Th e student ‘news’paper of Imperial College London Issue 1,403 felix Friday 16 May 2008 felixonline.co.uk Inside Return of the Singh Pages 10 & 11 Architecture Vs. Fashion Pages 16 & 17 Guns, gorillas & Generals Pages 20 & 21 Hangman – Two bookable Brown love offences? IC Football Club loses £1,000 and is accused of criminal damages and intimidatory behaviour at a Knightsbridge hotel, see page 3 Page 23 2 felix Friday 16 May 2008 News News Editor – Andrew Somerville, News Goblin – Matty Hoban [email protected] NSS rigging undermines MPseudoSci: is Imperial credibility of league tables lending credence to rubbish? Kingston University lecturer caught red-handed trying to influence her institution’s standing in national league tables national league tables, employers will be led to believe students’ degrees are “shit” rendering them essentially unemployable. As a result of this, students are told to artificially inflate the scores for each of the twenty-two questions posed. “... If you think something was a 4, my encouragement would be, give it a 5”, says the Kingston academic to a lec- ture room full of students. In response to national media coverage of the inci- dent, the university’s Vice-Chancellor has called this an “isolated incident” and that the lecturer’s comments were “inappropriate”. Homeopathy in action. Active molecules? 1 in 1060 , if you’re lucky The story was picked up by IC news website, Live! (live.cgcu.net) and subsequently by the BBC, The Daily Kadhim Shubber In the past, the Centre for Homeo- Telegraph and The Times. This has pathic Education has booked rooms One lecturer at Kingston University was recorded encouraging prompted an escalating number of Concerns have been raised this week for classes on Imperial campus, al- students to inflate their scores on the National Student Survey comments being sent in to a variety of by a Felix reader over the misleading lowing their graduates to misleadingly news websites and publications. Ac- use of Imperial College’s name by sev- (though semantically accurately) claim cording to the BBC Education website, eral alternative medical organisations. to have studied ‘at’ Imperial College. Afonso Campos dergraduates’ points of view. Theoreti- students across the country have come The Centre for Homeopathic Edu- The London College of Clinical cally, this anonymous poll is meant to forward to tell their tales of how their cation was incorrectly listed as being Hypnosis (LCCH) is guilty of a similar An audio recording that discredits the be an accurate barometer of a student’s own universities have been employing based at Imperial College London by offence. The LCCH runs a weekly Di- validity of the National Student Survey opinions regarding his or her course. similar conniving tactics in order to ul- several websites, including worldho- ploma Course in the Skempton Build- (NSS) has been made publicly available The recording on the protest website, timately increase their standing. meopathy.org and worldhealthnow. ing; with this week’s lessons scheduled on the Internet. The recording first however, comes as somewhat of a blow The NSS surveys are heavily weighted com. The address given, however, is in for Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th at came to light on a website aiming to to the credibility of results gathered. In in both the Guardian’s and The Times’ Islington, a part of London where no 10:00am in Lecture Theatre 201. reveal supposed truths about Kingston the recording, Dr Fiona Barlow-Brown league tables. As a result, universities Imperial College sites exist. College has contacted the homeo- University’s lack of ethics and below- of the university is heard blatantly try- who do not less-than-amicably ‘force’ Further confusion was caused as sev- pathic sites that were claiming to be average teaching. ing to influence the students through their students to give glowing reports eral homeopaths cited Imperial Col- based at Imperial College and they The Survey is sent by post or email a sly form of intimidation. The lecture of their teaching will invariably be lege London as the institution at which have agreed to cease using Imperial to final year undergraduates in the UK makes mention that these surveys pushed down the rankings. For the they studied homeopathy. The Bi-Aura College’s name. The LCCH, however, and aims to be a feedback tool, meas- “feed in” to league tables and rankings. past decade, Imperial has consistently foundation said of honorary member has not yet changed its information uring the quality of a course from un- Should Kingston be poorly placed in been in the top three or four in the Jayney Goddard: “[she] studied for over with many Clincial Hypnotists cit- country. In this year’s Guardian rank- five years at Imperial College.” With no ing Imperial College as their place of ings Imperial placed in sixth behind record of Jayney Goddard gaining a study. This incident raises questions the usual suspects, but also Warwick degree at Imperial College, these com- about who can book rooms at Imperial An apology to the RCSU and St Andrews. ments are questionable at best. College and how efficiently the College It is unclear whether this catastro- In an email to Imperial College alum- safeguards the Imperial brand. In recent issues, Felix was under the impression that “RCSU” had phe will impact assessments for future nus Simon Singh, she later clarified her In the meantime, however, if you’re been dropped from the Science Challenge title. This was a misunder- league tables. Hopefully the authors relation to the College, saying that “my fed up with Geology or MechEng, for standing and we would like to clarify that the Science Challenge is still will take this opportunity to review homeopathy college was only based a measly £2,500 you could have a Di- the “RCSU Science Challenge,” organised by the RCSU committee. their criteria and restore confidence in there at the time”. However, these com- ploma in Clinical Hypnosis, ‘from Im- the rankings. ments are equally misleading. perial College.’ Felix, Beit Quad, Prince Consort Road, London felix 1,403 SW7 2BB. Tel: 020 7594 8072. Fax: 020 7594 8065. Printed by The Harmsworth Printing Ltd, 17 Brest Road, Derriford, Plymouth. Registered newspaper Friday 16/5/08 ISSN 1040-0711. Copyright © Felix 2007. Felix was brought to you by: Editor-in-Chief Business Editor Music Editors LOLCATS Tom Roberts Afonso Campos Peter Sinclair Susan Yu Deputy & News Editor Politics Editors Andrew Somerville Li-Teck Lau Technology Editor Kadhim Shubber James Finnerty News Editor OF TEH WEEK Matty Hoban Arts Editors Travel Editors Rosie Grayburn Ahranyan Arnold International Editor & Caz Knight Nadine Richards Busybody-in-Chief David Paw Ammar Waraich Gilead Amit Emily Wilson Fashion Editors Copy Editors Nightlife Editor Sarah Skeete Louise Etheridge Greg Mead Daniel Wan Tom Culley Anthony Maina Film Editor Sports Editor Gilead Amit Zuzanna Blaszczak Jovan Nedić Jesse Garman Games Editors Photography Science Editor Azfarul Islam Sally Longstaff Ed Henley Sebastian Nordgren Vitali Lazurenko Friday 16 May 2008 felix 3 [email protected] News Hotel retains ICFC’s £1,000 deposit Rembrandt episode follows confrontations between IC and Royal Holloway football fans one week earlier Tom Roberts to disturbed guests was large enough Editor-in-Chief to account for the whole amount being retained. The captains also suggested Aggressive behaviour, intimidating that the hotel was “bitter because it conduct, inciting fights and criminal didn’t take the deposit from the Rugby damage – these are all accusations Club” at a similar dinner event held which have been levelled at Imperial last year. College Football Club (ICFC) after two It is true that the Rembrandt Hotel events over the Easter break. The first is no stranger to boisterous behaviour incident involved ICFC supporters from some of Imperial’s other socie- and fans from Royal Holloway’s Foot- ties. Last year, the Rugby Club was ball Club (RHFC) who are reported to almost fined and banned for damages have clashed at the University of Lon- after an event held at the hotel. How- don Union (ULU) Challenge Cup Final ever, the following morning the charg- on 8th March. The second occurred a es were dropped when members of the mere week later on 15th March, when club spoke and apologised to the own- ICFC held its Annual Club Dinner ers. Similarly, this is not the first time at the four-star Rembrandt Hotel in that the Football Club has appeared Knightsbridge, allegedly causing nu- in these pages this year. Felix reported merous damages to the property, re- Left, the main function room in the four-star Rembrandt Hotel and right, the sparkling male toilets on allegations of “homophobic chants” sulting in a £1,000 deposit being kept and harassment in the Union in the by the proprietors. Autumn term, and members of the Felix’s source from the Rembrandt glass and frames. edge of any criminal damage commit- park, with one of them reportedly Football club have made several state- Hotel said “a handful of students de- As the footballers left the hotel they ted within the Rembrandt Hotel. The throwing a punch. ments in Felix over what they believe is cided that drunken and intimidating are said to have been “noisy and in- representatives gave Felix their account At the time of going to print, Felix a persecution of their club, which they behaviour was perfectly acceptable, timidating”, singing offensive chants, of the evening, confirming that the toi- has been unable to contact ULU for perceive as unfairly perpetuating their whereby they conscientiously and wil- as well as being abusive towards some lets and ice buckets were used for vom- its version.