LSE chief: It was not a mistake for us to train Libyan officials

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Sir Howard Davies today defended his decision to allow university staff to train Libyan officials.

The former director of the London School of Economics, who stepped down last night after admitting he had damaged the university's reputation, said it was "not a mistake" to help train Libyan civil servants.

It comes as the university's ruling council was also under pressure to resign over the decision to accept donations linked to the Gaddafi regime. The university, where Gaddafi's son Saif received a PhD, agreed a £2.2 million deal to train Libyan officials and accepted a donation of at least £300,000.

Today Sir Howard admitted the LSE's reputation had been damaged and that he made a "personal error of judgment" in travelling to Libya to advise the regime on how to modernise its financial institutions. But he stood by his decision to allow LSE staff to train Libyan civil servants.

Sir Howard said: "That [was] not a mistake. There were no sanctions on dealing with the Libyan regime. Many organisations dealt with them.

"To say we will not train officials in developing countries because of things their regimes might do is very curious.

"The people were selected by our people. Some were brought to London if they were particularly promising. They were all people whose skills will be needed in any regime."

He said he was proud of British universities' work in developing countries, but added: "I made a personal error of judgment in accepting the British Government's invitation to be an economic envoy and the consequent Libyan invitation to advise their sovereign wealth fund." Now members of the university's 29-strong council, which approved decisions to take money linked to Saif Gaddafi, are also under pressure to go. The council includes Liberty boss Shami Chakrabarti.

Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University's Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said: "It is not only Howard Davies who should go. Shami Chakrabarti should also resign.

"She has banged on endlessly about human rights abuses in the UK, and she is a Chancellor of Oxford Brookes, an LSE graduate and on the LSE Council.

"The hypocrisy is mind-boggling. She's trying to uphold human rights - what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The time for Shami to have talked about human rights was when there was first talk of a relationship with Libya." Students also called on the council to go. Raheem Kassam, director of campaign group Student Rights, said: "Other members of the council should resign as well. They all had to approve these decisions.

"We have requested minutes from the meetings where these decisions were made. Were these decisions railroaded through? We are asking members of the council to come forward, there is no point in hanging on."

Ashok Kumar, education officer at LSE students' union, said: "We want to see more people held to account. There are lots of people in the

university who are culpable for what has gone on with Libya. Howard Davies has done what any symbolic leader would do and he has gone, but there are many people who benefited from what was going on with Libya and a light needs to be shone on that."

But council member Charlotte Gerada, who is also general secretary of the LSE's students' union, said she had not been given enough information to make a proper decision about accepting money.

Sir Howard will stay in post until a successor is found.

Timeline of the payments and donations

2007: A £2.2 million contract was signed with Libya's Economic Development Board for LSE staff to train Libyan civil servants and professionals.

£1.5 million of the money was received by the university, as well as £20,000 for tuition of the head of the Libyan Investment Authority.

2007: The university accepted a $50,000 payment in return for Sir Howard Davies's advice to Libya's sovereign wealth fund.

2008: Saif Gaddafi was awarded a PhD. His thesis is now being investigated following claims of plagiarism.

2009: The research centre LSE Governance agreed to accept a £1.5 million donation from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, run by Saif Gaddafi.

£300,000 was received, which the university has now agreed to pay back to the Libyan people in the form of scholarships.

£22,857 was also given to the university by Gaddafi's foundation to support travel costs, mainly airfares, for academic speakers to travel to Libya.

2010: Saif Gaddafi visited LSE to make a speech, prompting scuffles between pro and anti-government groups. One student was allegedly assaulted by one of Gaddafi's associates.

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