About Us
The Cheese Grater is the student paper at the heart of UCL. Since 2004, we have provided award-winning investigative and satirical journalism and have grown to become Gower Street’s finest source of campus news, satire, and student discourse.
We print three times a year, and whenever else we feel like it. During term time, we run a fortnightly newsletter, the Digestive, packed with the biggest campus headlines, and every Friday evening, we’re on Rare FM for our weekly radio segment, Grater Insight. When there’s breaking news in and around UCL, we’ll always break the story online first. We maintain year-round coverage of the biggest talking points on campus.
The Cheese Grater was twice named the Best Publication in London, most recently in 2025, when it was also named Best Digital and highly commended for Best Print Design. It has also won the title of UCL’s Best Publication 10 times, most recently in 2024. We are proud to be UCL’s largest publication by circulation and have consistently broken impactful stories read by hundreds of students every day.
This paper finds its roots in the depths of Ifor Evans House where, in 2004, classics student René Lavanchy established The Cheese Grater to offer an alternative to the Union mouthpiece, Pi Magazine. Today, we continue to provide the most authentic account of the student experience at UCL and remain deeply committed to public interest journalism, standing up for students’ interests without fear or favour. We hold ourselves to the highest standards, set out by the IPSO Editor’s Code of Practice.
The current editors are Nick Miao and Robert Delaney.

Get involved!
The Cheese Grater operates under the umbrella of the homonymous Cheese Grater Magazine Society, a student society affiliated with our publisher, Students’ Union UCL. Together, we publish The Cheese Grater, Women’s Wrongs, and operate a Fringe-worthy sketch comedy group, the Graters. We also run regular meetings, socials, and offer training and guidance to each and every one of our journalists.
The easiest way to get involved with everything the Society has to offer is to turn up to our meetings! No experience is required — all you need is a Society membership, which you can buy here for just £7 (Some pubs charge more for a pint!) Each branch of the Society meets once a week during term time. This includes (for The Cheese Grater), News & Investigations and Humour, Satire, & Graphics on Mondays and Tuesdays, (for Graters) sketch rehearsals on Wednesdays, and (for Women’s Wrongs) a Zine meeting on Thursdays. Check our Instagram for the most up-to-date details.
Our team
It takes a village to run a paper. Here are the wonderful people making the magic happen in 2024/25.
Senior Editorial
Editors-in-Chief
Nick Miao and Robert Delaney
editor@cheesegratermagazine.org
Section Editors
News and Investigations Editors
Andrea Bidnic & Malvika Murkumbi
investigations@cheesegratermagazine.org
Humour and Satire Editors
Go Kitajima, Holly Turner, & Luke Melendez
humour@cheesegratermagazine.org
Graphics Editor
Jasmine Yiu
humour@cheesegratermagazine.org
Online Editor
Sam Pavey
sam.pavey.21@ucl.ac.uk
Zine and the Graters
Sketch Director
Ben Scanlan
show@cheesegratermagazine.org
Zine Editors
Abby Hunt & Anastasia Afanaseva
zine@cheesegratermagazine.org
Society Officers
President
Lily Park
president@cheesegratermagazine.org
Treasurer
Go Kitajima
go.kitajima.24@ucl.ac.uk
Welfare Officer
Izzie Moull
izzie.moull.22@ucl.ac.uk
Awards
The Cheese Grater is proud to have won the most awards of any UCL publication. Our journalists are some of the best in London and we continue to be recognised locally, regionally, and nationally. Here’s some of what we’ve won in the past.
Award | Year | Category | Nominee | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
Guardian Student Media Awards | 2006 | Best Small Budget Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won |
2007 | Best Magazine | The Cheese Grater | Nominated | |
Students' Union UCL Arts Awards | 2006 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won |
2007 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2008 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2009 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2010 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Nominated | |
2011 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2012 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Nominated | |
2014 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2014 | Diversity and Inclusion | The Cheese Grater Magazine Society | Won | |
2016 | Most Improved Society | The Cheese Grater Magazine Society | Won | |
2018 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2023 | Best Publication | Women's Wrongs | Won | |
2023 | Best Media Piece | Neil Majithia and Elettra Plati for Chun Buckets Everywhere: How initiation ceremonies ruin the freshers experience | Won | |
2024 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2024 | Best Media Piece | Mads Brown for TERF out Transphobia: The IOE and “Academic Freedom” | Won | |
2025 | Best Publication | Women's Wrongs | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Written Media Piece | Malvika Murkumbi for UCL support tool did more harm than good, report finds | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Video Media Piece | Nick Miao for UCL paid for 80% of Union Gym refurbishment | Nominated | |
2025 | Outstanding Contribution to the Media | Andrea Bidnic, Lily Park, and Robert Delaney | Nominated | |
2025 | Media Personality of the Year | Andrea Bidnic, Lucy Reade, Nick Miao, and Robert Delaney | Nominated | |
Student Publication Association (London Regional Awards) | 2022 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won |
2025 | Best Publication | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2025 | Best Digital | The Cheese Grater | Won | |
2025 | Best Design (Print) | The Cheese Grater | Highly commended | |
2025 | Best Journalist | Malvika Murkumbi | Won | |
2025 | Best Article | Andrea Bidnic for A ‘culture of overwork and abuse’: Years after the first complaints, the mistreatment of PGTAs continues | Highly commended | |
Student Publication Association (National Awards) | 2023 | Best Media Piece | Neil Majithia and Elettra Plati for Chun Buckets Everywhere: How initiation ceremonies ruin the freshers experience | Won |
2023 | Best Creative Piece | Mathilde Turner for Naked Yoga: A Belligerent Ode to the Pussy | Nominated | |
2023 | Billy Dowling-Reid Award for Outstanding Commitment | Nandini Agarwal | Nominated | |
2024 | Best Newcomer | Women's Wrongs | Highly commended | |
2024 | Best Creative Piece | Ben Scanlan for Keir Starmer… A Day in the Life | Highly commended | |
2025 | Best Specialist Publication | Women's Wrongs | Won | |
2025 | Best Website | The Cheese Grater | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Reporter | Lucy Reade, Robert Delaney, and Nick Miao | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Newcomer | Go Kitajima | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Investigation | Malvika Murkumbi for UCL support tool did more harm than good, report finds | Nominated | |
2025 | Best News Story | Andrea Bidnic for No jobs for graduates if Union bans oil and gas sponsorships, engineers warn | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Comment Piece | Andrea Bidnic for What is it with the Provost and ‘Disagreeing Well’? | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Comment Piece | Andrea Bidnic for Jewish Society, wake up! | Nominated | |
2025 | Best Creative Piece | Jasmine Yiu for Dear phantom flatmate | Nominated |