The Oxford English Dictionary is asking the public to submit information online on the origins of words and phrases such as the ‘Bellini’ cocktail and the expression “running about like a blue arsed fly.”

Nicola Burton, a spokesperson for the publishers, commented, “the digital age has presented a host of new opportunities which are changing lexicography every day.”

She claimed that the initiative is “one more step in a process that began with the digitization of the OED in the 1980s.”

Linguist Raphael Torrance, a student at Lincoln, condemned the move as “gimmicky”, as it “undermines and devalues the respectability of this sacred institution. Stuff like this belongs on Urban Dictionary.”

Burton disagreed, explaining, “James Murray’s [the dictionary’s first editor] original appeals went out in print and were answered by mail and any information received after the relevant part of the alphabet had been printed couldn’t be incorporated into the dictionary until the next print edition.”

Paul Nash, the Honorary Vice-President of the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles welcomed the “intriguing” move.

He argued that “readers of the OED are likely to be (as a group) very widely read and will probably come up with good citations, which are earlier, or clearer, than those already noted by the editors.”

However, he expressed a note of caution as “a glance over some of the comments on the website suggests that many people are reporting only vague recollections and hearsay.”

“I fear the OED editors will have to wade through a lot of that sort of stuff to find the useful references.”

Cherwell readers with information about the origins of words can contribute to the project at www.oed.com/appeals

Wadham students returning to college after the vacation have come back to a parlous economic situation, as according to the SU treasurer their Student Union has only £1200 left.

These financial troubles appear to have arisen because the SU’s expenditure has greatly outstripped its credit. Jahnavi Emmanuel, Wadham’s current SU President, commented that the college’s economic micro-crisis was due largely to “all of our Freshers’ Week expenses, plus down-payments and deposits for Queerfest, which come out of our 2012/13 budget.”

She went on to explain that the college have been helpful in giving the SU a loan over the summer holidays, which covered part of the expenses for Freshers’ Week, yet the main problem lies in the fact that the block grant for the term will not come through until the end of first week, leaving the SU temporarily bankrupt.

A host of other issues have also emerged, as Emmanuel explained that the SU was “still owed money from a newspaper company which overcharged us massively”. Furthermore, the SU has found itself in still greater debt due to JCR refurbishments which took place last academic year. Emmanuel continued that, “We’ve been looking at ways to cut down over-spending in future, and are also working to secure funding for any future plans we have”.

Max McGenity, the SU’s Treasurer said, “Essentially, our predecessors were under the impression that we would receive funding for a coffee machine and all its maintenance etc from the Wadham Society (an alumni donation organisation) to the tune of 5000 quid and as soon as I took over I got an email saying the bid had failed.”

He continued, “We’re in a bad place (about £1200 in our account) until our grant comes in at the end of this week. College just won’t give an advance, which is really not on. Essentially everything is rectifiable, but it’s just a complete pain to start our year off like this!”

Wadham students have expressed their support for their student governing body, with a second year PPE student commenting, “This is all very distressing, but I’m sure our highly competent SU Treasurer will sort things out”.

Students from other colleges have been less magnanimous. An English student at New College commented, “I find Wadham’s predicament a surprise, considering their long-standing tradition of straight-laced iron-fisted conservatism”, whilst a Classicist commented that “you would have thought that a college which has produced two Lord Chancellors would be able to manage its money a little better. This seems to me yet another sign of the slipping standards of education.”

St Anne’s College has received its largest ever life time donation (not a legacy) of £1.5 million to provide financial support and career opportunities for students from low-income backgrounds.

The gift, made by Mike and Helen Danson, will fund between 30 and 45 undergraduate bursaries starting this month. In line with the University’s eligibility criteria, full bursaries will be on offer to students with household incomes of under £16k.

In addition, all undergraduates of the College receiving the bursary will be able to take part in the Danson Mentoring Scheme. Under this scheme, at least 3 students per year will complete up to 5 weeks of paid internships during the holidays before their final year.

Tim Gardam, Principal of St Anne’s said: “Mike and Helen’s benefaction is a magnificent statement of support for all that St Anne’s stands for – our commitment to give opportunities to talented students whom Oxford otherwise might overlook.”

“It is a wonderful example of the generosity on which St Anne’s now depends as Government funding falls. The mentoring programme will give students an unprecedented chance to prepare for the world beyond Oxford,” he added.

A spokesperson for the college, pointed to the timely nature of the donation, “with students preparing to bear the cost of £9,000 tuition fees, this donation will underpin Oxford and St Anne’s undertaking that all students with the ability to succeed should have the opportunity to do so, regardless of background.”

Hannah Smith, a second year from St Anne’s College expressed her delight at the news: “The donation was an incredible surprise! It was really exciting to think about the success of alumni: we all really pride ourselves on how friendly our college is and this generous donation just goes to show that it’s an ethic deep-rooted in Anne’s culture.’

‘It’s great that it can go towards helping students from all kinds of backgrounds become part of such a lively and enjoyable environment.”

45% of Oxford University’s philanthropic income is donated to specific colleges. This gift is the most generous life time donation St Anne’s has received. Donations to the university nearly tripled between 2009 and 2011.

“Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford” which encompasses gifts made to the university and to colleges passed the £1 billion milestone in 2010.

By July 2011 it had reached 92% of its stated minimum target of £1.25 billion.

Mike Danson read law at St Anne’s in 1982 and made his 200 million pound fortune according to the FT when he sold his information business Datamonitor in 2007. He currently owns New Statesman and is chairman of Progressive Digital Media Group.

Oxford University has denied allegations from some of the UK’s leading private schools that ‘flagging’ systems, which form part of the admissions process, are discriminating against students from private schools.

Representatives of private schools across the country expressed concern last week that changes in University admissions processes’ would lead to discrimination against applicants who attended private school.

The worries were raised by the universities sub-committee at the annual Headmasters’ and Headmistress’ Conference (HMC) in Belfast on 1st October, in response to the government’s new plans for admissions.

Chris Ramsey, the co-chair of the committee, said the changes were “not the right way to go about university admissions” and were “inherently wrong.”

Under this system, universities charging the top tuition fees of £9,000 a year must set targets for the number of state school pupils admitted.

Les Ebdon, the newly appointed leader of the Office of Fair Access, the government’s watchdog for university admissions, recently expressed his commitment to setting universities “more challenging targets” for state school admissions, while Conservative MP’s accused him of “social engineering.”

The HMC fears that taking background into account may pressure universities into negatively discriminating against applicants who went to private schools.

In a similar vein the Chairman of the HMC, Dr Christopher Ray of Manchester Grammar School, said in his keynote speech that to distinguish between students from different backgrounds would be impossible “without an incredibly cumbersome and intrusive process of scrutiny” and that therefore “what is proposed by some would be the replacement of one type of perceived unfairness with another.”

Oxford University does not abide to these targets. A spokesperson for the University noted, “It is absolutely in our interests to attract and select the brightest students, regardless of background.” Instead, the University operates its own “contextual data flagging system” for taking into account educational background during the admissions process.

Under this system, applicants are strongly recommended for interview if their school performs below the national average, and their postcode indicates that they come from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, or if they have been in care for more than three months, and they meet the academic requirements including being predicted AAA at A level.

However, this only increases their chances of an interview, and after this stage they compete on merit like the other candidates. The purpose of this system is to ensure that promising students do not get ‘lost’ during the applications process.

Julia Paolitto, a spokesperson for Oxford University said that they are “committed to widening access to Oxford from currently under-represented groups” but that “our approach looks beyond the familiar and sometimes misleading ways of categorising educational disadvantage, and focuses on identifying and tackling the core factors in under-representation,” those included in the flagging system.

The University’s Access Agreement for this year has been approved by the OFFA, but does not constrain it to specific targets. Instead of affecting the admissions process, it commits the University to increasing financial support for those students that it currently admits under the present system.

Yet while independent schools educate just 7% of the population, they still accounted for more than 40% of Oxford admissions last year.

Sam Atwell, a 2nd year PPEist at Balliol, said of this statistic, “This shows that the system is so heavily balanced in favour of privately educated students that it seems petty to quibble about reverse discrimination.

“The only other thing that these headmasters can consistently claim is that parents have paid for the right for their kids to go to Oxbridge and have consequently been short-changed. This, of course, would be career suicide.”

Professor Andrew Hamilton, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, has announced that the University of Oxford is to increase its fundraising campaign from £1.25 billion to £3 billion.

The Oxford Thinking Campaign reached its initial £1.25 billion target in the middle of March. Money raised will be channelled into three main areas: supporting students, funding academic programmes and improving buildings and infrastructure. Money raised so far has funded new scholarships and academic posts, particularly at the Blavatnik School of Government, and has also supported new research programmes and access schemes.

The campaign, which was launched in May 2004, draws on support from individuals, organisations and corporate bodies.

Professor Hamilton, in his annual oration to the University last week, said that reaching the £1.25 billion target had been “a remarkable milestone, but a milestone nevertheless on a continuing road.” He said of the new £3 billion target, “I am sure we can do it – and frankly we have to do it, because it represents the essential down payment on the future aspirations and achievements of our university.”

The Vice-Chancellor also touched on the issue of philanthropy in light of the recent change in government funding for universities. He said, “The retreat of the state from providing direct funding for important aspects of higher education is a trend that has caused a great deal of anger, sorrow, and soul searching.” He added, “With greater weight and reliance being placed upon the individual and the private, it is no surprise that the role and the importance of philanthropy is being drawn into ever sharper focus.”

Although Professor Hamilton praised philanthropy, drawing on the success of the recent launch of the Moritz-Heynman scholarship scheme and the Blavatnik School of Government, he also pointed out its limits, saying that it is not a “magic bullet” for university funding, or “a door through which the state can progressively leave the scene.”

When asked about how achievable the target was and how long it would take to achieve, an Oxford University spokesperson told Cherwell, “Only time will tell how long it takes the University to raise £3 billion”, but pointed out, “We managed to reach £1.25 million in just under eight years, the fastest that such an amount has been raised in European university history.”

An example of Oxford’s commitment to supporting students has been through a funding scheme for postgraduate students worth £100 million, announced at the same time as the new £3 billion target. The scheme hopes to bridge the “graduate funding gap”.

Chris Gray, OUSU Graduate Officer, told Cherwell, “The Student Union is aware that there is a long way to go until the graduate funding gap is filled at Oxford, but the new graduate match funding initiative is a big step forward.” He continued, “Funding is by far the biggest obstacle to prospective graduate students, and it is one the University must overcome if it is to guarantee that it is admitting the best and the brightest.”

David J. Townsend, OUSU President, commented, “Philanthropy has been a part of Oxford’s history since its foundation.” He added, “When half of our students have absolutely no access to a government loan scheme and pay unregulated fees, our generation must be able to say to the next generation that we did everything we could to make this university accessible to talent, regardless of wealth, regardless of passport.”

The news of an increased target has been subject to some criticism. James Kleinfeld, representative of the Education Activist Network and a second year at Keble College, asked, “How much money do they need to raise until they can reconsider the stupidity of charging students three times more to receive an education here?”

Kleinfeld continued, “With such reputable names as BP and Rupert Murdoch adorning academic posts in this university, it can be difficult to tell where this great training centre for multinational corporations ends, and where the University of Oxford begins.’

“The University can rely on its mass of millionaire graduates to support its agenda of growth, though I would hate to think of all the other universities without such fundraising potential.”

Second year Jessica Norris questioned the sustainability of fundraising, commenting, “Obviously the university is free to ask for money and it is up to people whether they would like to donate, but I don’t really see how philanthropy could reliably replace public funding. If I were to donate, I would want to know exactly where my money was going”.

Documents relating to patients at the John Radcliffe Hospital have been found on the Oxford Tube bus service. The documents, which were marked as confidential and gave details of about 20 patients being treated at the University hospital, were apparently dropped.

An anonymous source was unable to catch the person, and consequently showed the documents to the BBC “so that the matter would be taken seriously.” She added, “I just hope this thing doesn’t happen again, if it was my gran’s name that was on the paper I wouldn’t want other people seeing information about her.” 

The hospital has stressed that the matter will be dealt with very seriously. A spokesperson told Cherwell,“Patient confidentiality is an absolute priority for the Trust. Any loss of patient information is taken extremely seriously and fully investigated.’

“We apologise for this breach of confidentiality and we are contacting each of the patients as matter of urgency to notify them. We have a rigorous process for investigating such breaches and immediate action will be taken to find out why, on this occasion, our procedures for maintaining confidentiality were not followed.’ 

“The Trust has very clear policies and procedures in place supported by staff training and we would like to reassure our patients that every effort is made to ensure patient confidentiality at all times.”

The Oxford Tube also stated that any lost property is treated extremely seriously. A spokesperson told Cherwell that anything that is found is kept by the driver in a secure location and at the end of the shift transferred to a depot where all items are dealt with. They also said that the amount of lost property varies drastically from week to week but that items of this type were a rarity.

Students have reacted to the news with concern, with second year Mona Damian commenting, “Understandably accidents do happen, but documents of such sensitivity should surely not even leave the hospital.”

It is uncertain when the documents were found. They were handed back to the Trust on Wednesday.

A series of controversial anti-rape posters, which raised concerns amongst students across the University, have now been taken down.

One poster was spotted by a fresher on a college staircase, leading to its prompt removal. Another, in the reception area of the St Aldates Police Station, has also been withdrawn.

Student feminists have accused the campaign of promoting the view that rape occurs as a consequence of women drinking on nights out rather than as an unprovoked criminal act.

One Exeter student commented, “In certain campaigns there is a disproportionate obsession with how victims behave, contrasted with a reluctance to lay blame clearly on the rapists. Victim blaming is partly responsible for the fact that rape is under-reported and so little is done about it. The posters in Oxford sent out the message that it’s fine for Oxford male students to get drunk and party, but irresponsible for women to do the same.”

Thames Valley Police stated, “This poster was originally part of an alcohol awareness campaign encouraging people not to buy alcohol for under-18s. It is not our intention to cause alarm or distress with any of the messages that we display in our police stations – we only ever attempt to show potential victims how to avoid becoming vulnerable. We will remove the poster that has caused concern from public view.”

PPE Society has been forced to apologize to its members after some were denied entry to an event they had been promised ‘guaranteed entry’ to.

Oxford University has restated its stance against adopting new graduate ‘report cards’ that are being rolled out for students across the country.

Oxford University has restated its stance against adopting new graduate ‘report cards’ that are being rolled out for students across the country.

Incoming undergraduates at 104 higher education institutions – over half the UK total – will receive the new ‘Higher Education Achievement Report’ (HEAR) upon completing their degrees. More universities are expected to follow.

But a spokesperson for Oxford University commented, “Based on evidence from the HEAR pilot and feedback showing a lack of interest from employers, Oxford has no plans to implement the HEAR, unless evidence of demand for it from our students or employers emerges.”

Trialled by 18 universities since 2008, the HEAR consists of a six-page report, giving a detailed breakdown of a graduate’s module marks, skills gained from their course, as well as academic prizes and extra-curricular activities. It is hoped the HEAR will help employers seek out the best candidates, instead of having to rely solely on traditional degree classifications.

Following the Wilson Review of business-university collaboration, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) signalled their support for the HEAR in a formal response to the review in June.

In response to Oxford’s statement, a spokesperson for BIS stressed that the HEAR was developed “in partnership with employers” and informed Cherwell, “it is for each institution to decide whether or not it will implement it.”

OUSU Vice-President for Academic Affairs, David Messling, believed that the HEAR would lead to a “sticky situation” where the University “decides which teams, societies, and activities do or don’t get its seal of approval”.

He added, “with the benefit of an individual tutorial relationship and advice from the Oxford Careers Service, Oxford students don’t really need HEAR.”

Jonathan Black, Careers Service director, echoed this scepticism. “Our discussions with employers suggest they have no plans to use the HEAR for selection. Most select based on university ranking and students’ degrees.“

‘The HEAR is a standard checklist that may not be applicable to each Oxford student. A CV’s language and presentation communicates a great deal more about a candidate in a way a standardised form cannot. University must help students prepare for the adjustment to an unstructured, post-education environment – a checklist unnecessarily continues the highly structured approach of school.”

Oxford students had mixed and cautious thoughts. Second year St Anne’s mathematician Connie Triggs expressed a favourable opinion, “as long as they don’t get rid of the old classification system altogether.”

She continued, “It would give employers a better idea of your expertise, especially you’re going for a job directly related to your degree.”

Meanwhile second year Keble historian Emma Harper said it could, “potentially distinguish me from the mass of historians who will probably get 2:1s.”

However, she also asked, “How do you compare modules between universities? Who decides what skills you have achieved from each module? Are employers going to care about your individual marks? Will they even read all that information?”

Good degree classifications have been steadily increasing, inspiring reports this summer that leading companies were screening out those without top marks. Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that in 2010-11, firsts and 2:1s were awarded to 64 per cent of graduates.

The HEAR has been endorsed by Universities UK and GuildHE, two major higher education representative bodies. BIS claims it will give employers “richer information” about students, who in turn get “a much fuller record of their achievements.”

Editor of The Times Good University Guide, John O’Leary, warned that the HEAR could be “a costly waste of time”. Speaking to Cherwell, he commented, “employers tend to prefer sticking with what they know.”

‘They might like something simple like a grade point average, but I doubt many will wade through the detail in the new reports.” He added that it was “too early” to say whether achievement reports would replace degree classifications.”

However, he did not see the changes as “anti-academic”, despite concerns that they represented further ‘marketising’ in higher education, “I would have thought most academics would like to see their courses recognised, rather than simply contributing to a classification.”

Oxford graduate Bo Guagua came out in defence of his father, Chinese politican Bo Xilai, last week. 

His defence follows an announcement by China’s state news agency, Xinhua, reporting an official statement from a party leaders’ meeting.

Xinhua said Mr Bo stood accused of corruption, abuse of power, bribe-taking and even improper relations with women.

Describing his father as “upright in his beliefs and devoted to duty”, this is the first time that Bo Guagua has explicitly mentioned the case since the scandal, which has engulfed both his parents, unfolded.

Following the death of British businessman Neil Heywood in November 2011 and the subsequent conviction of Xilai’s wife, Gu Kailai in August 2012, a series of accusations have surfaced. Mr Bo has not been seen in public since mid-March, shortly after the scandal erupted and it was announced that he was under investigation. He was expelled from his post in the Communist Party in April.

48 hours after Xinhua’s report, Bo Guagua’s statement supporting his father appeared online. It read, “Personally, it is hard for me to believe the allegations that were announced against my father, because they contradict everything I have come to know about him throughout my life.”

In response to accusations of abuses of power he stated, “Although the policies my father enacted are open to debate, the father I know is upright in his beliefs and devoted to duty.” Bo Guaga claims that his father always taught him, “to be my own person and to have concern for causes greater than ourselves. I have tried to follow his advice.”

Since the start of the scandal, media interest in Guagua’s private life has been increasing with depictions of him as both a playboy and socialite. Studying PPE at Balliol from 2006-2010 Guagua gained a 2:1, but rusticated, living in the Randolph Hotel for a significant amount of time during his studies. 

Ryan Widdows, a second year History and Politics student, argued, “Considering Guagua’s alleged playboy lifestyle perhaps it’s not surprising that he’s sticking by his father over the infidelity accusations. Although let’s face it, China isn’t particularly renowned for being judicially and politically just and attempts to disgrace Bo Xilai have to be taken with a pinch of salt.”

Guagua is now living in the USA after leaving Harvard this year. The situation continues to develop with Guagua stating, “I expect the legal process to follow its normal course, and I will await the result.”