Oxford Thinking, the fundraising campaign for the University of Oxford, has passed its initial target of £1.25 billion and now stands at almost £1.3 billion.

Launched only in May 2004, this marks the shortest time ever taken by a European university to reach such a target.

36% of the total came from alumni of the University, with 16% of all alumni contributing last year, the highest of any university in the UK. Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, commented, “We are enormously grateful to all those who have supported the campaign and who are helping us to secure Oxford’s place as a world-class university for generations to come.”

5.4% of the money raised has been donated by corporations, providing support for academic posts such as the KPMG Professor of Taxation Law and the Lovells Professor of Law and Finance. This has had mixed responses from students: some reacted positively, with a first year linguist commenting, “I approve of positions in the University being supported by big corporations. If it’s a means to an end, I think it’s a good thing.”

Others, however, were more sceptical: first-year classicist Jasmine Krishnamurthy-Spencer said that she doubted whether the donations really were “no-strings-attached money”.

A University spokesperson commented, “Corporate funders providing philanthropic support are treated the same way as any other donation. Donors who choose to support academic posts do not determine the direction or academic content of a chair — this is left to the University.”

23% of the money came as donations from those with no previous affiliation to the University, including major gifts from Russian-born US businessman Leonard Blavatnik and Mica Ertegun, the widow of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun.

The University’s reliance on philanthropy has led some to question the sources of the money, but a University spokesperson commented, “All proposed donations over £100,000 are subject to formal scrutiny and review by the University’s Committee to Review Donations, whether from individuals or organisations.”

Results of the funding drive include the development of the UNIQ summer school programme and the provision of scholarships for graduate research, as well as the restoration of University buildings, notably the Ashmolean Museum and the Department of Earth Sciences.

Oxford has stressed that despite the increase in fees, the accompanying reduction in government funding will “to a large extent ‘cancel out’ the increased fee income” meaning that the university will still rely heavily on outside funding.

The Oxford system costs around £16,000 per student per year and “only around half the costs of that education have ever been met by the combination of fees and government funding.” The next stage of the campaign is said to have “a special focus on student support.”

Up to 200,000 students may have given up on dreams of a gap year as universities confirm an increase of fees in 2012.

Of 762 students surveyed in January by One Poll, 40% said that they are scrapping their gap year plans in response to the dramatic increase in fees. Of those still going ahead with their plans, 60% have decided to shorten the length of their travels in favour of making money closer to home.

Roughly 500,000 people apply for full-time undergraduate study each year, so if the poll’s results are representative, an estimated 200,000 were deterred from taking a gap year in 2011.

The fees hike seems to have forced students to rethink their plans as they become reluctant to run up increasing amounts of debt.The number of people applying for deferred entry almost halved last year, with 6.9% of applicants choosing that option in 2010 and only 3.3% in 2011.

The school leavers of 2011 were the most affected by the increase in fees. By delaying their entrance to university, students faced a trebling of their tuition costs.

According to the Office for Fair Access, the estimated average fee for a university course will be £8,393. Oxford, along with more than a third of all English universities, will charge £9,000 as its standard fee.

Faced with the two alternatives, Millie Simpson, a first-year classicist at Exeter College, claimed she was left with no real choice. She explained, “I was really devastated by the plan to increase tuition fees – in anticipation of this unique chance to travel the world I had saved an appropriate amount of money and made plans with friends.

“All of this effort was in vain. Not only did I have to factor in the prices for travelling the world but also the added £24,000 or so for my four-year degree.”

It is believed that the recent dip in applications may be a one-off. Future students will not have such a high price tag attached to their year off, as fees are now expected to be fixed.

Professor Richard Cooper, Vice-Principal of Brasenose College, discussed the value of taking a year out for students. He suggested that “Attitudes to gap years have always depended on the subject,” adding, “The take-up was always greater in the humanities and social sciences.”

Professor Cooper went on to say that science dons have traditionally viewed gap years in a less favourable light, claiming there was a “danger that students could forget all they had learnt.” He added, “The increase in fees will therefore have had much less of an impact on science students when it comes to gap years.”

He continued, “Overall I don’t think that the academic world is weeping buckets at the drop in the number of people taking gap years.”

In addition, Professor Cooper explained that tutors can be “reluctant” to mortgage properties to students who might “change their minds” during their year abroad and instead apply “for a different course or institution.”

 “Longer holidays than other universities and generous travel grants mean that students can also travel during their time here,” he concluded.

A university spokesperson commented that “only a very small percentage of students apply to Oxford for deferred entry in any given year.”

A recent study by researchers at the University has found that those who consume a specific type of heart disease medication are less likely to be racially prejudiced at a subconscious level.

The drug, propranolol, is commonly used to treat anxiety and panic as well heart disease, but also acts on the part of the brain involved in emotional responses such as fear, upon which some scientists believe that racism is founded.

The study, led by Dr Sylvia Terbeck, required 18 participants to consume propranolol and another 18 to take a placebo. The participants then undertook the IAT (Implicit Attitude Test), which involves the sorting of images of dark and light skinned individuals as well as negative and positive words.

The results of the test showed that, unlike any members of the placebo group, a third of those who took the drug obtained a negative result, meaning that they were implicitly biased against any racist sentiments.

However, Dr Terbeck warned against any claims that propranolol could be taken to modulate human behaviour. She stated, “It is to jump to conclusions if people think that the pill cures racism; it misinterprets the findings. What we found was that it had an effect on implicit racial bias.”

She explained that racism is a “complex thing,” and added, “This drug affects one component. Your attitude to a lot of people consists of what you feel and think. This drug changes what you feel, not what you think.”

As well as examining their implicit bias, participants were also tested on their explicit racial attitudes after taking propranolol. In the latter, the drug was found to have no effect.

Nonetheless, Dr Terbeck was keen to stress that the findings were “promising”, adding, “It might give us some more understanding about the brain.”

Such feelings were shared by Professor Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics and a co-author of the study, as he stated, “[This] research raises the tantalising possibility that our unconscious racial attitudes could be modulated using drugs, a possibility that requires careful ethical analysis.”

He warned that “Biological research aiming to make people morally better has a dark history,” and added, “Propranolol is not a pill to cure racism.” He concluded by calling for a “better understanding” of the side effects of the drug.

In response to the findings, one second year biochemist commented, “I have taken propranolol before and I honestly didn’t notice any difference in my thoughts about people of a different race. It may be because I wasn’t thinking about it at the time but even reflecting on it now, I really don’t think there was any difference.”

Another added, “Somehow I don’t think it’s going to turn neo-nazis into people who protest for minority groups.”

A sixth form college in Hackney has spent £10,000 creating a copy of an Oxford tutor’s study.

Formerly a staff room, the “Red Room” in BSix Brooke House Sixth Form College has been designed to make inner-city students feel less intimidated by interview surroundings. It aims to help encourage them to apply to Oxford and other top universities. 

£4,000 was spent on building the room and £6,000 on appropriate furnishings, including an adjacent garden with replica classical sculptures. It is modelled on the colours of Pembroke College, Oxford, as part of the “Pem-Brooke” partnership programme between the school and the College. 

Dr Peter Claus, senior research fellow in history at Pembroke, teaches BSix students in the Red Room three days a week, running tutorials and seminars throughout the year. He believes that all academics ought to perform a similar “public duty” in light of “urgent” social mobility problems.

Last year, three quarters of the 319 BSix students who went to university were the first in their family to do so. Only 10 of those attended Russell Group institutions while just one student went to Cambridge in 2011, and another to Oxford in 2010. 

Headmaster Ken Warman said he was keen to grow the strategy and improve such figures. He told Cherwell, “We work with 13 other universities on similar programmes. In 2010, 10 students were on such a scheme. Our goal is that, by 2015, every student will be.”

Luke Pearce, a 16-year-old student at BSix, who wants to be the first in his family to study at university by reading PPE at Oxford, approves of the room, saying, “Just stepping in makes you feel quite inspired and privileged.”

Mr Warman stressed that, “If you go to Oxford it is a daunting experience. But if our students have already done it, they will be much more able to cope without being thrown by the unfamiliar surroundings.”

A first-year at Wadham, also educated in East London, commented, “Although it seems like a good idea, I feel there is more emphasis on “style over substance’”, but went on to state, “that said, this style of practice might be the perfect stimulus for some students, especially in regards to self-esteem and their perception of Oxford”. 

Simone Webb, a first-year PPEist, was more critical, responding, “I think that £10,000 could be better spent on improving the quality of education at the sixth form, which would far better prepare students for Oxbridge admissions.”

However, Mr Warman pointed out that he was “devoting the whole institution to the pursuit of high standards for all” and explained that use of the room would be open to all Hackney schools.

Helen Robb, St Anne’s JCR President, felt that, “At interview, one of the most important things for all applicants is to feel confident in expressing their ideas regardless of their environment. If the study can help this in any way, then of course it’s a good thing for those applicants who have access to it.”

Yet Hertford student Rhys Owens remarked: “If you’re the kind of person who gets intimidated by a building or a room, I’m doubtful as to whether applying to Oxbridge would really be the right choice.”

Reacting to accusations that it was “intimidating”, the University emphasised that it is “holding more than 1,500 outreach events across the country, trying to break down some of the myths that still persist about Oxford and its admissions process”.

Charlotte Hendy, Pembroke JCR President, was supportive of the scheme, adding, ‘The link between Pembroke and BSix has been an extremely successful initiative. The replication of the study at the school is just one of a number of phases that students go through to give them insight into what studying at Oxford, and other such institutions, is like. It recognises just how important it is to make the student feel comfortable and prepared for the interview process, and we hope that it will aid the scheme as it continues to go from strength to strength.’