It is hard for me, an alumnus of both the London School of Economics (LSE) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), not to juxtaposition their announcements on recent international news.

Professor Stephen Chan OBE at SOAS has provided commentary on the characteristics of the current uprisings in Libya and Egypt and the underlying reasons behind the demonstrations.

Meanwhile, I received the following alert in my inbox from LSE with a link to a full announcement. The LSE Student Union has successfully pushed out the Director after protesting his ties to Libya.

It is with great regret that I am writing to inform you, as an alumnus/alumna of LSE, that the LSE Council has accepted the offer of resignation of Sir Howard Davies as Director. This follows an extraordinary meeting of the LSE Council yesterday evening. Sir Howard has, at the behest of the Council, agreed to continue to serve as Director whilst arrangements for succession are resolved.

At the same meeting, Council also resolved to commission an independent external inquiry into the School’s relationship with Libya, to be Chaired by Lord Woolf.

Sir Davies now says his decision to accept £300,000 from the son of Col Gaddafi has “backfired” as he has lost the confidence of the student body.

There were risks involved in taking funding from sources associated with Libya which should have been weighed more heavily in the balance, he concluded in his resignation letter.

He said the decision to accept the British government’s invitation to become an economic envoy to Libya had “muddled” his personal position and his role at the LSE.

A former head of the Financial Services Authority and deputy governor of the Bank of England, Sir Howard gave advice to the Libyan Investment Authority.

He said he was offered a $50,000 (£30,700) fee for doing so, but asked that it be used for a scholarship at the LSE.

The LSE Student Union also has successfully redirected the £300,000 amount from Gaddafi into scholarships for North African students.

This perhaps illustrates the irony of the political history of these two London schools. LSE, which was a liberal institution of social change, has come to serve and represent some of the most conservative voices in the world while SOAS, once an institution of military/colonial intelligence and training, has evolved into a liberal thought leader for students of the developing world.