Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Opinion

Protect the organ scholarship, protect Oxford’s traditions

Should the organ scholarship be abolished? At the time of writing, 23 of the 43 colleges in Oxford offer organ awards. These consist in a mixture of funding, housing...

What Tate’s case tells us about student sexual violence

The Tate brothers “have each other’s backs” and concerns about a culture of impunity are echoed here in Oxford.

Tutorials are the antidote to declining public speaking skills

We struggle in an era where much of our most important communication takes place in writing

‘Runfluencers’: Another commodified wellness trend?

Running has long had bad PR. Hating running has been far from contentious, liking it reserved for the smug, self-congratulatory type. The consensus has...

‘Hustler nation’: A Kenyan cultural crisis? 

Jomo Kenyatta’s ‘Harambee’ movement in 1963 sought to unite the then newly formed Kenyan Republic, assembling from smouldering ashes a sense of cooperation and...

Reading political autobiographies, so you don’t have to

Publishing a book has long been a trend for those leaving government in the UK. Memoirs and autobiographies are naturally intriguing, offering us the...

Night porters: Student safety jeopardised at University College

Your college matters. It can define everything – from the state of your accommodation to the quality of your tutoring. At University College, it...

Tutorials and the art of the blag

Oxford is a unique place to study at an undergraduate level. Its centuries-long history of elitism, pomposity and academic excellence separate it from the...

Why you should be political

Many of us have been told that the only political thing we must always do, and the most important thing we can do, is...

Far-right populism spreads to Portugal

The Portuguese elections in March delivered not only a resounding rejection of the corruption-riddled centre-left government, which a few years ago was viewed as...

Not all made equal: Why your college really matters

Students need a more ambitious package of measures that would lead the central university to force colleges to help each other out where necessary. Until then, as the gap between endowments grows, the ‘Oxbridge experience’ will mean increasingly different things for different students. The college system should be a strength of Oxbridge, not its weakness.

Why the SU failed (and how we’ll fix it)

"Now, just over a year after my election, the SU has announced its Transformation Plan, which has two simple aims: to resolve the systemic issues and unleash the SU’s potential."

Oppenheimer premieres in Japan: What took so long? 

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer had its very first screenings in Japanese cinemas on the 29th of March 2024 – eight months after it was released...

Navalny: Man, Symbol, Martyr

"The Kremlin claims Navalny suffered sudden death syndrome, but his body is still being held, making it impossible to investigate independently."

Oxford: A tale of two cities

"There are 2 worlds at knuckleheads, grappling over Oxford’s identity."

Let it be?

The last month has too frequently left me wondering what the obsession with revivals and reunions is all about. We know that die-hard fans...

A crash course in British politics: What does the public care about? (Week 7)

So, the voters are quite clear – the economy, immigration and healthcare services are generally most important to them.

Violence, fear, and womanhood 

"We view women as something akin to public property that must be regulated as convenient."

Academic pressure and the overachiever mentality

When everyone strives to be exceptional, some inevitably end up becoming merely ‘mediocre’. This gives rise to the central problem surrounding academic pressure and the ‘overachiever’ mentality — that while we are fully aware of its harms, everyone still strives to ‘overachieve’, for fear of being left behind, of being ‘mediocre’. 

The Oxford experience: myth or reality?

"...Oxford can quite often be a social bubble which seems to float outside of the real world..."

Examining western attitudes to apartheid

The struggle for national rights in South Africa has a 300-year-old history. It continues today, as economic and social apartheid is dismantled in South Africa and it challenges Western imperialism.

The Oxford college named after a fascist

There have been no protests, no outrage, over the fact that a fascist pedophile, who stood for everything our modern society should abhor, continues to be unambiguously celebrated by the university authorities.

A crash course in British politics: The scandals of recent years (Week 5)

To understand the current election, we ought to understand the things that shape them more than anything – including recent controversies. Be sure, many voters will have them in mind when casting their ballots.

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