The Governing Body at Somerville has decided to stop offering Human Sciences undergraduate degrees. Within two days, hundreds of students, alumni and tutors have reacted with dismay and conviction against the ruling.

The online petition called Stop Somerville Dropping Human Sciences has been already signed by hundreds of students.

No interviews for Human Sciences were offered to the incoming applicants for 2010, a decisive move which occurred without student consultation or public announcement. The decision is for a “trial period” only, but its reversal is unlikely as Somerville follows the trend for colleges independently dropping the course.

Caroline Lennartsson commented, “Purists may well consider Human Sciences a mongrel subject, but mongrels are those with hybrid vigour and durability.”

This week Cherwell revealed that LMH had admitted a student with a fabricated set of qualifications and entirely fictitious personal statement. But we’re all at it, a straw poll of students and Cherwell staff shows.

Duke of Edinburgh awards, unread books and dropped ‘B’-grades featured heavily on our Oxford application forms and CVs for jobs and internships – if not to the extent of 13 imaginary A-Levels.

A tutor commented: “It is suprisingly common for candidates to come up blank when asked even the most general questions about a book which they have professed to have read and enjoyed.”

One student said that the biggest lie he had put down on his application form was to “pretend I had any interest in my subject.” Another confessed that he had put down a Duke of Edinburgh award, despite having never taken part in the programme.

Other than Oxford applications, students admitted to lying on or exaggerating their CVs for professional work. A Magdalen undergraduate said that he had an advanced medical qualification to work as a lifeguard, while an anonymous member of Cherwell staff confessed he had claimed to be a CNN journalist to land a job on a paper, when he had only ever worked as an intern at the organisation.

News reporters admitted that on University qualifications they had “bigged up the number of books I’d read”, “put down more books and then flicked through them before interviews,” and “read books in English translations when I said I’d read them in the original foreign language”.

Another current undergraduate said they were put off from lying in their personal statement, after the example of their brother – who had falsely claimed to have read Ulysees, but was then quizzed on the novel in his interview and was not offered a place.

A national survey late last year found that ten percent of Oxford educated students went on to lie on their CV after University. However, the number of Oxford graduates found lying was shown to be far fewer than alumni of other universities – with 24.8% of job candidates from universities or colleges outside the top 100 admitting to lying on their applications.

A separate survey showed that state school students are more likely to lie than their privately-educated counterparts.

Oxford students are taking on paid jobs during term time, despite measures taken by the University to discourage part-time work.

A Cherwell investigation has shown that the majority of students who work during their time at the University do not have serious financial troubles, but appreciate being able to make some money to spend on recreational activities. Others cited various reasons for working, such as social benefits.

The students take up a variety of jobs, ranging from staffing Oxford’s cafes, through representing major companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, to working in departmental libraries.

One second-year student who works in Argos had previously worked for the company before coming to Oxford. He said, “At home all my friends have part time jobs while at uni so it’s the done thing to try and get by. I really enjoy working and it’s nice feeling good at your job when you’re maybe not doing so well at a particular week’s work.”

He claims working does not interfere with his studies saying, “I can balance my time and know how I work so it usually levels out.

“There are certain weeks which can be quite heavy and it’s definitely not fun getting up after a Bop and heading straight to Customer Services but I am glad I work. It gives me a sense of achievement and use, separate to my degree. I don’t understand why there is such a stigma attached to the subject at this university.”

However, a spokesperson from the University emphasized, “Students are discouraged from working during term time as terms are short… the holiday periods are therefore long, giving many students the opportunity to take up paid work outside term time. If a student is worrying about finances the University and colleges would prefer they came to talk about the wide range of financial support available.”

Many Oxford students choose to work for catering companies, both in the holidays and during term time. Working hours are flexible and the majority of staff are students.

One student explained her reasons for deciding to work for an Oxford-based catering company. “We had a lot of free time in Trinity as our exams were in Hilary and we didn’t have any tutes. Then someone mentioned this company and I thought why not?”

The student, who is a scholar, believes working does not interfere with her studies, especially as her work is flexible. She thinks students should be able to work if they want to. “I think it’s a bit harsh that there is a strict rule, because to be honest there is not that much time, and I think students would only work when they have time.”

While this student does not have pressing financial problems she added, “I guess I think its a bit unfair that someone who needed the money quite a lot would feel intimidated by the rules. I know the university claims there’s a lot of support, but I’m sure that there are still people struggling. And to be honest, Oxford claim we should be working just as hard in the holidays so does it really make a difference when we choose to earn money?”

Some students are employed as campus representatives by high-profile companies, such PricewaterhouseCoopers. These students are paid well, up to £10 an hour and are expected to represent the firm by handing out fliers and organising events for up to 10 hours a week.

One student who worked for a major firm in Oxford told Cherwell he took the job on mainly for the freebies and because he enjoyed the “freedom to organise events or whatever I wanted in Oxford.”

He appreciated the flexible hours of the job and said the responsibility was probably similar to being president of a medium-sized society in Oxford. However, he said extracurricular activities do not have “pressure to do the hours” and are “not the same responsibility”. The student decided to give up because he felt working was interfering with his academic work, though he stressed this is probably different for people at various stages of their degree.

Other jobs taken up by students include tutoring for companies such as Bright Young Things and freelance work over the internet. Tara Isabella Burton, a second year Oriel student has earned $2053 in the last six months through elance.com commissions. Her tasks included editing a novel and writing articles for travel websites.

While Oxford strongly discourages students from working outside of the University, many students are employed by their college or University faculties.
One third-year student who works for her faculty library for an hour and a half a week said she decided to work because “the job was advertised and I thought it would be a good, constructive thing to do in Oxford that wasn’t related to academic studies. The pay is good too.”

Liam Milner, a St. Anne’s student, described his experiences of working for the college telethon. He worked for two weeks and was paid £7 an hour for his efforts. Students were also provided with free accommodation by the college.

He said, “The main bulk of the telethon didn’t really interfere with my work, because it was mainly in the evenings and left plenty of time during the day for working. I thought the extra weekend was a little more problematic, however, as it rather got in the way of what could’ve been a far more productive couple of days.

“One thing I would say is that I don’t think I could do any regular work for college, working behind the bar for instance, because I think it would get in the way with both work and socialising. The telethon was fine though, and I couldn’t turn down £500 for two weeks work.”

Some students operate their own companies during term time. Duncan Turnbull from Brasenose and Lincolnite Oliver Bridge set up their own companies before coming to the University and now they continue to manage them on part-time basis. Turnbull even confessed to the Financial Times that the tutors at Brasenose college provided him with additional support by allowing him to take time off, while he should have been studying.

Students are divided over whether working can realistically be balanced with studies. One third-year St. Hilda’s student commented, “There is a difference between existing and enjoying life. Grants and loans provide students with enough money to eat but students want to be able to have nights out and buy new clothes, especially at Oxford where we have so many wealthy students supported by their parents.”

“I think that if someone has time to work during term time they obviously have an issue with either their university work or their social life,” said another third year Orientalist.

Sarah Reder, a second year student said, “Some students play a few different sports and dedicate up to fifteen hours a week to extracurricular activities. Why can’t a student with financial incentives dedicate the same time to paid work?”

Oxford has reacted strongly against claims in the Sunday Times that it has frozen the number of places it offers to British undergraduates in direct response to a funding crisis.

Other universities, including Cambridge, Durham, King’s College London, Imperial College and Warwick have all announced that they will be forced either to freeze or to cut the number of places available to undergraduates in 2010.

However a spokesperson for the University told Cherwell, “It is misleading to imply that Oxford is ‘freezing’ places as a result of government cuts. We have had about 3,000 places a year for many years and this remains unchanged.”
Despite the face that this policy is consistent with the past, increased competition for places is inevitable as the demand for higher education increases.

Jonny Medland, OUSU VP for Access and Academic Affairs, commented, “While undergraduate numbers would ideally be expanded, there are a range of outside pressures which make this difficult. The City Council has a limit on how many students can live out and colleges are also constrained by their own capacity. The Oxford tutorial system is also expensive, meaning that taking more undergraduates means the university has to find more money from somewhere.”

Elsewhere, universities have announced that they will be cutting the number of places available. The London School of Economics and Essex universities will both be offering fewer places to students next year, and Edinburgh University will be reducing its intake by 1,300 – nearly a third of this year’s total.

Such moves have been prompted by the announcement of Peter Mandelson, the First Secretary of State, that universities will have their funding cut by £914 million under a Labour government. The Conservatives have hinted at plans for similar cuts.

This year there was an increase of 12% in school-leavers applying to university, bringing the total to around 720,000. A similar increase this year will leave several hundred students without university places at all; moreover the 10,000 extra places offered by the government last year will not be made for 2010 entry.

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said, “Universities will be faced with a choice of recruiting more students with lower amounts of money, which will inevitably damage quality; and on the other hand, cutting student numbers, which will be very hard on potential students.”

This year some British universities reported that the numbers of applications they had received from abroad had risen by over 40%. Bekhradnia said, “Most universities are frankly taking as many overseas students as they can.”

The first public meeting of the ‘No Cuts at Oxford University Movement’ took place at the Kings Arms pub. The meeting was held to raise awareness among students about the potential cuts facing Oxford and other universities due to the fall in public spending.

The meeting, chaired by a current Oxford undergraduate, heard from four speakers; Terry Hoad, vice-President of the University and Colleges Union, Ben Sellers, the Student Union President at SOAS, Michael Chessum, founder of the National Convention Against Fees and Cuts and Joanna Pinto, an anti-cuts campaign student at the London College of Communications.

All detailed the negative effect the budget cuts would have on the student learning experience and stressed the need for immediate action from higher education institutions in conjunction with their students and staff.

Sellers underlined how important he felt the issue to be, stating, “your course is getting cut, your lecturers are getting sacked”.

This sentiment was shared by Pinto, who commented, “it’s up to you to make it sexy; it’s up to you to put it on the news.”

The UK currently spends 0.9% GDP on higher education, less than the average 1% from comparable countries. With the economic downturn, this gulf is expected to grow, and the panel highlighted that this, together with the reclassification of universities to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills in Government, leaves higher education resources vulnerable to being slashed in order to increase institutions financial efficiency.

Chessum and Sellers illustrated this argument with examples from KCL and UCL, both of which generated a large profit margin last year, yet still forced compulsory redundancies. Specifically UCL, at which Chessum is a student, had a 6% budget cut made by its management in response to just a 2% decrease in funding.

The repercussions of any cutbacks are expected to be felt by all students, with many courses closing, arts subjects neglected in favour of the more profitable science degrees and every graduate having to justify their research’s economic benefit to society. Sellers highlighted concerns that if the current fee cap is raised or lifted, higher education will become a competitive market, in which more financially able students will be able to pay for a better quality of degree.

One audience member commented, “Students feel useless” and said that tangible cuts will have to be felt by students before they will get involved.

The panel explained that with the average undergraduate degree lasting just 3 years, it is difficult to excite any long-term engagement from students on the issues which affect them. The suggestion to combat this is to engage support from local communities, by offering the resources of the students and the institutions in skills shares.

Action is currently being taken by the University and Colleges Union in order to protect student interests; on the 26th January leading members lobbied Parliament with their new education manifesto, reinforcing the need to allow generous funding to maintain high academic standards in universities.

The panel concurred that although the focus of the campaign appears fairly narrow, it is a part of battling a wider economic injustice in the UK which, as Sellers puts it, “supports people who are marginalised in society”.

JCR accounts display massive disparities in Common Room wealth across the University, with annual spending in different colleges amounting to some £90,000 variation.

The average JCR Budget is around £32,840 per annum, although some JCRs are directly responsible for college sports funding which burdens this budget. Those JCRs with the largest budgets primarily come from student-run money-making enterprises, such as Hertford’s bar.

Hertford College has an annual JCR Budget of approximately £100,000 compared to Oriel’s meagre £9,300 a year. Hertford’s Entz budget of £10,000 a year is therefore greater than Oriel’s entire budget. This allows the JCR to provide discounts, including subsidised £1 tickets to the popular student Wednesday club-night at Lava & Ignite.

Their wealth also allows Hertford to provide a large amount of money for welfare. Its welfare budget of £10,000 is more than double the funds provided by every other college surveyed, while St Peter’s budget is around the £500 mark.

Other JCRs have claimed that financial difficulties have led to the decision to disaffiliate from OUSU. Oriel JCR Treasurer, James Pickering, commented on how disaffiliation has freed up funds. He noted that by “being disaffiliated from OUSU we have been able to cut such costs as welfare and Michaelmas expenditure significantly.”

OUSU membership costs can be expensive. When Trinity JCR disaffiliated in Hilary Term 2007, one of the arguments in favour of disaffiliation cited that the costs involved in affiliation amounted to around a third of the JCR Budget.

This problem may be resolved if OUSU goes ahead with proposed changes to its funding structure.

The accounts show that JCRs vary extensively in their spending priorities. One notable difference is the amount donated to charities. Queens was found to be one of the most charitable colleges, giving away around £11,000 a year. This is only £3,000 less than St Peter’s entire JCR Budget.

Comparing charitable giving is difficult as it can further vary term on term. For example, instead of its usual termly contribution of £1,100 to its chosen charities, St Hilda’s JCR outlined plans to donate £1,400 straight off to the Haiti earthquake cause.

Oxford University denied that it would ever consider a centralised funding system as a way of ridding the current collegiate funding system of variations in JCR budgets and college wealth.

A spokesperson said that “any variations are outweighed by the benefits to students of the college system.” They further commented that “colleges do participate in a wealth redistribution scheme already.” They went on to say that all students receive the “same treatment in essential matters” in terms of courses, lectures, and library resources.

Every JCR that responded to Cherwell investigations was keen to stress its commitment to making the most of whatever funding they have available to them.

Mark O’Brien, St Catz Treasurer, stressed that the JCR committee’s main role was “to bring their enthusiasm and passion” to the job by “giving as much of our time and effort as we can, not by how much we spend.”

St Catz has turned to entrepreneurial techniques of raising capital. The college sought support from local restaurants and businesses to provide for events in Freshers’ Week. The JCR also intends to implement a discount card based exclusively for St Catz students by working with these businesses.
The evidence of JCR disparities comes just weeks before colleges publish their annual accounts.

Oxford’s only Sikh Temple, or Gurdwara, faces closure after it failed to obtain planning permission for an extension.

The Gurdwara, located on the ground floor of 69 Cherwell Drive in Marston, acts as a community centre for Sikhs in Oxford. It has been used as a temple for the past three years.

Priya Atwal, President of the Sikh Society at the University, believes this threat of closure “damages Oxford’s reputation as a city that can accommodate for a diverse set of students.”

The extension was added to the bottom floor of the house to create space as the temple aims to provide services to all members of the community. For example, it will give a meal to anyone who asks for one.

It is claimed that the elderly couple who own the property, and who allow it to be used as a temple, did not realise that planning permission was needed for the extension. Although they applied for retrospective permission, Oxford City Council rejected the application.

The Council also rejected an application for the building to be officially changed from a place of residence to a place of worship.

Further problems arose when residents stated that they were unhappy with the congestion caused by the Gurdwara. Nearly 100 residents signed a petition opposing the planning application.

The Council gave the temple six months to close down and find a new location. However, due to a shortage of funds, this has not been possible.
The planning application was refused on the grounds of parking problems and noise disturbance to the neighbours.

In an interview with Oxford Mail, Councillor Graham Swift commented, “The problem with anything on Cherwell Drive is the amount of traffic and parking that would be generated. Planning permission should be given before building work is carried out – and where that doesn’t happen a strong line should be taken, or there would be chaos.”

On Monday, there was an appeal hearing, and the Council went to review the location. They have told the temple that they will make a decision in the next seven weeks.

Mr Singh, head of the Committee at the Gurdwara, stated that he would “like the Council to reconsider their position. We can only move with the help of the council, if they can give us a grant or find us an unused building to use.”

The temple is a focal point in the Oxford Sikh community, and it is used by many members of the University. The Sikh population in Oxford is quite small, and its size is greatly affected by the number of Sikhs in each new year group.

Atwal explained that the temple was important to Sikh Oxford students.”Several of our students visit the Gurdwara regularly to pray and help out within the local Sikh community. We feel that there should be somewhere for Sikh students to worship just as there is for students of any other faith.”

She further commented, “We must remember that many students from all over the world come to study at Oxford University. Taking away Oxford’s Gurdwara might discourage future students from wanting to come here as they cannot worship, like in other University cities.”