The Student Room Group
Carr Saunders Halls, LSE
London School of Economics
London

Low Student Satisfaction at LSE?

Does anyone know why the student satisfaction is ranked low? Can anyone give their advice or opinions/experience of being at LSE?
I can't give personal experience, but from previous threads the following is apparent:

* LSE cares about research rankings, and some students feel they cannot approach teachers or do not receive adequate feedback
* Living in London restricts SOME aspects of social life due to financial cost - people feel they don't have the same experience as at other, more "sociable" universities
* The courses are very intensive - high amounts of workload and stress are applied to students, which leads to the university's prestige

There are other reasons, but cost, stress and the lack of feedback tend to be the most obvious.

However, these tend to vary on an individual basis.

* Though contact hours are limited, those who actively seek out advice and teachers, using their own time, will obviously gain more than those who don't.
* Those who don't go out upon the town each night will obviously save money. LSESU hold many cheap events for students to enjoy
* Granted, not much will detract from the intensity of the course. Keeping on top of work, however, will reduce stress significantly


Overall, I think everyone's experience varies individually, and therefore it is what one makes of it. I wouldn't worry about it too much - I personally am not!!
Carr Saunders Halls, LSE
London School of Economics
London
But the same people get high satisfaction from the greater respect attributed to the reputation of their LSE degree.

So ... what matters most?

A lifetime of awesomeness vs a few moments of other uni envy.
(edited 8 years ago)
From what I understand it's mostly the workload.

I'm a postgrad and admittedly I've only met a handful of undergrads, but the ones I've spoke to have said that the workload is so intense/dull that it means they don't enjoy their subject or university. It really saddens me as I went to Sheffield for undergrad and had 3 of the best years of my life.

Sure, LSE has certain prestige, but that means nothing in the long run if you didn't enjoy your subject or your uni experience. A degree should never just be a means to an end.
Original post by smegsxo
Does anyone know why the student satisfaction is ranked low? Can anyone give their advice or opinions/experience of being at LSE?


Don't just look at overall satisfaction - use the unistats site to look at the breakdown of answers across all the questions (eg https://unistats.direct.gov.uk/subjects/satisfaction/10004063FT-NN34-UBAF/ReturnTo/Search ).

Some responses will likely be down to the diversity in teaching staff - it can be difficult to get use to lectures from someone who doesn't have English as their first language.
Other responses will be down to the high proportion of international students on the courses - students coming in from different education systems often struggle to adjust to UK education, and even within UK students many struggle to understand that it is up to them to seek out extra help if they don't understand or aren't getting the results they want/expect.

Look at the breakdown, ask questions of the admissions staff for your course about whether they're doing anything to address any low scores that concern you and then decide if the weaker areas are something that matters to you.

Edit: it seems like the SU are on the case too http://lsesu.tumblr.com/post/126498227423/lse-stop-failing-your-students it might be worth contacting them with questions to find out what sort of reaction they've had to their expectations.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by You!Me!Dancing!
From what I understand it's mostly the workload.

I'm a postgrad and admittedly I've only met a handful of undergrads, but the ones I've spoke to have said that the workload is so intense/dull that it means they don't enjoy their subject or university. It really saddens me as I went to Sheffield for undergrad and had 3 of the best years of my life.

Sure, LSE has certain prestige, but that means nothing in the long run if you didn't enjoy your subject or your uni experience. A degree should never just be a means to an end.

I hv seen LSE BSc Mgmt curriculum and projects. Intense? Yes, and relevant, practical, reflect real world, high standards, and all that. Pressure too as that is implicit part of curriculum. But, dull? How can that be unless one is not interested in the course.
Original post by GandalfWhite
I hv seen LSE BSc Mgmt curriculum and projects. Intense? Yes, and relevant, practical, reflect real world, high standards, and all that. Pressure too as that is implicit part of curriculum. But, dull? How can that be unless one is not interested in the course.


You can love a subject but find university modules dull... not everyone is up for jumping through hoops and answering standardised essay and exam questions.
Original post by You!Me!Dancing!
You can love a subject but find university modules dull... not everyone is up for jumping through hoops and answering standardised essay and exam questions.


Hmmm ... i can agree on that. I do enjoy learning for learning sake. My lazy self will prefer not to do the assignments for sure. We do need motivation.
Reply 8
How is the uni life there? Like can you make friends easily, can you often see them, is everything really expensive, is there like a "belonging to lse" feeling like after you graduate where you can meet and get help/help other former lse students etc??? Is the workload in order to get a first so big? Does it mess with your social life?

Sorry if there's so many questions..
Original post by Ch98
How is the uni life there? Like can you make friends easily, can you often see them, is everything really expensive, is there like a "belonging to lse" feeling like after you graduate where you can meet and get help/help other former lse students etc??? Is the workload in order to get a first so big? Does it mess with your social life?

Sorry if there's so many questions..


Good, yes, yes, yes, depends, yes, yes&no 'cos it's all about balance and tradeoffs.
Reply 10
In my soured experience it's the impersonal nature of many of the teaching staff. I recently had an office hours appointment with a Public International Law Teacher (LL278) who was not only late to see me (by over 10 minutes), but when I did enter she couldn't get me out of there fast enough. What a waste of my time and apparently a waste of her time as well. This is very typical at LSE. There are some exceptions, some brilliant teachers, but most just don't care about students, especially undergrads. They're teaching because they have to. They would rather be researching or throwing their name around at some conference.

During my time at LSE the bureaucracy has become consistently worse. The timetables this year were a disaster and mine wasn't completely sorted weeks into Michaelmas Term. The reason for this was because apparently they're developing some new timetables app to sync across devices. This mysterious app has never showed up.

Twice this year the Fees Office has incorrectly threatened me, and most recently, banned me from library books because they incorrectly suggested my fees were not paid. Their excuse was that it hadn't shown up on their system yet ... I don't believe it because this was weeks after the money was deposited by debit card.

Last year my LSE account was compromised. When I informed the IT team they (correctly) took my account offline. I had to wait in the IT office an entire day to get it sorted ... because teachers have priority to IT service over students. When I was finally served, they basically just did a virus scan (by installing a software called Sophos, if you check on Cnet this is one of the worst reviewed free anti-virus programs) and said "go to the library tomorrow and reset your account". Well I did that and of course it was useless. Took about 2 weeks to finally get my account re-instated from the IT cretins who simply had no idea what to do because their own guidelines are useless.

Regarding workload, yes sometimes it's ridiculous but it doesn't mean you have to do it. The key is to be selective. This week an essential reading for one of my courses was a 400+ page EU document. Well I didn't read it and I'm quite satisfied with that choice.
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 11
I am on a masters public policy course at LSE, teaching has been mainly quite bad and the administration is terrible, two of my teachers are fellows who really make it obvious they don't want to be teaching the course they are. What's even worse if the lack of clarity in what they want from student's and what the assignments are. However i have had some better modules in comparative politics and they are substantially better because the professor actually cares about his student's and replies to emails. Many staff at LSE do nor reply to emails or when you ask for their help cannot assist you leaving you more out of your depth. I am an english speaker and I am finding LSE a tough and competitive place to be, there isn't a community like many other universities in the UK and there isn't a feeling that anybody cares about you. The reputation of LSE is hurting itself and it's students because it is so arrogant that it misses what it is all for and why Fabian Socialists founded it in the first place. LSE will get you a job though and unfortunately people will still go because of that
High expectation of high achievers in a high profile highly competitive university which cannot be all things to all people, naturally, results in low student expectations.
Reply 13
I am about to start my masters and the administration is absolutely terrible. Nobody bothers responding to emails, even the departmental contact assigned by the university.
I read this exact threat last year when trying to figure out what to firm so I want to respond in case anyone else needs to hear this :smile: LSE is a great but academically challenging uni - when you live in a super exciting & busy city at the same time and want to meet many new people, it makes sense that you can get annoyed at not being able to manage your time. However, I know that a lot of, if not most people at lse are still willing to make friends, go out, party (with or w/o acohol, no pressure right there) and you can really make the most of it. Lse has a wide variety of students, meaning that yes, the stereotype of springweeks is true for some, but still you will find so many people that are down-to-earth, not super career focused, care about the environment,... you will literally find people with each and every type of interest, so don't worry! You CAN have a great time and make amazing friends if you try hard :smile:
Reply 15
Original post by Anonymous
I read this exact threat last year when trying to figure out what to firm so I want to respond in case anyone else needs to hear this :smile: LSE is a great but academically challenging uni - when you live in a super exciting & busy city at the same time and want to meet many new people, it makes sense that you can get annoyed at not being able to manage your time. However, I know that a lot of, if not most people at lse are still willing to make friends, go out, party (with or w/o acohol, no pressure right there) and you can really make the most of it. Lse has a wide variety of students, meaning that yes, the stereotype of springweeks is true for some, but still you will find so many people that are down-to-earth, not super career focused, care about the environment,... you will literally find people with each and every type of interest, so don't worry! You CAN have a great time and make amazing friends if you try hard :smile:

As an LSE grad, I agree with this !

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