An ethical dilemma: Two people take an exam. They are of near equal intelligence and good at their subject. One studies for six hours a day before their exam and gets a 2:1. The other student takes a pill for concentration and revises for 10 hours a day. They get a first. The question is: is it cheating? Does the person with a pill for concentration have an unfair advantage?

In an exclusive interview, David Nutt’s colleague tells The Mancunion about being ‘told off’ for criticising government drug policy

Combined studies will no longer be offered as a degree option by the University of Manchester. The course will be phased out, allowing this year’s new undergraduates to complete their final year, but no candidates will be admitted in 2011/12. The course allowed students to study in two separate and otherwise unrelated academic areas. The first year of the course featured a mandatory volunteering project, where students raised money and awareness for charities in Manchester both nationally and internationally. Students were not informed about the possibility of the course being withdrawn until the decision was finalised. In the final weeks of the last academic year, students were shown around the potential location for a new combined studies common room, and encouraged to give their feedback. In July, new and returning students were sent a letter informing them that “following a review of the programme by the Faculty of Humanities[…] Combined Studies will admit its final cohort of first year students in 2010. google

Music Editor Eoghan Bennett chats to front man Jonathan Higgs ahead of two very special gigs. There’s a rumour that you’re back in the studio? Yea we just got a load of new equipment that we’re trying out, so there’s a few new songs we’re working on. We haven’t got to the recording stage yet, […]

In a back room at Manchester’s Cornerhouse, a small audience was joined by a panel of three authors who have all won awards in the field of horror fiction.

Thomas is an award winning script writer for both television and stage.

With the results of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review now published, Sarah McCulloch considers potential alternatives to the impending spending cuts. From getting rid of Trident to clamping down on tax evasion, she found a few. Sarah McCulloch On Wednesday the 20th of October George Osborne announced £81bn in cuts to public spending. This includes […]

The coalition government proposed to help pay the cost of tuition fees for some of the country’s poorest students ahead of the tuition fee vote last week.

After much agonising we now know how each Liberal Democrat MP cast their deciding vote during last Thursday’s crucial debate. As expected, every Lib Dem at the centre of government, including Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable voted for the rise.

Up to 500 students and activists marched in Manchester against the government’s proposed rise in tuition fees last Wednesday. The march took place on the eve of the House of Commons vote, which saw an increase in fees by a majority of 21 votes.

He’s probably the most successful composer you’ve never heard of, but having written stunning soundtracks to films like Amelie and Goodbye Lenin!, this French multi-instrumentalist’s pedigree is assured.

The National Union of Students has a £5.5m tobacco habit, is this why students don’t campaign against cigarette companies?

Two very different poets introduced Magma to the Manchester Literature Festival, giving the audience an extraordinary display of the talent and skill, which lines the pages of the ever-growing poetry magazine. Jacqueline Saphra challenged the limit of her listeners’ squeamish boundaries with a (thankfully, brief) glance at her own conception, while Alan Buckley somehow managed […]

Both magazines are sold in Cornerhouse; to contact the magazines visit www.corridor8.co.uk and www.bewilderbliss.com.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is Ben H. Winters’ imaginative parody of Jane Austen’s nineteenth century classic.

A blend of comedy, romance, thrilling swordfights and contemporary horror

Everything you would expect to find in an early piece of Gothic writing is there

To add to the stress of a human-vampire relationship and the perils that befall it, there is a murderer on the loose and his pattern is “fang-bangers”

The novel is brimming with taboo images of the sexually repressed Victorian period.

Wednesday 20th October saw the first successful UMSU General Meeting in 18 months, with six motions being passed. Yet whilst I was in the meeting I began to understand why it rarely reaches quorum. The whole process is wrapped in bureaucratic red tape, making it dull and boring; for every motion at least four speeches are made, with room for questions in which the speakers just tended to repeat themselves. If someone wants a motion to go straight to vote, then another two speeches are made.Most people that come to General Meetings come to support or to block a particular motion. These people come with their minds already made up. Case in point: this reporter believes that Manchester Labour Students (MLS) and J-Soc (Jewish society) came to the General Meeting in order to block the Peace Through Education motion, by leaving the meeting at a crucial point, in what appears to have been an attempt to break quorum. If that is the case, then they had just come to the meeting with their minds already made up, so what was the purpose of all the speeches anyway?