News

One of the Foreign Students team describes his experiences of a traditional English village show that took place at the weekend, with everything from giant leeks, to sheep dog displays.                                                                                                                                                _____________________________________

On Saturday I hopped on a train out of London and within an hour I was in a country village called Chalfont St. Giles. It was where I grew up and I had come back for one of the great British traditions- the annual Village Show.

Every year, a field in the centre of the village is taken over by stalls, tents and fairground rides as thousands of people from miles around come to enjoy a day out. This happens in villages up and down the UK every summer, each competing to be the biggest and best in the local area.

As another college in England opens an accommodation block specifically for international students, we look at the growing trend for large housing developments designed with non-UK students in mind.                                                                                                                  _____________________________________________

Gloucestershire College unveiled a brand new accommodation block over the weekend to cope with the increasing numbers of international students coming to study in the area. The £1.5million development has 35 rooms and over half of them have already been snapped up for the academic year. This is, however, far from a one-off case, but actually part of a much larger trend in the UK.

The world's largest tobacco company is putting pressure on a Scottish university to release its research on teenage smokers and their smoking habits.

Stirling University‘s Centre for Tobacco Control Research has spent the past decade questioning 6,000 young people about why they smoke and what they think of tobacco marketing. The department was set up by Cancer Research UK with the hope of trying to cut the numbers of teenagers who start smoking.

However, Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, has recently become very interested in the findings. The company has submitted a Freedom of Information request to the university, showing particular interest in the research done into plain packaging for cigarettes.

"Deeply Concerning"

The request has angered academics and researchers at Stirling, who claim that revealing the results would be a breach of confidence and could out any future research at risk. Prof Gerard Hastings from the Centre said:

My decision to come to London was carefully planned: I chose a great school in a great city in a great continent. Little did I know then that the most rewarding part of my experience here would emerge from pure spontaneity and coincidence.

I met my neighbours months after my arrival, during a residents' pizza night at the International Students House. That night was all it took to realize they were an amazing bunch, and a few more meals together confirmed I was part of an incredibly warm and diverse community of friends that would change my life in London in unexpectedly wonderful ways.

Learning and Laughing

It is not hyperbolic to say that I have learned more from my neighbours than I have in the classroom at LSE. Through our conversations I have travelled the world as they know it, through our meals I have tasted their cultures, and through our jokes I have realized that differences become trivial when we all can laugh together.

As England enjoyed its last Bank Holiday of the year, Notting Hill Carnival hit the streets of London with its usual colour and vibrancy, as even the rain managed to just about hold off.

Europe's biggest street festival covered the Notting Hill area in West London on Sunday and Monday, as more than one million people turned up to celebrate Caribbean culture. The annual carnival boasts colourful parades of floats and costumes, dozens of sound systems and enough jerk chicken to feed an army.

Since 1964 the carnival has been arranged by West Indian communities in London, and takes place on the August bank holiday every year. This year, due to the recent riots, there was a special sense of both concern and anticipation. There was a huge police presence making sure the carnival would be remembered as a celebration of London rather than the start of a second wave of riots.

"True Spirit of London"

Indeed, Mayor boris Johnson revealed that he hoped that the carnival would 'let the true spirit of London shine through', adding:

"It's right that the carnival goes ahead so we can show the world that the overwhelming majority of London's people are decent, law-abiding citizens who respect the law, love their city and want to celebrate our vibrant, diverse and historical culture."