Opinion – Page 16 of 31

Royal Holloway’s sexual assault victims deserve better

26Oct

By Caitlin RobinNo Comments

Opinion

Royal Holloway’s sexual assault victims deserve better

Feminism Society recently launched a petition to ban Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke from playing at Student’s Union venues. They released a statement on their social media outlets promoting the ban, arguing that the song “incites violence against women and utilises rape rhetoric and language that rapists often use to silence their victims” and “has no place on campus.” Don’t get me wrong, I don’t disagree with this argument at all. Back in 2013, when this song was first released, the song was heavily criticized worldwide for the use of misogynistic lyrics which degrades and objectifies women. Yet, despite this controversy, it remained very popular and was played very often... in 2013. So, why are Feminism Society trying to chase this up now? How often is it actually playing in the Student’...

25Oct

By Jasmine CoxNo Comments

Opinion

Safety of Student Data

As thousands of new Freshers embark on their university experience this September, new information and data will be given to institutions. Under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, the Office for Students (OfS) is permitted to share student data with bodies such as the Student Loan Company and HMRC. The OfS holds information such as mental and physical health, graduate employment and academic growth of all students. This is under Section 63 of the Act, which declares OfS may cooperate and share information where it considers appropriate to do so. A Department of Education spokesperson said that it is important that OfS has the right to distribute information in order to avoid issues such as poor quality of management and governance, protecting the student experience and any poten...

24Oct

By Clement JonesNo Comments

Opinion

Unethical Investments

Being your Students’ Union Vice-President of Education last year was extremely rewarding. As I was a course rep for three years, I was extremely excited to represent your academic interests to the College, and I’m pleased that Jack O’Neill has now picked up the reigns. However, another burning desire of mine was to ensure that, as an academic community, we were taking drastic measures to fight against what the famous United Nations’ Copenhagen Accords acknowledges as “one of the greatest challenges of our time”: climate change. I ran to be your President on a flagship manifesto point of pledging to ‘Clean Up Our Campus’ by lobbying the College to make sure it is investing its money in socially responsible industries. The Copenhagen Accords maintain “that climate change is one of the gre...

Should universities remain international?

24Oct

By Rachel HainsNo Comments

Opinion

Should universities remain international?

Immigration: a word that nowadays never fails to provoke controversy. Looking at the U.S in particular, immigration seems to be the ‘hot topic’, with a never-ending barrage of stories about the dangers of allowing foreigners inside the country being hurled at the public. Is it any surprise, then, that this latest rhetoric has finally spread across the pond? Back in July, the public learned that UCL lecturers could be “liable to a £20,000 personal fine per case” if they fail to report Tier Level 4 students. According to The Guardian, Lecturers have also been advised to verify foreign students’ IDs, as Tier 4 students’ attendance must be regulated using “spot-checks based on face-to-face verification”. The regulations also demand that academic supervisors have to meet postgraduates personal...

20Sep

By Natasha LamNo Comments

Opinion

Journalism: Maybe, Maybe Not.

Journalism is an amazing industry. Difficult, sure, but absolutely amazing. Of course, I’m biased in that view considering I am looking to go into this industry and, on good days, may even refer to myself as an actual journalist rather than a journalist-to-be. My life is filled with FOI requests, countless emails to interview subjects and half-finished articles in various Word Documents and I love it. I am always trying to get my friends interested in journalism and if you’ve spoken to me for longer than five minutes, it’s likely I’ll have tried to recruit you for this very magazine. People getting involved in journalism, and especially student journalism, is extremely important as we are facing accusations of ‘Fake News’, budget cuts and, more often than not, a stressful environment to wo...

10Sep

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

A Year On From #MeToo

In the last 525,600 minutes, a lot has happened. We’ve seen the release of Ariana Grande’s amazing new album, thousands of dog Instagram accounts, over 300 mass shootings in America and more - it’s been tumultuous and polarising. But, one of the most important things that have happened in the last year has been the immense cultural shift surrounding catcalling, sexual harassment, inappropriate conduct and sexual assault. In October 2017, Alyssa Milano drew attention to the hashtag #metoo, originally started by activist Tarana Burke, after numerous allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was published in The New York Times. Since then, the movement has grown in leaps and bounds and has even made it to places like South Korea, Japan and the UK recently with allegations coming out a...

10Aug

By Samantha DavisNo Comments

Opinion

Artificial Rights

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a term that can cause excitement in some, and strike fear into the hearts of others. However, with the current developments in the technology industry, and the future we’re clearly heading towards, we cannot deny that AI is a rapidly growing phenomenon. This has been made especially clear after the emergence and popularity of Sophia. Described as a ‘social humanoid robot’, Sophia was developed by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics and was activated on April 19 2015. Able to display 62 facial expressions, convey human feelings, and have a sense of humour, Sophia’s design is also said to have been modelled after Audrey Hepburn. Sophia quickly became mainstream news when in October 2017 she was granted official Saudi Arabian citizenship, making her the first eve...

29Jul

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

Voting: Restrictions Apply

The introduction of a scheme to force all voters to show a form of ID at polling elections during the May local elections is unneccesary and exclusionary. This scheme was introduced earlier this year and is being trailled in Watford, Bromley, Gosport and Woking before planning to make the scheme country-wide. While forcing voters to have ID seems like a good idea in principle, it doesn’t work when applied to real people who will be significantly adversely affected by it. Voting ID restrictions are meant to maintain the integrity of the ballot box, as many politicians all over the world have said, and at first glance it does do exactly that. After all, who doesn’t have a form of ID? In this ever-changing modern world, it is expected that every person has a passport, a driving license or at...

27Jul

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

The Cost of Social Media

The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal and the #DeleteFacebook trend that followed, have posed important questions about the price we pay for social media. What do we really pay in return for a social internet that is ‘free of charge’? Although we don’t pay with actual currency, an argument can be made that we pay with our data. But do the benefits of using social media outweigh the costs? Todd Rosenblum, a former secretary to the White House under Barack Obama, outlines how social media companies collect our personal data as a commodity in exchange for letting us use the social media platform and its services free of a monetary charge. The more we use the platform, the more details we provide and the more third-party advertisers pay for it. However, such a willing exchange of our person...

11Jun

By Michele TheilNo Comments

News, Opinion

Out Of Service

Egham High Street’s electric rising bollars have not worked for several weeks now. The bollards were installed in March 2017 by Surrey County Council (SCC) in order to prevent drivers from entering the street between Monday to Saturday from 11am to 4pm. The High Street is therefore a pedestrianised zone during these times. In recent weeks, the bollards have not been working and many cars have been driving and parking on the street during the day. While there are signs at the entrance to the High Street stating that it is a pedestrian-only area, many drivers are ignoring this and driving up and down the street anyway. According to Get Surrey, Egham resident Anthony Houlden has “reported this porblem numerous times to Runnymede Borough Council (RBC) and SCC” but the issue has persisted. H...