Halloween, Council and Education

‘Happy Belated Halloween!’ Can I say that? Aside from seeing scores of oddly dressed people hanging around the Beit Quad while getting back to the Felix office on Wednesday night, I have thankfully be saved from the Halloween hype. Instead some truly interesting things have happened this week, including the front page stories: the debate about the government’s Immigration Bill at Union Council and the mischievous attempts of British Influence. The Immigration Bill is an interesting topic, while only a few parts of the bill actually affect students, the measures that are concerning have the potential to do damage to the UK’s international desirability as a provider of higher education. During the Council meeting there was a lot of debate looking at both sides of the health measure (i.e. whether international students should be charged an amount of money per year in order to use NHS services), however the accommodation measure was more uniformly criticised, with many worrying about the effect that forcing landlords to carry out more stringent checks on migrant residents might have on the availability of private accommodation for international students (both undergraduate and postgraduate). However, another key event this week was the release of the Imperial’s new Education Student Strategy, a document spearheaded by the Vice Provost of Education with the intent to improve feedback and transparency in College, while looking for ways to improve the student experience. While some of these improvements might be more long term, Felix looks forward to the future improvements.