EDI Committee

In 2022, notably under the impulse of the Hub, the Department of Economics at LSE has set up an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion/Inclusivity committee, made up of five Economics Professors (five of whom are women) and two senior professional services personnel. The EDI Committee is the main forum for monitoring, promoting, and protecting equity, diversity and inclusion in the Department, among both staff and students, and across all areas of academic life, including – but not necessarily limited to – admissions, student progression, curriculum, recruitment, promotion, and relations between students and staff as well as among students and among staff members.

The EDI Committee will review and monitor departmental policies and practices with regard to their impact on equity, diversity and inclusion, and, where appropriate, will make recommendations for change. At the same time, the Committee aims to identify strategies and coordinate efforts towards enhancing the diversity of the department’s student body, faculty, and staff. Moreover, it will promote a greater awareness of equity, diversity and inclusion issues, including through disseminating data and relevant research findings.

The Committee will explore proactive policies that can address bias and prejudices that impact upon individuals with protected characteristics, and promote a working environment in which concerns about equity, diversity and inclusion can be freely raised and discussed, and all members of the department feel themselves treated as equals. Finally, it will monitor the general wellbeing of members of the departmental community who may be at greater risk of prejudicial treatment and impact on their wellbeing (e.g. from feelings of loneliness, difficulties in cultural adjustment, exclusion, harassment or bias) due to having one or more protected characteristics.

In parallel, the EDI committee has collected and analysed data on female representation at several stages of the admission process for several LSE programs. For faculty positions detailed data was collected on applications, long list, short list, flyouts, offers and accepted offers,  over the last 5 years. The long listed candidates have increased by almost 50% in the last 7 years and those who made the short list by a further 12%. The flyout of women candidates has increased by 25% and the department has made a significant number of offers to women recently.

The committee collected data for PhD and MSc programs as well. Since 2015, the share of women in the Economics PhD program went from 19% to 28%. The share in the MSc program over that same period has remained stable (reflecting a stagnant share of female applicants). This data provides support for increasing the participation of women in the study of economics early in their career as a way to increase the number of applications and admissions in the future.

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