On Wednesday the 1st of November, postgraduate masters students on taught programmes (PGT) were banned from accessing the postgraduate room in the Royal Holloway library. According to the Acting Director of Library Services, this is " in order to provide this community with a space in which to carry out their research, and meet fellow research students to help foster more of a sense of community." Furthermore, "PGR (Post Graduate Research Students) students have been put off using the room as many non-PGR students have been using it, and there have been requests for us to resolve the ‘locking down'." By separating research and taught postgraduates this is by no means achieving a community feel among postgraduate students. There is no way to tell "us" apart from "them" to the point that they are "put off" by us - how do they know that it is "us" disturbing them?

If you feel that the PGR room in the library should be an area to focus and study in a more secluded space for ALL postgraduate students, please sign this petition. There are other areas of the building that can be used for PGR students to create relationships and a community feel. We should be treated with as much regard as the postgraduate research programmes. Either let us access the room or create a study space within the library for us. Why are we the only postgraduates who have should we have to fight for space with the undergraduates? Why isn't our sense of community important?

We have been banned half way through the semester, which means we had already grown to love working in the space, had taken advantage of the printing facilities, the use of our lockers to put all our heavy belongings in as we are here most of the day studying and the free library spaces to do our work, which is not any less important than the PGR student's.People who are commuting to attend lectures also use this space as a place to go and study between lectures as they have no accommodation to go back to.

This is a display of overall poor organisation, communication and unfairness that we should not be punished for.