An Exeter Fresher was handcuffed and put into a police car last Thursday night after being thrown out of The Bridge and getting into an altercation with one of the club’s bouncers.

The student, who asked to remain anonymous, was forcefully ejected from the nightclub late on Thursday evening, after engaging in rowdy behaviour. Consequently, he got involved in a scuffle with the doorman, at which point the police were called in to drive him back to college.

Phil Davidson, owner of The Bridge, explained, “If a student had been behaving badly in the club he would have been asked to leave. Police are often in attendance on Hythe Bridge St. and will assist our door staff with any problem.”

He continued, “In this case there was no physical damage suffered and it would seem that the police took the view that for this student’s own safety they ought to escort him back to his college.”

The student, who was immediately handcuffed, was reportedly abusive towards the officers, shouting “fuck the police” while detained in the police car.
Looking back on the incident, he told Cherwell, “I have no recollection of the event whatsoever: I only realised what happened when, looking for my Bod Card in my pocket to go to brunch the next day (I misakenly thought it was Saturday), I found a note from the police instead describing me as ‘disorderly, intoxicated and argumentative’… At least I knew that they got the right guy.”

An Exeter first year, who was an eyewitness to the events, said, “That’s a pretty handy way of getting back to college! If only it had been after the night out.”

Likewise, another eyewitness from St Benet’s said, “Can’t believe he got put in handcuffs: sign of a good night. Though it’s never a good idea to go head-to-head with a bouncer.”

The student’s Thursday night antics were also met with acclaim from some Oxford graduates. A fresher from St Cross stated, “This almost rivals the Daily Mail story of the Odham teen waking up in Paris. I guess Oxford undergraduates really know how to party.”

A Keble second year, who frequents The Bridge, thought the student’s behaviour was “reprehensible”. She told Cherwell, “I think it’s ridiculous how rowdy students get on nights out. Bouncers have loads to put up with.”

Similarly, a student from Wolfson remarked, “My Thursday nights involve long bouts of solitude churning out page after page of dissertation material. Obviously, something went wrong somewhere along the line. Perhaps I should start coming to Exeter more.”

The Exeter student confirmed, “To be honest, it seems to be becoming quite standard for fresher classicists at Exeter to get arrested after the arrest at Freud’s in Freshers’ Week: only a few more of us to go now.”

He went on, “Thankfully I didn’t get a criminal record, though I might have to give Bridge a miss for the next couple of weeks, and maybe give some of the more sketchy clubs a try instead.”

Oxford University, OUSU, and college deans have condemned the drinking craze NekNominate, after the number of students participating increased.

a University spokesperson said of NekNominate, “The University encourages students who consume alcohol to do so responsibly. It is difficult to imagine that drinking large quantities of alcohol in such a short space of time could fall within any definition of responsible drinking.”

Tom Rutland, the current OUSU President, was similarly negative about the proliferation of NekNominate videos, commenting that, “‘The NekNominate craze is foolish and dangerous. Downing a pint or more of spirits, as just one example of the videos I’ve seen, is extremely dangerous and has lead to serious harm and even deaths. I think that the vast majority of Oxford students recognise the idiocy of the craze and I’ve seen a couple of amusing, ironic takes on it.”

Various students pre-eminent in Oxford societies have also been drawn into the craze. Union president-elect Ben Sullivan uploaded a video of himself downing a pint of beer and port on to Facebook, and former LMH JCR President Fergus Imrie also polished off a pint of beer in rapid time for his video.

Over the past two weeks, NekNominate stunts around Oxford have escalated. One student who wishes to remain anonymous recorded himself finishing a pint whilst defecating on the Quad of Downing College Cambridge; another third year student stripped to his boxers and drank a pint outside the Radcliffe Camera. One student who did not wish to drink alcohol drank his own semen when fulfilling his NekNomination.

In Keble College, NekNominations took place in the college library and chapel. The Dean of Keble College told Cherwell, “The college is very concerned about the potential for physical harm resulting from NekNomination, in particular because of the coercion to consume alcohol. This behaviour is very strongly discouraged and both the JCR and MCR have been helping to spread the word about the dangers associated with this trend.”

Likewise, Jamie Wells, the OUSU Health and Welfare rep, stressed his condemnation of the trend and encouraged students who had been nominated to think carefully before partaking, “‘We realise the potentially harmful effect of viral crazes like neknominate and encourage all students to act responsibly in their consumption of alcohol. There is no harm in ignoring a ‘nomination’, as many people already do, and students should not feel under pressure to make one of these videos.”

George Greenwood, a third year at Christ Church who took part in the craze, took a more positive approach: “I think that generally NekNomination is an entertaining form of fun among friends, if treated sensibly. However, as we have seen in some tragic cases, social pressure and laddish one-upmanship can encourage some to dangerously abuse alcohol, and Tom is right to raise this issue. The best NekNomination that I have seen does not involve alcohol at all, consisting of one of my friends failing miserably to down a litre of sparkling water. Quite frankly, watching someone drink a pint of vodka and then throw up in an underpass is a bit grim.”

One student at Christ Church who was filmed downing a pint of wine at the top of St Mary’s, said, “I really think NekNominations are pretty harmless compared to the vast majority of drinking games. Unlike most drinking games, your nomination is only over the internet, so there is far less immediate peer pressure than there is if you are at a party/crewdate and asked to down shot after shot. You also have 24 hours to decide whether you want to participate or not, so you’ve got plenty of time to think it over.

Recent days have seen a new trend based on NekNominate emerge, where people are nominated to do a random act of kindness. Known as RAKNominate, it has proved a popular alternative. Acts vary from giving scouts a bunch of flowers to giving food to homeless people on the streets of Oxford. Megan, a first year student at Regent’s Park said of RAK Nominate, “It’s a force for good in a world ruined by laddish culture and binge drinking, epitomised by NekNominate.”

Morgan Harries, a first year English student, agreed with criticism of the fad. She told Cherwell, “I think NekNominate is kind of lame. Drinking over the recommended weekly allowance is kind of lame.”

Merton College JCR has voted to ban The Sun from its common room in protest against Page 3.

The motion, which passed at the JCR meeting last Sunday, was proposed by Merton’s Equal Opportunities Officer Hamish Forbes and seconded by OUSU’s Rent and Accommodation Officer Sophie Terrett.

27 members voted in favour of the motion, with 13 opposing it. There were only two recorded abstentions in what the JCR Vice-President Liz Milne described as a “high turnout”.

Forbes said the idea was to send a message to the Sun, as well as to show solidarity with the national ‘No More Page 3’ movement. He explained, “It’s important that we passed this motion in order to demonstrate to the Sun’s editors that we as a leading educational institution are opposed to Page Three in its current form”.

He went on to stress that the initiative gained strength from the number of members. “Every added organisation or institution to the list of those supporting the campaign is important”, he said.

The decision was not an easy one for all members of the JCR to take. PPE student Jonas Müller voiced opposition, warning that banning one newspaper would “lead to a slippery slope”. He added that “banning things for moral reasons is concerning,” and that if the nudity was the source of people’s worries the motion was pointless, as “12 year olds can watch porn online anyway”.

LGBTQ Rep Alex Beecham made the argument that the motion should be a protest about the objectification of women and not about nudity. Other speakers at the meeting concurred. Forbes agreed too and an amendment was made in order to clarify this point.

Information and Returning Officer Joe Hackett was worried about increasing the effect of the ‘Oxford Bubble’, noting that Merton JCR does not subscribe to the Daily Mail, and thus by banning The Sun would have no access to Britain’s first and second most popular newspaper. Finalist Chris McCabe worried that the lack of the Sun would lead to a lack of working class representation in the JCR’s media subscriptions.

The ‘No More Page 3’ campaign has gathered pace in recent weeks, gaining the backing of several well-known institutions and individuals. Edinburgh, Durham, UCL, Manchester and Oxford Brookes are just some of the 27 universities to have stopped stocking the paper. On top of this the campaign has received backing from politicians, unions, charities and celebrities. 151 MPs signed a letter asking for the Sun to end the feature, and Russell Brand published a photo of him wearing a No More Page 3 T-shirt.

“I’m surprised it took so long to happen,” said one first-year of the motion. “And even more surprised that some people voted against it. “Although I can understand maybe why they thought it was a bit unclear”.

One JCR member maintained, “A lot of people seemed unsure about how effective the whole thing was. I mean I get the idea that we’ll achieve more as part of a wider movement, but how much pressure will The Sun really be feeling as a result?”

Another Mertonian was concerned about how lightly some of the undergraduates were taking the new rulings. They explained that some older students, having discovered that it is impossible to appeal a motion within two years of its passing, were “talking about simply buying the Daily Sport instead”. This would “totally defeat the purpose of the motion”, they claimed.
Merton joins a host of other colleges in banning the paper. Brasenose, St Hugh’s, New, University and Teddy Hall have all outlawed the tabloid in recent times. New College student Verity Bell commended Merton’s decision commenting, “I’m glad that Oxford undergraduates are tackling the everyday objectification of women in the tabloid press directly.”

One Brasenose student said, “Taking these sorts of decisions has a positive direct effect; but the largest impact comes from the publicity generated in doing so. When Merton become another addition to the colleges that have taken a stand against The Sun, the message will gain further traction and hopefully be considered at a higher level.”

The No More Page 3 campaign acknowledged Merton’s efforts by retweeting Hamish Forbes declaration of success.

A bed bug infestation led to freshers being evacuated from Magdalen accommodation last week.

The infestation spread through the ground floor of the Waynflete Building, part of the first years’ accommodation over Magdalen Bridge. Alongside the continued flooding of the toilets on the corridor, this has resulted in the exodus of all nine residents on the floor.

One of the students affected by the infestation told Cherwell, “The issue started when I came back after the Christmas holidays. I first noticed something was wrong when I developed a rash on my arm, as I’m mildly allergic to insect bites. Later I found an insect in my room and went to speak to the Waynflete Dean. Despite them cleaning my room again, a week (and several more bites) later I found another insect.”

“Fortunately there have been no issues in my new room, but the whole experience was very unpleasant and not what I was expecting to have to deal with on returning to college after the holidays. 

“I have to say, if it was true that they knew there was a bug problem over the holidays then I’m very disappointed with the college for not sorting it out. It may only be student accommodation, but we are still paying ‘customers’ and I’d expect better than that.

“Although, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised; the whole of the ground floor of the Waynflete have been moved out because the toilets kept flooding the bathroom and the corridor, which was also very unpleasant, and has been happening continuously for over a year, (four times this term alone!). The college are now fixing this issue, and are replacing all the carpets and beds on ground floor. However, it has been a lot of hassle that I would rather not have had to deal with.”

Indeed, one student on the affected corridor told Cherwell, “I wasn’t actually personally affected by the bed bugs on my corridor- despite the fact that I still had to move into temporary accommodation, although this was more as a result of the flooding toilets.”

The accommodation is now being overhauled, with the floors being taken up and all the affected rooms being stripped. It is believed that the rooms will be uninhabitable for the rest of the academic year.

One graduate student at Magdalen expressed their concern. They said, “The fact that this infestation had gone unrecognised for as long as it took for it to spread to multiple rooms is more than worrying for the rest of Magdalen accommodation.”

One St. Anne’s third year expressed his surprise at the way that the situation had been dealt with.He said, “Lord al-mite-y! It really bugs me that colleges think they can get away with these ant-ics. They’d bed-er get their act together to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“I suppose if it came to choosing between living with bed bugs and sleeping rough, it’d be the lesser of two weevils. I used to have an insect in my room, but I got rid of it. Shame really, it was my pest de resistance. Magdalen should certainly follow suit. For a wealthy college, this is really taking the pest.”

When contacted by Cherwell on Thursday, a spokesperson for Magdalen was unavailable for comment.

Oxford Reclaim the Night announced on Thursday the launch of their latest campaign against sexual violence, which will be centred on a march through Oxford on Friday 7 March to allow women to ‘Reclaim the Night’ for themselves.

The march will enable women to walk together through spaces in the city that they might normally avoid due to fear of violence, sexual harassment or rape. Oxford Reclaim the Night said in a statement, “The march aims to raise awareness of the scale of violence against women in our society, the need to prevent it, and the need to ensure women and girls can live free from the fear or violence.”

This year, the campaign is themed around freedom. Oxford Reclaim the Night said of the theme, “We believe that women should have the freedom to express themselves and be safe in public space. Freedom to walk alone is still denied to many women, in a society in which 85,000 women are raped every year and over 400,000 women experience sexual assault.”

Taking place on the evening before International Women’s Day, the march will begin at the East Oxford Community Centre and end at the Town Hall, to join the Oxford International Women’s Festival. While there will be a mixed rally at the East Oxford Community Centre to start the event, the march itself will be restricted to self-identifying women only.

Kirsty Braithwaite, from the campaign, told Cherwell of the march, “Events like Reclaim the Night are important because sexual violence is very common, and because we still have a long way to go before every survivor of sexual violence can speak up about what they’ve experienced, confident that they’ll be believed and not blamed. All proceeds from Reclaim the Night go to Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre (OSARCC), which we’re very happy to do.”

Braithwaite also defended restricting the march to self-itentifying women only. She told Cherwell, “This particular campaign is about gender-based violence, and we want to make sure that women feel safe on the march. It’s also about showing solidarity with other women.”

Lucy Delaney, OUSU Women’s Campaign Officer, commented, “I think Reclaim the Night is vital in recognising the ridiculous fact that women still feel unsafe to simply walk down the road at night.”

She added, “I think men are an important part in the bid to stop violence against women, but in supporting, rather than leading roles. I think the idea behind Reclaim the Night is that it seizes the autonomy and agency long denied to women, so obviously it is important that this is led and carried out by women.”

Abigail Burman, from the It Happens Here campaign against sexual violence, told Cherwell, “The marches are still important because the epidemic of sexual violence and violence against women is ongoing. And we as a society are still far too silent on these issues.”

However, one second year student said, “Although I think that preventing sexual violence is a very important goal, I’m not convinced that a march is the best way to act upon this.

“Instead, we should focus on directly helping women who have been affected by sexual harrassment or rape; simply raising awarenesss of the issues is not enough.”

Reclaim the Night marches began in the UK nearly forty years ago, on 12 November 1977, when torch-lit marches were held across England.

Exeter JCR has passed a motion to boycott hall in protest against the disproportionately high living costs faced by their students compared to other colleges across the university.

The boycott will begin on 17th February and is aimed at forcing the college’s senior management to open a dialogue with students about the cost of living.
The motion was carried by a margin of thirty votes with five students choosing to vote against, although the list of proposers and seconders featured over a hundred names.

JCR President Richard Collett-White explained the reason behind the boycott. He said, “Exeter ranks bottom in Oxford for living costs satisfaction. We pay an £840 Catering Charge annually and yet more for each meal, making us the most expensive undergraduate college. It costs around £13 a day to eat in college taking the catering charge into account. This undermines our access efforts and affordability. Years of ‘negotiations’ have yielded precious little, leading to widespread demand for a boycott.”

However, the college’s Rector, Frances Cairncross, CBE, FRSE, told Cherwell, “We are having conversations with the JCR and MCR about their views on the catering charge, and taking the opportunity to explain to them the true nature of college finances, about which there seems to be some uncertainty in the student body.”

One student commented, “Everyone in the JCR is pissed off, so it is just a matter of whether people think that boycotting will work. I don’t really think we have any other option.”

Another Exeter student, who wished to remain anonymous, told Cherwell, “Our college has been running a healthy surplus for several years – this year it nearly reached a million pounds of unrestricted surplus! Exeter is not a poor college, we’re just shockingly expensive. There’s a feeling that something has got to give – that if nothing is done about it, the JCR will be plagued by this problem for years to come.”

The motion included a mandate for Collett-White to arrange a meeting with the college Rector, Bursar and catering managers where students could air their concerns about the cost of living in college. In an open email addressed to the Rector, along with catering staff, he said, “The hall charge imposed on members of the JCR is widely felt to be unjustly high, relative to other Oxford colleges, and any effort to reduce the cost of living for students is to be encouraged. The proposed open meeting is an opportunity for College to persuade students not to go ahead with a hall boycott. Students at the JCR meeting hoped this would involve an explanation of why the Fellows have set charges at Exeter far higher than other colleges, as well as providing greater transparency and some concrete proposals to reduce student dissatisfaction.”
The boycott follows on from past disputes between the college and the JCR over finance issues. In an email to the JCR, the president said, “College failed to provide any evidence of their financial difficulty or need and failed to produce the schedules (as they agreed to do in 2009). The information College provided OUSU about their living costs was incorrect and did not include the full catering charge.”

The JCR passed a similar motion last Trinity to hold a one day hall boycott. As a result, the college said they would explore alternatives and implement them by this Hilary term, but they have not yet fulfilled this promise. One anonymous Exeter student was optimistic about JCR support, saying, “Last year’s boycott had a 100% turnout! Because this is a longer boycott our focus is on ‘substantially reducing hall turnout’ rather than emptying hall entirely. It’s an optional boycott for students.”

The Campaign Communications Officer emphasised the need for community involvement, stating, “In order to make the boycott last we need to provide Hallternatives for Exeter students. Some colleges and local businesses have already agreed to help out but we would really appreciate any more practical support, so if you are a JCR president and know that your hall would be able to take a few Exeter students we’d love to hear from you.”

The JCR has spent £120 on utensils for cooking in the college’s sole kitchen and have arranged extra support from Balliol JCR.

Oxford Economics, an Oxford-based consultancy, has challenged the coalition government’s commitment to implementing spending cuts. The consultancy firm reported that the government budget deficit will fall naturally at a much faster rate than initially predicted, reducing the need for the austerity package.

The report focused on the output gap: the difference between Britain’s actual GDP and potential GDP. While the output gap was believed to be 1.8 per cent of GDP, Oxford Economics has estimated that it is in fact over twice as large, at 5 per cent. A larger output gap means more potential for economic growth.
The report comes just weeks after the chancellor George Osborne warned that another £25bn of spending cuts needed to be made after 2015. If true, the report would invalidate Mr Osborne’s arguments for the need to make further spending reductions.

Students remain divided on the issue of spending cuts. Jack Matthews commented in his capacity as OUCA President that, “Dealing with the deficit and debt is the only way to return Britain to a strong economy. For the benefit of hardworking people everywhere, it is crucial that the government stick to their long-term economic plan.”

OULC Co-Chair Dan Turner responded, “Since the general election it has been clear that the government has been motivated by an antiquated and destructive ideology. By pushing for premature and severe cuts to capital spending, they caused an avoidable double-dip recession.”

Andrew Goodwin, senior economist at Oxford Economics and co-author of the IFS report, said, “The medicine of austerity could end up being applied in a dose higher than the patient actually needs.”

It is also possible that the output gap doesn’t imply anything about the level of spending cuts needed. Dr Ian Jewitt, an Economics fellow at Nuffield College, stated, “Whether they are right or wrong about the output gap, I’d have thought that issue was second order of importance for the necessity of cuts […] what happens to the world economy will be more important than the output gap.”

Dr Jewitt pointed out that other factors such as the Eurozone turmoil are crucial in determining British economic growth, and as such we cannot expect higher growth simply because there is an output gap.

One PPE finalist told Cherwell, “Everyone knows no one knows anything about macroeconomics. We just have to pretend that we do.”

Will Hutton, the principal of Hertford College, was spoofed on the BBC’s popular programme Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe.

In the episode televised on 6th February, Philomena Cunk, the fake presenter of the ‘Moments of Wonder’ segment, held a mock interview with Mr Hutton. Questions included, “If you have a coin, where’s the money in that coin and if I cut it open could I take the money out of it?” Mr Hutton was “aware it was going to be a spoof”.

At first glance, Mr Hutton is not the type of figure one might expect to either be a fan of the show or have such a keen sense of humour. In a prestigious career he has been editor-in-chief of The Observer, economics correspondent for Newsnight and director of the Guardian national newspapers. He is also a governor of the London School of Economics and Political Science, a visiting professor at the University of Manchester’s Business School and at the University of Bristol.

Mr Hutton commented that his “job was to keep a straight face – and yes I enjoyed it, even though I knew the whole segment could only work to the extent sane answers would be made to sound absurd because of her character’s glorious capacity to get the wrong end of the stick and, better still, her mad follow-up questions. She is a brilliantly funny and original comic, and some of her questions that you didn’t see took ignorant gawkiness to an art form. Great comedy. I laughed a lot.”

Many members of Hertford College do not seem to be particularly enamoured with their principal’s appearance. One told Cherwell that it was, “somewhat amusing but he still hasn’t warmed the cockles of my heart. He’s no Prince Will.”

Another Hertford student called the principal as a “joker”, with a third stating, “I didn’t really realise before how good a sense of humour he has but this has definitely changed my opinion of him! I hope he’s on Charlie Brooker’s show more often, maybe as a regular feature?”

A first year Classics student at Jesus expressed her delight at the willingness of college principals to poke fun at themselves. She commented, “I really like how such important people still have a sense of humour! I found that whole interview segment hilarious and I’m pleased to see that Hertford’s principal is following Jesus’s Lord Krebs, in having a laugh with the rest of us. I hope other principals take note!”

Brooker’s show is notorious for his sarcastic, sardonic rundown of the week’s news. In this episode his targets included the Russian Winter Olympics, Scarlett Johansson, Barry from Eastenders, and the Superbowl.

A group of Oxford students have had their travel writing, based on their experiences in Brazil, featured as a blog on the BBC website.

Covering controversial issues within Brazilian culture and society, from class segregation to the gender inequalities of Machismo, the pieces were written by a group mostly comprising of third year modern language students on their year abroad.

The blog is named ‘Para Ingles Ver’ or ‘For the English to see’, an idiom which roughly translates as ‘for the sake of appearances’. It has attracted considerable online attention, particularly from those affected by the issues it discusses, as the enthusiastic responses in the comment section demonstrate. One reader went as far as to give one of the bloggers his phone number in reaction to their criticism of macho behaviour.

For one of the group, Lily Green, a Spanish and Portuguese student at St Peter’s, the comments are the best part of the blog. “The differing opinions, the frustration, the praise, the despair, the adoration – it all perfectly reflects how it is when you talk face-to-face with Brazilians about their country.”

Having only recently returned from her five month stay in Brazil, Lily told Cherwell about her time there. “I spent the first four months in Recife in the North East because I wanted to really sink into the day to day. The humdrum stuff was the best: catching the bus, making dinner with friends, complaining about the weather.”

Another blogger, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, who is half Brazilian, writes about time spent back home over Christmas. In working for the BBC, she said, “I have learned how to write in my second mother tongue in a personal and yet not too informal way.”

Loukia Koumia, a student departing for Brazil, hopes that blogging will “encourage me to soak in as much culture as I can.”

Michael Gove has attracted controversy by suggesting that Britain’s education system is negatively impacted by unions. In an interview with The World at One on BBC Radio 4, he claimed that leaders of trade unions had been complicit in the declining standards in schools, criticising them for tolerating failure.

The Secretary of State for Education described the problem of the “Blob” – “BLOated educational Bureaucracy” – which had been, he claimed, directly to blame for poor educational standards in the past. Gove told the show that he has “a clear view and a specific plan about how we can drive improvement in state education. That involves challenging people who have been complicit in under-performance in the past.

“It is not surprising that there are some people – some people within the trade unions, some people within university education faculties – who are opposed to this. But what is striking is that the changes we are making – giving more powers to head-teachers, insisting on higher standards of behaviour, recruiting better teachers who are subject specialists – are backed overwhelmingly by the public.”

A Psychology student at LMH commented, “I think the idea of employing teachers who are specialists in their subjects is a positive one, but realistically, it is not being achieved. I come from a grammar school renowned for its good teaching staff, but at least half of my teachers didn’t seem to have that strong a grasp of their subject outside of the syllabus that they had been told to teach, and I don’t honestly see this changing any time soon.”

Gove has also suggested extending the school day in state schools so it lasts up to nine or ten hours, in an attempt to tear down the “Berlin Wall” between state and private schools and eliminate the difference in the standards between the two sectors.

One St John’s second year derided the idea. They told Cherwell, “Most of my friends in college who went to private schools never had such long days, and for the few who did a great deal of that time was spent on extra curricular activities such as playing sport. The state school I attended and many others don’t have the facilities to allow for this, meaning we would have longer days of work and more lessons. With many students already struggling to cope with the stress of their workloads, this can’t possibly be a good idea.”

In further pursuit of equality between state and private schools, Gove has recently announced a new teacher training project, headed by Oxford’s Regius Professor of Greek Chris Pelling, to ensure that state school students have better access to Classics teaching.

The scheme aims to support and train teachers who are interested in introducing Classics to their schools’ curriculum but have specialist backgrounds in another subject.

The move has received broad support, with one first year Classicist saying, “Training more Classics teachers in state schools would go a long way to dispel the myth that Classics is inherently ‘private school’.”

However, a diverse range of groups, including the Confederation of British Industry and members of what Gove termed the “Blob”, are calling for more rounded education systems than those Gove is promoting in his educational reforms. Concern has been expressed over the teaching of arts subjects in particular. Helen Thomas, an English student at St Anne’s, said, “I disapprove of anyone who completely denies the importance of the arts subjects. I did drama A Level and now I’m here – clearly studying Brecht and Chekhov doesn’t turn you into a monosyllabic frog.”

However one third year E&M student noted, “Gove has a tough job to do, and regardless of which policies he chooses to employ, his decisions will always cause controversy among some people.”