Intellectual life at LSE
A unique feature of studying at LSE is the wide range of extracurricular talks and lectures offered to our LLM students. Almost every day high profile speakers give public lectures that you will be invited to attend. These speakers may be representatives of foreign governments, international organisations, the financial world, or other universities. In addition, we organise a number of seminar series on different topical areas, including financial, corporate and commercial law and public international law with leading speakers from academia and the practice. These seminar series are specifically designed for our LLM students. They often run fortnightly and bring experts in the field to LSE who enrich the LLM programme by opening up new perspectives informed by the speaker's practical or policy-making experience.
Extracurricular activities, living in London and student facilities
London is a truly Global City. It is a thrilling and exciting place to live and study. It can, of course, for those arriving for the first time be a little overwhelming, and so to ensure a smooth transition to life in London, LSE offers advice and support on questions such as visas and immigration, financing, part-time work, and accommodation. These services are situated in the heart of the LSE campus in the award winning Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, which also contains student sports facilities, learning spaces, bars and cafes. Our accommodation office has over 4000 places across 20 locations in the heart of London. Of these places, approximately 40 per cent are reserved for our postgraduate students. Thus, you will have access to a broad variety of student rooms that suit different preferences, needs and budgets at great locations mostly within walking distance of LSE, central London, and the West End with its theatres, bars and restaurants.
LSE Library
Founded in 1896, a year after the foundation of LSE, the LSE Library is now the largest library for social sciences material in the country. Today's library was redesigned by award winning architect Norman Foster. Its collections consist of over four million printed items and more than 60,000 e-journals. Our Law collection is particularly rich in English, foreign and international law and supported by our extensive collections of UK government and intergovernmental publications. The LSE Library is conveniently located within a few minutes walking distance of the Law School and is open 24 hours during term times. In the library, you will find computer work stations, group study rooms, and quiet study zones.
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
In addition to LSE's library, LLM students are entitled to use the library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), a postgraduate research institute attached to the University of London. The IALS library has an excellent collection of foreign and international law, concentrating on common law, civil law and Roman-Dutch legal systems. It provides quiet study space and will be particularly useful if you are interested in one of our courses with a comparative or international focus. The Institute is located at Russell Square, less than a mile north of LSE's campus.
LSE Language Centre
While at LSE, you will be able to use our language centre, which offers a support programme for non-native English speakers during their time at LSE. You can take advantage of a pre-sessional programme designed to help you improve your English for academic purposes and insessional support classes that allow you to develop your academic writing and communication skills as well as your exam writing skills. In addition, our students can choose from a wide variety of extracurricular foreign language courses offered at different levels of ability to suit those with background knowledge in a foreign language.
Pastoral care
LLM students benefit from the Academic Mentor system in place in the Law School. All students are allocated a member of staff who functions as a point of contact for questions regarding course choice, exam strategy, or the general structure and operation of the LLM programme. In case of problems of a personal nature affecting your studies, LSE's Student Union has counsellors that can help with a range of issues including landlord and tenant contracts, academic appeals, and general welfare advice. In addition, the LSE Disability and Wellbeing Service is also available to students who wish to speak to someone about mental health or disability issues. These services are free of charge for our students.