Rows over university access have hit national television after EastEnders featured an Oxford admissions storyline.

Oxford University officials have already been in contact with the producers of the BBC One soap regarding the direction of the plot, in which teenagers Libby Fox and Tamwar Masood consider applying to Oxbridge.

The move followed revelations earlier this summer that Cambridge University had approached several television programs in a bid to try and challenge ancient perceptions about the institution.

Officials suggested storylines to the writers of EastEnders as well as its rivals Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

The makers of Top Gear were also asked if Jeremy Clarkson & Co. would be willing to recreate an infamous 1958 stunt in which engineering students winched an Austin Seven to the top of Cambridge’s Senate House.
A spokesman for Cambridge University explained that measures comprised an attempt to tackle myths about elitism at the university before its 800th anniversary in 2009.

However, a spokesperson for Oxford University added that the university did not and would not be following Cambridge’s active attempts to control the institution’s presence in popular culture.

“We do not have a policy of contacting scriptwriters to place stories about the university in television programs,” she said.

“We would, however, work closely with production teams if the university was part of any storyline.”

The spokesperson also addressed fears that the new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Brideshead Revisited would reignite age-old perceptions among prospective Oxford students of outdated customs and snobbery at the university.

She admitted that, “sometimes the beauty of Oxford can work against us.”
“We want to work against the ‘Brideshead’ image – people think it is all about impressive old buildings but there are actually very modern things going on here. Beauty and tradition can be enjoyed whatever your background.”
However, asked to comment on Cambridge’s approaches to television programmes, OUSU’s VP for academic and access affairs, Paul Dwyer, was sceptical as to whether more modern portrayals in the media would make much of a difference.

The VP for Access and Academic Affairs elaborated: “While a Doctor Who storyline based in Oxford might make compelling viewing, it is more likely to be schemes such as the Sutton Trust Summer schools and the Young Ambassadors programme that reach out and help widen participation.”

Oxford University’s Chancellor has fuelled the continuing debate over Oxbridge admissions by arguing for a complete removal of the cap on university tuition fees.

Speaking at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference annual meeting on 30th September, Lord Patten called the government’s fee capping “intolerable” given the paucity of UK university endowments.
He said that the government should not demand that universities, “make up for the deficiencies of secondary education,” claiming this was “a fool’s mission.”

Un-capped fees could leave graduates with up to £50,000 of debt.
Patten argued, “it is surely a mad world in which parents or grandparents are prepared to shell out tens of thousands of pounds to put their children through private schools to get them in to universities, and then object to them paying a tuition fee of more than £3,000 when they are there.”

However, the university has distanced itself from Patten’s comments in official statements, saying that he had made the remarks purely in a personal capacity.

‘Oxford hasn’t made any decisions’

A press spokesperson said, “Oxford University hasn’t made any decisions” on the issue of fee capping and that a working group to discuss tuition fees policy is in “very early stages.”

John Denham, the former Secretary of State for Universities, has responded, accusing Lord Patten, of having “outmoded views of the central issues.”
Speaking at the Aimhiger Awards, a scheme which tries to widen access to higher education, Denham insisted that most universities now accept that, “the current system does not yet capture all the talent that exists in young people across the country.”

Paul Dwyer, OUSU VP for access and academic affairs, said that OUSU policy was against any lifting of the cap but recognised the need for “a contribution from graduates in some form.”

Concerning the question of the university’s role in correcting inequality, he said that “education is an extremely important tool” for social equality but added that the burden of responsibility “should not lie solely with the university.”
He said that, although Oxford required funding to continue its work, the current cap on fees was “certainly not intolerable.”

Unsurprisingly, students have not welcomed the suggested rise in fees. A Magdalen fourth year labelled Patten’s suggestion “massively, massively unfair.” She also accused the chancellor of being “more interested in money than students.”

Patten used his speech to rebuff government attacks on Oxbridge elitism, saying, “we are an easy cheap shot for left-wing politicians on a quiet weekend.”

He added, “It is odd that Oxford and Cambridge take a regular drubbing. They are after all among the few world-class institutions we have in this country.”
Patten’s remarks are the latest highlight of an admissions row that has raged all summer.

Postcode controversy adds to debate

Oxford University attracted attention from the national press during August when the university announced that admissions tutors would screen future applicants’ postcodes as a way of determining what students were applying from disadvantaged social backgrounds.

In response to controversy over the plan, a university spokesperson said that the move was not about “massaging our figures” but “finding the brightest students with the greatest potential to succeed at Oxford.” She insisted that academic excellence would not be compromised.

Tutors will also look at the collective results achieved by the applicant’s school, whether the student has spent time in care, or attended a program for disadvantaged pupils.

Any sufficiently able student who is flagged up in at least three of the criteria will be interviewed.

Oxford insisted, however, that the screening would play “no part in deciding who will receive an offer, or what that offer is.”

Following the announcement of postcode screening, Oxford’s Director of Admissions, Mike Nicholson, attempted to silence claims that the university failed to attract enough students from disadvantaged backgrounds by saying that the majority of candidates eligible for Oxbridge places already apply.
Nicholson said that, of the 28,000 students achieving 3 A’s at A Level, 11,000 already applied to Oxford, and a similar number to Cambridge. The remainder, he suggested, often wished to study subjects such as dentistry, which neither university offers.

Nicholson was responding to a recent Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) report which advised that a national bursary scheme be set up to help poorer students.

The report concedes that such an arrangement would “would benefit some universities and disadvantage others” but argues that the current system penalizes, “those very universities that recruit the most students from poor backgrounds.”

The Oxford University Students’ Union has been strongly criticised following a decision to ban a company from the Fresher’s Fair because it is not in their own commercial interests.

Beyond Oxbridge is an independent careers website providing job vacancies, internships and careers advice for Oxbridge students and graduates. However, OSSL, OUSU’s business arm, also have a similar website, called Oxbridge Careers.

OUSU claim that the two are in direct competition and have therefore banned them from the fresher’s fair – despite having initially granted them a stall.
Members of the Beyond Oxbridge team have expressed outraged at the decision, saying that it has left a “bad taste” in their mouths.

They also criticised OUSU for being “hopeless” and for “picking fights to try and demonstrate their own importance.”

One law student from Merton added, “I think it’s OUSU just trying to throw its weight around to try and get a bit more recognition.”

Beyond Oxbridge was initially granted a stall by Jake Leeper, organiser of the Freshers’ fair, but the offer was later overturned by Ed Batty, the advertising co-ordinator for the fair.

An OUSU representative told Beyond Oxbridge managers that because their company ran in direct competition with Oxbridge Careers, they would not be allowed to sign up new students at the Freshers’ Fair.

The representative stressed that this was not intended to single out Beyond Oxbridge, but was in line with OUSU’s firm anti-competition policy.
Jessica Bland, part of the Beyond Oxbridge team expressed her anger at OUSU’s actions, suggesting that theirs was a venture that the Students’ Union should be supporting.

Bland also questioned OUSU’s claim that the sites are even in direct competition, citing a lack of content on Oxbridge Careers.
“They haven’t filled the site with anything,” she said. “They may do very soon, but right now it’s not populated, it’s not providing the service they said it would do.

“And if they’re not providing the service then why exclude another graduate-run website that is providing it?

“OUSU tried to shut us off immediately, there wasn’t a negotiation, they just said ‘no you can’t have any contact with students’, even if we were willing to pay to have a commercial stall like every other commercial company.

“We thought this was something that needed to be there because it wasn’t there. To suddenly have part of the university turn against us left a bad taste in my mouth in my last few weeks at uni.”

OUSU President Lewis Iwu admitted that the decision had been taken in line with their “anti-competition policy,” which is in place to ensure what is commercially best for the organisation.
He stressed however that this was not only reason the booking was overturned.
“We have a strong anti-competition policy because we also provide a service through the careers handbook and the website,” he said.

“We don’t allow people providing a similar product to what we’re providing to provide that at the Freshers’ Fair.

“We’ve had discussions in the OSSL board, and the board as a whole felt that there was a conflict between the aims of OSSL and Beyond Oxbridge.”

Iwu also claimed that another reason for Beyond Oxbridge’s exclusion was “to ensure that there are no conflicting messages presented at the fair.”
He said that the overturning of Leeper’s decision was a routine review of the bookings for the Fair that was conducted throughout the summer.

He denied that OUSU was officiously stamping on student enterprise, saying: “across OUSU we recognize the importance of student enterprise but that doesn’t mean that sometimes we don’t have to take a holistic approach and it might mean enforcing our anti-competition policy.”

However, Iwu has been criticised from within OUSU. An OUSU College rep who wished to remain anonymous said, “the Freshers Fair should be about helping new students to get involved in university activities, not an exclusive promotion exercise for OUSU-sponsored enterprises.”

Three Oxford post-graduate students became record breakers this summer after swimming across the 22km Gibraltar Strait in just 3 hours and 38 minutes.

Lennard Lee, Harry Fisher and Nicholas Berry conquered the mammoth swim in July in an effort to raise money for the Variety Club, a charity for disabled and disadvantaged Children.

Celebrity swimmers David Walliams and James Cracknell had swum the Strait in March this year. The Oxford team beat Walliams’ and Cracknell’s time by almost an hour.

Gibraltar-based law firm Marrache & Co. offered sponsorship to the Oxford team after being impressed by their determination and commitment – financial aid which helped the swimmers raise over £1,600. The Olympic athlete Duncan Goodhew, a long-time supporter of the Variety Club, also lent his support, describing the swim as ‘an incredible achievement’, and joined the International Vice President for the Variety Club, Ronnie Nathan, in praising the team’s commitment to the challenge.

Lee, Fisher and Berry had to dodge strong currents, busy shipping lanes and killer whales to cross the Strait, a notoriously dangerous stretch of water which has only ever been swum by 200 people. Lennard Lee, who studies Medicine at Queen’s College, said that the difficulty involved was an attraction for the swimmers: “We enjoy challenges and this was a big one. The winds and waves are unpredictable and strong. You need to be a competent swimmer to do it.”
Teddy Hall postgraduate Harry Fisher, a Material Sciences student, described how the trio had been aware of large black objects near them in the water as they neared the end of the swim. The team decided to ignore the objects and keep swimming, but were told when they reached the African shore that they had been followed by a pack of five killer whales.

Lee said, ‘Our pilot boatman told us they were circling us for about thirty minutes, getting closer and closer. If they had got any closer, they would have had to pull us out for our own safety.’

But Lee’s team was not the only group of Oxford students battling across the Gibraltar Strait this summer. In August, a second group took part in a relay crossing to raise £6,150 for the World Cancer Research Fund, a cancer-awareness charity that promotes preventative information about the disease.

St John’s postgraduate student Ginger Turner helped put together a team consisting of James Briaris, Ginger Turner, Emma Penn, Nate Singer, Darek Nehrebecki and Nicholas Staubach. Although their challenge was intended as a relay, in which each member of the team would swim a particular length of the Strait, Emma Penn swam all 22km in four hours and thirty-five minutes, an achievement in itself which was a minute faster than the Walliams and Cracknell record.

The team said that they chose to raise money for the World Cancer Research Fund as they felt it was a cause they could all relate to, especially as each member of the team has lost friends or relatives to cancer. Engineering student James Briaris felt particularly motivated to tackle the Strait after witnessing the mother of a close friend lose her life to stomach cancer five years ago. Briaris said he felt more research into cancer prevention was needed to help other patients and their families.

Emma Penn commented, ‘I received a phone call from Dariusz Nehrebecki (a St John’s graduate), who informed me that one of the other St John’s grads, Ginger Turner, was thinking about putting a team together to do an ‘extreme’ sporting event for charity. He knew that I was an experienced swimmer and asked if I was interested, so I agreed on the spot!’

The second Oxford team also had their fair share of anxious moments. Penn recalled losing her team-mates halfway across the Strait, ‘My goggles were completely useless and they were covered in grease, so I couldn’t see a thing. After taking them off, I looked around and couldn’t see any of the other swimmers behind me, or the guide boat in front – this is when it really dawned on me that I was all on my own in the ocean.’

Penn also described the frustration she, like the Variety Club team, experienced during the last few minutes of the swim. ‘I had visions of swimming to a beautiful beach in Morocco and feeling complete elation. However, it was rather different in the end. The last 1.5 km really hurt and I started to feel angry; the shore line just didn’t seem to be coming any closer.’
The experience did not, however, put the team off completely the challenge again. Emma spoke for the whole team when she described their feelings after successfully crossing the Strait, ‘We had a team celebration upon returning to Spain, and only then did it start to sink in how well we had all done. I’m so grateful that I was given this opportunity and I’m so proud of the whole team. I’d do it again with them any day.’

There are fears that an Oxford postgraduate may have suffered permanent brain damage after he was bludgeoned over the head during a brutal robbery.
Kentaro Ikeda, a student at St Edmund’s Hall, was riding along a cycle path in the early hours of the morning when he was suddenly set-upon and savagely beaten.

Shocked passers-by later found the 26-year-old victim lying unconscious on the deserted track in a pool of his own blood.

They immediately dialled 999 and frantically tried to revive the unconcious student whilst paramedics raced to the scene.

He was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital and put into intensive care after doctors discovered that he had suffered a severely fractured skull.

With the Japanese postgraduate recovering in hospital, detectives launched a major hunt to track down those reponsible for the mugging.

The scene of the horrific attack, between Ferry Road and the University Parks, Marston, was cordoned off by police whilst forensic investigators combed the area for clues. It was not long before officers had recovered Kentaro’s rucksack in a nearby road and the weapon believed to have been used to batter him over the head.

Days later, officers from Thames Valley Police arrested two 18-year-olds suspected of carrying out the crime.

Teenagers Craig Knowles and Thomas Mack, both from Marston, Oxford, were later charged with robbery and carrying out grievous bodily harm with intent.
They both appeared to answer the charges at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on August 4th. They were remanded in custody until another hearing they were due to attend at Oxford Crown Court next Monday.

Meanwhile Kentaro has recovered sufficiently enough to return to Japan, after spending a month in John Radcliffe Hospital.

The student’s mother arrived from Japan shortly after the incident. It is understood that she was arriving in Oxford on a planned trip, and was only told that her son was in a critical condition in hospital when she landed.
Kentaro has lived in Oxford since November last year, when he began studying for his Masters degree in Educational Studies at St Edmund ‘s Hall.
He is said to have been just weeks away from finishing his thesis when he was brutally beaten.

Fellow postgraduates at St Edmund’s Hall said that they had been astonished and horrified on hearing news of the horrendous attack.
One stunned student, Johannes Kaminski, said that he felt completely helpless, having only heard about the awful attack on his freind whilst he was away in Vienna.

He revealed that Kentaro may have been partly paralyzed following his traumatic experience.

“Rumour has it that he can only move the right side of his body,” he said.
“He can only communicate by writing at the moment, but he can distinguish Japanese from English,” he added, implying that Kentaro’s brain damage may not be as severe as previously feared.

Johannes added that the appalling assault had brought safety for students around town into sharp focus for many of his fellow students at St Edmund’s Hall.

“We try not to scare the graduate freshers but make them aware of the dangers in Oxford.”

ChernEin Oon, another friend of Kentaro’s, said that he would “need some time to really really recover” following the incident in the early hours of July 31st.
Fellow postgraduate Evan Innis added that he simply could not comprehend what had happened to his friend.

“Kentaro loved to play around and is a very very friendly person. He is a real fun-loving guy. This attack is just unfathomable.”

“This has obviously caused a lot of shock in the MCR. It was a rather unpleasant way to find out he was back in Oxford.

A spokesperson for the Thames Valley Polce said, “Kentaro is back in Japan but he has lost the power of movement in his left side, although he is now conscious.”

A member of the University’s Failed Novelist Society is to have her novella, Lizard, published. Leonore Schick of Jesus College is the first member of the society to cease adherence to the group’s raison d’etre after getting a publishing deal for her Kafkaesque story.

The plot follows the adventures of a girl who wakes up one day to find that part of her calf has become lizard-like. Schick’s story made her a winner in the Roastbooks competition earlier this year. Roastbooks Limited, established by Oxbridge graduates, is a new publishing organisation specialising in short novels and novellas.

Schick states that the key themes of her novella are “selective memory, imaginary relationships, anti-coming of age”. She had been writing creatively since she was a child, including for Jesus’ JCR magazine Anonymous and The OxStu, but this is the first work she has submitted for publication. When asked whether following her recent success she intends to pursue the life of a novelist, she replied that, since a writer might have to cope with financial difficulty, “[I’m] not sure what the life of a novelist is, but I’ve heard it is all about being very poor. It depends how poor. I’d draw the line at having to grow my own potatoes.”

Lizard will be one of six titles coming out in Roast Books’ first series Great Little Reads. Director of Roastbooks, Faye Dayan, says the series is “ideal for our busy modern lifestyles”. Her advice to any ‘failed novelists’ trying to get their work published is “just don’t give up and don’t be afraid to share your writing… Like Sylvia Plath said, the worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

She commented on Lizard, saying, “The immediate attraction to Lizard was the protagonist, Eliza, who is a vehicle for these wonderful and unique dialogues between thought and speech, reality and make-believe, the magic of childhood and the sobriety of growing up. In Lizard, the idea of loss is something I think many readers will relate to.”

The Oxford University Failed Novelist Society is far from a defeatist or gloomy group. Selena Wisnom, president of the Society, explained that the group’s name “is not pessimistic” but “a reminder not to take ourselves too seriously. All novelists are failed novelists, because no novel you write is as good as the one you want to write!” One member of the society reported that everyone had been delighted with Schick’s success which has “made us all more excited about writing”.

A Brasenose student has died from leukaemia the day after marrying his university sweetheart.

Matt Carver, aged 22, passed away just hours after tying the knot with Nicola Godfrey, his 21-year-old fiancée from New College.

The couple had planned to get married in two years’ time, but decided to bring the ceremony forward when doctors told them that history student Matt had only weeks to live.

Matt had proposed to Nicola just two months beforehand in December last year. Their plans were shattered however when Matt was suddenly taken ill weeks into their new term at Oxford University.

Weighed down by his academic career, as well an array of extra-curricular pursuits and job applications, neither Matt nor his wife-to-be had given much thought to the severe bouts of tiredness he had been experiencing.

However, when the young fiancé suffered a small cut on his finger that wouldn’t stop bleeding that the pair decided he should visit his GP. Later that day however, following several blood tests, doctors had to break the news to Matt that he had contracted the blood cancer leukemia.

Matt was determined to fight the illness, but after three courses of debilitating chemotherapy he developed a facial paralysis – an indication the disease had reached his brain.

With signs that they might not have much longer together, the young couple rushed their wedding forward so that they would still be able to enjoy some time together as husband and wife.

After a ceremony surrounded by family and friends at Brasenose College chapel, the wedding party had dinner at Oxford’s Old Bank Hotel. Yet the following morning, Matt began complaining of a headache and he was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Realising his condition, the registrar who had been handling his treatment ordered staff to remove all drips and other equipment from Matt and to move him into to a private room. Later that afternoon, with his wife and their immediate families by his side, he died.

Mathematics student Nicola Carver later paid tribute to the bravery that her husband had shown following the last fatal diagnosis.

“They told us that it was going to be weeks, possibly months,” said Nicola. “It was a massive shock but we could plan things and do things which we had put on hold when he was initially diagnosed.”

“I will never, ever forget how brave he was.

“Matt was the kind of person who put his heart and soul into everything he did.
“He was a fantastic man and I will miss him very much. Even when he was ill he still managed to make everybody laugh.”

Mrs Carver added that she took some comfort from the two of them being able to make the commitment to each other before he died.

“It was a true celebration of our love and was everything that we had dreamed of since we decided to get married,” she said.

“Matt was desperate to get married and it was such a relief to get through the day and become his wife but obviously we would have wanted more time together.

“He looked fantastic, dressed up to the nines in his top hat and tails.
“I’m told by his dad that when he was waiting for me to come in he kept on asking: ‘What time is it? What time is it now?’
“He was just like any other groom.”

Showing her own determination and courage, Nicola said that she intends to return to Oxford to complete her degree this Michaelmas term.
She said: “I have lots of friends who are still there and who are going to take care of me.

“I have to at least try. If I don’t go back now, then I’ll never go back.”

She and Matt – both passionate musicians – had first met on a University wind orchestra trip to St Tropez in 2006.

Brasenose College, where Matt had been studying medieval history, lowered its flag to half mast in recognition of its loss, following his death earlier this summer. More than 500 mourners packed his hometown funeral 11 days after his death to say their last goodbyes.

The student, from Newport, South Wales, had been an active member of the college, representing the them in rowing, cricket and football before he was struck down by illness.

Chaplain the Reverend Graeme Richardson particularly paid tribute to him, saying: “He was an outstanding all-round student, who was involved in many aspects of the college.”

Matt and Nicola’s families have since launched campaigns to raise money for two specialist cancer charities – the Anthony Nolan Trust and Leukaemia Research. They are urging people between 18 and 40 to join the bone marrow register. For more details or to make a donation please contact the trust on 0901 882 2234 or visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk.