Every year Queen’s University of Belfast Students’ Union (QUBSU) puts out a call for election of student officers. The familiar line of call is that ‘by becoming a student officer you will represent over 25000 students, make real decisions that make impact on students’ lives and lead change for Students’….
Queen’s Students’ Union’s Student Officer Team Stands in Solidarity with Alliance For Choice
In the past week, it has come to light that between 2017 and 2018, just 12 women were able to access abortion care on the Northern Ireland NHS. Over 900 travelled to access abortion and an unknown number took safe but illegal abortion pills during the same period. These Department of…
Take Action, Run for Something, Put Yourself Forward.
Why You Should Put Yourself Forward in the Student Leader Elections… by Gift Sotonye-Frank Part-Time Women Students’ Officer Are you a Queen’s student? If you answered yes to this question, then you should indeed put yourself forward for the Student Leader Elections! I still remember the 28th of February 2018…
The UCU Strike: Why it matters to International Students
The University and Colleges Union (UCU) at Queen’s, of which a sizable number of staff members of our university belong to, have balloted by a majority of 88% for industrial action following the incredibly damaging proposed cuts to the existing pension scheme of our university staff members, including junior and…
Why Society Sucks for Disabled Workers
CN: Sensitive content, discussion about death, benefits, welfare reform and ableism. Attempting to study or work while having a disability or disabilities can be tough. Don’t get me wrong; your natural reaction shouldn’t be to feel pity or upset at the difficulties and challenges faced by myself. Instead: feel anger….
Being a Disabled Student is Hard, Being an International Disabled Student is Excruciating
It has been close to 5 years since I woke up in the morning without wincing in pain, but whether I like it or not, my chronic pain shapes my life and who I am. I suffer from endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which basically means I suffer from…
Headphones
Imagine someone took everything you could hear and then made the volume double. Then imagine whatever device they used wasn’t of great quality and what you hear now has lots of noise and crackling. That’s what it’s like for me. I can hear more than most people around me –…
Bloody hell in a hand basket: Pain, my brain and endometriosis… Living with an invisible disability is hard
Living with an invisible disability is hard; dealing with one that flares up every month or so is pretty damn hard too. My pain rolls around and like half the population, I bleed, I’m cranky and occasionally, very occasionally, I might just shed a tear or two over an adorable…
Welfare reform is ruining the lives of disabled people and we should be furious!
Yesterday was the International Day of Disabled Persons, and rather than celebrating the lives of disabled people, the news in Northern Ireland was focused on the changes to disability benefits known as Welfare Reform. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland released a joint…
Experiencing Mental Health Issues? You’re not alone…
In my first year at Queen’s, I remember sitting in a tutorial with a handful of other students and the conversation turned to exams and resits. The lecturer explained that a few people always end up having to retake the year, and that in some rare cases, students have repeated…