News 2
IN BRIEF Welsh poverty
gair rhydd MONDAY 3OTH SEPTEMBER 2002
Student bonds still not safe
YOUNG PEOPLE in Wales suffer from greater poverty than in any other part of the UK, a leading children’s charity has warned. Around 33% of Welsh children were living in poverty in 2000, compared to 30% each in England and Scotland, the Dominic O’Neill reports research for Save the Children has found. The report, Well-being of A CARDIFF University Children in the UK, also found student has warned that that teenagers in Wales have the letting agencies in the area highest rates of pregnancy and still “can’t be trusted”. drug and alcohol abuse. It took graduate Catherine Upstone and her flatmates nearly two months to get the full bond for their house W E L S H C O M PA N Y T h e back from Keylet Letting Cardiff Rubber Company LTD Agency, even though the has launched Cariad Condoms property was left in perfect - which claim to be the first condition. bilingual Welsh/English “We thoroughly cleaned condoms. the house before we moved The condoms, which have out,” she said. been bought by Health But the 25 year-old Authorities in Wales, are being European Business and distributed as part of a safe sex Finance graduate was told education scheme. by the agency that she had to Supermarkets in Wales will pay the £80 cleaning bill, soon be stocking the condoms, despite deciding not to take in a bid to promote both out the agency’s cleaning bilingualism and safe sex. service.
Bilingual sex
New jobs at Wales Gene Park PHASE ONE in the development of the multimillion pound Wales Gene Park has recently started with the advertisement of several key posts for the new initiative. The Wales Gene Park will strengthen existing expertise at University of Wales College of Medicine and Cardiff University.
Fumes danger British Gas has warned students of the danger of deadly Carbon Monoxide in rented flats and houses. Carbon Monoxide is invisible, has no taste or smell and causes around 50 deaths every year. Symptoms include headaches, nausea, sickness and general fatigue. Signs to look out for include stains or soot around a gas fire, water heater or boiler.
gair rhydd ADDRESS University Union Park Place Cardiff CF10 3QN EDITORIAL 02920 781434/436 ADVERTISING 0845 1300667 EMAIL SSUGR1@cf.ac.uk VISITORS Find us on the 4th floor of the Students Union
“It is easier to pay than argue, so agencies can take advantage CATHERINE UPSTONE
“We have been completely cheated by them,” she said. “We spent a week cleaning the property before we left, and we even cleaned the net curtains. “Someone from the agency made an inventory of the house when we left, but they didn’t say anything about the property not being clean enough. “Most students go home for summer, and they often feel it is easier to pay rather than argue, so letting agencies take advantage.” “Once the properties have been vacated it is an ideal time for letting agencies to claim for extra charges,” she added. Keylet Letting Agency, which is one of Cardiff’s biggest and provides property for many students, only decided not to charge the students for the cleaning bill after Catherine wrote a number of threatening letters to the agency. “When we first moved in, the house obviously hadn’t been cleaned for some time,” she continued. “We had to clean it then as well, despite the fact that the
University faces application chaos Dominic O’Neill reports FIRST YEAR students arriving at Cardiff this year can think themselves lucky they are starting their courses at all. Many applicants to Cardiff have been turned away because of unfairly marked exam results. Hundreds of head teachers across the country have accused the exam boards of deflating grades so that the results would be in line with those of previous years. As the government’s Education Secretary Estelle Morris has called for all disputed exam results to be
remarked, many students could be entitled to places they have previously been denied. But the university already has far more students than it can cope with. Cardiff student Ann-Marie Ellis was originally given a ‘U’ in her English Lit. A-level this year, despite being predicted an ‘A’ and achieving A-grades in all her previous papers. After her particular case attracted widespread media coverage, former Chief Inspector of Schools Chris Woodhead looked over AnnMarie’s exam paper. He says he “cannot see how the answer could have been regarded as a U-grade script.” Ann-Marie was accepted by Cardiff’s English department after her teachers rang the University to complain that her results were unfair. But other prospective students have not been so lucky. “At first I thought it was a computer error so I didn’t really worry about it” she said. “I was absolutely disgusted when I found out that it was not. With that one U-grade, I ended up with a B in English Literature, and I needed an A to do English at Cardiff. “A-level candidates have been punished when they did all the work they could for the exam.”
30 Monthermer Road, the property under dispute Hoover was broken.” A “Bond Bank” was set up last year by the students’ union after a number of complaints were made against agencies unfairly retaining housing bonds. But the scheme is optional and only 52 students are participating at present. Development Officer
Simon Goss says it is up to the students to make sure their landlords make use of the bond bank. “People don’t realise the problems bonds can cause until it’s too late,” he said. “With us, an officer has to inspect the property in the event of claims for cleaning or anything else.”
Housing hell for first years Continued from page 1 “I’ve been trying to find somewhere to stay in private accommodation, but it’s a big problem.” The Residences and Catering department declined to comment, but a University spokesman tried to reassure students. “Cardiff University is admitting more than 200 students above the number originally envisaged,” he said. “This is because demand for places here is booming – applications are up 12 per cent from last year. “This has increased pressure on accommodation services, but the university has taken steps to honour its commitment to those guaranteed a place in Universitymanaged accommodation. “This has involved investing in additional numbers of managed houses. Residents will receive the same cleaning and maintenance services as those in U n i v e r s i t y - o w n e d accommodation.” Emma Bebington was less confident that everything is under control, but said she was going to work at a solution in conjunction with the University. “I’ve got several meetings with Residences and Catering over the course of the year, and we will be working to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” she said. “There are also plans to build a new hall to deal with the increased numbers of students.”