A survey from StudentBeans.com into students and alcohol has found that out of 39 subject areas, Economics and Accounting students consume the most alcohol compared to those from other subjects. 

Oxford University has risen in the university rankings, jumping from 59th last year, with an average of 13.8 units consumed per week, to 41st in 2012. The university now drinks on average 2.3 units of alcohol per day and 18.4 units per week, placing it higher in the league than Oxford Brookes at 55th and Cambridge at 51st.

The website, which has also devised a university drinking league, surveyed 1,994 students who drink alcohol from 74 universities across the UK in September and October of this year to create a subject drinking league.

Nationwide, accounting and finance students topped the chart, claiming to consume 30.6 units of alcohol on average each week, equating to 4.4 units per day. Those studying economics rank second, drinking 27.3 units weekly, averaging at 3.9 units each day. 

Regarding these results, Oliver Brann, editor of the website stated: “It seems these turbulent financial times are stressing the accountants and economists out before they’ve even entered the working world.”

PPE students at Lady Margaret Hall disagree with this view. One student claimed “these high levels of drinking merely reflect the fact that students studying PPE have to practice drinking sociably in preparation for all the society dinners and partying that accompanies being a politician”. 

Another student argued that Economics students “know how to have fun whilst keeping up with an extremely demanding course: you can party until 3am as long as you finish that pesky Economics essay that is due in five hours after you get back to college”.

Students studying Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare claim to drink the least amount of alcohol at 12.4 units on average a week, well within the recommended allowances for both men and women. Subjects such as Art and Design, Performing Arts and Music, Journalism and English ranked in the last nine places, consuming less than 17 units. Humanities were ranked at 12th place with 21.1 units per week.

One Cambridge student said, “So, students of the most boring, banal subjects need the most help to get through the day? Big news.”

First year Oxford English student, Adam Crozier, added, “What ever will happen to our reputations as indolent and charming flâneurs? Mind you, if I were studying accountancy I’d probably do my best to drink my way to an early grave too.’

Debates about the future of library provision, centring around the Bodleian,  continued as Congregation met on Tuesday 13 November to discuss “The Libraries and their Future”.

Speeches each on a particular issue relating to library provision were made by fellows from numerous different colleges and disciplines.

A flysheet distributed with the Gazette on 8 November called for a “different approach”, and stressed the need for readers to be “extensively consulted on significant plans for the libraries and involved in deciding what should happen.”

During the Congregation meeting, Susan Cooper, Fellow of St. Catherine’s, argued that, “The issues with the libraries are symptomatic of more widespread problems we have with communication and consultation in Oxford.”

Conrad Leyser, fellow of Worcester, spoke on misunderstandings during the relocation of the History Faculty Library, commenting, “Loss, closure, rapacity: these were all words used in connection to the HFL last year, and they coloured the wider discussion in an unhelpful way.” 

He noted that many of the problems in the Bodleian are due to “the enviable problem, and the dire responsibility, of a cup running over”, but added,  “Overall everybody thought it was a good discussion. Everyone came away encouraged”.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, fellow of St. Cross, spoke in support of the Bodley’s Librarian, considering library problems faced by Oxford and Cambridge over the last century. He argued that the Bodleian Libraries have always been hampered by “buildings which were certainly beautiful, but were and are decidedly not user-friendly”, but that over the last decade, the Bodleian libraries have become “not merely one of the great world collections, but one of the most accessible and well-run.” He ended his speech by saying, “Our current Bodley’s Librarian […] deserves our support, not our carping”.

Bryan Ward-Perkins, fellow of Trinity, appealed to academics, “above all to treat our librarians as colleagues, on the same side as us, and deserving of our respect.” He also emphasised the problems caused by the need to “shave nearly ten per cent off the annual budget”.

Hugh Doherty, fellow of Jesus, praised the meeting as “very instructive”, commenting, “There were a number of excellent speeches, notably by David Norbrook, Philomen Probert, Georgy Kantor, Caroline Warman, and Richard Ovenden.”

He added, “What was striking was how many actual users of the Bodleian… were speaking against some of the recent changes, and how many representatives of the university’s governing class, three heads of house,  no less,came out in defence of them”.

Bodley’s Librarian, Sarah Thomas, who has been in the post for five years, commented, “Congregation’s discussion on the ‘libraries and their future’ was both positive and constructive. We were heartened to see so many colleagues from across the University speak in support of the Bodleian Libraries. As we go forward, we will work to enhance our communication, engage in robust consultation and ensure wide communication of our future plans.”

Education secretary Michael Gove has defended the study of the arts, including French lesbian poetry, this week as he accused the engineer and inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, Sir James Dyson, of ‘anti-intellectualism’.

Michael Gove’s comments came after Dyson, Britain’s 22nd richest man, said that we should talk about technology more so that “little Angelina wanting to go off to study French lesbian poetry will suddenly realise that things like keeping an aircraft industry, developing nuclear energy, high-speed trains, all these things are important”.

At the Independent Academies Association Conference in central London, Gove said, “I fear the anti-intellectual bias in our way of life has, at times, become a bias against knowledge and a suspicion of education as a good in itself.”

He went on to say, “I am certainly an enemy of those who would deprecate the study of French lesbian poetry. Because the casual dismissal of poetry as though it were a useless luxury and its study as selfindulgence is a display of prejudice. It is another example of the bias against knowledge.”

Dyson’s comments appear to have sparked controversy within Oxford. Dr Jennifer Yee, tutor in French at Christ Church told Cherwell, “The reference to ‘little Angelina’ seems to suggest a return to the sort of hearty unabashed sexism one associates with the 1950s rather than the 2010s, but I confess I am rather puzzled by the more specific reference to French lesbian poetry. Three possibilities spring to mind: 1) this was simply intended as a homophobic slight; 2) Dyson was making a rather erudite reference to the Franco-British poetess Renée Vivien; 3) Dyson was actually thinking of the (heterosexual) poet Charles Baudelaire.”

She continued, “If little Angelina decided one day to work alongside other British employees of Airbus near Toulouse, or Électricité de France, she could perhaps rely on French interpreters to get by. I still think she would have missed out on a  wonderful experience reading Baudelaire’s poetry at University. She would have thought less about her own language and the nature of language in general; she would have thought less about sexuality, the nature of evil, and the creation of art.’

Dr Carole Bourne-Taylor at Brasenose College was sceptical about the perceived differences between the arts and sciences, saying, “Sir James Dyson has a rather dogmatic style that I wish I had; he is a brilliant engineer and gets the headlines in a way I could only dream of in my pursuit of ‘study for the sake of knowledge’. We can be truly grateful that Sir James (and now Michael Gove) has given us a little publicity that would otherwise not have come our way! He is a philanthropist as well as a brilliant engineer: the Dyson Foundation has done much for education, for example, through the schools’ ‘education box’ that is designed to inspire young minds.“In both the humanities and sciences, a lateral and inquisitive mind is the key.

‘So when ‘little Angelina’ (or ‘little James’, perhaps?) pursues an interest in the unusual, we rejoice. That clever turn of mind that revolutionised the way we clean our carpets is surely the same beast! I suspect that Sir James Dyson and I probably share the same ground when it comes to our eagerness to not only identify and nurture that quirk of mind that is genius, but to enable it to bring forth, improved social mobility and opportunity. We are both in the same field, just at different ends.”

Second year biologist, Sarah Worsley, agreed, saying, “The world would be a very dull and uninspired place if we all studied the same thing. Understanding our culture and differences in society is just as important as inventing new and wonderful things and the two are probably interlinked more than we might think.”

Second year chemist, Gogulan Karunanithy warned, “Though it pains me to say this, on this occasion I agree with Gove. Whilst I agree that technical subjects should be encouraged, if students taking these courses are not motivated (and would rather be reading French lesbian poetry in a field somewhere) all that you’re creating is a generation of disillusioned and probably unproductive scientists and engineers.”

Magdalen biologist, Peter Gleeson sympathised a little more with Dyson’s opinion, saying, “I think it is fair to say that as a society we need medics and engineers and research scientists, and from that perspective it seems fair to say that the study of arts subjects is an optional extra, or a bit of a luxury.’

However, second year French and German student at Keble College, Brendan Fletcher, defended the study of French poetry and the arts, saying that, “Whilst it probably isn’t entirely useful for designing vacuum cleaners, it opens our eyes to other cultures, perspectives and who we are.”

Patrick McGuinness, Professor of French and Comparative Literature at St Anne’s College, was awarded the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Fiction Book last week for his novel The Last Hundred Days.

Set in 1989 Bucharest, the novel narrates the last days of Ceucescu’s rule of Romania through the extraordinary experiences of a fictional English academic who accepts a job in a Romanian university.

The semi-autobiographical novel deals with some of the experiences which McGuinness himself had while in Romania.

The award, which was presented to the author last Wednesday, is the latest of a number of accolades towards the novel following its publication last year, which included Man Booker Prize and Costa Book Awards shortlists. 

Professor McGuinness’ academic work has focussed on the writings of T. E. Hulme and Stephane Mallarmé, while he has also in the past published a number of poetry collections, some of which have been translated into French and Italian. His latest poetry collection, Jilted City, was published in 2010. 

The Writer’s Guild is an association that promotes suitable conditions for writers of all levels and of all type across the country. Other awards included the Best Videogame Script category, awarded to Paul Crooker for Batman: Arkham City, and the Special Award for Outstanding Writing awarded this year to Stephen Moffat in recognition of his long career as a screenwriter.

Oxford’s first ‘Yule Ball’ was held at Wolfson College on Saturday 17th November. Originally described as a “whimsical idea” devised by the ‘Wizengamot’ (Harry Potter Society committee members) a year ago, the ball ended up selling “much quicker than we ever could have hoped for” according to Michael Flagg, Treasurer of the Harry Potter Society. It was the largest event ever hosted by the year-old society.

Hanna Sundahl, Founder and President of the Society, admitted to feeling slightly anxious in the lead up to the ball, commenting, “At first I felt apprehensive about whether we would be able to meet all our goals, but, from what I felt and from what I’ve heard from many attendees, it was a huge success!”

Over 150 students paid £150 to attend the ball. Flagg said, “All in all, the ball was a fantastic success!”  The enthusiasm of the ‘Wizengamot’ was matched by attendees of the ball, with Louisa Manning of St Peter’s College stating, “The Yule Ball was awesome!”

Emily Gibson, a student at St Catz, said, “The Ball was without question a success. It was the perfect combination of classy and quirky.”

The night began with a sparkling wine reception and a sit down dinner, during which guests were treated to a spectacular owl display. For many, including Manning, this was the highlight. She explained, “Got to love the real owls. They were REAL.”

Dancing began with OUDS ballroom dancing (in witches’ costumes), and followed with by the band ‘Snique Pique’ playing magical themed songs including ‘Do the Hippogriff.’  Although the dress code was black tie, the invitation urged guests to don “dress robes, velvet capes and Luna-inspired lion-surmounted hats.”

Edel Garner had a particularly lucky night, winning both the best-dressed competition and emerging from the Goblet of Fire as one of three champions in the raffle. All the magic-inspired games went down very well, from pin the sock on Dobby to palm reading with Professor Tralawney and even Gringotts Goblins casino. Henna tattooists were there to cover guests in notorious quotations such as “I must not tell lies”, “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” and the death-spell “Avada Kedavra.”

The ‘Three Broomsticks’ bar supplied a number of themed cocktails, such as ‘Oh my Godric’, ‘The-drink-that-must-not-be-named’ and, for the more reckless drinkers, ‘Vodkamort,’ served alongside the Hogwarts classics, Butterbeer and Firewhisky. 

For those of who missed out on the ‘Yule Ball’ G&D’s specially concocted butterbeer ice-cream is still available to be sampled in shops around Oxford.

A charity ball hosted by the comedian Bill Bailey hopes to bring a hint of the exotic to a corner of Oxford on Saturday evening.

The Ball is advertised as ‘orange tie’ and guests will be expected to augment traditional black tie dinner wear with exotic accessories.

The ball will raise money for endangered Sumatran orangutans and their fragile natural habitats. The charity works to restore rainforests and work with local people to protect the orangutans’ habitat.

Guests will be welcomed to the grandeur of the Oxford Castle Quarter with traditional Indonesian music and dance courtesy of the Oxford Gamelan Society and offered a complimentary glass of champagne or mulled wine.

Following a three course meal, Bill Bailey will share stories from his travels in Indonesia, where he has seen orangutans in the wild. There will also be an auction for items such as signed books by David Attenborough, a stay in a luxury tree house, and a crash course in perfume design with Lush’s top perfumer.

Helen Buckland from the Sumatran Orangutan Society reassured guests that they would not necessarily be expected to wear an orange bow tie and said, “any tropical touch will do.”

She added, “We do hope that some guests will wear orange, and have heard that there’s been a flurry of requests for orange bow ties in Oxford. We are looking forward to seeing how creative our guests will be with the dress code. And if anyone has left it a bit late to find the perfect outfit, we do have an orangutan costume.”

She said she felt unable to comment on alleged physical resemblances between the animals and comedian Bill Bailey but did say, “We all share 96.4% of our DNA with orangutans, but perhaps some people a little more. Bill has said he does feel a certain affinity with our red-haired ape cousins.”

Tickets cost £45 and can be bought at www.orangutans-sos.org

OUSU is seeking to make the distribution of the Exam Regulations book online-only.

Thousands of copies of the book are printed each year, and OUSU argues that the environmental and financial costs of the printing and distribution of this book are unacceptable given the book’s limited use.

The book contains regulations for undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, as well as information on term dates and for visiting students. Most of the content of the book is not applicable to each student, and all of the information contained in the book is already available online. The book is updated each year.

In first week OUSU passed a motion to make the distribution of the Exam Regulations book online only, and is now asking academic affairs officers to pass similar motions through their JCRs. If successful, the University will stop printing the Examination Regulations book altogether.

David Messling, OUSU Vice-President told Cherwell, “OUSU is working with the University to establish a fully functional online version of the Exam Regulations which can replace the current ‘door stop’. In the meantime we’re encouraging JCRs to follow the lead of colleges who have stopped distributing the Grey Book to all Freshers, and instead are keeping a few strategically positioned copies in libraries and common rooms, thus reducing demand and gradually eliminating the need to supply 10,500 copies a year!’

The motion is supported by several colleges. Tom Rutland, President of Jesus JCR and OUSU President-elect, said, “We passed this motion through our JCR earlier this year and it passed through the relevant college committees also. Whilst the University has been slow to act on this issue, individual colleges can help speed up the process by not ordering the exam regulations for their students.”

Natasha Rees, Hertford Academic Affairs Officer, commented, “Perhaps 80 of the 1125 pages are relevant to any one student, and many of the regulations change on a yearly basis, so the Grey Book is not relevant beyond first year. The whole, up-to-date Exam Regulations is available online, and in Hertford, every JCR student has access to the internet in college accommodation. Thus I would say that issuing each fresher with a copy of the Grey Book is rather a waste of money and paper.”

A spokesperson for the University said that printing the grey book would be reviewed in future, stating, “There is an online version of the Exam Regulations book: since this online version was introduced in 2006, the print run of the Exam Regulations book has been reduced by about one quarter and work is already well advanced on an improved online version with better functionality. This new version will be online as soon as possible – maybe as early as next year.’

A study conducted by Oxford medical researchers has found evidence that drinking while pregnant can negatively effect a child’s IQ level. While this has for a long time been assumed to be the case, this study is believed to be the first to isolate the medical factors from social influences.

The study was undertaken in conjunction with researchers from the University of Bristol, and was also funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, using data from the ‘Children of the 90’s’ project. This long-term projects began with collecting data from 14,000 expectant mothers over two decades ago, and has monitored them and their children’s progress ever since.

In order to overcome the problem presented by lifestyle variation the study used genetic variation to investigate the effects of moderate drinking (1–6 units of alcohol per week) over a large test group of over 4,000 women. Since DNA differs randomly across the population, using it as a test base eliminates the possibility of other factors affecting the results.

A strong negative correlation was found between four genetic variants in alcohol-metabolising genes and children’s IQ at age eight. The child’s IQ was on average almost two points lower per genetic modification they possessed. This effect was only evident among the children of women who were moderate drinkers during pregnancy. Researchers thus concluded that “even at these moderate levels, alcohol is influencing foetal brain development.”

Dr Ron Gray from the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford said: “This is a complex study but the message is simple: even moderate amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can have an effect on future child intelligence. So women have good reason to choose to avoid alcohol when pregnant.”

Dr Simon Newell, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, added that “this research serves to confirm that drinking even a small amount of alcohol whilst pregnant can do harm to your unborn child.”

This study’s impact on policy has been limited, serving as a confirmation of established assumptions about a mother’s lifestyle during pregnancy. Dr Newall advised, “don’t take a chance with your baby’s health – drink no alcohol at all.”

A number of controversial new words have been added this year to Oxford Dictionaries Online, as the website’s editors try to keep the site’s database of vocabulary up to date with common usage.

These additions include ‘lolz’, which can, according to the website, either be used as a noun meaning ‘fun, laughter or amusement’ (e.g. “the image was immediately posted on Facebook, just for lolz”) or as an interjection: (“Tell him to call his wife if you see him! Lolz.”)

Other new words include ‘tweeps’, referring to Twitter followers (“he told his tweeps he was going to a Bruce Springsteen concert”). This is believed to be etymologically derived from a combination of ‘twitter’ and ‘peeps’ (the latter itself a modern abbreviation of ‘people’.)

Among the more unusual additions is ‘vajazzle’, used as a verb to mean ‘adorn the pubic area (of a woman) with crystals, glitter, or other decoration’ (e.g. “the glamorous world of fake tans and vajazzling”)

One third year classicist commented, “I think adding new words to dictionaries is a very dangerous business indeed. If we start expanding our lexicon willy-nilly, we risk diluting the etymological purity of our language.”

He continued, “Vajazzle is a particularly unwelcome addition: it is an unfortunate hybrid of the Latin-derived word ‘vagina’ (‘sheath’) and the Anglo-Saxon-derived ‘dazzle’. I would favour a purely Latin compound such as ‘vaginastellate’ (combining ‘vagina’ with ‘stellare’, to stud or bedeck with stars).

The O2 Academy in Cowley is appealing against Oxford City Council’s decision to deny a proposed opening hour extension. 

In June the council rejected plans to extend opening hours at the Academy. The planned extension was to include opening an hour earlier each day, opening for four extra hours on Sundays before bank holidays and until 6am on May Morning.

The plans to extend opening hours were rejected by councillors due to concerns about crime, community safety and noise. The plans prompted 46 letters of objection from local residents who feared extended drinking hours would increase anti-social behaviour.

Residents’ complaints contributed to the move of Fuzzy Ducks from the O2 to Wahoo at the beginning of this term.

Planning officers originally came out in support of extending opening hours. In a report presented to councillors they wrote, “The variation would not significantly alter the existing operating hours of this venue with the Cowley Road district centre and, in the absence of any significant objection from Thames Valley Police and licensing officers, it would be difficult to demonstrate that it would have a significant impact upon neighbouring residential properties in terms of increased noise, disturbance, and antisocial behaviour.”

At the meeting vetoing the planned extension of hours, Thames Valley Police made no objection to the plan. 

William Pimlott, a student at Wadham, commented, “As a resident of Bullingdon Road I find it outrageous that our local night life opportunities should be so limited by priggish and party-pooping residents. Already one is often forced to travel across town to inebriate oneself and enjoy loud music, and if these draconian measures are pushed any further Cowley will become a desert reminiscent of those most barren of places: Somerville and Jericho.

“My only regret with local Nightlife pursuers is their cavalier attitude to our vulnerable wheely bins which often fall prey to ‘hilarious’ pranks and other such misdemeanorariness, but I am willing to sacrifice the poor and unsuspecting wheely bins to the greater good.”

A second year Oxford Brookes student added, “Extending the opening hours won’t make the O2 more popular with students. Everyone already goes into town for the better nights at Junction and Wahoo.’