24-hour drinking licence revoked
The University of York Students’ Union (YUSU) has been forced to accept defeat over the battle for a 24 hour drinking licence for the Union bar in Langwith.
Following YUSU’s refusal to withdraw their application for a 24-hour drinking licence, the University submitted a formal objection to the City of York Council just minutes before the 5 pm deadline on Friday, October 10.
YUSU Services and Finance Officer Matt Burton, the driving force behind the project, remained convinced that the application would proceed successfully.
In an abrupt about-turn, YUSU have now issued a statement outlining their decision to abandon the 24-hour drinking licence and to remain in keeping with the 2am closing time of the other campus outlets.
This concession has led the University to withdraw its objection from the city council, enabling the licence application to continue to move forward.
Law degree forgery
Iran’s parliament has voted to sack Ali Kordan after he admitted that his Oxford degree in Law was forged.
According to reports, 188 MPs, out of a total of 247, voted to remove Kordan from office.
Now Iran’s former Interior Minister, Kordan came to international attention in August when Oxford University released an official statement denying that Mr Kordan had ever received a Law degree from the institution.
Copies of the degree were later released onto the internet via Iranian political websites and the diploma was revealed to be a crude forgery riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.
At the time, Oxford University confirmed that the academics who ‘signed’ the diploma had all held Oxford posts, but never in the field of Law, and they would never have signed degree diplomas either.
Bristol student beaten by bouncer
A third year student was brutally punched and had his nose broken by a bouncer at Clifton Triangle’s Lizard Lounge.
The bouncer wrestled him to the floor and held him down before delivering a blow which left blood on the pavement of Queens Road and left onlookers disturbed.
The archaeology and anthropology student had been outside the club smoking and had a disagreement with a bouncer.
The student in question admitted he was drunk at the time; onlookers saw the bouncer react to a comment and subsequently wrestled him to the floor. The scuffle continued as both parties began to argue.
The police took statements from the victim and witnesses who testified that the bouncer had been overly brutal and irrational in the situation.
Epigram spoke to staff at the club, who played down the incident, describing it as “an argument that escalated out of control.”
There was no action taken against the bouncer and the victim was not taken to hospital.
The incident is one of many concerning violence by the security staff at the club.
Plagiarism scandal among students
Almost half of students admitted to plagiarism in a poll carried out by a students’ newspaper at the University of Cambridge.
Students admitted to copying material found on the internet and submitting it as their own.
The survey also claimed that only one in 20 students had been caught.
The University of Cambridge says that it has policies in place to prevent this serious disciplinary offence. The university also uses software designed to detect plagiarism in submitted work.
Despite this, the online student survey found that 49% of respondents had admitted to a range of different types of plagiarism, including handing in someone else’s work, copying and pasting from the internet, buying an essay or else paying someone else to edit work.
Among the concerns from the survey was an over-reliance on sources such as the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, with 82% of plagiarists admitting to taking material from the website.
There have also been concerns about whether plagiarism is really taken as seriously as univerisity regulations suggest.
A report this year from the from the Higher Education Academy and Joint Information Systems Committee found that even repeat offenders were unlikely to be thrown off courses for cheating.
