COVID-19 FAQs for students

 All international arrivals coming into UK airports from red-listed countries must now book and pay for managed isolation in quarantine hotels to help protect against the importation of COVID-19.

Information on which countries are on the UK's 'red list' can be found on the UK government website.

If you are arriving into the UK, regardless of your final destination within the UK, and have visited or passed through a red list country, you will be required to quarantine in a managed quarantine hotel. You will need to book and pay for this independently using the link below.

Booking a quarantine hotel

The Managed Quarantine Package costs £2,285 for a single person and includes 10 full days (11 nights) including food, beverages, transfers, security and 2 Covid tests.

Applying for deferred payment for hotel quarantine

If you will find it difficult to pay for the Managed Quarantine Package fee immediately, you can apply for ‘deferred payment due to financial hardship’ as a student with a visa to study in the UK. To find out how to do this, please click on the link at the very bottom of the quarantine hotel booking page. This is the section of the Booking page which says: If you are facing financial hardship and unable to pay immediately - find more details here.

On arrival, you must quarantine in the hotel you’ve booked for 10 days. If you test positive for COVID-19 while in quarantine, you may need to quarantine for longer.

You should book your quarantine package in good time so that you can campus enrol at LSE for the start of your studies.

Means-tested financial support for students from red list countries

LSE has a means-tested In-Course Support fund available for registered students who face unexpected financial hardship once they have enrolled at the School. 

LSE students from red-listed countries who face financial difficulties, as a result of paying for the hotel quarantine arrangements, can apply for a £700 award towards these costs. These awards will be means-tested and students can apply once you have completed your quarantine period and have campus-enrolled at LSE.

Apply via the Student Support Fund

Yes - students and staff coming to LSE's campus to access facilities must be tested twice a week for COVID-19. This is in line with government guidance, and is required to access buildings on campus.

You can show a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or rapid lateral flow test result. Your test result must have been taken in the last four days to ensure entry. The table below gives an indication of how often you should get tested:  

More information on testing and booking

*If you have a test on either Tuesday or Wednesday and require access to campus over the weekend, you will need to book a further test for Friday as the Test Centre is closed at weekends or use a home test kit for a more recent result. 

To record your result online, go to www.gov.uk/report-covid19-result and follow the step-by-step process below:

1. Click start 
2. Select myself → continue 
3. Continue without an account → continue 
4. Select where in the UK you live → continue 
5. Select 'Yes' or 'No' when asked if you're taking this test for your job, and follow the steps depending on your answer → continue 
6. Type in "London School of Economics (WC2A 2AE)" from the drop down list → continue 
7. When was it taken → today or yesterday → continue 
8. Enter your Test strip ID number (Scan the QR code or type it) 
9. Record result (negative or positive) - if positive, please book a PCR test to confirm the result

Find out more about where to collect more test kits and other information about testing in our 'Get tested at LSE' pages.

All LSE students are expected to be in London and studying on campus for Michaelmas Term:

• We expect you and all fellow students to join us on campus in London to study from the start of term, Monday 27 September.
• However, we understand that due to exceptional circumstances outside of your control, such as visas or local COVID challenges, you may not be able to arrive at this time.
• If this is the case, we will continue to support you remotely during the first few weeks of term before your arrival. We will aim to offer hybrid teaching to ensure your experience at LSE is maintained despite other delays outside of your control.
• You will still need to come to London so that you can complete your studies which will include in-person components for all students, and you should aim to arrive within a few weeks of the start of term, enrolling by  22 October at the latest.

Our expectation for the 2021/22 academic year is that all LSE students will be in London and studying on campus, where many of your learning experiences will be in-person, supplemented by some online elements. This approach has been informed by our student and academic communities, building upon the innovations and improvements we have put in place over the past year.

As such, we are not planning to offer remote-only study for Michaelmas Term 2021. You can read more about this in our statement on teaching and learning arrangements for Michaelmas Term. 

What will be taught online, and what will be taught in-person?

Many of your learning experiences will be in-person, supplemented by some online elements. This approach has been informed by our student and academic community, building upon the innovations and improvements we have put in place over the past year.

From the start of Michaelmas Term 2021, teaching and learnig will take place as follows:

• We will deliver all compulsory teaching and learning activity in person, including seminars, tutorials, workshops, classes and Harvard style teaching sessions. However, there may be occasional rare circumstances which must be well-justified where we may need to move an activity online.
• We are not planning to have mandated social distancing in classrooms. However, we are prepared to reintroduce this if the need arises.
• The standard expectation is that other types of staff-student engagement will take place in-person on campus. These include office hours, academic mentoring and dissertation/thesis supervision.
• Some other aspects of your programme may also be online but when this happens, we will always prioritise on-campus opportunities for interactive engagement.

Lecture arrangements for Michaelmas Term

• Lectures, which are non-compulsory, will normally be delivered online - either synchronously or asynchronously. We will aim to deliver a small number of lectures in-person.
• All lectures, whether in-person or online, will be recorded for your benefit.
• It may be possible to deliver more lectures in-person in Lent Term and we will continue to explore this.
• This approach towards lectures means that, should we need to reintroduce social distancing measures, we would be able to continue providing face-to-face class and seminar teaching for a much larger number of courses in-person on campus. This will also enable us to use these spaces for community building, networking activities as well as peer and faculty engagement while these measures are not in place.

Find out more information on the UK government website.

It's essential to follow England and LSE's rules, to help us resume in-person activities safely and maintain a low-risk environment. We all have a role to play and everyone’s efforts can make a huge difference.

Our International Student Visa Advice Team (ISVAT) have a dedicated FAQ page for coronavirus (COVID-19) immigration advice for current and prospective students.

If your question is not answered in their FAQs, use their query form to contact the team for advice.

Your health and safety is paramount. Across campus and halls of residences we have introduced enhanced health and safety measures. Where appropriate it is likely that we will go beyond government guidance, based on scientific advice and the expertise of our academic faculty. 

You can find an overview of the measures on place in our - Keeping our community safe on campus pages.