Issue 96, The Stag (University of Surrey Student Magazine)

THE

FRESHERS STORIES What is Freshers Week really like?

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STAG

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

WHAT UNIVERSITY IS REALLY LIKE

The differences between First Year and Final Year P.42

RENT STRIKES, PINTS AND AN INTERVIEW Guildford’s expensive housing P.36

The Editorial Team

Charlotte West

Features Editor

Chelsey King

Editor in Chief

Zak Dawson

Head of Photography

Megan d’Ardenne

With Special Thanks to Our Team

Deputy Editor

EDITORS

Emily Lui

Head of Design

Sam Chilton

Head of Marketing

Features: Charlotte West Lifestyle: Bethany McAtee Entertainment: Izzy Rolfe Liturature & Creative Writing: Rosa Heaton Science & Technology: Anthony Balchin News: Irene García Mir Opinions: Sophie Pike Sport: Michael Slavin Politics: Peter Ferguson Webmaster: Francis Cousins Social Sec: David Dobrotvorskij

Social Media Manager - Joel Weller DESIGNERS Emily Lui Darcey Cleary

WRITERS Isabel Rolfe Charlotte West Megan d’Ardenne Georgia Read Bethany McAtee James Tatam Demi Echezona Rosa Heaton Kieran Adamson Annabella Costantino Peter Ferguson Rahul Kakaiya Anthony Balchin Holly Thompson Michael Slavin

WITH THANKS TO: Zak Dawson William Beckwith Joel Russell Alexander Simpson James Woolgar Leon Lynn Adil Aslam Chris Whitehead Dan Jacobs

Contents

Features

03

Sci & Tech

27

Lifestyle

11

Politics

35

Entertainment 15 Opinions Lit & CW

19

Sports

41

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Head Editor’s Letter Welcome to The Stag’s first issue of the 2019/20 academic year! We hope you are looking forward to your year ahead here at the University of Surrey and are excited to get involved with many different societies and events the union have to offer.

The Stag is a magazine run by students, for students here at the University of Surrey and is available in both print and online. We often collaborate with other societies and have a close partnership with the other Stag Medias on-campus (StagTV and Stag Radio), so you may see us pop up at any other societies you are a part of.

With many of last year’s committee involved, we hope to provide you with the best possible coverage for the coming year, from events at the university to global news. We have a brand new section focusing on politics, both inside and outside of university, which we hope will prove to be informative for this year’s SurreyDecides.

We are really excited for the year ahead in terms of the society, the magazine and our website, but you may be wondering who we are. On our ‘About Us’ page (thestagsurrey. co.uk/about-us) you can find out about each of our 18 committee members and their university journeys. Many people join The Stag who do not study English as their degree as a way to keep their love for writing alive, but others, such as myself, wish to work closely within our discipline. I am a second-year English Literature student who joined The Stag as a designer last year (not a writer, as my degree would otherwise indicate) and fell in love with the society. I joined The Stag and SVGS last year as a way to meet new people outside my flat, and my course and I have not looked back since.

The Stag is for everyone and anyone who wishes to learn a new skill or develop old ones no matter your background. Societies are a great way to meet people as a fresher and to develop any hobbies you have. If you haven’t joined a society, then I highly recommend it!

We have several sections on our website with articles written by our members being uploaded twice a week during term time to keep students up to date. Our website is our main source of content, but we also have three print issues a year. However, if you aren’t a writer, there are other roles you can play. We are always in need of designers, photographers, website designers, organisers, leaders and proof-readers.

We hope to see you this coming year and good luck!

Chelsey King Chief Editor of The Stag

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Get Involved: This year we have lots of new ways to get involved with The Stag away from the magazine itself. We will be hosting several socials before New Year, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

We have a Stag Media BBQ hosted during Freshers Week, a Bar Crawl where we will be joined by StagTV, Stag Radio and Stage Crew and we are looking at making a trip to the trampoline park as well. In addition, we will be holding a Stag Media Fair this year, where you can give each media a go to see what you might enjoy, or just learn about our societies. Events will be listed on Facebook with times, dates and locations in advance, so make sure to join our Facebook members page and follow us on all our social media.

How to join us: We’re always looking for new writers, designers, photographers and website creators here at The Stag!

Get in touch with us on our social media pages on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or email us at ussu. thestag@surrey.ac.uk. We also have monthly members meetings which anyone can join, with the location, date and time all being posted in our member’s Facebook group.

Our Website: Enjoy this issue? Why not check out our website, www.thestagsurrey.co.uk? We post articles twice a week during term time with anything ranging from the latest news on campus to short stories. Find out more about this year’s committee, and any collaborations or events we have coming up that you can join, in our ‘About Us’ section.

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“One of the most mentally draining years of my life.”

Features

seasonal & significant articles

Placement Preparation and Inevitable Panic // Georgia Read

The Professional Training Year: the reason that many students choose the University of Surrey over other institutions – it was certainly one of the tipping points for me. As somebody interested in an English Literature with Creative Writing degree, it was fairly impossible to find another university that would allow me the experience of a placement year. I was ecstatic to start my placement at the end of July; however, finding this internship also made my second year at university one of the most challenging and mentally draining years of my life.

However, I would also say: be prepared to be ignored — a lot. Out of the dozens and dozens of applications I sent out, probably half were completely ignored – not even an automated reply of any kind, which feels much worse than an actual rejection. So, be ready for that.

Another thing I would advise is to not just look for those big-name companies – when I began searching for placements, I thought that they were all that mattered, that they were all that would impress future employers.

That is entirely untrue – small companies and startups can give you equally valuable experience and may even be a better fit for you. A smaller company may potentially allow you to get more directly involved with the machinations of the company, rather than being designated to a very specific role in a larger company. So don’t limit your opportunities just to large, established businesses, give small start-ups a chance!

Searching for a placement gives you a taste of what the job market is really like outside the safe bubble of university; endless applications sent out, so many interviews attended – all to secure one job. It’s certainly invaluable experience, but for many students, it only adds to the already-increased workload that comes with second year. I highly recommend taking a placement year to anyone who feels confident enough to balance Along those lines, also ensure to broaden your mind the stress of searching (and frequent rejection) with the when it comes to the job role. Now, I can’t speak for science degrees, but with humanities and similar stress of studying and academic deadlines. degrees, I believe there’s always space for compromise.

For those interested in a placement year, you have to For example, I went into the job search intent on finding make sure you are prepared for those multiple rejections; something within marketing, that then changed to PR, it’s not personal, it’s merely that the internship market but now I’ve ended up in Customer Relations – so, if is completely saturated with thousands upon thousands like me, doing a placement at all is more important than of students vying for one (or two, if you’re lucky) places where that placement is, then be sure to be open to ideas within companies. Some people are intensely fortunate beyond what you think is right for you. and will secure their internship quickly, however, if that’s not you, don’t feel like you’re alone, the majority And the most important thing to do while trudging of students are searching for months and months before through this seemingly endless search? Persevere! There’s they find their perfect fit. I began searching in October something out there for you, there’s a placement for and didn’t secure my placement until after Easter. everyone, and you’ll find your perfect place. But also, Honestly, the sooner you start searching, the better, but remember that you are more than your CV, cover letters also don’t worry if you’re searching late into the year, it’s and interviews, so give yourself a break every once in a while. Good luck, and happy searching! not uncommon!

Those rejections you receive can be a learning experience If you want more internship articles, visit our website in itself though. Take every ounce of feedback you can: to read ‘In Defence of Unpaid Internships’ by Megan email interviewers or companies and ask for it if you d’Ardenne at: https://www.thestagsurrey.co.uk/defencehave to – it can often be beneficial and help to refine unpaid-internships/ your interview technique for future opportunities.

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Freshers’ Stories // Charlotte West For first year students, the all-famous Freshers’ Week is romanticised to the extreme. It is seen as the prime time to party, meet life-long friends and start your university experience with a bang - but what is the reality like for the students at Surrey? The Stag has collected stories from students at the university about their Freshers’ week experiences. While a lot of them do involve the consumption of alcohol, please make sure that you drink responsibly.

James, Aerospace Engineering student: It was one girl’s birthday during Freshers, and one of the presents we gave her (we didn’t know her well enough at that point to buy her decent presents) was a box of fake moustaches, so we all got drunk and went around campus putting fake moustaches on every poster and statue on campus – I think Alan Turing rocked it the best!

Annie, Music Production student:

My story: When starting university, I didn’t drink or go clubbing, and so when Freshers’ Week rolled around, I was terrified. I bought a ticket for three of the nights at Rubix, optimistic that the energy from university would completely transform me into that stereotypical partying student; unsurprisingly that didn’t happen, and I sold all three tickets. I remember every night at 9 pm hearing the heavy beat of ‘Man’s Not Hot’ erupting around Manor Park and then the migration of students at 11 to the main campus. It heightened my already horrendous homesickness, and I wish I could go back and tell myself to just go along to the pre-drinks and have water! Everyone’s just as nervous as you, hence why so many like to dull their anxiety with alcohol – as long as you get involved in some way (even just joining the communal trips to Tesco) you’ll be fine.

James, Economics student: I was at pre-drinks in a friend’s flat in Cathedral Court. We managed to squeeze about 15 people into the tiny kitchen (that usually fits seven). We had a heavy pre-drinks and accidentally missed the midnight entry time for Rubix, so proceeded to stay in drinking. This was, however, until a fire alarm went off in our block... Scared that we’d get in trouble for being in the flat past 11 pm, everyone who didn’t live there quickly left the block and dispersed across campus.

I was hammered and ended up sprinting across campus to the flat of a girl I was dating. I ended up being fed popcorn by her to try to sober me up and ended up falling backwards off a chair, making a fool of myself in front of everyone - it’s fair to say I never missed the entry for Rubix ever again!

There we were, yet again, another night spent looking after a flatmate who had one too many to drink. We were tucking her up in bed before she launched herself towards the designated sick bucket and crossing our fingers it was the last of any liquids in her stomach. Through the open window that had no breeze of fresh air, we could hear everyone on their way to the classiest place in Guildford, the best club on Earth: Popworld – meanwhile we were stuck inside.

If you find yourself in this situation, do not fear, there is always a silver lining! ‘We’ comprised of myself and my future boyfriend, who must have been hit with the scent of romance hidden within the vomit. So if you are looking for that extra special someone, just find yourself a drunken person and suggest you look after them with the person you desire.

Sophie, Psychology student: I’m not much of a drinker, so a lot of the events held in clubs weren’t really my cup of tea and, honestly, made me a little anxious. Needless to say, that made settling in more difficult for me than for most people. I would say the point where it started to change for me was one night during pre-drinks at my flat. We were in a house with two flats and 20 people – most of whom were GSA students. On this night, I would say about 12 of us were crammed into the downstairs kitchen. Five of the lads from GSA had written a song with a verse about each of us in the flat and events that happened in the previous three weeks. It was a great laugh and a good way to get everyone involved and together. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t have met the people that I did during first year if it wasn’t for being in student accommodation.

Charlie, Music student: One girl from my flat was from a pretty wealthy background and had no idea how to handle the communal loos in Battersea Wells. One night she ended up walking in on a flatmate while he was in the shower! His response was shrieking loud enough for the whole flat to hear and throw a bottle of shampoo at her, while her response was to spend a full minute cursing in Russian.

I guess it was his fault for not locking the door, and her fault for leaving her headphones in so she couldn’t hear the shower on.

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Giving a Voice to India’s Waste Pickers // Megan d’Ardenne

Globally, 300 million tons of plastic is produced each year - that’s the equivalent weight of the whole population of the world. Every year. While plastic is an amazingly versatile product, it is virtually indestructible, with a lifespan of over 1,000 years.

Poor waste management, coupled with human neglect, has resulted in plastic pollution covering our planet like a disease, with over eight million metric tons a year entering our oceans. Therefore, plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues, as the rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them.

Plastic pollution is most visible in developing nations, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or nonexistent. Almost half the planet’s population live without access to organised waste collection, which in turn has given rise to an informal waste picking economy - as uncollected waste is picked by some of the world’s poorest people in an attempt to make a living.

Given that over 150 million tons of plastic is estimated to be currently circulating in our oceans, it is clear that these waste pickers have a pivotal job in stopping plastic from entering our waters. However, these waste pickers, many of whom are women, often live below the poverty line and work in appalling conditions.

This is why The Body Shop, who have been advocates for both environmental and human rights issues since it was founded in 1976, have attempted to tackle both 7

the plastic crisis in a human-centric way. In addition to their three decades of experience of working with disadvantaged communities around the world, they are partnering with not-for-profit business Plastics for Change and social enterprise Hasiru Dala in Bengaluru to focus on securing social justice for waste pickers.

Plastic for Change was set up by Andrew Almack in 2013 and works with local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and commercial partners to bring price stability and access to the global market for waste pickers. Its mission is to help transform discarded plastics into a resource for positive change. Hasiru Dala works collaboratively with the waste pickers, in the areas of: identity rights, access to family education, healthcare, housing and pension, skill development, market and employment access, and multi-tier policy advocacy.

Plastics for Change and Hasiru Dala primarily operate in India, because 80% of the waste in our oceans comes from India alone, causing the country to have one of the highest volumes of waste pickers worldwide. India’s rapid population growth has drastically increased the countries’ plastic consumption, and infrastructure development has not kept pace, resulting in a dramatic increase in plastic waste. In India, there are 1.5 million waste pickers who rely on sorting through rubbish and selling on anything recyclable for their livelihood.

India’s waste pickers collect and sort over 6,000 tonnes of plastic every day that would otherwise pollute our

rivers and oceans. Therefore, these waste pickers not only keep cities clean but also form a critical line of defence in stopping plastic from entering our rivers and oceans.

Despite this, waste picking is one of the lowliest jobs in society, and is almost exclusively a female role, with the majority shunned by society and working in appalling conditions. The majority of India’s waster pickers are Dalit’s, which is the lowest caste in the Hindu societal system. This means that these people have virtually no visibility in society and have limited rights and access to healthcare and education. They are vulnerable to discrimination, poor living and working conditions and unpredictable payment for the plastic they collect due to corrupt supply chains. For instance, in the past three years, waste pickers have seen the value of plastic drop by as much as 60% overnight, leaving many malnourished and unable to provide for their families.

Whilst Plastics for Change and Hasiru Dala work tirelessly to support waste pickers and stabilise the price they are getting paid, this effort would be futile if the plastic isn’t being bought. This is where The Body Shop steps in. They have become the commercial partners of Plastics for Change and Hasiru Dala and will buy the collected plastic at a fair price. In the partnership’s first year, The Body Shop will purchase 250 tonnes of what they call Community Trade plastic, which will be used in nearly three million 250ml hair care bottles by the Trade plastic across all products which use Polyethylene

end of 2019.

This, however, only marks the start of the company’s

terephthalate (PET) plastic within three years. Globally, PET plastic is the most common single-use plastic, and although most PET bottles can be recycled, only 60% of the bottles are reused or repurposed. This, coupled with the fact that PET bottles use virgin plastic, means that 40% of the plastic that goes to landfill is only used once.

Therefore, the fact that The Body Shop is incorporating plastic that has already been recycled into their bottles, marks a positive change to minimise the use of single-use plastic. Over the course of the three-year initiative, the amount of plastic bought will be scaled up to purchasing over 900 tonnes of plastic, which in turn will empower 2,500 waste pickers in Bengaluru. The Body Shop have pre-agreed in advance the price for 250 metric tonnes. This reduces volatility for the informal recycling economy and helps to provide consistent income opportunities for the waste pickers. This means that waste pickers will receive a fair price for their work, a reliable income and access to better working conditions.

All pickers will also receive ID cards, which offers social protection for workers and their families. Once pickers are formalised, rights can be given; they will be able to open bank accounts, have access to education and healthcare services, and have the respect and recognition they deserve.

One waste picker, helped by The Body Shop’s initiative, is Dolly, who from her early waste picking days, recounts tales of harassment from authorities, which is a devastating reality for waste pickers. Now, she is able to rent the land she and her family sort waste on, and thus enjoys the peace and safety of her new community. The fact that there is now a steady market for recycled plastic gives the whole family an element of control in their lives, as they are able to make plans and save money for future generations.

Another benefiter is Annamma, who as the daughter of a waste picker, was not able to get another job, and break out of the societal constraints her birth restricted her to. However, with the help of Plastics for Change and Hasiru Dala, Annamma has been trained in managerial skills, and now runs her own waste picking business. Today, two of her children are at university studying plastic engineering with the goal to enter India’s sustainable tech economy and tackle the plastic crisis further.

This initiative is exceptional as it thinks about the plastic crisis differently. It not only reuses the abundant resource of recyclable plastic already exists by preventing it from entering our ocean, but it also celebrates the waste picker and gives them a sense of pride in what they do. A hugely overdue celebration, as what waste pickers do for our planet is truly remarkable.

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Surviving and Thriving: Life after Freshers’ Week //Charlotte West

You’ve partied for eight days straight, you’ve only spoken to your flatmates either drunk or hungover, and you signed up to thirty societies at Freshers’ Fair, and now you’ve been thrown into lectures and seminars. It would be naïve to believe that we only come to university for a degree, but of course, that is at the top of many of our priorities, so here are some Surrey-specific tips for surviving, and thriving, after Freshers’ week.

The rumours are true; you’ll probably spend all your money in Simply Fresh or on Deliveroo, especially during exam season when us students are at our weakest. As much as it can be fun to get involved with that stereotype, neither your health nor your bank account will appreciate that brief moment of satisfaction. To combat the temptation, make yourself get excited about cooking, and find a way to give yourself the opportunity to spend more time on it; try little food challenges like going vegan for a month, or get one of your flatmates to teach you some new recipes. Even buying your coffee and snacks from Tees and Teas rather than Simply Fresh will let your wallet breathe a sigh of relief.

Speaking of Tees and Teas, the Student Union shop, you should try and make it a priority to stay connected with the Union. Even just following their social media sites will allow you to keep updated with the amazing work that the Sabbatical and Part-time officers are getting up to. Then you’ll be all the more informed when Surrey Decides comes around in February to vote in the next committee. Maybe you’ll even decide to run!

On a similar note, by the end of Freshers’ Week (specifically Freshers’ Fayre), you’ll have probably heard people telling you to join a society or sports team a hundred times. However, to really get the most out of your society or club experience, you need to throw yourself all in. If there are open committee positions at the start of the year, why not run? If you commit to one or two (or three or four!) main societies, then it’ll be way more beneficial than idly attending a meeting every now and then. Plus, there’s Colours Ball and Union Ball at the end of the year to look forward to, where awards to societies are handed out. The Stag won Most Improved Society last year, so why not join our award-winning magazine?

It is most likely that your assignments and exams during 9

your first year at Surrey are not going to count towards your degree, so make the absolute most of it! For all your socialising needs in Rubix there is Citrus on a Wednesday night, Flirt on a Friday and then some more obscure or specialised nights held in The Basement. If you’re just after some drinks then you don’t even need to trek into town, as Wates House are home to their famous cocktails and Hari’s Bar in Rubix is a great option too – they also hold Hari’s Challenge on a Tuesday night and an Open Mic every Thursday so it is worth giving them a try as not every social event here at Surrey is about drinking.

If it does end up being a bit much for you, then make sure you reach out to the support services at Surrey. If you need someone to listen give Nightline a call (08081644646), if you want to talk to someone face to face and you’re not sure who to turn to your personal tutor or any of the lecturers you feel most comfortable around is your best bet. Also, utilise your student life mentor – they get trained before starting their role and are there as an approachable person to talk to about any of your worries. It’s also worth checking out whether the Centre for Wellbeing is the best place for you to go as they are able to provide both long-term and short-term help.

If you’re living on campus then it can be tempting to just lope back to your flat in between your contact hours, similarly living at manor park or hazel farm, you can start to feel a bit disconnected from the first year bubble as it seems to get popped every time you walk past the stag statue. In both cases I would really recommend utilising the areas that we have on campus to enjoy your time in a social space and allow you to feel just that little bit more a part of the Surrey community. Whether it’s to socialise or study, The Hive and Starbucks are a great combination of the two. If you’re after food and snacks there is Lakeside, our little café, and Hillside, the closest we get to a canteen. The Front Room is also a nice hangout spot with a table for table tennis outside and a pool table inside. There is also the Thursday market which usually has a couple of stalls outside the Union Building, which is another option if you get a little peckish.

Outside of university, Guildford is a lovely, homely town with lots to do. If you’re after some variety from Rubix nights out then there is the three other main clubs Popworld, Casino and Bar 13. G-Live is the host of lots of touring shows – Scouting for Girls is performing there in November. The Electric Palace is another good place for shows and The Star in town is a pub with a small stage at the back where lots of musicians from ACM (Academy of Contemporary Music) perform. There is also a whole host of classic bars such as Spoons, Turtle Bay, and Five and Lime that are great places to hang out off-campus.

If you’re after some non-alcoholic activities, you can catch a bus over to Spectrum which offers bowling and swimming, or you can walk around the corner from campus and find recreational trampolining in the form of AirHop. If you don’t fancy a bus journey and don’t mind a short walk, the town has many shops for you to browse around and many places for you to look for a delicious bite to eat.

Whatever you plan to make of your time at Surrey, I hope it lives up to your expectations. 10

W

e step out of our rental SUV onto the untouched powdery snow, with a nippy breeze sudenly crawling under our many layers of t-shirts, jumpers and coats. Pausing quickly to make sure I remember the car keys, we shut the doors and cast our eyes onto the vast space ahead of us. Where there should have been sand, a snow blanket folded itself in a patchwork fashion, only to fade away upon reaching the sea. Steep, rugged mountains with sharp, snow-covered peaks cradled the beach, allowing us a sense of anonymity and distance from our usually hectic lives. It was in this moment that I felt peace within Norway’s wild environment.

“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing” - Seneca - Seneca

Lifestyle

Uni life, beauty and fashion

Several months before my (somewhat) enlightening experience in the Lofoten Islands, my friend Camille and myself sat eating sushi whilst discussing a desire for a short escape from anything university-related. Wouldn’t it be absolutely amazing to visit Asia again? There are still so many places to explore even if it costs tons to travel there! How about Europe somewhere, it’s a bit closer? Scandinavia looks beautiful – it’s close, we’ve both never been, and well, we could make it cheap, I suppose? And so, we began our preparation for travelling to Norway (after spending a stint preparing for Finland).

Navigating Mountains, Fjords and Rural Roads in Norway.

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The picturesque village of Hamnøy in the Loften Islands.

Hiking the Vidden trail in Bergen.

Rather quickly, my laptop became clogged with word documents detailing Norway’s weather, the best locations to explore, things to do in those locations and importantly, the FCO’s travel advice for Norway. Because we wanted to travel in a place unfamiliar to us, and with a tight budget, planning effectively for our trip was our top priority. Luckily Norway doesn’t require UK nationals to have a visa, but unfortunately, this may change after Brexit. Being allowed to hire a car with a UK driving license, on the other hand, will not change, which is incredibly useful in Norway as there are usually large distances between places.

So where did Camille and I end up? Tailoring our love of hiking and the outdoors to our itinerary led us to Bergen, and then north to the Lofoten Islands via Oslo. Our week’s aim was to fill each day chock-a-block full of discovering what makes Norway unique, and we definitely didn’t fail. We knew the scenery would be picturesque, yet we underestimated how many times we’d say, wow this is stunning! Each corner turned, whether that be strolling for hours through Bergen’s surrounding mountains, gliding in a ferry amongst the fjords, or driving on the Lofoten Island’s only main road, presented a new beauty spot. The proof is in Camille’s 1000 pictures taken over six days.

Road tripping in the Lofoten Islands meant stopping at every scenic spot.

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We found Bergen a quaint and relaxed city where the most people we saw in a single space were either the children’s walking bus to school or on the Friday when the weekend tourists dropped by. In fact, we saw more people on some of our scenic hikes than in the streets.

I call Bergen relaxed, however, if you sit on a bench overlooking the city in the residential area near the Fløyen hike start, every couple of minutes a cyclist or a runner will casually dart past. There is definitely an air of activity, yet it seems almost the norm to be active and having experienced the natural environment all of Norway boasts, it’s unsurprising why.

It would be unfortunate if you were to live in Norway, and not explore its backyard. Exploring the mountains could also save you a penny or two, seeing as walking is generally free (unless you take the cable car up or down), unlike the extortionate prices of other activities in Norway, including eating and shopping.

An extremely useful phone app for hiking in Norway is called, ‘Outtt’, and provides detailed descriptions, difficulty rating, and maps for an array of hikes across the country. It proved especially helpful when we ventured into the rural Lofoten Islands because we were inexperienced at hiking in the snow and the app allowed us to decide which hikes would be too dangerous. As it turns out, the peaks are still covered in snow in April, meaning a trek without guidance could be fatal due to the high avalanche risk whilst the snow melts.

Our plane journey London consisted of flicking through week’s photos, still to the beauty and

back to mainly the past transfixed dramatic

atmospheres captured on camera.

Whilst our photos don’t carry the same emotional weight of the present, they certainly offer a sense of nostalgia and awe at what we experienced, in turn inspiring our next adventure…

For more information on travelling safely abroad, visit the Travel Aware website, or for travel stories, tips and advice follow the FCO at @ FCOTravel on Facebook and Twitter and @TravelAware on Instagram.

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Entertainment

Film, music and media.

“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained” - Walt Disney Company

Where to Explore in Guildford //Isabel Rolfe During the Day

Guildford can be a gorgeous place to explore as it has such a diverse range of areas from the hustle and bustle of the town to the tranquillity of the canal. There is a library at the top of the town if the University one is too crowded for you, along with G-Live, a place where gigs and festivals take place throughout the year. Perhaps you fancy a short walk to visit the stunning Cathedral on the edge of campus or a longer walk to the Castle that boasts magnificent views and gardens. If you want to watch a play, The Electric Theatre is your place to go, located near to the Rodboro Buildings (the local Wetherspoons).

However, if you fancy watching something on the big screen, then the Odeon has you covered with their £11 student tickets.

If you’re going out to eat, there’s Nando’s, always a great choice, Franco Manca is a great place to get pizza (use the student deal on Unidays), TGI Fridays, Yo! Sushi, Zizzi’s, Bills, and The Giggling Squid.

Of an Evening Bars & Pubs Turtle Bay:

Best for: Their extensive - and tasty -

range of two for one cocktails running at happy hour (which lasts most of the day).

When to go: When you want a calm night out, with a chilled environment and reggae music/ DJ nights.

Alley Bar:

Best for: A relaxed and fun night out.

When to go: Located down the alley

next to Sainsbury’s on the high street, Alley is like a meeting point between a bar and a club.

All Bar One:

Best for: Showing someone around Guildford.

When to go: Great for dates, quality drinks and food, but one for after payday.

The King’s Head

Best for: Chilled outdoor area.

When to go: The best place to spend a sunny day, or relax after exams and assignments.

The Star Inn

Best for: Regular gig nights.

When to go: When you decide to get to know your flatmates- and the fantastic local bands of Guildford.

Clubs: Rubix: Best for:

Convenience, freshers week (and soft drinks are free).

When to go: Great for sports societies who

frequent Citrus (Wednesday nights) and everyone on Flirt nights (Fridays) - and you can get a kebab right next door. Get your tickets online at Tixtu.

Bar 13:

Best for: Events.

When to go: Great for Halloween and

theme nights - with two different floors playing different music.

Casino:

Best for: Alcoholic slush puppies.

When to go: There’s music for everyone, and they regularly have guest DJ’s / music acts which you will see advertised on campus.

Pop World:

Best for: A cheesy night out When to go: When you’re with the right people, and ready for lots of sing-a-long songs, including high school musical.

Worth Noting:

While Guildford is one of the safer student towns, spiking is rather common in the UK. Make sure you have a great time on nights out, but always be aware of where your drinks are and check on others. If anything doesn’t feel right, or you feel uncomfortable, bartenders and security are always happy to help.

Literature & Creative Writing

Books, books and more books

“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.”

- Jane Austen

Instagram Poetry: Is Short Always Sweet? // Rosa Heaton When living in a generation that moves so quickly, it isn’t surprising to notice that poetry has shifted with the times. Some poetry has become smaller, bite-sized and easily accessible. As an aspiring writer receiving rejection slips from every which way, a part of me resents two-lined poems receiving thousands of likes on Instagram. However, I too have stood in Urban Outfitters flicking through poetry collections like Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, and The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace. I have on occasion typed ‘Atticus’ into my Instagram explore page, and I haven’t always hated what I found.

This conflict within myself sheds light onto the discourse faced by modern poets, and the criticism of Instapoetry in recent years highlights the disdain it faces. Is this just snobbery, or is it justified?

In 2014, Rupi Kaur self-published Milk and Honey. It became the New York Times number one bestseller, keeping its place on The New York Times Trade Paperback Bestseller list for over 77 weeks. I discovered Rupi Kaur’s collection in a school English lesson. The same class that had devoted two months to Milton’s Paradise Lost and dedicated an entire term to Chaucer. Now, I love Milton and Chaucer as much as the next English Literature student. I love the smell of old books. I love that feeling of walking into a library that has existed for centuries, and leather-bound first editions covered in dust, but for the first time, I was presented with literature that felt relevant. I will never be able to relate to the Wife of Bath, but Rupi Kaur’s poetry felt within reach. I am not Rupi Kaur’s biggest fan, and I will always stand by the fact that a single sentence does not a poem make, but before I read her collection, poetry felt abstract. Something old to be studied and analysed.

It wasn’t until I was introduced to Instagram poets like Rupi Kaur that I realised anyone with anything to say could write poetry. While it may not always

be to my taste, Instapoetry is inspiring a brand new generation of writers, and that is something to be celebrated.

When I attended a seminar at the University of Warwick, the lecturer said, “anything can be a poem.” Instagram poetry incorporates this creative freedom that combines literature, art and aesthetics.

This attitude that poetry can exist in any form is an attitude that poet Rebecca Watts critiques in her article, aptly titled ‘The Cult of the Noble Amateur.’

Watts criticises poets like Rupi Kaur for the “honesty and accessibility” that characterises her work. She asks, “when did honesty become a requirement – let alone the main requirement – of poetry?” Watts writes “that artless poetry sells.” The combination of the terms “honesty” and “artless” feel somewhat faulted. Poetry has adapted to changes in society time and time again, and the type of poetry written is a reflection of these changes. Just as the romantics wouldn’t stop banging on about nature, millennials love to write about their feelings.

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This is in part down to social media.

This is in part down to social media. Social media has played a significant role in destigmatising mental health, and this is reflected in the type of poetry that comes from sites like Instagram. Poetry collections like Charly Cox’s She Must Be Mad is an honest portrayal of a young woman’s battle with her mental health. The honesty in this work is part of its charm.

Cox’s work is unapologetically truthful. Reading it feels more like having a conversation with a friend than reading a poetry book. There are not just glimpses of humanity hidden between the stanzas, but an entire person. You don’t just read poetry like that. You laugh with it and cry with it. You embrace it and remember it. That is the difference that writing “honest” poetry makes.

Watts does not give enough credit to the use of honesty in poetry. However, there is truth in the idea that honesty shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all. For a poem to be “good”, there has to be a level of artistic skill. Jotting down a line about a broken heart is a great starting point to an honest and meaningful poem. Leaving it as a sentence feels unfinished, and to some degree, lazy.

Social media is the epitome of openness.

Our entire lives are documented in small snapshots, from where we eat, to our relationships, our families, our holidays and our pets. I could go on and on.

It isn’t surprising then that the poetry that comes from Instagram is honest and exposing. Perhaps the interest in it comes from a place of nosiness. With the click of a few buttons, we have access to someone’s entire life (or at least their online life). Poetry that isn’t honest isn’t intimate enough for a generation that has become accustomed to having access to other people’s lives.

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While social media is open, it isn’t necessarily honest.

In the last few years, in particular, models and influencers have been rejecting and revealing the kinds of ways people modify their lives to gain likes and followers. With this in mind, perhaps the appeal of “honest” Instagram poetry is exactly that. It makes a nice change to read a snippet of poetry than scroll past brand deal after brand deal, and flawless models promoting teeth whitening kits. We are searching for ways to fill our Instagram feeds with things that we can resonate with.

Some Instagram poetry is bad. A single line comparing a lover to the night sky is both a cliché and a waste of paper. In the same way that some Instagram poetry is bad, some normal, regular, “academic” poetry is bad too. Some Instapoets put “Instapoet” in their bio and churn out a rhyming couplet every few days about love and the moon, in an effort to become Insta-famous, and it shows.

Some regular poets live off Bukowski and Ginsberg, creating copy-cat poetry because those guys did it and it worked for them. When it comes down to it, some poetry is bad, and some is good, regardless of your means of publication. Labelling an entire genre of poetry as “artless” is snobbery at its finest, and to reject Instagram poetry as a whole, is to seriously deprive yourself. Just like regular poetry, finding Instagram poetry that you like is comparable to finding a diamond in the rough, but it’s worth the search.

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I Will Be Here //Demi Echezona I will be here, watching the sky birth light.

Shadows falling away promptly.

My father will rise with the sun, Sharing knowing smiles with my mother.

My sister’s eyes shine, learning lines for the perfect role.

But each rejection will take its toll.

Hushed voices behind books in the back of class, I sit amongst us girls of glass, Who ask, who?

When I tell them, I kissed a boy on the cheek, All because he asked for a piece of me.

I will watch the clouds shape the sky, hoping To be modelled and moulded in the same way.

My father rises before us, Choking coughs in his hands.

My mother’s smile is weaker, meeker than before And my sister’s patience is starting to thaw.

The ageing girls don’t giggle but cackle in gaggles, about what I’ve done now, How they ask, how?

By giving away another piece of me.

I will be watching the sky bleed red; The sun and my father don’t rise together, Day no longer waits for him to begin, Turning mother’s smile into a ghost, With eyes blank, that stare at her daughter’s lipstick stained teeth.

Between cigarette smoke clouds, crowds of women Wanton and unwanted wait for my stories of men; Yet lips and legs remain pressed tightly as they should, For they’re right.

I gave away all the pieces of me.

I will be here, watching darkness unfold, While our sun slips out with the last sliver of light, And just as she did, and I will do, my sister Hushes dreams back to sleep when they stir at infant’s cry.

The girls of glass are women of wounds.

Marching in silence, streaks on cheeks shimmering, One strained voice A word away from being a gasp for breath.

Leaving me In Pieces.

The night sky lays at my feet, and I want sleep.

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Everyone Ran, Except You // James Tatam long before your thoughts retreated into the temples of time, you were stitched from a patchwork of love, like a scarecrow, out of flow, to sit and observe while everyone else ran free through the golden fields of infinity. perhaps you were crafted this way, your life a stage direction in another’s play. all the other waxwork boys are busy melting for fire girls, while you juggle firestones, and burn. a prison, free to move out of the urn but trapped by the thing inside. the thing that ties your arms behind your back, the insecurities that peck at you like crows. everyone says you can overcome, everyone says you are free, but the clay they made you from was hardened, and difficult to sculpt. to you, strength is an afterthought. and if confidence was something to be bought, you’d probably trade the universe and more instead of wasting time holding closed an open door. if only the gods made you better, then perhaps the goddesses would not have walked away. if only, then maybe you would believe others when they attempt to unfetter your opinions astray. but alas, you are what you are: promethean, melting clay. you have all the keys, but still struggle with the locks. that’s what they all say. “unleash the hounds, blitz the beaches, do something to let the world know that you exist, that you do not merely occupy time.” trapped in the mind’s castle hall, debating if a life half lived is better than no life at all. and while others evolve and smile, relishing the fun of watching their lives come undone, you wonder if it was worth it, to waste precious atoms on your grime, all for constructing something that is barely alive half the time.

Smashed and Reconstituted: The Rebirth of Retellings in Contemporary Literary Fiction // Kieran Adamson Some stories are good. Some are very good. Some are so good that we feel the need to tell them over and over again. Recently, there has been a sudden surge in the popularity of retellings in contemporary literary fiction, many of which contending for prestigious positions such as the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Man Booker Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize.

Or, at least, it appears that way. So why is this the case? Why are more and more authors turning to preexisting stories instead of starting anew? And why do we love rehashing the past so much?

Of course, some retellings are more obvious than others. There are no prizes for guessing which Gothic horror Jeanette Winterson had in mind when writing Frankissstein, in which she demonstrates that the retelling can truly take any form. While Johnson preserves only the heart of Oedipus, building around a self-fulfilling prophecy, Winterson works closer with her source material, even including passages of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s journals and letters, and revisionist happenings in parallel with a contemporary reanimation of the tale.

Writing a novel - especially your debut - is intimidating. Having an original story to work from, no matter how loose, can help assuage some of this anxiety. With her first novel Everything Under, Daisy Johnson chose to reconstruct Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex on the canals of Oxford, in which language, gender, and geography come together in a haunting blend.

Despite successfully entering the world of fiction in 2016 with her first book, short story collection Fen, Johnson chose to retell. ‘To write from scratch feels, to me, like digging into concrete with a spoon … [W]ith retelling,’ she writes, ‘there is half a hole there, to begin with.’

To retell is to change, to adapt. It’s unsurprising, then, that so many writers are turning to pre-existing stories, finding a certain flexibility in older fiction. Retellings allow authors to usher in a variety of new elements to their work, making stories more inclusive, more provocative, and more relevant to the contemporary age than ever.

Both Johnson and Winterson have explored gender before their novels, and the retelling only allows them to broaden this scope.

Johnson herself has said that she loved the idea of taking something ancient, destroying and rebuilding it, seeing if she could make it ‘feminist and contemporary and wild’.

Her reimagining of two key figures of the Oedipus myth as transgender, in a tradition of what Kit Haggard deems ‘queer fabulism’, illustrates the potential of the retelling as a site of exploration and innovation. Winterson similarly reworks Frankenstein for the 21st century, covering topics such as artificial intelligence, sexbots, and transhumanism with a deft awareness. Her protagonist - the aptly named Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor living in Brexit Britain - claims they ‘live with a doubleness’, and the implications technological advances will have for our minds and bodies is applied to our currently developing understanding of gender.

It’s similarly easy to see the appeal of retellings in a postcolonial world, with novels such as Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire (like Johnson’s, a Sophoclean rewrite, but this time a British Muslim Antigone) literally rewriting the script on exactly whose stories are being told, and how, elevating the importance afforded to them. In June 2018, Preti Taneja won the £10,000 Desmond Elliott Prize for her debut We That Are Young. A retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear set in contemporary India. Multiple publishers rejected it before its initial 2017 publication, as they claimed the novel was ‘too “tricksy” to be a commercial success’.

Of course, there is the old postmodern chestnut that there are no new stories, which this boom of contemporary retellings seems to prove. From intertextuality and fragmentation to pastiche and metafiction, many of these novels capture the heart of the original tales perfectly, whilst making sure to incorporate the zeitgeist of our contemporary age.

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After all, some stories we simply love. In the cases of fairy tales, classical myth, and Shakespeare’s works - they are culturally ingrained. Bred into us from the days we learn to listen and read. This desire to destroy and rework and revise, which Johnson calls a ‘once more with feeling’, isn’t surprising. It isn’t hard to see the appeal in revisiting stories we know so well as we age, both as individuals and as a species.

The process of a retelling allows a more open and honest conversation about writing itself. With the line between reader and writer becoming increasingly blurred, we begin to see the process of adaption laid out before us, exposing what inspires and nourishes the stories that we love, as well as the minds that make them.

But perhaps this phenomenon isn’t so recent after all. Winterson herself has already dabbled in the retelling back in her 2015 The Winter’s Tale rewrite, The Gap of Time. Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, a partial retelling of EM Forster’s Howards End, was published nearly fifteen years ago at the time of writing, and The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter’s horror-filled fairytale redux, was published in 1979. Needless to say, there are countless more.

So while this literary trend, like the retellings themselves, is not wholly new, it is certainly exciting.

And, undoubtedly – hopefully – something we will see again, and again, and again.

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A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life - Charles Darwin

Science & Tech

exploring new developments

and The Endocannaboid System

C

annabis has undoubtedly experienced an exponential growth in popularity within the last decade. Not within the grower/stoner community, but the medical and scientific research field. The iconic marijuana leaf symbol is experiencing a transition to becoming an icon of alternative healing, and perhaps also one of progressive scientific practice. This herbal renaissance has proven scary for some of the general population, but if we dig beneath the surface (and I encourage you to do so), we find that our relationship with this plant spans further back than you may think.

// Rahul Kakaiya

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C

It is still not certain (although it is likely) whether humans historically smoked cannabis with the intention to get high, but what is not debatable is that cannabis has been used as medicine and raw material since as far back as 500 BC. The hemp plant was used to make clothing, paper, sails and rope, and its seeds were used as food long before the advent of industrial processes and factory production.

If we fast forward two thousand years, we can examine its use in the major armed struggle that became known as the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Mexicans immigrated to the USA to escape armed conflict and in the hope of prosperity. At the time, America was heading straight towards the Great Depression, and social unrest and unemployment was causing paranoia and hostility amongst the general population. It is important to note that up until this point, cannabis was hardly used recreationally in the United States. In order to maintain relative peace, the American government criminalised cannabis consumption with the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. This act provided a mandate to deport many Mexicans (due to their cannabis-normative cultures). During his presidency, Nixon even declared marijuana a Class 1 drug amongst both heroin and ecstasy, with “no medical use and high potential for abuse”.

By looking at the mortality rate and economic impact, it is clear that cannabis is less physically harmful to humans than both tobacco and alcohol. However, the latter are both available for purchase and consumption at the consumer’s risk. In my opinion, Polish hemp production and distribution company ‘CannabiGold’ explains the place of cannabinoids amongst other substances well. They say that “It is worth remembering that the ability of substances of the external origin to connect to body receptors is not at all a unique feature – this is exactly how we get affected by (and addicted to) coffee, alcohol, opiates…In the case of cannabinoids, we do not have this problem, which does not change the fact that the plant cannabinoids can affect our body in many different ways.”

This raises questions around how much influence government legislation has had towards objective research into this substance. Over the decades, scientists have found loopholes through which they have been able to conduct general research around the subject, but the intricacies are far from developed.

We are all born with an inherent biological network called the endocannabinoid system.

Everything that you interact with daily affects the chemicals and hormones circulating around your body. Your body reacts to these stimuli accordingly (both internally and externally). Flashback to GCSE biology and recall the circulatory, respiratory and nervous system, to name a few. These networks are called biological systems. One of these biological systems is called the endocannabinoid system, which is comprised of two main receptors: CB1 and CB2. Receptors are biological ‘locks’ and the chemicals released into our bodies (such as adrenaline and serotonin) are the ‘keys’. Different chemicals bind to different receptors for different effects, and networks of these make up different biological systems.

Note that CB1 and CB2 receptors live predominantly in the brain and nervous system, as well as peripheral organs.

of your rumbling stomach is thanks to the balancing act of the endocannabinoid system. Essentially the endocannabinoid system is responsible for maintaining harmony in the body to allow you to maintain function. Likely, it developed early as a biological survival mechanism during intensive periods. If you have ever stood in front of a large audience of people, it is the endocannabinoid system which balances hormones (perhaps produced due to nerves or performance anxiety) in your body so that you can get up onto the stage.

Technically, we should be praising Mo Farah’s endocannabinoid system which has allowed him to surpass his physical limit in every race and break record after record.

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Excessive inflammation, however, has the possibility of leading to arthritis, osteopetrosis and cancerous conditions.

Interestingly, CBD has been found to inhibit the efficiency of the CB2 receptor. In turn, the CB2 receptors are less efficient in producing inflammation, making CBD an anti-inflammatory, with research being done into what extent this can be utilised. The critically acclaimed Netflix documentary ‘Weed the People’ explores the scientific legitimacy of using CBD to treat cancer. The documentary follows a small company that distributes specially produced medical marijuana to cancer patients and follows the journeys of some of the families the company has affected.

C A N N A B I

Like any other living organism, marijuana has a complex makeup of over 400 different chemicals. However, the two chemicals of common interest found within the plant are CBD and THC (THC being the psychoactive chemical which leads to a high). It takes only a Google search to find multiple claims and anecdotal research suggesting that these two chemicals can help heal acne, fibromyalgia, diabetes, and cancer, to name but a few. Swiss start-up company ‘Cibapet’ even go as far as to claim that their CBD pet supplements can relieve your pet of depression.

CAN N So how do CBD and THC affect the endocannabinoid system? Are these claims substantiated at all by the science?

CAN

The effect of CBD as an antiinflammatory in the body is just one of the ways that cannabis physically affects the body; however, even this has vast implications on our understanding of health that it requires research funding and support.

ABIS

I firmly believe that a conversation about how political tensions have postponed ever necessary discussions about how we must support scientific research is one worth having. We need to address the root causes behind the battles of our time and support science in its capacity to radically push human society forward. To me, it seems that proper and objective research into the effects of cannabis on the human body would be a significant leap in the right direction.

C A N N A B I

Have you ever stayed in bed until the early afternoon on a Saturday morning and waited to eat breakfast at 1 pm? Your body’s ability to stay tucked in bed against the desires

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S I B A N N A

One of the roles of the CB2 receptor is to enable inflammation within the body, which is important for protecting it against illness and injury.

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where humans could possibly travel to and live in the future. With larger corporations taking an interest in these discoveries of water on Mars, these concepts of space tourism and commercial space travel have quickly grown into a phenomenon that is talked about and seen within our media.

Since the

SPACE Tourism and Living On Mars. How Much Progress Have We Made?

beginning of space travel and exploration in the 1960s, countless scientists from around the world have been trying to figure out how to start putting humans more permanently on different planets. As these efforts have been seemingly fruitless from various space agencies and government programs, recently large corporations have started to pay attention and have paid millions of dollars of man-power and money towards achieving this goal.

With the end of the ‘Space Race’ in 1969, many people thought that by landing and walking on the Moon, NASA’s work and research would progress so rapidly that by 2010 people would be living on the Moon or Mars. Even though this has not happened, scientists analysing data from the Cassini-Huygens mission in 2005 and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2018 have found evidence of liquid and solid water on Europa and Mars respectively. Finding water on other planets and moons in any form is a starting point for scientific agencies to make choices as to

The company that is pushing the hardest and financially contributing the most to the goal of reaching Mars is SpaceX, which has the manifesto of revolutionising the reliability of space technology and exploration. Since Elon Musk founded it in 2002, they have sent over a hundred spacecrafts into the Earth’s atmosphere and orbit, and are currently developing and testing spacecrafts to send people to and from Mars. The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets have been developed as a precursor to this goal, and are used to ensure that SpaceX can feasibly send people into space safely.

In the earlier stages of SpaceX’s development, Musk created ‘Mars Oasis’, which was a project to see if plants and, in the long run, humans could feasibly live on Mars. This concept has grown into testing reusable rockets, and since 2013, SpaceX have successfully launched and landed the Falcon 9 craft twenty-three tim es on platforms on land and the ocean. This is a significant milestone for space flight as typically rockets tend to jet off parts of the craft as they travel through the atmosphere and in space. The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are designed intentionally for this not to happen so the company can cut back on the cost of having to build several rockets and to ensure that flight can be made back to Earth.

SpaceX also has sent rockets into space with no intention of them ever returning to Earth, such as a test for a Falcon Heavy rocket with a Tesla Roadster as its cargo in 2018. As strange as it seems to send a $250,000 car into orbit around the Sun, this was a way for Musk and SpaceX to viably test the weight that the Falcon Heavy can hold throughout its launch, and to show the public that SpaceX is serious about making the possibility of colonising Mars a reality.

Even though SpaceX has furthered the development of crafts like the Falcon and Dragon rockets, it has not been without any setbacks. In 2015, the Falcon 9 that was transporting a Dragon capsule to the International Space Station exploded and disintegrated only two minutes after being launched as pressure dropped rapidly due to a faulty fastening within the craft. Furthermore, in 2016, a Falcon 9 rocket that had a $200 million Israeli satellite onboard exploded when filled with fuel for a pre-launch test. The ‘most difficult and complex failure’ in SpaceX’s history at the time, as Musk described it, led to SpaceX stopping all flights and launches for four months until early 2017, as the engineers wanted to find the cause of the explosion and introduce preventative measures.

SpaceX’s future projects, while continuing with the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, are still in their infancies.

The ‘Starship and Super Heavy’ project is a fully reusable launch and spacecraft system intended to replace the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon crafts when it has been fully developed. To begin with, SpaceX are looking at putting this super-heavy rocket into orbit and back again as early as 2020 with initial testing being carried out a few months ago in July 2019. In the long run, Musk announced that the project is being created as a passenger flight system to carry private passengers to the Moon in 2023 with further plans to create a self-sufficient colony of humans on Mars who can live off of planet Earth by 2050. This would include SpaceX using the Starship and Super Heavy system to go back and forth between the two planets to take supplies and passengers and has been predicted by Musk to cost less to launch than all existing rockets due to the reusability and reliability of the launch.

In conclusion, we can see that space tourism overall is a rapidly growing field, and the public will be very interested in what Musk has promised in the past. Furthermore, the scientific community will be on the edge of its seat throughout the next few years to find out more about the flights to our own planet’s orbit and Mars and the research that can be carried out on them.

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QUANTUM COMPUTING - A New Era of Computation

W // Anthony Balchin

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e all know computers have been around for a very long time, we have seen many iterations of these machines; from the first mechanical computers developed in 1833 made for the use of naval navigations, all the way up to the most advanced supercomputers hidden away within a select few laboratories across the world. It is safe to say we have seen a lot of improvement in the relatively short amount of time that the field of computing has been around for. The continual drastic improvement over the years has brought us to the brink of a new significant development – the introduction of quantum computers.

Quantum computers are unlike any of its predecessors, the new era of computing takes full advantage of quantum physics, creating computers of what seems to be limitless capabilities. The typical first thought of most people regarding quantum physics is that it would never actually affect their day to day life in any way and that it is just something extremely smart scientists get paid to study. While the latter is true, you may be surprised to hear that leading quantum technology experts believe the use of such machines is just on the horizon.

problem formulated in the 19thcentury

by W.R. Hamilton. It describes a salesman who wants to visit several points or ‘nodes’ in any order, along roads connecting them, in the most efficient way possible. We have no current way of solving this problem without testing every single pathway, which can be too much even for NASA’s super-computer. Being able to solve these kinds of problems with quantum computers has important applications, such as being able to find the quickest route for an ambulance to take in a busy city in order to reach someone in need.

To create such a machine, we have to exploit many quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition and entanglement. These fundamental properties of quantum systems can be simply explained as nature’s way of containing lots of information within groups of particles.

These phenomena are where the infamous Schrodinger’s cat stems from, however, rather than a cat being in a state of alive and dead until observed, it is more simply a ‘qubit’ being in a ‘1’ state and a ‘0’ state until measured. The benefit of this is that we can build computers from the ground up with these ‘qubits’ which are capable of being a combination of both the ‘1’ and ‘0’ state, rather than a classical computer bit which is limited to just a 1 or a 0.

Google has dedicated a team to advancing quantum computing in the hopes of developing artificial intelligence, called AI Quantum. They have been making rapid progress that seems to be following a ‘doubly exponential growth’ compared to classical computing — dubbed “Nevan’s law”. If this law holds true, quantum computing will reach supremacy in under a year. This law comes from the advantages of quantum to classical, as well as the rate at which progress is being made by companies such as IBM and Google.

Although the apparent reasons for going through all this trouble are not immediately clear, this basic level of understanding of quantum mechanics is the groundwork of all quantum computers. There are still problems that are too complex to solve with today’s technology, even if we used all the computational power on the planet.

Quantum computers are the next step up.

They possess a computational power which scales extremely fast with the number of ‘qubits’. With an unimaginable increase in the speed of our computers, we can start to make significant progress towards solving ‘unsolvable’ problems. One such example is the notorious ‘travelling salesman’

Although ‘the core theoretical component of quantum computing is still being written and being developed’, the scientific community has still managed to make momentous progress in the field of quantum computing. It is truly remarkable how research from multiple fields has come together to build the foundations of the new era of computation, with the potential to provide groundbreaking discoveries in many fields, from finance to medicine. We have only started to see quantum computing in its infancy; it will not be long until this field dominates computation – with major consequences for the advancement of science.

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Are you Voiceless or are you heard?

“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”

- Arundhati Roy

Rent Strikes, pints and an interview with Alexander Simpson. // Peter Ferguson

Did you know that Surrey has the most expensive pint in the UK averaging at £4.40?

For those of you that have lived in Guildford, this comes as no surprise. Guildford is an expensive area to live in, and that’s not just because of the pints!

While drinking is often one of the largest expenses of student life, rent is the other. However, it is an entirely unavoidable cost of being a student. While in many universities around the country, people often save money when they move out of campus accommodation into the private sector, this is not the case at Surrey. In my first year at Surrey, I was told that if I find a house for £600 per month, then I should take it and consider myself lucky. There are, of course, cheaper properties around the area depending on the location and the quality of the house, but there is no denying it - the housing market is not easily affordable.

This issue could just be considered an unavoidable part of studying here at Surrey and in the UK generally but having interviewed Alexander Simpson, it turns out there is much more we can do as students to secure a more affordable life here. (He wasn’t able to give much advice on how to lower the price of a pint, unfortunately). The interview proved to be amusing, captivating and incredibly educating on how students across the country have managed to change the renters market in their communities and also how specifically university-provided accommodation as consistently been made cheaper by direct action from students. I believe this interview is a must-read for anyone looking to enter the private housing sector in Guildford or anyone looking to save money in university-provided accommodation.

The interview began with Alexander introducing himself as the Co-Chair of Surrey Cut The Rent, for the

second year running as well as being one of the original founders of the society. He is also involved in People & Planet society, a former member of the Student Union Voice Zone, as well as being in political activism in Surrey and London. Although that can all be summed up quite succinctly by his statement: “I am quite heavily involved in pushing forward for change on campus.”

When asked why it is that he is so involved in political activism and Cut The Rent he replied simply with “Rent is too damn high and someone has to do it” before elaborating further.

“So I do Liberal Arts and Sciences as my degree, which means that I major in social sciences such as Economics and Politics and I minor in natural sciences, mostly on the engineering side, but with more Computer Science added in recently. For me, politics is equally important to my ability to create what I want to see in the world.

It is a method of seeing a better world, and at Surrey, there are many things wrong with our University. There are many things that can be changed and made better and so because I am in a privileged position of being on a course that’s not, in terms of contact hours, hugely demanding, I am able to engage with the political sphere at Surrey.”

Through Alex’s responses, it quickly became apparent that the price of rent and the housing situation of students is more than just a financial inconvenience that might cut into someone’s drinking budget. Rather, it is something that must be changed to achieve a better

world. Where his politics are defined as bettering the world, and continuously pushing for that betterment, rent becomes something more akin to a moral issue than a simple budgeting one. It is not right that rent is so expensive here and it must be challenged.

Unfortunately, we all know that university and housing is generally expensive so I put the question to him, is this not just a fact of university and housing? Rent is expensive, why is Surrey unique? What I did not expect was to hear how the University of Surrey is actually in a fairly unique situation, that is not experienced by other UK universities. While it is definitely not the only expensive university, it is rare for the following factors to apply to a university other than Surrey.

“Two things. Guildford is in a specifically tight spot because it is both in the London commuter belt and additionally it is relatively new here, only opening in the 60s. The local community hasn’t really adapted to it, and the University management hasn’t tried to help its integration. This has become especially problematic ever since the government removed the student number cap from universities [where they can take in an unrestricted number of students each year].

So we are in a specifically problematic situation in the sense that it is being exacerbated by being within the London sphere of influence while being a town that is rapidly growing but hasn’t made any accounts for its rapid growth. We have seen a stagnation in the building of social housing leading to people from poorer backgrounds being forced to take more expensive housing or being pushed out entirely. This, in turn, pushes the price of private accommodation up across the board for all of us. If we look at the current developments in Guildford, the majority of housing communities are being built marketed toward higher rent accommodation, and if we look at Scape 2, which is being built for student accommodation, it is going to

be luxury accommodation. This is further alienating for working-class students and is pushing them out of the area. The issue is therefore in the background factors, the lack of policy initiatives in terms of pushing forward more affordable housing in Guildford and the University of Surrey as an entity that has forced such rapid growth in the area. Additionally though, landlords feel that they are entitled to constantly increase rent which leaves us in a situation where we already have a bad base to work from and ’it’s only made worse where landlords are only helping themselves because they feel they can keep raising rent, partly inline with these new luxury builds, which pushes up the average rent across Guildford in general which then, in turn, throws everything out of place!”

Having talked about the private renting side of Guildford, we then moved on to the University provided accommodation on Stag Hill, Manor Park and Hazel Farm. While in private housing you can easily be paying over £150 a week, the university offers accommodation from £70 a week, and there is guaranteed to be enough accommodation for every new student. I asked if this was also an area of concern or if he was happy with the University’s provision here.

“So this is an area of concern because it is one that is slightly more difficult to deal with from our perspective.

Whilst there have been very successful rent strike movements across the country, especially in UCL in London and also in Brighton, there is an element in which our accommodation on campus at the higher end is incredibly expensive, but those who are going into that accommodation can afford it. This makes it very difficult to organise [those that are able to comfortably afford the higher rents], but it is nevertheless an issue, and we want to focus on it however we do not have the resources at this time, especially while we are dealing with the atrocious private sector in Guildford.”

The idea of rent striking was new information to me, and I’m sure it will be to many people. My understanding was always that if you fail to pay rent, you get evicted or sanctioned. Yet, finding out that throughout the last century, rent strikes have been massively successful, not just decades ago, but even within the last few years, was incredible. I asked Alexander to give a brief summary of what a rent strike is to clarify.

“So a Rent Strike is quite an old technique where effectively a person or a group of people withhold their rent until their demands are met by the landlord. In the case of universities, that’s a very useful tool because the University is a giant landlord for all their students [living on campus and off-campus in Universitymanaged housing]. So if students in a block, for example in Cathedral Court, were to collectively decide to withhold their rent until the University fixed an issue or met whatever their demands were, the students would instead pay rent to a separate bank account. This could be to a Cut The Rent organisation, or the Student Union or any organisation really, but they would not pay the rent directly to the University until their demands were met and then the rent would be paid in full.”

I had to ask if this was dangerous. After all, precedent or not, not paying rent sound incredibly risky even with the support of other people to bolster your collective bargaining power.

“In universities, there have been a lot of rent strikes in the past eight years, and it has been very effective; no one has ever been prosecuted for it, and hugely successful admissions have been gained for students. For example, in UCL, a couple million pounds were gained from rent strikes, and the terrible accommodation situations were dealt with. So in terms of universities, rent strikes are very effective and quite low risk, given the fact that there have been no court cases or prosecutions from them. However, in the private sector, it becomes a bit more difficult because people are atomised and alienated, so it is more difficult to organise a rent strike. Additionally, in the case of the

university, universities in their current state are quite marketised and worried about their image. So students going on strike over rent is tarnishing their image and makes them more likely to give in to demands than private landlords who will try and evict you.

Marketisation is the process of turning a system into a competitive market, so making higher education into a market in which the students are consumers, and buy the product of a degree. This changes the relationships between the students and the University, which makes it more difficult for students in some ways to be seen as people instead of just consumers. This means that universities feel more obligated to act like businesses and minimise their costs by firing lecturers, reducing pensions and changing quality of life at universities which is why ’we’re in a situation where rent is high, living costs are high and we ’don’t have the same sense of humanity and connection with the institution, with our lecturers, our staff and our fellow students.

After this explanation, it would seem that rent striking doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be dangerous to your personal situation. However, it doesn’t sound very legal - the whole concept of reneging on a contract and not paying rent. This begged my next question on whether it was in fact legal!

“It’s a legal grey area. So it’s not illegal to go on rent strike in universities. However, there aren’t any laws around it. I am not a lawyer and can’t say for certain, but from my understanding and from working Rent Strike the organisation and the London Renters Union, we have never come across anything to say that it is illegal. [Rent striking] is just not protected by law and in the private sector, if you aren’t paying your rent, you can be evicted.”

So while not illegal, it would appear that you can’t expect much help from legal bodies either if you were to go on rent strike. Anyone that has spent much time at the University of Surrey would probably agree with me that this doesn’t exactly sound like the kind of action that students here would naturally take and Alexander was in agreement with me here.

“In the University of Surrey I don’t think [a rent strike] is likely. Partly just because the culture of the university is very affluent and middle class. This is in part because the costs have been rising ridiculously and it becomes difficult to mobilise people that are comfortable with that situation.”

So the advice I would give them is that the University uses people going into the higher band accommodation as a reason to not build lower band accommodation. I would recommend that they ’don’t get ripped off by the uni because Guildford is an expensive town and paying that much is going to screw you over. Additionally, I would recommend that people be active, be vocal and petition the While Cut The Rent may not be looking at organising Students Union and the University. If that ’doesn’t work a rent strike right now, I was interested to know what like it ’hasn’t so far then move on towards more radical and their goals are. direct action, which is relatively effective at this university because they are not prepared for it.”

“So originally we were going down the route of trying to mobilise for a Rent Strike when we started Cut The My final question for Alexander was, what would you like Rent. However, we had a meeting and realised that it was to see from the Student Union this year? impractical without having huge numbers and especially with those involved being overstretched with other “I would like a commitment to lowering the rent responsibilities Instead we decided it would be better to and trying to tackle private landlords in the market focus on the private sector and that we could provide in Guildford to make it more affordable for students. information to students going into the private sector Additionally, we are in the process of focusing on the about their rent, their rights and what they can do about construction of co-operative housing in Guildford which it by themselves but additionally I want to move towards is housing that is owned by people who live there with a Tenants Union model where we collectively help each control over the house, and when they leave, they then other in our accommodation situations and if worse pass on their share of the house to the next person. They comes to worst picket in front of estate agents and push completely control it. If there’s a garage that they want to for recognition for those people who are in bad tenancy turn into another bedroom or change the house at all, this agreements and screwed over by the ’landlord’s where their is democratically controlled within the house, and they houses are falling apart. Actually trying to cut the rent is can actually push for the way they want to live and that’s slightly more difficult in that Circumstance but it is doable the main thing that we are focused on working on at the through a Tenants Union.” moment — creating more affordable, fair and democratic housing in Guildford. The Student Union has actually Much like rent strikes, Tenants Unions, were a new concept committed to supporting the building of co-operative to me. I have no knowledge about the history of them and housing in Guildford, but due to the turnover rate of the was curious to know if they had ever really been set up in Student Union, last year we had their support as it was University accommodation. passed in policy at the AMM 2 years ago. However, we will need to remind the Student Union of their obligations to “So they haven’t usually been set up in university campus enforce that policy now.” accommodation. Instead, they have been done through Rent Strike models, which are very effective, but effectively With all the questions asked and answered, I thanked function the same way or in a similar fashion. They are not Alexander for his time and knowledge. For all those the same, but similar enough.” interested in learning more about their rights as renters both in Guildford and the University, they can join Surrey As the interview entered into its final stage, I thought it Cut The Rent. For more information on rent striking would be helpful to see what advice could be given to those specifically, you can visit https://www.rent-strike.org to find about to join Surrey for this academic year. out more.

students being heard

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

- Coco Chanel

What’s Uni Really Like?

First Year vs. Final Year

by Annabella Costantino (BA English Literature with Creative Writing)

As cliché as it sounds, university is one big learning curve. The three years teach you so much about yourself and others that I’d say it’s near impossible not to change as a person by the time graduation arrives. If you had asked me three years ago today what I thought university was going to be like, I would have told you that it’s about going to all your lectures and trying to get the most out of your degree from an educational perspective. If you asked me now, I would say that university is a lot more than just the subject you are studying. It’s so important to find a life outside of your course and to seek experiences that will teach you valuable lessons that you can use in every aspect of life. Even though the typical student lifestyle of going out and missing 9 am lectures is so easy to slip into during your time as a fresher, it’s not the only way to live your first year at university, albeit being the one that is most commonly associated with being a student.

At most universities, drinking culture plays a large role in a student’s social life and is therefore normalised. As is being broke and not being able to do anything about it, but neither of these myths are necessarily true. It is possible to disprove

these expectations if you’re not one to go out and party and I can assure you that there are other ways to make friends. As long as you try to get involved in societies and try new things, there is no reason why you won’t meet like-minded people that you will find things in common with. The American stereotype of university that is portrayed in television and film means that the experience you have might not fulfil the ideal that you had in your head before starting university. I can assure you though that by the time you reach your final year, you will have realised that you have to make your time at university whatever you want it to be. Whether that means joining the ice skating society despite having the worst balance in the world or trying archery again for the first time in years, there is an endless list of societies to choose from, something for everyone. The sooner you put yourself out there, the sooner you will know if it was the right decision for you to make or not.

everyone involved. If your friends are real, they will be there for both the good and the bad. The challenges you face will only bring you closer together, and the happy memories you share will become times to cherish later on down the line. If I had one piece of advice for the fresher that I used to be, I would tell them not to pretend to be someone they aren’t, and not to try and fit in just for fitting in’s sake. Do whatever makes you happy, even if that is not what the majority are doing. There is nothing wrong with being who you are, and you should never apologise for that. As the years of your course go by, your priorities will evolve, as will your friendships, and that is entirely normal.

Above all else, I’d say not to be afraid of trying new things and do as much as you can while you are still a student. At the end of the day, university is a time of growth and fun, but most importantly, it’s about the experience.

However, moving away from home can be hard, especially if it is the first time you have ever lived away from your family and most of your friends. In this day and age, the wonders of technology can help maintain relationships and make doing the whole long-distance thing a lot easier for 42

sport at uni and beyond

Sport

“You’re never a loser until you quit trying.”

- Mike Ditka

Is Royal Holloway holding Surrey’s Varsity back? //Michael Slavin For countless students at Surrey, there is one undeniable highlight of the year: Our Varsity event against Royal Holloway. Whether for sporting or social reasons, each year, Varsity is the very first date for us as students to mark on our calendars, and for good reason too. The Team Surrey website describes Varsity as “a day of sporting battle… over 1500 students play and spectate in a series of fixtures across the day, culminating in a huge finale in the main arena to see who will be crowned Varsity Champions and take the local bragging rights that year”. Despite these lofty descriptions - to me, it lives up to this and so much more. It is an opportunity for clubs who spend much of the year in friendly rivalry firing pot-shots and digs at one another to be brought together by their mutual desire to get one over on our rivals from down the road. It is an opportunity for sporting heroes to be crowned, allowing several smaller clubs a chance in the spotlight of huge crowds. It is an opportunity to, win or lose, bond over a VK or 4 at Rubix afterwards and have a great night. I could very easily be accused of exaggerating slightly here, but to me, Varsity is simply the day of the year where Surrey feels most like a community.

This has been made clear to me after having participated in two Varsity’s since joining: one on

the sporting side of things and one as part of student media. Despite my love for the day, there does seem to be a recurring problem with Varsity that I feel needs addressing.

Our Varsity rivalry with Royal Holloway started back in 2017, and it came into existence in large part due to our previous rivalry with Kingston University no longer being tenable. This fixture initially made sense at the time of its inception in 2010 as both Kingston and Surrey used to be polytechnics, and a residual bitter rivalry remained left over from this. Further, at the time we were relatively close in sporting stature, so much so that Kingston won the first Varsity against Surrey. In 2010 however, Surrey also opened the nowiconic Surrey Sports Park and went on to win the next six straight Varsity’s against Kingston. Whilst Surrey were climbing in both academic and sporting prowess, Kingston remained one of the lower-ranked universities in both, and so a new Varsity fixture was created - with Royal Holloway.

On paper, Royal Holloway is the logical step up from Kingston. In academic stature and size, they are far more comparable to Surrey than Kingston, and similarly to Kingston are only about a half-hour drive from Guildford. For me, however, Holloway simply 44

My point, however, is that if Holloway can exceed expectations, pull off considerable upsets in major sports, and still have Surrey win double the events that they do, what is the point?

Rivalries cannot live purely on regional similarity alone. The great rivalries in sports, England and Australia in Cricket, Celtic and Rangers in Football, the USA and Jamaica in Athletics, all boil down to a clash over time to determine who is the best. One university wailing on another every year with their superior resources and funding doesn’t make an entertaining rivalry.

It keeps both universities sporting programmes stagnant, lacking the reinvigorating spark a proper rivalry would bring to both ourselves and Holloway.

The reality is that no team who would be a similar stature to ours in a sporting nature will be as geographically close as Holloway.

Varsity fixture, although some universities in the south of England face a similar situation to our own. Oxford Brookes sit 37th in the BUCS rankings, with 55 teams currently entered, a stark contrast to their Varsity rivals: Reading University, who sit 48th, a full 11 places below Brookes. This has meant that in the eight Varsity fixtures between the two, Brookes has won a whopping six. Despite this, I would suggest Bournemouth University. They sit 23rd in BUCS and thus would represent a substantial challenge for Surrey, one that I believe would reinvigorate a competitive edge to Varsity. They currently face off against Southampton Solent, who are a surprising 46 places below Bournemouth in 69th.

Whilst Bournemouth are an hour and a half drive away, I believe they are still close enough for a formidable rivalry to form.

In addition, most will already have a standing

isn’t at a comparable level to Surrey for Varsity to be a fair fight.

In my first year, I ran in the Cross Country event at Royal Holloway, and the club were lovely - they did their absolute best to put on a great event for us.

However, they didn’t have any route made available to them on campus, which meant a 20 minute trek into the woods off-campus. This instantly resulted in one of the biggest attractions of Varsity - the crowds - being taken away from us both. Then you have the problem of marshalling the actual route to make sure everyone knows the way to go and no one goes off in a random direction. In order to dedicate four or five people to this as the host, Holloway were then left with maybe only five runners to actually run the Cross Country. Surrey, however, had around 30-40 members that had come down and run. Not only did we have more runners, but we were also a much more put-together club. 15-20 Surrey Stags finished before a single Holloway Bear crossed the line.

last nine years. This should hardly be surprising when Surrey are and have been for years, about 30 places above Royal Holloway in the BUCS rankings (30th and 64th respectively as of the end of 2018-19). On top of this, we have 64 teams entered into BUCS as opposed to Holloway’s 40, demonstrating how incomparable the two are in sporting stature.

This last year, I was commentating for StagTV’s broadcast, and I saw yet another problem. In the Men’s and Women’s Volleyball and Men’s Football fixtures which I watched over, Surrey were the overwhelming favourites in all three. In Volleyball, both teams were in the same league as each other for Men’s and Women’s, with Surrey winning the previous fixtures this year and finishing far higher in the year. Men’s Football were three divisions above their Holloway opponents and, despite a poor season, were overwhelming favourites to win. All three, however, provided an upset victory through fantastic performances that nullified Surrey’s home advantage.

That year Cross Country was one of 11 different You’d think three major victories like this, three upsets, would surely have a significant effect on the fixtures Surrey won to nil, scoring overall. Nope. Surrey won 25-11, and this leading to an overall crushing victory of 53-29. is excluding the events such as Men’s Rugby which This is one of three consecutive victories in every Royal Holloway pulled out of very close to the day, Varsity fixture to have taken place between the two which realistically should’ve counted in Surrey’s universities, all by clear margins in Surrey’s favour. favour.

This leaves Surrey as undefeated in Varsity over the 45

At the end of the day, that is what I believe is best for Surrey - proper competition.

Something Royal Holloway, unfortunately, simply are not.

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UNIVERSITY OF SURREY