Friday, March 29Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

News

BREAKING: The Packhorse gets 2/5 in government Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.
News

BREAKING: The Packhorse gets 2/5 in government Food Hygiene Rating Scheme.

The Packhorse which opened to the general public in May of this year, received its first routine inspection on 25 September. The report given to The Packhorse, which Orbital Magazine has seen, detailed that there were ‘poor standards of cleanliness’ and that such standards ‘will not be tolerated’. Using the most recent food hygiene ratings available on the food.gov website, The Packhorse is now within the lowest 7 of the 126 businesses in Egham that are accountable under the scheme. Whilst it is now law for businesses within Wales and Northern Ireland to display their food hygiene ratings, this is yet to become mandatory in England. The Packhorse is currently not showing their rating of 2 (‘needs improvement’). The report from the Senior Environmental Health Officer for Runnyme...
How the Elizabeth Line will Affect You
News

How the Elizabeth Line will Affect You

What is the Elizabeth Line? The Elizabeth Line is London’s newest addition to the TfL rail and tube network, and it is set to stretch a full 60 miles through the London and Greater London area - almost double the current tube-span record holder, the Central Line. The Elizabeth Line will span from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. It is set to service 40 accessible stations, 10 of which are newly built and 30 of which are newly upgraded. The line will launch in December 2018 and is expected to serve around 200 million people per year. How will this affect you? As a Royal Holloway student, you will be a short distance away from Heathrow Airport and therefore the Elizabeth Line may benefit your London-based travels. Servicing stations such as Paddi...
“You saw it in the tears of those who survived” – The Grenfell Tower Mural
News

“You saw it in the tears of those who survived” – The Grenfell Tower Mural

A mural to honour the victims and survivors of the Grenfell Tower was created on Thursday 21st July in London at Village Underground. Painted by the renowned English street artist, Ben Eine, the mural featured a poem about the disaster by the Booker Prize winner and Nigerian writer Ben Okri. Okri's poem "Grenfell Tower, June 2017", composed in the days after the fire and first broadcast on Channel 4 News and published in the Financial Times, will be rendered across the 120-square-metre wall of the Village Underground on Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, East London. The lines "You saw it in the tears of those who survived" will appear in Eine's colourful style – with the full 1,600-word poem appearing across the wall as the background to the main text. Bahari - ‘This mural is our attempt to...
10% gender pay gap: stop victim-blaming, start bias proofing says UCU RHUL committee
News

10% gender pay gap: stop victim-blaming, start bias proofing says UCU RHUL committee

UCU RHUL committee response to Abbie Cheeseman’s article A Feminist Institution with a 10% Gender Pay Gap? The UCU Royal Holloway local branch committee welcomes Abbie Cheeseman’s article entitled A Feminist Institution with a 10% Gender Pay Gap?   She highlights the greater-than 10% gender gap in professorial pay at RHUL which the Times Higher Education (THE) this year reported was the 7th worst in the UK. She also rightly pointed out that this pay gap has been steadily widening in recent years. Cheeseman suggested that Gender pay gaps should not be seen as a direct case of sexism and considered various possible explanations for the pay gap increases.  In fact the explanations given by the College are indirect cases of sexism. Cheeseman suggested that efforts to decrease the gap ...
Is it all ‘Fun with Flags’ for Royal Holloway’s Silver TEF Award?
News

Is it all ‘Fun with Flags’ for Royal Holloway’s Silver TEF Award?

Editor, Abbie Cheeseman, discusses what Royal Holloway's Silver TEF Award really means. The results of the 2017 Teaching Excellence Framework were released today and Royal Holloway achieved a silver award. What is the Teaching Excellence Framework? The framework, which is overseen by the Department for Education, was introduced last year to recognise and reward excellent teaching. It also serves as a tool to help students make informed choices on where to study. According to HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England), a silver award is given 'for delivering high quality teaching, learning and outcomes for its students. It consistently exceeds rigorous national quality requirements for UK higher education' The award has come on the back of a successful year for the ...
Changes to the hall support programme
News

Changes to the hall support programme

Emma Halahan discusses the changes being made to the hall support programme. On the 16th of May, the college announced that the Residential Support Advisor programme (RSA) would be changed significantly for the 2017/18 year. The new programme, The Hall Life Team, will include 24 Hall Life Assistants and just six Hall Life Duty Officers. Only the six Hall Life Duty Officers will go on call, responding to emergencies and disturbances in halls during out of hours. This is significantly reduced from the previous programme where an RSA for every individual hall would be on call each night, now the six Hall Life Duty Officers will be responsible for the entire campus. It is unclear how this gap in service provision would be filled. A current RSA, who wished to remain anonymous, commented o...
Cuts to GE Youth Campaign
News

Cuts to GE Youth Campaign

Outgoing Deputy Editor Louise Jones discusses funding cuts to the youth campaigns usually provided to engage young people to vote. Funding previously provided by the Cabinet Office for youth vote campaigns has been slashed and will not be available in this election due to the immediacy of its nature. Youth vote campaigners are warning of a ‘democratic deficit’ in the general election, as it emerged that the Cabinet Office will not provide funding to the groups focused on increasing turnout among young and marginalised people. This includes groups such as LGBTQ+ and BAME. The electoral commission has launched a campaign to increase voter registration before the deadline on 22 May, according to a Guardian article: "funding provided by the Cabinet Office in past general elections wil...
Final year facts on council tax
News

Final year facts on council tax

  Beth Carr explores the practicalities for those who have to pay council tax and what the SU are doing about it. Term is drawing to a close and amongst the pizza menus and estate agent brochures, final year students are receiving another form of unwanted mail: council tax bills. However, unlike your usual junk mail, these bills are serious and they must be paid. What is Council Tax and who has to pay? Council Tax pays for services provided by the council, such as libraries, schools and the emergency services. Every householder has to pay this, and with multiple occupants each person is liable, jointly and severally - this means that they all are responsible for the bill together but are also individually responsible for paying. Full-time students are exempt from payi...
Getting a job after university
News

Getting a job after university

Current Deputy Editor Louise Jones reports on why you shouldn’t worry about getting a job after university. It’s that time of year again when finalists finish all their exams and then go into panic mode about their future. However, it has been suggested that waiting until you have graduated before applying for a job will not scupper your chances. The outgoing head of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, warned that middle-class parents and universities have become “too fixated” on careers, placing unnecessary pressure on young people to apply for jobs too soon, suggesting that students should not bother looking for a job until they have graduated. Instead, Cook states that many students could benefit from some ‘“down-time” by moving back home after their final exams. Choosing to go to univers...
Suspected ‘Bomb Scare’ at School in Egham
News

Suspected ‘Bomb Scare’ at School in Egham

Zara Gillick reports on the recent suspected 'bomb scare' at Magna Carta School, Egham. Just before 4pm on Friday 27th February 2017, Surrey Police and a bomb disposal team were called to the Magna Carta School in Egham when concerns were raised over an ‘item confiscated from a student’. Staff at the school called the 101 non-emergency number about the object in the afternoon before the police arrived at the school and then contacted the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team, who came shortly after. A message was put out on the School’s Facebook page reassuring parents, students and staff, stating that although it was a 'false alarm', it was dealt with 'in accordance to school emergency procedures'. Angela Jenkins, the school’s business manager, confirmed ‘we went through our ...