Oxford City Council has been accredited with becoming the first authority in the county to ensure that its employees are paid the ‘living wage’ of at least £8 an hour. The announcement comes ahead of the national Living Wage Week, which will take place across the UK between November 4 and 10. Oxford City Council implemented the scheme in 2009. Recently, the council has had to make other budget cuts in order to raise its lowest level of pay from £7.20 to £8.01 an hour, which is 81p above the UK Living wage for outside of London. The current minimum wage across the country is £6.19 for those over 21.

Leader of the council, Bob Price, said, “We’re pleased our initiative has been formally recognised and the positive effects this policy has had on supporting the city’s economy.” He explained the motivations behind the living wage, commenting, “We were aware that the national minimum wage could not reflect the much higher housing costs in Oxford and other major urban centres. We wanted to ensure that our minimum pay rates, and those of our contractors, took account of this major difference in what a low salary can provide as a standard of living.’

“The impact on our employees has been very positive and the quality of our staff reflects the terms and conditions offered,” he added. “We would certainly like to see all employers adopt a Living Wage Minimum that reflects the reality of local living costs especially in the Thames Valley area,” he concluded.

Rhys Moore, director of the Living Wage Foundation, told the Oxford Mail, “The benefits to staff and business are clear. I welcome the leadership shown by Oxford City Council on this.” At the time of the council’s decision to adopt the living wage Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce president Nigel Wild said he applauded Oxford City Council for taking the measure. He commented, “But I think businesses are having to cut their cloth accordingly at the moment and if they haven’t got the money, they can’t raise wages. Most people are taking the view that simply having a job is better than no job.”

The living wage is a voluntary rate of pay that some employers give their staff and is designed to enable workers to afford a basic standard of living. It is calculated by a formula from the National Income Standard, which is authorised by the Rowntree Trust, and takes into account factors such as cost of housing, council tax and transport. Oxford City Council is the only one of Oxfordshire’s six local authorities to have gained accreditation.

Tom Coy, Exeter Welfare Officer, welcomed the announcement: “it’s great that the council has recognized how expensive it can be to live in Oxford and has raised the wage it pays to its employees accordingly.” Barney Grimpson, a second year Economics and Management student commented, “It’s a shame that the university has not followed suit. It is scandalous that the second biggest employer in the city has not committed to paying its staff a wage which reflects their costs of living.”

The Oxford Living Wage Campaign aims to build an alliance of workers and students to campaining for a living wage for all employees of Oxford University. The campaign highlights that working poverty is a growing problem in the UK. 61% of children living in poverty live in working households. 18 out of 38 Oxford colleges are confirmed as currently paying their staff the living wage.

Last week, Joshua Calder-Travis, representing the Oxford Living Wage Campaign, criticised recuitment adverts published in The Oxford Student, which stated “Because of my story, scouts across the university are now paid a Living Wage”. Calder-Travis claimed that 16 colleges did not pay Living Wage to all employees, with a further four failing to respond. Information on contractor wages was difficult to obtain. He said ‘Through discussions with employees, and information gathered in other ways, we have come to believe that the majority of staff employed in this way are not paid a Living Wage.’

‘People who are employed to clean libraries and departments often finish work before students arrive. As such there is little chance that students will ever have met the person that cleans their department. It is these staff which the Oxford Student’s claim that ‘scouts across the university are paid a Living Wage’ overlooks, along with all the staff at a further sixteen to twenty colleges.’ He therefore suggested ‘the statement published in the Oxford Student paper is both highly misleading and deeply harmful to building a community in Oxford where everyone is paid fairly.’

Isaac Delestre, Editor of the Oxford Student, refuted these allegations, saying that the quote itself had not actually said that all scouts in the university were paid a living wage. He added that the paper had helped, for example, to ensure staff at St John’s were paid a living wage.

Record numbers of students are applying to the most competitive courses and universities according to figures from UCAS. Courses at Oxbridge and medical courses have seen the largest increase in applicants; almost 57,000 applied to Oxford or Cambridge or to the dentistry, medicine, or veterinary science courses before the 15 October deadline.

This is a 2% increase over applications for the same courses at the same time last year. There was a drop in applications last year. However, figures show that this trend is likely to change as students target degree subjects and universities leading to well-paid careers, and expect better value for money in return for increased fees.

Dr Julia Paolitto, speaking for the University, said, “over the last couple of years applications to Oxford have held steady at just over 17,000 – prior to that we saw a significant increase in the number of applicants. Importantly, while applications for 2012 entry went down significantly across the sector, Oxford saw virtually no decline in applications, and has held steady again this year.”

Dr Paolitto continued, “Application figures suggest that potential applicants have recognised that Oxford offers a fantastic, world-class education and is incredibly affordable as well.”

Scottish applications, despite large subsidies, were down by 1%. Applications from Wales dropped by 3.9%, and those from Northern Ireland increased of 2%.

Demand from European students, who pay the same fees as British students, was up by 1.8% while applications from students outside the EU also rose by 5.1% despite having to pay considerably higher fees.

A new Oxford University ski trip is hoping to attract students this year. ‘The New Snow Trip’ was originally only open to New College, before extending to Magdalen in 2011 and St Hilda’s in 2012. Now the trip is open to all Oxford University students.The trip will take place on the 15th-23rd March 2013 in Val D’Isere.

The base price for the trip is £359, which includes 6 days accommodation, a lift pass, travel and several extras. Trip organisers managed to get a low price because of New College’s relationship with the tour operator ‘Off the Piste’, which they have used for the last 3 years. Events such as a Toboggan Evening and BBQ, a Race Day, a fancy dress day, and an event at Folie Douce are planned.

Organisers are promoting the trip as a smaller, more friendly trip than Varsity, with a good social vibe, better weather, better snow, and better skiing at Easter. They also promote it on the grounds of its lack of Cambridge students. Last year the trip’s mcuh smaller capacity of 96 people was reached, but it is hoped that this year many more people will take part.

Chiara Quadranti, the President of The New Snow Trip, said, “Not all colleges have their own ski trip so this gives a chance for anyone to go skiing, if they missed out on Varsity or if Varsity is not for them.

“We want to provide students with a fresh alternative. While Varsity is huge, quasi-corporate and intimidating (to some) we want to propose another option: something a bit different, more likeable, more personal.

“We want to set up something that could appeal to the same audience, i.e. the whole of Oxford, but with a very different vibe.”

Harry Browne, a St Hilda’s student who went on the trip two years ago, said, “The atmosphere is different from Varsity because it’s smaller and you know everyone. But it’s still lash on the mountains.”

Matthew Kain, from New College, went last year, said, “Better snow, no dirty Tabs, same lash – should appeal for people who actually want to go skiing rather than watching some crap like Ms Dynamite.”

Midori Takenaka, a rep from Corpus Christi, told Cherwell, “The New Snow Trip is definitely not trying to compete with Varsity. The organising team are all students, and so the trip has been designed in a very student-friendly way. We are confident that the trip will prove to be a success, as it has been in previous years.” 

Last year the Varsity trip sold out within 8 hours, and 3,200 students attended. However, this year tickets did not sell out.

Varsity President Simon Bushell told Cherwell, “The Varsity Trip is run on a not-for-profit basis entirely by student volunteers who aim to put on the best week possible for the participants of Varsity Trip, and we always strive to improve on last year’s trip. With six years of trips of over 1000 people, and over 90 years since the first Varsity Trip, we certainly have a lot of history to build on.

‘As with the much improved booking system, we are working hard to respond to all of the feedback we had from last year’s trip, and this experience is one of the advantages of going on Varsity Trip.

“One of the reasons Varsity Trip is so enjoyable is that it combines an intimate skiing experience with friends, with most participants sharing rooms or corridors with people from the same college, while giving an amazing opportunity to meet new people!”

A man broke in to the third floor of Regent’s Park College on the night of Tuesday 30th October, and stayed outside for several hours.

The man, believed to be homeless, took a ladder from the building works on Pusey Street, dragged it to St Giles, and then climbed up the scaffolding to the third floor of the college’s Wheeler building. 

The alarms were set off, at which point he began to behave loudly and aggressively. A window was broken and the inhabitants of the  flat were evacuated, spending the night sleeping on the Junior Dean’s floor.

The intruder is thought to have been intending to commit theft. It is unclear how the window was smashed.

Ben Deaner, a third year studying PPE at Regent’s told Cherwell, ‘He was talking about homelessness problems in Oxford. He said that he’d been on the streets for 15 years. He was antagonising the police and shouting and swearing down at them, calling one of them a liar and going on about how he knew who they all were. He kept saying it was going to be a long night and asked when the Oxford Mail was coming. He was up there for about four hours.’

A Wheeler resident said, ‘College dealt well with the crisis, immediately evacuating the flat where he broke a window and generally keeping an eye on the situation and the people involved. They had done everything they could to make sure the scaffolding was alarmed.’

The reaction on Facebook was less calm. One student who lives in the flat wrote, “You’d think you’d be safe from casual breaking and entering what with being on the THIRD FLOOR. Apparently this is a flawed assumption.”

JCR President Jack Watson commented, “The matter is now in the process of being investigated by the police. Statements were taken from those affected.’

Regent’s Park College has made no official response to the intrusion. The college bursar declined to comment.

Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) has stepped up efforts to get all letting agents in Oxford to delay the release of their student properties until February.

OUSU President David Townsend informed student bodies that the coalition of parties involved in its early lease campaign, which includes all JCRs and MCRs, Oxford University Colleges and Oxford Brookes University, as well as several City councillors, have agreed not to publicise any early release dates put forward by agents.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith also “fully supported” the campaign, and “urged” agents to come on board. “I would welcome a classification system on service quality and accommodation standards,” he told Cherwell.

Townsend was involved in ongoing talks with agents this week as November release dates loom. He declared, “The strength of our joint campaign relies on all of us working together to refuse to advertise ‘early release’ letting agents.”

At least 14 undergraduate colleges and nearly all graduate colleges expect a proportion of students to live out at some stage during their course, meaning that freshers are often compelled to sign contracts for the following October in Michaelmas of first year.

Many are unfamiliar with prospective housemates, the city of Oxford itself, the housing market, and the details of budgeting and tenancy rights and obligations. Wrong decisions and fallingsout can lead to uneasy living situations: one third year at Mansfield recalls how his religious housemates “spent a year trying to convert me.”

After a 1500-strong petition last year, the early lease campaign launched to give students a “decent amount of time” to decide where to live and with whom. A second year at Exeter recounted, “Housing rumours spread in third week. People threw together groups in mad panic and started signing in fifth week.”

One St Hilda’s second year was caught “completely by surprise” by early release panic. She found a place to live only when one group needed a room filled at short notice. “I’m very lucky,” she remarked, “But agreeing to live with people I didn’t know well was a daunting process.”

Oxford City Council already operates a Landlord Accreditation Scheme, which OUSU hopes to use with its own Ethical Letting Guidelines to produce a graded ‘traffic light system’ for students.

Agents who agree to withhold properties until the new year are marked as ‘green’, ‘yellow’ agents have agreed to delay releasing a set number of properties, and ‘red’ agents are non-cooperative. Agents listed as ‘red’ will be advertised through JCRs and MCRs. Wadham Student Union President Jahnavi Emmanuel commented, ‘Not all agents have signed up, so for the scheme to work we need all students fully behind this to make sure no one starts looking for houses until February.’

Spire Properties, one of the letting agents already on board, agreed that “whether agencies suffer by not joining the scheme will depend on whether students delay their property searches.”

Premier Letting, one of Oxford’s ‘Big Five’ agents, remains undecided. It “would love” to release properties later, but stressed, “We are a business and offer a service to both tenants and landlords.” It pointed out that it was less risky for agents with smaller student housing stock to sign up to the scheme.

Premier told Cherwell that the main constraint on later release was “landlord pressure”. They explained, “Some agents already released their lists in mid-October, and some landlords multi-list their properties with several agents.

Many landlords like to secure bookings for the next year on their property by Christmas, which they will do with an agent not signed up to the scheme.”

Spire’s director Craig Carter however reminded that, “It is easy to forget that when we first started nearly 25 years ago, student lists were produced around Easter time.

“Release dates were gradually brought forward. I remember joking with clients that one day lists would be produced before Christmas, never thinking this would actually come true.”

A third year at Regent’s described the consequences. “People waited from 4.30am in freezing November cold to book viewings or see houses on offer. Letting agents could not cope with the mass of students who arrived on the day the lists came out.

“I wish it had been more clear that there was no big rush. Most houses aren’t let until much later in the year. I simply wasn’t aware of that fact and was sucked in by agents’ unfair tactics.”

An Exeter second year said, “Agents gave us an ultimatum to put down an admin fee. We felt pressured into signing, but found out later that they’d said exactly the same thing to others.”

Townsend claimed such fears of student accommodation “shortages” in Oxford are “a myth”. He explained, “It’s the students’ market. Every year colleges build new student rooms, meaning that private market supply shifts in their favour.”

Emmanuel added, “Obviously we can’t prevent anyone from looking for accommodation when they want to. But we encourage students not to sign tenancy agreements early and will protect them from agents who falsely convince them they need to.”

On their position going forward, Premier said, “If we feel that enough students hold out until February, and we see that the Universities are informing and encouraging them to do so, then we might be inclined to take part in the scheme next year.’