LSE: the ‘international’ university that fails international students

Chenoa Colaco Staff Writer

Illustrated by Charlie To

With a 66 per cent international demographic in 2021-22, LSE has consistently boasted a “diverse” community that “facilitates social sciences from a global perspective”. With 10 of the 18 Nobel Prizes awarded to LSE sta and students being from the international cohort, they have indisputably privileged the university. e Beaver, however, spoke to international students who have felt significantly disadvantaged due to their overseas background. Several students claim that as an internationally diverse institution, LSE has not done enough to support their nancial, academic, and mental wellbeing.

Upon rst arriving at LSE, Jerry*, a third-year international student, had a lot of problems assimilating into the culture and keeping up with the “fastpaced” environment. According to them, LSE’s “toxic” and “competitive” culture is fuelled by the university’s focus on being competitive in the rankings, which has a ected student lifestyle. ey reveal, “When I le my home country and came here, I thought it would involve collaborative learning. I’ve seen that quality in other universities, but unfortunately, that’s just not there in LSE. ey’ve ingrained in us that we should work to be better than others. I was so new to this culture of spring weeks and summer internships, I didn’t even know what a CV or LinkedIn was. And I was so pressurised into looking for a job in investment banking, because if I don’t do investment banking, I’m just a stupid person.”

Laila, an international rst-year History student, faced similar troubles acclimatising to LSE. She describes her “eurocentric” classes wherein professors would regularly use words or phrases she was simply “expected” to know. As a Muslim, she recalls one of her most di cult classes, where the focus was on Christianity, “I really struggled understanding the readings be- cause I had very limited interaction with the religion. I feel like the professors assumed I would already know basic concepts like how the Church works or what ‘eucharist’ means. I was too scared to talk in class because I felt I would sound ignorant even though it wasn’t my fault.” ey just told me to ‘power through’, [that] ‘it’s second year and everything’s online’. But I couldn’t, I had to defer my exams and repeat the year.” eir repeated second-year was lled with di erent troubles as they were diagnosed with a serious physical condition. ey spent several months of term-time and the exam period hospitalised, and deferred their exams to August again.

Jerry also dealt with culture shock, bereavement, and later hospitalisation from a longterm physical illness. ey ultimately experienced an extreme decline of physical and mental health largely due to the failures of LSE to accommodate their grievances. e situation reached a climax in August earlier this year during the deferred examination period.

Jerry continued their experience into their second year, but the onset of the pandemic triggered a severe mental crisis. As an international student, they were restricted from travelling home and couldn’t see their family for 2 years. At the same time, the loss of several family members and being unable to attend their funerals back in their home country greatly exacerbated the situation.

Jerry used the Disability and Wellbeing Services’ counselling to deal with the stress and grief but they revealed it was “not helpful” due to the limited number of sessions and long gaps between them. “I informed my academic mentor that it’s too much mental pressure for me, and I cannot deal with it.

Even a er requesting special consideration, they were only given permission to bring food and medications into the hall, with small breaks a er certain allotments of time in which they would “usually just end up puking”. e intense pressure, time constraints, and back-toback examinations led them to fall signi cantly more ill. On a day where Jerry was made to sit two exams, they “collapsed [and] got so sick [they] le the hall and [they] didn’t sit the rest of [the] exams.

“A er that I couldn’t get out of bed for two days, I was so exhausted.”

Fortunately, Jerry was able to progress and enter their nal year, but they still su er thenancial burden of the forced repeat teaching year. Jerry expands, “I spoke to them [LSE] about nancial support and they kept telling me if I knew I had a hardship before registering I should’ve taken a gap year. at is not an option for me nancially [as] I got a potential job o er and I will lose it if I do. I [also] have such a big student loan and I need the job to repay it. As an international [student], I can’t stay here unless I have a job.”

When asked if there’s anything LSE could’ve done to better support them, Jerry said, “One thing that I’ve really noticed, especially as an undergrad, is that there’s not enough nancial assistance available for international students even though we pay double the amount Home students do, which is really up- setting. It’s very expensive to study at LSE with the fees and especially the interest rates. It’s just a big amount, and especially a er Covid it’s really just messed up a lot of things.

“I wish I could support my dad, I just feel very disappointed that I’m failing him. LSE was supposed to be like a family for me, but now it’s just a job I want to nish.”

Laila also commented, “Before coming to LSE, I checked online to see what support is available to international students speci cally. e information is all really practical about visas and things which was helpful, but now that I’m here I realise that there are dilemmas that can’t be solved with a page on their website or counselling sessions because these issues are much deeper.”

An LSE spokesperson stated, “ e Disability and Wellbeing Service (DWS) team strives to provide a safe, con dential and non-judgemental service for disabled students at LSE. While we are not able to comment on individual cases, the service works hard to ensure appropriate exam adjustments are in place for students who need them. ese adjustments will vary on a case-by-case basis depending on the student’s circumstances, condition and information provided.” e spokesperson has not responded to comments about the Eurocentric curriculum and management being unable to cater to the needs of international students’ needs. ese problems won’t be solved with website links and inefcient counselling, these are systemic issues. While LSE has adopted some bene cial programmes for international students, like tailored one-onone support and workshops for non- uent English speakers, curriculums need to consider the diverse backgrounds and situations each student comes from, so we don’t have any more Lailas scared to contribute in classes. Funding for international students needs to be expanded, comprehensive and understanding of situations international students could be in. Mental health services at LSE need to be reformed for all students. And nally, LSE management needs to solve what caused the gross misconduct stopping Jerry receiving the mental and physical support they critically needed. LSE’s blanket rules have allowed international students to fall through the cracks, and we cannot let this continue.

* Names in this article have been changed to preserve anonymity.