Welcome to Weirdoland

We've all heard about the budget cuts and the increase in tuition fees... Since September 2012 students at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) pay £9000 per year here (Almost triple what we, students who started prior to that, pay), a fact I can more or less accept since the money has to come from somewhere... So what does the university do? UCLan installs screens at the door of every classroom to show timetables, what was wrong with our old paper timetables? Nothing. It changes the whole attendance monitoring system by installing new magnetic scanners at the door of every classroom. What was wrong with the little scanners teachers had? Nothing. Today, four gigantic ice sculptures were put around campus. Who benefits from that? Certainly not me. I really hope our tuition money ins't funding these ice sculptures... All this money UCLan spends on unnecessary stuff could fund so many brilliant projects, internships, and just stuff students would actually benefit ...

As part of our assessment we have to produce a magazine every three weeks called Orbis. Here is my story for the first edition for which I also did the layout. Enjoy!

I think it is safe to say by now that I have found my call. This might shock some people who think I have no secrets to them, when I was applying to university I was seriously considering the army path in my head it was always the army or journalism. In the end I chose the "safe" path (note the quotation marks as my aim is to become a war reporter). Studying is great, I love it. In fact I wanna do some more after I graduate (hopefully) next summer. And when I say studying, it is a tricky subject for me because yes I study international journalism but not much actual studying is done on my part (I still get excellent grades so I will not change my methods). I feel university has taught me many things but has failed to teach me other things I wished it would have or more like it failed to force me change my methodology when it comes to actual work. I love what I do and I honestly think I am better at what I do now than I was two and a half years ago thanks to my "stu...

Tehran, Iran, 20 June 2009. People are protesting, they want freedom: they shout, they are angry. The streets are crowded with people. In the middle is Neda. Neda Agha Soltan was a very special 27 year old, she was a gifted musician, was spiritual, she had dreams and aspired to be a mother, she loved the arts and travelling, and was hoping to live in Istanbul one day. The kind of person you would want to know. But most of all, Neda, like many other young people in Iran, longed to be free. Neda died before she was given the chance to make her dreams come true. When young Neda left her house in that spring afternoon, she didn’t know she would never see her mother again. “She left the house mid-afternoon. I couldn’t join her but I said I’d keep in touch with her.” said Hajar Rostami Motlagh, Neda’s mother. Hajar, as any mother would be in times like these, was worried for her child. She managed to get through to Neda twice during the protest. When Neda told her mother the str...

A disorganised rant about what I have learnt this year, what I liked or disliked, a bit of everything really. On a general level, I must admit I have loved this academic year. I have realised, like I wrote back in September that I should have been in university all my life, instead of school where you get told the same every single day. I absolutely love university and I realise I am very lucky to be able to afford it. And because I didn't really know what to expect coming to university abroad, I was not deceived by unmet expectations. I have met some really awesome, interesting and inspiring people, especially Danny, the most passionate person about Journalism I have ever met and whom I will especially miss next year as he is going to China. Thanks to him, I got to work for the Lancashire Evening Post with Chris, Mike and him. It was an amazing experience. My tutors. My tutors were the greatest. I love learning and, because I'd only experienced school, high school and s...