The London School of Economics is offering new Ph.D. Studentships for 2018 entries. The School is ready to hand out a minimum of three scholarships to those students whose Ph.D., regardless of the Department, addresses ‘The Challenge of Escalating Inequalities’.
The Studentship covers the four years’ tuition fees and will provide students with an annual stipend of 18 thousand pounds. Students who are awarded the prestigious scholarship will focus their research in “exploring the links between the economic dimensions of inequalities with their social, cultural and political aspects to systematically assess whether and how inequalities might be hardening in mutually reinforcing ways”.
This project is just another step in addressing the university’s concerns regarding growing inequalities, concerns that in 2015 lead to the launch of the International Inequalities Institute, which provides coordination and strategic leadership on the inter-disciplinary analysis of inequalities.
The last global risk report of the World Economic Forum, gleaned from more than 700 experts, details that income inequality has been rising hand in hand with wealth disparity – leading to a polarization of society that will only grow in 2018. In the Uk, according to The Equality Trust’s report, “households in the bottom 10% of the population have on average a disposable income of £9,644. The top 10% have net incomes almost nine times that (£83,875)”. This is why the studentship is important for LSE as it may help in addressing some of these issues.
“The III aims to bring together research and teaching that crosses disciplinary – and in LSE’s case, departmental – boundaries” says the Institute’s website. It details the intents of the project: connect research on inequalities across the many departments of the university, bringing together many perspectives that could help us understand how and why inequalities are growing year after year. Moreover, the Institute aims at developing and support new research on the topic and, more importantly, to engage with the public and policy-makers on the matter, with public events, workshops and consultancy for leading NGOs and INGOs (including bodies such as UNESCO and the World Bank).
