Universities should be allowed to set their own level of tuition fees, according to Lord Browne’s review of higher education, which was published this week.

The review, released on Tuesday, has recommended that the current cap of £3,290 per year should be lifted and universities should be free to charge what they like. This could mean the introduction of tuition fees of up to £12,000 a year.

If Browne’s recommended measures are accepted by the government, students could graduate with debts of up to £50,000. These debts would then attract interest at a real rate.

Graduates would not have to start repaying the loans until they were earning £21,000 per year. But after this they would have to make repayments worth 9 percent of their income, regardless of how much it is. Interest would also start accumulating at a rate of inflation plus 2.2 percent.

The student loans system would be simplified, with one government agency placed in charge of handling loans, grants and bursaries.

Browne has also suggested that there should be “a minimum entry standard, based on aptitude”, so that “only those who are qualified to benefit from higher education” would be entitled to a loan.

The proposals, which are designed to save money for the government and help struggling universities, were called “highly progressive” by Browne, on the grounds that “the lowest 20% of earners will pay less than today”.

These proposals immediately attracted criticism about the impact they will have on middle-rate earners. Those students who start earning high salaries straight away will be able to pay their loans off before the interest grows too much.

Those earning less than £21,000 will not have to pay anything – but those in between face decades of repayments and mounting interest. There is also a concern that the high costs will put those from less well-off backgrounds off applying to university.

Universities will be entitled to charge as much as they like in tuition fees. However, those charging more than £6,000 a year will have to give a large percentage of their extra income to the government, to help them pay the upfront costs of students’ fees.

Another recommendation is that the government should be allowed to reduce funding, and that what remains should be focussed on courses “that are important to the wellbeing of our society and to our economy,” such as medicine and engineering.

Oxford’s current budget is £863 million, out of which just eight per cent is received directly from the state, in the form of a teaching grant.

According to predictions this grant might be cut by up to 75 per cent. In this case, it is estimated that Oxford will be paying the government back between £35m and £40m per year in levies, and receive just £17.5m back as a teaching grant.

The government said that it welcomes the report, although it has not yet agreed to implement its recommendations in full.

Despite predictions that it could lead to a rift in the coalition, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been urging Liberal Democrat MPs to go back on their promise to voters to oppose tuition fees.

“Like you, I am painfully aware of the pledge we all made to voters on tuition fees ahead of the general election,” he said.

“Departing from that pledge will be one of the most difficult decisions of my political career. It means doing something that no one likes to do in politics – acknowledging that the assumptions we made at election time simply don’t work out in practice.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable has also stated that he plans to “put specific proposals to the House to implement radical and progressive reforms of higher education along the lines of the Browne Report.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank described the review as “more progressive than under the current system … in the sense that lower-earning graduates would pay less and higher-earning graduates would pay more.”

However, universities would lose money under the threshold scenario of a £6,000 fee, the IFS said. “While their fee income would nearly double in this case, buried in the detail of the review’s recommendations are proposed cuts to the teaching budget that would see some courses become entirely self-funded.”

Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust education charity, said there was a danger that higher fees for the most prestigious courses would make them “the preserve of the most privileged”.

“There are some sensible measures in these proposals. But our concern is that the headline figure of the costs of attending more prestigious universities might still deter those from non-privileged backgrounds from applying in the first place.”

Tickets for this year’s Varsity ski trip sold out in a record-breaking thirty hours last week. Students snapped up all 2500 tickets in just under two days, compared to ten days last year.

Sam Kirsop, President of Varsity 2010 said, “We’ve been working really hard to ensure that this year is the best Varsity Trip experience yet. We can’t wait to show them what’s in store for December.”

The quick sales have left hundreds of students disappointed and sparked criticism from freshers.

One Brasenose first year who missed out said, “It was sold out before freshers even knew it existed. I’d have loved to go but I didn’t want to sign up before I’d made enough friends to go with.”

1300 Oxford students and 1200 Cambridge students will hit the slopes in Val Thorens this December.

OUSU Council has passed a motion to mandate its officers to lobby the University against the introduction of the A* grade at A Level.

The proposal, brought by the JCR President of Magdalen College, raised the possibility of an unfair advantage to private school students.

The proposal argued that smaller class sizes, motivated teachers and improved facilities benefitted those students in the independent sector, and meant they were more likely to achieve the 90% score in their final year required for the elusive grade.

Of the candidates who met their offers for Oxford this year, just 16.5% did not achieve at least one A* grade. Within that minority, there are twice as many state school pupils as ones who attended independent schools.

The motion passed with the amendment that OUSU should review its current position by no later than the end of Michealmas Term 2011.

An Oxford Brookes was stabbed in the early hours of yesterday morning outside the O2 Academy on Cowley Road.

The incident took place at around 4am on Thursday 13th October. The 20-year-old first-year student was walking along Cowley Road when a man pulled up in a vehicle and a fight began.

The student was taken by paramedics to the John Radcliffe hostpital where he remains in a critical but stable condition.

Inspector Simon Morton from Oxford Criminal Investigation Department said, “At this stage, we believe that the victim knew his attacker and that this is an isolated incident.”

This comes after a 31 year old man suffered facial injuries after being attacked with a knife on Cowley Road last week.

Oxford University Conservative Association was in a state of mourning this week after a portrait of Margaret Thatcher was stolen from their stall at the OUSU Freshers’ Fair.

The incident took place at around 1pm on Friday October 7th. The only person working at the OUCA stall was at the time distracted by questions from an interested student. After pretending to sign up to the society’s mailing list, the thief snatched the portrait and ran out of the North School.

The thief appeared to have signed his name on the mailing list as ‘Michael Holmes’ of Merton College. However there seems to be no evidence of the student attending the college.

The incident has drawn mixed responses from Oxford students. When asked how he felt about the theft, Joe Cooke, OUCA treasurer and owner of the portrait, said that he not only felt “violated beyond belief by such a blatant disregard for property rights” but was also terrified by “the thought of what those sick socialists are doing to her.”

Stephen Bush, Co-Chair of the Oxford University Labour Club, reported that “we don’t know anything about the theft.”

Although traumatised by “the gap that now exists not only on my wall but in my heart”, Mr Cooke, of Oriel College, decided not to approach the police, but has offered a reward of a bottle of champagne to anyone providing information that led to the return of the portrait.

An OUCA spokesman is reported to have offered the reward of a free lifetime membership to the association.

Jason Keen, the Freshers’ Fair organiser, sympathised with Mr Cooke, saying that “The Freshers’ Fair organisers are sorry to hear that OUCA misplaced their picture of Mrs Thatcher during this year’s event and we hope they succeed in finding it.”

“In the meantime, we think it’s important that there isn’t an overreaction to this.”

Alex Harvey, a History student at St John’s, said “I find the situation ironic; she stole hope from so many people and now she’s been stolen.”

Lady Thatcher, a former OUCA President, last spoke to the Association in 2002.

A St Hugh’s student has been fined by their college for illegally downloading a film while in his own home in Lincolnshire during the summer holidays.

Oxford University Computing Services (OUCS) alerted the student of their ‘copy-right infringement’ after the student downloaded a pirated copy of the movie Iron Man II via the student’s VPN connection.

The student incurred vast fines, despite the fact he was not on University premises and that he was connected to the internet via a private home connection.

The student racked up a grand total of £108.75 in fines as a result of the incident. This included an administrative charge of £50 that was issued to the College by OUCS.

As part of the fine the College added £8.75 to the bill, claiming it was VAT. This has since been withdrawn.

Upon receiving the fine, the student commented, “I think it’s an outrage that I was fined while not even on college grounds.
“How can it be right that the rules of the University extend to your own home? It’s like 1984.

“£108.75 is awfully expensive for a film I didn’t even want to watch. It basically cost about £1 per minute to watch Iron Man II. I just didn’t think it would cause me this much trouble.”

The student’s computer account was also deactivated, and his computer had to be submitted for inspection before it was reconnected to the Oxford network.

But another 3rd year student at St Hugh’s who wishes to remain anonymous described the action of the University as “ridiculous”.

He said, “I’ve been downloading torrent files from sites such as ISO Hunt while at university for years and they’ve never lifted a finger. It’s ridiculous how someone can then be fined while not even being on University premises or connected into the college network.”

This is not the first time a student has caught red-handed downloading material from internet.

Earlier this term a Balliol graduate student was also fined for downloading a pirate film via a VPN connection. He was forced to pay £120 after OUCS received legal papers from a copyright company concerning the illegal download of the film.

One third year from Brasenose said, “Whatever people say, illegal downloading is not the same as shoplifting. With facilities such as Spotify we’ve all grown used not to having to pay for our music, and I’m sure most cash-strapped students have few qualms about illegally downloading films and music.

“But [these fines] would definitely make me think twice, especially about doing it on the college network where it can so easily be detected.”

Oxford’s ICTC Regulations state that “Users are not permitted to use university IT or network facilities for…the creation or transmission of or access to material in such a way as to infringe a copyright, moral right, trade mark, or other intellectual property right.”

Asked whether he thought the system of multiple fines for people on the VPN system was unfair, a spokesman from OUCS said, “It’s fair that the rules apply whenever people are using University facilities.

“It wouldn’t matter whether they were in their college or in an internet café in Siberia – they would still be breaking the rules. The rules apply to how people use the facilities, not where they use them from.”

A spokesman from the Oxford Press Office could not comment on individual disciplinary cases, but added that the University “stresses that students should not break the law.”

Copyrighted materials such as films are protected by the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act of 1988, under which those who download and distribute copyrighted recordings without permission can face civil action.

OUCS report that over the past two years, the number of security incidents handled has more than doubled to almost 1,300.

Worcester is the latest in a string of colleges to have introduced student-run allotments within the college grounds, where students maintain, harvest and consume the produce.

Other colleges with similar allotments schemes include Balliol and Linacre, and the trend is gaining momentum across the University.

This new allotment trend comes as the backlash against last term’s enthusiasm for Meat Free Mondays begins to set in. In Trinity Term 2010, many JCRs passed motions to outlaw serving meat for one day a week, to raise awareness about the impact that eating meat has on the environment.

Students across the University expressed their irritation about Meat Free Mondays by bringing counter motions before their JCRs. Following Christ Church’s initial Meat Free Mondays motion, cheers in the JCR Open Meeting greeted a further motion for Steak Only Mondays. Other Colleges attemted to implement Vegetable Free Tuesdays.

Aidan Clifford, JCR President of St Catherine’s, which passed the Meat Free Mondays motion last term, said, “I am aware that the initial enthusiasm for Meat Free Mondays has waned somewhat.”

Given that the momentum which the Meat Free Monday movement originally garnered appears to have slackened, some voiced reservations about the new allotment trend.

Philip Beak, a second year medic at St Catherine’s, commented “At the time of Meat Free Mondays, loads of people jumped on the band wagon of ‘Yeah, we all love the environment’.

“It is the same with these allotments, people are green-keen at first, but after a while everyone will stop caring. How fast do vegetables even grow? It will provide enough for maybe one meal a month. No one wants vegetables shoved in their face – either at Hall or in allotments”.

Worcester’s allotments, named ‘The Edible Garden Project’, produced their first harvest last week. Worcester was able to use a patch of land which had previously served as the on-site builders’ yard, and had later become overgrown.

Despite this, it took over a term for permission for the project to be granted by the College Garden Committee.

Sarah Falder, former Green Rep for Worcester, was the co-ordinator of the project. She said, “The motions for the money passed pretty easily. Everyone was really keen. It was so refreshing.”

The new allotments at Worcester are especially salient for those who remember the incident in Michaelmas of 2008, when the then-Green Rep of Worcester was threatened with rustication after holding an illegal apple pressing event in the College grounds.

It was this event that spurred David Barclay, now OUSU President, to become involved in student politics. Of the allotments, he said, “The establishment of a garden in Worcester is a great symbol of students and the College working together fro the common good”.

Alistair Marsh, Chair of the Environment and Ethics Committee said, “The quads of many colleges were devoted to cabbages and carrots duringthe Second World War. Although most colleges are fond of their hallowed turfs, why not put them to good use?”

Oxford colleges are not the only ones to grow their own. The Oxford Green Project, a student led volunteering scheme, are also planning an organic allotment scheme, named “OxGrow”.

Lukas Wallrick, the secretary of OUSU’s Environment and Ethics Committee, said “The OxGrow project is very exciting because vegetables can help students to gain a better understanding of local and seasonal food.”

But some remain sceptical. Henry Curr, a third year at Magdalen, said of the allotment trend, “The idea of a JCR having its own allotment is utterly ridiculous and a complete waste of time and money.

“These hippies who think the road to environmental nirvana is self-sufficiency are infuriating and, for consistency, should probably leave and go to a university closer to wherever they live. I’ll keep my frozen peas, thanks.”