Oxford's oldest student newspaper

Independent since 1920

Headlines

Oxford state school offer rate has decreased over the last five years

Oxford's state-school admissions fall short despite outreach attempts The University of Oxford undoubtedly has a reputation of elitism and yet more recently a focus has been placed on improving access and inclusion. This outreach feels more necessary than ever, especially when considering the University’s 67.6% proportion of students from state schools, which falls starkly short of the 93% of the UK population educated within this sector.  This investigation into representation of state-school students at Oxford University delves into the numbers and...

Comment

Features

Intoxtigation 2024: Merton drinks least, Christ Church most, and two thirds tipsy around tutors

In an Oxford first, the Cherwell Features team gathered data from 1,250 students on all things drinking.

Bridging the gap to a better clubbing scene

Oxford's monopolised club scene dampens the creativity and expression of young artists.

The students working to tackle homelessness

It's an odd sensation to be at one of the richest universities in the world, whose city nonetheless has so many people in need of help.

A whistle-stop tour of Oxford’s women’s societies

What can all these women’s societies be fighting for? To find out, I spoke to eight of their presidents. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Sangria

Compared to Barcelona, Oxford may not be swarming with sun-seekers, but it faces its own unique set of challenges.

Oxford’s long vacation vexation

How to explain the notoriously overworked Oxford student’s counter-intuitive desire for more time spent studying? The answer lies deeper than a simple enthusiasm for hitting the books.

Profiles

Shashi Tharoor, UN diplomat, novelist, politician, and historian, speaks to Cherwell about his work and career

Dr Shashi Tharoor is an Indian politician, writer, and former diplomat. He has written twenty-six books spanning history, politics, biography, religion, literary criticism, fiction, and more. He was a UN diplomat for twenty-nine years from 1978 and ran as Secretary-General in 2006. As a Congress Party MP in India...

Rory Stewart on populism, podcasting, and why he left the Bullingdon Club

Rory Stewart has been an academic, podcaster, writer, diplomat and politician. He read PPE at Balliol. While an undergraduate, he tutored Princes William and Harry, and attended a meeting of the Bullingdon Club. He has written several acclaimed books, including Occupational Hazards, an account of his time as a...

Culture

Making the Weather: Six Politicians Who Shaped Modern Britain by Vernon Bogdanor – review

In 1937 Winston Churchill wrote Great Contemporaries, a set of biographical essays on various statesmen, in the course of which he remarked that the “one mark of a great man... is to have handled matters during his life that the course of after events is continuously affected by what...

Review: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore – ‘A drama of extremes’

John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, working within the already violent genre of the revenge tragedy, has to be one of the most controversial pieces of Jacobean drama. The play very openly tackles incest, features graphic violence (including a heart on stage) and domestic abuse, and contains explicit...

Life

Oxford cured my perfectionism

So the Oxford workload, rather than triggering a stress response, has instead desensitised me to the fear of academic failure. Exposure therapy, I suppose. It’s very freeing.

Home, and how to find it

It seems like life after university is a journey to find our way home, whatever that means.

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