News and Investigations
The 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 have something you believe is worth investigating or want to get a story published, contact us via email at investigations@cheesegratermagazine.org or via the anonymous submissions form.
If you have something you believe is worth investigating or want to get a story published, contact us via email at investigations@cheesegratermagazine.org or via the anonymous submissions form.
Down Your Union: New Sabbs in Focus
29 September 2024
By way of introducing readers to the new sabbatical leadership at the Students’ Union, The Cheese Grater has taken the great risk...
Kiss goodbye to the Main Quad until 2026, says UCL
22 September 2024
In a blog post titled ‘Improving experience and accessibility for our campus’ central spaces’, the University has announced its p...
No free speech for UCL’s outsourced workforce
21 September 2024
Despite his repeated claims that the ‘right to protest, debate, and challenging ideas is fundamental to our role as a university’...
Access denied: UCL fails disabled student on graduation day
5 September 2024
At the Faculty of Arts and Humanities graduation on Tuesday (3 September), one student was forced to receive their degree certifi...
KCL and SOAS sack new sabbs over support for Palestine
20 July 2024
In the past week, three newly elected sabbatical officers across two University of London institutions have been barred from taki...
Did you know you have rights? The Tenant Fees Act 2019 says you do!
17 July 2024
Malvika Murkumbi, Investigations EditorRenting in London is a battlefield. Every flat is at least two of the following: r...
UCL set to evict Pro-Palestine encampment
15 July 2024
The President and Provost Michael Spence sent another blast email to every UCL student earlier today (15 July) to let us know that...
Cheese Grater Journalist Makes Sabb Cry In Meeting
11 June 2024
Nick MiaoActivities and Engagement Officer Aria Shi, right, pictured tearing up during Questions to Officers at the final...
‘This is Not Business as Usual’: UCL Stands for Justice Escalate Protests as University Fails to Meet Demands
11 June 2024
Palestinian activists at UCL Stands for Justice (SFJ), a student-led coalition, have escalated their protests, disrupting awards ...
Rats, Floods, ‘Fermented Pineapple Juice’: the Trials and Tribulations of UCL Estates
4 June 2024
Robert Delaney, Malvika Murkumbi, Mayra Nassef, and Andrea BidnicA year in student accommodation is a rite of passage for mos...
A ‘Culture of Overwork and Abuse’: Years after the first Complaints, the Mistreatment of Post Graduate Teacher Assistants continues
28 May 2024
Andrea Bidnic, Malvika Murkumbi and Mayra Nassef In 2017, The Cheese Grater published an article titled “Teaching on the...
Life in the Encampment
24 May 2024
Robert Delaney*On the request of the interviewee, their name has been changed to Ramallah19On the 20th May The Cheese...
‘I am happy to accept further training is needed’: UCL ‘Report + Support’ and their self-admitted negligence
9 May 2024
Rebekah WrightContent warning: discussions of sexual assault and rapeAll the people in this article have been given pseud...
The Jeremy Bentham Room Occupation: Highlighting UCL’s role in the Suppression of the Palestinian People
8 April 2024
Sirjan Narang and Robert Delaney UCL Action for Palestine (AFP), a Palestinian advocacy group not affiliated with the St...
The Bleak Reality of UCL History Department’s Redundancy Crisis
8 April 2024
Robert Delaney Higher education is in a bad place. Those reading who were at UCL last year know exactly what I mean. Mar...
The Provost’s Record on LGBTQ+ Support Sinks to a New Low
8 April 2024
Rebekah WrightN.B. The Cheese Grater has reached out to Michael Spence’s Office for comment, but is yet to hear back from the...
Unfair Gordon Square: The Problems with Accessibility at UCL
24 March 2024
Finley Littlefair, Yash Zodgekar, Emma Begley-Collier, and Sirjan NarangFrom the picture-perfect Portico to the houses lining...
‘Union Funding Barely Keeps Us Afloat’: UCL Water Polo and the SU
20 March 2024
Robert DelaneyThe first rule of water polo is to keep your head above the water. Yet, the UCL Water Polo Club is struggling t...
Inside the SU Deep State
20 March 2024
Nick MiaoSabbatical Officers at Students’ Union UCL (SU) are elected in cross-campus elections once a year to represent the s...
Case closed: A Testimony to the Failure of UCL ‘Report + Support’
19 February 2024
Mads Brown and Zhenya RobinsonContent warning: discussions of sexual assault and mental illness [‘Report + Support’]...
TERF out Transphobia: The IOE and “Academic Freedom”
19 January 2024
Mads BrownStudents have finally had enough of the transphobic rhetoric which runs rife at UCL. On Friday 24th November, the c...
University College Hospital and the Met Police Fail to “Treat Homeless People Like Human Beings”
18 January 2024
Mayra Nassef, Ishita Jainer and Malvika MurkumbiOn 13 November, the Metropolitan Police, in conjunction with University Colle...
‘Too Lazy to be Energetic’: An Honest Guide to the SU
18 January 2024
Nick MiaoThe Students’ Union prides itself on being a student-led, student-owned organisation. But how much do you, the stude...
UCL v. Security Staff: Echoes of Exploitation Ignored by Student Apathy
11 January 2024
Rusheen Bansal“They're hiring new people when employees are losing hours.” On December 4, spirited chants reverberat...
2000 Yen, a Watch, and a Few Laptops: Unlocking the Secrets of UCL’s ‘Lacklustre’ Accommodation Security
9 January 2024
Andrea Bidnic, Adnan Bader and Rebekah WrightEvery year, thousands of bright-eyed new students take the obligatory pre-univer...
“Complicity in Genocide”: Students Call for UCL’s Support of Gaza
9 January 2024
Mads Brown, Rebekah Wright and Shaza HafezOn Friday the 17th November, UCL’s main quad was crammed with over two hundred stud...
“Painting the Town Orange”: Just Stop Oil, UCL and Fossil Fuel Investment
9 January 2024
Paige Johnson, Yash Zodgekar, Ary Ris-Luamhain and Rebekah WrightThis October, Just Stop Oil (JSO) marked another destination...
Rental Roulette: UCL’s Rising Prices and the Student Accommodation Crisis
2 October 2023
Rebekah Wright and Nick MiaoTo protect anonymity, some interviewees in this article have been given pseudonyms from the music...
The Aftermath of UCL’s Decision to Reject Stonewall
17 March 2023
Lily Park and Daniel HardingUCL’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
18 January 2023
Andrea Bidnic, Mads Brown & Lily ParkIn 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
18 January 2023
Anna Maria Papaoikonomou & Neil MajithiaIf you’ve ever had to change your modules, inquire about extenuating circumstance...
Cost of Greed Crisis: UCU’s Persisting Strike Action
18 January 2023
Zhenya Robinson & Finley LittlefairOn the 24th, 25th and 30th of November, universities saw the biggest strike turnout ...
InEffective UnAltruism: The Problem with UCL’s Effective Altruism Society
18 January 2023
Thais Jones & Aniela BichotThe 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
18 November 2022
Vivianne Zhang WeiLack 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
18 November 2022
Neil Majithia and Elettra PlatiFour 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
17 November 2022
Rebekah Wright, Thais Jones, Samir Ismail and Nandini AgarwalTo protect anonymity, some names have been replaced with ...
The Bartlett: Architects of Bullying & Intimidation
2 October 2022
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
29 September 2022
Samir Ismail, Investigations EditorThe Student Centre is a study spot frequented by most UCL students. It is common knowledge tha...
The Story of How Rape Went Unpunished At UCL
29 May 2022
*Content warning: this article details a real case of sexual violenceFor the purposes of the victim’s privacy, this article us...
UCL’s Response to Sexual Misconduct Remains Riddled with Loopholes
26 May 2022
*Trigger Warning: this article contains mentions of sexual assault and harassment “Before a system like Report and Support exi...
UCL East: Flowery Promises Conceal Costly Commercialisation
1 March 2022
As UCL prepares to open its new campus, questions arise over its true purpose and value to Bloomsbury’s current students. In 2...
Violated, Harassed, Ignored: Abuse in Halls by UCL Security Guards
25 February 2022
“[He] leaned over the desk and sniffed [me] in three places, typically where you put perfume.” Content Warning: The following ...
The Story Behind UCL’s Rejection of Stonewall
23 February 2022
Note: The Academic Board Agenda and materials discussed in the December 10th meeting were made available by UCL via a FOI request ...
No Report, No Support: How UCL Fails Victims of Racism
2 February 2022
“It was obvious that this was someone that has never had to be around black people their entire life”In early November, employ...
Student solidarity, or lack thereof? A guide to SU politics
17 January 2022
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
16 November 2021
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
15 November 2021
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
12 October 2021
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
8 October 2021
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?
27 March 2021
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?
22 February 2021
By Juliette Grieve & Riddhi KanetkarDespite a growing awareness towards tackling the climate crisis, many UK universitie...
Leaked recording highlights UCL’s disability discrimination problem
10 February 2021
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?
9 February 2021
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
19 January 2021
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
13 January 2021
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?
5 January 2021
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
16 December 2020
Sophia RobinsonAdditional Reporting by: Min Jing and Stephanie Frank.In 2019, UCL launched the new Institute of ...
Module mayhem marks the start of another academic year
23 November 2020
“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
11 November 2020
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
26 September 2020
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
9 April 2020
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
28 March 2020
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
28 March 2020
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
3 March 2020
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
14 February 2020
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
12 December 2019
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
12 December 2019
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
26 November 2019
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
31 October 2019
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
31 October 2019
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
31 October 2019
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
30 October 2019
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
27 September 2019
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?
21 March 2019
At a town hall meeting on 1 March, students and staff came together to debate and testify to UCL’s complex relationship with eugen...
UCLove plagued by suicide threats
21 March 2019
Content warning: mentions of suicide, depression, anxiety, self-harm and eating disorders, but no detailed or graphic descriptions...
Academics against outsourcing boycott Senate House
21 March 2019
Campaigners from the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) are stepping up efforts to end outsourcing at the University of L...
Election balls
21 March 2019
Adverts on social media, a ball pit in South Cloisters, and a promise of £500 to the society with the highest percentage of voting...
Union Council bans iPads for sabbatical elections
1 March 2019
Voting opened today in elections for Union sabbatical and part-time officers. This year will be the first in which campaigners are...
A brief history of Eugenics
5 February 2019
UCL is finally facing up to its past. An inquiry has been convened to investigate UCL’s history of eugenics and make recommendatio...
Academics oppose GRA reform
5 February 2019
'Academic Freedom' or something more?
Six UCL academics were among the signatories of an October 2018 letter published in The Gua...
UCL shifts blame for unpaid security staff
4 February 2019
Last November, UCL switched security contractors from CIS to Axis. The roster of security officers at UCL has changed little, but ...
UCL may adopt IHRA definition rejected by Students’ Union
28 January 2019
At a heated Union members’ meeting on Monday 21 January, students voted by a margin of 212 to 78 to reject the adoption of the Int...
Has scrapping hardship bursary disadvantaged UCL’s worst-off students?
11 December 2018
In a year when UCL accommodations are less accessible to the most financially insecure students due to the scrapping of the Accom...
UCL shirks responsibility for internship from hell
11 December 2018
A report has been passed to The Cheese Grater alleging serious safeguarding failures on an internship attended by over 10 UCL st...
Homophobia and transphobia at Glittoris
10 December 2018
Glittoris, the Student Union’s flagship LGBT+ club night, has come under fire this term after a series of homophobic and transpho...
Socialist Workers Party secretly run student society
6 December 2018
The Cheese Grater can exclusively reveal that UCL Socialist Worker Student Society (SWSS), affiliated to the Socialist Workers Par...
Why is UCL’s WiFi so bad?
6 December 2018
This academic year, it has often been impossible for students to access WiFi in UCL libraries. Though eduroam functioned fine befo...
Why are lectures being held at the Royal National Hotel?
30 October 2018
Room bookings in 'still bad' shocker.
Quelle surprise, UCL facilities have proven insufficient, and students are bearing the brunt...
UCL blames computer glitch for degree certificate blunder
30 October 2018
It has been revealed to The Cheese Grater that a number of students at UCL have had their names listed incorrectly on official rec...
Low-paid Senate House workers hung out to dry
30 October 2018
Activists are back at Senate House after UoL reverses outsourcing decision.
The University of London has reneged on its promise t...
Democracy Officer wants lower turnout threshold for union meetings
30 October 2018
On 11 October, at the most recent general assembly of SU UCL (not, under any circumstances, to be called ‘suckle’ -ed.), Democracy...
Keeping it casual: UCL outsource temporary staff to Unitemps
29 September 2018
From September 2018, UCL will outsource employment of temporary workers to an external agency, Unitemps in a move which UCU repres...
Inside the Panopticon: UCL surveillance creates a hostile environment for Tier 4 students
29 September 2018
Recent changes to the attendance monitoring policy for Tier 4 students in several UCL faculties are generating opposition from sta...
Exams at the ExCel: Where were all the examiners this year?
21 May 2018
This year, instead of being dotted around London in weird conference rooms and dingy church basements, UCL's summer exams were all...
Inheriting Galton: The people working to make UCL less racist
19 March 2018
“If we had Muslims or people of colour holding the same conference ... we would have seen counter-terrorism police on our doorstep...
Seven Things We Learned from UCL Spin Doctor’s Crazy Rant That Got Him Fired
8 March 2018
In a bitter twist to the short reign of Charles Hymas (he was hired last April), UCL's now former Head of Media Relations leaves t...
Here’s How Many Societies Opted-Out of The Union’s Shambolic Online Elections
26 February 2018
The controversial plan to move AGMs online appears to have been much ado about nothing, with the majority of UCL’s 268 societies o...
We Talked To Striking Lecturers Standing In The Cold
22 February 2018
It’s hardly the weather for the picket line.All around campus, small pockets of UCL academics are picketing as part of the nat...
How UCL Risked The Immigration Status of Vice Wardens For Years
15 February 2018
Earlier this year, an international student and former vice-warden of UCL accommodation shared her story with The Cheese Grater. H...
Voting shambles
8 February 2018
In the first successful SU UCL General Assembly for four years, the Union was saddened to discover that their electronic voting ma...
The Fight For The Heart of UCL
8 February 2018
A battle is raging at UCL, one that will define the very nature of the university for decades to come.It all came to a head th...
Second Time’s The Charm For Ex-IDF Speaker
29 January 2018
Back in 2016, UCL won international news coverage when an event with Hen Mazzig, hosted by UCL Friends of Israel, was disrupted by...
Online society elections will now be opt-out
25 January 2018
Tonight at an Emergency Council Meeting, the debate over whether President and Treasurer elections for societies should go online ...
iPad debate heats up first successful General Assembly in four years
25 January 2018
In a historic night for the Union, Tuesday's General Assembly was the first since 2014 to which enough people showed up for the me...
Here Are Five Shocking Sexist & Racist Tweets By UCL Professor Who Hosted Eugenics Conference
10 January 2018
This morning, London Student published an exposé into the London Conference of Intelligence that has been hosted by UCL for the la...
Daily Mail sensationalises UCL fundraising
13 December 2017
A series of articles in the Daily Mail accuse various universities, including UCL, of using wealth screening companies to target a...
Exorbitant student accomodation at UCL East
13 December 2017
UCL East students will face central London prices for accommodation in decidedly-not-central London.The primary justification ...
Why did only 160 students turn up to that much-hyped General Assembly?
13 December 2017
For the fourth year running, last Tuesday’s promised Union General Assembly never took place, because too few students turned up.
...
“Zero Tolerance is just a marketing scheme”: Union hypocrisy fails sexual assault victims
13 December 2017
“They make you run around in circles until you give up.”Imagine having a drink with a friend in Phineas. All around are po...
One Man Protest for Anti-Zionist Speakers
17 November 2017
Although The Times wrote last week that “hundreds of students have protested against University College London’s decision to host ...
Geography Department sorry for sexist PowerPoint slide
16 November 2017
Some lecture slides are impossible to decipher, some contain poor puns, and then there are those which are simply tone deaf.Th...
Why exactly did UCLU need a rebrand?
3 November 2017
This summer, the dull purple of UCLU was replaced with the ghastly orange of Students Union UCL, also “not known as” SUUCL.The...
Inquiry finds UCL should have stopped its star-scientist killing patients
31 October 2017
It's a story we've all heard before: boy-meets-girl; Faustus-meets-Devil; university-meets-murderous scientist.Earlier this mo...
Why UCL’s NUS referendum was a sham
25 October 2017
This evening, the results for UCL's NUS referendum were announced, though you'd be hard-pressed to find a student who actually kne...
Sheikh It Off: Inside UCL’s Decision To Leave Qatar
23 October 2017
Since its inception in 2012, UCL’s campus in Qatar has been a running sore for UCL management.This will come to an end in 2020...
Here’s how much UCL made in library fines last year
16 October 2017
For some weird reason, we all like to one up each other when talking about how much debt we are in to the library. But, as with al...
Don’t know what UCL East is? Here’s An Explainer
5 October 2017
As students enjoyed a break over the summer, work continued apace on UCL's new campus in Stratford, East London — six miles from B...
Breaking News: No Bad News About Bloomsbury
1 October 2017
The Cheese Grater is thrilled to reveal that we don’t need to write an article about Bloomsbury Theatre’s renovation as it is surp...
Only 22% of UCL’s Highest Earners Are Women
30 September 2017
"UCL was the first university in the UK to admit women" - surely this has been forced down every fresher’s throat by now? What the...
The Inside Story of Cut the Rent This Year
8 August 2017
With significantly fewer students on rent strike this year, how did the student group Cut the Rent achieve such an impressive vict...
Union 15p Card Charge Killed Off
28 July 2017
The Cheese Grater can exclusively reveal that purchases made under £5 at Union bars and cafes will no longer be subject to card su...
NUS referendum scheduled for October
26 July 2017
Students' Union UCL (previously known as UCLU) will hold a referendum this October on whether it wants to remain a part of the NUS...
The indomitable ISoc election machine
22 March 2017
UCL know that there is one person who guarantees electoral success: the President of the Islamic Society (ISoc). In this year’s sp...
Exam timetable delayed, approximately no-one surprised
22 March 2017
For those who still have questions about whether water is wet and whether or not the Pope is Catholic, it may come as a shock to l...
UCLU attempt to clean house
22 March 2017
Conflict erupted at the March Union Council meeting, as plans were revealed to cut the hours of UCLU’s contracted cleaners by 30% ...
The tragic story of how UCL fails victims of sexual assault
22 March 2017
“They push you around the system until you give up. There is no system to help”.These are the words of a UCL medical student w...
Zero hours, agency workers and rodents: investigation reveals Sodexo staff concerns
10 February 2017
An anonymous letter criticising Sodexo’s management staff, seen by The Cheese Grater, purportedly sent by an employee, has raised ...
Jurassic Arth: Dinosaur Provost backpedals on fossil fuel divestment
10 February 2017
With the Fossil Free UCL divestment campaign seemingly gaining momentum, Provost Michael Arthur and co. are deliberately dragging ...
NSS: No Student Say
10 February 2017
In the face of a national campaign encouraging students to boycott the National Student Survey (NSS), which measures the student s...
UCL spend millions patching up failing facilities to accommodate rising student numbers
10 February 2017
UCL provost Michael Arthur has revealed at the latest Academic Board meeting that student numbers will rise by “2% or so” again th...
Senior Academics Revolt Against Management
10 February 2017
A covert group of senior academics are plotting a staff revolt over worries that UCL East is endangering the university’s futu...
Teaching on the cheap: UCL’s exploitation of teaching assistants revealed
22 January 2017
A UCLU report, released this past week, has laid bare the unfair and exploitative conditions postgraduate teaching assistants (PGT...
Bloomsbury Theatre Updates
22 January 2017
At last, there is more news of the much-missed Bloomsbury Theatre, as students were finally briefed on the Bloomsbury renovation c...
UCL, I Just Need Some Space
22 January 2017
UCL is spending over £1 million pounds on short term solutions in an attempt to solve the College’s impending facilities crisis. S...
UCL cuts bursaries, loans to make up the shortfall
6 May 2016
The slowly wilting corpse of The Independent had a splash this week courtesy of everyone's favourite rent renegades UCL Cut The Re...
Living the High Life: College’s unaccountable pay and perks criticised.
26 March 2016
When Provost Professor Michael Arthur crossed the Watford gap from his tenure at Leeds, The Cheese Grater reported that his hotel ...
The Dark Knight Rises
22 March 2016
Vice Provost Rex Knight clashes with students as UCL Cut The Rent protests escalate.
The Cheese Grater has already said it once ...
Spotlight on… Rex Knight
22 March 2016
Who exactly is the man that students love to hate?Among left-wing and activist circles at UCL, no name inspires quite as much ...
Declining Student Experience Threatens to Hit UCL Where it Hurts – in the Wallet
20 March 2016
If you’ve seen the six foot tall billboards around UCL encouraging final year students to take part in the National Student Su...
Final Curtain for the Bloomsbury Theatre?
3 March 2016
“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent musical theatre from harmonising by taking a sledgehammer to their dreams.” -...
Eugenics heading for a eulogy
25 March 2015
Will UCL find the courage to examine its murky past?A member of the UCL academic board has revealed that they suspect that the...
North Korean sympathiser on UCL’s academic board?
4 February 2015
North Korea is “very egalitarian” and a “democracy from the bottom”, and Stalin’s rule in the USSR was marked by “popular apprecia...
Violence between police and protestors over Senate House occupation
3 December 2013
Bloomsbury streets were stained with blood as protestors clashed with police during demonstrations. What began with the occupation...
Violent Arrest in ULU
16 July 2013
A young woman was dragged by police from the ULU Cafe this lunchtime as shocked students looked on and tried to remonstrate wi...
Interview with the Provost Malcolm Grant
13 May 2013
What were the biggest issues you faced when you first became Provost of UCL ten years ago?Number one was that the budget was...
ULU to close but Chessum resolute: “This is not the end”
3 May 2013
The University of London’s Council, made up of the Vice Chancellors of 18 London universities, this morning voted in favour of shu...
Wolves at the Door for ULU
29 April 2013
Senior managers and academics within the University of London are proposing the closure of the University of London Union (ULU).
...
UCL Council Treasurer Sits on Costa Coffee Board
21 March 2013
Last month's CG (CG37) revealed that up to ten new cafés will open on campus, and that, going on previous choices, these are likel...
Misogynist Runs for UCLU Women’s Officer
28 February 2013
[Note: this post contains descriptions of violence against women.]UCLU’s newly created full-time Women’s Officer position has...
Hey, Big Spender!: new provost’s expensive tastes
24 January 2013
The incoming UCL Provost has expensive tastes. In the last six years, Professor Michael Arthur, who will replace Professor Malcolm...
RIP Pi Newspaper (2007-2012)
17 November 2012
In an email sent this morning to all members Pi's president outlined proposals to scrap Pi Newspaper, merging some of its content ...
UCL Confessions’ Dark Side
31 October 2012
[Trigger warning: the following post contains description of sexual violence.]‘UCL confessions’ – a Facebook page featuring an...
“Fuck off, or you are going to have a war on your hands”
25 October 2012
UCL's proposal to build a £1bn "university quarter" in Stratford was passed by a Newham council meeting tonight, much to the anger...
Marauding on Oxford Street
21 October 2012
Leaving the samba bands and banners of the main TUC "march for a future that works" at Trafalgar Square at about 2 o clock, we joi...
Careers Fair Disrupted by Anti-Arms Trade Activists
11 October 2012
About five or six activists turned up at the engineering careers fair in the Jeremy Bentham room this evening attempting to block ...
Why Were Newham Complaints Not Heard for Eleven Days?
8 October 2012
For background on this story, see CG34 (March 2012) and the September 2012 Welcome Issue.Warren Lubin, chair of the Carpenter...
Referenda Close
26 January 2012
UCL Union rejects 'No Confidence in Malcolm Grant', becomes pro-choice and will decide international policy through member’s meeti...
Censor This
6 January 2012
James Skuse and Amy Evans are at it again.Student Activities Officer Amy Evans has attempted to censor Cheese Grater reporting...