Claude-Michel Schönberg, the French composer who first adapted the novel Les Misérables into a musical, has been announced as the next Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine’s College. He will succeed Simon Russell Beale in October 2016.

The position of Chair of Contemporary Theatre, which was founded through a grant from the Mackintosh Foundation at St Catz promotes both the study and the performance of contemporary theatre. Previous professors have included Patrick Stewart, Stephen Sondheim, Tim Rice and Phyllida Lloyd.

Schönberg announced, “After a certain age you want to share what you have learnt about your work and pass it to the next generation. Everybody has to go through their own experience, there is no shortcut but I can help to bring to the surface what creators have deep inside so they can understand better the process of their alchemy: channelling the stream of your passion and being patient enough to be at work when the inspiration occurs.”

Professor Roger Ainsworth, Master of St Catherine’s College, commented, “I am thrilled that Claude-Michel will be this year’s Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre. Claude-Michel’s eminent position and long-standing experience in contemporary musical theatre makes him an apt holder of this title, and it is wonderful that our students will have the opportunity to learn about this first-hand. It is an honour for St Catherine’s to be welcoming him and I look forward to his inaugural lecture later this year with great anticipation.”

Claude-Michel Schönberg began as a record producer, singer and songwriter and began musical theatre composition in 1973 with the French musical La Révolution Française. This began his long term collaboration with lyricist Alain Boublil.

In 1974 they began their musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, which would go on to become a global success, winning eight Tony awards including Best Musical. It was adapted to film in 2012 for which Claude-Michel received nominations for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards for “Suddenly”.

Schönberg has penned other successful musicals such as Miss Saigon (1989) and Marguerite (2008) and has received a Grammy for outstanding contribution to the creative community.

Izzy Rose, second year Music student at University College is delighted by the news, and told Cherwell, “I think it sounds like a fantastic appointment, it’s so important to have strong representation of contemporary arts within the academic structure of the Oxford collegiate system. It’s an extremely effective way of making new artistic ideas accessible to the broader student body even if it’s not part of their degrees.”

Issy Newell, Magdalen first year and producer of Magdalen’s garden play The Importance of Being Earnest had mixed feelings about the appointment. She told Cherwell, “As a fan of Claude-Michel’s work and musical theatre, his appointment is exciting news. It can’t be denied that he has reams of experience of the contemporary musical industry, and perhaps his appointment will result in a greater number of more adventurous modern musicals to be produced in Oxford.

“However, musical theatre plays a small part in the very large contemporary theatre industry, and I can’t help feeling that he won’t be able to contribute much to Oxford drama. The most exciting student drama is the wonderfully creative interpretations of both contemporary and old plays, but with musicals I feel that such artistic exploration isn’t as possible.”

Magdalen has unanimously passed a motion to mandate the LGBTQ officer to represent Trans members of the JCR.

The role will involve working with the college on developing a Trans policy, as well as recommending to future JCR Committees to appoint a Trans officer should the LGBTQ officers feel unable to lobby for Trans students.

The motion stated, “These [Trans] students often have specific needs and face complex issues for which there is often little guidance and support. For example, negotiations with college regarding transitioning, financial assistance with medical costs, being put in contact with other transgender students.

“There has been a greater push among the University and national student body to support transgender students, including through the creation of the new full time NUS trans-rep and the widespread adoption of gender neutral toilets and transitioning policies.”

It also noted that Magdalen was yet “to create publicly accessible gender neutral toilets” despite prompting from both the JCR and MCR and that it has “no current policy for transitioning students”.

Matthew Elliot, the LGBTQ trustee who proposed the officership, told Cherwell, “As a non-binary person, I felt that there could be no guarantee that future LGBTQ reps could adequately represent trans members of the JCR.

“I think that this is an important issue because the college still needs to do work on creating an official policy for transitioning students and providing access to publicly accessible gender-neutral toilets.”

The debate concerning the motion was not at all about the merits of gender-neutral toilets or the college’s need to have a policy for transitioning students, but came down to smaller questions of constitutionality and whether a full officership was possible, and how many students the position would represent.

“I was quite surprised that the motion passed unanimously, and I was quite nervous about the possibility of strong opposition to the motion.

“However, in hind sight, I feel that any members of the JCR who attend-
ed the meeting and opposed the motion would have had strong reservations about being openly against the provision of the right of representation for trans people.”

Indeed, the only changes made to the motion dealt with small issues adapting the position from another college to the constitution of Magdalen’s JCR, which makes officerships more difficult to create.

“I based the motion to create a trans officer on the same role in the JCR of St. Hugh’s, where the position does not have to be filled”, Elliot said. “However, this contradicts the constitution of the JCR, as all committee roles must be filled, and so the motion was amended to create the position as a supernumerary officer in the case where LGBTQ reps feel that they are unable to represent trans students.”

JCR president Sam Sherburn commented, “I am delighted that Magdalen JCR unanimously passed this motion which affirmed our commitment to make sure that all voices are heard equally, and are represented in the strongest way possible to the college.”

Many students saw this as a welcome development for the college.

“This is another essential step in making the college a more welcoming place for all people” first-year historian Benn Sheridan said. “Magdalen has always had a slightly austere reputation, this will change that.”

Campaigns for the NUS referendum were launched this week, with both ‘Yes to NUS’ and ‘No Thanks, NUS’ unveiling their official manifestos and beginning to canvas throughout the university.

The campaign launches come a week before polling opens for the referendum, which follows a period of controversy in the national union due to the election of Malia Bouattia, who was accused of anti-semitism, as NUS national president.

Speaking about the campaign launch, Becky Howe, OUSU president and co-leader of ‘Yes to NUS’ said, “We have got a really amazing bunch of students we’re working with on this, and whilst it is really, really time consuming, it is definitely being helped by how many people are giving time and energy to this.”

Her co-leader and OUSU vice-president Lucy Delaney, added, “We’re pretty exhausted but also still quite spurred on. I think adrenaline characterises it, and we’ve got a fantastic, fantastic, dedicated campaign. Everybody is equally doing so much: there’s no hierarchy.”

Howe continued, “What we want to try and do with the campaign is make sure as many voices as possible are heard and as many people get to express why the NUS is invaluable to them but, hand-in-hand with that, making sure that people are aware of actually what NUS does.”

Representative of ‘No Thanks NUS’ and former OUSU vice-president Jack Matthews told Cherwell, “It’s been a great start to the campaign, with so many people offering their time and support. What’s especially encouraging is hearing from those who voted ‘yes’ two years ago, who’ve seen for themselves how promises of reform from within have proved false, and are now supporting a ‘no’ vote.

The key thing for us is to engage students from across Oxford in this debate, give them the facts and figures, and show them we have a strong and sensible OUSU that can represent us. We’ve been out at the common room debates where the response has been really positive and, as polling day approaches, you’ll be hearing and seeing a lot more from the ‘No Thanks, NUS’ team.”

Since the launches, a number of independent organisations have released official statements outlining their position.

The university’s Jewish Society has announced its support for ‘No Thanks NUS’, but will not be contributing to campaigns as an organisation nor releasing further comment beyond their initial statement, president Isaac Virchis told Cherwell. However, their individual members will be free to campaign as they wish.

Mind Your Head, an Oxford-based student mental health charity, have gone on record in support of ‘Yes to NUS’ but take a similar line regarding campaigning.

Co-chair Jack Schofield commented, “I don’t think we’re going to get too involved. Individual members of committee are welcome in a private way to do as they wish. Yes, it is our official policy that we endorse a vote to remain in the NUS, but in general I think we have made our statement and we probably won’t be doing too much more, as we do, in general, try not to be political, and we do just want to keep campaigning on issues of mental health in Oxford.”

The campaigners themselves are, by their own admission, unsure about what level of voter turnout to expect, but the general mood around the city seems apathetic, and at best ambivalent. Some students expressed uncertainty as to the nature and causation of the referendum, while others told Cherwell they are unlikely to vote.

There were some undecided voters present at a well-attended referendum debate at St. Hilda’s on Wednesday 25 May, where Howe and Matthews delivered pre-drafted speeches in addition to fielding questions from the audience just six days before polls open on May 31.

As well as claiming to offer better punting and more Nobel prize winners, Cambridge now have the satisfaction of being ahead of Oxford in university league tables once again.

The rankings, recently released by the Guardian, rate each university on a wide range of metrics. These include student satisfaction with their teaching course, quality of feedback, spending and number of staff per student, entry tariff and whether the graduate career after six months.

The data was compiled by an independent company using information provided by the universities themselves and drawn from the National Survey of Students to measure satisfaction scores.

Oxford did top Cambridge on student satisfaction with teaching, achieving 92.9 points against the other institution’s 91.3, and satisfaction with courses, 91.6 to 88. Oxford also spends more per student, while Cambridge edges out its rival in jobs, with 89.6 holding a career after six month to 87.6 from Oxford, and higher UCAS point entry tariff s – a score of 600.1 to 576.9.

Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews have held first, second and third positions respectively for the third year in a row, and Surrey holds onto a fourth place from last year. The big mover is Loughborough, which has shot from 11 to joint fourth since last year.

Oxford edged out Cambridge in both Mathematics and Economics, but was ranked lower in some staples like Classics, Law and History.

An Oxford University spokesman told Cherwell, “The various university ranking tables vary greatly in their criteria and in their placings from year to year. What is most important is that across these tables, Oxford is consistently ranked among the world’s leading institutions, both for the strength of its research and the quality of its teaching.”

First year History and Politics student and Oxford resident Hugh Tappin cited the greater range of course options as one of the reasons he chose his hometown over Cambridge as well as the nightlife.

He told Cherwell he made the decision “principally because they don’t do HisPol at Cambridge and it’s very small: I have heard bad things about the night life – there’s a distinct lack of Bridge.

“You can’t really say no to the Rad Cam being your faculty library and despite what people say about History at Oxford being very traditional, there is actually a fair degree of choice and you’re not as bound to studying British kings and queens as some people would have you believe.”

Some took a silver lining from the loss. “Both educational institutions are world class and the constant competition between us is what create the environment where we keep improving and developing,” first year Magdalen student Hannah McNicol said.