Admissions statistics for Oxford’s 2010 entry show a huge regional bias towards London and the South East.

Despite extensive spending on outreach schemes and summer schools, a total of 40% of accepted students came from schools in London and other South Eastern areas, in comparison to 1.9% from the North East, 1.6% from Scotland and just 0.9% from Northern Ireland.

However, similarly to last year, the under-representation of these three regions is a reflection of the number of applications received.

Only 1.5% of the 17,144 applications received for October 2010 came from teenagers in the North East. There is less than a 1% difference between the percentage of successful applications in the region and those in London and the South East.

A spokesperson for the university said, “Most British universities will see a very strong bias in student numbers towards local students from the area or region, and Oxford manages to attract students from around the UK and also from around the globe.”

Some undergraduates from the North East agreed that teenagers in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North East choose to apply to universities closer to home for reasons of cost and convenience, with a number of able applicants being attracted to prestigious universities such as Durham and Edinburgh.  Welsh students who go to university in Wales pay only a third of what univeristy in England costs.

However, many held the view that academically able pupils in these regions may choose not to apply to Oxbridge purposely.

Dave Fairburn, an English student from a comprehensive school near Hull, remarked that, “there appears to be a difference in culture” between secondary schools in different parts of the country.

“Not just at my school, but in many throughout the area, there was a lack of ambition. The very culture…is different to the one I’ve found at Oxford.”

Lewis Wingfield, who was educated in Newcastle, added that in his experience “there is a perception, especially among state school pupils, that because there aren’t many people from the North East at Oxford, Oxford musn’t want them or must discriminate against them.

“There’s a big inverse snobbery thing – people talk about ‘posh southern snobs’ and feel they would be talked down to and disrespected for their accent.”

However, through its access and outreach work, Oxford reaches 76% of schools which offer post-16 provision.

In addition, since 2008, the university gives applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds an increased chance of invitation to interview. Tutors now look at the average results achieved by the candidate’s school, and whether they have spent time in care or attended an access summer school. Any student with sufficient A Level predictions who meets at least three of these criteria will be interviewed.

Yet the 2010 statistics show that a difference in application progression between the state and independent sectors still exists across the UK.

342 of the 12,333 UK candidates withdrew their application at some stage during the process. 209 of these were from the state sector, whereas only 118 came from independent schools.

Even in London, an area with the second greatest proportion of acceptances, students from the two sectors describe very different perceptions of Oxbridge.

One state school student said, “Many, myself included, for a lengthy period of time considered Oxford to be full of Tarquins swanning about croquet lawns and felt they could never relate.”

However, an undergraduate from an independent school remarked, “I think that the year was split into two – those that thought Oxbridge was where they would be in a few years and those that knew they wouldn’t be, but respected their intellect.”

But despite these divisions, Oxford appears to have achieved its aim of admitting the most able students. A total of 88% of applicants sitting three A levels in June 2010 exceeded the standard offer of AAA, with 40% of these gaining three A* grades. Only 12% of those accepted achieved AAA or below.

The news comes after it was announced in January that Oxford will introduce the A* grade in many MPLS courses.

A spokesperson for the university said, “It is now clear that many students in the sciences who take A levels get the A* grade, and that it would be reasonable to ask for an A* in many science and maths courses.”

Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton has announced a new scheme to enhance academic co-operation with China as he attended the 100th birthday celebrations of Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

Representatives of over 120 universities were present, ranging from Chinese institutions to Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard.

Following an agreement made at the event, Oxford and Tsinghua will begin an increased program of co-operation within academic research, and an enhanced exchange of students and faculty over the next 5 years.

Students from China would be able to undertake summer research placements at Oxford, whilst similar programmes in China will also be offered to those at Oxford. Additional ‘Li and Fung Scholarships’ will support the exchange of students between China and Oxford, whilst seminars and workshops will also be co-hosted under the new scheme. The sharing of academic materials was also proposed.

As well as celebrating Tsinghua’s birthday, the “Tsinghua Consensus” was reached by the University representatives. It was decided that the Universities would attempt to strengthen co-operation and exchange, maintain a commitment to excellence, play a more important role in international issues, and “improve the development of human civilization”.

The Consensus echoes growing calls that, in a time of shifting global economic dominance, the export of top quality higher education will become increasingly important for Western economies.

Fourth year Mansfield student Melvin Chen, who was born and lived in China, was positive about the relationship. He said, “Grassroots initiatives that promote understanding, collaboration and investment between China and the developed world are critical to the future prosperity of both parties.

“I believe that the development of global leaders who intimately understand both cultures is one of the great challenges of this century. Fostering greater academic collaboration will be key in this respect.”

However, whilst Hamilton discussed the growing need for global co-operation amongst Universities, some have questioned Oxford’s increasingly warm relationship with China.

The Vice Chancellor accepted an honorary doctorate from Tsinghua and revealed how over 3,000 senior Chinese government officials have received short-term training programs in Oxford in recent years.

The University’s Advanced Leadership Development Programme trains politicians up to Vice Minister level, and is run through the Department for Continuing Education in association with the UNDP.

A spokesperson for the university confirmed that this training is partly aimed at helping Chinese leaders to meet Millennium Development Goals.

St. Catz student Pascal Jerome commented, “China’s human rights abuses are grave and many, but the risk of legitimising these transgressions through academic collaboration is surely outweighed by the opportunity of naturally fostering human rights ideals in the higher echelons of Chinese government.”

Oxford University is currently home to around 750 Chinese students, 4% of the total student body and, as stated by Hamilton, “China has become the biggest source of students following the United Kingdom and the United States”.

He stressed that enhanced globalisation for universities did not necessarily mean taking a fundamentally different approach. Whereas many Western universities have rapidly established new overseas campuses in countries such as China, Oxford has not yet announced any plans to do so.

Oxford University has advised all ten students still in Syria to return to the UK, in light of growing protests against President Bashar Al-Assad’s eleven  year rule.

The recommendations come after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised all British Nationals to leave Syria unless having “a pressing need to remain” after the bloodiest week so far in the violent unrest which has rocked the country.

One third-year student who returned home on Friday claimed that, although he had experienced none of the protests directly, “fifteen minutes away [in Harasta] there were protesters being arrested and someone was shot by the security forces.”

The suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, has become a focus of the opposition protests during the past week.

“The key thing as well is that the number of people dying [in Syria] is far greater than the news reports,” the student, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
 
First year PPE student, Morgan Norris-Grey, who went to Syria with his family for 12 days at the end of March, said that he saw government-sponsored protests in Hama, Latakia and Damascus.

He explained, “I wasn’t in the vicinity of the main sites of anti-government protests at that time, but perhaps dissenters in other areas didn’t yet have the confidence to come out on the streets.
 
“The pro-government protests did however seem to be orchestrated to some degree, with school children and students provided with posters and given the day off school.”

Human rights groups have reported that the number of deaths caused by the clamp-down on anti-government protests has risen to 500.

In Syria’s south, 200 members of the ruling Baath party are also alleged to have resigned.

A spokesperson for Oxford University Press Office confirmed that all students in Syria would be home by this Thursday.

The Islamic Development Bank and Oxford University have launched a joint scholarship programme to enable students from IDB member countries to study for DPhil courses in science and technology

The scholarships will cover fees, as well as providing a maintenance grant. Five scholarships will be available every year for the next five years.

The 56 IDB countries include Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Iran. Andrew Hamilton, Oxford Vice Chancellor, termed the launch as historic, saying that it “is precisely what universities like Oxford are all about”.

In a statement, Oxford University said, “providing funding so that the very best students can come to Oxford regardless of their own financial circumstances is vital if Oxford is to attract the best students.”

Cambridge has dethroned Oxford as the nation’s leading institution, says a new university league ranking released last Sunday.

According to the research conducted by the The Complete University Guide, this year Cambridge has jumped ahead of Oxford in the specific areas of research, entry standards and completion rates.

Over the past ten years, Oxford has occupied the top spot in the guide’s rankings with the exception of this year and 2007, when it was nudged out by Cambridge.

Despite Oxford’s shift, the University Guide’s top five institutions remain the same group: Imperial College London continues to rank third, whilst London School of Economics and Durham have swapped positions as fourth and fifth.

Recent plans for the construction of a 15 metre high telephone mast on Oxford High Street have been met with outrage from local businesses and colleges.

A commissioned workforce began excavations at the traffic island outside All Souls college, in a preliminary investigation as to whether or not the underground services would be suitable for a radio base station.

Elizabeth Crawford, domestic bursar at University College, said, “None of the neighbouring Colleges on the High Street were informed of the trial hole that was excavated last week on behalf of a mobile telephone company.”  

She added, “The planning regulations do not require that local people are notified for such exploratory work.”

There has been a joint effort of late between traders and colleges to clean up and restore the High Street, and many believe that the mast, which will improve 3G coverage for Vodafone and O2 customers, is in direct opposition to such renovations.

Jeremy Mogford, owner of the Old Bank Hotel and Quod restaurant, said, “The idea of a mast there is simply appalling.”

Crawford echoed this, stating, “I cannot imagine that any business or College in the High Street would regard such an installation with anything other than astonished horror.”
As yet, the plans are still in the pipeline for the mast and an official application has not yet been made to the council.

Ilana Clark, a spokesperson for Vodafone UK Ltd., said, “This site is still in the early stages and a proposed design has not yet been finalised. We have identified that we need to improve the 3G coverage to our customers in central Oxford.”

After being notified of the project by Univ’s domestic bursar, Keith Mitchell, leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said, “My personal view is that sounds like a monstrous carbuncle on the High.”
Crawford told Cherwell, “Were a  planning application to be submitted, Univ College would certainly exercise its rights to comment on it… I hope that the students who live in Univ, many of whom look over the High Street would also exercise their right to comment on any such application.”

She added, “Were permission to be granted, I think it highly likely that the College would appeal against such a decision.”

Vodafone have also had two applications rejected for similar stations in Bath, as well as withdrawing a January application for a mast in front of the War Memorial in St. Giles, which was branded as “sacrilege”.