Leeds student Amy Hewitt is celebrating winning £3,375

The first year History student bagged her ‘Fees For Free’ in a competition run by CrossCountry trains.

Asked about the win Hewitt said, “It’s still only just sinking in, I’m so happy. It’s such a massive prize, which will make my university life so much more comfortable.”

The competition was run on Facebook on the train operators Facebook page ‘Student Rail Deals’

Andy Cooper, Managing Director at CrossCountry Trains said, “Students and their families sacrifice so much in order to put themselves through university, especially considering the increasing student fees. At CrossCountry we strive to provide students with an on-going 10% NUS [National Union of Student] extra discount and regular competitions and have certainly enjoyed rewarding Amy.”

 source =thenationalstudent.com

Zimbabwe update: student leaders released |DissertationNews

Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) President, Clever Bere, and the other student activists who were arrested at the University of Zimbabwe on Wednesday 5 August, were released late on Friday 7 August.

source=nus.org.uk 

App could make the Meadows safer|DissertationNews

A new iPhone app has been launched to improve student safety by alerting friends or family if an individual fails to arrive safely at their destination.

The LookOut Call app is designed to allow individuals to record a message detailing their plans or route and the time they expect it will take them to get home from a night out for example.

An alarm is then set for the time when the student is expected to arrive at their destination. If the student does not disable the alarm when they arrive safely and does not key in the code when the timer runs out and the alarm goes off, then friends and family will automatically be alerted to the situation.

The app will call friends and family members listed as responders and allow them to listen to the student’s message regardless of whether the student’s phone is out of battery, lost or even destroyed.

The technology is already widely used commercially to help improve the safety of lone workers, but individuals will now able to download the app for a subscription fee paid over a period of time between 30 and 180 days.

Charlie Turnbull, a 1st year History student, told The Student "it's a shame you've got to pay for this, because it's a really good idea - people aren't as likely to use it. Personal safety is really important at nighttime and we need all the hlp we can get."

Its launch comes at a time when safety is a particular concern for Edinburgh students following two recent attacks on women near to the university.

In the past month two women have been sexually assaulted in separate incidents whilst passing through the Meadows.

A group of students have already taken action to improve the safety of students walking home in the dark and have organised a walking bus initiative to ensure that students do not have to walk through the Meadows and across the Bruntsfield Links alone at night.

Each walking bus has at least one male and one female chaperone and leaves from the Hugh Robson Building throughout the night until 3.30am. To arrange a chaperone students are asked to call 07925 580 813.

source=studentnewspaper.org

Honours exam diet extended |DissertationNews

The University of Edinburgh has extended the honours exam period to span the entire four week summer exam diet.

The university announced on Twitter, "In response to student feedback, Semester 2 honours exams are now scheduled within the full four week period of the exam diet."

A petition signed by almost 1,400 students was submitted to the registry on Monday 12 December calling for an extension to the proposed exam period.

Originally, the exam diet was shortened because of the limited time between the exams and graduations that restricted the time available for marking. The university extended the honours exam diet from two weeks to three and a half weeks in November.

A motion at the Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) general meeting which called for a further extension of the diet failed to win a majority as it was feared that further extension would impact on innovative learning week which will be introduced next year.

A spokesperson for the University of Edinburgh told The Student, "Innovative learning week will continue as planned from 20 to 24 of February. The second semester exams will be scheduled within the four week period of the exam diet, from 30 April to 26 May."

It was also made clear that the introduction of innovative learning week had no part in the earlier decision to shorten the exam period.

Andrew Burnie, fourth year computer science and artificial intelligence student and EUSA representative for the School of Informatics organised the campaign for the extension of the exam diet.

He told The Student, "This petition was started because students in my school demanded the University change and its success belongs to those students who took direct action and told the university that they must be listened to.

"This is a real win for people power and I'm proud to have been a part of it."

Burnie and two other students who signed the petition met with Rio Watt, the Director of the Academic Registry to discuss the additional concerns about the exams raised by the campaign.

She reassured that all students with additional requirements in exams would be catered for and that schools had the opportunity to request changes to a provisional exam diet before the final one is published.

She also stated that she would look into improving the timetable for those who study inter-school joint degrees.

Exams at the university are scheduled so that most students will not have honours exams on the same or consecutive days.

There are around 110,000 individual exams taken during the summer diet each year.

source= studentnewspaper.org

University of Edinburgh closed due to storms

The University of Edinburgh has been closed due to the high winds that have swept across the central belt of Scotland this afternoon.
 
All university buildings, including the library were closed at 3pm.

Buildings managed by the Edinburgh University Students’ Association will remain open as will 24 hour computer labs which can be accessed with a swipe card.

In an email to all students, the University advised all students to, “make arrangements to leave the university” as “winds of up to 90 miles per hour have been predicted.”

There has been widespread disruption across Edinburgh and the rest of central Scotland because of the wind.
The Forth Road Bridge was closed earlier in the day, bus services are being reviewed and Edinburgh Zoo has also been closed.

Elsewhere, thousands have been left without power in Argyll and the Western Isles and motorists have been by police forces not to travel in the central belt.

The west coast was battered earlier in the day and the high winds are now moving towards the east.
The rest of the UK is also being affected by high winds and rain.

source=studentnewspaper.org 

Tough new measures will clamp down on memorization and rote learning

The Leaving Cert is set to become a tougher examination after a government-commissioned report found that students were making generous use of rote learning and memorization under a system marked by the predictability of questions and lack of innovation.

The tough audit will result in changes being made within three years, according to the Department of Education.

“I’m hopeful now that we can get changes implemented following discussions and analysis with the education partners in time for a Leaving Cert examination in about two to three years’ time,” Quinn told the Irish Independent today.

The report was commissioned by the Higher Education Authority and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and recommends a return to an eight point grading system, scaled down from the current 14 options.

source:studentnews.ie