A petition has been launched to raise the wages of college and departmental staff employed by the University.

The petition, created by OUSU’s Living Wage Campaign, is demanding an increase in pay so that staff salaries meet living wage rather than minimum wage standards.

A ‘Living Wage’ is the minimum level of pay required to maintain a decent standard of living in a certain area. It is calculated by a formula from the National Income Standard, which is authorised by the Rowntree Trust, which takes factors such as cost of housing, council tax and transport into account.

According to 2010 calculations, the living wage for Oxford equates to £7.01 per hour. However, it is understood that many Oxford University employees are paid as little as £5.93 per hour.

There is no uniform standard pay across colleges.  In some circumstances cleaners are hired through contracted companies, where wage discrepancies also arise.  

According to the OUSU website, “The Living Wage Campaign seeks to build stronger alliances between students and workers within the University.”

Sean Whitton of Balliol said, “So many Oxford students feel strongly about poor wages for college workers, especially scouts, because they see how dependent the university is on them day in day out and are shocked to find that in a university traditionally seen as very wealthy they receive so little remuneration. 

“We know we have this mass support – a petition is an effective way of showing the university that we do.”

Eight college JCR Committees have already pledged support for the campaign. When questioned about the petition, many Oxford students were supportive.

One college scout told Cherwell, “Of course I welcome this iniative. I work very hard and less than £6 an hour is not enough, especially with living costs increasing.”

One PPE student commented, “I agree with OUSU’s campaign to support the living wage for employees of Oxford colleges. The minimum wage does not cover the full cost of living.”

Another student remarked, “It’s good that a need for change in the type of wages university staff are currently getting is being recognised, but it’s pretty bad that they’re only recognising this need now.”

The campaign has drawn attention to the fact that some universities, such as UCL and LSE, already pay a living wage, as well as Oxford City Council.

Yet concerns have been raised that the forthcoming education cuts, which are likely to force the University to substantially raise its tuition fees, mean that an increase in support staff wages may not be viable.

However, one undergraduate commented, “Scouts, waiters, and other college staff work hard to make our college experience easier, and their pay should reflect that. I would not be comfortable with having my room cleaned by someone who is paid the bare minimum.”

Anyone who wishes to become involved is advised to get in touch via [email protected].

The Russell Group of universities has published a  post-16 study guide called ‘Informed Choices,’ in which students are advised to take traditional subjects at A level in order to maximise their chances of getting into a top university.

One Oxford student said, “At my school we weren’t really told to think about university when choosing A level subjects, many people just took what they had liked best at GCSE, or thought looked good in the sixth form prospectus.

“I was lucky in that I was sure which A levels I wanted to study, and so didn’t need guidance. However, I have friends who were not given any advice on which subjects they should have taken, and ended up doing courses that weren’t useful.”

The guide acknowledges that important decisions can be made as early as sixteen. For a highly ranked university such as Oxford, an applicant’s combination of A level subjects can determine their chances of getting an offer and may even prevent them from applying for certain courses.

One student said, “the fact a lot of state schools aren’t as familiar with the Oxbridge application process as public schools means that they often can’t supply potential applicants with the right guidance.”

However, one undergraduate said, “I got here because I put in the work.
“I believe that if you work hard, you can get anywhere, no matter where you go to school.”

Oxford University currently offers generous bursaries and outreach schemes in order to widen access.

However, in an interview for a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Mike Nicholson, the Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Oxford, remarked that potential state school candidates are  missing out.

He said that the effort taken by state schools to raise the grades of low achievers was having an effect on the “solid B” GCSE students who, with adequate guidance, could potentially apply to Oxford.

The comments come at a time when the government, set to allow universities to raise tuition fees to £9,000, is attempting to widen access to the top institutions.

Currently some students who attended state schools said that they were given only limited guidance by their teachers.

One student said, “staff at my school did their best for me, but many had little or no experience of helping with applications to top universities and simply weren’t sure how to help.

“We were sent for a single practice interview provided by the LEA (Local Education Authority) [but] I found more useful advice online.”

As part of the Education Review, universities wishing to charge more than £,6000 will have to commit to ‘access agreements’ in order to recruit students from a range of backgrounds.

No specific details have been released yet, but they may consist of offering bursaries, summer schools and outreach programmes designed to encourage students from poorer backgrounds to apply.

Many believe that such measures will help to maximise the chances of state school students.

The exact nature of the measures to be taken under the new act have not yet been determined.

A statement from the University Press Office stated that “fee levels and associated student support are under intense discussion over the next several weeks across the collegiate University.”

Many believe that such measures will help to maximise the chances of state school students.

However, the exact nature of the measures to be taken under the new act have not yet been determined and will be negotiated with the Office For Fair Access (OFFA).

A statement from the University Press Office stated that “fee levels and associated student support are under intense discussion over the next several weeks across the collegiate University.”

Finalists at Somerville College were woken by singing and smoke which caused the fire alarm to go off in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The alarm was triggered by Somerville’s Chapel Director Yaqoob Bangash, who according to the College’s website is employed “to arrange services and initiate discussion on ethical and moral issues more broadly in College.” He shares accommodation with 24 third and fourth year students.

Bangash, a DPhil History candidate and OUCA member, was entertaining guests on Tuesday evening.  He told Cherwell that “My friends went to a Catholic society dinner, and I went to Formal Hall, but we weren’t drunk.” 

According to several students, Bangash and his guests made noise and sang loudly in the corridor, disturbing students’ sleep.  The fire alarm went off at around 1.30am.

Somerville’s Principal, Dr Alice Prochaska, who has spoken to Bangash since the incident, and the students who saw him that night, told Cherwell that they were under the impression that the alarm had been set off when items within Bangash’s room such as a box of tissues were set on fire.

However, when Cherwell asked how the fire started, Bangash said, “I was making tea for my friends in the kitchenette when the pan I was boiling the water in caught fire.”

A German Classics student who lives in the building was reportedly particularly upset by the singing, which she believed was a Latin translation of verses of the German national anthem which have been banned for their Nazi content. 

Bangash denied that the singing was offensive or had Nazi content. “My friends were singing Latin hymns. I would never allow racist stuff to go in my room, I would have thrown them out.”

One resident said, “My concern is that the items in his room had been left burning in a building where most people were asleep.

“We were woken up by smoke and had to call the porters.  Bangash was seen to leave and came back with a friend later, laughing and blaming his friend for starting the fire.

“[Bangash] asked us, ‘why are you guys in pyjamas? Why are you in bed so early?’” Bangash denies making these comments.

Finlay Maguire, another affected finalist, told Cherwell, “He was entirely unapologetic at the time. Some students here plan to work away from their rooms based on the Chapel Director’s activity.”

Bangash told Cherwell that he was sorry for the incident, commenting, “I’ve spoken to the Dean and apologised to everyone.”

Maguire agreed that Bangash had since given a note of apology and chocolate to every resident who had been disturbed by the alarm. It is understood that Bangash finished his dissertation this week. 

The College’s Principal told Cherwell that she understood the events of Tuesday night to be “a question of celebration” and that she had “established to my own satisfaction that there was no offensive singing.”

When asked what action was being taken, Prochaska said, “I want to hear everyone’s account before I make a decision. I’ve spoken to Bangash and he knows that college take matters like this very seriously.”

On Tuesday afternoon a cast of academics and University officials took assembled at the  Sheldonian Theatre to  discuss the fee level which Oxford will set for undergraduates from 2012.

However, the Congregation’s debate quickly broadened to the issue of whether the University should accept the cuts to higher education at all. 

Only a handful of students, a few OUSU delegates and reporters, were allowed in to witness the discussions. 

Members of the Oxford Education Campaign protested outside, with images of gagging  used to object to students not being allowed to attend the Congregation. 

“Anger is felt by the majority of the students, because it’s only a minority of us who have been allowed to speak,” said one OEC member, a student at Ruskin College. 

A row of protesters outside the building each held a cardboard letter, forming a banner that read “Strike to Stop Cuts.” 

Some OEC members did make it inside with prepared statements which they read at the end of the Congregation.

Professor Tony Monaco, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Planning and Resources) opened the debate by declaring that, “We would have to charge fees of around £8,000 just to maintain the status quo.”

He explained that were the University to charge £9,000 a year, extra revenue would be produced, which could be put towards fee waivers for less wealthy students. 

Monaco added that a £3,000 fee waiver is being considered, to send the message to poorer applicants that “it is no more costly to attend Oxford than any other UK higher education institution”.

Professor Susan Cooper of St Catherine’s College remarked that the debt would not be “a risk to students” but to the government, who do not yet know how much student debt they will have to “forgive” after 30 years. 

Others stressed the University’s ability to challenge the cuts. Politics tutor Stuart White said, “If we really believe in equality of opportunity, then as a university we must be clear and loud in saying that we oppose the new fees regime in higher education.”

Robin Briggs, Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, said of the Browne Review, “That intellectually vacuous report espouses a pure market ideology in which everything is reduced to the lowest common denominator of money.”

Nick Clegg’s recent announcement that universities will have to fulfil a number of conditions regarding access will also impact the University’s decision regarding the fee level. The University will have to admit a certain number of students from poorer backgrounds, possibly with lower grade offers, in order to justify their £9,000 fee. 

Despite this, OUSU President David Barclay expressed fears that, “this new system through  poor design and shocking PR will put the poorer students off applying to university.”

He added, “The day we give up on  students who would never before thought of coming to university coming here to Oxford is the day we abandon any pretence of seeking academic talent wherever it may be found.” 

The shouts of the protesters could be heard from inside the building. Beth Evans, OEC member and OUSU VP for Graduate and International Students, said in her impromptu speech to the Congregation, “There are students outside right now who are telling you, who are asking you to fight. 

“They are saying they will support you if you fight. They will support you in strikes and in industrial action.”

As members of the congregation left, they were met by members of the OEC who told academics that they would back them should they choose to strike. 

At the OEC meeting on Monday, the decision was made to support strikes in the academic community rather than calling for free education, which one member called “a lost cause”. 

Sky Herington, a student at St Edmund Hall, remarked, “We’re not just fighting fees, we’re fighting cuts. We’re telling the academics that if they were to go on strike they would have our full support.”

Wadham second year Rebecca Sparrow said, “It is encouraging for those who rejected the whole premise that a rise in fees was given. 

“There were no arguments for the cuts, people either spoke about how to deal with them or how we should campaign against them. We can work together, students and academics, we all acknowledge the damage the cuts will do to education and society.”

The controversial Imam Dr. Zakir Naik is to speak at the Oxford Union via video-link this evening.

He was banned from the UK last year by Home Secretary Theresa May for “unacceptable behaviour”.

Naik, who had been holding talks in the UK for 15 years, is described by the Oxford Union as “one of the world’s leading Islamic orators and authorities on comparative religion.”

The website for Peace TV, of which Mr. Naik is a founder, states that he “clears misconceptions about Islam.”

In a video on YouTube, Naik tells an audience “If he’s [Osama Bin Laden] terrorising America the terrorist I am with him…Every Muslim should be a terrorist.” In another video he warns, “We need to be careful of the Jews.”

The preacher’s planned talk has prompted the Oxford University Jewish Society to call for the talk to be cancelled. In a statement they said, “Compromising government attempts to keep our country free of hate speech undermines the very basis of the Union.”

Myriam Francois of the Oxford Islamic Society said, “Whilst we do not condone Naik’s views and stand with OUJS against all forms of prejudice, we do believe the best way to tackle ignorance is to counter it through the open forum of debate.”

However, she said that the society considered “the format of the event, an address rather than a debate with a vigorous opposition, to be misguided.”

Francois added, “We state unequivocally that Islam does not tolerate prejudice, sexism or extremism, the Prophet Mohammed having described Islam as a religion of moderation.”

Sam Cherkas, speaking on behalf of OUJS, told Cherwell earlier this week that they had not received a response from the Oxford Union addressing their concerns, after emailing the President on 27th January.

A statement from Union said, “The decision to invite Naik was not taken lightly.

“The Union takes very seriously members’ concerns over the likely content of Dr Naik’s talk. However, The Oxford Union exists to discuss and debate ideas, even those  considered unorthodox or controversial by society at large.

“We have no desire to challenge Dr Naik’s ban on entry to the UK. However, we do wish to give our members the chance to discuss and challenge his views on terrorism and on the Home Office’s decision to ban him.”

A series of pornographic poems hidden inside a serious volume of verse from the 18th century have been discovered by Oxford’s Dr Claudine van Hensbergen.

Van Hensbergen, who works for the English faculty, expressed her surprise at the discovery, stating that she was not prepared for what was to be included within a collection of poems she was looking at. 

She commented, “To my surprise, ‘The Cabinet’ turned out to be a collection of pornographic verse about dildos. 

“The poems include ‘Dildoides’ about the public burning of French-imported dildos, and ‘The Discovery’, a poem about a man watching a woman in bed while hiding under a table”, she commented.

One poem, entitled ‘The Delights of Venus’, involves a woman giving explicit details of the joys of sex to a virginal friend. Guy Tonkin, a second year English student, commented, “I found ‘The Delights of Venus’ to be reminiscent of recent crewdate chat”.  

In the poem “A Panegyrick Upon Cundums”, Rochester writes about “Shankers, cordee and bubos”, or the swellings and general ills associated with venereal disease.

Van Hensbergen believes that the inclusion of these poems explains why ‘The Works of the Earls of Rochester and Roscommon’ was so popular.

The collection was a best seller in its time. Van Hensbergen said, “Knowing about the existence and nature of ‘The Cabinet’ throws a different light on why this particular miscellany was one of the most popular of the century.

“In brief, sex sells books, then just as it still does today.”

Van Hensbergen found the poems whilst carrying out research for the University’s Digital Miscellanies Index, a project which aims to create a free online database of 18th century poetry.

The President of the Oxford Union, James Langman, has condemned the behaviour of members of the Union’s Secretary’s Committee and Standing Committee at President’s Drinks held last Thursday.

Langman stated to members of the Standing Committee at the meeting held on Monday, “Two complaints were made by members of the Union staff about Union officers herding their friends into the event and disobeying the orders of the security guard we had on Thursday.

“I have given you more than enough guests to bring to the event. I am not prepared to have my staff pushed aside so you can get your friends in. Serious action will be taken if this happens again.”

Langman’s warning at the Standing Committee meeting was a re-iteration of his statement to the Secretary’s Committee earlier on in the day.

“A member of staff has complained that she would never work another Thursday shift if this behaviour continues” Langman stated.

He told those assembled, “I will not have the staff disrespected so you can look like top dog in front of your friends.”

An official spokesperson from the Union denied that any formal complaint had been made by the staff and emphasised that there was a “very small number of Union officers bending the rules.”

“There were in fact far fewer people at President’s Drinks than were on the guest list. Furthermore, the number of guests was well under the capacity of the room.

“A member of staff indicated that officers had tried to get their friends in but no formal complaint has been made. Any accusations of misconduct or mistreatment of staff on Union premises are taken most seriously by the Society.”

Concerns were also raised by Rahul Ahluwalia at Monday’s meeting about using Union staff for the Cardinal’s Cocktails event in sixth week.   

A Cardinal’s event held at the Union  last year caused chaos due to overcrowding and insufficient staffing.  The Union spokesperson emphasised to Cherwell that the two events were unrelated.

Scientists at Oxford have developed a way of making solar panels from metal oxides found in toothpaste. The discovery offers a much more cost-effective way of harnessing solar power, estimated to be 50% cheaper to produce than the current cheapest technology.

The group, led by Henry Snaith of  Jesus College, have produced solar cells that use organic materials and metal oxides. These are a lot less volatile than electrolyte dye cells and so can be produced very easily and cheaply over large areas.

Conversion efficiencies are  5-6% in the lab but are predicted to have the potential to reach 10%.

Ollie Bennett from solar power company MiPower said the discovery could be a “forerunner” in the solar panel market.

Oxford University’s Islamic Society has issued a statement declaring their support for Egyptian protestors and demanding the immediate removal of President Mubarak.

The Society states that Mubarak has been ruthlessly undermining the rights of the Egyptian people under the guise of a “three-decade state of emergency”, establishing “corruption, mistrust and enmity” within Egyptian society.

Believing the protest movement to reflect the broad divergences of Egyptian society, they praise the protesters’ courage in the face of growing hostility. 

The statement comes among growing scepticism towards Mubarak’s desire to remain in office until elections in September to ensure a “peaceful and organised” transfer of power.