Full freshers

“Unite against the accommodation fees crisis”

Comment discusses rising fees p. 5

Azeem Ward talks fame, fluting and flaming hot Nandos Interview with Indigo Features p. 8

Durham’s independent student newspaper

Palatinate

No. 775

Wednesday 7th October 2015| FREE

www.palatinate.org.uk

College mascots of all shapes and sizes get ready to get ready to welcome the Durham Freshers of 2015/16

Photograph: Durham University

Durham shines in summer of success Ryan Gould News Editor Durham University heads into the new academic year having obtained its highest ever position in a prominent world ranking table.

The recent publication of the QS World University Rankings 201516 saw Durham rise more than 30 places to 61st, marking the University’s highest ever global ranking since establishing itself in the

World Top 100 in 2010.

The QS World University Rankings combines academic reputation, employer reputation, the ratio of academic staff to students, citations per faculty, and the ratios of international staff and students of global universities to formulate its league table.

Ranked 92nd last year, the University’s new position reflects a fairer emphasis on its research citations across the broad subject

areas.

Durham’s research influence within global academia saw it ranked 54th in the world for citations — a key element of the rankings, measuring how often other researchers make reference to the University’s research work.

For its Arts and Humanities, Durham placed 44th in the world, while Natural Sciences (joint 57th) and Social Sciences and Management (joint 86th) also broke into

the top 100.

The University’s Geography department continues to showcase itself as one of the world’s leading Geography departments, securing fifth place globally. English Studies was also ranked as 36th globally.

The University’s reputation among the world’s leading employers for the quality of, and international demand for, its graduates also remained strong, achieving 31st globally in the cat-

egory of employer reputation.

Professor Stuart Corbridge, Vice Chancellor of Durham University, said that the University’s strong performance in the table “reflects the fact that Durham deserves to be ranked so highly and is a credit to everyone at the University in helping us to achieve this outstanding result.”

Continued on page 3

2

www.palatinate.org.uk

Editorial

Welcome to Durham’s independent student newspaper Congratulations! If you’re reading this, the chances are that you’ve overcome the stress of submitting a UCAS application, the trauma of exams, and a long, tense summer holiday to arrive here, Durham.

Understandably, the prospect of leaving home for the first time and moving to a new city, with people that you’ve never met before, can be a bit daunting.

But it’s also a fantastic adventure and I, like most third years, wish I was in your shoes.

It’s often said that your University years are some of the best of your life. It’s a time to meet new people, try new experiences and create fantastic memories in a wonderful new city.

You’ve certainly come to the right University. And you’ve come at just the right time.

This year’s National Student Survey revealed that Durham students continue to be among the most satisfied in the country – with 90% of them declaring themselves satisfied with the quality of their courses.

Meanwhile, Durham has also just cemented its status as one of the world’s top 100 universities, rising 30 places

to 61st in the QS World University Rankings.

Closer to home, the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide places Durham as the 5th best University in the country.

This news – coupled with the appointment of new Vice Chancellor – has understandably led to an air of optimism around Durham.

And this extends to Palatinate, too.

We’re delighted to have been able to appoint some of Durham’s most talented students on to our editorial board over the summer.

They join the rich and illustrious history of Palatinate, and we’re looking forward to celebrating that history over the coming year by digitalising every single one of the 775 editions of the paper.

You’ll be able to delve into the past to read the work of former editors Hunter Davies, George Alagiah and Strictly Come Dancing’s very own Jeremy Vine.

Although we’re keen to honour the heritage of the paper, we also want to look forward and move into the future.

We’re hoping that over the comings weeks we’ll be able to do this, with a full website redesign set to take place on

www.palatinate.org.uk.

With these developments in place, we feel optimistic about the year ahead.

But, we need your help.

Edition after edition, the work of student contributors helps us to carry on producing high quality, original journalism.

If you’re a budding writer, editor, photographer or illustrator, then what are you waiting for? Contributing to Palatinate is a fantastic way to get your work recognised by the student body.

Come along to our Welcome Drinks at 7.30pm on Thursday 15th October at the Boat Club, where you’ll get the opportunity to meet our section editors and learn how to contribute to the paper.

We hope that you’ll get involved with Palatinate, either as a contributor or as a reader. But, whatever you do with yout time at Durham, we wish you the very best of luck.

Henry Clare

Wednesday 7th October 2015 | PALATINATE

Inside 775

Editorial Board

News pages 3-4

Editors-in-Chief Henry Clare and Josh Smith editor@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Editor Sandy Thin deputy.editor@palatinate.org.uk News Editors Daniel Fox and Ryan Gould news@palatinate.org.uk News Features Editor Siena Morrell news.features@palatinate.org.uk Deputy News Editors Mirriam Brittenden, Jasper Cox and Charlie Taylor-Kroll deputy.news@palatinate.org.uk Politics Editors Sofya Grebenkina and Rob Littleton politics@palatinate.org.uk Profile Editors Will Fremont-Barnes and Oliver Mawhinney profile@palatinate.org.uk Science and Technology Editor Bruno Martin scitech@palatinate.org.uk Comment Editor Alex Cupples comment@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Comment Editors Ellie Mullan and Oscar Rocklin deputy.comment@palatinate.org.uk Sport Editor Kieran Moriarty sport@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Sport Editors Charles Richardson, Matt Roberts and Kishan Vaghela deputy.sport@palatinate.org.uk Indigo Editors Patrick Brennan and Sraddha Venkataraman indigo@palatinate.org.uk Features Editor Ellen Finch feature@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Features Editor Cristina Cusenza deputy.features@palatinate.org.uk Food and Drink Editors Adrian Chew and Charlotte Payne food@palatinate.org.uk Travel Editor Megan Thorpe travel@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Travel Editor Laura Glenister deputy.travel@palatinate.org.uk Fashion Editor Sally Hargave fashion@palatinate.org.uk Film and Television Editor Rory McInnes-Gibbons film@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Film and Television Editor Hugo Camps-Harris deputy.film@palatinate.org.uk Stage Editor Isabelle Culkin stage@palatinate.org.uk Music Editors Jacqueline Duan and Will Throp music@palatinate.org.uk Creative Writing Editor Celeste Yeo creative.writing@palatinate.org.uk Books Editors Hannah Griffiths and Ellie Scorah books@palatinate.org.uk Visual Arts Editor Jane Simpkiss visual.arts@palatinate.org.uk Chief Sub-Editor Marianna Mukhametzyanova sub-editing@palatinate.org.uk Sub-Editors Sarah Boreham, Ollie Mair, Ciara Murphy, Maddy Winnard and Becky Wilson Online Editor Jessie Honnor online.editor@palatinate.org.uk Web Editor John Morris web.editor@palatinate.org.uk Photography Editor Venus Loi photography@palatinate.org.uk Deputy Photography Editors Verity Rimmer and Grace Tseng photography@palatinate.org.uk Illustrations Editor Mariam Hayat illustration@palatinate.org.uk Events and Publicity Officer Morgan Hayden-Kent publicity@palatinate.org.uk Advertising Officer Jess Sham advertising@palatinate.org.uk

Comment page 5 SciTech page 6

Politics pages 10-11 Sport page 12

indigo

Features page 8 Fashion page 9 Stage page 10

Get involved!

Interested in joining the Palatinate team? No experience neccessary! Come along to our welcome drinks at 19.30 on Wednesday 15th October at the Boat Club for more information on how to get involved.

Writers

To write for us, email the editor of the section you’re interested in and ask to be placed on their mailing list.

Alternately, you can contact editors with your own story ideas.

Photographers

Palatinate’s photography team needs new contributors. To find out more, email our Photography Editor at photography@palatinate.org. uk.

The best of Palatinate Online www.palatinate.org.uk

Comment: The Durham Union Society was naive

Profile: Palatinate speaks to Tim Farron

Politics: Refugees and the limits of liberal multiculturalism

Stage: Amy Schumer: not the only funny female comic

Holly Bancroft condemns The Durham Union Society’s decision to publicise a debate on Islam with a picture of ISIS killers.

Will Fremont-Barnes talks to Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron: “We need to elect someone who can write the next chapter in our party’s history”

Dominic Birch analyses how the refugee crisis has been dealt with in the media this summer

Sofya Grebenkina writes about the place of female comics in the industry.

Palatinate is published by Durham Students’ Union on a fortnightly basis during term and is editorially independent. All contributors and editors are full-time students at Durham University. Send letters to: Editor, Palatinate, Durham Students’ Union, Dunelm House, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3AN. Alternatively, send an e-mail to editor@palatinate.org.uk

3

PALATINATE | Wednesday 7th October 2015

News

www.palatinate.org.uk

Professor Corbridge takes up role as Vice Chancellor Ryan Gould News Editor Aside from a new cohort of freshers, the University is also extending its welcome to a new Vice Chancellor and Warden this year.

Joining from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he served as Deputy Director and Provost, Professor Stuart Corbridge took up his role as Durham University’s 24th Vice Chancellor and Warden on 1 September.

Professor Corbridge’s appointment marks the first time in Durham’s history that both staff and students were consulted in the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor.

“I am sure that my diary will soon be full of college formals, lectures, concerts, theatrical performances and sports events, and other opportunities to observe – and support – our richly talented student body,” Professor Corbridge wrote in an email to students.

“I know that Durham is a very special university. As well as being a world top 100 university with an impressive research portfolio and excellent teaching

“

Going forward there will be challenges for us to work through together

”

standards, our staff, students, colleges, departments, estate, and traditions all combine to make this a wonderful place to study, work and live.

“At the same time, it is clear that I am joining Durham at a time of especially rapid change in the higher education sector, both nationally and globally.

“Going forward there will be challenges for us to work through together.”

Students might expect Professor Corbridge to confront the issue of rising college accommodation fees, following recent protests — staged by Durham Students for University Reform (DSUR) — at University Open Days, warning students that they “will be stuck in a system of spiraling college rents.”

Photograph: Durham University Standard, catered college accommodation will cost £6,819 in the 2015/16 academic year, marking a 14.5% increase in accommodation fees since the 2013/14 academic year where the same let cost £5,995.

The University said in a statement to Palatinate that “Any accommodation price increases are proposed by Scholarship, Fees and Awards Advisory Group (SFAAG) — where there is student and College representation — to the University Executive Committee (UEC), mindful of predicted costs and the wider market.

“Durham University students continue to enjoy the benefits of a collegiate experience at halls of residence prices.”

At the same time, new research published by MoneySuperMarket last month found that Durham is the UK’s best value university, with Exeter and St Andrews ranked second and third respectively.

According to the study, Durham has the second cheapest accommodation costs at £102 per week, while Warwick was found to be only £9 cheaper at £93 per week. The cost of a pint in Durham was found to be £2.10, less than half the cost in Surrey at £5.25.

Durham SU restructuring to focus on “centralising administrative and support functions”

“

Ryan Gould News Editor The “major restructuring” of the Durham Students’ Union (Durham SU) is to concentrate on “centralising most of [its] administrative and support functions,” Palatinate has learned.

Durham SU announced that it would be restructured in a “fresh new approach” on 3rd September. It said a “pioneering new structure” will allow them to gain a “better understanding of the needs and wants of Durham University students.”

Paddy Reilly, Chief Executive of Durham Students’ Union, told Palatinate in a statement that centralising most of Durham SU’s administrative and support functions “will result in a more efficient and responsive service.”

He further stated that Durham SU is seeking to “directly involve more students” in the work and running of the Union, as it will

...will result in a more efficient and responsive service

Photograph: Durham Students’ Union

“equip students with more of the skills they will need in their future careers.

“We will provide staff support to guide, mentor, and advise those

students,” Mr Reilly said.

The Union’s initial announcement also indicated its intention to implement “a new and relevant staffing structure,”

”

whereby all affected staff members were “invited to apply for new positions.”

Some existing staff members continue to work in their existing roles as part of the new structure.

In his statement, Mr Reilly reaffirmed that affected staff members whose jobs were “at risk” were invited to apply for new roles. “All five employees who applied [for a new role] secured a new role.”

“The total number of employees — excluding student staff — will increase by one to 23.”

Continued from front page “I am particularly proud and pleased that we have scored highly in terms of citations, demonstrating the impact and influence of our research amongst the global academic community,” Professor Corbridge said.

“I’m also delighted that once again the world-class experience we offer to students has been recognised by leading employers who value the quality and strength of our graduates, ranking us among the best in the world for employer reputation.”

Durham also reaffirmed its status as a leading world university last week, as it climbed 17 places to 70th place in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2015-16.

Similar to the QS World Rankings, THE ranks the world’s leading universities according to five different categories: teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income.

Durham rose credibly in the categories of teaching and research, where it is placed among the world’s leading institutions, and continues to perform strongly within the categories of citations and international outlook.

The University’s achievements in both the THE and QS world rankings charts its earlier success this year in securing a place in the THE World Reputation Review’s top 100 for reputation, based on the world’s largest invitation-only survey of academic opinion.

Phil Baty, Editor of the THE World University Rankings, said: “The results are trusted by students and their families, academics, university leaders, and governments.”

“For Durham University to make 70 in the world is an outstanding achievement to be celebrated,” he remarked.

Professor Corbridge further stated that “the significant rises [the University] has made in the THE and the QS world rankings reflect the strength of Durham’s position globally and highlight the world class experience on offer at the University.

“These rankings are a credit to everyone at the University in helping us to achieve these outstanding results.”

Separately, The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016 ranked Durham as the UK’s fifth best university — up one place from last year — while being shortlisted for The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year award for 2016.

Durham was ranked eighth for its graduate prospects in the UK.

P

For more news follow @PalatinateNews

4

News

Wednesday 7th October 2015 | PALATINATE

www.palatinate.org.uk

Increase in student numbers likely, University says

Daniel Fox News Editor In conversation with Palatinate, the University has said that it is looking at increasing student numbers in coming years.

This comes after this summer’s decision by the government to lift the cap on the number of students Universities can accept.

Nationwide there was a record 409,000 people taking up University places this summer, an increase of 3% on last year.

Professor Tom Ward, Pro-ViceChancellor (Education), spoke to Palatinate about the University’s plans for expansion.

“In common with many UK universities operating in a competitive global higher education market, Durham is considering a long term growth agenda and has modelled options for an increase in student numbers.”

He was clear that any increase would be matched with “the appropriate investment in staffing and infrastructure” and that students would “continue to receive a first-class experience both academically and within [their] colleges.”

It is not yet known the exact increase in student numbers at Durham this year*, but the University has confirmed that “there has been a small increase in the University intake.”

In his statement, Professor Ward assured Palatinate that the University’s “entry standards have remained very high and undergraduates will benefit from the usual excellent student experience.”

He also reaffirmed that the growth agenda was a “work in progress” and that “no decisions

“

...entry standards have remained very high and undergraduates will benefit from the usual excellent student experience

”

Photograph: Durham University have been made.”

He stressed that the plans would “need to be fully considered through our governance system, including but not limited to Senate and council, on which there is student representation.”

Reaction to the lifting of the cap has been mixed amongst experts and the student body.

Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of The Russell Group, expressed concern “that the government has chosen to put additional taxpayer’s money into growing student numbers so substantially.”

She outlined The Russell Group’s view that “quality higher education should be prioritised over quantity, especially in times of limited funding.”

Palatinate spoke to the executives of DULC (Durham University Labour Club), DUCA (Durham University Conservative Association) and Durham Young Greens about the decision to lift the cap and the implications it would have for Durham students.

Rhys Tanner, President of DUCA, called the cap “arbitrary” and argued that the lifting of it would make “university education more accessible.”

“This is social mobility in action,” he contended.

“I really struggle to see opposition to this.”

“How can you support restricting access to higher education - a vessel of self-development and a key tenet of global success?”

Jade Frances Azim, Co-Chair of DULC, was in partial disagreement.

“Expanded access is always a good thing. But this comes hand in hand with an uncapping of fees, so the access argument is beginning to disintegrate.”

However, she stressed that she hoped the lifting of the cap might encourage a broader range of students to apply to study at Durham. “ We need more working class applicants to open up the Durham experience.

“If this lifting of the cap helps with that...then it can only prove positive.”

Jamie Penston Raja, President of Durham Young Greens, criticised the lifting of the cap, arguing that it would not make university education more accessible.

“Rather than focussing on broadening access to education, this further delegitimizes other forms of further and higher education that we need.

“When we now have 58.8% of graduates now in non-graduate jobs, we are over-saturating the

market with graduates.

“With private school students still over-represented at university level, the answer is not to have more students overall but to have a more representative student

“

Rather than focussing on broadening access to education, this further delegitimises other forms of further and higher education

”

body.

They were also in disagreement about the impact the policy would have on the quality of student experience at Durham.

Jamie argued that the policy was “a continuation of the privatisation of higher education” and that it could increase the pressures on student accommodation.

“With accommodation already stretched, the logistics of housing these students, without increasing the divide between students and locals who can no longer afford to live here, also poses a problem.”

Jade called for the University to implement policies to help tackle the increasing pressures on student accommodation.

“We don’t want to keep buying properties.

“The University needs to ensure a greater autonomy over private tenancies, including rent caps.”

Rhys dismissed concerns that the lifting of the cap could impact on the quality of student experience at Durham.

“This will not damage the function of universities as research institutions.

“We need a highly educated workforce to fuel growth and prosperity - this process will flourish as the government lifts this arbitrary cap on aspiration.”

*The University was unable to give information on the 2015 admissions cycle as it is still currently active.

PALATINATE | Wednesday 7th October 2015

5

Comment

www.palatinate.org.uk

This must be the year we take action against the accomodation fee crisis

An above 20% rise in college fees over the past three years threatens to purge out colleges as part of a nationwide student accomodation crisis.

Oliver Mawhinney

The start of a University journey should be a time of great excitement.

However a recent NUS report has emphasised the painful truth that across the country rocketing rents are plunging half of all undergraduates into difficulties when paying their accommodation bills.

Durham has tragically emerged into a microcosm of the national student accommodation crisis: college accommodation fees have risen by 20% over the past three years and students are paying 31% more in private accomodation than non students, the second highest premium in the country.

With a catered standard-let college room now costing £6,819 and the maximum maintenance loan available only £5,500, accommodation fees now yield the most explicit threat to students’ social mobility.

The removal of the cap on student numbers is also stimulating housing demand and the abolition of maintenance grants and an austerity programme that has disproportionately affected the poorest in society threatens to cleanse our collegiate system of less well-off students.

Apologies for the melancholy mood and the absence of the hyperbole smiles that inevitably plastered the influx of college papers you received in the post. I like most Durham students deeply value the collegiate system and can assure you it is the fabric of the unique experience Durham University offers.

Consequently it is of the upmost importance to fight for our colle-

Illustration: Mariam Hayat

giate system to remain affordable and open to all. It is a calamity that in Britain, one of the richest countries in the world, students should be forced to make their university choices not on the quality of education, but the cost of living.

To provide context in the North East: a catered standard-let room in Newcastle costs £4,762 and £5,115 in York. It is thus common that financial decisions will increasingly rise to the forefront in University choices, but this is to the detriment of all of us. Durham retains its reputation because it attracts many of the brightest students and sequentially many of the most acclaimed academics.

The diversity of the University will continue to decline while accommodation fees remain out of reach for so many students. This can only aggravate Durham’s already colossal diversity problem with vastly exaggerated student numbers from private and public schools and a

noticeable lack of BME students.

The University of Durham is the largest landlord in the city and rising college fees enable the private landlords to follow suit: between March 2014 and March 2015 private fees rose over 5%. Tom Walker, Co-Founder of StuRents, describes this as: “the private sector following trend”. Failure to address college accommodation fees will only increase costs for livers out.

Last year major forays were accomplished in the crusade against accommodation fees: a petition by the Durham Student Union (SU) received over 2000 signatures, Durham Students for University Reform (DS4UR) organised hundreds of students for the largest protest in Durham for fourteen years and Open Days were used to expose parents to the issue, in the hope that they would pressure the University in condemning the fee rise.

The accommodation fee protest is a discourse that is greater than just

cost: it is about questioning University officials’ ignorance to the student voice and our lack of prevalence in decision making processes.

It is an opportunity for greater clarity of where our money is going: one third of college fees are invested in borrowing and capital costs- having discovered in a Palatinate investigation that defence contractors, missile developers and petroleum companies all benefit from our feesthis is an area that must come under pressure.

And of course there is still the tone of ambiguity surrounding what exactly ‘non-staff costs’ are which contribute to 5% of college fees.

Yet the University still remains deafened to student opinion on accommodation fees, although last year did provide a reminder of the power of student pressure as the DSU succeeded in their campaign to freeze international student tuition fees.

With the Durham SU and DS4UR in correspondence on a position to freeze college fees for the next two years, a united student body is essential in halting a seemingly endless trajectory.

Since 2010 the student movement has become muzzled, too fragmented with the few of us still engaged, too fixated with the utopian objective of free tuition fees.

T h i s must be the year where students at campuses across the country peacef u l ly demonstrate and attempt to engage in discussion with University officials to halt the destructive

“

Students at Durham are paying the second highest premium in the country

”

spiralling tornado of accommodation fees.

Durham must follow in the footsteps of campaigns at other universities already focussed on making accommodation more affordable to students. Angus O’Brien, Halls and Accommodation representative at UCL and a founder of the ‘Cut the Rent’ campaign says “only 5 years ago, halls in London were, on average, 56% cheaper. It is impossible to see how students from lower income backgrounds could survive as so many are forced to rely on income from other sources, normally parents.” At UCL students have already been working to “roll back the years of unjustified, high increases”.

We must unite in solidarity through our Student Unions, senior and junior common rooms and student campaign groups from our own and other universities to stop accommodation fees rising.

Rising fees are bad for all of us, and are rapidly throttling more students who don’t receive maintenance grants into financial woes, exhausting part-time work and cruel stress for both students and parents.

The momentum we garner in campaigning on our campuses across the country is essential in generating the solidarity to contribute to the national discourse in seeking to introduce rent controls against student accommodation in a market that nationally is increasing entering the private sector.

Hopefully we can make this the year the University finally listen and take action upon our concerns.

P

See more Durham comment at www.palatinate.org.uk

6

SciTech

Wednesday 7th October 2015 | PALATINATE

www.palatinate.org.uk

The effort to understand

Palatinate Sci-Tech Team Welcome to Palatinate SciTech.

We report and analyse the latest scientific findings and technological developments, drawn from both the Durham Community and the International theatre of discovery.

In the words of former SciTech Editor Sadie Bartholomew, science is the “effort to understand the world around us”.

Never before has the effort been so great, or the understanding so rewarding.

Our mission is to keep up with these exciting times we live in.

What to make of all this information when the same effort to understand is taken on by researchers and innovators all around the world?

Here are some highlights of our take on the fascinating world of science and technology:

SciTech at Durham

Recently, Sadie Bartholomew reported on some cutting-edge research undertaken by Durham University alongside the University

of Leiden. A virtual cosmos of the universe was designed by Durham’s entrepreneurial IT Department, in conjunction with the University of Leiden’s staff. It marked the very first time that any cosmos had been contained accurately within the digital sphere.

The programme used (EAGLE: Evolution and Assistance of Galaxies and their Environment) mirrored the formation and evolution of star systems, allowing a greater understanding of the processes involved.

The digicosmos holds over 10,000 galaxies and “is just like the real thing”, according to Richard Baner, a member of the project team.

This feat was achieved as the team factored in Galactic Winds, Dark Matter, Baryonic (‘ordinary’) matter and cosmological constants.

Whistle-stop headlines

The Reader’s Scigest gives you a snapshot of the most recent scientific and technological developments.

This neat feature is your guide to the latest SciTech news, covering anything from computers to the cosmos.

Now there is no need to trawl through Twitter looking for an interesting story, just check-in with SciTech.

The odd and wonderful

In a call for good scientific outreach, Luke Andrews took on the director of Jurassic World to challenge his portrayal of the Mesozoic animals.

The discovery of a Zhenyuanlong suni fossil in China has confirmed the claim that many dinosaurs actually had feathers. Feathers appeared on dinosaurs about 160 million years ago, initially probably for thermoregulation. Through exaptation their function steered towards sexual displays and eventually flight.

The scientific advisor’s suggestion of fluffing up raptors was vehemently

Don’t you love it when people apply their knowledge to make something amazing? Jennifer Hacker showed us just this, with her article discussing the ‘Music in the Mould.’

At the 10th Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival in Plymouth University, the mould Physarum polycephalum, was used to play a piano duet. The musician placed it over electrodes connected to piano keys. When a key was pressed, it moved, producing an electrical current. This was converted into a vibration by electromagnets, causing the oscillation of strings. A strange “extraterrestrial” sound then emanated from the instrument ‘powered by mould.’

We’re always up for some weird and wondrous science.

its rivals and still has a long way to go.

This is where a recent shift in the way Microsoft delivers its software could be crucial. Microsoft plans to keep adding features and updates to Windows 10 for the foreseeable future – a departure from the previous strategy of including all new features in a new version of Windows.

Microsoft is offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade for a limited time.

Users running Windows 7 or newer operating systems can take advantage of this offer and Microsoft has even provided a hassle free installer,

allowing you to retain files and programs through the upgrade. If Windows 10 is not to your taste, there is also an option to revert back to your previous Windows version. Having said that, we still recommend a full backup of your data before upgrading, just in case anything untoward should happen during the installation.

All in all, Windows 10 is a major improvement on Windows 8 and 8.1, and with the ambition of being Microsoft’s last operating system, it is only set to get better over time.

Pop culture science

It’s Palatinate Sci-Tech’s mission to keep you up to date in these fast, exciting times Photograph: Wiki Commons

opposed as it would be inconsistent with the public’s collective imagination, and hence unprofitable.

Windows 10: The verdict Alistair Madden

Windows 10, the latest and possibly last operating system from Microsoft, launched on the 29th July. After an extensive period of testing offered to Windows Insiders before the operating system arrived in the consumer station, plus two months since the official release, Palatinate is now in the best position to offer you advice on whether you should upgrade and what new features are available.

To kick off, the start menu is back and better than ever. Not content on reintegrating the menu as a solid wall of text, Microsoft has combined the best feature of Windows 8 and 8.1: live tiles. Purists may sneer, but they display useful contextual information such as weather and news feeds without taking up the whole screen this time.

One difference to the start menu is search functionality, which is now integrated directly into the taskbar itself. Windows 10 even includes a voice recognition assistant, à la Siri, called Cortana, to help you with everyday tasks.

Microsoft has had to strike a balance here to ensure that Windows 10 is just as easy to use for tablet and desktop users. The start menu is customisable and can revert to a full screen tablet mode just as in Windows 8.

For desktop users, multiple desktops finally make their way to Windows. Mac and Linux users may already be familiar with this concept, but imagine having a fresh login with no programs open. This is effectively what happens whenever a new desktop is made, only your programs from the previous desktop remain running. Pretty neat.

Four quarters snap is a feature now included natively, which enables working with several windows open side by side – another tool that boosts productivity, especially amongst users with big screens.

While these new features are great, Mac and Linux supporters will be keen to point out that their operating systems have been supporting multiple desktops for years (in fact, it’s pretty hard to find something you can’t do with Linux). There is no denying this accusation; it feels like Windows has only just caught up to

Microsoft plans to add features and updates to Windows 10 for the foreesable future

Photograph: Microsoft

READER’S SCI-GEST EYES PEELED The shape of an animal’s pupil reveals its position in the food chain, Durham University researchers have found in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley. They discovered that vertical elongated pupils on the front of the head, found in cats and foxes, are well suited to ambush prey, as they enable predators to accurately judge distances without moving their head while crouching. Animals with horizontal elongated pupils, however, are often grazers like goats, sheep and horses.

This configuration enables more light to permeate from the front and back than the top and bottom of the eye, giving prey a panoramic vision of potential predators on the ground.

These animals are also capable of rotating their eyes when lowering their head, maintaining the horizontal alignment even while grazing.

Photograph: Wikipedia Commons

SONIC CELL SWITCH

Brain cells can be remotely activated with sound waves. At least this is the case for the neurons of a few nematode worms in the Salk Institute, California. Researchers genetically modified worms so they would grow neurons with a membrane channel (TRP-4) that responds to ultrasound waves. When the worms are grown in a medium filled with microbubbles of gas to amplify the sound waves, their neurons can be stimulated in response to sonic pulses. These low-frequency sound waves can travel through the body without any scattering, so the team is optimistic that this technique could be used for treating human diseases which currently require invasive therapy like deep-brain stimulation.

UPDATING THE FAMILY TREE

Excavations in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa over the past two years have culminated with the largest collection of hominin bones ever to be found together and the discovery of a previously unknown species: Homo naledi. From the fossils of 15 individuals, we can infer that H. naledi possessed a mismatch of features found in our other extinct relatives: small skull like Homo erectus, strong upper body of Australopithecus afarensis and remarkably human-like extremities. The fossils have not been dated, but are thought to be at least 2 million years old, which would place them at the base of the Homo genus ancestry. Most intriguingly, it is thought that the close proximity of the fossil remains is indicative of ritualistic burial, a trait up to now considered to be exclusively human.

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Wednesday 7th October 2015

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FEATURES

Abra Kadabra Alak-Azeem!

Californian flute sensation AZEEM WARD recently spoke to Indigo’s Patrick Brennan...

Hi Azeem, would you like to tell us a little about your upcoming tour?

just got to take your skills and go out there and do what you do.

I’m visiting twelve different cities in the UK: Durham, Cambridge, Manchester, Leeds, Imperial and St. Andrews, to name a few. I think it’s going to be an awesome experience.

So the key element is not letting yourself get caught up in the madness?

Durham’s going to be your favourite, obviously?

Yeah sure. Durham’s where it’s at, man.

How old were you when you started playing the flute?

I was ten when I started flute. I also play clarinet, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, percussion and a little bit of piano, but that’s about it. I wish I was a little better at strings and brass.

So what made you choose music as a professional path?

In the beginning I didn’t even like playing the flute. I thought of it as a burden: bringing it to school every day, being responsible and taking it home. None of the cool kids were doing it. I thought it sucked. But over time, when I started at middle school especially, I developed a love for it.

I know the exact moment I realised that this was something that I really wanted to do: when they started playing Tchaikovsky’s 4th symphony, it was one of the most amazing things I’d ever heard and I knew that music was something I wanted to be involved with for the rest of my life.

What made you go down the hip hop/jazz route?

I’ve always had a huge love for saxophone and jazz.

In the process of composing I like fusing different genres together; I really like percussion and the idea of adding beats with flute. In terms of musical influences, I really like Hubert laws, Bobbi Humphrey and Herbie Mann. They took flute and put it in a more popular culture context.

Let’s talk about your senior flute recital. When did alarm bells start ringing? When did you first think ‘hang on, I can’t have this many friends coming to watch me’?

That happened about five days before the recital.

Someone from Durham decided to share my post and say ‘yo let’s all get behind Azeem and help him out, show him some love, spread the word!’ I was like, ‘I’ve never heard of this person before… and yet he’s praising me and trying to spread the word about my recital’. Since then people started picking up on it and it became viral in, like, two days.

I saw you on Jimmy Kimmel. I was impressed with how calm and collected you were considering you’d suddenly gone from a small senior recital to being on national television. That’s a really important skill for a musician to have. How did you manage to keep your cool when your event had 88,000 people attending?

I had some good mentors to help me out. You’ve just got to do what you’ve been doing – you’ve already learned how to perform and you’ve already learned what it means to be a musician, you’ve

Exactly. Focussing on the music is the key to having a great performance, and so that’s what I ended up doing.

What impression has all this given you of British humour and British student culture in general?

Feel free to badmouth us!

There are some cheeky people…. I don’t think badly of you guys, it’s just a different country and you’re going to have different ways of thinking of things. I think it’s pretty funny. If I was some British dude and I saw some recital that was blowing up, I would have gone on board and made a couple of memes and jokes.

thought it seemed like bad publicity but also kind of good publicity. It was hard for me to determine if it was going to end up as negative publicity in the end. Some people on the page were posting some weird disgusting images, and that kind of worried me – having my face on those kinds of images. But I had a friend who really helped me out by monitoring the page really often to makes sure that the image of the page wasn’t getting gross. When it all started happening I wasn’t sure if it was good or not, but some of my friends said ‘man, people are talking about you and it doesn’t seem like they’re cursing at you, it’s much more supportive’. If this happened to someone else I’d say ‘you’ve just got to remember where you’re from and keep your calm – you can’t get out of your head and think that you’re someone bigger or better than what you already were. Just keep doing what you’re doing and stay true to your music.

QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS

People had some very nice things to say about your playing. Were there a lot of nice comments sent your way?

On a scale of 1-10, just how cheeky do you like your Nando’s?

I did find that – especially before, but also after the recital. I’m very happy and appreciative of that.

Twenty

What’s your plan now? In the long term, where do you see yourself? Do you worry that this has given you a different image to the one you want to achieve?

NSYNC or Backstreet Boys?

I don’t really listen to either of those artists…

Backstreet Boys? They sound cooler What’s your favourite kind of storm?

It’s in a direction that I’m going for. It’s not concrete but it’s going in that direction I think. I think in five or ten years I’ll be there.

A darude sandstorm, of course, how could you even ask that question...?

Any words for your legions Durham Uni fans?

What’s your favourite film? Requiem for Azeem, or Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azeemskaban?

I’m coming and I’m really excited to perform for all of you – we’re gonna have a bomb time.

Definitely the second one What was your favourite out of all the memes and polls that you saw on the page?

I definitely liked the memes the most. When it started getting to all these polls and stuff it wasn’t as funny but the original memes and artwork that people put were definitely my favourite. A couple of my friends really liked a tweet where someone said ‘so many people jumping on the bandwagon now he’s blown up, how many of you were at the junior recital?’ That was on Jimmy Kimmel.

The way the event turned out was great – people uncovered this very talented and also very polite and tolerant musician – you were great at just letting it all happen. But how would you have felt if you’d seen it happen to someone else, and they’d found it off putting or had an attack of nerves because of it, or received negative feedback or abuse? Would this feel like bullying?

Did it feel like bullying to you?

At first I kind if didn’t know what was happening. I

Photograph: Azeem Ward

of devoted

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Wednesday 7th October 2015

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FASHION

Doorstep delights

You don’t have to travel far to get a great shopping experience in the North East: Sally Hargrave explores the best vintage fashion Durham has to offer

Stash-tastic!

Behind the scenes of our Indigo freshers’ edition shoot Models: Harry Roxburgh and Alexandra Goldenburg

Harry and Alexandra wear a variety of stash from Durham academic Waterstones on Saddler’s Street

Photographs: Grace Tseng

W

hen it comes to shopping, the quaint cobbled streets of Durham are often overlooked in favour of the buzzing metropolis of Newcastle. But fear not, fashionable freshers – scratch beneath the surface and it’s clear that Durham has a lot more to offer than just Topshop and New Look. Sally Hargrave explores the vintage boutiques making Durham a shopping destination in its own right.

Scarlet Ribbons Tucked just off of North Road, Scarlet Ribbons is a gem of a vintage shop that has been dressing the men and women for Durham for ten years now. “We stock vintage and retro clothing and accessories from the 70s through to the 90s and loads of new ethnic and bohemian styles.” The rails are full of denim separates, retro sweatshirts and faux fur, with an extensive and quirky collection of accompanying bags and accessories. And if you need any more encouragement to pop in for a rummage, they offer a 10% discount to all students. Find them at: 3 Neville St, DH1 4EY

Ding Dong Vintage Just past The Gates shopping centre, Ding Dong Vintage is a veritable treasure-trove for the sartorially minded. Head down the hill to delve amongst the tightly packed rails and you will not be disappointed.

Established eight years ago by veteran busin e s s owner Jill Chayne, Ding Dong boasts a mixture of 18th cent u r y Victorian and Edwardian clothes, as well as more recent items dating up to the 1980s.

With an equally impressive range of jewellery, trin-

kets and accessories, Ding Dong Vintage is definitely worthy of your attention. They too offer a 10% student discount, as well as a buy-one-get-one-halfprice offer. Find them at: Framwelgate, DH1 4S

Velvet Elvis A newcomer in Durham, Velvet Elvis has more to offer than first meets the eye. Dawn Robson and David Stephenson first met as neighbouring market traders in Durham Market Square, bonding over a shared love of the atmosphere in the market. After working alongside one another for many years and forming a solid friendship, they decided to take the plunge at running a shop when the former Thornton’s on Framwelgate Bridge closed down.

The resulting shop, Velvet Elvis, is an eclectic mixture of items, described by David as an “urban outfitters”. Downstairs, the shop has a great selection of beautiful handcrafted jewellery made by Dawn herself, as well as rails of vintage clothing – including Levis, checked shirts and much more.

So what should you look out for? According to David, “Eighties knitwear is my biggest seller – the Bill Cosby jumper. They’re awful, but people look good in them if they’re a certain age. Denim is massive - even double denim.

Beckham is a fan and if he likes it, it’s all r i g h t .”

Meanwhile, hidden a w a y upstairs is an incredible café. Rated number one out of the 237 restaurants in Durham, Ve l vet Elvis’ café definitely warrants a visit. Plus, what better way to revive yourself between lectures than with coffee and cake?

Find them at: 2 Framwelgate Bridge, DH1 4JS

Newcastle If big city shopping is more your style then not to worry, we’re also lucky enough to have Newcastle right on our doorstep. The UKs largest shopping centre, the intu MetroCentre, is near Newcastle and is easily accessible from Durham by train. Its 300+ shops include Zara, All Saints and Miss Selfridge and many others. The centre of Newcastle is even closer. One stop on the train can get you to almost any of the big high street shops – even Primark – as well as hundreds of restaurants, clubs and bars.

Photographs: Sally Hargrave

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Wednesday 7th October 2015

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STA G E

Durham Student Theatre: a quick guide on how to get involved

DST’s President Tyler Rainford explains all the opportunities available for theatre enthusiasts in Durham, and the easiest ways to get started on the theatre scene as a fresher

Photograph: Florence Chater Claire Forster in Congestion. Congestion is a verbatim piece, and was part of the Durham Drama Festival 2015 which was subsequtently chosen to be part of the National Student Drama Festival.

I

f you want to get involved with the wonderful world of theatre during your time at university, I’m delighted to say you’ve come to the right place. Durham Student Theatre (DST) is one of the biggest (and quite possibly the best) student theatres in the country. With over 70 performances a year, and 28 ratified theatre companies, all with their own unique flair and style, you’re sure to find something you’ll love. On top of all this, we have our own theatre, The Assembly Rooms, and productions are regularly performed across the city in both external and university venues.

The cast of Ooook! Productions’ Monstruous Regiment, which won several awards at the D’Oscars 2015 including Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

Directing

Of course, theatre in Durham extends far beyond the footlights, and one of the best ways to explore this backstage world is through the challenging but rewarding task of directing.

There’s nothing better than taking your dream play and turning it into a reality. Who ever thought Gogol could be staged like that? Or that Chekhov could be interesting? (He is, for the record) Take your creative vision and run with it, and make some wonderful friends along the way.

One of the most exciting opportunities every year for freshers is the freshers’ play, which is performed in Week 7. Directed, produced, tech directed and performed entirely by freshers, it’s the perfect way to ease yourself into the Durham theatre scene. Applications deadlines and audition dates will be released soon.

If you’re keen to get involved in directing but are unsure if you’ve got enough experience to have a go on your own, be sure to check out DST’s Assistant Director Scheme. Be sure to email student. theatre@durham.ac.uk for more details.

Acting

When it comes to making the magic happen, there can be little doubt that the producer is at the heart of the process. Producing in Durham is a unique experience and one that truly integrates you within the production.

As soon as term commences, DST is flooded with opportunities to tread the boards. There’s always a manic buzz across Elvet Riverside where most of our auditions are held. You’ll find there are always too many shows to choose from. Whatever your tastes there’ll be something for the die-hard Shakespeare fan, the musical-maniac and the farce loving fanatic.

And don’t be put off if you haven’t acted much before, whatever your level of experience there will be a play that’s suited for you. College theatre productions provide a great opportunity for those who want to test the waters before they dive into major university-wide productions.

Photograph: Ellie Gauge

Photograph: Tim Foster

Producing

You’re the glue that keeps the show together and the springboard for the creatives to work alongside. It’s an enigmatic role but a rewarding one nonetheless.

As with directing, DST offers an Assistant Producer Scheme which is a great way to get involved.

The cast of DULOG’s Cabaret, which won several awards at the D’Oscars 2015 including Best Musical and Best Actor in a Musical.

Tech

This one involves far more than it sounds. Tech is fundamental to the success of DST and there are always opportunities to get involved. Whether your passion lies in lighting, sound, flying or just rigging, there’s a plethora of tech jobs to try out within DST. It’s a great skill to develop and you’ll find your talents will always be in demand.

What’s more? You don’t need experience. With DST, there’s termly training sessions and additional workshops to hone your skills. Not to mention the Assistant Tech Director Scheme (there’s a theme occurring here).

Writing

Ever wanted to write and stage your own play?

Well, now you can. DST has its own drama festival, Durham Drama Festival, every year in February. Write and submit a play, and it could be performed in front of industry professionals. If you’ve got a talent for writing, we want to read it.

Or if simply reviewing plays is more to your tastes, you can do that too.

If you’ve missed us at the Experience Durham Fair this Tuesday and Wednesday, be sure to come along to DST’s Spotlight Event on Sunday 11 October at 7pm in The Assembly Rooms Theatre!

PALATINATE | Wednesday 7th October 2015

11 www.palatinate.org.uk

The Party Conference Season:

Politics

When Jeremy Came to Town Robert Littleton Politics Editor

In post-crisis politics, everyone always wants to be the ‘change’ candidate. There is no slogan quite like ‘a new kind of politics’ or ‘a clean and fresh start’ to fire up grassroots activists and send the proverbial gears of the party machine back into action.

These phrases will, of course, be very familiar to followers of Labour over the last few months. Jeremy Corbyn most effectively articulated himself as embodying that priceless quality of change, and has duly reaped the rewards.

But what is British politics to make of our new political icon, and how did he fare in his first real opportunity to showcase his leadership talents at party conference?

Jeremy Corbyn has certainly never been one to shy away from controversy or conflict. He has stuck to his core values with admirable consistency over 32 years in Parliament; leading to a rebuttal of the party whip over 500 times during his tenure. But his commitment to ideology over disciplined pragmatism may prove problematic. Disgruntled occupants of the Labour benches will unsurprisingly question why they should be expected to profess their loyalty to a man who so often failed to tow the party line.

Uniting his own party may indeed be the most arduous challenge facing Corbyn over the next five years.

Arguably in anticipation of a Corbyn victory, Chuka Umunna and Tristram

Hunt set up a so-called ‘resistance cell’ named Labour for the Common Good; though the revolutionary intentions of which continue to be downplayed. Yet, the ethics of any internal party insurrection are acutely complex.

On the one hand, sticking to their Blairite guns in the face of socialist realignment is the sort of dogmatism so admired in Corbyn himself.

But, equally, resisting the man who received an overwhelming and extraordinary mandate from the party faithful would threaten to further the growing disconnect between the PLP and the Labour Party en masse. Who would ever want to be a politician?

Internal quarrels aside, the central conundrum for Corbyn will be his electability, as already discussed widely by Palatinate online. His keynote speech at the party conference will do little to alleviate fears over his stance on nuclear weapons, a hottopic which continues to draw battle lines across the Labour Cabinet but inspire the loyal army of Corbynistas in equal measure. Nonetheless, the Islington North MP has certainly not nuked his chances of becoming PM quite yet. The conventional argument goes that moving to the left will result in inevitable electoral oblivion, as demonstrated by Labour’s failure at the previous election. Yet this has been based on a number of mistaken assumptions.

Firstly, that Labour lost in 2015 as a result of Miliband being too far left. In reality, among other things, Labour lost because of its lack of credibility on the economy, and its

Jeremy Corbyn, new Labour Leader, still smiling before the tough times ahead Photograph: Ninian Reid via Flickr

inability to articulate a coherent alternative to Osborne’s austerity. The party leadership failed to exercise the ghosts of post-recession New Labour; bolstering the Tory narrative that Labour had broken Britain, and that David Cameron was therefore the only man capable to ‘finish the job’ he started.

Secondly, and more pertinently, there is the reductionist hypothesis that Corbyn socialism is merely a

Singing in the Rain,

regressive, almost evolutionary, lurch to the left. But Corbyn’s vision for the party is fundamentally distinct from his predecessor Ed Miliband. While the latter busied himself with topdown proposals for a gentler form of capitalism, Corbyn has already stated his desire to convert Labour into more of a ‘social movement’; rooted in a form of eclectic neo-Bennism emphasising the need to change Labour into a vehicle of popular mobilisation.

This has been astutely reflected by his inclusive approach to the weekly Prime Ministers’ Questions and his proposals for a bottom-up policymaking process.

It is clear that Corbynism goes further than the customary ideological pigeonholes of British politics. It poses a forceful challenge to the ways in which Liberals, Conservatives and Labourites all practice their politics, and it must be treated as such.

or Why You Can Still Laugh at Politics Sofya Grebenkina Politics Editor Whether as a result of a coincidence or a purposeful union, politics and comedy often go hand in hand. While it is true that this summer many events were beyond the scope of laughter - the refugee crisis, escalating war in Ukraine, continuing influence of ISIS - there were nevertheless moments when the world could let out a collective giggle and even a sigh of relief.

The unexpected first place has to go to David Cameron, who found himself embroiled in PigGate.

The unfortunate Watergate-esque allusion was bandied about after Lord Ashcroft wrote an unambiguously unflattering, unofficial biography of the PM. The highlight of the book was the

aforementioned act, allegedly a ritual Cameron performed at the Piers Gaviston Society involving the head of a dead pig.

For what seemed like an age the country, and even the international community, laughed to fill the awkward silence left by the absence of an answer from the PM himself. He finally brushed it off with the angry retort that he was “too busy running the country” to engage with such frivolous accusations. Not exactly a denial of the fact but not an admission either.

During the same period the Russian Embassy to London mastered the use of Twitter, when it came to insulting the UK leadership this summer.

When PigGate hit the media, the Embassy decided to follow a parody account going by the handle @CameronPig. BBC’s Daniel Sandford was the first UK public figure to comment

about this development on Twitter and soon received a comical answer from the Embassy itself: “Twitter account is followed, not the pig. Please rectify.” Weeks earlier the Embassy replied to Cameron’s tweet, which read: “The Labour Party is now a threat to our national security, our economic security and your family’s security”, which he composed after Jeremy Corbyn’s victory of the Labour Leadership contest.

As always on the ball, only a day later, the Embassy tweeted: “Just imagine UK media headlines if Russian President called leading opposition party threat to national security?”

Surely an account worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Across the pond, Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show since 1999, retired and passed the mantle on to South African comedian Trevor Noah.

Over the years Stewart solidified the concept behind the much-loved

Photograph: Wikimedia, Singin’ in the Rain Trailer show, by focusing his satire more ment of their style of comedy. Noah, rigorously on politics and the na- in turn, after a brief hiatus, began the tional media. As his credibility as a show with a clear indication that he host rose, despite the criticism that would follow in Stewart’s footsteps, he has riled at politicians, many as he promised to continue the “war of them have appeared as guests: on bs”. such as Hillary Clinton and Barack The political arena can prove to not Obama. be as daunting as it first appears and His influence on others in the sometimes a laugh at the expense of a comedy circuit working on similar few politicians is a welcome distracshows, such as Stephen Colbert, has tion from the rainy day mood of the proven invaluable in the develop- rest of the news.

Sport

Wednesday 7th October 2015 | PALATINATE

Want more Palatinate Sport?

Go to Palatinate.org.uk for full college and university results

Get involved If you’re interested in writing for Palatinate Sport, email sport@palatinate.org. uk. No experience necessary!

Follow us on Twitter @PalatiSPORT and on Facebook at ‘Palatiante Sport’

Colleges gear up for 15/16 season Sophie Bingham College Sport Coordinator

A birdseye view of Maiden Castle, the home of Durham Sport. How many sportsmen and women will become heroes on these pitches this year?

Photograph: Simon Carey

Want to get involved with sport?

You’re at the right University

Simon Carey Team Durham President As Team Durham President for 2015/16, I help to oversee all 50 University Sport Clubs.

As part of Experience Durham, Team Durham encompasses all sport at the University, which includes both the largest participation structure in the UK and Britain’s number 1 team sport performance programme!

For the past four years Durham has ranked second in the overall BUCS League Table.

This year we are entering the season with ten clubs looking to defend their national titles and a similar number believing that they can go one or two steps further than last year and become national champions.

We snatched the team sport title away from Loughborough last year and it’s likely that we will find our-

selves going head to head again with them again this time around.

So fierce is the rivalry between Durham and Loughborough that two ‘Varsity’ days in which the two teams compete across a range of sports have been arranged by BUCS. These will be hugely significant for both universities, with 15 first teams from both due to battle it out on November 25th in Durham and February 3rd in Loughborough.

Make sure you stay tuned in to support Durham and prove there is only one shade of purple: Palatinate.

Team Durham is not just about performance; our participation and community outreach programmes are also hugely successful.

Staff and student volunteers work with over 6,000 young people on an annual basis providing them with opportunities to experience new sports, develop skills and access many of our outstanding facilities.

We also support a large range of local groups and clubs and provide

students with the opportunity to become involved in international sport development through the hugely successful Sport in Action Zambia programme.

As you read this, hundreds of students have already returned to Durham as part of our university sport pre-season.

For weeks many of our students have been working hard to ensure that they perform to their best throughout the coming year. It is no fluke that we come into 2015 as the University that everyone else wanted to beat.

It is the professionalism and hard work of Durham students and staff that enables us to compete at such high levels across the board. We are currently the University that combines academic and sporting excellence, and we want that to continue.

One of the showcase events for our programme is the Rugby Charity Challenge, due to take place on on Wednesday 7th October at Durham

City Rugby Club where DURFC kick off the BUCS season against Loughborough.

Our objective is to attract a crowd of over 4,000 and all proceeds will go to Sport in Action Zambia; it’s always a great atmosphere and I really hope that you will find the time to come along and support your fellow students.

If you think you might like to be part of sport at Durham at whatever level, be that playing, officiating, coaching or volunteering, make sure you come down to the Sports Fair at Elvet Riverside: Tuesday 6th 13:00-18:00 and Wednesday 7th 10:00-16:00. We will also be at the Queen’s Campus Fair is on Tuesday 6th October 12:00 – 16:00

Follow us @palatiSPORT or at ‘Palatinate Sport’

Featuring an astonishing 25 sports, the 2015/16 College Sport programme is set to be something quite special. From volleyball to futsal, netball to indoor cricket, mixed lacrosse to tennis, there really is something for everyone. We enter the season with College Sport in a great place.

The sixteen College Sport officers are already jostling for position whilst working to support your sporting pursuits at all levels.

Collingwood, Hatfield and Grey have particular reputations to uphold having performed exceptionally on the field, court, track and water throughout 2014/15.

Looking forward, it’s over to you.

It’s all to play for… With 92 football teams, 47 netball teams, 34 hockey teams and 29 rugby teams, it isn’t hard to see the strength in depth of this marvellous programme.

Our Head of Sport, Quentin Sloper, always refers to College Sport as ‘the jewel in the crown’ and with nearly 8,000 College Sport students contributing to a collective student participation rate of over 70%, it is easy to see why!

This year more than 600 diligent captains will be mobilising their personnel for those weekly fixtures.

Also helping to maintain the quality of the programme are many of our university clubs who do an excellent job in supporting such diverse delivery.

February will see the best of our college programme travel to York University, the singular aim being to defend our Varsity title. The opportunity to represent Durham on the wider stage is always a situation in which our college teams thrive; we certainly hope that the upcoming Varsity will prove no different.

We are growing Durham’s sporting participation agenda in every way possible – keep an eye out for one off events in handball, mini tennis, golf and dodgeball. The season will culminate in early June at our showcase event, the annual and eagerly anticipated College Festival of Sport. I sincerely hope that the Festival is a celebration of our collective sporting successes. I wish the very best of luck to each and every one of you donning your college shirt this season. As I said, it’s all to play for.