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Breaking News: SU Board Approves the Ratification of Royal Holloway Israeli Society

14Jan

By Madeline SidgwickNo Comments

News

Breaking News: SU Board Approves the Ratification of Royal Holloway Israeli Society

By Madeline Sidgwick, Senior News Editor The Students' Union (SU) Board made the decision to overturn the Societies, Sports and Opportunities Executive (SSO) board members' decision to deny the ratification of Royal Holloway Israeli Society. Members of the SSO board are elected by students throughout the year. In a statement released at 11am today, Friends of Palestine Society stated “We demand that the SU Board revoke their decision to overturn the democratic and legitimate decision of the SSO, our elected representatives- immediately”. Israeli Society last night via Instagram stories stated, “Following an appeal the decision not to ratify the Israel Society has been overturned, subject to a few minor conditions. Fantastic news! RHUL will soon have an official Israeli Soc...

17Dec

By Lily GregoryNo Comments

Lifestyle

Moving on from University

Lily Gregory, Senior Agony Aunt University is supposedly one of the most amazing periods of your life. Graduates only ever sing songs of praise about their time at university. But nobody really tells you what’s next. Sure, they’ll give you advice and tell you that the job market will be okay. But that doesn’t compare to what you or I might experience. As someone who graduated over the summer of 2025, I wanted to see how people have moved on from university, and what has changed for them since graduation. I spoke to a couple friends who graduated alongside me in August 2025. James studied Maths, Sophie studied English and Creative Writing, and Ashleigh and I studied Classical Studies. No story is the same, and I hope this can help you see that anything is possible once you move...

Royal Holloway Denies Claims of Partnerships with Israeli-Military-Backing Entities

11Dec

By Isobel CarnochanNo Comments

News

Royal Holloway Denies Claims of Partnerships with Israeli-Military-Backing Entities

By Isobel Carnochan, Senior Culture Editor Recently, Association of Student Activism for Palestine (AoSAfP) circulated a flyer arguing that Royal Holloway, University of London “runs over £12.3 million in cyber-security research with BAE Systems and Thales”, who both supply military equipment to Israel. The flyer further identified Tel Aviv University as a “Key Partnership” of Royal Holloway, which it claims is “deeply engaged in defence R&D [research and development], military innovation, [and] intelligence work with the IDF”. AoSAfP also suggested that students use slogans online, such as “#CutTiesWithBAEAndThales”. A spokesperson for Royal Holloway, University of London told The Orbital: “Royal Holloway partners with a wide range of organisations to deliver high-...

4Dec

By Lily GregoryNo Comments

News

Is Academia Moving on from Classics?

By Lily Gregory, Senior Agony Aunt In the last academic year (2024/25), many news outlets reported the declining situations of many universities' financial problems. This issue could be found in many universities across the UK, and it appeared to impact the Classics community the most. In 2024, it was reported that the University of Roehampton had shut down their Classics Department, and Cardiff University would no longer run its course called “Archaeology and Ancient History” from 2026. For Classics and other Humanities Departments, things were not looking good. As a current Master of Arts student in Ancient History (and a Bachelor of Arts student in Classical Studies from 2021 to 2025), this was deeply worrying for me; the subject I loved seemed to be under threat. Rum...

1Dec

By Isobel CarnochanNo Comments

Culture

Our Back To School Favourites

By Isobel Carnochan & Suhana Limbu, Senior and Associate Culture Editors With our first break of the year creeping closer and closer, deadlines looming and readings already stacking up, it's easy to forget just how recently we were all on summer break. It was not too long ago now that most of us began moving back to Egham (apologies to our dear commuting readers), and even more recently that the academic year started up once more. With this in mind, let Suhana and I take you through our pop culture favourites for back to school season… - Isobel Film and TV Suhana’s film of choice: Matilda (1996) A struggle that I find myself having during the back-to-school period is maintaining an undoubtable passion for my degree. Let’s f...

The Orbital Investigates: Is Royal Holloway a Politically Alienated Campus?

27Nov

By Madeline SidgwickNo Comments

News

The Orbital Investigates: Is Royal Holloway a Politically Alienated Campus?

By Madeline Sidgwick, Senior News Editor Last academic year, over some Crosslands pints, myself and my peers came to the conclusion that Royal Holloway is not a politically active campus. It is a common stereotype that Brits are their most politically active, and adventurous, in their student years; archetypes of student protestors or the leaders of political societies that go on to take high office (the Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson's of the world). Many in the older generation would point to their youth as their time of being ‘politically radical’ or ‘waving the red flag’. Winston Churchill himself can be quoted stating ‘If you are not a Liberal when you are young, you have no heart, If you are not a Conservative when old, you have no brain’. Now I am not endorsing Mr Churchil...

Breaking news: Toast makes its return on Monday 17th November!

11Nov

By Ruby SharkieNo Comments

News

Breaking news: Toast makes its return on Monday 17th November!

Photo: RHSU Ruby Sharkie, Associate News Editor After teasing it on their Instagram a week ago, the Students' Union (@surhul) has just announced in an Instagram reel that the free entry night-life event Toast will be returning to campus on Monday 17th November 2025. Unlike last year, the Monday night event will be hosted at the SU venue after the recent closure of the Medicine venue. This now totals to two mascot-based events next week, one being Quackers on Wednesdays with a big yellow duck mascot, and now Toast. Although the tickets have not been released on the Royal Holloway Students' Union (RHSU) website, VP Societies and Sports David Gallardo González said in the 11 second reel: “Come for free entry, cheaper drinks and good vibes, all at the SU”. The re...

Remembrance Day celebrations in Royal Holloways’ Student Community

11Nov

By Madeline SidgwickNo Comments

News

Remembrance Day celebrations in Royal Holloways’ Student Community

By Madeline Sidgwick and Ruby Sharkie, Senior and Associate News Editors This time 107 years ago David Loyd George, the British prime minister, announced the end of World War One (WW1) - now, we celebrate Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday to remember those fallen during the wars and those currently still in the armed forces. There are many celebrations happening on and around Remembrance Day including The National Service of Remembrance (where members of the Royal family pay tribute alongside Members of the Cabinet, Opposition Party leaders and former Prime Ministers), the Poppy Appeal, parades and many more. On campus, the Chaplaincy team hosted their annual Remembrance Evensong on the Sunday followed by a Remembrance Day Service on the 11th. The Royal British Legion...

In Conversation with… VP David Gallardo González.

29Oct

By Ruby SharkieNo Comments

News

In Conversation with… VP David Gallardo González.

Image by: RHSU By Ruby Sharkie, Associate News Editor Last week, I had the opportunity to meet with and interview the Vice President (VP) of Societies and Sports: David Gallardo González. We met at the bustling Students’ Union (SU) Helpdesk, with SU team members passing us amidst their daily work. One of the first things I asked David was to introduce himself and his goals. He said his main goals for the academic year were to meet his Priority 8’s - To make timetables more student-friendly and and making the student events more affordable. “As a film nerd myself - I want to do a lot of that through social media” The VP graduated from Royal Holloway with a degree in Film but said that it wasn't the defining factor for his win in his campaign. “I...

21Oct

By Mya RogersNo Comments

Creative Writing

A love letter to Royal Holloway

By Mya Rogers, Associate Creative Writing Editor A collaboration with the students of Royal Holloway, University of London. I remember the day I first moved here, In that time where autumn is beginning to introduce itself to the world, But there are still remnants of a warmer time: Like the way the trees whistle on a mild summer evening, Or the sunsets that shine silently in the distance, A ball of fire, feigning fear behind the founder’s building. Yet, yellow must fade to orange- Or, orange must fade to red, Reminding me that nothing lasts forever; Reminding me that the seasons change, The trees shed their leaves, weeping for a forgotten time, And the colour seems to be taken from everything- Just like how the sky is gettin...