The Latest from the Investigations Team.
The Cheese Grater investigations team spend anywhere between two weeks and six months researching, interviewing, and writing the very best investigations into life at UCL. The section has covered everything from the recent UCL decision to leave Stonewall to sexual harassment and commercialisation.
If you wish to contact the investigations team, get your story published, or have something you believe is worth investigating contact us via email or the anonymous submissions section.
The Aftermath of UCL’s Decision to Reject Stonewall
Lily Park and Daniel Harding UCL’s refusal to continue working with Stonewall, despite being over a year ago now, still poses ...
Exploitation and Inequality: The Plight of UCL’s Outsourced Security Staff
Andrea Bidnic, Mads Brown & Lily Park In a statement made in November, UCL claimed outsourced security staff were “employe...
Nightmare at Gower Street! How Negligence and Administration Errors Pushed One Student to the Brink
Anna Maria Papaoikonomou & Neil Majithia If you’ve ever had to change your modules, inquire about extenuating circumstance...
Cost of Greed Crisis: UCU’s Persisting Strike Action
Zhenya Robinson & Finley Littlefair On the 24th, 25th and 30th of November, universities saw the biggest strike turnout ...
InEffective UnAltruism Society
Thais Jones & Aniela Bichot The first time a student hears the term “Effective Altruism”, they tend to assume the best. An...
Umair Mehmood, The Underdog Story: How QR Codes Led to Welfare Wednesdays
Vivianne Zhang Wei Lack of awareness about the Students' Union elections is a persistent problem at UCL, but one candidate in ...
Chun Buckets Everywhere: How Initiation Ceremonies Ruin the Freshers Experience
Neil Majithia and Elettra Plati Four years ago, the UCL Students’ Union acted on its ban of initiations and disaffiliated Men’...
One Pending Street: Communication Failures Worsen Accommodation Delays at UCL East
Rebekah Wright, Thais Jones, Samir Ismail and Nandini Agarwal To protect anonymity, some names have been replaced with ...
The Bartlett: Architects of Bullying & Intimidation
Zhenya Robinson and Samir Ismail UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture (BSA) has consistently ranked amongst...
Open Season on The Student Centre: The Lack of Security & Support at UCL
Samir Ismail, Investigations EditorThe Student Centre is a study spot frequented by most UCL students. It is common knowledge tha...
Student solidarity, or lack thereof? A guide to SU politics
On December 1st, thirty-odd students convened in a rented basement room in the Building Centre on Store Street for an open forum w...
The Past, Present and Future of Strike Action
Do you think your working conditions are adequate? “No! I’m sending this email at 23:59
In February 2018, Jason Murugesu and Pete...
Race To The Bottom: UCL’s Commercialisation Comes At A Cost
British universities are in the midst of a transformation. Higher education institutions are competing, like enterprises in consum...
The Cheese Grater Interviews Dr Michael Spence
In February 2020, Sophia Robinson from The Cheese Grater Magazine interviewed Dr Michael Spence, UCL’s new Provost. Among other th...
UCL’s Role in Human Rights Abuses in the Middle East
In December 2012, the UCL Students’ Union (SU) voted to take steps to cease UCL’s complicity with the occupation of the West Bank,...
Student Support Whilst Studying Abroad: Is UCL Doing Enough?
Students on study abroad programmes have always had to deal with a unique set of challenges, such as visa complications, communica...
Academia and air travel: how sustainable is UCL?
By Juliette Grieve & Riddhi Kanetkar Despite a growing awareness towards tackling the climate crisis, many UK universitie...
Leaked recording highlights UCL’s disability discrimination problem
By Rob Davidson & Stephanie Frank “I wasn't expecting just full ableism in front of my face”
The member of staff res...
How Effective was UCL’s UberEats Voucher Programme?
For first year students in accommodation, self-isolation has been a fundamental part of the freshers’ experience. While some have ...
Workers demand furlough after being compelled to work in non-essential buildings at UCL
Although Sadiq Khan declared COVID-19 to be a ‘major incident’ in London, many workers are still being compelled to provide cleani...
University of London rent strikers voice their concerns
By Riddhi Kanetkar In December 2020, amidst growing cases of COVID-19, students across UK universities started organising ...
Decolonising the divided: how anti-racist is UCL?
In January 2018, it was discovered that the (now) ex-Honorary UCL Professor, James Thompson, was holding the controversial London ...
The ethics behind the endowment: UCL’s relationship with the Sackler Trust
Sophia Robinson
Additional Reporting by: Min Jing and Stephanie Frank. In 2019, UCL launched the new Institute of ...
Module mayhem marks the start of another academic year
“I was rejected from a module because it was “full”, despite having already attended a seminar on the first day.”
2020 marks the ...
Victory for University of London workers after years of protests
Outsourced cleaners working at the University of London had been long embroiled in protests to secure better labour rights. Outsou...
Why we need the 93% Club at UCL
It is no secret that state-school students have faced, and continue to face, significant barriers when accessing higher education ...
The ‘high risk’ of working in UCL Halls of Residence during the spread of COVID-19
Recently, UCL students received an email that condemned a case of ‘exceptionally poor behaviour’ in Schafer House, which resulted ...
“If it weren’t for my parents, I would have dropped out.” Deaf first year student left with little support from UCL
Daniel is a deaf first year student who started studying at UCL in September, however by the end of first term he was already clo...
UCL Cares? Disabled Students’ Network report reveals bleak treatment of students
On January 20th, UCL Disabled Students’ Network published a report detailing the issues surrounding disabilities at UCL, containin...
Open Letter From the Disabled Students’ Network
Dear Provost,
Six weeks ago the UCL Disabled Students’ Network released a report based on the testimonies of 33 d...
What exactly is the Not Cool Club? In conversation with the club’s president
The Not Cool Club at UCL has gained a lot of traction. All around campus the walls are covered in black and yellow posters promoti...
Administrative Globetrotting
Our internship provider friends at Come On Out Japan (COOJ) have been at it again. COOJ have been promoting their Global English C...
UCL Has Lost The Goodwill of Its Staff
The Cheese Grater in conversation with Josh Hollands
The Cheese Grater Magazine has spoken with Josh Hollands, a UCL Teaching fel...
UCU Academics Strike Explained
At the end of October, a majority of UCU (University and College Union) members voted in favour of strike actions, which have begu...
The burden of Late Summer Assessments on students
Summer 2019 marked the second year in which UCL conducted Late Summer Assessments (LSAs) - the stated aim of them being “...to imp...
“The risk of internalising your own inferiority”: In conversation with two black female academics at UCL
As of 2016-17, only twenty five black women were documented to be working as professors in the UK. In light of a report published ...
Strikes to end outsourcing of UCL cleaners, porters, and security workers
Despite being one of the wealthiest universities in the country, UCL implements some of the worst terms and conditions for its out...
UCL’s ambiguous approach to Disabled Students’ Allowance
In 2014 the minister for Universities and Science, David Willets, announced changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) whic...
Students with disabilities excluded from UCL libraries
It is a commonly acknowledged fact amongst UCL’s student population that library facilities leave a lot to be desired. But, whilst...
Will the Eugenics Inquiry learn from past mistakes?
At a town hall meeting on 1 March, students and staff came together to debate and testify to UCL’s complex relationship with eugen...