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Year: 2018

Welcome Week: University of Manchester's Freshers' Fair Photo: Markus Arnold

Time and money: students struggling with societies

Written by Felix Hanif-Banks on . Posted in Investigations.

A survey asking students about their engagement in societies has found that time is among the biggest concerns affecting involvement in extracurricular activity. Students were asked about how they felt a number of factors affected their ability to participate in clubs, societies or sports teams with a majority saying they felt time was the primary constraint.

Out of all students surveyed, 57% responded they felt they had less than enough time to participate properly in even one society actively. Unsurprisingly perhaps, respondents who studied degrees in fields such as Nursing, Languages and Sciences were more likely to be left without time to pursue other activities. Such intensive degree programmes will in most cases leave students tired and less willing to add yet another item into their schedule, especially in situations where placements or labs occur regularly or at unsociable hours.

Long hours lead to tiredness and then lack of sociability, and it’s a cycle that is hard to break out of. Biomedicine student Alex Smith wrote, “labs take up a significant portion of my time… from midday till five”. He noted that this is when many societies or clubs would hold meetings, events or training days across the week. Students across a variety of science disciplines face this issue; their already intensive lecture schedules are supplemented with five-hour lab sessions. This leaves students fatigued and often forced to choose between socialising through societies or simply going out with more local friends, which presents a difficult decision due to social dynamics within student halls.

Other students find themselves in more strenuous circumstances because of their degree programmes, namely student midwives. Their degree requires 23 hours a week of unpaid placement, which acts as a large drain on not only time but energy and motivation. Student midwife Cressida Scott Broomfield claims “the financial pressure leaves most little choice but to pick up added employment to fund themselves, often leading to burnout and little time to socialise.”

With student loans rarely covering living expenses in any meaningful way, many students are forced to take part-time jobs to adequately fund their student lives. Working class students find themselves in greater need of this part-time work which acts as a large drain, especially as many student jobs require long hours or are in retail. The unpredictability of such jobs leads to a hectic schedule and unwillingness to be outgoing, which is behaviour that can be hard to break from when isolated at uni.

While it may seem that most of the responsibility is therefore on larger institutions, with universities giving large and in some cases uneven amounts of work to students, and student finance offering insufficient maintenance loans, societies themselves still have work to do to themselves engage students. Students overwhelmingly responded stating that they were able to find societies that represented their interests, however 30% of responses said information on societies was either difficult or very difficult. With Freshers’ Fairs occurring over the course of the last week and a wide array of societies representing themselves there, this statistic could be put down to students not attending for any number of reasons.

Over factors such as diversity and how welcoming societies were were shown to not be as significant factors according to the survey. A large proportion of respondents described societies as very welcoming and very diverse; combined with other answers indicating students tended not to drop societies after their first year it can be said that societies retain students well, it’s just getting them involved that is the issue.

Founder of the Student Inspire Network Milimo Banji offered insight into societies’ failings to encourage students to join them. “The Majority of [societies] often lack good leadership and organisation making for a less than pleasant experience for new members”. This structural issue within many societies can lead to poor marketing and many students simply being unaware of opportunities that could otherwise appeal to them. Societies lack resources to effectively market themselves in most situations, and just as students themselves find it hard to find time to join societies, those running them are always students and affected by the same problems, often more so as they tend to be older and in more advanced stages of their degrees.

The actual activities within societies also came under criticism from students. English student Maisie Scott spoke about how most societies have little imagination outside pub socials, often not providing opportunities that relate to the society itself. “It’s less engaging to just go to the pub where no new ideas are presented… if they had regular speakers or Q&As I’d be a lot more interested”. Societies often market themselves as social clubs around a specific interest, more of a meeting point than a place of ideas and discussion, which perhaps is a wider issue surrounding the perceived function of societies.

From the survey, the it appears all parties involved in the running and existence of societies seem to play their own part in lack of engagement. Students are somewhat unmotivated, universities overwork many of the and the government forces them into hard part-time work. Societies find it hard to attract new members when there is so much on offer, unable to get their names out there despite opportunities to do so. Societies are already incredibly successful within the university, but they could undoubtedly grow and attract large proportions of the student body. In the coming weeks, the Investigations Section will talk to those within the Students’ Union as well as those who run some of the uni’s largest societies to answer more questions surrounding student engagement.

Fantasy Football: an overview

Written by Jeremy Bijl on . Posted in Games.

The date is the 9th of August 2018, and around five million people are eagerly awaiting the start of an annual release that has been growing year on year since 2002.

However, this is not EA’s latest sports release or even a battle royale game, but the official Fantasy Premier League.

Although the concepts of fantasy sports began in the US in the 1980s. It wasn’t until 1993 that we first saw the game in The Daily Telegraph. Up until 2002, the newspaper was the only viable way of playing Fantasy, and editors of the paper had to calculate and input data manually.

In 2002, a primitive version of the Fantasy Premier League we know today, started to emerge. Although it was visually very rudimentary, and attracted only 76,000 managers, much of the scoring system we know today was still in place back then.

Fast forward to 2018, and the Fantasy football scene is thriving. With over 5.5 million players – a figure that has come as a result of exponential annual increases (excluding a small dip in 2012/13) – now playing the game. To put that into perspective, that’s a level that matches the amount of people globally now playing Pokemon Go.

Photo: The Mancunion

Not only that, but like many conventional games, fantasy football has built a real community around it. Whole businesses, such as fantasyfootballscout and fantasyfootballfix, have sprung up, serving digestible information and detailed statistical analysis to players, with some attracting thousands of forum posts everyday.

This social element will also have translated more noticeably for many readers. It is now extremely common for an array of social and professional groups to have a fantasy league on the go. One even sprouted up on the Fallowfield Student’s Group (the infamous FSG) recently.

This level of enduring, sustainable growth in interest is fairly rare in the mainstream games industry. Where games tend to peak shortly after launch before seeing an exponential decrease over the next five to ten years, if not sooner.

Of course, much of this is because Fantasy sports are tied indelibly to a larger specimen – the sport itself. In part, fantasy sports are about promoting and sustaining interest in the league that acts as their premise. Due to the enduring ability of sports to endlessly recreate their narrative each season, fantasy sports will likely continue to benefit.

The reason fantasy is not often talked about in terms of gaming is because many wouldn’t consider them a game. Whilst the term might be a catch-all that some use, most people wouldn’t consider those logged on to the site to be ‘gaming’. If gaming is delineated from the likes of television by being active rather than passive, fantasy sports are problematic. Whilst the player actively chooses a team, the points are earned by professionals far removed from our realm of influence.

And yet, we might consider fantasy sports to be ‘theorycraft’ in an almost pure form. Theorycraft, which a quick google search will reveal is “the mathematical analysis of game mechanics, usually in video games, to discover optimal strategies and tactics”, underlines much of what it takes to succeed as a fantasy manager.

Fantasy football is much less a game of luck than a game of probability. It’s a game of reconciling form, fixtures and underlying stats with the price tag assigned to a player by the powers that be. It’s about optimising the balance of your line-up to get the most you possibly can out of your ever-restrictive budget. It’s for these reasons, so many people are hooked.

Call of Duty Blackout: Can it topple Fortnite?

Written by Danny Jones on . Posted in Games.

It’s fair to say that Fortnite has pretty much cemented itself as one of, if not the biggest game of the last year or so – possibly to the point that you’re fed up of hearing about it altogether. However, with a swathe of new releases scheduled for the autumn window, a familiar face seems set to return and compete for Fortnite’s battle-royale crown.

Whilst like its predecessors, Call of Duty’s latest entry, Black Ops 4, is almost guaranteed to sell exceptionally well by virtue of its franchise reputation, this year’s developers, Treyarch, have also decided to jump on the battle-royale bandwagon by adding a new marquee mode, dubbed: ‘Blackout’.

The beta for Blackout went live on the September 14th and concluded on the 17th, receiving resoundingly positive reviews on the whole, with the likes of PC World claiming that it improves upon the success of Epic Games’ chief-most rival, PUBG, by ridding itself of potential bugs and adding a layer of AAA finesse, and Forbes simply warning that “Fortnite should be worried.”

Blackout mode not only features the scattered equipment and weapon pick-ups ingrained within the battle-royale challenge, but also uses this format in order to integrate Call of Duty’s staple perk system from its standard multiplayer into a new kind of power-up. Moreover, Blackout builds upon last year’s instalment, CoD: WWII, by further developing the latter’s fairy limited vehicular gameplay: players can navigate Blackout’s map by land, sea or air, and Treyarch promises to add more vehicles with each new update.

Some of the early criticisms of the mode are, naturally, that it marks yet another copy and paste of the battle-royale format and many, including PC World’s Hayden Dingman, have argued that this is merely a more polished version of PUBG.

As well as this, others have noted Blackout’s lack of base-building in comparison to Fortnite as well as quibbling at a reduced player count of 80, as opposed to the otherwise ubiquitous 100 combatant rule. However, the beta ended on a high in the latter respect, with the final day seeing the player cap rise to 100.

It is not certain whether this game, if any, can pose a big enough threat to topple the goliath that is Fortnite—especially given what it has done in adhering to the free-to-play genre and its continuous content courtesy of the season pass format. However, if we’re going off the reviews and take into account that it is, after all, CoD we are talking about here: there is a strong possibility that Blackout could be a dangerous new player in the market, reaffirming Call of Duty’s position atop the sales charts and as arguably the biggest gaming franchise around.    

Gaming in Manchester: Development edition part one

Written by Jeremy Bijl on . Posted in Games.

Manchester: best known for its globally renowned football teams, musical influencers, and canals. It can be easy to forget, though, that Manchester is also a hotbed of scientific and technological innovation, and its games development scene is no different. Although the majority of the games development industry remains in the U.S., Manchester has plenty of riches of its own.

Perhaps best known are TT Games, established in 2005 with the merger of games publisher Giant Interactive and the developer Traveller’s Tales. Whilst the studio name may not ring any immediate bells, they are the people behind all Lego games, including Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman, and Lego Lord of the Rings. The studio recently revealed a new title: Lego The Incredibles. Their Manchester based division, TT Fusion, is responsible for their major titles and can be found in Wilmslow.

Hot on their heels are a team working on a game so ambitious that the founder once said, “I don’t want to build a game. I want to build a universe.” Said game, Star Citizen, has raised 70 million dollars in crowdfunding in the last two years alone. Their Manchester team, known as Squadron 42, are working on the game’s single-player mode, known also as Squadron 42. Squadron 42 features a truly star-studded performance-captured cast that includes Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson and Gary Oldman.

Photo: masbt@flickr

Whilst these two studios are the largest games companies in Manchester, the city also has a plethora of indie developers looking to make their mark in the world of gaming.

Salford-based studio White Paper Games are one such company. Their debut title, Ether One, a beautifully cerebral and contemplative narrative-driven puzzle game, was released on Steam in 2014, and found enough success and praise to make its way onto the PS4 in May 2015. White Paper Games are currently working on their second title, The Occupation, which sees you play as a whistle-blowing journalist in 1980s Manchester. The game features a number of Manchester landmarks, and its setting is inspired by the city’s civic architecture.

photo: WhitePaperGames

Also among the indie devs in Manchester is University of Manchester graduate Alex Rose. Alex Rose Games – also known as Vorpal Games – debuted in 2017 with Super Rude Bear Resurrection, an innovative platformer in which you can use corpses of failed attempts to overcome obstacles. Super Rude Bear Resurrection is available on PS4, Xbox One, and Steam, and has been met with high praise for its sound design and gameplay.

Whilst these companies are really starting to make a name for themselves on the indie scene, Merge Games are perhaps the most established indie studio based in Manchester. Founded in 2009, Merge are industry veterans with seventeen titles under their belt, most notable among which is Dead Cells, the physical release of which they helped out with. Their other games, including Frostpunk, Sparklite and Aragami are available on a range of platforms, including P.C., PS4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.

Another company whose titles you may well have heard of is Clever Beans, the team behind WipEout Omega Collection for the ps4. They are responsible for indie titles When Vikings Attack and When Vikings Relax.

Towards the more niche end of the spectrum, we have the intriguing VoxelStorm Ltd. Alongside their two games,  sphereFACE and Advert City, they have three full-length music albums and four EPs. Advert City, which is particularly innovative, sees you explore a cyberpunk city of the future in which you can post adverts almost everywhere in an attempt to build a business empire. Advert City, though, is also an interesting critique, with a compelling atmosphere and brilliantly tailored music. sphereFACE, a retro vector-shooter, is no less abstract – a quality the company prides themselves on. It was released in 2017.

photo:VoxelStorm

That’s all for this week: join me next time when I dig deeper into the more obscure end of the indie scene in Manchester and look at one company who has produced 250 games.

Q and A: Tom Zanetti

Written by Ethan Davies on . Posted in Music.

As part of the VK Electric Tour, musician Tom Zanetti answered a few of our quick-fire questions.

What can people expect from your headline performance on the VK Electric tour? And what
are you expecting from the crowds? 
People can expect high energy, we don’t do things half hearted. I put 110% into every party. Of
course, it goes without saying you can expect some absolute bangers. It’s going to go off!!

You’re going to be playing new material at these events, what else have you got up your
sleeve for us?
We have been in the studio quite a lot recently and I have space in October and the whole of
November off to spend 24/7 in the studio to really concentrate on making music. So, keep your eyes
peeled.

How did you and K.O Kane meet?
I used to run parties in Leeds and Kane used to DJ at parties in Leeds too, so we just ended up
getting together, really bonded and had a creative vision and wanted to throw parties together. I
brought him in on Sleepin is Cheatin INSOMNIA, which we host every Saturday at Mission in Leeds,
and together it went from strength to strength.

What’s been your ultimate anthem this summer? 
Fisher – Losing It – it’s a tune! Such a tech-house anthem.  I think he’s a great artist.

How would you describe the feeling you get when you walk out on stage? 
It’s honestly one of the best feelings in the world, nothing compares to the buzz you get from the
energy in the crowd and to hear the crowd sing your lyrics back to you is like nothing else.

What was it like DJing inside the Love Island villa and did you have a favourite couple?
Ha! It was mad – such a good experience. I wanted to party with them!  The Islanders went crazy and
some of the cast members rushed to speak to me, but it wasn’t allowed by the producers. I wasn’t
allowed to interact with them and they couldn’t interact with me. I didn’t think they knew who I was
and then they started trying to pull me off the decks and dance with me. Good villa, good party!

What’s your favourite VK flavour and what would your dream flavour be? 
I’m looking forward to trying the new watermelon one and I’d like to see a cherry cola one. I bet
that’d be nice.

Best record to end the night with? 
Heads Will Roll – A-Trak Remix always gets me moving.

Want a ticket? Head to this link!

This article is sponsored content from the Academy Music Group.

Photo: Pixabay

Smartphones are becoming the new luxury cars

Written by sophiemarriott on . Posted in Opinion.

Later this month the latest iPhone models are set to go on sale; the Xs and Xr will enter the market at around £1,000 apiece. Despite a growing number of budget options, it is undeniable that smartphones remain an expensive phenomena which serves to highlight inequalities across age and class.

Pressure to own a mobile phone is evidentially skewed towards the younger generations, with an estimated 95% of 16 to 24-year-olds owning a smartphone in the UK. In the face of minimum wage poverty and student loans which for many struggle to cover basic costs, the necessity of mobile phone ownership can only be an extra burden on already strained finances.

Smartphones have become as much of a staple as a house or a car once was; seen as both essential to everyday life and a status symbol. It would be difficult to exist in the modern world without a one, even to conduct a hermit-esque life would be tricky without having the google maps or the National Rail app at the touch of a button. Ofcom data shows that around 62% of all time spent browsing the internet in 2017 was on mobile phones. From social media and keeping up to date with current affairs to business and studying, the ability to surf the web on the go dominates our interactions with the outside world.

It is the dialectic of this necessity alongside the culture of fanaticism and bragging which invites parallels with the market for cars. Like cars, there are some very sleek and expensive ones out there, with turbo charged operating systems and curved corners. There are also definitely some lemons floating about which whirr and chug and occasionally splutter. Those on a budget cling on to their old models, stitching them together and putting up with cracked screens because a new phone would set them back at least a couple of hundred pounds. The Independent recently reported that around 1/3 of the British smartphone-owning population are walking around with broken handsets. On the eve of the new iPhone release this figure is striking, yet again we are being shown the genuine inequalities that typify British society.

Furthermore, data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that 40% of all theft of personal affects either attended or unattended was of smartphones. Suggesting that the culture of phone pretension and exhibitionism is just creating another harmful example of poorer communities being forced into criminal ways of surviving in the modern world. Whilst arguably the issue of phone ownership is somewhat superficial inequality, and the solution really would be to attempt to move away from the beastly boxes themselves, they have undoubtedly become another tool for revealing the pervasive relative poverty that exists in the UK, particularly among students and young people.

Photo: University of Manchester.

Engineering graduates’ salaries revealed to be almost double the salaries of Arts graduates

Written by miagair1 on . Posted in News.

The Office of National Statistics recently released new data showing how much the average graduate of certain degrees can expect to earn when they have left University.

The new statistics show that those who study degrees within the field of Engineering can expect to earn an average of nearly £45k on graduating. Compare this to those in the Arts, Media, Linguistics, and Classics who are expected to earn £25k on average.

These figures have reignited the debate over tuition fees. Some question whether it is fair that all students pay the same, despite having such different financial prospects on leaving University. Others argue that those who earn more will pay more in income tax and student loan repayments, thus contributing more towards University funding.

The average salary a new graduate can expect is £31,642. This reaffirms that for the average graduate, earnings remain considerably higher than they would have been had they not gone to University. Despite this average, this may not be true for all Universities.

Interestingly, out of the top five earning degree areas, only two are now dominated nationally by male students. This shows a change in the trend of male majorities occupying all of the top-earning degrees and industries. However, it remains true that all but one of the five lowest earning degree areas are dominated by women. Whilst the average earnings are indeed increasing year on year, these differences within the statistic are significant.

Police crack down on drinking in Fallowfield

Written by miagair1 on . Posted in News.

Police presence has increased in Fallowfield with the influx of thousands of new students. With them has come warnings to students that drinking in public places is against the law. 

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 states that it is an offence to continue drinking when asked to stop by a Police Officer. This is often loosely enforced in student areas. When on any night of the week, students can be found drinking at bus stops at on the way to night clubs and bars.

However, for the start of the new academic term, the Police have begun a new campaign in Fallowfield. At bus stops posters can be found that make it clear they are ‘Alcohol Free Areas’, explaining that it is illegal for students to drink while waiting for the bus to head off for a night out.

The focus of the legislation is to ‘put victims first’. The intention is that local Fallowfield residents would face less antisocial behaviour due to students not being able to drink on the streets of residential areas. Greater Manchester Police emphasises that drinking publicly constitutes anti-social behaviour, and that this is “an aggressive and destructive activity that intimidates, threatens and causes distress”.

This campaign reignites concerns that the act limits young people from using public places as they wish, even if they are following the law and acting appropriately. It has been criticised that students are being targeted for loud behaviour when going on nights out, instead of the Police tackling high levels of crime in the Fallowfield area. 

Since 2005, the number of anti-social behaviour cases has decreased year on year. However, Manchester came out on top of the national table for the most incidents of anti-social behaviour being reported. This highlights that either behaviour is worse in the Greater Manchester region, or that residents are more likely to report anti-social behaviour to the police.

 

 

Photo: Rona McCann

A new installation is in Piccadilly Gardens to raise awareness of blood cancer

Written by Rona McCann on . Posted in News.

New translucent statues now stand together beside the Queen Victoria monument and have been positioned in a way that makes it impossible for them to be missed by the area’s thousands of daily passers-by.

Their placement is part of the Make Blood Cancel Visible campaign which is being supported by a number of cancer research charities including Bloodwise and Leukaemia Care, and sponsored by international pharmaceutical company Janssen EMEA. Its aim is to give blood cancers the recognition they need for collectively being the third biggest cause of cancer-related death in the United Kingdom as well as to increase awareness among the general public of this usually unseen killer. The campaign also calls for patients, families and medical staff affected by blood cancer to share their stories throughout September (Blood Cancer Awareness Month).

Each figurine is motion-activated and will play a recording of its likeness speaking about their experience with the illness in their own words upon someone approaching it. Organisers hope that in creating this intimate, interactive experience visitors will remember these stories and support the campaign.

The frontmost figurine, representing Bloodwise ambassador Brett Grist, recounts Grist’s diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia and his following treatment. Grist, 45, was first diagnosed in 2014. After finishing three cycles of treatment ending in August 2015, Grist’s cancer relapsed. He received a stem cell transplant that October and has since returned to work.

Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes is also an ambassador for the campaign, having recently lost her mother to myeloma. Holmes has voiced how neither she nor her family knew very much about the illness and has expressed her belief that it is vitally important for people to be aware of blood cancer and its symptoms to increase the chance of early detection.

Bloodwise’s CEO Gemma Peters has said that “awareness of diseases like leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma and their symptoms is startlingly low” and that the campaign “is helping to shed a light on these cancers and the problems that patients face.”

The installation will be in Piccadilly Gardens until 22nd September before moving to its final destination of Edinburgh.

Visa

NUS announces support for the post-study visa

Written by miagair1 on . Posted in News.

The NUS announced support for the Universities UK call to revive the post-study visa on Monday 3rdSeptember, signifying a worry that students from other countries will see the UK as an unappealing place to study.

Until 2012, international students in the UK were able to extend their study visa in order to remain and work in the UK. This was known as the post-study visa, and gave international students the chance to contribute to the country that had been their home for years.

Under current legislation, international students must apply for a regular work visa if they want to remain in the UK after their degree. This can be a daunting and time consuming task while completing dissertations and final year exams.

It is made more difficult for international students who have not yet secured a job, because without proof of salary, employer details and many more documents, students cannot obtain a work visa.

The number of international undergraduates students is now falling for the first time in three years.

NUS International Students’ Officer Yinbo Yu suggests this will only get worse after Brexit is finalised, arguing that there needs to be a conscious effort to make students feel like the UK can be a second home for them.

With 13,505 international students (undergraduates and postgraduates combined), the University of Manchester has the second highest number in the UK, beaten only by University College London. This makes the question of how to attract, support, and meet the needs of international students a crucial one for our University.

Photo: Joe Sheen

Student experiences: Are internships and work experience worth it?

Written by Liv Clarke on . Posted in Features.

We’re all told work experience and internships are an essential aspect to add to an impressive CV and can help give you that edge when applying for jobs after university. However, they can often be exclusive and difficult to obtain, so what do students actually get from them?

Work experience can give you an insight into an industry you’re interested in and make you realise whether it’s right for you. With internships you can be given certain responsibilities which you would not have through your degree alone; these can appeal to future employers and show what you’re capable of. For Charlotte, a languages student who did an internship with Texas Instruments during her year abroad, it was definitely worthwhile, “I will now leave university with a degree and over a years’ worth of work experience with a global technology company.”

Furthermore, work placements can open doors to job opportunities within the same company, which might otherwise be difficult to access. Joe, a final year student who recently completed an internship at Harman International in Germany, found that his placement gave him an insight into working at a large-scale company “I had a lot of responsibilities; maintaining the communication platform website, delivering a nationwide Bowers marketing project of product placement in BMW dealerships, coordinating and attending marketing events and completing reports on monthly sales figures.”

Longer placements are usually more beneficial than short term options, as they allow you to develop skills and get more involved with the team. Claudia, a final year student, had a placement at a card company after leaving school. She describes how her responsibilities increased during her period with the company, “Initially I was organising data input and using spreadsheets, but in the end I was pitching ideas for social media and wrote a few blogs with the team.” In contrast, when I completed two weeks of work experience at a magazine in London, I would sometimes feel like a spare part, trying to strike the balance between making myself useful but not getting in the way of everyone. Every placement is different; some companies can afford to give interns a lot of responsibility, whereas others lack the resources.

One issue associated with internships and work placements is how to access them. For the most part it is very much a case of who you know and not what you know, which can make getting these sought-after internships rather difficult. Speaking with other students, its clear that placements can be found via a variety of routes. Some applicants are lucky enough to know people on the inside, however it can also be worthwhile sending in CV to companies even if they are not advertising; “I sent out prospective applications to KCRW [a radio station] and The Local [an online newspaper] which included a cover letter and my CV”, describes Anja, a fourth year student, “and I went in in person to ask for work experience at another station, BFBS; none of them were advertising that they were doing internships, I just applied anyway in the hope they were open to it”.

Another negative aspect to work placements is the well-known image of the abused intern, someone who is running around making cups of tea for the entire office and doesn’t get paid for a single minute of their time. Interns can be exploited by companies in order to gain cheap or even free labour, as the opportunity is usually too good to resist for the student involved.

Ironically, the industries with the most unpaid internships are the typically the ones where a placement is invaluable when applying for jobs, such as in the media. Anja found that this was true with her roles, “None of the internships I have done were paid. But I understand there just isn’t enough money in smaller newspapers and radio stations to pay interns and often these businesses rely on unpaid interns to help with the work load of their full-time employees.”

Unpaid internships often favour students who come from more financially stable backgrounds, disadvantaging those who may not be able to afford to work for free and preventing them from moving up the career ladder. When this factor is combined with the nepotism involved, it reveals how elitist these placements can be. If you don’t have a family who can support you, or enough money from student loans, embarking on a placement is a decision that can’t be taken lightly.

Location can have an impact on whether a student can apply for an internship, with best opportunities frequently found in larger cities, which is great when you live in or around them, but not so good if you’re based somewhere else. As somebody who does not live in London, I had to make arrangements for accommodation during my work experience which made everything more complicated, despite it only being for such a short period of time.

However, other routes are available which can help students avoid these problems. Applications for smaller companies can be less competitive, giving you a greater chance of gaining work experience, while applying to local business can remove the financial pressure. Big names can be impressive on CVs, but you can still obtain similar skills from lesser-known places.

Magical Ice Village coming to Manchester this Christmas

Written by Lucinda Obank on . Posted in News.

Cathedral Gardens in Manchester city centre is soon to become the location of Britain’s first ever Ice Village.

The Ice Village will house a range of ‘breath taking ice attractions’, including a bar, a frozen toy factory, and even Santa’s Grotto.

The ‘unforgettable journey’ will begin with a ride on a steam train made entirely from ice, which will deliver you to the frozen toy factory where Santa’s helpers can be found crafting Christmas gifts and presents.

The Ice Village will be set against a factory backdrop, in recognition of Manchester’s industrial past. Throughout the experience well-known figures and symbols will make an appearance, including a suffragette train driver, footballers, musicians and the worker bee emblem.

Everything from the delicate ice robin structures to Santa’s frozen throne is carved from 250 tonnes of solid ice, which will be kept in a freezer until a few days before the event.

The company responsible for the Ice Village, Hamilton Ice Sculptors, said it is their ‘most ambitious undertaking to date’ following the Magical Ice Kingdom (a centrepiece of Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and the biggest ice exhibition of its kind worldwide). The artists have already begun hand-carving hundreds of intricate sculptures which can be seen during the immersive walk-through experience.

There will be daily programmes of festive activities, many of which will be delivered on stage, including craft sessions and live choir performances.

In amongst snowy trees and sparkly fairy lights, the Woodland Market hosts winter games and will offer plenty of food, drink and Christmas souvenirs. But don’t forget to keep an eye out for mischievous elves wondering the village, magical toys and Arctic animals.

Expect rustic log benches at the Polar Bar on which to sip hot chocolate or mulled wine, and snug chalets for families or work gatherings to reserve.

The Ice Village is an addition to the popular Christmas Markets found in Albert Square and will also provide an ice rink.

Manchester City Council’s Christmas spokesman commented: ‘The capital of Christmas just raised the festive bar once again. The Ice Village is the first-of-its-kind attraction in the UK that will transform our family-friendly area in Cathedral Gardens.

The Ice Village will complement our world-famous Christmas Markets that will see more than 300 stalls spread across the city centre squares, bringing the festive season to life in Manchester.

We’ve been waiting months to announce this incredible event and I can’t wait to be transported to a magical land of ice when it opens in November.”

The Ice Village is free to enter, however there will be a charge for the ice sculpture exhibition, Santa’s Grotto and ice rink, which will be available to buy from the 27th September by visiting www.icevillage.co.uk

Opening times: 11am-9pm daily from Friday 9th November till Saturday 5th January (excluding Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day).

Photo: MSC Big Band/Steve Morris

Interview: Joshua Mellard, the musical director of MSC Big Band

Written by Liv Clarke on . Posted in Features.

MSC Big band is a 26 piece live band formed of students from the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music, and professional musicians. They are about to release their first EP “MSC Big Band Tapes: Vol 1”, featuring five cover songs. I spoke to Joshua Mellard, the musical director of the band about how he got involved with the band and the direction its going in.

MSC Big Band is composed of roughly half students and half graduates, and is run by a team of five. The band itself has been going for about five years now, although it has experienced a change of creative direction in the past two years. They have previously played venues such as Squirrels and Antwerp Mansion, but they have recently performed at Band on the Wall. Their musical style is branching out away from the traditional big band sound. “If we are going to set ourselves apart from other big bands we need to move in a more specific direction, more towards UK jazz and hip hop”, Joshua tells me, “we see ourselves as trying to push what generic big band style is.”

The band is certainly going from strength to strength in terms of success. They have moved away from the student circuit and are now venturing into larger, more well-known venues. On Friday the 14th of September they played at Band on the Wall with underground acts K15 and SNO, enabling them to expand their audience and introduce more people to the MSC experience. The new EP further reflects their ongoing success; it’s the first time they have recorded music.

However, trying to fit a 26 piece band into a recording studio was not the easiest of experiences, “Logistically it was a very big challenge”, Joshua reveals, “it was difficult to make sure everyone was free. Obviously big bands are not recorded often, so there is not a standard procedure.” The band worked in a studio based in Withington and run by Matt Brown, who helped them throughout the process. The business side of things proved difficult too, since all the songs were covers, “we had to spend a lot of time double checking whether things were legal,” he says.

Joshua has been involved in MSC for nearly four years now, he started out just playing in the band during first year, then took over running it in his second. During his time at university he also played in the Not Quite Big Band and the Tom Barber Trio. Joshua tells me that when he started running it, he had specific ideas of where he wanted the band to go and now these ideas are coming to fruition, “we wanted to create a scene, not just a unique experience. The focus is more the environment it creates, rather than the music itself. We don’t see the performances as gigs, more as a general event. Like a 26 piece DJ.”

In terms of current students wanting to get involved with music, Joshua advises them to get involved with the Manchester University Music Society as they have lots of opportunities. “If you’re setting up your own thing, find a group of people and see if you gel. Go to gigs together, see what direction you want to go in. Make sure everyone’s on the same page. If you become a member of MUMS you can book rehearsal spaces.”

After the EP release, where do the band want to go next? Joshua is keen to push the band further and get more involved with the larger Manchester scene; “A goal of the band is to branch out into the community, maybe start working with charities. Music as a degree is not incredibly diverse, so if we’re going to reflect Manchester, which is a wonderfully diverse place, we need to get more involved with the Manchester community at a deeper level. The main aim musically is to carry on what we’re doing as people enjoy it.”

You can see what MSC Big Band do next on their Facebook page: MSC Big Band.

An interview with 2018’s Faraday Prize winner

Written by Jacklin Kwan on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

Professor Danielle George’s office is understated. Not many pictures or posters decorate its white walls, and it’s tucked away in the corner of the Sackville Building behind two heavy wooden doors that lead to the Council Chamber. The room certainly belies the woman that works inside: a scientist and engineer who has been recently awarded the coveted Michael Faraday Prize by The Royal Society, an award that has been shared with likes of Brian Cox and David Attenborough for outstanding science communication.

Professor George exudes an easy sort of charisma – she effortlessly makes interesting conversation, smiles with her eyes, and looks at you intently when you ask her questions. Perhaps it is no surprise that the lecturer has been so successful at public outreach in the past few years.

She speaks to students of all ages, from university undergrads in her electronic engineering lectures to primary school children who ask her what the Cosmic Microwave Background sounds like (after processing terabytes of data, you find out that it sounds like eerie echoes).

In 2014, she also became the sixth woman in history to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. “At first I thought it was a joke! I just saw an email in my inbox asking whether I’d like to give the Christmas lectures.” Professor George ended up deleting the invitation out of sheer incredulity. “It’s like an email that asks you whether you’d like one million pounds in your bank account.” Fortunately, when a second email arrives restating the invitation, she knew it was not spam. Danielle George gave an incredible talk, complete with a robotic orchestra that played the Doctor Who theme song, all while eight-and-a-half months pregnant.

We talk about her work in radio astronomy and engineering. George researches low-noise amplifiers that allow us to pick up clearer signals from faraway galaxies. After working in Jodrell Bank, she has worked with international collaborations all over the world like e-Merlin and the Square Kilometre Array. When she remembers the beautiful skies she has seen in Chile and Australia, her eyes get a faraway look. “When I was younger, my parents got me a microscope, then a chemistry set, and I thought that was pretty nice. But then they got me this telescope, and I would wake my parents up just to look at the stars.”

Danielle George is intent on spreading her passion to young people. “Something happens in the pipeline from when children go through primary school to when they head off to university. Suddenly, science becomes ‘uncool’ and they’re just not bothered.” Prolific scientists like Carl Sagan have observe similar things; at one end of the spectrum, they’re asked why the sky was blue and why people dream by kindergarten children, but inexplicably, those sort of profound questions dry up as those same children reach high school. Professor George contemplates this for a moment. “I think that as you grow up, you learn more about what’s possible and what’s not possible… And then you stop asking about what might be possible.” She takes out her phone (the case has been ruthlessly covered in stickers by her daughter), “We carry this around with us every day, but how is it that I can talk to someone on the International Space Station using my phone? How does it actually work?”

It is clear that the radio engineer also has strong opinions about education: “education nowadays doesn’t allow for failure. But that’s wrong; if you’re not failing, you’re not innovating because innovating means you’re pushing those boundaries.” And if there’s anything George knows, it is pushing boundaries: she once converted an entire London skyscraper into a game of Tetris; she implements her technology to far-flung fields like agriculture to measure water usage; she has worked on projects to aid the visually impaired with wireless hubs placed around the city. Considering the diversity of George’s work, it is easy to see why she laments some aspects of modern education, “Education right now is so narrow. It siloes different subjects in categories. In reality, science is interdisciplinary.”

Our conversation drifts to different subjects. We both mourn the lack of visible female role models for young girls interested in science. We talk about how progress is slow but steady in making science more accessible. But as we get to leave, I ask Danielle one final question: what advancement in science are you excited about? The answer is in the field of wearable technologies, robotics, and artificial intelligence. “Though, I don’t think human creativity could ever be replaced by AI. I can’t imagine that ever being able to be replicated in a computer.” I nod in agreement as we wave goodbye. I too cannot imagine that a computer could ever replace George’s brilliant mind.

Photo: Antwerp Mansion

Antwerp Mansion to launch its own brand of beer

Written by Rona McCann on . Posted in News.

Popular nightclub Antwerp Mansion has announced this week that it will launch its own beer. The pilsner, named Mansion Brew, will be sold at the venue’s upcoming events – available whilst stocks last.

1500 of the beers have been brewed by Manchester’s ShinDigger Brewing Co and will be packaged in red cans which feature an illustration of the iconic Victorian Antwerp Mansion building.  Posting on its Facebook page, the nightclub expressed the belief that this first batch of Mansion Brew would be sold out by the end of Freshers Week, at events including Triple Cooked, Better in the 90s and Motherfunkers.

One Facebook user commented that the venue missed a trick by not calling the new beer ‘Cantwerp’, and was met with a reply from Antwerp Mansion hinting at even more own-brand beverages in the future. The reply included a promise to “definitely steal (his) idea next time around” and to “watch this space because Cantwerp will become a reality.”

This news comes after Antwerp Mansion’s infamous closure and later reopening earlier this year. March 2018 saw the supposed closure of the club after over six years of events, following a lengthy string of licensing disputes between the venue and Manchester City Council. Freshers Week marks the beginning of Antwerp Mansion’s relaunch, that has been agreed on the condition that a new, earlier closing time of 11pm is met.

By Baresi franco [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

New report says Manchester facing home and transport “crisis”

Written by Josh Sandiford on . Posted in News.

Manchester faces a home and transport “crisis” in the next twenty years, according to a new report by Alliance Manchester Business School. The city’s regeneration strategy has been branded as “misguided” by the study, despite what has been widely seen as major progress in regenerating Manchester city centre since the IRA bombing in 1996.

The report argues that extra strain will be put on the city’s transport system due to the creation of over 100,000 new jobs. In addition to this, only 50,000 new homes are planned for the centre of Manchester – even though 80,000 people are already on the waiting list for social housing in Manchester and surrounding areas.

The regeneration work that has been undertaken in Manchester in recent years has been carried out by private developers to a large extent, but the report by Alliance Manchester Business School says that these developers often “fail to consider the transport and social infrastructure – such as schools, libraries and broadband – that communities need to thrive.”

Deloitte, the professional services firm, recently called Manchester one of Europe’s fastest-growing cities, but this new report argues that during the regeneration process, attention has been placed more on offices and smaller one or two bedroom flats in Manchester City Centre and Salford as opposed to meeting the needs of families on lower incomes.

Karel Williams, a professor at Alliance Manchester Business School who led the research team, said: “Nobody can argue that major progress has been made in regenerating Manchester’s city centre in the two decades since the IRA bomb, much to the city council’s credit. However, regeneration is about more than just new buildings in the centre of Manchester – it should benefit all communities in the wider city region too.”

The report by Alliance Manchester Business School has recommended that the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, chaired by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, create a long-term strategy that considers the region’s cultural and geographical diversity.

Williams also said: “For all Greater Manchester’s boroughs to thrive, we’re calling for a rethink in policy expertise at local government level. We need policymakers who have the granular knowledge of local circumstances and social needs to deliver what citizens truly need.”

However, figures within local government have publicly disagreed with the report. Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council, told The Guardian newspaper that the council “fundamentally disagreed” with the report. A spokesperson from Greater Manchester Combined Authority also accused the report of “calling for something which already exists.”

The Mancunion has approached Alliance Manchester Business School for a quote regarding these statements but is yet to receive a reply.

Photo: comedynose @flickr

NHS England struggling to hold on to new midwives

Written by Josh Sandiford on . Posted in News.

NHS England only gains 1 midwife for every 30 trained, a new report by the Royal College of Midwives has revealed.

The number of midwives employed by NHS England rose by just 67 last year. This is despite the fact that over 2,000 midwives graduated from English universities in the 2016/17 academic year. The report states that the mass of people leaving the NHS is responsible for the disparity in the figures.

Gill Walton, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said: “it is of deep concern that we’re only seeing an increase of about one NHS midwife for every 30 or so newly-qualified midwives graduating from our universities.

“It’s not that new midwives aren’t getting jobs, they are. The problem is that so many existing midwives are leaving the service that the two things almost cancel each other out.”

Walton has called for more action in retaining NHS staff. This is a particular challenge at the moment due to the substantial number of European midwives and healthcare professionals leaving the register in a post-Brexit Britain.

Midwifery students from Manchester are reportedly taking stock of this report when thinking about undertaking roles in NHS England.

Rachel Moorhead, a second-year midwifery student at The University of Manchester, said: “there is just not enough money being put into [NHS] health services at all. The staff are so strained.

“Sometimes there’s so much to do and so little time that midwives barely have a chance to give their women their full attention”

She went on to say that “all the NHS services are really struggling, and maternity care is no different. I can totally understand why some midwives choose to go private because it seems like a chance to care for women with good resources and reasonable workloads.”

Grace Broughton, another second-year midwife at The University of Manchester, said: “So many midwives choose to go private because it allows them to give the time and care to women that all pregnant women deserve, and quite frankly people are becoming ill with the pressures of a struggling NHS.

“Some midwives choose to leave the profession altogether which is very upsetting as midwifery is a calling and vocation.

“There are many midwives of retiring age currently in the NHS who are leaving every year which counteracts the new midwives joining. Midwifery is rapidly changing alongside a high risk society and unfortunately some midwives don’t like the changes they’re witnessing.”

This report by the Royal College of Midwives comes at a time when there is a record shortage of NHS staff in England. The NHS is currently short of over 100,000 personnel, including 11,576 doctors and 41,722 nurses.

Manchester crowned the best UK city to live in

Written by Sam Honey on . Posted in News.

Manchester has beaten London to the title of the UK’s most liveable city, in the latest annual rankings by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit.

The study took into account five main categories: Stability, Healthcare, Culture and Environment, Education and Infrastructure.

The UK’s ‘second city’ extended its lead over the capital from last year, placing 35th out of 140 cities worldwide. There is a now a gap of 13 places between the two cities – the widest since the inaugural rankings back in the 1990s.

The EIU summarised that Manchester provided “marginally fewer obstacles to people’s lifestyle, and the threat of terrorism and petty crime are lower”, compared to the capital.

London was said to “suffer from higher levels of crime, congestion, and public transport problems than are deemed comfortable.”

Despite this, research by Your Housing Group, published in May this year found Manchester to rank below Liverpool in its Northern Powerhouse Liveability Index.

The report focused on different factors, including opportunity, desirability, availability, and finally affordability, an area in which Manchester ranked behind its North-western neighbour.

Controversially, it was suggested that the city would fall victim to the emerging trend of terrorist incidents affecting cities’ performances in the EIU’S stability category. The Manchester Arena attack had been blamed for the city’s decline in the 2017 Index.

However, Editor of the report, Roxana Slavcheva, praised the city’s response in the face of terror, saying: “Manchester also represents a regional trend over the past year, where there have been notable improvements in security in several western European cities which have shown resilience in their recovery from terrorist attacks.”

Elsewhere in the rankings, Vienna displaced Melbourne as the world’s most liveable city – the first time in seven years that the Australian city has not topped the findings.

The Austrian capital boasts a near-perfect 99.1 rating, just 0.7 points ahead of 2nd place. However, there is strong Australian representation with Sydney and Adelaide also in a top 10 that includes just two European cities.

War-torn Syrian capital, Damascus, ranking just 30.7, failed to escape the tag of the world’s least liveable city, with conflict and domestic disorder dominating the worst-ranked areas.

Furthermore, the 2018 findings represented a somewhat regression in liveability overall, with an extract from the index’s overview confirming that “49% (of cities) registered negative changes in their overall liveability rank in the past six months.”

 

 

 

Review: Crazy Rich Asians

Written by Alana Cook on . Posted in Film.

This week marked the UK release of 2018’s much anticipated film Crazy Rich Asians directed by Jon M. Chu. A young couple, Rachel (Constance Wu) and Nick (Henry Golding), travel to Singapore for a friend’s wedding and to meet Nick’s family, who, unbeknownst to Rachel, are insanely rich and not the most welcoming.

Crazy Rich Asians ticks all the boxes of a typical romantic comedy: madly in love protagonists, the uptight mother, the eccentric best friend, the high maintenance family, a wedding, a makeover and even token romcom lines. Yet underlying all these typical traits of the Hollywood romcom genre is a substantial difference: the film’s identity and Asian characters.

Singapore provides the spectacular setting for the film, with its impressive and unique architecture and vibrant colours making the film aesthetically pleasing. The wedding scene is one example of where the film truly shines in bringing together visual delight with heart-warming romance and the perfect amount of cheesiness. Accompanied by a beautiful cover of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love, the scene is enough to make you melt a bit inside.

It certainly isn’t flawless. The film is slow off the ground in some places, therefore falling flat at times. Moreover, when Rachel discovers a shocking secret about her family the film seems to brush over it and resolve the issue rather quickly instead of considering its weight. One could also argue that in some ways the film is a form of cultural tourism; it appeals to the tourist’s gaze in its specific portrayal of cultural elements.

However, these are minor criticisms. The stellar cast and brilliant characters, particularly the women, make this a very important and uplifting film. It’s simply funny and a joy to watch. In an industry where Hollywood films all too often only feature a token minority character, Crazy Rich Asians does for romcoms what Black Panther did for superhero films.

Rating: 4/5

Photo: FilmNation Entertainment

First Watch: Arrival

Written by anishgulati on . Posted in Film.

Coming from the director of Sicario and Prisoners, Arrival is yet another masterstroke delivered by the French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. He announces his ‘arrival’ into the genre in style and leaves the audience spellbound at so many different levels. Based on the novella Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, the film was released in November 2016. It escaped my list for a long while but when I finally watched it, I was simply delighted with the intensely mysterious and poignant plot of the film.

The film follows the fearless and resourceful linguistics expert Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) who has been left grief-stricken following the loss her only daughter, Hannah. It all begins with a number of alien crafts arriving at the Earth’s surface and in the human efforts to communicate with the aliens; Dr. Banks comes to the forefront, with Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker taking up supporting roles.

The trailer makes it seem like an attempt at a Nolan-esque film but it is so much more than that. Sure, it is a sci-fi, but the pouring affection of a mother, the resentfulness of a teenager, the emotions of a daughter deserted by her father and a tubful of other such moments makes it stand out in the genre. Without delving into the deep concepts this film deals with, some of which are too complex to be fully comprehended, one can still appreciate the sci-fi plot devices used that make perfect sense in the context of the film. The best aspect of the film is its sound effects which are hypnotic at times. Sound editor Sylvian Bellemare does a wonderful job, making her worthy of the Oscar she secured, while the visual effects are not too expressive.

As expected, Amy Adams brilliantly portrays her character who treads through a number of conflicting emotions like indifference, affection, pessimism, curiosity and disbelief. She is confident but, at the same time, not too overpowering to be deemed arrogant. You are compelled to root for her because of the way she makes you believe that she deserves the sympathy whilst not really wanting it due to the perfection with which she goes about accomplishing her goals.

Denis Villeneuve’s amazing job of keeping you at the edge of your seat throughout the film reveals information in bits and just at the right moments to keep you gripped and full of expectations. In other words, whenever it seems that the plot is becoming a little too predictable, a tiny chunk of new information is thrown your way and suddenly catches you off guard.

In the hindsight, this movie also unravels with the political turmoil that could occur in a hypothetical pre-apocalyptic world.  In an interview with The Verge, Denis Villeneuve confessed “People, it seems, don’t evolve very quickly.” I felt dumbfounded and emotional simultaneously. This is a film that left me wanting for more.

Rating: 4/5