The statues surrounding the Sheldonian were ‘gagged’ in a protest early on Thursday morning by students campaigning against a proposed detention centre outside Bicester. The same group was also responsible for a dmonstration in Oxford the next afternoon.

Meeting at just after midnight, ten protesters affiliated with the Students Action for Refugees climbed into the area behind the Clarendon Building and proceeded to climb onto each other’s shoulders and tie white sheets around the mouths of eight of the statues. A banner was then spread, with the slogan “30 minutes from here 200 men are locked up indefinitely.”

The organiser of the protest explained the thought behind the stunt: “It’s symbolic because people in the detention centre have no voice. The centres are a waste of lives. Some of the people in there are our age or even younger.”

The protesters justified using University property in their campaign, “This isn’t so much to do with the University but with students here. We are becoming increasingly apathetic and don’t fight for people’s rights anymore.”

Another student involved added, “People pay more attention when English people do this.”

One of the protesters who put up the gags commented, “there are countless talks about Campsfield, speaker events and debates in Parliament but no one cares.”

Three police cars arrived fifteen minutes after the gags went up and four policemen demanded that the protesters remove their banners and gags. One of officers said, “we were called to the scene by the University Security Services. They didn’t want their property damaged.”

A student who was apprehended by the police described his shock at their swift arrival at the scene: “I don’t know how the police noticed, although it is an insane visual.” He added, “they said to me, ‘we have to be careful, with all these protests going on, you never know what protesters are going to do.'”

The police left ten minutes after arriving, but continued to circulate around Broad Street. While they did not issue a formal warning to the students, a photo was taken of the group.

“This term has proved direct action is an indispensable weapon,” said one of the protest’s leaders, “Normally, tactics aren’t normally thought through. A petition to Guantanamo every week doesn’t solve anything. Stunts attract attention.”

A passer-by remarked, “I definitely think this was effective. It’s horrible to say, but I never heard of this issue before. It’s not in your face, but its noticeable. This experience has opened my eyes and I will look into the campaign further.”

However, another onlooker was more sceptical, adding, “that it all came down makes them walk home with their tail between their legs. It would have been better later in the day say while people are on the way to lectures.”

After the banners were taken down, the organiser of the protests was confident that an effective statement had been made, saying, “it was still an absolute victory. I thought it was good aesthetically but when it went up it provided it a thousand fold.”

James Norrie, a Wadham second-year and member of the Oxford Radical Forum was present at the march in the city centre on Thursday afternoon. He said, “if change is going to happen, mass action is necessary. Stunts by far change less.”

A third year student from Magdalen, Luke Roelofs, refuted this. “This is part of a wider movement of which we are all working together.”

One of the night protesters present explained, “Last night was a precursor. It was a symbolic visual display to draw attention. Now, we are being more vocal and explicit. We are trying to attract attention. At a certain level that’s all we can do.”

The afternoon march started in the same spot as the gagging. Over thirty students shouted slogans and marched to Bonn Square to hear a prominent anti-detention speaker, Bill MacKeith.

Charlie Holt, President of the Oxford Union temporarily joined in on the march. He said, “I’ve been working for Oxford Students for Liberty for ages now. I feel passionately about this. This is a way for us to get a message across.”

He added, “I had no idea about last night’s stunt. I’m just here trying to get others to join in.”

MacKeith supported the statue gagging. He said, “It gave a symbol of the old University a new relevance.”

A similar protest happened in 1995. Oxford students placed sheets over all the statues, which stayed on for eight hours. Suke Walton, who was involved that protest and was present at the march said, “some stunts are more successful than others. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to do it. It’s hard.”

A University spokesperson reacted the to demonstrations by saying, “Oxford strongly supports the right for students to protest within the law.” However they added, “we cannot confirm that the Proctors will not be involved.”

The Proctors office said, “four students were asked to leave and they promptly did so. We are not considering taking further action.”

The University Security Services declined to comment on the matter.

Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten has attacked the “angry middle class parents” who have criticised his proposal of a rise in tuition fees, in an interview with Cherwell.

The Chancellor also spoke of his belief in the need for a removal of the cap on top-up fees, driven by his “overwhelming concern” for the future of the university’s finances.

“Over the decade we’ve doubled the number of university students and halved the money available to support them,” he explained. “That has huge implications for university finance. There are only three places you can get money from for a university: private benefactors, the taxpayer or tuition fees.”

He added, “my overwhelming concern is that I think universities are going to have a very tough time in the next few years and in order to be competitive we need more funding. In those circumstances what do you do – do you simply say we must settle for universities having to be even more badly financed, or do you look for alternatives?”

He stated that universities should “by and large be able to set fees for tuition related to the bursaries they provide for less well off students.”

He attacked the “angry middle class parents” who have criticised his suggestion that the cap on tuition fees should be lifted, labelling their behaviour “paradoxical” and “bizarre.”

He said, “do I think it’s paradoxical at the moment that quite a lot of parents pay a fortune to put their children through private schools and then resent it when they have to pay when universities charge more than 3000 a year. I think it’s absolutely crazy. So I’m unregenerate and have been for, well, since the late 1980s, in advocating tuition fees.”

He added, “parents are prepared to spend £20-30000 a year, or if it’s a year £10-15000 a year getting their children into university but then resent paying more than £3000 when their child is at university.”

However, Patten was quick to deny that “the sky should be the limit” as far as tuition fees are concerned and stressed the need for a “fixed scale which would relate the amount of income that universities and colleges can charge for tuition to the amount of money they provided for bursaries for less well off students.”

He called for “needs-blind access to Oxford and Cambridge” to ensure that students from a less well-off background are not discouraged from applying to Oxford, stating that “the big issue is how much we are able to spend on bursaries for less well off students who might otherwise be discouraged from coming to Oxford.”

“I think it’s imperative that we hang on to the notion of a complete meritocracy at Oxford and Cambridge provided we can demonstrate that there is integrity of the system. It makes it easier to resist pressure from some on the left that we should have social code preference in our entry procedures, rather than trying to get the best wherever they come from.”

Although Patten is highly sceptical of the government quotas on the number of state school students that Oxford should admit – he refers to these as “arbitrary, central planning quotas” – he is proud of the efforts that Oxford puts in to its outreach scheme. “We spend over 2 million a year to get kids from schools that haven’t traditionally sent them to Oxford. It’s very impressive the amount we’re doing around the place.”

It is his belief in meritocracy that underpins his rejection of a legacy point preference scheme in use in many American universities use, a system whereby applicants are given priority if their parents are alumni or have donated money to the university the children get preference.

He called such a system “a terrible idea,” adding that George W Bush’s gaining of a place at the prestigious Harvard Business School “must have been unrelated to intelligence.”

However, he did admit that donations from private benefactors would need to increase in order to address funding. Last May, the Oxford Campaign was launched which aimed to raise a minimum of £1.25 billion and “increase the participation rate of alumni giving.”

However, he admitted that donations from alumni would not be sufficient to make up for the loss of funding through the current recession. “The difference with America,” he explains, “is that the American taxpayer spends twice as much on Higher Education and further learning. If you then add to that the amount that comes privately America has this huge lead over all European universities.”

Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has declared that he is not interested in becoming the next Oxford Professor of Poetry and added that he thinks the “position at Oxford is in drastic need of an overhaul”.

The role, which is regarded by many as the second most prestigious of its kind in the literary, is currently filled by Christopher Ricks whose term of office ends this spring.

Motion had been tipped to succeed Ricks in the post, but in an interview with The Evening Standard, the Poet Laureate lampooned the Oxford professorship, arguing that it has been “outflanked by creative writing courses. The pay’s too little, the teaching requirements too vague, and the voting system simply farcical.”

Oxford University’s Head of English, Sally Mapstone, defended the value of the position and suggested that the professorship provided a unique opportunity for poets: “Although it may seem eccentric and antiquated in its construction, [it] actually it works very well. Would a poet want a full-time job? It leaves a poet free to write and think.”

She emphasised that the relatively low salary was simply the reward for providing three lectures a year. “Christopher Ricks’s lectures have been wonderful and have had enormous audiences.”

There are, however, a number of other poets who are currently considered to be potential candidates for the professorship. They include Ruth Padel, a former classics lecturer at Oxford and the great-great-grandaughter of Charles Darwin.

Carol Ann Duffy and Anne Carson have also been cited as also potential contenders, but Sally Mapstone commented that there was still plenty of time for new nominations to arrive.

“We’re dealing with poets here, who are not the world’s most organised people. Let’s not forget that there are all sorts of interesting new poets out there. I feel we should be throwing the net as wide as possible” she said.

Michael George Gibson has also announced that he will be applying for the role. On his website he states, “I have a special insight into the rhythmical nature of all English poetry which I am developing and demonstrating through performance.”

Prospective candidates for the professorship are currently elected by graduates of the University to serve a five year term. Nominees must register the support of sixteen former students by the end of April to be eligible for the post. If required, an election will then be held.

The appointment comes with a salary of £6,901 per annum in return for providing three lectures at the University. They must also provide the ‘Creweian Oration’, a declaration of thanks to the University’s benefactors.

The position was established in 1708 followed a bequest to the University. Previous holders have included W.H. Auden and Seamus Heaney.

A group of students joined protesters gathered outside the BMW Plant in Cowley at 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning, following announcements of mass job cuts at the factory.

Among the students were members of the Socialist Worker Student Society and the Ruskin art school.

The protestors displayed banners and handed out leaflets to hand to the plant workers arriving for the 6:00 a.m. shift. They were also present when the second shift began in the late afternoon.

Toby Harris from St John’s College said “The Trades Council has called for a mass leafleting, so that’s what we’re doing this morning. The people here today are from different Left groups trying to get workers to take strike action.”

He added, “There is a sense among people that this could turn out to be a major industrial battle.”

On Monday last week, BMW confirmed that 850 jobs were being cut as the plant would begin to operate five days a week rather than seven.

Some of those losing their jobs will not receive any redundancy pay because they were contract staff, not full-time employees, and consequently were given few employment rights.

A Ruskin student protesting against the job cuts said “It is shameful that they are getting rid of jobs while the company is still in profit. We think it is important that we’re out here showing that students care about the issue as well.”

A statement issued by BMW defended the job cuts, saying, “While Mini has been weathering the economic downturn, it is not immune from the challenges of the current situation” and noted, “This decision has not been taken lightly”.

A representative from the plant present on Monday morning said, “This is obviously a tough situation and it’s an emotional one”, adding, “Our main objective is to protect peoples’ jobs and so we had to get rid of 850 temporary workers.”

Corpus Christi has won this year’s University Challenge after beating the University of Manchester by 275 points to 190 in Monday’s grand final.

Corpus struggled initially against a strong Manchester team and only took the lead for the first time with four minutes to go.

The success has made an unlikely celebrity of Corpus Christi’s captain, Gail Trimble, a 26-year-old postgraduate studying for a PhD in Latin Literature. Following the victory she has appeared on the Today programme, Radio 4 and been offered a photo shoot in men’s magazine, ‘Nuts’.

Trimble gained a reputation in previous rounds for single-handedly dragging her team to the final, personally winning over two-thirds of her team’s grand total of 1200 points. But Corpus Christi’s performance in the final has been recognized as a team effort and drew heavily on the quick-witted quiz skills of Lauren Schwartzman, Sam Kay and James Marsden as well as Trimble.

Corpus had widely been tipped to win before the final round began but soon found themselves 70-0 behind. With ten minutes left Manchester held a convincing lead of 160-95. However, a late surge saw the Oxford team overtake their northern rivals and claim the title for the second time in four years.

Schwartzman declared herself “absolutely thrilled” at the win while admitting that she had been surprised at the amount of press coverage their victory had attracted.

“I think this is one of those things which just really captures the public’s interest and off it goes, sort of a snowball effect. I think it’s great that intellectual achievement can be a top story.

“Some of it is flattering, and some of it is downright weird. But it was a great experience overall, and in particular a great team with which to experience it,” she said.

She acknowledged that Manchester had provided Corpus with the toughest test of the whole competition: “At one point I looked at the scoreboard and it was 70-0 and my heart rate suddenly increased. It was a long haul from there. After we got a couple of starters I could breathe again, but it was a situation we just hadn’t been in yet in the competition. The last five minutes, however, were when I’m pretty sure my heart stopped!”

National media attention, however, has been focussed on 26-year-old Gail Trimble after internet coverage of her impressive performances in earlier rounds became excessively critical in some areas.

Fellow team-mate James Marsden said that the response was “completely unjustifiable” and attacked those who criticized his captain’s appearances on the show. “They’ve never met her, they’ve only seen [her] on a TV show for two and half hours. What’s really galling is when they say that Gail is looking down on the rest of the teams.”

He added that he was glad to have avoided the same level of coverage. “I don’t think anyone’s worked out who I am yet.”

Schwartzman says that despite the criticism Trimble was “an excellent captain.”

“Aside from being incredibly quick on the buzzer, she was great at “managing” the bonuses – something that I think doesn’t come across on TV. She always asked us what we thought the answers were, and particularly asked a team member if it was something that was one of our areas of expertise. We worked really well as a team, and Gail’s leadership was a huge part of that.”

Schwartzman commented that the team had even evoked glowing admiration from notoriously difficult host and quiz-master Jeremy Paxman, “he was very complimentary. He’s got a gruff persona on the show of course, but he’s actually a very friendly guy.”

Students packed the Oxford Blue pub on Cowley Road to watch their team win the trophy. Second year Mike Roberts said, “It was a really good atmosphere, everyone who was Corpus was there.”

The episode was filmed last November but competitors were not allowed to reveal the result until it was broadcast on Monday night.

Four of the past six champions have been Oxford colleges. In addition to Corpus Christi’s two victories both Magdalen and Christ Church have enjoyed similar success in recent years.