Alcohol abuse among students, and use of the emergency services, has reached unprecedented levels in Oxford, a Cherwell investigation can reveal.

Almost three quarters of Oxford students know someone who had to go to hospital due to excessive alcohol consumption. Many feel their degree suffers on account of alcohol abuse, and 71% feel they drink too much.

To uncover the pervasive student drinking culture, Cherwell spent a night shift with paramedics on an ambulance stationed in Oxford. The evening exposed the real emergencies that the paramedics and their teams deal with, outside the bubble of student life.

James Keating-Wilkes, the Communications Manager of the South Central Ambulance Service explained, “Student alcohol abuse is a definite strain on ambulances. It takes resources which could be deployed to genuine medical emergencies.

“There is ubiquitous alcohol use among young people. Things seem to have changed. Young people today don’t think they’ve had a good night unless they’ve passed out.”
Most alcohol related incidents are classified as A8, the highest level of emergency that must be responded to within eight minutes.

Overuse of the services is not the only problem. Abuse of ambulance personnel is just as common.

Mike Medcraft, an Emergency Care Assistant said, “With drunks I have two rules: don’t throw up on my ambulance and don’t throw up on me. If they are violent I throw them out, simple. You’d be surprised at how many of us have been assaulted.”

“I’ve been spat at, verbally abused, and pushed. Of course, students got drunk in my youth too, but we always got home ourselves. It’s the mentality of youth that has changed; now people call an ambulance at the drop of a hat,” explained an Ambulance Technician with 22 years of experience.

There are differences in the typical behaviour of intoxicated male and female students.
Jones said, “Violence and aggression is common among boys. The other night there was a fight involving some Philosophy and Law students on George Street, outside a kebab van. One boy was punched so hard that his cheek bone was pushed in and his eyeball pushed up- I couldn’t believe a punch could actually do that.

“Girls do not tend to get into fights; instead, they drink so much they pass out on the street or have panic attacks, where they totally lose control and hyperventilate.”

An officer from Thames Valley Police added, “I’ve seen boys’ fights resulting in broken jaws and charges of GBR. As for girls, we have rape reports once or twice a month, and reports of sexual assault from females walking home alone at night are, sadly, a weekly occurrence.”

The police officer explained that where possible, they try to avoid pressing charges because they do not wish to put students’ degrees and careers in jeopardy.

The officer explained, “We don’t want to start criminalising. A lot of students are dealt with by a public disorder £80 fine; I give out about five of these a week.
“We are encouraged to report all student incidents to the Internal Discipline Action Officer, who can pass the information on to the University. The funny thing is, the Colleges often have harsher punishments than we do.”

At the John Radcliffe Hospital, the Sister in charge of the A&E ward, Hilary Wakey said, “Students expect us to babysit for their drunken friends. They arrive in such a state.”

“I’ve been spat at, verbally abused, and pushed “

Sandra Treacher, Paramedic and Clinical Supervisor, explained the exasperation felt by her staff regarding the overuse of emergency facilities by students. “Once someone has dialled 999, we are legally obliged to answer their call. But half the time it’s just unnecessary, and they just want a jolly ride home.”

Hope Jones, Emergency Care Assistant, echoed her colleague’s sentiments. “On the one hand we get an eighty year old woman who had collapsed but does not call an ambulance, because she does not want to put anyone to trouble. And on the other hand, we get students who use us as a taxi service. If it’s not an emergency, they should make their own way to hospital in a taxi. It’s terrible when you have to start stacking emergency calls.”

Towards the end of Cherwell’s night on the ambulance, the paramedics were called to Cowley, where an Oxford Brookes student lay passed out on the road, his face covered in blood and mud.

The co-driver of the OUSU Safety Bus had spotted him there. His friend and housemate, Michael Barringder, accompanied him to hospital in the ambulance. He said, “We saw him when we came out of the Maccabees. He was really drunk then, we should have taken him home. It was pretty irresponsible of us not to.”
Back at the hospital, now approaching two a.m., twelve out of the fourteen patients in the waiting room were students who had somehow or other been embroiled in alcohol fuelled injuries.

“Students expect us to babysit their friends”

There was Annabel House, a Brookes student who had a stiletto heel go through her foot at Fuzzy Duck’s, and Dave Ashworth, another Brookes student whose friend’s drink had been spiked. A further two students were not able to identify themselves or what was wrong with them.

Two Mansfield College boys had been caught up in a fight at Park End, where one had broken his nose.

The issue is not whether students are more drunk than they were a generation or two ago, the NHS workers I met told me. The paramedics, the A&E staff and the police officers all object to the emergency services being used for a ride home rather than as a last resort, and the abuse they receive.

An Oxford Professor is currently facing accusations of trying to block the promotion of a leading academic because she had previously sued the University for sexual discrimination, a tribunal heard on Tuesday.

Dr Cecile Deer told the Reading Employment Tribunal that her former doctorate supervisor Professor Geoffrey Walford, formely a fellow of Green Templeton College unlawfully hacked into her email account. She also claims he refused to provide a reference for a job application.

Dr Deer, an education specialist, 41, failed to get the position she applied for. She claims the refusal to provide a reference was influenced by her suing the University for sexual discrimination in 2008.

In that year, Deer won an out-of-court settlement for sex discrimination, having been sidelined by the university’s ladies’ football team.

She claimed that she was excluded from the team due to the fact that having three young children made her an “unreliable” player.

Deer took up the position of French lecturer at Balliol College, having completed a PhD.
In December 2008, she applied for a three-year posting as a junior research fellow at Merton College.

She claims that when she asked Walford, her former doctorate supervisor, for a reference he refused claiming she had published insufficient research.
Deer said, “I was devastated by his letter and his behaviour towards me. He was either got at by others within the university or formed his own adverse view.”

She also accused the Chancellors, Masters and Scholars of Oxford University of “potential collusion” with Walford, as a response to the sex discrimination charges of 2008.

The tribunal heard that shortly after the 2008 settlement, Deer began experiencing problems with her computer, while technical queries to the university’s engineers went unanswered.

“I was devastated by his behaviour towards me”

Deer said that she believed her Balliol email account had been hacked into to access information that would help Walford answer a questionnaire about her suitability for the Merton post.

She described the refusal to provide a reference as a “particularly hostile” and “thinly veiled attack.”

Dr Deer said,”The lack of reference was retaliation from the university for my having brought a claim against it.”

The tribunal heard that “Patronage can be vital to a career. My career prospects have been systematically shut down.”

The University claims that Professor Walford, who is now retired, asked for a list of Deer’s post-doctorate academic publications.

It is on this evidence, they claim, that Walford decided Deer was unsuitable for the position and subsequently refused to provide a reference.

Walford claims that he knew very little about Deer’s 2008 sex discrimination complaints and refused to provide a reference based on genuine concerns of Deer’s suitability for the job.

Professor Walford, the Chancellors, Masters and Scholars of Oxford University deny victimisation. The hearing continues.

The Saïd Business School confirmed this week that the University has abandoned its support of a scheme to build a new Business Centre at the controversial Lavasa development site in India.

The Business School cited concerns over its “financial viability”.

The Oxford University facility, due to open this year at a cost of 15-20 million pounds, would have focussed its studies on the recent successes of the Indian economy, and the challenges it currently faces, through the disciplines of business and management.

The original agreement was made in January 2008 by the then Vice-Chancellor John Hood, who travelled to India as part of a tour including Gordon Brown, Richard Branson and former trade minister Digby Jones.

“Our plan did not come into fruition”

The partnership arose from the annual Oxford University India Business Forum, hosted that year by Hood and organised by the Oxford University India Business Centre, located at the University’s Saïd Business School in Oxford.

Hood said the Indian Business Centre could include “new posts, scholarship programmes, academic and cultural exchanges…expanding and invigorating the connections with India”.

However, he never referred to it as an overseas ‘campus’, as has been reported elsewhere.

Hood also entered into negotiations with Ajit Gulabchand, the Chairman of Lavasa’s parent company, the Hindustan Construction Company, to discuss the possibility of endowing a chair at Saïd reputedly worth 7.4 million pounds, although no contracts have been signed and no payment received.

The businessman previously commented on the arrangement that, “It is a matter of great pride for Lavasa to have partnered with the most respected educational institution in the world.”

The possibility of creating a Professorship of Indian Business Studies in the Chairman’s name is still being discussed, despite the University’s withdrawal from the development.

There have been suggestions that the sudden withdrawal is linked to the allegations of human rights abuses at the site by Lavasa Development, accusations which the company stringently denies.

One human rights activist claimed that the development has turned into a “land grab”, with previous occupants (mainly agricultural workers) of the 12 500 acre area pressured into selling their land for very low prices. A BBC Radio 4 programme, ‘Face the Facts’, broadcast on the 4th February, investigated these claims; the University declined to comment on the programme’s findings.

However, the University has emphasised that their decision to pull out has no link to the unproven claims stating,”Following a detailed feasibility study, the Saïd Business School has concluded that it would not be financially viable to undertake executive education at Lavasa as originally envisaged.

“This is not a response to unproven allegations about the Lavasa Project, which have been vigorously contested by Lavasa. It was originally envisaged that the School’s executive education and research relating to India would be conducted through an Oxford India Business Centre, which was dependent upon securing the necessary funding. Such funding is no longer immediately in prospect.”

The University Press Office also stressed, “The Business School remains extremely keen to undertake executive education for corporate clients in India, as elsewhere, however, and to conduct research relating to India” and did not rule out the possibility of a centre in India in future.

For the time being, the business school has removed all signs of its affiliation with Lavasa from its website and work on the development is still planned to continue without the inclusion of the business centre.

Oxford University is not the first participant in the Lavasa project to develop cold feet. The Girls’ Day School Trust, a group of independent day schools, recently also withdrew their support amid the whispers human rights abuses.

A representative of the trust explained, “Our plan for a joint venture school in India did not come to fruition and our involvement in this project has come to an end. Whilst we cannot comment on the [human rights] issues, GDST is trusted by thousands of parents to inspire high moral and ethical values in the pupils in our case…We would naturally expect our partners, both in the UK and internationally, to share these principles and values.”

The Lavasa site will now encompass four settlements, which will be home to 200 000 middle-class Indians. The area will include resorts, numerous recreational facilities and a golf course. Lavasa have so far retained their backing from sponsors such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Nick Faldo Golfing Academy, who have refused to give credence to human rights violation claims.

A planned upgrade by Oriel College to the Rhodes building on High Street has prompted complaints about its affect on the city skyline.

The Oxford Victorian Society warns that “plans by Oriel College to make major alterations to the Rhodes Building on Oxford High Street will unnecessarily damage a listed building and irreversibly alter views of Oxford’s skyline.”

The architects have defended the proposed modern style. The plans involve adding another floor to the building’s roof for eleven more student rooms as well as creating disabled access to every floor.

The college has identified the Rhodes building as the most suitable location for additional undergraduate accommodation and is hoping to modernise the building more generally.

“It will unnecessarily damage a listed building”

The Architects, Marcus Beale, have claimed the new roof will be “unashamedly modern” while avoiding any fundamental change in the look of the building.
But the Victorian Society feels the historic roofscape, visible from St Mary’s Tower, will be “harmed”.

It claims that the change would directly contravene the Colleges’ own policy on ensuring that alterations to buildings do not become an ‘intrusion’ on Oxford’s iconic views.

The building was designed by Basil Champneys in 1908. The upgrade will also involve resizing the ground floor windows to ensure that the building is better connected to the street.

The Victorian Society also claims that this resizing of the windows will damage the buildings facade. It is believed Champneys deliberately set the window sizes as they are to give the building a feeling of depth.

The upgrade will also involve moving the washing accommodation from the basement and remove the coal stores for each set, which are no longer needed.

The Victorian Society is hoping that its submission to English Heritage for a change of listed status from grade 2 to grade 2* for the building will be accepted. Oxfordshire County Council would then have to take this into account when considering planning permission.

This change of status means the building would be classed as “particularly important of more than special interest” and be considered in the top 5% of buildings that are considered worth protecting.

However this change in status will take some time to come into effect. 

Oxford colleges have published their accounts for the financial year, which reveal decreasing reliance on the income from investment.

The total income for the financial year ending in July 2009 was £281 million and overall the colleges had a surplus of £6 million. However, college endowments decreased by 7% amounting to £2.28bn.

The falling endowments have been a cause for concern. Clifford Webb, Merton’s finance bursar commented on the accounts, “The problem is reflected more in investment income (which is much lower last year and this year, for example lower dividends and interest rates), which has certainly made a dent in college incomes.

“The fall in endowment values was painful”

“Going forward the amount of money given to colleges by the government is not enough by far to cover teaching costs and this will get progressively worse in the next few years because teaching funds are being cut. But you can’t yet see the impact in last year’s figures.”

Other figures show that publicly funded tuition and research income fell by 0.7%, but overall academic income increased by 7.8%. The University claims income was “boosted by growth in fees from overseas students.”

Staff costs account for half of college expenditure, and these rose by 8.1% last year, which highlights Oxford’s “above-inflation national pay awards for academic staff and higher pension contribution rates,” according to a University press release.

“Teaching funds are being cut”

Although colleges receive public funding from the University to support academic activities, this accounts for less than half their income.

Colleges must rely on the return on endowments, fundraising and surpluses from conferences during the vacations. Conferences brought in £10 million for colleges across the University this year.

There is also a large discrepancy in the performance of colleges. University College achieved a surplus of £1,650,000, compared with Worcester’s deficit of -£1,268,000. Many of the University’s richest colleges also recorded deficits.

Univ recorded a surplus of £854,000 the year before and their huge surplus this year was partly due to disposal of fixed assets.

The University reports that collectively colleges have “a small surplus at the operating level” despite a 7% decline in endowments.

Oxford’s richest colleges, St John’s and Christ Church, also reported deficits this year. St John’s total funds stand at over £331 million, and their deficit was -£52,000. Christ Church is worth £268 million but had a deficit of -£371,000, despite recording a surplus of £995,000 the year before.

New College lost -£602,000 this year. One New college student, who wished to remain anonymous, told Cherwell, “We’re all quite shocked to hear that the College is in this sort of state. Our JCR has one of the largest budgets in Oxford, so the impact of the overall problems hasn’t been felt much by current undergraduates – but they’re starting make staff cutbacks now, which is a shame.

“What’s most interesting is that part of the problem is our links with New College School. Most people here didn’t realise that the School and the College share accounts, and it has angered a lot of people that the prep school’s problems could have an impact on us, even though we have basically nothing to do with them.”

Other colleges reporting losses include Brasenose, Corpus Christi, Hertford, St. Hilda’s (though they recorded a deficit of only -£3000) and Wadham.

Wadham lost -£205,000 this year. One third year Wadhamite told Cherwell she was not surprised by the news. “We’ve noticed prices in the bar go up and they’re currently doing up rooms in college, meaning undergraduates can’t stay there.”

Colleges with very healthy accounts include Balliol, who recorded a surplus of £441,000, Jesus with £446,000, Lincoln with £566,000, Merton with £650,000 and Somerville, who reported a surplus of £794,000.

Exeter recorded an impressive surplus of £2,026,000 but this was only achieved after the disposal of fixed assets. The year before Exeter had a deficit of -£244,000.

Overall Oxford did receive more donations this year, which helped colleges through dismal financial conditions. Donations accounted for £53 million of endowments and colleges received £18 million in gifts and £8 million in capital gifts.

Frances Lannon, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall and Chairman of the Conference of Colleges, said of the accounts, “The fall in endowment values, though painful, was considerably less than that experienced by some of our peers. Many colleges are fortunate to have, serving on their investment committees, Old Members who have highly successful careers in fund management. This has undoubtedly helped us weather the storm.” 

The current Education Minister, Mike Russell, will be writing to the Oxford English Dictionary’s publisher to demand a reprint after it wrongly described Alexander Graham Bell as an American.

Bell, the Scottish scientist who invented the telephone, studied at Edinburgh University and patented the telephone in 1876. Although he later moved to America and gained citizenship in 1882, at the time of his invention he was staunchly Scottish, having been born and educated in the country.

The error appears under the entry for ‘decibel’; the latter part of the word coming from the inventor’s surname.

A spokesperson for Oxford University Press, the dictionary’s publisher, said the company would consider Russell’s request for an amendment.

Several leading universities, including Cambridge and York, have been accused of changing A-Level entry requirements subsequent to students applying.

This comes following the pressure of funding cuts of £915m, a surge of almost 12% in students applying, and potential fines for universities of £3,700 for every place over government quotas awarded.

Jonny Medland, Vice-President for Affairs at OUSU, said that the move is “an inevitable consequence of government cuts in higher education funding” and “is indicative of the desperation forced on universities”.

Oxford University has made clear that AAA has been the “standard conditional offer” at Oxford for “some time” and will remain so.

Britain is ignoring its dementia crisis, a recent study conducted by Oxford University’s Health Economics Research centre suggests.

The study found that each dementia patient costs the economy £27,647 per year; five times more than a cancer patient and eight times more than a heart disease sufferer. Yet only £50m is spent per year on research, compared with heart disease at over £150m and cancer at £590m.

The study has also shown that the number of people with dementia, at 822,000, is 17% higher than previously estimated and will increase to one million before 2025. It is expected that one in three people over 65 will contract dementia before they die.

Rebecca Wood, the Alzheimer’s Research Trust Chief Executive, said, “If we spend a more proportionate sum on dementia research we could unleash the full potential of our scientists in their race for a cure.”

An anonymous letter sent to Christ Church authorities has warned of a “considerable drugs culture” in the college, including the supply of Heroin.

The college Censors, deputies to the Dean, circulated an email among the student body last week with the subject “Urgent warning concerning drugs”.
It cautioned students against the use and supplying of drugs following the anonymous allegations.

“The law applies just as rigorously within college as elsewhere,” the message said. “The Censors have neither the power nor the wish to protect anyone who breaks it.”

Christ Church students have acknowledged drug use within the college, though those contacted by Cherwell expressed their surprise at the mention of Heroin in the email.

“There are quite a few people on it [drugs],” said one Christ Church third year, who asked to remain anonymous.

He denied that Heroin dealing or abuse took place in the college.

“I was pretty shocked about the Heroin”

“It looks like some nutter coming in, seeing a few people looking rough, and saying they’re all smack-heads. It’s palpably false – there is no Heroin in Christ Church.”

“There are quite a few other drugs going round,” he said, “but then Christ Church is a big college.”

The email, signed by the junior Censor Ian Watson said, “the Censors received an anonymous letter alleging the existence in Christ Church of a considerable drugs culture, including the supplying of class A drugs such as heroin.”

It continued, “The letter named one individual. The police, whom the Censors consulted…have advised that this letter does not in itself constitute usable evidence with which to start an investigation.”

“I was pretty shocked about the Heroin,” said another third year undergraduate, who asked not to be named. “I really wouldn’t say [drugs] are a big thing, especially compared to other colleges.”

Lou Stoppard, a student at the college, told Cherwell that there was a feeling of “confusion” around the allegations of the supplying of Heroin.
“I was a bit surprised. It seemed like an over-enthusiastic Censor being over-dramatic,” she said. “The email was a bit extreme, a bit intense.”

“Maybe there’s a clique that uses Heroin that everyone’s oblivious to…it’s the kind of thing that does get reported.”

The Censors were contacted for a comment on the issue, but did not respond.

A new set of rules to try to prevent non-EU students and their dependents from using the student visa system to illegally immigrate to the UK has been announced this week.

This follows the suspension of student visa applications from Nepal, northern India and Bangladesh last week.

Last week’s suspensions came after a jump in applications of 11,700 in the final three months of last year in comparison to the same period the previous year, rising to 13,500 in northern India alone.

The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, outlined that non-EU students must speak English to a level just below GCSE standard, work only 10 hours a week on courses below degree level, and cannot bring dependents into the UK for courses lasting less than six months.

Courses must also be at an institution on the ‘Highly Trusted Sponsors List’, a new register designed to catch out fake colleges. Johnson said that 200 such colleges have been closed.

“I am from North India, and this sucks”

James Pitman, the Managing Director of Study Group, the UK’s largest independent provider of international students to the higher education sector, claimed the new laws “could be sensible”, but argued, “they should be carefully considered and applied only to those countries that represent a genuine threat to national security.”

Whilst agreeing with Pitman on the potential benefits of the new laws, Jonny Medland, OUSU VP for Access and Academic Affairs, was angered by the suggestion that students from high risk countries should be further deterred from applying to UK colleges and universities.

He commented “Students need to have good levels of English to make the most out of studying in the UK but this doesn’t need to be tied to crude profiling of students from countries deemed to be threatening to Britain. Students should be treated as individuals, rather than as possible suspects.”

Medland further protested against the visa application suspension, stating, “A blanket suspension of student visas is not the right way of dealing with a complex problem – if visa applications are rising then the government needs to commit extra resources to process them.”

Visa problems are not new. Last term, many Pakistani students had problems gaining entry to Oxford and other universities due to a backlog of 5,000 people as IT difficulties left many without a passport or visa. These problems are likely only to further the disproportionately low percentage of ethnic minorities at Oxford, currently 11.1% compared to a national percentage of 14.2%.

Radhika Goyal, a first-year Economics and Management student from Chandigarh, northern India, accused the UK Border Agency of inefficiency even before the recent suspension.

“I have had horrendous experiences with visa,” she claimed, adding, “it took me two and a half months… I received it on 3rd October, one day before my flight – I had planned to come on the 28th September previously. The visa made was incorrect – the UK student ID on the visa is incorrect so I have sent it to the border agency, over three and a half weeks now, no response.

“I am from North India, and this sucks. Part of the reason I had to travel alone was because my mum couldn’t get a visa. The suspension is outrageous; imagine someone applying for autumn application. Just because numbers have risen doesn’t mean you stop giving out visas.”

In response to the new laws and the problems facing foreign students, Oxford University responded simply “The proposed measures shouldn’t deter any of our candidates.”