London School of Economics

Located in Westminster, Central London, the London School of Economics, also known as The London School of Economics and Political Science, specializes in the social sciences. The university ranks first in Europe and second in the world in the QS Top Universities for Social Sciences and Management in 2021 LSE has twenty-nine academic departments and institutes, twenty research centers, and one of the largest social science libraries in Europe. The school boasts eighteen Nobel Prize winners from its alumni, students, and professors.

Currently, there are around 10,000 students enrolled at LSE. While the school has been a part of London University since 1900, in 2008 it began conferring its own degrees. Baroness Minouche Shafik has been the director of LSE since 2017.

The school's founding purpose reads "for the betterment of society." Their current motto is "rerum cognoscere causas," which translates as "to know the causes of things."

The university first accepted students in 1895, though founder Sidney Webb, along with support from Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw, began laying the groundwork in 1894. LSE joined the University of London in 1900, becoming the University’s Faculty of Economics. By 1914, the school had 1,681 students enrolled.

During WWII, the school was forced to relocate and many staff and students joined the war. They reopened in London on October 29, 1945. From 1949-1950 two new departments were developed at LSE—the Department of Social Policy and the Department of Social Psychology. In the 1970s, four Nobel Prizes were awarded to those with LSE connections; these included John Hicks (1972), Friedrich Hayek (1974), James Meade (1977) and Sir Arthur Lewis (1979). Though the school had been part of the University of London since 1900, it gained the ability to confer its own degrees in 2006.