Nottingham September 2017

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P24 NOTTINGHAM EDITION October 2017

On being stars, Los Angeles and getting ill from touring

MARCEL SOMERVILLE Love doc on flirting

P19 P15

MELANIE MURPHY YouTuber speaks out

Muggle quidditch could hit big time

PICTURE: HELEN FREEMAN

P23

Organisers bid to have Potter sport officially recognised P3

‘Outstanding’ Trent scoops Modern Uni Of The Year accolade  JOHN SHAW P33

COMPETITION Win a year of trainers!

Nottingham Trent University has capped an impressive awards season by being named Modern University Of The Year.

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018 title follows

the announcement that it is also up for University Of The Year in the Times Higher Education Awards.

Trent vice-chancellor, Prof Edward Peck, said: ‘I am grateful to everyone at the university, and all those who support it, for the role they have played in this award. It is a fantastic start to

It is a fantastic start to our new academic year

Prof Edward Peck

our new academic year.’

Alastair McCall, editor of the guide, said it was Trent’s focus on student experience and its strong engagement with employers that made it the ‘outstanding candidate’.

Trent will take on the universities of Dundee, Liverpool John Moores,

Northumbria, Winchester and City University in THE Awards, with the winner announced on November 30.

The University of Nottingham is up for awards in the Outstanding Research Supervisor Of The Year and the International Collaboration Of The Year categories.

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Hello

Optimism may not be the word on everyone’s lips at the moment, but here at The University Paper, we’re feeling pretty optimistic.

It’s the beginning of a new academic year, and with it, a chance to bring you even more of the articles you love.

We kick off the year in (now) traditional fashion with our Freshers special.

This year we’ve gone bigger and better than ever. Check out our

October 2017

from The University Paper

exclusive in-depth feature on the cults attempting to recruit students plus we chat to former members of these pernicious groups (p4).

We also chat to super mum Laura Brindley who faced sickening disapproval when she became a teen mum, only to prove the bullies wrong.

Elsewhere, our killer entertainment section, The Lowdown, begins with a chat to YouTube star Melanie Murphy (p15) and includes interviews with Love

Island star Marcel (p23) and an extra long chat with Wolf Alice’s lead singer Ellie Rowsell (p24).

Check out what our writers got up to this summer with our festival round-up (p18-19) and get up to date ahead of the launch of this season’s BUCS Super Rugby league as we chat to new boys, Nottingham Trent University.

Much love

The TUP team The team: (l-r) Deputy editor Clare Hardy, online sub-editor Tom Gellatly, editor-inchief Sam Murray and sub-editor Amy Denman

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-chief: Sam Murray

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Lover and defender of terrible puns, John Mayer apologist and pioneer

Master a new skill Students’ unions are packed with incredible societies and offer the chance to try something you’ve never done before. Whether it’s wakeboarding, knitting or boxing, give it a go.

Go to Varsity Nearly every uni has their version of Varsity (epic sports matches against a rival uni). Go along, support your team and soak in the atmosphere.

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October 2017

Are you muggling me off?

Head of UK quidditch tells TUP she is in the process of making the game an official university sport and including it in the BUCS calendar

 Harriet Timmins

unipaper.co.uk Read investigation pieces by Jade du Preez and Amy Harding on the future of quidditch at www. unipaper. co.uk

Magical: Nottingham Nightmares’ keeper Jazzy Drew holds a quaffle while breaking through a tackle

on to play in community teams.

Moving into schools is obviously another [dream].

‘It’s a very early stage of [the] sport. Having something so new to mould and develop and to provide it the best platform for most people to just get out there and be playing sport is a really exciting opportunity.’

Quidditch has been praised for its inclusivity, particularly towards the LGBT+ community, which could set it apart from traditional sports.

‘It doesn’t matter what gender you are, how tall you are, how physical you are, there’s something for you within the sport,’ Ms Piper said.

‘We don’t have the lad culture that some sports [have].

‘It’s very much this inclusive community and people prefer that.’

The University Paper contacted BUCS to find out whether quidditch could be added to the university calendar but did not receive a response before going to press.

PICTURE: AMY MAIDMENT

PICTURE: HELEN FREEMAN

The head of UK Quidditch has said they are working towards making Harry Potter’s favourite sport a new addition to the BUCS calendar.

Melanie Piper, president of QuidditchUK, told TUP it would be ‘a dream’ for the game to be recognised as a mainstream sport and part of that is getting it added to the Wednesday fixture list.

She said: ‘Moving towards BUCS would be great. We’re going to start doing more regional leagues and help teams run their own regional leagues this year.

‘Obviously in the future if that could be towards BUCS that would be brilliant.

‘We just have to take it step by step and see how we go, but right now it’s looking really good and really exciting.

‘Lots of opportunities are appearing throughout the UK and the world as well.’

The sport, which originated in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, is currently played in university societies across the country and is looking to be recognised by Sport England.

Ms Piper said there will be around 50 teams in the UK this year, with universities such as Northumbria in the process of setting up their own.

The head of the governing body said she is keen to expand the sport in Scotland, and set up a Cardiff team as well.

‘That every university has a team [is] obviously a dream of ours.

Then we’d have graduates moving

Baller: Quidditch is becoming more popular

CONTACT US GOT A STORY YOU WANT TO SHARE? Email us at editor@unipaper.co.uk

How would you

www.5DaysofAwesome.co.uk/LGQ6

blow £5k in days ?

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We are not just a field of nerds...

I’m a university student, and I play quidditch. Yep. Quidditch.

I started when I got to uni, through the Quidditch And Harry Potter Society.

It’s fantastic to both watch and play, but the community itself is one of the best things about it.

I’ve met so many people, from all over the world, and made some amazing friends.

And, as players can self-identify their gender on pitch and we have a rule to ensure the game is mixed gender at all times, it is also one of the most inclusive sports going.

This arguably makes our community all the more tight-knit.

For anyone thinking this sounds ridiculous, or that we’re probably just a bunch of nerds (not completely disagreeing with that), I would encourage you to come to a training or tournament day.

We’ve picked up several recruits who only came along for a bet or to prove (unsuccessfully) that they could beat the geeks at their own game. Until you’ve seen the skill needed, until you’ve experienced the enthusiasm and openness of our community, or until you’ve felt a full-force tackle into the mud, you won’t truly understand quidditch. But you’re always welcome to come and give it a try.

Fair warning: you may get hooked.

Isobel Sheene

4|News

October 2017

Cults

 John Shaw

You probably don’t think of yourself as being a target for cults. No one does.

That type of paranoia is normally reserved for conspiracy theorists and those who wear tin foil hats to stop the government hacking their thoughts.

You probably could, however, describe yourself as intelligent, idealistic, well educated or intellectually curious.

According to the Cult Information Centre, a charity which fights against cultic groups, that is exactly the type of person recruiters target.

The CIC’s founder Ian Haworth, a cult escapee himself, estimates there are around 1,000 movements trying to enroll people of all ages – many of those setting up near campuses.

Typically, cults fall into two categories. The first are groups basing themselves around religion.

They create the illusion they are making the world a better place, the average age of a new member is in the 20s and communal living is common.

Isis and Al-Qaeda have both been accused of being cultic in nature.

Students should be aware that cults are here and sadly here to stay

Ian Haworth, founder of the Cult Information Centre

For the full version of the story, go to www.unipaper. co.uk

The second are therapy cults, which promise to make their members better people through self improvement.

They might claim to be able to rid you of that smoking habit you picked up while skipping games at school or better yourself through meditation.

Both use psychological coercion to recruit and retain their members and will have a dogmatic and charismatic member at the helm – think Charles Manson or Osama Bin Laden.

And both are looking to engage and enlist students.

‘Cults tend to make life easier for themselves and they go to areas when they’re soliciting funds where you’ve got a high density of pedestrian traffic,’ Mr Haworth told me.

‘And if you’re recruiting people why not go to a campus?

‘And if you’re turfed off campus then fine you’ll recruit just off campus. And they do.’

He added: ‘The easiest person to recruit is somebody who comes from an economically advantaged family background.

‘It’s someone with average to

on campus:

You’re the target

above average intelligence, it’s someone with a good education and it’s someone who’s often described as caring or idealistic and simply want to make the world a better place and have walked through the wrong door.

‘It’s smart people who are particularly easy to recruit.

Certainly if cults are going after people who are intelligent and well-educated, well, why leave out university students? I would have thought they would be a key target group. And they are.

‘Students should be aware that cults are here and sadly here to stay.’

Joining him on the frontline in the war against cults is Birkbeck lecturer and former cult member Dr Alexandra Stein, an expert on social psychology of ideological extremism and other dangerous social relationships.

As a 26-year-old she was ‘captured and held’ (as she puts it) in a Marxist-Leninist group, in which she was told what to wear, when she could marry and Continued on Page 6

It’s smart people who are particularly easy to recruit

Ian Haworth

Escapee: Dr Alexandra Stein left a MarxistLeninist cult

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The way to protect people is through education Dr Alexandra Stein, expert on social psychology of ideological extremism From page 4

whether she could have children.

She was put to work in a rather odd mixture of making bread and writing business computer programs with the promise of creating a utopian world.

After eight years, she escaped and penned a memoir of her time, Inside Out. She describes her book as ‘a cautionary tale for those not yet tempted by such a fate to beware of isolating groups with persuasive ideologies and threatening bass notes.’

As a former cult member, she is well versed in the recruitment methods of these groups.

‘You meet someone who invites you to yoga and they say “to really get the best of this you need to come at least three times a week”,’ she explained.

‘And then slowly it’s ramped up, “you need to come to a ten day retreat”, “you need to not hang out with those friends anymore”.

‘That’s the key. The starting to move you away from your friends and family.’

Dr Stein is desperate to see universities do more to protect students, who she says are in a vulnerable time of their lives.

‘I very, very strongly believe that the way to protect people is through education,’ she told me.

‘I would like to see programmes about what cultic relationships look like and how to keep yourself safe from them and there certainly isn’t anything like that.

‘I have tried to bend the ear of various officials and departments

October 2017

How to win followers and influence them Pulling power: (l-r) Charles Manson, Jim Jones and David Koresh all became leaders of notorious cults

Manson including the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski.

Jones, founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, led his followers to Guyana where 918 people committed mass suicide by drinking cyanide.

Koresh, American leader of the Branch Davidians, faced a 51-day stand-off with the FBI, in which 80 people died after the building in which the hid caught fire.

But what makes them special? What makes people want to follow them?

Give up their lives for them?

Dr Alexandra Stein, writing in her piece, How Cult Leaders Brainwash

and not had a lot of response.

‘What I’d like to see is university courses that teach the stuff in depth.

Generally this is not taught and it’s not rocket science, it’s not that hard to explain to people.

‘If I was the [head] of a university I would introduce this education on multiple levels.

‘I would have an introduction, some basic stuff. There are a list of warning signs all over the internet but we’re not using them at universities.

‘I would have courses at all levels

– because it’s really interesting apart from anything else, it’s gripping stuff – that should be taught as full courses in psychology, sociology or political science.

‘And then you can also, if you train your professors, bring this into all kinds of other courses and you can also – in student services – train up some people to understand this and give talks or do film series.

‘If you took it seriously as an administration there’s many ways to begin sharing this information so it’s in the public domain.’

Visually the three men pictured below are striking.

Charles Manson with a crude swastika carved in between two bushy eyebrows and dark piercing eyes. Jim Jones movie star-like with dark sunglasses, swept hair and a dog collar.

And, finally, David Koresh with long, wavy hair and his trademark aviator spectacles.

All three led infamous cults that have gone down in history. Manson’s ‘Family’ gained notoriety after a killing spree in which seven people were killed under the orders of

There are a load of cults and a load of people affected

Dr Alexandra Stein

HOW I WAS LEFT DEVASTATED WHEN I JOINED A CHRISTIAN CULT In Hackney, at the time, it was quite dodgy so I wasn’t really pleased that someone was approaching me in the street.

He asked me if I wanted to come to church. I didn’t know anybody who could explain to me the ins and outs of God. So I thought ‘okay, let me give it a shot’.

I gave him my details and we ended up going to church. I was blown away by it. There was a lot of music, a lot of positive talk from the person in the pulpit who was preaching. It seemed fantastic to me. It hooked me.

We started looking at the Bible and passages and things like that.

After a few sessions with the Bible

It’s like the leaders can say whatever they want and the people will not go against them

A former cult member who wished to remain anonymous

 Read the full story online at www.unipaper. co.uk

I was going to be baptised. Again I didn’t see anything wrong with it, I thought that goes hand in hand.

You’re reading the Bible so it stands to reason that you get baptised. I was alright with it.

I got baptised and I’m basically going to every single meeting. They have these family groups where you go round to somebody’s house and sit down and eat and then you talk about the Bible and sing songs.

Then you go to bigger meetings, the Sunday meetings, then you even go to larger meetings, an entire university hall or some auditorium or something like that. You would meet up three times a week. I was taken by it because it sounded right, it

made sense. They tell you that you have to come, because it’s all part of the development, it’s all part of being close to God, it’s good for the fellowship. They require you to pay ten per cent of your wages. They even have a standing order, can you believe that?

You’re supposed to give ten per cent of your wages, if you can’t do that then you have to give what you can. On top of that they have a yearly special contribution, they call it, where you give maybe four or five times what you’d normally pay.

I also had to go out, week in week out, to evangelise, going out, meeting people, much the same way that I was met on the street,

Followers For Total Control, says fear is the key.

The leaders create terror in the followers but place themselves as the way to conquer that fear.

This creates a biochemical reaction in the body, where the victim attempts to maintain anxiety levels by sticking close to their ‘safe haven’ but can never truly find peace because the source of the fear is the leader.

It is a relationship close in nature to cases of domestic violence, pimps and prostitutes, human trafficking and Stockholm Syndrome.

Dr Stein is also very clear students are at a sensitive time in their development.

They are in a time of experimenting, pushing boundaries and accepting new friends and groups into their lives – that’s what university is about, right?

She said: ‘[Universities] have an obligation [to protect students] because, first of all, the stereotype of cult membership is weak, needy people who are vulnerable and want someone to tell them what to do, but that’s not borne out by reality.

Have you escaped a cult? Email editor@unipaper. co.uk and get your story heard

and ask people to come. I would do this on the way home from work, I even did this on the bus. Very, very intense and uncomfortable situations.

They did push that. Go out and evangelise, follow up, get numbers, get contacts. You are to go out there and find like-minded people. It was uncomfortable. They used the Bible to convince me.

I started withdrawing, certainly from the evangelism aspect of it, after me and my wife had moved out from London in 2014.

Sometimes we would come home and we’d be angry with each other, arguing, probably because we were so tired and then we started to realise we can’t do this anymore.

In 2014, it came to a head where we just had got too tired. They told us in no uncertain terms that we were

‘People who are vulnerable are people who are in a normal life transition like leaving home or going to university.

‘That’s why students are vulnerable, because they’re in a new environment.

‘They’re quite rightly trying different things – we want people to try different things at that stage of life – but if you are unlucky enough during that period to bump into a clever and seductive recruiter you could be in trouble.

‘Instead of focussing on the false stereotype of a cult member, we need to focus on what the cults look like, what do the recruits looks like?

What do their methods look like?

‘Because that we do know – because it’s a predictable phenomena – and then teach people about that so they can protect themselves.’

She added: ‘We don’t know the prevalence but we do know there’s a lot of [recruitment on campus].

‘There are a load of cults and a load of people affected but it’s very hard, no one’s doing that research and it would be hard to do anyway because a lot of these groups are secret. Every time I speak to anyone about cults, within 15 minutes they’re like “oh yeh, funnily enough I once went to a meeting of such and such” or “yeh, my sister joined” or “yeh, my uncle was in some weird Christian thing”.

‘Everybody knows somebody who’s been affected by this but we don’t talk about it because we don’t have a language because we’re not educated about it.’

So how do we tackle the issue?

‘It’s a question of activism and politics,’ Dr Stein said. ‘Look at the history of domestic violence awareness. When I was in my 20s no one really talked about that.

‘Now, forty years later, The Archers talks about it and if you’re a woman and you go to your doctor they ask you if you feel safe at home. It’s become, through activism and public health efforts, a normal part of our discourse. I think in a way we are in the cult awareness field where the domestic violence field was forty years ago.

‘We need to keep on pushing and pushing. Eventually it’s going to become, I hope, understood as being a public health problem that needs to be addressed.’ no longer members. For us that was devastating. Once the leaders made us non-members we reached out to people [in the group] who we believed were our friends and it was a complete shock.

I got back a couple of emails saying I was slandering the leaders.

We got a couple of emails saying they don’t want to be involved.

Everyone we reached out to they didn’t want to know.

We’ve lost some good friends, we really have. We’re devastated by how these men and women who we’ve known for years, it’s like they’ve just been taken away.

There’s some kind of hold that the leaders have over these people.

It’s like the leaders can say whatever they want and the people will not go against them.

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Your Life

9

Students reveal their unique experiences at university

October 2017

How I beat the teen mum slur

Biomedical science third-year Laura Brindley, 22, was determined to continue her studies despite finding out she was pregnant with son Tyler at 18.

She shares her story

A

 Courtney Bridge FTER I fell unexpectedly pregnant at 18 I was confronted by the stereotypical disapproval all teen mums seem to be faced with. The social stigmas are more pressing than the individual people.

It is sad that I saw no role models of individuals who had fulfilled

their educational aims while they had a child. Never mind being a single mum who is also a teenager.

People seemed to tell me I would not have the opportunities I would previously have had.

The media always reinforces a very negative idea of teen mums – a damning reputation which caused my self worth to dramatically decrease. But the worst comments came from my high school teachers when I went to get my A-level results. ‘What are you even getting your results for?’ they said.

But even faced with disapproval and people putting me down, I carried on because I’m that sort of person. I realised my son would be looking at me as an example. I did not want to depend on any sort of social benefits – just because I now had a child, it did not mean my brain worked any less well.

The process of balancing university with childcare actually

developed me as an individual. I established transferable skills that I could use within university life, such as time management – skills which many of my peers often had little to no experience of.

The practicalities of being a mum while studying were daunting.

I found the university day care disappointing, since it was mainly aimed at the staff and did not even cover the whole lecture timetable – the daycare would end at 4pm and some lectures went on until 6pm. But I found a good nursery near to where I live.

To be recognised with a Woman Who… award is remarkable. I really wanted to win that award so I could be a role model to others. I wanted to

Role model: Laura receiving her award

for me – you’re already not taken seriously as a single mum and this comes as another obstacle.

This is what sparked my idea to help with the British Science Association at my local high school, as this is what got me into science.

If women who have had children went back into education the impact on society would be huge. But there is just no support for getting back into education after having a baby.

The support of my lecturers at Coventry University College and later during my biomedical science degree at Coventry University is what gave me the confidence I was seriously lacking while being a single teenage mum.

While working for pharmaceutical company Nemaura Pharma, based in Loughborough, it was a colleague who told me my idea – a device inspired by my brother’s treatment for a debilitating chronic condition –was good. I am still doing my Persevering parent: Laura with Tyler, now four placement at this pharmaceutical company and this is where I will do promote other young single mums my thesis. They have been really My high going to uni. good to me, providing me with school Too many people have not done training around the UK and Europe. teachers said anything because society tells them ‘what are you The most important things they should just stay at home. I for me are reliance, persistence even getting wanted to say ‘yeah I can, actually!’ your results and tenacity. It is easy to accept You don’t have to look too far something if large numbers of for?’ online to see that women are not people are saying it. This is where Laura Brindley, taken seriously in my field of the resilience and persistence come Coventry in and my story is proof that it is science, technology, engineering University possible. and maths. It was like a double hit

WE’RE IN A CLASS OF OUR OWN. Find out why.

Apprenticeships Summer Schools Student Bursaries Graduate jobs

At GCHQ, Britain’s signals intelligence agency, we gather and analyse data to understand and tackle threats to our country. As experts in cyber security, we keep the country’s people, businesses and interests safe every day.

Think cyber threats, terrorism, espionage and organised crime. It’s complex and varied work, so it takes people from all kinds of backgrounds, with a wide range of skills.

Join us and you can expect new challenges every day.

Look out for our Apprenticeships, Languages and Maths Summer placements recruitment campaigns in the Autumn. We even offer bursaries for those of you who plan to study a STEM subject at Uni. At GCHQ, you won’t just be discovering innovative ways of using advanced technologies. You’ll be taking responsibilities, developing new skills and ultimately, protecting your country. It’s the kind of work you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Find out more about all our opportunities at

Make a complex world yours

www.gchq-careers.co.uk

10|Comment

October 2017

Want to have your say about a current event? Email your comment to editor@unipaper.co.uk

Write off the pen at your peril

An aficionado of the humble Biro passes on his golden rule for winning arguments and influencing people...

The most important piece of advice I can offer you fledgling academics is to always carry a pen.

This may seem obvious to you, but I am sure that is because you only see the pen as a tool; an instrument of archaic design, useful only for squiggling unintelligible marks on desks, defacing public lavatories and staining unsuspecting trouser pockets.

Jack Banfield Bath Spa University However, ownership of the Third year, mighty pen serves a far more creative writing important purpose than merely writing and vandalism.

Indeed, a student in possession of a pen will be assumed to be in possession of a great number of other useful items, such as a ruler, rubbers (protective or otherwise), a pencil, sharpener, pencil case, phone, bag, shoes, socks, food and a bedroom.

As other students believe you already have of all these things, they will be far more inclined to lend you their own.

On the other hand, if you ask to borrow a pen, the studentry will see you for what you are: an unprepared individual, not ready for the stresses and strains of modern life, and they will treat you as such.

You will become a pariah and your classmates, sensing such weakness, will not lend you any of what you need to become a functioning student, be that a pen, self respect, or their own loving embrace.

But there is more than the borrowing, and eventual keeping, of a few stationery items at stake here.

The real use of the pen is the gesticulating capabilities which lie within.

I discovered this first-hand, and I am sure you will also find it to be true.

I have occasionally found myself arguing the merits of one topic or another against insolent, bone-headed, neolithic creatures (which we shall refer to as ‘fellow students’) and have found myself on the losing side.

Not many times, but enough to shame myself, my family and my For more opinion, cat. After these indignities, armed with a large plate of pasta bake and go to www. unipaper.co.uk a strong black coffee, I sit down and try to come to terms with the

crushing defeat. A period of soul searching follows – how did I lose? What did I do wrong?

It wasn’t my argument, for that is always strong, fluid and in-depth.

It wasn’t that my opponent’s argument was better, more carefully thought out or more intelligent, for they rarely are.

The cause of my loss was my pen! My mighty pen, which I left in my pocket, leaving the animation of the argument – the fourth dimension of debating – to my words and hands alone.

A student in possession of a pen will be assumed to be in possession of a great number of other useful items

Jack Banfield

I left the might of the pen in my jacket.

In doing so, I had failed to unsheathe my sword and was cut down in a flurry of mistimed strokes.

You see, when one gesticulates fluidly, gracefully and with panache, one’s opponent becomes discombobulated, flustered, and inarticulate.

They have been programmed from a young age, mainly by paediatricians, to follow the bounce and swagger of the pen, not the line of your argument.

They are cast adrift, losing the thread of their own argument, allowing you to crush them with your superior intellect.

They eventually become so disheartened that they leave university and, against their parents’ wishes, join the Merchant Navy – where they embark upon many dangerous and exciting adventures, so don’t feel bad.

While it is incredibly important to make sure you are ready to go to university, I am aware this is almost an impossibility.

Even those who are fully prepared are not immune to finding themselves on the wrong course within days.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Just remember: to succeed, all one needs is commitment, tenacity and a trusty Bic – truly mightier than the sword.

A solid friendship bloomed from potential disaster in the country To have a friend you can trust and However, there seemed no sign of to be someone your friend can humanity. rely on can make university so As I wandered around much easier. aimlessly, the wind that I discovered this last had previously seemed summer, while I was smoothing felt harsh on my struggling to fit in at face.

Manchester University.

But my eyes lit up when I I had moved from India saw the same guy I had felt a to the UK for my studies and connection with on the bus. everything seemed unfamiliar, I rushed to catch up with him making me feel isolated.

I lost track of him too.

Disha Agarwal before I was in desperate need of I said hello but it transpired he Manchester University friends I could have a heartfelt was in the same situation as me.

Third year conversation with so I gathered My relief at finding someone up my strength and signed up, vanished when I realised he was alone, for a trip into the nearby lost as well, but it didn’t feel as We were countryside, organised by the bad as it had before, since I knew I both lost but university. had my new acquaintance by we managed I was keen to find out about the my side. to find tourist lifestyle here and gel with people.

We chatted as we walked along information Among the group of strangers and at least found our way to the and some on the bus on the way to the mobile phone tourist information centre and some countryside, I sensed some mobile phone signal. signal connection with one of the boys on As we talked, we both realised Disha Agarwal the bus. how alike we thought and how our He had the same awkwardness brains worked in similar ways. and craving for friendship in his eyes We were not acquaintances as I did. anymore – we were not awkward During the short bus ride, we only anymore and we were not desperate exchanged a few stares but neither anymore. of us could gather up the strength to Finding one good friend is the best say ‘hi’ for fear of making a mockery gift that could have been given to of ourselves. me by that trip.

We arrived at our destination and I It was too early to think of him as found peace through the nature we a true friend but meeting him was were surrounded by. fortunate.

We were surrounded by tall trees Our ‘walk to remember’ marked with green and yellow leaves, tiny the beginning of an incredible colourful flowers popping among journey of friendship, experiences the fine bushes and cornered by a and exploration. huge crystal clear lake.

We never found the group again I fell in love with the beauty and on that uni trip, but managed to tranquility of it all. reach our homes safely.

But as I became more and more Neither of us ever bothered to unipaper.co.uk look up the group after we got back mesmerised by my surroundings, I lost track of my group. to uni, either.

Get the latest Wandering round looking for them We were comfortable with each news and got me even more lost. other and felt so settled in with comment Being lost in a beautiful land is our friendship that everything else from your uni seemed unimportant. portrayed as exciting in the movies, at unipaper. however, this is clearly a misguided Since then, we have been stuck to co.uk picture. each other for support, planned for A sense of getting lost is the most outings and brought out the best in helpless feeling in the world and this Make a each other. connection: reality hit home as I realised I had It didn’t take us much time to form Disha was too no idea where I was. a bond that was unbreakable, as it shy to talk to As my heart sank, I gathered my was made out of experience and her new friend understanding. We became as solid remaining courage to find anyone on the bus who would be able to help. as a rock.

Say ‘Hi’

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Disha Agarwal

Manchester University Third year

Seeing off my mum in a cab outside my first year accommodation should have brought me goosebumps.

But actually, I was amused when the expected rush of anxiety did not happen.

On that sunny day, despite my mother turning red with a continuous flow of tears, I wore a cheerful smile, showing I was strong enough to survive here all alone so she would leave with a sense of satisfaction.

Such magical motivation at that particular moment still astonishes me – I was being left alone.

And I was alone in Manchester, which was unknown to me, with a contrasting tradition and culture to the one I had been brought up in and just the few friendly faces of the people in my halls I had met so far, who I was yet to understand or form a bond with.

Being brought up in a country like India brings out extreme contrasts to the student lifestyle in

October 2017

The spring in my first steps at uni was false

Disha recalls putting on a brave face for her parents as she moved into halls, only for it to crumble less than a day later Waking up in my silent room for the first time left me lying half numb on my bed

Disha Agarwal

For more opinion, go to www. unipaper.co.uk

the UK. India is a mix of numerous cultures, traditions and languages, where there is almost too much to celebrate.

It’s a country where a child is kept in a protective shell and is spoonfed at every phase of their lives.

Growing up, we were given every luxury on a plate, so we did not face difficulties.

So despite having friendly flatmates in my accommodation, my heart was heavy.

I was sobbing on the inside, no matter how much I showcased myself as rock hard on the outside.

It was all a false image.

After waving goodbye to my mum, the day advanced as smoothly as if nothing major had happened and I explored some new places with my flatmates.

Nothing had hit me. Nothing made me feel isolated. Nothing made me think I did not belong there. I had called up my dad a couple of times the same day for a general conversation, with the

same level of courage I had shown my mum, and realised even he was startled after hearing my peppy voice.

The day ended peacefully with me sleeping calmly under my cozy blanket.

Waking up the next morning made me believe the previous day’s positivity had been nothing but a spell, cast upon me to prove to my parents how strong their daughter could be. The situation had lost its magic and I broke down in tears within the first few seconds.

Waking up to a dead silent room without the familiar sound of my dad in the background and the usual discussions about housework and the plan for the day from my mum left me half numb on my bed.

Still, I managed to stand up, get ready and walk through the grounds of my new accommodation towards my first introductory session. Until I got to the gate, that is.

Something as simple as pulling open the black iron gate to exit my

accommodation was a struggle when I took it on alone.

Ideally, two people were needed to open the heavy gate and get through without it closing on the person trying to leave. Having to grapple with it was another reminder of how alone I was.

Finding my way to the bus stop was another challenge – choosing the right bus number and then getting off at the correct destination was baffling.

It may all seem easy but actually these normal tasks made me panic at first.

Entering into an unknown city with no guidance makes you feel as lonely as a deserted ship.

During these actions my heart throbbed at a fast pace, as I never wanted to make a mistake and get myself into any trouble.

Walking all the way to the bus stop on an isolated, green-edged road made me feel lost and yearn for my mum’s warmth.

But I shook myself to reality,

At a crossroad: Disha Agarwal remembers convincing her mum and dad all was well as she struggled to find her way in a new city

gathered up hope and made myself believe this was not too tough a nut to crack.

I continued until I reached the part of campus I was heading for – I managed to get there ten minutes early and with a sigh of relief, I reached a massive, white-painted symmetrical lecture theatre.

The comfort did not last for long though, as hundreds of unfamiliar international students soon joined me. I didn’t know a single face.

My hands shook as I sweated and stumbled up the stairs and through the hall, which was filled with excited, chatty voices.

With a heavy heart I ducked out of the lecture theatre, got my phone out and called my mother, as I knew she would have landed back in India by then.

It all collapsed as I listened to her voice. All gathered courage disappeared.

All the collected, paused tears rolled down my face and all my feelings were blurted out to her.

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What’s On

15

Lowdown

The

October 2017

Speaking out has changed my world YouTube star Melanie Murphy explains how opening up about failings and health helped her

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FESTIVAL FIESTA Our summer round-up

 Amy Denman

LOVE ISLAND’S MARCEL We chat to the doctor

As a child, YouTube vlogger Melanie Murphy dreamed of writing a book.

However, in one of her videos, she admits she knew it was hard to get published and planned on writing as a hobby.

Now a popular YouTuber with a teaching degree and a best-selling book, titled Fully Functioning Human (Almost), Melanie has managed to realise all of her career dreams and more, despite not doing as well as predicted in her GCSEs. ‘The route I went to get into the education system was quite strange,’ she says. ‘During my final year, because of everything, I dropped out of school, I still did my exams but I did terribly.’

Melanie tells me how she went on to complete a Post Leaving Certificate, which is a certificate that helps young adults return to education. Once she

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YOUTUBE

MELANIE MURPHY PICTURE: EMILY QUINN

WOLF ALICE Lead singer Ellie tells us she is still getting used to her celebrity status

finished her PLC, she went on to study education at Dublin City University.

‘I ended up at the top of my class for three years,’ she says.

However, she admits her nerves nearly stopped her from going to university.

‘I nearly didn’t go, I nearly chickened out of going to university,’ she says. ‘But it was advice that was given to me that helped, which was not to worry so much about when it comes to making friends, because I used to be very shy.’

Melanie explains she did a number of things outside the lecture hall including joining the running team.

‘Societies in universities are an amazing way to make friends and feel connected to other

STAR

people,’ she says. ‘I was never into sports so I could never join a sports team. Finding groups of people that are like minded is just invaluable especially with getting through uni, you need to have a team of people or a group of peers around you.

‘I joined quite a lot of online forums as well to figure out how to adapt to a new schedule,’ she says. ‘University was so different from anything I had experienced before and I found managing my time to be the most difficult thing, but it’s like learning how to swim, if you’re thrown into water you’ll learn how to swim quite quickly.’

Melanie started her YouTube channel while she was at university, which has since attracted more than 500,000 subscribers and has hundreds of videos covering a number of topics including sexuality, mental health, body image, beauty and skincare.

A few of these topics are also

I nearly chickened out of going to university

Melanie Murphy

Mindful Melanie: The author speaks about a number of issues in her new book

MELANIE MURPHY

covered in her book, Fully Functioning Human (Almost), which was released in August. The book looks back at the life that she has documented online since 2013 and gives some words of advice inspired by her past.

‘I was really cautious about trying to dole out advice over groups of people,’ Melanie tells me.

She wrote the book, with the help of an editor, in a year and a half. ‘It was a very strange process,’ she says.

‘Each section was different and I went through a whole bunch of stuff during each section.’

We begin to chat about mental health — Melanie has spoken out about her struggles with depression and anxiety — and how she coped and what made her feel better.

‘I think for me it was realising how common they are. People would say things like “oh well you’re not alone, loads of people go through these things too,” but it’s very difficult when you’re in it to understand that,’ she tells me. ‘When I opened up about it and other people opened up because I opened up and it was just this big, snowball effect that gave me so much comfort.’

I ask if she has any advice for those at university who are suffering from mental health issues.

‘I think people should use any services universities offer because it’s quite a privileged position to be in where you have access to those things for free.’

Freshers: First impressions We all worry about making a good first impression, but it’s just as important to get a clear picture of people. We found out why

T

HERE is rarely a better opportunity to meet loads of people than the start of the university year, whether you’re a fresher, moving into new accommodation or you finally signed up for that five-a-side football team.

We often think we’re deciding whether we like someone based on their personality (plus their ability to keep their section of the fridge clean).

But science suggests that beneath the surface, our brains are quietly putting people in boxes, often without us even realising.

So rather than just focus on how to make a good first impression, we spoke to phsychologist Jana Uher about how to get a clearer first picture of the new people in our lives.

It takes less than a second to judge a face We only give ourselves 200 thousandths of a second to make complex judgements about a stranger we meet for the first time, such as how trustworthy they are, according to a study led by Prof Alexander Todorov at Princeton University.

Dr Uher, a research fellow at LSE, says these quick judgements evolved to help ancient humans survive.

‘Humans and other animals need to make decisions about what is important and how to behave in certain situations quite quickly,’ she said. ‘We cannot withhold from doing it, we just do it.’

And we use what we can spot easily.

‘We already start to form impressions on the basis of this, and to derive ideas of how these people may behave towards us – what kind of person is this – are they nice or not, or chatty or not – and this gives us a sense of security when we interact with strangers,’ Dr Uher says.

‘We may not be completely aware of which cues we pay attention to.’

Much of this judgement is based on appearance Most of us are visual animals. ‘We are primates,’ Dr Uher points out. ‘For us the primary mode of perception is seeing. We have TV, Facebook and YouTube and all these are way more important than radio or online audio.’

She says we use a lot of visual clues when working out how to approach a stranger. ‘Sometimes it’s a sign that they have a similar background, that they belong to a group with which you identify,’ Dr Uher says. ‘We try to estimate whether we get along.’

Master of research student and Bangor graduate Kate Stuart has experienced this.

‘I spotted a picture of a girl with half a skull face on my course’s Facebook page,’ she says. ‘I decided we should

be best friends on that basis.’ Derby and Nottingham Trent creative writing grad Kristina Adams adds: ‘My friend decided I was cool because I wore a leather jacket, had red hair, and talked loudly on the bus.’

Stereotypes influence how we see others But we don’t just use our powers of perception to embrace those with style or personality we admire.

Whether we believe in them or not, we all use society’s stereotypes of certain groups of people to judge the individuals who belong to them.

Dr Uher has studied how this happens, focussing her research on race and gender.

She calls stereotypes ‘exaggerated mental pictures’.

‘We do not take individual differences much into account in these pictures,’ she adds. ‘We have learned a rich cultural repertoire of beliefs of how certain people are and these stereotypes are automatic.’

Studies prove gender and race affect our views As part of her research, Dr Uher showed participants a picture of either a black woman, a black man, a white woman or a white man, who were all the same age and all wore the same formal office clothing, leaving their race and gender as their main discernible differences.

She asked each participant to judge how sociable, nervous, trusting and lazy the person in their assigned picture was.

Although 20 to 30 per cent of participants correctly complained they could not tell anything about their model’s personality from the picture, the rest did make judgements based on one simple image.

Dr Uher said patterns emerged in how the people in the photographs were rated. For example, the white man was judged as the most outgoing and sociable, while the black man scored the lowest in this area.

The black woman was rated as the most trusting and the white woman was considered most likely to find fault with others.

In another study, participants watched a four-minute video, again of either a black woman, a black man, a white woman or a white man, each film portraying an identical situation at the main character’s workplace.

Dr Uher found participants weighed the same social skills – such as how well someone communicated with their colleagues – differently for each person.

‘Many of the differences are small,’ she said while presenting her research at LSE. ‘In the complex mental processes involved, even small differences

17

October 2017

Find out more

Dr Jana Uher LSE id-research.org

IN FIGURES: PREJUDICE AND PERIL

200

thousandths of a second: Time a recent study found it takes us to judge a face

7,500

years humans have been able to meet strangers without fighting, geographer Jared Diamond says

1530 70

year the pseudoscience of physiognomy – linking physical traits to personality – stopped being taught in UK universities countries where minority groups risk becoming victims of mass killings (source: Peoplesunderthreat.org)

We might look for signs of a similar background – we try to estimate whether we get along

Dr Jana Uher, psychologist

can amount to larger differences in judgements of others that have nothing to do with their personality.’

The hardware our brain is using has a purpose Dr Uher stresses that relying on stereotypes is useless when trying to find out what someone is really like.

‘When we look at the empirical database of many behaviours and abilities, we find pronounced differences between individuals within a given group, be it age groups, genders, ethnicity,’ she says.

‘These individual differences are much larger than the average differences between the groups.

‘For example there are large differences between [individual] men and [individual] women in many abilities and personality characteristics and the difference between the average man and the average woman is very small, mostly.

‘It’s just in our minds that we exaggerate that and see these two groups as very different.’

But she says the processes at work when we make initial judgements can help us make sense of the world.

‘We would be completely overwhelmed if we had to deal with all information at the same time,’ she adds. ‘That’s what happens to autistic people, because they perceive all details and all cues in their full blown complexity. Our minds are not made to deal with this.’

Rebooting your first impressions takes work So the first judgements we form tend to be based on pretty shaky evidence.

Admitting you were wrong about somebody can lead to great things – think of the friend you presumed was stuck-up when you first met but is now like family.

But breaking down pre-formed ideas about people can be tricky.

Dr Uher says she was amazed at how difficult one woman who took part in her research found it to let go of her assumptions.

The study participant had only looked at a photograph of the woman she was being asked to judge, but had imagined an entire character for her.

When she was told the actual personality traits of the woman pictured, the participant said she couldn’t believe they were true.

‘I found that such a remarkable comment because she didn’t know anything about that person,’ Dr Uher says. ‘It was almost as if she was suffering a bit from knowing.

‘She imposes constraints in her own storytelling – if you’re A you can’t be B. It’s that black and white thinking.

‘We tend to ignore information that tells us (otherwise). We don’t want to see information that challenges our views.’

One reason we cling to ideas like this is because the ability to reason evolved to help humans justify our beliefs to others, rather than arrive at a logical conclusion, according to cognitive scientists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber.

In their book The Enigma Of Reason, they explain how our ancestors had to use clever arguments to win social standing, so got very good at grasping

evidence to support what they were saying, rather than weighing up all views equally.

But you can rewrite your software ‘The first thing have to do is acknowledge that we all have prejudices and stereotypical beliefs, no matter what group identity we may have,’ Dr Uher says.

‘I found in my study that even the privileged white man was stereotyped as being lazy because people said “well they get through their professions without doing much just because they are privileged”.

‘We all want to be judged on the basis of our achievements not just on stereotypes.’

Mixing with people who are unlike you in some way is the best way to dismantle your own prejudices, Dr Uher argues.

‘Superceding pre-existing stereotypes through individual impressions is the most important

It’s just in our minds we exaggerate and see two groups, such as men and women, as different

Dr Jana Uher, psychologist

way (to counter stereotypes),’ she adds. ‘When we get to know individuals of a certain group then we start to see individual differences in that group. Suddenly our exaggerated mental picture breaks down a bit.

‘Our biological circuits, the brain circuits, they are just about decision making, seeking information and forming an impression. It’s our social and cultural environment that provides the software of what to look for, to form an impression.’

Prof Todorov says we can minimise the effects of our hastily formed beliefs by getting more reliable information about people.

‘A good real life example is the increase of the number of women in prestigious philharmonic orchestras,’ he told the Princeton University Press blog.

‘Until recently, these orchestras were almost exclusively populated by men. What made the difference was the introduction of blind auditions.’

Festival reviews

Our sensational festival season Hidden gems: (Clockwise from top) The Main Stage crowd, Muse, Josh Homme and Liam Gallagher

 Elliot Mulligan Ah Leeds Fest. The jewel in the crown of Northern festivals. There really is no other like it.

There are those (festival

snobs in my opinion) who view it as the preserve of grotty 16-year-olds with poor music taste.

Yes, I encountered a few Adidas-clad teens

gurning to Major Lazer shouting ‘myyyy G, this is bare extra’, but you learn to tolerate them.

It’s all too easy to sit at home and say the line-up was poor – indeed this year, perhaps more than ever, Leeds Fest has faced criticism for

PICTURES: BEN BENTLEY AND MATT EACHUS

What did we get up to this summer?

Well now you ask...

not attracting big enough names.

However, it was the mix of a wide range of musical genres that made Leeds Festival 2017 a success.

The oft-forgotten Alternative Stage provided some true gems this year. Comedian Joe Lycett asked a

ten-year-old what the rudest word he knew was. Bill Bailey played Stairway To Heaven on cowbells.

Other charmingly random occurrences included The Inbetweeners’ actor Joe Thomas appearing on the Main Stage to shoot a scene for his latest film, Lethal Bizzle did some impressive karate on the NME/Radio 1 Stage, and a secret set from Wolf Alice caught everyone by surprise.

For me, this randomness is the magic of Leeds Fest, the eclectic atmosphere that seamlessly blends a variety of artists, from Giggs to Glass Animals, from Lethal Bizzle to Bastille.

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Writing this now I realise that Leeds Festival 2017 was different to the others that went before it.

Maybe it was the good weather.

Perhaps living in uni halls for the first time desensitized me to mess and filth. Who knows?

Randomness is the magic of the festival, it can seamlessly blend a variety of artists Possibly the only certainty to come from this weekend was the reassurance that Leeds Festival isn’t ‘dead’ – yes it’s changed over the years, but it’s still as vibrant and diverse as ever.

19

Acts attract all ages to the stages  Harry Allmark Thirty miles outside Kendal is where Kendal Calling takes place — an odd name for a festival based a half hour’s drive from the town it’s named after.

With that said, the location is a private slice of paradise made up of fields, woodlands, a lake and an astronomical view of the surrounding hills and mountains that make up the Lake District.

The lush green fields of Lowther Deer Park had already turned into

PICTURE: JODY HARTLEY

October 2017

One for all: (Clockwise from top) Fun at Jagerhaus, glitter by The Gypsy Shrine and Shaun Ryder performs a wasteland of sticky mud by the time we arrived and with the weather forecast predicting a weekend of nothing but either rain or a slight drizzle, people – I say people, I mean young people – had to stock up on wellies and waterproofs.

The Main Stage and Chai Wallah stage were the only places showcasing music on the Thursday.

But with British Sea Power, Happy

The only thing they need to improve on is the space, as the festival continues to grow year on year

Mondays and Franz Ferdinand as the headline acts, it was heaving with people from all generations.

Shaun Ryder, dressed in a designer tracksuit, did his best to remember the words to the whole set, which to be fair he almost succeeded in.

The Main Stage on Friday night was just brilliant. DMA’s took to the stage and performed an outstanding 45 minute set. On Saturday, we went to

the Soapbox comedy stage.

Tom Stade performed a hilarious set to people of all ages, using every s**t, f**k and c**t he could in a friendly and soft Canadian accent.

On Sunday, Frank Turner came on with his face covered in glitter, which had

been added by his niece ten minutes before he was due to perform.

Despite, the glittery conditions, he performed an outstanding set directing people in a friendly, entertaining way.

The only thing that Kendal Calling will need to improve on in the future is space, because I’m sure this festival is only going to carry on growing, and I can’t wait to go again.

Houghton Hears A Who? Most festivalgoers didn’t know the time or day

the day. Each of the nine stages had its own unique aura ranging from the Abandoned Warehouse to the Brilliant Corners Yurt that featured a sound system provided by the Analogue Foundation.

Let’s not forget the secret stage that could only be accessed by a ‘train’ that randomly floated past partygoers throughout the festival.

Craig Richards himself also put in an almighty shift of entertaining, playing a total of 20 hours across the whole weekend.

This was without a doubt the UK’s festival of the year. The incredible weather ensured that not a moment of negativity prevailed and the location, the production and the music combined to create something truly mesmerising.

Could this be the fest of the year?

Event is a smash year after year

 Tom Gellatly

Stepping into Eastville Park with the sun blazing once again, I remembered why Love Saves The Day was Bristol’s most-beloved day fest pretty much immediately.

With the weather being practically perfect, the line-up bigger and better than ever and the sprawling mass of edgily-garmed youths spread out before us already having by far the best day since study leave began, we had pretty high expectations for this year’s iteration of the festival.

Luckily, these were unanimously met or exceeded.

Our day started by heading down to the main stage to check out Fatima Yamaha who put on an absolutely

enchanting display as the dappled sunlight complemented his smooth sounds perfectly.

The main stage continued to be the place to be for the next couple of hours. Crazy P performed a live set which was just as hypnotic as I remembered from their showstealing performance at Gottwood Festival last summer. Heartbreaker was a heart-stopping highlight of the set which had the audience swaying along in spellbound bliss.

Next up was Mura Masa.

Performances of hits such as Firefly and Love$ick provided exactly the kind of vibe LSTD has made a name for itself for producing.

Next up, we moved on to the Futureboogie stage, which had been my favourite last year. We arrived in perfect time for my most-anticipated act at the festival, Move D, who already had the crowd grooving along. With the sun setting, Move D’s gorgeous disco picks blaring out and everyone around me having the time of their lives — not to mention the Arcadia Afterburner stage behind Futureboogie spewing out flames and pyrotechnics galore — it was pretty much everything you could ask for from a festival experience.

The energy in air field was buzzing  Amy Denman As we pulled into Brighton City Airport on a double decker bus, I knew we were in for a treat... and I was right.

As we walked through the gates the atmosphere was buzzing, people were swarming around with drinks in hand and exploring the site. With the set times in hand, we knew our main place of stay would be the Tropical/Sounds Of The Future tent.

PICTURES: JAKE DAVIS

Produced by the team behind Gottwood, festivalgoers knew they were in for a treat, but expectations were still exceeded.

Houghton Festival was curated by Fabric’s resident DJ Craig Richards who said: ‘It is my intention that the festival represents the very best in electronic music and those performing are closest to my heart and record box.’

The three-dayer combined art, music and sculptures and proved to be absolutely extraordinary.

Although many things made this festival truly magic, the 24-hour music licence was a huge factor — when the music started at 9am on

Friday morning it didn’t stop until the sun came up on Monday.

This propelled Houghton into a league of non-stop partying we have only experienced in Berlin or Amsterdam. Constant music combined with minimal phone signal and barely any signposting created a world so far from reality that few knew neither the time nor

We danced our way through Crazy Cousinz and Scrufizzer and Stimpy sets.

Slightly worn out from our two hour stint of nonstop dancing, we decided to quickly pop to the loo and grab a drink, however, it wasn’t as quick as we hoped. The queues for the toilet in the VIP area were just as long as those in the main area. Nevertheless, we waited, weed and got on with the rest of the day.

By that time J Hus was on, the act we had all waited for. We ran back to the tent and secured ourselves a space in the middle of the crowd, who were moshing along to his tunes. J Hus fed the crowd much needed energy to keep going by playing banger after banger.

We then went to see Chaka Khan on the main stage. Everyone in the crowd was grooving and singing at the top of their lungs as she performed I’m Every Woman.

After her set, we sat and enjoyed the last of the sun and ventured

PICTURES: SCOTT SALT

Spectacle steals the day: The Arcadia Afterburner stage

PICTURE: LOVE SAVES THE DAY

 Imogen White

Electric atmosphere: Fest founders Rudimental played a set back to the Tropical tent in time to catch the rest of AJ Tracey’s set. He had the crowd pumping and ready for Wiley to grace the stage and the grime god did not fail to entertain.

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23

The Interview

o t e c a l p e h t g s n i i t r i Uni fl t u o e r u g fi

October 2017

ance m o r s i how h lf a book s n i a l e lle exp d bag hims i v r e l Som e final an e c r a alist Mim get to th n fi d slan dh Love I ence helpe i exper

Marcel Somerville

I

 Amy Denman T was the show that invaded our minds over the entire summer, even after it ended. The contestants, or ‘Islanders’, from Love Island have shot to the spotlight since they left the isolated villa in Mallorca, Spain.

For most, the z-list status and attention is somewhat of a new experience. But, for Marcel Somerville it’s nothing he hasn’t experienced before.

‘Did you know I was in Blazin’ Squad?’ he jokes as we settle down for our chat.

It was one of the two times he mentioned it during out 30 minute meeting. I counted.

For those who are too young or perhaps too cool to remember, Marcel was a member of Blazin’ Squad, which Wikipedia refers to as a British hip hop group — not entirely accurate. Anyway, they had a few hits in the early noughties, including Crossroads, which you are guaranteed to encounter in the cheese room during a student night this term. But, the point is they were fairly big for a short space of time and it was something Marcel mentioned countless times while he was in the villa.

Curious to know, I ask Marcel how the fame this time around differs from when he was in the band.

‘When I was in the band there was ten of us so the attention was spread across the group.

‘But now, having people like me or love me for being me, as opposed to me putting out music is nice to experience because everyone feels like they know me now. ’ He tells me how his fan base has also changed since drawing attention on the reality scene, which he began to notice when he started doing nightclub appearances.

‘Back in the day when I used to do Blazin’ Squad personal appearances the girls would be going crazy and the boys would be like “err”,’ he says and sticks his two fingers up in a swearing gesture to demonstrate.

‘But now, there’s probably more boys than there is girls queuing up to take pictures with me, no that’s

a lie, but it’s a mixed bag of support and love.

‘It’s definitely been crazy.’

However, the attention hasn’t all been positive. While he was on the show, Marcel mentioned the amount of sexual partners he has had and the count is, let’s say, significantly higher than your average Joe. ‘I said it was in between 200 and 300,’ he says. ‘I’m 31, I’ve had a long life of experience. I’ve experienced loads of stuff.

‘The thing is, everyone’s got history, everyone’s slept with people before they’ve slept with anyone else.

‘I’ve just slept with a few more. I’ve not slept with thousands though, gosh,’ he jokes.

I note that his wealth of experience helped him in a number of ways throughout his time on Love Island.

University is the perfect place for you to work on your flirting ‘Me and Gabs won all the sex quizzes and that’s down to my great knowledge of the sexual act, obviously,’ he jokes.

His experience also helped him become somewhat of a love guru while he was on the Island.

He explains to me how during the first few days on the Island he took to being more chilled out than the other contestants who were competing for camera time and after a while, more people came over to hang out with him.

‘I think as time went on, because I was so chilled and calm and I would talk to people about different situations, everyone started coming to me when they had an issue because I’d give them a hug and talk them through things.’

Marcel earned a reputation as the Island’s agony uncle and with that came his own catchphrase, ‘paging

Dr Marcel’ coined by the show’s narrator, Iain Stirling.

Now the former Blazin’ Squad member has decided to continue to pass on his wisdom by writing a book. I ask if he has any worldly advice for those going off to university this year.

‘I never went to university so I’m not too sure on it but, as an MD of love, I would throw this out there: When you go to university everyone wants to have fun and experience different situations,’ he pauses. ‘I don’t know because I don’t wanna be like “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” because if I was at university I probably would go mental and do all kinds of stuff.’

He stops to gather his thoughts and says: ‘Don’t rush into situations so, if you're fresh into uni, don’t jump into bed with whoever because you never know you might catch feelings and that other person might not be on it.

‘Uni is the perfect place for you to work out your flirting,’ he says.

‘And how to actually conversate and pull people because there’s gonna be so many parties, people will probably be too drunk and forget like “oh that’s the guy that chatted me up last week”.

‘I’m guessing at uni you get madly drunk quite often at freshers’ parties and stuff so use it as a practice ground before you go into the big wide world of dating.’

unipaper.co.uk Somer of love: Dr Marcel’s Little Book of Big Love

by Marcel Somerville is out now

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Visit our site to sign up as a writer and get writing today

The Interview  Tom Gellatly

A

S I begin my chat with Wolf Alice’s frontwoman Ellie Rowsell she tells me she’s not feeling too hot after another round of extensive touring with the band.

‘We’re all actually very ill,’ she laughs.

Their latest series of shows began in Chicago, US, and finished at the Reading and Leeds festivals nearly two months later.

‘But yeah, it was great, it was a really fun tour,’ she tells me. ‘To finish at Reading and Leeds was really apt.

People are always either celebrating or commiserating there so it can get really crazy.

‘It was nice to get to do shows at places where we’ve not played before and to return to some of the venues we played at really early on,

when most of the shows were half empty and no-one really knew who we were.’

Half-empty shows and relative obscurity are now, very much things of the past for the alt rock band.

Their debut album, My Love Is Cool, captured the imagination of a legion of new fans, with the energetic music and Rowsell’s biting vocals and lyrics on songs such as Bros and Giant Peach signposting a promising future for the band.

Their second album, Visions Of A Life, is released on September 29, and the hype around the album has already been fuelled by the strikingly diverse singles we have been teased with so far.

The fiery, hardcore-influenced Yuk Foo has been the biggest shock so far, with the lyrics of the chorus ‘cause you bore me, you bore me to death, well, deplore me, well, I don’t give a s**t’ signalling a new direction for the band.

‘We wanted a fun song to play live,’ Rowsell says of the track’s origins.

‘We were looking for something you could channel all your energy and all your frustration into and just have a blast.’

I ask her how tiring the song is to sing — as it contains a lot of yelling — and she laughs and says: ‘Luckily, it’s only about two and a

Wolf Alice’s lead singer Ellie Rowsell talks about the toll touring takes, fulfilling her dreams and their new music

half minutes long, so it’s OK.’ The band recorded the album in sunny Los Angeles, US, in what would have been a stark contrast to the dreary London locales in which the songs were first written.

‘We were in LA purely because the producer we work with, Justin [Meldal-Johnsen], lives there with his family,’ she tells me. ‘It’s also really easy to find good studios over there,

and we weren’t about to complain about that.

‘We liked our villa, it was beautiful.

It was really nice to work in such a nice environment — we were in a studio in our engineer’s garden and there was loads of natural light in the control room and the tracking room as well, it was really beautiful.’

I comment on how much of a change it must have been from recording in England. ‘It was definitely much, much warmer,’ she says.

The new album’s title, Visions Of A Life, conjures up ideas of all kinds of imagined existences to my mind.

I tell Rowsell as much and ask if her role as the frontwoman of a hugely successful young rock band is the vision of a life she had before hitting the big time.

‘Yeah, absolutely,’ she says. ‘I always imagined myself in a band and touring, just like how so many other people do regardless of whether they play music or not.

‘I think a lot of people imagine themselves in some of the scenarios that we perhaps have lived now.’

Sometimes I think:

25

October 2017

I ask her if her life as a rock star has become any less surreal since Wolf Alice first burst onto the scene.

‘Yeah, kind of,’ she says. ‘I think, as with most things, with time you grow

accustomed to it. But, sometimes you’re on stage in front of a huge crowd and you think to yourself, “what am I doing?” The first whole year is pretty much that.’

If she still has moments of uncertainty in herself while she’s performing, she doesn’t show it at all. With her commanding stage presence and guitar and vocal

new album performed live.

‘I don’t know. I hope that they like it,’ she says. ‘It will be really nice to play the new songs with the album actually being out.

‘The thing is, because Visions Of A Life is so varied, it makes for quite a good show.

‘I don’t like going to shows where it’s all really energetic, up, fast and

so I’ll just come out with some really stupid story instead and people will think I’m a loser.’

Watching the band onstage, and listening to the new songs which make up the track list on the new album, Visions Of A Life, it seems pretty hard to imagine anyone ever thinking of Rowsell as anything other than one of the coolest rock stars in the world right now, even if I do say so myself.

Visions Of A Life is out on September 29 and the UK tour starts on November 8.

I have always imagined myself to be in a band and touring prowess, she ensures that the band are a live force to be reckoned with.

They’ll be embarking on a UK tour in support of Visions Of A Life in November, starting at Bristol’s O2 Academy.

I ask how Rowsell thinks the fans will react to seeing and hearing the songs from the

heavy the whole time.

‘I like to have a little bit of variation so the crowd can have a breather, and I like to have a poignant or romantic moment, something like that.

‘We can’t do Yuk Foo for a whole show,’ she laughs. ‘If people like that kind of variation, then the gigs will be great for them.’

Wolf Alice will play at London’s Alexandra Palace on November 24, and it’s a show the band are extremely excited about.

‘Ally Pally will be such a big feat for us,’ Rowsell says. ‘I don’t know if my nerves will overcome my excitement — I hope not, but we’ll see.’

I tell her that I’m seeing Lorde perform at Ally Pally a couple of weeks before their show. ‘Oh, god,’ she laughs. ‘She’s like an international superstar.’

With so many gigs, tours and festivals under her band’s belt, Rowsell’s being pretty modest by not including herself in the same category as the New Zealand singer and songwriter.

After all their months and years spent on the road, I ask the singer if she and the band have any particularly crazy stories from their tours that she could share with me.

‘You know, you should never ask people that,’ she laughs. ‘If someone has something that mad I doubt they’ll ever tell you, you’ll get the PG-rated version.

‘If I had something really horrible to tell you, I never would,

ON TOUR Nov 8 Bristol, O2 Academy Nov 9 Manchster, O2 Apollo Nov 11 and 12 Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom Nov 13 Newcastle, O2 Academy Nov 15 Nottingham, Rock City Nov 16 Birmingham, O2 Academy Nov 17 Norwich, UEA LCR Nov 18 Leeds, O2 Academy Nov 20 Brighton, Brighton Dome Nov 21 Southampton, O2 Guildhall Nov 24 London, Alexandra Palace

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Act of the month

27

October 2017

Fans of the King: Chay Snowdon, centre front, with his band (l to r) guitarist Liam Roberts, bassist George Roach and Kyran Bignell on drums

How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it yet?

I would describe it as indie rock ‘n’ roll/indie pop.

What would be your ultimate freshers’ week track and why?

It would have to be Can’t Stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers! I don’t know anyone that doesn’t let out a cheer when they hear that riff building.

What are the main themes or topics for your songs?

My latest single Around The Sun, to me, is about living while you’re young, and all that stuff you’re expected to do as an adult can wait.

Who are your major influences?

Elvis, hands down! But I also take a lot of influence from modern bands, such as The Hunna, Catfish And The Bottlemen and The Sherlocks.

Each month we introduce you to the best new musicians from university campuses across the UK. This time we chat to indie singer Chay Snowdon, who is at BIMM Bristol

I do what feels true

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Who are your favourite artists right now?

I’d have to say Catfish And The Bottlemen, Kings Of Leon, The Sherlocks and The Hunna. I’m also listening to Bob Dylan – what a writer!

If you could partner up with one other artist, who would you choose and why?

Mark Ronson. He has worked

with so many different artists from different genres and always gets it right, it seems. I’d love to see what he’d do to one of my tunes.

Where do you want to be in ten years’ time?

I’d love to be selling out bigger venues. That’d be incredible.

What does success look like?

Being able to make a steady living out of what I love doing.

If you could play a gig at one big venue, where would it be?

I’d to love, love, love to play the Royal Albert Hall. But I wouldn’t say no if Wembley came knocking.

What projects are you working on right now?

Right now, my band and I are travelling up and down the country, playing shows. We are also about to film the music video for Around The Sun, that should be fun.

What do you enjoy doing outside of music?

I love to surf, but it’s a bit trickier now as I’m living in Bristol.

If you had to choose one philosophy to live by, what would it be?

It would be to do what makes me and the people around me happy, and do what feels right.

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Food & Drink

Bring some bite to pre drinks Want to turn your club-prep shindig into a classy soiree?

We speak to chef Scott Davis, who has opened a restaurant dedicated to crisps, dips and snacks, about how to craft the ultimate party grub...

E

 Henry Edwards ATING is cheating, or so the mantra goes. Why go to all the effort of preparing a massive amount of snakebite and black and bringing everyone up to speed on the rules of Quidditch pong or ring of fire (several times) if you’re going to line your stomach with food anyway?

Because no-one wants to be ‘the one who didn’t make it out’.

Or even be the one who ends up holding their friend’s hair back while they vomit in the toilets at 11.30pm, because all they’ve consumed all day is budget white wine and vodka.

And for a pre-drinks gathering with a bit of class (OK, at least some tasty food...) you can’t go far wrong with crisps and dips.

We’re not talking about a bag of humble salt and vinegar or tortilla chips and shop-bought salsa, however.

Crisps can be seriously gourmet – just ask chef Scott Davis, who has devoted a whole restaurant to serving them in all their crunchy, moreish glory.

Scott, who trained at The Berkeley hotel in London’s Knightsbridge and has worked under Marco Pierre White, spent two years fine-tuning snack recipes in his kitchen before opening dedicated fresh crisp restaurant HipChips in Soho.

‘Everyone loves crisps,’ he said. ‘They’re a good British snack. I wanted to elevate them to a different level. On the

continent and in Japan, they buy crisps fresh, but we wanted to make sure the crisps were amazing and also wanted to do something special with the dips – everything is made fresh and we use our own spices.

‘I developed the restaurant to the point it is at now.’

The snacks at HipChips are fried at 145 degrees for between seven and eight minutes before being dusted with salt or sugar and cinnamon.

Savoury dip flavours include baba ghanoush, beetroot and lemongrass ‘marmalade’ and punters’ favourite, smoky cheese fondue, while adventurous crisp-lovers with a sweet tooth can try marshmallow and chocolate, cheesecake and crème brûlée.

‘When the dessert crisps come out of the fryer you cover them in sugar, like a doughnut,’ Scott said. ‘A potato has a neutral crunch, which will lend itself to anything.

‘With the dips, we wanted to make sure it was something you can have with a beer or a glass of Chablis or whatever.

‘Some are sharp and zingy – something for your palette to think about. Cheese fondue is a big hit – everyone likes something fried with something cheesy.’

The other difference between your average pack of ready salted

Everyone loves crisps – they’re a good British snack and I wanted to elevate them to the next level

Scott Davis, chef

For more on food and drink, go to www.unipaper. co.uk

Spud spectrum: Crisps made from different coloured potatoes

Flipping the chips: Chef Scott Davis, who runs a crisp restaurant

and HipChips’ crisps is the weird and wonderful types of potato used, from ancient forms of the crop to brightly coloured varieties developed in the UK over the years.

‘We use heritage potatoes,’ Scott said. ‘During the Second World War, we nationalised cheese, bread and potato production in Britain.

‘Across the country, we produced a light-coloured potato, which blight can’t latch on to, but the downside of that is there’s not really any flavour.

‘The big crisp brands use a different variety from us – lady Rosetta and lady Claire. Those companies, when they’re frying their crisps, they want a totally colourless result, but we don’t mind a bit of colour – I think seeing a golden, texturised potato is good.

‘With the restaurant, we looked back to the pre-war varieties – they’re colourful ones and they’ve all got different characteristics and textures.

‘We have a farm in Northumberland that grows all the potatoes and sends them down to us once or twice a month.’

Chefs at HipChips use the Mayan gold potato, which growers claim was once cultivated by the Inca people in Peru and other parts of South America.

It was the first variety to be brought back to England with Elizabethan explorers, who brought them back from America in the late 1500s.

After those first few encounters with the potato, the Brits made them their own, developing weird and wonderful varieties such as the purple Shetland black, which is also a big hit at the restaurant.

‘We’ve also got a red Emily, which has a pink flesh, and that’s a bit sweeter and more delicate,’ Scott said.

But if you’re inspired to make your own fresh crisps at home, he recommends any supermarket spud with a waxy texture.

‘Just slice it really thinly with a mandoline slicer, wash all the starch off and fry it till it’s crisp,’ he said.

And to accompany your freshfrom-the-pan snacks, choose pretty much any drink, although HipChips serve theirs with high-end premixed cocktails.

If that takes your fancy, we suggest a cheeky Vimto – two shots of port and a bottle of WKD Blue or equivalent – or the rather more sophisticated dark and stormy – dark rum with ginger beer and plenty of ice.

NOT JUST A HUMBLE SPUD: THE POTATO’S HISTORY 8000 to 5000 BC The potato is first domesticated as a crop in modernday Peru and Bolivia 2500 BC Approximate year the earliest archaeological remains of a potato date from. They were found in Ancón on the west coast of Peru 1567 AD First records of potatoes being grown outside of Central and South America, in the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco and Western Sahara Around 1570 The potato first enters Spain with sailors returning from the Andes 1588 to 1593 Britain and Ireland first glimpse the potato. Some historians think the crop was introduced to western Ireland by Spanish fishermen who landed there after their Atlantic voyages 1600s The imperial family of the Ming Dynasty in China start eating

Global phenomenon: Heritage potato varieties, above

The potato first came to Britain via Ireland between 1588 and 1593

potatoes as a delicacy 1719 First potato fields established in North America, probably near Derry in New Hampshire, by Scottish and Irish immigrants 1817 Earliest known recipe for crisps is published in The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchener, although popular legend credits New York State chef George Crum with their creation 1845 to 1852 The Great Famine, or An Gorta Mór, hits Ireland, sparked by a plague of potato blight. It is estimated to have killed more than a million people and caused another million-plus to emigrate 2008 International Year Of The Potato. World’s top five producers of the crop are China, Russia, India, the US and Ukraine 2010 Nottinghamshire gardener Peter Glazebrook grows the world’s largest potato, which weighs in at 3.8kg

29

October 2017

Lacking some light party snacks? These

size? Manchester are Simplissime the easiest we’ve found 37 Market Street, M1 1WR

ASPARAGUS IN MOUSSELINE SAUCE Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: Five minutes Ingredients: • Green asparagus – two bunches • One egg • Mustard – one tsp • Chives – one bunch • Two petits suisses (French cheeses)

Spicy spread: Crisps, dips and pickles at HipChips restaurant

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1. Separate the egg. Mix the yolk with the petits suisses, mustard and chopped chives and season with salt and pepper.

2. Beat the egg white stiff with a whisk and fold it gently into the mustard mixture.

3. Trim the asparagus but do not peel, then steam for five minutes.

Serve warm with the cold sauce.

SALMON SPRING ROLLS

Preparation time: Ten minutes Ingredients: • Smoked salmon – eight thin slices • Two green apples • Four lettuce leaves • Basil – 16 leaves • Eight 21cm rice paper wrappers

1. Peel the apples and cut into thin slices. Wash the lettuce and basil 2. Shortly before serving, soak the rice paper wrappers in a bowl of water and arrange on the worktop, smooth side down.

3. Spread the ingredients on the rice paper wrappers, then roll up tightly. Serve whole or in pieces.

PASSION FRUIT AND PRAWN CEVICHE Preparation time: 15 minutes Ingredients: • Four passion fruits • Eight cooked prawns

PICTURE: ANTOINE BEON

IF YOU’RE craving a bit more adventure than even the most complex crisp and dip combo can offer, there’s no need to follow a complex recipe, as these dishes from Simplissime Light by JeanFrancois Mallet show. The book, published by Hamlyn, costs £20.

Salmon spring rolls • Coriander – half a bunch • Soy sauce – four tablespoons • Olive oil – one tablespoon

1. Peel and cut the prawns into small pieces. Wash and chop the coriander.

2. Cut the passion fruits in half, scoop out the flesh and mix it with the remaining ingredients.

3. Serve in the fruit skins or in bowls, season with salt and pepper and enjoy.

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Winter festivals

October 2017

Feeling down after a packed summer of festivals? Beat the blues by hitting the biggest parties over the colder months

Y

OU’RE probably still picking out the glitter lodged in unwelcome places after an epic festival season, but now really is the time to start thinking about your next big fest.

That’s because winter festivals are getting more and more popular and tickets are starting to run out.

What’s more, if you’re a fresher, a trip away is a chance to really get to know your new housemates.

Check out eight of the best winter festivals taking place in the next few months...

1» RISE FESTIVAL What is it?: Extreme sports and

heavy nights don’t sound the best combination but it does guarantee a great time. Two of the UK’s favourite Craigs (sorry Craig Phillips) are playing, with Craig David presenting his TS5 and The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Club rolling into town.

Where is it?: Les Deux Alpes When is it?: December 16 to 23 How much does it cost?: £229.95

2» SONAR REYKJAVIK What is it?: No line-up news yet

(it’s a bit early for that) but last year’s edition featured De La Soul, Fatboy Slim, Moderat and Giggs.

That’s not bad considering Iceland has around the same population as Croydon. But which one has the better views? We’ll leave that up to you.

Where is it?: Reykjavik, Iceland When is it?: March 16 to 17 How much does it cost?: Early bird tickets were on sale for just over £150

PICTURE: RISE/FERNANDO SCHLAEPFER/CHRIS WATT/KNELIS/POLARIS/COACHELLA

 The University Paper

The hot tickets this winter

3» HOGMANAY What is it?: Normally it’s the

greatest new year’s celebration on earth, but this year is going to be extra special. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay turns 25 this year.

Expect a re-booted street party, an extra special fireworks show and, of course, an incredible Concert In The Gardens which has seen Biffy Clyro, Paolo Nutini, Kasabian and Blondie play in recent years.

Where is it?: Edinburgh, Scotland When is it?: December 30 to January 1 How much does it cost?: Prices vary depending on the event

break. Previous attendees include James Blake, Bastille, Hozier and Ibeyi, while last year Declan McKenna, Anne Marie and Fickle Friends all made an appearance.

Where is it?: Groningen, Netherlands When is it?: January 17 to 20 How much does it cost?: About £318 (€345)

And if you get a bit bored of that you can pop off for some skiing or snowboarding on some of the best off-piste runs in the world.

Where is it?: Verbier, Switzerland When is it?: December 7 to 10 How much does it cost?: Around £136

NOORDERSLAG

5» POLARIS FESTIVAL

What is it?: Part festival, part

What is it?: Undoubtedly the

What is it?: It’s basically the real

4» EUROSONIC

festival of choice for Europe’s hipster population. This quirky fest mixes groundbreaking artists at night with music conferences by day. The big appeal is the chance to see the next big thing before they

Party starters: Head to colder climes to banish the winter blues

mile high club. Set 2,200 metres in the Alps at Le Mouton Noir Ski resort, you can enjoy the best electronic dance music with last year’s acts including headliners Richie Hawtin, Dixon and Luciano.

6» COACHELLA stomping ground for the mega famous to take Instagram snaps, Coachella is undoubtedly one of the most glamorous festivals in the world. It’s still a long way away but you’ll need the time to plan your outfits and build a good social following. Barely any names have

been released for the 2018 edition but Beyoncé has confirmed she will be headlining. Enough for us.

Where is it?: California, US When is it?: April 13 to 15 and April 20 to 22 How much does it cost?: £330

7» TWSTD FESTIVAL What is it?: With Ibiza’s doors shut after a hectic summer blearyeyed ravers will be looking for somewhere to keep the buzz going.

Thankfully, My Nu Leng, Sigma, Hannah Wants, Jamie Duggan and Lethal Bizzle are going to make Twstd Festival one of the best places to carry on the party.

Where is it?: Butlins, Skegness

When is it?: November 17 to 19 and

November 24 to 26

How much does it cost?: £189

8» FIVE SENSES Fancy writing about music for The University Paper?

Email editor@ unipaper.co.uk to find out how

FESTIVAL

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Freshers: First impressions We all worry about making a good first impression, but it’s just as important to get a clear picture of people. We found out why

T

HERE is rarely a better opportunity to meet loads of people than the start of the university year, whether you’re a fresher, moving into new accommodation or you finally signed up for that five-a-side football team.

We often think we’re deciding whether we like someone based on their personality (plus their ability to keep their section of the fridge clean).

But science suggests that beneath the surface, our brains are quietly putting people in boxes, often without us even realising.

So rather than just focus on how to make a good first impression, we spoke to phsychologist Jana Uher about how to get a clearer first picture of the new people in our lives.

It takes less than a second to judge a face We only give ourselves 200 thousandths of a second to make complex judgements about a stranger we meet for the first time, such as how trustworthy they are, according to a study led by Prof Alexander Todorov at Princeton University.

Dr Uher, a research fellow at LSE, says these quick judgements evolved to help ancient humans survive.

‘Humans and other animals need to make decisions about what is important and how to behave in certain situations quite quickly,’ she said. ‘We cannot withhold from doing it, we just do it.’

And we use what we can spot easily.

‘We already start to form impressions on the basis of this, and to derive ideas of how these people may behave towards us – what kind of person is this – are they nice or not, or chatty or not – and this gives us a sense of security when we interact with strangers,’ Dr Uher says.

‘We may not be completely aware of which cues we pay attention to.’

Much of this judgement is based on appearance Most of us are visual animals. ‘We are primates,’ Dr Uher points out. ‘For us the primary mode of perception is seeing. We have TV, Facebook and YouTube and all these are way more important than radio or online audio.’

She says we use a lot of visual clues when working out how to approach a stranger. ‘Sometimes it’s a sign that they have a similar background, that they belong to a group with which you identify,’ Dr Uher says. ‘We try to estimate whether we get along.’

Master of research student and Bangor graduate Kate Stuart has experienced this.

‘I spotted a picture of a girl with half a skull face on my course’s Facebook page,’ she says. ‘I decided we should

be best friends on that basis.’ Derby and Nottingham Trent creative writing grad Kristina Adams adds: ‘My friend decided I was cool because I wore a leather jacket, had red hair, and talked loudly on the bus.’

Stereotypes influence how we see others But we don’t just use our powers of perception to embrace those with style or personality we admire.

Whether we believe in them or not, we all use society’s stereotypes of certain groups of people to judge the individuals who belong to them.

Dr Uher has studied how this happens, focussing her research on race and gender.

She calls stereotypes ‘exaggerated mental pictures’.

‘We do not take individual differences much into account in these pictures,’ she adds. ‘We have learned a rich cultural repertoire of beliefs of how certain people are and these stereotypes are automatic.’

Studies prove gender and race affect our views As part of her research, Dr Uher showed participants a picture of either a black woman, a black man, a white woman or a white man, who were all the same age and all wore the same formal office clothing, leaving their race and gender as their main discernible differences.

She asked each participant to judge how sociable, nervous, trusting and lazy the person in their assigned picture was.

Although 20 to 30 per cent of participants correctly complained they could not tell anything about their model’s personality from the picture, the rest did make judgements based on one simple image.

Dr Uher said patterns emerged in how the people in the photographs were rated. For example, the white man was judged as the most outgoing and sociable, while the black man scored the lowest in this area.

The black woman was rated as the most trusting and the white woman was considered most likely to find fault with others.

In another study, participants watched a four-minute video, again of either a black woman, a black man, a white woman or a white man, each film portraying an identical situation at the main character’s workplace.

Dr Uher found participants weighed the same social skills – such as how well someone communicated with their colleagues – differently for each person.

‘Many of the differences are small,’ she said while presenting her research at LSE. ‘In the complex mental processes involved, even small differences

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can amount to larger differences in judgements of others that have nothing to do with their personality.’

The hardware our brain is using has a purpose

Dr Uher stresses that relying on stereotypes is useless when trying to find out what someone is really like.

Dr Jana Uher ‘When we look at the empirical LSE database of many behaviours id-research.org and abilities, we find pronounced differences between individuals within a given group, be it age groups, genders, ethnicity,’ she says.

‘These individual differences are much larger than the average differences between the groups.

‘For example there are large differences between [individual] men and [individual] women in many abilities and personality characteristics and the difference between the average man and the average woman is very small, mostly.

‘It’s just in our minds that we exaggerate that and see these two evidence to support what they were groups as very different.’

It’s just in saying, rather than weighing up all But she says the processes at work our minds we when we make initial judgements can views equally. exaggerate help us make sense of the world. and see two ‘We would be completely groups, such a year, delivered straight to theirif we had andtoput your details. Be sure randomly pick the winner onand overwhelmed dealinwith as men door. enter an email October 19 and entries close at all information at thetosame time,’ she you check women, as ‘The fiwe’ll rst thing do is on October 18.

And to enter it really regularly, as that’s how be have to midnight adds.couldn’t ‘That’s what happens to autistic different acknowledge that we all be easier, just headpeople, to: www.

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Dr Jana Uher, prejudices unipaper.co.uk/competitions The University will and stereotypical yourselfbeliefs, online! details and all cues in their full blown Paper psychologist no matter what group identity we complexity. Our minds are not made may have,’ Dr Uher says. to deal with this.’

‘I found in my study that even the privileged white man was stereotyped as being lazy because people said “well they get through their professions without doing much just So the first judgements we form tend because they are privileged”. to be based on pretty shaky evidence.

‘We all want to be judged on the Admitting you were wrong about basis of our achievements not just on somebody can lead to great things – stereotypes.’ think of the friend you presumed was Mixing with people who are unlike stuck-up when you first met but is you in some way is the best way to now like family. dismantle your own prejudices, Dr But breaking down pre-formed Uher argues. ideas about people can be tricky.

‘Superceding pre-existing Dr Uher says she was amazed at stereotypes through individual how difficult one woman who took impressions is the most important part in her research found it to let go of her assumptions.

The study participant had only looked at a photograph of the woman she was being asked to judge, but had imagined an entire character for her.

When she was told the actual personality traits of the woman pictured, the participant said she couldn’t believe they were true.

‘I found that such a remarkable comment because she didn’t know anything about that person,’ Dr Uher says. ‘It was almost as if she was suffering a bit from knowing.

‘She imposes constraints in her own storytelling – if you’re A you can’t be B. It’s that black and white thinking.

‘We tend to ignore information that We might look for signs tells us (otherwise). We don’t want to see information that challenges our of a similar views.’ background One reason we cling to ideas like – we try to this is because the ability to reason estimate evolved to help humans justify our whether we beliefs to others, rather than arrive get along at a logical conclusion, according to Dr Jana Uher, cognitive scientists Hugo Mercier and psychologist Dan Sperber.

In their book The Enigma Of Reason, they explain how our ancestors had to use clever arguments to win social standing, so got very good at grasping

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But you can rewrite your software

17 33

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making, seeking information and forming an impression. It’s our social and cultural environment that provides the software of what to look for, to form an impression.’

Prof Todorov says we can minimise the effects of our hastily formed beliefs by getting more reliable information about people.

‘A good real life example is the increase of the number of women in prestigious philharmonic orchestras,’ he told the Princeton University Press blog.

‘Until recently, these orchestras were almost exclusively populated by men. What made the difference was the introduction of blind auditions.’

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In Style

35

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October 2017

To keep up to date with the latest from TUP, like our Facebook page @TheUniPaper

the work of looking good for you.

Layer formal coats over bright hoodies and skinny jeans under half-unbuttoned skirts. Big cosy jumpers can still be smart in a bold colour or print.

Don’t be afraid of snuggling up inside two jackets – you can always peel off the layers if the October drizzle suddenly turns into an Indian summer.

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Music

I

37

Students reveal their unique experiences at university

stories. The idea of a pilgrimage too – I think it’s easy to make the comparison with black people in America on a spiritual pilgrimage.

The faculty in the creative writing department select the thesis they want to work with so (tutor) Josh Bell was the guy who selected my thesis. He was consistently very excited about it and very supportive.

While I was creating the album, I would develop an idea slowly by writing different lyrics until a more fully fleshed idea came.

Like the song Beast – once the idea hit that I wanted to be writing from the point of view of a kid who was killed in gang violence, then I

I loved the idea of the Canterbury Tales – I wanted to tell the stories of ordinary black people Obasi Shaw Canterbury Tales – the way they’re told by 20-odd ordinary people going on pilgrimage to Canterbury and they all, just to pass the time, have to tell each other these stories.

It’s a really fascinating device because Chaucer, who’s the poet, isn’t writing the stories from his own perspective, although he does insert himself as a character, but he’s writing from the perspectives of ordinary people telling their own ordinary stories.

I really love that idea for [my] album, Liminal Minds, because I want to tell the stories of ordinary black people and I wanted it to be genuine – them telling their own

sat down for a few hours and did the story, all to the beat – it wasn’t like I would write poetry and then put it to music.

There’s a studio on campus called the Quad Sound, which is studentrun. A few years ago, a student raised a lot of money to get this fully flushed out studio.

That’s where I’ve spent countless hours by myself, recording myself.

It took a little over a year – the first song I wrote, which was the only song I didn’t write for the thesis, was Born Browner and that was one of the songs I included in my application.

I knew for a while I was going

PICTURE: JAKE BELCHER/OFFICE OF THE ARTS HARVARD

HAD known for a long time that I wanted to do some form of creative writing but I didn’t know what form I wanted to do for the thesis.

My mom said ‘why don’t you write a rap album?’ because I had started rapping a few months before. I thought that would never work but as the deadline for applications for a creative thesis came, and I had no other ideas, I thought I might as well try. So the day before the deadline I put an application together, put in some raps I had done and submitted it – I didn’t expect anything from it.

I’m really fascinated by The

October 2017

Seminal mind?

Obasi hopes his album will pave the way for others

I rapped my final thesis and aced it Harvard grad Obasi Shaw flipped expectations on what a dissertation should be... now he reveals his incredible tale

to end the album with the voices of the people from previous tracks, but then one line in particular from Born Browner – ‘tell me you’re gonna come quick and open up the door. Tell me there’s forgiveness even for a coloured boy’ – it’s the question that I want to ask at the end. The question the whole thesis is asking is ‘can we empathise with the people who are telling these stories? Can we understand that they are human and they’re living experiences that are liminal, as opposed to criminal?’ .

The primary goal of the album is to explain that these people are not criminal or we shouldn’t understand them as criminal, as different from us in that way, but as liminal, as they’re experiencing so many pressures from the world that are causing them to be the way they are.

The feedback from other students has been great – I had a listening party and invited some of my friends so people showed up to that a week before I had to turn it into the department. It was really cool to see how much people loved what I had done. If someone else comes now and says ‘I want to write a rap album for my thesis’, they can now look back to that and say ‘this has been done before and it was done really well so we think this is something that can be a respectable art form’. If I’d done poorly, they would have said the opposite.

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Confession

39

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October 2017

My life as a superhero superfan

The University Paper writer Jessica Ginting spends her cash on comic books, cosplay and memorabilia.

But how did the University of Bristol student become obsessed with superheroes to the point where she dresses up as her favourites? Here she reveals all...  Jessica Ginting I fell in love with superheroes when The Avengers came out in 2012.

That was the movie that kept me coming back to the theatre, the movie that made me dive into the world of comic books.

Apart from Iron Man, I hadn’t seen any of the Marvel movies before and I had no idea who Captain America, Thor, Black Widow or Hawkeye were.

I came into the movie as a barelyfan, but walked out determined to learn as much as I could about the superhero universe.

I started with Batman stories, because he was my favourite superhero and I loved Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

During that time my dad also began obsessively collecting Superman comics, it was like something clicked in the two of us at the same time.

I started with the classics, the big graphic novels, following the guidance of online ‘Top 20 Batman

Devoted: Above, Jessica with her growing comic book collection and, right, she sits on the Game of Throne’s Iron Throne dressed as superhero Zatanna

Want to write for The University Paper? Email editor@unipaper. co.uk to find out how

comics you must read before you die’ lists and the like.

But as that list came to an end, I expanded my reading material.

However, the comic book universe seemed too big and complicated for me to get into, so I stuck with familiar characters.

It was a stroke of luck, then, when DC decided to reboot its whole line of comics in June 2016.

They re-introduced their characters so new readers could come in and start afresh – it was the perfect opportunity for me.

I started collecting new titles and I’ve been diligent at keeping up.

I am subscribed to two titles a month, and pick up others whenever I go into entertainment mega store Forbidden Planet (depending on how much money I’m willing to spend that day).

It can get pricey, especially if I decide to buy an older, complete, graphic novel in one purchase (these range from £12 to £40).

But my comic book related purchases also often include t-shirts, toys, movie tickets, posters for my bedroom and other random

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memorabilia. I also try to support fan artists and buy fan art from them whenever I can.

So every month, it can add up to £60 if I go on a particularly heavy shopping spree, but normally it’s probably in the £20 to £30 range.

I also went to my very first Comic

I came into the movie as a barely-fan, but walked out determined to learn as much as I could about the superhero universe

Jessica Ginting

Con in London back in May and I absolutely loved it!

I cosplayed as Zatanna from DC, and that whole outfit cost me about £60 to put together.

But it is a once (or twice) in a year event, so I didn’t mind splurging for that.

It was a great experience, and it was really cool seeing other people’s costumes and being surrounded by others who shared the same passion for these characters as me.

It’s not just a hobby, because as an English student, I actually really like looking at comic books from a literary perspective, and I am doing my dissertation on DC’s Watchmen this year, regarded as one of the best graphic novels of all time.

So as far as obsessions go, I think I quite enjoy mine.

Work with us

October 2017

Big picture: Illustrator Jess Jenkins, main image left, with examples of her editorial work and cartoons for TUP, below and right

I love making work that can make people chuckle

Jess Jenkins

Want to be in the frame for big breaks? TUP illustrator Jess shows why you should get involved...

I

STARTED doing illustrations for The University Paper after getting an email advertising vacancies for the Cardiff edition.

I applied, had a phone interview and got the position.

After a few months working on news stories for the Cardiff edition, I ended up illustrating for the The Lowdown section, which goes out across the UK. I was studying illustration at Cardiff School of Art and Design and thought it would be invaluable experience to have the opportunity to illustrate for the newspaper.

Although university was challenging me, I wasn’t gaining any ‘real life’ experience and so working to an actual brief for the newspaper allowed me to understand the way I work better, as well as gaining work experience.

I’ve used my time with TUP to practice illustrating for news articles and features, which can be tricky as sometimes particular articles just don’t inspire an interesting image.

If I hadn’t been doing this kind of

work, I would probably never have found myself illustrating pieces about students’ unions banning tabloid papers, asylum seekers being given wristbands to access meals or chronically messy desks.

I was also able to experiment with how I draw and use colours, and I got feedback on how different palettes would work in print.

Illustrating for TUP has also allowed me to practice liaising with editorial staff in order to come up

with an image, as well as meeting deadlines.

I want to continue doing freelance illustration work and I feel quite prepared for editorial commissions now, thanks to working with TUP. My monthly comic series has been my favourite project.

It’s been a challenge to come up with the narratives for the cartoons while also sticking to a theme set by the editorial team.

It’s also allowed me to play with humour and create relatable scenarios. I love making work that can make people chuckle – there is too much illustration and artwork that explores dark and depressing themes. There needs to be more humour and lightheartedness!

To see more of Jess’ work, visit jessjenkins.co.uk.

FIVE BENEFITS OF WRITING FOR TUP As well as illustrators, The University Paper is also looking for student writers. Here are some benefits of signing up...

1. You could interview the biggest names in music and entertainment 2. There are hundreds of gigs, festivals and shows to review – all for free 3. You’ll improve your writing with help from professional

journalists at head office 4. Your work will be read by tens of thousands of people across the UK 5. Best of all... for every 50,000 pageviews your stories receive on our website you’ll get a £50 cash bonus!

To sign up visit www.unipaper. co.uk and click on ‘write for us’.

To find out more, email editor@unipaper.co.uk

Jobs

42

October 2017

Jobs

www.unipaper.co.uk | t @TheUniPaper | f TheUniPaper | 020 7580 6419

There’s trauma and frustration but I’ve never looked back How did you know you wanted to work for an NGO or charity?

In truth I didn’t. At no point did I ever set out to ‘do good’. I was raised to be respectful of others. When opportunities presented themselves to do something positive I was enthusiastic about pursuing them.

How did you find out about your first job with MSF?

I was motivated to apply to MSF after meeting someone who was working at an MSF project in Sudan.

I always had this ambition to work for MSF, but that pushed me to get some relevant experience, so I took a logistics role in Tanzania.

Days after returning from eight months of volunteering in Tanzania I had an interview for MSF in the London office. The interview was on a Friday and on the Monday I received a call to say I had been successful. Two days later I was asked if I was available to go to South Sudan as an all-round logistician – I was.

Need tips on entering your dream career?

Dan Acheson, 35, tells us how he became a logistics co-ordinator for global charity Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)

Dan Acheson

Medecins Sans Frontières

What qualifications and experience did you need?

There is no single qualification required to be an all-round MSF logistician, but that doesn’t mean you are suitably qualified by just wanting to be helpful towards those less fortunate. I have a technical degree in construction management which comes in useful.

As with so many international NGO

What did you find most challenging when you started working for MSF?

Prioritising. The work can be very intense. At first, this was a big challenge when managing activities that included ambulance referrals and helicopter landings, hospital hygiene and maintenance, staff rosters and training – it could all get a little stressful. I always try to take a step back and reassess the overall priority, which in most instances is the medical need.

How did you get your first promotion?

I benefited from the career development opportunities on offer at MSF, which provide specific training and outlined career paths, in progressing from a general logistician to a manager, and on to a co-ordination role.

What has been the key to your progression?

What was the application process like for that first role?

I spent months applying for international NGO roles, from desk jobs in London to logistical roles in Lesotho. My advice it to be persistent.

Throughout this disheartening period of nothingness I was at least able to build a stronger CV. This along with my diverse professional experiences, from teaching and youth work to logistic roles, proved to be my unique selling point.

positions, there is a necessity to have some experience working in a relevant context.

My drive to take on more responsibility. The further I go the greater the impact I can have.

Have you ever thought ‘I can’t do this’?

The work can be very intense, from managing helicopter landings to hospital maintenance – prioritising was the biggest challenge at first For more insight on jobs and careers, go to www. unipaper.co.uk

There have been countless difficult situations. Emotions, initial failures, frustration and tragedy have all been met head-on but there’s genuinely never been a time where I’ve thought I can’t. The importance of MSF’s work means that I just have to. It’s at these difficult times that you become pragmatic.

What has helped you maintain your enthusiasm?

That’s simple – I love my job.

I absolutely stand by what MSF does. Its emergency aid responds to people affected by conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare in over 70 countries. That sounds pretty epic, doesn’t it?

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Jobs

October 2017

 The University Paper

S

TUDENT Beans co-founder James Eder sounds as if he has been riding a wave of serendipity as he speaks about his latest venture, launching networking app Causr.

The entrepreneur, who started deals website Student Beans 12 years ago, came up with the idea for the app, aimed at harnessing the potential for chance encounters after, well, a couple of chance encounters.

‘I was on the Underground and a guy sat next to me with a CV in his hand,’ James explains. ‘I turned to him and said “are you looking for a job?”.

‘He said yes. He came in for an interview and ended up getting a job at Student Beans.’

The second chance meeting was with an employee at Acorne, which provides experience days alongside brands including Virgin and Lastminute.com.

‘I said we should work with Acorne to create some Student Beans activity days,’ James says.

‘Ten minutes later, I was in a station and I couldn’t hear something over the PA. ‘So I turned to the guy next to me and started talking to him. It turned out he was from Acorne and was the exact person I needed to meet.’

James wants to use Causr to take away the barriers to business people who are near each other talking.

‘There are three pillars that stop it happening,’ he says. ‘The first is permission – we don’t feel like we have permission to speak to someone. There’s a Britishness about that as well.

‘The second is confidence – often people don’t feel like they’ve got the confidence to say something.

‘The third is context, so when I saw someone with a CV, that was the context to approach them.

‘The idea of the app is to have

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Causing tongues to wag

Student Beans co-founder wants his new app Causr to get people talking in person about their next big plan technology enabling people to connect more, face to face.’

The app has now been launched on iOS and James found out about one of the successful partnerships it has helped launch by chance.

‘Two users ended up doing a £500,000 business deal, which was awesome – one worked in recruitment and another worked at a Let’s connect: The Causr app lets users join groups reflecting their interests, left, and update their status to tell others nearby what they’re planning, right

Looking for a graduate job? Go to jobs.unipaper.co.uk where thousands are available

major telecoms company,’ he says.

‘I only heard about it because I sat down at an event and chatted to someone who said “I know Student Beans”. I said “I’m actually doing something else now called Causr” and he said “I know Causr as well – I went online and connected with someone. He’s now coming to my wedding and we did a business

Two users did a £500k business deal and I only found out by chatting to one of them

James Eder

deal”. I was blown away – it just shows the opportunities out there.’

However, getting to this point has been everything but serendipitous and one of James’ earlier business successes turned to disaster.

He started a venture with his brother Michael when he was 13, taking black and white portrait photos of dogs in their local park, getting the film developed and selling the pictures to the owners.

‘One week, it was snowing and it looked amazing,’ James says. ‘I ended up developing the film myself and it got destroyed – I was a bit impatient.’

He stopped the photo business but a few years later, founded an online directory for a project with the Young Enterprise organisation, alongside two other partners, raising thousands of pounds for charity.

But he says little prepared him for his future projects like working in telesales for Gala Bingo, which he did between leaving school and starting at Birmingham University.

‘That was an amazing grounding,’ he says. ‘They call it “no training” as opposed to sales training.

‘I got told “no” about 700 times a day, so it was amazing in terms of lessons learned.’

He wrote a business plan as part of his degree in 2005 and got the

Full of beans: James Eder, below, co-founded deals website Student Beans and has now launched networking app Causr

You have to believe that if you’re being told ‘no’ every day, you’re going to want to keep going anyway

James Eder

push to start Student Beans with his brother the same year.

‘A friend bought me a book called The Naked Leader, which has the really powerful message “imagine if you couldn’t fail”,’ he says.

‘On the brink of graduation, hearing that message, I thought “if Student Beans isn’t going to fail I have to go and do it”.

‘My brother usually tells me my ideas aren’t very good but this one he really liked.’

The brothers went doorto-door to sign up Student Beans users before they even had a website, which James says was ‘brutal’.

He says his career so far has required a level of belief ‘beyond passion’.

‘You have to absolutely believe that, if every day you’re going to be told “no” tens or hundreds of times, you’re still going to want to keep going,’ he adds.

‘Only I could do it because I couldn’t afford to pay someone for the amount of time and energy and effort it took to do what I did.’

Student Beans now has millions of visits to its site every month, but James is again facing the challenges of starting afresh with Causr.

‘There’s the personal doubt on a daily basis,’ he says. ‘You think “am I doing the right thing? Is it going to succeed?” It’s not easy.’

Digs

45

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HEN you leave the comfort of your parents’ nicely decorated home for your uni halls, you will suddenly realise how much you miss creature comforts and how shoddy university accommodation can be.

However, some companies have gone above and beyond to ensure you won’t miss home by giving you all the extravagant things you never knew you needed.

Take a sneak peek at our round up of the quirkiest student blocks in the country.

October 2017

See the latest flicks in Sheffield

Crown House in Sheffield has taken Netflix and chill to a whole new level by giving their tenants a cinema room. With comfy seats, great mood lighting and even tables to put your drink and popcorn on.

Sitting at the back is still the coolest place to face the screen with the comfiest seats in the house.

Rooms start at £164 per person per week

Club Cardiff

Say goodbye to paying out the nose for taxi rides home and hello to pre drinks at yours as Eclipse in Cardiff has a nightclub within its premises.

I would highly recommend not drinking too much and risk making a right tit of yourself on a night out (or in) here, as it is inevitable you will see the bouncers again.

Rooms start at £137 per person per week

Become a ping pong master in Manchester

Table tennis has become a very popular pastime.

Lambert and Fairfield House have jumped on the trend and created accommodation-slash-entertainment complex which means you never

With clubs and ping pong leaving home does not seem as daunting anymore

Slide into your very own pad Some companies have gone above and beyond to ensure you won’t miss home

have to leave. Not only do they have a table tennis and coffee bar, but they also have a private bowling alley and karaoke rooms. Rooms

start at £135 per person per week

Destress with steam in Durham

If you’ve had a long day filled with studying and trying not to get distracted in lectures then you need to unwind, right?

Ernest Place in Durham has thought about that and provided their tenants with a sauna.

The lucky students who live there can relax for hours (well maybe not hours otherwise you risk looking like a prune). Plus, after a heavy night it’s nice to unblock those pores. Prices start at £125 per person per week

Chill in a Tube carriage in London

Moving to the capital can be pretty daunting but also pretty fun as you can tick loads of sight-seeing off your bucket list such as going to Buckingham Palace or riding the London Eye. However, getting around can be pretty stressful. Spring Mews in Vauxhall can help you get a few practice sessions in before riding the London Underground for real as they have a Tube carriage set up in their social space. A word of warning, it’s a lot cleaner than the real deal. Prices start at £287 per person per week

Think you place is better? Email us at editor@unipaper. co.uk

Bring out your inner child in Leeds

There are so many puns, my brain is buzzing. This actual slide in The Glassworks in Leeds goes from the glamping pods to the outside seating area. You literally will never need to go on holiday ever again.

Rooms start at £149 per person

� W � N D � B�A

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100 % Students

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Sport

47

October 2017

Boys in pink are ‘going into the unknown’ this year

Nottingham Trent’s head of rugby says his side are ready to take the step up into the big league

OTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY’S head of rugby has said his side ‘are going into the unknown this year’ as they enter university rugby union’s top competition.

Speaking to The University Paper ahead of his side’s first foray in the BUCS Super Rugby league, Neil Fowkes, said: ‘It’s going to be an interesting year for us. We’re sort of going into the unknown.

‘Everyone else had the opportunity to go in last year and be within the competition, whereas we are taking each game as it comes because we need to build performances and get to the level of the Super Rugby league as we go.’

Last year, Trent became the first team to be promoted into the league following a masterly display against the University of Bristol in a two-leg playoff, winning 117-12 on aggregate.

But now the boys in pink must prove themselves against the best in the country, including last year’s champions, Hartpury College. And Fowkes is well aware of the tough

test ahead of him.

‘I watched a fair few of the games from last year and on their day every university is strong,’ he said.

‘Durham beat Exeter last year and Exeter have been one of the top sides over a number of years.

‘Loughborough were traditionally

strong and Hartpury seem to be going from strength to strength.

‘But travelling to places like Cardiff Met and Northumbria will be difficult as well. And I haven’t mentioned Bath in that as well.

‘They’re all going to be tough. I think Hartpury, with them moving into the Championship [England’s second top league] as well, they’re going to be a strong side.’

However, despite being new boys to the league, Trent are likely to be extremely competitive.

When the BUCS Super Rugby league was unveiled last summer, Trent started their preparations as if they were in the league already.

Performance sport manager, Chris Campbell, said: ‘[Last year] we brought the guys back into pre-season early August and we’ve done the same now.

‘We increased our coaching support last year because we wanted to try to get the set up as if we were going to be in the league.

‘I think there’s a lot more bits happening off the field and behind the scenes but the playing programme we intentionally designed last year so that it would be a good enough playing programme to be in this league now.’

He added: ‘We always felt that getting promoted into [BUCS

Super Rugby] this year was absolutely key because there’s still no relegation at the end of this season. We haven’t gone mad in trying to pull in loads of extra players who weren’t planning on going to university or anything like that to try to stay in a position. I’ve intentionally not set any league positional targets, but I think we’re going to be very competitive.’

What both Fowkes and Campbell both agree on is that the league will provide a great chance for their players to make it as professionals.

‘I think for student rugby [BUCS Super Rugby] is the best thing that could happen It’s the best thing for the league structure and BUCS in general. It’s just going to drive the game on,’ Fowkes said.

‘The academy system does an incredible job for English rugby but there’s always going to be that player who’s a late developer or wants to go down an academic route first and I think the university system provides great pathways for that as well.’

Campbell added: ‘This league is now regarded as a genuine avenue for people wanting to move into the pro game.

‘I saw a lot of games last year and the standard is strong.’

I watched a fair few of the games from last year and on their day every university is strong Neil Fowkes

PICTURE: CHUD PHOTOGRAPHY

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 John Shaw

New boys: Nottingham Trent displayed their quality last year, but can they make the step up?

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