Background of the LTCC
The LTCC was formed to foster the training of doctoral research students in the Mathematical Sciences. Its courses cover the areas of Statistics, Applied and Pure Mathematics, with the goals of providing students with an overview of these areas, and of acquiring a working knowledge of classical results and recent developments in their own broad research fields but outside the specialised domains of their individual research projects. There is a wide range of expertise among the staff of the institutions currently in the LTCC consortium: UCL, Queen Mary, Imperial College (Statistics), King's College, LSE, City, Kent, Brunel, Royal Holloway and The Open University.
The vision for the LTCC stems directly from the finding of the international review of UK research in mathematical sciences commissioned by EPSRC, that while the UK PhD standard remains high, recent changes in content of undergraduate degrees along with pressure for PhD completion resulted in reduced opportunity for PhD candidates to study mathematical sciences outside the immediate areas of their research projects. The LTCC is one of six networks supported by EPSRC aiming to remedy this situation. The LTCC programme has an emphasis on direct teaching and personal contact rather than distance learning - taking advantage of the excellent transport links in the London region. The programme includes modular lecture courses and short intensive courses, introducing students to an exciting wide range of topics in pure and applied mathematics as well as statistics, and striking a balance between classical results and recent developments.