The University of Oxford has placed fifth in The Times’s 2027 UK university rankings, falling from joint fourth with the University of Cambridge last year. This marks Oxford’s lowest ranking in the guide’s 33 year history and only the second time the University has not been in the top three.
A protest took place today outside Oxford Town Hall against Oxford City Council’s plan to sell 11 New Road to St Peter’s College, which would convert most of the building into student housing.
Finance workers are on strike at Oxford University Press (OUP) over plans to offshore jobs to India, with trade union officials warning that “before long this great British institution will exist in the UK in name only."
All Souls and University Colleges, and Steve Howell, Head of Transport for
Oxfordshire County Council, have publicly taken swipes at each other over the
issue of signage and buses on Oxford's High Street.
News that the Council wished to site more bus stops on the High Street,
including one possibly in front of All Souls main gateway, has prompted a
scathing attack on the Council's "vandalism" of the street, with All Souls
bursar Thomas Seaman deriding the Council as being more concerned with bus
passengers than they are with the environment or those organisations situated
on the High Street. The Warden of All Souls, Dr. John Davis also expressed
concern over the pollution control monitor at the front of the college, that he
says the Council said was only temporary.
Howell's reply cites the improvement in paving and road surfaces, and a claimed
de-cluttering of signage as evidence of the Council's commitment to the welfare
of the High Street, and cit
A man was charged following the sexual assault of a 20 year old woman in Cowley on 10th April.
Mark Edwards, 49, is said to have approached the woman from behind as she was walking along the Cowley Road at around 2am. He is alleged to have threatened her and forced her into the alleyway where he sexually assaulted her. Edwards is due to appear in Oxford Crown Court for a Preliminary Hearing on Friday 18th April. The police were unable to confirm whether the victim was a student.
Six new genes relating to type 2 diabetes have been discovered by scientists. Each gene increases the risk of diabetes by around 10%. The discovery followed a study carried out by Nature Genetics involving 90 researchers and gathering genetic data from over 90,000 people. Diabetes affects over two million people in the UK and according to Simon Howell (Chairman of Diabetes UK), “This research offers new opportunities for more effective ways of treating and preventing this condition.”
The University of Cambridge is proposing to abolish its admissions’ requirement for a grade A to C in a foreign language at GCSE, to attract more students from state schools. As national curriculum changes have meant a foreign language is no longer compulsory after 14, there has been a 30% drop, resulting in only half of pupils taking a foreign language to GCSE. Only 17% of state schools now enforce it. Cambridge is currently the only university with this requirement and as of next September proposes to leave the decision to individual departments.
One of Britain’s best loved butterflies, the small tortoiseshell, is under threat according to research which shows how numbers have plummeted by 80% in the last 20 years. Conservationists believe that the sturmia bella fly is to blame, because it lays its larvae inside the caterpillar until it cocoons. Dr Martin Warren, Chief Executive of Butterfly Conservation, told The Daily Mail that he was “deeply concerned”.