University is a space to explore who you are and what you want. It’s a place to embrace change and adopt new identities. If Royal Holloway, and the great metropolis that is Egham, helps you do that, great! If new friends and SU nights help you do that, great! If long rants about how much […]

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 […]

How effective is the Strike action in creating the change it seeks? An Interview with James Smith The end of March will see the disappearance of professors from classrooms once again. Not because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but because of industrial strike action from the UCU (University and College Union). As a third-year student my university […]

Warning! Spoilers ahead. What initially starts as a romcom, soon transcends into every woman’s worst dating nightmare in Mimi Cave’s Fresh. Released on Hulu and Disney+, the horror comedy follows Noa (Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones), who, after loads of disastrous flings, decides to take a bite at dating again and falls for Steve (I, Tonya’s […]

As one of the most controversial celebrities of our generation, any mention of Kanye West is sure to ignite a passionate debate. Just today making even more questionnable news with his latest music video release, separating the artist from his art becomes more of a struggle each day. But will the memories behind the music […]

All names have been changed to preserve anonymity. ‘I’ve been very lucky that all of the arrangements I’ve had have been with really genuine people’ – surely it indicates something foul when someone feels lucky to have encountered basic respect? Surely such respect, and ‘genuine people’, should be the norm? Are we so doomed as […]

Pizza is the love language of people all around the world; I’ll continue to endorse this until my lactose intolerance wins its ongoing battle for my attention. It is an incredibly versatile comfort food, from the variety of toppings to the versatile uses. Hangovers, date nights, cram nights or simply in need of a trusted […]

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, […]

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 […]

University is a space to explore who you are and what you want. It’s a place to embrace change and adopt new identities. If Royal Holloway, and the great metropolis that is Egham, helps you do that, great! If new friends and SU nights help you do that, great! If long rants about how much […]

The Midnight Club, Drifting, Fast and the Furious, NASCAR, and booze.  Yes, booze.  The staple ingredient to university life and the warm friend when life all goes south. This legal drug is weirdly responsible for arguably the most outlaw of sports– street racing.  Between the 1920s and 1930s, during the Prohibition era, a cult emerged […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

People are being ignored amidst a mental health pandemic  By Emma Holly There’s nothing quite like the feeling when you hear that the waiting list is eighteen months long. A molten liquid spreads through you, and you think you might vomit. You are the little person waving from their desert island, realising that your S.O.S. […]

It’s almost impossible to walk past or through Founders and wonder what was Royal Holloway like back in the day that building was normal. Certainly, it was relatively leisurely and opulent. Until WW1, residents at RHUL would devote almost two hours a day to their four-course dinner and after dinner coffee. It might be odd […]

Picture it. Your best friend is interning at the [insert name of fabulous workplace]. You ask how they got such a prestigious internship when you didn’t even see it advertised. Your question is genuine. You’re not trying to catch them out. For half a second you really believe there’s some big job site you don’t […]

Political correctness, by definition, is a term that is used to describe the avoidance of language, expressions or actions that can offend, marginalise or exclude targeted groups of people who are intentionally discriminated against. But how does this relate to literature? Surprisingly to some, political correctness is shaping literature as we know it.  In Royal […]

When it comes to bootleg musicals, conflicting opinions abound. Sure, they’re technically illegal, but isn’t it a victimless crime? Or are they doing damage to the art that writers, actors, and many more have put painstaking effort into creating? Do they wrongly cheapen what should be a top-drawer experience, or do they better the theatre […]

Search ‘#darkacademia’ on Instagram, Pinterest, or Tumblr, and you’ll be graced with pictures of candles, leather bound books, typewriters, handwritten letters, turtlenecks, and gothic architecture, all filtered through the same brooding colour palette. These images are representative of an online aesthetic movement which focuses on romanticising education through (ironically) a rejection of technology. Novels like […]

Picture this… It’s 2013. Katy Perry’s “Roar” is blasting from your brand-new iPhone 5c and you’re getting ready for a shopping trip with friends. As you are yanking on some sexy mood rings and an edgy print New Look crop top, you get a message from a friend: “I really fancy going into the charity […]

When you picture a billionaire, it’s not a far stretch to imagine a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the person responsible for managing the operations of a company. They uphold the views of their company, and are the main point of communication between a business and the public. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk are […]

Every January, floods of people pile into gyms to work out for both the first and last time that year. If you’re one of the few people who made it through January and are still working out, you might be looking at getting some supplements to help you on your fitness journey. The problem is, […]

According to the Government’s 2020 Family Resources Survey, there are 14.1 million disabled people in the UK. It has recently become more apparent than ever that even in the 21st Century, social class is still a defining factor in people’s lives. But how these classes affect disabled people, and why they might be more vulnerable […]

Women’s magazines from the 1940s are riddled with wartime propaganda. Whilst their husbands, brothers and fathers were fighting overseas, women learnt to effectively hold down the household under wartime restrictions. This isn’t to say that women of the 1940s were exclusively homemakers; there are plenty of ads in the February 1942 issue of Woman that […]

A single crack would never sound  As loud as the others. Drowned  Out by the silent pain Oblivious until it happens again. Forced to face  The ever-growing pace Of the incoming fractures Caused by the human manufactures  Of the heart Would one ever restart  The journey that started the shattering  Filled with constant flattering Or […]

in all our fantasies of tragedy it never went like this; slowly stagnating in one shared breath ten year atrophy skin growing cold; we called it quits three years ago; the moon laughed at us in our train station gloom; now wrenched into rebirth every six months via text; sunday 6:00 pm scrambling over each […]

Mines thinner and softer Yours fuller and plusher Overlapping on the sides Making the perfect pillow mix To rest our heads As we hold each other In the dark silence  Hot under the covers  Laying in each other’s jumpers Unnecessarily warm but So necessarily comforted  Our breath meets On the perfect pillow blend Twirling and […]

I treat everyone fair But they don’t care About me Only them Only their heart Not mine Which grows  Darker Day by day Searching for another To replace it Its black vile Like an infected Coat of armour  Covering the red The pink love Which is rapidly turning  Black No light can  Enter  No light […]

It’s great to be famous, Or so it seems. “Hi how are you?” “Aren’t you” Yes. Yes, I am. “Nice to meet you” “Do you know” Yes. Yes, I do. “My name’s” “Didn’t you and” No. That we never did. It never got to that point. Photo by Fardad sepandar on Unsplash

Does it now take three or four minutes to race up to the moon? Is that really important? Or should science be used for what we actually need in order to pursue human development, such as finding new ways to produce crops, combat climate change, and so on? Because how realistic is it really for […]

Sex is one of those topics that has a presence in so many aspects of our society – talked about on chat shows and in magazines; joked about at comedy nights and, if you’ve had the pleasure of the British education system, briefly and uncomfortably taught to you. But beyond the physical act, how many […]

I’m not vegan. I flew home last month. I threw away a plastic bottle. Am I a bad person? As of right now, our planet is NOT on track to limit global warming to 1.5°C. And yes, we’ve all played a part in this. That trip to Greece last summer? Not a good choice mate. […]

Earlier this week, Amazon announced to its customers of Amazon.co.uk that it would no longer accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK as a payment method; a change will come into effect as early as the 19th January 2022. With so many students either using Amazon for quick purchases or holding a Prime Student […]

Two years ago, we were warned by the UN’s Climate Council (IPCC) that we had 12 years left to limit global warming or face irreplaceable damage to the planet. Now, COP26 sees nations convening once again to try and reach an international consensus on how to battle climate change. With targets being set by the […]

The Midnight Club, Drifting, Fast and the Furious, NASCAR, and booze.  Yes, booze.  The staple ingredient to university life and the warm friend when life all goes south. This legal drug is weirdly responsible for arguably the most outlaw of sports– street racing.  Between the 1920s and 1930s, during the Prohibition era, a cult emerged […]

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 […]

Photo by Jeffrey F Lin via Unsplash I interviewed three anonymous members of sports societies to determine their stances on sexuality in sport, Movember and spiking in a bid to see how sports can tie these topics together. Sports have a huge voice to be heard, especially when the topics at hand require vocal stances. […]

Tokyo 2020 Olympics. What image does that conjure up in your mind? Most responses consist of a blank stare, followed with an awkward laugh. There’s an embarrassing absence of memory for the 2020 games. What does this say about the Olympics? Maybe nothing. But it says something if in the most interconnected and social media […]

“The will must be stronger than the skill”- Muhammad Ali.  Any and every athlete can relate to this quote. At some point every aspiring athlete has experienced rock bottom, a time when you question your love for a sport and feel like throwing in the towel. This is the defining moment when you reach the […]