As current students begin to return to campus and new first-year students move into halls of residence this week, The Student sat down with Professor Colm Harmon, Vice Principal Students at the University of Edinburgh, to find out what the student experience will look like this year.  Teaching  Whilst Professor Harmon is keen to emphasise

The Scottish parliament has voted to introduce a requirement for people to show evidence of double vaccination when entering crowded venues, including nightclubs.    The law will come into force from 1 October, however the requirement to show a QR code or paper document proving double vaccination will only apply to those over the age of

Editors note: this article was submitted for publication on or before the 8th September 2021 and reflects information available at that time. It is an absolute disgrace that the majority of students at the University of Edinburgh will still have online learning this year. Within a mile of campus, there’s the Scottish government “keeping young

Editors note: this article was submitted for publication on or before the 8th September 2021 and reflects information available at that time. It is an absolute disgrace that the majority of students at the University of Edinburgh will still have online learning this year. Within a mile of campus, there’s the Scottish government “keeping young

Uppingham, Oakham, Oundel, Wellington, Radley…. the list goes on. Coming from northwest London, never did I realise that there were so many boarding schools out there! Entering the hallowed grounds of Pollock halls, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. “I only enjoy getting drunk off prosecco.” “I think somebody stole my

For some, Freshers’ week is the pinnacle of the university experience: the beginning of a thrilling newfound freedom before the onset of academic responsibilities. For others, it is a largely over-hyped and underwhelming experience. While everyone’s experience of Freshers’ week is unique, there are some general rules that ensure that your first week at Edinburgh

For the majority of my teenage years, a typical night out with my friends from school would include mindless dancing, terribly loud singing, laughing and a mind-numbing amount of alcohol. These factors have always led to everyone having a blast and laughing about it in the morning, envisioning ourselves as something out of Sex and

People who identify as women make up more than half of the people on this planet. They do everything that cis men do. They commute to work, buy houses, go shopping, provide for their families, etc. Why then, do they face more problems in their day to day lives than cis men? Women are more

Serena Baker is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Edinburgh who was crowned the winner of BBC One’s Great British Sewing Bee. The seventh series of the programme put amateur sewers through ten weeks of challenges, attracting audiences of nearly six million people. Serena spoke to The Student about her experience. ‘I felt

Even as a history of art student, getting into Edinburgh’s art scene can be overwhelming, with so many galleries dispersed throughout the city. But after doing a grand tour of all the galleries, here is the final five-stop art stroll through the city that you will be able to do this freshers (art is the

As covid restrictions are finally gone, it’s a wonderful time to explore our city and some of the unique resources and sites available in our UNESCO City of Literature. For those of you new to town, and to those a little bit more settled, hopefully, this quick guide offers you something to discover and a

Freshers can be overwhelming even at the best of times. Whilst you’re bound to be making the most of the array of events on offer and meeting amazing new friends, it is important to make time for yourself to rest and recover throughout the week (and on into the semester!). The first year of university

After spending a year locked up inside my student flat, my gaze has turned inward and I have started romanticising almost everything in sight. (Definitely not my flatmates though so sorry to disappoint if you thought this was going to be a juicy confession piece!) No, no, my new loves are all the lopsided items

How often do you analyse your mind? Your chattering internal monologue is free to roam as it pleases through news stories, clothing catalogues, countless little worries….The freedom this voice inside your head is granted is obtuse and unhealthy, and meditation apps such as Headspace encourage us to slow down this manic alter-person and analyse its

Cw: sexual harassment and assault. Tragedy, once we process the pain, can lead to profound realisations about the world around us. Both a personal loss, and that of Sarah Everard, illustrated to me that we only have a finite amount of time in life, so I now endeavour to engage with and appreciate my relatives

Will I make friends? Will I find where I fit in? Will I be lonely? These are all questions that run through Freshers’ minds in the months leading up to university. For most, moving away from home isn’t easy. Starting over in a new city, you leave everything and everyone you know behind; for international

Something to bear in mind when first arriving at Edinburgh: it is easy to feel small compared to the world around you. Despite coming from London originally (all I can do is apologise for that one!) and thus having an awareness of large cities and the hustle-bustle culture that comes with it, I still couldn’t

I woke up last Thursday morning, and instead of the motivational quotes I usually stumble across on my Instagram stories, I saw black screens that read out “URGENT!” in bold red letters. Two of them were from my kindergarten friends. They were both asking for plasma donations for their family members. My heart dropped. “Is

“Test cricket is dead.” Those were the words of the ever-positive Michael Vaughan during an interview last week. While he holds a somewhat mixed reputation as a pundit, here Mr Vaughan is most certainly correct. This article is not titled “The Survival of Test Cricket”, as you will no doubt realise after checking the title

During the final session of day two in Ahmedabad, as Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant reverse paddled James Anderson for four, it felt like we were witnessing a watershed moment in the landscape of test cricket. The shot, so innovative, dispatched the bowler, so legendary – a perfect encapsulation of out with the old and in

The dream of ten in a row died precisely as it deserved to; an utterly miserable affair in which 27 shots on target returned zero goals, against newly-promoted opposition. If it goes ahead, defeat in the remaining Old Firm derby would leave Celtic trailing by a full 23 points, a margin not seen for a

“FAKE NEWS” has been shouted louder than almost anything else over the last few years. Coming to the forefront with the wild accusations of Donald Trump, fake news has stayed an issue in the Covid-19 pandemic, continuing to support dangerous behaviour. Current efforts to mitigate the spread of misinformation rely on readers fact checking articles,

Every once in a while, we are reminded of the wisdom in ancient tales. During the current pandemic, we are specifically reminded of one of the most famous tales of Aesop’s fables, the “tortoise and the hare”, which gave rise to the famous idiom “slow and steady wins the race”. The metaphorical race, in this

Have you ever been on holiday, or been with a group of friends, or at a new workplace, and found that your accent or way of speaking has changed? Maybe you’ve started using slang terms you’d never even heard of before, or the initial words that come to your mind are something different than the