University – Page 3 of 12

13May

By Sofia BajerovaNo Comments

Opinion

Written from a dorm room in Hong Kong

What International Exchange can do for you and the application process Eight months ago, I sprinted through Zurich Airport and boarded a twelve-hour flight. After fourteen days of quarantine, filled with temperature checks and Covid-19 tests, I was finally able to start my life in Hong Kong. I am incredibly grateful for my experiences here, which have led me to consider Hong Kong a second home. I have thrived in the education system, though the same could not be said for the summer heat. I have tried several new hobbies including bouldering and aerial yoga and continued my love of hiking in a place where the view of the city from the mountains is unlike any other. Thanks to the friends I have made in Hong Kong, I have spent countless hours playing Mahjong and eating Dim Sum. Be...

13May

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

Opinion, Sports & Socs

Cash is King

Is Formula One an Elitist Sport? At the start of 2020’s season, Lewis Hamilton reminded us that ‘cash is king’ in the world of formula one. The paddock is full of millionaires, each race a glittering spectacle of celebrity, champagne spray and the sound of multi-million pound engines. Each team is vying for sponsorship and the driver that can give them that all important sponsorship deal - if there’s no money, there’s no competitive car out on the race track. Take Haas, for example: with limited money behind them the past few years and a lack of points to go toward a constructor championship, the Haas cars have often been left floundering at the back of the grid. 2021 saw a critique of Haas’s new rookies: Nikita Mazepin, son of Dimitri Mazepin, owner of Urakali, Haas’s former ...

University is No Longer About the Degree Alone

12May

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

News, Opinion

University is No Longer About the Degree Alone

How to Tackle the State-Private Education Divide, an Interview with the 93% Club. By Accalia Smith At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Tony Blair infamously stated that his three top priorities when coming into office were “education, education, and education”. Indeed, it was a large part of New Labour’s manifesto and although largely adopting the previous Conservative education policies, he did make many changes whilst Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007. This included increasing support and teacher training schemes, and crucially “a 50 per cent target for university participation among young adults”. This emphasis on the importance of education caused a huge influx in university attendees. Choosing university was no longer the exception but rather the expectation. Blair’s son, Eau...

12May

By Jessica WoodNo Comments

News, Opinion

Defining Class

Defining Class: is it about what you earn or how you act? By Jessica Wood Society is ordered; people, places and possessions are constantly being put into boxes. Have you ever seen a movie and not had the desire to place it into a genre? It is a human instinct to name and sort things, that’s why we have an entire literary category called nouns. But what effect is this having on how we view the people around us? Does it explain why I was once told by a ‘friend’ that they would “only be friends with someone who went to a boarding school”? What defines this elusive term ‘class’? Why am I considered to have a lower status in society than them, even though my household income might actually be higher? This made me think that status in society is much more than what lands in your ba...

12May

By Laura BloomfieldNo Comments

News, Opinion

Studytube: Helpful or Dangerous

By Laura Bloomfield In the last few years, StudyTube has boomed, with videos gaining thousands and thousands of views. However, it’s worth wondering whether StudyTube advertises unhealthy study habits which viewers may feel they have to copy in order to achieve certain grades. The ‘Study with Me’ videos are some of the most potentially damaging videos I’ve seen on YouTube. Content creators post up to 12 hour study sessions. This has the possibility of making students feel like they need to study for equally long to achieve the same grades as these StudyTubers, which is not the case. These long study stints aren’t always healthy. We need breaks. On the flip side, these videos do have the benefit of making viewers feel like they have a study companion which can motivate people to cont...

12May

By Hannah ArmourNo Comments

News, Opinion

Strategic Schooling

It was the first day of sixth form and in they came, an influx of kids from all of the surrounding private schools. One, an all girls school, was only across the street from ours. They arrived in their pre-made cliques, ready to learn and ready to get into Oxbridge. Since acceptance rates are higher for state schools, their parents had moved them to us. Their movement was strategic. To the parents, it was simply a stepping stone. For their children, it was two years of their life. Now, don’t get me wrong, my state school might as well have been a private one. Sure, we didn’t have the one-on-one attention private schools do but we had some fabulous teachers. I’m tempted to say the best in the country. Situated slightly outside the city centre of Oxford, we all had some connection ...

12May

By Bridget OSullivanNo Comments

Digital Copies

Issue Four: Class

https://issuu.com/orbital-royalholloway/docs/job804349

12May

By Madelaine GrayNo Comments

News, Opinion

The Mystery of the Missing Middle Class

Erasing middle class identity in modern society. In recent years, the previously referred to ‘middle class’ has been shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. The rising cost of living and salary stagnation have contributed to this, as well as sky-rocketing wages for the upper echelons of the working world. In short, the rich have got richer, and the poor poorer. This change has happened recently – incredibly recently. It used to be that the descriptor of “middle class” was used as a bit of a put down in certain circles, in response to seemingly frivolous statements made by young people. Now, this has been replaced by the assumption that anyone with any disposable income whatsoever is a member of the 1%. So, how did this happen? There has never been a clear and universally accept...

No Longer Standing: The Monumental Message in What Remains

31Mar

By Sofia BajerovaNo Comments

News, Opinion

No Longer Standing: The Monumental Message in What Remains

In the early hours of the 23rd of December 2021, Hong Kong University’s Pillar of Shame statue was removed from the centre of campus. It has stood there at the University of Hong Kong since 1997 and represented the numerous lives lost in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, one of the most delicate topics in Chinese politics. Recently replaced with a new seating area, no remnants of the statue remain onsite. The image of the orange twisted bodies imprinted only in memory. The Tiananmen Square Massacre has largely been erased from history in Mainland China and Hong Kong is now following suit. The Pillar of Shame stood as a symbol of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, highlighting the difference of freedoms between Hong Kong and the Mainland, a gap that is being gradually clos...

Student Union Elections: Communication, Collaboration, and Joyful Surprise!

29Mar

By Madelaine GrayNo Comments

Elections, Features, News

Student Union Elections: Communication, Collaboration, and Joyful Surprise!

On Wednesday the Sixteenth of March, Orbital Magazine attended the SU Election results night to interview some of the lucky elected officers, including NUS Delegates, School Reps, and the 2022/23 Sabbatical Officer team. NUS Delegates – Maia Jarvis, Ananya Krishna Madelaine: Well, congrats to both of you! First off, I’d like to ask what your main priority is going into the NUS conference? Maia: So, I actually submitted a proposal to the NUS National Conference, which is about making education more accessible. So, making sure there’s flexible online learning. I’ll be pushing that agenda and making sure that’s on the national stage for education, because I want to make sure Holloway student concerns are on the national stage. Madelaine: What about you, Ananya? Ananya: I t...