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By Hannah Sommerville, MA Arabic Literature Results for the Student Union elections were announced on the 3rd March. Sixteen of the 17 contested posts have now been filled after a week of intense campaigning and strident efforts on the part of the SU to encourage students to use their vote.
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By Ines Rodier, BA Politics and Development Studies SOAS has announced that fossil fuels are no longer being used the institutuion. This achievement is the result of a commitment made three years ago by the administration to divest totally from fossil fuels. Between 2008 and 2015, SOAS had already halved
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By Arooj Sultan, BA Economics & Politics After a hard-fought campaign taking place over a period of 11 years, in August 2017 SOAS management announced that it meet the demands of the Justice for Workers (J4W) campaign and bring all outsourced staff in-house by September 2018. Following this historic announcement,
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By Arooj Sultan, BA Economics & Politics SOAS is among the higher education institutions that is set to re-enter the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) – a system in which teaching excellence is rewarded financially according to ranking – over the course of this year. Last year, SOAS received a bronze ranking under
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By Emma Ruiters, MSc Development Economics On February 15 this year, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) resigned, igniting the greatest political crisis to rock the country since the end of communist rule in 1991. Desalegn had risen to power in
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By Amina Tasnim, BA History The Trump-Russia inquiry has seen a significant development with the release of the long-awaited Democratic memo by The House Intelligence Committee on February 24thth. Alex van der Zwaan, 33, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his relations with Rick Gates, who was a
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By a SOAS Spirit Contributor Opposition leaders in Egypt have called for a boycott as the country grinds towards an ‘election’ that can be described with little to no stretch of the imagination as a farce. The current schedule will see Egyptians inside the country go to the polls from
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By Emma Ruiters, MSc Development Economics After his election as president of the African National Congress (ANC) on December 18, 2017, Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as president of the Republic of South Africa on February 15 this year. Ramaphosa succeeds Jacob Zuma after the latter’s nine years in
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By Naima Zannat (PASS Intern). PASS (Peer Assisted Study Support) involves sessions led by higher year students (called PASS leaders) who support the learning of lower year peers in a group learning environment. These sessions supplement existing learning in lectures and tutorials in a more informal environment led by students.
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Universities looking to exploit the law to withhold large sums of money from staff involved in industrial action are storing up problems for the future and could prolong strike action, the University and College Union (UCU) warned today (Thursday). Staff at 61 universities returned to work this morning after five
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The SOAS Students’ Union elections can be intimidating, whether you’re a candidate or just a regular student voter. Campaigning is intense, with much of candidates’ success being weighted on who has the widest friendship circle or the best ability to produce a fun video, catchy hashtag or flashy poster.
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This year The SOAS Spirit decided to go further in our election coverage. The SOAS Students’ Union elections can be intimidating, whether you’re a candidate or just a regular student voter. Campaigning is intense, with much of candidates’ success being weighted on who has the widest friendship circle or