News

After the student protest in London a few weeks ago, more student unrest is expected over the coming fortnight. Campus occupations in both Birmingham and Cambridge have caused disruptions in the last few days, and such action is expected to spread throughout the country in the lead up to the trade union strikes next week.

One occupation in Cambridge has already caused higher education minister David Willetts to abandon a speech after he was heckled by an audience of more than a hundred. On Tuesday night, one activist stood up during the minister's speech and read a prepared statement. Other demonstrators repeated the statement sentence by sentence- a common technique used by Occupy activists. The statement read:

"You can threaten to shoot us with rubber bullets; you can arrest us; you can imprison us; you can criminalise our dissent; you can blight a hundred thousand lives ... but you cannot break us because we are more resolute, more numerous, and more determined than you ... Go home, David."

Banksy has created his latest piece of street art in London, in what may be his first work since the Occupy London installation.

In W1, close to the ForeignStudents.com office on Bruton Lane, our staff spotted the graffiti on the side of a disused building, the stencil appears to be in Banksy's iconic style.

Two storeys up, it shows a woman desperately trying to cling on to a shopping trolley as she falls to the ground. The trolley is laden with what appears to be a wine bottle, necklace and purse, and she seems powerless to control her materialistic lifestyle.

Often featuring social and political satire, Banksy's pieces are highly sought after, the scenes portrayed in his graffiti are recognised by loyal followers in the UK and around the world.

Below is a close up of the piece:

Update: here's a video we also took: 

With international students paying upwards of £10,000 for each year of study in the UK, it takes a top class experience to make them feel they have got value for money. New British students can struggle with arranging accommodation, finding a part-time job, making friends and managing their studies, but for international students all this can be ten times harder.

Arriving alone in a new country that speaks a foreign language can be one of the most difficult things to do, and universities have a duty to make it as easy as possible for new students. However, do they currently help enough? For every international student who finds arriving and settling in a painless process, there is a story of struggle. Even if universities are currently helping every step of the way, there is always room for improvement.

Equally, now, more than ever, not only is it the universities' duty, but it is actually essential to their survival that they keep their international students happy. The financial benefit of students from around the world (not to mention the welcome cultural diversity they bring) is now indispensible to the Higher Education sector in the UK.

During a speech last night, British Prime Minister David Cameron did an impersonation of his Australian counterpart that was so bad it has made international news.

At the annual Lord Mayor's Banquet in London, Cameron recounted how Australian PM Julia Gillard described their recent meeting as "good news for Sheilas everywhere". Despite admitting before hand "I can't quite do the accent", the impression got a big laugh and even applause from the audience in the hall. However, over night the Australian press has picked up on it and are not quite as kind.

The Sydney Morning Herald described the impersonation as "bizarre", whilst an article on Australian news site News.com.au, called it "perhaps one of the worst Aussie accents in history", and even claimed that "it's so bad it could cause a diplomatic row".

Watch the clip below to judge for yourself quite how good or bad David Cameron's Aussie accent is.

Thousands of students turned out on the streets of London yesterday to protest against the increase to tuition fees. We went along to see what the atmosphere was like and to talk to a few of the protestors. Below will give you a feel of the rally: 

Overall, the protest was very peaceful, due at least in part to the huge police presence. There were some 4,000 police officers lining the route of the march, though only 24 arrests were made, mainly for minor offences. The number of protestors that turned up varies depending on who you believe, with the police estimating there were about 2,000, whilst the organisers claim that as many as 15,000 attended.