Concrete 323

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Being a muslim student in Britain >P13

8th March 2016 Issue 323

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UEA set to cut funding to Graduate Students’ Association as union takes on postgrad role >> University’s intervention on future of postgraduate provision ends over a year of uncertainty Megan Baynes News reporter The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) is likely to lose its funding from the university, as its functions are taken over by the Union of UEA Students (UUEAS) and it finds itself without a functioning committee. There has been tension between the GSA and the union in recent years, and in February of last year the GSA announced it was withdrawing from discussions about holding a referendum regarding a possible merger of the two organisations. The GSA had previously said that, unless its demands were met, it would urge postgraduates to reject the proposed merger.

In an email sent to postgraduate students on 3rd March, Brian Summers, the university’s Registrar and Secretary, announced that University Council would be asked to look at transferring funding from the GSA to UUEAS. Summers wrote: “The executive team of the university has decided to ask the university’s Council to consider winding up the GSA and transferring its grant to the students’ union, but that that funding should be ring-fenced to support postgraduate students in the way that it has done in the past, ie conferences, social events and so on.

“We would also ask the union to suggest how the postgraduate community can best determine how that money should be spent

University loses millions of pounds on failed Generation Park project in city Jessica Frank-Keyes News editor UEA has invested £2.25m into a planned biomass power station on the outskirts of Norwich. The company behind the venture, Norwich Powerhouse LLP, last week filed for

Scholars Bar in the revamped Union House Photo: Jessica Frank-Keyes for Concrete in the future”. Summers called UUEAS the “dominant organisation”, and wrote that, “the GSA has always had a modest budget in comparison… which has largely been expended on supporting individual students attending conferences, facilitating social

events for postgraduates and making small purchases for the previous postgraduate bar”. UUEAS has an annual turnover of just over £10m, compared to the GSA’s £6,000.

Over time there has been an increasing shift towards UUEAS as the primary

insolvency, with debts totaling £3m.

The site was planned to be located in Thorpe Hamlet and was set to include new housing and an education centre. Norwich Powerhouse struggled to find investment for the £370m project. Energy Company Eon also invested £1.4m in the project, which was set to include a straw pellet burning plant.

The plans faced protests when announced last year, with critics of the venture claiming that: “construction on contaminated land could pollute water sources for a nearby Britvic drinks factory, leading to job losses”.

Local residents also voiced worries about reduced air quality.

Generation Park’s developers said in a statement released last week that they “regret to announce that the company has faced difficulties securing investment for Generation Park Norwich”. They pinpointed the lack of interest in the venture on “current uncertainty over national support for green energy” and stated that this had made

Generation Park Norwich “less attractive to private investors”. The company’s board are currently working with an “insolvency practitioner to work out the best arrangement for creditors”. They insist that the project remains “an excellent vision for the city that would make Norwich an exemplar of green, renewable energy”.

A spokesperson for UEA stated that: “the university is disappointed that the

£2.5

m

The amount of money that UEA invested in Generation Park

Generation Park Norwich project has been facing funding challenges”. The university “hopes that Norwich Powerhouse will reach an acceptable arrangement with creditors, and that ongoing discussions with potential investors are productive”. The university went on to state that “UEA’s financial investment ended more than two years ago after

provider of postgraduate support and representationon on campus. It now run Scholars Bar after the GSA was not equipped to deal with purchasing, staffing and the regulation associated with licensed premises.

Following a refendum, in 2014 the union created the post of Postgraduate Education Officer, meaning that the representation role of the GSA became increasingly defunct.

UUEAS now has a postgraduate assembly and facilitates a programme of postgraduate social activities.

The decision to close the GSA follows ongoing uncertainty over the future of postgraduates with the union. Last year the GSA committee claimed that its views were not being listened to, and that no details about what would happen after a possible merger had yet been agreed. UUEAS has rejected these assertions.

However, no referendum on a merger has taken place. The postgraduate assembly, which had to authorise a referendum, was not attended by enough students to hold a vote.

With the GSA and UUEAS seemingly unable to come to a decision on the future of postgraduate representation, the university stepped in to impose a solution. Summers concluded: “the executive team is very clear that postgraduates at the university should enjoy appropriate support and good facilities.

It is our view that this can now be best delivered through the union and this decision regarding the GSA is, pragmatically, the best way forward”. fostering the early stages of development”.

UEA are one of Generation Park’s three founding partners and have confirmed that they remain “supportive” and are “keen to make our own fair contribution to creditors or to any refinancing plan”.

Commenting on the issues SU Campaigns and Democracy Officer Chris Jarvis said “It’s incredibly important that UEA continues to be an innovator and pioneer on climate change, but the headline £3.25m loss on this project is a real kick in the teeth for students being told they have to pay ever higher rents to fund campus refurbishment.

“Given this comes hot on the heels of losses incurred on the Biomass plant and the closure of UEA London, it’s absolutely essential that the University’s council- which is ultimately responsible for UEA’s financeslearns from these mistakes, opens up its decisions to greater scrutiny and is careful to make sensible investments that retain its climate credentials”.

8th March 2016

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Editorial COMMENTcartoon

Dougie Dodds The University of East Anglia’s independent student newspaper since 1992 Tuesday 8th March 2016 Issue 323

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News 8th March 2016

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One in three 18-24 year olds “scared” to check bank balance – Sutton Trust >> Page 4

UK universities accrue £1.8bn surplus after first year of £9,000 tuition fees Lucinda Swain News reporter Great Britain’s universities are revelling in a surplus worth almost £1.8 billion it has been anounced. It has also been revealed that the surpluses made by universities in England largely outweigh those from other UK regions.

For instance, the University of Oxford alone brings in more than Scotland’s entire higher education sector.

However, a representative from Universities UK said: “UK universities do not make a profit. Any income they receive is spent on day-to-day activities, or reinvested for the future”.

They continued on to further explain that: “A surplus is essential for universities to manage short-term fluctuations in income, for unanticipated changes to student numbers or unexpected costs. It is also needed for reinvestment in future capacity, including investment in new teaching spaces and

research facilities, and refurbishment of existing buildings”.

Conversely, the Open University has suffered another multimillion-pound loss, as numbers in part-time study continues to drop.

The Open University’s latest published statistics indicate that it ran up a “£7.2 million deficit in 2014-15, on the back of a £16.9 million shortfall the year before”. Further, the total number of students signed up for Open University courses falling by 13,449 (7.2 per cent) year-on-year, to 173,889. From a high of 260,119 learners in 2009-10, the Open University has now shed a third of its enrolment in the space of six years.

Tuition fees are not the only financial problem facing those currently studying at university. Student accommodation costs are going through the roof. The widely reported UCL rent strike gained publicity for this rapidly growing predicament in the UK. The problems with the rising cost of student rents in the UK were highlighted in January when

more than 150 UCL students refused to pay rent for their halls. They then demanded that their university reduce accommodation fees by 40 per cent. The student protesters showed their opposition to the inflated fees, which had risen by 56 per cent since 2009. According to the National Association of Student Money Advisers (NASMA): “the root of the problem lies in higher education’s having become “more corporate” and universities more competitive. This trend has led to halls that were once owned by universities being let out to external companies”.

There has been great concern that these new higher tuition fees and rent prices have prevented and discouraged people in poorer communities from enrolling in higher education. With stress due to financial struggles being linked to rising mental health problems.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina discovered that students “with large amounts of debt were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and stress”.

Union council round-up Sharing platform not in breach of policy Council was moved to an indicative vote on whether they would allow members of the student officer committee to appear on the same platform as individuals from organisations which the union had has chosen to distance itself from. This followed a debate in the chamber following a councillor raising concerns that they had over Chris Jarvis appearing on the same panel as a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party. The indicative vote, clarified that officers sharing a platform was not in breach of policy, as it was not an endorsement of the SWP.

Product gendering to be prevented On Thursday’s meeting of council, Councillor Amira Izeboudjene (Womanist society) brought forward a motion which called on the union to ensure that all products sold in the shop were gender neutral if possible. Izeboudjene highlighted how that according to a study conducted by the Times products which are marketed at women are on average 37% more expensive than the male counterpart. The motion seeks for the union to explore the options for replacing gendered products with gender neutral alternatives in all union outlets.

Caucuses and assemblies given name-change

Photo: Flickr, Harry Harris

#Right2Debate campaign encourages student unions to challenge controversial speakers Alice Spencer News reporter A student-led free speech campaign supported by counter-extremism think tank Quilliam has been launched amid what has been termed an “epidemic” of university censorship. The #Right2Debate movement urges student unions and the NUS to allow students to “challenge and moderate” controversial speakers rather than banning them, condemning the regression of many student bodies into “censorship and noplatforming”.

It comes just a few months after the release of the Free Speech University Rankings (FSUR) revealed there to be an “epidemic” when it comes to banning speakers that some students may find offensive. In November 2014, Union of UEA Students attracted criticism after cancelling an event due to feature UKIP Norwich South candidate Steve Emmens, following a petition signed by more than 1,150 people urging the university to

stop the potential spread of his party’s divisive views on campus. UEA has since ranked ‘red’ on the FSUR’s 2016 free speech survey and according to spiked.com have: “banned and actively censored ideas on campus”.

As well as safeguarding free speech, the student-led campaign aims to transfer power back into the hands of the student body and allow them to make their own decisions.

Coordinator of the FSUR rankings, Tom Slater, argued that student unions see students as “too vulnerable – or too easily led – to listen to difficult ideas”. #Right2Debate outlines its vision on its website to allow students to challenge and contest controversial views that do not break the law.

The campaign has raised concerns about a possible compromise of the ‘safe space’ of a university campus against offensive and hate-inciting views. Quilliam’s university outreach officer, Haydar Zaki, responded: “We cannot rely on censorship to counter intolerant views that do not break the law, but undermine the human rights of others”. The #Right2Debate movement, he argues, will

protect free speech while “undermining the indoctrination that is based on divisive and intolerant narratives”.

However, UUEAS’ Welfare, Community and Diversity officer, Jo Swo, has previously argued that there is a need to carefully balance freedom of speech with the protection of individual liberties. Speaking to Concrete folowing the release of the Spiked free speech rankings, Swo said: “As university student bodies expand, you’ve got to realise that you can’t use the same language that was acceptable in the 60s and the 80s. We’ve evolved to the point where we recognise that as abusive and we have to prioritise protecting our students.”

She went on to argue that boycotting publications such as the Sun and the Daily Star from campus was justified due to their editorial political views: “The Sun and the Daily Mail are xenophobic, trans-phobic, homophobic and damaging, and they aren’t even written freely. They’re bought by the right. I think students just didn’t want that xenophobic shit on campus”.

Campaigns and Democracy officer, Chris Jarvis, proposed a motion which would amend the union bylaws so that minority caucuses and a s s e m b l i e s can change the language used to describe the groups of students which they represent and how they wish to define themselves. Jarvis highlighted that the original motion which officially granted caucuses and assemblies autonomy to hold their relevant officers to account was rigidly written, which ignored the fluidity of language and that this policy would prevent a series of bylaw amendments in the future, which would only waste the time of union council and caucasus.

Reclaim the night becomes annual event Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer, Jo Swo, explained to council how successful the campaign, Reclaim the Night had been, and that this had made her feel that it should be supported by policy which would ensure it was run every year. Part of the motion, seconded by Asia Patel aims to work with nighttime venues in the city so that students know that clubs are taking positive steps to ensuring their safety and guaranteeing a good night out.

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8th March 2016

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News

News

One in three young people “scared” to check bank balance

Top job market continues to be dominated by privately educated Poppy Visser News reporter New research conducted by the Sutton Trust educational charity officially confirms that the leading professions are dominated by the privately educated. The revelation has been condemned by the social mobility commision who have argued that the underpriviledged are “too often shut out from Britain’s top jobs”.

Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust, stated: “Our research shows that your chances of reaching the top in so many areas of British life are very much greater if you went to an independent school”.

7% of the population attended private school, and yet the survey has revealed that the percentage of those in top professions are disproportionatly privately educated; 74% of top judges working in the high court were privately educated. In journalism, 51% of prominent print journalists attended independent schools.

Published this month, the report points out that leading law firms have adopted a number of social-mobility programmes and the Solicitors Regulation Authority now collects data on solicitors’ educational backgrounds.

The report also details the educational backgrounds of leading figures in varied aspects of public life, film and music being two primary areas of consideration. It confirms, for example, that award-winning British actors are more than twice as likely to hail

>> A third of 18- to 24-year-olds lose track of spending and struggling to budget >> 46% admitted losing sleep over money Sam McKinty News reporter Nearly a third of young people are too scared to check their bank balances, according to a survey conducted by Intelligent Environments, a developer of online banking software.

The findings have been revealed that money problems are having a serious psychological effect on students, 46% of 18-to-24-year-olds reported a loss of sleep as a result of their financial situation, with more than a third anticipating going into debt at some point during the academic year.

Shelly Asquith, vice president for welfare at the National Union of Students (NUS), said the findings reflected similar research conducted by the NUS, which revealed that half of students struggle to cover basic living costs.

Asquith said: “with rents on the rise and grants being cut back, we are facing a national crisis of student poverty. This is not just having an impact on students’ wellbeing, but on who can and cannot access education. At the NUS, we are making the case for more generous financial support and calling for action on the

COMMENT Joel Woolfenden asks whether the onus is on students to be financially responsible

I

n my experience, the amount of financial support -either in the form of a maintenance grant or a maintenance loan- provided for students is more often than not, sufficient. Those I know struggle with money generally face problems because they under-budget for necessities such as food, rent or unforeseen course costs and waste money on unnecessary spending or on going out and leisure expenses.

These are, simply, expenditures that the tax payer should have no responsibility to subsidise or contribute to, as it will have no direct benefit to society. Tuition fee loans are intended to allow young people to study towards careers in areas such as medicine, law and education: jobs that truly provide far more benefit to the UK than the £9,000 a year price-tag.

To suggest that students need more support suggests that they are not adult enough to deal with money; a lesson we all need to learn before we start dealing with

living costs students face every day”.

These findings come in the wake of financial support for students being cut back by the government, including the scrapping of maintenance grants and the Education Maintainance Allowance.

Lloyd Peet, a second year politics student, related strongly to the findings. He said “I am genuinely quite scared to check my account balance more often than not. The combination of paying rent and the high cost of living that we’re currently experiencing makes living frugally quite difficult. You end up spending much more than you budget for, particularly when on campus because it’s so expensive to buy anything. I think more needs to be done to make things cheaper on campus, it should be place where students don’t have to spend most of their loan to get a sandwich”.

The researchers who conducted the survey spoke to 2000 people on the phone, finding that 31% of young people admitted struggling to budget properly and often lose track of their spending. The research also found that new payments technologies, such as contactless debit cards and apps such as ApplePay also facilitate more and easier spending because of the speed with which cashless payments can be made. mortgages and far higher levels of both incoming, and outgoing, finances. While I can’t claim to have experienced the true realities of adulthood, I can only imagine stress with money for the majority of adults exceeds that of students. To shield us now would make that step up even harder.

Admittedly the costs of living are rising but there are ways to cope with this. Many students work alongside their degrees, either during term time or in the summer and other holidays. Budgeting, while frustrating, is also certainly an essential skill to learn. University is not merely about an academic education: it provides a chance for young people to take steps out into independent living, while still being in the relatively supportive environment of a university. We at UEA are lucky enough to have a university and union that provide students with support, both via the Dean of Students Office, the union’s advice service and for those in real need, bursaries and hardship funds.

The grant and tuition system is, in my opinion, an ideal system. I don’t believe for a second that tax-payers money should be going towards other people’s education, an education that is statistically proven to improve income over a person’s life-span.

Those that come from poorer backgrounds are, quite rightly, given considerably more than wealthier peers. If someone is that concerned about their balance, they probably just need to check it more.

Photo: Jessica Frank-Keyes, Concrete Photography

Cameron backs plans for new higher education legislation Kate Romain News reporter The Prime Minister is said to be in support of the need to introduce new higher education legislation. A consultation paper was released by the UK government on 6th November that could result in a reformed higher education system, with changes proposed to tuition fees, administration, and quality assurance.

It proposes a system by which universities are ranked based on quality of teaching, retention rates, number of employed graduates and student satisfaction. Tuition fees may then rise or decrease accordingly.

This would mark the end of the £9,000 tuition fee cap for UK students that has been in place since 2012.

Universities minister Jo Johnson said in a statement “while there is a lot of excellence [in British higher education] there is also, as the sector acknowledges, patchiness and variability in and between institutions”. He also stated that “our ambition is to drive up the quality of teaching in our universities to ensure students and tax payers get value for money and employees get graduates with the skills they need”.

The paper calls for the replacement of at least two existing regulatory agencies – the HEFCE and the OFFA – by a newly created organisation, the Office for Students which would assume the role of quality assurance across the system. This new organisation would see qualified providers of validated degrees become approved universities two to three years earlier than is the case now.

While some goals of the paper will include helping institutions improve their teaching and help employers identify and recruit graduates, there has been concern among students regarding the relationship between teaching quality and fees. Megan Dunn, President of the National Union of Students has stated that: “the teaching excellence framework should not be linked to an increase in tuition fees. Students should not be treated like consumers”.

Nick Hillman, the Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute and former

6th Nov

The date the consultation paper on higher education reform is due for release.

special adviser to Lord Willets when he was Universities and Science Minister, has commented on David Cameron’s announcement, stating that: “the prime minister wading into the social mobility debate and using the words ‘we will legislate’ did, I think, make a higher education bill more likely”.

“All my indications are that Sajid Javid [the business secretary] does see it as the number one legislative ask from BIS [the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills], which will mean it is taken more seriously in the Cabinet Office and elsewhere”.

He went on to add that he expected the bill to be passed over the next year saying he would be “surprised if there wasn’t a higher education bill in the next Queen’s Speech” in May.

UEA

ESSEX

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0 #DERBYDAY16

UEASTUDENT.COM/DERBYDAY

from a private education than award-winning singers, while 42% of British Bafta winners attended independent school, 19% of British winners at the Brit awards were educated privately.

The report highlights the fact that many British musicians such as Adele, found fame

74

%

The percentage of the UK’s top judges who were privately educated.

after attending the famous Brit school, a statefunded institution.

The latest government figures indicate that there is also an imbalance in the number of private school students who attend university compared to state educated peers.

According to the figures, released at the end of January, pupils from independent schools are more than twice as likely to attend a Russell Group university than those students who went to a state school. Furthermore, those educated in fee paying schools are five times more likely to attend Oxford for Cambridge. Only one in every 100 people with a state school education go on to study at these higher education institutions.

Alan Milburn, chair of the social mobility commission, has stated: “This report underlines how those from less privileged families are too often shut out from Britain’s top jobs. But it also shows that where firms commit to fairness, progress is possible”.

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8th March 2016

News

Home Office admits hiring students to process asylum applications Jessica Frank-Keyes News editor The Home Office has recruited gap year students and given them the task of determining who should be offered asylum in the UK. After five weeks of training students are expected to interview asylum seekers and determine their fate, causing outrage from immigration lawyers.

Following an investigation by the Observer, the Home Office has confirmed that it recruits gap year students on temporary contracts during busy times of the year to help process asylum claims. A spokesperson for the government department admitted that the practice was a longstanding one and that they were targeted at students who were not necessarily interested in having a long term career at the Home Office.

Toufique Hossain,

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News

Director of Public Law at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, has condemned the practice arguing that these decisions are potentially a matter of life and death and should be made by more experienced staffs: “Asylum decisions are very much life or death matters.

Complex areas of law are involved relating to EU charters, conventions and directives.

It is very concerning that the Home Office is bringing in students to make these decisions and that all of the decision-makers are given just five weeks’ training.”

He went on to say: “There is no legal aid for asylum seekers to be accompanied by a solicitor when they make their initial claim for international protection. So it might just be them and a student. If the case is wrongly refused, it is harder for an asylum seeker to come back from the initial negative decision when their appeal is heard.”

A Home Office spokesperson defended the move arguing: “We advertise on university websites for high-performance students. They come in on a fixedterm appointment and are given the same training as anyone else. It’s quite an effective way to manage the caseload when things get busy. We get people in when we need them and they don’t continue with the work. Anyone who comes in is given the same training. Asylum decisions are always checked by a senior member of staff.

Students are seen as quite an effective demographic; they are not looking for a long-term career with the Home Office or even a permanent contract”.

Science, maths and engineering graduates are “brightest” students Jessica Frank-Keyes News editor

Photo: Flickr, Amy. Left: Flickr, Home Office

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The NUS prepares for annual conference Stephen Cole News reporter

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A report conducted at Duke University indicates that students studying maths, science or engineering degrees are among the most intelligent members of society. Humanities students ranked in the middle of the data, while education and agriculture students came consistently at the bottom.

Dr. Jonathan Wai, a research scientist at Duke University, in North Carolina, conducted the report. He chose to investigate the question as to whether “students who choose to major in different fields have different academic aptitudes”.

To create the report, Wai looked at five different methods of judging American students academic ability, ranging from 1946 to 2014. The research revealed that the ranking of the “cognitive skills” for different degree programmes had remained noticeably consistent over the last 70 years. Wai suggested “STEM majors have consistently had the highest average academic aptitude may also reflect the fact that STEM disciplines are highly complex and require such aptitude”.

The report also indicated that US students who choose to study education – and who will go on to become teachers – have “for at least

Competitive rents Houses in all locations ranging from 2 to 9 beds

From 19th to 21st April, the NUS National Conference will take place down in Brighton on the south coast.

It is this annual event, where elected delegates from UEA, as well as those from other universities affiliated with NUS, get to have their say and set policy to represent students for the coming year. As well as this, the conference is the event where the President, Vice Presidents, the Block of 15 representatives on the National Executive Council and the members of the NUS UK Board and Democratic Procedures Committee are all democratically elected.

Numerous points on the agenda will also be discussed at the NUS National Conference.

One of these points is the fight to win greater power for students and their unions.

The NUS firmly believes that Westminster government reviews in Higher and Further Education, alongside mergers in colleges and government policy on apprenticeships pose a threat to student representation and the autonomy of students’ unions.

The NUS National conference often discusses free education and tuition fees. The NUS believes that government has designed

a policy leading to market competition amongst higher education, resulting in the cost of education transferring from the taxpayer to the individual student. NUS believes that marketisation of education is one of the greatest threats at all levels.

Further discussions will also take place about topics such as graduate employability, climate change, access to extra-curricular student activities, and the fight to stop cuts to NHS funding.

One significant change to the conference since last year has been made. To promote equality and diversity amongst student representatives, it has been made a requirement that delegations to the National Conference must include at least 50% women.

Yet the run up to the NUS National Conference has not been without controversy.

There has been severe backlash towards the first ever trans student to run for women’s officer.

Anna Lee, a maths student at Lancaster University, describes herself as a “queer trans disabled lesbian woman”. Lee has been trolled online by a noumber of people. Lee argues that: “the reaction shows how far we still need to move forward”.

Union of UEA Students (UUEAS) Campaigns and Democracy Officer, Chris Jarvis, stated that: “being a part of the National Union of Students allows us to have the voices of UEA students heard on a national scale as well as helping is to work together to create bigger changes”.

He went on to argue that indiviudal universities “can’t win the major concessions we want to see from national government without working with allies across the country”.

He described “collaborating to lobby and campaign for a better deal for students”, as a vital part of the NUS’s role: “whether it be on tuition fees or maintenance grants or on wider issues like climate change and migration”.

the last seven decades been selected from students at the lower end of the academic aptitude pool”.

The report suggested one way to tackle the issue, would be to follow the example of countries with leading education systems, for example: Finland and South Korea.

These countries recruit their teaching staff exclusively from “the top third of the academic cohort”.

Data from UK universities would seem to confirm this academic bias towards STEM subjects. According to the Telegraph Education, the hardest degree to get into at Oxford University is Economics, with an acceptance rate of only 7%. This is closely followed by Computer Science, with a 9% rate of acceptance, and Medicine, with 11%.

However, students at the London School of Economics (LSE), have rated their institution in the bottom 20 for student satisfaction, giving it 3.95 out of 5. This was published in the Complete University Guide’s 2016 League Table, indicating that despite having the fourth highest UK entry standard (UCAS score 532), LSE students are not as satisfied with their overall experience as those at UEA, who ranked the institution 4.19 out of 5 for student satisfaction.

In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework 90% of research conducted by the faculties

of science at UEA was judged to be “either world leading or internationally excellent”.

The Faculty of Medicine and Health sciences is also one of the very best in the country, with “approximately 98% of students employed in the health profession, upon graduation”.

First year medical student Rachel Flinn was unsurprised by the results of the study: “I do think science subjects require more hard work than humanities and I wouldn’t be surprised if that attracted cleverer students to apply for these courses in greater numbers”. She also pointed out that “surely, having intelligent people working as doctors can only ever be a good thing?”

However, second year History student Tom Lacy took a different view to study’s results: “You get out of any degree what you put in to it - I would definitely say I work as hard as a science or maths student, just in a different way”.

The issue of employability, however, indicates that, in the UK at least, not taking a STEM degree isn’t a direct route to unemployment. In 2013, 92.6% of all education graduates were in further study or employment.

History students also buck the trend. 85.4% of graduates in that same year had landed jobs or further studies within six months of finishing their studies, down from 90% in 2012.

Photo: Wikimedia, BillyH

COMMENT Tom Sellars argues the NUS does not represent students When hearing of the democratic legitimacy of the NUS, one can only snort in derision as such an absurd notion. The NUS is less representative of students than I am of gingerbreadmen.

However, there’s no need to be alarmed by the democratic defecit in this organisation: the NUS have no real influence or control on anything of real importance (one can only hope the limited scope of the NUS remains). The fact that turnout is extraordinarily low in NUS delegate elections is unsurprising; the

lack of transparency and non-existent awareness of NUS activities among UK students is even less surprising.

The NUS is merely an overly-politicised clique for delegates with an overinflated ego. They focus on a political agenda which is external to student life. They should be protesting minimal contact hours and poor academic support: issues that genuinely affect the everday lives of their members.

Boycotting entire countries and such other nonsensical campaigns are not the intended functions of an institution created to represent students.

Turnout is notoriously low in NUS elections, precisely because students are uninterested, and rightly so. No one cares what they say or do; it changes nothing. Let them pretend they have even a modicum of power. They border on complete irrelevance to student life. If you want change, don’t be fooled, the NUS is not the way to achieve it.

8th March 2016

8

Global

Are we really facing a “Great British brain drain”?

ELECTION COUNTDOWN

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Photo: Flickr, Garry Knight Jessica Frank-Keyes Global Reporter Whilst teaching might seem like the opposite of a glamorous profession -with the long hours of marking, difficult and disruptive students, and government cuts to education funding- increasing numbers of graduates are heading overseas to work in the international branches of elite public schools. From the Gulf States to the Far East, the number of UK teachers who opted to work abroad reached 18,000 in 2015: that’s a thousand more than those who qualified with a PGCE that year – and represents a significant problem for the British education system.

The UK is currently the world’s biggest exporter of teachers, a problem described last month by Ofsted chief, Sir Michael Wilshaw, as a “daunting challenge”. The demand for English language speakers in business, finance and the media fuels the need for teaching graduates to head abroad, but the resulting “brain drain” on the UK puts pressure on the education system, potentially leaving schools and pupils lacking staff.

Wilshaw suggested that improving financial incentives for teachers who work in the UK would encourage more to stay. Such a “golden handcuffs” policy would begin to tackle the fact that teacher’s pay in England is well below the global average. Figures from the Office for Economic Co-operation and Development indicate that teaching salaries in England fell by over 5% between 2008 and 2013, along with only four other countries worldwide.

Despite these incentives, many teachers still believe there to be greater advantages to living and moving abroad, with lower taxes, bigger pay cheques and fewer working hours among some of the cited benefits.

While the term “brain drain” may well be a loaded statement, it’s clear that the financial incentives for teaching graduates to stay in the UK just aren’t there. Are we simply not doing enough to value the vital contribution that teachers make to society?

It’s not only teachers who are finding work

elsewhere in the world is substantially more rewarding. A report by University College London found that one in ten of the UK’s skilled workers are booking one way flights abroad. 4.7 million Britons currently live and work overseas, the most popular destination being Australia, which is home to 1.2 million British immigrants. An approximate one in ten of all British, highly qualified workers are now living and earning elsewhere.

The study also highlighted the UK has gained 2.4 million migrants with low numeracy skills in exchange, indicating that this type of migration has led to a “significant increase in the supply of low-

“In the 24 hours following Jeremy Hunt’s confirmation of the new contracts, more than 300 NHS employees registered to work abroad” skilled workers”. Furthermore, migrants to Britain are six times more likely to have never worked than the average Briton and more likely to be unemployed, especially women.

The unemployment rate of female migrants is more than double that of women born in Britain.

Students are no exception to the trend; in 2015 UK higher education providers reported that the number of students studying abroad while completing their degrees had increased by 50%. The United States was the most popular country; up to 10,000 British students chose to sample the land of the free while enrolled on UK degree courses. Conversely, the UK also attracts large numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students. In the academic year ending July 2014, there were almost half a million international students studying in the UK, 310,190 from outside the European Union, and 125,300 EU nationals. Arguably, despite an apparent talent drain, Britain’s reputation is still attracting skilled workers, although,

new government policy dictating that non-EU students have to leave the country at the end of their studies could affect these figures in the future.

Medical staff are perhaps a more pressing example of the need to retain graduates, and the impact of financial decisions. The latest conflict between the government and junior doctors over changes to their contracts resulted in huge numbers of medical professionals applying to practice abroad.

Following Jeremy Hunt’s confirmation of the new contracts, more than 300 NHS employees registered to work abroad; more than a 1,000% increase on the usual 26 applications in any 24 hour period. Many doctors feel disenfranchised with those in government control of the profession, and hope to find more preferable working conditions abroad. According to Dr Philip Delbridge, junior doctor. “It’s really not worth it for the money; it’s not worth it for the hours I have to work and the sacrifices I make. The only reason I do it is because I love it so much”.

The UK’s case is far from the most extreme, however. The Ugandan government last year landed itself in court for encouraging its health workers to head overseas, specifically to Trinidad and Tobago, despite the country’s serious lack of medical professionals and a doctor: patient ratio of 1 to almost 25,000.

Uganda is not alone; a study dating from 2011 indicated that 77% of Liberian-trained doctors were employed in the US. The “drain” on UK teaching and medicinal talents doesn’t look set to dry up any time soon, with overseas educational franchises expected to continue rising; 29 such institutions existed in 2014, and that increased to 44 by the end of the following year, and NHS workers finding themselves dissatisfied with government.

Despite the constant attraction of international students to the prestige of the British university system, we are sruggling to hold on to the talented individuals who have undertaken professional training.

Increasingly, British pupils – and patients – will be the ones paying the cost, if the government are unable to plug this rapidly growing leak in our talent pool.

st March, otherwise known as Super Tuesday, saw more than a dozen US states elect delegates in the contest for the Democrat and Republican presidential nominations. Super Tuesday is a historically momentous day in presidential elections, and is seen by many to be one of the most important days for candidates in their bids.

On America’s political left, Hillary Clinton regained momentum for her campaign by winning in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, succeding in what the BBC called a “firewall” of Southern states. The senator and former first lady succeeded in winning the Democrat’s black vote in these states, despite recent PR disasters involving Black Lives Matter activists who criticised her attitudes to racism during her husband’s presidency in the 90s.

Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s only rival, won in Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and his own state of Vermont. Whilst Sanders did do quite well, the result has pushed Clinton further towards the nomination. A Democrat candidate needs to collect 2383 delegates to win their party’s nomination; Clinton now has 1,052, whereas Sanders has 427 in comparison.

It seems then, that a victory for Clinton is quite assured. However 34 states still have to vote for the Democrats, in addition to a large handful of US territories, such as Guam.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump won in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. These victories come despite controversy surrounding his reluctance to condemn endorsements from the Ku Klux Klan. It seems to have spooked his rivals too; 2008 and 2012 candidate Mitt Romney recently warned Republicans against voting for Trump.

While Trump seems to be the front runner, the race is closer between the Republican nominees than Democrats.

The distance between Trump and his surviving rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio has narrowed following Super Tuesday, with Trump holding the support of only 39 more delegates than Cruz. The GOP party winner requires the support of fewer delegates than their Democrat competitors; only 1,237 are needed to win. Cruz’s loss in the state of Georgia was significant, however, especially as evangelical Christians comprise a lot of his support base; he also lost the vote in Georgia, and other so-called ‘Bible Belt’ southern states to Trump.

Florida’s primary, on 15th March, will be important, particularly for the trailing Rubio. Despite being the state senator, Trump is leading Rubio in the polls for the Sunshine State – it would be extremely humiliating and detrimental to a future run for Rubio to lose a vote in his own state.

Currently, Trump has the support of 329 delegates, Cruz has 231, Rubio, 110, John Kasich and Ben Carson are trailing with the support of 25 and 8 delegates respectively.

After Super Tuesday, pundits often claim the nomination race is a done deal.

This may be true of the Democrats, and Donald Trump may have the headlines behind him, but whether he will maintain his Republican position, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Emily Hawkins

8th March 2016

9

Global Russian woman beheads young child Police in Moscow have arrested a woman on suspicion of murder after she was found walking around the city holding the severed head of a child. The woman claims to have been driven to the crime after “hearing voices” because her husband had taken a second wife.

Gyulchekhra Bobokulova had been working in Moscow as a nanny to the four year old girl killed in the incident after moving from her home in Uzbekistan several months ago. Her husband having started a new family in her absence, invited the 38 year old to be his second wife, an offer Bobokulova refused.

She claims the emotional trauma caused her to hear voices.

She is accused of strangling and then beheading four year old Nastya Meshcheryakova, before setting fire to the scene of the crime.

Bobokulova then paraded the severed head in the street, close to one of the city’s metro stations.

According to several international news organisations, Bobokulova committed the act to avenge those killed in Syria as a result of Putin’s air strikes against Isis. She allegedly wished to move to Syria, but didn’t have the funds.

Whilst under the care of the authorities, Bobokulova is being judged by psychiatric specialists to determine whether she is in a fit state to be held accountable for her actions.

Caitlin Doherty

ROUNDUP

360

Calais ‘Jungle’ evicted The Calais ‘jungle’ made headlines again this week after French authorities began to dismantle the makeshift homes erected by migrants. The shelters of 3,500 people were destroyed in efforts to clear the area.

The move led to a number of altercations between migrants and riot police, with some homes being set alight, and tear gas being used to clear out the area. Activists responded by tossing stones after authorities told people they had an hour to leave their makeshift shelters.

An activist with Help Refugees gave an eyewitness account of the situation, stating: “They did say it’s going to be slow and respectful, giving people options, and I suppose they have, in a way. But at the same time, they’re not giving people access to information. One person was seen being given their options

as their shelter was being dismantled, so the respect they talked about last week isn’t really happening”.

Many residents moved to shipping containers being used as shelters on the Calais border, but the clear-out wasn’t entirely successful. It is understood there are still around 1,000 people still living in the ‘jungle’.

However, according to official state statistics three-quaters of the makeshift homes have been cleared by workman.

Daniel Jeakins Bin Laden left $29 million to Jihad It has been revealed that Osama bin Laden left approximately $29m (£20m), his entire fortune, to the Jihad.

American forces seized bin Laden’s will, along with several other important, personal documents, after the raid, capture and killing of Al-Qaeda’s leader in Abbotabad, Pakistan in 2011. The documents were released to the American media last week.

According to American news network ABC, the terror leader urged his family to “obey my will” and spend all of his inheritance on “jihad for the sake of Allah”. In a separate letter, asked his father to ensure that his wife and children were taken care of in the event of his untimely death, suggesting that a potentially sudden and violent death was on the leader’s mind. “If I am to be killed, pray for me a lot”.

It is believed that al-Qaeda have been led

by Ayman al-Zawahiri since bin Laden’s death five years ago.

Emily Vause Graphic: Wikimedia, US government Left image: Wikimedia, Dannis243 Right: Wikimedia, Meghas

Features

8th March 2016

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James Chesson interviews Aya Delfi, head of Islamic Society >>Page 13

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n the 11th January, David Cameron announced his £1bn increase in spending on mental health services across the UK. At first glance, this would seem like a step forward for the Conservative party. However, the fact that Cameron has suddenly decided to push this increase in expenditure in everyone’s faces could be seen as a political attempt to hide the fact that the budget for mental health services across the UK was cut by 8% in real terms – amounting to £600m worth of funding since 2010. There has been an 8% reduction in the amount of hospital beds in mental health clinics.

It’s surprising that such cuts were made in spite of the fact that there has been a 20% increase in the demand for mental health services over the last five years.

Admissions to mental health clinics increased from 1,750 in 1999 to 3,500 in 2013, so why has there been such a decrease in expenditure? On the other hand though, Cameron has also decided to increase funding in real terms for the physical health department by £8bn throughout the next five years, averaging £1.6bn per year. This alone illustrates the difference between the budget for physical and mental health services. Expenditure on mental health services only equates to 11% of the NHS total budget. In order to equal this unbalanced expenditure, the government would have to inject £11bn into mental health services – a drastic increase in comparison to the measly £1bn that is on offer for mental health.

Why has the government decided to disregard mental health services to such an extent? Is the quality of mental health within our nation not high up enough in their agenda to regard as important? Although many

“Admissions to mental health clinics increased from 1,750 in 1999 to 3,500 in 2013, so why has there been such a decrease in expenditure?” studies have allegedly shown an increase in tolerance towards mental health issues in the workplace, there is still an overpowering stigma in the UK. Only 24% of people with mental illnesses have full-time jobs. Is this because they are too afraid of what people might think?

In countries such as Argentina, mental health is more widely understood, and people are encouraged to attend therapy once a week. Therapy is an everyday occurrence and allows people to wind down and deal with the stresses from everyday, modern life. However, the culture in Britain is often to react with shock or complete silence when informed that someone attends therapy, and to attach all kinds of assumptions to this, such as that the person is “crazy”. Therapy and mental help is equal to insanity in this country, and this is the exact attitude that we must, as a society, help to eliminate in order to move on and allow people to feel safe and secure to come out and deal with their problems.

Mental health services in the USA have a very different approach to dealing with

patients. America has seen a drastic rise in depression and anxiety over the last decade – though these are statistics which are difficult to determine and must be treated with caution. Because the US does not have a health service comparable to the NHS, the multimillion-dollar drug companies run this industry. It has become an easy and lazy habit to misdiagnose people and prescribe

“How can a society be expected to evolve and progress without treating the core of the problem? We are not robots”

Photo: Wikipedia, Helmut Januschka

Why doesn’t Britain care about mental health?

Catalina Curbishley

them with antidepressants, Valium or Xanax in order to avoid long consultations and increase profits for these companies. Sales for these drugs have increased by 400% in the last 20 years, whilst 20% of Americans have been diagnosed with anxiety- and depression-related issues.

Some may blame the increase on the ever-demanding, stressful society we have helped mould over the years.

Increasing levels of pressure in school, university and the workplace have played their part; people feel less engaged and valued as they are constantly set difficult and often unrealistic targets to meet.

Expectations for young people are growing, as they are expected to pay ridiculous fees in order to attain a degree they’re probably not interested in, in the slight hope that they will be able to land a well-paid job in the future.

We have been taught as a society to survive, rather than live a self-fulfilling, content life. Our capitalistic society has caused us to put money and success above our own mental and physical health, so it’s no wonder that we are experiencing rising levels of mentally ill people. However, interestingly enough, whilst less-severe mental health issues have been increasing, illnesses such as schizophrenia have been decreasing, making our social hypothesis even more plausible.

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o what is the real reason behind the increase in mental health issues and the decrease in government expenditure? Why has the government deemed it more important to help fund the physical health side of the NHS, rather than fund both physical and mental services equally? Does the government not regard mental health to be important enough? How can a society be expected to evolve and progress without treating the core of the problem?

We are not robots. In order to increase productivity and development, we must first focus on a nation’s mental wellbeing and happiness. We must help build a service that will provide the necessary facilities and professionalism in order to combat mental health issues and support people with everyday stress.

It is obvious, however, that Cameron cannot see the problems he is causing by cutting the budget. Whether the reason be cultural ignorance towards the subject, or the fact that he has found “more important” areas to spend the tax-payer’s money on, we can only wonder. However, this doesn’t exclude the fact that the mental health facilities in this country need serious improvement, and until we help to better mental health services, we will be unable to better ourselves as a community.

8th March 2016

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Features

Battle for Brexit

T

he EU referendum is a divisive issue spanning from socialist left to the farright of the political spectrum, and neither Labour nor the Conservatives can boast of having a party united behind a common position. The debate has given rise to unlikely alliances, for example the union of George Galloway with Ukip’s Farage and the Tory Mayor of London Boris Johnson having announced his position in camp ‘out’.

Critics regard Johnson as a right-wing populist, operating beneath a calculated facade of buffoonery. His supporters argue he is engaging and different to the Westmister’s norms, despite his Etonian and Bullingdon past. Johnson has positioned himself at loggerheads with the Prime Minister as he told the Telegraph, “an unreformed EU... is hell­bent on a federal project over which we have no control”. However, the Treasury, supported by a wide range of economic advisors, has argued that Brexit would cause “an economic shock” and that the risks outweigh the possible gains.

Some have also interpreted Johnson’s decision as ploy to further his own chances of replacing the incumbent Cameron, who has stated he will not run for a third term as prime minister.

Some on the left of politics believe an in/

Lucas Cumiskey looks at how Brexit will affect students, and which public figures are having the most influence

out decision is irrelevant because it boils down to multinationals and the corporat-ocracy deciding which outcome will make them the most money, arguing the particulars will make little difference either way.

Others, such as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, are seeking to form a leftist coalition within the EU, which can work towards reforming the union’s less desirable traits – such as closing up tax­ loopholes that multinationals like Google exploit – Corbyn told ITV, that he wants to “wants to see an EU that is about protecting our environment and ensuring we have sustainable industries across Europe”. Significantly, he will not share a stage with Cameron and argues the prime minister’s agenda is “the very opposite”, despite both backing the campaign to remain within the union.

A third-year business student said he would be voting out in the coming referendum because of a “fundamental disbelief in [the EU’s] policy of uncontrolled immigration, the bureaucracy, disparate prosperity and cost in the EU, as well as a strong conviction in the right of democratic independent governance for every country”. When asked if Boris Johnson had influenced his decision, he

told me: “No, it would not have affected my decision either way”.

Emma Pemberton, a third-year history student, said she will be voting to leave and that she is aware of the benefits of remaining in the European union, however she believes that “the benefits are outweighed by the disadvantages”. Similarly, she said that Johnson’s involvement did not sway her because she “had already decided before” he announced his position.

Rosie Fitzgerald, a third year English and creative Writing student said she will be voting to stay in the EU: “It’s not broken, so why try and fix it? Britain receives a huge amount of research funding from projects like Horizon and it would jeopardise the Erasmus programme, which has enabled my good friend to study in Sweden this semester”.

Jack Anderton, a third-year bio-medicinal chemistry student will also be voting to remain. He told me that the “Out camp are pandering to the far ­right, that immigration should be celebrated not feared because we are an island nation with a history of diversity”.

Furthermore, Jack said he values his ‘freedom to move and work’ within the EU and that our membership gives us “a bill of human rights”.

8th March 2016

13

Features

Photo: Pixabay, public domain

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ya Delfi is the Head Sister of UEA’s Islamic Society (Isoc). Firstly, Delfi discussed the government’s Prevent strategy, after she chaired the recent Students Not Suspects panel.

“To me it seems not very well thought through – not very well written or planned.

There are no definitions whatsoever, no clearcut processes that you should follow. I don’t think anyone has thought deeply about it or how well it would work.

“In terms of how it has affected us on campus, the SU have been fantastic. At the start of the year they had a meeting with me and the Ethnic Minorities officer, and told me all about it. They said: ‘If anything happens, if the university approach you or ask you any difficult questions come to us, we’ll help you’.

That was fantastic, before then I had heard of it but I didn’t realise that it was implemented”.

In relation to more effective ways of dealing with terrorism, Delfi suggsted: “I think the best way is education of what Islam is, what it teaches and what extremism may look like. There needs to be clearer definition.

There should be a step back from scapegoating muslims as a group, which is what it feels like when you read the Prevent legislation.

Approaching the issue from within the Islamic community is also quite important. I believe the Islamic community need to become more involved with educating the public on what Islam is. More outreach programmes – and not just in big city’s were their already is a large muslim community, but in areas where it may be rare to meet a muslim. Where there isn’t any first hand contact, there is always a level of speculation where people don’t really know what Islam is about. All they see are things in media and all they hear are ridiculous headlines.

“Having open communication really integrating into the non-Muslim community, and building ties with other groups that make up society is fundamental in overcoming islamophobia and fear. There needs to be a more political approach, though unfortunately often politics is a dirty business.”

What’s it like to be a Muslim student in the UK? James Chesson interviews Aya Delfi of UEA’s Islamic Society

Moving on to the topic of Islamophobia, Delfi spoke openly about her experiences.

“Unfortunately I have experienced Islamophobia in Norwich, but never from students. When I first moved here I felt I stuck out like a sore thumb because I felt like I was the only girl with a headscarf on. Over the three years I’ve been here we’ve had a lot more Muslims move into the area, so that has gone away.

“I have been shouted at and yelled at by people in cars. A few days ago a friend and I went out jogging and this car slowed down and started beeping at us. She was wearing a headscarf and I was wearing a hat. I’m a Muslim girl and I like to jog, it’s amazing!

“With that I think it’s people who are ignorant, who haven’t met any Muslims. And there is an aspect of misogyny, especially with cat calling because you’re a Muslim girl”.

Delfi went on to tell a harrowing story of a girl in Norwich who was attacked while wearing a niqab, the full veil. The attackers “pulled off her scarf and punched her”.

Another huge issue for Muslims at UEA has been securing a permanent prayer space.

“We originally had prayer spaces at the CD Annexe, where we were happy, but they wanted the space back for teaching. Two years on they aren’t doing anything with the space”.

Taking creative direct action, Delfi described how Muslims held “a protest prayer outside the registry office”. She said that the students’ union had been very helpful, citing Jo Swo in particular. Supposedly Swo was told

that the current prayer spaces were secure for two years, but Delfi is not convinced. “I don’t trust [the university], to be frank. I spoke to the ex-president [of Isoc] who was very involved with the initial campaigning. He said ‘unless it is written down, they’ll just turn around and claim they never said that and tell us our lease has finished’ “.

Delfi then spoke of the university bringing in “swiping at the prayer rooms” which she believes could “be linked to Prevent”, as the university has been “unclear about what they are doing with that data.”

On the subject of muslim representation, Delfi said “I think there definitely needs to be greater representation of muslims in student politics. A lot of students come from muslim countries… They’ll come to us for support because their muslim identity is more prominent than their cultural identity.” At a national level she spoke of the “glass ceiling” that muslims need to break to get greater representation, saying that those in politics are “often viewed as a muslim first and foremost and a politician second”.

On a more positive note, Isoc’s Discover Islam week takes place from 7th to 11th March.

“This is a week dedicated to talks, activities and events to teach our student body about Islam, dispel stereotypes, build friendships, build ties and even to learn about your own faith. It is very spiritually enriching for the muslims on campus themselves because by exploring what you believe in, it strengthens it”.

8th March 2016

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Features

Everything on-screen The impact of technology on traditional culture Caitlin Doherty asks whether we are losing some forms of media to digital alternatives

Photo: Flickr, Karlis Dambrans

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sad day for British journalism”. “The best front pages in the business”.“It will be sorely missed on my morning commute”. These were the phrases uttered when it was revealed that the Independent is to permanently cease printing at the end of this month, becoming the first national British newspaper to move its entire operation online. People were shocked and saddened by the announcement of what will surely be a defining moment in the history of British media.

But in reality, when was the last time that you picked up a newspaper? This morning?

Last Sunday? Last month? Chances are, many of us don’t remember. Similarly, the BBC, arguably the world’s biggest and most influential broadcasting company, last month moved BBC 3, one of its most popular services, online in its entirety, fully confident that the service will still offer “distinctive content” online.

“Oh, I just do it online now” has to be one of the most commonly spoken sentences of this decade, as, increasingly, everything that we do continues to move into the ether. Our morning news, some down-time entertainment, the weekly shop and more are now easily accessible anytime, anywhere, thanks to the growth in services such as Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, online supermarkets and online news services; all of which are attracting millions of users every month.

There is no denying; the world has gone digital. But, at what rate is this change actually advancing? The vast majority of Concrete readers are under 25 years of age. We use the internet far more than our grandparents, parents, and perhaps even our older siblings.

Perhaps, in some ways, we are bound to think that everything is accessible online, far more so than other proportions of the population.

Moreover, if and when these changes do become more permanent, what will and does this mean for global culture? Are we replacing historical values, systems and traditions with shinier, quicker, newer ways of doing things?

Or is this not a matter of replacement, but a matter of reinvention; a widening of the market, some extra room for creativity?

According to the statistics, it would seem that we are altering our consumption habits rapidly, with newspaper sales appearing to be hardest hit. In five years, physical newspaper readership has dropped by approximately a quarter. Whilst most regional publications seem to have maintained regular readership, some, especially the free London Evening Standard, which prints 900,000 copies every day, the same cannot be said nationwide.

From the ten London nationals – including the Guardian, the Mirror, the Sun and the Independent – circulation and readership dropped from more than 9.7 million in 2010, to an approximate seven million in the year to 31st March 2015.

Only the Times escaped substantial loss, losing around 0.9% of its readership over the year, compared with 7% at the Mirror, 9.5% at the Guardian, 5% at the Daily Mail and more than 10% at the Sun. Meanwhile, the last official figures released in 2015 suggest that 41% of people access news online daily, a significant departure from the approximate 11% who read a national newspaper.

However, is this apparent lack of demand for print media a constant trend? Issue 1,178 of Charlie Hebdo magazine – the first one

published after the Jihadi attacks at the publication’s print offices that killed 12 of their journalists – sold more than eight million copies, a French national record for the number of copies of any one publication sold within seven days of print. It is worth noting that the usual circulation of Charlie Hebdo is 60,000 copies. Similarly, on 3rd May 2015, the day after the birth of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, newspaper circulation in the UK approached eight million, an approximate 10% increase on usual sales.

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ewspapers seem to increase in popularity in the wake of standout events, whether euphoric or tragic.

Print is now used as a form of commemoration, something only purchased once in a while when there is something worth remembering.

The responsibility of providing up-top-date, daily, world news has fallen to the online distributors, whereas sentimentality has become the remit of the more traditional outlets.

It is not just print media changing at the hands of the Internet, however: music products are experiencing a decline in sales similar to their print media counterparts. Since the launch of the iTunes store 12 years ago, sales of CDs have dwindled. Whereas iTunes is rapidly heading towards its 50 billionth sale, having hit the 35 billion mark two years ago, UK CD sales fell by another 4% last year to 53 million, compared to 174 million in 2005.

However, this news is not necessarily as bad for the CD as it may seem: whilst physical sales did drop last year, their decline was nothing in comparison to that of the download in Britain, which saw a 13% drop in sales over

“Our morning news, some down-time entertainment, the weekly shop, and more are now easily accessible anytime, anywhere” the same period. After a decade of 10,000 songs in our pocket it seems that there may be a return to the classics, a frontier championed by the vinyl record. Vinyl sales surged by 65% last year, reaching their peak in the six weeks leading up to Christmas and coming close to the sale of one million units. This is not to say, however, that digital has died completely, rather that it could be transforming. iTunes is certainly not struggling - any company that can sell 25 million songs a day is doing well – but it is starting to lose out to competitors, particularly Spotify; the streaming service now has 30 million paid subscribers and a further 50 million daily users of its free service.

Just as is true of newspapers, there is a certain sense of sentimentality apparently developing around music sales. The ease and relatively low price of the of technological options maintains the modern way as the preferred format for many, however, as the surge in vinyl sales suggest, there is still that desire for something special, perhaps something sentimental, to be held in a physical form rather than the simpler digital format.

Is the world dying a death at the hand of the digital? Or are we in fact rekindling an old flame, reminded of what it is we have been missing?

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24/02/2016 17:01:40

8th March 2016

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Comment

Private school privilege: is education a level playing field? Alice Spencer

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n a study released last month by the Sutton Trust, we were reminded of a trend that remains depressingly familiar in 2016: the domination of the top professions in society by the privately educated.

The education charity’s research into the backgrounds of over 1,200 people working in law, medicine, the military, the media, acting and politics revealed that the highest positions were still predominantly held by those whose parents could afford to send them to private school. For example, an astounding 74% of the UK’s top judges attended fee-paying schools, along with 51% of top journalists and solicitors.

Shift your gaze to the upper echelons of politics, and it’s the same story; David Cameron and Boris Johnson, for example, both attended the notoriously elitist Eton. Cameron was praised in 2014 for sending his daughter Nancy to a state school, the first Tory Prime Minister ever to do so; but it’s difficult to label him as a progressive when you consider that half of his current cabinet were privately educated, a figure totally out of proportion with the 7% of the population who attend fee-paying schools.

Why do the privately educated continue to rule the roost? Increasingly, the answer we are presented with in the media seems to be that they’re simply better than the rest of us.

With programmes such as Benefit Street and How to Get a Council House flooding our TV schedules with unfavourable representations of society’s poorest, the message forced upon us is that the inequality highlighted in the study is somehow just, and that the people at the foot of the employment ladder are lazy,

Photo: Wikimedia, Jorge Royan uneducated, and deserve to be there.

Needless to say, this isn’t quite the whole story. These programmes are shameless in their scaremongering, encouraging us to target an underprivileged minority as the scapegoat for all our frustrations. They are intended to distract us from the bigger question: why do we seem to be working harder but getting nowhere?

Regardless of what certain sections of the press would have us believe, the inequality flagged up by the Sutton Trust is never justified.

With better facilities, and better-qualified teachers attracted by the higher wages, it would be hardly surprising if a private school graduate did emerge into the working world with a better standard of education under their belt. Yet for years, politicians have

been praising the improved performance of state schools; research has actually shown that state school pupils are likely to perform better at university than their private school counterparts with similar A Levels. Where, then, does the gap form?

Unfortunately for the state educated, grades don’t seem to be making the difference that they should. Social connections, above anything else, seem to be the most valuable asset of the privately educated, a sad, antiquated fact which makes it incredibly difficult for those from working class backgrounds to reach the top of many career ladders.

Take journalism, for example: a profession which, like any in the media, can be marked by unpredictable periods of employment, and one in which unpaid internships are key to getting your foot in the door. Often it’s only those from independent schools whose parents can afford to support them along this path. The rightwing position of Benefit Street is suddenly becoming clearer.

The report by the Sutton Trust is discouraging, but in no way is it surprising. In spite of the efforts of state schools to support their students in reaching those higher grades, the fact remains that our social background still plays an unjustly significant role when it comes to reaching the top. Regardless of the potential we show, where we end up largely depends on who we know, who our parents are, how we speak.

Defying the odds isn’t impossible, yet under the rule of the richest 7%, it’s difficult to feel optimistic.

The new essentialism, and the problems with safe spaces and no-platforming Sam Ward

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here is a phenomenon that exists on the edge of the necessary processes of safe spaces and experience-centred discourses: the new essentialism.

Firstly, let me be clear: in all movements, fighting for the liberation of and furthering the rights of any oppressed groups, there are situations when it becomes necessary to create spaces in which certain voices are excluded. What I’m referring to as the new essentialism is the expansion out of these spaces into more general discussions of politics and tactical organisation, in which the same primacy of experience or identity is being wrongfully applied, in order to give validity to one opinion over another based solely on essential characteristics, rather than rational integrity. The cultural theorist Stuart Hall warned against this “guaranteed” politics, arguing that it is reductive to claim your ideas and tactics are good simply because of your identity. For example, being black would not guarantee that someone’s politics would be tactically viable, or even anti-racist; the same applies to men, women, people who identify as LGBT+, as it does to everyone else.

Experiences are foundational to politics: necessary, informative, and shaping, but not guaranteeing, and that is the fundamental issue. Hall calls it having to “play the game of politics”; as he points out, to place the guarantee of any opinion or idea solely on the identity of the voice is as reductive and generalising as the regimes which first produced the essentialism.

To use an example from feminism (which is by no means the only arena of the new essentialism) - it is both understandable and politically necessary that feminist spaces would need to prioritise and promote the

voices and experiences of women, which are key to forming policies and developing tactics. However, when being a woman gives uncritical validity to any argument put forward, the movement fractures, the politics unravel, and feminism suffers as a result. If the ideas of all women are guaranteed by their identity as women, then there is no critical discourse, only competing guarantees, a swirl of equally non-critical truths. This is the difference between understanding and using the experiences of the marginalised groups you’re fighting for, and claiming those experiences are a discourse-waiver, a political and tactical ‘gimme’ that invalidates all criticism from outside the same parameters of experience.

However, the issue isn’t a student-only phenomenon, although students are certainly proving themselves to be the most fervid mobilisers of the new essentialist tactics.

It has equally become a central issue in the US presidential race, with some prominent American feminists claiming that to vote for Bernie Sanders would be “bad feminism”, and others arguing (rightly, in my opinion) that to vote for Hillary Clinton over Sanders, regardless of policies, and purely on the basis that she is a woman, is reductive and bad politics. In the new essentialist arena, it doesn’t matter that Sanders’s policies would likely be more beneficial to women than Clinton’s, being relatively more understanding of economic and social influences such as race and class when it comes to gender equality.

It only matters that Sanders is an old white man, and Clinton is a woman. I don’t need to tell you that this is an absurd way to do politics.

Not only that, but it is distorting safe spaces, and creating ugly, confused, no-

platform policies. There are times when to no-platform is a logical, pre-emptive safety measure; not allowing fascists organisations to debate on campus is one example. The logic is simple: fascism stands ideologically in opposition to the debate it seeks to partake in, and is, at its core, the limiting and controlling of other people’s rights. But Peter Tatchell? His politics might be problematic, but to equate him with the malice and intent of bigotry is at best a striking lack of nuance, and at worst a harmful misdirection of outrage.

This debate flared up when Germaine Greer, a once-prominent feminist, became the target of a no-platform petition owing to remarks she made about transgender women.

Whilst her comments were vile, the event itself was not focusing on transgender rights; the no-platforming achieved was to grant her undue attention from the press and the opportunity to play the victim. Universities must have safe spaces for transgender people: that is a fundamental necessity. However, the function of those spaces is to give people the security to garner strength, in order to face the hostility which must be overcome in the struggle for a better world. The sad reality is that whilst Greer may not have been granted the platform to express her views, there are people who hold similarly offensive positions on transgender issues. By foregoing the opportunity to challenge those ideas, that thinking remains unchallenged.

That is the great folly of the new essentialism. Its proponents believe that their ideas are their identity, and vice versa, and that they are therefore sanctified and unquestionable. A better response would be to take each opportunity to resist you can, both the personal and the collective, and pull

together, rather than splintering and calling people out for minor differences of opinion.

The brutal truth is that nobody is going to give you your rights, and the more oppressed you are, the more true this becomes. They have to be taken, and in order to take them, we need unity, and a willingness to prove our political validity.

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afe spaces are a critical tool in building the alliances and discursive durability to then step out and take down the hostile forces of power and hegemony that are waiting just outside the shelter walls. They are in themselves a position of relative privilege.

There is no safe space for the refugee facing bombs or closed borders, no safe space for the black teenager gunned down by an officer of the state. You cannot hope to just pull the hostile world into the safe space and expect it to behave accordingly. I wish as much as anyone that we could, but in reality, that isn’t going to happen.

Instead, let’s look towards organisations like the feminist group Sisters Uncut, who are currently engaged in a lengthy and difficult battle with Portsmouth City Council to save domestic abuse service funding. When the situations calls for it, Sisters Uncut mobilise as women only, but if the cause would benefit from a broader coalition of allies then their practices reflect this. This is a promising contemporary example of how to engage the enemy without resorting to a shaky essentialist foundation. Far from ignoring the identities of the oppressed, it instead uses them as a foundation to build a responsive and tactile resistance. This is good politics.

The full version of this article is available online.

8th March 2016

Allowing prisoners to vote would do more good than harm – so why have we barred it?

Thomas Gymer

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risoners are one of the few groups in the UK barred from voting. There have been calls to end this restriction, in response to verdicts from the European Court of Human Rights, which has on several occasions ruled the UK’s ban on prisoner voting to be unlawful. The European Court of Justice, on the other hand, has declared the ban to be lawful. Consequently, Parliament has been able to ignore the ruling for more than a decade; David Cameron has previously commented that the thought of giving prisoners the vote made him “physically sick”.

What is the reasoning behind denying prisoners the vote? Is the loss of their vote intended as a deterrent? It seems unlikely that most criminals are deep in consideration about who they’ll be voting for in the upcoming local elections whilst they’re breaking the law, and if the death penalty doesn’t work as a deterrent (which it doesn’t), then why would denying them the vote be any more effective?

Once this reason has been discounted, the other main justification appears to be that it is intended as a punishment, but this is surely an outdated style of justice. Punishing people by denying them their human rights feels like it’s encroaching on dangerous territory - would we like it if other rights were denied to them as well? If they were tortured or starved?

The aim of prisons in the modern age should be less about retribution -which does no good, and only increases recidivism -and more focused on rehabilitation. Indeed, Cameron has recently spoken on the importance on reforming prisons, in order to shift the emphasis to rehabilitation; what better way is there to show prisoners they can still contribute to society than allowing them to vote? Some people may view this as being “soft on crime”, but the fact is, truly harmful crimes will always be illegal, and no amount of prisoner voting is going to change that. It may even be helpful in pushing for changes to unfair laws to be changed. Moreover, voting could give prisoners a sense of citizenship, a sense of being part of society, and a reason not to harm it. If Cameron is serious about these reforms, he needs to get past his apparent revulsion to this idea.

If Britain were to allow prisoners the vote, this would enable us to play a more active role in campaigning for this as a basic human right across the international stage.

Think how much of a difference it would make if we could push illiberal regimes towards allowing prisoners to vote; it would make the imprisonment of dissidents a far less effective method of rigging elections. At the moment, our hands are tied - Britain campaigning for prisoner rights in other countries would be as hypocritical as the US campaigning to end the death penalty worldwide - but this is exactly what we need to be doing.

People may find the idea of prisoners voting distasteful, but that is not in of itself a reason to ban it. It would not harm society; in fact, it could do a lot of good, both within the prison population and to the country as a whole. We can hope that prisoner voting will come up as part of Cameron’s prison reforms, but I would not be surprised if the issue continues to be ignored. After all, there are few votes in prisoner voting.

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Comment Adam Stokes examines what we can hope for from the campaigns for the EU referendum

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he date of the EU referendum has been announced, but before we decide how we vote, it’s important to consider how Britain has found itself in this situation, and how the next four months will play out.

It’s been more than three years since David Cameron originally promised an In/ Out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, a decision initially taken in an attempt to stop the rise of Ukip, as well as to calm the Eurosceptic members of his own party. Whether or not the referndum succeeded in doing so, or instead simply poured fuel on the flames, is open for debate. On 19th February, Cameron finally secured his deal in Brussels, claiming that the UK “can have the best of both worlds”.

Nevertheless, the Conservative party remains split on the issue. This is nothing new -it was a debate which nearly ripped the party apart during the 1990s- but the ramifications are nonetheless serious, with many senior Tory figures, including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, opting to oppose the Prime Minister, and instead backing the Brexit campaign.

Whilst the other major political parties are for the most part united on the issue, the Tories aren’t the only ones suffering from divided loyalties. There are divisions within the Brexit campaign itself Leave EU, supported by Nigel Farage, and Vote Leave, backed by Ukip MP Douglas Carswell, are currently operating as two separate groups, and it is still unclear which, if either, will get the support of the electoral commission and become the official campaign.

What is clear, however, is that if the Brexit campaign wants to be taken seriously, they need to put a stop to the squabbling between the two groups, and actually offer a viable alternative to Britain Stronger in Europe.

Equally, it is vital for both campaigns to offer positive visions of what they believe Britain can be, either within or outside of the EU -so far, they have been disappointingly and

overwhelmingly negative in their approach.

The clash between Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Fallon on the issue of national security is one example of this: Duncan Smith claimed that being a member of the EU “exposes the UK to terror risks” (owing to its borders being open to the rest of Europe), and Fallon responded that in voting to leave, the UK would be taking a “big gamble” on its security. Whilst this is no doubt an important issue, it feels more like scaremongering than an attempt to actually tackle the problem, with both sides exploiting the public fear of terrorism to gain a few votes. Regardless of whether the tactic works, it isn’t going to help in the long run, and only makes it more difficult for the public to reach a well-informed

decision come 23rd June.

A final issue that needs addressing is the dominance, so far, of both campaigns by male politicians in suits. This referendum needs voices, from as many different and diverse backgrounds and cultures as possible, to make it more engaging and relatable. It’s too important an issue to be left to the various fallings-out of the ex-Oxbridge elite. If the referendum campaigns don’t make an effort to engage with voters, to offer positive solutions rather than dallying around in political point scoring, then it’s difficult to see what the next four months will achieve. It certainly won’t be a fair and representative result for Britain.

Illustration by Dougie Dodds for Concrete

Are we biased against introverts? Meg Bradbury

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nyone who attended Working With Words -an annual event, run by UEA Career Central, about working in the creative industries- may have noticed a number of themes running throughout the day’s various panel discussions: the importance of work experience in your chosen field, for example, or of getting involved with clubs and societies whilst at university. There was one word in particular which came up time and time again: networking. Reactions to the suggestion that walking into a roomful of strangers with the express intent of making connections might be necessary in the pursuit of certain careers can range from begrudging acceptance to mild discomfort. For a lifelong introvert, however, it can come something close to panic.

What exactly it means to be an introvert -or, on the other side of the coin, an extrovertis something which is often misunderstood.

It’s by no means a clear opposition between shy and outgoing; it’s entirely possible to be a confident introvert, or a reserved extrovert. Equally, personalities aren’t fixed templates, and in many cases, traits which are frequently defined as being typically extrovert or introvert are situational. Even the most uninhibited extrovert can find themselves in circumstances where they prefer to remain in the background, and vice versa.

The simplest way to define the difference

between an introvert and an extrovert comes down to energy. Extroverts draw their energy from company and society, from being with other people. Introverts, on the other hand, whilst they may enjoy spending time with people, will reach a point where it becomes draining, and they’ll need to spend time on their own to recharge their batteries.

It’s easy to see why being an introvert can sometimes be mistaken for being shy; if you’re an introvert, you’re less likely (although there are exceptions) to seek out situations where you’re spending significant amounts of time with large groups of people, because you know it isn’t suited to your temperament, and won’t show you at your best. It’s therefore also easy to see why networking can seem like a particularly daunting prospect. Yet if this is something we all have to go through to get to where we want in life, are we left to conclude that the world is biased against introverts?

Some people have cited social media as a means of levelling the playing field when it comes to networking. However, but I’m not sure I agree. It’s still something which requires social engagement, whether you’re doing it face-to-face or behind a computer screen. If anything, it can be more draining, because you’re expected to be engaging with people on a more or less constant basis. I find it awkward and mildly embarrassing to take any action which implies I think people should

be interested in what I’m posting on Facebook or Twitter, just as much as if I were to approach them and say it in person, but these are the values which are extolled in the spheres many of us will go on to work in. We’re expected to be confident, to be sociable, to be chatty, and we’re expected to do all of this on command.

I understand the importance of these virtues. When you’re first starting out in your career, you’re an unknown entity. You have to come to the table prepared to give away something about yourself; no one’s going to reach inside your head and extract it for you.

All the same, I can’t help but feel there are other, more introvert-centric traits that we aren’t focusing on as much as we should, and that are in danger of being sidelined in a world which demands self-promotion at every level.

Certainly in the panels I attended, there was little mentioned at Working With Words about the value of people who get on quietly with the task at hand; who can function independently for long periods of time; who can look inwards and reflect on their work without the need for external validation -all vital skills in any number of environments. Networking might be important, but it isn’t the only thing that is.

As goes the old adage, it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, but perhaps it’s time we started paying more attention the wheels that aren’t squeaking so loudly.

Perhaps they too have something to say.

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8th March 2016

Science&Environment Skin cells programmed to hunt down cancer Leaving the

EU could be detrimental for British science

Katie Williams Sci&Env writer On 24th February, a research group, led by Dr Shawn Hingten at the University of North Carolina, announced they had developed a method of using a patient’s own skin cells in order to hunt down and target cancer cells in the brain. This novel method transforms skin cells into brain stem cells, with the ability to become any of the cell types found in the brain, as well as to move freely through the brain tissue. These are being used in the development of a treatment for glioblastoma, the most common type of primary brain tumour.

Each year, a further 14,000 people are diagnosed with glioblastoma, representing 15% of all brain tumours. Unfortunately the survival rate for this particular type of cancer is very low, with two year survival being seen in only 30% of cases. This is due to difficulties in treating the cancer.

Brain tumours are challenging to remove surgically, as it is important not to remove any healthy tissue. This means that, during removal, the invasive cancerous tendrils are left behind, thus allowing the proliferation and re-establishment of the cancer, much like when you leave plant roots in the soil and the plant re-grows.

This research provides the first new and more effective treatment of glioblastoma in over 30 years. It builds on from the 2003 Nobel Prize winning-technology, where skin cells were manipulated to transform into embryonic-like stem cells. Dr Hingten and his team have managed to reprogram fibroblasts, a particular type of skin cell, to become neural stem cells that can be used as drug delivery vehicles. These modified cells can move through the brain, recognise cancer, and secrete tumour toxic proteins or drugs, in order to destroy the tumour cells.

The process has currently only been carried out fully using mouse models.

However the team are currently working to improve the long term viability of the neural stem cells within the surgical cavity.

In order for them to remain in the correct place for long enough to be able to recognise the tumour cells they need a protein matrix to physically organise the cells. This is currently being done using an Food and

Sophie Christian Sci&Env writer It’s the big question on everyone’s mind: will Britain remain in the EU? Leaving the EU could have lasting impacts on science, as Professor Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize winner, believes UK research would struggle to find funding, inevitably selling “future generations short”.

Alternatively, a group of scientists believe British institutions would receive similar amounts of European funding as we do now. The national referendum will dictate the future of science for Britain, as we decide if our collaboration with the EU is worth our time and money.

Proffessor Nurse, the director of the Francis Crick Institute and former president of the Royal Society, considers individuals who campaign for a Brexit are endangering the “long-term future of the UK for short-term political advantage”.

He has also argued the mobility of EU scientists “gives us increased collaboration,

Fibroblast cells on polycaprolactone and gelatin scaffold Photo: Wikipedia, Judyta Dulnik Drug Administration approved fibrin sealant commonly used as surgical glue. The use of this sealant tripled the retention of the stem cells in the surgical cavity, providing them with the sticking power they needed to carry out their function and showing a promising result for the future of this therapy.

The next step in the development of this ground-breaking treatment is to focus on using human cells, as well as testing

the delivery capacity of the cells for more effective anti-cancer drugs. Should they be successful in both these endeavours, the therapy will then be taken to clinical trials before it can be implemented as a standardised treatment. This is the first time direct reprogramming technology has been used to create a personalised treatment for cancer, and could mark the start of a whole new era of more effective cancer treatment.

The long wait for baby ‘dragons’ may be over Nick Brown Sci&Env writer 50km from the Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana lies Postojna Cave, a 24km-long cave system, and is home to the rare and bizarre amphibian called the olm. These amphibians are thought to live for over a century but rarely reproduce, laying eggs only once or twice a decade. This year an exciting discovery was found within an aquarium at the cave; between 50 and 60 eggs have been laid, and now three of these have started to show signs of growth.

The olm, also known as the proteus, is one of nature’s enigmatic organisms. It has been living and reproducing in the same caves for close to 200 million years. The organism is blind; their eyes are covered by skin, and

Photos: Wikipedia, Arne Hodalic instead their other senses are heightened, such as the electo-sensitive organs in their snouts, which have allowed the olm to adapt to the pitch black environment it inhabits.

Alongside this adaptation, olms have a very sensitive sense of smell, thought to help the females monitor the eggs. All the eggs have a smell, the fertilised eggs have a different smell to those that are unfertilised or dead.

Olms can also go around ten years without food, due to the scarcity of food within the cave system; therefore the dead eggs provide a vital nutrition source.

It is thought that in the near future more eggs in this cluster will start to grow and develop. Due to the laying nature of the olm, the female parent will only lay one or two

eggs a day, with the first eggs being laid at the end of January. Slovenian biologists have explained that usually the eggs take 120 days to fully develop and hatch. These estimates are based on observations from 1950s France, where the conditions were 2°C higher than those in Postojna Cave, therefore they think that development will be prolonged.

In 2013, another captive olm in the cave laid eggs, but this had no successful outcome as none of the eggs hatched, and many eggs ended up being eaten by other olms in the cage.

This led to the scientists this time removing all olms except for the female parent.

This discovery is a superb opportunity to monitor and learn more about one of nature’s relatively unknown organisms.

Professor Nurse, the director of the Francis Crick Institute and former president of the Royal Society. Photo: Flickr, University of Exeter increased transfer of people, ideas and science – all of which history has shown us drives science”.

It is important to consider that voting ‘yes’ to Brexit would mean cutting wellestablished ties with the EU. Surely casting away powerful partners is not a positive move for Britain?

In 2007-2013, the UK gave a total of €78bn to the EU. Of this, 5.4 billion was allocated to the EU’s research and development programme. In return, 8.8 billion Euros returned to the UK for for the same purpose.

An opposing view has been posed

by Professor Dalgeish, of St George’s Hospital, University of London, who is a spokesman for Scientists for Britain, a group of researchers keen to leave the EU. He states: “We put far more into Europe than we get out. Any difference we can more than easily make up with the money we would save”.

Proffessor Dalgeish claims that remaining in the EU stems from the “narrow self-interest” of large scientific institutions and universities that benefit from millions of pounds funded from the EU. James Wilsdon, Professor of Research Policy at Sheffield University, and an advisor to Scientists for EU, believes it would be “highly unlikely for UK research organisations to secure the same level of funding if they were to leave the EU… I think there is a lot of wishful thinking from the Leave camp in terms of having our cake and eating it”.

Ultimately, money is what funds research and the loss of funding from the EU could hinder future scientific development for Great Britain.

8th March 2016

Limited role of gas in UK’s energy future Louise Fitzgerald Sci&Env writer The role of gas in the UK’s energy future is “limited” and will have to decline significantly over the next 30 years for the UK to meet its emission reduction targets.

A new study from the UK Energy Research Centre warns that without the use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, gasfired electricity will only be able to make up 10% of the energy mix in order to meet the strict emissions targets.

The UK has a legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction target which requires an 80% reduction by 2050 when compared to 1990 levels.

The study has also highlighted the problems with current government policy. Last year the government suggested that all UK coal-fired power stations would be phased out by 2025, but only if there was significant investment in nuclear and gas in order to fill the gap and bridge the way towards a decarbonised future.

Professor Jim Watson of the UK Energy Research Centre said: “there is limited scope for gas to act as a bridge (to a decarbonised future). If we stick to carbon targets and have CCS, you’ve got a significant amount of gas being burned in the energy system, perhaps

19

Science&Environment half the current levels by 2050. But if we stick to carbon targets and don’t have CCS you are down to the 10% level compared to current gas demand by 2050”.

Mike Bradshaw of the Warwick Business School also sees it as a poor strategy: “If all coal-fired power generation is to be removed by 2025, and we are no longer supporting the development of CCS, policy makers must think carefully about how best to replace that capacity. Gas can play only a modest role between now and 2020 and in the medium to long term has no role as a bridging fuel because the UK has already exploited a large amount of the decarbonisation potential in the power sector”.

Research into CCS is limited and suffered a further setback when the government confirmed it was scrapping a £1 billion CCS competition on the grounds of cost last autumn. Amber Rudd, energy and climate change secretary said that “new technological breakthroughs” were required in order to tackle climate change but insisted that CCS was too expensive for the government to support.

What’s new in science Extinct otter-like ‘marine bear’ might have had a bite like a saber-toothed cat.

Hip replacements numbers soared by 76% for the under 60s in the last decade.

Government rejects notion of offering all children Meningitis B vaccine as it would ‘not be cost effective’.

Meteor ‘bright flash’ seen in skies over northeast Scotland with a ‘rumbling sound’.

Beginning of formal test programme on technologies to detect gravitational waves in space.

Powerful quake measuring 7.8 magnitude strikes off Indonesian coast.

The Green Party has called for a full ban on microbeads.

Photos: Wikipedia, OLU

Study by Nasa discovers Middle East is suffering worst drought in 900 years.

The link between the Zika virus and Guillain-Barré syndrome is growing stronger.

After a year in space, Astronaut Scott Kelly is safely back on Earth.

Scientists have developed a brain scan to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.

The NHS have approved lifechanging sickle cell disease treatment.

Top: Flickr, Tambako The Jaguar Bottom: Flickr, MCPA Photos

8th March 2016

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Travel

Photo: Pixabay, putthejunk

Studying the travel curriculum A

s students, many of us will be used to the idea of travelling alongside our work and studies. We use it to supplement with the traditional curriculum, as a way of adding a wider breadth of experience to our lives, and enhancing our other skills.

However, naturally as students, this isn’t our main form of deriving an education. It is not our sole system, we don’t ‘depend’ on it as our every day source of information for careers or otherwise. Even in the very words “gap year”, we are suggesting that though this may be a large chunk of time dedicated to travel, and a huge learning curve at that, it is still separated from our everyday education which we can and do return to.

This is the obvious nature of being a student in the traditional sense, in that you are part of the education system that the majority of us have most likely been raised in. From being a toddler to your late teens, we will have grown up in schools that have a set syllabus of what is ‘important’ for us to learn about, and so that system almost becomes compulsory and unchangeable. When you are older, you of course have much more freedom to do with your life as you wish, but at those younger ages, choices are made by the people who raise us. For a very long time, the standard choice that families have been making is to put their children in to the local school system.

Increasingly, though, we are seeing

Dahlia Al-Abdullah on the benefits of introducing children to the joys of travel

parents abandoning the traditional schoolcentred education, and instead opting to raise their children on a “travel curriculum”. Some might call it a new trend or a passing phase, whereas others may argue that this is in fact a much wiser way of raising children. Perhaps it is because it is less structured than what we are used to, we immediately feel alarmed at the thought of anyone willingly putting their children through such an experience.

Looking at the positives, though this is radically different to what a lot of us know, it is not to say that this is a less credible method.

Children who are brought up in this way may perhaps even develop a stronger sense of connection with the surrounding world.

Coming face to face with various people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds is a stimulating experience as adults, so imagining the wealth of knowledge that a child could garner from a similar experience is staggering. Perhaps seeing different people’s various difficulties in life, and the ways in which they approach them, would enlighten a child and build them in to adults with a passion for helping the world around them and with a strong sense of what people really need.

However, one could argue that a child in constant displacement may never have a sense of home, of a grounded place in which they feel they can root themselves in and build

a close network of friends who remain around them and aren’t constantly changing. This is an interesting viewpoint, though, as you could argue that in this constant movement they create homes across the world, and build a network that spans continents. It teaches them exactly how to communicate with others should the time come where they do, in fact, decide to ground themselves in a single place.

Overall, it is clear that both styles of

“Children who are brought up this way may develop a stronger sense of connection with the world” upbringing have their pros and cons.

However, more often than not, we dismiss the travel curriculum and favour the traditional system. Although this is largely to do with what is acceptable in society, what we know, and how we measure intelligence, this is a problematic outlook. It does not value the benefits that seeing and exploring the world brings. That kind of visceral learning is irreplaceable and essential, too. Both are unique ways of learning, and both should be valued and treated as such.

8th March 2016

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Travel

Travel blogging: it’s worth putting effort into writing Akane Matsumoto Travel writer I decided to start my own travel blog to give myself a great way of thinking back over the trips that I have been on. It is also a wonderful way for me to discover new facts about the places I have seen. Most notably, through the process of writing for my blog, I have found that I particularly enjoy learning about all the architecture that I have seen and I’ve discovered that this is an interest of mine.

When I was travelling through Germany I visited the main Houses of Parliament building in Berlin, which is called the Reichstag. In one area of the building, there is a dome that is made of glass. This allows visitors to look out on the magnificent view of the capital. As the dome is transparent, it also enables visitors to look down into the main chamber, where all the debates are held. This element in the building’s design symbolizes the German government’s determination to ensure true transparency and democracy.

On another one of my trips, I decided to visit the British Museum in London. In the great court, which has recently been reconstructed, there is another example of a transparent roof being used in public architecture. This provides the building with natural light all the way to the floor. Having

The Great Court of the British Museum, the roof of which was designed by Norman Foster Photo: Wikimedia, Eric Pouhier stayed there for an entire afternoon, I enjoyed watching the change in lighting as time went by.

Shortly after these trips, I was preparing to write a blog post about my travels. Through my research I discovered that the individual who designed both the dome and the Great Court was Norman Foster. I continued to learn

more about him and was surprised to discover that he also designed UEA’s Sainsbury Centre.

I would have never imagined that the architecture I had seen in all those different places across Europe were related to each other, and connected to an architect who designed my own univeristy. It was through blogging, and delving deeper in to my interest

The foods that every tourist should try Amelia Oatley Travel writer Travelling the world and experiencing new cultures and traditions has always been a passion of mine. A huge part of understanding and gaining knowledge about other countries is through trying foods authentic and particular to that culture. I’ve always been eager to try new cuisines as a country’s traditional dishes can give you an insight into their history, society and the way they have developed over time. There is so much to learn through eating food!

I am from Bermuda and our national dish is fish chowder. Setting it apart from other traditional chowders some of the ingredients are local fish, tomato puree and black rum to name a few. Dark ‘N’ Stormy is the national drink of Bermuda and is made with Goslings Black Seal Rum and ginger beer. This cocktail is a huge part of our culture, drunk by most locals and it reminds me of summers on the beach with friends.

While visiting Canada, I travelled to Toronto and toured a vineyard where grapes were being grown to be made into ice wine.

Ice wine is a Canadian dessert wine made from frozen grapes, and it always brings back memories of that summer. Of course, there is nothing like tasting maple syrup from Canada. Waking up on a Sunday morning, making pancakes and pouring over warm, sticky, sweet maple syrup is a ritual that cannot be forgotten easily. Nanaimo bars are a Canadian dessert with three layers consisting of a wafer crumb base, custard icing layer and chocolate on top. These bars are so delicious and definitely a must-try.

Going on a Mediterranean cruise, I visited

Photos from top: Flickr, mats eye; Flickr, Heather Katsoulis; Flickr, US Department of agriculture

several cities and countries. It is a great way to travel to many places in a short period of time. Visiting Spain, I would recommend experiencing tapas and their one of a kind traditional paella. Eating croissants and macarons in France is a must. Nothing beats having freshly made pizza in Italy, visiting a local Sicilian bakery and ordering a cannoli, buying Torrone in Pisa after taking pictures with the leaning tower and eating gelato whilst exploring and walking the streets of Rome.

The US is somewhere I’ve been quite a lot since most of the states on the east coast are only a short plane journey away. Travelling to Boston, Massachusetts last summer was one of the best trips I’ve had in terms of food. The fresh seafood is extraordinary, particularly the lobster. An iconic American treat is S’mores.

Made with layers of graham crackers, roasted marshmallows and chocolate, they bring back memories of camping with my friends sitting around the fire.

A few summers ago I went on a Baltic cruise where I ate pretzels and apple strudel in Berlin, Danish pastries in Copenhagen, tasted the best strawberries I’ve ever had in Stockholm and ate cloudberries in Helsinki. On my birthday I visited Tallinn and ate sugar spiced almonds whilst roaming the cobblestone roads and observing the historical buildings.

Russia was particularly special – visiting Pushkin, St Petersburg and eating beef stroganoff in a small restaurant near by, surrounded by beautiful gardens and apple trees.

Being more adventurous and trying new dishes is so important: you can learn so much about a place and its people just by tasting their food.

in the architecture that I was lucky enough to discover this. Therefore, writing a travel blog is not merely a record of the trip but it enables you to find out new facts. By taking a deeper look at what interests you about your travels, it can make your trip that much more insightful whether you are researching before, or after, you visit.

Plan ahead and save yourself the nerves Nick Brown Travel writer Travelling alone can be a daunting prospect, especially if you’re travelling in an area that you’re unfamiliar with. However, there are many ways to combat those nerves before setting off on your next adventure, but the best by far is writing an itinerary before embarking on your trip.

The best way to write your itinerary is to treat it like a sandwich, which may perhaps be an odd analogy, but bear with me. To start making it you need a starting point and an end goal, a bit like the two slices of bread.

This can be dictated by where you’re flying to and from, for example, if you’re planning a round trip of northern India, you may have New Delhi as both your start and end points.

Once you’ve got these points set in stone, now is the time to start filling out the contents of your itinerary.

If you are planning a trip that revolves around backpacking, it is highly likely that many of the allocations will be filled up simply by travelling between the places themselves.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Spending a night on a train or a coach is a cheap form of accommodation and frees up a large block of time that you can allocate to sightseeing or other pursuits.

Finally, do leave time at the end of your itinerary to allow for any delays from transport. It is advisable to spend a couple of days in the area from which you are finishing your trip, as the worst thing that can happen during a holiday is missing your return flight or train and having to dish out a lump of cash that you didn’t intend on spending. Which would put a massive downer on any holiday.

8th March 2016

22

Sport UEA sport round-up

Drugs & matchfixing: is there something rotten in the state of eSports?

Tom Gordon Sport Editor

63-55

University of East Anglia Mens 1st

Rugby Union University of Warwick Womens 1st Oxford Brookes University Mens 2nd University of East Anglia Men’s 2nd De Monfort University Womens 1st

10-29 24-39 53-10 34-0

University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 1st University of Leicester Mens 3rd University of East Anglia Womens 2nd

Hockey University of East Anglia Mens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 2nd

2-4 11-0

University of Nottingham Mens 3rd University of Bedfordshire Mens 2nd

14-7 University of East Anglia Womens 1st 3-7 University of Derby Mens 1st 0-8 4-4

University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 1st

5-1

University of East Anglia Mixed 1st

Tennis University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of Nottingham Mens 3rd University of East Anglia Mens 2nd

0-12 2-10 12-0

Badminton Nottingham Trent Womens 1st University of Warwick Mens 2nd

0-8 4-4

Football University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 1st

7-2 Oxford Brookes University Womens 1st 7-1 University of Derby Mens 1st

Netball University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of East Anglia Womens 2nd

34-43 21-32

Squash University of East Anglia Mens 1st

3-0

University of Nottingham Womens 3rd University of East Anglia Mens 1st University of Northampton Mens 1st University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 1st

Uni of Birmingham Womens 3rd Nottingham Trent Womens 3rd University of Lincoln Mens 2nd

UEA swimming have great showing at Bucs Nationals Joseph Zilch Sports writer UEA Swimming club once again proved why they are a forced to be reckoned with at the 2016 Bucs Nationals.

Friday started off with the Men’s and Women’s Freestyle relay. George Evans, Ewan Laing, Tom Arckle and Liam Doonan all gave solid performances. As did the women, who swam so well that they made it to the B final, pushing them to compete again the following day against some of the top teams.

UEA was also lucky enough to have a guest swimmer with tehm that weekend -S14 class paralympian Jesssica-Jane Applegate from City of Norwich Swim Club who broke a world record in the Women’s 800m.

Saturday brought home some fantastic swims in the 200m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 100m Butterfly, 50m Freestyle and 200m breaststroke. The weekend was also a success for swimmers’ personal best swim times as Naomie Ayrton improved her 200m Freestyle time, Tom

23

Sport

Basketball University of Leicester Mens 1st

Lacrosse Loughborough University Womens 3rd University of East Anglia Mens 1st Badminton Nottingham Trent Womens 1st

University of Warwick Mens 2nd Golf University of Birmingham Mixed 4th

8th March 2016

Arckle improved his 50m breastroke and Rikke Nagell-Kleven did the same in the 100m Butterfly. Saturday ended with an amazing swim from the girls in the Medley Relay - Alison Binns, Sarah O’Brien, Rikke Nagell-Kleven and Esme Bathe.

The women performed excellently, making the A Final for the Medley relay -pushing them up to compete on the Sunday against the likes of Loughborough, Bath and other top universities. The men once again swam well too, making the B final in their medley relay.

Sunday garnered even more success for UEA -Rikke Nagell-Kleven making a final in her 50m Fly after some fantastic swims from her this weekend. George Evans, Ewan Laign and especially Rhian Mather deserve exceptional credit for their performance and swims on Sunday.

This year has been tough on UEA swimming -the coach resigned in November and have only just managed to appoint someone new, so these successes and amazing swims are all down to the swimmers and the dedication and hard work they have put in despite the lack of a coach.

For many of those who can often be found with their faces planted firmly in the back pages of their preferred paper, the term eSports is more likely to elicit snorts of incredulity than intrigue. Although I personally see the term as a misnomer that has done the field more harm than good, whether the discipline is a sport or not is a debate that is far too well-worn to have here.

Besides, after recent doping and matchfixing scandals, eSports seems to have garnered the requisite deleterious outward trappings of most mainstream sports.

The doping saga that hampered the eSports world last April would appear somewhat a little unfamiliar in practice to the likes of Gatlin and Armstrong. A widely known professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player by the name of Kory Friesen admitted offhand, and more or less unprompted, that his entire team, Cloud9, and most professional players, were doping. It was refreshing to come across a professional at such a high level being so truculently candour and at odds with the anodyne PR-friendly approach usually taken by sportsmen. Less encouraging was the culture of Adderall abuse, a medication prescribed to sufferers of Attention Deficit Disorder, Friesen purported to reveal as apparently prevalent in the eSports community.

These revelations led the Electronics Sports League (ESL) to indulge in some rather necessary soul searching, with spokesperson Anna Rozwandowicz saying: “We’ve known for some time that

Veteran Starcraft champion Lee Seung Hyung, better known as “Life”, arrested for matchfixing, Photo: Wikimedia, Kevin Chang performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) would be a challenge we would need to face eventually as the professionalism and stakes

Norwich City show some promise in recent defeats James Chesson Sport Editor Norwich City are in deep relegation trouble.

The Canaries have not won a Premier League game since 2nd January when they beat Southampton 1-0. Since then, their record is one draw and nine defeats. Add to that the fact that Norwich have the joint worst defensive record in the league, having conceded 54 goals, which only Sunderland have matched, our local team is in real danger.

There have been positives in the two most recent defeats, however. In the 1-0 defeat at Leicester, Alex Neil’s side showed a solid defensive display for 88 minutes, which was only ruined by one late lapse in concentration that saw Leonardo Ulloa unmarked in the sixyard box to tap home a cross. Norwich could even have won that game with a little luck, as Cameron Jerome and Nathan Redmond both came close to scoring.

Against Chelsea, Norwich fell to a 2-1 loss.

A failure to close down Kennedy led to the makeshift left-back having far too much space to fire in a shot from the edge of the box. The second Chelsea goal was purely bad luck, as Diego Costa was in an offside position when the ball was played through to him, so that goal should not have counted. Norwich fought back well though, and Cameron Jerome should have scored with a volley from six yards out that hit the crossbar. They did pull

a goal back when Redmond slammed a shot in at the near post from a tight angle, after a precise through ball from Wes Hoolahan.

The formation of playing with three central defenders shows promise. It allows Robbie Brady to get forward more frequently to put crosses in, and means that there are always at least three players defending. They certainly need to concentrate more when

9

The number of games Norwich City have gone without a win since a 1-0 win over Southampton in early January

defending though, to avoid the lapses that have led to two consecutive defeats despite good performances in those games.

Norwich still are not scoring enough goals to be able to concede as many as they do.

However, the like of Hoolahan, Redmond and Steven Naismith are all capable of creating or scoring a goal. If the defence can tighten up, Alex Neil’s side may be able to sneak enough 1-0 victories to ensure survival.

A potential saviour for Norwich is the ineptitude of the teams around them.

Newcastle are level with the Canaries on 24 points, and Sunderland are only just above them on 25. None of these teams have shown signs that they will be able to escape their own relegation struggles any time soon. With nine games to go, Norwich’s Premire League survival battle continues.

increased across the board in eSports”. The ESL has since undertaken a partnership with Nationale Anti-Doping Agentur, Germany’s

anti-doping agency, to create policy that combats the presence of PEDs, whilst “respecting the privacy of players”, and

has enlisted the rather harried World AntiDoping Agency in order to help roll out this policy across the globe.

Real-time strategy game Starcraft’s recent match fixing scandal is far more interesting than the usual workaday news you hear from a medium whose players are often (and often mistakenly) tarred with the perception of being indolent and diffident.

This January, legendary 19 year-old Starcraft veteran Lee Seung Hyung, better known as “Life”, was arrested for participating in match-fixing in numerous professional tournaments. Starcraft is as much an industry as a sport in South Korea, with Life having netted £336,050 in prize money alone over his five-year career. The office that is investigating Life is the same that last year arrested the coach of high-profile Starcraft team PRIME and several of its members for match fixing. eSports has the scandal, it certainly has the money (the collective prize pot of the International, the annual DOTA 2 tournament, came in at a healthy $18m) and it has the corporate interest. This January, the prosperous publishers of the Call of Duty series, Activision Blizzard, purchased tournament organiser and online streaming service Major League Gaming (MLG), hot off the hells of their acquisitions of Candy Crush makers King last November. This came after Activision announced the development of its new eSports division last October, and in fact hired MLG co-founder Mike Sepso. Although it should be noted that the $46m this deal cost Activision Blizzard is chump change relative to the $5.9 billion the King acquisition cost, Chief Executive Bobby Kotick’s desire to “create the ESPN of eSports” is symptomatic of the immense financial gain to be had in the

eSports world. (Incidentally ESPN, already dedicate a sizeable amount of coverage to eSports, meanign that ESPN is the “ESPN of eSports”).

So if eSports is just as fettered by corporate money grubbing and scandal as the sports that usually grace the back pages, why does it not have the mainstream acceptance? The most obvious answer is accessibility: if you thought the BBC had a tough job explaining the rules of NFL every time they broadcast, you should see how hard it is for commentators on Dota (a multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Valve Corporation) to strike the right balance between commentary that plays to both veteran and newcomer.

When it comes to audience accessibility it is necessary to examine what is generally considered the greatest eSports moment in the discipline’s short history. It involved an unbelievably improbable last-ditch comeback by legendary Street Fighter player Daigo, at the annual fighting game tournament EVO in 2004. Spine tingling though the audience reaction is, the moment’s significance is utterly incomprehensible to the average viewer without a detailed explanation of the mechanics of highlevel Street Fighter play. All that said, does eSports really need mainstream acceptance?

Most fans of pro-gaming (who aren’t half as obsessive as you might think) would say no, and when approximately an estimated 71,500,000 people watched eSports in 2013 alone, it seems wilfully ignorant to call the discipline niche.

Professional gaming may be a sport of mouse-clicks rather than spot-kicks, but it is here, and nomenclature be damned, it looks to be staying a while.

Infantino elected new Fifa president Isabelle Wilson Sport writer After a 17-year reign of terror Sepp Blatter and Fifa were finally forced to part ways, and on 26th February Gianni Infantino was voted in as the new President of Fifa. Infantino, the Uefa general secretary, narrowly beat Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa over two rounds of voting.

He has placed a great emphasis on the reforming on Fifa in the wake of the corruption scandals stating “I want to work with all of you together in order to restore and rebuild a new era of Fifa where we can again put football at the centre of the stage.”

It seems that Fifa are doing all that they can to reinvent themselves in the wake of numerous scandals. On the same day Infantino was voted in Fifa passed a series of new reforms. These include limiting a Fifa president to three terms in office, and ensuring that at least one of the elected council members per confederation must be female.

Infantino has been met with predominantly positive reviews. Gary Lineker and Luis Figo, both very outspoken critics of the former president, tweeted their joy at a new start and gave their support for Infantino.

There is no doubt that much needs to be done to change public opinion of the footballing body. In the days leading up the Fifa’s presidential vote both Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini both had their bans from football-related activities upheld, but saw

them reduced from eight to six years. Both remain adamant that they are innocent and Blatter maintains the ban is a politically motivated attempt to keep him from retaining his Fifa presidency.

In December last year the pair were found guilty of a “disloyal payment” of £1.3m made to Platini. Both contest that the payment fulfilled an “oral agreement”, but the Fifa ethics committee rejected the claims.

Whether or not Blatter and Platini are telling the truth, the entire ordeal, paired with the arrest of several high profile Fifa members last year on corruption scandals, has left Infantino with a very large mess to clear up. The replacement of Blatter alone will certainly do good things for Fifas image, as will the replacement of the council and the new reforms. But it will likely be a long time until Fifa is thought of as a trustworthy organisation and Infantino will have to work incredibly hard to persuade people that they are truly changing.

Even the presidential bids were not entirely without controversy. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein’s campaign for the presidency has been perpetually marred by accusations of human rights breaches, and past vote-buying.

It seems that the organisation cannot stay away from drama.

However, new-blood is certainly a positive starting point. It gives Fifa a chance for a complete image overhaul, and cutting ties from Blatter was certainly long overdue.

Infantino is certainly saying all the right things, but he is not entirely without personal

Newly elected Fifa President, Swiss Gianni Infantino Photo: Flickr, Piotr Drabik connections to the shamed Blatter and Platini.

Himself and Platini worked closely together at Uefa, and after his election Infantino stated that he had “strong thoughts, dear thoughts for Platini.” Infantino coincidentally lives under six miles from Blatter’s hometown in Switzerland.

Although Infantino is not entirely separate form his predecessors, there is still hope that he can lead Fifa out a dark and corrupt year. Hopefully the institution will once again become something sports fans can believe in.

Lets just hope Blatter and Infantino don’t patronise the same Swiss newsagents.

Sport 8th March 2016 Issue 323

eSports Scandal Drugs, lies and match fixing >P22

Norwich Premiere League survival battle continues >P23

UEA Royal’s Dance Society meets match in Manchester Phoebe Johnson Sport writer

UEA Royal, the dynamic and talented dance society, have returned from the University of Manchester Dance Competition more determined than ever.

The Royal dancers were eager to take part in their first competition of the year organised by the University of Manchester at the Central Convention Complex on the weekend of the 27th of February. University dance squads from all over the UK stepped up to show off their skills, and UEA wowed the crowd with their ceaseless energy and innovative moves.

Royal entered three different squads into the advanced category, contemporary, jazz, and hip hop.

With just three minutes in a dedicated space off stage to prepare, the groups were feeling the heat. However, as soon as the crew went up on stage, member of the hip hop squad, Darcie Caines, said that they were welcomed by a great atmosphere and a supportive crowd with chanting and lots of whooping from all the other universities.

“As soon as we were on stage and the music started”, Darcie told us, “all nerves flew out the window, and we just had fun dancing together like we do in rehearsals. We hadn’t seen the other squads from UEA perform yet,

UEA Royal’s Contemporary Squad performing ‘Escape From War’, Photo: Holly Mason so watching it for the first time on stage in full costume was amazing. It showed how hard everyone had worked and as a society we should be really proud”.

The dancers had been working tirelessly on their routines since November, which

has been admirable, especially for the choreographers who are all in their third year.

Jess Journo and Ellie Sears were the innovative minds behind ‘Freaks’, the circus inspired jazz number. Francis Varela choreographed the aptly named “Exuberance!!!”, as Isabella

Pike and Maisie Fuller created a gripping contemporary piece titled: “Escape From War”.

Francis admitted that the process has been stressful at times, but said it had all been worth it. The competition also welcomed groups from other genres of dance too, including Irish and even Bollywood. These ‘wild card’ performances proved popular with the UEA dancers, and made their experience in the audience even more memorable.

Last year UEA Royal performed at EUDMS in Edinburgh, where hip-hop won the beginners category and impressively ended up winning the top spot in advanced and intermediate as well. Unfortunately, this year in Manchester, Royal didn’t place. The Mancs snatched most of the titles.

It wasn’t all bad luck for the UEA dance troop. Francis Varela from Hip Hop and Aoi Fuchigami from the Contemporary squad were both nominated for best dancer of the entire competition.

UEA Royal may have come home empty handed this time, but they have returned better than ever and ready for their next performance in Loughborough, where they will be entering into the advanced category.

The competition is set for the weekend of the 12th march, giving the dancers just a few more days of rehearsal until they hit the stage again

Local residents outraged at plans for Norwich Rugby Club to share pitches with UEA sports clubs

Joe Fitzsimmons Sport writer News that the Norwich Rugby Club will move towards a plan to share pitches with UEA sports clubs, which would require the building of a 284-space car park on land adjacent to the university has angered local residents.

The proposals, which have been formulating since the Rugby club were forced to relocate from their previous home at Beeston Hyrne in Spixworth due to a housing development, highlight the land off of Colney Lane as a potential new home.

The development would include new multi-purpose sports pitches, as well as a newly built club-house on the land. It would also require the leveling of an area of land in the river valley for the construction of a large capark, which would decrease the available green space close to the university campus.

Supporters of the partnership argue that the building of the car park will prevent users of the facility from parking on Colney Lane, which would result in congestion and

increased parking difficulty for residents.

However, opponents have raised concerns that the proposed two-way access road to the facilities will create difficulties for cyclists around the university campus.

Local campaigners have also criticised the move as one which could destroy the rural aspect of the area, a problem which could be further exacerbated without the proper regulations and management of the facilities.

In protest, a number of local residence and environmental campaigners have launched an online petition objecting to the proposals, with many voicing their concerns directly to Norwich City Council.

As of yet, no environmental impact assessment has been released as part of planning permission documents to the general public, and it remains unclear as to the extent the construction will impact the rural land.

Details as to the exact nature of the relationship between the university and the Norwich Rugby Club are still unclear. It is uncertain to what degree UEA students will be allowed access to the facilities, or whether the university will be compensated for its work with the club.

Photo: Billy-May Jones for Concrete