LSE Student Futures is a donor funded initiative that supports transformational learning experiences for students that occur outside the classroom. It brings together new and existing enrichment and development opportunities from different areas of the School and promotes them to students making connections between the six themes set out below.
The emphasis to students is on the value of these transformational life experiences for them as people: experiences that will change who they are and how they feel about themselves, develop their confidence, help extend their networks and build varied experience, and enhance their knowledge and skills. LSE Student Futures aims to do this equitably, by helping all students understand and pursue their interests, including students who may have been in a less advantageous position to do so than others, for various reasons.
The six themes of Investigating and Researching, Showcasing and Publishing, Engaging with Civic Issues, Creating and Innovating, Developing your Career and Learning Off Campus provide a structured menu of experiences for students to choose from, thereby helping to reduce any feelings of being ‘overwhelmed by choice’ when it comes to thinking about the future.
Student Futures aims to help students become active, engaged global citizens and future leaders prepared to make an impact on the world by:
- Increasing equity of access by coordinating LSE’s diverse range of opportunities and enhancing promotion under the six themes
- Empowering students with the self-understanding, the knowledge of what LSE has to offer, and the support to access it to make the most of their time us
- Empowering students with the specific experiences and tools they need to plan their personal and professional development at a time of much uncertainty
- Sharing best practice among different areas of the School
There are plenty of ways that you can get involved and take forward Student Futures and its six themes in your area.
How you can take Student Futures forward in your area
Please promote Student Futures widely - you can use our promotional materials available to download on SharePoint. You can also use the ideas in the accordions below to integrate your ongoing activity and develop local Student Futures programmes.
As a School, we’re committed to embedding enquiry-based learning and research practice at every level, and our developing Knowledge Exchange and Impact (KEI) strategy strongly emphasises student involvement. Students want more opportunities to get involved in research earlier in their academic career. There are various resources to help staff embed undergraduate research inside and outside the formal curriculum from the Eden Centre - contact your Eden Centre departmental adviser with any enquiries.
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Explore the Eden Centre's resources and guidance on pedagogies and strategies, curriculum design and enrichment to build active questioning and critical dialogue into the curriculum.
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Encourage students in your department/course to get involved with School initiatives to develop and showcase their research.
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List your research internship opportunities on the Undergraduate Research Portal by contacting the Eden Centre. Funding is available for creating opportunities in departments.
- “This research assistantship was a very unique and equally beneficial programme rolled out by the department of statistics. It was a novel opportunity for a fresh graduate to work on cutting edge problems in the practical world, and have a chance to get published as a co-author at such an early stage of my educational career” - read a case study from the Department of Statistics.
- Share noteworthy examples of student research, particularly in collaboration with peers or in partnership with staff, via departmental newsletters and with Internal Communications (communications.internal@lse.ac.uk), for circulation with the wider School community.
- Embed competition-ready projects into your course so students can submit them to the 2021 research competition (more information coming soon).
- Explore the Assessment Toolkit for guidance on integrating diverse opportunities for showcasing work into the curriculum.
- Host departmental events and competitions to foster the sharing and showcasing of ideas.
- Encourage students to participate in School-wide and external opportunities to develop their presentation and publication skills.
- Share noteworthy examples of students showcasing and publishing their work via departmental newsletters and with Internal Communications (communications.internal@lse.ac.uk) for circulation with the wider community.
- Embed competition-ready projects into your course so students can submit them to the 2021 research competition (more information coming soon).
- Research partnerships with non-academic organisations can integrate ‘hands on’ course activities that foster student interaction and independent learning, while empowering student researchers to make a real-world difference. Such collaborations also can connect students more closely to your research and make teaching more rewarding for staff.
- Contact LSE Public Research Partners (PRP) by emailing Dr Paul Apostilidis (p.apostolidis@lse.ac.uk) to help create supervised research opportunities for students in partnership with NGOs and social enterprises in London. These partnerships are shaped by your research interests – we want to hear from you.
- Help us identify existing and potential civic engagement opportunities by getting in touch with Dr Paul Apostolidis, the Civic Engagement Lead p.apostolidis@lse.ac.uk.
- If you know a charity is looking to recruit volunteers or students are asking questions please contact David Coles (d.coles@lse.ac.uk).
- Learn more about civic engagement activities and curriculum shift via the Eden Centre.
Encourage students in your area to engage with events and resources from LSE Careers. If you’re a student mentor, familiarise yourself with the services available to support your conversations with students.
- Get support from the Eden Centre and the Library to integrate arts-based pedagogies and creative experiences, including the use of simulations, theatre, and art in the classroom, object-based learning.
- Find workshops on playful learning and creativity through the Atlas Programme.
Opportunities for students to learn and develop off-campus have been and continue to be an important part of Student Futures development. As we get used to the realities of COVID-secure learning, we are considering how we can continue to build on these opportunities to deliver safe and valuable experiences for students.
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Help us identify existing off-campus learning opportunities by getting in touch with Mark Hoffman, Dean of the General Course and Global Mobility (gc.dean@lse.ac.uk). Our aim is to collect and share best practice form across the School, and use what’s working well to develop future activity. If you would like to discuss new potential exchange or study abroad partnerships, please contact Fiona Conlan, Head of Global Academic Engagement (f.conlan@lse.ac.uk).
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We need a holistic view of student opinion to help us develop our central Learning Off-Campus offering and asked undergraduate students to share their thoughts in our MT Global Mobility Survey (NB a postgraduate survey took place in Lent Term 2020). Thank you for encouraging students in your area to take part. We will use this information to better enrich their learning experiences (more information coming soon).