Pugwash News Issue 50

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Issue 50Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Free

Emily Wool

The library will begin a 24 hour access trial period for 4 weeks between 3rd May and 3rd June, which will include both the li-brary building and the open ac-cess area.

The issue desk and informa-tion areas will be keeping their current opening times with self-service machines operating too.

The usual term-time opening hours will be extended through-

out the Easter break instead of shortened vacation times.

The timing of the trial may in-dicate that the university is mak-ing preparations for 2012 when tuition fees will increase, when students may be expecting more value for money.

The increasing fight for a free computer in the university li-brary or even a seat in the quiet study area has not gone unno-ticed by many students.

With the current opening hours of the library being lim-ited to between 8am and 12 midnight, it would appear that the requests of stressed students being answered.

This year VP Academic Affairs chose not to continue the 4 year campaign for extended library opening hours.

Aakash Naik, UPSU President, said: “We’ve been consistent in our campaign for improved li-brary opening times. Various Course Reps, Faculty Reps and Sabbatical Officers, through the years, have lobbied the Univer-sity for both a 24 hour library

and at the very least.“I strongly encourage the uni-

versity to implement a 24 hour bus service during this period, to ensure there is a safe mode of transport available to students.

If there is a good response to these 24 hour opening times, the university will consider fur-ther investment in making it a more permanent fixture.

All of this comes in light of recent news about educational cuts being made throughout the university, as the overall run-ning costs of keeping the library open will increase.

The university have also promised a further 150 comput-

ers by the start of the next aca-demic year.

One third year English Lan-guage and Literature Student, has expressed concern saying: “I just think it’s strange that they presume that people can’t cope from midnight to 8am without using the library but it’s fine for us to lose lecturers which are far more important to our studies.”

While it may be the answer that many students have claimed they have been waiting for, there may in fact be more drawbacks than benefits when it comes to distributing money into other areas of the University.

Spotted: Southsea Sea Lion, have you seen it?

“Get Drunk. Read Dickens. Analyse.”Ross Keating assesses the 24 hour library trial starting in May

6

Seen on a morning run but is it real? Turn to page 5

Page 7

Page 10

Is work experience worth it?

The four year campaign

The Students’ Union has been campaigning for the last four years to get opening hours ex-tended to 24/7.

This year, Sam Jones, the VP Academic Affairs had chosen not to take on the campaign, because she believes it may un-dermines students’ welfare.

The trial will only last a month but many have com-mented on the timing of the decision, with relation to the incoming increase in tuition fees in 2012.

Library opens 24/7 in one month trial

Frank Turner:“I don’t believe in the state full stop.”

Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Ben [email protected]

Melissa FlackDeputy [email protected]

Milly YoungmanCopy [email protected]

Joely DicksDesign [email protected]

Dan ChestertonPictures [email protected]

Laura CrottyActing Head of [email protected]

Hana McFaulFeatures [email protected]

Dan WhitewayArts & Entertainment [email protected]

Grant ClarkeOpinion [email protected]

Joe WilkesSports [email protected]

Position vacantDowntime [email protected]

DesignDeputy: Adam PoolRebeccca Fifield

News Deputy: Position vacantEliomar Delgado (Senior Reporter)Sammy Pinker (Senior Reporter)

FeaturesDeputy: Becka HoggConor McCorkindale (Food)Eliza Burt (Sex & Relationships)Roxanna Negru (Health)

Arts & EntertainmentDeputy: Sophie WorrellHannah Whitnall (Screen)Lewis Dowling (Games & Internet)

Paul Miller (Music)Maxine Mason (Restraunts)Sam Rohde (Culture)

Opinion Deputy: Naomi SpicerFrancesca Taffs (Columnist)Ross Keating (Columnist)

SportsDeputy: Andrew OtteyBen Hyams (Senior Reporter)Laura Collins (Senior Reporter)

Small Print: Produced fortnightly by the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union. Printed by Johnston Press Plc - johnstonpress.co.uk, 02392 622 529, and printed on 100% recycled paper. Pugwash News bears no allegiance to any political party and discriminates against no-one. Editor in Chief, Laura Stevenson: 02392 843657. Visit us at The Student Centre, Portsmouth Students’ Union, Cambridge Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2EF.

Editorial Team

2

Errors and Omissions: While we take every care to verify our content, we may occasionally make mistakes. Please contact us at [email protected] to report any inaccuracies or mistakes. Send complaints to [email protected]

Eliomar DelgadoSenior Reporter

Student Council have voted in favour of five Sabbatical Officer positions, a reduction from the current six.

The council was presented with the Sabbatical Review on 14 January by the current sab-batical team, who had worked on the proposal, due to come into effect from July this year.

Due to financial cuts, it had been agreed last year by the Board of Trustees that the current number of six officers should be cut to five.

The review set out the pro-posed roles and responsibilities for the five positions which Stu-dent Council debated over the course of the meeting.

The new VP Education and Democracy position was a cause of great controversy. Under this role, the sabbatical responsible for Education would also have responsibility for ensuring the Union adheres to its democratic structures.

The current VP Democracy and Communications, Laura Stevenson, stated that the new structure would mean that “de-mocracy is going to be forgot-ten.”

However, despite lengthy dis-cussion, members were unable to find a viable alternative, and no amendments were made to the new role.

News

University

Students lose £6,500 as London College validated by University of Portsmouth faces financial ruinLaura Collins

Collaboration between the Uni-versity of Portsmouth and the London College of Traditional Acupuncture and Oriental Medi-cine, has placed the university in the spotlight recently as the Lon-don College faces financial ruin.

UoP validated the quality of the course offered by the Lon-don College but did not deliver the programme itself as it was part of the ‘validated external’ programme.

Students who attend the col-lege are now facing debts of up to £6,500. The UoP have validated degrees in BSc (Hons) Acupuncture and MSc Chinese medicine but David Willetts, the universities and science min-ister, has said he is “unable to intervene” in the case of a col-lege that collapsed. The “com-mercial transaction” which had taken place meant Mr Willetts was unable to make a move to-wards helping the 200 students of the London College who are on these particular courses.

Many undergraduate students from London College of Tradi-tional Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine paid the annual fee just days before the demise of the company. Although the uni-versity has no responsibility to refund the students it has been working to compensate the stu-dents in other manners which have been detailed by a spokes-person from the university:

“On 13 December 2010 the University held a meeting with students in London to give them an opportunity to speak face-to-face about what options might be available. Approximately 30

of the 207 students came to that meeting.”

UoP will try to ensure that students who have completed work will receive the correct amount of credits and an alter-native place of study for these students to finish their qualifica-tion is taking place; six have al-ready received a place at Ports-mouth itself.

“The University is continu-ing to explore ways in which it might assist students in finding alternative study routes. These will enable them to complete a programme of study for a de-gree in an institution of their choice, and to achieve a profes-sional qualification.”

“In addition, the University and the Professional Body have put in place arrangements which

will enable level 6 students nearing completion to continue their studies with the University

of Portsmouth.”Several BSc students face los-

ing thousands of pounds in a state shrouded by recession and, at the moment, they are not even certain they can complete their studies. The UoP holds so responsibility to help these stu-dents in a financial sense:

“Students paid fees to LCTA, not to the University. Therefore, the University is not in a position to refund moneys to students or to provide them with further assistance in reclaiming those funds. Students have been ad-vised that if they are owed mon-ey by LCTA they are a creditor of LCTA and have a claim that should be considered by LCTA or its liquidator.”

The university had, the

spokeswoman goes on to say, carried out a “rigorous” approv-al process in the early stages of deciding whether or not to vali-date programmes at the London College in 2003: “The approval process included a detailed due diligence exercise. At that time, the University’s due diligence ex-ercise concluded that LCTA was of good standing; professionally, academically and financially.”

“The University is very sorry that circumstances have led to a situation in which students are unable to complete courses at LCTA and has ensured that all the academic work that stu-dents have completed in their studies so far has been properly recognised through the award of credit from the University of Portsmouth. We have operated in accord with the termination rovisions of our contract with

LCTA and have sought to be as facilitative as possible.”

Have you been affected by this? Contact us on [email protected]

Comment-in-Brief: Is the universty doing enough?

Amidst the anger of tuition fees among students, I would have thought that the university would have noticed that one of the colleges it supports was heading to insolvency. In fact, it took one of them to call our university to let them know.

How could anyone not have noticed that many of the stu-dents studying Acupuncture and Chinese medicine at The London College of Tradition-al Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine were about to face financial ruin?

I think the university needs to act quickly to help the stu-dents that wanted to study

these courses. It cannot simply bring them to this university, because this would be against the students’ wishes. Many of them have lost £6500 that they paid to go to the college, and without warning, they have lost out on the course they want to study.

I believe that the vice-chan-cellor should help the students to get into a course in this; the students should receive the ed-ucation that they wanted, and not to be simply at an alterna-tive university. Either get these students on to similar courses somewhere across the country, or help them get their money.

3Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Sports19-24

Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18

Ben [email protected]

Melissa FlackDeputy [email protected]

Milly YoungmanCopy [email protected]

Joely DicksDesign [email protected]

Dan ChestertonPictures [email protected]

Laura CrottyActing Head of [email protected]

Hana McFaulFeatures [email protected]

Dan WhitewayArts & Entertainment [email protected]

Grant ClarkeOpinion [email protected]

Joe WilkesSports [email protected]

Position vacantDowntime [email protected]

DesignDeputy: Adam PoolRebeccca Fifield

News Deputy: Position vacantEliomar Delgado (Senior Reporter)Sammy Pinker (Senior Reporter)

FeaturesDeputy: Becka HoggConor McCorkindale (Food)Eliza Burt (Sex & Relationships)Roxanna Negru (Health)

Arts & EntertainmentDeputy: Sophie WorrellHannah Whitnall (Screen)Lewis Dowling (Games & Internet)

Paul Miller (Music)Maxine Mason (Restraunts)Sam Rohde (Culture)

Opinion Deputy: Naomi SpicerFrancesca Taffs (Columnist)Ross Keating (Columnist)

SportsDeputy: Andrew OtteyBen Hyams (Senior Reporter)Laura Collins (Senior Reporter)

Small Print: Produced fortnightly by the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union. Printed by Johnston Press Plc - johnstonpress.co.uk, 02392 622 529, and printed on 100% recycled paper. Pugwash News bears no allegiance to any political party and discriminates against no-one. Editor in Chief, Laura Stevenson: 02392 843657. Visit us at The Student Centre, Portsmouth Students’ Union, Cambridge Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2EF.

Editorial Team

University of YorkStudents at the university of York took part in the ‘Chlamyd-ia Challenge’ in November as part of the Yorscreen campaign: since then, many of the test re-sults have gone missing.

‘Chlamydia Challenge’, which publicised safe sex and offered a free chlamydia test to all peo-ple aged 16-24, boasted that students would received their results within two weeks - three months later and people are still waiting to find out if they have the STI.

Concern is growing on cam-pus as some believe that people may assume the test came back negative and that is why they have not been contacted.Source: yorkvision.co.uk

De Montfort UniversityIn light of a the twinning mo-tion passed last month, students at DMU are planning to visit a Palestinian University. The visit was prompted as a result of hu-man rights violations against staff and students there.

AnNajah National univer-sity will play host to Deputy President of Education Azhar Maqsood, and the presenter of the policy Ally Akbar, as well as a number of students who will be interviewed by the Student Union in the coming months. The visit is scheduled to take place in the second week of March in hopes to unite the two Universities and enable them to support each other.Source:demontfortstudents.com/demon

University of ReadingThe university of Reading is set to increase the number of bursa-ries it offers to students in a bid to “help those less well off”.

According to the latest report from the Office for Fair Access (OFFA), almost 3,000 students studying at UOR will benefit from these new bursaries.

Professor Robson, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at UOR, said: “Univer-sity policy is to recruit the most able students, regardless of their financial background.”

OFFA was founded in order to protect access to university for poorer students when tui-tion fees were originally raised in 2007.Source: rusuhost.co.uk/spark

Liverpool John Moores Liverpool John Moores universi-ty and Liverpool Student Union are under pressure to ban the use of the social networking site Facebook on all university com-puters. LSU have recently re-ceived a number of complaints from students who say that Fa-cebook cuts into valuable study time, and prevents people from being able to work because of a lack of free computers. An open debate was held on ‘The Bet-ter university Form’ last month and it reached the conclusion that Facebook access should be restricted to certain areas. Only quick access computers will be able to reach Facebook in order to prevent congestion in the li-brary and study areas.Source: looprevilpress.com

University of SurreySurrey’s Student Union held their Annual General Meet-ing last week which has been deemed a ‘flop’ as no more than 150 students from across the whole university turned up.

SSU were offering free tick-ets to the club Rubix to anyone who attended, they also adver-tised on Facebook and Twitter. Event organizers were forced to ask seated students to call their friends and plead for additional support.

150 students were required before the meeting could of-ficially begin. SSU have stated that failure to attend paints a dismal picture of student inter-est in Union affairs. Source: thestagsurrey.co.uk

University Roundup: The best of student media from around the UK

News

Eliomar DelgadoSenior Reporter

Student Council have voted in favour of five Sabbatical Officer positions, a reduction from the current six.

The council was presented with the Sabbatical Review on 14 January by the current sab-batical team, who had worked on the proposal, due to come into effect from July this year.

Due to financial cuts, it had been agreed last year by the Board of Trustees that the current number of six officers should be cut to five.

The review set out the pro-posed roles and responsibilities for the five positions which Stu-dent Council debated over the course of the meeting.

The new VP Education and Democracy position was a cause of great controversy. Under this role, the sabbatical responsible for Education would also have responsibility for ensuring the Union adheres to its democratic structures.

The current VP Democracy and Communications, Laura Stevenson, stated that the new structure would mean that “de-mocracy is going to be forgot-ten.”

However, despite lengthy dis-cussion, members were unable to find a viable alternative, and no amendments were made to the new role.

Another of the longest run-ning discussions was over where to place Raising and Giving (RAG). RAG is a student activity which organises events to raise money for charity. Responsibility for the activity is currently with the VP of Welfare & Volunteer-ing. However, the review pro-posed that it would work better under VP Activities. After a long-winded and repetitive debate, it was placed with VP Activities as proposed.

The new structure kept the VP Sports position. The current VP Sports, Lauren Ryan, said “Sport is the most student led club in the Union and sport is the only activity that is directly linked to the University.

“Losing that sabbatical would mean there is no head to such a big organisation. Therefore who knows what we would lose.”

The new role would also in-clude responsibility for provid-ing training to student executive committees in addition to the current duties.

The introduction of VP Wel-fare and Community, which brings together roles that cur-rently fall under two separate roles, was also discussed. Amy Baker, VP Welfare and Volun-teering, said: “This change has come about because we feel that community fits better with wel-fare than volunteering does.

“Issues such as student hous-

ing could come under both wel-fare and community, therefore instead of having them under two separate sabbaticals they would work better alongside one another.”

Despite lasting approximately three hours, witnessing flared tempers and conflicting opin-

ions, the Student Council mem-bers eventually voted unani-mously in favour of the new proposed Sabbatical Structure.

If you are interested in running for a Sabbatical position, infor-mation can be found on upsu.net/elections2011

Controversial new sabbatical structure approved

What is Student Council?Student Council meets once a month and is open to all stu-dents to attend and voice their opinions on the issues dis-cussed.

The council itself is made up of part time officers, faculty reps, chairs from the Union’s executive committee’s and the Union’s sabbatical officers.

The sabbatical officers all give a report on the work they have been doing, and motions submitted by students are de-bated and voted on.Next Student Council: March 3rd 4pm - 6pm in Union Rm 1.

Sabbatical officer restructure: old and new positionsCurrent structure PresidentVP Academic AffairsVP Democracy and Communi-cations (student media)VP Societies and CommunityVP SportVP Welfare and Volunteering

New structure - July 2011 PresidentVP Education and DemocracyVP Activities (including socie-ties, student media and RAG)VP SportVP Welfare and Community

Three hour debate sees student council vote to reduce team from six to five

Happy faces at the start of the year but next year’s hierarchy is changing - UPSU

Student Union Politics

Have you been affected by this? Contact us on [email protected]

4 Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011

News News

Laura CrottyActing Head of News

The University of Portsmouth has announced that September 2012 will see the introduction of a new academic structure throughout the University.

The academic restructure sees the removal of all 10 credit units throughout the courses offered by the University. Modules will become either year-long, half-year or intensive blocks of study with the hope that this will produce ‘a more coherent cur-riculum.’ Postgraduate courses will also see the inclusion of 30 credit modules to allow more in-depth study.

It has been proposed that all full-time, undergraduate cours-es must offer, as an option, a 20 credit, year-long Languages unit in the second year.

January exams will be scrapped as a result of the aca-demic restructure and the uni-versity will open its doors to students earlier in September that it currently does. The East-er break will be extended as this


The University of Portsmouth Catering services pride them-selves on their continuing efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. Mr Nick Leach, Head of Catering Services, has spoken out about their current use of bio-diesel and other campaigns they have launched in order to do their bit for the environment.

18 months ago, the catering services began running their en-tire vehicle fleet off bio-diesel, made from used cooking oil that is collected from all canteen out-lets including Rees Halls and Langstone Campus. The charity Yately Industries collect the used oil without charge and then con-vert it into bio-diesel in their workshops.

Yately Industries is a residen-tial home for severely disabled people who often work within their workshops. The charity is

able to make a profit on the bio-diesel even though they have to pay a 37p per litre fuel duty and VAT. This fuel duty is equal to the amount which would be paid on standard petrol; Mr Leach said: “It is actually disastrous when you think to yourself that it’s a

waste product and it’s actually being recycled.”

Yately Industries sell the bio-diesel back to the university for £1 per litre; with the current price of diesel at £1.33 per litre, this saves the university a great deal of money. Mr Leach went

on to state: “It’s a complete recy-cling circle, and the good thing about the circle is that everyone benefits from it.”

The catering services are also very keen about using locally sourced produce: “We try to work with suppliers to cut down the amount of miles that they travel. It’s a win win situation, we are very conscious about our carbon footprint.”

In 2005, The University of Portsmouth became the 5th uni-versity in the country to become a Fairtrade organisation. Mr Leach stated that: “‘Portsmouth does tend to be the university which comes up with all the wacky ideas.”

Since Mr Leach announced the bio-diesel initiative, Win-chester university and South-ampton university have fol-lowed Portsmouth’s example and converted all of their cater-ing vehicles to run off bio-diesel, each of which use Yately Indus-

tries as their supplier.Other initiative undertaken

by the catering services are the ‘Mug for Life’ campaign, and the One Water campaign. ‘Mug for Life’ supplies all staff with a china cup which can be used to purchase hot drinks for 15p less so as to save on paper cups. This campaign is also available to students who provide their own portable cups. Also, the pur-chase of One Water donates all its profits to provide a clean wa-ter supply for people in Africa.

Mr Leach said: “We have a moral duty to look at what we do and make sure we are do-ing it in a sound, ethical way. The students deserve, and expect us to be doing that.”

To find out more about envi-ronmental issues, visit port.ac.uk/environment to see what the university is doing to reduce carbon emissions.

University kitchens get eco-friendly with new fuel

Catering manager Nick Leach proudly shows off his eco-oil - UoP

Nandini Indiran

An 18-year-old student from Zimbabwe was approached by a man riding a bicycle who ver-bally abused him and wielded a kitchen knife at him before leav-ing the scene.

This incident, which hap-pened as the student returned home to Queen Street at ap-proximately 11.45pm on Thurs-day 20 January, is believed to have been racially aggravated and has traumatized the victim.

The police are appealing for information about this incident and have released a description of the suspect. The offender is described as a white male, aged 19-20 years old, about 6ft tall with a slim build. He was also reported to be wearing a grey-coloured T-shirt along with a dark, sleeveless hooded top and dark tracksuit bottoms with white stripes on the legs. At the time of the incident he was rid-ing a dark coloured mountain bike.

PC Craig Pearson from the Charles Dickens Safer Neigh-bourhoods team said: “The vic-tim is living in this country as a student. Although he wasn’t in-jured, the incident has left him

understandably scared and up-set.”

He then added: “The police take these sorts of incidents very seriously and urge anyone who has been a victim of racial abuse to report it immediately.

“A knife used in this way can be an offensive weapon which won’t be tolerated. Both the po-lice and courts take robust ac-tion against anyone caught do-ing so.”

If you have any information on this case please contact PC Pearson at Portsmouth Cen-tral Police Station on 101. You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Racist wields knife at college student on his way home

Holly Watkins

Matt Dempsey, a second-year Graphic Design student, certain-ly had a very merry Christmas and a happy new year when on 21 December 2010 he put his design project online for assess-ment. The six-week project involved designing a booklet and web-site criticising the inappropri-ate use of the typeface Comic Sans. ComicSansCriminal.com encourages the idea that Comic Sans is fitting for only select cir-cumstances; for young children, comic books and in some cases, those with dyslexia.

The website was being praised by web designers within minutes of it going live, and within hours had become a top trending topic on social website Twitter.

Dempsey, 21, had told his tu-tor that if just one person visited his website and it inspired them to think about what typefaces suited different purposes, then he would consider it a success.

By the end of the first day 90,000 visitors had seen his website; it has now reached over 600,000 people. Demp-sey says the site has: “had over 34,000 Facebook 'likes' and 14,000 tweets since launching. It was impossible to count in the first 48 hours, there was literally one every couple of seconds. On Wednesday the site received a

further 150,000 unique visits.”Dempsey has been featured

on a number of blogs and been the subject of a few articles, markedly HOWDesign.com, Fast Company's design blog, Daring-Fireball.net and on Christmas Eve he was Yahoo!'s website of the day; he says: “it's been a bit insane.”

However, Dempsey’s success suffered when his server was at-tacked by hackers with a Distrib-uted Denial of Service attack. He said: “By the time the site was back online 10 hours later the chatter had died down, though traffic has still remained at 10-15,000 visitors a day since.” Evidently though the damage caused by the hackers was not too severe, and ComicSansCrim-inal.com is the fourth search result on Google out of almost 5,000,000.

Sarah Houghton, Dempsey’s tutor and course leader for the BA(Hons) Graphic Design said: “Graphic Design students learn

how to communicate messages using type and image. They un-derstand that every aspect of the design will be read and inter-preted by the audience and that each typeface has its own voice, tone or association.

“Matt chose Comic Sans as a clear example of where inappro-priate use can detract from, or undermine, the intended mes-sage. As part of their evaluation students are asked to test their design on their intended audi-ence and consider if it works.I think the answer in this case is a resounding yes!”

It seems to be praise all round from Dempsey’s superiors, as Senior Lecturer in Graphic De-sign Estelle Taylor said that the way Dempsey: “launched his message beyond the bounda-ries of the set project on to an international platform is a real accomplishment.”

Since the New Year he has been interviewed on BBC Radio Solent, SAfm (a South African radio station to 600,000 listen-ers), and Radio Gold. It looks like the start of a promising career for Dempsey as he says that: “During the excitement I received several freelance job offers and an invitation to hear more about a job opportunity in America with a very well known website. They're keeping my CV on file for when I graduate.”

Are you a Comic Sans criminal?

Matt Dempsey

Site of the attack: Queen Street

Alexandra Dragnee


Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18News

Sports teams petition university over Nuffield useKathryn Glynn

Tempers are running high amongst the university’s sports teams and gym users because of the unavailability of sports halls at both the Nuffield Sports cen-tre and St. Paul’s Gym during exam time.

401 have signed the petition, which has been active since be-fore the Christmas break.

Sports halls being used as exam venues during January has left many of the sports teams having to reschedule and even cancel training and matches.

The Vice President Sports, Lauren Ryan, has raised her concerns on the matter particu-larly highlighting the impact on the Athletics team whose BUCS matches have been re-arranged at a financial and time-consum-ing cost.

Ryan said: “The importance of the sports halls being avail-able lies not only in the Athletic Union, but the intra-mural sys-tem, gym users and those who will socially use the sports halls through the stress of exams.”

The basketball team have explained that they have had

to relocate and train at differ-ent times, with fewer hours available. The club president of the basketball team, Niosha Kayhanim, said: “This change definitely sent a negative vibe through the sports teams affect-ed, but luckily the sports office were good with providing train-ing facilities, but there is only so much they can do.”

Faye Cook of netball has said: “this has affected our club mas-sively.” She goes on to explain that not only has their intra-mu-tual netball club been cancelled for the whole of January, as al-ternative space was not found, but it has also affected the first team who have had difficulty training.

Faye said: “I think the univer-sity has failed to recognise the importance of our sports clubs for our university, we often help attract the new students in the first place and promote our Uni-versity. I just wish the university could see the impact and not just rule us out as irrelevant.”

The Athletics Union recently met with the Vice-Chancellor John Craven to try and prevent

this from happening next year. Following this Professor Craven released a statement saying: “I have asked colleagues to look very carefully at alternatives for January/February 2012 to try to ensure that one hall is left avail-

able for sport.”The AU have released a peti-

tion to help prevent this from happening in 2012, which is available to sign at petitions.tigweb.org/nuffieldsportshall. It also has been said that pending

the success of the petition pro-tests may be held over the mat-ter next year.Turn to page 19 for our sport editor’s views on the university’s facilities and investment in sport.

401 people have signed the petition against using Nuffield for exams - Chris Yeoh


The University of Portsmouth has announced that September 2012 will see the introduction of a new academic structure throughout the University.

The academic restructure sees the removal of all 10 credit units throughout the courses offered by the University. Modules will become either year-long, half-year or intensive blocks of study with the hope that this will produce ‘a more coherent cur-riculum.’ Postgraduate courses will also see the inclusion of 30 credit modules to allow more in-depth study.

It has been proposed that all full-time, undergraduate cours-es must offer, as an option, a 20 credit, year-long Languages unit in the second year.

January exams will be scrapped as a result of the aca-demic restructure and the uni-versity will open its doors to students earlier in September that it currently does. The East-er break will be extended as this

will make it easier to align all courses and improve organiza-tion. Timetables for the whole academic year will be available at the beginning of the first term, as modules will have been selected by students the year be-fore. Rebecca Bunting, Deputy Vice Chancellor, said: “There should be no requirement for students to undertake assess-ment tasks over the Christmas and Easter breaks unless this is part of the learning, teaching and assessment strategy, and ap-proved through the Course Ap-proval Process.”

This new structure will see the inclusion of work experience and a focus on employability skills within all courses at the University. It has been proposed that the elective programme is withdrawn by 2012.

“This scheme’s aims will be integrated into the core curricu-lum.The Department of Employ-ability will support course teams in identifying suitable work-re-lated activities. It is also possi-ble that the number of sandwich

courses offered by the university may rise.

Each faculty will have a new position, Employability and En-terprise Co-ordinator. This will be a senior post on a part-time contract who will work with departments to support the de-velopment of the employability agenda.

When asked whether this new focus on employability has come as a response to the cur-rent economic climate, Ms Bunt-ing said: “it would be negligent for the university not to support students in what is a very chal-lenging employment situation.”

Laura Collins, a third year English Literature student, said: “I wish I had been given the chance to gain work experience through my course as finding a job after graduation would not feel so daunting if I’d already got suitable work experience.”Ms Bunting said it is a coinci-dence that it coincides with the introduction of higher fees.

This will not affect current students.

No more work over Christmas and Easter from 2012

Racist wields knife at college student on his way home Eliomar Delgado

Senior Reporter

A sea lion was spotted by a jog-ger along the Portsmouth sea front earlier this week. Amber Harris was innocently jogging along Portsmouth sea front on 22nd January when she heard a strange wailing coming from the sea.

She bravely ran down to the beach thinking someone was in trouble. But she didn't find anyone, instead what she found was a sea lion: "I found this truly unbelievable. I have never heard of a sea lion being seen in Portsmouth. I think I scared him off with the noise I made on the pebbles so he wasn't there for long."

Over the past few years a number of people have sighted seals in the Hampshire coastal area. Other marine mammals have been spotted such as bot-tle-nose dolphins and even a few whales have been seen swim-ming along the southern coast line.

Here are a few tips if you think you see something while out at the beach or near the coast. Firstly, if you see a ran-dom splash of water that looked like a wave but did not follow

the current, then it’s possible that the splash was that of a dol-phin. Secondly, seals often bob their heads up and down in the water while resting. They can be mistaken for a buoy or a piece of drift wood but, if you look closer, you might find something you’re not expecting. Finally, sea birds will often fly in a group in a perfect circle over marine mammals in case the mammal leaves behind some fish.

It is always a pleasant sur-prise when Portsmouth is host to a seal sighting. Amber said: "I wanted to check if other peo-ple had seen him or if it was a one off. I myself love the idea of Portsmouth having a friendly visitor."If anyone else has sighted an unusual marine mammal, write in to us at Pugwash, [email protected]

Jogger sights sea lion on seafront

A new mystery? Jenny Rollo


HUGE STUDENT SAVINGS! • HUGE STUDENT SAVINGS!

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Features


Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18HUGE STUDENT SAVINGS! • HUGE STUDENT SAVINGS!

63-65 Fratton Road, Portsmouth PO1 5AE

To order call 023 92291291Opening hours: 11am till midnight 7 days a week

Online Off er Conditions: Collection or delivery. Please mention off er when ordering. Not valid with any other off ers. Valid at participating stores only. Only available online at www.dominos.co.uk. Limited delivery area designed with safety in mind. Off er is subject to availability and can be withdrawn without notice. Proof of student I.D. will be needed. ‡For a full explanation of Domino’s Family, please see our privacy policy at www.dominos.co.uk.

Two For Tuesday Conditions: *At regular menu price. **Free pizza must be of equal or lesser value than the fi rst. Available on medium or large only. Available on Tuesdays only. Not valid with any other off er. Valid for a limited time only and at participating stores. Please mention off er when ordering. Includes ‘Create your own’ up to 4 toppings. Subject to availability. Double Decadence and Dominator bases are charged as extra.

To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606. Text is charged at standard network rate.

To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the To receive off ers from the Domino’s Family‡ direct to your mobile, text the word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606.word ‘PIZZA’ & your postcode to 60606. Text is charged at standard network rate.Text is charged at standard network rate.Text is charged at standard network rate.Text is charged at standard network rate.Text is charged at standard network rate.Text is charged at standard network rate.Text is charged at standard network rate.Text is charged at standard network rate.

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Jobs

Features

Hana McFaul

Features Editor

With a struggling economy and increasing graduates, do we all need to do more to land our dream jobs?

While some students choose to go straight from higher educa-tion to university, others choose to take some time out to gain skills in a working environment. Ellen wishes to attend university next year after taking two years out to gain experience working and deciding what career path best suits her. She says; “Having taking time out from education has made me truly appreciate the hard work and dedication needed to achieve my goals. After leaving sixth form, I was clueless of what I wanted to do with my life and felt that ex-ploring my options through a gap year would reinforce what I wanted to study.

“Taking time out to work has certainly been the right decision for me, as I now know where I want to be in life. I don’t feel this gap will delay me getting to a steady career as I have gained the skills and networked during my time away from education, alongside realizing my true in-terests.”

“ It’s your job to convince them you’re

the best thing since sliced bread

Taking a gap year is the tra-ditional route to find out what you want to do, but some peo-ple simply want to get their de-gree and graduate before they get out of the education routine. However, attending university does not limit you from gain-ing experience. Many employers preach the benefits of volunteer

work or work experience, not only for the job specific skills you could acquire, but also for the personal skills that you gain.

“ Internships bridge

the gap between the

classroom and the real world

Entering the ‘real world’ after graduating is becoming a more daunting task for the thousands of graduates every year. In these harsh economic times and with the growing number of univer-sity students, a good degree no longer secures you your dream job. Whilst the benefits of a de-gree and obvious, the extras go a long way to helping you fulfil your potential. Many graduates are now opting for post-univer-sity gap years to ease themselves onto the job ladder by gaining experience.

In a study on the benefits of internships it was found that “experience continues to be one of the key attributes any entry-level professional can offer a prospective employer, and in-ternships provide one of the best ways for the ambitious to obtain it” as they “provide students (and faculty) with a means of bridging the gap between career expectations developed in the classroom and the reality of em-ployment in the real world”.

This gap is the biggest issue that employers have with gradu-ates, they have often little or no experience of life outside of education. The study found that “experiential education plays a vital role in enhancing the preparation and success of un-dergraduates in the entry-level job market”. This was primarily due to the experience which the

graduates had gained both helping them pinpoint their career path, and also help-ing them to get a higher paid job.

Steph Hall, a Media graduate, recognises the benefits of internships. She says that they are “absolutely crucial to get your foot on the ladder. Whilst most are unpaid, the experience you get is invaluable”. How-ever, she experienced firsthand the difficulty in getting the experi-ence, but says “if you demonstrate a pas-sion and will and aren’t afraid to call up two, three, four or more times, then you should succeed.

I never emailed peo-ple because you can de-lete an email but you can’t delete a phone call. It’s all about being confident, or at least pretending to be, to con-vince the person on the end of the line that you are the best thing since sliced bread. Don’t ask if they have internships as they hear it so often. Ask if they need any extra help because you are x, y and z and have done this, that and the other”.

There are also a number of bursary schemes available for graduates who would not be able to fund the experience they want. Bursaries are main-ly available for students who wish to do work experience abroad. Volunteering abroad not only helps you learn about your skills, but can help whole communities and expand your cultural awareness. So, while graduation may seem far away or finding work experience may seem too much like hard work, it can pay off and significantly benefit your future. Dabble in a

few fields, learn your personal skills and things you can’t be taught in education and know

that your efforts now will assist you later on.

Work experience: worth the bother?

A first hand experience Photo by: workcromo.com


Ashleigh Gurry

A new wave of retail therapy has hit the circuit, after buying Christmas presents and over-spending in the January sales has left a massive dent in the student bank account. Instead of splashing out on new sea-son stock, give your overdraft a break and start doing-it-your-self!

You do not have to be a sew-ing goddess to make your own clothes; you do not even have to completely make them from scratch. Get onto YouTube and take a look at some of the ‘do-it-yourself’ tutorials and transform your boring old grey t-shirt into a fashionable H&M number. A needle and thread does not cost much and as a student it is a great way to chill out from revi-sion and take your mind off of those dreaded exams.

Big knits are a winter trend that is here to stay throughout spring, complete with snoods and the woolly jumpers we all

Chloe Brister

As the only independent cin-ema in Portsmouth shuts its doors for the second time in two years, is the fu-ture of independent cinema in jeopardy?

On March 10th, No.6 Cin-ema shall close as it struggles to cover basic expenses. The situation is desperate as a con-siderable amount of money is lost simply by keeping the cin-ema open. The cinema is fail-ing to reach enough customers so that often as little as 10 peo-ple attend a showing when 35 people are needed just to cov-er screening cost. The cinema closes in March for a whole six months with plans to re-open in September. During this period, owners Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, must discover a way to draw in over double the amount of customers in their average screening. A successful new strategy and business plan will hopefully be the outcome of the suspension and all fingers are crossed as this is the second time in two years the cinema has been forced to take such actions.

All across Britain there are a

The decline of independent cinema

Making your own is BACK!

Features Features

Resolution Food

Warm Roast Vegetable and Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

* 2 Chicken Breasts* 1 Red Onion* 1 Red Pepper* 1 Yellow Pepper* 1 Courgette* 1 Aubergine* 1 Clove Garlic* 1 tbsp Sunflower or Rapeseed oil* 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar* Black Pepper (for seasoning)*Rosemary and Basil (optional)

Serves 21. Peel and chop the onion

into bite size chucks. Cut the peppers in half, de-seed, remove the white pith and cut each half into about five even pieces. Cut the courgette into 2cm by 1cm batons. (sticks in food lingo). Cut the aubergine into 2cm by 1cm batons (the aubergine can be peeled as some find the skin tough, but I prefer to leave it on for colour and fibre).

2. Place all the vegetables

into a suitable roasting dish, and sprinkle with the oil and vinegar.

3. Season with the pepper.4. Sprinkle with roughly

chopped rosemary and basil (optional).

5. Place in pre-heated oven at 180˚C for approximately 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, rub the breasts with oil (sorry for the Nigella style phrasing...), place under the grill on a medium-high heat. Cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through, then remove and cut into slices.

7. Mix and serve!

This recipe is a prefect start to a healthy new year, the grilled chicken is a great substitute for shallow fried chicken as it is much healthier. Now for the dessert, I have never known what to call this dessert so...

A Healthy Blueberry Cheese-less Cheesecake

Ingredients:

* A Pack of Digestive Biscuits

* Greek yogurt* Blueberries* Lemon

Serve in separatecontainers

1. First the biscuits, use three-four per person, then place all the biscuits in a resealable bag and bash with a rolling pin until the biscuits have crumbled but not turned into powder.

2. Next mix about five table spoons per person of Greek yogurt with a handful of blueberries (or more if you want!). Then add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the mix.

3. Layer the crumbled biscuits on the bottom of your chosen containers, then top with the yogurt mixture and eat immediately.

Conor McCorkindale helps you to cook some healthy meals even your mum would be proud of.

Every year thousand of people (including me) make a pledge to be healthier. This could be any-thing from losing a few pounds to giving up chocolate. So I have decided to give all the dieters a helping hand, with a healthy dinner and dessert.

This recipe is based on my mum’s healthy Mediterranean substitute to the traditional roast sides, roast vegetables. But not high carbohydrate pota-toes, instead it was peppers and squashes.

Health

Broken all your new year’s resolution in January? Well...there’s always February

Delicious cake - Wen Tong Neo

Chicken salad - Rob Owen-Wahl

Do a Master’s, change your life

Purple Door, 28 Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth PO1 2DD. Drop in or book an appointment online at www.port.ac.uk/postgraduate.

‘My Master’s taught me the importance of what it means to work in partnership with people who have learning disabilities. I have continued to adopt this approach in my PhD and within my clinical role. I hope that my research will not only have a direct influence on the lives of individuals but will also influence local and national policy.’

Clare Mander, MSc Applied Psychology of Intellectual Disabilities

(by distance learning) Currently doing a PhD

Practice enlightens theory and vice versa

Postgraduate information days• Tuesday 15 March 2011• Tuesday 6 September 2011

11.30am–2.00pm and 5.00pm–6.30pm.


Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18

Ashleigh Gurry

A new wave of retail therapy has hit the circuit, after buying Christmas presents and over-spending in the January sales has left a massive dent in the student bank account. Instead of splashing out on new sea-son stock, give your overdraft a break and start doing-it-your-self!

You do not have to be a sew-ing goddess to make your own clothes; you do not even have to completely make them from scratch. Get onto YouTube and take a look at some of the ‘do-it-yourself’ tutorials and transform your boring old grey t-shirt into a fashionable H&M number. A needle and thread does not cost much and as a student it is a great way to chill out from revi-sion and take your mind off of those dreaded exams.

Big knits are a winter trend that is here to stay throughout spring, complete with snoods and the woolly jumpers we all

love, boys included! 2010 saw the likes of Kate Moss, Cameron Diaz and Sarah Jessica Parker take to knitting, making it the number one A-list hobby of the year. Finding a decent big knit can be expensive, even from low end stores such as Primark, so going online and finding the best tutorials can save you mon-ey and land you with a unique cardigan or scarf for spring.

Everyone knows fashion comes around full circle and this season’s trends are gear-ing towards 70s glamour and flared jeans - yes, they are back! If making your own clothing is not for you, then get onto those second hand clothing websites such as BigWardrobe.com and start ‘swapping’ your outdated wardrobe for the latest fashion must-haves. You never know, you could find a pair of vin-tage flares someone is trying to get rid of. Or if it is inspira-tion you are after in creating a unique outfit, 1yearof2hand.

com is the site to visit. Two girls have got together in buying only second hand clothes for an en-tire year, purchasing belts and scarves from charity shops for accessorising, and cutting up old jeans for the latest trend in cut off shorts. Team with a pair of patterned tights and your newly designed t-shirt and you have got a hot new look that you will not find any other student wan-dering around in!

Get the retail therapy we all deserve without spending the money - who could resist? Now you can make your shopping budget stretch all year and get involved in the making.

All rhinestones, fabric and decorative

ingredients can be bought fairly cheap

from any craft store including Fabric

Land in Cascades Shopping Centre;

they have a good range of buttons

and accessories to help transform any

outfit.

Chloe Brister

As the only independent cin-ema in Portsmouth shuts its doors for the second time in two years, is the fu-ture of independent cinema in jeopardy?

On March 10th, No.6 Cin-ema shall close as it struggles to cover basic expenses. The situation is desperate as a con-siderable amount of money is lost simply by keeping the cin-ema open. The cinema is fail-ing to reach enough customers so that often as little as 10 peo-ple attend a showing when 35 people are needed just to cov-er screening cost. The cinema closes in March for a whole six months with plans to re-open in September. During this period, owners Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust, must discover a way to draw in over double the amount of customers in their average screening. A successful new strategy and business plan will hopefully be the outcome of the suspension and all fingers are crossed as this is the second time in two years the cinema has been forced to take such actions.

All across Britain there are a

range of successful independ-ent cinemas supporting film as a unique vision and celebrat-ing cultural diversity. If this is the case, why can’t Portsmouth make it a success too?

Staff insist that the films themselves are not to blame and instead recognize their fault as inadequate advertising. With only volunteers and a few list-ings in The News and on Express

FM, advertising has not success-fully reached the required audi-ence. So as I have only become aware of the cinema’s existence since it has made claims to close down I can see what they mean.

The cinema, a 275-seat thea-tre with state-of-the-art audi-torium offers a range of inspi-rational work and has a great amount to offer. It’s a great shame that Pompey’s only ac-

cess to this kind of celebration of history and cultural diver-sity in world cinema is doing so poorly. Some people may consider visiting these cinemas as a waste of time as the major-ity of these films are accessible to view in the comfort of our homes. However, the No.6 ex-perience it is not only about the screenings. Aside from these the cinema offers a range of events

and attractions including fancy dress themes, musical entertain-ment, guest appearances and food deals to complement the films. This means that so much more is gained from your usual cinema visit. Every Wednesday, for example, viewers can enjoy a complimentary cup of coffee and a biscuit with their ticket. And there is always a great ef-fort made to entice customers with deals such as these.

The cinema is located in the Historic Dockyard on the corner of Queen Street and The Hard next to HMS Warrior and is an easy five minute walk from The Hard bus terminal and Ports-mouth Harbour railway station. There is discount on parking granted on admission at the Harbour Car Park and most im-portantly student discount at half the standard rate!

So if Independent Cinema is something that interests you go visit while you still have the chance! Why not offer your skills as a volunteer or any help or suggestions would be wel-comed. Why not do your bit to help Portsmouth’s neglected treasure?

A lack of customers is causing the decline of independent cinemas - Michal Wojciechowski

The decline of independent cinema

Fashion Completely change the look of a dull T-shirt into a fashionable must-have, by adding some detail to the shoulders.

All you need is:Making your own is BACK!

Fabric - Taken from any old clothing or bought from a cheap textiles shop. (Most fab-ric shops will give you small samples of material for free if you ask).

Fabric Glue – Use but-tons, sequins or gems from old clothing and stick them in place on the shoulders of the T-shirt. You could even stick down the fabric itself if you are really not up to the sewing challenge!

Needle and thread – Cut the fabric to shape and use the needle and thread to sew the fabric onto the shoulders of the T-shirt.

Accessories - Why not buy some unusual buttons and sew them onto that dull cardigan you love but only really wear indoors? Buttons are a great way to add variety and colour to plain clothing.

Culture

Photos by Robert Parviainen & Tinou Bau

Features


Brighton RockHannah WhitnallScreen CriticMany people are attracted to the dangerous type. Brighton Rock tells the story of Pinkie (Sam Riley), a socially inept teenager who manages to reel Rose into his dangerous life of crime and violence. The film promises a love story blended with action.

The Streets – Computers and Blues – Out 7th FebruaryPaul MillerMusic CriticComputers and Blues will satisfy fans of ‘dancing and chatting shit’ according to Mike Skinner’s blog on the website. It’s described as ravey, fast, dark and massive, but perhaps most importantly it’s their last album, and for that reason alone it’s worth a listen.

The FighterDan WhitewayArts & Ents Editor

There is Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale for the women, boxing action and Amy Adams for the men. A compelling storyline. Critical acclaim and Oscar nominations. Top class casting all round. What more do you want? A lift to the cinema? A foot massage while you are watching it?

Gossip GirlSophie WorrellArts & Ents Deputy EditorRight all you aspiring upper east side socialites, Gossip Girl is back on our screens for a fourth series and is guaranteed to have more scheming, bitch fights and to-die-for designer clothes than ever before. Don’t miss the first episode on ITV2 at 8pm on the 2nd February. XOXO

Direct 2 Drive (D2D)’s RentalsLewis DowlingInternet & Gaming CriticI want games, and I want them now. It’s a shame they’re so damn expensive. D2D has the answer. Pay £5.00, get five hours. Fancy buying the game afterward? That £5.00 is knocked off the price. Perfect.

SanctumHannah WhitnallScreen CriticIt seems like James Cameron is going to find it hard to top the success of Avatar, with his new film looking a lot less appeal-ing. Sanctum shows us a group of explorers simply trying to battle their way out of a cave.

Same Difference – Album release and signing, in Asda – 7th FebruaryPaul MillerMusic Critic

Remember Same Difference? Off X Factor? Probably not, but if you want a reminder of whatever it is they do, they’ll be signing copies of their new album The Rest Is History in Fratton Asda. If that’s not a dif-ficult second album then God knows what is.

PaulDan WhitewayArts & Ents EditorShaun of the Dead meets Pineapple Express, at least in terms of cast members. Clash of cross-Atlantic comedic cul-tures, potential for a flop for Pegg and Frost. Bring on the third instalment of the Blood and Ice Cream trilogy and the return of Edgar Wright in the director’s chair.

Coronation Street, East-enders, Hollyoaks (and all soaps really)Sophie WorrellArts & Entertainment Deputy EditorOne word - depressing. Months are spent creating happiness for the characters , only for it to be torn away with dirty plots, unfortunate personal issues and badly timed tragic deaths, which only leave us with feel-ings of anger, depression and a lack of faith in consistent life happiness. Cheer up soapland, it can’t all be that bad.

Model Train Simulator 2011 (PC)Lewis DowlingInternet & Gaming CriticModel trains can be fun. Vid-eo games can be fun. But just because two things are fun doesn’t mean that they’ll be fun together. Sex is fun. Paintball-ing is fun. Nude paintball sex, not so fun. Well...

Sarah Jackson

Frank Turner agonises over the current tuition fee situation however states that “degrees are wonderful things.”

The folk singer from Oxford told Pugwash News: “I think if the state is going to take all our money then spending it on Higher Education is a good idea, however I would just prefer it if the state didn’t exist.”

He feels separate from the debate saying, “the problem I have is that I feel like there is a slight argument going on over here and I’m just over there somewhere.”

Turner went on to say how he’s not taking any sides be-cause the very concept of state-funded education contradicts his beliefs, “it’s not that I’m op-posed to the tuition fees and it’s not that I’m opposed to what

the students are doing either, I don’t believe in the state full stop.”

“I spend a lot of time thinking about politics and stuff so it’s just really important to me to be completely honest and forth-right with what I think if I’m go-ing to say something publicly.”

Turner added, “And I guess if I wasn’t so uptight about it the I guess I’d just be like yeah cool, but I’m really passionate about what I say. So I do understand the whole argument on tui-tion fees, I just think the state shouldn’t exist.”

After an in depth explana-tion of where he stands on the fees he then continued to tell us how he supports the idea of university education “I went to university and I loved it, I had the best time, I definitely sup-port the idea of uni and when the legs fall off this little idea of mine I’d definitely think about

going back and doing a PHD or a Masters.”

Turner, who studied History at the London School of Eco-nomics, does however have res-ervations about some aspects of university “I got very frustrated with people that were their be-cause they just thought they should go to university”, he said and later added, “I studied History because I’m passionate about History but there are peo-ple that are just there to clock in and that just annoyed me.”

He respects Higher Educa-tion, and gets annoyed: “The idea that people are just there because they think they should have a degree slightly misun-derstands what a degree is.

“I think degrees are wonder-ful things but I don’t see why on earth anyone needs a degree to be a mechanic or something like that, it’s a different type of skill and learning.”

InterveiwWhat’s Hot What’s Not

Frank Turner’s anguish over Tuition Fees

Frank Turner in concert at Southampton Guildhall - Dan Chesterton

Arts & Entertainment


Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18Arts & Entertainment

Restaurant

Maxine MasonRestaurant Critic

Situated on Castle Road, one of Portsmouth’s quaintest streets, is Truffles. It almost jumps out from its tightly fitted spot on the bizarrely ordered row of antique and confectionery shops. The building has definitely seen its fair share of the past and this is especially sensed once inside its warm, inviting walls.

The restaurant is simplisti-cally decorated in various tradi-tional French and British styles. It encapsulates a calm, relaxing persona, which instantly incites a hardy appetite. The ambiance is that of a winter warmer. Mel-low background music gives the room its own tranquil atmos-phere.

There is something for every-one on the menu and it will defi-nitely send you into a whirlwind of choice - I took my sweet time

coming to a decision! I started with a funky, fresh crab cake decorated in a seasoned pastry case. For the main course, eve-rybody’s guilty pleasure, steak on a bed of green beans, served with mushrooms and, of course, truffles with a cheeky side of

dauphonise potatoes. To finish the evening off, I was served a beautifully presented dark chocolate tart, with handmade grapefruit ice cream which was literally a flavour explosion, no exaggeration although slightly kitsch in description. The service at Truffles could not be faulted and we were waited upon with

friendliness and attentiveness all night through.

When leaving the restaurant, you defiantly feel as if you have had a relaxing blast from the past with a full belly and great experience to account for it.

As much as the building is an

antique in its own right the food is modern and the atmosphere is great for most people, with an affordable price range for the student pocket! The lunch deal is especially suited to a student budget and is great value formoney.

Modern and ancient mix at Truffles Maxine MasonRestaurant Critic

Istanbul - Situated on Or-chard Road in the up and com-ing side of Southsea, Istanbul offers a Turkish take on an all day breakfast for under a fiver! A unique place to go for those who are in desperate need of a good old greasy breakfast after a crazy night out on the town.

Snookies - The funky looking cafe Snookies has a winner of a breakfast for £5.50, with all the trimmings. You can find Snookies on Orchard Road; it’s a sight for those sore, hung-over eyes! It’s a great place for a bit of people watching whilst you munch your brunch too, as it has loads of window space.

Caroles - Caroles cafe is positioned on the ever- buzz-ing Albert Road and has many variations of breakfast to choose from. Ranging from

veggie, regular or jumbo if you’re feeling like you could stomach a few more tempting calories! The prices vary from £3.25 for a regular breakfast to £4.75 for a jumbo breakfast with tea or coffee added in to the deal.

Mumms - A local favourite, Mumms Cafe, has a homely atmosphere with a bargain breakfast catered to the stu-dent pocket at just £3.25!! The cafe is positioned at the end of Albert Road and has a warm, cosy character as one of the oldest cafés in Portsmouth.

Manna - Manna tea room is a light, relaxing spot to have a quick breakfast bite. Their breakfast is £5.00 with added tea or filter coffee to choose from. Situated in quaint Old Portsmouth, it is definitely the slightly more upmarket of the greasy spoons but still very affordable!

Give Me Five: Greasy Spoons

Leila De Lara

With it’s entrance filled with prestigious awards for its culi-nary delights, and the tasteful elegance that emanates from this classy and boutique like res-taurant, it is certainly a different atmosphere from the cafes and snack-stops this student town is used to.

With it’s menu of two courses for just under £30, and three courses for just under £35 per-person, it is not a place you could necessarily just go to on a whim, but it is certainly an achievable treat. So what occasion would merit this level of extravagance? With our fellow diners giving out distinctly young-profession-

al like vibes, and the party out back with their fine wine and muted conversation it is prob-ably somewhere that a student would reserve for times like graduation or birthday-meals with the parents. However, if you are wondering if this is somewhere that you could im-press a date with, then yes....but perhaps not a first date. The rea-son being, and my companion at the meal agreed, is that it is so bourgeois (not to be insulting) that it may not be the easy re-laxing environment you need in order to get to know somebody. If you want them to feel under-dressed, confused by the wine-list and embarrassed at order-ing the ‘mascarpone millefeuille

please?!?!’, convinced you may get served some sort of cheese-like-sneeze, then do go ahead. If it’s an anniversary or Valen-tine’s Day and you’re looking to splash the cash with your bet-ter half, then yeah, there is not a nicer restaurant to enjoy your first ‘foam’ together, but as un-cultured as this all may sound, it

really is that kind of place.In addition to your selected

number of courses, you will also find a muse-bouches of tasty bread, olives, and home-made pastes. Following this you will also receive a shot of soup, which, for a shot of soup, was the best damn shot of soup I have ever had (complete with aforementioned foam). The seasonally changing menu is perhaps not vast in choice, but varied in flavours. Thus, with starters from quail to scal-lops, and beetroot in-between, cooked-to-perfection, it would indeed cater for all.

The mains are also set to im-press with halibut and pheasant standing out as choices for our

evening, pleasing and surprising with different herbs and sauces, all served with fresh vegetables on beautifully arranged plates. Yet if you are really interested in the aesthetics, it is the desserts you must wonder at. The apple gazpacho is served in a delicate martini-glass and framed by sorbet and individual blueberry turn-overs, and the expresso mousse is artfully arranged around it’s accompanying cinna-mon donuts.

All in all, the meal was spif-fing. I choose this word for it’s quirky pretentiousness, a rea-sonable amount of it on a spe-cial-occasion....

Treat yourself at Montparnasse

Sam RohdeCulture Critic

If you’ve yet to check out any of Portsmouth’s local comedy and theatre venues, don’t panic! Our local venues offer a great night out in relaxed venues and put on some impressive shows all year round. There’s plenty in store in the coming months and we’d love for you the writers to go and check them out for us.

For fans of comedy; Lenny Henry will be bringing his latest

stand-up tour to the Portsmouth Guildhall in May; which also brings us other popular comics such as Mickey Flanagan (24th March) and John Bishop (6th April) and The Pub Landlord Al Murray also makes a return to Portsmouth at the end of May. For those of you who can’t wait that long, the Wedgewood Rooms regularly holds a Friday Night Comedy Club, bringing in a variety of stand-ups from across the globe.

Both The King’s Theatre in

Southsea and The New Theatre Royal on Guildhall Walk have plenty to offer in the next new months, there’s plenty to offer in terms of live music and per-formance and a vast selection of shows for you to enjoy.

‘Britain’s Best Circus’ Zippo’s Circus starts at the King’s Thea-tre on the 22nd of February, and Mock The Week panelist Andy Parsons takes to same stage on March 6th. If you’re a Take That Fan, tribute act performance ‘Back For Good’ returns to the

King’s (11th March) after prov-ing to be popular last year. An-other popular act returning to the King’s Theatre is alternative Burlesque show ‘Circus of Hor-rors’ on the 21st March.

The King’s Theatre hosts a unique selection of shows, some relatively small and perhaps un-appealing, but there are plenty of bigger and better shows on display; Blood Brothers in May being one of many the popular West-End musicals that ventures down south to our city.

The New Theatre Royal has plenty to offer too; Billy El-liot the musical is showing this Friday and Saturday, Geordie comedian Sarah Millican takes to the stage on the 26th Febru-ary and this theatre also has a busy timetable of shows all year round.

If you are interested in reviewing shows

in exchange for press tickets please

contact [email protected]

Culture

What’s coming to Portsmouth in the first half of 2011?

Adam Parkes


Free time Favourites our pick of this fortnight’s listings

2nd February Murderdolls, Portsmouth Pyramids.3rd February Taking Dawn, Wedgewood Rooms. Tommy Doherty on the Ball, Kings Theatre.4th February Billy Elliot the Musical, New Theatre Royal (for two nights)6th February Chinese New Year Celebration, New Theatre

Royal. Kerrang Relentless En-ergy Drink Tour 2011, South-ampton Guildhall.7th February The Bravery, Wedgewood Rooms.8th February Periphery, Wedgewood Rooms.9th February The Gradu-ate, New Theatre Royal (for three nights). Four Year Strong, Wedgewood Rooms.

10th February Glenn Miller Orchestra, Kings Theatre.11th February Kids Can’t Fly, Wedgewood Rooms. Sally Morgan, Kings Theatre.14th February We The Kings, Wedgewood Rooms.15th February Ocean Colour Scene, Southampton Guildhall. Midnight Beast, Wedgewood Rooms.

Music

Paul MillerMusic Critic

Why embark on the exciting, satisfying and generally enjoy-able task of searching for your new favourite band this year, when you can just pick one from a shortlist provided for you by the BBC? Actually, scrap that, why not just assume that your new favourite artist is the one at the top of the list, Jessie J, and abandon any faith in your own opinions and judgements. While it’s lazy, boring and really the wrong way of going about things, there’s no escaping the fact that now these fifteen art-ists have been put on a list by a panel of industry brown-noses, you’ll be hearing a lot from them over the next 12 months. The BBC play a big part in the com-pilation of the list and they’d be stupid if they didn’t back up their ‘predictions’ by playing their music all day, every day.

The first thing that stands out from this year’s group of artists is the voices, that range

from gigantic to just weird. The most evident in the former camp belongs to the winner, Jessie J, and by the looks of things she’ll be using it to contribute to daytime pop music becoming a little bit more filthy. Two years ago Katy Perry started snogging girls and now Jessie J wants to ‘Do it Like a Dude’; the next stage in this little progression could get interesting. Although any song with a title like that is bound to get some recognition, the 22 year old does have a bloody good voice and a reassuringly English one at that. Straying away from the poppy side of things, both Anna Calvi and Claire Maguire have equally good voices that stand slightly less chance in the mainstream but with the way Florence and the Machine and Marina and the Diamonds have been received over the last couple of years, it could be the way things are going.

Perhaps more surprising is the inclusion of three soulful, male

songwriters. James Blake, Jamie Woon (both in the top five) and Daley all feature in the list with voices that challenge the efforts of the female contingent.

However, you do start to wonder if the ‘longlist’ that’s been brought in recently is a little too long when there’s room for three fairly similar artists on it. Not to discredit any of them, Woon’s multi-layered, vocal led style is fresh and interesting and Daley’s collaboration with Gorillaz is as

good as any from Plastic Beach. Out of the three though, Blake seems most likely to make it big with a combination of soothing vocals and sparse dub-influenced beats and compositions that suit the current musical climate. Wretch 32 is a very different type of male solo artist but he brings some more UK hip-hop that’s just grimey enough to give alternative appeal but clean enough to work it’s way into the mainstream.

Endlessly plugging solo artists is fair enough but there is a definite need for a good guitar band to emerge this year. It has been far too long and recently, even the bands with guitars that have come through have processed them beyond the point of recognition. That’s where The Vaccines comes in. The only band in the top five may not be anything groundbreaking but it’s just nice to hear some real guitars and real energy at the moment. Mona and Yuck fill a similar void.

Aside from the masses of publicity and guaranteed fame many of these acts will shortly receive, it’s hard to see how a lot of them would have made it without this boost. Some, like The Vaccines and Yuck, have already had a taste of success through previous bands (Jay Jay Pistolet and Cajun Dance Party respectively), and are hardly new discoveries. Others, such as Nero and Warpaint have already established themselves as Sounds of 2010, but just hadn’t been spotted in time for last year’s list. Which makes you wonder again how much use the a list really is. Without any obvious future megastars in it, or any confirmation of the BBC’s collaborative ability to predict the future (past the point of self-fulfilling prophecies), it’s nicer to think that the real breakthrough acts of this year will come as a complete surprise to everyone. You’ll just have to keep your eyes on the actual music rather than the hype.

The unavoidable sounds of 2011

Flynn Massey

Once again, Sumo and Con-crete Music present a night that changes the face of Stanhope Road. Within the space of five hours and four acts, Envy is pushed to the brink, shaken to the core, and made to remember the power of dubstep and drum and bass.

MCs Wrec and Flak crowd control, hyping people up like dictators at speeches, whilst DC Breaks kickstarts the night with some banging drum and bass tunes and mixes. Building up and getting the crowd in shape, the two lads get a good reception.

Enter Breakage, cutting grime and dubstep beats sharp and

fast like a set of Ginzu knives. People spill onto the dancefloor as London’s talent plays tracks like ‘Speechless’ and the crowd favourite ‘Hard’, causing Liquid to start to reach critical level.

Scratch Perverts then take over, invading the stage and decimating it like Godzilla descending onto Tokyo. Legendary DJs who’ve been recognized as three of the UK’s finest, they deliver pounding basslines, infectious tunes and the crowd throbs with approval. They play remixes and mashups at breakneck speed, from Nero’s ‘Me and You’ to Chase and Status’s ‘Blind Faith’. A haze of light descends and cuts through the middle, dry ice drops around and sunglasses are everywhere

in sight.They keep the crowd pumping

when ferocious drum and bass enters and causes the whole tempo to change. Sonic assaults and a light show which makes you glad you brought a pair of sunglasses, as both make Liquid stunned for a moment.

Camo & Krooked arrive and rip it up with massive tunes such as ‘Nothing Is Older Than Yesterday’, ‘Climax’, and ‘Turn Up (The Music)’, songs which Liquid eats up in a frenzy like a free bargain bucket. Destroying the stage with more than just some remixes, the whole building moves as one. At the end, I leave Liquid shocked and stunned at the sonic hit I just took to the head.

Perverts take over Liquid Chapel Club’s palatial debutPaul MillerMusic Critic

With artists being waved in our faces left right and centre as the year begins, it’s a time when many have a tendency to forget that it’s actually about releasing albums and singles and making some genuinely appealing mu-sic, rather than just riding a sick-ening tsunami of hype straight onto the Radio 1 A-list.

Chapel Club have been quietly getting on with things and doing it properly for the last few years but have thrown in an early entry for album of the year with their debut, Palace.

As is customary with debut albums, many of the tracks have been previously released, but when compiled into the album they are given a new context and reveal new depths in themselves.

You can tell it has been made to be listened to as complete work when you realise that two of the bands finest works, ‘O Maybe I’ and ‘All The Eastern Girls’ are saved till the very end.

As well as the singles, a major stand-out track is ‘After The Flood’. The track shows the band at their most powerful with hammering drums and throbbing bass complimented again by Bowman’s thoughtful vocals and howling guitars, Chapel Club make their intentions clear from the outset.

Over its eleven tracks, we are taken on a seamless journey from pounding post-punk to contemplative shoegazey love songs. While the styles of the songs transform as the record progresses, the one constant throughout is Lewis Bowman’s confidently humble voice.

While the obvious comparisons will be made musically as well as vocally to Joy Division and The Smiths as well as others, Palace is not simply an exercise in replication. It’s a compound of a huge range of influences that results in something truly original and exciting. Bowman even manages to make the ‘dream a little dream of me’ sound his own.

Jessie J - Lancashire CC

At Wedgewood Rooms - Dan Chesterton



Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18

Aside from the masses of publicity and guaranteed fame many of these acts will shortly receive, it’s hard to see how a lot of them would have made it without this boost. Some, like The Vaccines and Yuck, have already had a taste of success through previous bands (Jay Jay Pistolet and Cajun Dance Party respectively), and are hardly new discoveries. Others, such as Nero and Warpaint have already established themselves as Sounds of 2010, but just hadn’t been spotted in time for last year’s list. Which makes you wonder again how much use the a list really is. Without any obvious future megastars in it, or any confirmation of the BBC’s collaborative ability to predict the future (past the point of self-fulfilling prophecies), it’s nicer to think that the real breakthrough acts of this year will come as a complete surprise to everyone. You’ll just have to keep your eyes on the actual music rather than the hype.

Chapel Club’s palatial debutYou can tell it has been made to be listened to as complete work when you realise that two of the bands finest works, ‘O Maybe I’ and ‘All The Eastern Girls’ are saved till the very end.

As well as the singles, a major stand-out track is ‘After The Flood’. The track shows the band at their most powerful with hammering drums and throbbing bass complimented again by Bowman’s thoughtful vocals and howling guitars, Chapel Club make their intentions clear from the outset.

Over its eleven tracks, we are taken on a seamless journey from pounding post-punk to contemplative shoegazey love songs. While the styles of the songs transform as the record progresses, the one constant throughout is Lewis Bowman’s confidently humble voice.

While the obvious comparisons will be made musically as well as vocally to Joy Division and The Smiths as well as others, Palace is not simply an exercise in replication. It’s a compound of a huge range of influences that results in something truly original and exciting. Bowman even manages to make the ‘dream a little dream of me’ sound his own.


Revisiting the demonic legions of hell in DoomMatt Phil Carver

Has there ever been a more glo-riously succinct storyline setup for a video game?

“One man with a pistol, vers-es the demonic legions of hell. Go!”

It was rigid and pixelated, and you couldn’t even aim your gun up or down, but in 1993, the first-person shooter arrived with a macabre melee of blood, guts, flame-throwing imps, and severed heads on spikes.

Make no mistake, the golden age of shoot-em-ups is happen-ing right now. But have any contemporary games truly ex-ceeded the sense of tingling sus-pense and eerie isolation that

we experienced with the Doom games? Probably not.

Hiding behind a blood-spat-tered wall, rocket launcher in hand, listening to the impend-ing hydraulic footsteps of 10ft bionic spiders with belly-but-ton-mounted plasma rifles? We all forget our 10-candled birthday cakes and our first days of school. But we don’t forget the endless hours spent annihilating the barons of hell with the B F G - 9 0 0 0 . This is why the Doom fran-chise deserves to be remem-b e r e d a n d respected.

RetroRespect

Lewis DowlingInternet Gaming Critic

1.Firebox.comDo you want a replica Batmobile? Yes? Of course you do. It’s the Goddamn Batmobile.

2. Play.comWhether it be games, movies, music, or just a little book to pass the time between releases, Play.com will be able to facilitate your needs. Amazon? Who needs them?

3. IWantOneOfThose.comYes! A USB Fridge to cool those much needed cans of Dr Pepper, during a 24 hour gaming session. I want one of those. No, I need one of those.

4. Ebuyer.comNeed computer parts? Want them cheap? The only downside is the site is so difficult to navigate. But then again, with a 2TB hard-drive for less than

£100, you can cope with the bad design.

5. Tesco.comSocial shut-ins, rejoice! While you’re sitting glued to your seat, playing World of Warcraft obsessively. You don’t want to move. But you need to eat. Well, just order straight from the source, and have your meals delivered to your door.

Give me five: Internet shops

Lewis DowlingInternet & Gaming Critic

Telltale Games grabs hold of the Back To The Future canonical torch, and raises it aloft. Aided by the fabulous impressionist A.J. LoCascio, who plays Marty McFly perfectly, and Christopher Lloyd returning as Doc Brown, Telltale Games releases the first of five episodic games.

But do they do the series justice?

The story is great. Doc Brown has been missing, and Marty must travel back in time to rescue Doc from a strange series of events. It’s intriguing and captivating playing as Marty, wandering around trying to break the Doc out of prison. It is a fantastic premise. It really works. Unfortunately, the puzzles are not particularly difficult.

This may be because they

are rather logical, and sensible. Point-and-click adventure games usually have obscure, varied, and bizarre solutions. This is part of the fun. The reward of coming to an insane conclusion is unparalleled in any other game. This first episode doesn’t have that same sense of challenge.

It’s too easy. The puzzles can be solved almost immediately. Anyone familiar with point-and-click adventure games will essentially be watching an interactive movie.

This is perhaps deliberate. Telltale might not want to alienate their audience by putting in complex and difficult

segments. They just seem to have overcompensated.

But, there again. It’s Back To The Future. It’s an epic title, and the story is designed and written by a team of experts. It isn’t a difficult game, and won’t have you scratching your head, stuck on some ridiculous, arbitrary, point. Instead you’ll be softly guided along, enjoying the experience of being Marty McFly, plus you get to use the DeLorean.

This is a game that promises more in future episodes. The further we delve into the time travelling mechanics, the more difficult, and fun, this series will become. The end of this first episode hints at a much more complicated sequel, and a much more intriguing notion.

Until then, it’s worth the money just to experience more of one of the best stories of all time.

A game that will get better in the future: Back to the Future Episode 1 (PC)

Hannah WhitnallScreen Critic

Mention ballet and the thoughts that normally come to mind are those of delicacy, sophistication, calmness and quite frankly boredom. However after watching Black Swan those preconceptions have vanished.

The psycho thriller is dark, gripping and definitely will have you perched on the edge of your seat. Natalie Portman plays Nina, a dedicated ballerina in the New York Ballet company, who lands the lead role in the adaptation of “Swan Lake”. She fits perfectly into the role of the white swan, but finds adapting to the evil personality of the black swan

problematic. Her determination sees her obsessively compete with rival Lilly (Mila Kunis), and their twisted relationship makes it all the more enticing to watch.

The psychological thriller

oozes sexuality and passion, with the pair’s relationship reaching higher levels, displayed in a number of scenes. Portman’s performance is stunning as we witness

her spiral into psychological torment, desperate to reveal her wicked side to an audience.

The film, in some ways resembles Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes

(1948), with its down beat tone on the competitive and sometimes tragic world of dance. The music intensifies the action, with Mary Ann Hobbs, a well established British DJ, contributing to the extremely powerful soundtrack. The music, along with the visual effects is enough to bring anyone to tears when the film reaches its climax. Director Darren Aronofsky is well known for his hard hitting drama, having directed high impact films Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler. It is not surprising Black Swan is in the running for an Oscar, winning its audience over with its mind blowing tale of passion and rivalry.

Black Swan proves ballet isn’t boringScreen

Internet & Gaming

Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel in Black Swan - Fox Searchlight Pictures

Looks good, but does it do the movies justice? - Telltale Games


Sophie Quintin Adali

During the recent Belarussian presidential elections, the EU flag was flown as a symbol of freedom and democracy. In Eu-rope, it is being burnt by angry demonstrators. With the sover-eign debt crisis gathering pace on the bloc’s periphery, austerity measures of pay freeze and oth-er cuts starting to bite, EU civil servants and politicians enjoyed a very festive season indeed. Our supranational ruling class fêted on a bonanza of pay-rises and bonuses. What austerity at the centre of the “empire” as Com-mission president, Jose Manuel Barroso referred to the EU... In the “promised Euroland” some have truly become “more equal than others”.

The EU often complains that it is “unjustly” accused of being out of touch. Recent decisions can only reinforce the percep-tion that the euro-elite is now in orbit. The Supreme Parlia-ment of our post-democratic polity awarded itself a nice lit-tle Xmas present. In 2011, MEPs will pocket around £100,000 of tax free expenses (pay hike and perks). While promising more accountability and transparency to the Euro-toiling masses, they will not be required to provide

A not-so-Merry Xmas for the EU toiling masses

Adrian James

So I was reflecting on the fights going on against increasing tui-tion fees and education cuts and something struck me. Those who advocate the view that I’ve used as the title for this article don’t really believe it. Let me explain, and eventually, posit a slightly different response to the current economic climate and political debate.

So students around the coun-try are exercising their right (rightly so) to protest, and they’re complaining about ac-cess to tertiary education (that is, higher education, i.e. uni-versity level). “EDUCATION IS A RIGHT NOT A PRIVILEGE”, the placards say. “EDUCATION SHOULD NOT ONLY BE AC-CESSIBLE TO THE RICH”, those with megaphones shout. I agree with this and I believe it whole-heartedly.

“ We are the privileged.

We are the rich.

Even if we don’t think we are

But I don’t believe the majori-ty of the students expressing this believe it in full. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am convinced they believe it when it comes to the current issues of fees and fund-ing for universities, but if these concepts are really believed then it needs to go further than this.

Are you aware that 72 million children of primary age in the developing world in 2005 were not in education (and 121 mil-lion children were out of educa-tion worldwide). In fact, right now nearly a billion people can’t read or write or even sign their own name. There are more facts and figures like this of course but I think that’s enough to il-lustrate my point for now. If we really believe education is a right, and should be accessible to all regardless of income, then surely we should be prioritising primary education for everyone before we push tertiary educa-tion for ourselves.

When lots of the world don’t have primary education, let alone secondary, why should we prioritise our own tertiary edu-cation? We are the privileged. We are the rich. Even if we don’t

think we are, we need to under-stand our position globally. We need to sort out our priorities.

“ EDUCATION SHOULD NOT

ONLY BE ACCESSIBLE

TO THE RICH

Now people are definitely right in shouting that it’s un-fair for future students to have to pay upwards of £36,000 for their education (in tuition alone) when we currently have it at only about £10,000 and others got it for free. But here’s a thought for you - maybe what’s really unfair is that we get it at this little now. Maybe what’s re-ally unfair is that we don’t have to pay more.

Maybe the injustice of the sys-tem isn’t that others in Britain will have to pay more, maybe the injustice is that you and I get tertiary education for the price we do. Even what we pay is lit-tle compared to our potential lifetime earnings, and we get the privilege of access to it whilst millions don’t even get to go to primary school. I hope I don’t sound like I’m against cam-paigning for Higher Education in Britain, but I think if we be-lieve education really is a right not a privilege, something that all should have access to rather than just the rich, then we need to start campaigning and acting and living in ways that lead to global primary and secondary education, before we whine that we don’t get everything our way in terms of tertiary education.

We may think we’re being selfless by fighting for the stu-dents who are to come after us, but as a nation we’re still being pretty selfish in thinking that we should get everything good given to us in our country, whilst billions of people (yes, billions) around the world don’t get the basics. 1.4 billion right now live below the extreme poverty line (less than the equivalent that £1 is in our economy to live on for a day - could you live on less than £1 a day?). A billion people live in slums. Should I go on? Did you know that the amount spent on ice cream in Europe in 1998 was almost twice as much as would be needed to provide basic education for all?

Furthermore, the amount

spent on cigarettes alone in Eu-rope that year is the same need-ed to provide education, water, sanitation, health and nutrition for all, as well as reproductive health for all women. In fact, there would still be billions of dollars left over! The amount spent on alcohol that year could have provided all that twice and more.

I ask you, please, please, please start to grab the bigger picture. Please start becoming a global citizen. You are in such a privileged place at the moment

-- even if you think you are a poor student who is struggling to get by, your position on the world stage is so privileged.

Please, if you’re going to cam-paign against the fees and live in a way that is set up to fight the cuts in Britain, spend at least the same amount of time and effort fighting for the billions of people around the world who still need your help. Let’s make it so basic education really is a right, not a privilege just for the rich like us.

Education is a right, not a privilege

Young protestors help join in the fight for education Dan Chesterton

Opinion

Education


Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

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News1-6

Downtime18Opinion

Sophie Quintin Adali

During the recent Belarussian presidential elections, the EU flag was flown as a symbol of freedom and democracy. In Eu-rope, it is being burnt by angry demonstrators. With the sover-eign debt crisis gathering pace on the bloc’s periphery, austerity measures of pay freeze and oth-er cuts starting to bite, EU civil servants and politicians enjoyed a very festive season indeed. Our supranational ruling class fêted on a bonanza of pay-rises and bonuses. What austerity at the centre of the “empire” as Com-mission president, Jose Manuel Barroso referred to the EU... In the “promised Euroland” some have truly become “more equal than others”.

The EU often complains that it is “unjustly” accused of being out of touch. Recent decisions can only reinforce the percep-tion that the euro-elite is now in orbit. The Supreme Parlia-ment of our post-democratic polity awarded itself a nice lit-tle Xmas present. In 2011, MEPs will pocket around £100,000 of tax free expenses (pay hike and perks). While promising more accountability and transparency to the Euro-toiling masses, they will not be required to provide

any proof of expenditure! “Dou-blespeak” à la EU....

More disconcerting news from the “fairy kingdom of Lux-embourg where the European Court of Justice rules supreme without a ‘supremacy’ clause’,” as American scholar E. Stein fa-mously remarked. The judiciary annulled the Council decision curtailing the 3.7% pay-rise of EU civil servants. From a legal standpoint, the Court merely applied EU law. Struggling tax-payers across Europe will have to pay. 46,000 civil servants (in-cluding ECJ judges) are poised to receive their frozen pay-rise plus interests pending new rules. A Happy New Year to them!

We, citizens of Europe, are all equal but some are more equal than others. In the subsidized farm that the EU has become, one cannot help but think that the “pigs” are living in Brussels. Shocked by the Orwellian meta-phor? Think again.

At the centre of the EU Em-pire, the neo-gosplanners are planning for more 10-year-plans (the 2020 Agenda) unable to re-view their failing integrationalist momentum course. To save the Euro, the bloc nudges towards the establishment of a central-ized economic government. To

carry out this impossible mis-sion, an economic governance Czar, Council president Herman Van Rompuy, is to be anointed. In the meantime, social unrest is rising, and the governments of the PIGS are fighting for their political survival.

In the late 1980s, the politi-cal vision of the single currency driven by Jacques Delors, a so-cialist now acting as a “wise man” of integration, prevailed. It is worth recalling that the fi-nal endorsement of the Delors Report by the member states took place against a background of extraordinary events: the fall of Communism. The quan-tum leap of integration (1991 Maastricht Treaty establishing the union) is therefore linked to the disintegration of the Soviet Empire. The old French fears of a powerful neighbour provided additional diplomatic momen-tum for the Monetary Union.

Realists would argue that the Euro was the political price Ger-many had to pay for reunifica-tion. In 2010, its taxpayers are bearing the financial cost of the debt mess. The question is: for how long?

Whatever form the rescue or control mechanism eventually takes, it will imply more bureau-

cracy to enforce convergence on 27 divergent economies. The parallel with the centrally planned economies of the for-mer Soviet bloc and their even-tual failure to deliver prosperity is pertinent. Grand centralizing bureaucratic schemes eventu-ally fail and in the process kill individual freedoms. Have we not learnt the lesson of history? Evidently not.

The quasi-authoritarian tech-nocratic measures imposed by the troika (IMF-EC-ECB) are un-dermining popular sovereignty, i.e. who rules. As a recent sur-vey revealed, 56% of Irish peo-ple believe that by accepting the bailouts, their country has surrendered political independ-ence. Eurosceptics have long ar-gued that the Brussels elite are actively seeking to replace sov-ereignty by bureaucracy, voters by experts. As the rejection and eventual adoption of the Europe-an Constitution in all but name amply demonstrated, popular sovereignty is deeply unpopular with the European leadership. To illustrate the arrogance of our new “vanguard”, suffice it to recall the comment made by for-mer Labour Commissioner Neil Kinnock in the aftermaths the referendum in 2005. The French

“non” said he, was “the triumph of ignorance”....

How ironic that the European Union now fighting for its sur-vival would owe so much to the demise of another supranational utopia; the Soviet Union with its own kind of highly central-ized supranational state appa-ratus and privileged elite. In a thought-provoking essay, “The Soviet Roots of European inte-gration” (2004), former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky ex-plains how socialist ideas have gradually transformed a suc-cessful economic area (EEC) into a new bureaucratic hegem-on. Food for thought.

Of course, the “post-demo-cratic” Union is constituted by democratic states enjoying high standards of political freedom. To Belarussian democrats, the EU represents a beacon of free-dom. But everything is relative. In fortress Europe, it is no longer possible to ignore the obvious. The on-going surrender of sov-ereign rights to a self-serving nomenclature is a step towards the establishment of a suprana-tional economic government, and a bEUROcratic Leviathan. In 1944, Austrian economist F.A. Hayek called it the “Road to Serfdom”.

A not-so-Merry Xmas for the EU toiling masses

What is education, at its heart? Is it used to find a job? Many would say it is, a streamline in to the job of your dreams. Or so that’s what we’ve been told any-way.

I was led to believe that the best thing to take at higher edu-cation, university level anyway, would be to do what would further push you in to your ca-reer, and at the time, I wanted to have a some form of career in television, working behind the scenes to help create “magnifi-cent” programs for everyone’s entertainment.

But since taking my degree (Media Studies and Entertain-ment Technology) and going through it and what not, I have come out feeling completely like I want to stay as far away from that as possible, as it is one of the most controlling and least entertaining forms of media around. A complete contradic-

tion to what I thought would have been intended.

Since starting university, I have been overwhelmed and awe struck by some of the other degrees that I have heard about, and some of the modules (not to disregard my own degree), and they all sound exciting, enter-taining and educating; although I don’t think they would have had any impact upon my job prospects. And I don’t find that of my degree either.

When looking at some of my heroes who went to university, they never really seemed to have studied some form of education-al degree that led them straight in to a job afterwards. Stephen Fry, actor, comedian etc, stud-ied English at Cambridge. It was only his work with the Footlights comedy club and his drama groups that got him picked up to work as an actor.

Christopher Hitchens, jour-

nalist, broadcaster, polemicist, studied Philosophy and Politics at Oxford. Not really something you would now imagine a world famous journalist to have stud-ied, as most people wanting to go into journalism would now be told to take a journalism de-gree.

Not that I’m taking a whip at the course, I hear many great things about it from friends and colleagues that are study-ing either straight journalism or combined journalism, but I find it rather frustrating that the university is deciding to reform education, nay, the entire aca-demic year in to something that is geared entirely towards get-ting a job afterwards.

I do understand the desire for putting people in to work experience placements, but I do resent the university’s timing of changing the academic year structure at the same time the

new tuition fees are set to come in to place, something noted only as a “coincidence” by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor. When Portsmouth release their fees, I await the thrashing upon my al-ready swollen tongue from my shouting at the increases during anti fees demonstrations. Coin-cidence indeed, as not only can we now buy our education, but apparently our way into a job; oh wait, there were reports of 20% graduate unemployment. How do the Vice-Chancellor and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor ex-pect to explain these anomalies when people have paid up to £36,000 over three years to be here?

Please. These short-sighted aims will only create more of a

deficit over time, and what ful-filment will the students leaving university after the fees go up have? Not necessarily an educa-tion, more a pre-decided possi-ble job that you may possibly go in to.

I thought that education was for education’s sake, for the love of learning, the passion of knowledge. How can we expect people of 17-18 to know what they want to do during some of the most emotional, hormonal, tragic and exciting times of their lives? We can’t, and we cannot expect them to. As Socrates said “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”

See page 4 for more news and infor-

mation on this article.

Education for education’s sakeFollowing news of the academic year shift, Grant Clarke argues the university should not seek to make students “employable”

Vice-Chancellor John Craven - Dan Chesterton

Letters

Letters to the Editor


LettersOpinion

Ross KeatingColumnist

As a third year, a good portion of my time at university is spent toiling over books in the library, making sure my work is as good as it could be. Or it would be, if I wasn’t anti-library to the point of dreading walking through its doors. Walking into that fortress of depression has sapped all joy I used to feel going to my local library as a child, excited to read a new book or rent a new video.

“ The library will be

open for 24 hours a day

for four weeks. Like a Tesco. Or

a hospital. All of which it will

become over those weeks

Now however, I simply associ-ate the word library with depres-sive working states, annoying people, authoritarian librarian hawks and annoyance at the fact nothing is where it should be. Yes, the library is helpful when you pop in quickly and run away with the books you need back to the comfort of your own home, but that so rarely happens that

it should be up there with a four leafed clover or pigs flying.

As you can probably tell, spending more than an hour in the library (for me anyway) is horrible, unthinkable that I would pull an “all nighter” there. The sound of the hawk’s sandals or other left wing Guardian-reader-esque foot-wear approaching, to bark at me

to leave, is so warmly received I damn near break down in tears of joy. So you can imagine my surprise when the library an-nounced that over May 2011, the library will be open for 24 hours a day for four weeks. Like a Tesco. Or a hospital. Or broth-el. All of which it will become over those weeks.

You don’t believe me? Put it

this way, people are hideously drunk coming back from Tiger, or Bar 38, or whenever else people drink their loans away. Stumbling about, they see the library, and they’ve “never been drunk in there before, let’s go!” Or, “she’s just been sick, and needs somewhere to lie down that’s warm. Let’s get in there!” They may as well replace ‘Li-

brary’ with ‘Hostel’ and see what happens for all the good it’s go-ing to do.

When drunk, humans are somewhat more resourceful than people give them credit for, usually because the part of the mind that registers whether or not something is a bad idea has thought “f this, I’m going to sleep”, which creates the super-man idea to shoot through the mind. Because of this, people are going to get into that build-ing when drunk, and do what-ever (usually fornicate or tear books for blunts). And how are they going to vet the people coming in and out at 2.30 in the morning? It’ll be the first library in the world to have bouncers at the door checking your ID and blood alcohol limit.

For those of you somewhat more sensible people, I apolo-gise, but even if you’re sensible you’ll have found by 2am you want to be at home and working there, not in the library? So why doesn’t it stay open until 2, and open again at 8? I haven’t got a clue, but hey, we’ll see what happens in May.

And to celebrate, pre-lash at mine, on to Tiger and post-lash at the Library. Who’s in?

See page 2 for the full story.

All nighter in the library or a drunken stop off after clubbing? Chi Lau

Get Drunk. Read Dickens. Analyse. University

Naomi SpicerDeputy Opinion Editor

Students pay to go to university. Should they be a paying custom-er, or still be treated like they are receiving a complimentary service? School is compulsory and as such it is necessary for the teachers to be figures of au-thority, but the question I want to ask is whether this should transfer into university studies?

Is it just because within edu-cation the teacher/student re-lationship has been defined by a historical background of the teacher who spanks the naughty child and the inferiority of chil-dren?

Ok, so admittedly we get the privilege of calling lecturers on a first name basis, something to make us feel like “equals”, but is this enough? Or do things

need to change, especially with the impending fee rises? On the other hand, is this just a stuck-up student view, believing that anything they throw money at in this capitalist society should act with gratefulness and thanks toward them?

In the simplest of forms, the student (currently) pays £3290 for one year of attendance at university. They chose both the university and the course and make the decision to study for a degree. So they are a customer receiving a service. Admittedly, a university is a business but is an autocratic method successful? As a member of a gym, if you don’t attend they will encourage you with free personal trainers and specialties; can you imagine if a gym threatened to withdraw the services? The member would

simply withdraw their payment and go somewhere else.

Why is it that the university staff can threaten us and we continue to accept that? I have a friend who had to take two days off university to go into hospital. She took the time to email her lecturer, her tutor and also the course administrator, something that few students do. She ex-plained that she had to go into hospital and would be missing two seminars. She was greeted with this response, ‘Unless you can provide proof then we will be withdrawing your services. Have a good day.’ What? A con-sistent and dedicated student is threatened for having to go into hospital? She did in fact com-plain and was given an apology but I wonder why this autocratic response is found necessary by

university departments? Some schools within the university are extremely tight on attendance, and then others, such as geog-raphy, know not of what attend-ance records are.

When questioned why they were so hot on attendance I was given the answer that if students stop attending lectures then they are more likely to drop out, which means less money for subsequent years for the university. At the end of the day we, as university students, cur-rently pay the university nearly £11,000 for three years of teach-ing. Most students will com-ment that the majority of their lecturers are fantastic, I can speak from experience when I say that the creative writing de-partment in particular go out of their way to help you out when

needed.However, as someone who

has also experienced a double-standard and also lecturers who simply couldn’t care less, it can be frustrating. When faced with this, it does make you question what you’re paying for. I under-stand that the university have a business to run, but at the mo-ment they seem to be lacking on customer service.

Students get out of university what they put in at the end of the day, and in most cases the tu-ition fees currently paid are well worth the money, but maybe we should start making the uni-versity aware of the situations in which we are being treated wrongly, after all, that’s the only way anything will change.

Should students be treated like paying customers?Education

Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Letters

Letters to the Editor

17Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Letters

Firstly, I am in no way against NUS holding a rally with the TUC in Manchester on the 29th January. Linking up the Stu-dent movement with Workers is only going to strengthen it, and NUS’ support of the TUC demo on 26th march in Lon-don is equally commendable. However, UPSU’s plan to take a coach to Manchester whilst Edu-cation Activist Network and the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts have called a demo in London on the same day is just beyond nonsensical.

Whether NUS like to admit it, their spineless dithering, as Aar-on Porter called it, has meant the movement has moved be-yond it. Porter’s condemnation of protestors who sieged Mill-

bank on November 10th and the demos that followed it, but failure to condemn the police vi-olence which left many injured and one student battling for his life has created great distrust between NUS and those it is meant to lead who want to fight fees and cuts.

By not supporting the Lon-don demo as well as the Man-chester one like the lecturers union UCU has, NUS has drawn a distinct line between itself and those that are actually fighting against the ConDem onslaught. If NUS has pressured unions to attend Manchester and not London, then it says a lot about where Porter’s intentions lay. If he wants to show up EAN and NCAFAF then his intentions are

not in the right place and should not be leading students. We are fighting for a fair education and for People’s futures, not to see who can get more people at demonstrations.

Anyone who has been in-volved in a top-down organi-sation like NUS will know the pressure that the leadership can put onto individual unions and groups, but this really isn’t an excuse for UPSU to waste mon-ey just to be at a flag waving event for Porter. If they seriously want to fight cuts, and some in the Union have yet to prove that, then they should be taking students to London. This is not a sectarian rant, but a practical ar-gument. To do a round trip from Portsmouth to Manchester and

back with a march between is too much for the most seasoned of activists. I, as much as any-one in the Anti-cuts movement in Portsmouth want to work with the Union in thiscampaign, but tactically, this is a sideways step. UPSU should be organising resistance in Portsmouth rather than only ever bussing us out of the city. University of Ports-mouth against Education Cuts will continue fighting against fees and cuts in the New Year, and hope that more people get involved. What parliament de-cides, the streets can undo!

Search us on Facebook to be kept up to date with Demonstra-tions, news and days of action.

Email sent by Sam Bogg

Dear Sir/Madam,

Ignoring the ad hominem argu-ments directed against me re-cently, I’d like to respond as suc-cinctly as possible to restate my objection to being told to wear a red poppy and briefly to en-gage with some of the counter-arguments.

Samantha Galloway finds my views offensive. That is, of course, her prerogative; but what if somebody were to say the same about her views? The truth is, taking offence doesn’t get us very far. We need to argue our points of view – that, after all, is what universities are sup-posed to be about.

Galloway further asserts that the armed forces ‘protect the freedoms we enjoy in this coun-try’. I did not deny this in my letter; but since the point has been raised, I shall question it now. If anything, the attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan (to take the most recent examples) have diminished freedom in Britain, producing a brutal response from ‘Islamic’ terrorists.

And even if invading other countries did make British peo-ple more ‘free’, is the genocide of over one million Iraqis really a price worth paying? Finally, Galloway argues that the Help for Heroes charity is ‘strictly non-political’ because its web site says so; readers can judge the validity of this argument for themselves.

Lloyd Collins reminds me that the red poppy today is ‘used to

commemorate those who gave all for their country’. But to re-peat my argument: the wearing of a red poppy was originally in-stigated as a symbol of respect for those of every nationality who lost their lives in war. It was therefore an anti-nation-alist (and therefore anti-war) symbol, not a nationalist, pro-war one, as it has now become through its association with capitalist politicians and their military campaigns.

In an example of what Mar-cuse called ‘repressive toler-ance’, Olivia Esler professes her belief in freedom of expression, but in the very same sentence calls for Pugwash to censor opinions such as mine, opining that it was ‘wrong’ and ‘immoral’ of the newspaper to publish my view. I respectfully disagree. It is surely a good thing that student newspapers are free – some-times, at least – to publish views that are critical of the state and of state propaganda.

Finally, for what it is worth, I do personally know of some-body who was killed in Afghani-stan and it is because of such ap-palling and needless deaths that I oppose both the invasion and the propaganda apparatus used to support it.Dr Stephen Harper

Dr Harper wrote into Pugwash News about the poppy appeal in issue 48, you can read his letter in full on pugwashnews.com

Responses to the ‘poppies as propaganda’

Dear Sir/Madam,

I read with interest the respons-es to Dr Harper’s ‘Poppies as Propaganda’ letter. While this is doubtless an emotive issue, I found some of the responses to be problematic, and wish to out-line why.

Olivia Esler’s assertion that publishing Dr Harper’s letter was ‘immoral’ is a good place to start. The most valuable and life-changing part of my own education as an undergradu-ate related to opening my mind to another person’s reasoned viewpoint. To suppress alternate views, to declare their very ex-istence as ‘immoral’ conforms to exactly the kind of fascism that the Poppy Appeal invokes in memory each year when ref-erences are made to Nazi totali-tarianism.

Samantha Galloway rightly points out that the Poppy Ap-peal was started after the Great War, yet omits reflection upon the fact that the fallen of that conflict were conscripted and did not consciously choose to enter the armed forces, thereby making themselves eligible for active service in any conflict, ‘just’ or otherwise.

To Lloyd Collins’ response to Dr Harper’s letter, observing that the wearing of poppies re-lates not just to ‘current or re-cent wars, but to wars now long past’, I would say this: as a re-searcher working in the area of the Holocaust, I know well the power of propaganda, the dan-

gers of overt nationalism, and, like Dr Harper, would challenge the passive acceptance that mili-tarism necessarily equals hero-ism.

It is worth remembering that Portsmouth University, along with Portsmouth as a city (where I myself was born and educat-ed), is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith city. Not all of the readers of Pugwash will sup-port, uncritically, military inter-vention in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many students, past and pre-sent, will have been educated at Portsmouth to interrogate these serious moral issues of our time, and a range of opinions must be respected in a diverse university such as ours.

Your readers will hopefully bear in mind that, just a few weeks ago, the Jami Mosque in Portsmouth was daubed with a large graffiti poppy in an inflam-atory and divisive gesture engi-neered by the truly disgusting English Defence League. Some 140 EDL supporters were then involved in a violent and intimi-datory ‘protest’ outside of the mosque. Some small comfort can be taken from the fact that those protesting were not local to Portsmouth.

The poppy is indeed imbued with enormous symbolism. In a mature and democratic society, its contemporary significance must also be considered and dis-cussed alongside its past mean-ings.Dr Sophia Wood

Travelling the length of the country to fight cuts doesn’t make sense

brary’ with ‘Hostel’ and see what happens for all the good it’s go-ing to do.

When drunk, humans are somewhat more resourceful than people give them credit for, usually because the part of the mind that registers whether or not something is a bad idea has thought “f this, I’m going to sleep”, which creates the super-man idea to shoot through the mind. Because of this, people are going to get into that build-ing when drunk, and do what-ever (usually fornicate or tear books for blunts). And how are they going to vet the people coming in and out at 2.30 in the morning? It’ll be the first library in the world to have bouncers at the door checking your ID and blood alcohol limit.

For those of you somewhat more sensible people, I apolo-gise, but even if you’re sensible you’ll have found by 2am you want to be at home and working there, not in the library? So why doesn’t it stay open until 2, and open again at 8? I haven’t got a clue, but hey, we’ll see what happens in May.

And to celebrate, pre-lash at mine, on to Tiger and post-lash at the Library. Who’s in?

See page 2 for the full story.

Get Drunk. Read Dickens. Analyse.

Have you got anything you want to write to us about or a response to any of the articles published in Pugwash News? Contact us at [email protected] and it may be featured in next fortnight’s issue.

Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Sports19-24

Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18

Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011Pugwash News Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Dates for the Diary

18

Featured Photo - Krish Mistry Southsea beach front before the Christmas break

Comic Corner - Damon Fletcher

The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares in a game with the correct numbers. There are three very simple constraints to follow. In a 9 by 9 square Sudoku game:

• Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order

• Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order

• Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9

Beginner Intermediate

Advanced

Anagram

A H U G E B A L L

Quick Quiz1. Which mythological King

was punished by standing in a pool of water which disappeared every time he tried to take drink?

2. Which European country eats the most breakfast cereal?

3. Dendrologists worship what?

4. The Caspian, Java and Bali are what all kinds of which animal that became extinct in 19th Century?

Word WheelSee how many words you can make from the following letters. You must include the centre letter in all words and at least 3 more letters.

You can make one 9-letter word from all the letters, see if you can find it!

30 second number cruncherStarting at the left with the number given, work your way across applying the instructions to your running total. Write your final answer in the box, no calculators allowed!

SportsDowntime

With all the sports invest-ment, Joe Wilkes asks, what have the petitioners got to complain about?

With the revamp of Lang-stone changing rooms costing nearly half a million pounds, a complete refurbishment of the synthetic turf on the flood lit pitch at the same facility and £50,000 worth of new equip-ment installed at St.Paul’s gym over summer, you could be for-given for asking exactly what sportspeople at this university have to complain about.

Yet the issue over Nuffield sports hall being used as a space for exams has left many dis-gruntled, and you can see why.

Sports halls used for exams whilst university funds new refurbishments: the debate

Geography & ConservationWednesday 9th February, Portland Building

Professor Heather Viles from the Centre for the Environment at Oxford University gives a talk on the importance of conserva-tion in today’s world, and what geographers do to contribute. Admission is free, but places are limited, so to make a reserva-tion contact [email protected] or 023 9284 3757.

ReFreshers’ Fayre!Friday 4th FebruaryThird Space

Another chance for students to join a society, sports club or activity, or just get some free pizza. Plus a chance to see the glorious Third Space, for those of you who have yet to see what a wonderful use of space

it is. Visit upsu.net for more.

Stop smoking serviceThursday 3rd February, Union Building, Function Room 2, 3-4pm

Always thought about quitting but never quite managed it? Having problems battling those cravings? Then help is at hand, the stop smoking service drop in hour operates every Thurs-day from upstairs in the union. Go to upsu.net/news/union/free-stop-smoking-services

SHAG WeekMonday 7th February – Friday 11th.

The second week of semester 2 is Sexual Health and Guidance week, a week aimed at raising awareness of the importance of good sexual health.

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Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18

Joe Wilkes

Sports Editor

The changing rooms at the Langstone Outdoor Sport-ing Facility are due to have £440,000 spent on them.

A four month building op-eration is in progress in an ef-fort to provide a higher quality of changing room space for AU athletes and visitors alike, with a full refurbishment due to be completed in April of this year.

The new improvements will include a feature which pro-vides the user with the ability to separate rooms into smaller or larger spaces, depending on their specific requirements. As well as this there will be a new changing space for referees and a space purely for medical treat-ment. Ceilings, walls, flooring, toilets, shower systems, water system, lockers, hand and hair dryers will all be included in the refurbishment in an effort to provide high quality male and female changing areas.

Paul Tilley, Head of Sport and Recreation at this university said: “The old changing rooms have had no work on them in nearly 20 years, they are in a terrible state and have become unsafe with the water system causing concern over things like Legionnaires. The cost of an-nual maintenance and cleaning was now at a point where it was proving financially unfeasible. The building was also one of the lowest categories of buildings the university has in terms of quality.

Commenting on the cost, Mr Tilley added: “75% of the mon-ey came from university capital plan funding set aside for Lang-stone sports development and 25% from Sport & Recreation reserves.”

Managerial Contact for Lang-stone, Lisa Wearn, explained what the refurbishment means for our students: “Well its pro-

viding them with a more high quality changing space for a start! They will be really mod-ern and bright surroundings, a hugely improved environment in which to host the away teams too (saves the embarrassment of the old ones we used to have).

“We have had lots of input into this and in the past consult-ed with our sports staff on what works best, the cleaning con-tractor on who best to clean and manage them, our users like the community coaches for ‘UP for Sport’, plus our external clubs users on the whole refurbish-ment plans. The new rooms will really put us on the map and I’m sure our teams will love them once they are done!”

The Langstone site and sports facilities at this university in general appear to be constantly in development, with a recent complete refurbishment on the flood-lit Synthetic Turf Pitch (STP) and installation of new spectator seating having been carried out at Langstone, and a £50,000 refurbishment of St.Paul’s Gym which was com-pleted for the start of the aca-demic year.

Sports

TEAM OF THE WEEKWomen’s Tennis17-24th January Women’s Tennis smashed Roe-hampton 12-0 on 19.1.11 in a fight for the top spot in divi-sion 1A. If they draw/win their last match of the season they will be playing in a play-off to get in the premier league for the south region for next year!

Men’s Basketball 2nds24-31st January Men’s Basketball 2nds put in another convincing display on 26.1.11, beating Kingston university Men’s 2nd 85-42. The team sit top of the BUCS Basketball South Eastern Con-ference by 3 points and have won 5 out of their 6 games thus far!

£440,000 changing rooms refurbishment

The changing rooms at Langstone Campus are showing their age - Chris Yeoh

Sports News

With all the sports invest-ment, Joe Wilkes asks, what have the petitioners got to complain about?

With the revamp of Lang-stone changing rooms costing nearly half a million pounds, a complete refurbishment of the synthetic turf on the flood lit pitch at the same facility and £50,000 worth of new equip-ment installed at St.Paul’s gym over summer, you could be for-given for asking exactly what sportspeople at this university have to complain about.

Yet the issue over Nuffield sports hall being used as a space for exams has left many dis-gruntled, and you can see why.

Regardless of the cost and the inconvenient rescheduling, the negative impact on the valuable intramural system is having the worst effect in this situation. The intramural system solves the age old problem with elite sport vs. participation, by improving par-ticipation and giving non-elite, non club standard sportspeo-ple a place to enjoy sport and compete. By damaging the in-tramural system there is an im-pact upon the fresh success that sports staff at the university and the Students’ Union have had with regards to increasing par-ticipation.

Although other universities do similar, wouldn’t it yet be bet-

ter to use lecture halls or class-rooms for exam rooms? Psycho-logical studies have shown that taking a test in the same room that you study in aids memory and information recall.

Yet I still feel compelled to point out that university is pri-marily about education and gaining qualifications, so de-spite the importance that sports club members apply to their clubs, the ultimate priority must be students’ studies and eve-rything which goes with it. Al-though perhaps better alterna-tives could be found at not too great a cost.

See page 5 for more details.

Sports halls used for exams whilst university funds new refurbishments: the debate

ADVERTISINGFor all advertising and marketing at the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union, please contact Hannah Crispin at BAM Student Marketing on:

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Sports

Portsmouth dominance let down by “five minutes of madness”

Sports

FeatureNational university Pool champions break into the spotlightAndrew OtteyDeputy Sports Editor

University of Portsmouth Pool and Snooker society is probably one of the most elusive clubs, with a small stall in the corner during Fresher’s Fayre. The so-ciety has grown and grown and now boasts a faithful follow-ing, and with impressive titles it could be suggested they are one of the most successful clubs in Portsmouth.

President Oli Poole, a sec-ond year Journalism student, took over the presidency at the start of the year, the club itself has been running for four years and Oli says numbers are steady and the society boasts a larger number of regulars: “We have got over 100 members, I think at the moment it’s around 105, it is one of the largest clubs at the University.”

It may not be highly publi-cised or even watched but the society plays in pub and club leagues every Wednesday: “We have two teams in the local pub league, the teams overall are made up of 16 players with six on a team that can be stretched to eight when playing doubles. The level in Portsmouth is sur-prisingly high with six divisions including pubs and clubs all

around.“Both of our teams are in the

same league so there will be a grudge match at some point, our main ambition is to finish first and second in this competi-tion.” The society has also com-peted in the UPC (Universities Pool Council championship). Last year the club took three

teams with some surprising re-sults. “We took three teams to last year’s event, the competi-tion is made up of Universities from all over the country, it’s usually around 20 Universities and we won the event. I think if Football were champions you would know about it but pool is a pub sport, but it’s a seriously

good achievement.”With this win Portsmouth are

now ranked number one univer-sity in the UK and have the title of National Champions. “We can’t wait to defend our title at the end of February this year.” James Pettitt, one of the first team players for the university has been noted as being one of

the most gifted players at the club, this does not seem to be an understatement as James has represented his country at student level.

James explains how he got selected and how he helped England to a fourth consecutive student title: “I went to derby last year after being selected at the Uni where there were around 20-30 guys playing for five places. I qualified to play for England so we went over to Wales to play the rest of the UK against Wales, Scotland and Ireland which we won. There was also a masters tournament where all the players from every team play each other and I was sadly knocked out in the quar-ter final by the guy who won the entire thing, who was also my team mate. I would love to play more but it’s difficult to find time with studies and work.”

With success coming from every angle the Pool and So-ciety certainly has a lot to be happy about going into the New Year. Oli, James and the rest of the society will all be focusing on defending their number one status at the UPC championship at the end of the month.

Match Reports

Joe WilkesSports Editor

Rugby Men’s 1stWednesday 19th January.

18-6

Rugby men’s 1st took on Kent men’s 1st in a game made scrappy by Kent’s lack of flair and ability.

At the start of play Kent sat bottom of the BUCS Rugby Union South Eastern Conference Men’s 1a table, a league comprised of eight teams, with three points. Portsmouth sat comfortably fourth with six points, although well behind the top three teams, all tied on 18. Portsmouth came into the game off the back of a close defeat to 3rd place Imperial College London, although they trounced St. Mary’s university College Men’s 22-0 the game before, and their superior quality shone through as they strolled to victory over

their opponents who had only won one game in the league all season so far.

Ben Pryer was clinical with his hands, scoring both tries for Portsmouth in the first half, although his feet didn’t follow as he failed to convert either of them. No matter though, as Kent’s only opportunities came from two penalties which were similarly woefully missed by the Kent goal-kicker.

The first half brought good aggression from both sides with a yellow card for each team being issued.

Portsmouth easily dominated the first half but failed to pull away due to the missed conversions, and just after the start of the second half and due to the physical prowess and highly aggressive defensive work the south-coast team soon suffered another penalty, and this time Kent made no mistake, pulling the score back to 10-3.

The remainder of the half

was patchy, with Kent securing yet another penalty to close the gap to four points, although they couldn’t push on as Portsmouth’s defensive work and aggression were the d o m i n a n t features of this game. The Kent penalty was the only action of note until the last ten minutes, when P o r t s m o u t h secured the win with a try and a drop- g o a l from Mark Langford. This took the score to a comfortable 18-6.

The game was a stroll for Portsmouth but a good result nonetheless, especially considering the long Christmas break.

A Kent player commented in passing: “Jamie Lynch was the stand out player for Portsmouth”.

Photo by Sarah Jackson

Kent lack flair and ability as Portsmouth secure 4th spot

Team President Oli Poole (Centre) with his team Photo by Joe Wilkes


Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18


Men’s Football 1st.Wednesday 19th January.

2-2

The men’s football 1st from ST. Mary’s of Twickenham, London, failed to record a fourth victory out of five as our lads matched

them all the way.St. Mary’s

sat second in the table with two games in hand, a l t h o u g h fourth place Por t smouth appeared un-daunted, tak-ing the pitch with a confi-dent swagger. They had a right to be conf ident ; having won 2 out of their last 3 matches i n c l u d -ing a 2-0 win o v e r south coast

Portsmouth dominance let down by “five minutes of madness”

rivals Southampton Solent.Physical clashes, long balls

and hard running dominated the opening exchanges and long ball tactics began to work for both teams, and with St. Mary’s aerial prowess up front Ports-mouth Captain Kieron Lewis was forced to make many leap-ing headers from CB to clear his line. Both teams enjoyed periods of dominance in the first half but St. Mary’s had the shakier de-fence and Portsmouth LM Paul Burrows began wreaking havoc on the left wing, linking up with the no. 9 Andy Younie and one of three CMs no. 7 Josh Warren, creating a potent triple threat.

“I think it was just lapses in

concentration and a five

minute spell of madness that let them back into the game

The game suffered a slight dip before a blistering run down the left wing from Burrows, fol-lowed by a great move between CM Dan Cox and Younie lead to a great shot from Younie and a close save. A short corner went to Warren and from the left cor-ner of the box the no. 7 flew a wicked curler into the top right hand corner, the St. Mary’s no. 1 could only watch like a hap-less penguin as it curled over his head. As if in a flash Ports-mouth had broken the monoto-ny which had threatened to take over a game that had started so promisingly. 3 mins later the ref’s whistle blew and St. Mary’s went in for a good rollicking.

The team from London began the second half with good en-ergy, but appeared to have no answer to Portsmouth’s defen-sive strength until a bolt from the blue changed the face of the game.

The long ball over the top mixed with physical prowess tactic had been the only thing working for ST. Mary’s all game, and before you could say ‘gerr’ a move on’ a long ball from the right wing fooled the entire Portsmouth back four finding the attacking no.14 alone, he controlled well and slotted the ball in from 10 yards.

This was a shock after Ports-mouth’s first half dominance, and less than two minutes later ST. Mary’s had another. A corner brought most of the team for-ward to pack the box and with

the delivery curling close to the goal mouth and a wave of bod-ies launching themselves at the ball a loose head under pressure met the ball; RM Matt Parsons inadvertently headed his team behind. Portsmouth were being punished for not approaching the start of the second half with the same energy that they had the first.

Portsmouth hadn’t lost their shape; they’d just failed to match ST. Mary’s energy for the first 15 mins of the second half. But If the South Coast team were as shocked as the spectators they failed to show it, and the game found a new lease of life as they pushed on again.

Long balls continued to cause Portsmouth problems but the better moves were created by the men in purple.

The short corner worked again for Portsmouth, Burrows this time picking it up in the same position as Warrens on the edge of the area. his time though the dazzling left winger had a player to beat, which he did with ease before rifling the ball in to the top of the net, the pace and power beating the keeper where Warren’s curl had done in the first half.

Portsmouth Captain Kieron Lewis said after the match: “It was a pretty intense game, this lot were unbeaten and we’re one of the first to stop them.

“ Portsmouth appeared

undaunted, taking the

pitch with a confident swagger

“I think it was just lapses in concentration and a five minute spell of madness that let them back into the game.”

This intense game was also one of surprises, you couldn’t predict the next turn and the goals came from sudden chanc-es regardless of build up, posses-sion or pressure. Two very simi-lar goals did it for Portsmouth, although it must be frustrating for the team that their slick passing and well manufactured moves failed to result in a win. I’m a firm believer that with more clinical finishing close to goal this team would be chal-lenging for top spot in the South Eastern Conference.Want your team covered? Get in touch with [email protected]

Sports

Match ReportsPaul Burrows wheels away after smashing Portsmouth level (left) and Josh Warren curls the ball into the top corner for Portsmouth’s first goal (inset)

Josh Warren gets mauled by teammates after putting Portsmouth ahead in first half.Photos by Dan Chesterton


SportsSports

Match Reports

Ben Hyams Senior Sports Reporter

Squash TeamWednesday 26th January.

2-2

The only way is a bit more prac-tice for Essex University’s female squash team after they were thoroughly put to the sword by Portsmouth’s wonderful women.

Portsmouth began the con-test with a 1-0 deficit due to a player absence. This further empowered the great challenge already in front of them as they took on an Essex team with a good run of form and reputation to match. Portsmouth, however, had the advantage of being war-riors. Tom Cruise in Last Samu-rai, Sylvester Stallone in Rocky Balboa, the guy with the beauti-ful afro in High School Musical – these were all clear influences on a very spirited performance by the team.

It was to be Clare Heneghan in action first, who vice-captain Fran Doddington described be-fore the game as “our star player

– our number one”. Heneghan gave a display of near-stunning precision sending her opponent around the court like a ping-pong ball for much of the three games contested. Heneghan was victorious by a score of 3-0.

The sheer power and assur-ance in her shots combined with a superb technique that has won her national recognition – us-ing rebound-shots to great ef-fect – was simply too much for her Essex opponent. “‘Av some of that!” was the message loud and clear.

Yasmin Mirdamad was to step up next to the quite cold arena. Travelling three hours to par-ticipate in any sport and being greeted with a whitewash defeat will inspire or crush you, and Mirdamad was met by a very enthusiastic and assured player for Essex.

Mirdamad was losing the first game 10-1 and it was a case of hot and cold for a moment in an extremely fast-paced game. However, at this point Mirdam-ad got herself together and put on a battle to be proud of bring-

ing this back to 10-9 and putting the shiver down all our spines: “COME ON, YAS!” came the cry of the crowd. Her opponent res-cued the game with a decent drop shot and she went on to lose the contest, but gave Essex every reason to fear what was to come next.

And next was vice-captain Fran Rose Doddington. Fran was awesome, winning the first game 11-0. There was a late surge from her opponent, Essex’s Ingerid, in the second game, but Doddington certain-ly put out the flame there and won her match 3-0. Dodding-ton’s performance was stylish and classy, she was pretty much everything Kanye West imagines himself to be. Jesus Walks with her in that Squash court, I’m tellin’ ya! Overall, this left the contest standing officially at 2-2. It was a mighty performance from Portsmouth and I think we managed to sneak the moral vic-tory out the back door and into the warmth of our hearts and homes. They play Essex again very soon! Portsmouth team member in action - Ben Hyams

Pompey just lose out on squashing Essex

Team Reports

Hayley Ford

Hockey Womens 1stWednesday 26th January.

5-1

The third round of the Women’s South Eastern Conference Cup saw the Ladies Hockey First XI drawn at home against Essex University Ladies First XI.

Portsmouth came into the

game sitting second in the South Eastern Conference Women’s 2A league with two games in hand, whilst Essex were joint 3rd in the South East Conference 2B.

Portsmouth have only lost one game all season and Essex only two, so it was a tough draw that saw two teams from south east-ern leagues ready to battle it out on the hockey field. Portsmouth were the natural favourites, al-though this was knockout tour-

nament play, so anything could happen.

Injuries and exams meant many people were playing out of position but the Pompey girls managed to settle into the game quickly and took advantage of their early domination with a well worked goal. A second quickly followed, however Es-sex were far from giving up and fought back hard to get one back late into the first half. However,

an excellent team goal right on half time seemed to finish the Essex side off.

The second half saw Essex trying to attack quickly on the break but the defensive unit stayed solid and snuffed out all danger, allowing the Portsmouth team to score twice more to put the game far beyond a muted Essex side.

Goals came from Sophie Neal, Tori Clark, Ashley Thakore and

Ellie Firth, who scored a highly-contested second goal after she popped up to tap in an already scoring shot from Katie Pugh. The final score was 5-1 with everyone playing very well. Let’s hope the team can build on this performance, if they can they stand a good chance of going all the way to the final.

Want to write for Pugwash News? Contact [email protected]

The only way is back to Essex after Portsmouth ladies deal out thrashing

Banter Box Send us your banter and gossip to [email protected]

Rugby The club boys at netball quiz before Xmas, not quite honour-ing the age old quiz rule of nophones allowed, get a good score did ya’ lads?

FootballClassic grass roots coaching in the recent clash with St. Mary’s from the footy men’s firstteam coach Tom Lloyd, after

his number 9 took a knock: - “Younie! Younie! You alright mate?”- “Yeah.”- “Well get f****** running then mate!”

Captain Kieron Lloyd gave the opposition an earful as well, so sore ears all round. Good shout chaps! (Literally).

BoxingThe President has already failed his New Year resolution again, after waking up next toLittle Dan, again.

FootballWhenever footy men’s fourth team send Wayne Gar-diner a team sheet they justwrite “4ths”, forgotten what sport you play lads?

Hockey A hockey fresher got bladdered at the union, found by a ran-dom on the bus stop, got taken home, headbutting metal poles in the bus on the trip. Told to knock on a female housemate’s room whilst his abductees went for Ken’s: there was no female housemate. Spent the night with a strange man in a strange house.


Letters17

Arts & Ents10-13

Opinion14-16

Features7-9

News1-6

Downtime18Sports

Team Reports

Nichola HarknessEquestrian secretary and media rep

As part of the University of Portsmouth equestrian club we have three teams that compete against other universities in the area, these competitions con-sist of a dressage test and show jumping.

Dressage tests are the formal-ised sequence of movements in which the rider can show their ability to control the horse, and show jumping is where the rider must complete a number of jumps on the horse without knocking down the poles whilst retaining good style and rhythm.

Our A team consisting of Emma Copestick (captain), Sa-rah Whiltshire, Katy Emmerson and Alison Ward have managed to gain us a place in regionals, and we hope they continue this great work and take us to na-tionals for the first time. They have placed first in all of their competitions as well as all the girls placing individually. Sarah

placed 1st in their home com-petition and Emma shared joint 2nd with Katy and Alison placed 7th. Their away game was at UCL and Katy got 1st place with Sarah achieving 3rd and Alison placing 8th.

B team have had as much tri-umph placing 1st as a team in their home competition and 3rd in their away competition. The B team consists of Charlotte Lowe (captain), Liz Roberts, Hannah Keane and Libby Millar. Hannah also managed to place a magnificent 1st place in their away competition.

The C team hasn’t let us down either and have continued this good fortune and placed 1st as a team in their first competition at Southampton and 3rd at home. The C team is made up of Geor-gina Woodford (captain), Lee Mingay, Alex Marsden and Blaze Perrigo.

Contact [email protected] to send in your team reports.

University of Portsmouth Equestrian Club are riding high!

Olivia ClealPresident UoP Cheerleading Squad

Since early November the Events Squad had been training hard for the Ports-mouth Football Club per-formance during half-time against Leeds United on 22.1.11.

After the final training ses-sion on the morning of the per-formance, we all felt excited al-though apprehensive due to the number of injuries incurred dur-ing the three-hour training ses-sion on the freezing cold Janu-ary morning in Ravelin Park.

Despite this, we made our way to Fratton Park to help sell raffle tickets for the 50/50 half-time draw and sell the AU Naked Cal-endars to the Portsmouth fans, along with Steve Shirley who had a stall in the bar - the calen-dar provoked some interesting comments! The raffle tickets and calendars both sold well raising more money for both RAG chari-ties and the Portsmouth Study Centre. The AU will purchase pixels on the Portsmouth Study Centre’s Million Pixel Challenge.

£1 from each calendar sold will go towards the Pixel Challenge to promote the link between the university and the local commu-nity.

The fans were impressed by our huge turnout at the stadium

and we made sure everyone was aware of our half time perfor-mance. 21,000 pairs of critical on-looking eyes peered as all 35 of us made our way along the half way line. We walked what seemed like miles, to take our positions in the centre circle whilst ‘encouraging’ comments echoed throughout the stadium.

With adrenaline rushing through our bodies we were no longer freezing cold. The rou-tine music suddenly began and every stunt was thrown up per-fectly. After the apprehension from the morning’s training ses-sion it most certainly was “al-right on the night”! After hours of training the performance seemed to be over before it be-gan! Every movement was sharp and in time. We performed ex-ceptionally despite the constant wolf whistles! The crowd gave a raucous cheer at the end of the performance and we all, in true Cheerleader form, returned the favour with extraordinary ‘spirit’! The squad presented the 50/50 winner with her raf-fle ticket prize money and it was

then, unfortunately for us, time for the players to take over the pitch.

Each and every one of us was on an adrenaline high for hours after the performance and will relish the opportunity to per-form to such a crowd again. Portsmouth Football Club has said the performance was “out-standing”, with one fan calling it “the highlight of the game”. We hope to continue this good

link with the community and help again with the 50/50 draw to raise more money for local charities in the near future, as well as potentially more perfor-mances.

To buy a pixel to raise funds for the Portsmouth Study Centre and to find out more about the scheme go to raise.pompeystudycentre.org.uk

Cheer events squad sell naked calendars and promote Pixel Challenge

UoP Equestrian team with rosettes - Sabrina Homewood

Cheerleaders at Fratton Park - Dan Chesterton

Figures so far

The AU naked calendar had already sold half of its quota before the Christmas break.

This academic year looks to be another successful one for the groundbreaking calendar, with online sales introduced for the first time and over 440 AU athletes taking part, the calendar is set to beat the previous record for money raised, of £2,200.

Portsmouth team member in action - Ben Hyams

Ellie Firth, who scored a highly-contested second goal after she popped up to tap in an already scoring shot from Katie Pugh. The final score was 5-1 with everyone playing very well. Let’s hope the team can build on this performance, if they can they stand a good chance of going all the way to the final.

Want to write for Pugwash News? Contact [email protected]

The only way is back to Essex after Portsmouth ladies deal out thrashing

pugwashnews.com

Portsmouth’s official student newspaper


The University of Portsmouth Racquet Club has been awarded a £500 grant from the Barclays BUCS Development Award, to aid members to develop and gain UKCC Level 1 tennis coach-ing qualifications.

The money will go towards training certain members in-terested in coaching, up to LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) level 1, which qualifies the individual to coach ‘Mini Tennis’ which is a reduced form of tennis designed to introduce schoolchildren to the sport. The club hope to get in a qualified coach to train members.

The award is a great achieve-ment for the club, with only 14 out of 40 university clubs across the country securing a grant.

Barclays is the official tennis partner to British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS). The ten-nis development Award and ten-nis development funding comes through BUCS and from their official tennis partner, Barclays.

Racquet Club president, Jon-athan Miles said: “I’m very im-pressed with the level of interest we have had from our members and sport development students concerning this opportunity.”

The team hope to work along-side the UP for Sport campaign to provide free coaching in the community.

Jonathan said: “The whole idea is to work with UP for Sport, to put people into schools, to ac-tually use the qualification to

give something back.“Last year we did a communi-

ty coaching project run by Nike, and the people who took part in it were really happy with it, so

we looked this year to do some-thing again. We did ten hours coaching in schools, and we aim to do the same this year, as well as forge links in the community.

“It is a fantastic coaching skill to have, because there is so much development you can do with it, we basically just wanted to give people a chance to use

their skill, get the qualification and then go out and use it.”For more sports coverage through-out the year visit pugwashnews.com

Racquet Club look to usegrant grandly

Raquet club member Alina Andrianova in action recently against University College London - Dan Chesterton

A place for you to shout about your best results, (and worst if you can bear it).

TennisBest result of semester 1 for Ten-nis was men’s 1st and women’s 1st smashing Chichester 10-0 (for both teams).

NetballBest result of semester 1 for Netball 1sts was vs Brunel: 46-35 on 10/11/10, a great win as

Brunel are a very, very tough opponent. And best result of se-mester 1 for Netball 4ths was vs Imperial: 48-31 on 27/10/10. Worst results were for the 5ths vs Imperial on 10/11/10 and for the Sessa team vs Chelmsford: 19-56 on 27/10/10.

BoxingBest result for Boxing was Paul Mitchell boxing for England Universities and totally domi-nating his opponent from the West Midlands, also securing

the win for the entire team.

Worst result was Paul Mitch-ell again; prior to the England Universities tournament in the County Finals he again domi-nated his opponent, this time one Jake Moore from Lawrence ABC, but the ref. gave it by one point to Moore, confusing the Portsmouth team as well as the crowd.

DodgeballMostly male Dodgeball team

lost to a Southampton women’s team! But big up the Purple Co-bras, as this is their first year in existence!

BasketballBasketball Mens 1st grabbed a last-gasp, last-second win 64-63 over Brighton, real Hollywood thriller style!

The Mens 2nd clinched top spot before the New Year with a74-70 win over Westminster.

RugbyFemale Rugby beat Kent 55-0. Booyah!

Thanks to Jonathan Miles, Wayne Gardiner, Morwenna Mackenzie, Niosha (Yoshi) Kayhani & Lau-ren Ryan.

If you wish to big up your team’s performance or cry about a poor result, email [email protected]

Worst best and all the rest: the sporting fortnight

Pugwash News Issue 50

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Transcript of Pugwash News Issue 50