royal holloway – Page 18 of 25

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...

4Feb

By Maria GreenNo Comments

News

UCU Strike Action at Royal Holloway

The University and College Union (UCU) has announced that 61 universities will be taking part in 14 strike dates, beginning with a two-day walkout on 22 and 23 February. The UCU represents over 110,000 people in universities, colleges, prisons, adult education and training organisations across the UK, and is the largest staff trade union at Royal Holloway. 61 universities, including Royal Holloway, are protesting in response to proposed changes to the USS pension scheme: the largest pension scheme for higher education institutions in the UK. The 14 days of industrial action were announced on January 29. The two-day walkout on 22 and 23 February will escalate to three, four and five day strikes in the following weeks (26-28 February, 5-8 March, 12-16 March). On 23 January, the J...

4Feb

By Alice HitchcockNo Comments

Science & Technology

Social Psychology in The News

What is it? SPIN is a new discussion group formed of students and lead by Dr. Samuel Fairlamb. The group meet up once a month to talk and debate about current issues in the news and cultural trends from a social psychological perspective. Started this academic year, the group is always on the lookout for fresh faces, keen to put their stamp on the latest news stories surrounding Social Psychology! Who is in it? The students in SPIN range from first years to master’s students. Although predominantly Psychology students, everyone in the group has a keen interest in Social Psychology and its various applications to current news stories and today’s cultural trends. The group is run by Dr. Samuel Fairlamb, a Postdoctoral Teaching Associate in the Psychology department, who completed...

How important is it to be titled the ‘Most Beautiful Campus in the UK’?

29Jan

By Bethany GoodingNo Comments

Opinion

How important is it to be titled the ‘Most Beautiful Campus in the UK’?

I know I’m not the only one whose phone is often full of artistic snaps of Founders from various angles, nothing quite beats the iconic building of our campus. It looks amazing in all weather, with some people lucky enough to see it surrounded by snow at the end of last term. But are we taking our love of this building and our campus slightly too far? At the end of 2017 Royal Holloway was named the ‘Most Beautiful University in the UK’, beating both Oxford and Cambridge after an online poll by Holiday Lettings. At the beginning of January, Times Higher Education gifted the campus with the same title. I’m sure most of us would agree that campus is well deserving of this honour but why has it been so glorified by the university, with other rankings being disregarded and ignored? Last t...

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...

9Dec

By Shannon GrayNo Comments

News

Sign Here

Royal Holloway has recently been subject to several petitions, created by students attempting to instil the change they’d like to see at the university. In early September, student Phoebe Dormand created a petition that asked for the Health Centre on campus to be improved. She cited 8 issues that she felt warranted the petition, including but not limited to response time, lack of sympathy, being refused appointments and having only 5 doctors and 1 nurse covering over 9000 students. Comments on the petition found that there were many other issues with the Health Centre that Phoebe had not touched on as well as increasing solidarity between the students. Phoebe’s petition gained over 1500 signatures and led to the SU releasing a survey asking students to review the Health Centre in an ...

8Dec

By Michele TheilNo Comments

News

Referendum on NSS Boycott Announced

Royal Holloway’s Student’s Union has called for a referendum to vote on whether or not the RHSU should continue to boycott the National Student Survey (NSS). The boycott was passed in a referendum in March of this year, with 282 votes. The original boycott was called for, in conjunction with the National Union of Students (NUS), in response to the NSS being used with the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to possibly allow universities to charge higher tuition fees. The NSS measures student satisfaction while the TEF measures quality of teaching and results of study. Universities can score Gold or Silver and be placed on the higher end of the spectrum or they could be scored with a Bronze, which is a lower rating. Thus, those that achieved Gold or Silver, under the Government’s initiat...

8Dec

By Louisa WicksNo Comments

Sports & Socs

The Twelve Days of Dancemas

Dance Society held their Christmas Showcase on Sunday 3 December, and it celebrated everything they’ve achieved this term with a festive twist. All of the society’s classes had the opportunity to perform at the showcase – ranging from ballet to tap to lyrical, there were plenty of Christmas-themed routines to get the audience into the festive spirit. One particularly exciting number was the 1st year dance, which was a mix of different dances with a Christmas soundtrack (and a wonderful Mean Girls reference!). The huge variety of classes with different levels of difficulty meant that even complete beginners were able to join in. I was lucky enough to take part this year, despite having not done dance for nearly 15 years. Whether you were a seasoned dancer or had never danced before, there w...

8Dec

By Helena KeebleNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

The Nobel Writer

This month, the University of East Anglia welcomed previous student Kazuo Ishiguro, the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the seventh winner to talk at UEA. Since receiving his Masters degree in Creative Writing at UEA, Ishiguro has received four Man Booker Prize nominations and won the award in 1989 for his novel ‘The Remains of the Day’. His 2005 novel, ‘Never Let Me Go’, was named by “The Times” as the best novel of 2005 and this year the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature. They described him as a writer ‘who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world’. In conversation with Professor Christopher Bigsby, Ishiguro admitted his shock at receiving the Nobel award. He cla...

6Dec

By Rachel HainsNo Comments

Features

Free speech for all?

We have all been there: sat in our kitchens and seminars, facing the overwhelming urge to bang our heads into the table as someone says something we fundamentally disagree with. Everyone has the right to an opinion, but there is nothing more annoying than someone who believes their view is the only viable view. With this considered then, is it good news that the government has announced that universities are now being expected to pledge to uphold free speech on campus, or face being blacklisted? Changes announced by Universities Minister Jo Johnson state that plans are in place to challenge the culture of so-called ‘safe spaces’ and to force universities to answer for the behaviour of student unions that “no platform” controversial speakers. He also said any that any that failed to pro...