by Anna Fenton

After 35 years of running a helpline for gay and lesbian people in Edinburgh and the Lothians, Lothian Gay & Lesbian Switchboard (LGLS) takes its last calls at the end of October. Taking over the running of the helpline from November 4th will be the LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing. Read More

by Anna Fenton

Liverpool-based business woman Tracy Whittaker has launched lip gloss- drug testing kit. The testing kit is a simple pink taper, which tests for the common street drugs GHB and Ketamine, two widely available substances known to be used in bars and clubs. Read More

Students protest tuition fee increase (image courtesy of BBC)

The Conservatives have said they will increase tuition fees to £7,000 if they take power at the next general election, which has to be held by next June. That will see tuition fees for undergraduates studying in England and Wales more than double. The fees are currently capped at £3,300 in England and Wales, with no tuition fees for Scottish students in Scotland.

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by Joe Duggin, FreshReporter

The home of the disgraced former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland has had his Edinburgh home vandalised early this morning.  Windows were smashed and his Mercedes S600 was also damaged.  Lothian Borders Police were called to the scene at 4:35am.

An unnamed group have claimed responsibility for the attack, contacting The Scotsman and the Edinburgh Evening News early this morning stating:
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By Stevie Kearney, Head of News

Ahead of next week’s G20 summit in London, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has called on the police to adhere to the findings of a parliamentary report and respect ‘the right to peaceful protest’.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights report issued today described police management of recent protests as ‘increasingly heavy handed’ and said anti-terror legislation had been ‘misused’ by police to restrict protests. Read More

by Stevie Kearney, Head of News

Google Street View is just experiencing ‘teething problems’ and has many positive uses, according to one leading figure in the property insustry.  The defence of the Street View tool, launched in the UK last week, comes amid significant amounts of publicity questioning the application’s legality and ethical basis.

The technology is a photographic mapping extention of the online service Google Maps.  Once an area has been mapped by Google’s camera vans, users can log on and see pictures of any street or property by simply typing in an address or post code, or by using the zoom tools from the map. Read More

by Stevie Kearney, Head of News

Despite initial concerns regarding passage into Gaza, a group of volunteers from Scotland have managed to deliver a convoy of medical aid for the people of Palestine.  The group crossed the border on Monday with no problems, having arrived at the crossing at Rafah in Egypt soon after the much publicised Viva Palestina convoy. Read More

by Emma Langman, FreshReporter

After a hard-fought month of election campaigning, the new EUSA (Edinburgh University Student Association) committee has finally been elected. On Tuesday, a Presidential Style debate was held in Teviot Debating Hall, where each candidate was questioned as to their policies. While some came across better than others, everyone fought their side well. There was then some last minute leafleting and publicity before voting took place over Wednesday and Thursday.
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by Joe Duggin, FreshReporter

The winners of this year’s ‘University Challenge’ have been sensationally disqualified from the show for fielding an ineligible competitor.  Sam Kay who represented the winning team from Corpus Christi-Oxford ran out of funding for his PhD and was working as an accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers whilst taking part in the quiz show.
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by Emma Langman, FreshReporter

On Thursday 19th February, the candidates for the upcoming Edinburgh University Students Association elections were announced. There are presently five candidates for the top spot of EUSA’s President – Thomas Graham, Oliver Mundell, Liz Rawlings, Benedict Robbins and James Rodgers.
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by Roisin Sweeney, FreshReporter

Figures published today show that student debt in the UK is reaching record levels.  A survey by push.co.uk, the student guide, has revealed that students beginning university in 2008 can be expected to owe approximately £21,500 by the time they leave university, a rise of 9.6% from 2007.

Are you burried under student debt?

This rise of over twice the rate of inflation suggests that students too are being badly hit by the recent economic downturn.

The situation in Scotland is slightly better than the rest of the UK, given that Scotland has a more generous funding scheme. The average Scottish student can expect to owe £3,453 a year.  However taking into consideration the fact that degrees in Scotland run over four years, in the long term students north of the border are only slightly better off. Read More

A poor turn out was seen at the EUSA General meeting last night despite many controversial motions brought for debate. The meeting was rendered pointless, falling far short of the 300 students needed to make the meeting quorate. Therefore any decision reached last night was not a binding mandate for the EUSA sabbatical officers but it did give a rough idea of student opinion for the Sabbaticals to act on in future. The lack of real student involvement was surprising as the motions brought forward for debate had been well publicised. Read More

by Stevie Kearney, Head of News

The 5 day long occupation of Edinburgh University’s George Square lecture theatre has come to an end, with protesters gaining several concessions from the university.

The ’sit in for Gaza’ protest started last Wednesday as a group of around 60 students took up residence in the lecture theatre demanding that the university adhere to a list of demands centred on the current Israel/Palestine conflict.  A statement from the group claims to have secured several concessions, including the establishment of 5 scholarship places each year for students from Gaza, the setting up of a series of debates around the university and the right to take their case to the university court regarding alleged unethical investments.

The George Square lecture theatre was occupied for 5 days

As the protest group left the lecture hall on Monday morning, they stressed that the campaign is ongoing, “We feel that this is only the beginning of the movement to end the university’s role in the occupation and oppression of Palestine by the Israeli government and military. There remain serious issues to which the university’s response was completely inadequate, including the active role of arms and defence companies in university research and on-campus recruitment”. Read More

by Stevie Kearney, Head of News

The government is coming under increasing pressure to lift the cap imposed on university places as figures today revealed a third annual rise in the number of applications.  Figures from UCAS, the University and College Admission Service, show an increase of 7.8% against last year, with a 12.6% increase from mature students.

The top student body the NUS have been joined by the staff and lecturers’ union the UCU in calling for the government to take action to avoid a crisis in the next few years. Read More

by Anna Fenton, Deputy Head of News

Iain Macwhirter has been elected as the University of Edinburgh’s 50th Rector.

The Herald and Sunday Herald columnist took 69 per cent of the vote in the Rectorial Election, conclusively beating off a challenge from the MSP George Foulkes. 7,004 people voted, with Macwhirter taking 4,822 votes.

An Edinburgh postgraduate, Macwhirter is the 50th rector of the university, filling a position previously held by Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin and Gordon Brown. The election marks 150 years since William Gladstone first took up the post as rector at the university.

Iain Macwhirter

At the outset of the contest, Celebrity Big Brother contestant and Respect MP George Galloway cut a controversial figure in the election, inciting a backlash of Facebook groups, including “’George Galloway for Rector’ THIS MAN IS A DISGRACE!”. He withdrew early on in the proceeding, citing a lack of time to commit to the position as the reason. In his retiring statement, he asked his supporters to lend their support to Macwhirter.

In his acceptance speech, Macwhirter said: “I am delighted that the students and staff of the University of Edinburgh have chosen me to be their Rector. I am extremely excited to have this opportunity to take an active involvement in the University and look to ensure the interests of both staff and students are maintained. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank George Foulkes for running an excellent campaign and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.” Read More