Kingston University’s Bhangra team wowed judges for a fifth time and danced their way into the UK’s biggest Bhangra contest, held in 2013.

The KU Bhangra team who com-peted the last four years at The Bhangra Showdown (TBS) are going to battle against eight universities at Hammersmith Apollo in front of thousands of people.

“It is a great privilege for Kingston to be entered into TBS for the fifth consecutive year,” said Randeep Sin-gh, captain of KU’s Bhangra team.

Mr Singh has been at the forefront

of the Bhangra team since the soci-ety was set up four years ago and has seen the team grow and improve.

The former student, who helps choreograph the highly energetic Punjabi dance, explained that the au-dition process is extremely rigorous.

“Weeks before the contest, we practice nearly every day and the at-mosphere becomes very family-like.”

KU’s Bhangra team always look to fuse the western and eastern world in their performances.

“TBS has become an entertaining platform. We always aim to make our shows as exciting as possible,” said Mr Singh.

Money raised goes to charities.

Many students were outraged af-ter it was announced that KitKats are no longer going to be sold at campus shops, after a motion was passed to stop the sale of nestlé products at KUsU’s yearly student meeting.

KU student Michael Toy proposed to ban Nestlé products in KUSU stores because of their alleged un-ethical practices across the globe.

The motion passed with a clear majority at the meeting held on No-vember 14, but was met with disdain by many students.

“I don’t see why we should all be forced not to buy something we like,” said KU student Jordan Aylward on Twitter.

Mr Toy pointed out that even though KitKats are labelled as fair trade products, Nestlé company ac-tually still support a range of unethi-

cal business and commercial prac-tices that are unacceptable .

These practices include the viola-tion of human rights, destruction of the environment and child labour.

“The KUSU should remove and ban all Nestlé products from all our shops and establishments, and ban any Nestlé affiliations,” said Mr Toy.

“The system would inform stu-dents of the ethical impact of pur-chases. It would be in all students’ best interests”, explained Mr Toy.

In addition to Mr Troy’s motions, three others were passed at the KUSU student meeting.

The first one, proposed by Danny Hall, was to pressure the University to install wireless routers in all of the halls of residence.

Mr Hall did not show up at the meeting, but the SU President took the lead and managed to pass the motion with little opposition.

“Productivity can be improved as students can work in kitchen and use

devices such as wireless printers,” the motion explained.

Second motion proposed and passed by Mr Toy was to imple-ment a traffic light system on KUSU products to indicate how ethical the sourcing of the product is.

Another motion that was passed was to set up anonymous marking on exam scripts to avoid “racism and discrimination” issues or any kind of racial favouritism.

In order to achieve this, KUSU are planning an anonymous marking campaign which will probably be di-rected by the SU President, Mr Kelly.

Ibrahim Ali, who proposed the mo-tion, said: “Twelve per cent of black students have received lower marks

for coursework or exams than that of their white counterparts.”

Mr Ali also suggested creating prayer facilities for Muslim students on each of the five Kingston Univer-sity campuses.

The motion was later challenged by students from other societies, who worried that it could be detri-mental to their own fundings.

The Jewish Society tried to amend the motion to create facilities for all students rather than Muslim-specific praying facilities but this amend-ment failed.

He said: “Muslim students obligate themselves to pray five times a day as part of their religious practice. One in three KU students are Muslims”.

6 THE RIVER - NEWSwww.riveronline.co.uk

Kingston University Bhangra team dance their way to competition for fifth time in a row

Pyramid formation by KU Bhangra team SATY SINGH

By Kiran Dhiman

By Alex Sunier and Ollie Gillman

Bhangra team dance in front of thousands to show their culture SATY SINGH

SU kicking out the Nestlé KitKat snack• SU ban Nestlé products because of their

unethical practices • Other motions include wi-fi in residences

and anonymous marking

Space Bar: avoided & expensive

The River has carried out two sur-veys and the results show that the main students’ Union bar is avoid-ed and has more expensive beer than other London sU bars.

More than 76 per cent of students questioned found the main SU bar, Space Bar, at Penrhyn Road had “a bad atmosphere”.

Mark Horne, general manager of Space Bar, hit back at claims that they should be improving the bar’s facili-ties, because Space Bar is scheduled to be demolished in a year’s time.

A pint at the SU is up to 20 per cent more expensive in Kingston, com-pared to other London universities.

A survey of 13 London universities showed that, while Kingston’s pints were not the cheapest, the Space Bar’s Jagerbombs were the second cheapest in the city, coming in at £2.

“Penrhyn Road is hamstrung with the fact that many of the students here commute, there is no centre of student housing nearby and it is not on any route between our halls and the town centre,” said Mr Horne.

KUSU business director Nicola Sk-evington said: “Our results for spirits are very good, showing us second cheapest in the sample.”

The River surveyed 60 students online in October, asking them if they liked Space Bar.

By Charlotte Boisrond

KitKat no more in KU stores REX FEATURES