University – Page 2 of 14

Good Villager/Bad Villager: People Pleasing and In(ter)dependence at University

28Jan

By Rhian KilleNo Comments

Opinion

Good Villager/Bad Villager: People Pleasing and In(ter)dependence at University

By Rhian Kille, Associate Opinion Editor ‘I saw that at the core of me, where something real and solid should be, sat a mirror, reflecting whatever I thought others wanted to see.’ – Moya Sarner, ‘Are you a people pleaser? It’s time to find out what you really want’, The Guardian (2025) As is true of most people pleasers, I like to think that people are overall pretty pleased by my façade of inexhaustible niceness and inoffensive demeanour. I used to include myself as part of this group, but recently anger, bitterness, and resentment, the classic symptoms of late-stage people pleasing, have begun to develop. I used to think people pleasing only made me a better friend. It was, I thought, at worst a harmless personality quirk, a cute pathological impulse. Now I’m coming to see it as ...

23Jan

By Lily GregoryNo Comments

Opinion

Honestly, Thank you.

By Lily Gregory, Senior Agony Aunt The university has changed. You see, I did my undergraduate degree here at Royal Holloway and now I’m doing my masters degree. This is my fourth year here and honestly I’ve never seen the university quite like this.  I go out to society events during the evening, and the campus is still busy. People are skating, playing football, chatting, singing, and doing group study sessions. I was shocked. Throughout my undergraduate degree, campus was quiet and never had the energy that it does now. Be it day or night, the campus feels like a university campus rather than a place with academic buildings on it. Since Covid it has felt as though something is missing. Now, I see society events booming, with some having mo...

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...

Every Monument Will Fall: Or, Why History Isn’t Just a Study of the Past

5Jan

By Ruby DayNo Comments

Culture

Every Monument Will Fall: Or, Why History Isn’t Just a Study of the Past

By Ruby Day, Deputy Editor-in-Chief In the spirit of honesty, I feel comfortable admitting that nothing boils my blood quite like being asked what the use of my history degree is. It’s been assumed countless times that the only feasible career I could pursue is that of a secondary school history teacher. Whilst I have endless admiration for the profession, without my own secondary school history teacher I would be a very different person today, the idea of regurgitating facts about Weimar Germany to a class of largely apathetic 14-year-olds leaves me cold. Whenever the presumption is made that a return to GCSE-level history is on the cards for my future, I often bite my tongue for fear of looking like a mega-nerd, holding back the extensive and shower-rehearsed monologue I could del...

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...

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...

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...