Elizabeth Davies examines the recent Iranian parliamentary elections; what the results mean for the country and the west’s view of Iran’s politics. As current campaigns go, it was unexciting; and certainly compared to Iran’s own political history, the results of the March 14 elections to the Majles (Iranian Parliament) seemed totally uninspiring. Yet go beyond the basic results (‘Conservatives Win Iran Parliamentary Election’, declared Sky News in a deceptively succinct manner) and Iran’s capacity for generating sustained interest amongst political junkies is self-evident.

NUS annual conference is a very strange experience - a whole world of hackery with a language all its own. For days afterwards, you find yourself hallucinating about procedural motions, taking ‘parts’, and people ‘dropping the guillotine’ on you. It’s a subtle, balanced, complicated, and occasionally farcical system - but with 1,500 students in a room taking votes, it was always going to be.

The cost of a 10,000 word, first class dissertation from UKEssays.com is £2,400. With the rumbling approach of final exams reverberating in the ears of many students, it is unsurprising that many might consider paying someone to absolve them of any shred of decency they might have. Let us be perfectly clear - buying essays is the cardinal sin of academic life.

On February 19 Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced his resignation from the presidency, ending one of the longest and most controversial leaderships in recent political history. Castro was an instrumental player in many historically important events and has divided opinion worldwide with his methods and political legacy. On his resignation, we asked students what they thought of the Cuban leader and found a large absence of knowledge about his life and legacy. The National Student features team set out to answer your most asked questions about Fidel Castro.

Young voters are supposed to be apathetic when it comes to elections. We don’t care about the issues, and can’t be bothered dragging ourselves down to the polling station. At least, that’s the assumption and despite politicians’ rhetoric about how important it is to get ‘the youth’ involved they tend to reinforce this image. After all, if we aren’t potential electoral kingmakers, then what’s the point in going after our vote?

We were bored of New Year. Same bar, same music, same people. We fancied a change and so thought about Europe, more specifically we thought about Amsterdam. But how do we organise that at such short notice? It was Boxing Day, flights to Holland’s party capital were all gold plated and the only available accommodation came in 20-minute slots and were administered by a woman they call Miss Whiplash...

Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, gives Dex Torricke-Barton and Samira Shackle a frank account of terrorism, the Taliban, and international tension.

Social network sites are a phenomenon, with more and more people posting personal information on them everyday. Pamela Lawn examines the pit-falls of sharing your details on-line.

This academic year I have been coerced into signing two petitions, the first I half-heartedly signed was an ultimately doomed attempt to ban Coca Cola on campus, the second I positively flew to sign was a petition condemning the violence against monks in Burma. The third petition levied before me has angered me greatly. Kent Student Union have taken it upon themselves to campaign for a South East weighting on top up fees...

"The Ig Nobel awards are arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar." - Nature Here at The National Student we’re inclined to agree. The Ig Nobel Awards 2007 brought the usual line-up of unusual research and dubious experimentation, showing that science can often be at its best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. We take a look at this year’s best pieces of improbable research, that will make you laugh as much as it will make you think...

National Student writer James Van Gils visited northern Uganda and spoke to those affected by the devastation of 18 years of civil war...

Are we taking our studies and indeed ourselves seriously? Or is going off to uni simply the perfect excuse to drink vast amounts of alcohol?

With new reality television game shows constantly popping up on our screens they all begin to feel rather similar. The programme makers have the same problem and have to find new ways to seperate each creation from its peers. Our Reality TV Dictionary will help you get to grips with the lingo that defines the formats in this highly derivative genre. Learn to know your castaways from your survivors with our fun and handy guide.

In Sudan over 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million people displaced since 2003. Emily Cadei of student activist group Hands Up For Darfur writes about the appauling genocide in Darfur and what her organisation have been doing to help.

Loads of worthy e-petitions are gaining masses of support; but many more are being rejected by staff because they’re just plain silly. The National Student has sieved through swathes of pleas and pathetitude to bring you the very best rejected petitions that Downing Street doesn’t want you to sign!

"I can name films I’ve seen, like The Cell with Jennifer Lopez. There are a few others, and the psycho killer is often schizophrenic." This is the observation of a young man named Nick, himself a sufferer of schizophrenia. His views were aired in a film shown at the In Their Shoes event. An event aimed at raising awareness about the illness.

The National Student has compiled the predictions of leading futurologists to show you what the future holds...

It was finally confirmed last month that Prince Harry, or Troop Commander Wales as he is now known, is due to serve a six month tour of duty in Iraq with his Blues and Royals regiment. He will be the first senior royal to serve on the front-line since Prince Andrew in the Falklands in 1982. Unlike his uncle however, Harry will be working on the ground and in greater danger... But how did the media react to the news? Our resident Juice Commander sifted through the pap so you don’t have to.

Since 2000, British newspapers, despite their protestations have found Big Brother to be a veritable saviour of the silly season, rescuing the struggling pages of their summer editions. Many of them may love to hate it, but it still fills pages, and can be frequently relied upon to raise debate and sell papers - which lets face it, is the most important thing. Equally the ‘celebrity’ (we’re not going to spend this whole article putting celebrity in quotes but you know what’s inferred) version of the show has proved to be a bankable kick-start to the year, better than a newly released fitness video for getting the tabloid hearts racing. In a week when the 21st July terror trial began, Richard Hammond’s crash photos became public, firemen were told step-ladders were too dangerous for them, prisons overflowed, the Home Office went from bad to worse, freak storms battered the country, David Beckham signed to LA Galaxy, a schoolboy was put in detention for eating an apple, and more troops were sent out to Iraq and Afganistan with daily death-tolls still increasing; it was Jade Goody that grabbed the front pages and got politicians and the nation talking. You didn’t even need to have seen the programme to have an opinion, and this perhaps explains how it all became so inflamed. News Juice sifted through the UK media during the notorious... ‘Big Brother Race Row!’ - Shilpa Shetty, Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd

Comment by Tim Street (Universities Network Co-ordinator), Campaign Against Arms Trade Forty-five UK universities and university colleges currently hold significant investments in arms companies. Research recently published by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) revealed that universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and UCL invest millions of pounds in companies that sell arms to repressive regimes, such as BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Cobham.

Johnny Lechner is now in his thirteenth year at university. The National Student has been following the life of the perpetual student.

After moving on from having small dogs as accessories the latest celebrity craze is to be super skinny. But after the death of a model who dieted on nothing but green leaves and Diet Coke earlier in the year Helen Earnshaw asks is size 0 a step too far?

In September whilst people across the country were battling their way through the clearing process, finishing off their summer jobs and generally preparing and packing for the new academic year, 500 students drove across Europe in the first ever Student Gumball Rally. Nathan Millward was one such adventurer.

The Ig Nobel awards are attracting greater attention from the press each year and are quickly approaching the somewhat stuffy and more prestigious Nobel awards for column inches.

Students moving into a new home for the first time should immediately check the residence’s appliances to prevent possibly fatal consequences from carbon monoxide poisoning.

YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley are practically swimming in Google shares, but as the site gets increasingly commercial what is the future for the YouTube YouTubers? Ian Phillips examines the promotional degradation of an internet phenomenon.

Reporting the various happenings in studentland, we have encountered some weird, wonderful and down-right stupid stories. Here are our highlights from the world of student strangeness and stupidity in recent years.

The student kitchen can be a distressing and unsettling place - a room capable of spawning great anguish in early encounters of communal living. We invited students and graduates to brave the horrific flashbacks and share their memories of that legendary first-year kitchen.

A new television series, ‘The Innocence Project’, follows a team of ambitious law students fighting for justice where they believe miscarriages of justice lie uncorrected. The series has parallels with real-life ‘innocence projects’ in America and in this country, but how far does fiction meet fact? JONATHAN KENNEDY investigates…

Are you passionate about the natural world? Do you have a love of plants and animals? Are you prepared to commit yourself to protecting species and ecosystems.

Just like the part-time bar job, the summer shifts in the factory or the weekend retail work - taking part in clinical trials has become an established source of student income. 19-year-old student David O’ Donnell has taken part in many such trials and around about now was due to take part in a high dose trial of a drug currently only known as TGN1412.

Animal testing hasn’t had a great press. For many people, it seems to conjure up mental images of photogenic bunny rabbits having shampoo poured in their eyes whilst evil scientists dance around cackling with glee. So why do I support it?

Anyone reading recent coverage of the pro-vivisection demonstration in Oxford would imagine that the issue of animal testing rages between scientists and animal rights activists who are all in favour of violence!

The animal rights movement began in earnest in 1963 with the formation of the Hunt Saboteurs Association, which put its members between the hunters and their quarry in protest at hunting with dogs.

In recent months one particular debate has been at the centre of scientific teaching in the United Kingdom. There is growing support and pressure to include ‘creationism’ as part of biology syllabuses, with an increasing number of science students challenging Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution in favour of creationist ideas.

When it was announced that a total smoking ban in all bars, pubs and restaurants would be in place from summer 2007, I gaped. As the penny dropped that this would include private members clubs, I gaped some more.

A mere 139 days after his Million Dollar Homepage was launched, Alex Tew reached his goal, and exceeded it by over £20,000. The 21-year-old single-handedly resurrected the e-millionaire mania of some years back, created an internet advertising sub-genre and, quite possibly, set himself up for life. It was a simple idea that has now been copied by thousands of people worldwide. What began with a late-night brainstorm on his bed; can now be bought as a ready-made code bearing promises of untold riches. Can you make a million too?

On December 26 2005 record-numbers of people joined fox-hunts across the UK in a defiant gesture against the Labour governments ban on hunting with dogs implemented in February that year.

Anybody can become a celebrity these days. That glorified status can be reached by doing just about anything. You can gain fame from an alleged act or you could even become a legend just for being idle. Today’s exhibit seems reasonably apt in this age of ‘lifelong learning’ where the concept of never-ending education is promoted to us by lifestyle shows and dare I say it, governments. This is a man who is making a name for himself and getting noticed because he’s in his twelfth year of higher education. Forgive my manners, please meet Johnny.

Changing attitudes to sex in the USA has seen the rise of a new type of publication on American university campuses US students are producing their own pornographic magazines in a bid to make sex more openly discussed