Education research and funding


the School will recognise and reward excellence and innovation in teaching and offer opportunities for academic staff to develop themselves and to create an educational offer for students that is ambitious, challenging and rewarding

LSE Education Strategy, Strategic Objective 1

The Eden Centre is the School’s centre for higher education research and expertise. As well as conducting our own research, we fund academic fellowships, co-lead the LSE Change Makers programme with the LSE SU and work with research assistants during the academic year to investigate different aspects of education and the student experience at LSE.  

Through the Eden Catalyst fund we enable evidenced-based education development and innovation projects across LSE.

We also foster critical scholarly debate and investigation through the LSE Higher Education Blog and our Atlas academic development programme. Colleagues on the PGCertHE have the opportunity to undertake an independent inquiry into pedagogic practice.   

Finally, the LSE Education Evaluation Framework enables colleagues across the School to undertake evaluative research to better understand the success and impact of their projects and initiatives.   

Please get in touch via eden@lse.ac.uk if you have an idea you would like to explore. 

The Eden Catalyst Fund (up to £10,000)

The Eden Catalyst Fund supports evidence-based education development and innovation projects for up to £10,000. Funding is still available for the Academic Year 2022/23. The Fund also encourages expressions of interest emerging from interdisciplinary, interdepartmental dialogues and submitted by applicants across different departments. 

The Fund supports initiatives which contribute to the development and delivery of education enhancement activity at the School in line with LSE 2030 and we are particularly interested in applications relating to the following themes:

  • Curriculum enrichment
  • Technology enhanced learning and digital innovation
  • Diversity, inclusion and decolonisation
  • Student voices, partnership and academic support 

How to apply

If you wish to apply, please use the online Expression of Interest (EOI) Form.The EoI form is a simple, high-level application form with an outline of the project and an estimation of cost that will allow the funding panel to agree to a project in principle. Here is a blank form to give you an idea up-front of the sections and questions.

Once completed this form will be automatically sent to the Eden Centre for the funding panel's consideration. We will usually respond to EoIs within three weeks of submission.

We encourage colleagues to meet their Departmental Advisers, discuss ideas on curriculum enrichment, inclusive education, technology enhanced learning and students' partnership and submit an Expression of Interest form by Friday 16 June at 5pm

Some current and previous projects

2022/23 

  • The implementation of a series of workshops providing MSc students in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method with the opportunity to present preliminary work on dissertations and receive informal feedback from Staff and peers before conducting independent work during the Summer.  

  • Support for the organization of an interdisciplinary event on Teaching Historical Demography hosted by the Department of Economic History. 

2021/2022 

  • The organization of students’ workshops to facilitate a collaborative review of AC102 Elements of Financial Accounting with the aim of enhancing students' participation through engaging them as partners in curriculum design.  

  • Delivery of the exhibition of students’ collaborative artwork emerging from ‘The Art of the Antropocene’, a non-credited course in the Department of Geography and Environment.   

Fellowships for LSE staff

Below you can access information about different types of Fellowship available to LSE academics. They are:

Eden Fellows HEA scheme

SOTL Fellowships

Inclusive Education Action Plan Fellowships focussed on Decolonising

Eden Development Fellowships

Undergraduate research internships

The Eden Centre has funding available to employ undergraduate students as research interns or assistants during the academic year 2022/23. Find out more here

Education for Sustainability Student Internships

The Eden Centre has funding available to employ both undergraduate and postgraduate students as research interns or assistants during the academic year 2022/23. 

This is intended to support LSE Academics’ commitment towards education for sustainability, but also to offer students different experiences such as insights into how to embed education for sustainability in the existing curriculum; support curriculum enhancement, participate in course design and research skills development.

Applications are not currently open, the most recent round having closed at the end of January 2023. We will update this page if funding is re-opened before the next academic year.

For more information, visit our Education for Sustainability Resources page.

Education research and analysis

On this page, you can find data analysis, summaries, reports and other informative documents on education at LSE.

Explore the Education analysis page here.

LSE Education Evaluation Framework

The aim of the LSE Education Evaluation Framework is to support colleagues in designing and conducting evaluations for their activities, with a focus on activities taking place in the education and student experience space. This evaluation work will allow us to better understand our work, and improve activities over time. 

The LSE Education Evaluation Framework takes a reflexive approach to evaluation. Rather than prescribing a specific methodology or evaluation objectives, it provides a framework for users to design an evaluation addressing their priorities with methodologies they consider most appropriate. 

Evaluation Fund 

To support projects in conducting evaluations, we have established the open Evaluation Fund. Funding is available for LSE projects to hire student research assistants to support the design and delivery of evaluation.  

We are inviting applications to the evaluation fund from all LSE projects. To submit an informal application (outlining the scope of the evaluation and tasks for a research assistants) or discuss questions, please reach out to Jonathan Schulte, Evaluation Manager in the Eden Centre (j.t.schulte@lse.ac.uk).    

Pilot Phase 

We are currently looking for a second round of pilot projects for the 2022/23 academic year. 

We started to pilot the LSE Evaluation Framework in the academic year 2021/22 with six projects from across the School. 

A range of projects are involved in the pilot phase:

  • Colleagues in the department of Psychological and Behavioural Science are evaluating student and staff perspectives on the cross-course Integration Essays for second-year students. 
  • The Eden Centre is evaluating the Peer Study Groups run in departments, and how their setup impacted students.
  • The Eden Centre is also evaluating LSE’s approach to the creation and reuse of Open Education Resources, using the research diaries originally developed by Amanda Sheely as a case study.
  • The Careers Teams is evaluating the Micro-Internship Programme’s selection process and impact on students.
  • Colleagues from PAGE are evaluating the impact of a combined scholarship and leadership programme on students.
  • Colleagues from LSE LIFE are evaluating the impact of the Prepare to Learn pre-arrival online course on student transitions and outcomes at LSE.

Using the Framework 

If you have any questions about the framework or how you might use it in your work, please reach out to Jonathan Schulte, Evaluation Manager in the Eden Centre (j.t.schulte@lse.ac.uk).    

You can also find more details on the framework and key resources here.

LSE Scholars at Risk

LSE Scholars at Risk (LSE SAR) is a School-wide, centrally funded initiative to support scholars at risk by enabling them to be hosted at LSE in a visiting fellow or senior visiting fellow status for a maximum period of two years.

For more details, visit the LSE Scholars at Risk page.