Exeter college have announced that rent will increase, adding controversy to OUSU president David Barclay’s hotly debated ‘rent-freeze’ motion.

The motion, which called for rents for undergraduates at Oxford colleges to remain the same this year in line with frozen student loans, was passed with a large majority in OUCU Council but opposed strongly by certain colleges such as Balliol.  Many JCR Presidents who voted in favour of the motion however, feel they are unable to implement it themselves due to the nature of the financial climate and some colleges are hiking up student costs regardless of students’ financial concerns.

It has been revealed that Exeter College has already proposed to increase rents next year by 5.01%, approximately 0.6% above the probable Van Noorden Index figure, an Oxford college costs specific inflation rate.  Even more worryingly for students, the college finance authorities hope to raise their fixed termly catering charge by 11.3%, bringing it up to £313 a term while also increasing other food prices by 8%. In theory, the catering charge covers the college’s fixed cost so students are charged a marginal price for each meal.  However, under these proposals, students would be paying £4.10 for one main course and either a starter or a pudding for dinner: far more than most other colleges, almost all of which do not have a catering charge.

Such large increases have been calculated to increase the costs of an average Exeter student living in by roughly £332 a year: almost 10% of the standard student loan.

One Exeter student who wished to remain anonymous called the propositions “pretty shocking” and said that the increases, at the current proposed rates, were “terrifyingly large”.

Chris Morgan, a first year Economics and Management student at Exeter told us, “There is an almost unanimous feeling that we have been hard done by with regards to the changes in the Battels, particularly since the charges at Exeter are already amongst the highest in Oxford. The general feeling is that we’re not getting anything more for our money and it seems like there are no grounds for such a large increase.”

A second year lawyer at Exeter, Gabriella Davis, said the increases were “obviously not ideal” and that, “hopefully the JCR Exec will be able to negotiate the charges down a bit because as they are I don’t think many of us will be able to manage very easily.”

When contacted, Exeter declined to comment on the rises.

While negotiators at Exeter have the unenviable challenge of fighting the war on prices on several fronts, other colleges facing rent increases are choosing to combat living costs as a whole in order to get the best all-round deal for their students.

Teddy Hall’s President, Josh Coulson, agreed that their rates would be increasing at a similar rate to Exeter’s saying, “The College has increased rents at RPI(X) for the past 15-20 years and preliminary conversations indicate that a change from this pattern is unlikely.” The Retail Prices Index has recently been published at 5.2% and although this is not a final figure, Coulson stated that in negotiations they will look to cut students’ costs elsewhere rather than haggle over rent.

“Teddy Hall has the highest rent in the University. We are used to be top of league tables…but this is one ranking that is less flattering.” He said he hoped that by making dining and vacation residence more affordable, he could “help [Teddy Hall] to gradually catch up with richer Colleges and hopefully go some small way to furthering inter-collegiate equality”.

Somerville, who have already submitted a proposal to the Finance Committee, are aiming for a rent raise of 3.4% because while David Railton, their JCR President, voted for the rent freeze motion, since he “believed it might prove an effective foil for other Presidents to use in their negotiations with College” he also said, “I think the argument has limited power in Somerville where internal factors such as the loan the College is repaying on our new student accommodation take centre stage.”

Moreover, Railton asserted that in looking at student finances, one must look at much more than simply the rent rates we pay.  Of negotiations so far, he said, “Our core premise for the initial proposal is that a student’s ability to support themselves through Oxford extends beyond the headline rent figure. Other costs, such as catering charges and vacation residence can massively eat into your student loan and change what you can afford overall.”

Almost all JCR Presidents who were willing to reveal their bargaining plans to Cherwell have concluded that there will be a raise in rents for students next academic year. For many, the real world increase in costs for colleges means that, despite a lack of increased income for students, a rent freeze is out of the question.

Stephen Dempsey, JCR President of Balliol, told Cherwell, “In negotiations with college authorities, I have no intention of utilising this statement from OUSU, and instead will conduct negotiations (with the best interests of the student body in mind of course) in the context of Balliol’s financial situation, the rising cost of accommodation in Oxford, and the impact of this on students.”

He also slammed the motion as “an idealistic statement” since it is “unclear how effective such a statement would be as an impetus in negotiations given OUSU’s inability to participate directly in negotiations.”

Balliol’s JCR has since voted to aim for a rent raise in line with the Van Noorden Index which is likely to be 4.6% this year.

Kevin Smith, the JCR President at Lincoln emphasized the fact that, “College executives need to have an idea of both their ‘ideal’ agreement, which might be a rent freeze, but also what they’re willing to accept, which might be a rent freeze or might be something less than a rent freeze depending on their College’s circumstances.”

St Peter’s President, Rob Collier, was the only JCR President who responded saying that a rent freeze may be possible. Negotiations have yet to begin at Peter’s, but he told Cherwell, “It’s a little early for me to say what kind of percentage increase I would hope for, although obviously I would like it to be as low as possible, maybe even in line with OUSU’s campaign on a rent freeze.”

“I think OUSU’s campaign for a rent freeze is a productive campaign: it will raise awareness that Oxford rent for students is too damn high and alert more people, both students and staff, to the hardships that some students face when the time comes to pay rent.”

When asked if he was disappointed that most colleges would not be trying to achieve the rent freeze OUSU proposed, David Barclay, OUSU President said, “Even if JCRs don’t want to use the idea of a rent freeze in their negotiations, it’s still helpful for OUSU to be talking about it because it focuses everybody’s attention on the affordability of rent for students. For too long rent rises have been just about College costs – when students can’t afford to pay that’s simply not good enough.”

Recently published results from the Student Barometer survey have revealed what students think about their experiences at Oxford. The survey, which covered areas as diverse as social life and support services, has shown what international students think about their financial situation.

According to the survey, only 49 percent of international students are satisfied with the current levels of financial support offered by colleges and the University, while 64 percent were satisfied with living costs in Oxford.

A Univ first year from New Jersey who applied to universities in both the US and the UK said, “For many people the lack of financial support may put them off from coming to Oxford particularly as, in order to get a visa you need to have enough money in your bank account already.

“Also, most of the Oxford bursaries are not available for international students which, compared with the fact that most Ivy League schools don’t look at nationality when assigning their very generous financial aid, puts Oxford at a competitive disadvantage.”

Although 85% of international students were satisfied with their overall arrival experience, the survey highlighted that opening a bank account was an area which posed difficulties, with only 51 percent satisfied with this process.

Clare Joyce, an international student from Univ, said, “it took me a week to get an appointment which was really annoying especially as in fresher’s week there are so many other things you want to be thinking about while trying to settle in.”

When asked about this the University said that they were trying to address this issue by hosting one to one meetings with each bank and inviting bank representatives to international student orientation.

The survey also revealed how experiences differ between colleges. International students at Lincoln were the most satisfied at 97 percent which was 20 percentage points higher than at Teddy Hall, the lowest ranking college.

Lincoln’s JCR President, Kevin Smith, himself an international student, commented, “I was delighted – but in no way surprised – to hear that Lincoln ranked highest for international student satisfaction. “Coming from overseas, I think what students want is to find a strong support network and immediate group of friends, and my experience has been that Lincoln provides both from day one.”

The survey showed that many international students applied uniquely to institutions in the UK, however for 92 percent of undergraduates questioned the biggest factor was the institution itself rather than the country.

The survey also revealed how domestic students are funding their studies ahead of nationwide changes to univerisity funding. 83 percent of current undergraduates who responded to the survey said they were using a government loan, while 54 percent of post-graduates were receiving funding from the Research Council.

Jesus College seems to have been Oxford’s most enthusiastic advocates with over 95 percent of students declaring that they would recommend the university while, at St Anthony’s, only 64 percent of students gave such a positive response.

For domestic students the top reason given for this recommendation was the organisation of their course, while employability was the most common reason for international students.

The University says it intends on running discussion groups with students to try to identify areas in which they can improve the student experience. It has recently agreed to a new partnership with statistical agency, i-graduate, in an attempt to streamline and integrate the process and get more useful responses.

Jared Hutchings, the co-ordinater of the survey, said that from last autumn students are sent only one survey per year, which simplified the system. He said, “Colleges can view the data by college, which means there is less of a need for additional and separate college surveys.

“Fewer surveys overall across the colleges and University also means hassling students less often, and this may well explain the relatively good response rate we achieve for the Student Barometer (33%).”

RAG announced that they raised a record-breaking £119,368 which more than doubles last year’s total of £46,00. The money will be split equally between Shelter, Pathways Workshop, Helen & Douglas House and Emerge Global.

RAG President Charlotte Le Flufy commented that RAG “provided more support and encouragement to colleges, societies, and individuals to run bigger, better University-wide events”. She also thanked the College Charity reps and RAG committee members who “have dedicated a huge amount of effort and time into making this year successful.”

Daniel Lowe, OUSU Vice-President for Charities and Community commented, “it has been a privilege to work with such a committed RAG team, and to see OUSU’s support lead to such a fantastic result for so many worthy causes.” He stated that RAG’s success was ‘just a part of what has been an incredibly productive year for OUSU’.

New College Mathematics professor, Marcus du Sautoy was beaten at the semi-finals of the international rock-paper-scissors tournament in Philadelphia last Thursday.

Du Sautoy, adopted the nom de guerre “The Professor” and used the decimal expansion of pi to inform his decision of whether to use rock, paper or scissors.

Du Sautoy used this method to illustrate “how humans are really pattern searchers at heart”. He stated that the contestants who did well in the tournament were the ones who were able to “spot patterns in the people they are playing”

Du Sautoy’s participation was filmed by the BBC and will be used in his new series entitled “The Code”

On Tuesday morning, Oxford woke up to discover hundreds of helium-filled balloons anonymously planted around the city centre, tied to bicycles, railings and signs.

The red balloons were all attached to cards with an ‘x’ on one side and ‘260911’ on the other, and were found around the Radcliffe Camera , Merton College, Harris Manchester College, Christ Church College and along Broad Street.

Witnesses first spotted the balloons at around 6am on Tuesday. Within hours, tourists were photographing the phenomena, children were helping themselves to the balloons, some ‘setting them free’.

One student commented, “Still feeling a tad hungover and heading to the confines of the Rad Cam first thing to try and get some finals revision done, seeing balloons all around the square made my morning. I was slightly disappointed to find that the celebrations didn’t continue inside the library.”

Twitter users tried to decipher their origin, with user white_hart tweeting, “Maybe there are 99 and it’s a warning…”.

Another user commented, “It is the closing date for this job: Oxford University Lecturer in the Social Anthropology of Africa. A balloon campaign seems OTT though”.

Suggestions as to who is responsible for the balloons have included marketing stunts by Milkround, TEDxOxford and Love Oxford. None of these groups have yet claimed responsibility for the activity.

The printed number, 260911, is not valid as a local telephone number or University extension. As a date, it points to the Monday of -1st week in Michaelmas though there does not yet appear to be any major events on that date.