Tuesday, April 23Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Author: Abbie Cheeseman

Orbital Editor 2017/18 Main interests lie in news & comment, particularly investigative journalism.
Debrief: Sophie Christiansen
10Mar By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments
Features

Debrief: Sophie Christiansen

It seems extraordinary that someone who has been through such hardship could instantly fill a room with energy. She’s sassy, cheeky and has the kind of determination that makes you want to go out and conquer the world. Sophie Christiansen is an eight-time Paralympic equestrian champion. She was born two months premature with cerebral palsy. She had jaundice, a collapsed lung and a heart attack – to say that she came out the other side a fighter would be an incredible understatement. As a lover of horses and once-rider myself I am overwhelmed with the amount of things that I want to talk to Sophie about – there are bound to be a million inspiring things that I can write a debrief on her about. What we stumble across, however, was entirely unexpected. I remember seeing Sophie hit th...
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College Accused of Planting Questions for Principal’s Staff Open Meeting to “Drown Out Questions From UCU Members”
9Mar By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments
News

College Accused of Planting Questions for Principal’s Staff Open Meeting to “Drown Out Questions From UCU Members”

In an email sent to Royal Holloway line managers on Wednesday 7 March, which Orbital Magazine has seen, the College Communications team have asked for line managers to select "two trusted people" to ask a question at the Principal's next Staff Open Meeting on 12 March. The email stated: Dear [Line Manager], The next staff open meeting is on Monday afternoon at 4pm and earlier this week we changed the topic to address the pensions and the wider higher education landscape. We know we are going to receive a lot of questions from UCU representatives which Paul and the senior team will answer. As well as addressing questions about pensions we’d also like to make sure that other areas that staff have questions on are addressed. To do this we’d like to have some people in the audience prime...
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A Queer State of Affairs
2Mar By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments
News

A Queer State of Affairs

Royal Holloway Chaplaincy are hoping they are near the end of their four-year fight to be allowed to conduct same-sex weddings. The process, which the chaplaincy are hoping will have reached a positive end by February 20, has hit complications because of its designation as a university chapel. The Registrar General regard university chapels as ‘shared churches’ because they are used by more than one denomination. Therefore, in order to be granted ‘consent to use’ for same-sex marriage, permission is needed from the Catholic Bishop, the Anglican Synod and then from a denomination that was prepared to conduct same-sex weddings. Father John Dickson, the Roman Catholic Chaplain at Royal Holloway commented: “Given the fact, that neither the Catholics nor Anglicans are permitted to cond...
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Royal Holloway Slammed as “Most Hardline University Employer in UK” Over Strikes
21Feb By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments
News

Royal Holloway Slammed as “Most Hardline University Employer in UK” Over Strikes

Royal Holloway UCU (University College Union) have claimed that no other university in the UK has made such extensive threats to staff over strike action and have called for academics to not be "intimidated" by the College's "short-sighted approach" to the strikes. Letters that academics have received are encouraging staff to give advance notice of strike action - a move that the UCU claim will undermine the principle of the strikes. Academics are also being told that they must give 5 days notice for action short of a strike (ASOS). The notification forms that have been sent to staff suggest that 'working to contract', 'not undertaking voluntary activities', 'not covering for absent colleagues' and 'not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action' may be counted a...
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Students Boycott Principal’s Drinks Over “Sexist” Comments
15Feb By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments
News

Students Boycott Principal’s Drinks Over “Sexist” Comments

Principal Layzell’s Annual Student Reception is facing a boycott over the comments that he made about the gender pay gap on campus, which were revealed by Orbital Magazine last month. A number of students who have been invited are boycotting the reception unless the Principal apologises for his comments. They are calling for other students who have been invited to follow them in boycotting and calling for pay equality and transparency at Royal Holloway. The drinks reception which is to be hosted on February 19 is usually attended by the Presidents’ of the clubs, societies and media outlets of the Students’ Union, as well as other students who have enriched music or residential life on campus. Despite having the seventh worst gender pay gap at professorial level in the co...
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Envisioning Our Future
12Feb By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments
Opinion

Envisioning Our Future

Having trawled through college strategic strategies, financial information and masterplans, it’s safe to say that Royal Holloway has its sights set high for how it envisages itself at the end of the 2020 grand strategy. It will have been consistently in the top 20 UK universities and the top 200 worldwide universities for the past seven years. In each academic discipline we will have a world-leading research specialism and our research intensity will be of the highest standard. We will have increased our economic contribution by 20%, partly through increasing the number of students attending to 10,500. Our facilities will be fit-for-purpose, from the Davison, Electrical Engineering and Music & Media buildings, to the additional 2,650 bedrooms that will cater for the ever-growing studen...
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Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal
23Jan By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments
News

Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal

Royal Holloway Principal, Professor Layzell has claimed the university has a “transparent and fair pay system” despite having the seventh worst gender pay gap in the country at professorial level. Speaking at his last Staff Open Meeting in November, he claimed the problem was instead rooted in the fact there are not enough women going for promotion. In a recording of the meeting obtained by Orbital Magazine, the Principal claimed that “there are certain protected groups where there is a natural tendency to not have a go and put themselves in for promotion - sometimes that’s gender, sometimes it’s the BAME group”. The Principal is facing backlash from his “natural tendency” comments, with one member of staff in the Geography Department telling Orbital that it was “an example of ev...
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