The Director of LSE, Sir Howard Davies, resigned for his involvement in establishing funding links with Gaddafi’s Libya.

Leaks have revealed that the LSE received a great deal of funding from organisations and people linked with Gaddafi’s dictatorship. Money was accepted for conducting research projects, training Libyan officials in Gaddafi’s government, and advising the Libyan government on the investment of oil wealth.

Much of the funding came from Saif-al Islam, Gaddafi’s son, who was a PhD student at the LSE. The LSE Council has started an enquiry to investigate the acceptance of the funding linked to the Libyan dictatorship. Further, Saif’s PhD thesis is being scrutinised for claims of plagiarism.

In his resignation letter, Sir Davies wrote: “The short point is that I am responsible for the School’s reputation, and that has suffered. I believe that the decisions we have made were reasonable, and can be justified. The grant from the foundation was used to support work on civil society in North Africa, which will have value in the future. The training programmes we have run in Libya will also prove valuable in enhancing the practical skills of many people who will be needed under whatever successor regime emerges. I should also say that I have no evidence whatsoever that anyone has behaved improperly in this whole episode. To the best of my current knowledge (though we are currently reviewing the evidence) , the degrees to Saif Gaddafi were correctly awarded, and there was no link between the grant and the degrees.”

A Cambridge academic, Dr Joffe,  was involved in one of the projects funded by Gaddafi’s son. (See http://www.varsity.co.uk/news/3380).