to resign says a lot about his character. As for degree/ money mill, I agree that it's partly true for the masters programs, but definitely far from true for the UG programs.

@FinancialNoviceII: I could have sworn that you claimed to have done your masters at LSE in another thread. Not that it makes a difference.

I win here, I win there...
 
Bi-Winning:
I'd actually argue otherwise. The fact that he chose to resign says a lot about his character. As for degree/ money mill, I agree that it's partly true for the masters programs, but definitely far from true for the UG programs.

@FinancialNoviceII: I could have sworn that you claimed to have done your masters at LSE in another thread. Not that it makes a difference.

Whoops! Did I? My bad, must have had LSE on the mind at the time. But no, definitely UCL.

 
Best Response

@Bi-Winning - I agree with the undergrad/grad distinction, and that for undergrad you still have the opportunity to receive a quality education if you put something into it. I guess I'm a bit "grad-centric" in my thinking and so I probably should have clarified that in the original post.

About your other point, not so sure if this was so much his character or him getting out before so much else came out. I only do know that I don't like the direction he has taken the school over the past few years, and, in his doing so, he certainly doesn't strike me as a high character person.

@FinancialNoviceII - At this point I would agree that (for grad) the education at LSE has become second rate and maybe even third rate (that is not exaggeration.) Fortunately, the recruiting is still top notch (which isn't saying much in this brutal London environment,) but that's more a reflection of LSE alums on the street recruiting new LSE students, and less a function of the education there. However, I fear that if things continue to decline in the way that they have, this level of recruiting is unsustainable and LSE will take a backseat to Oxbridge and LBS in that department (especially if the quality of LSE recruits is low.) The whole situation is a mess.

I imagine you are quite right about Davies having lots of other opportunities waiting for him though. At the very least, he made the school quite profitable (at the expense of the students and the quality of their education, of course.)

 

I'm currently in the undergrad program at LSE and I really don't think that its reputation has dropped compared to other schools, inside or outside of London. Everyone that I meet is still very very impressed with the name and I think that this will continue to be the case, no matter what program you're in. The recruiting is also unbelievable and again I think that there's nothing to indicate this won't continue. For me, that's what's most important since my main goal in coming here was to get the name on my CV and find a good job.

I definitely think that Davies was a good Director for LSE, but it remains to be seen what else will be coming out in the next few weeks about him. It didn't seem like this was enough to resign over, so I think that there's definitely much more to this story that either has not and/or will not be revealed to the public.

 

LSE is better than UCL for umpteen reasons. First of all, LSE is very tough to get into and UCL is comparitively easy. Although you have to be a top student for both, but UCL takes in the above average people too while LSE takes only the best. A glaring drawback in UCL's application system for MSc Economics is its lack of GRE as a criteria for international applicants which is actually laughable. While LSE needs you to be a very high scorer in the Quantitative section of GRE to be eligible for the programme, UCL needs no GRE at all. A friend from India who had done a very non mathematical Economics Undergrad degree got into UCL for MSc Econ and had a very hard time studying the course. LSE that way has an appropriate checklist of requirements and takes in only the best.

 

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