Leaflets made by the student-run publication The Oxymoron were confiscated and banned from Freshers’ Fair last week.

Organisers were concerned that first year students would not realize that the publication, which included headlines such as ‘Rail replacement buses temporarily replaced by trains’, was satirical.

Jack Robinson, one of The Oxymoron’s editors said, “It’s the magazine-cover-style side that the Freshers’ Fair people took exception to, specifically the main article, the headline ‘Fall in JSoc membership blamed ‘on the Jews,” and the ‘Leper: Actually I’d rather be at Cambridge’ article.

“We left our supply of leaflets on the table the day before the fair, and came back in the morning to find a post-it note saying they’d had to take them away.”
The Oxymoron team was frustrated by the decision. “The guy organising it said something like ‘I know you’re being satirical, but we can’t really have these headlines in case someone takes them seriously.'”

Robinson considered the decision “pretty ridiculous – after all, we’ll be delivering copies to JCRs later this term and we’re very much of the opinion that freshers don’t need OUSU’s protection from satire.”

The Oxymoron has recently been nominated for the Magazine of the Year at the Guardian Student Media Awards for the quality of its humour.

Jake Leeper, Freshers’ Fair organiser explained his decision, “The Oxymoron’s material was removed after concerns were raised by a student as to whether it was immediately clear that the fliers they had on their stall were part of a satire magazine. With thousands of students passing through the Fair it is not always possible for them to stop and read in detail what each stall has to offer. The concern was that students would simply read the headlines and move on.”

However, George Waldersee, PPE fresher, described the move as “patronising”. He said, “This is so obviously satirical. Freshers should be able to tell the difference between satire and real life.”

Leeper said the incident had not been his decision alone. “The materials were removed only after I consulted with Eorann Lean, OUSU Vice-President. Later in the Fair the Oxymoron brought in a new publication that Stefan [Baskerville, OUSU President] said he was happy for them to have on display.”

One Jewish student, responding to the Jsoc reference, said they were not concerned by such material. Sebastian Grey, a student at Magdalen College said, “whilst it’s certainly true that people sometimes use ‘it was only a joke’ to disguise some highly unsavoury opinions, I think it’s clear that on this occasion it was anti-semitism rather than Judaism which was the butt of the joke. As a person of Jewish extraction I found it both sympathetic and hilarious.”

The Oxymoron continued to advertise at Freshers’ Fair. “We had to print off a load of new flyers to give out without the offending material, which was a pain,” said Robinson.

The Oxymoron was not the only student organization, which had trouble at the Freshers’ Fair. A number of societies were refused a stall because they failed to fill out their risk assessment form.

Andrew Griggs, a representative from the skydiving society explained, “We’d hoped that we could get a stall at Freshers’ Fair as we are a new society – just starting out in March.” The society was rejected because of a lack of proper documentation.

Griggs admitted, “It may threaten the existence of the club.” However he went on, “Ultimately the bureaucracy is there for a reason, and we wholly understand its necessity.”

The Oxford University Morris Men were also not allowed to attend; their bagman Gerard Robinson described how “bureaucracy got the better of us this year”. They registered with the proctors in the 1950s and have not been to Freshers’ Fair in about 25 years. They had not realized that the rules about what paperwork was required had changed. He said it was “a shame”.

Oxford University has released sample interview questions to cast light onto the applications process in an effort to broaden access.

The list, compiled by the office of Admissions, is gathered from interviewers across all colleges and disciplines. Questions range from “If you were to save either rainforests or coral reefs, which would you save?” in Biological sciences to “Why it might be useful for an English student to read the ‘Twilight’ series?” in English.

Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions justified the list, “We are keen to show the reality of an admissions interview at Oxford. Many myths persist about Oxford interviews, but these questions show there are no trick questions, no special knowledge is required, and there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers.”

Helen Swift, a Modern Languages interviewer at St Hilda’s said that she would ask a question, “What is laguage?”. She explained, “Although I would never launch this question at a candidate on its own, it might grow out of a discussion. Students sometimes say they like studying Spanish, for example, because they ‘love the language’. In order to get a student thinking critically and analytically, the question would get them to consider what constitutes the language they enjoy – is it defined by particular features or by function (what it does)? How does form relate to meaning? And so on.”

Ben Ellis, a second year historian at St John’s commented, “I was asked questions like, ‘What is the value of popular history, like Andrew Marr’s books? Do you think that British history is more important than European history? Why should it be taught?’ I think they were fair: the questions were about things that we should have had an opinion on.”

Zoe Hallam, a second year PPEist, does not believe releasing interview questions is sufficient to counter the Oxford myths, “Publishing interview questions doesn’t stop people not liking Oxford as it doesn’t tell you about life at Oxford. There are a lot more aspects to being at university here.”

A recent spate of television programmes featuring the classic Oxford stereotypes have caused concern within the University over the effects this will have on broadening access.

In spite of efforts to broaden Oxford’s appeal, the University’s attempts to project a modern and inclusive image have been hampered by a batch of recent television programmes feeding off Oxbridge myths. ITV2’s new drama, Trinity, is set at the fictional Bridgeford University, where the characters and situations in the programme are based around traditional stereotypes about Oxbridge. Channel 4’s “When Boris Met Dave” examines the lives of David Cameron and Boris Johnson when they were at Oxford together in the 1980s, focussing on their time in the Bullingdon Club.

A spokesperson from the University commented, “The high profile given to the Bullingdon club in the national press is a concern to the University, since it disproportionately focuses on the activities of a very tiny number of students, who are in no way representative of the overwhelming majority. The collegiate University spends £2.8m a year on outreach activities, many of which aim to break down stereotypes and misconceptions about Oxford, and many of which involve current students, who are the best representatives of Oxford’s diversity.”

Oxford has been hit by flu after Freshers’ week, with bedridden students across the University struggling to cope with first week essays.

Some colleges have been hit harder than others. At Lincoln students were asked to send an email to James Meredith, JCR President if they had been feeling unwell. He said, “I didn’t think college knew how many people were ill, the main aim was to inform them.” He added that while 62 students get in touch before the college convened its swine flu committee, “about seventy five people emailed in total.”

Simon Millar, one Lincoln flu sufferer, described his experience. “It’s been horrific two days. I have had a very high temperature of around 38.5 degrees and muscular pains. There are four boys in my house who have had it, and all of us have been bedridden.”

University College has also had its share of flu sufferers. According to Alice Heath, JCR president, there are “16 confirmed cases” so far and there is a “flu buddy system which involves anyone whose friends can’t help, and college parents looking out for their fresher children.”

At St. Hugh’s College, pandemic preparations have been put to the test already. During the vacation, a group of summer school students contracted swine flu and so the administration has already been through a “trial run” of how to cope if it strikes again.

Christopher Blake, JCR president commented, “At this point everyone seems alright but I believe that the wave has yet to crest and we are likely to see swine flu spread more quickly through the university. When that happens, I believe that the College will be well prepared to safeguard the health of students as best they can.”

Although the number of diagnosed cases of swine flu are still low, there has been a widespread outbreak of illness in colleges. This has led some to speculate on the joint arrival of the H1N1 pandemic and the infamous Freshers’ Flu which plagues the University at the beginning of each year when hundreds of unwashed students converge upon the city.

Most colleges are well prepared to weather a crisis of increased urgency. At Lady Margaret Hall, the H1N1 response team has installed hand sanitizers in public walkways, distributed swine flu packs which include water, paracetemol, thermometers, and set up a computer system to track the progress of students.

Oxford has witnessed a violent Freshers’ Week with a spate of attacks across the city.

The reports of violent incidents include the allegation that a student was attacked on New College Lane on Thursday night, though New College has not confirmed whether the victim was a member of college.

One New College student said, “It’s all a bit strange – we know something happened in New College Lane on Thursday night, but they won’t tell us what, or who was involved. It’s because they don’t want to scare the freshers, but I think it would be better to be open about it – at the moment there are just loads of rumours, which are making things a lot worse.”

New College JCR President Tom Scott said, “New College JCR would of course like all of its members to stay safe on the streets and be mindful of the dangers that exist in most of the UK’s urban areas, particularly at night.” However, he does not believe students will have “anything much to fear” provided “they stick to sound practices such as keeping to the main roads and in groups.” He confirmed that freshers were escorted to and from clubs during Freshers’ Week and those who were not “knew the way and went home in groups.”

In a separate incident there have been reports that two students were attacked in the Turl Street area on Wednesday of Freshers’ Week. Both victims sustained multiple injuries; one spent the night in hospital and had serious head injuries. The attack is being looked into by the police; there are reports that three suspects have been arrested.

In a third violent incident, a nineteen-year-old male was attacked on Pullen’s Lane just after midnight on Thursday. Four men attempted to mug the student, hitting him and pushing him

to the ground when he refused to hand over his possessions. The assailants then stole his wallet and passport. His attackers are described as being around 6ft, in their mid-twenties and of Eastern European appearance.

A spokesperson for Oxford Brookes said that there has been “a few incidents involving the police at the start of term.” While most of these were to do with student anti-social behavior, the spokesperson admitted there had been a more serious incident during Freshers’ Week “near one of the halls,” though they were unable to give out any further details.

University welfare services and the police are urging students, particularly freshers, to take extra measures to stay safe at one of the most vulnerable times in their University career.

Dani Quinn, OUSU VP for Welfare said that although these events are a matter of serious concern, “it is likely that such a high number is confined to Freshers’ Week, in what is typically a safe city for students.” She acknowledged that freshers are more vulnerable when they first arrive in Oxford, “They tend not to know their way around, are more likely to be drunk and, typically, are wearing clothing that indicates this (e.g. Freshers’ Week t-shirts that say ‘drunk’ or ‘lost’). They are also likely to be carrying more money or valuables than usual. Although this in no way excuses or condones violent or criminal behaviour, it can explain a spike at this time of year.”

OUSU advise students to travel in groups at night, carry attack alarms, avoid leaving clubs at closing time and to make sure they are not listening to music or talking on the phone when walking home at night. Distractions such as phones and mp3 players not only make students more vulnerable as they are unaware of their surroundings, students are also “displaying something worth stealing.”

If students are victims of an attack, they should inform their College and the Police. Quinn also pointed out that it can be helpful to contact OUSU, “so that we can bring it to the attention of the Police and the Council when lobbying for better security measures around the city.”

Thames Valley Police maintain that Oxford is a generally safe city but offer advice for students going out at night, urging them to eat before they go out, avoid rounds and to hold on to their drinks to avoid spiking.
 Despite reports of several attacks, a spokesman from Oxford University insisted, “Oxford is a very safe place to live, work and study and violent crimes against students are rare.”

The number of private school pupils is on the increase at seven out of the top ten universities in the UK, according to new research from the University of Exeter. Oxford was one of three where their number has declined.

Of the ‘traditional’ subjects such as engineering, sciences and languages, 24% of private school students go on to study these at university, while only 17% of state schoolers make this choice.

These results will dishearten ministers who have pumped money into education to attempt to close the gap.

Not all was doom and gloom, however, as Oxford, Exeter and UCL all recorded an increase in state school students. Numbers have been rising since 2003/4, but Chloe Wildman, an Oxford student who went to state school pointed out “by studying more diverse subjects more students might stay in education, even if they didn’t go to a top ten university, which is a positive result.”

Cambridge University is now in proud possession of its first online tabloid, The Tab.

Taymoor Atighetchi, one of the paper’s founders, described the paper as an antidote to “a particularly conservative and dry Varsity.”

The Tab is not without its critics. The weekly feature ‘Tab Totty’ has attracted the anger of the CUSU’s Women’s Union, which launched a campaign to have the paper closed down.

Despite this, The Tab website is proving to be massively popular. It received 88,000 hits in its first week.

According to Atighetchi, Varsity, the independent Cambridge student newspaper, is losing readers to this new rival. He commented, “Colleges are complaining that not enough people are taking the newspaper from porters lodges leaving thousands of copies left for the bins.”

Launched on May Day, the Tab is still in its infancy, but its light-hearted and more comic take on the news seems to be providing a welcome service for Cambridge students.

Oxford has named Stephen Garrett as the News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media.

Garrett, the TV and film producer best known for his work on ‘Hustle’ and ‘Life on Mars’, is also Executive Chairman, of Kudos Film & Television Ltd.He succeeds Paul Gambaccini in the role.

Garrett will be lecturing in January and February on the subject of TV fiction, focusing on the relationship between commerce and culture. His first lecture is entitled ‘How to Grow a Creative Business According to the Laws of Chance’.

Garrett commented, “The appointment is a huge honour, and above all a great tribute to Kudos’ work over the past few years, as well as to my colleagues on both sides of the camera who have made it all possible.”

He will hold the position for the rest of the academic year.

Oxford will not be offering the Philosophy, Physiology and Psychology course after next year. The University is introducing a degree course in Biomedical Sciences as a replacement.

The medical sciences division, which will be providing the course states on its website, “The course is aimed at motivated students with grounding in science that have an interest in and aptitude for the processes underlying cell and systems biology and neuroscience. The material covered and the style of teaching will suit students who are eager to study how cells, organs and systems function in the human body.”

Students applying to start at Oxford in October 2010 will be the last PPPists, and those currently studying PPP will not be affected by the change.

A team of Oxford scientists has discovered that juggling can increase your brain power.

In a recent study volunteers learnt to juggle from scratch and researchers noted a 5% increase in white matter in their brains over 6 weeks.

White matter is the communication network of the brain, whereas grey matter is the storage area. This is the first time any sort of training has been shown to alter white matter.

Juggling has already been shown to increase grey matter in the brain. Oxford University Juggling Club President, Rob Wooley, said that juggling has improved his dyslexia, “It helps me think about more than one thing at a time, so I can read more quickly.”

The study could have implications for the treatment of degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.