Since 2019, the Eden Centre has enabled over 70 LSE students across 12 departments to collaborate with staff to extend and expand research projects. The ambitious Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme was founded with the aim of integrating students into the scholarly research-rich environment of the School – a key ambition of LSE 2030 and the LSE Student Futures initiative.
Student interns are given opportunities to gain insight into real-life research, building skills and helping to enhance their career prospects. They work in collaboration with staff to introduce fresh ideas and materials, extending the scope of research projects and developing strong working relationships.
During the academic year 2023/24, the Eden Centre had funding available to employ undergraduate students as research interns or assistants
This was intended to support the research work of academic staff, but also to offer students different experiences: insight into the research process; skills development; knowledge of the content of a cutting-edge project.
We wish to acknowledge the generous bequest from the late Guy R Davies (BA International History, 1974), and his family, for making this year’s awards possible.
We spoke to both students and staff who were keen to share their experiences of the Scheme with the wider LSE community:
“I’m applying to jobs which require the applied skills that I’ve developed further over the course of this internship, and having recommendations from the primary investigator will be very beneficial.” - Wilson King, BSc Accounting and Finance
"I've gained exposure to cutting-edge research and witnessed first-hand the planning and rigour thatgoes into producing it, which has led to a highly enriching and insightful work experience." - Sudhanshu Maheshwari, BSc Accounting and Finance
"My intern assisted me in adding a new dimension to our research study that we wouldn’t have been able to add if we hadn’t had that extra capacity. We wanted to look at the media environment in Kuwait and how it talks about young people. He and I worked together to design a content analysis of online newspapers in Kuwait. He did that brilliantly and he also generated really useful insights on different elements of our research work that I hadn't considered – he did a stellar job." - Sam Mejias, researcher in Social Justice and Community Engagement