A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
An organiser of Wednesday’s student march in London has slammed the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the protests.
James McAsh of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts accused the police of trying to undermine the demonstration, which saw thousands of students marching through the city in protest against cuts to university budgets.
“The form of total policing that they took was nothing more than intimidation [and] bullying”, McAsh told The Yorker in an interview.
The Metropolitan Police had contacted activists prior to the demonstration warning of severe punishments for disorderly behaviour. Coaches of students heading to London were also stopped by police, who distributed warning leaflets.
Before the march, the force had said they were prepared to use rubber bullets on protesters if necessary, a move which would have been unprecedented on the UK mainland.
Up to four thousand police were deployed at Wednesday’s march, as well as surveillance helicopters and mounted officers.
One activist, from pressure group York Against the Cuts, claimed the police were trying to scare would-be protesters off in an attempt to keep numbers down.
“I’ve been involved in activism for more than ten years, and I’ve never known such a police presence”, he told The Yorker during the march.
“I think it’s disgraceful. I think the police are ramping up antagonism that isn’t going to calm any situation”, he added.
Numbers on the protest have been disputed, with the NCAFC claiming over ten thousand marchers. Police estimates of attendance at the demonstration were low as two thousand.
McAsh called the lower figure “nonsense”
“They were just trying to make us look silly, trying to say that people don’t really care about the issues when they quite clearly do”, he said.
Around 20 people were arrested during the protests, which largely avoided the violence of last October’s demonstrations against tuition fee rises.
Some small scuffles did develop between police and protesters, and objects were thrown towards police lines at times. Many marchers wore masks, and The Yorker witnessed a number of arrests.
McAsh said: “Last year the violence on the protests from the police was just unbelievable, and this year it wasn’t quite so blatant but there were definitely tactics of intimidation.
“The announcements they gave a few days before the demo, that they were willing to use rubber bullets, was just an attempt to pre-criminalise the protest before the protest had even begun.”
This week, the NCAFC announced another ‘day of action’ on November 23, encouraging students to walk out of lectures and occupy university buildings.
“We’ve shown the government and we’ve shown the public that we’ve not forgotten about what happened last year”, McAsh said. “We’re going to keep fighting this.”
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