Lacking traditional academic qualifications will no longer be a bar to study at Oxford, as the University will now accept applications from students with new government Diplomas as well as A-levels.

Oxford will now consider students with an Advanced Engineering Diploma for a place on an Engineering course. However Diplomas such as Hospitality, IT or Health and Beauty are still ruled out by the Admissions Office.

Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, said that the University recognised some people may be qualified for entry onto Oxford degrees despite lacking A-levels.

He said, “this provides a route for those who opt to study the Advanced Diploma in Engineering to apply to study Engineering at Oxford.” 

He added, “Oxford has always looked at more than just qualifications – academic ability and potential is assessed through a range of measures.”

Nicholson emphasised that Oxford encouraged all appropriately qualified students to apply regardless of their school or college background.

The Advanced Engineering Diploma, which is to be launched in 2010, is worth the equivalent of three and a half A Levels. Oxford applicants must also have a Physics A-level to apply for an Engineering degree.

The new Diplomas designed by the government are largely vocational and include ten days work experience as part of the qualification.

Some students think those with Diplomas will face some academic difficulties. One commented, “no one at Oxford has done anything vocational really. I don’t know if a Diploma would prepare you for the type of work here.” 

However, many students feel this move will not make much difference to the applications system. One student said, “If the Diploma is worth more than 3 A Levels, you’ve still got to be pretty academic.”

Jim Knight, Minister for Schools and Learners, claims the benefit of the Diploma system is that students have, “a genuine choice about where their qualifications take them, be it university or straight towards employment.”

Almost all the Russell Group Universities have responded positively to the new Diploma system. Mike Nicholson maintains that the new qualifications “have the greatest relevance for our courses.”

He said Oxford academics involved in the project are keen to “ensure that the Diplomas can deliver the highly rigorous academic content and study skills that candidates to highly competitive universities need.”

An Oxford graduate has been selected as Carol Vorderman’s replacement on the popular daytime TV show Countdown.

22 year old Rachel Riley has been selected as the new co-presenter alongside TV sports presenter Jeff Stelling.

Riley, a graduate from Oriel with a Masters Degree in Mathematics, was selected for the Channel 4 programme from over 1,000 applicants.

For the auditions, she and other applicants had to complete an interview and were examined on their maths expertise.

Riley was shortlisted together with 5 other candidates to attend a screen test in Leeds where candidates had to put up several letters selections and tackle various maths games at the numbers board.

Riley announced that she was ecstatic to have been chosen for the job. She said, “this is the best graduate job in the world. There’s only one cool maths job around and I was lucky enough to get it so I’m absolutely thrilled.”

Channel 4 said, “Rachel’s on-screen presence, easy going nature, coupled with fantastic maths skills meant she excelled in all rounds of the auditions.”

Helen Warner, Head of Channel 4 Daytime, said “I’m very excited that Jeff and Rachel will be picking up the Countdown baton from 2009.

“They make a great team and I feel certain that our much-loved words and numbers game will go from strength to strength with them at the helm.”

Long-standing Carol Vorderman announced on the 25th July 2008 that she would be quitting the show after failing to agree with Channel 4’s terms for a new contract.

Reports have suggested that she was told to take a 90% pay cut of her estimated salary of between £900,000 and £1m a year.

Vorderman recorded her last Countdown show on the 13th November 2008 which will be broadcast on the 12th December this year.

Stelling, who will be the new host for Countdown, is best known for presenting Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports and was awarded Sports Broadcaster of the Year by the Sports Journalists’ Association for the third consecutive time earlier this year.

He declared that, “I am delighted to be hosting Countdown and follow in the footsteps of such great broadcasters as Richard Whitely, Des Lynam and Des O’Connor.”

Stelling and Riley are set to present the 60th series of Countdown, which will commence in January 2009.

Armed police flanked the Bodleian on Tuesday night as Shimon Peres arrived in Oxford to present a lecture to staff and students at the Sheldonian.

But the heavy security could do little to prevent a verbal assault on Peres as students interrupted his speech with a series of attacks on Israel’s policy on Palestine.

Throughout the course of the talk, entitled ‘the globalisation of peace’, a string of eight students stood up and shouted over the president in what they described as a gesture on behalf of the Palestinian people.

Najla Dowson-Zeidan, a fourth-year from Wadham, shouted, “I represent the thousands of farmers who’ve had their land stolen illegally to build Israeli settlements.”

Abdel Razzaq Takriti, a History graduate student from Wadham, began walking towards Peres and calling him “a war criminal” before being escorted out of the building by security guards.

After the event Takriti said, “By saying ‘I represent…’ we were bringing the absent voices of the Palestinian people oppressed by Peres’ government to the lecture. Instead of honouring the occupiers and rewarding them for their human rights infringements, we urgently need to listen to those who are forcefully occupied.”

The 85 year-old president was noticeably unsettled by the students, who interrupted him roughly every five minutes throughout his lecture. While he chose to ignore some of the interventions, to Dowson-Zeidan he responded, “It’s not too bad to open the ears and the eyes but keep the mouths for a later occasion.”

Around 40 students also gathered in front of the Sheldonian to protest at Peres’ visit and carried placards bearing the slogan ‘Balliol honours Peres while Gaza burns.’ At one point their chants of ‘Free Palestine’ threatened to drown out the lecture entirely, with students at the back of the theatre struggling to hear.

The response of other students to the protests was mixed, with some booing and some clapping in response to those who interrupted.

One third year Brasenose student, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “I have every sympathy with the complaints of the protestors and their right to protest, but given that it was announced that there was to be a question and answer session at the end the interruptions were misguided and severed only to frustrate and irritate the vast majority of the audience.

“Free speech means giving those who disagree with you a chance.”

In response, Omar Shweiki, one of the hecklers, said, “When such a grand event takes place, with all the prominence granted a head of state, there is no room afforded for alternative voices but I am proud to say through collective effort we made it clear that many in the University refused to be complicit in legitimising an apartheid regime, one that only days before the lecture was bombing a besieged and defenceless people in Gaza.”

At the end of the talk, some students chose to remain seated while those around them got to their feet to enthusiastically applaud

Peres, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, was in Oxford as part of a three day visit to Britain, where he met with Gordon Brown and was awarded an honorary doctorate at King’s College, London. He invited to Oxford by Andrew Graham, Master of Balliol College, in order to inaugurate the first of a series of five lectures on the subject of world peace.

The visit to the UK was bound to be difficult for the Israeli president. In 2007, members of Britain’s University and College Union voted to boycott Israeli universities, despite worldwide condemnation of the move. Mr Graham said that he was “well aware of the opposition that has been expressed about this invitation,” but that “the fundamental purpose of a University which is to hear and discuss and examine all points of view.”

Peres’ sets out world view

Shimon Peres came to Oxford this week at the invitation of the Master of Balliol to inaugurate a series of five peace lectures. He used his speech to praise the outcome of the US elections and express his optimism about the prospect of a more peaceful world.

Peres hailed Barack Obama’s recent victory as a turning point in modern history.

He said, “Zionism started because of racism and anti-Semitism. In a way, the election of Obama is the end of racism. The fact that a black person got the top job in our time is a clear demonstration that we live in different world.”

Describing the problems of achieving Middle Eastern peace he said, “We have had to defend ourselves militarily but have hoped, philosophically and otherwise, to make peace.

Both sides paid heavily – thousands of youngsters on both sides. It was a mistake. All wars are a mistake whether you win or lose.”

On the subject of Palestine he said, “We are still negotiating with the Palestinians. It is difficult to make peace – you have to negotiate with your opponents and with your own people; I don’t know which is more difficult.” He added, “The problem for the Palestinian people is Hamas. Were it not for Hamas they would already have a state of their own.”

He said that with his age and experience had come a sense of optimism, saying, “I feel that maybe we are nearer to peace now than any time in the last 100 years.”

Despite the frequent interruptions Peres persevered to the end of his talk, stopping only a few times to express his frustration with the protestors. In his closing speech, Sir Adam Roberts, Emeritus Fellow of Balliol, praised the Israeli president for “demonstrating grace under fire.”