Campus Radicals
Arms fair?
- 1 comments
- Posted by Robbie Gillett
- 13 September 2007
Robbie Gillett reports from the protest at the DSEi arms fair and questions why it is less people took to the streets
Military officials and protesters alike were attracted to the Defence Systems Exhibition International arms fair at the Excel Centre in London last Tuesday (11 September).
The numbers of protesters outside were noticeably lower than previous arms exhibitions in 2001, 2003 and 2005. Numbers inside, however remained strong. Up to 25,000 people were expected to attend over the four days that the event was running. Defence officials from countries with [...]
Universities and the arms trade
- 6 comments
- Posted by Tim Street
- 04 July 2007
Campaign Against the Arms Trade's Tim Street on the links between British universities and arms companies
In recent months, students and staff across the UK have been lobbying their universities to sell their shares in arms companies and invest ethically.
When University College London students discovered that their university had £900,000 invested in Cobham (which manufactures components for Hellfire missiles- used widely in both Afghanistan and Iraq)they formed Disarm UCL in order to bring this relationship to an end.
In a meeting with student [...]
Victory in Gower Street
- 13 comments
- Posted by Sara Hall
- 15 June 2007
Student campaign forces UCL to back down over arms trade investments
After some dynamic campus campaigning helped by a lively discussion on this blog, University College London (UCL)students have done it. UCL Provost Malcolm Grant and the UCL Council agreed that it's now time for their university to invest its money ethically. Our case for divesting from the arms trader Cobham and for adopting an ethical investment policy has always been very [...]
Global university without a global conscience
- 22 comments
- Posted by Sara Hall
- 11 June 2007
A UCL student calls on her university to stop investing in the arms trade
Why is London’s global university, University College London (UCL), so desperately clinging on to its investment in arms companies?
UCL currently has shares worth over £900,000 in the arms trader Cobham PLC. Cobham produces parts of weapons systems which have been used in Israeli bombing raids in Lebanon last year, and in many other conflict zones around the world.
To me, and to at least 1,253 other students and staff [...]
Do you really consider yourself human?
- 1 comments
- Posted by Tim Collins
- 05 June 2007
Tim Collins dips into Huntington's Clash of Civilisation
I want to draw the reader’s attention to a worrying and, I do concede, age-old trend that I see not only in global society in general, but more depressingly perhaps, among a certain ‘educated elite’ with whom I study, associate and work. The trend I refer to is people’s inclination to see and encourage difference between ourselves, rather than see the things we have in common. This occurs, often unconsciously, [...]
Stick to what you know best
- 0 comments
- Posted by Ben Ullmann
- 24 May 2007
5 Challenges for the next Prime Minister and while we're at it here's 5 for the NUS.
With the imminent departure of Tony Blair, all our attention has naturally turned to Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown. Groups from all sectors are now speaking out to try and influence the next leader of this country.
The National Union of Students (NUS) recently released a pamphlet listing five challenges to the new Prime Minister. They include challenges to make prescriptions, dental care and eye tests free for all student, [...]
Hizb-ut Tahrir
- 0 comments
- Posted by Tim Collins
- 17 April 2007
Tony Blair wanted to ban the British branch of the Islamic political party Hizb-ut Tahrir after the 2005 bombings, but on 30 March the group was meeting in North London
After the London bombings of July 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced his intention to ban the British arm of the global Islamic political party, Hizb-ut Tahrir. On Friday 30th March 2007, the same organisation hosted an event at Friends House, Euston, north London, to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces, and to discuss their report, Iraq: A New Way Forward.
Three Hizb-ut Tahrir [...]
Fight for your rights
- 1 comments
- Posted by Daniel Humphrey
- 11 April 2007
The University of East Anglia's Amnesty Society is successfully working to promote human rights one person at a time
Amnesty International was founded 46 years ago by Peter Beneson, and has worked consistently since then in its ceaseless campaign to promote international justice and the most basic of human rights laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948. The main focus of its campaign is the system of letter righting, which involves bombarding the respective governments who have ignored human rights legislation with letters, in the hope [...]
The price of an American education
- 3 comments
- Posted by Hana Bieliauskas
- 04 April 2007
US student Hana Bieliauskas reveals the terrible financial cost of getting a college education across the pond
College tuition costs in the United States are continuing to skyrocket, making many students question whether they want to pursue further education.
Although enrolment has increased in recent years, and students are emerging with impressive degrees, they also have empty wallets and are no longer able to enjoy simply easing into the workplace.
For many graduates, landing a job within months, or even weeks, of graduation becomes essential [...]
How to tackle gun culture
- 2 comments
- Posted by Chinwe Akomah
- 23 March 2007
Politics and sociology undergraduate Chinwe Akomah gives her take on Britain's gun 'culture'
In the aftermath of the four London murders in February Tony Blair, criticised for responding to the growing level of gun crime with "knee- jerk" reactions, has upped his game in a bid to try to tackle the escalating firearms culture in Britain.
The Prime Minister is proposing an extension of mandatory sentencing of 17 year olds from the already implemented three years to five years - the current ruling [...]
Is it all like the Young Ones?
- 0 comments
- Posted by Veronica King
- 16 March 2007
The NUS's Veronica King tries to dispel some of the myths about student digs
Mention student accommodation, and the traditional images conjured up are squalid, mouldy and miserable.
People talk of 'digs' and the 'Young Ones', and reminisce cheerfully about the time they caught a lung-infection from the damp in their student house. But actually, decent student accommodation is no laughing matter. The environment you live in impacts massively on your experience at university. And when we see that over the last 3 years, [...]
How do you solve a problem like admissions?
- 1 comments
- Posted by Ben Ullmann
- 14 March 2007
The dilemma of introducing a higher grade at A-level
University admissions will always be a tricky business to manage. Ensuring fairness amongst a large number of stakeholders, all aiming to get the best deal, is no easy feat. The main problem with admissions is that it is predominantly based on A-level results or equivalents which aim to reflect ability but also reflect consequences of fortune and privilege which the applicant cannot control. This is a problem inherent in the [...]
Heard of U8?
- 0 comments
- Posted by Lauren Newell
- 12 March 2007
One group of students try to build "global grass-roots" organisation
Imagine a world in which we all have a voice. A world where there is a platform for the voiceless, a platform for global dialogue and shared learning, and a platform for engagement with the policies that affect our everyday lives.
Or, more practically, a platform that enables you to see the impact of global warming in a remote Indian village, in the Ethiopian plains as well as on a [...]
Bought and sold for English gold
- 1 comments
- Posted by Neil Dunsire
- 09 March 2007
How Scotland has yet to be consulted over the Treaty of Union that established the UK
On the 1st of May 1707, Scotland’s shotgun wedding to England came into force through the Treaty of Union, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain was established. News of the decision was met with rioting across Scotland and the backers of the union were forced to hide in an Edinburgh cellar to escape the rocks and chamber-pot contents that were being thrown their way.
As Robert Burns so eloquently [...]
The bonding of the angry
- 0 comments
- Posted by Harry Giles
- 05 March 2007
St Andrews students greet Gordon Brown with 'righteous loudness'
Rent is a thorny issue at St Andrews - we have some of the very highest student accommodation prices in the country. Several years ago the University introduced year-on-year increases which have crippled many student budgets, with demand for even the cheapest accommodation skyrocketing and the most expensive accommodation — an 'eco-hotel' on the outskirts of town — left half-empty.
My hall last year was towards the lower-middle end [...]
