A 24 year-old woman was assaulted during the early hours of this morning after leaving Plush nightclub where she had been with friends.

She had walked to a grassed area within the car park of Oxford Railway Station when she was then pushed over by a man and sexually assaulted. 

Plush nightclub, on Park End Street, held its popular student night ‘Sink the Pink’ on Saturday evening.

Det Insp Michael Roddy, from Oxfordshire Force CID, said, “Detectives are currently conducting enquiries to establish the circumstances of this incident which took place prior to 4.40am on [Sunday]. The victim is currently being supported by specially trained officers.

“The area where the incident took place is visible from Becket Street and I would like to speak to anyone who noticed anything out of the ordinary during the early hours of Saturday, or any witnesses, as they may have details which could assist the investigation.

“Incidents of this nature are rare however high visibility patrols are taking place in Oxford city centre. If anyone has any concerns please contact your local neighbourhood team on 101.”

Thames Valley Police have been contacted for further comment.

Queen’s MCR has voted unanimously to request the removal of a fence which would prevent homeless people from taking shelter in the porch of a Queen’s student accommodation block.

A temporary structure has allegedly been erected by the College. Students resident in Aldates House have in the past made complaints about verbal threats and racial comments while entering and leaving the building. The students understand that the fence is intended to reduce the frequency of these incidents and keep students safe, and that the College plans to install a permanent structure.

The MCR’s online survey on the matter, to which 66 MCR members responded, found that 21 per cent (12 people) had experienced a negative encounter with the homeless people outside the building.

However, Queen’s MCR agreed at the meeting that the current temporary fence has significantly exacerbated the situation, causing homeless people to be pushed in front of the door.

The MCR raised ethical concerns about deliberately restricting homeless people’s access to shelter. The motion stated, “Queen’s College has a duty not only to its students, but also to all of humankind. This fence will have a negative and unfair impact on the lives of homeless persons.”

It also resolved to improve its relations with the homeless community by establishing an outreach project. This will involve making tea for the homeless in the St Aldate’s area and fundraising for the nearby homeless shelter O’Hanlon House, which has endured budget cuts of 25 per cent over the past six years.

Sonja Wiencke, an MCR member and resident of St Aldate’s House, commented, “Forcing the homeless people a couple of metres away is not going to make the area more safe; it could even give rise to hostilities. More importantly, the fence is demeaning and dehumanising towards homeless people, which is why we unanimously called for the provisional construction there to be removed and the plans to be dropped.

“It is disappointing to me that the College is insisting on such ethically unjustifiable measures while brushing away our plans for more proactive engagement with our neighbours.

“We will try to improve relations between residents of St Aldate’s and the homeless shelter across the road, no matter whether the college is supporting or impeding our efforts.”

Freya Turner, chair of OUSU’s homelessness campaign On Your Doorstep, told Cherwell, “On Your Doorstep supports the MCR in its ethical concerns over the use of defensive architecture like fencing. We agree that this is neither a compassionate nor a long-term solution to the problems faced by both the students and the homeless.

“We also support the MCR in its efforts to try to reach out to the homeless community, but would encourage them to get informed about the problem first, by meeting with those who run O’Hanlon House before deciding on how they could best be of help.”

Analysis: Harry Gosling argues to not focus on the fence; the real problem is Oxford’s housing crisis

You don’t have to spend long in Oxford in order to recognise that the city has a serious problem with homelessness. The last official count took place just under 12 months ago, when 26 people were found to be sleeping rough on the streets of Oxford. This week, Councillor Bob Price told the BBC that Oxford is the least affordable place to live in the whole of Britain.

Many will argue that punitive measures such as the one being taken by Queen’s College will only worsen the situation. The proposed fence, to be erected around the entrance to St Aldate’s House, will undermine an important source of shelter for a number of Oxford’s homeless population.

The living conditions of these poor, and in some cases desperate people, will be considerably worsened for the sake of making a very marginal difference to the lives of privileged students.

Indeed this incident, some might suggest, is indicative of a broader uncaring culture amongst both colleges and much of the student body in Oxford. With many colleges having endowment funds that run into the hundreds of millions, it seems thoughtless at best and callous at worst for colleges to use their wealth to erect physical barriers against the homeless.

It is important, however, to see the issue from the College’s point of view as well. As students, our list of demands for college action on various issues often appears endless. We want our colleges to divest from fossil fuels, to bring down accommodation rates, to produce better food – the list goes on.

It thus seems a little hypocritical to complain when colleges do on occasion put students’ welfare first. In this case, the primary concern of Queen’s College is with the safety of its students. We should respect this position and, instead of putting our effort into campaigning against the erection of this permanent fence, we should focus our efforts on working to make substantial improvements to the lives of the homeless in Oxford.

The first action we can take is in educating our peers on the real causes of homelessness in Oxford. In a survey of over 1,000 students, it was found that the most common perceived cause of homelessness was addiction.

In actual fact, most find themselves homeless as a result of relationship breakdown. The disparity between perception and reality is dangerous: addressing it should encourage greater concern with the homeless.

Instead of organising to oppose college measures intended to protect them, students should rally around making a positive, substantial difference to the lives of the homeless in Oxford. Donations to charities such as Oxford Homeless Pathways can improve lives and help to remove homelessness from the streets of Oxford.

Punitive college measures are always contentious and are rarely popular. As students, however, we should recognise that colleges have to make difficult decisions. In this case, Queen’s has the interests of its students at heart. Let’s move the focus away from colleges and instead work to get positive change for those who find themselves homeless.

An OUSU slate focusing primarily on mental health has been announced. The slate will be standing for election in 6th Week.

‘BackJack’ is standing for election later this term on a shared belief that OUSU must engage and mobilise students across the University in order to implement wider change regarding students’ mental health. Its three executive members are Jack Hampton for President, Sandy Downs for Welfare & Equal Opportunities Officer, and Duncan Shepherd for Academic Affairs Officer.

Hampton told Cherwell that mental health is “the most pressing issue among the student  body”. He and Shepherd both agree that in their time as JCR Presidents (at St Catherine’s and Balliol respectively), “A lot of time in those positions was spent on issues involving students’ mental health”.

Hampton said, “There were 13 different cases where mental health was an issue last year in meetings with college”, adding that during processes of rustication, “you’re often seeing people at the point of breaking and asking yourself: how is more not being done for these students?”

The slate will argue that University policy works directly to the detriment of students’ mental health. Hampton told Cherwell, “I’ve seen instances where students have performed disappointingly in collections because of problems at home, for example, and have been met with increased workloads, increased stress, and a kind of punitive hit-them-while-they’re-down approach from the senior tutor.” Despite the University often justifying this approach because it “maintains academic standards”, the members of ‘BackJack’ it cannot, when it comes at the cost of students’ mental well-being.

Shepherd told Cherwell that while “there is a lot of focus on getting people into Oxford, there needs to be more on keeping people here”. He added that although “the counselling service is great”, the allocation of central University resources is often inadequate, with “some colleges having lots of policy on mental health and others with barely any at all”. According to Hampton,

“The problem is we don’t give parity to physical and mental health – why aren’t there counsellors on site in colleges, like there are doctors?”

Hampton asserts that if he were elected he would “take these things to the University for change”, seeking an end to “punitive” in-term collections, “proper” discussion on reading weeks and term lengths and enforced standardised caps on workloads. BackJack will seek to mitigate the “negative elements of Oxford“ such as ‘5th Week blues’ and the problem of unfair workloads, which Shepherd emphasises “can be a huge issue for Joint Honours students, where departments often don’t talk to each other, leaving some students with four essays in the first week, and none in the two weeks following”.

The slate also holds the view that OUSU is “disconnected from the large majority of students because of the collegiate system” and needs to reconnect with the network of JCRs, which “are already great bodies for student mobilisation. We aim to] bring an approach that would be looking at why things have happened – policies that demand structural change – and push that change through bottom-up pressure and JCR mobilisation.”

Hampton, Shepherd and Downs all added, “Every student knows that Oxford has serious problems, but they’re only going to improve if we’re united and determined – we think we know how to do it. Please give us the chance.”

A Freedom of Information request made in September by Cherwell has revealed that only eight per cent of the top-paid staff at Oxford University are women.

The request exposed that just 13 female members of staff receive a salary of more than £140,000 per annum, in comparison to 145 men.

A spokesperson for Oxford University commented to Cherwell, “Gender equality is one of Oxford’s key strategic priorities. The University was one of the first signatories of the Athena SWAN Charter, created in 2005 to address the under-representation of women in science. All 26 of Oxford’s science and medicine departments have been granted an Athena SWAN award in recognition of their efforts to promote and advance the careers of women in academia.

“The overall proportion of female academic and research staff at Oxford is not out of line with most UK universities, and compares favourably to British research-intensive universities and international universities. Currently 21 per cent of our Professors are female, compared to the UK average of 22 per cent.

“Detailed analysis within the main pay structure [has shown] no pay gaps greater than three per cent in base and total pay.

“However, we recognise the need to improve gender balance and to address the pay gap at the most senior levels of the University. For that reason, the University Council has set stretching targets for academic appointments and leadership positions, agreed by the University’s Council in December 2014.”

These targets include achieving at least 30 per cent representation of “women on senior decision-making bodies and in professional roles” by 2020.

The university also underlined its commitment to the United Nations’ HeforShe campaign, explaining that the University has “revised its process for the appointment of professors” which will significantly help in meeting their HeforShe commitment “as well as wider university gender equality targets.”

Stephanie Kelley, OUSU’s Women’s Campaign officer, agreed that more needs to be done to address the gender imbalance.

She told Cherwell, “These statistics are disappointing and damning. While the University has resolved to appoint more women to top-paid positions with the aim of 30 per cent of women Associate Professors by 2020, these ‘gender equality targets’ as they’re described publicly wouldn’t be equality even if achieved.

“Oxford’s solution ignores the fact that gender discrimination in academia is embedded in the institution. It was only 95 years ago that women were admitted as full members of the University; these statistics are a sad reminder that a century wasn’t so long ago, and there is much progress to be made.

“Until the University begins the process of examining gender discrimination in all its manifestations and enacting comprehensive reform, Oxford’s scholarship and achievement will suffer, and all students and academics – not just women – will be worse off for it.”

Despite this, the average yearly proportion of undergraduates accepted to Oxford from 2012 to 2014 represents less of a gender gap, with 53 per cent male in comparison to 47 per cent female.

A campaign has launched to connect, share and represent the voices and experiences of first-generation students studying at Oxford University.

The stated aims of the campaign, run by Oxford First-Generation Students, are to “connect first-generation students across the university, raise awareness of the experience of first-generation students at Oxford and talk to prospective students who will be the first in their families to go to university to encourage them to make an application.”

Oxford First-Generation Students was founded towards the end of Trinity 2015. The group’s first meeting took place at Christ Church on Monday of 1st Week but many more events are already planned for the rest of Michaelmas.

Lynton Lees, a History undergraduate at Christ Church and President of the organisation, told Cherwell that a social will be taking place in 3rd Week. More long-term plans include a ‘First-Gen day’ to be put on next year, featuring visits from first-generation alumni and panel discussions on the issues facing first-generation students.

Questioned on the inspiration behind the campaign, Lees said, “We were inspired by similar first-generation student campaigns launching on Ivy League campuses in the US.

“Oxford spends millions of pounds annually funding access initiatives to attract first-generation students and students from low income backgrounds, but there’s no real conversation about what it’s like for these students when they get here.”

Oxford First-Generation Students currently has over 260 likes on Facebook and at least as many students subscribed to its mailing list. The group’s Tumblr page, designed to promote and complement the campaign, features photographs of first-generation Oxford students, which are captioned with the students’ experiences and perspectives.

Laura, a Classics undergraduate at Exeter, writes, “Being the first generation in my family to be here is just something I’m proud of. It would be fantastic if Oxford was more representative of the rest of the country, and having first-generation students here is a big part of that.”

When questioned on Oxford First Generation Students’ plans for this term, Lees said, “I think it’s time we started a conversation…being a first-gen student can be an amazing experience in a lot of ways, but it can also be a real challenge, particularly when you feel you’re the only one around.”

A second-year undergraduate at St Catherine’s told Cherwell, “The worst thing about being a first-generation student at Oxford is how small a number you are. Before Oxford I didn’t think of myself as disadvantaged in that way. Then I came here and I realised what a small percentage I’m in compared to the wider student body. It’s something I’ve never had to confront before.”

Katt Walton, a Christ Church undergraduate, told Cherwell, “My family come from very working class backgrounds. I feel an immense sense of achievement, not only for me, but for my family.

“Realising they’ve been able to support me and give me the opportunities they couldn’t have, and a sense of pride – that’s what being first-gen means to me.”

Demonstrators gathered across Oxford last Saturday in solidarity with the global A21 campaign against human trafficking.

The group, comprising of more than 50 people and seen protesting across the town centre, was diverse in composition, from newly matriculated freshers to senior citizens.

The demonstrators convened just before midday and marched into the city centre via Cornmarket Street, holding a silent protest outside the Radcliffe Camera. Members and affiliated supporters of the A21 campaign, which raises awareness to fight human trafficking, were easily recognisable.

The march was one of more than 200 taking place across 28 countries for the A21 movement. Participants made a point of remaining silent and could be seen wearing duct tape over their mouths, dressed in dark clothes.

According to the A21 website, the chosen dress was intended to raise awareness of the issue of human trafficking in the public consciousness, alluding to trafficking victims’ inability to express their distress.

The demonstrators took action as part of an initiative led by Oxford Brookes social work student Natalie Barcena. Speaking to the Oxford Mail, Barcena said, “Human trafficking isn’t just about being smuggled across borders – there are a few high-profile cases here in Oxfordshire.

“Operation Bullfinch [in which seven men from Oxfordshire were jailed for grooming and sexually abusing young girls] is one example: trafficking is being exploited to do things you don’t want to do.

“There is a huge element of coercing and deception – it’s the same with people being trafficked into the UK: they are promised jobs and then told they owe the traffickers something.”

Tom Bain, a third-year English student at St Catherine’s, told Cherwell, “At first I wasn’t sure what the protest was against, though it was very striking.

“The sight of a single line of people marching silently through the centre of a city as busy as Oxford, all in black and with duct tape over their mouths, is bound to turn heads. In front and behind the protest line were activists handing out flyers, and it looked as though a lot of people were taking them.

“I think it’s a good way to raise awareness of a cause that doesn’t get talked about very much in the public sphere; the idea of a silent protest to draw attention to this seems very apt.”

When asked why he thought there was a lack of acknowledgement of modern slavery, Bain added, “I think a lot of the time people tend to associate slavery with the past, with colonialism and racism. “Whilst the effects of these issues are still felt across the world, the issue of modern slavery is evidently still a huge one too.”