Asian students feel “less confident” and “isolated” as hate crimes rise in County Durham

The number of reported hate crimes against Asian people in County Durham has increased by more than 50% since 2019. Data from a Freedom of Information Request to Durham Constabulary also shows that hate crimes against Chinese, Japanese and South East Asian people in particular has not returned to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. Campaigners believe that a high rate of underreporting is obscuring the true number of racist hate incidents and crimes faced by Asian people.

Palatinate has spoken to mem

Analysis: Highest paid Durham University staff are disproportionately white and male

A Palatinate analysis of data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) has shown that there is a disproportionate number of white and male full-time academic staff in Durham who are paid the highest salaries.

The data from the 2022 to 2023 academic year shows that 77% of total full-time academic staff at Durham University identified as white. However, 89% of the full- time academic staff who were being paid in the highest salary bracket of above £65,578 were white. In the UK as

Students feel “shocked” and “isolated” following Christian Union talk on sexuality

Content Warning: this article contains reference to homophobia and transphobia

Inclusive Christian Movement Durham (ICMD), Durham Students’ Union (SU) President Dan Lonsdale, and Durham’s LGBT+ Association amongst others have criticised the Durham Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (DICCU) for hosting Rev Matthew Roberts in their talk ‘Good News for a Sexualised World’.

The talk happened as part of DICCU’s ‘Good News’ week, which ran from 19th to 23rd February and included 15 talks “explaining h

Durham City night workers to receive Bystander Training to prevent sexual violence and harassment

Durham City night time workers will receive Bystander Training in a new initiative to prevent sexual violence and harassment.

The workshops will be delivered by Darlington and County Durham’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (RSACC) over the next fifteen months after the charity received funding from the Ministry of Justice for the scheme.

Durham students have expressed their optimism to Palatinate that this initiative will help to tackle sexual harassment on nights out.

According to the RSACC, t

Dan Lonsdale re-elected as Students’ Union President as voter turnout rises

Dan Lonsdale has been re-elected as President of the Students’ Union, alongside Catherine Howells and Moitreyo Ganguli, who were elected Education Officer and Community Officer respectively. The victorious candidates were announced at a ‘Results Night’ on Tuesday 13th February following a five-day voting period.

1879 students voted in the election, which marked a turnout of 8.55%, an increase on the 6.5% turnout that saw Mr Lonsdale elected SU President for the first time.

Dan Lonsdale receive

Durham Students’ Union Officer Interviews: President

The Students’ Union’s presidential contest is being fought by Dan Lonsdale, the incumbent President, and Abdul Wahab Imran, a second year Accounting and Finance student and the President of Durham’s Pakistan Society. Palatinate has interviewed both candidates about their reasons for standing and their plans for their time in charge of the SU.

Dan Lonsdale is fighting his third SU presidential election, after placing third in 2022 and winning an uncontested election last year. Asked why he is ru

University College’s allocation system causes frustration

Students have described changes to University (Castle) College’s system for allocating rooms intheir college accommodation for returners as being “characterised” by “confusion”, “lack of clarity” and “frustration”.

Students hoping to live in Castle College next year were initially told on 23rd January that the traditional room ballot system was to be taken over by the Accommodation and Allocations Office (AAO) and replaced with a random selection method. By the end of the week, the College info

UCU General Secretary candidates make their pitch to Palatinate as voting begins

Voting has begun for University and College Union (UCU) members to elect their next General Secretary. Dr Jo Grady, who was elected to the position in 2019, is standing for re-election alongside three other candidates: Professor Ewan McGaughey, Saira Weiner, and Vicky Blake. UCU members, who consist of academics, researchers and support staff in further and higher education, are also voting to elect a trustee, Vice President and national executive committee members. Palatinate has interviewed al

RAAC at St Leonard’s School: Report by DurhamUniversity reveals disruption faced by students

A Durham University report into the RAAC closure of St Leonard’s Catholic School has laid bare the “chaotic” impacts of the disruption on pupils, teachers, and parents. The report also called for special considerations to be given to the exam results of the cohorts who are taking GCSEs and A levels, suggesting up to a 10% grade inflation of their marks.

St Leonard’s Catholic School, a secondary school and sixth form near Aykley Heads, was forced to close at the beginning of September 2023, alon

Four JCRs declare climate emergencies amid climate crisis

University College (Castle)’s Junior Common Room (JCR) has joined Trevelyan College, St John’s and St Chad’s College JCRs in declaring a climate and ecological emergency. A motion to that effect was passed at a Castle JCR meeting in November last year.

Trevelyan and St. John’s College JCRs both recognised a climate emergency as part of more comprehensive Environment and Sustainability policies that were passed in Michaelmas term by both respective JCRs. St Chad’s JCR has, on the other hand, ado

International students re-evaluate next steps following UK visa changes

In December of last year, the Home Office announced changes to legal migration rules for family and work visas for 2024 and a review of the Graduate visa. Palatinate has spoken to Durham University students who are worried that the changes will affect their plans, or the plans of their loved ones, to live in the UK after they graduate.

The package of new measures proposed by the Government included a rise in the baseline minimum salary to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa from £26,200 to £

Students hoping for an ADHD diagnosis face long waiting lists and uncertain University support

Students seeking a diagnosis for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are enduring over a year-long wait for an NHS diagnostic assessment and unreliable disability support from Durham University while they wait, Palatinate has learned. Data provided by the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust reveals that the mean waiting time for an adult diagnosis is 57 weeks in the Country Durham area. Palatinate spoke to students who have been affected by the wait for a diagnosis, many o

Durham student rescued at sea after rowing boat capsizes

A Durham University student capsized in a rowing boat off the coast of Whitby in December. Tom Brown, the Boatman of Trevelyan College Boat Club, was with another experienced rower, a member of Whitby Coastal Rowing Club and not a Durham student, when their boat met a strong cross-shore wind and subsequently overturned as the pair attempted to return to harbour. After gaining the attention of another rower, the Coastguard was called and the capsized duo, who were at seas with two other pairs, we

‘I have even considered elocution lessons’: Durham students describe pressure to modify regional accents

In 2020, Durham graduate Lauren White wrote a report about the treatment of northern students at Durham University; over 20 past and present Durham students from the North of England, described feeling isolated and hearing their northern accents described as “feral,” “dirty” and “vulgar”.

Despite the North-East location, Durham’s student population is predominately southern and disproportionately privately educated: less than half of admissions come from non-grammar state schools with 12% of th

Community worries Hallgarth Care Home closure could cause “stress and isolation”

The closure of Hallgarth Care Home in August has left local residents worried for the future and accessibility of elderly care provision in Durham City.

Durham County Council has refused a subsequent planning application to convert the site into student accommodation, but stipulated that the property “is not needed to be used as a care home”.

Palatinate has spoken to affected Durham residents who reflected concerns about a shortage of care provision in Durham City and expressed worries that el

Durham SU to establish new Association for Estranged and Care Experienced students

An association supporting Durham University students who are estranged or care experienced is to be established at the meeting of the next Students’ Union assembly in November.

Palatinate spoke to Isi Ali and Tash Deacon from the Durham University Estranged and Care Experienced (DEaCE) Association about the challenges faced by estranged and care experienced students at university.

Estrangement is when an individual is disconnected or separated from their entire family or specific members, wher

Durham loses Gold rating in Teaching Excellence Framework

Durham University has been downgraded from Gold to Silver in the latest Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) ratings. This fall is attributed to the University receiving a Silver rating for student experience, alongside Gold for student outcomes.

These rankings, published at the end of September, put Durham University lower than many other leading Russell Group universities. Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Bath, and Loughborough all retained their Gold standard from the last TEF awards in 2019. Durh

Why Keir Starmer's tuition fees U-turn shows he wants to fight a cost-of-living election

If Keir Starmer has indeed developed one skill during his tenure as Labour leader that is necessary for life in Number 10, it is a knack for knowing when to drop bad news. In a week consisting of council elections followed by a coronation, Starmer will have hoped that his blink-and-you-miss-it U-turn on a previous promise to abolish university tuition fees would fly by undetected by voters. Not least because it did not go unnoticed by Labour’s political opponenets, who have already been lining u

“Labour students are alienated by Starmer’s leadership”: DULC Chair Catherine Howells on distrust within the Labour Party

Catherine Howells talks to Luke Alsford about the importance of having Labour activism in Durham and discusses why students are getting rid of their Labour memberships.

Luke Alsford: Why do you think it’s important that Durham University and other universities have a Labour voice?

Catherine Howells: I think it’s very important that universities have a left-wing space within universities. There are other opportunities, such as Marxist society, but that can feel quite intense for a lot of people

Tactical voting and the battle to save the union

Unionism in Scotland is at a crossroads and, alongside it, so are the Scottish Conservatives. This was no more apparent than in the muffled, cross-border dispute between Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader and MP, and his Westminster counterparts. In an eyebrow-raising comment, Ross suggested that unionist voters should “look beyond their own narrow party” and use tactical voting to endorse candidates most likely to defeat the SNP. After the Conservatives south of the border clapped back that

Studierende aus dem Vereinigten Königreich (465)

Radio Micro-Europa: Sendung (465) „Studierende aus dem Vereinigten Königreich“ am Sonntag, den 19. März 2023 von 12 bis 13 Uhr im Freien Radio Wüste Welle 96,6 – Kabel: 97,45 Mhz, auch als Live Stream im Internet

Der Link zum Anhören im Internet:

https://www.wueste-welle.de/broadcasts/livestream

Der Link zu unserer Mediathek:

http://vergil.uni-tuebingen.de/microeuropa/

Der Link zu unserer Homepage:

https://micro-europa.de/

Heute führen wir eine Diskussion auf Englisch über die Herausfo

The ‘B word’: Why Sunak and Starmer hope Brexit is finished business

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer can agree on something, and they want you to agree with them too: Brexit is now over.

Sunak is so confident of this fact that his own minister, Steve Baker, supposedly disbanded the hard-line Tory Eurosceptic European Research Group's WhatsApp group chat, as a declaration of Brexit's completion. The cause for celebration? The passing of the Windsor Framework into law. The EU-UK agreement, purporting to solve the once thorny issue of Northern Ireland's relationship w
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