American students paying up to $50,000 per year to study at Oxford have accused third-party study abroad programmes who work with the University of charging excessively high fees.

Almost all American students studying in Oxford apply via a third-party study abroad provider. Such providers act as middlemen between North American university students and Oxford University, but charge extensive fees for the services they offer.

While students may apply independently directly to Oxford University, many claim to be unaware of this, while others say that their American university only gives credit if they apply through a third-party program.

Programmes such as the Institute For Study Abroad – Butler University, the Oxford Study Abroad Programme (OSAP), the Washington International Studies Council (WISC), Oxford Programme for Undergraduate Studies (OPUS), and Arcadia University Center for Study Abroad, accept student applications and help Oxford colleges in their selection process by recommending students.

IFSA-Butler, WISC and OSAP, and others all claim to offer the most comprehensive services, including an orientation program, weekend excursions to London and historic sights like Stratford-upon-Avon, medical insurance, and organised free dinners.
However, these services come at a price. OSAP charges students $50,700 per year for its scheme, while Arcadia charges $47,520 per year.

Jonathan Salik, a student from Amherst College in Massachusetts studying at St. Catherine’s through the Butler program for Hilary and Trinity terms, criticised the programme. He said, “At Amherst I pay $42,000 a year, including tuition, room and board, and a meal plan. However, at Oxford, my parents had to pay $37,000 for just tuition and a room and board for two terms, which is equivalent to half-a-year at Amherst.”

Michael Palbot, academic director of WISC and OSAP programs, defended the high prices that these programmes charge.
He said, “we are higher in cost because of the rent of our office and the staffing, in addition to the various services we offer.”

Palbot also denied accusations that the company was exploiting students through the high fees. He added, “we are a private company whose goal is not to make a profit, but to focus on providing American university students an opportunity to study at Oxford.”

Students suggested that the services provided by third-party companies were not adequate for the large sums involved. Salik said, “It pretty much cost me an additional $15,000 to pay for Butler’s ‘services’ like the weekend trips to London that are so inconveniently planned for students at Oxford.

“These trips require us to be at London at 9 in the morning to catch the tour bus. With a hectic workload, it is an actual inconvenience to have to wake up at 6 in the morning and pay the extra Oxford Tube fare to get into London. We get a ‘free’ dinner at Pizza Express each term, but is the food really worth it when I’m paying $15,000 extra?”

Jameson Williams, a student from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, agreed that the travel options laid on by third-party companies are ill-suited to the needs of students studying at Oxford. Williams said, “There is unneeded fluff that leeches your cash from your parents’ wallets. Many of the travel programs are based out of London and it costs extra money and time to even get to London.”

Given the high cost of the services, many students say they regret applying via third-party progammes. Salik, who applied through the Butler program, said, “I did not know about the option of applying to colleges or to the Oxford Admissions Office directly. Had I known about these options then I would have saved so much more.”

Keith Farrell, a student from Connecticut College, echoed these sentiments. He said, “I only used Butler because my home university forced me to, but if I had other options I definitely would have chosen to apply directly to the college of my choice, as opposed to going through these study abroad programmes.”

Other students feared that they wouldn’t get credits for their time in Oxford if they didn’t apply through a programme, rather than directly to Oxford University.

Dave Carper, a visiting student at Hertford College from Case Western University, said he was told that credits for his work in Oxford would only be acknowledged if he applied through the Butler program. Carper said, “I went to go to a study abroad official to talk about my options for going to Oxford and she pretty much told me that she wants me to apply through Butler because it cuts down her paperwork.

“I only used Butler because my home university forced me to, but if I had other options, I definitely would have chosen to apply directly to the college of my choice, as opposed to going through these study abroad programmes.”

Hayley Mirek, a student from George Washington University reading English and History of Art criticised the Butler programme, saying, “I don’t think we’re getting much out of it.”

College authorities have defended their use of third-party programmes. Visiting Students Administrator at St. Catherine’s College, Helen Alexander, said that the college associates with third-party study abroad providers because of their reliability.

“For the college it’s better to have students come through the third party because it cuts down on my paperwork and paperwork for students’ home universities.” She did, however, question whether third party providers do actually benefit students. She described it as “just entirely up to the student”.

Naomi Freud, Director of Studies for Visiting Students at St Catz, added that student participation in study-abroad programmes was not taken lightly. She said, “programmes like Butler give students some more people that they could talk to, when they need to. They also have someone to talk to in the U.S. as opposed to having to constantly talking to directors like myself.”

She added, “I think parents who are most of the students’ financial source would prefer having students go abroad through a service that provides their children with another safety net, so to speak.

“Visiting students are a vital part of college life. The contribution that I’ve seen is the vitality they bring with them.
“It’s not that our students don’t have that vitality, but visiting students coming for say a term, coming from another place can be a good catalyst for our students.”

Magdalen JCR has been thwarted in its attempts to bring in a chicken rep to look after its College fowl.

The motion had proposed to allocate £290 towards the upkeep of Magdalen’s chickens, out of concern for the creatures since students have taken to smuggling them into College property. It had been proposed by Josh Rhodes in response to the actions of three students, who had taken the hens onto College property to hide them, but were discovered when one fell off the roof.

The students, Matthew Shribman, Henry Waite and Hugh Simpson smuggled the hens onto a roof of a building that they had secret access to and took turns to look after them. However, the porters decided to confiscate them after the Dean of Arts was alerted to their presence.

Simpson said that he decided to take the chickens under his wing because, “It would be quite nice to have pets of some form, and people had complained about the College’s use of battery farmed eggs. The idea was to respond to both issues by getting pets that would provide us with delicious free-range eggs.”

However the Dean of Arts, Rob Gilbert, allowed the chickens to stay and Simpson praised the actions of the College. He said, “The College responded pretty well to discovering that the chickens were on the roof.

“Both the Junior and Senior Deans seemed quite enamoured with the chickens, and seemed impressed with the effort that had been required to put the chickens up there in the first place. To their credit, they did try and make it work – but the run which was built to house them after the chickens were moved off our roof was only suitable as a temporary structure.”

Many students had hoped that Sunday’s motion would be the first step in establishing a permanent infrastructure allowing the hens to become a feature of Magdalen College.

However as the Dean of Arts has reported, “It became clear from an early stage in the process that the ongoing commitment of the student body in general to maintenance of hens within the College was critical to the development of a workable long-term plan… the JCR felt unable to make such a commitment.”

The chickens have been found a new home outside Oxford and will be moved this week.

Palestinian protesters disrupted an event organised by the Oxford Israeli Culture Society in Broad Street on Monday. The event, dubbed ‘camels in Oxford’ was part of iFest, a two-week long culture festival, celebrating the foundation of Israel 60 years ago.

Despite the pleas of organisers that Israeli culture can be separate from politics, a group of protesters chanting, “free, free Palestine, occupation is a crime” picketed the entrance to the festival. The group remained at one entrance to the street all afternoon, holding placards and chalking slogans onto the pavement.

At the other end of the festival, a line of black-clad women from the Network of Oxford Women for Justice and Peace (NOW), held a silent vigil around midday, to “honour the dead.”

The event featured musical performances, shisha pipes and belly dancers. Stalls included Israeli wine tasting, fair trade olive oil and a copy of Jerusalem’s Western Wall for passers-by to write their wishes on.

Organisers were keen to emphasise the non-political nature of the event and claimed that the protest was misguided. Jacob Turner, a Worcester first year and member of the organising committee, said the purpose was to present the “dynamic, interesting, diverse country… [that people] don’t tend to hear about.”

He added that the polarised debate “tends to make people turn off,” and said he thought the protest didn’t help in a search for peace.

However, Sara Ababneh, a protester and member of the Oxford Palestinian Society, disagreed. She argued that iFest was political, as it was “celebrating something that’s illegitimate.”

Ababneh said that dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians was futile as this was not simply a case of “people who don’t get along” but rather, “There is an occupier and an occupied.” She opposed the festival as something that was aiming at “normalising the occupation.”

However, organisers of Monday’s event said that the event aimed to avoid such arguments. A statement from the Oxford Israeli Cultural Society rejected the “typical dogmatic and rancorous type of argument which provides so little by way of reconciliation.”

They said, in future “We would be keen to celebrate all of the cultures that exist throughout the region with a joint Israeli and Arab literary festival.”

Ian Sternberg, a member of the Zionist Federation’s committee and the Western Wall stallholder, emphasised this message, saying, that iFest was “not connected to conflict” but rather was to “highlight the experiences of Israelis.” He condemned the actions of the protesters saying that they had no interest in engaging, but “have just been here with an agenda.”

Omar Shweiki, secretary of the Oxford University Arab Cultural Society, refuted this. He said, “60 years of Israeli apartheid should certainly not be celebrated, but boycotted and condemned.”

The apolitical stance of the organisers, was, he claimed, “a luxury that the Palestinians can’t afford.” The event’s slogan, “beyond the politics” is, according to Shweiki, “a joke in bad taste.” He dubbed iFest a “PR festival attempting to paint Israel as a peace-loving, liberal state”.

Kate Halls, a Wadham student who spent some of her gap year in Palestine, agreed. She said that Israel’s adoption of cultural features like falafel, shisha and humus are, “part of a constant campaign to erase the Palestinian nation from the world’s consciousness” by taking over aspects of Palestinian culture.

She added that the Palestinian cause is one, “anyone with a conscience should be involved in.”

Nikki Marriott, a member of NOW taking part in the ‘Women in Black’ protest, interrupted her silent vigil to explain why she had taken part in the demonstration. About the foundation of the Israeli state, she said, “for one country it was an inception, for the other it was a disaster.”

She thought that Women in Black was valuable in correcting a media slant “towards the Israeli side of the debate.”

Students at St Anne’s have expressed anger after boiler breakdowns deprived them of hot showers. The college’s Bevington House accommodation now has two boilers which have “failed beyond repair.”

In an email sent out to the JCR, Domestic Bursar Martin Jackson explained, “I am very sorry that we have reached this situation and apologise for the inconvenience that this loss causes. As some of you know we have suffered from a ‘boiler crisis’ over the Winter and Spring via a series of completely unconnected events.

“It would be inappropriate to recommend ‘showering with a friend’, but I hope that colleagues in other buildings will offer showering facilities to occupants of one and two, and five to ten Bev for the next seven days.” One Bevington resident complained about the college’s slowness to act.

She said, “I’m fed up with having cold showers or trekking to ATB [‘Above the Bar’ accommodation] to have a shower and the college’s ‘hopefulness that there will be sufficient water throughout the day to cope with your demands’ was rubbish even before the second boiler broke.

“However I guess we don’t really have a choice but to grin and bear it as it’s been made clear that complaining won’t make anything happen any quicker.” Matthew Powell, another of the students affected, commented, “I’m convinced I came close to death taking a cold shower the other day.”
Powell claims that he coped by showering in other St Anne’s accommodation, but added, “There are rumours that residents of ATB are going to start charging for the privilege.” Jackson reported that both of the block’s two boilers had been found leaking on 29 April, but that one had kept working until 2 May.

Work on the boilers started on Tuesday and should be completed by this Friday. He commented, “The situation is regrettable and I have apologised to occupants, but we were not able to forecast that this would happen.”

Some students have suggested that compensation should be awarded, although one student admitted, “Given that there was no compensation awarded when students were without heating in Hilary, there is relatively little chance of it being awarded now.” St Anne’s Ruth Deech building faced the unconnected ‘boiler crisis’ over the winter.

A second-year historian at Wadham has started a Facebook-based betting ring, allowing students to gamble on the outcome of the college’s upcoming Student Union presidential elections.

Peter Wright started a Facebook group called “Honest Pete’s Bookies – BetWright” calling group members to place bets on who they think will win. Yet according to one former SU President, the betting system threatens to manipulate the election in favour of candidates with high odds, as students who have bet on them are likely to also give them their vote.

“This year’s race for the SU Presidency looks to be the most hotly contested in recent memory,” advertises the group, “and to add to the fun we’re taking bets on all candidates for the most important position in Wadham politics.”

Wright said he came up with the idea of this group while he and his friends were “idling in armchairs over tea and pipes, discussing the upcoming SU election. “Following the hilarity that was the London mayoral election, we decided that offering bets on candidates for SU President might be an effective way of not only stimulating interest in the election, but adding a little amusement to our own jaded lives,” he said.

There are seven candidates rumoured to be running for the SU election next week. Activity on the group began with the first post, in which starting odds were given on 4 May, and was soon followed by revised odds and updates on candidacy dropouts.

On 5 May, Elena Lynch went from joint to outright favourite, nudging ahead of main rival Will McCullum with odds of 5 – 4.
The webpage has since expanded to include details of candidate endorsement by current Wadham student politicians, updated reports and analysis of election momentum.

Some candidates have even bet on themselves: one update reads, “Ciaran bets £1 on himself – the Jebb campaign juggernaut lumbers into action.” Jebb, whose odds are currently 25 – 1, has used the group for self-promotion, writing on the group wall, “I’d like to be the first candidate to use this opportunity for shameless self-promotion. Vote for me, and I promise free jelly for all Wadhamites!”

Jebb is listed as a ‘Rank outsider’, with another presidential candidate Stuart Mason, listed as ‘Dark horse’ officer of the group.
“I think that the group has had a positive impact in getting people to talk about the merits of the various candidates and combat voter apathy” Mason stated.

He continued, “I haven’t placed any bets myself because I prefer to let my experience and candidacy to speak for itself. May the best candidate win.”

Stuart Mason: 10-1 Nick Coxon: 5-2 Hume Howe: 5-1

Former SU President Ben Jasper claimed that ‘BetWright’ was an “old syndicate betting trick.” Jasper wrote on the group wall, “Used in Thailand in its elections. High odds on the candidates you want to win, most bet on those, it ‘locks’ them into voting for the candidate. Makes everyone money, (apart from Pete) and changes the results of elections. Sure to have an interesting impact.”

SU presidential candidate and first year PPEist Nick Coxon is not worried about ‘BetWright’ manipulating elections. He said, “I think it’s a really interesting thing to be doing. It gets people interested and to pay attention to what’s going on with the Students’ Union.

“The more people get involved, the more people will be interested in SU politics and elections, and the better voter outcome the election will see.” Coxon said he most likely will not be placing a bet, as he “hates to play by chance.” He went on, “I’m confident that people of Wadham will make the right choice.”

Another candidate, Hume Howe, spoke out about the betting. He said, “Pete’s goal, as with any bookies, is to make money to throw a house party. “Gambling is a very bad bad thing that inhibits intellectual growth. We live in an era of monetary unrest, gambling promotes widening the gap between the upper and working class. My regime will include efforts to close this gap by educating micromanagment.”

Wadham SU hustings will be held 14 May, and the elections on 15 May. Run and financed independently of the Wadham SU, ‘BetWright’ allows members to gamble on their candidate of choice by requesting a betting slip. The minimum bet is £1 and according to Wright, who is solely responsible for the set-up, “bets are not confirmed until you have a slip.”

‘BetWright’ offers insurance for an extra £1 and permits betters reclaim of stake if their candidate drops out. Wright has claimed that “Any profit will go to funding a massive party.”

Oxford students have been warned against the dangers of taking unlicensed minicabs following news that two sex attacks have taken place in taxis in seven weeks.

Thames Valley Police have launched the “Get Home Safely” initiative to encourage students to plan their journey home from nights out. Last Friday and Saturday night police staff handed out taxi-shaped leaflets in the city centre with comprehensive instructions in order to raise awareness.

The leaflets advise that the safest way of getting a taxi home is to save a number of a reputable firm on mobiles, and to hire a private car. They advise never to get into a private cab that has not been ordered, and go on to tell students to check the Hackney plates on the back of a black cab after it’s been flagged.

The first of the two attacks took place on 14 March, when a 17-year-old girl got in a black cab at Gloucester Green and asked to be taken to Jericho. As the driver reached the destination he sped off to an unknown location and forced her to perform a sexual act.
The second assault occurred on the 27 April when a 20-year-old man got in a car, which he believed to be a taxi, on Botley Road. He was taken to the Redbridge Park and Ride, where he was sexually assaulted.

Toby Shergold, a spokesperson from the Oxford branch of the Thames Valley Police, claimed that this issue is “very important for Oxford students.” He urged, “It is very important for [students] to look out for one another, especially after they’ve had a few drinks.”

Sally Gowland, an Oxford criminology student, agreed that the recent attacks highlight the necessity for a raised awareness. She stated, “The number of sex attacks and rapes in Oxford and the surrounding area is highly worrying. The recent attacks have shown that there needs to be greater awareness of the issues around sexual violence and female safety both within the public and private spheres.”

Sally added, “Women should be able to live in a world free from sexual violence and this is what organisations such as Rape Crisis England and Wales work hard to achieve.” However, the recent attacks have highlighted that men are also at risk of such attacks.

The Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre offers a confidential helpline for survivors of sexual abuse, and is contactable on 01865 726 295.

John Hood has encouraged British school teachers to dispel prejudices among pupils as to what studying at Oxford is like.

In an article published in the Daily Telegraph, Hood discussed the efficacy of Oxford’s admissions service and expressed concerns about the proportion of state-school and independent-school educated pupils who are given places at Britain’s top universities.

He placed particular focus on the current drive to diversify the social and educational backgrounds of candidates applying to Oxbridge, saying, “the wider challenge is about much more than Oxford and a handful of peer institutions; … further real progress [in encouraging state-educated applicants] will require some bigger shifts of attitude and approach. True equality of higher-education opportunity is a vast socio-economic project stretching back towards birth.”

He also defended Oxford’s admissions policy but added, “the idea that everything would be fine if a few of our top universities ‘sorted themselves out’ on access and admissions is absurd.”

The Vice Chancellor suggested that one way of promoting a realistic and demystified image of Oxford among students at a grassroots level might be to invite school teachers to experience life at the University.

“At school, the educational aspirations of young people are made and unmade. We are looking at mixing regional events for teachers with the possibility of time here in Oxford for those who want to experience the institution and its academic community for themselves. More needs to be done to harness the power of mentoring which can do so much to transform aspiration,” he said.

James Lamming, Vice-President of Oxford University Access and Academic Affairs, maintains that there is still some problem persuading state school applicants to think of Oxford as a viable option and admits that Oxford is still an institution beset by mistaken belief and false impression.

Lamming said, “in Hilary term, the Sutton Trust published a report that provided evidence about misconceptions many teachers had about Oxford and Cambridge that was leading them to provide inaccurate advice to their students. Lower than expected numbers of state school students apply because of myths that put them off Oxford. Bad advice that propagates out-of-date or simply false myths about Oxford unsurprisingly puts students off applying.”

Max Haimendorf, Biology graduate from St Hugh’s, has been involved in mentoring students since he joined the independent charity, Teach First, shortly after leaving Oxford in 2002. He echoed Lamming’s point of view saying that the attitude in some schools is that “our kids wouldn’t fit in in Oxford.”

Haimendorf claims that the Teach First program, which encourages top graduates to work in a challenging secondary school for at least two years, is effective at tackling the issue of creating relationships between schools and universities.

“In order to educate young people as to what Oxford is about it is necessary to combine various strands. Both parents and teachers need to be involved. In some communities it is very hard for parents to know how to help their children get in to university. It is not because they don’t want the best for their kids; it is just outside the realms of their experience,” he said.

He added, “our role was to inspire people to think about Oxford in a different way. As recent graduates and closer in age to the students, Teach First teachers have a unique position to influence pupils. We were there not as replacements to the existing university guidance, but as much needed additional support.”

The drive of both the Teach First and the Access program is, as Hood stated in his article, “to bring in [to Oxford] the brightest and the best.”

Lamming added, “if we can tackle the prejudices and misconceptions, we should attract more talented applications. Oxford wants the very best students; there is no conspiracy designed to keep certain applicants out of our dreaming spires.”

New College has become mired in controversy following allegations of fraud and vote-rigging in the recent JCR presidential elections.

It has been alleged that forged signatures and misuse of proxy votes have affected the election’s outcome. The results of the elections, held on Monday, have been discarded and re-polling is to occur today.

This follows the discovery that proxy votes had been submitted after the 9am deadline, with some votes alleged to be fraudulent with intention of influencing the winner of the election.

New College JCR constitution dictates that proxy votes, balloted by students voting on behalf of others, are to be submitted in writing before 9am on the day of the election.

Returning officer David Snower has admitted in a JCR email that he failed to implement the constitution. He said, “As returning officer I take full responsibility for not clarifying the rules concerning proxy votes to the people on the ballot box.”

The results were announced at 10.30pm on Monday night with Matthew Ranger emerging as the President-Elect, with 92 votes, and Stephen McGlynn coming a close second with 88 votes. However, allegations of fraudulent voting shortly followed these results.

One member of the New College JCR, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “It seems the fraudsters cast a significant amount of proxy votes on behalf of people who didn’t intend to vote. This occurred on the actual day of the election, which is not allowed under our constitution… Soon after the results were announced in the bar on Monday, people started claiming to have rigged the election.”

In an email to the JCR, Snower explained the decision to re-poll: “As no voting slips are marked, it was impossible to ascertain which of these invalid votes went to which candidates. Therefore the only way to ensure that the result is fair is to have a re-poll.” In the same email Snower claimed that the votes were purely from “people on their year abroad and others who couldn’t attend the ballot box.”

The current New College JCR President, Ben Karlin, said, “The situation is unfortunate for all concerned, but given the circumstances the fairest possible outcome has been reached and I wish the candidates the best of luck on Friday.”

The JCR email encourages “everyone to vote in exactly the same manner in which they voted on Monday.”

Photo: Richard Lowkes

Two female members of Corpus Christi MCR were aggressively pursued on Friday night by a man demanding sex in the latest of a series of similar incidents in East Oxford.

The incident occurred at 2am on Saturday morning when a man pursued students Courtney Cox and Francesca Richards on their way back to college from the Cowley area. The man, described as black and around 5’4 in a grey hoodie and jeans, demanded a threesome, persistently telling them to get into his car, and followed the students right up to Corpus’ Liddell Gate before being deterred when he realised they were phoning the police.

A police statement on Wednesday revealed that there were two further related incidents over the weekend. On Thursday at 4am and Monday at 11pm other women were similarly accosted by men in the Iffley area, this time on Percy Street.

Another Corpus graduate, Katie Musgrave, described the regularity of the dangers women face around Oxford, describing how she has been accosted on several occasions in her time at the University. “One time on Magdalen Bridge a sketchy man passing me by kicked my bag of groceries, splitting it open, and he walked on.

“Another time, when running on the tow path, I was lunged at by an aggressively drunk vagrant who was harassing people as they passed him. Finally, when passing by the bus shelter on Iffley Road one night, I was screamed at by a couple of drunk teenagers who were hiding in there, behind the adverts, apparently for the purpose of scaring people,” she said.

Detective Sergeant Kevin Elkins has called for students to come forward, saying, “We would like to hear from anyone else who has been approached by a man in the area. It may have seemed like a trivial incident at the time, but you could have important information for us.

“Until we trace the man, or men, involved and speak to him about his motives, we would advise local women to take care late at night or very early in the morning.”

Cox seemed shaken by the incident, describing being pursued and harassed as “frightening – not only at the time it happens, but beyond it as well. “Could it happen again? What if he hadn’t gone away when we called the cops? What if he had followed us into the Liddell Complex? […] What if he had a weapon?

“There’s a sense in which your safety has been violated, and you wake up to the reality that your neighbourhood is not as safe as it seemed.”

Beyond this individual example, the most worrying aspect of the incident is its perceived regularity. Asking other Corpus students about their experiences, Cox described how alarmingly common such harassment seems to be, and how a culture of acceptance has emerged.

“The response to this incident has largely been a variation on the theme of ‘Well, I hate to admit it, but you’re not the first’, instead of ‘What can we do to make it safer?’

“It hasn’t happened to me before, but the impression I have is that it does occur fairly frequently, probably more than is on record, since it would appear through conversations with other students that there’s also a problem of under-reporting.

“So yes, I am worried. I don’t feel as though there really are the resources in place to deal with this sort of occurrence.”

Along with urging vigilance, police have repeated their usual safety advice that students walk home with friends or take a licensed taxi if they are alone. Meanwhile, OUSU have urged students to look after one another, using the Safety Bus and attack alarms to keep safe.
OUSU’s Welfare Rep Louise Randall stated, “We recommend that students never walk home alone, that they use the OUSU/PBSU Safety Bus wherever possible, and they should consider carrying an attack alarm, available from your welfare officers or direct from OUSU for £1.60.

“If you’re heading out clubbing this week and need to get home late at night, remember you can use the OUSU/OBSU Safety Bus. This service, provided in conjunction with Oxford Brookes Students’ Union, is there to make sure you get home safely. It will pick you up from any location within the Oxford Ring road and take you home for a donation of only £1. To call the bus, just ring 07714 445 050 between 9pm and 3am Monday – Saturday and 9pm – 1am on Sunday.”

Yet despite this, Cox does not feel secure against further trouble. “Truth be told, Oxford is not a safe city. The safety schemes in place from the University and Colleges are inadequate (and those that do exist inadequately publicised), particularly when compared to other institutions of like calibre. It’s really disappointing.”

For any students who would like to get in touch with the police concerning this, Det Sgt Elkins can be contacted via the Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505. If you don’t want to talk to police and don’t want to leave your name, call the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Photo: Olivier Lazarus