by Lord Myners' successors at the LSE. The LSE stated in 2016 that currently "limited endowment funding constrains our ability to offer 'needs blind' admission to students". In the ten-year period between 2015 and 2024, the endowment more than doubled from £113 million to £255 million, making it the sixth-largest endowment of any university in the UK. Analysis of university accounts by Times Higher Education found that the LSE came third for fundraising in 2023–24 among the 119 members of Universities UK, with £49.3 million in donations and new endowments, behind only Oxford and Cambridge.
=== Academic year ===
LSE operates on a three-term structure and has not moved to semesters. Michaelmas Term runs from October to mid-December, Lent Term from mid-January to late March, and Summer Term from late April to mid-June. Certain departments operate reading weeks in early November and mid-February.
=== Logo, arms and mascot ===
The school's historic coat of arms is used on official documentation including degree certificates and transcripts and includes the motto – rerum cognoscere causas, a line taken from Virgil's Georgics meaning "to know the causes of things", together with the school's mascot – a beaver. Both these symbols, adopted in February 1922, continue to be held in high regard to this day with the beaver chosen because of its representation as "a hard-working and industrious yet sociable animal", attributes that the founders hoped LSE students to both possess and aspire to. The school's weekly newspaper is still entitled The Beaver, Rosebery residence hall's bar is called the Tipsy Beaver and LSE sports teams are known as the Beavers. The institution has two sets of colours – brand and academic – red being the brand colour used on signage, publications and in buildings across campus and purple, black and gold for academic purposes including presentation ceremonies and graduation dress.
LSE's present 'red block' logo was modified as part of a rebrand in the early 2000s. As a trademarked brand, it is carefully …
