Broadcast journalism students have been the hardest hit – they have been told key facilities may not be completed until the semester is almost finished.

One lecturer told the Inquirer: “This is really rather ridiculous. The building burnt down in 2001. It shouldn’t have been beyond the power of the university to sort this out.

“We were promised a new journalism department years ago. We launched a new single honours journalism course on the basis that we would have the new facilities in place by now.”

Many final year students face heavier workloads in their final semester as the facilities are key to the completion of their degrees, whilst the departmental staff have to juggle their time to cater for all the students on the course.

Language students have also been hit hard by the building works as their department remains in a state of constant flux.

As the university welcomed new Freshers last week, the Grade II listed building was still a building site, with external scaffolding still in place, and various works being carried out inside.

The carpets were still taped over, signs had been removed and not replaced, and there were ‘danger do not enter’ signs throughout the building.

The failure to finish the building works means many modules have had to be shifted from the first to the second semester.

One broadcast journalism student said: “I worry that my grade is going to be affected by the lack of equipment.

“They should have planned for this possibility. It’s adding extra stress to my final year that I could really have done without.”

But the university was unrepentant. Roger Ward, deputy director of property and facilities, said: “The College building project was conceived in recognition that some areas of the building could be used more effectively.

“Over the last twelve months, phased construction has seen the completion of a number of key aspects of the project.”

He added: “The handover of remaining student facing areas will take place between now and Christmas.”

The ongoing refurbishment of College building has left certain students without the quality of facilities needed to complete their course.

By Gemma Pritchard

The student union’s new venue was forced to open late meaning two of the biggest freshers’ nights had to be moved at the last minute.

 Due to further delays, Monday’s Icebreaker event, arguably the highlight of City’s freshers’ programme, had to be moved to the Carling Academy.

In a Facebook message to City freshers, entertainment officer Tom Abbott said: “Due to unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances the new SU venue, Ten², will now not be open until 5.30pm on Tuesday 23rd September. This is because of a delay with the builders.

“Because of this we have had to find a new venue for the Icebreaker party.

“I really am sorry about this change but when you see the new venue it will have been worth the wait.”

The student union put on extra special guests to compensate for the late opening and change of venue, but the last-minute change of venue seemed to confuse and disappoint a number of new students.

Ellie Rice, a first year law student, told the Inquirer: “I feel like you have to work really hard to find anything out. I was hoping there would be more posters or information about the events. Icebreaker was good but badly organised. No one knew where we were supposed to go.

“To be honest, I thought freshers’ week would be a lot more exciting.”

Over the summer the union fought a tough battle against local residents for a later opening license.

Having applied to be open until 2am, Islington council granted Ten² a licence until 12.30am.

The first event to actually be held at Ten² was ‘flirt!’ on the Wednesday of that week, a new student night which is popular at universities across the country, and which replaces Quids In on Wednesday nights at City.

Despite the hype, when the Inquirer paid a visit to ‘flirt!’ on opening night at 9pm, only a handful of people were in the venue, which is twice the size of the old Saddler’s Bar. We were informed afterwards that there had been a high turn-out.

When asked about the delay and the response to the new venue, new SU President Nikhil Raj Cumlajee told the Inquirer: “I recommend students have a look for themselves, it’s here now and I love it. For the first time we could hold our freshers’ fair on the main site, the food is good with more coming and people are using it during the day as planned. It’s true it was ready a couple of days later than we had hoped for but we have always had a plan just in case this happened.”

Many student union critics had predicted that the venue would miss it’s deadline by a much longer time period. Although the opening of the venue only overran by a few days, building works were still going on when it opened its doors to new students, with a pool table in the bar still being constructed, and the door entry system being worked on by technicians. The outside of the venue still looked like a building site.

By Gemma Pritchard

The cost of a cup of coffee at university has gone up by nearly 50 per cent since last term.

The change happened when Costa Coffee replaced Café Ritazza in the main university building.

Under Café Ritazza an Americano cost £1.15 but Costa Coffee sell the same drink for £1.75.

Postgraduate student Rachel O’Neill said: “It is outrageous when we are already paying so much for our courses. And especially so for postgrads.”

Gabrielle Jaffe agreed. She said: “They should put more independent coffee shops at the university, and less branded ones.”

There are currently four places on campus from which to buy coffee. The cheapest is Café Direct in monthstudents concerned by its fair-trade principles and inflated prices. Customers pay £1.40 for their large latte, a saving of 85p over Starbucks and Costa Coffee, both of whom charge £2.25 for a medium latte.

It is the second time within the last twelve months that a coffee shop has caused a furore amongst the students of the university.

Last year the opening of a Starbucks in the refectory caused outrage.

By Michael Brooks

Union’s new bar’s hours trimmed after residents’ noise protest

The student union has been banned from opening its new bar past 12.30am, despite telling local residents that it would be a ‘restaurant’, ‘social space’ and ‘function room’ – not a nightclub.

Union general manager Aidan McDonald had to face down angry Northampton Square residents to get a licence for the new ‘Ten²’ venue, after more than 20 people submitted objections to its plan to stay open until 2am.

He told the Islington licensing panel: “We’re not building a nightclub, we’re building a restaurant. A lot of our students are postgraduates – that’s who it’s for.”

Mr McDonald went on to say that the venue would be effectively university-run, and would be rented out to corporate clients like other function rooms. “You could call it a student union, but really it’s another venue within the university,” he added. He even invited the objectors to book residents’ association meetings and kids’ birthday parties in the venue, but was met with jeers.

When asked about drinks prices, he promised residents that there would be no ‘happy hours’ or other special offers in the bar, and that prices would be similar to the pubs in the area.

The union also insisted that the Wednesday night ‘Final Whistle’ event it had applied for a 2am licence for is to celebrate sporting achievements. It neglected to mention the £1-a-bottle drinks on offer, or that the night used to be called ‘Quids In’.

The union went on to promise that students will only be allowed into the bar on a swipe-card system, and will only be allowed one guest each, like in the halls of residence. Any ‘troublemakers’ – or people who sign in ‘troublemakers’ as guests – will have their cards blocked and could ultimately be thrown out of the university.

When Mr McDonald was explaining the card and barrier scheme to the elected student union council last year, he said that it would be relaxed – nothing like the hated ‘guest ban’ regime that operates in halls. But he told the residents that the cards will be used to discipline students, and that any events that cause problems will be withdrawn: “Do it once and they’ll learn.”

Responding to a question from the Inquirer about quoting him on the details of the expensive, strictly-policed corporate-hire restaurant he had described to the council, Mr McDonald grew angry and accused us of “just trying to cause trouble”. He added: “You don’t know what a student union is,”

The union plans to tackle noise problems by putting up a big sign telling students to be quiet, employing stewards to escort them up the road away from the venue, and using the union’s campaigning time and resources to organise a ‘Shush Campaign’, aimed at getting students to be quiet when they leave the bar.

But all this wasn’t enough for local residents, who remember having their lives blighted by the union’s Wonderbar nightclub. It was their complaints that got the club shut down in 2005 and converted into the Hub study area, leaving the union with only its small downstairs bar.

Gordon Ashworth, who lives in the second nearest house to the university, believed that the new venue would be no different. He told the council: “This is effectively a nightclub in a high-density residential area. We do not need a nightclub in Northampton Square.”

He said that his car had been vandalised four times, his doorway had been filled with urine and vomit, and that students had used their car stereos to ‘compete’, seeing who could play their music the loudest.

Sally Adams, another square resident, pointed out that the layout of the square amplifies noise, and that most of the houses cannot be sound-proofed, because they are protected historical buildings.

All the residents agreed that the old union bar had been mismanaged and had not cared about their complaints, saying it was powerless to do anything once students left the premises. Mr McDonald countered that there was now a “new management team” that is “not a student committee” (the problematic management was actually a private contractor, but this was not mentioned).

But residents said that for all the talk of students being to blame in the past, the university itself is a very bad neighbour, frequently flouting council regulations by doing construction work and cleaning windows in the early morning. Gordon Ashworth joked: “I once asked my ward councillor if it [the university] could be served with an Asbo.”

The overwhelming response from residents meant that the union was forced to withdraw its plan for 2am closing before the licensing meeting even began, asking instead for the less ambitious 12.30am.

This licence was granted, despite residents’ calls for the bar to close at 11pm, 9pm or even 6pm, but more than a hundred conditions were put on it, covering everything from the number of door staff to noise limits and restrictions on taxi parking.

Residents can ask for the licence to be reviewed if they have complaints later in the year.

By Tom Walker

‘City University London’ and ‘London Metropolitan University’ look the same when translated into the Chinese character set, leading City to fear that London Met’s actions would put students off coming here.

In a letter to Chinese alumni, vice-chancellor Malcolm Gillies noted that the honorary degree had ‘provoked significant negative media coverage and public protest in China’. He went on: ‘We have a team working to ensure that, where possible, stories or web postings make it clear that it is London Metropolitan University which has awarded this degree, not City University London.’ He then appealed to the alumni to help spot and ‘correct’ any mentions this team may have missed.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader is admired in the West but hated in China, where the Chinese regime tightly controls the media and portrays him as a ‘serial liar’, a ‘separatist’ and a ‘monster’. The government has blamed him for everything from ‘inciting riots’ in Tibet to orchestrating negative media coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

By Tom Walker

At least a dozen teachers quit from the flagship academy, which is sponsored by City University and the City of London, saying they “could not go on” in a school that will no longer be run by the local council or part of the comprehensive system.

City University donated £1million to the academy, but in February the Inquirer reported that City’s donation to the academy was being backed by a secret proxy donor. This donor was eventually revealed as Medicor, a mysterious ‘education charity’ based in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.

The City of London Academy, which was opened by schools secretary Ed Balls in September, has replaced the teachers who resigned. But teachers rightly question how pupils may be affected by the dramatic changes at the new school, including the loss of so many familiar staff faces.

National Union of Teachers London regional secretary Tim Harrison said: “The academy has suffered a wholly unnecessary period of uncertainty when for purely political reasons the school was shut down and reopened with an entirely new governing structure and with many new staff.

“All these things affect both teachers and pupils. I can see no benefit from the process of turning Islington Green into an academy at all.”

The transformation of Islington Green into the City of London Academy has been controversial from the outset. Campaigners fought a three-year battle to save the school, which ended after failed legal action in the High Court.

The school is famous for being the local comprehensive snubbed by former prime minister Tony Blair, who instead sent his children to grammar school.

Although the school building is currently under construction, pupils are expected to move into a new building in 2010, and a sixth form will be introduced to the school for the first time in 2012.

City University will be closely involved with the academy urging pupils to consider further and higher education, running a ‘mentoring scheme’, ‘taster days’ and more.

A spokesperson for the academy said: “The City of London Academy is fully staffed for the academic year. The Academy has had a successful opening including a visit from Ed Balls who referenced it as a secondary school any local parent would send their child. Pupils can look forward to a productive and engaging year, fully supported by dedicated teachers.”

By Amy Bourke

Have you ever played the blue plaque game in London? The aim is to spot those blue commemorative signs that denote the home, workplace, or hang-out of a famous person; the winner being the one who finds the most interesting historical ‘celebrity’.

If – like me – this game appeals to you, head to Islington immediately. You’ll be amazed at the vast number of well-known names associated with the borough over the last 400 years. And to find out more about them, make your first stop the new Islington Museum.

The £1.2m museum illustrates the rich social and cultural history of the area starting in 1086. And famous faces aren’t the only thing of interest: the museum has displays on fashion, education, healthcare, anti-slavery campaigns, and immigration, as well as women’s and gay rights movements. It’s fascinating stuff – where else apart from Islington could you see Florence Nightingale rubbing shoulders with Tony Blair and Vladimir Lenin? 

Keen on flashing those statistics, the museum tells us that Islington has the youngest population in London, with half the residents of the area being single. Luckily there are plenty of places for mingling, as the ‘leisure’ displays of the museum illustrate.  

The Old Red Lion on St John Street, for example, is one of the oldest pubs in the area, dating back to the early fifteenth century, while just round the corner is Sadler’s Wells which opened in 1683 (be it as a spa, rather than a ‘musik hall’ and theatre). The great music hall tradition followed, with The Lansdowne Arms (showcasing the likes of Charlie Chaplin) and The Eagle (made famous by the popular tune ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’) dominating the showbiz world. 

Of course, ‘leisure’ in Islington will (to many people) mean football, and specifically Arsenal, who resided at Avenell Road in Highbury until 2006. Tit-bits like a personal testimony from a seven-year-old fan make the museum particularly accessible – something which curator, Alison Lister, is keen to promote. “It’s such a historic borough,” she says, “and we want everyone in the area to know about the local history and make use of the museum.” 

This sentiment is fitting for a borough which prides itself on being welcoming. From housing radical thinkers like Mary Wollstonecraft, to the Victorian hospitals set up for the less fortunate, Islington has always fostered a strong sense of community. It’s also a borough of liberal firsts: in 1892, Dadabhai Naoroji was elected MP for Finsbury, making him one of the first Asian MPs in parliament, while the first Marie Stopes clinic in Britain was opened in Upper Holloway in 1921. In more recent history, Islington was represented by the first openly gay MP, Chris Smith, in 1984. 

Historical figures seem also to have found Islington’s outlook appealing. One of the more unusual museum artefacts is a bust of Lenin, denoting the fact that he used to live on Holford Square, and – in 1907 – introduced his mate Josef and other members of the Communist Party to the beer in the pubs around Clerkenwell. 

Alison explained that the bust was part of a 1942 monument designed to celebrate the friendship between Britain and Russia at a time when the two countries were allies.

It’s a popular part of the museum, Alison explains, with many of the visitors seemingly unable to pass the statue without giving the famous domed head a little stroke. 

It’s not just the Russian left who favoured Islington. Tony Blair lived on Richmond Cresent in the 80s and 90s, and his house was used as the brainstorming HQ of the then-embryonic New Labour. Even today, the London May Day March starts on Clerkenwell Green. 

One of the great strengths of the museum is how it acts as both for the local residents, as well as being by them. All the artefacts are donated, with new pieces continuing to come in from people who have visited the museum. Alison points out that local residents (who may even be second or third generation Islingtonians) like to come and see a history which they feel is intimately tied in with their own lives.

But it’s not just locals who can appreciate the volume of history crammed into the tardis-like space. For those who are new to Islington, the museum provides a variety-show, bargain-bucket, Time Out-esque look at the area, seeming to prove true the unforgivable cliché that – in the case of Islington – there really is something for everyone.

Five continents. Twenty four countries.  Sixty nine universities.  Hundreds of courses.  Thousands of potential new friends.  Countless opportunities.  One chance to study at a different university in a different country.

Whilst that may seem overly dramatic to say you have only one chance, it’s not.   Think ahead.  To your late twenties and your first steps on the career ladder.  To your mid-thirties and your entry to parenthood.  To your mid-forties and the your accumulating responsibilities.  Now is the time for travel and adventure. You have the physical capability, and the emotional strength.  All that is needed is a little bit of curiosity and desire.

And the positive upshots are huge. Not only will it be fun, on a personal level you will learn a lot about yourself growing in confidence and emotional strength. On a professional level, it will look fantastic on your CV, and you could learn a whole new language. It can impact on your studies when you return.

“Going abroad for a year is a chance to see another country and culture in much more detail than you would if you were simply traveling there as a tourist,” says Anna McKane, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Journalism.
“People who take a year out come back with renewed energy and generally have a better final year as a result,” she adds.

So where can you go. The choice is largely dependant on your course; business students can choose from twenty eight destinations, while those studying music seemingly only have one.
But leaving friends and university colleagues behind to go to a country where a foreign language is spoken can be a very challenging experience. While it is certainly possible that this can be the ‘best year’ - or best half-year - of your life, as the cliché goes, there are a few things to consider before beginning your adventure.

1) Know what you want from the year and choose accordingly. Besides getting trashed while taking a break from studying, think about what you want to achieve by the end of your time away. After a couple of months, the endless partying gets old and you may want to look for something more meaningful to do. It can be very hard to think ahead, but life continues when you return. Whether that means combining the, usually, academically-light routine with work experience; or spending a good amount of time looking for the ideal summer internship; don’t spend all your time in an endless cycle of parties and hangovers. Or do, if that’s your thing.

2) Budgeting properly for your adventures is essential. The 19th century author of children’s fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen once said: “To travel is to live”. When you’re in a new part of the world there will be an overwhelming amount of cities, countries, and tourist attractions to see. And the chances are you won’t have the money, or time, to see them all. So make sure you prioritise and budget for the things you want to see and do. If you want to use your time abroad to boost your search for a graduate level job, consider how some of these adventures could help your CV and know what you want from them. For example, Niels Pedersen, a journalism exchange student in Spain, walked 200 kilometres along a medieval pilgrimage route. He said: “Whilst doing this was a great experience in itself, it was also very useful when replying to the classic ‘how do you deal with challenges’ question at graduate job interviews.”

3) Be prepared to push your own boundaries. Doing a year abroad is more than just flashing up the CV. If your main objective is to get good at a foreign language, make friends with some local students. It is all too easy to only make friends with the people who are in the same situation as you are - the other exchange students who speak English - but resist this because you will never learn the language that way. Try getting flatmates who don’t speak English, or best of all, a boyfriend/girlfriend/lover who speaks no English. Be willing to get involved in university clubs and societies, and try a new sport or activity. When you fall over trying to learn to ski, it only makes shared memories that will bring you closer together with your new friends. And if it’s really, really embarrassing, you’ll soon be going home anyway.

4) Know about the funding options available to you. It is all too easy to overlook bursaries, grants, and scholarships that are on offer. City University offers up to £1000 (depending on personal factors) to students doing exchange programmes. UK and EU students on Erasmus exchanges in Europe are entitled to up to €370 per month. And this doesn’t affect your entitlement to the loans and grants available to you if you were still studying at City. Whilst for journalism students studying in Australian universities this year, there is a €4,500. Anna McKane said: “This obviously will pay the fare, plus it will help quite a bit with living costs. It is a tremendous opportunity to get to the other side of world without paying the fare yourself”. Finally, some students might have heard of the massive tuition fees paid to attend American universities – well, fear not, you will generally pay your fees to City, so usual rates apply. Knowledge is power, and power in this case means having the cash to fund your parties and adventures.

5) Apply as early as possible because City can only send a limited amount of students to each partner university each year. If competition for places is stiff then chances are that places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

6) Prepare for a hard landing when you get back from your year abroad. Chances are it will be very difficult to go back home after your travels. You will find that you have lost touch with some of your ‘old’ friends, and it will be hard to say goodbye to your ‘new’ friends, not to mention a significant other. The post-study abroad depression is a well-documented phenomenon and it affects even the best among us. When you get back there will be a tendency to idealise the life you left behind. And if you ever return to the city where you spent a year abroad, it will never be the same again. So make the most of it while you can. But for now, plunge yourself into this adventure and have fun. You only live once.