Rejecting the beaten path: Exeposé Travel Special Escape Exeter this summer with Lifestyle’s travel tips (pages 1213) and Books’ holiday reads (pages 20-21)
The University of Exeter’s Independent Student Newspaper
Since 1987
Tuesday 4 June 2013 • Issue 610 • www.exepose.ex.ac.uk • Twitter: @Exepose • www.facebook.com/Exepose
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Student Students express concern over racially queueing clubbers NEWS, PAGE 3 assaulted at Quay Photo: Joshua Irwandi
CROSSING THE LINE?
• Proposed plans suggest demolishing half of campus • Guild unaware of plans • Proposals found by student
Jon Jenner Editor A STUDENT has been physically assaulted in the Quay car park, in an attack that was seemingly racially motivated. The student, a British national of Chinese origin, was punched in the head by a local young woman that was reportedly calling her a “four-eyed Ch***y bitch”. The woman managed to punch the student numerous times and pull on her hair before the two were separated. After being spotted by CCTV in the Quay car park, the woman was arrested by police and spent a night in the cells. At the time of writing, the student intends to press charges, and the case could go to court due to the racist implications of the attack.
EXCLUSIVE Harrison Jones and Tom Elliott Online News Editors
£500k fee for Russell Group Owen Keating News Editor THE FOUR newest members of the Russell Group have each agreed to pay a joining fee of £500,000. A Freedom of Information submitted by Times Higher Education revealed that each university has agreed to pay an extra £100,000 annually over the next five years in order to join the group, which they became part of last August. The four institutions, Exeter, Queen Mary, Durham and York, all announced in March that they were leaving the 1994 Group to join the more prestigious Russell Group. Their joining fees mean that their annual subscriptions to the Group over the next five years will be £159,000, compared to the £22,000 paid
by members of the 1994 Group. A spokeswoman for the Russell Group said that the joining fees had been sought “to cover the one-off costs of the expansion and in recognition of the investment...made by existing members when developing the organisation”. The Russell Group has 15 full-time staff, and encompasses 24 universities. The 1994 Group now has only 11 members, after St. Andrews, Bath, Surrey and Reading all withdrew following Exeter and co.’s decision to move to the Russell Group. Some have criticised the quartet’s decision to pay the Russell Group’s joining fee. Rob Cuthbert, professor of higher education management at the University of the West of England, told Times Higher Education that “clubs [for] rich universities” were “like shops where if
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you have to ask the price you can’t afford it”. Cuthbert added that “the new members of the Russell Group obviously think it is worth diverting nearly 60 student fees from teaching and learning to advertise their exclusivity”, and that “the surprise is not so much the price but that the Russell Group chose to make itself less exclusive”. A spokesman for the University of Exeter said: “Membership of the Russell Group is a brand asset for the University which also benefits our students. It means that Exeter is recognised as being amongst some of the best Universities in the UK, which has a positive effect on the quality of research and teaching as well as the employment prospects for our graduates. We believe it is well worth the cost of joining.”
Matthew Bugler, a second year English student, said that “the fact that an Exeter spokesman said belonging to the Russell Group is a ‘brand asset’ says all we need to know about the purpose of joining. Exeter University may have some of the country’s best researchers and lecturers but does it really need to spend so much money on its image?” Nick Davies, Guild President, said: “One of the key benefits of Russell Group membership is the enhancement of the University’s reputation and related improvement in future student prospects. Given the significant increase in student fees, it is important to understand the real return on investment from membership of the Russell Group and whether it is worth more than addressing key issues for students such as hidden course costs or improved teaching facilities.”
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“It was an absolute shock to my family, friends and I that racial attacks could occur in such an ethnically diverse area like Exeter” The affected student Based on Exeter’s Tremough campus, the student was in Exeter visiting her boyfriend, also a student at the University. On their way to visiting the Quay, they were stopped by four men and a woman sitting on either side of the path. The group, drinking cider, asked the pair about the Islamist attacks in London, and if they would join in with rioting if “the Muslims started”. After replying that they didn’t know and moving away from CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 FIND US ONLINE AT
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