'Fools Rush In' - Students queue in the cold, desperate for accommodation (photo credit: Aberystwyth University Lib Dems)

Despite pleas from the Guild for students to remain calm and make informed decisions on accommodation, in a campaign they term ‘Fools Rush In’; students were today seen queuing outside Alexanders Estate Agents in the cold – some from as early as 6am – desperate to get a room for next year from the newly released student property list.

Today’s scenes comes just months after the university was forced to put bunk-beds into single rooms, and ask non-UK European students to defer entry, in a bid to make enough room available for incoming undergraduates who arrived this September.

It’s nothing new that there’s a crisis in the accommodation sector in Aberystwyth. Every year since 2007, students have been left out in the cold, and every year the University says it’s resolved the issue, only for the problem to inevitably arise again due to lack of real action coupled with rising admissions. In 2008, 56 students were left in hotels; whilst in 2010 83 had no accommodation and several dropped out as a result. This academic year, 600 students ended up in bunk-beds, whilst international students were told to stay away.

The crisis has meant many students have felt the pressure to sign onto private property for second year just a few months into their first semester, leaving them paying extortionate rents for housing that often fails to meet quality and lacking proper licensing.

With a seeming lack of real action from the University, the Union, or private landlords, is it time for students to step up to the plate and get involved in the Council, to ensure better regulation, and student housing provision? Or maybe the Union should revisit the idea of a student letting agency or housing co-operative. One thing’s for certain, for yet another year, the welfare of students has been sidelined in favour of private sector profit.

Despite pleas from the Guild for students to remain calm and make informed decisions on accommodation, in a campaign they term ‘Fools Rush In’; students were today seen queuing outside...

This summer, an event was posted to facebook titled “the only aber fresh moving in party”, having previously been named other things including “Aber Freshers 2011″. The event page encourages students to buy a £9 ticket to enable them to collect an “official”  t-shirt on the date of the event. which will allegedly allow access to special promotional deals within venues. The event, organised by Aber Fresh Ltd, of Pembrokeshire, claims to be an official event, as well as one run by students.

Similar claims are made by Bangor Fresh Ltd, also of Pembrokeshire. This should not come as a surprise, as both are registered to the same address, and use the exact same branding. Both companies were registered with Companies House this July, alongside a separate company, “Top Banana Entertainment Ltd” (trading as “Top Banana Students” and “Top Banana DJ service and promotions”). Top Banana seems to be the de-facto parent company of Aber Fresh Ltd and Bangor Fresh Ltd.

Despite claiming to be both official, and organised by students at Aberystwyth / Bangor, the event has nothing to do with the respective universities, unions, or student societies, and beyond a referral and volunteer “helper” scheme, seems to have no involvement from current students, with the man behind these companies being, I understand, a Mr James Kershaw of Pembrokeshire. Mr Kershaw identifies himself as Director of Top Banana, as well as Manager of the unrelated “Top Notch Garden Services”, an unregistered organisation providing ground care services in Pembrokeshire.

In challenging the claims made by these companies, I posted the information identifying the 3 companies, and Mr Kershaw, and stated that this meant that any claims that the events are run by aber students were “fabrications”, to the facebook event page, as well as a page operated by the University that advised caution with regard this event. This resulted in Mr Kershaw stating “you’re a dick head.”, before deleting the comments posted to the event page. I am also informed that in a separate comment they claimed I was “jealous” and had “already bought a t-shirt”, more false claims there. I can also disclose that on Tuesday 23rd August, a person claiming to represent these companies made repeated phone calls to a member of staff at Aberystwyth University, threatening unspecified court action against said member of staff unless all comments regarding the company and its event were removed. This despite the information being in the public domain and indeed partially available from the event page itself.

The actions of Aber Fresh Ltd, and Top Banana Entertainment Ltd, suggest that these are companies seeking to profiteer from students, and who are not above intimidatory conduct to try to cover up anything that may jeopardise their profits. I ask that all universities, student unions, and pubs in Wales be aware of the actions of these companies, and to take reasonable precautions to protect the safety and well-being of students and staff members.

Update: following the publicising of this article on facebook, James Kershaw informs me he intends to commence legal proceedings against me. I welcome the move if true, as it shall provide opportunity to expose the facts in court.

This summer, an event was posted to facebook titled “the only aber fresh moving in party”, having previously been named other things including “Aber Freshers 2011″. The event page encourages...

- 24 Hours Remain -

The car’s already packed, having spent half an hour playing Tetris with my belongings, and all my other possessions are sitting in boxes in my room. This time tomorrow I’ll be starting the 5 hour journey to Aberystwyth.

It’s amazing that my life somehow managed to fit into 10 boxes, and the boot of a Subaru. Although what’s more amazing is just how much god damn paper I got through in the past few years. College alone was responsible for 3 or 4 full recycling bags of notes that I can’t even read anyway due to my handwriting. I plan on trying to just type all my notes at university since that’ll allow me to do fancy things like sort or search them, and even READ them!

The only disappointing thing about going to Aber tomorrow is that I never did get to see my friends these past few months. Oh well, I’m briefly back down at the end of October, and then for Christmas, so maybe I’ll see them then.

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

- 24 Hours Remain - The car’s already packed, having spent half an hour playing Tetris with my belongings, and all my other possessions are sitting in boxes in my...

This week I finally got around to doing some shopping. I’m now the proud owner of a bunch of cheap kitchen stuff, and it’s finally beginning to set in that holy crap in under a week I’m really going to be living 240 miles away – in another country. I am so not ready for this, I’ve not packed, I’ve still got more shopping to do, and like hell am I prepared for having to actually keep track of the day and time so I can attend lectures. Naturally, rather than preparing, I’ve been keeping myself busy playing Pokémon and Scott Pilgrim; and faffing about on the interwebs. By Tuesday I’ll probably have given up worrying, and instead will decide to just sleep until Friday morning. Sleep fixes everything.

Every day for the past week I’ve been saying “I guess I should start packing the rest of my stuff today…”, and every time, I’ve put it off. Soon I really will have to do it because time is running out. Who knows, maybe I’ll do it tonight? Of course not. We all know I’ll be packing at like, 4am on Friday, frantically running around the house trying to find enough boxes and looking for a few misplaced items…

I just hope all my crap fits in the car, my mum insists we go in her fiancé’s Subaru.

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

This week I finally got around to doing some shopping. I’m now the proud owner of a bunch of cheap kitchen stuff, and it’s finally beginning to set in that...

This past week I’ve been preparing for when I go to a new place.  It’s this far off place where there’s lots of different people, many of which I don’t know.

No, I’m not talking about going to Aberystwyth in just under two weeks, I’m talking about beating the Elite Four and heading to Kanto! I’m one of those people that still plays Pokémon, and I make no excuses for it. I’ve had Soul Silver for quite some time now, although I never finished it, and with the upcoming release of Pokémon Black & White next week – which you’ll probably find me playing for the first few months at Aber -  I thought I might as well have another adventure through the second half of the game.

I spent several nights training for and fighting the Elite Four, excited that I’d soon get to revisit those locations from my childhood like Pallet Town; knowing that when Black & White comes out,  I’ll be thrust into an entirely new environment, completely unfamiliar to me,  those places I grew up with will just be memories, and I’ll be leaving old companions behind and making new friends. It’ll be exciting, but will take some time to settle in.

Yes, I’m comparing playing Pokémon to heading off to university. Although I suppose there are some differences. I’m far less prepared for university, for example. I’ve yet to pack, and I’ve still got so much shopping to do!

This post was written for my page on AberInsiders.

This past week I’ve been preparing for when I go to a new place.  It’s this far off place where there’s lots of different people, many of which I don’t...