Fortnightly 30th April 2018 Issue 327 Winner of Best Publication and Best Use of Digital Media 2017
University of Bristol’s Independent Student Newspaper
Bristol ranked third most unequal university in country for intake of rich and poor students Ed Southgate Comment Editor
Continued on page 3...
Arts
Epigram / Alexia Kirov
The University of Bristol has been ranked the third worst university to admit an equal balance of rich and poor students, a new report by the Higher Education Policy Institute has found. The report, ‘Benchmarking widening participation: how should we measure and report progress?’ by Anglia Ruskin University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Martin, found that the University of Cambridge was the worstperforming whilst the University of Hull was the most equal. Ranking third worst, the University of Bristol fell below universities such as Oxford, Durham, and UCL. Bristol sat around many Russell Group universities, which overwhelmingly were the worst performing for economic equality. Cameron Scheijde, Online Comment Editor at Epigram and Second Year Politics & International Relations student, said: ‘It’s a damning indictement for Bristol’s accessibility policies but the figures reflect badly on the Russell group as a whole, rather than just Bristol itself. ‘The fact that hardly any Russel group institutions sat near the top demonstrates how ingrained a lot of wealth inequality continues to be in the country - as long as the majority of students in Russell Group institutions come from private schools, the inequality stats will continue to look bad for the UK’s top Universities!. The analysis uses the POLAR system, which divides areas into five groups (quintiles) based on the number of young people going to university. Professor Martin concluded: ‘Why does this matter? If innate talent and capability were distributed evenly across the population then, consequently, in an ideal world students from all areas would be distributed evenly across institutions with different characteristics. ‘If this premise is true, and I would argue that it is, then all universities should be drawing equally from each POLAR quintile. Indeed, you would not need POLAR quintiles at all as they would all be identical in terms of higher education participation.’
Accommodation rent to rise by 4% next year Rent for those living in University of Bristol halls of residence will increase by 4% next year, ‘in line with inflation’, according to the University’s website. The cost of accommodation in Bristol will increase once again with inflation for the 2018/19 academic year.
At Wills Hall, an en-suite room will set you back £8215.62 per year - or £195.61 per week. This year, the rent was £184.98 per week. An ensuite in Badock will set you back even more at £8424.36 a year. The most expensive is Chuchill Hall where the top priced en-suite room in The Holmes is £8605.38 per year - or £204.89 per week. This year these rooms were £197.01 per week, which means this the first time standard hall of residence rooms (exluding studio appartments) have crossed the £200 per week threshold.
Science & Tech
Features
Cameron Scheijde Online Comment Editor
The cheapest rooms on campus are also increasing in price - a shared self-catered room on St. Michael’s Park or Woodland Road is going up to £90.45 per week, an increase from last year’s £86.94 per week. The University of Bristol residence team said ‘In line with inflation (RPI), rents for University residences will be rising by four per cent on average for 2018/19.’ Continued on page 3...
Living
Evy Tang’s experience with
A reason to be cheerful: Ollie
Emily Hayman’s
wavy world of
women’s coding iniative
Smith interviews Ed Miliband
fierce festival
hallucinogenic art
CodeFirst
before his podcast
guide
Page 39
Page 15
Page 8
www.epigram.org.uk
EpigramPaper
@EpigramPaper
@epigrampaper_
Page 18
Epigram / Emily Hayman
Epigram / Ritu Patel
A trip into the
Download our app!