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

Author: Abbie Cheeseman

Orbital Editor 2017/18 Main interests lie in news & comment, particularly investigative journalism.
Introducing: Refugee Society
Sports & Socs

Introducing: Refugee Society

The newly ratified Refugee Society is the newest of the political and ideological societies on campus. According to Faithfull, it “provides students with the opportunity to help aid and support the refugee community”. She tells us that “an unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced to flee from their home. Among them 22.5 million are refugees and over half are under the age of 18”. These are the highest levels of displacement on record and the society are aiming to support in any way that they can. Refugee Society’s primary aim is to make a difference. Faithfull tells us that Royal Holloway is “lucky enough to have a student body that is truly passionate about the refugee crisis and this society allows them to turn that passion into action”. Their first so...
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...
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 ...
June 2017
Digital Copies

June 2017

Read our June 2017 issue online: https://issuu.com/orbitalmagazine/docs/whole_final_magazine
Paris to Beirut
News

Paris to Beirut

At 1pm yesterday a crowd of Royal Holloway students gathered to pay respect the lives lost due to ISIS’ latest attacks in Paris and Beirut. (more…)