Gair Rhydd

An Indecent Deposit

A group of students have finally received their deposits after threatening to take legal action and have exposed letting agency 2let2students of failing to protect their bond under the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme for the duration of their tenancy.

Pedro Gemal was studying French and Law during his tenancy with 2let2students. He has lived in Cardiff for five years. Pedro and his housemates successfully recovered their money after confronting 2let2students about their failure to protect their bond.

Meeting Mr Miliband

On October 17, Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Cardiff University Students' Union to launch the 2008 'Know Before You Go' travel safety campaign. In edited extracts from interviews with Jamie Thunder and Sam Knight, Miliband discusses everything from foreign policy to Facebook.

Mr. Miliband, it’s great to have you here. First of all, you went to Corpus Christi College in Oxford – I have to ask you, as a student, were you a cheese on toast or a beans on toast man?

(laughs) Probably more a cheese on toast than a beans on toast man. Certainly more of both of them. It’s high cuisine! I certainly wasn’t a Marmite man.

Nightlife named as major influence on students' university choices

Students are making decisions about their university choices based on nightlife rather than the provision of student funding and grants according to a recent study.

The survey by Ci Research for the student funding website Student Cash Point shows that students could be missing out on funding and grants by getting their priorities wrong.

Graduates: no need to despair

Employers are speaking out to encourage graduates not to despair despite the inevitable slowing down of the recruitment market as a result of the looming recession.

Competition for first job placements will be fierce as students come to terms with the economic headache that the country is encountering. However, employers are championing the careers fair as a way of getting a head start.

Credit crunch set to hit degree marks

The credit crunch plummets students into even more debt as they face higher living costs, rising food prices and increasingly limited future job prospects.

It has been reported that many students are responding to the current state of the economic climate by burying their heads in the sand, allowing money problems to snowball and putting themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to finding a job when they graduate.

NUS extra conference called

The National Union of Students (NUS) is to hold a conference on NUS reform, due to high demand.

The NUS received more than 25 calls to host the extraordinary conference. which will take place on Wednesday November 12 at Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

By-elections begin

The October By-elections are due to begin, and with at least one person campaigning for each position it will mean that for the first time since 2000 there should be a full Union Executive at the close of voting.

The by-elections are in place to help fill positions that were not originally filled during the elections for non-sabbatical positions, which were held in March.

Glyn urges students to 'Go Green'

In aid of Energy Saving Week, Big Brother 7 star Glyn Wise urged students to change their habits to help fight climate change.

Throughout the past week, Glyn, who has recently enrolled at Cardiff University, has taken an active role in promoting the cause.

CUTV launches drama

CUTV is set to launch its new Drama series and is looking for Cardiff students to audition for a number of roles.

The six-part series, which is set in and around Cathays, follows five students at Cardiff University and is being written and produced by Cardiff students.

Fatal foam deemed 'toxic'

Birmingham

A first year student fainted as a result of getting too much foam in her face at a Foam Party.

After being carried out of the Guild by security, her friends struggled to bring her back to consciousness. She eventually woke up, and had no serious injuries.

Hawking set to be immortalised in bronze statue

CAMBRIDGE

A statue of Stephen Hawking is to be unveiled in Cambridge.

Professor Hawking, Fellow of Caius and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, will have the rare honour of having two statues in Cambridge. The wheelchair-bound physicist will be immortalised in a three-metre-high bronze statue by award-winning artist Eve Shepherd.

Oxford Uni selects inapropriate speakers

The selection of speakers to appear at the Oxford Union Society this term has been met with ridicule in the national press.

It was announced last week that Essex girl Jodie Marsh, strip club owner Peter Stringfellow and pop rejects ‘The Cheeky Girls’ would all address the prestigious debating society.

Animal Attraction

Dubai hotel accused of catching shark to lure in visitors

One of Dubai’s newest and largest hotel resorts is under pressure to release a shark from its aquarium (pictured.)

The Atlantis Hotel, situated on the famous Palm Jumeirah Island, was billed to be one of the best resorts in the area but it has already faced major setbacks.

Cold research centre celebrates 20th year

Cardiff University’s award winning Cold Research Centre is this year celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The Common Cold Research Centre, based at the School of Biosciences was established in 1988, and had become internationally renowned for its innovative and ground-breaking research.

Islamic society raise over £2,500 for charity

Last week students from the Islamic Society at Cardiff University took part in Charity Week to help raise money for two charities; Islamic Relief and Ty Hafan.

Charity Week is a national project, which aims to raise money for children living in poverty across the world.

Miliband launches travel campaign from Cardiff

A campaign urging travellers to keep safe while abroad has been launched at Cardiff University this year by the Foreign Secretary, David Milliband.

The “Know before You Go” campaign targets different groups of travellers with the aim of providing information on how to keep safe and healthy in foreign countries.

Student Council shake up

Student Council will start up again this week with new changes, which aim to make it more representational.

At the final meeting of last year a decision was made to make changes in the make up of Student Council in order to ensure better student representation.

Cardiff University alumnus Sir David Richards takes over as head of army

Cardiff University alumnus Sir David Richards will succeed General Sir Richard Dannatt as Chief of General Staff in the army in August 2009.

Sir Richards studied Politics and Economics at the University before going on to serve with the Royal Artillery.

OAPs: What are you offering?

Researchers from Cardiff University are involved in an innovative new research project to discover the role that older people play in rural communities.

The project, which has been awarded £1.3M of funding, is the first of its kind and will use a variety of original methods including interactive websites, a museum exhibition and video conferences in order to encourage participation from the older generation.

Money worries hit Manchester

£5m worth of University of Manchester assets could be lost as the credit crunch hits Iceland hard.

Heritable Plc, a UK denomination of Icelandic Landsbanki, went into administration on 7th October, meaning that many investors have had their assets frozen; including The University of Manchester.

Union blocks pole position

LEEDS

The controversial proposal for a pole dancing society to be run at Leeds University Union (LUU) has been rejected.



Proposals for the society were rejected by the LUU Activities Assembly this week by one deciding vote. One member of the assembly also branded the committee “inappropriate role models for running a society”.

3,2, Chandrayaan-1

India recently launched its first unmanned mission to the Moon in a bid to close the gap with rival China.

The spacecraft, called Chandrayaan-1 was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and blasted off without fault from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota island in the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Students lose out on college places because of Facebook

American college applicants are suffering from the increased threat that what they post on social-networking sites, such as Facebook, could count against them when applying to colleges.

A survey of the top 500 US colleges revealed that ten per cent of admissions tutors view applicants’ online profiles as a way of evaluating them.