Concrete 317

Women’s health around the world >P8

Miracle cure for leukaemia >P18 17th November 2015 Issue 317

concrete-online.co.uk @Concrete_UEA ConcreteNewspaper

FOI reveals disproportionate funding of schools at UEA

Cost of playing sport at UEA condemned >> Page 24

>> No apparent link between expenditure and student numbers >> Science schools better funded than humanities EXCLUSIVE Sam McKinty News editor An investigation by Concrete has uncovered a disparity in funding in comparison to quality of research and rankings on university league tables, particularly between individual schools of study within faculties. The Union of UEA Students’ (UUEAS) Undergraduate Education Officer has responded by to the figures claiming that questions must be asked about the current model of higher education funding.

A Freedom of Information request made

by Concrete revealed a large difference in funding between schools of study, especially when comparing the Faculties of Science, and Health Sciences, and the Faculty of Humanities.

Within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, draft data for 2014-15 reveals that the School of Medicine receives £16.6m of the total £26.6m worth of funding, leaving the School of Health Sciences with just £9.4m.

That represents 35.3% of faculty spending, despite the school having 58% of the faculty’s students.

Additionally, within the Faculty of Science, the school of Environment attracts £10.8m in funding – 31% of the total – despite its student population accounting for just 18% of those in the faculty.

The FOI request also revealed clear differences in the amount of funding received across different faculties. Within the Faculty of Humanities, total spending was £16.9m. If divided by the number of people studying in the faculty, this works out at £5,000 per student.

A total investment of £33.9m in the Faculty of Science points to an investment of just over £10,000 per student. Similarly, the faculty of Social Sciences receives investment of £5,200 per student but the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences sees investment of more than double that amount at £10,700 per student.

While the money invested in each school is not spent purely on students, the figures indicate that, despite all students paying equal tuition fees, some areas of the university receive more funding than others.

Students had mixed opinions on the large difference in investments. Ciaran Wright, a second-year Politics student, said that students studying within the Faculties of Health and Science were right to attract greater investment as “ultimately, they’re degrees are going to have a greater impact on society, so greater investment is only right”. However, Karim Bukleb, a second year Economic student, disagrees. He argued: “if student are paying £9,000 to study, then it’s only right that we should attract the same level of investment in our studies”.

The Union of UEA Students Undergraduate Officer, Connor Rand, has said that while the revelation is not surprising, he believes that

Photo: Geography.co.uk, N Chadwick

Textbooks or food? Union launches foodbank to tackle student poverty Joe Rutter and Lucinda Swain News reporters The Union of UEA Students (UUEAS) has launched a foodbank, as a way to tackle student poverty at UEA. The launch took place last week coincided with a report, which indicated that nearly a quarter of all students are having to choose between buying textbooks and food as they cannot afford both.

The initiative, branded ‘FoodbankSU’, will be open to all students, with donations being shared with other foodbanks in Norwich and the wider Norfolk area. In order to use the service, students will need to book an appointment with a welfare adviser, where they will receive a token which can then be exchanged for a food parcel.

The launch of FoodbankSU comes in the wake of the government’s decision to cut maintenance grants, and following reports that the student use of food banks has dramatically increased, with some institutions reporting a 100% increase in their use.

Furthermore, in the same week as the launch of FoodbankSU, results from of a report written by Student Money Survey stated that 24% of students have admitted to having cut back on textbooks to have more money to spend on food.

According to the Student Money Survey around 80% of students constantly worry about money, with 46% saying it has a negative impact on their studies and 56% it has a bad effect on their diet. The study also reveals many students have less than £15 a week to spend on food. Speaking to Concrete,

several students at UEA claimed that they have to virtually starve themselves to make food supplies last a week.

The survey concluded that students were short of, on average, £277 each month. Along with being forced to skip meals, the survey indicated that students occasionally go without medicine, heating and are unable to travel home in order to visit their families, due to the high costs involved.

The union have said that they “know that students are struggling here and now with bills, rent and food costs. That’s why we’re launching FoodbankSU”.

Liam McCafferty, UUEAS postgraduate education officer has gone further and argued that the foodbank alone will not be enough to help students: “It’s important to recognise that, despite the importance of

foodbanks, FoodbankSU is not a solution to student poverty. Cuts to maintenance grants, excessive rents, sky-high tuition fees and unfair costs are just among some of the root causes that UUEAS will continue to fight against”.

However, despite these claims by the students’ union, nutrionist Dr Rosland Miller from the British Nutrition Foundation has insisted it is possible for students on a tight budget to eat healthily: “a healthy diet does not mean that you need to buy expensive foods, but an understanding of food budgeting and good nutrition can help”.

She also argued: “It is important to eat a healthy, varied diet whatever your age and whatever your income”.

Anyone wishing to donate money or food to the service should speak to the Shop.

17th November 2015

2

Editorial Dougie Dodds

COMMENTcartoon

The University of East Anglia’s independent student newspaper since 1992 Tuesday 17th November 2015 Issue 317

Union House University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ www.concrete-online.co.uk

Editors-in-Chief Dan. Falvey Joe Jameson concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor Peter Sheehan concrete.deputy@uea.ac.uk

University spending must be more transparent Students need to know where their money goes

Joe Jameson Editor-in-Chief

T

he attacks in Paris were a terrifying reminder of the devastation which just a handful of people can cause. The world stands with Paris, whilst the country mourns for their dead, it is important that this event does not mark a shift in our behaviour around the world. We will know that we have lost this ‘war’, as described by the French President Francois Hollande, when we begin to treat our European and Western neighbours with as much suspicion as we do our ‘enemy’.

It is not easy, for most of us here at UEA, to imagine the sense of shock, fear, and sadness which has engulfed a nation, however in this issue we have a gig review of Eagles of Death Metal, the group performing in the Bataclan when it was attacked, who performed in the LCR only a few days ago and we felt that it was important that we publish this review.

of Science. Whilst it is understandable that different faculties will have very different expenditure needs, it is simply unacceptable if the students from one provide the deficit simply because their own faculty doesn’t spend as much.

Also on our front page, and in Sport, is an article which looks at a report, issued by the Union of UEA Students, which concerns the cost of the Sports Association Membership (Sam). The Union’s annoyance at the price of sport at UEA being significantly higher than that of competitor universities, is surprising given that the Union is largely responsible for setting the price of Sam. The fact that members of a sports club have no choice but to pay both for Sam and entry into British Universities and Colleges Sport (Bucs), despite whether they want to play competitively, or less

“It is crucial that the Union takes a serious look at what is actually best for students”

ur front page story covers the funding discrepancies between different faculties, which a Freedom of Information request we submitted, has revealed. The discovery that there is a clear disparity between the funding received by faculties, as well as a difference in the percentage funding which schools within those faculties, irrespective of student make up within those faculties, is concerning. The question which remains, and must be made more transparent by the university, is whether the course fees from humanities students are ‘topping up’ the budget of the Faculty

formally. This is concerning, as it limits the ability for us to access different opportunities whilst at university, not just in opportunity to play the sports which we enjoy, but also the opportunity to take up positions on society and club committees which is so important for our future employment. Whilst it is important that the university enters into negotiations with the union over this again, it is crucial that the union takes a serious look at what is actually best for students.

In Comment, Ollie Watts, argues that the Snoopers Charter, which is slowly working its way through the House of Commons, is a sensible update to our surveillance in an age where the nature of security and intelligence

Front page credits Top bar, right:Wikimedia

Top bar, left: Flickr, NICHD

O

seems to be moving further into the shadows.

Whilst many argue that this bill presents a number of safeguards against ministerial oversight, it is unwise to ignore the potential implications and results of such legislation.

It is not a total fantasy to foresee a situation where such data negatively impacts people’s employment prospects through an abuse of ministerial power, and we should be wary of any such possibility.

Our Global editor, Caitlin Doherty, has taken an in depth view of the financial issues women still face around the world in light of the recent decision not to overturn the ‘Tampon Tax’. Equality for Women, and all oppressed groups in society, must be the battle ground of the twenty first century. If we continue to ignore the serious barriers to women’s opportunities we not only deny them the job prospects of men, but we also will never be able to press ahead with the task of creating a society where everyone is equal.

The negative impact which gender stereotypes can have is the focus of one of our articles in Science and Environment, where Lauren Bird, explains how that it is important we highlight the successes of women who have been able to break through the glass ceiling in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (Stem) sector. This sort of inclusion allows us to conduct research which yields marvelous results such as that reported in Ellen Coquio’s article on page 18, where a small child has been cured of their leukemia through the use of a new technique involving donor white blood cells.

Opportunities to students are an important part of university life, both whilst you are conducting your studies, but also after we’ve graduated, we want to be confident that any challenges we face are ones which we can overcome ourselves.

Online Editors Rob Drury Tom Etheridge concrete.online@uea.ac.uk News Jessica Frank-Keyes Sam Mckinty concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Global Caitlin Doherty concrete.global@uea.ac.uk Features Olivia Minnock Alice Mortimer concrete.features@uea.ac.uk Comment Megan Bradbury concrete.comment@uea.ac.uk Science&Environment Jacob Beebe concrete.scienv@uea.ac.uk Travel Dahlia Al-Abdullah concrete.travel@uea.ac.uk Sport James Chesson Tom Gordon concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk Chief Copy Editor Tom Etheridge concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk Principle researcher Sam Naylor email TBC

Editorial inquiries concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk concrete.venue@uea.ac.uk Complaints & corrections concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk

No part of this newspaper may be reproduced by any means without the permission of the Editors-in-Chief, Dan Falvey and Joe Jameson. Published by the Union of UEA Students on behalf of Concrete. Concrete is a UUEAS society, but retains editorial independence as regards content. Opinions expressed herin are those of individual writers, not of Concrete or its editorial team.

News 17th November 2015

3

Brexit would be a disaster for universities in the UK >> Page 4

Union council round-up An end to anti-social council hours Following a motion proposed by Aaron Hood, Disabilities Officer, at the last Union Council session in October, Council voted in favour of a mandatory guillotine which would see every session finished at 22:30 regardless of how far councilors had got through the agenda. Hood was supported by many councilors when claiming that the previous system which had seen council sessions go on past 23:00 was not acceptable, as councillors had said they did not feel comfortable leaving campus alone at night. Hood also highlighted that it would make council more accessible as it would mean everyone present would know how long the meeting was to go on for.

UEA is Ace becomes annual Union Campaign

The universities minister, Jo Johnson, who is co-ordinating the changes Photo: Flickr, EU. Below: Wikimedia, Gordon Marsden

Government announces plans for further higher education reforms Alex Smith and Caitlin Doherty News reporters The government has published a green paper outlining new proposals to put students at the heart of higher education.

Further reforms to higher education have been outlined which the government says will increase the standard of teaching, enable more people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get into university, and make sure that there is better value for money in higher education.

However, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has also revealed that, under the plans, the best universities in England will be allowed to charge students more than the current £9,000 annual maximum for tuition. These institutions will need to prove that their teaching is up to standard. The government has argued that the introduction of a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) would create greater incentives for universities to provide high quality teaching.

The TEF also encourages the use of a new grading method, the grade point average (GPA). This is a scale commonly used in the US; it provides constant assessment of a student’s performance throughout their degree, rather than just in summative work. The government says that the new system, which would be used alongside current degree classifications, would encourage students to work hard throughout their courses. The GPA is more precise, with 13 grading points over the current system’s four.

In addition, the shakeup of education bureaucracy is expected to see a number of current government agencies scrapped,

including The Higher Education Funding Council for England, and the Office for Fair Access. In its place will be created the Office for Students, a service that will rank English institutions based on student satisfaction, teaching quality and employment prospects.

Universities will receive a mark out of four using collated data from existent student surveys as well as independent research.

This change was immediately criticised by the National Union of Students. NUS president, Megan Dunn said that “teaching should always be the key focus of higher education, but the NUS is adamant that the teaching and excellence framework should not be linked to an increase in fees. Students should not be treated like consumers”.

The Shadow Minister for Education, Gordon Marsden (pictured right) was also sceptical about the new plans. He argued: “this is looking like a Trojan Horse for increased tuition fees and brings the danger of creating a two-tier system that could brand some universities as second class”.

Defending the decision, Jo Johnson, minister for higher education, has claimed that business-like competition that could be encouraged by the scheme would be good for students, and believes that it would reveal any inconsistencies in Britain’s highly ranked establishments.

He said: “while there is a lot of excellence, there is also, as the sector acknowledges, patchiness an variability in and between [the best] institutions. [This scheme

will] drive up the quality of teaching for everybody.

“Students should come out of their university years feeling they’ve got value for money for their time there. Unfortunately, there are too many students coming out feeling that they haven’t”.

Other proposals put forward by the government insist on more safeguards to protect students if their higher education institution has to shut down. Johnson says the new Office for Students would “have a clear remit to champion value for money and the student interest in its decision-making”, while the new safeguards would require all universities to have a contingency plan to allow students to carry on with their studies in the event of a closure. At the moment, the proposals are only part of a consultation on reforms.

Johnson has also set a target of having 20% more ethnic minority students in higher education by 2020, whille doubling the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. As part of increasing access, the Conservative minister argued the proposals also make it easier for new universities to open and gain degree-awarding powers. Current legislation means it can take years for new universities to become established, with UEA and the University of Essex still validating degrees from University Campus Suffolk in Ipswich, which opened in 2007.

Eliott Simpson, LGBT+ Cucauses’ Ace rep., put forward a motion to council which would see the Union ensure that the ‘UEA is Ace’ campaign, which Simpson had organised this year, expanded to tie in with the national Asexual Awareness week. The motion called on the union to help run the campaign, as well as expand it to include aromantics.

Following a procedural motion to bring the proposal up the agenda for fear of the previously set 22:30 guillotine, the motion was successfully passed.

Library fines are here to stay Cameron Mellowes, Non-Portfolio officer, and Ethical Issues Officers, Alex McCloskey, put forward a motion to council which would mandate Connor Rand, Undergraduate Education officer, to lobby the university to abolish library fines. the motion caused a lengthy debate, as some councillors were skeptical of the plans and wanted to how the system would work without fines, whilst others fully supported the bill, claiming that fines were unfair and many students did not budget for them due to the cost of student living.

The proposal was narrowly defeated.

Council supports student strike Postgraduate Education Officer, Liam McCafferty, seconded by Elliot Folan, Geek Society rep., put forward a motion for Council to vote in favour of supporting an NUS student strike ballot. Following a point of clarification from the floor, McCafferty explained that the NUS would assess support for a student strike by placing unions into a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ column depending on the result of separate ballots by individual NUS union councils.

The vote was passed with little conflict by members.

Aperture!

Students protest against government Exposure! decsion to scrap maintenance grants I F-stop!

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17th November 2015

News

ink.

Isaac Scoulding News reporter

Students marched through London on 4th November to protest against the government’s decision to scrap maintenance grants from 2016. The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, who organised the campaign, estimated that more than 10,000 students attended the protest, while “#GrantsNotDebt” trended on Twitter during the day.

The campaign organisers said that students from around the country took part in the demonstration, which aims to get rid of tuition fees and reverse the decision to convert maintenance grants into loans.

Callum Cant, a member of the campaign, said “the government is impoverishing the poorest students for minimal gains”.

He continued: “It is an attack on the least privileged students which doesn’t save much money and causes misery. It is austerity which targets the poorest students. Our worry is that it will make university a lot more inaccessible”.

The march began at Malet Street and ended at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which is responsible for universities. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell addressed the crowd at Malet Street, supporting the campaign: “This government is betraying you and future

COMMENT Daniel Jeakins looks at the case for keeping maintenance grants

generations and I’m here in solidarity for education,” he said. “Let me say this to you: your voice needs to be heard. Education is a basic human right not something to be bought and sold. This generation will teach the Tories that we will not stand by and let them destroy our futures.”

The campaign was also backed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who did not attend the march, but released a statement

k

The number of students that protested in London against government plans to scrap maintenace grants

saying: “Switching back to a loan in place of a maintenance grant will push the poorest students into higher levels of debt. We must also look again at restoring EMA [education maintanence allowance] and increasing college places, so all young people have the opportunity to go to further education and, if they wish, on to higher education too”. A spokesman for BIS said it was “committed to ensuring everyone with the potential to benefit from higher education has the opportunity to do so, regardless of their background”.

The Metropolitan police confirmed that there were 12 arrests during the protest for public order offenses, stating a “small number of smoke bombs and eggs were thrown at

Our copy editors are committed to depleting red pens of their ink.

An extra pair of eagle eyes is always An extrawelcome! pair of eyes is always welcome!

Get in touch with Helena and Get in touch Frances onwith Tom at concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk

The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, who spoke at the march Photo: Flickr, Transition Heathrow police outside BIS”.

Deborah Hermanns, from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, said: “We know that the fight for free education doesn’t end at the end of this demonstration. We are not just marching for one day and for the abolition of fees. We are building a movement which can strike to win, just as other movements all over the world have won”.

t was over five years ago that George Osborne revealed tuition fees would triple in price, and anger amongst the student population simply hasn’t died down. The most recent march, was just the latest attempt to put pressure on the government, sadly, however, this won’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Reform on tuition fees simply isn’t going to change under this government.

When you consider that just a 0.5% increase in income tax for the highest earners in society could make tuition free for all, it’s pretty outrageous that the government insist on selling us this lie that free higher education isn’t possible in the current economic climate. Maintenance grants for the poorest students are already far from sufficient, and as a result teenagers from the lowest income families are far too often deterred from going to university, regardless of their academic ability.

Education was free in this country for a long time, and although more and more people are now applying for higher education, evidence simply doesn’t suggest that this means free education is impossible.

Protestors are doing a great job and should keep fighting the good fight, I only hope one day the government will take notice.

If you too whisper these words in your sleep, Concrete Photography wants you!

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Exposure!

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Contact Will and Jacob on concrete.photography@uea.ac.uk

If you too whisper these words in your sleep, Concrete Photography wants you!

Email us at concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Contact Will and Jacob onor concrete.venue @uea.ac.uk and ask to join the concrete.photography@uea.ac.uk Facebook group

17th November 2015

FOI request reveals Funding of UEA schools of study Continued from front page it does prompt a need for a wider debate on the subject of tuition fees. “The fact that some faculties receive higher funding than others is perhaps unsurprising considering the higher costs of some courses but it does raise interesting questions about where students tuition fees go, the sustainability of certain courses and the current model of higher education funding as a whole”, he said.

However, the large amount of spending on some science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) subjects over the humanities may be partialy responsible for the UK being so popular with international students. According to a British Council survey, International Stem Students: Focusing on Skills for the Future, international students studying a stem subject at undergraduate and postgraduate level rated the UK as providing the highest quality of teaching, setting students up with the best career paths and being at the forefront of innovative research in their area.

Commenting on the results, Gordon Slaven, the British Council’s Head of Higher Education said: “It’s great to see that the UK’s excellence in teaching and research in these areas is recognised by stem students around the world”.

UEA has chosen not to speak to Concrete on the issue of faculty funding at this time.

5

News School expenditure 2014-15 Medicine & Health £16.6m

MED HSC

£9.4m

Sciences ENV £8.3m

CHE

£5.0m

PHA

£3.0m

CMP

£2.9m

MTH

£2.0m

ENG

£0.3m

Social Sciences

Humanities

DEV

£5.0m

ECO

£3.5m

EDU

£3.1m

LAW

£2.6m

NBS

£2.6m

PSY

C

£10.8m

BIO

£2.0m

SWK £1.5m

AMA

£4.4m

PPL

£4.2m

LDC

£4.1m

HIS

ANALYSIS Dan Falvey looks at the surprises in the expenditure data

£3.0m

Source: University of East Anglia via a Freedom of Information request. Data are provisional, pending final confirmation in December 2015

oncrete’s FOI request asked UEA to provide “A breakdown of the spending by the university o each school of study for 2014-15”. The expenditure figures included spending on the day-to-day running of schools – things such as payroll. Consequently, the figures do not provide an account of exactly how students’ £9,000 tuition fees are spent. However, what it does reveal is that certain schools receive far more monney than others.

This is hardly surprising and is unlikely to be controversial. After all, some schools are larger than others. What is more likely to cause annoyance is the revelation that these discrepancies in expenditure are positively correlated to school size. Dividing spending by the number of students in each school shows that is some smaller schools – such as Medicine – receive a larger share of total expenditure than larger ones, for example, Health Sciences.

As Connor Rand comments, it is unlikely to be surprising to students that more money is spent on the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health Sciences than Humanities.

However, it is probable that the majority of students were previously unaware of the discrepancies in funding within schools.

How students – and the university – respond to these findings will be interesting.

Photo: Wikimedia, Mandehlin

Cheerleading: two, four, six, eight, males should participate!

Felicity Stephenson News reporter Researchers at UEA have suggested that more men taking up cheerleading may lead to improvements in attitudes towards gender relations. Traditionally a female dominated activity, a UEA study suggests that more males being encouraged to join cheerleading teams may help to challenge ideas about gender roles.

Two academics, from UEA’s school of Education and Lifelong Learning suggest

males joining this “feminine” sport can not only have a progressive influence on ideas about gender in cheer but improve the performances of both men and women within the sport .

Dr Esther Priyadharshani and Dr Amy Pressland looked at four teams, one allfemale and three mixed. Cheerleading is “very much viewed as an activity for girls”, a place where they can “remain girls and women” Dr Pressland noted. This led her to question “what happens when boys and girls take part in it together”, in terms of male “masculinity and how the gender relationships work within the team”.

The study found that that when men felt uncomfortable doing things they might not consider typically masculine they still took part for the sake of their team. Furthermore, it was noted that the male participants were very protective of their teammates and there was no inappropriate behavior. Dr Pressland feels that this has the potential to be an “inclusive activity for young people to work together” where gender norms can be challenged and played with.

Photo: Sam Mckinty, Concrete Photography

Student fall after LCR night Sam Mckinty News editor A young man fell from the walkway above the Street early on Sunday morning after attending the A-List club night at the LCR. At approximately 03:15, Thomas Hood was seen by onlookers hanging from the walkway next to the Dean of Students. He then slipped and fell approximately 12 feet to the ground below.

Will Male, a second-year Geography student, described seeing Hood dangling above Barclays. He said “people were shouting at him to climb back up, some were standing underneath him I guess to try and catch him if he fell, and some people were

just being idiots and egging him onto jump, obviously not realising quite how high it is.

“It seemed like he’d been hanging there quite a while, maybe a minute or so, and then he just dropped to the ground. His legs hit the ground first and one went the other way.

Everyone ran over trying to help, so were filming, and then security ran over and got everyone away and then the St John’s people came over”.

Concrete understand that the university was not initially made aware of Hood’s fall. But the press office later told Concrete that they were “aware of an incident on campus early hours of Sunday. The UEA students’ union and the university are currently investigating the circumstances. It would be inappropriate to comment further”.

17th November 2015

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News

Ethnic minorities underepresented at UEA Jessica Frank-Keyes News editor A study into staff numbers in higher education institutions has revealed that ethnic minorities continue to be underrepresented among the senior levels of university management. The Equality in Higher Education 2015 study, published last week by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) reports that there are just 20 UK-born black or minority ethnic deputy or pro vicechancellors, compared with 530 who are white.

While the 2011 census showed that 86% of the population of England and Wales is white, the ECU report notes that BME staff are half as likely as white staff to hold a top role. Overall, 8.5% of white university staff hold a senior position in comparison to 6.4% of BME staff. Specifically in terms of academics, the numbers in senior roles are 15.7% for white compared to 12.8% for minorities.

However, over the past few years, the diversity among university staff has been greatly improving. The number of UK minority staff grew by almost 80% over the decade 2003-4 to 2013-14. Stephanie Neave, research and data manager at the ECU and author of the report stated that the UK is “fantastic… when it comes to bringing in [non-white] academic talent”. However, she added that “senior staff [from ethnic backgrounds] are not coming through the UK system, so it would be good to have a discussion about why BME staff are so concentrated at much lower levels”.

Responding to the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities among university staff, Helen Murdoch, Head of UEA’s Equality and Diversity Office, stated: “trends are clearly showing increased diversity in our staff and students, with a more rapid increase within the student body due, in part, to the longer tenure of staff posts at the university”.

She also reported that “UEA has the same

range of ethnic diversity on campus as more urban universities such as Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham or Bradford – on average, there are 120 nationalities on campus here in any one year. The percentage of BME students has increased from 14% in 2007 to 28% in 2015. This is partly due to our international students but also the percentage of Britishborn minority ethnic students has increased from 6% to 10.5%”.

Various reports on equality data and statistics at UEA also reveal a steadily improving picture of BME representation.

The Equality Data Annual Report 2015 states that “the University of East Anglia is gradually building a robust set of data reflecting the proportions of its student and staff populations within the defined protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010”, suggesting that the university views the improvement of equality and diversity as valuable and important. The Summary of Staff Data 2015 includes reports on the percentages of BME professors at UEA up to and including 2015 and its findings show that the percentage of BAME professors increased from 5.4% in 2008, compared to 84.9% white (and 9.7% preferred not to say) to 6.2% in both 2014 and 2015, compared to 89.0% white in 2014 and 88.0% in 2015 (and 4.8% and 5.8% preferred not to say.)

This study places UEA in a strong position in comparison to national statistics and the recent Equality Challenge Unit report.

In addition, the Summary Table of Student Data 2015 shows that the university’s claims it has improved in diversity to be accurate, with the ethnic profile of all first year students across the four faculties at undergraduate, postgraduate and research levels for 2014-15 at 27.8% BME compared to the national average of 22.5%. The figure of white students in the same categories for 2014-15 is 69.3% compared to the national average of 77.5%, while 2.9% of students preferred not to reveal this information.

Murdoch claimed that “UEA works hard to monitor and address diversity on

campus for staff and students. There is an Equality and Diversity Committee meeting three times a year and a new working group, with Union of UEA Students (UUEAS) representation, which will establish priorities for the university on equality and diversity alongside the forthcoming new UEA Plan”.

Murdoch also stated that the university is working on improving diversity and representation across the spectrums of sexual orientation, disability, faith, and gender. The number of disabled students on campus has increased from 7.6% to 11% from 2007 to 2015 and the Access for All group is working to improve accessibility.

5.8% of UEA students self-declared as LGB in 2015 and UEA is working to improve support for those staff or students who may undergo gender transition before or whilst at the university. The Multifaith Centre also assists in welcoming 13 religions and faith denominations to campus and the Dean of Students Office “establishes a network of support for students and staff” who may be experiencing mental health problems.

Finally, she stated that UEA was awarded nine Athena Swan charter awards across all four faculties. This is a programme designed to look into gender equality at universities from undergraduate to professor level. The university plans to submit evidence to six more awards throughout the next year.

Commenting on the issue, the Union of UEA Students BME Officer, Hussam Hussein, said: “It’s really concerning that there is such a low number of BME staff in universities. This is a far reaching issue that needs to be tackled through breaking down barriers to education at undergraduate and postgraduate level of study. Universities could run various schemes to address this, such as focus groups, exploring retention of BME students and staff, delivering leadership development programmes and offering a more diverse curriculum. Diversity is key to institutions, but the issue needs to be tackled at its root and resolved through proactive and impactful solutions”.

COMMENT Joel Woolfenden argues why we need more diversity at university

S

ocial integration is becoming more and more important as we progress into a globalised and diverse society.

There is still a huge problem in the UK; we are not integrating with groups of different ethnicities nearly enough due to a wide stigma against people of different cultures.

As UK citizens, we have a responsibility to accept and welcome anyone of a different background, and universities share that responsibility. I don’t believe that universities should have ethnic minority quotas to fill; everyone should be judged on merit and should not be accepted or rejected based on their religious beliefs or where they’ve come from (including British students).

However, universities must work to help integrate those who do not yet feel part of our society. We can’t expect a foreign student with little knowledge of the language to integrate themself into a society they know little about. I also don’t think it’s a solution to put all of the international students together, something UEA is guilty of. While it may make these students feel more comfortable, it renders integration very unlikely. Universities must encourage ethnic-based student societies to have their members look further than each other and for British students to be encouraged to welcome foreign students and get to know them.

This is not an issue of needing diverse friend groups; it is an issue of students of different ethnicities feeling part of the place they’re studying and to feel that they have been accepted by everyone at their university.

In addition to these social changes, foreign students must be encouraged to stay in the UK after graduation. Not only is this beneficial economically, it will mean foreign students will feel more like they are wanted and are part of our society.

Brexit would be a blow for research claim academics Sam McKinty and Dan Falvey News editor and Editor-in-Chief Leading academics from across the UK have announced their support of Britain continuing its membership of the EU, just weeks after the NUS underlined its support.

Speaking to The Guardian this week, ViceChancellors, UK academics, and research scientists have described the possibility of leaving the EU as potentially damaging to the ability of UK universities to conduct high-quality research, maintain their global reputation, attract top research talent from around the world and would ultimately point to funding cuts.

Advocates of leaving the EU are less despondent, however, suggesting that funding shortfalls created by the UK voting i against EU membership in the referendum would be made up by way of the savings made through the non-continuation of payments to the international organisation. One advocate for a so called ‘Brexit’ pointed to Switzerland and Norway, who continue to pay for pooled academic resources.

The move could have a significant impact on UEA as the university receives large amounts of research funding from the EU, and infrastructure investment from the European

Regional Development Fund, with the new Enterprise Centre being partially paid for by the fund.

In addition to the research benefits, students greatly benefit from the freedom of movement the EU offers, with more than

15%

of academic research staff at UK universities are nonBritih, EU nationals.

20,000 students and staff having studied or worked abroad under the Erasmus scheme, including close to 15000 undergraduates.

UEA’s Vice-Chancellor, David Richardson has previously expressed his desire for the UK to remain within the EU. Speaking to Universities for Europe in September he stated: “The EU funding is vital... It represents 15% of the total research funding [at UEA] and supports some world class research”.

He also argued that Britain’s membership to the EU was important for students: “Students need to have a global experience in an increasingly globalised world”.

Richardson’s comments are out of character as he has previously stated that he does not believe universities should intervene in political matters.

Richardson is not alone in airing his views on the EU. Speaking to the Guardian, Sir Steve

Smith, Vice-Chancellor of Exeter University, said: “Leaving would be a disaster. Of course, it would damage UK research and universities in terms of attracting the best staff, students and funding. But to be honest, that’s not the biggest issue.

“The most successful knowledge economy is where people publish together with people in other countries. EU membership makes that immeasurably easier. Ultimately, it’s about the quality of the work.

“Even if you could make up the funding shortfall from leaving the EU, you would be running counter to the way the world knowledge economy is moving”.

According to Universities UK leaving the EU would have a significant impact on the academic makeup of institutions. They argue that more than 15% of teaching and research staff at Britain’s 132 universities are non-British EU nationals, including some of the most highly regarded researchers in the country.

is coming....

27/NOV shop

17th November 2015

8

Global

Women’s health

IN FOCUS

The ‘Tampon Tax’, is receiving a lot of attention: the government is under intense pressure to abolish the 5% VAT currently impose d on sanitary products – the minimum amount permissible under EU law.

Concrete looks at some of the other financial and emotional costs of femininity.

Ireland Abortion is illeagal unless the pregnancy is actively killing the mother Mexico In some cases, women who have miscarried have been accused of murder and sent to prison

Kenya A large number of women are forced to prostitute themselves to get sanitary towels and tampons

Caitlin Doherty and Jessica Frank-Keyes Sanitation

As horrifying and infuriating as they are, there are more facts and statistics to menstrual health than those which have been un-earthed, over-analysed and over-repeated many a time in recent weeks.

In 2013, there were 3.52 billion women in the world. A woman’s period lasts from three to seven days and occurs every 28 days. The average menstrual timespan is between the ages of 13 and 51. This means that women, on average, menstruate 456 times: that’s roughly 2,280 days – six years and three months – of every woman’s life.

The UN Human Rights Office Chief on Economic and Social Issues, Jyoti Sanghera, recently called the global stigma around menstruation “a violation of several human rights, most importantly the right to human dignity”.

Nowhere is this more true than Nepal. In many areas of the country, girls are considered unclean, and therefore untouchable, whilst menstruating. Nepali Hinduism adheres to a tradition named Chapaudi, a mentality that dictates that menstruating women are forbidden to eat or sleep inside, share a bed with a male, enter a kitchen or a temple, or, in some cases, even touch another human being.

Menstruating females are effectively banished from society every single month. If a girl is found to be menstruating whilst at school, she is sent home immediately and punished for having been sociable and touched books whilst in her ‘unclean’ state.

Given this regular extradition from education and socialisation, it is unsurprising that there is a relatively low level of employment among Nepalese women: only 55%. As a result of this low level of female employment, there is an inevitable reliance upon male income and marital association.

Despite this being common practice, there is little record of how girls and women make meaning of these practices. They exist in society; an unquestioned and therefore, apparently inherent system of biological oppression, of which the impacts last far longer than a woman’s period of fertility.

Regardless of social taboo, women in some nations still face restrictions when it comes to getting hold of sanitary products. In Kenya, there is an active, and literal, prostitution trade for sanitary products. Half of girls as young as 14 years old have been known to sleep with wealthy men more than twice their age in exchange for sanintary towels and tampons.

Even when they do get hold of the products, many young girls are still inclined to take time off school, as they face name calling from their male classmates.

Despite not being remarkably over priced, a packet of eight towels costs on average 40 Kenyan shillings, equivalent to roughly 26 pence, these products are still priced out of many Kenyan women’s budget. With an unemplyment rate of more than 40% among the same population, and an average monthly wage of around $70, sanitary products constitute a large portion of a woman’s outgoings – that is if she has an income.

Medicinal maternal care

From pre-natal services, such as ultrasound scans, through the birthing process and postnatal care, as well as other services, such as abortion, maternity care in the UK is free at the point of access and relatively easy to recieve.

This, unfortunately, is not the case the world over.

American healthcare is infamously for its financial inaccessibility, a sentiment that rings true when we examine the cost of birth and maternal care.

The average cost of a vaginal delivery is around $30,000; however, this cost can peak to over $50,000 if a C-section is needed.

Howevever, families are often left having to foot around half of the bill, with the average payout for a straightforward birth being $18,329 and $27,866 when the process involves surgical intervention. Which some claim is a high Elsewhere, private healthcare is the standard across India and, therefore, so is a high price tag. The average cost of a standard birth in the country is 75,000 rupees, however this can climb to more than 200,000 rupees if a C-section is needed. This may not seem like too high a cost when we consider that 200,000 rupees equates to less than £2,000; however, insurers rarely cover any costs above and beyond 50,000 rupees, meaning that childbirth is an expensive venture for the average Indian family. Whilst the average monthly salary is around 3,000 rupees, many families are reliant upon a sole income as only 32% of Indian women work.

Even more shocking than the cost of childbearing, perhaps, are the costs incured when a woman chooses to terminate a pregnancy, be that a choice of either health or lifestyle.

Abortion in Mexico carries a far greater burden than the financial cost alone. Only recently legalised, and not done so nationwide, abortion in Mexico is, for many, still a taboo subject.

Women can have an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in 13 of 31 Mexican provinces. The average cost of an uncomplicated procedure is between 79 and

143 dollars. However, the same cannot be said of procedures that encounter complications for either the mother or the foetus, something that occurs 10 - 15% of the time. More complex procedures can cost upwards of $2,000.

To contextualise, the average monthly salary in Mexico is $1,070, meaning that an abortion could equal the equivalent of two months’ wages.

The difficulties do not stop here, however.

Women found to have had an abortion, or even in some cases, a miscarriage, are routinely accused of murder and could face jail, an experience that would render many women unemployable in the eyes of businesses for the rest of her life. 679 women were sentenced as a result of a miscarriage or abortion between 2009 and 2011.

However, these issues also lurk a lot closer to home. Abortion in Ireland is currently universally outlawed, unless a direct problem of the pregnancy is actively killing the mother. The rule that has resulted in several complicated legal cases over the years.

In 2012, Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar, who was working in Ireland at the time, died during childbirth as a result of a bacterial infection. She had reported this infection to a doctor at 17 weeks pregnant, believing herself to be miscarrying. This problem was reported on several occasions during Halappanavar’s pregnancy. However, because she seemed physically well and the baby had a heartbeat, she was refused the termination.

It is obviously difficult for Irish women to gain access to abortion services at home, and as a result, 4,500 women decide to travel to the UK for a termination, every year.

From conception to week nine of pregnancy, a termination costs €570 under local anaesthetic, or €590 under a general anaesthetic. These figures, perhaps as expected, increase expenentially as the pregnancy progresses, totalling €1,650 for a procedure carried out if a woman is between 19 and 24 weeks pregnant, the latest an abortion can be requested (without medical grounds) in

the UK. These costs do not account for travel expenses: a large, additional, yet necessary expense. A return flight from Manchester to Dublin booked at seven days notice (19th November) is €73 when flying with Aer Lingus.

The cheapest Manchester hotel for the same date was €40 according to Expedia.

Therefore, an Irish woman seeking an abortion between 19 and 24 weeks pregnant would pay a minimum of €1,763 for her ordeal.

The workplace

It was revealed last week that, as a result of the cavernous gender pay gap, British women would, in effect, be working for free from 9th November until the New Year.

Although Britain’s 15% gender pay gap would have to stretch quite significantly to rival that of South Korea, the worst gender pay gap in the world at a whopping 37.5%, the salary gap in other ‘developed nations’ is staggering In Australia, a woman would have to work 66 days more than a male in an equivalent role to make the same amount of money.

Regardless of inherent office pay gaps, it is a widely known fact that women’s salaries often suffer if and when they decide have children; they can even cease to exist in their entirey. An estimated 30,000 women in Britain lose their jobs after getting pregnant every year. However, just to add insult to injury, it seems that men profit whilst women lose out. According to research by the New York Times, while women lose an average 4% of their salary as a result of motherhood, a man salary increases by an average of 6% when he reaches fatherhood. Whereas women are deemed to be more unreliable when they enter parenthood, more likely to take time off work and more likely to be distracted whilst there, men are deemed to be more socially stable, and therefore more relaible and in greater need of a stable wage; it seems that we still have a long way to go before the breadwinner versus caregiver sterotypes are broken.

17th November 2015

9

Global

Why the US needs Planned Parenthood Katya Hrichak Global writer Nepal Women on their period are considered unclean and untouchable, and are forbidden to eat or sleep inside South Korea At 37.5%, the country’s pay gap is the worst in the world

India The average cost of a normal birth is 75,000 rupees (£750). This rises to 200,000 rupees for a C-section. Insurers rarely cover costs over 75,000 rupees

Planned Parenthood, is an American organization that provides reasonably priced healthcare to both men and women at clincs located in the United States, but they are most well-known throughout the country for their abortion services. They are, not for the first time, facing scrutiny and have been brought to the forefront of the news agenda.

Although abortions account for only 3% of all health services provided by the centres, according to their website, this service is the one most focused on by the right in political debates, particularly at this time in the election process.

This summer, a so-called ‘sting’ video was released, showing supposed staff members discussing money accrued through the process of donating fetal tissue for scientific research. The video claimed that the organisation was profiting off of these donations, leading to the widely publicised notion that Planned Parenthood was earning money by selling baby parts.

In reality, the money from this process was reimbursement to cover the processing and transfer of the tissues, not for the foetal tissue itself. Investigations have found no evidence of illegal activity, but pro-life groups and Republican candidates continue to insist that Planned Parenthood profited from the donations.

Due to this controversy, a social and legislative battle has begun, with pro-choice groups fighting to keep Planned Parenthood’s

government funding and pro-life groups fighting to cut it.

What most right wing groups are ignoring is the fact that this is a universal service for American women. The website not only lists abortion, but also birth control, body image services, general female health care, particularly menstrual health, morning-after pill and emergency contraception, pregnancy care, pelvic exams, pap tests, screenings for breast cancer and treatments to prevent cervical cancer.

For women who feel uncomfortable walking into one of the 700 health centers, owned by Planned Parenthood, due to frequent pro-life protesters outside, birth control and STD testing kits can be ordered online and shipped discretely to the specified address.

2.7 million women in the US visit Planned Parenthood centres anually whilst one in five US women will visit a centre at somepoint during their lifetime. Outside of the clinics, the organization provides education and outreach to more than five million people.

Planned Parenthood might be known most extensively for their abortion services, but their focus is primarily on prevention, with 80% of clients receiving services to prevent unintended pregnancies.

Despite the active claims that Planned Parenthood engages in illegal activity, the functioning facilities continue to provide 400,000 pap tests, 500,000 breast exams and help prevent 516,000 unintended pregnancies each year.

Planned Parenthood are far more than just an abortion clinic. We need them.

Features

17th November 2015

11

You live in one of England’s most dangerous cities for drinking >>Page 14

Tampon tax: it’s more than just the money M

ost would agree that tampons are not a luxury item. It is clear that women don’t bleed for a week every month by choice. The debate over taxing sanitary products is more than a sexist dismissal of women’s needs. It is also to do with sovereignty of the EU and the crazy VAT laws of which most consumers are unaware.

Outrage has escalated after MPs recently voted against amending the UK tax rate on tampons. Sanitary products are currently taxed at a reduced 5% rate and classed as ‘luxury items’. The classification as ‘luxury’ has sparked widespread condemnation and has been called the ‘Tampon Tax’.

Many have taken to Twitter using #tampontax, to post pictures of themselves revelling in the luxury of sanitary products as if they were £100 notes. Satirical comments also flooded in, such as “to anyone who thinks tampons are a ‘luxury item’ see what happens when you give them as a present”, or “Since it’s payday I might treat myself to a little luxury and buy some sanitary towels”.

Additionally some are taking a more active approach to criticisms of the tax. Recently Charlie Edge, a 22 year old from Berkshire, posted on Facebook pictures of herself and friends protesting outside parliament. They were on their periods but did not use tampons.

Many claimed it was the perfect illustration of the necessity of these items, though others argued that it was a fruitless and unsanitary

“Many have taken to twitter with the hashtag #tampontax, posting pictures of themselves revelling in the lury of sanitary products as if they were £100 notes” way of putting across a message.

After the unsuccessful vote, opponents of the tax pointed out that the UK parliament is less than 30% women. Therefore they argue that the decision was unfairly made by a group of males who lack any experience in menstruating.

In a pitifully empty House of Commons debate, Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, stated that the consideration of tampons and sanitary towels as a luxury “isn’t by accident, that’s by design of an unequal society, in which the concerns of women are not treated as equally as the concerns of men” She continued; “it is when you start looking at what is described as a necessity and what is described as a luxury, that you see the inequalities in this debate” Products which are also taxed at 5% and considered “luxury” include car seats for children, mobility aids for the elderly, and gas and electricity. Yet products taxed at a zerorate and classed as ‘essential’ include Jaffa Cakes, newspapers, magazines, caravans, exotic meats such as crocodile, as well as betting, bingo and lotteries services.

So why is a Jaffa Cake an essential item?

Because it is food and we need food to live.

It states on Which.co.uk that “while cakes are exempt from the tax, luxury biscuits are subject to VAT at the standard rate”, and that “McVities, the makers of Jaffa Cakes, insisted that they were small cakes – and, according to rumour, even produced a giant Jaffa Cake in court to help illustrate this point” It begs the question of whether cake is an essential food product, but there are also

Susannah Smith discusses the reaction behind the government’s recent decision to keep the tax on tampons, and explains why it’s about more than just the pennies in our pockets

many other odd VAT rules over whether an item is taxed or not. Cold take-away food, nuts in shells and maize or corn-based snacks are zero-rated, but not hot take-away food, unshelled nuts or potato crisps. It has led to people questioning how these rules are contrived.

But the debate reaches beyond the UK. Women worldwide have been showing their disbelief at government classifications of sanitary products as “non-essential”.

People from many different countries are now challenging their governments over the tampon tax. According to the BBC, Australia taxes tampons at 10% and Slovakia 20%. Yet, lucky Ireland have zero-rate tax because it was in place before the EU legislation.

This legislation from the EU is why the government argued against an amendment to tax laws, as they are ultimately controlled by the EU. MPs voted against changing the tampon tax because zero-tax rates are not allowed under EU law, meaning the government would have to enter into debates with Brussels at a time when they are busy firmly renegotiating the UK’s role in Europe.

A Treasury spokesperson commented that “the UK has set the VAT on sanitary products at the minimum rate permissible under EU rules” Additionally, back in 2000, Labour MP Dawn Primarolo successfully campaigned for the tax to be cut from 17.5% to 5%, this being the lowest taxable amount and a reduced rate for items the government sees as more

essential. Some see this as a fight already won and now best left alone.

The tampon debate has also brought up issues of UK sovereignty and has been jumped on by anti-European Union groups such as Ukip. “Only by leaving the EU can this change”, said Suzanne Evans, Ukip’s Head of Policy, “and only Ukip wants this to happen.

Taxing tampons is straight out of the dark ages; it is a hangover from a distant past when policy makers disregarded the interests and health of woman and it must not be allowed to continue” The tampon tax debate has been an awkward and challenging issue for the government. When an MP won’t even say the word “tampon” in a parliamentary debate (and is marvellously called up on it by Stella Creasy) then something is surely wrong. But a dialogue has been opened up which was long avoided. People talking about periods and not in hushed tones. We are pushing past the point of blushing over a bodily function that happens to half the population, a quarter of the year.

Whether you agree with the minimum tax on tampons or feel they should be tax free, whether you think UK taxes being controlled

by Europe is wrong or are simply flummoxed by the tax categorisation of products, you are talking about menstruation. The more we talk, the less embarrassed and the more normalised this very normal occurrence becomes. And this in itself is a victory for society.

Illustration by: Niamh Jones

17th November 2015

12

Features

Beating the winter health slump Georgina Hewison offers advice on staying healthy over the coming months

A

s November kicks in with shorter days bringing with them the increasing struggle to stay warm in student housing, so collows the inevitable feeling of our summer health fading away. We almost expect a change in our bodies and accept that cold weather brings less exercise and poorer diet. But do we really know why our bodies react this way?

There is a lot more to this story than just gaining a few pounds; in fact, your lifestyle during this time could be having a large impact on your energy levels, mood and overall health. There is extensive evidence which proves that cold weather can have

“Don’t underestimate the power of a simple push-up” negative effects on your health, while there is actually no scientific evidence to prove that bodies are prone to weight gain in the winter.

The first downfall that comes to mind for our healthy lifestyle is often the constraint weather has on exercise routines. As firstyear student Matilda Taylor comments: “It’s so hard to keep up a healthy routine in bad weather, I love to run for my health and to destress, but when it’s raining I’m obviously less inclined”. Harsh weather can cause us to miss out on the simplest exercise habits, whether that be walking to university or the journey to the gym.

If you feel as though the weather is causing you to be in bed more than anywhere else, try doing some simple exercises in your room to get your heart rate going. Don’t underestimate the power of the simple push

up and sit up. Also, add some stretches into the mix: we lose a lot of our flexibility in cold weather. By getting your body moving, you will even fight the feeling of low energy, so fit in some exercise in between coursework or revision to help you through.

A

long with a lack of exercise, many people feel they are unhealthy in the winter because they are less inclined to eat balanced meals. Why exactly does this happen? There are varying scientific opinions on this phenomenon, but the most commonly thought cause is that our bodies expend so much energy trying to keep us warm through things such as shivering that we make up for this with an increased calorie intake. Other theories claim that eating poorly in the winter is traditional: that our emotional attachments to food, like your favourite Christmas treats, cause a psychological habit of eating a more fatty or carbohydrate-filled diet.

While it is natural to have different eating habits in the winter than in the summer, it is important to remember that there are easy

“It is not a matter of weight watching, but of your overall health” ways to alter your meals to be both healthy and comforting. Try substituting seasonal vegetables like butternut squash for potatoes and adding healthy fats into your breakfast like avocado on toast.

It is crucial to be making these sorts of small changes in the winter, as it is not a matter of weight watching, but of your overall health.

Your body is most vulnerable in cold months,

Photo: Flickr, QFamily meaning an unhealthy or unbalanced diet and minimal exercise is more likely to bring illness and even depressive symptoms. Help your body adjust to the change in sunlight and shorter days by taking daily vitamin D

supplements and having a regular amount of sleep every night. By keeping in mind these facts and straying away from calorie counting fads, being your healthiest in the months ahead will be a simple and fulfilling task.

Try a 21-day moaning detox Alice Short quits complaining for three weeks in an attempt to improve her outlook on life

D

o you feel that you or someone you know is always whinging or being negative about something, be it the weather, their course, their hangover, the amount of work they have to do, their hair or the bus? Do you recognise that moaning leads to a spiral of misery? If so, November is the time to quit moaning.

Will Bowen, an American preacher, has founded a movement called A Complaint Free World. He challenges everybody to give up moaning for 21 days. Over ten million people have taken up this challenge and are sporting the purple wristbands to indicate to the world that they are complaint free. So just how difficult can it be?

I like to consider myself a fairly positive person but I have noticed that once you start finding things that are wrong, you find more and more of the same. Psychologists have explained this using an analogy of buying a blue car. Once you have a particular type or colour of car, you start to notice all others of the same kind. They have always been there, but now you focus on them.

It is the same with negativity. If you pay attention to something negative and moan

about it, you will easily find more to whinge about.

So why not try this detox from moaning?

The trick to succeeding here is that practice makes perfect.

Picture the scene. It is a wet Wednesday morning. You were out the night before at the

“Once you start finding things wrong, you find more of the same” LCR. You are tired, hungover and you have an early-morning lecture. Just try getting on with it. Yes, it is not ideal, but if you stop moaning about how unfair it is, you are bound to feel better. You will also have a sense of achievement about what you have done if you resist the temptation to vent your annoyance.

As the no-complaint days go on, you will begin to feel a lot more cheerful. You can stop yourself wallowing in misery and even steer your flatmate away from their disheartened observations. Sometimes all you need is a change of perspective to brighten your mood and that of those around you. This challenge

can provide that change of perspective.

Of course, it is not possible to give up complaining completely. Sometimes there are legitimate causes to complain: for example, if the hot water in your house is not working properly. This type of complaint is acceptable, as long as you want to bring about a goal at the end.

Talking to your landlord in a straightforward way is far better than moaning at them. State the problem and ask what should happen next. They will probably be pleased that you haven’t laboured the point and will hopefully respond accordingly.

Focusing on solutions rather than wallowing in misery really is good advice.

F

inally, in your quest for a complaint free 21 days, you will probably notice other people who moan a lot. It might be best to surround yourself with people who tend to be more positive or if you know someone who loves a whinge, encourage them to think more happily.

It takes three weeks to form a habit and this is one that can definitely transform your life for the better.

Photo: Pixabay

17th November 2015

13

Features

I’m at a top 1% uni – am I smarter than you?

Alice Spencer discusses the difference between being academic and being smart, and asks if it really matters anyway

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ll of our academic lives, it seems, revolve around rigorous and regular testing geared towards preparing us for the working world. Or, simply put, towards university. For this is seemingly the only credible destination for young people throughout their final years of compulsory schooling. Flashback to the personal statement workshops and higher education conventions that became increasingly frequent throughout sixth form. Certainly, much of our school experiences are aimed at propelling us towards higher education. Thus, with record numbers of university applicants each year, the initial assumption for those who don’t go at all is that they failed, or they simply weren’t smart enough.

And yet, despite the emphasis on ‘initial assumption’, with new plans from the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, for more “robust” tests for seven-year-olds, testing and academia seems set to become even more ingrained as part of our national psyche. Although they attempt to tackle underachievement, such proposals – as well as a new requirement for 90% of pupils to take a humanity or a language at GCSE – reinforce the idea that if you are not good at academic subjects, you are not clever.

Even more worrying that this danger of disenchantment, however, is the way in which these changes threaten to increase the competitiveness and snobbery surrounding league tables of both state schools and universities alike. Anyone who has attended a Welcome to UEA talk at an open day can tell

you that the fact we’re at a university globally ranked in the top 1% is a matter of the utmost importance – mainly due to the fact that they manage to squeeze this statistic in at least twice.

Whether this really does matter, or whether it’s the consequence of the sorely felt presence of Cambridge, this is a statistic many of us have taken a small sense of pride in: we are ‘above’ the other 99%. Such is the prestige of getting into a high-ranking university. With presumably higher grade boundaries, you presumably achieved higher grades, and so, presumably, are smarter. However, is spite of how this logic might appeal to our egos, in a society where it is becoming increasingly difficult to find graduate employment, the question begs itself: do grades even matter anymore?

Had the question been simply, ‘do grades measure intelligence?’, the answer might be easier to determine. In my opinion, a resounding ‘no’, as witnesses of my first visit to the laundrette can verify. But do grades actually count for anything? From the discovery in induction week that A-levels apparently count for nothing now, it seems the answer to this is also negative. Recall that crushing realisation of being thrust back to that post-GCSE feeling that the past two years of stress and worry equate to nothing now you’re at the next stage, and that everyone is now relievingly, and despicably, equal. This statement, however, whilst capturing the sentiment of the time, risks being too general.

Rather, grades are the stepping stones to

get you to the next stage in pursuing your career path. Not definitive, but equally not unimportant.

Why then, can the same not be true for paths other than university? Why are they not seen as stepping stones to get to an equally commendable level of achievement

“Employers are placing greater value on the skills developed outside of higher education” in life? Inconceivable though it may be that not everyone wants a degree in Surf Science Technology from Cornwall University (no disrespect intended to Surf Science students or Cornwall), increasingly it seems that employers are placing greater value on the skills developed outside of higher education.

With the risk of delving into the somewhat patronising “different kinds of clever” speech prepared by many a parent for A-level results day, “Richard Branson never went to university” message nevertheless seems appropriate. Not everyone is ‘book smart’ as such, and increasingly this is becoming no bad thing.

While alternative routes such as apprenticeships and work experience are gaining increasing clout with employers, the sad fact remains that for many academically able young people, not going to university is a matter of financial improbability rather than

personal preference. A £27,000 debt to repay is simply too much for many prospective applicants and, following the government’s decision to scrap maintenance grants, it remains to be seen whether this change will have any effect on the number opting to attend university.

The idea of league table ranking equating to intelligence is consequently largely discredited, especially when considereing that the highest-ranking universities – UCL, Imperial, and Oxford – are in some of the most expensive areas of the UK. With the average London student estimated to pay £287 a week for accommodation and travel, it seems clear that students increasingly have to pay the top money as well as achieve the top grades to be esteemed as the most intelligent in society’s eyes.

D

oes going to a top 1% university make us smarter than those who don’t go at all? Not necessarily. That’s not to say, of course, that degrees have no value in today’s working world; rather, they are the gateway to us achieving our own personal goals, just as those who don’t attend have separate means of reaching theirs. Neither should be regarded as superior to the other simply because of a somewhat backwards tradition of heeding statistics and league tables. With more than ever attending university, fuelling the debate on the worth of higher education in employment, our generation will be the one to see which comes out on top. I wouldn’t judge just yet.

Gender stereotypes in the playground Nick Hardwick warns of the dangers of imposing gender norms at a young age

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’m sure whilst attending primary or secondary school we have all come across the phrases “man-up”, “stop being a sissy”, “you’re acting like a girl” and so on. There is no denying that these forms of expression are deprecating towards most individuals, regardless of gender, and also incline young people to adhere to gender binaries.

Such culturally embedded and confining phraseology doesn’t necessarily encourage children and young adults to explore their identity and embrace every pathway along which their brains and sense of self could potentially take them.

Our time within education is vital and essential to who we become as adults and our educational institutions have the power to mould us into specific types of people. If we embrace these discriminatory terms as children, the likelihood is that as we grow older these phrases will become our subconscious views and attitudes towards gender, not only tainting our views of acceptable behaviour but also limiting us as individuals. This language hinders us from discovering what unique gifts we can give society: we won’t allow ourselves to experiment with behaviours identified as non-binary and which do not conform to gender expectations.

Perhaps this is why new guidelines regarding sexist comments are being sent to schools all around England. These new guidelines will assign certain senior teachers as “gender champions” in order to tackle this problem specifically in school playgrounds

inequality is a systematic problem which has seeped through our cultural institutions for hundreds of years and has caused patriarchal control to be mistaken as something which is natural, instinctive and accepted.

Photograph: Flickr, Christian Bortes This misconception creates inequalities that do nothing but harm our cultural environment, our expectations of one another and not to mention our sense of self-worth.

“Schools are being sent new guidelines regarding sexist comments”

Photo: Flickr, madelineyoki where the majority of these problematic terms are being used. Gender champions will attempt to eradicate the use of what the government has described as “low-level comments” and which it believes are part of the reason why females feel discouraged from doing stereotypically male subjects such as science and economics and males from doing stereotypically ‘female’ subjects such as

English and Psychology.

Despite the fact that many individuals may see this intervention as rather unnecessary, pretentious and overreacting, we cannot keep pretending that gender inequality doesn’t exist in this country. Women are still, on average, paid 15% less then men and that figure increases dramatically when we take in to account such factors as race and class. Gender

Imagine what we could achieve if we allowed people to embrace any gift they feel their identity has to give, without the fear of breaking societal rules and being subject to ridicule and deprecation. If we can teach children from a young age that frivolous, throw-away, sexist comments are actually incredibly harmful to our environment and individual development, our society can become a prosperous place to be.

For once, these new educational guidelines are actually inciting something which provides children with more freedom when compared to previous changes which have enforced categorisation and limitation for the youth.

Let’s make the most of this and encourage the children of this country to respect individual identities regardless of gender, because let’s face it: they are the future.

17th November 2015

14

Features

You live in one of England’s most dangerous cities for drinking Lillie Coles asks if new figures which show Norwich to be the fourth most dangerous place to drink in the country are representative of a night out

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orwich is renowned as a safe city, voted ‘the best place to grow up’ in 2014, with polls showing that homeowners are safer here than anywhere else in the country. However, new research by the MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, Liam Byrne, suggests it is the fourth most dangerous city for drinking in the UK. Nights out in Norwich can be dangerous, but they can also be harmless fun. As students, we are no strangers to nights on the town, so here is your guide to Norwich nightlife and how safe it really is.

Prince of Wales road is famously responsible for over 60% of the city’s violence despite a high police presence and paramedics on standy all night. Both locals and students pour into the bars and clubs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Mercy’s Cabana Club attracts up to 2500 guests. As students looking for cheaper drinks and the best deals, should we be worried about the dangers of drinking in Norwich?

Second year English literature student Caitlin spoke about an incident which occurred in the now-closed club, Lola Lo’s, near Prince of Wales last Halloween. She said: “What started as an enjoyable night became a stressful and upsetting experience, through no fault of my own or the people I was with.

I was caught in a fight and violently knocked to the ground. Despite being looked after

Photograph: Geograph, Malc McDonald

by security, I never went back and rarely go to Prince of Wales. You can plan to have the best night but you can never account for the actions of others” Accounts like these are common, with alcohol fuelling violence and putting innocent bystanders at risk. Even those who have been drinking in moderation are affected by people unable to control their temper when drunk.

Of course, it is important to remember that there is more attention drawn to the dangers than to the rewards of a night out on Prince of Wales. Many young people are aware of their limits, able to drink and enjoy themselves safely, with only a small minority making nights out dangerous. One third year student argued, “Prince of Wales has the best atmosphere for a night out. Everyone is there for a good time, and if you don’t start any trouble you’ll definitely enjoy your night”.

Mantra’s AfterDark Thursdays are popular with students who want to dress up and enjoy clubbing, with tightened security and police presence making it possible to enjoy a safer night. Loft and Flaunt also offer safe spaces for LGBT+ guests and their friends to enjoy a night out on Prince Of Wales, which shows how the city offers a range of venues. Only the minority of club-goers present any threat.

For those who are not fans of Prince Of Wales, there are many other options for safe and enjoyable drinking in Norwich. Nestled

Photo: Flickr, Shawn Carpenter in the Golden Triangle, Unthank Road is surrounded by a Victorian residential area; the road holds numerous pubs and bars, which are popular with both students and locals.

According to one local resident, Unthank Road offers a far different experience: “I feel completely safe drinking down Unthank Road because it has a far calmer atmosphere than Photograph: Flickr, Shawn Carpenter Prince of Wales. I prefer pubs and bars to clubs as I feel safer and I can enjoy time with friends”.

With an earlier curfew, a varied crowd and establishments serving sit-down meals, Unthank Road is an example of a place to drink safely. A low police presence and sophisticated atmosphere takes the focus

away from binge-drinking culture and more into a social experience.

If you want to dance, Gonzo’s Tea Room offers a chilled bar atmosphere, live music, and a dancefloor after midnight, away from the hustle and bustle of Prince of Wales.

Queen Street is a bustling area at weekends, with Revolution Vodka serving a wide range of flavoured shots, and the short walk to Colegate is perfect pub-crawl material. Visit The Mischief and Glasshouse for drinks at great prices with a friendly atmosphere to match.

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f course, every Tuesday and Saturday sees the LCR opening its doors to hundreds of students, and heading to the union Bar beforehand is a safe way to enjoy your drinks. With the Never OK and Good Night Out campaigns in place, as well as security guards and St John’s Ambulance volunteers patrolling the venue, it is easy to enjoy a safe night out even when drinks are so temptingly cheap.

Second-year student Maria revealed, “I’ve never felt in danger on a night out in the LCR because security are always on hand. In the city, specifically on Prince Of Wales, the clubs are crowded and dark so the bouncers can’t see as much. But it’s the few not the many that pose any danger to you”.

The LCR is a place to go for a safe night out, away from the busy streets of the city.

Meanwhile, the Waterfront, UEA’s alternative music venue is also known for Propaganda every Friday, with rock, pop-punk, indie and alternative music for those seeking something a little different.

The statistics released by Byrne defined dangerous as the number of people ending up in hospital after a night out. This does not happen to everyone; plenty of people are able to enjoy alcohol, even to excess, without inflicting danger upon themselves or others.

Although Prince of Wales Road is the main culprit of dangerous drinking in Norwich, it is still possible to enjoy it safely. Despite this, there are plenty of other places to explore and enjoy around the city, away from the large crowds and with better safety measures. It is clear to see that drinking does not always have to be dangerous, and neither do nights out in the city of Norwich.

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17th November 2015

16

Comment

Are British Lucas Cumiskey examines the questions surrounding schoolchildren Britain’s relationship with American black sites the “most “I excessively tested in Europe”?

Emma Slaughter

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arlier this month, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, our very own Dolores Umbridge, announced that seven-yearolds should be rigorously tested to ensure they are mastering the basics before leaving primary school. The proposal has caused much controversy, with critics claiming this would only increase the pressure on already over-worked teachers and pupils. Kevin Courtney, the deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, has also criticised the measures, stating that schools are at risk of becoming “exam factories” and highlighting how pupils in the British education system are “the most excessively tested children in the whole of Europe”.

Whilst the majority of people would agree on the importance of our primary schools giving children the best provisions to achieve a basic grasp of key skills, this does raise ethical questions about the amount of pressure we are putting these children under. Childhood is the only time in our lives when we can be truly without responsibility and demand;.

Do we really want our seven-year-olds to be suffering from the same stress we encounter later in life? Equally, setting examinations means children are denied the opportunity to develop personal skills and interests, and runs the risk of creating a generation who believe the entirety of their sense of self-worth should come from monetary and material success.

The fundamental flaw in testing children at such a young age, in order to mark the progress of schools, is that it requires more time to be spent teaching pupils how to pass an exam, rather than concentrating on providing them with well-rounded knowledge. We know that children learn at different rates and excel in different areas, yet our education system fails to reflect this. Moreover, it suggests a lack of trust in the ability of our teachers. If they are regularly inspected by Ofsted to ensure their teaching practices are adequate, why can we not rely on teachers to judge their pupils’ achievements? In spite of the extensive government-approved teacher training schemes, Morgan clearly has little faith in their capabilities; consequently, is it any wonder that teaching is becoming a steadily less-desired career option?

An interesting alternative would be to look at the education system in Finland.

There, teaching is considered a prestigious career, with the only highest achievers being approved. Their students consistently receive high results, when compared with the rest of Europe, yet they are not formally examined at all until they are 17 years old. Whilst at primary school, a child’s development is recorded by their teachers without being given a mark or grade, allowing pupils to enjoy their education without the unnecessary pressures of comparisons and targets.

Unless we want to raise a generation riddled with achievement complexes, we need to find a system which allows us to have more confidence in teachers’ abilities to provide the best possible education for every child; one that will allow them to be considered as individuals with different talents, but also recognises the importance of a carefree childhood.

f I was the fire to be lit to tell the truth, it was the people who protected the fire from the wind”. These are the words of Shaker Aamer, an innocent man, and the last of the 16 British nationals to be released from Guantanamo Bay, the notorious North American black site, where he was held captive for 14 years without a trial. During this time, Aamer was subjected to torture and solitary confinement. He has a wife and children; his youngest, Saris, is only fourteen years old, meaning that his father has been detained for his entire life and has only just met him. He has not only lost these precious years, but has suffered a deterioration of his physical and mental health. Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer involved in the case, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “He suffers from a number of conditions, both physical and psychological, including post-traumatic stress disorder on the severe end of the spectrum”.

Given the abuse he has been systematically subjected to, this is hardly surprising.

The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, has said the UK had nothing to do with the incident, but questions need to be asked about whether or not this is the case. It’s difficult to know where to begin when it comes to the symbiotic relationship between the British government and cases such as Aamer’s. You could start with The US and Britains’ ‘war on terror’, during which British Special Forces had a policy of handing over captives to the US Marines. There was even a telegram sent to British embassies saying there would be “no objection to Americans plans to transfer UK detainees from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay”. The detainees were then subjected to extraordinary rendition, and taken to US black sites in Bagram, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Poland and Diego Garcia.

Diego Garcia is where Hammond’s claims can least bear scrutiny. It’s a small island in the Indian Ocean; a colonial outpost which is technically owned by Britain, but leased to the US as a landing strip for their fighter jets. In 2003, the Washington Post discovered America had been using it as a refuelling point for

Photo: Wikimedia, Naval Petty Offcer 1st Class Michael Billings rendition flights on their way to Guantanamo.

However, the then Foreign Office minister Baroness Amos denied allegations that the island had been used for this purpose, stating that “the United States government would need our permission to bring any suspects to Diego Garcia. It has not done so”.

In 2008, David Miliband publically retracted Amos’s statement, because the US had made a “mistake” and forgotten to tell the British government about the rendition landings. Does this not count as compliance with the Guantanamo programme? After all, that is where the flights were headed. Worse still, in 2004, Barry McCaffrey, a retired fourstar American general, made this statement: “We’re probably holding around 3,000 people, you know, in Bagram airfield, Diego Garcia, Guantanamo, 16 camps throughout Afghanistan”. If this is the case, then it

suggests there was or is a black site detention centre on British soil.

It’s worth noting that Binyam Mohammed, another British national who was detained and tortured at Guantanamo, took his case to the high court, where the jury described Britain’s involvement in his rendition and detention as being “far beyond that of a bystander”. It has been suggested that Aamer may have been forced to sign an official act of silence in order to gain his freedom. Whether or not this is the case, clearly, further investigation needs to be carried out. Aamer, it seems, was not held at Diego Garcia; he was tortured at Bagram airfield, and then sent to Guantanamo. If you want to be pedantic about it, then it could be argued that Shaker wasn’t actually imprisoned on British sovereign territory. Nonetheless, I’m sure you’ll agree that this hardly counts as a victory for our modern ‘liberal democracy’.

It is important to remember what the Snooper’s Charter is intended for Ollie Watts

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he Home Secretary, Theresa May, has recently outlined the aims of a draft version of the Investigatory Powers Bill, also known as the Snooper’s Charter, which is presently being scrutinised in parliament.

The bill is an attempt to introduce the first comprehensive British surveillance law of the digital era; the legislation is intended to overhaul existing laws of a similar nature, which control how the state, police and spies gather private communications data to help deal with crime, terrorism and other threats to national security.

May has claimed the legislation is being brought in to ensure surveillance laws are “modern, fit for purpose and can respond to emerging threats as technology advances”.

The proposals have been announced just months after leading security chiefs and privacy campaigners publically declared that the existing rules are obsolete; compounding this opinion, an independent watchdog has previously called for a “complete rethink” of the UK’s current laws concerning communications powers.

Among the new powers being recommended in the bill is the requirement for organisations to retain a year’s worth of people’s communication data, including

information on what services, websites and data sources people use when they are online. This may sound invasive; however, it is important to remember that the firms will not store the details details of what you did within each service, unless a warrant is obtained to allow for this. The bill would also cover various other powers, including the ability to intercept and read communications, although only when such action has been authorised by the Home Secretary. In addition, ‘interference’ with computers, such as hacking to obtain information, would be permitted in certain circumstances, and communications companies would be legally obliged to assist in officially sanctioned hacking operations.

Finally, the collection of considerable amounts of data would be allowed in order for it to be examined in the search for leads or patterns of criminality.

At face value, the draft legislation can come across as “worse than scary”, as it was described by Joseph Cannataci, the UN’s special rapporteur on privacy. However, there are proposed safeguards to prevent any abuse of these potential new powers. Government ministers have suggested the creative of a new Investigatory Powers Commission (IPC), headed by senior judges; this would act as

a ‘double lock’ on interception warrants, meaning that when a minister signs off a request to monitor communications, such procedures cannot commence until they have been certified by commissioners. The IPC would be required to act as a public body, and to explain how their powers are being used.

The implementation of such a commission would lead to an unprecedented level of communications oversight, unparalled by any other country in the world.

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bviously, the bill would bring with it an invasion of privacy and the secret observation of the public. Moreover, you would have no idea if the state is monitoring you specifically. Nonetheless, of the data that communications firms would be obliged to store, it is likely that none of it would ever actually be analysed. The powers in this bill are there to help track potential criminal and terrorist activity, and not for MI5 to have a chuckle at the soppy messages you send to your significant other. In an age where the majority of our day-to-day communications occur online, it is only right for existing laws to be updated to reflect such societal change.

If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be worried about.

17th November 2015

17

Comment

Whatever the party line, it is highly unlikely we will see any reform to the House of Lords Thomas Gymer

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he Conservative government was recently defeated in its attempts to cut tax credits. Owing to the nature of the cuts, many people were pleased about this news. Nonetheless, it has caused a significant amount of controversy, given that the proposed cuts were passed by the House of Commons but were then defeated in the House of Lords.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Chancellor, George Osborne, were among those to cry foul over this, claiming the Lords had broken a century of convention where financial matters would be controlled by the elected House of Commons. To some, the idea of unelected and unaccountable peers voting on how our money is spent and preventing the democratically elected government from carrying out its plans is rather worrying.

Is this not in danger of undermining our democracy?

Let’s consider the facts. The first convention (or rule of parliament) which critics claim the Lords has broken is that the upper chamber does not influence bills that only relate to how money is spent – these are known as a money bill. However, the tax credits bill did not count as a money bill, as the Conservatives used a statutory instrument instead of a normal bill.

These instruments are intended to be used for minor changes to existing legislation, and do not need to be as heavily scrutinised as an ordinary bill. Presumably the Tories hoped this would ensure the cuts made it through the House of Commons, which they did.

Nevertheless, as a statutory instrument, the Speaker could not label the cuts as a money bill, so the Lords were perfectly within their rights to vote it down. John Bercow described it as “procedurally correct”; clearly, the convention has not been broken.

A second convention which some critics have claimed was broken is that of the Lords

Photo: Flickr, UK Parliament not voting against policies the government included in its manifesto. It has been argued

“All parties find the Lords useful, particularly when in opposition” that plans to reform welfare were referenced in the Conservative manifesto, meaning that the Lords should not have voted against the tax credits cuts, but this is not the case.

The cuts were not specifically mentioned in the manifesto and, prior to the general election, Cameron himself said that he was not planning to cut tax credits. Consequently, that convention has also been upheld. To put it simply, the House of Lords had every right to vote against the tax credit cuts, something any competent politician should be aware of.

There is another element to this story.

Cameron and Osborne’s reactions have convinced many people that now is the time for a reform of the House of Lords. Although

University talks should embrace controversy, rather than censuring it Phoebe Arslanagic-Wakefield

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n February 2013, the deputy ambassador of Israel was invited to the University of Essex to give a political science talk; anti-Israel protestors attempted to storm the venue, and the talk was cancelled for security reasons. Then, in November 2014, a society at the University of Oxford organised a debate entitled ‘This house believes Britain’s abortion culture hurts all’, intended not as a demonstration of pro-life views but as a discussion, with both opposing and supporting speakers. However, student groups put pressure on the university to call off the debate, claiming it was wrong for there to be male participants, as only people “with uteruses” should be able to discuss abortion.

Finally, October 2015 saw several thousand

people sign a petition to block the feminist writer Germaine Greer from speaking at Cardiff University, because of her comments about how transgender women are “not women”. Once again, the talk – which was not on the subject of transgender people – has been cancelled. In a comparable situation, the freelance journalist and political activist Julie Bindel was recently banned from the University of Manchester for expressing sentiments similar to those put forward by Greer in an article she wrote for the Guardian 11 years ago. Regardless of the specific facts of each individual case (and I have only mentioned a selection of incidents) they all share a common thread: freedom of expression at university ends up bleeding on the altar.

all parties have put forward plans for such a reform, to make the House of Lord at least partially elected, the last time there was an attempt to pass this bill, it was defeated by the Conservatives. Now that the Tories themselves have been disadvantaged by the current system, some people believe that reform will finally come.

In reality, however, this is highly unlikely, and there are three main reasons for this.

Firstly, the public does not really care about the issue; it isn’t a vote winner, and there are better ways for parliamentary time to be spent, especially given that any proposed bill will almost certainly be defeated anyway.

Secondly, whatever the party line might be, all parties find the Lords useful, particularly when in opposition. If the government has a strong majority, as it did under Blair, often the only way they can be defeated is through the Lords. For example, the Liberal Democrats are no doubt finding the Lords invaluable at the moment, as they have 112 Lords, compared to only eight MPs; therefore, their only chance to achieve anything at the moment is through

the Lords, as they did in defeating the tax credits, which brings me to my final reason: there won’t be a reform of the House of Lords because it already does a lot of good.

I did not come to university to surround myself with people who think exactly as I do. I came to learn, to be challenged, to be offended. I believe this is where my opinion differs from the people who have protested the above events. Do they really want to study in an environment lobotomised of disagreement and castrated of debate?

Their argument is that university should be a safe place, that controversial debates, such as Oxford’s discussion on abortion, pose a threat to vulnerable students. However, I argue that the censorship this creates represents the very opposite of a safe place. Is it possible to feel safe in a place where only one opinion can be expressed, and others are censored via mass protest? What should you do if your opinion is not in the majority?

It seems that the proper conduct is to cower quietly in a corner and hope that no one asks you what you think; perhaps this is what the people who signed the petition against Greer’s lecture believe she should have done, rather than speaking her mind. Greer herself described her comments as “an opinion... not a prohibition”. It is likely that many of the

students of Cardiff who were to attend the talk would have disagreed, as I do, with Greer’s comments about transgender women, but that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t have been an interesting and relevant talk all the same.

I think that we, as students, are tougher than the protestors think. To draw upon my own experiences: as a vegan, my personal life is full of people who disagree with me, but I don’t protest if my boyfriend eats meat in front of me and I am not offended by the sight of the bacon rolls in Unio as I queue to buy a slice of vegan cake, even though I believe their consumption is immoral. Those people who protested against the talks in Essex, Oxford and Cardiff may claim their actions are for the protection of vulnerable students and may believe themselves that this is the case, when in fact what they are doing is infantilising them. University society is not homogenous; it is diverse and that should be celebrated. As students at UEA, I believe we should welcome reasoned discussion whilst remaining resistant to those voices shouting that any opinions not a cookie-cutter facsimile of our own are offensive and malign.

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hatever the critics say, the House of Lords has proved to be incredibly useful. During Blair’s premiership, it was the Lords who sought to safeguard our rights, and, as we have seen of late, it was the Lords that was able to prevented the tax credit cuts from being passed. Part of the reason the Lords is able to do this is that it is, by nature, non-partisan; no party has a majority in the Lords, so it ensures that any bill must have cross-party support. The effect of this is to encourage less radical bills, as anything too severe simply won’t get through, and to prevent the highly partisan gridlock which nations such as the US have suffered from with an elected second chamber.

On this occasion, the House of Lords should be congratulated for protecting the most vulnerable in society, and encouraged to keep up the good work.

17th November 2015

18

Science&Environment

The dawn of a new era of gene-editing ‘miracle’ medicine?

Ellen Coquio Sci&Env writer Layla Richard’s story is remarkable and a world first. On the day before her first birthday, Layla’s parents received the devastating news that her treatments were unsuccessful and her leukaemia was terminal.

Now, just months later, Layla is not only alive, but also has no trace of leukemia in her body.

Layla’s parents refused to give up, and their determination led to her receiving an experimental treatment that had previously only been tested on mice. The treatment involved collecting white blood cells from a healthy donor and editing them. The cells were modified to recognise and kill leukemic cells, while also having their receptors removed to avoid damage to normal tissue.

Finally, the cells had a surface molecule removed, making them ‘invisible’ to the strong drugs used in leukemia treatment, avoiding destruction.

Gene therapy techniques were first raved about at the beginning of the millennium, but little information or breakthroughs followed this. Professor Adrian Thrasher of Great Ormond Street Hospital said, “There was a lot of hype that was unrealistic at the time, the technologies were very new and it’s taken 1520 years for those technologies to mature”.

He continued: “I think we’re seeing the fruits of those early studies right now, so I think this is real”.

Early work with gene therapies involved inserting new DNA into the cells of patients with missing or abnormal instructions in their genetic code. The most famous cases involved those with ‘bubble boy syndrome’, people who have no immune system due to a defect in a gene called IL2RG. A virus was used to ‘infect’ the cells with a healthy copy of the DNA; however, trials were stopped after patients developed leukaemia.

Since these early trials, more knowledge has allowed greater precision in techniques.

Zinc fingers, Talens and Crispr are three key technologies used today. They act in a similar way to a satnav, finding their way to specific sites in the DNA. These new technologies have opened up a new field of genetic engineering in which new information can be inserted, as well as existing DNA instructions being rewritten.

Bloodbrain barrier overcome for the first time Jacob Beebe Sci&Env editor The blood-brain barrier has long been a significant block against getting drugs and therapies into the brain to exact their effect.

However, for the first time, this hurdle has been overcome. Clinicians have been able to punch temporary holes in the blood-brain barrier with the aim to introduce therapies that can cross these newly formed pores. But how does it work?

The blood-brain barrier is a selective barrier that protects the brain from infection and harmful substances in circulation.

It divides the circulating blood from the

In the centre of the photo a cancer cell. The three surrounding cells are known as Killer T cells. Photo: Flickr, NICHD In Layla’s treatment, Talens were used to engineer the donor’s white blood cells to avoid damage from cancer treatment and to prevent the cells from attacking healthy tissue. A virus was then used to insert a new gene, instructing it to attack leukaemia cells.

Professor Waseem Qasim, who was involved in Layla’s therapy said, “The technology is moving very fast, the ability to

target very specific regions of the genome has suddenly become much more efficient.

“The technology itself has got enormous potential to correct other conditions where cells are engineered and given back to patients or to provide new properties to cells that allow them to be used in a way we can only imagine at the moment”.

Doctors are now hopeful that these

brain extracellular fluid and is comprised of specialised barrier cells, called endothelial cells. They are held together by tight junction connections that prevent the passage of materials to the brain and provide a selective nature to the barrier.

The new technique involves the injection of microbubbles of gas into the bloodstream and then applying focused ultrasound to the patient’s skull. This process causes the bubbles to vibrate and push through the blood-brain barrier along with the chemotherapy or treatment, allowing the therapy to localise to the correct place. The practice of using microbubbles and ultrasound has recently been in the media for its ability to control brain cells in worms. As it stands, the technique has only been tested in one patient. A Canadian

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Photo: Flickr: Patrick Denker more patients will undergo the procedure.

team at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre was able to treat 56-year-old, brain tumour patient, Bonny Hall, whose tumour required more aggressive and specific therapy.

The treatment was conducted alongside

chemotherapy to help tackle her brain tumour and, following a scan, it was suggested that the technique had worked. More detailed analysis of her tumour will follow to determine the extent of the barrier penetration.

Lead researcher, Dr. Todd Mainprize, stated: “The results are preliminary at this point because we don’t have the levels of chemotherapy – but based on the gadolinium

techniques can be used to target not only cancer, but also a range of blood or immune system diseases and inherited disorders including beta thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia.

Thrasher is predicting an “explosion” in genetic engineering over the next 10 years; it seems the dawn of gene-editing has finally arrived, 15 years after it’s original hype.

MRI scan, we were clearly able to open up the blood-brain barrier non-invasively, reversibly and, it appears, quite safely”.

But what are the implications for future treatment? Some skepticism over its practical use in treating brain tumours has arisen.

Professor Dylan Edwards, Chair of Cancer Studies, Professor of Cancer Biology and researcher from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences said: “I think it may prove useful for getting drugs into the brain for a variety of conditions, but in glioblastoma the bloodbrain barrier is leaky anyway due to the tumour vessels being leaky”. This would suggest that the applications for cancers may not be certain, but the possibility for treatments for other conditions may be hopeful.

It is important to consider this a starting point, an exciting concept that is not yet fully tested or researched. There are concerns for example with altering the blood-brain barrier, the long term implications of the treatment are not yet known and there may be concerns with patients who are immune compromised.

There is hope that this method would be able to treat a number of diseases, not just cancers, such as Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Six to ten more patients will undergo the procedure.

17th November 2015

Gender and science: glass ceiling or sticky floor?

Lauren Bird Sci&Env writer On 19th November there will be various events for Women’s Entrepreneurship Day at UEA which will include raising awareness of opportunities for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) based subjects. People working in Stem careers provide society with necessities such as water, energy, transport and healthcare equipment - so why aren’t the proportions of people of different genders working in Stem representative of society as a whole? More specifically, why does Stem continue to be so male dominated? Is it because men are more likely to progress in Stem careers because of a ‘glass ceiling’ for women? Or is it because women are less likely to choose a Stem career to start with because of a ‘sticky floor’?

A strawpoll survey of 45 UEA students conducted by Concrete to find out how perceptions of Stem subjects had influenced their decisions found that women are more likely than men to be discouraged - either directly by parents or teachers, or indirectly by the media and cultural expectations from studying Stem subjects. The reasons were mixed; there were academic and

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Science&Environment employability concerns, but very few people were discouraged specifically because of their gender. What was striking was that almost all those discouraged went on to study Stem subjects with no further discrimination.

Of course, the major flaw of the survey is that all the participants were in higher education and the majority of the small sample were Stem students: women who had already made it off the ‘sticky floor’.

According to Women in Science and Engineering (Wise), the number of girls in studying Stem subjects in school is increasing, but according to Women in Engineering (WES) the number of female A Level physics students is still less than 20%.

As of 2013, women accounted for only 5.5% of professionally registered (Chartered) engineers in employment. Further, Wise reported recently that the gender pay gap was actually increasing in some jobs. Perhaps the ‘glass ceiling’ and the ‘sticky floor’ are working together in a vicious circle, continually dissuading women from Stem.

The beginning of the solution may be to identify women who have made it through Stem’s ‘glass ceiling’ and present them as role models to young people of all genders. By promoting awareness of women who have achieved their ambitions within the sector, the subconscious association of men with science can be broken down and the ‘sticky floor’ will get less sticky.

As a new generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians enters the work place with less rigid concepts of gender roles the ‘glass ceiling’ will become irrelevant.

Maybe then, instead of looking up to female scientists and female engineers, young people will be able to stand on the shoulders of giants and view the world from the same vantage point.

What’s new in science Astronomers have identified the most distant object yet in the solar system.

Scientists have theorised a new means of producing diamonds by using acid.

Two potential ice volcanoes have been found on the surface of Pluto.

A change in sense of humour could be an early indicator for dementia.

Analysis has identified that the government’s energy policy changes since the election will likely increase CO2 emissions.

Scientists have developed implantable devices that can activate and block pain signals.

British astronaut Tim Peake is going through the ‘final phase’ of training before departing for the International Space Station next month.

An atomic-level fingerprint could increase the security of connected devices.

The sun could be responsible for Mars’s reduced atmosphere.

Australia’s Southern right whales are making a comeback following a whaling ban.

A cheap vaccine has nearly eradicated Meningitis A from Africa.

Early maternal loss has a long-term effect on chimpanzee social behaviours.

A diabetes drug reduces the risk of heart failure and may even prevent it.

Thermal imaging has found that there are warm zones in the pyramids of Giza.

Photos Top: Wikipedia: Mystyslav Chernov Bottom: Jon Mountjoy

17th November 2015

20

Travel

Photo: Esther Veas Perez de Tudela Rodriguez

Photo: Esther Veas Perez de Tudela Rodriguez

Photo: Flickr, Image Editor. Below: Flickr, Visit Finland

Lapland is more than a childhood dream

A

s winter approaches and the nights get longer, you might be wondering where to travel this Christmas break, so here is a little suggestion. Last December, I indulged a little by taking a very short getaway to Lapland. I had plans to be in Finland at the time, so when I discovered flights up north were just €50 (£35) for a return, I knew I had to finally go.

I stayed in the small village of Saariselkä, built for tourism – think of a tiny, wintery Benidorm – so most hotels and guesthouses are located there. However, on arrival it was clear that this was not your typical tourist hub, despite the abundance of families holidaying in search of Santa Claus. Every corner of the village, even the local supermarket and post office were calm and quiet, with a kind of silent , beautiful, Finnish charm to it, as Christmas music played softly.

The lack of sunlight was even more mesmerising than I had anticipated, creating an almost surreal ambience. During “daytime” (from roughly 10:00 to 14:00), beneath heavy cloud cover, the atmosphere had a bluish hue to it, reflecting off the icicles hanging from every ledge. At night, the soft glow of Christmas lights in the midst of light snowfall was truly a sight to behold. I am fairly sure that up until then I had been throwing the

Ester Veas recalls her trip to Lapland in the far, snowy north of Finland

clichéd expression ‘winter wonderland’ around without doing it any justice at all, because it’s literal description is what my time in Lapland represented.

And then, the silence. The heavy snowfall acted as an insulator, muting every noise: once away from the main hotel complexes, in the forest, the hills or cross-country ski

“At night, the soft glow of Christmas lights in the midst of a light snowfall was a sight to behold” tracks, all that one can hear is just silence, interrupted occasionally by whooshing of skis or the snow crackling beneath one’s boots.

When it was time to leave, passing through the blinding white countryside on the buswas nothing short of magical, and some wild reindeer sightings made it even more special. Finally, and surely not to be forgotten: if you’re luckier than me at all, chances are you will get, on top of all of this, a gorgeous display of the Northern Lights.

Photo: Flickr, US Geological Survey

17th November 2015

21

Travel

Travelling taught me strength Zhou Miaorou Travel writer

Photo: Flickr, Chris Eason

Durban: the tropical heart of South Africa’s hustle and bustle Nick Brown Travel writer In KwaZulu Natal, one of the smaller provinces of South Africa, Durban is the second largest city and also one of the busiest in the country. Although it may be one of the more obscure holiday locations for many a British holidaymaker or traveller, this jewel of a city on the east coast is perfect for catering for a massive variety of different interests.

To start the day, there are many eateries in and around the city, ranging from shawarma restaurants in the residential suburbs, where the majority of backpacking hostels are located, to cafes on the beach front providing amazing coffee and pastries. It is definitely worth mentioning that having your breakfast on the beachfront will provide you with an amazing view of the Indian Ocean and the beaches of the Golden Mile.

For all the adrenaline junkies amongst us,

Durban is one of the major surfing hotspots in South Africa, rivalled only by the likes of Cape Town and Jeffrey’s Bay. The crystal clear blue seas and golden sands are perfect for spending a day catching waves and then laying back and relaxing in the glistening sun and working on that tan. Along towards the end of the beach is uShaka Marine World, which is home to a large water park and one of the world’s largest aquariums, where you can see a large variety of marine species that make up a tiny part of Southern Africa’s biodiversity.

If you time your journey correctly, you may be able to catch the national football team or the Springboks in action at the Moses Mabhida stadium. This stadium, refurbished for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, has seen many international fixtures ranging from the world cup itself to smaller qualification and friendly matches in various sports. It was also instrumental in the city’s successful bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

Further into the city you will be able to find

the Indian market. Inside this older building are various stalls selling a wide selection of wares ranging from Indian and traditional spices to traditional African masks and cloths. Most of these vendors make the wares themselves and provide a source of income for themselves and their families.

Later on in the day, after watching the sunset on the beach front with palm trees providing an ambient environment for your evening meal, there is the perfect opportunity to visit the nightlife of Durban. The city plays host to many bars and clubs across the area.

A word to the wise: there are quite a few unlicensed taxis that drive around in the evenings that aren’t safe, especially if you’re alone.

Whatever your musical preference, choice of entertainment or mood on the day, there will be ample places to whet your appetite, to fall in love with the tropical heat of the city, and possibly include it in your future travel and holiday plans.

To travel to a new place is to journey beyond your wildest dreams. It is about being fully equipped with the bravery, and guts, to face what is a completely new challenge. My first experience of travelling to Britain proved to be very exciting. Initially, I was continually amazed by how everything was so new to me, so completely different to anything I had previously seen in my own country. Later on, however, I discovered that to stay, live, and study for a long period of time in a foreign culture is a totally different story. Though it may be refreshing and exciting, I would also describe this type of long-term travelling as mentally exhausting and one that involves a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.

Until this moment, I had never been able to fully realize the true value of home, but I now see the full comfort that it offers me. It is a comforting place because it understands my identity, and I belong to it. Only once I came to the United Kingdom did I have to deal with those times where people cannot understand the way you speak, the words you have actually spoken, and you have to learn how to act in situations when things become a bit awkward. In those few seconds of pausing between conversations, that scary feeling of anxiety arises again, and when you are still repeating those words and the person you are speaking to still cannot understand, you really start to feel your stomach tighten. It is an experience where you are always expecting, but in which you are constantly without reaffirmation.

However, once you have travelled for long enough, you suddenly realise that you have developed, and have taken on a new aspect of your identity. A person who was formerly not accustomed to queuing now fully embraces this habit; people like me who were once afraid to speak out in English can learn to freely express their opinions in public with less fear than they once had. Of course, to put myself in this position took, and continues to take, an incredible amount of courage. All in all, however, the benefit of travelling is that it encourages people to discover their potential as human beings, not to hold themselves back, and to not be afraid of challenging and developing themselves, even if they once believed they could not.

Photo: Flickr, Paul Townsend

17th November 2015

22

Sport

Northampton Town FC’s financial struggles deepen Nick Murphy Sport writer The situation at Northampton Town is dire. The club – who stand in third place – are facing the very real threat of administration, windingup orders and potentially liquidation. The problems stem from a loan taken out by current chairman, David Cardoza, in order to fund the building of a new East Stand at Northampton’s Sixfields stadium. The loan – a substantial £10.25m from the local borough council – has not been paid back and the stand itself has not been completed. Larger questions loom not over why the stand has not been completed, but where exactly the money has gone.

Buckingham Group, the developers contracted to carry out the work, claim to have only been paid £442,000 before work ceased on the site. A further £100,000 of the £10.25m was spent on upgrading the floodlights at Sixfields, while questions remain over the involvement of ‘1st Land Limited’: the company contracted to manage the development of the new East Stand. Since tools were downed in June of this year, 1st Land Limited has gone into administration and Northampton Town supporters have been left without an East Stand, and potentially without a football club.

When the company went into administration, it emerged that 1st Land Limited owed £7.3m to Northampton Town and a further £2m to Buckingham Group. Cardoza, meanwhile, has been forced to sell off the land he owned behind the East Stand to the council, while one of his companies has gone bust. On top of the £10.25 million owed to the borough council, the Cobblers also have an outstanding tax bill of £166,000.

What this all means is that players and staff at the Sixfields club have had to have their wages paid by the Professional Footballers Association, while a crowd-funding effort is underway by supporters in order to pay back the £166,000 owed to HMRC. The amount raised currently stands at £36,489. In short, the club is in a trouble. What is more surprising,

Lorenzo beats Rossi in final race to win MotoGP title James Chesson Sport editor Jorge Lorenzo pipped Valentino Rossi to the MotoGP title, overturning the Italian’s seven-point lead by winning the final race in Valencia.

Rossi had a huge disadvantage of his own making, despite his overall lead before the race; he was forced to start from the back of the grid, as punishment for kicking Honda’s Marc Marquez off his bike during the previous grand prix in Malaysia.

That meant Rossi had to rise to second to be certain of securing a seventh MotoGP world title (and his first since 2009).

The veteran Italian fought his way back up to fourth place, but Lorenzo’s victory after starting from pole denied him. Yamaha teammate Lorenzo ultimately beat Rossi by just five points across the whole season (330325).

Marquez had won the previous two championships consecutively, including a

Photo: Wikimedia, Matt Billings though, is that this isn’t the first time the club’s existence has been put under threat. In 1992, the club found itsself £1.6m in debt, an event that sparked the formation of the first ever supporters’ trust in the UK. The trust, created by Brian Lomax, helped to save the club and stave off the threat of administration.

It’s a period in the club’s history that becomes increasingly poignant in the current situation, Lomax sadly having passed away at the beginning of the month.

The local council, meanwhile, has made an attempt to save the club by petitioning for Northampton Town to be put into administration. While on the face of it this may seem a callous act, in reality it allows the club to find new investment and reduces the chance of HMRC putting the Cobblers into administration, and ultimately, liquidation. This would give the club a stay of execution, and with former Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas appearing interested in purchasing dominant performance last year, which saw the Spaniard win each of the first ten races, and narrowly beating his compatriot Lorenzo in his debut season in 2013. This time around, he finished a distant third on 242 points in a season in which he failed to finish six races, but still played a crucial role in determining who claimed the title. Rossi’s dangerous violence towards Marquez in Malaysia was followed up by accusing the Spaniard of deliberately trying to help Lorenzo win.

Rossi said after the race: “It is something that nobody expects, because [it is] a Honda rider that made a Yamaha rider win”.

In truth, Rossi can have few complaints: Lorenzo won seven races to Rossi’s four (Marquez even managed five).

The Italian only started from pole once, while Lorenzo did so five times and Marquez eight times, although he did subsequently crash in three of those.

This season was also a successful one for British riders. Each of the three Brits managed a podium finish, with Bradley Smith and Scott Redding doing so together in San Marino, finishing second and third respectively, while Cal Crutchlow finished third in Argentina.

Smith ended the season in an impressive sixth place in the standings. Crutchlow bounced back from a disappointing year rising from 12th in 2014 to eigth in 2015. Redding finished in 13th.

the club, not everything around Sixfields is doom and gloom.

In fact, Northampton’s form on the pitch has been the one positive aspect of the whole saga. The Cobblers are enjoying their best start to a season in a number of years and have a fantastic opportunity to challenge for an automatic promotion spot.

The situation off the pitch, however, could potentially derail the excellent work Chris Wilder and his men are doing on it. Supporters appear to be preparing for any eventuality, with one local businessman registering the name ‘AFC Northampton Town’ with Companies House in the event of liquidation.

This is a precautionary step, and it should be noted that only in rare cases do clubs still plying their trade in the Football League go out of business. Accrington Stanley were the first in 1962, while Aldershot Town were the last in 1992. Clubs lower down the league pyramid do of course go out of business all the time,

with Hereford, Scarborough, Darlington and Rushden & Diamonds all having hit the wall in recent history. These clubs all have one thing in common: either an over-ambitious and careless owner, or a grand stadium plan that destroys the club’s finances. Unusually for Northampton Town, neither of these scenarios appeared to fit the current chairman. In fact Cardoza rescued the club from financial difficulty in 2003, sustaining Town with £5.3m in loans to keep them afloat. Yet his image has become tarnished, and his part in the saga has irretrievably damaged his relationship with supporters to the point of no return.

What’s next for Northampton Town Football Club? In truth, nobody knows. The current incarnation of the club appears set for endemic financial problems for years to come in the event they can stave off liquidation. If the taxman beats the council to it, however, we could be saying goodbye to a long-standing member of the Football League’s 92.

Women in motorsport: if not now, when?

Esther Veas Sport writer On 4th November, Susie Wolff announced that she will retire from motorsport after the conclusion of the Race of Champions later this month. Last year she was the first woman in 22 years to participate in a race weekend, following her Friday practice outing at the British GP. Wolff explained the main reason for her retirement was that her Formula 1 debut was just not “going to happen”.

Once again, female presence in motorsport has taken a blow. Out of five female Grand Prix entries in F1’s 65-year history, only one woman, Lella Lombardi, has been able to score points at an event in the 1975 Spanish GP. These dreary statistics have been justified by some, including former F1 driver Sir Stirling Moss, who believes it is due to women “lacking the mental aptitude” to race at the highest level.

However, history disagrees with this statement. The clearest example is Michèle Mouton: the Frenchwoman won four World Championship rallies for Audi in the Group B era of the 1980s and finished runner-up in the 1982 World Championship, as well as setting a record time when winning the 1985 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. In 2008, Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an IndyCar race, having previously been Rookie of the year and holding the record for most consecutive race finishes.

Let’s not forget that motorsport is one of the few sporting activities where it can be assured that women and men are competing in equal conditions. Women have claimed victory at some of the sport’s toughest events, such as the Dakar rally or the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, which takes place at the Nordschleife, one of the longest and most demanding tracks.

However, despite this, only 8% of registered license holders overall are female, according to the UK’s Motorsport Association.

Additionally, the other eight F1 teams have male principals. So why is there not a larger female presence in motorsport? It might be a vicious circle: with women being vastly unrepresented there are very few women to look up to.

A Women & Motor Sport Commission was established by the Federation Internationale de l’ Automobile in 2009. Wolff herself has stated she will work towards a higher female involvement in motorsport, although she has admitted a strong female presence on the world’s most competitive starting grids will still be quite unlikely for a few years to come.

It seems the solution lies in the few women that have managed to reach their sport’s pinnacle encouraging young girls to follow in their footsteps, creating new role models for the next generations to follow. But it is also up to us, as the audience, to fight for and celebrate a higher gender equality on and off the track.

17th November 2015

23

Sport

Is Le Professeur changing the curriculum?

Isabelle Wilson Sport writer It’s probably fair to say that Arsene Wenger is a man set in his ways. He knows what he likes and he likes what he knows.

For the last nine years, Arsenal have finished third or fourth in the Premier League and have not progressed further than the semi-finals in the Champions League.

Excluding their back-to-back FA Cup wins in the last two years, we have seen quite a lot of the same old Arsenal.

Sometimes they have flirted with the top of the league, but have not consistently challenged for it.

Wenger’s adamant refusal to buy players that Arsenal seem to so desperately need has been a bone of contention with the fans.

Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez are undeniably excellent acquisitions, but why did it take so long to buy world-class players?

One of Arsenal’s main problems was their incessant inability to beat their direct rivals: Chelsea and both Manchester clubs. Between the 2010-11 and 2014-15 seasons Arsenal could only manage 26 points from a possible 90 against top four teams. Part of the problem seemed to be Wenger’s refusal to change his tactics against teams who were better than Arsenal. Wenger still threw players up the pitch and played his normal style of play by attempting to retain the ball. Against the bigger and better teams, this simply led to humiliating thrashings, such as the 8-2, 6-3 and 6-0 defeats against Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea respectively.

Score lines like that do not make a League winning team.

But perhaps Wenger is finally beginning

to see the light. When Arsenal beat Chelsea in the pre-season Community Shield they only had 43% of the possession. Similarly, in their 3-0 triumph over Manchester United this season, Arsenal had 38% of the possession. Last year when they were beaten 2-1 by United at the Emirates they saw 61% of the ball. When playing teams lower down the league, however, Arsenal dominate possession.

It is a good case for Wenger shaking things up. Arsenal are allowing teams to play around them and then countering effectively.

Players such as Hector Bellerin, Sanchez and Özil are perfect for that style of play. It is no longer a numbers game. Wenger is willing to allow teams to dominate possession and does not mind buckling down and ‘playing ugly’, something he was often accused of refusing to do.

Players such as Francis Coquelin epitomise the new style. His play on the ball is not exactly beautiful, but he gets down and dirty and does what he needs to do to break down attacks, even if that means accumulating a ludicrously high amount of yellow cards. Even a player associated with flair and pretty football like Özil is averaging 1.2 tackles a game. Laurent Koscielny comparatively averages 1.8.

A team who seriously want to compete for the league has to be willing to compromise tactically in order to get results: substance over style. It is all very well for Arsenal to consistently play ‘beautiful’ football, but it hasn’t been bringing in the results they’ve needed over the last few years. Chelsea’s title-winning team last year were willing to sit back and play out games if required.

It has certainly been a long time coming, but maybe Wenger is finally starting to

Photo: Wikimedia, Gordon Flood change his ways. It will be interesting to see whether his tactical changes have a significant impact on how the league table looks at the end of the season.

It harks back to the combination of flair and grit that the Invincibles managed to

find, but thanks to London rivals Chelsea and West Ham, there is no unbeaten season on the cards. Nonetheless, Wenger’s team is moving in the right direction, and the top of the league is certainly a nice place to be sitting.

England cricket continue tradition of collapse Richard Ewart Sport writer England collapsed on the final day of the third test in the United Arab Emirates, slumping to a 127-run defeat and losing the series against Pakistan 2-0 in the process. Having come agonisingly close to winning the first test and almost escaping defeat with a draw in the second, and before dominating the first two innings of the third, England will feel that the scoreline does not fairly represent the series.

However, one bad session in the UAE can mean losing the match as England now know; seven wickets fell in one session in the second test and five fell before lunch on the final day of the third, meaning both those games ended in defeat.

To England’s quiet delight, Pakistan’s star spin bowler, Yasir Shah, had suffered a back spasm in training the day before. After winning the toss, Pakistan batted their way to 523/8 declared, mainly thanks to Shoaib Malik’s 245. England rued missed chances as Ian Bell dropped both Mohammad Hafeez and Asad Shafiq early in their innings, both of whom went on to net big scores. Stuart Broad also had Malik caught in the gully when he was on 40, but it was a no-ball. These mistakes cost England 393 runs in total. Not wishing to be outdone by Malik, Alastair Cook, who has scored the most test runs in 2015, led the fightback with his second highest score (263) leading England to 598/9 declared.

The first four days yielded only fifteen wickets, with the three frontline spinners taking only one wicket for 467 runs between

Photo: Wikimedia, Tim Felce them in the first two innings. The game seemed to be heading for a boring draw until it exploded into life on the final day. Debutant Adil Rashid, after getting hit around the park in the first innings, took 5/64 as Pakistan collapsed to 173 all out leaving England just 99 to win in the final session. England went out all guns blazing, but bad light caused them to fall 25 runs short.

With Yasir Shah fit for the second test in Dubai, England knew their batting would face much tougher scrutiny from spin bowling.

The match was in the balance after a century from Misbah helped Pakistan to 378 with England 182/3 at stumps on day two and Joe Root well set.

However, England lost seven wickets for just 36 runs the next morning with Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah combining to bowl England out for 242. After Younis Khan compiled a composed century in Pakistan’s second innings, England had to survive a day and a half to draw the test.

With all pundits and commentators

writing the visitors off, a valiant rearguard

by Joe Root, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood offered a glimpse of hope with the innings lasting an impressive 137 overs. These hopes were dashed, however, after Rashid suffered a momentary lapse of concentration and drove a wide ball from Yasir Shah, who took four wickets in both innings, straight to cover. He had scored his series best of 61 and batted longer than any English batsman, but it didn’t prevent Pakistan winning by 178 runs with 39 balls of the test remaining.

England started the final test well with the seam bowlers leading the way, as they did in the whole series. James Anderson and Stuart Broad took 6/30 from 28.1 overs combined, as Pakistan were bowled out for 234. James Taylor, having been recalled in favour of Jos Buttler, made 76 on his test return helping England to a lead of 72 after the first innings. Trailing the game, the hosts started their second innings well, as the openers Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali erased the deficit without losing a wicket. Hafeez went on to make a superb 151 as England were set 284 to win, well beyond their highest ever test run chase in Asia.

Reaching 46/2 at stumps on the fourth day, England’s hopes rested on Cook and Root, their two best batsmen, but after Root fell early the next morning, England collapsed.

Five wickets were lost in the first session and ,despite a defiant 63 from Cook, England were bowled out for 156. Having competed with Pakistan and dominated at times, England were left to rue losing the key moments during the series, with Cook himself saying “when the pressure came on, we weren’t good enough to deal with it”.

Sport 17th November 2015 Issue 317

England cricket slump to defeat >P23

Northampton Town face liquidation >P22

Priced out of sport: the cost of participation at UEA

>> Union involved in blame game as they accuse university of high sports cost EXCLUSIVE Tom Gordon and Dan Falvey Sports editor and Editor-in-Chief The Union of UEA Students (UUEAS) has released a report condemning the cost of participating in sports societies at UEA. The report highlights, that the cost of Sports Association Membership (Sam), which is set by the union itself, is largely responsible for the high cost. However, UUEAS has blamed the financial barrier on poor funding from the university.

UEA prides itself on offering a plethora of sports, ranging from archery and lacrosse to kayaking and kitesurfing. However, the report has found that, compared to a list of ten competitor universities, (Aston, Bath, Bucks, Cardiff, Essex, Kent, Sheffield, Southampton, Sussex and York) UEA is the most expensive institution at which to join a sports club.

The report concludes that a large portion of the participation costs comes from the £45 students have to pay to purchase Sam. Comparatively, the cost of the equivalent insurance is, respectively, £20 and £15 a year at York and Cardiff universities. The University of Bath, where £30 covers membership fees, insurance and equipment, also implements a well-thought out tiered payment process.

The document also states that, at some other universities, if a student takes part in a British Universities and Colleges Sport (Bucs) competition they pay a further £50 to cover entry, travel, insurance and officials.

This means that the more “casual” sports participants, for whom it is more of a hobby,

Photo: Flickr, Mylor are not paying the same of fees as the most dedicated participants. At UEA, no such twotier system exists.

The report reveals some damning facts about the cost of sports participation at UEA. The total cost of joining the football club has

been found to be £90, and must be paid at the start of the academic year at the same time that other recreational costs.

While the cost of Sam is determined by UUEAS, the union has refused to accept responsibility for the expensive costs of participating in sport at UEA. The union’s Activities and Opportunities Officer, Yinbo Yu, argued: “This study highlights the devastating impact that poor student union funding from the university has on sport. The danger is that we are pricing the best athletes out of taking part in sport, which will hit their educational experience and UEA’s sporting success hard. We’re calling on UEA to enter into serious conversations with us about funding so we can get the prices down and participation up”.

UUEAS are presently campaigning for the university to increase their block grant, which is the lowest in the country, and have argued that UEA students are missing out as a result.

Funding for sports clubs is an on-going argument between the university and UUEAS. Only 12 months ago the Director of the Sportspark, Phil Steele, gave a presentation to the Sports Partnership Group (SPG), which comprises of representatives from UEA, the Sportspark and UUEAS, suggesting that sports clubs no longer be the responsibility of union. Instead he argued that these clubs should be run by either UEA Sport or an ‘Athletics Union’.

At the time, Steele argued that these plans would mean that money and funding for clubs could be more efficiently spent and distributed.

UEA Lacrosse: the season so far for the Eagles of Norwich Ryan O’Grady UEA Lacrosse President The graduation of a number of senior players last year meant that it was imperative for the club to recruit as many new members as possible this year to continue the progression seen by both teams over the previous campaign. The start of the year has been a very successful one at UEA Lacrosse.

The teams have found themselves full of new players, who have picked up the sport quicker than ever envisioned, and who have immersed themselves fully as great additions, both on and off the pitch.

On the field, the men’s team has made a strong start to the season under the leadership of Greg Reynolds, going unbeaten in their first three Bucs fixtures ahead of a crucial away fixture against Leicester next week. A 16-4 opening day win at home against Lincoln has been supplemented since, with wins against Oxford Brookes (Away, 11-3) and Derby (Home, 14-4).

Paul Anderson has been a star turn in midfield, his mazy runs causing problems for all defences encountered thus far, proving a great compliment to current leading goal scorer, veteran Mikey Bolton. The new faces on the team have formed a large portion of the match day squads (12 of the 23 who faced

Photo: Megan Gray

Oxford Brookes were freshers) so the results are a testament to their development as players, and their commitment to the team.

The ladies team, led by Emi Collin, has also seen a lot of progression over the opening weeks of the season. An incredibly close 10-9 away loss to Warwick preceded a very high scoring affair against Leicester (Home, 15-26), and a valiant performance against an excellent Birmingham outfit.

Last week saw a home double header for both teams, where the team pulled off a fantastic performance to claim their first win of the season against Nottingham Trent.

Club secretary Charlotte Miller has been a revelation in her new role as centre, and a special mention goes to Tegan Raye, who scored the first fresher goal of the season against Trent. Credit also goes to Georgie Sutton, whose inspired performances in goal have been a catalyst for the improving results observed.

To aid in the progression of those new to the sport, both teams are entering a development tournament next weekend.

This exciting day out was loved by those in attendance last year, which should hopefully yield some even stronger performances going forward. The next home games are on the 25th November for the men’s at 14:00 against Staffordshire, and the 2nd December for the ladies at 14:30 against Warwick.