After the closure of Po Na Na last August, Oxford\’s students, residents, and cheese-loving-clubbers alike will be thrilled to hear that the club is re-opening this week under the new guise of Lola Lo, a Tiki-themed \’tropical oasis where the party goes on and on.\’

With their headline night being run by Come Play UK and promising to bring\’the biggest tunes, the prettiest people and the best drinks in town\’, they hope to spice up otherwise quiet Monday nights in Oxford with cheeky tiki flower garlands, shark themed cocktail buckets, and some unique-looking Moai mugs.

Other nights will include an international party on Tuesdays, a VIP scene on Wednesdays, an alternative fix on Thursdays, and classic clubbing, albeit in a \’bounty paradise\’, on Fridays and Saturdays.

Thursday was the launch night for Lola Lo\’s alternative student night, Fat Poppadaddys. Rowena Wilding, a postgraduate student who went, commented, \’Lola Lo is a massive improvement on Po Na Na; it\’s decor and atmosphere were in no way as dingy as one would expect from an underground club.\’

She concluded that overall Fat Poppadaddys was \’a good night out – their drinks offers definitely made it a worthwhile evening and I\’d happily go again. Probably will next week, in fact!\’

She did, however, highlight, \’the terrible Hawaiian shirts the staff were wearing\’ saying, \’they may as well have been wearing grass skirts and coconut bras – go for broke.\’

However, not all students are overly keen on the idea of another tropical island-themed club. One finalist who wished to remain anonymous commented, \’In general I am opposed to the proliferation of Hawaiian themed establishments. I\’m all for multiculturalism but this will draw business away from the fine British establishments of Park End and Bridge, I\’m not sure if I could bear to see the glory of these institutions eroded. I ask you, Isn\’t the Hawaiian-style pizza at Pizza Hut enough?\’

On the other hand, with Varsity Events\’ support recently withdrawn from Kukui, Lola Lo may well take over its hibiscus-shaped spot on the Oxford clubbing scene. Beth McCrave, a Philosophy & Theology fresher, told Cherwell, \’Kukui doesn\’t embrace the theme as much as it could, it would be cool to see a club that just went all out.\’ She also pointed out that sharing shark cocktails was \’perfect for sharking\’.

When contacted by Cherwell, Varsity Events declined to comment on whether they would be promoting a night at Lola Lo in the future.

Po Na Na was famous for its freshers\’ week foam party, of which this year\’s student intake was sadly deprived. Jamie Jordan, a third year medical student at St Anne\’s who went to one such party, recalled seeing \’a number of excitable semi-nude men whilst drowning in chemical-scented bubbles…A good night had by all.\’

It remains to be seen whether a similar experience will be provided by Lola Lo for future generations of freshers.

Leading City law firms have announced their intentions to review the financial support packages they offer to students, following the planned three fold increase in tuition fees charged by universities.

The firms in question, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, Eversheds, Addleshaw Goddard and Bird & Bird, are seven of the top twenty UK law firms based on revenue.

Funding options undergoing consideration include bursaries, sponsorship and scholarships for undergraduates. Some are also considering donating to university law departments.

According to Graduate Recruitment Partner Matthew White, the focus for Herbert Smith is on \”employability issues and doing more to raise career aspirations both for university and school-age students\”.
 
Hogan Lovells Associate Director for Legal Resourcing Clare Harris said, \”Our immediate priority will be to provide any additional support for our future trainees who may require it, both during their time at university and at law school, should funding prove to be a difficulty and where there are genuine cases of hardship\”.

Many university students and professors have shown themselves to be open to the plans. Lawrence Wilcock, President of LawSoc, commented, \”No student should be dissuaded from pursuing the career of their choice because of financial difficulties, so just as I gladly accept reforms to student support within universities, any assistance from the legal sector should be thoroughly welcomed so as to ensure ongoing diversity.\”

First-year law students Pooja Menon at St. John\’s, and Vandana Singh at Exeter, both welcomed \”the legal profession taking the initiative\”. However Singh added, \”I don\’t really think it would make too much of a difference on the decision of whether to go to university or not especially because this kind of help will probably be very limited and very exclusive.\”

Karim El-Bar, a prospective law student, also expressed doubts, observing, \”Corporate law is only one branch of a very large and varied profession. Corporate law firms dominate the jobs market, and in future are more likely to dominate due to the planned cuts.

\”I welcome city law firms\’ decisions to assist with law undergraduates financially, however the same attitude has to be undertaken by firms specialising in other areas for future generations of lawyers, who might not necessarily want to specialise in corporate law. Lawyers who aren\’t getting this extra support in the face of rising tuition fees are naturally going to find it harder to get a job.\”

In a similar vein, Universities Minister David Willets has called for other companies to follow the example set by accountancy firm KPMG, which announced earlier this year that it is offering school leavers the chance to study at a top university for free.

GlaxoSmithKline has also promised financial support for students, announcing that it will pay up to £27,000 for between 50 and 100 graduate recruits on its training programmes. The pharmaceutical firm\’s total support budget is approximately £3 million a year.

GSK chief executive Andrew Witty said that the program was \”a great way for us to try and ensure that we get that next brilliant scientist.\” He also noted that the investment cost was a \”relatively small amount\” in comparison to the £4 billion spent by the company on research and development.

Oxford is one of the increasing number of universities who have confirmed plans to charge the maximum £9000 in annual fees from October 2012, following Lord Browne\’s review of higher education funding. Students will potentially graduate with debts over £40,000.

 

The Bodleian Libraries has recently announced its joint purchase of an important collection of letters from the late author Franz Kafka, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century and fathers of literary modernism.

The collection contains over 100 letters, postcards and picture postcards, and constitutes almost all the surviving correspondence that Kafka sent to Ottla, his youngest sister and the family member to whom he was closest.

It also contains letters from Dora Diamant, Kafka\’s last lover and Robert Klopstock, his doctor and friend.

The letters had previously been on deposit at the Bodleian, but remained property of Kafka\’s descendants, having been preserved by Ottla\’s daughters in Czechoslovakia after her death in Auschwitz in 1943.

The Bodleian has bought the ‘Letters to Ottla\’ archive in conjunction with the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach (the German Literary Archive). This is widely regarded as the first purchase of its type.

The collaboration aims to go beyond the actual purchase and to extend to a partnership, with a program of exchanges for academics and exhibitions, as well as other research activities related to Kafka and beyond.

Richard Ovenden, associate director of the Bodleian Libraries, said, \”We are delighted that the two institutions that already preserve the majority of Kafka\’s material can now work together with this innovative arrangement: instead of competing, we are collaborating.\”

Professor Ritchie Robertson, of St. John\’s College, and an expert on Kafka and Jewish-German literature, told Cherwell, \”This purchase is excellent news. Kafka\’s letters to his sister Ottla are an important biographical source not only for Kafka himself but also for Ottla, an unusual and courageous woman and an example of female emancipation.\”

He also stressed that, \”The co-operation between the Bodleian and the major German archive is immensely welcome and will benefit Oxford\’s energetic and active German department.\”

The purchase has proved good news for students as well as for academics. One St Peter\’s student studying Kafka commented, \”The opportunity to view this original material is unique and will ultimately be extremely beneficial to all Oxford students studying German.\”