Course Selection and Timetables 2023/24

Guide for Postgraduates

Updated June 2023

Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 1
2. Key Dates....................................................................................................................................................................... 2
3. Glossary of Key Terms ................................................................................................................................................... 2
4. Finding Courses ............................................................................................................................................................. 3
Before you start ............................................................................................................................................................ 3
Using the LSE Calendar ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Finding out more about courses ................................................................................................................................... 3
Viewing the LSE timetable ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Understanding controlled access courses .................................................................................................................... 4
5. Selecting Courses .......................................................................................................................................................... 5
On LSE for You ............................................................................................................................................................... 5
Withdrawing requests, declining offers and dropping courses .................................................................................. 10
Waiting Lists ................................................................................................................................................................ 11
6. Seminar Sign-Up .......................................................................................................................................................... 11
7. Your Timetable ............................................................................................................................................................ 13
On LSE for You ............................................................................................................................................................. 13
Student Hub ................................................................................................................................................................ 13
8. Special Circumstances ................................................................................................................................................. 13
Requesting to take courses outside LSE (selecting Intercollegiate Courses) .............................................................. 13
Timetable clashes........................................................................................................................................................ 13
Late course change ..................................................................................................................................................... 14
Lent Term Course Change ........................................................................................................................................... 14
9. Key Contacts................................................................................................................................................................ 14

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1. Introduction
As a postgraduate student, you are typically required to take the equivalent of four full unit courses each year as prescribed
by your programme regulations. You should, however, check your regulations carefully to ensure you aren’t required to
take more. All of these courses (whether compulsory or optional) will need to be selected using LSE for You.

This guide will take you through the process of course selection. It includes advice on how to find out more about courses,
understand your timetable, and deal with any special circumstances that may arise.

Course selection is managed in different ways by different departments, so you are advised to consult this guide in
conjunction with the Course Selection and Timetables pages in your Department or Programme Handbook and any other
information provided by your home department and the department(s) teaching the courses you are taking.

Further information can also be found on Student Services Centre’s Course Selection Webpages.

Throughout the guide you will see two symbols which are designed to alert you to common problems or tips on good
practice.

The orange caution icon indicates something that is recognised as a common problem or misconception with the
course selection and timetabling process.

The green star icon indicates good practice in course selection. These are suggestions of things that might help
you in the course selection process.

Help us to improve these guides…

We’re very keen to make these guides as useful as possible. If you spot an error, identify an omission or
would like to suggest an improvement please provide us with your feedback.

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2. Key Dates
Postgraduate students will be able to browse (but not select) courses from 10am on Monday 18 September 2023.

Course selection for postgraduates will be open from 10am on Thursday 21 September until 5pm on Friday 6 October
2023.

Course selection will reopen from 10am on Monday 15 January until 5pm on Friday 26 January 2024 to allow changes to
be made to Winter Term half unit courses.

3. Glossary of Key Terms

LSE for You (LFY): One of LSE’s administrative portals. You will select your courses on LSE for You during the course
selection windows outlined in the Key Dates section, above.

Moodle: LSE’s virtual learning environment, where course materials and lecture recordings are shared, you
can submit work and engage with lecturers and seminar teachers. This is separate and distinct from
LSE for You.

Calendar: An online platform that gathers all regulations relating to students and their study. It contains the
programme regulations and course guides you will use when choosing your courses.

Terms: Periods of teaching into which the academic year is split. Autumn Term runs from September to
December, Winter Term runs from January to April, and Spring Term runs from May to June.

Courses: Individual modules of study that form part of a degree programme, for example EC402 or HY411,
are called ‘courses’. Normally the teaching for a course will consist of a lecture and a seminar group,
but this will vary. The two letters in a course code indicate which department teaches the course,
and the first number indicates the level of study. For example, EC402 is a postgraduate course in the
Department of Economics.

Unit: A measure of course value. Assessed courses carry a unit value of either one full unit or one half
unit.

Programme: A full MA or MSc degree comprising of all units studied. For example, MSc in Economics or MSc in
Sociology are both programmes.

Compulsory / Core: A course that must be taken.

Elective / Optional: A course chosen from a list of options.

Prerequisite: A requirement you must fulfil in order to be able to take a course.

Controlled Access: A course which has limited places and/or prerequisites which are required in order to take it.

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4. Finding Courses
Before you start
Before you start selecting courses on LSE for You, you should complete online pre-enrolment or re-enrolment as
appropriate.

You can activate your LSE network account during pre-enrolment. You will then be able to log into LSE for You to select
your courses. You do not need to have completed campus enrolment to select your courses.

You are strongly advised to attend any induction and/or advice sessions hosted by your department (or
departments if you are on a joint programme) before selecting your courses. These information sessions will
provide you with guidance about the course selection processes specific to your programme. You will receive
information about these sessions from your department.

Using the LSE Calendar

The LSE Calendar is an online resource that, among other things, contains programme regulations and course
descriptions for all courses taught at LSE. You can use the Calendar to:

1) Check your programme regulations as they will tell you which courses are compulsory for your programme, and
which optional courses you might be able to choose.
2) Read the course guides to find out more about every course including teaching arrangements, academic content,
assessment, readings, and survey results from past students. You can also view introductory course videos by
following the links in the course guides.

Finding out more about courses

In some cases, you may also be able to view course content from previous years by enrolling on courses on Moodle.

To find and self-enrol on a course on Moodle:

1) Log in to Moodle with your LSE username and password.

2) Click on the search button at the top right of the page and type the relevant course code or course title into the
search bar that will appear.

3) The course you have searched for should then appear in the search results. Click on ‘View’ at the bottom of the
appropriate search result.

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 4) Scroll to the bottom of the course page and click ‘Enrol me’ to self-enrol as an auditing student.

Some courses may not allow self-enrolment or may require an enrolment key. For assistance in self-enrolling on
such courses you should contact the department responsible for teaching the course.

Enrolling on a course on Moodle is not the same as selecting a course on LSE for You. You can be enrolled on a
course on Moodle, but not formally registered on the course.

Viewing the LSE timetable

The School-level timetables can be viewed on the Timetables webpage.

There are two School-level timetables, published at different times:

1) The Lecture & Seminar Timetable is published in mid-August. This shows the times of all lectures and seminars
only. Access does not require an LSE login.
2) The Timetable viewed by course code is published in mid-September. This shows all lecture, class, seminar, and
workshop timetables. Access requires an LSE username and password.

Together, these timetables show the dates, times, and locations of all teaching for every course and for each week of the
Autumn, Winter, and Spring Terms.

You should make use of the School-level timetables when choosing your courses. They can help give you an idea of what
your personal timetable might look like when it is generated, and also help you identify any courses it may not be possible
for you to take due to timetabling clashes.

Understanding controlled access courses

Many graduate courses are designated as ‘controlled access’ due to limited places and/or prerequisites that are required
to study the course. To gain a place on a controlled access course you must apply and be accepted by the department
running the course.

You can find information about controlled access courses, how applicants are selected, and deadlines for applying on the
controlled access courses page.

Remember that, depending on your programme, it is advisable to have a few “back-up” optional courses in mind in
the event of you not gaining a place on one or more of your preferred courses.

If you do not secure a place on one of your preferred courses, it may be possible for you to audit the course.

Auditing is an arrangement whereby you enrol on the course via Moodle and attend the lectures for the course, but
do not undertake any assessment for it. It is allowed with permission from the course leader. If you are interested in
auditing a course, you are advised to discuss this with your Academic Mentor in the first instance.

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5. Selecting Courses
On LSE for You
When choosing courses, you will only be able to request the number of units required to fulfil your programme
requirements. This means if you require four units for your degree you will only be able to request and/or receive offers
for courses up to the value of four units.

If you have chosen courses up to the total number of units required for your degree, you will need to withdraw
requests or drop courses you have been accepted onto in order to select more or different courses.

You can re-enter the system and change your selection of courses as many times as you like during the course
selection windows and you may not need to make all of your selections in one go. Academic departments can
operate differently and places on popular courses can be filled quickly so do get advice from your home
department – and other departments where you are interested in their courses – as to how you should proceed.

To select a course:

1) Log into LSE for You using your LSE username and password. While LSE for You will work on a mobile device it
is much easier to use a computer or laptop.

2) Expand the ‘Graduate Course Choice’ option in the left-hand menu and select ‘Graduate Course Choice – Student’.

3) If you try to access course selection during the 15 minutes before it opens, you will be placed in a virtual waiting
room. All students in the waiting room will be allocated a place in the queue when course selection opens and
the message they will see while in the waiting room is below:

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4) Either when it opens or a later point, if the queue is in operation and there is a high volume of students trying to
access course selection, you may be placed in a virtual queue. Students who are in the queue will see the below
message until they have reached the front of the queue and are able to make their course selections:

5) If you have reached the front of the queue, you have 60 minutes to enter course selection. If you take longer
than 60 minutes to enter course selection after reaching the front of the queue, you will see this message:

6) If the queue is not in operation or students have reached the front of the queue, they will see the postgraduate
course selection landing page. Read the course selection guidance and then click the ‘continue’ button at the
bottom of the screen.

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7) Students who are inactive within LSE For You after 20 minutes will be logged out of LFY. Once in course
selection, students who are logged out owing to being inactive and then try to return may have to queue again if
the queue is still in operation.

8) Click on the ‘select or drop courses | accept or decline offers | withdraw requests’ button.

9) Select courses from the list of available options by checking the boxes to the left of the courses. Most of the
compulsory courses for your programme should already be selected. Do not de-select these courses unless you
are a part-time student and plan to take one or more of the compulsory courses for your programme in your
second year.

Some courses on the list of available options presented to you will be marked as ‘CAPPED’. Capped courses have
a limited number of places and are one type of controlled access course.

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10) If you would like to take a course that is not listed in your programme regulations, type the course code into the
box at the bottom of the list and click ‘Fetch’. The option to select that course will then be made available to you.

11) When you have selected your courses click the ‘Save changes’ button at the bottom of the screen.

12) You will then be presented with a page containing boxes in which you can write statements in support of your
applications to courses. There will be a larger box at the top for a programme-level statement, and smaller boxes
below this for individual course-level statements.

For courses that are compulsory for your programme it is not necessary for you to write course-level statements,
but if you select a non-compulsory controlled access course, a course-level statement may be required. It will
often be specified in the course listing on LSE for You if a course-level statement is required, and you can find full
guidance on what you need to do to apply for each controlled access course on the controlled access courses
page.

The purpose of the programme-level statement is to explain why you have chosen the courses you have selected.
The programme-level statement will only be seen by your Academic Mentor, and you are strongly advised to
provide a programme-level statement if you have chosen courses outside of your programme regulations.

13) After you have written your supporting statement(s), where necessary, click the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the
page to complete the process and return to your course selection summary page.

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14) When you have applied for courses, they will appear on your Graduate Course Choice home page in LSE for You.
The status of all your applications to controlled access courses will be listed in Section 1, and all the courses you
have successfully registered for (or been accepted onto) will be listed in Section 2.

15) You will be notified by email when a request to take a controlled access course has been considered by the
relevant teaching department and a decision has been reached.

The department can accept or reject your offer or place you on a waiting list. If the department offers you a place
on a controlled access course, you must accept the offer in LSE for You within 48 hours in order to be enrolled
on the course. If you don’t accept the offer within 48 hours, your offer will time out.

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You will be automatically enrolled on a controlled access course in Moodle within 15 minutes of accepting an offer.

Towards the end of the course selection period your academic department may check your overall course selections to
make sure you have selected the right number of courses and that they align with your programme regulations.

This can be done by your Academic Mentor or another member of staff. This final check has no impact on whether you
get a place on controlled access courses, when your timetable is published, or when you are enrolled onto courses on
Moodle. You should not rely on staff to pick up any issues with your course selections: it is your responsibility to make
sure you select the correct number of courses and that they align with your programme regulations.

When offered a place on a controlled access course you must act quickly, as offers expire after 48 hours. Do not
hold onto offers unnecessarily as you may be preventing someone else from getting a place on a course.

Given that you can only select the number of units you are required to take for your degree programme, you should
think carefully about which courses you wish to select and should drop any you no longer want to take.

Withdrawing requests, declining offers and dropping courses

You can withdraw a request to take a controlled access course on LSE for You before (‘withdraw request’) or after (‘decline
offer’) you have received a decision from the teaching department, or ‘drop’ the course after you have registered on it. You
can do this using the same button you clicked on to select your courses:

To withdraw a request, you should click on the ‘withdraw’ button under the ‘Manage Capped Course Requests’ section of
the next screen:

To decline an offer, you should click on the ‘decline’ button under the ‘Manage Capped Course Requests’ section of the
next screen:

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To drop a course you are registered on, you should tick the box next to the course you wish to drop under the ‘Make
Changes to Course Choice’ section on the next screen, before clicking ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page:

When you drop a course, you will be presented with your programme-level statement and be provided with the opportunity
to edit it before returning to the main screen.

Waiting Lists
If you apply for a place on a controlled access course, the teaching department may place you on a waiting list if they do
not accept or reject your application in the first instance. If a place subsequently becomes available on the course, they
may then send you an offer of a place.

There is no guarantee that you will receive an offer for a controlled access course if you are placed on a waiting list. You
can refer to the controlled access courses page to find out more information about each department’s course allocation
methods.

If you are placed on a waiting list for a course, the course will still count towards your overall course selection count.
This means that you will need to drop a course if you have already requested the total number of units required for
your programme and would like to select an alternative course.

6. Seminar Sign-Up
Some departments allocate students to seminars, and other departments allow students to sign up to seminars
themselves. You can see which method is used for each of your registered courses in the Seminar Sign-Up system.

Seminar Sign-Up can be accessed through the course selection pages on LSE for You. You can use Seminar Sign-Up once
you have selected a course and the department responsible has made the course available for Seminar Sign-Up.

To sign up for seminars on Seminar Sign-Up:

1) Login to LSE for You using your LSE username and password.
2) Expand the ‘Graduate Course Choice’ option in the left-hand menu and select
‘Graduate Student Seminar Sign-Up’.

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3) The page which then opens will show which of your courses are open for students to sign up to seminars. Click
on a course for which you would like to sign up to a seminar, and click ‘Fetch’.

4) You will then see a list of seminars for the selected course. You can select any seminar that is not yet full but
should avoid selecting seminars with red week numbers as these indicate clashes with your other teaching
commitments. Hovering over the red week numbers with your cursor will show the teaching event with which the
seminar clashes.

Once you have selected a seminar, click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page.
5) Click ‘Back to course selection screen’ and repeat the process for any other courses offering student Seminar
Sign-Up.
6) You can withdraw from and change any seminars individually by re-selecting a course and clicking ‘Fetch’. This
will again take you to the page displaying available seminars for the selected course.

If you fail to sign up for seminars during the allocated time, the teaching department may allocate you to a seminar
group on your behalf.

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7. Your Timetable
On LSE for You
Individual student timetables will be published at 10am on 22 September 2023 for Autumn Term, and in mid-January
2024 for Winter Term. You can access your timetable by logging into LSE for You and clicking the ‘Student Timetable’
option on the left-hand menu.

For your personal timetable to be generated you will need to have:

1) Selected your courses, including compulsory courses, in LSE for You.

2) Selected your seminars, where necessary, using Seminar Sign-Up.
3) Fully enrolled for the current academic year.

In the first three weeks of Autumn Term there can be changes to the timetable, so you should check your timetable
daily for any updates.

Student Hub
Student Hub allows you to view your timetable on your mobile, tablet and computer. If you sign up for Student Hub, when
your personal timetable is published on LSE for You it will automatically sync to your in-app calendar.

Your timetable will appear on Student Hub on 22 September 2023.

Student Hub is available on iOS, Android and laptop/desktop.

8. Special Circumstances
Requesting to take courses outside LSE (selecting Intercollegiate Courses)
In exceptional circumstances you may be allowed to take courses offered at other University of London institutions; this
is known as intercollegiate study. To register for a course outside of LSE, you need to:

1) Complete the form available on the Taking a Course Outside of LSE webpage. Your department will need to
approve the request.
2) Request and complete the relevant registration form for the other University of London institution, obtaining the
necessary approval as indicated on the form.
3) Submit both the LSE and the other institution’s registration form to the Student Services Centre. A member of the
Student Services team will sign and return the form to you, and you will then need to submit this directly to the
other institution.

Within 5-10 working days, the outside course will appear on your course selection list on LSE for You.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you abide by the other institution’s course registration deadlines, as they may
refuse your application if submitted late.

Timetable clashes
A timetable clash occurs when two or more of the courses you have selected have teaching (be that lectures, seminars
or workshops/help sessions) scheduled at the same time. While LSE makes every effort to avoid clashes, due to the
number of optional courses available on some programmes, it is not always possible. You should avoid selecting courses
and/or seminars that create timetable clashes, seeking guidance from your Academic Mentor if you need advice on
selecting alternative courses.

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 It is your responsibility to check for (and avoid) timetable clashes. You cannot use a timetable clash as evidence of
Exceptional Circumstances.

Late course change

You should complete your course selections in advance of the system closing on Friday 6 October 2023.

However, in exceptional circumstances, it may be possible for you to make changes after the deadline. If you think you
may need to make changes after the deadline, you should contact your home department to discuss this further.

No course changes to full units or Autumn Term half units are possible after 5pm on 13 October 2023. Requests to
change course selections after this date will not be approved.

Lent Term Course Change

You will be able to make changes to Winter Term half units in January 2024, when the LSE for You Course Selection
system re-opens to postgraduate students. It is not possible to change full unit or half unit courses that were taught in
Autumn Term during the Winter Term course change period.

To make changes to your Winter Term half units, log in to LSE for You using your LSE username and password and follow
the instructions in the Selecting Courses section of this guide. The process for changing courses is the same in Winter
Term as it is in Autumn Term.

No course changes to WinterTerm half units are possible after 26 January 2024, and it is not possible to change full-
unit courses or half unit courses that were taught in Autumn Term during the Winter Term course change period.

9. Key Contacts
Any questions you may have about the course selection and timetabling processes should, in the first instance, be directed
to staff in your home department. Consult your department’s website or handbook to find the appropriate people to
contact.

If staff in your department are unable to resolve your query, you can also make use of the following contacts:

For questions about the course selection process on LSE for You: contact the Student Exams and SSC Support team at
one of their daily Course Selection drop-in sessions. Drop-In Sessions will run from Wednesday 6 September – Friday 6
October 2023. Sessions will take place via Zoom three days a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 14:30 -
15:30. You can also contact the team via the enquiry form, choosing the options that most accurately describe your
question from the dropdown lists.

For questions about timetabling: contact the Timetabling Team via the enquiry form.

For questions about course content: contact staff in the relevant teaching department(s), or the teacher responsible for
the course, as stated on the relevant course guide.

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