The son of the former President of Iran is being investigated by the university following a complaint which alleges that his doctoral thesis proposal had been written by someone else.

Mehdi Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of Akbar Rafsanjani, who was Iran\’s President between 1989 and 1997, began a five year DPhil course on the Iranian constitution at the faculty of Oriental Studies in October.

A complaint from a leading academic concerned that the university\’s high academic standards had been ignored when admitting Hashemi has triggered a full investigation led by Sir Peter North QC, a former Vice-Chancellor of the university.

If the allegations are substantiated and it is proven that Hashemi did not write his own thesis proposal he may be asked to leave. 

Kaveh Moussavi, an Associate Research Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, told Cherwell that he believed Hashemi had broken the university’s rules in making his application.

According to Moussavi, Hashemi\’s English is not of the required standard to study in the UK but he was given special dispensation by the Oriental Institute. Moussavi also claims that Hashemi does not live within the required 12.5 mile radius of Carfax as stipulated by the university, but currently resides in Dubai.

Moussavi further alleges that Hashemi’s ‘proposal was written by a graduate student of the same faculty who was paid to do this.’

Moussavi continued, \’To the lasting credit of Oxford University they have immediately appointed a leading counsel in Sir Peter North QC to conduct the investigation. I have every confidence that there will be a thorough investigation, and I have no doubt as to where it will lead.’

When contacted by Cherwell Hashemi said,’ [I] categorically deny these allegations.’

He continued, \’My proposal was studied and accepted regardless of my family ties. I do not believe being the son of ex-president has made any difference to my acceptance [at Oxford].\’

The ten week investigation will involve two academics that read and approved a first synopsis of Hashemi\’s thesis proposal in January 2010. Dr Homa Katouzian, an expert in modern Iranian history, strenuously denied that he was influenced by Hashemi\’s background in recommending his proposal.

\’I did not know that Mr Hashemi was Mr Rafsanjani\’s son when I assessed his application, but it would not have made an iota of difference to my academic judgment even if I had known this. The application was a good one and I recommended it to the Graduate Admissions Committee.\’

Katouzian also criticised those making allegations about Hashemi. He believed that \’They should come clean and name the persons they have in mind or they would be guilty of deliberately harming the reputation of our colleagues and students.\’

The University Press Office confirmed that the allegations were received before Christmas and have resulted in a thorough investigation which is ongoing.

Hashemi has declined to comment at length about the allegations levelled against him and is quoted as having directed further enquiries to the University Press Office.

The investigation has come to light amid scrutiny in many UK universities about their links with ruling families and governments in the Middle East. Sir Howard Davies recently stood down as director of the London School of Economics after concerns were raised over apparent closeness to Colonel Gadaffi\’s Libyan regime. It is expected that Oxford will be wary of similar controversy connected to this case.

The government will withdraw almost £400 million of support to students by installing a new bursary scheme in place of Labour’s Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), according to proposals for the next academic year.

Home Secretary Michael Gove announced on Monday that the new scheme will guarantee regular payments amounting to £1,200 a year to approximately 12,000 16-19 year olds who are currently in care, have just left care or whose parents are on income support.

Whereas the original EMA scheme had allocated £560 million, the incumbent government’s plans will only allocate £180 million directly to students.

The remaining funds will be given to schools which will then have the responsibility of handing out financial support to students that they feel have what Gove described as “genuine financial barriers” to staying in education.

According to NUS Vice President Shane Chowen “Those who will receive automatic payments represent a tiny percentage of those eligible for EMA.

“The majority of this reduced support fund will be available only on a discretionary basis, which means hundreds of thousands of young people will be applying to sixth forms and colleges not knowing what support they will receive.

At a time when youth unemployment is so high those looking towards further education will be worried that they will be unable to make up the shortfall in funds through part-time work.

Dan Tomlinson, a first-year Univ student who received EMA at school, said, “The coalition’s new policy is still lacking in detail. I’m worried for people just like me in Year 11 who may feel they won’t be able to afford sixth form or college.”

Members of the ‘Save EMA’ campaign commented, “If Michael Gove thinks that he deserves credit after giving 70p extra a week to 12,000 of the poorest students while at the same time taking away £30 a week [from] many of their classmates whose finances are marginally better, then he really is delusional.”

Radiation from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan may have reached Oxford\’s dreaming spires, according to recent findings.

The Fukushima plant, which manages six boiling water reactors, was hit by a 14-metre high tsunami generated by the Tohoku earthquake on Friday 11th March, knocking out the emergency generators which sparked the ongoing nuclear crisis.

The news came shortly after The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) announced that an air sampler in Glasgow recorded traces of the radioactive isotope iodine roughly 6,000 miles from the site of the Fukushima disaster.

Shortly afterwards a statement from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) confirmed that \”measurements taken at HPA\’s monitoring station in Oxfordshire… found trace levels of iodine-131 in the air.\”

Despite fears that the Fukushima nuclear disaster could have ramifications in Oxford, Professor Paul Ewart, Head of Atomic and Laser Physics at Oxford University\’s Clarendon Laboratory, says that in Britain \”there is absolutely nothing for anyone to worry about\”.

According to Ewart, \”there is far more radiation around us from natural sources than that from this particular source.\”

\”The fact that it has been detected tells us just how sensitive is the apparatus that has been developed to measure radiation.

\”There are roughly 20 million million million atoms in a cube of air about the size of your finer tip. At the radiation level detected here in Oxford (300 microBecquerels) you would have to wait over 100 years for one of these (iodine) atoms to decay.\”

Ewart added, \”anyone who flies in an airplane will get vastly more radiation from cosmic rays in the atmosphere than from the radiation from Fukushima.\”

Wade Allison, MA DPhil and Senior College Lecturer in Physics at Oxford University, told Cherwell that \”radiation safety is about 1000 times too cautious.\”

\”There have been no radiation fatalities in Japan. A few workers have received intermediate doses but it is very unlikely that they will suffer any long term effects at all.\”

In response to comparisons being drawn between Fukushima and Chernobyl, Allison added that \”no worker at Chernobyl who received such a dose is known to have had any lasting health problems.\”

Although experts have emphasized a tendency to overreact when faced with the threat of a nuclear disaster, the death toll in Japan caused by the recent catastrophe continues to rise.

The Japanese National Police Agency has officially confirmed 11,362 deaths, 2,872 injured, and 16,290 people missing across eighteen prefectures, as well as over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed.

A source in Japan told Cherwell, \”my family is living in Tokyo and because they are in a TEPCO service area, they are directly hit by a power shortage\”.

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) own the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini powerplants and have had to introduce rolling blackouts due to power shortages after the initial failures at the Daiichi plant.

Our source commented that \”people are in a sense panicking but still in order and their spirit is still very high\”.

In a recent press release, Oxford University Japan Society (OUJC) described their fundraising campaign for the British Red Cross\’s Japan Tsunami Appeal.

\”Our fundraising effort, which started on Tuesday the 15th of March, was conducted at the Carfax Crossroads in Oxford City Centre, just outside of the HSBC Bank.

\”Around 20 people helped with the fundraising which lasted for a week, and we were able to raise a sum of £13,582.32\”.

Ronan Sato, president of OUJC said \”fortunately we have not received any notices of members being personally affected but should there be anyone OUSU have told us that they are prepared to give such individuals all the necessary support.\”

 

Recent information about academic cuts at Oxford University has caused controversy over the necessity of its decision to charge £9,000 a year in tuition fees.

Figures published last Thursday by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) reveal that Oxford is expected to face a reduction in funding of just 1% in real terms.

Cambridge is seeing its funding cut by only 3%, whereas City University in London is suffering a 10.8% cut. The worst hit university, with its funding slashed by 15.8%, is Bishop Grossteste in Lincoln, which has announced that it will charge tuition fees of £7,500 for most of its courses from 2012.

However, Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive of HEFCE, suggested that the universities with the smallest funding changes are those with high levels of world-leading research and significant financial support from charities and businesses.

It is expected that Oxford University will receive £7.3 million less from HEFCE next year. Yet in 2009-10, government funding only formed 23% of the institution\’s income.

External research contracts and grants made up 40%, bringing in £367 million.

Furthermore, the university appears to be benefiting from an increase in charitable donations. Statistics released last week in the Ross-CASE Survey show that in 2009-10 Oxford and Cambridge accounted for half of all new charitable funds secured by universities, despite overall charitable donations to UK universities having dropped by £20 million.

This information has caused some to question the university\’s decision to raise tuition fees to £9,000 per year as a method of generating further income.

Rachel Farnsworth, a first year PPE student, commented, \”I absolutely dont think it\’s necessary – if Oxford wanted to, they could easily charge less, and I bet the people donating would want some of it spent on undergrads.

\”I think they\’re just playing a game of one-upmanship with Cambridge over fees really!\’

The university predicts that the highest departmental cut, of £5.1 million, will be to \”Old & Historic Buildings Allocation\”, something which has little impact on the teaching and research of academic departments.

However, a spokesperson for Oxford University said that the raise in fees would help \”to safeguard the future of our transformative education system.\”

\”Oxford students also enjoy exceptional facilities for learning thanks to a combination of college and University provision. All of this costs a huge amount of money, and Oxford is absolutely committed to maintaining this provision.\”

With other prestigious institutions, such as Cambridge, Durham and Imperial College London, having all declared that they will be raising tuition fees to the maximum of £9000 per year, it has been argued that the decision of Oxford University is necessary as a means of preserving its reputation.

Lincoln college student, Adam Rachlin, agreed that \”raising tuition fees to £9,000 per year is a necessary step to keep Oxford a first rate university\”.

He added, \”however, the extent to which access is increased will be the marker for how fair the system is, and from what I\’ve heard so far Oxford will have large schemes to improve access.\”

In a statement from the Vice-Chancellor, it was said that \”after public funding cuts, the proposals [to charge £9,000 tuition fees] only bring in £10 million of real extra income, of which 70% goes on new spending on student support and access.\”