What does the undergraduate gain from attending a 'research-intensive' university?

According to their client list:

In Banking and finance:

ABN AMRO
Art Market Research
AXA
Banco Sabadell
BDO Stoy Hayward
Caixa Galicia
China Investment
First London Securities
Lazard Asset Management
London Stock Exchange
Minerva plc.
UBS

It takes five seconds on the internet to find this kind of stuff out.



Exactly what it says. Research doesn't have to be funded by industrial partners to be relevant to industry.

if you're trying to save face for LSE the put the link.

Anyone can pull names out of some orifice.

Anyway most of those are F'g bogus.

AMB ? don't even exist anymore. That's what you get for taking LSE " advice "

LOL !

Since when does the exchange make investment decisions ?

Read the original post then you might do better.

Don't even know the difference between investment and general research

When was the last time you heard them being hired by a bank/IB/Pension fund/ CF firm to conduct research that would relate directly to judgment calls on investment finance/ trading etc ?

Nada, no nothing.

No wonder no one real emplys LSE " reaesrch" hahah !

c + P you all MF day.

Here's the link:

http://www2.lse.ac.uk/businessAndConsultancy/businessAndConsultancyHomepage.aspx

Look, it's pretty clear that you don't really get what the point of academic research actually is. Of course businesses don't employ academics to make decisions for them, that's what their own employees do. Academic research is generally on a much longer timescale or broader remit than specific business activities. Also there is the issue of IP to consider. Releasing highly business sensitive information (such as that required to direct a particular investment decision) to 3rd parties is usually avoided by most business.

You seem to be criticising LSE for being a university rather than an investment consultancy.

You are clearly an inexperienced boy, " investment consultancy " don't exist in the world of banking and finance, try equities research.

Rubbish - The banking finance sector businesses don't employ academics to make decisions for them, because they would lose their pants if they did.

Chatham house, IDEA, High frequency to name but a few of the myriad of independent research houses out there, not to mention all the research depts of banks.

How do you think they stay profitable ?

Exactly cause businesses do employ them to help make investment decisions for them

Well you are basically confirming my point, thus LSE cannot tout itself as a business school or an expert in real world finance.

what issue of IP to consider?

What highly business sensitive information is involved in doing a buy/sell/hold recommendation for BT or forecasting where EUR/USD will be in the next 6 months?

You are very misinformed.

This term is often used to describe certain universities, often to back up their importance, but what does it actually mean for the average undergrad who's attending one of these universities? How exactly am I benefiting by attending one?

In my undergrad experience, it meant getting a glimpse into the minds and then-unpublished research of some of the world leaders in various academic circles. This came about in various ways and was no doubt helped by the fact that my degree had a whole option category (of which you had to do a minimum of one paper but could do up to three, which was what I did) devoted to specialist, sometimes quite niche, topics that focus on our lecturers' research and give them an opportunity to test out, discuss and build upon their ideas before they wrote/published/spoke at conferences.

Some of the stuff I had personal experience of:

- Lectures on extremely niche topics that other Music departments don't seem to do, on then-unpublished research/books. Some of them were compulsory things that I certainly wouldn't have gone to had I not had to, but I'm glad that I did have to. They were very interesting, enlightening and in some cases, highly entertaining It really broadened my horizons, created new musical interests and informed my own academic interests despite being ostensibly polar opposites (you wouldn't necessarily think that music from 600AD would have any bearing on 21st century pop music phenomenons )

- Contributing directly to someone else's research (in a subject I didn't even study) and being closely involved in the process. One of the English fellows at my college is a dramaturge as well with her own informal theatre group, and "[her] research into medieval and Tudor drama is informed by [her] staging of it". She directed two play cycles in my third year and I acted in the first and stage managed/co-produced the second. I also helped out with a journal article she wrote about both cycles and got mentioned I feel incredibly priviliged to have had this experience - especially to have had an insight into this tutor's extraordinary mind - and it was no doubt the best thing I did whilst at Oxford and my greatest achievement

- Dissertation supervision and very close, caring and personal mentorship from a world-leading academic. I had no idea quite how famous he is when I approached him as a supervisor, since he's the most gentle, unassuming man and often looks quite scruffy I didn't initially see how he could supervise my dissertation and wasn't entirely sure why he was being recommended to me. Due to his intensive research and having read and written forewords for so many books and prize-winning journal articles, he saw my potential and realised my research interests despite me telling him only fragments of my ideas and in the most incomprehensible, haphazard manner His sharp mind meant he could cut through all the crap very quickly The moment he realised what I could do and what I wanted to say, he began steering me in the direction I actually wanted to go in. He did this very subtly and gently and never told me what to do: only suggested and guided. It was only when I was halfway through writing my dissertation (not that I remember much about that at all) that I realised what an incredible academic journey I'd taken and how all his teaching had fallen into place and enabled me to see my own potential and worth and to write about what I really wanted to write about, rather than trying to fit into some kind of academic box.

He was incredibly supportive about my postgrad applications and introduced me to his US equivalent (I was so starstruck ) as one of his students at a seminar at the Open University. He hadn't realised I was coming and upon learning I'd come on the X5 coach (notoriously awful), he insisted on driving me back to Oxford and dropping me home. One of the OU students there was amazed that someone so influential was going around introducing an undergrad student to famous academics: she had assumed I was doing a PhD
I've no idea what my postgrad references said but they were detailed and lengthy (from what I've heard). When my Goldsmiths one went missing, I phoned him to ask about it. He was abroad with no laptop and no Internet and was in the midst of writing his latest book, but insisted that he would find an Internet café and go about sorting my application out

He was so sweet when I was ill and when I was at my very worst, he happened to be hosting an important UK society conference in Oxford, which some huge names attended. Despite being so busy, terribly sleep-deprived and having far more important things to worry about, he went out of his way to make it possible for me to attend and work at the conference. He was always very concerned for me: that I felt safe and happy and that I was not just working, but going to talks and learning

- Informing academics' research by shedding 21st century light on their academic interests. My dissertation supervisor was very interested in my ideas and highly amused by my dissertation (ABBA fans ) but had never seen Mamma Mia! So I promptly insisted on a swap: I'd do the reading if he watched the film. He loved the film and became very excited by it and asked if I wanted to do my whole dissertation on the film (I declined) I'm also pretty sure the aforementioned English tutor gained new insight into her research interests through dealing with me pastorally and in the context of those plays

So yeah, there can be quite a lot to be gained if you're proactive and lucky. That's not to say I didn't have my fair share of bad lecturers, appalling and inexperienced tutors. Certainly some people at Oxford see teaching as a chore or secondary and it shows. There are very dedicated tutors though who take their teaching extremely seriously and benefit from it. What I've written is incredibly long but I hope it comes across that research-intensive unis can provide extremely good and wonderful tutors as well as bad ones

Wow are you guys married yet?

So banks employ Chatham House to make decision for them? Or is it to provide advice? You freely admit that banks have their own research departments anyway(exactly what I was saying). I'm afraid that at the moment the collective wisdom of the banking sector is hardly a thing of high value - perhaps they should have more academics advising.

" Academic research is generally on a much longer timescale or broader remit than specific business activities. "



Why not? Where do you think that the economic theories that banks and financial institutions use come from? Your point is as ridiculous as saying that a university shouldn't teach nuclear physics because the academics can't build a power station. Or that, it isn't simply enough to research things you must sell your knowledge to the market for it to have value. Not to mention the fact that 'business' is more than just banking and finance.



So, all information in banking and finance is free and public? No-one ever knows something no-one else does and uses that to gain an advantage in the market?

Me and who? My dissertation supervisor? I wish. He's very happily married and not really my type I contacted him about a reference the other day and he said it was great to hear from me though

Lol. That seems so strange that you have a good relationship with your tutor-what with sparse contact hours and different tutors for each module I don't really know many of my tutors that well but by the time I've gotten to know them, I'll move on to a different class... And I barely ever see my personal tutor except when stipulated by the university (she doesnt teach my modules)