LSE anticipates that New Academic Building will reduce campus overcrowding
Chloe Pieters
27th November 2007
King’s College London is facing a battle over its efforts to expand its campus. A luxury hotel group has trumped the university’s £40 million bid for the ‘New Wing’ of Somerset House, a 19th century building by Waterloo Bridge currently used by the Inland Revenue.
The decision of whom the building will be sold to rests with culture minister Margaret Hodge, and King’s College London has launched a lobbying campaign, seeking not only local politicians but even the Prime Minister and the Queen.
King’s College London has around 20,000 students and is 24th in the Times Higher Education Supplement global league table, but its law department buildings are dilapidated. Several years ago, the ceiling collapsed on the dean of the law school, Professor Robin Morse, who resigned in protest.
Adam Boulton, political editor of Sky News and a member of King’s College’s council, told the Independent newspaper: “[King’s] doesn’t have the geographical identity of, say, University College London…It’s crucial for King’s to get a decent shop window.”
The university plans to use Somerset House to host its law school, part of the management school, and a new public policy centre as well as performance venues.
Meanwhile, at the LSE, students frequently complain about overcrowding, citing the lack of study spaces and computers. When questioned about it at the UGM, Howard Davies admitted, “The School is very full, more full than we had expected. At the undergraduate level, we are the most popular school in the country with fifteen applications per place. This year we did underestimate the number of people who would make their offers.”
The completion of the New Academic Building (NAB) aims to ameliorate this while also providing some room to increase student numbers. According to an LSE spokesperson, the NAB will contain four new lecture theatres, including one that can seat 400, and dedicated quiet study areas. There will be two IT training and teaching rooms and 16 seminar rooms.
The NAB will “permit the student body at the LSE to grow to about 9,000 full-time students, an increase approved by the LSE Council as one that is a substantial rise, but not too large as to radically alter the character of the School”, according to a School spokesperson.
Beyond this, the LSE does not currently have plans to expand its campus further. However, the School is considering developing the current site. The ideas, formed in consultation with the LSE Students’ Union, include a new SU building on the St. Philips site. Developing Clare Market, St Clement’s Tower and the East Building have also been suggested.