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Est. 193416 October 2012

Rector Maitland Mackie gives The Gaudie his first fortnightly column.

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Ethel and Janice make a triumphant return to the Gaudie.

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Interview with singer Matt Cardle, winner of the X-Factor.

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Gaudie correspondent Hannah Francis gives surfing a try.

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SportFeatures ArtsOpine Life & Style

Labour policy u-turn on free tuition fees for Scottish students

By Dan Naylor

Last week the leader of the Scottish Labour Party launched an attack on the Scottish Government’s policy of giving free tuition to university students at the expense of their college counterparts.

During a debate on the public sector at Holyrood, Johann Lamont cited a drop of 18,000 in college numbers and a cut in bursaries by £900, that left young people feeling “betrayed”.

She went on to question: “Is it right that students who can’t get a place in a further education college are to pay the price of

(the Education secretary) Mike Russell’s policies?”

Her comments formed part of the criticism of the “something for nothing” culture she believes is being created in Scotland. The Labour leader argued that universal benefits such as free bus passes, tuition fees and the council tax freeze are unsustainable if taxes are to be kept low.

Ms Lamont added: “This dishonest government continues the myth that in an independent Scotland we could have Scandinavian welfare whilst cutting tax to a level that would make Mitt Romney blush”.

The Government countered that Labour wanted to take away aspirations of a university education from working class children, and challenged Labour members to a show of hands as to who wanted to scrap free bus passes.

The Labour leader concluded by calling for the issue to be considered openly and transparently.

Finance spokesman for the Conservatives, Gavin Brown, attempted to bring some consensus by arguing that the policies should not be dropped, but they could be run more economically than the £870m they currently cost.

Following the debate, former Scottish Auditor General Robert Black also questioned the sustainability of universal benefits in the long term.

He said: “The move being made by the Labour party in Scotland to at least start asking questions is a good thing”.

Mr Black was keen to stress that no one could have predicted such a fast rise in the cost of benefits.

He said: “Were the MSPs aware of that when they launched the policy? I suspect the frank answer is not”

He added. “So to that extent I think I am on safe ground by

saying the affordability of some of this has to be questioned, we do need to revisit it”.

Ms Lamont praised the former Auditor General’s comments, saying: “Scotland faces a public spending crisis. Every western country is facing these problems although ours are made worse by a Tory government which is cutting too far and too fast”.

NUS Scotland highlighted 87% of MSPs ruled out fees during the election and urged the Scottish Parliament to keep their word.

They commented that a possible return to tuition fees left them “deeply concerned”.

Editing/ Maria Suessmilch

2 16 October 2012

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Editors: Conor Riordan & Tasneem Mahmoud news@thegaudie.com

Donald Trump strikes a blow to the First Minister

By Anna Katila

Donald Trump has released a statement criticising Alex Salmond’s part in the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi following plans to build a wind farm within view of his golf course.

The statement was released after Aberdeen councillors stood by their decision to support the £230m plan for an offshore wind farm that would be located near Donald Trump’s new £100m golf course.

The US tycoon said that Mr Salmond’s “greatest contribution has been to let a Libyan terrorist go

home to his friends after bombing Pan Am flight 103.”

Mr Trump has also called for the head of the Ministry of Defence to resign and he renames the RSPB,

a charity dedicated to securing a healthy environment for birds and all wildlife, the “Royal Society for Killing of Birds”.

He continued to say that the wind farm will exist only because Mr Salmond wants it to.

Mr Trump also argues that military radar would be “totally affected by these massive, ugly and inefficient turbines” and thus “compromise national security”. Therefore, according to Mr Trump, the military leader, who approved the plan, should resign.

Donald Trump explains his wish to change the RSPB to the RSKB: “Incredibly, the RSPB opposed our development when we turned a ‘bird killing field’ into a golf course (where no birds will be killed) and yet approved an environmentally destroying wind farm that will kill thousands of birds a month’’.

The RSPB has been engaged with the project for nine years and during this time the plan has changed considerably because of their concerns. According to the charity, there is no significant danger to the environment anymore.

Donald Trump has put his plans to build a luxury hotel, clubhouse and hundreds of homes on the Menie Estate on hold until the wind farm plan is rejected.

Labour tops polls as Lib Dems fade at party conferencesBy Alexander Charlton

Amongst the many agendas at the labour party conference this year, three substantially stood out.

There is a notion that it is easy for the party in opposition to make utopian promises. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, did not.

In regards to recent tax rises and spending cuts, Mr Balls said: “we can’t make any commitments now. Unlike Nick Clegg, we will not make promises we cannot keep”.

The Shadow Chancellor did however promise that the 4 billion pounds from the sale of the 4G mobile phone spectrum would be used to build 100,000 new affordable homes.

He stated that Britain could “build its way out of recession”.

One Nation was Labour’s slogan at the conference held in Manchester and Ed Miliband pledged to help the “forgotten 50%” of young people abandoning university in order to get work experiences’’ and “a new technical baccalaureate”.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Barnham also promised to reverse the NHS if Labour came to power and “restore the N in NHS”.

In a sense the Liberal Democrats slogan “fairer tax in tougher times” captured the core message of the party conference this year.

Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury, told the audience in Bristol how the Lib Dems had secured a tax break for over 2 million of the lowest earners and were going to raise the maximum wage before tax to 12,500 pounds.

A one billion pound ‘business bank’ will be set up according to Vince Cable, the business secretary, and will help fund small and medium sized businesses.

Nick Clegg himself emphasised a sincere intention to implement the so called mansion tax. Furthermore, the Lib Dem leader pledged to secure 100 million pounds for childcare by 2014.

Naturally the entire conference was overshadowed by Nick Clegg’s apologetic statement earlier in the week.

This showed in the Opinion Polls where the Lib Dems momentarily dropped to fourth place behind the UK Independence Party (UKIP) but are now roughly on a par with 8% of the votes each.

The Conservatives began their conference with a speech from George Osbourne.

The Chancellor told the audience at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham that over the last two years the taxes on the richest had been raised, contrary to general opinion. However, Osbourne’s main point appeared to be a 10 Billion cut in benefits.

The Chancellor stated that it was “wrong that someone on benefits should be better off than someone in work”.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, praised Cameron for his “firm leadership” and “tough decision making” and referred to both Cameron and Osbourne as the “mop” and “dustpan” that are cleaning Labours “binge”.

David Cameron’s speech left viewers eager for new policies. “Olympic spirit” and “Britain can be great again” were two phrases frequently used by the Prime Minister, making it seem like more of a campaign speech than anything else.

Justice secretary Chris Grayling also unveiled new plans to change laws on confronting burglars, making the use of force against intruders legal.

Partnership launches leadership programmeBy Dan Naylor

A new programme of events has been organised between the University of Aberdeen and one of the world’s leading business schools.

The unique Henley-Aberdeen partnership has chosen leadership as the theme of their latest run of events, in a bid to create a network that will deliver leadership development to those at the top of organisations in Scotland.

The highlight of the programme is a leadership debate in November. Taking place on King’s College Campus, a panel of successful

leaders from around the world will participate in a ‘Question Time’ style debate in front of an audience of senior members of the Scottish business sector.

The topics for the 2012/13 programme, chosen by organisations participating in the partnership, include networking, personal branding, emerging markets and talent management.

Professor Norman Hutchison, who is leading the partnership for Aberdeen, said: “We believe that we are the only programme in Scotland offering executive education of this kind.

“The Henley-Aberdeen

Partnership combines the delivery of high quality executive education from a recognised global leader with world leading academics and researchers to address the key issues confronting senior executives as they bid to grow and develop their organisations”.

Some of the panel members include the former Chairman of Shell UK Dr James Smith, Brigadier George Lowder, commander of 51 (Scottish) Brigade, Professor Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission and the Chief Executive of The Scottish Council for Development and Industry, Dr Lesley Sawers.

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“Incredibly, the RSPB opposed out development

when we turned a ‘bird killing field’ into a golf

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AUSA bugged by low nomination numbersBy Alex Carlisle

Standing Committee elections re-sult in no contest, with not one po-sition being contested.

Each year AUSA attempts to fill its ten committees twice, once be-fore the academic year starts in May and once in October.

This year the numbers were dis-appointingly low, with not a single contested election. Although the Sports and Charity committees are full, they are the exceptions.

The Foresterhill and Entertain-ments committees are especially empty, with no more than four members on the latter.

With AUSA frequently receiv-ing criticism of only appealing to minorities and not the masses the lack of members is unlikely to im-prove.

An anonymous committee mem-ber explained to The Gaudie how easy it was for them to gain a po-sition on the Standing Committee

They said: “I won a place on a committee without being com-pletely sure what that committee did and I didn’t even have to cam-paign.”

The Sport Union, on the other hand, is set for another triumphant year. After its elections were con-tested in October last year it man-aged to fill its committee perfectly.

This enabled it to organise its coveted Sports Ball, as well as its yearly activities such as Super-

teams, Granite City Challenge and the newly introduced Race to Rio.

A true challenge now faces the

Foresterhill Committee. The For-esterhill Convenor was only elect-ed after an uncontested election

last year, filling the position on the executive committee after it was left empty in the exec elections.

Increasingly there seems to be a bigger divide between Foresterhill students and those studying at King’s College Campus.

Other committees, such as the Equal Opportunities Committees and the Societies Union Commit-tee only have one space left, with both cases still in need of a first year member.

Student President, Anne-Claire Deseilligny, said: “Despite no contested positions and failures in filling the Foresterhill and the Entertainments committee most committees are fairly full.

“Nevertheless the Students’ Asso-ciation is criticised for once again failing to adequately promote the elections. Nomination forms were out too late and opportunities were missed to promote the stand-ing committees during Freshers’ Week’’.

Students, however, are still able to join any committees with spaces still available.

If they wish to join they should contact Anne-Claire on sapresi-dent@abdn.ac.uk for informa-tion on how, as well as committee meeting times.

Other committees with spaces are: Welfare Committee, Educa-tion Committee, Employability Committee and Environment and Ethics Committee.

BRIT success for professorBy Isla Nicoll

This week Professor Paul Mealor added yet another achievement to his already impressive collection, when he was announced as the winner of the Classic BRIT Award for Best Single.

Wherever You Are, which the University of Aberdeen’s professor penned for the Military Wives Choir, was released in December last year and shot to the number one spot after selling an incredible 556,000 copies in just one week, before winning the award.

Professor Mealor has told the Gaudie: “It was truly amazing

to be in the Royal Albert Hall receiving this award from Olympic Champion, Victoria Pendleton! I am humbled and honoured to win – still can’t quite believe it’’.

The Professor of Composition, who has been at the University since 2003, became internationally recognised in 2011 for his Motet, Ubi caritas, which was performed at the wedding of TRH the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Professor’s talents were once again showcased at the University last month, when a specially composed piece was performed by members of the University choir for the Queen during her visit to

Marischal College.Since achieving worldwide

notoriety the Professor, originally from North Wales, has gone on to achieve a series of accolades, including becoming the first composer to achieve both the classic and pop chart number one spot in the same week.

In addition the award winning single became the fastest selling charity track since Elton John’s Candle in the Wind.

Professor Mealor has recently been signed to Decca Records and is currently working on his second album of choral music.

Society sponsorship initiatives clarifiedBy Sofiane Kennouche

Societies from the University of Aberdeen are to be funded by sponsors approved by the Students’ Association, leading some to question the degree of control that the body has over these organisations.

Previously, societies were given full autonomy to choose sponsorship funding for themselves. The decision to vet potential sponsors has been taken in order to equalise the market for funding, and afford smaller societies a better chance at securing adequate sponsorship for the coming term.

Societies President, Emma Carlen, provided clarification on the sponsorship process.

She stressed: “No change has been made to the way societies are able to seek sponsorship.”

Whilst the allocation of sponsors and funding is not centralised by the Students’ Association, it is supervised by the organisation to “provide another opportunity for sponsors to come to them [the societies] rather than themselves having to go and look for individual sponsors, which can be a daunting task for some societies’’.

Carlen also drew attention to the initiatives that are in place to help societies choose a sponsor.

She said: “We have […] the sponsorship mini-fayre where we will have some sponsors coming in to present themselves to societies’’.

The efforts of the mini-fayre are set to be bolstered by those of Sponsorcraft, a fundraising scheme set to be launched this year. Even if a suitable sponsor is found, the Students’ Association advises against signing any contract until it has been examined by the organisation, thus showing the degree of responsibility societies have to the association.

Supporters of this scheme underline the benefits preselected sponsors can give to society members, with sports teams enjoying free entry to a new Aberdeen nightclub with their membership card, for example.

Second year Economics student, Adam, is just one of the many students in favour of the scheme, adding to the debate that it will “give smaller societies a chance to thrive”.

Despite the benefits of the scheme, there have been some fears that societies may be hamstrung into choosing from only a small selection of sponsors.

Carlen argues that, in addition to the fundraising options available, “every society is free to go and look for as much sponsorship as they want”.

It is hoped that regardless of university support or individual endeavour, each society will be able to secure the necessary level of funding to increase their membership base and provide financial stability.

Photo/ abdn.ac.uk

Photo/ Maria Suessmilch

4 16 October 2012

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By Emlyn Corbett

According to a survey, graduate employment prospects are better than was thought, although this may include catering and bar work.

The Higher Education Careers Service Unit says only 9% are unemployed, whereas 62% have jobs within six months after leaving university, despite a tough labour market. These figures are similar to the year before.

Signs also suggest more young graduates are self-employed.

This UK report from the Higher Education Careers Service Unit (Hecsu) and Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services focuses on those leaving university in 2011. It provides a detailed look at the paths taken six months after graduation.

The deputy research director at Hecsu, Charlie Ball, says that in a “difficult jobs market” and a struggling economy “over 166,000 of last year’s graduates were known to be working in the UK six months after leaving university - nearly 8,000 more than the previous year”.

He added: “The figures show that even in difficult times, graduates can and do get jobs”.

Figures show the graduate jobs market has remained relatively resilient. These numbers come despite a struggling economy hitting recruitment and a growing number of graduates.

This indicates that the jobs market is changing - with more demand for graduates and skilled workers.

With 62% of recent graduates in employment, 9% unemployed, 14% staying on for further study and the remainder in a mixture of training while working or other undertakings, it would appear that the latest study shows an accurate picture.

This snapshot, taken before many young people have settled into their intended careers, shows which kind of jobs graduates are doing six months after leaving their first degrees.

It also shows, however, that many are still in non-graduate jobs.

Most are employed in sectors such as catering, retail and bar staff. These areas account for about 15% of young graduates. There are 13% in health sector jobs, 8% in business and financial jobs and around 7% in media and design.

Few people will have entered jobs that often require postgraduate training, such as law.

A continual upward growth in self-employment may result from the weak economy, which might have inspired more students to start up their own businesses. This group now approaching 5% of university leavers is a 2% increase from the middle of the last decade.

Reductions in the numbers of graduates going into a range of posts in health, education and social services could be a consequence of cuts in public sector spending.

In terms of the geographical spread of jobs for new graduates, there is a strong bias towards London and the south-east of England, with a third of graduates working in those areas.

Out of all the recent graduates, 20% who are in employment are working in London, by far the largest portion of the graduate jobs market. The next biggest provider of jobs is the south-east of England.

In terms of earnings, the typical range of earnings was between about £18,000 and £24,000 for those graduates who had jobs six months after leaving university.

According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the University of Aberdeen is ranked 7th for graduate employment.

Graduate employment on is the rise

Funding boost for cutting edge university courseBy Isla Nicoll

GDP SUEZ E&P UK have further demonstrated their support for the University of Aberdeen by donating £40,000 to the exploHUB training centre.

The announcement was made at the Operations Geology Workshop on the 5th October.

The exploration and production company, which has been in the region since 1997 and developed an impressive portfolio since, is a powerful emerging corporation in the oil and gas industry.

The Operations and Geology course, which is offered through the exploHUB training centre at the University, has been supported for the past three years by the French based company, and gives students vital experience in hydrocarbon exploration.

Participants in the week long course are given lifelike simulation of drilling wells without the need to travel offshore which, in the competitive industry of oil and gas, has the potential to set them apart from other graduates.

In a city as immersed in oil production and exploration as Aberdeen, it seems fitting that the University, the third oldest in Scotland, should provide such a modern and practical course for students wishing to follow this career path.

The generous contribution made by GDF SUEZ E&P UK will benefit the company and institute alike, as the next wave of employees into the oil industry will demonstrate an acute practical understanding of hydrocarbon exploration which can only serve to improve the industry itself.

By Rachel Clark

Aberdeen is among the majority of leading UK universities that have fallen down the international league tables.

According to the Times Top 200 Higher Education League Table, only 10 UK universities remain in the top 100 as opposed to 12 in its previous rankings.

Most worryingly, St. Andrews and Sussex universities have fallen short of the top 100 benchmark and Dundee University has been removed from the top 200 altogether. Bristol, Sheffield, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow have also fallen.

Aberdeen is now currently ranked 176th (joint with the universities of East Anglia, Reading and Adelaide), a drop of 25 places.

The universities are assessed on their teaching, international outlook, industrial income, research and citations in this particular study. Aberdeen did best in their international outlook, with an impressive score of 84.1%, and an overall score of 48.8%.

Dr. Wendy Piatt, the Director General of Russell Group of leading universities has said “if Britain is serious about staying on top, the government must concentrate investment on their world-class universities.” David Willetts, the universities minister, agrees saying that Britain “cannot be complacent”.

The editor of the table rankings in question, Phil Baty, has noticed the significant slip in the British higher education system stating “outside the golden triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge, Britain’s world-class universities face a collapse into global mediocrity.”

Baty concluded that the reason for such a potentially detrimental fall is because of declining public investment, toughened visa conditions, funding cuts and the dramatic rise in tuition fees by the

British government. He also warns that these results

may affect the position of tuition fees in Scotland, which would directly affect many Aberdeen students.

Another contributing factor to the slip from British institutions is the rise of the universities in the far-east.

Professor Ross of the University of Melbourne has pointed out the strong competition that Britain is currently facing particularly from South Korea, China and Singapore.

In a separate independent study, Universitas 21, a leading global

network of university research, has ranked the UK 41 out of 48 countries for its government spending on higher education.

The Times warns that UK universities will experience “a collapse in their global position within a generation”.

Aberdeen slips in university League Tables

Photo/ ReneS. (Flickr)

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