A student-only Forum with LSE Director Minouche Shafik was held on 5 March 2018, in The Venue, Saw Swee Hock Student Centre (SAW) at 12.30pm.
The Forum was aimed at feeling the pulse of students and allowing us to voice our various concerns and suggestions. The turnout was impressive and there were boxes of pizza and bottles of soft drinks to compensate those who sacrificed their lunch time for the meeting.
Minouche began by warmly welcoming everyone to the Forum and marshalled out three key points she wanted to share, namely: students’ satisfaction, matters around the School, and new strategies in the pipeline.
a) Students’ satisfaction
Minouche Shafik passionately disclosed that students’ satisfaction has been top of her priority list. She revealed that exams, especially those held in January, have been adjusted in line with students’ complaints. She equally revealed that more bursaries have been made available for students in need of financial assistance. Minouche, with great delight, also mentioned that in-year resit exams will be introduced from 2018-19 onwards.
b) Matters around the school
LSE was recently ranked the second best social science university in the world with equally impressive ratings in research, widening participation and employment prospects. LSE graduates are the highest earners in the UK economy. Also, application into the school has continued to rise in spite of a downturn experienced in most other UK universities.
c) New strategies
An online consultation with faculty, students, staff and alumni is on the way to look at issues ranging from our education, global engagement, new research areas, nature of programmes offered, improving working conditions of staff and better alumni relationship.
Question and Answer Session
The floor was then opened for students to air their views on issues of concern and these are some of the questions asked at the forum:
A member of the German Society at LSE set the ball rolling in the Q&A session by expressing his disappointment after members of the society were allegedly made mere spectators instead of active organisers in an event they initiated. In response, the Director promised to forestall any future reoccurrence and allow students take more control of their events.
An question was also raised about inadequate diversity among lecturers in the school. In response, she revealed that a Head of Diversity has been appointed to look into the issue of more diverse staff and curriculum.
Another question was raised about an LSE app that would enable student access information quickly. The Director disclosed that there was already a project on this that would be made available to students before the end of the year. The app would enable students to access Moodle, their personalised timetable, study spaces, and much more.
A number of students also commented on the inflexibility of room-booking on campus. In response, the LSE Director appealed for students to be patient with the ongoing construction work on campus which has resulted in space constraints. She explained that those in charge of room-bookings are trying to make rooms available that were not originally in the purview but that could be used for meetings.
In addition, a question was asked whether paper-based exams are sustainable and whether the school was making effort to move to computer-based exams. Director Minouche Shafik commented that there was the challenge of providing enough computers for all students during exams. She also observed that students may be tempted to cheat if allowed to use their own laptops. However, she said the School was closely following new software being developed in the sector that would allow students to make use of their own computers but prevent them from sourcing any other material during exams.
On the question of whether LSE societies should be permitted to invite controversial political figure to speak at events on campus, Director Shafik said the School gives equal opportunity to everyone to express their opinion but tries to make it as non-controversial as possible by facilitating adequate moderation and security during the event. She advised those who have contrary views from the invited speakers to voice their concerns and challenge the speakers on their views within the existing guidelines on LSE event attendance. Such battle of ideas, the Director claimed, was beneficial for a balanced education.
Having stood on the podium for over an hour-thirty minutes and answering dozens of questions, Director Minouche Shafik thanked everyone for their time and contributions during the Forum and expressed her unalloyed desire to improve students’ experience at the LSE.
Photos and words by LSE Social Media Ambassador Victor Agboga.