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.\”

 

 

The government has been warned that it may have to spend almost £1 billion more than expected over the next four years to cover tuition fees costs, as more universities announce their move to charge the maximum threshold.

Bath, University College London, Birmingham and Lancaster have now joined the growing list of universities who have stated their intention to charge the maximum tuition fees of £9000, starting in 2012.

Lancaster University has justified its decision as a reflection of its teaching and research standing. Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings commented, \”The fee level will allow the university to build on the high level of education and university experience that we currently offer our students.\”

However, not all at the university are happy with the decision. One Lancaster student told Cherwell, \”I just don\’t think raising fees is the right thing to do. We\’ll put people off from going to university and that\’s not good in the long run.\”

Of 23 universities who have so far announced their fee decisions for 2012 onwards, nineteen have declared their intention to move to the £9,000 maximum. This includes Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Manchester, Warwick, Aston, Reading, Liverpool John Moore and Leeds Metropolitan.

David Willets, the government\’s Universities Minister, had previously stated that £9,000 fees would be charged only in \”exceptional cases.\” However, the number of universities moving to the new threshold has threatened an imbalance in government funding of around £1 billion.

Gareth Thomas, the shadow universities minister, commented, \”It is increasingly clear that the government are powerless to stop universities charging £9,000. This will push up average estimates on which the government\’s spending plans are based, requiring deeper cuts elsewhere in the higher education budget.\”

Critics fear that the initial outlay will have to be paid for in other cuts to higher education, including cuts in research and fewer university places.

The government has already announced national higher education cuts of £940 million, including a 66% reduction in the science capital budget. Universities will face a 9.5% cut compared with the current academic year, including a 6% loss in teaching budgets.

Willets has suggested that the coalition is considering plans to create an \”opportunities fund.\” This would enable the government to allocate more places to institutions that offer cheaper courses, in an attempt to reign in the movement of universities towards the new maximum fees.

A spokesperson for the University of Oxford told Cherwell that, \”Whatever the updated arrangements, Oxford is committed to funding undergraduate teaching.\”

 

This week, journalist, economist, political analyst and author Will Hutton was named the new Principal of Hertford College, to start this Trinity term.

As a public figure best known for his role on BBC programmes such as Newsnight and his editorship of the Observer, Hutton’s status as a high profile personality makes him an interesting choice for a college which prides itself on being one of the most progressive at Oxford.

The college’s Senior Fellow, Dr Toby Barnard, said, “Hertford is delighted to have Will Hutton as its next Principal. He promises to continue and enhance the college’s enviable reputation for innovation, open access, friendliness and intellectual distinction.

“There is foul weather ahead for all universities, but particularly for Oxford colleges. Hertford is confident that, with Will Hutton’s dynamism and experience of public life, it will emerge from the impending storms much strengthened.”

Hutton himself seemed excited at the prospect of serving “a great Oxford college at a pre-eminent world university,” citing, “a genuine meeting of minds between the fellowship and myself that is exhilarating.”

He has spent the last decade at the helm of The Work Foundation, a not-for-profit think-tank that aims to improve the performance and quality of working life, and has also written many books on economic and political subjects.

Academically, Hutton’s experience is equally varied, as a governor of London School of Economics, a visiting professor at the University of Manchester Business School and the University of Bristol, and a visiting fellow at Mansfield College Oxford.

Hertford’s JCR President, James Weinberg commented that, “[Hutton’s] emphasis on facilitating and participating in open discussion and debate was a delight to hear and would not only foster greater cohesion within Hertford but would inject vitality into college life.”

He added, that Mr Hutton “will not be afraid to ‘rock the boat’ in defence of our collective principles” and that, “that enthusiasm and determination is exactly what Hertford needs to make things happen, both internally and externally.”

As Principal, Mr. Hutton will have overall responsibility for students’ academic work, as well as an interest in their wider activities – social, sporting, cultural, political. He will also lead the various staff teams in college, and represent the college in the university and beyond.

Whilst many students will welcome the renowned economist and successful public intellectual into their midst, some still harboured doubts about his appointment.

An undergraduate student, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that Will Hutton’s long and recent involvement with The Work Foundation “from many perspectives has been detrimental due to that very fact that he would like to turn everything into a thinktank.

“This, I feel, could really affect Hertford as a college in that it is a notoriously active one (on all sorts of fronts – political, charity, etc), and the fact that a principal might not endorse that, or might have little understanding of that feeling, is worrying.”

However, in a report written after interviewing the candidates for Principal, Weinberg concluded, “If we want to be put on the map…if we want someone with drive and originality, as well as the channels through which to exercise it in our favour; then Will Hutton is the man for the job.”

Whether Hutton can live up to such high expectations and praise, or whether he will struggle against the impending tide of higher education cuts, and the idiosyncrasies of Oxford life, remains to be seen.