LSE’s flagship undergraduate research opportunity, LSE GROUPS, is now in its sixth year. A great illustration of research informed education in action, it makes a fitting end to the year in which the School’s Education Strategy 2015-2020 was launched. David Faggiani, from LSE’s Teaching and Learning Centre, went along as the students gathered for the first time on Tuesday, to observe them being introduced to their supervisors, the task ahead, and each other
There was a palpable sense of excitement, curiosity and trepidation before LSE GROUPs 2016 kicked off on Tuesday morning. When you get 70+ undergraduates together, and give them almost complete autonomy to research anything they want, under the broad umbrella of ‘Poverty and inequality in London’, you never quite know what you’re going to get. Previous years of GROUPS have seen students lead investigations into topics as diverse as British public perception of ex-offenders, gentrification in South London boroughs, non-monogamous relationship networks, and rehabilitation for homeless communities. This diversity and unpredictability is one of the main attractions of GROUPS for the students who take part.
Mingling in the NAB lobby on Tuesday morning, many of the new researchers lost no time in making their interests known. The participants come from across the various disciplines at LSE, and so Economists debated with Social Policy students while International History experts discussed research approaches with their Statistics counterparts, and they all found time to indulge in the plentiful breakfast. Thought needs food, after all! The researchers are assigned to work in groups with four or five other students, with balance maintained in discipline, year and gender. In short, many of these students were meeting each other for the first time, and intellectual sparks were flying. This is where many of the projects begin – out of these initial conversations.
The students were welcomed formally by Professor Paul Kelly, Pro-Director Teaching and Learning, and introduced to their routine for the next fortnight by Dr Claire Gordon of the Teaching and Learning Centre. The GROUPS recruits were then addressed by experts on the field of social inequality, to give them some ideas for potential topics, and were given some basic pointers on research ethics, particularly in relation to fieldwork which many of them will be doing over the next two weeks.
By the time they broke for lunch, the students seemed energised and engaged with the tasks ahead. After the short break, they re-assembled in their groups in breakout rooms, where they were properly introduced to their supervisors. Supervisors play a key role in the projects: they are each assigned to one or two groups and are there to help the researchers organise their field trips, seek out helpful sources of data and deal with any problems that come up during the intensive process. Many of the supervisors have participated in GROUPS for several years now, and have an almost parental relationship with their group charges – as well as a healthy sense of competition with the other supervisors!
The groups now have barely 48 hours to finalise their research questions. They will gather again on Friday to present their initial progress to each other, and then continue their projects with daily updates to their supervisors. Some of them will be doing field trips into London to conduct surveys and interviews, others will analysing large data sets and mining source material, yet others will be drafting abstracts and papers. Much of this will be documented for a short film commissioned by the Teaching and Learning Centre.
LSE GROUPS climaxes on Friday 10 June with a conference, where the students’ finished research papers will be presented. A panel of LSE academics will be judging the awards for Best Research Paper and Best Presentation, and a further prize, the Popular Prize, will be decided upon by the students themselves. If this opening day was anything to go by, it will be a fascinating and informative day for all involved.
The LSE GROUPS conference on 10 June (11:00-16:00) is open to everyone at LSE. If you would like to join us, for any or all of the event, please contact us on tlc.groups@lse.ac.uk to reserve your place.
