Voices and the Mailsack
Voices is our opinion column open for all UCL students. If you have an idea for an article, send us a pitch at editor@cheesegratermagazine.org. For shorter opinion pieces up to 300 words, you can write a letter to our editors via the same email.
The Mailsack
The Mailsack: Issue 88, Autumn 2024
Please write to usDear Readers,The Cheese Grater had a brief experiment with a letters column called the Mailsack around ten years ago wh...
Editorial
Editorial: Don’t be held electoral hostage on July 4
When the choice at this general election is between the Tories and the Red Tories, The Cheese Grater believes that students should vote for an indepe...
The Cost of Living Crisis: The Cheese Grater View
Holly Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or in a developed country, you will have heard all about the catastrophe haunting the UK at the moment....
Voices
Our fight for freedom knows no distance
3,000 miles away from Tbilisi, Georgian students at UCL fight for another future
Elene Suramelashvili
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An Obituary of Middle Eastern Studies
The closure of one of the world’s oldest Middle Eastern Studies departments is a worrying sign for academic integrity and diversity in Europe and beyo...
Bloomsbury’s Bananas: a tale of massacres, coups, and ethical consumption
One recent gloomy day on campus, I made the arduous journey to the Union Bloomsbury Shop to get some study snacks. Trying to exercise some self-discip...
Jewish Society, wake up!
This is a desperate cry for change from a Jewish student who has had more than enough of the UCL Jewish Society’s underreaction to events unfolding i...
Robert Delaney: I will rebuild student media
On Wednesday, The Cheese Grater sent out a blanket invite to all four candidates competing to be Media Rep – Altay Shaw, Robert Delaney, Maria Kliuch...
Student politics is broken, and it’s our fault
Student politics at UCL has a major crisis of engagement. In last year’s Leadership Race, the Union celebrated a ‘record-breaking’ turnout of… 23.7%....
What is it with the Provost and ‘Disagreeing Well’?
If you are new to UCL, you will probably notice very soon that the Provost has a particular obsession with ‘free speech’ and a little something calle...
Graduation? No thank you.
The portal has opened, but its glow is far from beckoning… Instead, a rather grim, shadowy darkness looms, eager to swallow me up and spit me out ont...
‘It would be a pain if this gets out’: The boy’s club and university rugby
As a chronic eavesdropper, the minute I hear something vaguely interesting it sticks. And when it sticks, I start to dig.Ammara AslamThis...
Is it over for France? Portrait of a nation on fire
It’s difficult to put into words the degree of urgency of the situation.Andrea Bidnic Investigations EditorImagine a world where Nigel F...
On the Provost’s Update
Dayan MustafaIn his attempt to say nothing at all (nothing political, that is) Dr Michael Spence, the UCL Provost, has revealed more than he ...
UCL needs to Divest Now: Why Michael Spence must Listen to Protestors
Robert Delaney(image via @are_eb on X)As I write this opinion piece, pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up on UCL’s Main Quad. Followin...
The state of the NUS is a bit like Blackpool
Nick MiaoOne question I found asking myself and my fellow delegates on our three-day trip to this year’s National Union of Students (NUS) National...
Not a Big Deal – The Plight of an “Oppressed Middle-Eastern Woman”
Mayra NassefAs an immigrant, my existence has always been political. To say where I’m from, or even where I’ve lived my whole life, often immedia...
Untitled rant: Why care about student journalism at UCL? (Subject to change)
Robert DelaneyThe question posed above is one I often face when confronted about my role as co-Editor-in-Chief at The Cheese Grater. Curious frie...
New famous landlord technique to avoid mould problems – gaslight your marginalised tenants!
Anna Maria Papaoikonomou"When I pointed out what mould looks like, I was called uneducated, ungrateful, and this man refused to interact with me ...
M.A.B.: We’ll Get Our Marks Back Some Day
Elettra PlatiOn 20 April 2023, the UCU’s Marking and Assessment boycott began and after a long summer in which you may have spent too much tim...
Hong Kong’s Banana Breakthrough
It’s finally happening. After three years of 21-day quarantine policies, dine-in restrictions, and mask mandates, we citizens of Hong Kong are seeing...
No More 3 for 10 Jagers?
Anna Maria Papaoikonomou, Zine EditorI can’t ever go back to my first two months of university. Not because I had a particularly difficult time, ...
Sabbatical Officers Hustings: Thoughts from the Chair
For seven hours last week, I sat on stage with candidates for all six Sabbatical Officer positions and had the chance to question them about the most ...
Unpaid internships: when did free labour become normalised?
There is a sense of excitement when searching for Summer Internships on, what seems like, the endless amount of job finding sites available. The prosp...
Our Sabbatical Officers: A Year in Review
It has been a turbulent year for all at UCL. It was truly a rollercoaster ride with changing COVID conditions, numerous bouts of strikes and extremely...
“Rape is not normal; it is normalised”: A First-hand Account
Trigger warning: mentions and graphic details of r*pe and sexual assault Everyone has drunk sex at university, right? That’s what student life is ...
The Damning Depop Divide
I was fourteen when I first downloaded Depop. Back then, I could find a nice top or dress for £10 and get a good bargain for all the classic b...
Separate But Equal: Social Sciences’ Superficial Inclusivity
I chose Social Sciences as my undergraduate degree thinking, almost naively, that understanding the world around me would help me change it. I wanted ...
If you want a functional Students’ Union, you won’t get one here.
The other day I got a text from my editor: ‘there’s a virtual Students’ Union Executive meeting, you should go check it out’. Naturally, I found mysel...
Who is BAME? Not Me.
BAME is a term that has been in use for some years but shot up to the headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. It stands for Black, Asian and Minority ...
Government Cuts to the Arts: A Student’s Perspective
In July 2021, Gavin Williamson, the former Secretary of State for Education, announced the Conservative party’s plans to cut the Office for ...
UCL’s Disability Support, Or Lack Thereof?
I chose Education Studies for my undergraduate degree at UCL. The university has ranked number one in the world for Education for several years; on pa...
UCL’s Ethnographic Collection: A Road Towards Decolonisation
While researching a mask belonging to the Sande society of Mendiland, Sierra Leone, for an assignment, I was puzzled to discover that UCL’s Ethnograph...
Discrimination against Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities has fatal consequences
I live in a small village in South East England. I first heard the word Traveller used to describe a group of people when I was about 10. I was sittin...
What it feels like to be at the centre of J.K. Rowling’s “TERF Wars”
Trigger Warning: Mentions of violence against transgender people. Let’s talk about J.K. Rowling; author of the impossibly successful Harry Potter ...
Change shouldn’t be a ‘women’s burden’
Male violence against women must be diminished. Intersectional solidarity is the way forward - a movement of which men must become a part.
Trigger W...
We cannot let the persecution of Uighurs escalate
By Amber Kite*Trigger Warning - this article contains mentions of sexual assault and violence*“I would have done something.”It is a ...
Examining UCL’s Apology for its History of Eugenics
By Rusheen Bansal On 7th January 2021, UCL issued a formal statement of apology regarding their role in the “development, propagation...
Extended Family: Halls and Isolation – and how you can overcome it
Vaania AchuthanAs part of Isolation DiariesTrigger Warning: Mention of suicideEver since students have moved into halls at the sta...
What is the cost of isolation for working-class students?
Eleanor CorneyAs part of Isolation DiariesBeing a student is hard - that goes without saying. Being a student in the middle of a pandemic ...
Remote Learning and Isolation: My Own Thoughts…
Eleanor Kingas part of Isolation Diaries2019 and 2020 have been two binaries for me. The joy of finally graduating with an English Literat...
Should I stay or should I go?
Jakob Kiesslingas part of Isolation DiariesEvery day, between 9 PM and midnight, a man appears in my flat. He’s tall, approximately 40 yea...
No Child Should Go Hungry During A Pandemic
Riddhi KanetkarRecently, a Labour motion to extend free school meals until Easter has been rejected by the government, by a margin of 61 vote...
The lies behind the 2020 exams scandal
Eleanor CorneyYoung people are always told that they are the future. When did it become acceptable for others to control theirs?
2020 has bee...