Thirty-five students received word that they had secured a place on Oxford’s Astrophoria Foundation Year for 2023/2024 entry. The Astrophoria Foundation Year is aimed at academically promising students who have experienced considerable setbacks in their education, preventing them from meeting the demands of an undergraduate offer.
The foundation year has been in place at Lady Margaret Hall since 2016 and has been described by one student as having been “beneficial for [their] self-growth, not just as a student but also as a person”. Notable alumni include Danial Hussain, the current President-Elect of the Student Union.
In the coming year, Exeter, Jesus, Mansfield, Somerville, St Anne’s, St Hugh’s, Trinity and Wadham will all welcome their first waves of foundation year students.
The Astrophoria Foundation Year constitutes a further expansion of the university’s attempts to improve access with eligibility for the scheme depending on a number of criteria.
According to the University, students should have experienced all three of; (1.) socio-economic difficulties (e.g. having a certain post code), (2.) school based difficulties (including attendance at a non-selective school where most students are eligible for free-school meals) and (3.) difficulties of individual experience, such as experience acting as a young carer.
Students who have spent time in the care system are also eligible for the foundation year, regardless of whether they are considered to have been disadvantaged in other areas.
In 2020, Oxford launched Opportunity Oxford, a university-wide summer bridging course designed to help disadvantaged students prepare for their first year of university studies.
When asked what distinguished Opportunity Oxford from the Astrophoria Foundation Year, the University told Cherwell: “The two programmes are aimed at different target groups of students.”
“Opportunity Oxford is suitable for students who are ready to start Oxford degrees with modest support”, while “the Astrophoria Foundation Year aims to give more substantial support to students who have experienced significant educational and/or personal disadvantage and so need a more sustained intervention”.
Fully funded by the University, Astrophoria students have the opportunity to continue on to an undergraduate degree without undergoing the same formal assessment process. To gain their places on the programme, however, all 35 offer-holders (along with approximately 500 other applicants) underwent an assessment process consisting of a questionnaire followed by interviews taking place in March 2023.
While the majority of teaching offered during the foundation year will resemble the format of an undergraduate degree, the University has recently confirmed that the Astrophoria programme also offers additional tuition not otherwise found in the standard degree structure.
This includes the ‘Preparation for Undergraduate Studies’ course, targeted at helping with students’ personal development through confidence building and help in the development of practical academic and communication skills.
Academically, students on the foundation year are offered the choice of one of four courses, including Humanities; Chemistry, Engineering and Material Science; Philosophy, Politics and Economics; and Law, before specialising in an undergraduate degree of their choice.
In time, the programme is expected by the University to expand to all undergraduate Oxford colleges.
The sounds of heavy breathing and rustling form the first few seconds of Pamfir, the debut feature film of Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. These are sounds which become, as we watch, a soundtrack to the life to which the protagonist has bound himself; a life of sneaking hushedly through the woods, avoiding being seen, and inevitably being seen. Leonid, nicknamed Pamfir, is forced to face afresh the demons – quite literally – of his former life of smuggling, after an incident involving his son places the family into a position of economic desperation.
Set in a small village in rural Ukraine on the Romanian border, Pamfir explores a man’s battle with his conscience as he tries his very hardest to do the best he can for his family at the expense of his own morality. The pastoral Carpathian mountains transform into a landscape of nightmares for the entire family as Pamfir becomes ensnared in the terrifying matrix of organised crime. It is a stunning debut from Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, who wrote the film’s screenplay as well as directing it.
Oleksandr Yatsentyuk is suitably brooding as Pamfir, navigating the feelings of guilt which accompany his silent resolve to take on one final smuggling mission. At times, his stoic heroism tragically verges on reckless bravery.
At the core of the story is the relationship between Pamfir and his teenage son Nazar, and makes for some gut-wrenching scenes. Alongside Yatsentyuk, young actor Stanislav Potiak is a quiet tour de force as Nazar. His innocence rings especially poignantly against the merciless figures into whose hands his father falls. Solomiya Kyrylova as Pamfir’s wife Olena brilliantly handles the apprehension and heartbreak she feels on behalf of her husband and son, and, indeed, for herself.
Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk deploys symbolism with a knowing hand. The traditional masks and costumes of the pagan Malanka festival, for which the villagers in Pamfir are preparing, are an eerie addition to the film, and cast a fairytale uncanniness over the action. The recurring image of the snarling, animalistic mask worn atop a bristling costume of hay appears like an omen, of some inexplicable doom, as unidentifiable as the person within it. Interesting also is this contrast between the village’s preparations for a celebration, and the struggle at the forefront of the film, which highlights the importance of keeping spirits high even in the face of difficulty.
The film was in its post-production stage when Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. Whilst it does not have the conflict as a central theme, it occasionally nods to the Russian aggression which was already rocking Ukraine following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Pamfir enjoyed a successful run in the festival circuit, earning a number of accolades, including the Raindance award for Best Cinematography. It’s not surprising; Mykyta Kuzmenko’s cinematography could be a textbook for arthouse filmmakers. Most scenes are shot in one continuous take, with characters coming in and out of frame, making for a dazzling, quasi-theatrical viewing experience which plunges the viewer intimately into the lives of the village’s inhabitants.
Wide-angle shots are frequently employed to showcase the splendour of the Carpathian mountains, from a foggy autumn afternoon when the trees are bathed in a thick soup of cloud, to a wintry day when snow has already coated the soil and the leaves in a delicate, untarnished sheen. The landscape, though sublime, serves to emphasise the isolation of this village – and the entrapment of its inhabitants under the titanium fist of the “boss”, Mr. Orest. There is simply no way out for Pamfir.
Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk delivers a raw and unpretentious thriller as his debut feature. It’s not easy viewing, but it is certainly hard-hitting and beautiful.
The Van Noorden Index, Oxford’s unique inflation index which is often used to inform annual college rent increases, is consistently higher than standard national inflation indices and has recently come under fire for its lack of transparency.
When compared to the national inflation indices calculated by the Office for National Statistics such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Consumer Price Index including housing costs (CPIH), the VNI trends consistently higher. This holds true for 2022, with the VNI standing at 12.86% versus CPI and CPIH figures of 9.10% and 7.90% respectively. This term, as JCRs negotiate rents for the next academic year, the VNI sits at 13.60% .
Concerns about the VNI have been raised in the SU that there is not enough transparency about the data underlying the VNI. One JCR president expressed their concerns with using the Van Noorden Index to determine rent increases, telling Cherwell: “Using the VNI to calculate rent increases is outdated. It seems to have been consistently higher than other national inflation indexes and fails to consider how students will be able to afford these increases, considering student loan increases are capped at 7%, when over the past two years, the VNI has been 13.60% and 12.86% respectively.”
A Cherwell investigation into rent increases in Michaelmas 2022 found that they ranged between 1.8-12.9%, depending on which college a student attends. The 12.9% hike was from Christ Church, who were using the 2022 VNI figure of 12.86%.
The Van Noorden Index (VNI), a system created decades ago, is named after the late Roger Van Noorden, an economist, fellow, and domestic bursar at Hertford College in the 1970s who is remembered in The Timesas “acquiring a daunting reputation for prudence in the college and for financial expertise throughout the university”. The VNI is an inflationary measure unique to Oxford, created to reflect the costs faced by Oxford colleges. It is calculated annually for all colleges by the Estates Bursar Committee, using aggregated cost information and forward forecasts. The VNI is based on the inflation rate of items like utilities, maintenance, and staffing – a narrower set of goods than is used to calculate national inflation indices. In 2020, New College described “the local ‘Van Noorden Index’” as “collegiate inflation” or “in essence service-industry inflation”.
Not all colleges still use the VNI to inform the rents they set for students, with several colleges switching away from the index in the face of high inflation and the cost of living crisis. New College abandoned the VNI as a tool for setting student rent last year when their governing body deemed the 12.86% figure was “too hefty a hike”. Hertford College also stepped away from the VNI last year in favour of the CPI, although they still “recognise the VNI as a useful reference point, and a key local measure”.
Lincoln College has not used the VNI in recent years since they undertook “an analysis of our historic costs” and found a combination of CPI and the Retail Price Index (RPI) “best reflects the inflation in our accommodation costs”. Similarly, St Catherine’s uses its own ‘Full Economic Cost Attribution model’ in discussion with students, and St Hugh’s uses the CPIH. St Hilda’s told Cherwell they do not use VNI because “other indices, such as CPI … are considered to be more relevant”.
However, many other colleges still rely on the VNI to inform rent increases. St John’s College uses the VNI as a “reference point in annual discussions with students to inform the setting of rents and charges”, also taking into account “the balance between College income and expenditure” and available student funding. University College told Cherwell they do not use the VNI “assiduously”, but rather as a “broad-based figure to help guide the College’s budgetary provisioning”. St Anne’s take a more mixed approach, where they “no longer use [the VNI] as the single formal benchmark to set rents”, and instead also incorporate the CPI and other factors like the Real Living Wage, the Oxford Living Wage, and any increases in the maintenance loan levels available to students. Mansfield College simply confirmed that they still use the VNI.
New College bursar David Palfreyman told Cherwell that because the college was not going to use the VNI again this year, it “looks likely that to be another year in which we will under-recover against a further high VNI, costing College a chunky accumulating sum in partially shielding students from the full impact of inflation”.
He argued this would be “a sum most [colleges] will struggle to absorb when they are still recovering from a major hit to revenue streams [rent and conference earnings] during the Covid disruption” and as “they face a doubling of energy costs” amidst frozen tuition fees and market volatility impacting the “prudent draw-down rate from the Endowment”.
Rent negotiations between JCRs and college administrators are ongoing. Rates are expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.
Gwyneth Lewis is the former National Poet of Wales, the first writer to be given the Welsh laureateship and was recently appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for her services to literature. Her poetry has been proudly reproduced in six-foot-high letters on the Wales Millennium Centre’s façade in Cardiff Bay.
Natascha: You’ve been hosting poetry reading classes here during Hilary term as Balliol College’s writer-in-residence. What made you want to come back to Balliol and how have you found it now that you’re back?
Gwyneth: I was here as a graduate student doing my doctorate and it’s been very sweet to come back older, and not having to write a doctorate. It’s been just a delight. I’ve been given the opportunity to have serious talks with people who are serious writers here and it’s been a huge privilege to think through some of the issues with people who are committed to their writing. I’ve been, I shouldn’t have been but I am, surprised and delighted by the passion that people feel about their own writing. I mean, we, as students used to do it. I was active in the Poetry Society, and I knew a lot of writers, but to actually have the college provide the opportunity is a completely other thing. It’s very enlightened, I think, particularly because I don’t see the skills of good academic writing as all that different from good creative writing. In fact, I think they’re indistinguishable. It’s about clear thinking. It’s about having the courage to say what you mean, not what you think other people want you to say, that’s really key.
Natascha: Would you be willing to speak a bit about what you’ve been working on whilst in residence here at Balliol College?
Gwyneth: I’ve not worked on it as much as I would have liked but I have got a critical book in process about how to approach poetry without fear. I think, as a genre, it’s considered very inaccessible by a lot of people. People have been put off, I think, by feeling as if poetry was talking in a language that you don’t understand and that you’re excluded from it. Well, that’s not good poetry! I feel very strongly about that. So, I’m writing a critical book about that and how to really approach it with confidence and how not to be daunted by both writing and reading, which are very similar processes, because you can’t do the one without the other.
Natascha: I was looking at some of the work that you’ve done in the past and it’s not all just poetic works. You’ve worked in various genres, forms and mediums. Is there a specific medium that you felt was strongest out of all of the ones that you’ve tried? Or do you feel that they all have their own advantages?
Gwyneth: Well, my first love is poetry. I was writing before I knew really what it was – since the age of seven or so. It’s the closest to my brain wiring. But then I also liked writing television scripts, because of the discipline of having to push on the story visually rather than using words. I found writing plays very difficult. I have massive respect for playwrights. In an odd way, no matter what the form is, I find I have similar preoccupations in all of them. So, it’s great to be able to bring out different aspects in, let’s say, a novella or nonfiction book. I enjoy the variety because I get easily bored. I don’t like doing the same thing over and over again.
Natascha: I find it really interesting that you’ve written poetry in both Welsh and English. I was reading a Guardian piece that you wrote about your relationship with poetry in the past, and your Welsh identity. Do you feel that you can express yourself better in one language than in the other?
Gwyneth: Well, yes. I mean, I was bilingual from an early age, Welsh being the first language. I think there’s a way in which the first language you speak is more intimately wired into your brain so I noticed I write more quickly and well [in Welsh]. But because I have that split second [to think], in English, I can do things in my second language that I can’t do in Welsh. I do speak other languages too although I don’t write in them. I think it’s like having a camera with a different focal distance, or a different lens in it for every language. What fascinates me is that when I tried to translate a book of Welsh poems into English, I found I had to change more or less everything, to give a cultural equivalent because your audience is different in both languages, politically different, historically different in their experiences.
Gwyneth Lewis’ poetry on the façade of the Wales Millennium Centre. Image Credit: Lewis Clarke/CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Natascha: Your piece of poetry on the Wales Millennium Centre is said to be one of the biggest reproductions of the poetic word in the world. How was it seeing something that you conceptualised being reflected in the real world on such a grand scale?
Gwyneth: Amazing. Yeah, I mean, really amazing. And fortunately, I still like the words. You know, because if imagine if you thought, “Oh, that’s a weak bit of it”, that would irritate me enormously. But there was something about the spirit of that building, and what the aspirations were when it went up, that helped to write the poem. It was a very thrilling experience. Although I had an irrational fear when I first saw it, that there would be a spelling mistake. But there isn’t.
Natascha: How long did you spend working on that project?
Gwyneth: Well, the way you phrased it is interesting, because I wrote the words in a weekend. But I had been thinking about the building for a long time, because I applied for a job in it so I knew what the building was about very well. But I didn’t try to write any words until the very last minute, until the deadline was nearly up, so I just got lucky.
Natascha: What I also found really interesting was that you’d studied at Cambridge and then went to Harvard, to then come to Oxford to do your post-graduate in 18th century forgeries. How did you find studying in America and what made you want to come back to study that specific specialty here at Oxford?
Gwyneth: Well, I went to America because I was a bit stuck as to which language to write in. At the time when I was an undergraduate, English poetry was very much looking down on the Welsh language and culture and yet English poetry wasn’t terribly interesting. I mean, there were interesting poets, but as whole scene wasn’t that exciting. I thought there was more interesting work going on in America. It gave me a chance to take time to assess politically what I felt comfortable with and that’s when I made the switch to writing in English. Then I discovered, “Oh! I don’t have to stop writing in Welsh either. Why can’t I do both?” It seems obvious now looking back at it, but it was an agony at the time. The reason I wanted to do the forgery is because one of the foundational scholars of Welsh language culture was a forger himself, and he had a vast archive of writing in Welsh that hadn’t been explored when I came here. So, I put him in the context of other forgeries that were going on, which weren’t really forgeries. They were just politically contentious pieces of literature. I wanted to look at the politics of that.
Natascha: So, when you do get the chance to write your poetic works, or any kind of works, do you have a favourite writing spot or a favourite location? Or is it just where and when it grabs you?
Gwyneth: The main thing is to have a door that you can shut or a nest that you can build like a corner of a sofa. I make nests everywhere and I write a lot in bed because it’s unofficial time. You can be more daring.
Natascha: Do you have a favourite spot in Oxford that you just go to for inspiration?
Gwyneth: No, but I’m always on the lookout. Although, I went into the Bodleian for the first time in a long time and the air was thick with hysteria, in the same way as it was when I was a student, it was exactly the same.
Natascha: That’s the perfect way to describe it. Just to close off the interview, I was wondering if you had a favourite memory of your time here in Oxford?
Gwyneth: There’s plenty that I remember with shame. I can’t isolate one. I must say that handing in the doctorate and the degree ceremony for getting the doctorate was wonderful, really very dramatic. You file in in a black gown, and you go out in a scarlet and blue doctoral gown. I enjoyed it a lot simply because it was great to have it finished and to know that I never ever have to write another one.
Natascha: Yet you’re back in the same town.
Gwyneth: Yes. It is it is wonderful to have been allowed back in to see other people at the beginning of that period when I know what they’re going through because it isn’t an easy place Oxford. It has many, many wonders to it but it can be a tricky place to maintain your morale so it’s nice to be able to pass some things on to people that I thought helped, you know, and to say, just enjoy it as much as you can.
3rd Year, Magdalen Dan is best known as a DJ and social mobility campaigner; when he’s not behind the decks, he’ll either be wishing people happy birthday or in the library revising for his finals.
2. Hamish Nash and Shu Huang
Oriel, Oxford and Christ’s College, Cambridge Hamish says, “‘I’ve memed my way onto this list”. Shu says, “I don’t even know what a BNOC is but Hamish forces me to submit this”. Either way, you know who they are.
3. Beau Boka-Batesa
2nd year, Lincoln Beau is a poet, environmentalist, and occasional baller. When Beau isn’t doing their degree, they’re either online, banging out Plush on a Tuesgay or taking advantage of £3,50 cocktails in a bar.
4. Danial Hussain
2nd year, LMH Danial is a PPEist at LMH and is also President-elect of the Oxford University Student Union. Having been interviewed by national newspapers, his face is one you should definitely recognise.
5. Gracie Oddie-James
3rd year, Christ Church You may know Gracie from one of her many performances in Oxford and beyond. Where can you find her next? She says she’s signed an NDA, but after a vodka lime soda at the KA, she may be inclined to tell you…
6. Chloe Pomfret
1st year, St Catz Chloe has been the OULC social sec, hosting their infamous Beer&Bickering, but she may be better known for her viral TikToks and study-Instagram. She’s also the estranged rep for Class Act
7. Disha Hegde
2nd year, St John’s Disha (left) is President-elect of the Union. Last year she was co-chair of the Women*s campaign. In her own words, she also “posts constant (and admittedly cringe) fit checks on my instagram story”.
8. Ati Maheshwari
2nd year, St Hilda’s Ati was the 22’-23’ President of the 93% Club at Oxford. His side achievements include being removed from the role of freshers’ rep and being the ‘failed’ Oxford M2 badminton captain.
9. Hannah Edwards
2nd year, Lincoln In typical PPE fashion, this term Hannah is the Union’s librarian. When she’s not using her free time to argue with people (“competitive debating”) she loves college netball and, most importantly of all, Swiftsoc.
10. Hannah Porter
2nd year, Trinity According to Hannah, “when I’m not busy wibbing, entzing bops which bankrupt the JCR, working on The Isis, or planning VT23, you can find me in parkend keeping up my 100% attendance.”
11. Matthew Dick
2nd year, Magdalen In Matthew’s own words, his personality only consists of 3 things: “1. Having the last name ‘Dick’. 2. Only drinking water and hot chocolate. 3. Being Union president”
12. Yaroslava Bukhta
Msc, St John’s Yaroslava has worked in media and NGO spheres in Ukraine for a couple of years. She is now doing her MSc in Social Anthropology and is the current head of the Oxford University Ukrainian Society.
13. Leah Aspden
3rd year, St Anne’s Leah is the newly elected President of the Drama Society. A self-described “Northern icon”, she is determined to leave Oxford with the world record for asking the most people if they want a brew.
14. Shermar Pryce
2nd year, Univ Shermar describes himself as “a benevolent and (arguably) enlightened despot, steering Oxford’s oldest college through a seemingly endless array of crises”. The most famous of these crises was Univ’s Shitgate.
15. Jasper McBride-Owusu
2nd year, Christ Church Jasper was President of the Oxford Finance Society, but you might also know him from “gasping for breath on a college football pitch, tearing up Torpids or losing at pool in Balliol bar”.
16. James Newbery
3rd year, Teddy Hall James was President of the Drama Society for the last year. When he’s not doing drama-related activities, you’ll probably find him in Plush, losing his mind to Beyoncé’s Renaissance.
17. Lauren Webb
2nd year, Corpus Christi This season, Lauren was the youngest ever Rugby Union Blues Captain, and led the Blues to their first Varsity win since 2016.
18. Imaan Saeed
2nd year, Teddy Hall Imaan is the TT23 president of Oxford’s Law Society. She urges all readers of this list to get themselves a membership.
19. Rosie Wrigglesworth
2nd year, Keble This year, Rosie is President of Oxford’s Diplomatic Society, co-ordinating embassy visits, ambassador talks, and evening events.
20. Julia Maranhao-Wong
1st year, St Anne’s Julia is a Canadian-American from Boston. So far, her Oxford highlights include “being Cinderella at the Union Ball”, where she is an elected member of the Standing Committee.
21. Fiona Zeka
2nd year, Hertford Fiona is a proud Kosovan and author who also works with organisations like the UNHCR, Magic Breakfast, Zero Gravity and Care4Calais to help raise funding and awareness.
22. Lucy Wang
2nd year, Christ Church Lucy is studying maths, although she says that no one ever guesses it when they meet her. You might know her from her Youtube and Tiktok accounts, where she has over 100k subscribers combined.
23. Finley Armstrong
2nd year, Regent’s Park Finley, ak.a. Hummus Man, is known for founding Oxford’s infamous hummus society. Regarding the society, he has ominously warned our readers to “watch this space”.
24. Farabee Pushpita
2nd year, St Anne’s Farabee is an English student and writer. She loves posting incessantly on insta about art exhibits, pretty sights, and her friends.
25. Jemima Chen
2nd year, Balliol When she’s not getting slated on Oxfess, Jemima produces theatre and film. Her feature film with Max Morgan, “Breakwater”, is currently in post-production.
26. Luke Nixon
2nd year, Queen’s Luke tells us that when he’s not pretending to do his Spanish and Portuguese degree, you’ll probably catch him doing too much theatre or aggressively social media-ing to get you to buy tickets for said theatre.
27. Dylan Worsley
2nd year, St John’s Dylan is an ancient historian at John’s who has, in his own words, “hosted some decent seshes in my time, only one of which ending with a formal apology to Brasenose…”
28. Miranda Conn
2nd year, Somerville Miranda was OUCD Blues Dance President for the first Oxford win in Varsity history, and is “known for treating this like it was Olympic Gold”. She’s also repping the Maths & Computer Scientists.
29. Ashley Chee
3rd year, St Catz Ashley is the current Women’s Vice President of Oxford University Football Club. On the side, she dabbles in a Chemistry degree.
30. Mia Wu
2nd year, St John’s Mia has previously served as EiC of The Isis in Hilary, and as Secretary of Asia-Pacific Society. This term, she’s hoping to serve at her English degree.
31. Bella Simpson
2nd year, Oriel Previous OULC co-chair, campaigns officer and TSHA President, Bella is dedicated to delivering social justice. Outside of politics Bella is involved in Oxford’s arts scene, managing marketing teams and directing plays.
32. Meg and Izzie
2nd year, St Catz, and 2nd year, Balliol If you looked at Page 2 of our print edition, you would recognise Meg and Izzie as Cherwell’s Editors in Chief.
[Editor’s Note: Meg and Izzie wouldn’t let us publish this list unless we put them in it]
33. Guy Zilberman
2nd year, Jesus As the co-President of Oxford Climate Society, you can usually find Guy doing something climate-related. However, if you’re lucky, you might also catch him “getting sturdy in Bridge”.
34. Clemmie Read
2nd year, Magdalen Clemmie is EiC of The Isis this term, was President of Media Soc last term, and can otherwise usually be found hanging out with the Magdalen deer.
35. Freya Jones
2nd year, Oriel The Hacks fear her, the Journos revere her – Freya has broken many stories both in Cherwell and in nationals. She spends a lot of time having coffee with student politicians (and occasionally real ones).
36. Manon Hammond
2nd year, Lincoln Manon is chaotically balancing Welsh soc, The Isis, her History degree and “whatever other random thing I decide to take up that term”. She was once described as “a pain in the arse” by Lincoln porters.
37. Brodie Brain
2nd year, St Catz Brodie is self-described “full-time law student, part-time drag queen stranded at Catz”. You can also find her (hip) hopping around Oxford balls with Equinox Dance crew.
38. Philip Gentles
3rd year, Queen’s Philip takes active roles in hockey, hockey, and the charity campaign “what’s a pound”. Seemingly confused as to his presence here, he “represents that you all too can make the list”.
39. Jack Twyman
2ndyear, Regent’s Park When he’s not writing the BNOC list, Jack’s busy with writing the rest of Cherwell, doing Diplo Soc, and living his best life wherever, whenever. He ran Tuesgays last Trinity but is best know for just being tall.
40. Rose and Ayomi
Both 2nd year, Worcester In traditionally salty form, we will be concluding this list with the Editors-in-Chief of The Oxford Student.
At the age of about 12, I saw a priest smoking a cigarette around the back of a church and knew from the look on his face that God probably couldn’t exist. Ever since, I have questioned Christian iconography, mildly suspicious of its ability to get everywhere. A crucifix or collared man decorating the walls of an Oxford college isn’t a sight exclusive to St Stephen’s, but the piety adorning every surface took a second to get used to when I first arrived. (It was the eyes, by the way; the bleak, unblinking eyes as he sucked the cancer right in, like a protest against God themselves.)
St Stephens will relinquish its PPH status later this year to focus on the Church and ordaining Anglican Priests. Having been founded with that purpose in mind, it was only their kindness (and our bursaries) that widened their remit to accept students like me into their arms. But with the highest PGCE (the Post-Graduate Certificate needed to become a teacher) intake of any Oxford institution, where will the trainee-teachers next year be taken in and homed? I worry for them, perhaps unnecessarily, as any mother-hen figure would; there’s a decay in teaching, its core being cut out by years of underfunding and widening socio-economic divides.
My first thought on hearing that St Stephen’s would no longer be associated with the University was to stash as much merchandise as I could. Whilst Oxford merch may not have a fabulous resale price, its potency—underlined by every ‘Look-at-my-subtle-indicator-that-I-go-to-the-oldest-university-in-the-English-speaking-world’ puffer jacket, or the ‘Oh this old thing? Yes, Balliol’ fleeces—means that I still want the crest on my chest. There is a lineage of people going back to 1260 for, say, Merton college students. There will possibly be hundreds of thousands of students that can claim to have attended any one of the older colleges. St Stephen’s, on the other hand, will upon closing have had total numbers of admission closer in order of magnitude to those of All-Souls. This is limited edition merch, the type no one else can get. I wouldn’t like to make any direct inferences, but is that where the similarities end between All-Souls and St Stephen’s? (Yes). And of course I wanted evidence that I was actually at Oxford. I’d worked hard to get here, and the year I get accepted I am told the whole building will stop taking on people like me?! Charming. How will that work on a CV? It will look like I faked the whole thing! I may as well have gone to Aberystwyth at this rate; they have a fantastic PGCE course, and a beach and it’s not a 6 hour journey home. No—the merch will have to be the central evidence that I was ever actually here.
St Stephen’s is not a well-known ‘college’ and I think that’s done on purpose. It is so hidden you would never guess there are 2 chapels, a church, a library, a garden, a small quad and some cloisters, all clustered just off Cowley Road behind the Sainsburys. I’d call it quaint, if I didn’t know how many of my friends from back home would think I sounded so overtly Oxbridge that the bullying may never stop. But certainly it is a very inward-looking place, a self-contained unit of self-sufficiency, and like any hothouse without enough cool air to go around there can sometimes be a feeling of getting on each other’s toes (which I escape by living almost entirely at school).
Among PGCEs, St Stephen’s has the reputation of being where the dregs are collected: it accepts those who didn’t get into the real colleges (even in this privileged institution, it seems, the onion has further layers of privilege still.) It is also where the party lives; we will invariably be the most fun teachers that Oxford produces. We all likely applied around March and have a scattered approach to our pursuits. We also have the brains to just about pull off a really quite admirable portion of them, entirely on the fly.
In wider Oxford circles, asking which college you are at, people will look to you politely and say “Oh no I’m not really familiar with that one”; they will then continue the conversation with a tone that suggests they think I must have meant Brookes, which I find awfully elitist. The alternative, however, is that they have heard of St Stephen’s, and that can often be worse as they gleefully inform you about what they know about “Staggers”. “Did you know that the word Staggers is associated with an oddly closeted homophobia?” Yes, I live there. “Apparently, there’s a joke that every cohort year photo from Staggers will have one priest who’s dead, one who lives in Rome and one who’s in prison.” I know, I live there. “Have you heard about that thing where [Redacted]” Yes. I lived there.
Among the Ordinands, I can only imagine how the PGCEs reputation precedes us. Every year they inform the new cohort “The PGCEs last year were quite difficult, but this year we hope will be different.” It’s an interesting way to phrase it. For such an educated group of individuals, their mathematical reasoning needs refreshing; the PGCE course is one year, the training to become ordained is 3 years. If the pattern of slight tension felt between the two cohorts repeats every year, and the PGCEs change every year, then they may need a maths lesson in common factors. A lesson I am happy to provide. However, I am willing to accept that we can be difficult. That we are loud, we don’t pray, some of us may even have sex, if we are not too tired and ask very nicely. I understand that, for the religiously inclined, watching someone not adhere to your beliefs with the same vigour and respect that you do yourself can be difficult. Yet I still believe that us future teachers and future priests have more in common than we could ever have in differences. We believe that the thing we are doing is the best way to serve our communities, and to build a future that is better than the state of the world today. As the ancient Greek proverb goes “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” In our hearts, we both feel a calling to meet the needs of those who need us. I’d like to think that is why they have accommodated us for so many years. I do have a scepticism about the practice of organised religion, but I am an open-minded Scientist at heart, an agnostic. I would like to believe there is nothing stopping meaningful and productive relationships between the secular and sacred. Religion has been an engine to feed the poor, educate the masses, and give hope to the hopeless, and I hope that if Jesus can associate himself with prostitutes and lepers, that the Ordinands might be able and happy to associate themselves with PGCEs.
I digress. There are some wonderful people that come through those cloisters and I’ve drunk wine with a lot of them. And danced loudly in the common room to the justified annoyance of ordinands, and the teaching staff in the Department of Education the next morning, as they try to cajole some teacher trainers who should take the whole thing a bit more seriously, it is a weekday after all. The food is plentiful, and the chats are interesting and diverse. The visiting students from all over the world, from a great number of disciplines, the lazy Saturday mornings and after-dinner conversations ebb and flow through any topic of their specialities, their interest and devotion to knowledge is something I truly adore.
And sometimes I’m expected to talk. Sometimes I will be asked: “Why have you decided to go into teaching?” My answer is usually always “I enjoy it” or “I couldn’t stand an office job; I’d kill myself a week in” because if I told the truth people would think I was trying to passionately sell them snake oil.
The reality of the matter is, I had a hard time coming to the conclusion that teaching should be my vocation, even though I have always loved it. I love working with young people and watching them develop, watching how funny and wise and awful and magical they are. I love trying to help mould someone into an infinitesimally kinder or more knowledgeable person than they may have been a lesson before.
But I knew how my people might speak about me. On a trip to the library during my second-year undergrad at Bristol, we saw the beaming PGCE graduates standing outside the Wills memorial, having their celebratory moment. My friend leans over and whispers “Well, their futures have gone down the toilet.” I saw them and wished more than anything to be among them. Secretly. I laughed along and procrastinated for a couple of hours in a leather-backed chair.
Is this how I’d be seen if I chose to teach? Not just by my friends, but by society?
I’d be seen as someone who opted for this career, not because it’s the only thing I can imagine myself getting up every single morning to do, but because I wasn’t actually able to do much else.
Not because educating the people who will inherit the earth tomorrow is our only hope, but because I was uncertain about what to do after university, so I thought I may as well give it a go.
Not because I’m the first person in a decade to get into Oxford from my languishing state secondary and I feel fire at the injustice, how many of my classmates were ignored by places like Oxbridge regardless of the stars they clawed down for themselves on their results sheets; Jaina, Jessica, Carys, Dolan, Tilly, Megan, Daniel … No, it must be because I like the long holidays.
So when people ask me “Why did you choose to get into teaching?” I want to grab a soapbox and throw manifestos at them about the liberation of the masses by investing in quality education. I want to slap the drooling tones out the mouths of the privately educated, home counties collective that makes up so much of this city. I want to shout, knock down the bursar’s door, collect the chancellor and round up the kitchen staff, shaking them into submission: We need teachers. We need them so aggressively. Carry on housing the educators as they learn their trade. Keep these doors open for them. Please! Instead, I eat my broccoli and tell them “I just think it’s quite fun!”
St Stephens closing its doors seemed to me like another loss. Another change, a degradation, in our attitude towards state educators that we’ve been seeing long before the pandemic. That tells us how much we value being educated, but not who educates us. “Those who can, do. Those who can’t teach.” Those who can’t teach, teach [insert disliked subject]. We really have to thank G.B Shaw for framing the cultural zeitgeist so concisely.
Maybe I wouldn’t have put these thoughts to paper if I’d just got into Jesus like a good little Welshman. But for me, St Stephen’s has become a home, and it will be sad to know that no other future teachers will know the delights and curiosities of this quaint little corner of Cowley.
You’re sat in the Rad Cam. It’s week five of Michaelmas. You’re hunched over, squinting through the dim yellow light to make out the arguments of a particularly dense reading on the Catholic Reformation. For the sake of pathetic fallacy, let’s say that a pitiable spattering of rain is pattering against the windows as a librarian-cum -bouncer kicks out the 37th tourist trying to enter their well-guarded sanctuary in the past hour. Sifting through the page’s thickets of doctrinal details, you notice a comment, pencilled into the margins:
‘I really want a hard fuck…’
It is accompanied by a small sketch.
You might stifle a chuckle, add your own contributions, shake your head with dismay at the defacement of library property, or simply continue to stare blankly at the page as you have been doing for the past hour. But, whatever your reaction, it makes you pause. When I found myself in this exact situation, the pause sparked a question. How can marginalia provide an insight into the psychology of the Oxford Student?
As long as written texts have existed, so has marginalia (I have no proof of this, but it seems logical). Historians are particularly fond of using the bizarre marginalia of medieval European manuscripts to understand the peculiar mindscapes of the monks that copied them. Some bear striking resemblances to the marginalia created by 21st-century Oxford students. I think we can all sympathise with the burnt-out monks who felt the need to scribble on their handiwork that “writing is excessive drudgery” and, presumably nearing the end of their task, “the work is written master, give me a drink”. Other examples of medieval marginalia pose a somewhat greater interpretative challenge. Take, for example, this thought-provoking illustration of a nun harvesting penises from a thriving penis tree.
Other highlights include monkeys playing the violin, knights battling snails, a rabbit beating up a man, a woman riding a phallic-shaped green monster, and a king doing his business on a couple making out. Let psychologists and historians make of that what they will.
So what did my deep dive into the nether regions of the Facebook page ‘Oxford University Marginalia’ (yes – it’s a thing and there are 11,700 members) reveal?
Unsurprisingly, just like with the medieval monks, a fair amount of our marginalia relates to sex and genitals. Few, however, are as direct as the plea for a ‘hard fuck’. Many go for a simpler, yet still elegant, approach. One student adorned a passage on military history with one word, ‘BALLS’, emphasising their statement with a sketch.
Indeed, genitalia abound in Oxford’s marginalia scene, my personal favourite being the masterpiece that is Vic the Viking (see below). Some marginalia adopt an almost interactive approach, with another student leaving a lipstick imprint at the bottom of a page of literary criticism. This incited a spate of considered responses, including ‘mmm…. You are a sexy lady’ and ‘lol’.
But it’s not all sex. The margins of Oxford’s books are the battleground for opposing troops of dedicated political partisans. Take, for instance, the marginali-er who expressed their utter contempt for socialism, by annotating a copy of the Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm’s, book. They composed a fairly lengthy argument stating, amongst other things, that ‘this book is written by a deluded Marxist in denial of socialism’s death in 1989/91’ and that ‘his beef with capitalism is pathetic’. This political polemic did not go under the radar, with another comment responding that ‘it’s 2019 and socialism is more alive than ever’. As you might expect, however, the political debates etched into Oxford’s books often play out in a slightly less eloquent way. In a copy of E.P. Thompson’s The Making of the Working Class one student expressed their opinion that it was ‘Shitty Marxist Bollocks!’, to which a differently-inclined student replied ‘Fuck you Tory pigdog ’. A third implored the combatants to ‘calm down, dears. It’s only history’.
Another unflattering insight into the psyche of the Oxford Student provided by marginalia is the strain of deeply rooted pedanticism. Take the student from the 1700-or-1800s who inscribed on the final page of Paradise Lost that “the poem [would have] ended better if the two last lines with my slight alteration … preceded the two before them”, or their modern-day counterparts who argue over grammar and etch the words “wrong”, and “pile of shite” into the margins. It seems that many Oxford students cannot seem to resist asserting their intellectual superiority for subsequent readers to witness. This has sprouted an amusing counter-genre of marginalia. Some of my favourite examples include whichever quick-witted reader replied to a comment that a book was making a “stupid assertion”, by applying that epithet to the commenter themselves: “ur a stupid assertion”, and the evidently fed-up individual who instructed a particularly pedantic commentator writing in red pen to “piss off you red bastard”. In fact, irritation, confusion, exhaustion, and despair dominate Oxford’s marginalia scene. Many examples lament the monotony of the reading material, exclaiming things to the tune of “why the fuck is this all so boring”. Others have a more personal focus. One of my own finds involved a sleep-deprived student claiming that a suspicious-looking stain on the page was “clearly wept from my blood-shot eyes as I pull my 4th all-nighter in a row”.
Having explored the darker sides of Oxford’s marginalia, it’s important to remember that not all the marginalia is so bleak. You can also find the effusive soul who found a footnote citing a work by a certain K. Minogue in a book on twentieth-century British liberalism and offered her congratulations, “well done Kylie!”. Or another who noticed a crucial omission in the dedication of the book they were reading, amending it to read, “for Jerry: teacher, mentor, comrade, friend, mouse”. Others generously share thought-provoking insights, such as one commenter on Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble who threw this question out into the universe: “do you ever just sit down and look at yourself and realise, I’ve been eating chicken titties all my life”. So we can rest easy in the knowledge that not all Oxford Students are sex-obsessed, arrogant, sleep-deprived, political fanatics.
But what’s really going on when we write marginalia? Many educationalists believe that marking up the books we’re reading helps us think critically, absorb the material and generally stay awake. I can understand where they’re coming from, but I think, based on absolutely no knowledge of psychology, that there’s more to it than that.
In some cases, it feels like the scholarly equivalent of peeing to mark your territory. There’s something weirdly satisfying about the thought that you’re making some kind of connection to the random series of strangers who pick up the book next. I think it’s also a testament to the capacity of our brains to engineer amusement when they are bored, and perhaps to a certain well-intentioned aim to make the next reader have a little chuckle. Of course, it’s never the best idea to damage public property (in fact, it could land you with a hefty fine), and subsequent readers might find marginalia extremely distracting. But as far as the already extant marginalia goes, you might find that stumbling upon it’ll brighten up your day and reassure you that you’re not the only one finding that particular reading a Sisyphean slog.
Oxford researchers are leading a project to create an ‘online museum’ in collaboration with young people to improve their mental health. The research project involves underrepresented young people aged 16-24 in co-designing an online arts and culture musuem aimed at reducing anxiety and depression.
The project ORGIN (Optimising cultural expeRIences for mental health in underrepresented younG people onliNe) will run from 2023-2028 and has received £2.61 million in funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Dr Rebecca Syed Sheriff, an NHS consultant psychiatrist and senior clinical researcher at Oxford University who is leading the program said: “This programme could have significant implications for how arts and culture are used to improve the mental health of young people in the future in a way that is engaging and accessible across diverse groups.”
The project follows previous preliminary research which found that online cultural experiences reduced negative feelings in the young people surveyed compared to a traditional museum website.
Around 1,500 young people from underrepresented backgrounds will be involved in the project, specifically LGBTQ+, autistic people, ethnic minorities and those living in deprived areas as well as those on NHS mental health support waiting lists.
Dr Sheriff said: “Most mental health problems start before 25, yet young people are the least likely to receive mental health care, with some groups such as ethnic minorities even less likely. Much of the support currently offered by health services, such as medication and talking therapies are inaccessible and unacceptable to many of the young people who need it most.
Professor Kam Bhui, co-lead of the programme, said: “There is a massive treatment gap which we hope to fill.”
The project is hosted by Oxford Health NHS Trust and led by researchers from Oxford University in collaboration with other NHS Trusts, UK universities, museums and charities.
Helen Adams, from Oxford University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums, which is partnering on the project, said: “In our previous research, young people told us they want to connect with the human experiences of different people across the world and throughout history, good and bad, and told from different perspectives.
“Museums and other cultural institutions have the potential to meet this need but recognise that many stories embedded in their collections of artworks and artefacts are yet to be unlocked. Museums strive to create safe and inclusive spaces both in person and online, but know they are not always seen as accessible or relevant by many young people.”
This week Cherwell spoke to OUAFC captains Jess and Finlay in the build-up to the 138th Football Varsity Matches
When did you start playing football?
J: When I was six years old in Australia. It’s been a fantastic journey, as I started playing football when the women’s game was nowhere near as prominent or even acknowledged, and now look at it.
F: I think fairly similar to me, five or six, just playing my local team originally. And then yeah, as it got older, progressed to sort of more serious standards of football.
Have you guys tried any other sports? And if so, what drew you to football specifically?
J: I’ve played most sports my whole life, but football is just so satisfying – there’s something that is quite logical, because you have to think about the game. Plus, it is a team sport and I’ve always found such great friendships and bonds there.
F: Yeah, I’ve done, rugby and athletics, as well. But I think the reason I chose to focus on football was mainly the people as well. That’s the thing that sets it apart for me, and I think for a lot of the team here.
How has this last season gone for each team?
F: Unfortunately, we got relegated. It’s not really a true reflection of the squad that we’ve got this year. I think we’ve struggled a lot with injuries and therefore we’ve sort of struggled to get a level of consistency with the playing squads’ week in week out, which has really sort of hampered us. But we’ve had some really good results, and coming back after Christmas, we were actually in a really good position. In a 10-game season, like it is BUCS, it’s really hard because if players not available even just for a few weeks, it can have a massive, massive effect. We’ll be building for next season to make sure that we bounce straight back up.
J: This season we had a very new team as we lost a lot of players graduating last year, but we’ve had lot of success. We had a great opportunity to build new team bonds and a new playing style, and we finished second in our BUCS League, which was a fantastic result, only narrowly missing out on promotion. We also got to the semi-finals of the Cup, which was quite exciting. It’s been a fantastic season, I think the girls have really gelled, which is promising for the next few years to come.
Is high turnover in a squad difficult to deal with?
J: Having a turnover of players is an integral part of University sport, so it isn’t something you can avoid in any case, but I do think it is quite enjoyable and fruitful process. We had such a strong team of older girls last year, so have these exciting, fresh, new players coming in with a very different mindset has given us an opportunity to build a very different team. They’re both really strong, but different in the ways that we play and the ways that we function in the team dynamic. Having that renewal and change is a key to how OUAFC works, so although it isn’t easy it makes every season exciting.
How did the varsity game cancellation affect you personally?
J: To be honest it was a massive shock. An enormous thank you needs go to our President and Vice Presidents and Finn, as well. They were on the phone with the stadium all night trying to sort it out. It was a hard line to navigate when you’re a captain and also a player experiencing quite a difficult and disappointing situation. And unfortunately, my entire family had flown out from Dubai for the game which obviously was not ideal or immediately rectifiable. But we had to keep the teams calm, focused and focusing on the next game to come because we were always going to be rescheduling it; we were never not going to have a varsity game. Having said this, it did ignite a fire within me and the rest of the team. I am very confident that we’re going to put in a good performance now because all the girls have been working so hard.
F: It was obviously really frustrating. It’s something myself and the whole squad had obviously been working towards for so long and it is just so disheartening when something that has been built up so much just kind of comes crumbling down at like the last minute. But it was one of those things. I mean, at the end of the day, there wasn’t really anything that any of us could have done about it – we all did what we could. We just had to get on with it a bit really, I mean we still had a great night in the hotel which is good. We still made the most of it, but it was disheartening, especially for people whose families travelled over from abroad. In that sense it was just an awful position to be in, but we just had to do what we could.
Have you guys played on the varsity game before? Like, is this your first one?
J: This will be my first time playing; I was there last year but didn’t actually get on the field. It’s great that my first time playing will be in Oxford as well, so hopefully lots of people come to watch!
F: This will be my third Varsity. My first year was actually at Oxford City as well so it will be a fun a repeat of that (where we won).
Both the women’s and men’s teams have won six of their last seven varsity games, which is impressive. Do you find that record intimidating or encouraging, or a bit of both, going into the game?
F: As Jess said, uni football or any sport in general can change so much year on year. However, it’s nice to kind of look back at the record, particularly from the last few years. These past two years in particular, the men’s side have kept quite a core sort of nucleus of the squad, and it’s been quite constant through from my first year to the team we have now. It’s reassuring, in that sense for us to look back. We kind of know what it takes to win in a varsity match. And I know what’s required in the future.
J: I think it is slightly intimidating, especially given the circumstances, you know, as the Varsity game has never necessarily been cancelled and rescheduled before. And it has disrupted a lot of the training and preparation we did. But if anything, I think having it in Oxford will be a great plus as well. Like Finn mentioned a lot of our girls played in the one in Oxford City two years ago, and we will have the home crowd advantage. No matter how our season goes, Varsity is its own event that you prepare for in a certain way, and you sort of treat in a certain way, and then you play the best way that you can that game.
What would you say is your best sporting moment so far?
J: I think our Brooke’s Varsity this year was pretty special. Despite the game actually turning out quite dirty we put in an amazing performance, scored some impressive goals, and played some of the best team football we have all season. I was personally really unwell so was happy to get a good performance despite the flu.
F: I think it just has to be the varsity wins. Since my first year we’ve won both Brookes games, and won our varsity first year, which was really special because it was the year Mickey Lewis sadly passed away. So, it was really nice to win it that year. They’re always so they’re always special in their really great event. This last Brooke’s Varsity was quite the game – with two of our players red-carded we still managed to pull out a win.
Most embarrassing moment on the pitch?
F: Getting sent off against Notts last year. That was just for a bad tackle. it wasn’t even really embarrassing, just not my finest moment.
J: The semi-final of the cup last year was pretty bad. It was raining and I did a slide tackle in the box and gave away a penalty in the 89th minute, we lost because of it. Not ideal.
And what was your worst defeat?
J: I think this year for us it was a tough defeat against Loughborough. We had beaten them earlier in the season and they were our tightest competition in the league. In the cup semi-final they got lucky in the last few minutes and pulled a goal against us and won by that one goal. That was quite frustrating, but we still put in a great performance.
F: Cambridge, at the end of Michaelmas term – we lost our way there. But we kind of didn’t have a full squad. We were missing a number of key players, and so just didn’t end up playing that well and lost. It was obviously very disappointing for the whole team.
What’s the best thing about being captain?
J :I think being able to be so involved in the process of the club, and how it works and sort of support the president or vice president is one great part. Also then having such a strong group of girls around you who respect and build this really strong friendship and team dynamic. I’m very proud to be captain of the blues this year. If anything, else that’s the best thing. It makes me so proud to see how we play and the people that I’m surrounded by are all so talented, clever, hardworking and truly lovely. I’m very grateful.
F: Same I’m just really proud to be part of such a good group of boys. We’ve got such a good team off the field this season, it doesn’t matter what happens on it off the field, we’ve got such like a tight, knit group and all the boys get on so well. If anything, what I’m most proud of is just kind of helping the of group boys’ gel together from when we came in preseason to where we are now.
Are there any key players to watch?
J: We’ve got a strong squad. I could say any of the girls’ names to be perfectly honest, as we have fantastic returning players and really talented freshers that came in as well. There is such a strong core team this year from the top all the way to the bottom.
F: I think everyone in the team is, you know, sort of incredibly talented, and incredibly deserving of their place in the team, across the board, we’ve got an incredibly strong side.
Where can our readers watch you play?
J:At the Varsity game, 1st of May at Oxford City Stadium. 2pm kick off for the women’s game and the men’s kicks off at 5pm. Use it as a May Day hangover cure – there will be delicious food, great vibes and some fantastic football to watch. We are really hoping for a big turnout from the Oxford supporters that puts Cambridge’s to shame. We would really appreciate anybody who gives their time to come and watch us play and we can promise you some entertaining football.
A tribunal in March ruled that four professors were unfairly dismissed by the University on the grounds of their age.
As it stands, the policy of “Employer Justified Retirement Age” (EJRA) dictates that university staff must retire at 68. In October, four professors launched claims against the university that this policy was unfair and provided evidence of age discrimination. The tribunal has ruled in their favour as the policy “means that an individual is dismissed on attainment of a particular age” which is “about the most extreme discriminatory impact possible in the realms of employment”.
At the head of the campaign against this redundancy policy, Physics Professor Paul Ewart, who won the tribunal against forced dismissal three years ago, told Cherwell that he was very pleased with the result of the tribunal and that “the judgment is further vindication of the claim that the EJRA is unlawful and follows a series of legal judgments both in the university’s own internal Appeal Court by external and very senior judges, and in the Employment Tribunal (ET) and Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in my own case that deemed the policy unjustified and therefore unlawful.”
The EJRA policy was brought about on the grounds that it is an “evidence-based” policy that allows the university work force to be regularly replenished with a younger, more diverse body of academics. Evidence presented by Ewart suggests that the policy makes only marginal difference. Ewart told Cherwell that the rate of vacancy creation was only “in the range of 2 – 4%. I provided robust statistical evidence in support of this argument. It therefore matters not how long the policy runs; after five, ten or even one hundred years, the difference it makes is still only 2 – 4%.”
Moreover, the policy has been known to have had damaging repercussions for academics who had been in academic work when asked to leave the university. Following the success at his Employment Tribunal, Ewart was reinstated to Oxford by which point his research group “had dissipated and it was difficult to restart the programme”.
Ewart told Cherwell: “I resigned in 2021 and moved to a position as Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge, associated with, but not formally part of Cambridge University and so not subject to its EJRA rules. I have had no formal contact with Oxford University since I resigned my post in 2021.”
The EJRA policy has contributed to the termination of several important research groups. Ewart suggests that the policy “dissuades other world-leading figures from taking up posts in Oxford”.
Ewart also expressed that “the University, in common with Cambridge [which has the same EJRA policy], is displaying its arrogant sense of exceptionalism by pursuing a policy that every other university in the UK, apart from St. Andrew’s, has abandoned long ago”.
