Universities have expressed concern that strict new immigration rules could deter international students from applying to the UK.

All students outside the EU will have to reapply for a visa after four years, regardless of the length of the course, meaning they have no guarantee that they will be able to complete their studies.

Diana Warwick of Universities UK, an association of university heads, warned of the effects of the new system, which will take over from the end of March.

She said, “although students will be able to apply for an extension to complete their programme they will have no guarantee that leave will be granted. This is bound to affect their decisions about whether to come to the UK in the first place.”

She stressed that it was unfair that students who invest considerable financial resources in studying in the UK would not have the certainty that after four years of study they could continue and complete their degree in the UK.

A spokesperson for Oxford University also condemned the proposal.

She said, “the University still takes the view that it will be unnecessarily disruptive and time-consuming for them to have to reapply for a visa part way through a course, and risks sending a negative signal about the UK’s commitment to its international students.”

According to Russell Group, there is already evidence that visa and immigration issues are an area of concern for international students both before they come to the UK, and while they are here.

Aadya Shukla, president of Oxford’s India Society, expressed outrage at the new system.

She said, “unfortunately, the new system with its disproportionately high application fee and opaque processing, send out the wrong signal that overseas students are not welcome.

“Studying at a UK university is already very expensive, now students will face undue anxiety and uncertainty rather than being able to focus on their course.” Student visa applications currently cost £99 and can take over 15 days to process.

International student Sarah Iqbal described the introduction of the new Tier 4 system as, “another blow that will definitely deter international students from applying to UK universities.”

She added, “since the process has now become more complicated it will further discourage students from applying here.”

Konstantin Zhurkov, treasurer of Oxford’s Russia Society, also agreed that the new system will deter international students from applying.

He commented, “it is a gamble on how long the visa re-application will take and whether it’s really worth potentially disrupting your studies for several months at the end of your penultimate academic year, a stress that might otherwise be avoided by applying elsewhere.”

Other international students, however, have dismissed the idea that the new system could act as a deterrent.

Elena Andreeva, a Russian student at Somerville, said, “I do not think that the obligation of re-applying for a visa would deter students – or at least those serious about studying abroad. It doesn’t seem likely that applicants who had successfully completed four years of their course would be denied a visa to finish their degree.”

University Proctors are attempting to track down the pro-Palestine protesters who barricaded themselves in the Bodleian by asking colleges to help identify students from photographs.

The proctors have not disclosed how much the demonstrators will be fined, despite some protesters’ claims that it was agreed they would be fined only £20 during negotiations with the Proctors.

A senior member of Oxford Students for Gaza and Palestine (OSGP), the group behind the occupation of the Bodleian, condemned the Proctors’ actions.

He said, “it would be a shame for goodwill on the part of the university and students to be lost because of hostile tactics used by the university to try and extract more money than was agreed from the protestors.”

The Senior Proctor denied that £20 was the correct sum. He said, “that figure was floated around afterwards but it wasn’t agreed with me.” He confirmed the actual figure agreed was “not a long was away from the figure.” But he refused to disclose the amount, saying, “opinions have been polarised. Some have said the way of handling the protest was somewhat liberal.”

So far, most colleges are co-operating with the Proctors.

But the sub-dean of Wadham, Cetta Mainwaring, has claimed that the college had so far refused to co-operate with Proctors’ request.

Mainwaring, a member of OSGP, said in an email to the group, “the Dean at Wadham and the Tutorial Office are resisting the pressure thus far.” She said the Proctors were, “aggressively following up their promise to fine us by trying to pressure Colleges to identify us in pictures.”

Mainwaring said that the other colleges had allowed the Proctor’s Office to identify students, which she feared was “putting more pressure on Wadham as the only wholly non-cooperative college.”

She appealed for members of the group to identify other colleges which were resisting the pressure, saying “they would obviously feel better about the whole thing if they knew of specific colleges that were doing the same.”
Protesters have called on colleges to “protect the interests of their students in this matter.”

Another member of OSGP commented, “we think that we shouldn’t be facing punishment for our actions. We feel we were making a legitimate point in protest of what we saw a barbarous actions of the Israeli state attacking Gaza.

“It is not down to the colleges to help identify us as college members were not massively inconvenienced by our actions. Oxford will also be alone amongst all the other 30 universities (except Sheffield Hallam) in pursuing action against people who took part in occupations.”

Michael Burden, Dean at New College, said his office would not give out photographs to the Proctors.

However, he added that the Porters’ Lodge at the college was willing to identify students in photographs brought to them.

“The Lodge may identify students as members of college,” he said, “but we would not be in the business of circulating information.”

New College is home to many prominent figures involved in the protests.
Burden said his office had not been approached by the Proctors in any matter related to the protest, but added that he would not have known if they had approached the college’s Lodge.

Proctor David Harris said, “most people had their photos taken and put on the website during the occupation,” saying this was, “the normal way we track people down.”

The Deans’ offices at St Anne’s, St Edmund’s Hall, and St Catherine’s refused to comment on their positions.

Over eighty students barricaded themselves in the Bodleian library to protest against Israel’s recent action in Gaza. The demonstration started at midday in the Clarendon building, and lasted until the protesters felt their demands had been met six hours later.

In the immediate aftermath of the occupation, a Proctor’s statement said they welcomed “the fact that this protest was peaceful and good-natured.” It continued, “negotiations with those occupying the building and their representatives were held with goodwill and in a very constructive manner.”

University Vice-Chancellor John Hood criticised the student occupation of the Clarendon building. He said the Bodleian barricade “caused disruption and inconvenience to fellow students and other members of the University” and added, “unlawful action of this kind cannot be condoned.”

A Brasenose student, Andrew Lomas, will run for Labour MP in the next general election.

Lomas, a Dphil student, will contest the Wycombe seat in Buckinghamshire – a constituency which has not had a Labour MP since 1951.

But Lomas said he is confident that the election will be a real contest. He said the majority held by his opponent, the Conservative Paul Goodman, is “by no means an easy number to overcome, but by no means a safe seat for the Tories.”

He added, “the next election will be one of the most interesting and tightly fought contests for a generation and I’m looking forward to the fight.”

Lomas commented that, although he would have to be in the constituency regularly, he wasn’t worried about his DPhil.

“I actually find being busier sorts out my schedule for me: it forces you to use your time more efficiently rather than wasting your mornings eating toast and watching Jeremy Kyle!”

He added, “beyond that, being able to make a real impact on people’s lives matters too.”

He commented that he had wanted to stand to be a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate because it gave him a chance to get involved with politics outside of Oxford.

“Oxford is a pretty conservative place: whilst this rarely manifests itself politically, it’s a huge cultural phenomenon and means that many people here only do things that reinforce their existing prejudices.”

Lomas is currently researching new ways of treating cancer. Earlier this month he was formally selected to be the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Labour Party in.

Lomas previously stood in the 2008 local election for Barton in North East Oxford but lost by four votes.

The current MP Paul Goodman has a majority of over seven thousand and is the Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government.

Eloise Morgan, a third year at Brasenose College, said that she was a student still at the college was getting involved in national politics.

“I’d say Brasenose has a tradition of fostering Prime Ministers, so I’m very excited about this student standing for election and consequently have high expectations of him.”

She added, “I expect to see his oil painting in Brasenose hall soon.”

Police have raided a suspected brothel in Marston, arresting three women.
The raid took place on 10th February, when police and UK Border Agency officials entered the premises, following complaints from residents.
Locals had claimed that the property was being run as a brothel and advertised as “Angel Beautiful Massage”
The three women, two of whom are Chinese and one Thai, were arrested for immigration offences, but no cash or clients were discovered on the premises.
Sergeant Alex Shepherd has commented “People have been brought in illegally to work at this brothel but we’re not looking at human trafficking.”
Police have reported that this is the sixth such brothel to be discovered in the Marston area over the last year.

Students have slammed Oxford’s poor nightlife, scoring the town an average of just 5/10 for “going out” as part of a survey of university cities.

Oxford came below Warwick and Manchester as a place to live, in the survey of over 40,000 British students – and below Leamington Spa and Aberystwyth as a place to go out, despite achieving an overall score of 60%.

Many students felt the low score in the “going out” category was justified. One implied Oxford’s nightlife left a lot to be desired, saying “it’s the same clubs, and they get boring.”

Another agreed, but said she felt people should put up with the city’s shortcomings. “It’s true, Oxford is a bit rubbish for going out, unless you’re thinking more of restaurants and so on, in which case it’s not so bad. But you expect that when you apply to a small town. If going out is what matters to you, then yeah, don’t come here.”

Both Pulse and RockEntz, Oxford’s main student-run entertainment companies, declined to comment on the survey’s findings.

The survey, carried out by the website accommodationforstudents.com, showed that Oxford kept up with many traditional Northern student hotspots, including Leeds and Liverpool, which were also rated as 60% and beat traditional rivals Cambridge, who scored just 56%.

A St Anne’s undergraduate said he felt Oxford’s overall place relative to other towns was fair. “It’s not as fun here as somewhere like Manchester, but at the same time, I mean, it could be worse. It’s not un-livable-in or anything.”

He added that a friend in Cambridge had found the city “boring and cramped”.

The survey gave Oxford a 7/10 rating for transport, the highest the city earned in any category. Some students, however, felt this was unjustified.

“Sometimes when I’m cycling I can’t breathe because the bus fumes are so heavy,” said one Hertford second-year. “No-one tries to co-operate with other people.”

He said he himself never used buses, as they were too expensive and he didn’t need to go far from the city centre. However, he praised transport to and from the city, saying “the Oxford Tube is amazing.”

Over 470 Oxford students responded to the survey, which the company conducts every few years. Oxford’s performance was an improvement on previous showings. In 2004 the city fell comfortably in the bottom half of the table, several places below Cambridge.

Perhaps surprisingly, respondents to the survey also rated London as a 5/10 for “going out.” Overall, the nation’s capital scored a mere 56% – on a par with Cambridge. The poor showing was due to poor marks in the “community” and “facilities” categories. The genteel Buckinghamshire town of High Wycombe received an abysmal 38%, achieving just 3/10 for “going out.”

The survey also covered students living abroad, who rated Munich as the best city overall, with 72% on average. Some apparently misunderstood the nature of the questionnaire, with “Spain” receiving an excellent score of 74% and the UK as a whole receiving an embarrassing 38%.

Oxford University students have been involved in the creation of a new nationwide secular society. The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies was launched on Monday.

The launch, in central London, was by Professor Richard Dawkins, Professor A.C. Grayling and Polly Toynbee.

AHS was co-founded by two Oxford Secular Society’s alumni. Ex-presidents Alex Gibson and Chloë Clifford-Frith. They were assisted by students from ten other universities across the UK.

Norman Ralph, President of AHS, said, “Humanity should take responsibility for its flaws, and also take credit for its successes, not abscond responsibility to an imaginary father figure. We’re about celebrating, learning and making the most of the one life we have.”

AHS intends to support established and newly formed atheist, humanist and secular groups and make sure their needs are being addressed on a national and international level.

It aims to promote non-religious points of view in universities and increase the dialogue between religious and non-religious student groups. On a wider scale, it hopes to broaden the public’s appreciation of science.

A.C. Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne’s College praised the launch of AHS. He said, “it is great to know that the AHS will be standing up against religious privilege and discrimination.”

Professor Richard Dawkins, supported the founding of AHS to support, “beliefs that are unsupported, bigoted or demand special privileges should always be challenged. No opinion should be protected from criticism simply by the virtue of being religiously held.”

Several students have expressed support for the establishment of AHS.
George Lewis, a St John’s first-year said, “If atheists think that they need an organisation, why shouldn’t they? There’s already a system for Christian Union’s to work together across Universities, so I’m sure that it’s fine for a secularist equivalent to be established.”

Katy McDermott, a Worcester student said, “It’s a good idea to make sure everyone’s views are considered but as a Christian I would appreciate it if atheists and humanists would be more co-operative with Christian views.”
Others criticised AHS. Michael O’Sullivan, a first-year, condemned AHS as unnecessary. He said, “Do you really think that atheists and secularists need a ‘voice’ in an already overtly secular western society today…”

He added, “I thought that the whole definition of atheism was simply a belief in nothing rather than something. What is the need to institutionalize it, other than to interfere with and make increasingly difficult the lives of those who have a faith and who believe in an underlying objective morality?”

Oxford students are selling their notes for money to GradeGuru.com, a note sharing website, where other students can then download the notes for free.

The website claims to have contributions from 281 academic institutions in the UK and offers students cash compensations for uploading their notes.

It describes itself as “a platform for students to help each other with coursework” which will encourage “all students everywhere to achieve their best and to inspire others to academic heights.”

Although the website claims to be a place where students can just find course notes, some of the material that Oxford students have uploaded includes full essays on Shakespeare.

As the material on GradeGuru is free, there is nothing to stop any student taking one of these essays and claiming it as their own.

This makes it different from other essay sharing websites such as Oxbridge Essays. An undergraduate essay from there can cost around £1000, and a full PhD dissertation could cost over £20,000.

A spokesperson for the University said that websites like this would not be helpful to students in the long run.

She said, “if students simply copy the work of others, they are missing part of the learning process and may fare badly when they come to sit formal examinations.”

She added that copying in weekly essays would be dealt with at a college level, but during exams plagiarism is taken very seriously by the University.

“Cheating in University examinations or in coursework that counts towards the degree is of course a very much more serious matter. That would be referred to the Proctors”

The website denies that it will encourage cheating, stating that “GradeGuru stands against plagiarism in all its potential forms”. It added, “Students have long been confronted with opportunities to plagiarize and infringe copyright law” but the site’s owners write that they will work with plagiarism technology companies to try and ensure that the website cannot be used for plagiarism.

But some students have admitted that they still plagiarise. One student said that essay sharing websites were not the only places a student could take material from if they wanted to cheat.

She said, “everyone has their friends’ and other peoples’ essays. I have lots, especially from people who have graduated who I know got firsts.

“I’m not against essay sharing websites in principle, I would just worry about the quality of the work that is being uploaded”.

A controversial motion that would allow OUSU sabbatical officers to run for multiple terms in office has been attacked by members of the student body.

Paul Dwyer, current Vice-President for Access and Academic Affairs, proposed the motion claiming that it would help the “long term future of OUSU”.

Oxford is currently one of only three student unions – the others being Warwick and Edinburgh – that do not allow sabbatical officers to run for re-election.

However, the motion has been met with suspicion throughout the University. Jim O’Connell, OUSU rep for University College, attacked the motion stating the he saw “no real rationale for the rule change” adding that it “would institutionalise rule by a narrow, self-perpetuating clique student”.

President Lewis Iwu supported the proposal, stating that “continuity can help the student’s union”, but has nevertheless acknowledged the potential danger of increased politicisation and the growth of cliques. He said,

“The decision OUSU council has to make is whether that outweighs the benefit of having someone with two year’s experience. If it does emerge that sabbatical officers are forming cliques and dominating OUSU then I think there would be a reaction against that…we should trust the electorate.”

However others have questioned the benefits of such political stability. Wadham JCR President, Will McCallum, expressed fears that the changes “will only serve to add to this image of a non-influential student body”. He stated,

“I believe that OUSU is about current students. University life does change year by year and having a student who has been two years out of Oxford is not necessarily a good idea.”

He argued that the motion would hamper progress in made in reducing the cliques of the Union, saying “OUSU is gradually becoming less and less cliquey at the moment, partly due to the recent Gaza motion, and it would be nice to see this continue, something this motion will not help.”

O’Connell too questioned the motivations behind allowing sabbatical officers to return in the name of stability, stating his belief that political ambition underpinned the rule change.

“Obviously the case here hinges on whatever ‘political continuity’ is supposed to mean,” he said. “No doubt Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has removed the ban on him being president for life in the name of ‘political continuity’. I can’t see a positive reason for it other than to allow certain people to perpetuate their careers in Oxford.”

Paul Dwyer said that the benefit of his proposal would be that officers “would actually have time to carry through more long term plans, which currently isn’t possible” and added that successful officers should be allowed to continue. He said, “If someone is doing a fantastic job in their position, I don’t think it a bad thing that they should have the chance to continue for another year.”

Both Dwyer and Iwu have denied that they want to run for an additional year in office.

The motion is proposed alongside concerns over a lack of interest in this week’s OUSU by-elections, despite attempts of the executive to increase student participation.

Two of the positions failed to attract a single nominee and four were uncontested.

Concerning the lack of candidates for some part-time positions on the executive, Iwu admitted, “In an ideal world we’d have people for those positions. We’re going to try hard to get people to run and advertise them again.”

He said apathy towards elected positions does not indicate any apathy towards OUSU as a wider student body. “When we assess people’s interest in OUSU the elections are just one small part of that. You’ve got to look at it as a whole and consider RAG, Target Schools and our grassroots campaign.”

OUSU Returning Officer Madeline Stanley said, “OUSU is stepping up its publicity in general and also seeing increased support and involvement from students not
necessarily on the executive.” She argued that by-elections for the part time executive would inevitably attract less interest than sabbatical elections, and stressed that OUSU had “just had some highly visible statutory elections for sabbatical officers which really engaged the student body with huge numbers of activists and voters.”

The lack of competition for the part-time vacancies means that only the only real competition in this week’s by-election was for the position of Academic Affairs Campaign Officer. The positions of Community Outreach & Charities Officer, Students with Disabilities Officer and Graduate Welfare Officer only had one

OUSU were unable to find a single candidate for the positions of Black and Minority Ethnic Students’ and Anti-Racism Officer, Mature Students Officer or LGBTQ Officer.

Oxford’s Vice Chancellor, John Hood, has received at least a thousand cards this Valentine’s Day, as students and University employees petitioned him to improve the University’s green credentials.

The campaigners presented Hood with a giant, heart-shaped, “Go Green” card made out of a thousand Valentine’s Day cards, which they draped across the entrance to the University offices.

One card read, “Dear VC, please listen to me, and hire a head of sustainability, To ensure this prestigious uni, Goes greener than a block of mouldy cheese! Loving thee.”

The Valentine’s Day cards, made from recycled paper and printed with vegetable based ink, were delivered to his office by the campaign committee, although the Vice-Chancellor declined to attend in person.

A spokesperson on behalf of the VC said, “the university has offered a meeting with the group at a mutually beneficial time to discuss what it will be doing.”

Campaigners have declared the occasion a success. The day before the cards were presented, the University announced it was planning to “make 2010 a greener year” by recruiting a Head of Sustainability and announcing that it is working towards a “comprehensive waste management strategy.”

The campaign urged the University to appoint a senior environmental manager, adopt a comprehensive waste management system, and implement an external environmental management system.

Sophie Lewis, campaign manager, said the committee were “very happy with the outcome.” But she expressed shock and dismay at seeing the “beautiful array of cards, festoon and petitions” removed from the office head quarters.

She commented, “the VC’s secretary has yet to explain where they went, and why.”

The spokesperson said, “I don’t know if the cards will be kept in storage, but even if they are not kept, the university offices recycle all of its card and paper. They won’t go to landfill.”

Some students have also expressed concern that the gesture itself was not environmentally friendly.

Trinity’s JCR environmental representative described the event as “publicly wasteful.” She commented, “while I admire the aims of the campaign, at the same time I think it’s important not to lose sight of the everyday things we can all do to help the environment, such as saving paper or turning off light.”

But Daniel Lowe, OUSU environmental and ethics officer, called the event “an incredibly effective way to get our message across.”

He said, “it involved 1,000 student, raising the profile of environmental concerns with them. If we continue to press for more efforts to be made, the university will become a more sustainable place.”

JCR environment reps have praised the University’s green efforts, but some stressed that individual colleges as well as the University as a whole need to do much more to help protect the environment.

Mae Penner, Magdalen’s Environment rep accused Oxford colleges of using words such as “tradition” and “prestige” to “justify actions which frivolously disregard the financial and ethical benefits of increased sustainability.”

Stephen Bush, Balliol’s Environment rep added that the “behaviour of some colleges is letting the university down. Some colleges won’t have paper recycling in students’ rooms, for example.”

He said the University should “think about its indirect effect upon the environment too; to look again at the impact of its investments upon the environment and the world generally.”

Environment JCR reps have also criticised OUSU for not doing enough to support and promote awareness of environmental issues among students.

One Environment rep accused the elected Environment and Ethics officials as being “often unresponsive to appeals for information or guidance”, which hindered students who are passionate about the environment from getting involved. She said, “in my experience, they often feel as if they are operating in a vacuum, without any effective Oxford-wide support.”