The BBC is “taking seriously” claims that the Oxford team which won University Challenge was not eligble to take part in the contest, it was reported today.

The Corpus Christi team was led to victory by their captain, Gail Trimble, whose performance attracted a wave of media attention during the final weeks of the competition.

However, a series of newspaper reports have since suggested that one of Trimble’s team-mates, Sam Kay, had left Corpus Christi in June last year after he was denied funding for his PhD. Kay was reported to have been working as an accountant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

PWC has now confirmed to the BBC that Sam Kay was employed at their firm as a graduate accountant in 2008.

In a statement, the BBC has said, “We understand the allegations made and are taking this issue seriously. However, we don’t have time to investigate fully so will do so and report our findings early next week.”

The rules of the programme state that all contestants must be current students of the institution which they are representing while the programme is being recorded.

Re-match?

A member of the Manchester University team, who were rivals to Corpus in the final, was believed to have raised the issue and demanded a re-match. However, the Manchester team has now released an official statement saying they have “no desire” for a re-match.

Corpus Christi celebrated their success on the long-running TV show just last week, after beating Manchester by 275 points to 190.

It was the second time Corpus Christi had tasted victory on University Challenge, after claiming the title in 2005.

This week, a spoof of Cherwell has been released into the public domain. This document was not produced by Oxford Student Publications Ltd; we deplore its contents and condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

We have held the Editors of Cherwell accountable for this document and they deeply regret any offence caused. In light of these developments, we have asked for and received their resignation.

We wish to reaffirm that OSPL in no way condones discrimination in any form. We remain committed to providing an opportunity for all students to practice journalism in a professional and inclusive environment.

Board of Directors
OSPL

The front of the New Bodleian will be transformed into a outdoor café and Broad Street barred to traffic under plans to change the face of the road.

The University confirmed that they planned to open a café in the New Bodleian. Oana Romocea, Bodleian communications officer said, “The idea is to open up the front of the library.” The University also expressed support for ideas to pave over the east end of the street, suggested by a committee made up of Oxford Council, the University and local groups.

A spokeswoman for Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT), a group involved in the decision, said, “before, never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined a council who would pedestrianise the city centre.”

Designs for the transformation had stalled after an urban designer made the suggestions in 2004. She said, “now, politically, there’s a lot of goodwill towards change.”

Many students voiced support for the plans. One Somerville student said he thought the ideas were “interesting”, and that it would be “a good idea to make Broad Street look a bit more busy.”

“At the moment Cornmarket is sort of the main street in Oxford,” he said. “It should be Broad Street really because its more iconic.”

He added, however, that he feared the paving of the street’s east end “might make cycling difficult, which would be a shame because that’s one of the great things about Oxford as it is.”

A St Anne’s second year agreed, saying she felt that the current semi-pedestrianised situation on Broad Street was confusing. “It’d be nice if it was completely pedestrianised. At the moment you’re just walking along down the road and then a van goes by.”

She also said she hoped that the paved square would encourage cafes and pubs to invest in more outdoor seating.

Oxford Council’s transport chief, Ian Hudspeth, has expressed strong support for pedestrianising parts of the city. During the heated debate following the announcement at a council meeting, he pointed to a picture of buses congesting a street and asked his audience, “is that really what we want from a world-class city? Is that what Oxford is really all about?”

An earlier study commissioned by OPT said that other parts of the plan included reopening the street’s western end to traffic, planting trees around the street and removing intrusive signs and placards.

The spokeswoman for the group explained that she believed that “the new ideas could actually be much more exciting” than the original ideas drafted in 2004. OPT said, “it was always crucial that something happened to enliven the street.” 

An Oxford academic has told the House of Lords that electronic entertainment and social networking sites like Facebook could harm users mentally.

Baroness Susan Greenfield, Professor of Synaptic Pharmacology at Lincoln College, said social networking websites could “infantilize” the human brain and cause users to lose their sense of identity.

She told the Lords that communications via websites such as Facebook “are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity.”

“It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations,” she added.

Greenfield argued that social sites, along with computer games, might contribute to a rise in cases of Attention Deficit Disorder.

“If the young brain is exposed from the outset to a world of fast action and reaction, of instant new screen images flashing up with the press of a key, such rapid interchange might accustom the brain to operate over such timescales. Perhaps when in the real world such responses are not immediately forthcoming, we will see such behaviours and call them attention-deficit disorder.”

“It might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.”

Greenfield went further to suggest that a reliance on interacting and communicating with others via a computer could lead to a loss of empathy and responsibility.

However, students who use social networking websites frequently expressed skepticism over Greenfield’s remarks. One second-year English student said, “I think she’s going a bit over the top. All of us use Facebook – it’s just a convenient way of staying in touch. It promotes communication, rather than hinders it.”

“People who live in a bizarre Facebook world are probably the sort of people who would never socialise normally anyway. Physicists, and so on,” he added.
Professor Greenfield is currently in South Africa, and was unable to comment on whether she felt Oxford students were at risk by their use of social networking sites.

The Radcliffe Camera is to be reproduced in cake form, the covered market’s famous cake shop announced this week.
Shop owner Sally Davis said that the replica would be as detailed as possible, with every feature, down to the number of bars on the windows, duplicated in icing.
“Attention to detail is everything”, Ms. Davis explained. Her staff photographed and made sketches of the building before beginning work on the project. The scale model will take over 80 hours to complete and is being made as a special commission.

Keble College has unveiled a £45 million building project to create a new campus between Banbury and Woodstock roads.

The development will provide housing for 250 students, a library, teaching rooms as well as a multi-disciplinary research facility.

Plans include a sunken garden, five-storey sandstone brick buildings and a quad with a water feature flowing on one side.

The project will be constructed on the site of Acland Hospital, opposite the Radcliffe Infirmary Site. This site is being redeveloped for £500 million by Oxford University. Keble college purchased their grounds for £10.75 million.

The college currently accommodates only 70% of its 641 students. Keble college bursar Roger Bowden commented, “our aim is to be able to house 90 per cent of our students in college accommodation.”

“We now have many young academics who say they cannot afford to buy homes in Oxford. They need to have college accommodation. It is crucial that we continue to attract the best academics.”

The college will cover the cost of the building project from fundraising. Part of cost is also covered through sales of college-owned houses in North Oxford.
College officials revealed, “We are about to embark on a £50m fundraising campaign focussed on our 150th anniversary in 2020: two-thirds of this money will be directed towards the funding of additional student accommodation.”

Keble’s JCR President Zain F. Talyarkhan commented, “the redevelopment of the Acland site is the most audacious project that the College has undertaken since its founding. As such, it is a major part of the long-term plan for the future of Keble.”

Lydia Monnington, 3rd year student at Keble college also expressed her praise.
She said, “They’ve been using Acland site for 1.5 years but it still looks like hospital. It’s a site for graduates. It’s a really good place and it’s quite close to the college – I think that’s really nice. My only worry is the cost. How will they raise all that money?”

A spokesperson for Oxford City Council confirmed Keble College’s plans. She said, “We have spoken to Keble to inform them that we haven’t formally validated their planning application yet.”

She also explained, “There will be the standard 21 day consultation and it will go to Area Committee for comment and then Strategic Development Control Committee will determine the application.”

The project ties into Oxford’s Local Plan, whereby no more than 3000 full-time students should live out of college.

The work on the Acland site is set to start in August 2012 at the earliest. It is anticipated that the construction period will last two years.

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.”