The return of students and staff to Oxford this week was severely disrupted as volcanic ash forced the cancellation of flights in and out of the UK.
The flight ban caused problems for those finalists who were due to sit official University examinations in 0th week. Other Universities, including Cambridge, postponed examinations till later in the term.
However, Oxford stated that the exams would proceed as planned.
A spokesperson for the Faculty of Ancient and Modern Languages commented that “All those unable to attend [their examinations] have been referred to the proctors”.
Despite the flight ban being lifted on Tuesday night, many international students were unable to return in time for their collections on Friday and Saturday.
There were complaints from affected students that the University had not handled the situation well.
One student said that they had “no idea what will happen with my collections, or whether my college will charge me for this week’s residence.
“Generally, I think that both the University and College could be a bit more helpful, because clearly I’m not the only one who has this kind of problem”.
Other students were more upbeat about the situation.
Second-year Somerville student Matt Waksman, who was stranded in Jerusalem, said, “I’ll just have to catch up on collections and work when I’m back, there’s nothing I can do and I haven’t received any official advice from Oxford.
“At the moment I’m planning on getting to Rome next week and hoping to get home from there. More promising is Brown’s announcement that they will fly UK Citizens stranded outside of Europe to Spain, where they will be picked up by the British Navy.”
The disruption is not just affecting students and tutors.
There were worries that former Bond actor Sir Roger Moore’s appearance at the Oxford Union might have to be cancelled. However, the Union assuaged member’s fears, stating that the talk will still go ahead this week, as he was able to reschedule his flight from Paris.
The Bodleian Library’s copy of the Magna Carta had also fallen victim to the ash cloud, becoming stranded in New York after an Oxford Alumni event in the city’s Waldorf Astoria hotel.
Due to the unexpected delay in travelling, the 1217 copy of the Magna Carta has been put on public display in The Morgan Library in New York from the 21st of April to the 30th of May.
Richard Ovenden, Keeper of Special Collections at the Bodleian Library, who is accompanying Magna Carta in New York, commented, “We realised that a public exhibition was the silver lining to this particular ash cloud.”
The 800-year-old document had never left the country before.
India Lenon, stuck in Hong Kong
I was on a family holiday in Hong Kong which was meant to end on Friday 16th April, but our flight was the very first to be cancelled. This wasn’t so much of a problem for me, with the start of term almost a week away, but my sister’s term started the next day and she’s sitting her A-levels in a few weeks.
We had to decide whether to stick it out in Hong Kong or to try to get back by other means – but getting trains or boats would have taken weeks, and all the flights to anywhere near Britain were fully booked until June.
We spent five extra days in Hong Kong, at a cost of about £1,000 per day, which was less than fantastic.
On Wednesday we were woken at 4am by a phone call from Air New Zealand, who had put us on the first flight back out because we had been waiting so long. They said that we should get to the airport as quickly as possible, so unwashed and barely awake we bundled into a taxi.
The airline had clearly decided to prioritise families and old people, so we were lucky to get onto the flight.
When we finally landed in Heathrow all the passengers cheered, which was fairly cringeworthy but proof of the relief everyone felt. Arrivals was full of news crews filming us all arriving, but due to our unwashed state we hurried on past.
