Friday 1st May 2026

Headlines

Local election manifestos published as student candidates contest key wards

The Labour Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats have released their manifestos ahead of the upcoming Oxford City Council elections, as a number of current and recent University of Oxford students contest seats across the city.

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Recent News

Opinion

Both rags and riches: Social media is heightening Oxford’s class disparities

According to the University of Oxford’s admissions data, in 2024, 14.5% of students admitted were from the most socio-economically deprived areas in the UK....

I was wrong. Oxford needs a ‘reading’ week.

In passing, friends often bemoan how their partners at other universities get a week off, mid-term, to, in essence, prat around. The deified ‘reading...

The Schwarzman Centre is a commercial venture, not a place of learning

Schwarzman's donation was meant to revitalise study of the humanities. But with cramped libraries and cramped faculties, it's closer to a death knell.

CalSoc misses the ‘Reel’ point

During my first week in Oxford, I stumbled upon a Scottish third year in the college bar. This was startling; I’d only come across...

We need to talk about Oxford’s gossip problem 

Gossiping is an innately human pastime, existing long before our generation, and a beloved form of social interaction that teeters on the boundary between...

Features

The independent cinema battling Oriel College to stay open

With the threat of an unrenewed lease from Oriel College, the Ultimate Picture Palace is appealing to the community at large for support.

War within earshot: A year abroad in Jordan

A large part of my decision to study Arabic is owed to my father’s passing. Having now experienced life in the Middle East, including its wars, I now understand him far more than I ever could have anticipated.

The essay and its long history in Oxford

In 1811, a student at University College published a pamphlet including an essay titled ‘The Necessity of Atheism’ that he later distributed to the Heads of Oxford Colleges. The student, after disputes with the Master of University College at the time, was “sent down” on the grounds of “contumacy” (disobeying authority). This student was Percy Shelley. 

‘The only woman in Hall’: Gender and college governance

When Baroness Alexandra Freeman became Principal of Hertford College last month, she did not initially realise she was the first woman to hold the role.

Profiles

Culture

What I learned from Tracey Emin about regeneration

CW: Abortion I left the Tate...

In sickness, health, and wrongdoing: ‘The Drama’ in review

CW: Gun violence. “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” is the driving question of Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama. The film centres around a couple whose otherwise perfect relationship is...

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s theatre: Defining the ill-defined

It has been 93 years since the first performance of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan at Schauspielhaus in Zurich. Many critics cite Brecht as the pioneer of...

Authenticity and the pop genre: Slayyyter’s ‘WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA’

Originality could be dead in pop music. The genre is so self-referential that it feels like an endless borrowing game, buying into nostalgia for bygone times outside of our...

Lifestyle

The cult of radical self-love

You don’t need to understand the mechanics of a triple Axel to be able to see the pure, unfiltered joy on Liu’s face during her victorious Olympic free skate. 

Sport

DnB On The Bike travelling rave returns to Oxford

Hundreds gathered on Broad Street...

Oxford’s women win first Boat Race in almost a decade

The Boat Race’s recent history...

‘We’re all writing for screenshots these days’: In conversation with Jonathan Liew

When the call connects, Jonathan Liew spends the first five minutes asking me instead about whether you can get through an Oxford tutorial having not read the book your essay is about and what the news diet for students my age looks like.

OURFC crush Cambridge to sweep Varsity 2026 

Stepping out onto the field...