The UEA Labour Society held a Higher Education debate at the end of last term which focused on three main questions posed by the members of the society to the panel.The members of the panel included Labour MP for Norwich South, Charles Clarke, NUS President Wes Streeting, and Professor Edward Acton, Vice- Chancellor at UEA.

The first question concerned the Climatic Research Unit controversy at UEA.  Specifically, how students should feel about the saga and whether CRU’s director, Professor Jones, was right to have resigned following pending enquiries into the affair.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Edward Acton, has appointed Sir Muir Russell to lead an Independent Review which is to investigate allegations made against the UEA’s globally renowned Climatic Research Unit (CRU).

Nominations for UEA’s annual Award for Excellence in Teaching, which seeks to recognise outstanding teachers amongst staff across UEA faculties, are now open.

The five awards were introduced to recognise innovative and superlative teaching, for which students and colleagues nominate specific teachers.  Each faculty is designated a specific award relating to its staff and a fifth award is available to a nominee who is teaching students but does not fall into the other categories.

The World Trade Organisation - one of the most powerful multilateral institutions in the world - prides itself on promoting, in the words of its Director-General, a "strong and prosperous international trading system" that has contributed to "unprecedented global economic growth".

The Union of UEA Students’ constitution is set to change pending approval by Union Council on Thursday 14th January. A draft constitution is being discussed with the University before coming under scrutiny by the student body.

The draft comes as the result of a Union Council motion to consult UEA students and create a new constitution for the Union to ensure its structures "are meeting the changing needs of all our members".

Norfolk County Council leaders are to press on with controversial plans to save cash and reduce carbon emissions by switching off around 27,000 streetlights across Norfolk and over 7,000 in Norwich itself.

The plans, which would replace lights with more efficient models and cells that switch off after 12am, have been met with strong resistance from City Councillors, including a councillor responsible for community safety and cohesion.

UEA is to launch an independent review into the theft and publication of hoards of data which  was illegally hacked from servers of the University’s globally renowned Climatic Research Unit  (CRU).

The Union failed to gain the necessary minimum votes in the ‘You Count Referendum’, which took place on the 24th November in the Hive, to ensure that the votes would be binding. 

The ‘You Count Referendum’ gave students four proposals, which they could either vote for, against or abstain from, with the intention of helping to shape forthcoming Union policy. These proposals included limiting the number of copies of the Daily Mail on sale, a boycott of Coca-Cola, or building a multi-storey car park, all of which were voted against.

The Chilcot Inquiry formally began its public hearings last week after being officially launched in July. So-called because it is being lead by Sir John Chilcot, a retired civil servant, this is the fourth inquiry into the Iraq conflict, following most notably the Butler Report of 2004 and the Hutton Report in 2003. The purpose of Chilcot is to “examine the United Kingdom’s involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish as accurately and reliably as possible what happened, and to identify lessons that can be learned”.