OUSU’s decision to axe the sabbatical position of VP Charities and Community and replace it with the new title of VP Campaigns and Democracy has come under fire from a member of the Part-Time Executive, resulting in a backlash of condemnation from some members of the Council.
At its 5th Week meeting, OUSU Council passed the motion based on the recommendation of the Strategic Review Group. Following discussions with students, the report states that, “Campaigning on issues around higher education funding was seen to be a near-universal priority.”
The proposed change to the Sabbatical Team is backed by the majority of OUSU Committee, including the President Stefan Baskerville and Jonny Medland, the current VP (Access and Academic Affairs).
Among those who are against the proposals for change is Jack Matthews, the current Common Room Support Officer, who said, “Whilst I recognise that the position of VP Charity and Community needs to be reformed, I am against its wholesale change to a VP Campaigns and Democracy.”
Although he acknowledges that the lack of student engagement with OUSU is a problem, he believes that the solution is not necessarily to raise OUSU’s campaigning profile, adding, “it is not clear what evidence there is for an increase in campaigning at the expense of the important roles that the VP (Charities and Community) carries out.
“It is puzzling why the VP (Charities and Community) whose job involves representing students to the local community, should be cut, when it does exactly what students have asked for.” 
The vocal opposition of Matthews and several others within OUSU has unleashed a backlash of condemnation from some members of the Council, who question their motives. One JCR President said, “It is disgraceful that a change that would help so many students is being opposed by a small clique who are among the very few people who actually stand to benefit from the preservation of the status quo. 
“Some of the objections being brought up are incredibly dishonest. These people say they want to help represent students, but they’re actually only interested in advocating their own prejudices and helping themselves.”   
The proposal’s supporters have countered its critics by reiterating that the position of VP Charities and Community was originally established due to the availability of funding that no longer exists. Supporters point out that the position has the smallest workload of all the sabbatical team, meaning its few essential duties can be easily redistributed among other student officers.
Supporters also point out that by supporting a sabbatical position that is dedicated to fulfilling the priorities identified as the most important by students, such as Higher Education funding and student housing, OUSU will be able to increase its involvement with Oxford students. 
Medland said, “OUSU could do a lot more if we had a sabbatical officer whose job was to engage students and campaign on their behalf. Our current organisational structure makes this hugely difficult – while OUSU achieves a lot through working closely with the university, this leads to there being less time to directly engage students. We need a role which is responsible for engaging students on questions like these.”  
Dani Quinn, VP (Welfare and Equal Opportunities), also supports the decision, citing the success of recent campaigns such as the recent University-wide Teaching Review and the Well-Being Week held in Hilary Term as examples of the positive effects that student campaigns can achieve. 
However, a small number of people involved in the Committee have vehemently opposed the move, advocating that the work of VP (Charities and Community) could not be incorporated into other positions. 
While it was recognised that much of the work undertaken by the position Charities and Committees is of great value to students and the community, much of this element of the role is duplicated by the activities of OxHub and RAG, both of which are in a strong position to continue to develop and to widen the scope of their work.  
The findings of the Review were drawn on results of an online survey completed by 834 students, and various focus groups involving JCR and MCR Presidents, OUSU Representatives and other students who have been closely involved with the student union and its work. The Review Group also received the assistance of an NUS Regional Officer in analysing the data and determining their conclusions. 
The proposal faces a committee vote again in OUSU’s 8th Week council, at which the new sabbatical position and its job description will need an approval of a two-thirds majority to pass. In a year which has seen radical reforms to OUSU’s finances, many are hoping that by securing this change to the Executive, funds will be able to be more efficiently utilised to directly benefit students in the future.

A footnote of OUSU’s budget seen this week by Cherwell reveals that their financial problems in 2008-9 were substantially worse than previously imagined.

Last Trinity term, the OUSU Budget forecast the income from Oxford Student Services Limited, a subsidiary company of OUSU, at £80,000. In fact, just £4,717 was raised by OSSL in 2008-9. It is forecast that £28,680 will have been made by OSSL this year.

OSSL is the part of OUSU responsible for the publication of the Oxford Handbook, The Oxford Student newspaper, the Fresher’s Guide, and running the Fresher’s Fair.

The enormous overestimation was caused by a provision of bad debts of £12,000, six times higher than had been accounted for, and under-performance in advertising revenue.

The OUSU Budget itself notes that this figure “was a vast overestimate of what OSSL could make.”

The Budget produced by the previous OUSU team forecast a profit of £110 for this year. This was despite the fact that they had made a loss of over £57,000 last year. The current OUSU team forecast a loss of £61,000 for this academic year.

OUSU President Stefan Baskerville said, “We have been very open and honest about the failures of the old financial model and we have taken effective and successful steps to make changes and put OUSU on a stable footing to serve students in the future.”

The perceived financial stability and competence in the running of OUSU are the main reasons why Oriel Colllege voted this week to re-affiliate, for the first time since 2001.

Mark Jesnick, Oriel JCR President said, “I think this OUSU regime has taken huge strides. The biggest thing they have done is change the financial structure and made it more stable and sustainable. This year OUSU has an excellent team and I feel it is in very competent hands.”

Oriel’s referendum result had 72% of students in favour in re-affiliation, with 123 votes for and 48 against.

Baskerville said, “We are very happy that Oriel students have decided overwhelmingly to have their common room affiliate to OUSU.”

A Cambridge professor has spoken out against the Oxbridge practice whereby students who pass BA undergraduate degrees are automatically entitled to an MA 3 years after graduation.

While students from other universities must complete and pay for a programme of advanced postgraduate study to obtain an MA, Oxbridge and Trinity College Dublin students can obtain the degree for free and without further work simply by attending a ceremony at their university.

Dr Neil Dodgson, an academic at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, labeled the system an “anomaly” from other universities’ practices, and said that Oxbridge needs to recognize that the world has “moved on”.

Speaking at a meeting of the Cambridge University Senate he said, “Many find it offensive that we should award a degree for doing nothing more than being able to breathe for three years. Every degree at Cambridge, other than the MA, is now a certificate awarded for passing an examination. It is only a matter of time before our MA spawns a PR disaster.

“Perhaps it is time, instead, for us to acknowledge that the rest of the world has moved on, and to align ourselves, reluctantly, with a world that believes that a degree should only be awarded for academic achievement.”

Most other universities with 4 year courses, such as those in Scotland, automatically award an MA at the end of the course, while the Oxford 4 year Classics course, for example, receives only a BA. 4 year Maths courses at Oxford receive an MMath. Other postgraduate degrees from Oxbridge which do require further study and achievement have different titles, such as MPhil and MSc.

However a statement released by Cambridge University’s council said, “The council believes that the (MA) degree continues to serve valuable purposes which outweigh any negative external perceptions of it. The QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) is well aware of the degree’s status and has not expressed any concerns about it.”

The Oxford University Press Office said that the degree is a “tradition” about which there are sure to be “many different opinions”.

The practice originates from the Middle Ages where the study of the arts took 7 years. The Bachelor of Arts degree was an intermediary degree between matriculation and admission to the degree of Master of Arts. Later the requirements for the Master’s degree gradually diminished, until the award became a formality, as it is now.

Many Oxbridge students feel that the degree is deserved. One student said, “Our courses are much more intensive than those at most other universities, and we work a lot harder, so it’s fair to recognise that.” Another student pointed out that “all employers know what MA Oxon means in comparison to an MA from another university, so it doesn’t give us any unfair advantage”.

However there has been much online debate about the issue, with students from other universities voicing concerns, and questioning the idea that students at Oxbridge work harder than those elsewhere.

One Oxford student said “The MA is nonsense, and every university outside of Oxbridge recognises as much.”

New plans have been announced for construction at the New Bodleian Library on Broad Street.

The application to restore and renovate the library have been approved by Oxford City Council, meaning that the building will be opened to the public for the first time.

Despite its name, the condition of the New Bodleian’s building has been deteriorating for some time. It currently houses the Bodleian Library’s collections of rare and special manuscripts, and there have been questions in recent years concerning the safety of these documents due to the risk of fire, humidity, or inadequate security.

The cost of the renovations is estimated at £78 million, and construction is expected to take four years.  Both the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Oxford University Press have contributed approximately £25 million to finance the project, and Julian Blackwell, President of Blackwell’s Bookshop, has donated £6 million.

The money will not only go towards the restoration of the existing structure, but to the creation of a new glass frontage on the Broad Street face of the library, an enlarged entrance hall, and the construction of a modern cafe and exhibition rooms for some of the manuscripts. The new structure will be known as the Weston Library in honour of the donor foundation.

New, high-tech storage facilities for the library’s special collections, some of which contain documents of national or even international importance, are to be assembled, which will serve not only to protect the papers but to free up space within the library for researchers as well.

The construction of exhibition halls for some of the most famous documents housed within the library, such as copies of Magna Carta, will allow for the creation of a noteworthy tourist attraction.

The books and manuscripts currently in the building will be accommodated elsewhere during the renovations.