Graduates on unpaid internships will soon be able claim job seeker’s allowance under a new scheme from Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Currently, after 6 months on benefits, job seeker’s allowance rules give a recruitment subsidy, volunteering or training to those who are unemployed. This will now be extended to graduates on internships of up to 13 weeks.

Recently, the NUS conducted a survey in which 8 out of 10 graduates described themselves as ‘concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ about graduate employment levels and their future career prospects.

A candidate for the position of Oxford University’s Professor of Poetry has been accused of sexual harassment at universities twice during his career.

Derek Walcott, the St Lucia-born poet, allegedly sexually harassed two female students whilst he held Professorial posts at Boston and Harvard Universities.

In 1992, an anonymous student in a creative writing class taught by Walcott at Harvard in 1982 claimed that the poet had propositioned her during a discussion of her work, and had given her a “C” grade when she refused his advances.

According to Harvard Crimson, the University’s newspaper, Walcott did not deny that the student’s testimony was correct. He is also alleged to have said that his teaching style was “deliberately personal and intense.”

The student wrote a letter that was published in the Crimson, which contained an account of the conversation.

It recounts how Walcott asked the student to “Imagine me making love to you”, before asking, “Would you make love with me if I asked you?”

The letter then claims that, after she refused, Walcott devised a code by which the student could let him know during classes if she had changed her mind.

According to the student, after she sent the letter, Walcott was “cold and distant”, showed “no concern for my education” and “did not fully evaluate my work as he did with other students of the class.”

She was given a “C” grade for the class. She later appealed to be given a pass grade after she made her complaint, which Harvard’s Administrative Board allowed. Harvard University has officially reprimanded Walcott.

In 1995, the poet was accused of sexually harassing a student in a class he taught at Boston University.
Nicole Niemi, a student of Walcott’s playwriting and creative writing class, pressed for half a million dollars in compensation and punitive damages after claiming that he had propositioned her before threatening to fail her and refusing to produce her play after she refused.

Professor Hermione Lee, a campaigner for Derek Walcott, said that these allegations should not interfere with Derek Walcott’s running for the post.

She said, “I ask myself how far this puritanism might go. Should students be forbidden to read Derek Walcott’s poetry, lest they be contaminated by his long past behaviour?”

“I am campaigning for a professor of poetry who will be a person giving public lectures to students and professors. I am not campaigning for someone who will be in pastoral relations to students.”

“This matter has arose in the past, when Derek Walcott was given a honorary D.Lit at Oxford and these issues were raised at the time as with the many awards and positions that Mr Walcott holds. These historic matters of previous bad behaviour were set aside.”

She added, “You might ask yourself as a student body whether you wanted Byron or Shelley as a professor of poetry neither of whom personal lives were free of criticism.”

Walcott won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and he has also won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the WH Smith Literary Award in recent years.

Ruth Padel has claimed that she will be able to lead the position of Professor of Poetry for Oxford in a “new direction,” in an interview with Cherwell.

She suggested that, as the post has never to date been filled by a female poet, she might be able to bring something new to the position. “The post has been held so far by 43 men and no women,” she said. “My supporters think I might take the post in a new direction, make new links for it and for the university.”

However, she was quick to praise both of her male rivals for the post. Of Arvind Mehotra, she stated, “He is a good essayist and friends of mine admire his work.” Of Walcott’s work, she said, “I admire and have written about Walcott’s work, especially the early stuff. Oddly enough, when my daughter heard he was running too, she said my poetry reminds me of his!”

Nevertheless, she also took pains to explain where she felt she could offer more than other candidates. “My supporters are keen on my scholarly, scientific and classical background, my links with science and conservation, and the fact that I have promoted the close reading of poetry in a wider context than universities.”

Padel said she would reach out to other academic disciplines with poetry readings in botanic gardens and museums, and that she was enthusiastic about involving more students, especially graduates, in poetry.

“I’d love giving the lectures, but I also love making informal links for students. Especially, perhaps, those in other faculties who might feel they have no formal entrée to poetry.”

“I am particularly thinking of graduates. I was a graduate at Oxford-being a graduate can be a lonely business, the university is set up for undergraduates, graduates have to sink themselves into their own lone subject. Poetry can offer a mode and moment of reflection for new ideas and thought.”

Padel praised the uniqueness of the post and of the University, saying “One of Oxford’s great strengths is its resistance to quick change.” She added, “The beauty of this post is that it’s up to the individual. That does run the risk of someone who does not such a good job. But it also means anyone can do anything.”

The battle for the coveted post of Oxford Professor of Poetry begins in earnest this week after nominations closed on Wednesday.

Ruth Padel, Derek Walcott and Arvind Mehrotra will compete on 16 May in an effort to win what is seen as the most prestigious position in poetry after that of Poet Laureate.

It is the first time in the post’s 300-year-history that a woman and a Caribbean have been campaigning for the position.

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, a little-known Indian writer, livened up the race by joining less than a week before the nominations closed.

The race has been somewhat overshadowed, however, by opponents of Derek Walcott claiming he is an unsuitable candidate for the position as he has been reprimanded for sexual harassment.

Current Professor Christopher Ricks will step down from the position in September to make way for the new incumbent. In the past, the post has been held by such poets as Seamus Heaney, Robert Graves and W. H. Auden.

The position comes with a salary of £6,901 and a requirement to deliver three annual lectures. The Professor of Poetry is unique in Oxford as the only elected academic position.

Candidates must receive nominations from at least 12 Oxford graduates to be eligible to stand. The successful poet is then chosen by election, in which all Oxford degree holders are eligible to vote.

Prize-winning poet Ruth Padel was the first to be nominated this year. She is supported by the philosopher AC Grayling and the eminent scientist Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Padel, who has a particular interest in the links between poetry and science, has said she hopes to encourage connections across the arts and sciences within the university. Her latest volume, ‘Darwin: A Life in Verse’, was written to mark the bicentenary of her ancestor, the father of evolutionary study. She has been dubbed “a voice of great authority and integrity” and placed “among the most gifted poets of her generation” by literary critics. A vigorous campaign is behind her candidacy, with supporters having created a website to promote her cause.

She will face competition in the form of Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, the West-Indian poet and playwright. Walcott won the Nobel prize for literature in 1992, founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop and has worked as a critic and lecturer. In a statement, Walcott’s nominators said that his appointment would be “a very significant and distinguished event for Oxford’s place in the literary world”. If chosen, Walcott would be the first African-American to take up the post.

Indian poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra made a surprise third entry in the contest. Mehrotra, a poet and critic currently lecturing at the University of Allahabad, has held poetry posts around the world and been described as “one of the finest poets working in any language”. His poetry is described as “a rich, fraught world history of cosmopolitanism”. Supporters have said that his interests in multilingualism, translation and creative practice would make him a “timely” choice for the position.

May will also witness the announcement of Andrew Motion’s successor as poet laureate. Unlike the elected Oxford position, the poet laureate is appointed by Queen on the recommendation of the Culture Minister. Speculation that Motion might put himself forward for the Oxford position was ruled out in February when he announced his intention to take a break from “public poeting”. He criticised the professorship as being in “drastic need of an overhaul”, saying that it was “too vague” in its teaching requirements, and that the pay was “lousy”.

Dr Sally Mapstone, chair of the English Faculty Board said, “The high level of interest in the Professorship of Poetry in Oxford, in the UK, and across the world indicates how much poetry matters to people and how much relevance this chair still has. With three strong candidates, it looks like the election may be a close run thing on the day.”

She added, “We hope that as many members of Convocation (graduates of the University) will come to Oxford on the day to vote in the Examination Schools – where most of them will have sat their examinations in the past. There is a good chance too that the Proctors will be able to announce the result on the day, so we are in for an exciting 16th of May.”

A candidate for JCR President at University College has been arrested after attaching herself with superglue to a statue inside the Houses of Parliament.

Alice Heath fixed herself to the effigy along with three other protesters as part of a climate change demonstration on Monday.

They wore red sashes in tribute to suffragette Marjory Hume, who chained herself to the same statue of Viscount Falkland 100 years ago as part of the campaign for women’s voting rights.

Police struggled for more than three hours to unfasten the protesters from the statue in St Stephen’s Hall, after officers had moved quickly seal off the area.

The activists, who were members of the environmental group Climate Rush, were eventually freed and promptly arrested on suspicion of public order offences and criminal damage.
The four were taken into custody before being released on bail late the following night, with PPE student Alice returning to Oxford on Wednesday morning.

She and her fellow activists had launched their demonstration in opposition to government plans to build new coal-fired power plants.

Following her release, however, Alice is now banned from going within one kilometre of the Palace of Westminster and is forbidden from speaking to her fellow protesters.
Speaking to Cherwell this week, fresher Alice said she had absolutely no regrets and that it had been a wonderful experience.

“It felt like a really lovely way to convey our message,” she said. “It was fun, it was active, it was going with the history-people quite enjoyed our performance.”

“The main reason why I did this was climate change. The whole planet will go down and we need to lead on this issue.”

Alice had already submitted her nomination to run for JCR President of University College before participating in the London protest. She said she hoped her actions would not negatively affect her chances when voters head to the polls next week.

“The response I’ve got has been really positive. I hope that people see that I don’t do things for careering. I genuinely want things to be better.

“My uncle thinks I have been reckless. But this is how I get my message across. It was a thought-out decision.”
There would appear to be little evidence of ill-feeling towards Alice among Univ voters, however, with several students speaking up in support of her actions.

Laura Muller, a first year undergraduate commented, “She did it for a good thing, so I guess that’s okay.”

“I’d definitely vote for her, as she’s already taking action,” another student said. “It proves she’s willing to go to great lengths to promote her aims.”

A spokesman for The Police Scotland Yard Bureau confirmed that Alice and her fellow protesters had been released without charge and that the matter was not being taken any further.

Despite this, Alice was still left upset by the strict bail conditions she is now forced to abide by and plans to appeal against them.

“It just felt totally unacceptable,” she said. “If we did something violent then I would understand, but this is a massive abuse of what they can do.

“They could charge us really easily and take us to court next week and convict us. But they didn’t-to stop us communicating between each other and stop protesting.”

The Climate Rush protest followed Secretary of State for Energy Ed Milliband’s announced funding for up to four coal-fired power stations, as long as they store carbon underground.

Jack Straw, the Secretary of State for Justice, was met by protesters from West Oxford campaign as he arrived to give a talk to the Oxford University Labour Club.

The campaigners protested against the opening of new probation centre in the residential area of Oxford on Mill Street. The probation centre plans were announced without consultation with the locals.

The protesters campaigned in the Longwall street outside Magdalen college around 8pm. They aimed to stop Jack Straw as he drove back from dinner with the President of Magdalen.

“[The centre] is supposed to keep up to 500 offenders a week. They come from across a range of offences, including sex offenders,” said Matthew Savage, one of the protesters. “They will be walking up and down the cul-de-sac.”

He expressed his outrage at the fact that the “locals have had no say” in this decision and that “they have had no information from the Thames Valley Police”.

Thames Valley Probation is negotiating a lease for part of Trajan House in West Oxford as plan to centralize services. Existing probation offices in Cowley, Banbury and Abingdon would be closed. If talks are successful, the 100-staff centre will start operating in April 2010.

The centre does not require planning permission, as the scheme does not involve the change of the use of the building.

The protesters were demanding the probation services to have a consultation with the locals before the lease is signed.

Straw spoke to the protestors for about 10 minutes. He explained that he is not in control of probation services, so there is nothing he can do.

However, he said that he “had not realized the intensity of the local feeling” and made a “promise to speak to the relevant people”.

He also took the contact details of the protest group. By the end of the talk, he has had protestors joking along with him. As he was leaving to go into Magdalen, the campaigners gave him a round of applause.

Felicity Wenden, one of the campaigners commented, “We’re pleased that he stopped to talk to us. He didn’t have to. But we still want more transparency and dialogue with us, the people who live there.”

Zoe Hallam, 1st year PPE student present didn’t think that the protesters negatively affected the event. She said, “I don’t think the protesters has affected my experience of the talk. I guess this is the kind of thing you get used to after a while in Oxford.”

She added, “The talk itself was more a political broadcast rather than the talk – he talked about everything that Labour did during his years in parliament. I don’t think I learnt that much from it.”

Straw spoke to an audience consisting of OULC and non-OULC members for 1 hour. He defended Labour’s years in power and stated that in the party’s past there were worse times than recent three weeks. He was convinced that the party will survive and continue to prosper.

Students at Magdalen College have created a String Maze on the college grounds. The game involves racing along ropes with karabiners.

Matthew Shribman, the creator of the Maze said, “I built the maze with the hope of creating the greatest string maze that the world had ever seen.” He intends to challenge Magdalen’s senior dean in the race.

The Maze has had a mixed response from students.

Nathan Rawle, a Magdalen first year said, “It was hilarious. Try doing it army style by crawling under all the strings.” Nick Clinch added, “It’s stringtastic!”

However, another second year commented, “I don’t think does anything to enhance the beauty of Batwillow Meadow, looking as it does like the web of some kind of mid-90s rave spider.”

Oxford’s Vice-chancellor Dr John Hood has rekindled the ongoing debate on the future of funding for students by stating that it costs up to an additional £8,000 a year to educate each student.

After the Vice-chancellor’s interview with a parliamentary committee in March, it was reported in the Daily Telegraph that Oxford may push up fees to £11,000 a year.

This news comes at the time of the release of a government survey, which shows that the direct cost of studying increased by 68% throughout 2005-8. This includes the introduction of top-up fees in 2006.

However, Dr Hood denied Daily Telegraph’s claims strongly. He said, “While I noted to the Select Committee that some increase in tuition fees might be considered desirable, I most certainly did not say that Oxford wished to raise fees to £11,000. A working group is currently discussing what our response to the government’s consultation on the fee cap might be. We do not consider such a sharp increase to be either desirable or a political reality.”

“I explicitly told the committee that I did not want to hypothesise around a figure for fees. I have noted that we estimate the money we receive through fees and HEFCE is £7-8,000 less per student per year than what we estimate it costs, on average, to educate UK and EU undergraduates. This does not equate to my saying that we want to plug that gap entirely through fee increases.”

“As I said to the Select Committee, any increase in fees at all, however modest, would be desirable only provided we can have cast iron, needs-blind admission assistance through loan schemes, bursaries, and hardship funds.”
However, this denial has not stopped a debate over the future of University funding.

Magdalen JCR questioned Lewis Iwu on funding in their last General Meeting. Iwu admitted that the OUSU position on the issue was currently “quite vague.” He also pointed out that if Oxford wants to remain at the top of the table as a world-class institution, higher costs are something students will have to deal with.

A report published by Universities UK last term warned that students from low-income families would be discouraged if fees rose to £7,000, particularly if they had to take out private loans as well as government student loans.
However, a typical fresher already borrows a total of £6,318 in loans, credit cards and overdrafts in one year, according to a study conducted by the

Institute for Employment Studies and the National Centre for Social Research notes. After taking into account their savings, an average student has a net debt of £3,518 after first year of studying.

An Oxford university spokesperson said, “We have no evidence that the cost of being a student, excluding the cost of fees, has increased significantly.

Obviously students now pay fees of approximately £3,000 compared to approx £1200 and loans can be taken out to cover these fees where no loans were previously available which means student debt will have increased compared to 2005 when no loans for fees were available and fees were approximately £1200.”

Still, the Institute’s report also notes that more than 80% of students consider the long term benefits of higher education outweigh the costs and that they will ultimately earn more as a result. Although 9% fewer students combine work with study, student incomes have increased, as has student support.

For the next academic year, Oxford will charge UK students £3,225 in tuition fees for most courses.

Nevertheless, the £8,000 difference between what a student pays and what it costs to tutor them is difficult to fill. Dr Hood said it is partially being made up by expecting the college staff to work substantially harder than their counterparts in US Universities. They are also provided with less academic and administrative support.

It seems that the rise in degree costs combined with the precarious job prospects is something that worries many students.

One Magdalen JCR committee member commented, “People apply to Oxford often with the hope that a good quality degree will make them employable and lead to a lucrative career. This is not necessarily the case at the moment, and it worries me that in the meantime it is becoming more and more expensive to study.”

The debate is likely to hot up when the government reviews the tuition fees system later this year and whether it will decide to raise the current cap.