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The Beaver
David Held resigns from the LSE Stephanie Gale
David Held, Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science at the LSE and co-director of LSE Global Governance, stepped down this week to take up a position at Durham University. There are alleged links between Held and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. This announcement came shortly after Lord Woolf announced that his enquiry into the School’s relationship with Libya has been completed. An article printed by the Guardian states that Held’s departure is regarded internally as the latest consequence of the LSE’s acceptance of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation’s (GICDF) donation. The article implies that the expected results of the Woolf Inquiry will criticise the “close consultations” between LSE scholars and the Gaddafi regime. It has been alleged that Held had
significant ties with the Gaddafi family. In June 2009, he was appointed to the board of the GICDF, though he subsequently resigned upon being advised to do so by the LSE Council. Several national media outlets have described Held as Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s academic adviser, though Held said, “This is simply untrue. He was supervised in another department.” Despite this, Held is often described as Saif al-Islam’s “informal academic adviser.” When Saif al-Islam delivered a Ralph Miliband Memorial last May, Held introduced him as “someone who looks to democracy, civil society and deep liberal values as the core of his inspiration.” On 20th February 2011, Saif al-Islam gave an internationally broadcasted speech on Libyan state television declaring that the protesters in Tripoli would be “eradicated” if they continued. Having watched the speech, Held described Saif al-Islam as “a young »6
Social Page 34
08.11.2011 Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union thebeaveronline.co.uk facebook.com/beaveronline
LSE establishes PhD exchange programme with UCT »Page 6
Judith Rees, Interim Director of the LSE, and Max Price, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape DavidTown Heldsign an agreement for PhD exchanges between the universities. | Photo: Nigel Stead Photo: Nigel Stead
fail rate at Annual Fund going strong ST108 despite government cuts 22.2 per cent Sydney Saubestre
The Annual Fund continues to grow, despite the end of the government’s Matched Funding Scheme and some of the most drastic budget cuts that Higher Education has ever seen. Through the scheme, every £3 of donations made to Higher Education institutions would be matched by £1 of government funds. Despite this, the Annual Fund raised £902,196 from 3,273 donors, a fifteen per cent increase from the previous year. The Annual Fund provides invaluable support for students who need extra funding to attend the LSE.
The fund receives project proposals and decides whom to allocate the funds to using a balanced set of criteria it believes will benefit LSE students and staff both now and in the future. Areas supported by the Annual Fund are meant to holistically enhance the School. For example, the new Students’ Center was allocated £100,000 and the LSE Students’ Union Hardship Fund received £80, 000. Smaller projects included buying beanbags for the Library and supporting India Week 2011. Heather Campbell, Head of the Annual Fund, encourages current students to apply before the deadline this Wednesday. “The Annual Fund seeks to fund projects that attract the best
Apology The Beaver would like to formally apologise for the “Houghton Street Headache” article in the 1st November issue of the Beaver. The article made light of a number of issues that are very serious, namely violence against women, and we sincerely regret any negative ramifications that this had.
We take full responsibility for printing the article and would like to apologise to all of those on campus who were offended by the content. We have taken steps to rectify our mistake, and hope that we can use this to educate ourselves and others who didn’t realise the impact of their words.
Course EC220, “Introduction to Econometrics,” has a 19 per cent fail rate, with 57 out of 300 students failing the module in total. Meanwhile, 22.2 per cent of students fail ST108, “Probability and Statistics for the Social Sciences,” and 16.7 per cent fail MA107, “Quantitative Methods.” Lily Li, a current Mathematics and Economics student, said that she was surprised with how advanced the level of Maths was in some of her courses. “Maths is far more advanced than what we did at A-Level,” she said, “even though I did further maths, it’s still difficult for me”. In terms of results at department level, Mathematics and Economics hold the record for the highest percentage of degrees failed, with 11.5 per cent of students fail»3 ing Mathematics and
and brightest students regardless of their financial situation, enhance the student experience, promote academic excellence, engage with the wider world and create sustainable facilities and a world class campus,” she said, adding, “we would very much encourage any students seeking funding for their projects or societies to apply for funding from the LSE Annual Fund.” Over the last few years, the LSE has received considerable media attention regarding its donors. Last year, Howard Davies resigned after the School came under criticism for accepting a donation from the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations. The School has also come under »3
Alice Dawson
LSE Governor granted bail
LSE professors brief Politics societies debate White Paper House of Lords
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Victor Dahdaleh, an LSE Governor, honorary fellow and donor of over £1 million to the School, was granted bail last week, after being charged with corruption, conspiracy to corrupt and acquiring and transferring criminal property on the 24th October. He is alleged to have been involved in a £700 million bribery and money laundering scheme overcharging Aluminium Bahrain, (Alba) by USD$65 million a year from 1993 to 2007
Some classes are more difficult than others; this may seem evident, but the disparity in failure rates based on course enrolment is sizable. Statistics have revealed the modules most frequently failed by students at the School are Economics and Mathematics. Grade distributions for undergraduate courses at module level from the 2010-2011 academic year show that students are more likely to fail based on which course they are enrolled in. Many Economics, Mathematics and Statistics courses have much higher failure rates than the average LSE course.
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Members of the Labour, Conservative, Green, Liberal Democrat, and Socialist Workers’ Societies debated the implications of the government’s White Paper at an LSE Students’ Union event held last Wednesday. The debate was intended to raise awareness about the reforms proposed by the White Paper ahead of the 9th November National Demo. The event was organised by the politics societies in conjunction with the Debate Society and the Students’ Union.
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LSE Professors Deborah James and Alice Forbess have briefed the House of Lords on legal aid on the 1st November. James and Forbess’ paper “Rights, Welfare and Law. Legal Aid Advocacy in Austerity Britain argues that legal aid cover should not be cut before the government’s new Universal Credit is fully implemented. Their paper presents several case studies and makes a series of recommendations to the government.