Sunday 3rd August 2025
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Oxford and Cambridge receive £6.25 million joint donation to improve STEM access

Stanley Smith
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Oxford and Cambridge receive £6.25 million joint donation to improve STEM access

Oxford University has received £6.25 million to improve access to STEM degrees in a joint donation with Cambridge University. The fund, announced on 17th July, aims to expand outreach work for socio-economically disadvantaged students aged 14–19 who are studying STEM subjects. The donor has chosen to remain anonymous to the public.

The donation will fund three outreach programmes, beginning in October 2025, including a new GCSE Mathematics programme. The new initiative will provide weekly maths tutoring with a mentor to improve students’ performance and to increase the take-up of Maths and Further Maths at A-Level. The University says it hopes to provide 850 students with tutoring in the programme’s first four years. A University spokesperson told Cherwell:  “The University will partner with schools with high numbers of disadvantaged students and ask them to nominate students who show promise to achieve in maths.”

The donation will also go towards the expansion of the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division’s (MPLS) ‘bridging programme’, which supports offer holders and those in their first year at Oxford. The donation will increase the number of students invited to a residential bridging programme from 45 to 100. 

Professor James Naismith, head of the MPLS division, said: “This generous gift significantly enhances our ability to support talented young people who want to pursue STEM subjects but face obstacles to their dreams. These innovative programmes will enable Oxford to support the next generation of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.”

The Comprehensive Oxford Mathematics and Physics Online School (COMPOS), which provides free tutoring to UK state-school students, will also benefit from the fund. The donation will be used to increase the number of participants each year from 500 to 1200 and expand COMPOS to include Computer Science, Chemistry, Biology, and Pure Mathematics.

At Cambridge University, the donation will extend funding to Isaac Physics, a free online platform which enables teachers in physics, maths, chemistry and biology to set homework and have it marked automatically. It will also support their STEM SMART programme, which provides live online tutorials and mentoring by Cambridge University students. 

Oxford University has stated that “while the programmes will be administered separately, the universities will work together”, including by sharing academic tutors and online resources. “The universities will meet regularly to share progress [and] monitor take up of their respective courses to ensure they are not working with the same students,” a University spokesperson told Cherwell.

The 2024 Oxford admissions report found that the proportion of state-educated students at the University has been falling since 2019, despite an increase in the number of applicants from state schools.

The Encaenia is PR without the public (or anyone else)

Billy Arber
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The Encaenia is PR without the public (or anyone else)

Before I arrived at this university, a family friend gave me a book of photos of the Oxford of old. One picture, titled ‘The Encaenia procession outside Brasenose College, 1908’, intrigued me: what was this mysteriously named ceremony which passed my future college each year? Wikipedia furnished me with the basics (as for so many underwhelming tutorial essays in the years to come). Encaenia, from the Greek for ‘festival of renewal’, is the University’s honorary degrees award ceremony, when the dignitaries of Oxford come together to honour those whom it has deemed worthy. My thirst for knowledge satisfied, I promptly forgot all about it. As, it seems, did the rest of the University and city, if indeed they knew about it in the first place.

For the Encaenia is a remarkably obscure bit of pomp and circumstance, taking place in ninth week of Trinity (when any sensible student has legged it for home) with practically no advertisement beyond the road closure notices. Crowds are thin and rather oblivious: the ‘on my way somewhere else and can’t get through Radcliffe Square’ variety seemed to outnumber the ‘travelled across the country to be here today’ sort amongst this year’s spectators. Indeed, this year not even all those being awarded a degree managed to make it: one of the nine, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, somewhat understandably opted to remain in her native land rather than trek across the globe to take part. Perhaps she was awarded her gong over zoom, academic gown on the top half, pyjamas on the lower half.

You might have the impression that I think Encaenia a rather irrelevant performance, an unnecessary damp squib of a parade in today’s world of instant communication and slimmed down ceremony. You would be wrong. I find much to be praised in these ancient festivities. Few, if any, other occasions bring together every aspect of Oxford life in the same way. That elusive creature, the Chancellor is centre stage. So too are the Proctors, our obscure regulators of discipline (gone are the days when they would patrol the streets for students out after hours without a gown). They rub shoulders with the more familiar heads of the colleges and  – gasp! – actual students, albeit only the SU president and the JCR and MCR presidents of the Proctors’ and Assessor’s (who’s that?) colleges.

Also present are the representatives of the oft-excluded town, the Lord Mayor of Oxford and the Chair of the Oxfordshire County Council. Last but not least are, of course, the eminent figures being awarded their degrees. These degrees are a statement of the University’s recognition of their valuable contribution in the real world, a connection which is prestigious not only for the recipient but the grantor. The most active onlookers were those cheering Sir Mo Farah (one of the nine): for these members of the general public, the honorary degrees make Oxford itself a little more relevant and relatable.

This University often stands accused of being out of touch with reality, whilst the city itself can feel divided between town and gown. Even for those studying here, it can feel that the University has little time for its undergraduates. So the fact that one of the academic year’s red-letter days manages to bring together these disparate strands is something not to be disparaged lightly. It reminds us that our University is and must remain an integral part of everyday society: how else can it continue to provide the great minds and leaders of the future? At least, it would remind us, if we knew it was going on. As it is, this valuable message falls, not on deaf ears, but on no ears at all.

In this over-commercialised world, I would shrink to suggest that this ancient institution should ‘sell the product’. But might I suggest a little more advertising, or rather any advertising at all. Even the University Sermons have their A3 posters pinned to the plodge notice board, and surely any parade has more public appeal than a sermon. There seems to be plenty of comment from the University and the media after the event: photos, press releases, and articles. What is needed is the same effort put into advertising beforehand, to encourage more of those who are in Oxford to turn out. To truly tie itself into the wider student community the University should consider moving Encaenia into term time, when far more undergraduates are around, rather than apathetically basking in the glory of a rather forgotten event as they do now. There is no real reason against this aside from tradition, and is it worth sacrificing the worthy symbolism and purpose of the entire ceremony for the sake of that one small aspect?

Wholesale reform is the last thing Encaenia needs, let alone abolition. If only people knew what it is, it would be a remarkably well-suited PR exercise for a modern Oxford: ancient and aesthetic, yet inclusive and tied to the values and happenings of the outside world. Historically, ceremony had a purpose, a message to convey to its audience. Encaenia needs to reconnect with that purpose by generating interest and recognition, not hiding unacknowledged in ninth week. That ‘renewal’ cannot come soon enough.

10 Smart Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills Fast

External Contributor
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10 Smart Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills Fast

Good writing is more than grammar and spelling. It’s about sharing your thoughts clearly, holding a reader’s attention, and making complex ideas feel simple. Whether you’re writing essays, emails, blog posts, or social captions, sharp writing skills matter. And the good news? You don’t have to be a born genius to become a great writer – you just need the right habits.

Many students struggle with writing not because they lack ideas, but because they lack structure, time, and practice. It can feel overwhelming when homework stacks up and deadlines loom. That’s why it’s okay to get support while building your writing skills. If you’re feeling overloaded, turning to the best online paper writing service can ease the pressure, giving you space to focus on learning how to express yourself better.

Ready to level up your writing? Here are ten smart, proven ways to sharpen your skills – fast.

1. Write Every Day, Even Just a Little

Writing is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. Set aside 10-15 minutes daily to write about anything. A journal entry, a random thought, or even a tweet draft – it all counts. The key is consistency, not perfection. Try journaling your day, summarizing a news story, or starting a fictional scene. Just show up.

And if you’re stuck, try prompts. “Write about a moment that surprised you.” “Describe your childhood bedroom.” Writing through these little doors can unlock big ideas.

2. Read with a Writer’s Eye

Don’t just read for fun – read to learn. Pay attention to how writers use words. How do they open a sentence? How do they explain a tough idea? How do they build rhythm? Try to notice patterns you can borrow. Even social media posts or newsletters can be great writing teachers. Annotate as you go. Note what you liked – and what fell flat.

Revisit your favorite articles. Break them down paragraph by paragraph. Try rewriting them from memory to test your absorption of style and tone.

3. Cut the Fluff

Great writing is clear and tight. Avoid filler words like “very,” “really,” “just,” or “actually.” These don’t add meaning. Say what you mean in fewer words. Your writing will sound stronger and more confident. Watch out for qualifiers or vague statements – replace them with specific action or imagery.

A strong sentence shows instead of tells. “He sprinted out the door” is tighter than “He quickly left the house.” One has urgency. The other, noise.

4. Don’t Be Afraid of Structure

Before you write anything long, outline it. Even three bullet points help. Knowing your main point and how you plan to back it up makes your work smoother. It also helps you stay focused and avoid rambling. Break longer pieces into manageable parts. Try writing your intro last if you’re stuck.

Experiment with outlines in mind maps, columns, or simple bullet points. Once you find your ideal method, it becomes second nature.

5. Get Feedback – and Learn from It

Ask someone you trust to read your work and give honest feedback. You’ll start to spot patterns. Maybe your intros are weak, or your conclusions need punch. Don’t take feedback personally – it’s how you grow. If you’re shy about sharing, swap pieces with a writing buddy or use online forums.

And don’t wait to be finished. Share mid-drafts. Ask pointed questions like “Is this clear?” or “Do I lose you here?” Invite real critique.

6. Revise, Then Revise Again

Your first draft is just the beginning. Read it out loud. Does anything sound off? Are your sentences too long? Is the point clear? Editing is where your writing goes from okay to strong. Take breaks before you edit – fresh eyes help. Also, try reading backward, paragraph by paragraph, to catch flow issues.

Keep an editing checklist. Do you start too many sentences the same way? Do you explain too little – or too much? Make editing strategic, not random.

7. Learn One Grammar Rule at a Time

Grammar can be a pain, but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t need to memorize the whole stylebook. Focus on one rule per week. Learn how semicolons work. Practice fixing comma splices. Master these bit by bit, and your writing will get cleaner fast. Keep a grammar cheat sheet nearby while you draft.

Learning grammar through writing – not just rules – helps cement usage. Try writing a short story using only compound sentences. It’s like grammar weight training.

8. Use Tools – but Don’t Rely on Them

Tools like Grammarly, Hemingway, or Google Docs suggestions are helpful, especially for spotting typos. But don’t let them make every decision. Use your own judgment. Tools can catch mistakes – they can’t teach style. Also, pay attention to what errors you make repeatedly and focus on those areas.

Keep a “mistake journal.” Whenever a tool corrects something, jot it down. Soon, you’ll stop making the same errors.

9. Study Writers You Admire

Pick a few writers you respect – maybe an essayist, a blogger, or even a novelist – and read their work closely. Ask: What makes their voice strong? How do they start or end things? How do they keep things clear? Reverse-engineer their moves. You can even copy a paragraph out by hand – a great way to internalize rhythm and tone. And if you ever want to compare your style with polished samples, EssayPro offers access to expertly written essays that can help sharpen your technique.

Set up a weekly routine: one day read, one day rewrite, one day mimic. Learning by modeling helps you develop your own signature faster.

10. Be Patient – Improvement Takes Time

Writing well is a journey, not a sprint. Some days your words will flow. Others, not so much. Don’t get discouraged. The more you show up and try, the better you’ll get. Even a few weeks of steady practice can bring big results. Be kind to yourself. Keep going even when you feel stuck.

Track your growth. Keep early drafts. Revisit them every month. You’ll be surprised by how far you’ve come.

Here’s a simple recap to keep you focused:

  • Write daily, even a little.
  • Read with intention.
  • Cut extra words.
  • Use outlines.
  • Ask for feedback.

Wrapping Up

Great writers aren’t born – they’re built. Through effort, feedback, and practice, anyone can become clearer, stronger, and more confident with their words.

So, start small. Write something today. Try a new style. Read an article and mark what you liked. Watch how much easier it becomes to communicate your thoughts.

And don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way. Whether that means joining a writing group, using a grammar app, or getting professional assistance with tough assignments, it’s all part of the process.

Remember, your voice matters. Learn to use it well, and you’ll stand out anywhere.

This is how we combat the crusade against universities

Morien Robertson
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This is how we combat the crusade against universities

Elite college students can’t read. The university wage premium has significantly declined. The young are unable to fulfil the requirements of an intensive academic degree, and even if they can, the job market doesn’t want them to. So they shouldn’t bother. So goes the story. 

These arguments are constantly made, splashing across the pages of nationals and even this very newspaper. Spending three years studying a degree – especially a humanities degree – is said to be a frivolous waste of time, money, and resources. The expansion of universities has supposedly distorted the supply of skilled labour and created a foolish social pressure to study rather than do something practical. Studying archaeology and classics are indulgences that do nothing to help the world; in fact, they are breeding grounds for champagne socialists. Even defenders of the humanities rely on the instrumental value of degrees like philosophy, law, and literature, which are needed to keep society going.

In a world which is – and always has been – plagued with suffering, it’s easy to think of an arts degree as nothing more than a fruitless pleasure. But these arguments – and the endless anti-intellectual discourse that plagues all sides of the political spectrum – overlook a simple response: that education and academic study just are intrinsically valuable. This is a point which far too many people are scared to make. When someone dares defend the idea that every young person should have a right to further study they are bludgeoned by depressing economic statistics. The million strains on government budgets makes squeezing universities appear to be a necessity. The response has to be that there really is more to life than just labour market value. 

The Economist, ever a bastion of sound thinking, cautions that “students … may not be picking the right subjects”. This is absurd. Students might not be choosing degrees that will maximise future earnings, or  fill the exact requirements of the jobs market, but nor should they be. The ‘rightness’ of a subject is not determined by its potential for individual gain; academia is pursued as an end in itself. Studying allows humans to think beyond themselves, provoke and challenge others, and makes a life worth living – it should not be pursued solely for pecuniary gain, but because it is, really, something essential to humanity.  

Yet many seem intent on clinging onto an atavistic notion that all humans are for is ‘work work work’; that all universities are for is to equip students with ‘skills for the future’. This is intolerably reductive. Focusing solely on the functional value of studying is inevitably going to make them look superfluous or expendable. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. The world is a better place when more people have read more, thought more, argued more. Not just because these people can then go on to do good things – but just from that fact alone. The chance to elevate the mind is a privilege which we, as students, are immensely lucky to have received – and not just because it makes us more employable, but because getting a glimpse of the wonders (and horrors) of the world, which each subject does in its own way, makes a life immeasurably richer.

This is how we must reject the crusades against universities, against the cries that students are selfishly enriching themselves. Knowledge and thinking strengthen the mind; it broadens thought; it brings joy. This good has to be balanced against others, of course, and the world is awash with moral and economic imperatives which need to be answered. Yet the claim that three years of study are wasted – are gluttonous – has to be rejected. People cannot simply be cogs in an ever-larger machine; otherwise, there is no purpose to anything. If everyone is simply an instrument to ensuring that supply meets demand, that they are the best possible tool to be used by whichever company needs them, then we have overlooked something essential to humanity; and the world which we are left with may not be worth living in.

From pensioners to students, all should fear the Palestine Action ban

Ebrahim Osman-Mowafy
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From pensioners to students, all should fear the Palestine Action ban

I do not support Palestine Action. No one can after midnight on Saturday the 5th of July, when the order by the Home Secretary, approved by both Houses of Parliament, took effect, designating them a terrorist organisation. 

The reason only a few continue to support Palestine Action is because, as law-abiding individuals, many fear the consequences brought on those who do. Take Reverend Sue Parfitt, the 83 year-old retired priest arrested simply for holding a placard that read: ‘I do not support genocide, I support Palestine Action’. A heinous crime, indeed. 

This will be the true legacy of this legislation: not the prevention of terror, but the persecution of pensioners with placards.

For those of you that have missed the week’s news cycle, Palestine Action is a self-described ‘direct action group’ seeking to disrupt the sales of arms to Israel. The decision to proscribe the group came shortly after members of the organization broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed red paint on military aircraft. There has been ample commentary about the merits or demerits of this action, but I’m not here to repeat those arguments. You have probably already made up your mind on that. 

No matter where you stood on the activities of Palestine Action before midnight on July 5th, you should be alarmed – assuming you believe free speech matters, and that terrorism laws should target actual terrorists. You should be especially concerned about the government’s decision to dilute the meaning of terrorism by weaponising the term to suppress protest and dissent.

In 1999, when another Labour Home Secretary, Jack Straw, introduced the Terorrism Act 2000 there were many backbench Labour MPs who feared the very consequence of the broad wording of the Act that we see today. They were concerned that it encompassed conduct that should not be within the remit of counter-terrorism legislation. Hansard, the official report of all parliamentary debates, records questions by, amongst others, John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, who, on 14th December 1999, raised the possibility of direct action groups being caught in a “catch-all provision that could be used in the courts to undermine civil liberties”. 

In response to the rigorous questioning by the veteran parliamentarians, the Home Secretary clarified that the Act would not be used to target protesters or direct action groups. He specifically made assurances in relation to the environmental group Greenpeace: “I know of no evidence whatever that Greenpeace is involved in any activity that would fall remotely under the scope of this measure.” That was only a few months after Greenpeace activists were charged with criminal damage and theft in relation to their environmental action activities. The Minister of State for the Home Office, Mr Charles Clarke, reiterated the same commitment: “I have made it clear throughout that we do not have any intention of seeking to apply the legislation to any domestic, industrial or environmental action.”

Fast forward to 2025, when Corbyn would be making the same argument in Parliament, this time faced with the very consequences they were assured would never take place. It was not cynicism, but foresight. This Labour government is using the Terrorism Act in precisely the same way that the last Labour government promised not to. 

Out of the 81 now-proscribed organisations, Palestine Action is the only direct action group. Yet it is grouped with the murderous Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, and the Maniacs Murder Cult. The break with practice and precedent was not intended as a proportionate response to the activities of the group, but to silence dissent over an ongoing genocide. Its consequences for civil liberties and fundamental rights go far beyond long jail sentences and the catastrophic social and professional consequences of being labelled a ‘terrorist’. 

Under Section 40 of the Terrorism Act 2000, an individual who commits an offence under Section 12 of the Act is designated a ‘terrorist’. This gives the government sweeping powers – including arrest without warrant and stop-and-search without cause for suspicion. It has always been controversial whether fundamental rights guaranteed by the common law for centuries should be stripped from those who are overtly seen as engaged in acts of terrorism. Now, these powers apply to those holding a placard, wearing a pin, or sticking a poster on a laptop.

Chamberlain J, the High Court judge who ruled against the co-founder of Palestine Action as she sought an injunction to suspend the order of the Home Secretary, described the consequences of the proscription as stated by the claimants as “overstated”. That is perhaps because counsel for the co-founder focused too much on the consequences for participating in direct action. When the challenge to the proscription reaches a full hearing later this month, the court should recognise the wider implications of the Home Secretary’s decision on the chilling of speech when assessing whether the decision is to be upheld. Granting power to the government to detain without charge an individual who wears a pin with ‘Palestine Action’ on it, and then potentially put them in prison for a decade or more, is no less alarming than what so many are horrified to see be done across the Atlantic by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Nothing now stops the government from using these powers against students establishing encampments or organising sit-in protests.

This is bigger than Palestine Action. It is clear that this is not just about silencing a particular group. Direct action has been and continues to be used by others. If this decision is upheld by the courts later this month, it will be a greenlight for every future government – left, right, or extreme – to do the same. Today it’s Palestine Action. Tomorrow it’s Greenpeace. The next day it’s students demanding an end to their university’s complicity in genocide.

If you think this is a win for one side over the other in relation to Israel’s war on Gaza, be careful what you wish for. 

Today,  politicians rightfully celebrate the achievements of the suffragettes, with more than 200 female MPs celebrating the suffragettes in a photo-call within days of voting to proscribe Palestine Action. The suffragettes smashed windows, chained themselves to railings, and even engaged in a bombing campaign in which at least four died, so that the government and wider society could not ignore their calls for the right of women to vote. Palestine Action was responsible for no fatal attacks. 

Many are the times when concerned and compassionate members of the public, like the Reverend Sue Parfitt, are years ahead of the curve, suffering massive personal consequences only to be vindicated later. I have no doubt that this is one such time. 

Have an opinion on the points raised in this article? Send us a 150-word letter at [email protected] and see your response in our next print or online.

Jacob Collier is on scintillating form at Love Supreme

Susan Yu
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Jacob Collier is on scintillating form at Love Supreme

Despite being a seven-time Grammy Award winner, it was only at the 2025 Love Supreme Festival in Glynde that Jacob Collier had his first major festival headline show.

Wearing his beloved crocs and vibrant, trademark garments, he burst onto the stage after a day of quintessential festival wind and rain, an example of “reassuringly English weather” which required wearing two pairs of trousers, as the maestro himself wryly remarked. The arrival of his vivacious presence was like warm sunshine after such rain. 

The 75 minute set, supported by his band, began with a morse code intro. It featured music from his latest album Djesse Vol. 4, covers of iconic songs, and crowd-pleasing tracks from his earlier albums. Collier marvellously pulled together disparate genres, showcased his expansive vocal range and multi-instrumentalist talents with raucous joy.

‘WELL’ was delivered with gusto as Collier strummed the electric guitar and rocked the stage with his punchy vocal line, while his voice soared in the glittering pop rendition of ‘Wherever I Go’. Changing to the intimate acoustic guitar, he tenderly serenaded us with ‘Little Blue’ using arpeggiated chords (a nod to Joni Mitchell’s ‘Little Green’) as the audience cooed and sang along: “don’t be afraid of the dark in your heart.” In a world of turmoil and change, a beautiful lullaby like this was truly ‘All I Need’.  

As with all of Collier’s engaging shows, audience participation was inevitably a salient ingredient. He darted across the stage, vigorously waved his arms like a conductor, and transformed us into his audience choir, adding layers of harmonizing notes and sampling, whilst the aaahing and oooing of heavenly motifs built up. He expertly weaved these layers of sounds together into a stellar musical tapestry. It was an otherworldly and transcendent experience, as thousands came together under the moonlight to sing, and clap deliriously in harmony. It felt as if we were all connected through the music emotionally, rising and falling giddily to the cues of the choirmaster. Together we became a living and breathing musical instrument, as the line between performer and audience blurred into one. 

Improvisation is a cornerstone of jazz, and Collier was able to craftily conjure cascading piano melodies throughout the night, as well as entertain us with a dynamite drum battle with his drummer. His rendition of ‘Witness Me’ began with a soft jazz piano improvisation which crescendoed with the textured audience choir. I have great admiration for artists that sing in foreign tongues and do not shy away from a challenge, and Collier showed his characteristic adventurousness with his powerful Spanish song ‘Mi Corazon’, which delighted with its delicious head-bop chorus.

Importantly, Collier paid homage to the 1965 John Coltrane album A Supreme Love, after which the festival is named, that spirited jazz into uncharted territory. “Music has the power to get people to come together and wiggle about,” Collier exclaimed, and in accordance we wiggled in wonder. 

Whether we were seeing Collier for the first or tenth time, his exuberant, infectious energy was undoubtedly palpable from the beginning to the final note. He switched between the piano, guitars, bass, drums, and harmonizer with absolute ease, and punctuated his singing with high leg kicks. The immersive, sonic landscapes were further amplified by the gorgeous natural set design, depicting starlit woodlands and colourful backdrops of trees. 

During past shows, Collier has brought on surprise guests to perform duets with him, and I could not help but anticipate a similar surprise. Perhaps due to time constraints, this was not the case at Glynde. It would have been electrifying had musical titan Nile Rodgers (who had bewitched the audience on Sunday), shared the Love Supreme stage with Collier. The two combined would have been a musical phenomenon, but it was not to be. 

Nevertheless, we were treated as a finisher to an encore of the timeless ‘Somebody to Love’, which culminated in absolute choral euphoria. Collier signed off the night with a universal hand heart to the crowd. Yes, I mused, exhilarated after being dazzled by Collier’s musicianship: the message of music is love, indeed.

Trashing rules save face, not students

Chloe Smith
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Trashing rules save face, not students

Trashing is banned. But what does the banning achieve except pushing students further from the centre to more perilous waters?

Recently, Brasenose students were threatened with £150 fines from the University for trashing on the grounds of littering. The Oxford University ‘SMART’ guidance states that “Littering as a result of ‘trashing’ is illegal and will incur a £150 fine”. Fining students is a deterrent. But attempting to stamp out trashing with increased patrolling and irregular fines for littering will not succeed and only addresses part of the issue. 

It seems that the university isn’t trying to help students celebrate exams safely and limit environmental damage but to save their reputation against an arrogant Oxford tradition. But trashing doesn’t have to be obnoxious. It can be a carefully managed, safe, and fun way to cast off exams that comes at little cost to the environment and actually celebrates everything that is great about Oxford. 

The two problems with trashing are that it creates litter, and it’s dangerous. ‘Trashing’ is when students who have just finished exams gather near a water source. Their friends throw coloured powder, silly string, confetti and shaving foam on them. Sometimes students throw food like eggs, flour, and even beans and soup at their friends. They are often sprayed with alcohol like prosecco before jumping into the water in their subfusc. 

Bottles and all kinds of litter can be left. Powder can stain pavements and all the crap students are covered in is washed into the waterways. The University’s 2019 sustainability blog states that it costs “the University more than £25,000 each year” to clean up trashing debris. Moreover, trashing can be extremely dangerous. Crowds, alcohol, and inhibition near water can lead to fatalities. Last year, a Brasenose student died trashing in water at Port Meadow. 

This is exactly why fining is so dangerous. Trashing is fun and will continue to happen, with students finding new locations to celebrate in. They will be pushed away from the centre to more remote areas to jump in or to have a celebratory swim. 

There are ways to trash without littering: remove all packets and bottles; only use biodegradable materials; use products from EcoTrash, a business run out of Keble which creates biodegradable powders made from cornstarch which quickly dissolve; trash in a limited area and clear up. 

Stopping littering is important, but fining students seems like a surface level approach to save face for the University rather than ensure student safety. 

Students won’t be stopped from trashing and, in my view, they shouldn’t be. Trashing has a cathartic element that can be achieved at a limited cost to the environment. Exams are awful, and stopping students from following traditionally hard exams with traditionally exuberant fun seems to lack the wonderful balance between hard work and hard play that Oxford attempts to strike. The University’s ‘avoid fines’ advice in their SMART guidance states that “‘trashing’ isn’t an Oxford tradition, it’s anti-social behaviour”. I admit that trashing done badly is anti-social behaviour. But it is an Oxford tradition. The Daily Mail suggests that trashing started in the 1970s, making trashing older or as old as admitting women to study at Oxford. Anywhere else, 50 years is a long time. Celebrate the tradition and simultaneously tighten college communities by allowing students to trash safely, in colleges. 

This solution to the ‘trashing problem’ could be implemented very easily; it is already in practice at Jesus College and is being trialled at my college, Brasenose. Colleges could designate a spacious, less historic area away from the library with drainage, perhaps near the bikes or in a newer quad, where the colleges’ students can trash each other. This way, students’ safety can be monitored and littering can be contained. Buckets filled with water can be chucked over students and reused. Colleges could enforce policies on only biodegradable materials like those sold by EcoTrash being used, stopping waste by excluding food products. Perhaps college JCRs could even link with EcoTrash and have a trashing levy (a Mansfield JCR Treasurer’s review recommends the products to all JCRs), so biodegradable products are always available to students. 

The experience could be much safer for everyone. Looking away won’t solve the problem. Forcing something underground only makes it more dangerous. So, make it safer – make it integral to the college experience. 

It’s reasonable that students would want to celebrate their exams as people have done before them. It’s unfortunate that that tradition appears very similar to stereotypical images of rowdy, wasteful Oxford students with no consideration for the Town. The solution is easy, and it isn’t a fine that will push students further from water easily accessed by the emergency services. It’s organised trashing in college where college communities can celebrate their victories together. Because compromising student safety to save the University’s face? That’s trash. 

Billie Marten on growing, teenage regression, and her upcoming album Dog Eared

Sydney Walter
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Billie Marten on growing, teenage regression, and her upcoming album Dog Eared

“When people listen to your upcoming album Dog Eared, where should they imagine you writing the songs?”

Musician Billie Marten, on the other end of the Zoom call, looks around the room in which she is sitting. “The Glass was written right here…Most of them were written here actually, yellow makes me want to create. So they should imagine me in a yellow room.”

 In her house in Hackney, London, Billie was sitting in a yellow room. The contrast of her blonde hair with the yellow wall made her look like she was glowing. Born in Ripon in North Yorkshire, she first started singing and picked up the guitar when she was eight, but her career started when she was twelve and she got recorded for a local YouTube channel. Billie went and got recorded and when she was done, the two guys helping to record looked at each other and said “Well, what do we do this now?” They asked to manage her, but they were not really managers so soon afterwards, Billie says, “people from London caught me” and since then everything has flourished. Now twenty-five, with over 500 million downloads, four albums, and an upcoming fifth (Dog Eared to be released on July 18th 2025 via Fiction Records). It’s hard to not be in awe of Billie. 

People like Billie, who achieve such fame at a young age–a similar age to that of most Cherwell readers–always feel like distant idols. Billie is an idol of mine because of her ‘grown-into-herself-ness’ which she portrays and if you listen to her music it immediately comes through. One of my favorite songs ‘This is How we Move’ off of her 2023 album Drop Cherries has this refrain full of tenderness: 

“I got what I was asking for

And I dug myself right up

The earth was pouring on my brow

And I knew I was enough”

This kind of lyricism, steeped in life and softness, defines Billie’s sound not only as a musician but as a person. 

“When was the first time you took yourself seriously as an artist?” I asked.

Billie smiled softly, “Oh, ah, that’s still a work in progress. Identity is such a tricky subject, and I’m working on not taking myself as seriously as I have in the past. But with that comes more vulnerability. And, you know, self deprecation and things that aren’t necessarily helpful or attractive for an artist. I think everybody needs to take themselves a little bit seriously,  otherwise, you know, who’s going to believe in them? You have to believe in yourself. But pretty much my whole career I have written about this specific issue.” 

Drop Cherries she describes as “always the album I wanted to make from the beginning. I [just needed] enough experience and heart in order to make it.” Now with Dog Eared, it is in many ways an ode to this kind of aging process and developing heart, a sense of self, and how exhausting that is. The title itself is in reference to the dogearing of books, but also “to age and experience and how I feel sometimes, like I am so tired, and yet, I am 25 years old, you know, that’s bonkers. When something is dog-eared, it’s thumbed through, and it’s worn, you know, it’s lived a life. Sometimes I feel that way.” 

This is a feeling that is resonant for the way the pace of life often moves. I feel a kind of relief when she says that she, too, feels tired. It makes me feel less isolated in the process of what it means to grow up. However, there is some disconnect between Billie’s ‘worn-ness’ and my own. Billie is thirteen years into her music career; I am approaching the final year of university which feels like this uprooting of all the things I find comforting. Part of the awe of someone whose career started when they were younger is that they seem to be on this fast track through all the unknowns of growing up. 

“Do you ever feel like you either had to, or maybe, got to skip the phase where you figure out like what you’re doing with your life, like that kind of, you know, 21 year old life crisis. Or do you feel like you had that in a totally different way?”

“Definitely had some crises,” Billie says, “but there’s lots of things that I will have to return to later in life, like I didn’t study. I would love to do that, and I really wanted to, but I couldn’t, because I had a job.” 

Taking a brief pause she looks down at her lap, then back into the camera of her computer.

“Live in a different country. I mean, there’s nothing stopping me doing that, except I love London. But I imagine there’d be a sort of, maybe late 30s, early 40s, teenage regression to just to just go back to being unsure.”

Billie feels no shame in saying that she may not do music for her whole life; “It’s my passion, and it is an important thing to me within my very soul. But I don’t know if I need to make it” 

“What is on the list of things for your teenage regression?”

A smile spreads across Billie’s face. “Be in some community that we have all signed up for at the same time, because I never did that. I was lonely at that time because I wasn’t going to uni and I wasn’t around people my own age to figure things out with. I wonder if there’s an undergraduate degree for 38 to 45 year olds. Also, I need to have some reckless love affairs. Definitely, definitely necessary. Gonna need to get my heart broken.”

“How many times would you say it has been broken so far?”

“Zero.”

“Zero?!”

“I’ve had people that have that have left, but my heart wasn’t theirs, so it has never broken in the clinical sense” 

I told my friend who is also a devoted fan that Billie said she never had her heart broken and astounded, my friend said: “But I’ve used all her music through all my breakups! There is no way she hasn’t gotten her heart broken.” True, the melancholic tenderness of Billie’s music makes it feel like a shelter for aching hearts; and yet, she is writing not from her own broken heart, but from the same emotional genre, which makes her words real and rooted in her own worn-ness of growing.

“I think a lot of fans have felt a lot of pain from themselves,” she says. “I’ve listened to people talk about that quite a lot, or how they find the music in a dark spot. There’s quite a lot of darkness that people hold when they come to see a show and my job is to make sure that they are held and seen, and to make sure that they know [the song] came from me, so this feeling, I have been there.” Pausing a moment, Billie settles on that thought.  “I wonder how they’re going to react to Dog Eared, since maybe that’d be less, but it’s important. It’s important to share both sides. You know, I’ve got to show them light.” 

Dog Eared, while it’s an ode to aging and developing heart, is imaginative. Most of the songs, even though written in her home, are not about her home, or even places she fully knows. “Which is just so freeing for me, because I don’t have to sing again and again about something quite dramatic or me being mean to myself.” In this way, Dog Eared is the ultimate ode to the worn-ness of aging because she embodies her aging as the potential to see things she could not have previously imagined. 

Billie held up a white CD disk to the camera with the words ‘As Long As’ written on the front in sharpie. This was one of her first EP’s. “I listened to this the other day, and I thought I sounded like a little blueberry.” She laughs lightly. “I thought I was so grown, but that’s just the thing about growing, it’s like trying on a pair of your dad’s jeans. One day you get into your dad’s jeans as a child [and they are huge], and one day they fit perfectly. When you’re a child, your dad’s jeans you imagine are the biggest, but there will always be a bigger pair of jeans somewhere.” 

Continually seeking out a bigger pair of jeans, where Billie goes next, whether it’s teenage regression, or heart break, it seems will push her forth on the quest of taking herself seriously as an artist, and being a growing human. Perhaps a better way of phrasing that is Billie, while she feels worn, and thumbed through, sees this feeling as a way of getting to know herself deeper and to move with that feeling is a way to reckon with all who she is to become. Taking these ‘seeds of knowledge’ from Billie, perhaps the unknown can be a beautiful thing. 

Towards the end of our interview, Billie’s cat Pip walked across her lap. Featured in the song ‘Crown’ off of Dog Eared, Billie stroked Pip and smiled. “Right out in my yard, that’s when I wrote those lyrics.”  

“The cat sits in the shade

And I am not afraid of love

The cat sits in the shade

And I am not afraid”

Whatever comes next, however Billie continues to grow, there is no fear. No fear, –I have learned– is not to be confused with knowing exactly what comes next, but rather coming to embrace the search for a bigger pair of jeans. 

Dog Eared will be released on July 18th.

The Language Faculty is promoting intelligence, not artifice

Lloyd Doré-Green
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The Language Faculty is promoting intelligence, not artifice

Isaac Asimov’s fantastic short story ‘The Last Question’ has always struck me as vaguely implausible, not because of its depictions of the next trillion-or-so years of human evolution and civilisation, nor because of its wonderful twist, but simply because of what the ‘last question’, the hardest problem for the story’s artificial intelligence to solve, is. Tritely put, I thought that the ‘last question’ would be that of the meaning of life. Interestingly, Asimov disagrees with me. The last question was a scientific one, rather than a more philosophical one, because the thought that the latter would be entirely outside of the purview of artificial intelligence. 

But current iterations of artificial intelligence are far from the masters of logic that Asimov imagined. ChatGPT can explain, in detail, how it is possible never to lose a game of noughts and crosses but, when asked to put this into practise, it plays with about as much skill as a toddler. What they are good at is usurping creativity and human thought with thoughtless knockoffs. This is an attack which should be resisted.

With this in mind, I admit to being baffled by reactions to the change in the format of finals examinations in modern languages. That the previous format of entirely open-book examinations is not practicable in the current age of artificial intelligence is obvious. There is, unfortunately, nothing stopping a student struggling in an exam from loading up ChatGPT and using it to plan or write an essay. Software which purports to detect AI-generated writing churns out far too many false positives to be reliable. And the academic arms race promoted by examinations means that any come edge, no matter how unscrupulous, will be taken by some. To allow this to go on harms both those who cheat and those who do not. Those who choose to cheat, by shouldering their preferred large language model with as much work as they can, surrender their thoughts to the mindless convulsions of an algorithm; they fail to develop the essential skills which a degree is supposed to foster. Those who choose not to will be at an undeniable disadvantage; their grades will suffer. 

This raises an obvious question. If artificial intelligence really would improve people’s performance, should we not be teaching and encouraging students to use it in a productive manner? Plausibly. As long as one is not outsourcing one’s own thoughts to an artificial intelligence I see no real argument against its use, though, given its tendency to be confidently wrong, I have little faith in its research skills.

 When it comes time for exams, however, the options on the table are closed book or open book. One protects essential and important skills whilst, admittedly, underpreparing students or the age of artificial intelligence. The other allows students to ignore and underdevelop these essential skills in favour of short-term gains in their marks. People who argue that this decision fails properly to prepare students for the future overlook the timeless skills that it is designed to protect and take their rightful place at the front of the queue of people ready to be replaced by computers. They are, as Milan Kundera put it, the allies of their own gravediggers. 

I assume that, in many cases, the reactions are rationalised rather than rational. It is frustrating to get half, or three quarters, of the way through your degree only then to discover that you will not be able to flick your way through your notes if you forget a source or a quotation in the exam – or to learn that you are going to have to reacquaint yourself with the technology of a bygone era: the pen. The problem comes when such frustration is reimagined to be what it is not: a genuine critique of closed book exams. That in-person exams prioritise ‘outdated’ skills like memorisation is obviously a weak argument. 

Memorisation is not outdated but nor is it the most important skill being protected by in- person exams. To risk sounding like an egghead, this is a strawman. I assume that what is secretly being said is ‘memorising material is such an unnecessary drag’. I sympathise. But this is not a principled stance and it should not be allowed to masquerade as one.  

Tiny Love Stories

Cherwell Lifestyle Team
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Tiny Love Stories

I gazed at the mountains encircling my mother’s hometown. I had been travelling in China for a month, constantly apologising for my broken Chinese. My mum once told me how as a child she would walk amongst those mountains after school, secretly gathering plants to feed the family chickens.

Twenty years later she departed these mountains for England, and another twenty years later, I was in her hometown whilst she was in mine. That night, her child who couldn’t fully understand her, and whom she couldn’t fully understand, dreamt in Chinese for the first time, nestled between the mountains.

Luke, Merton

At twelve years of age we held hands, and you joked that it made you nervous. I laughed it off, and only understood when I received your letter years later. “I cannot have you”, you wrote as your father was arranging your marriage and you were arranging your escape. You know better than anyone that the distance between family and love was a no man’s land. 

In June when they flew the rainbow outside, I thought of you. For better or worse I am lucky to know you, and all the things you cannot speak aloud.

Anonymous

After he left England we became summer — or, winter — friends, because that’s when the holidays are. When we meet, we’d forensically trace the shadows of our past selves that once said, ‘I’ll see you when I see you’.

But as time passed, we were just summer friends, and then we were just… friends. What he doesn’t know is that he’s never just a season — he occupied every bookshelf, road sign, and country path. So, when I sent him my notes on ‘The Bight’ by Elizabeth Bishop, what I really meant was, ‘I love you, awfully but cheerfully’.

Jennifer, St Hilda’s

Life in Punjab speaks of hurried crossings, lost homes, and stubborn hope. I found eerie echoes of these in the pinds (villages) I visited and the jameen (land) I walked on. Punjab’s fields are fertile not just with khanak (wheat), but with the memories of migrations, battles, prayers, and dreams.

My time in Punjab taught me that history is more than just academics. It is sung, remembered, and lived in the present. Most importantly, it is carried in the memories of our families, and in the soil beneath our feet. Uthe meri pyaar – there is my love. 

Hannah, Hertford

I started rowing not for athletics but for aesthetics. On the river I loved watching the playful water birds, lavender sunrise, and, once, quiet snowfall. Sports, to me, was coloured by the ‘jock vs nerd’ dynamics of high school where they cheered on the American football team, and I was the quiet girl with a book. But at Summer Eights they cheered us on even as we lost. Maybe it’s because we all are nerds at Oxford, or maybe, because sports can be something more. I row for the matching ribbons in our hair and the synchronicity of our teamwork.

Selina, Corpus

Love is a weaving tapestry of sound: red stitched on black, a voice soft as silk. Songstresses, eternal angels, Ishtar and Chang’e incarnate, billions of souls beating as two. Led by the moon, by jasmines of the night, they dance through my wakeful dreams: Fairuz and Teresa Teng. Voices of generations, ballads of divas echoing across the Silk Road, awakening the glint of youth in sage eyes, who have lived a thousand lives. In China and Lebanon, in shisha cafes and karaoke bars, melodies worlds apart seem, for just an instant, to yearn for the same love. I flow in that lyrical ebb. I am awash in that love.

Rafal, Merton

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