Tuesday 1st July 2025
Blog Page 223

“A slap in the face”: Replacement of SU VP Women sparks fury

Freya Jones
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“A slap in the face”: Replacement of SU VP Women sparks fury

The OUSU’s sabbatical officer role reshuffle will see the role of VP Women replaced with VP Liberation and Equalities next academic year. This decision aims to improve inclusivity at the SU, making the role “broad and timeless”. However, many students feel that VP Women is still an important and relevant position in 2022.

This year’s VP Women, Ellie Greaves, currently works with a number of committees across Oxford, including those dedicated to welfare, equality, and tackling sexual violence. She is also a key point of contact for Oxford students with issues relating to women’s health, sexual consent, and night safety. 

Having been in the role since July 2022, Greaves said one of her biggest achievements so far has been the organisation of a women’s and non-binary club night at Oxford’s nightclub Plush. She also plans to organise events around International Women’s Day in 2023 to promote female solidarity.

However, Greaves has concerns about the decision to remove the role of VP Women going forward. After being elected to the position in Hilary Term 2022, she only found out that she would be the last person to hold this role after taking it up in July.

The role review, spearheaded by the SU President for 2021-2022, Anvee Bhutani, was carried out because sabbatical positions had not been scrutinised since the 1990s.  The role review proposal document set out the reasons for replacing VP Women, stating: “The VP Women role was created at a time when women couldn’t get full degrees and colleges were segregated” and “VP Women prioritises one minority / protected group over others”.

The changes were adopted after a six-month scrutiny period, which included a vote in Student Council in Week 7 of Hilary Term. A total of 11 students voted, with 9 in favour and 2 against. A current sabbatical officer described these numbers as “startlingly low” and indicative of poor engagement with issues that stand to affect the whole student body.

Now, however, several students have raised concerns about the role change after knowledge of the decision was made widely available.

Speaking about the SU’s decision, a female student said, “I fail to see how replacing the women’s officer with a ‘liberation and equalities’ officer provides adequate representation for students from all minorities … This just feels like a slap in the face, not only for women, but all minority groups for lack of proper representation in the SU.”

The SU explained that the role of VP Women has “not been replaced but augmented to include more underrepresented and marginalised communities who currently do not have sufficient representation”. A spokesperson also said that “the current officer team fully supports the outcomes of the role review and are looking forward to launching them for the 2023 sabbatical officer elections.” 

However, this does not align with Greaves’ interpretation of the situation. While the new VP Liberation and Equalities will still be responsible for issues concerning women, she said it would be up to the new officer to choose where their main focus will lie, telling Cherwell, “I really hope the issues I’ve been talking about this year don’t fall into the background,” before adding that she is “unsure what handover will look like.”

She also shared her worries about the future of women’s representation in Oxford, telling Cherwell, “I think there’s a risk that the removal of VP Women will send the message that “sexism is solved”, when it really isn’t”. 

Oxford University still has an academic attainment gap between men and women. Greaves also noted that the health of people with uteruses is not always understood by the university, saying “provision for conditions such as endometriosis and PCOS are not accommodated in the way I would like to see.”

A female student at Exeter College: “As a female student, it feels like we’re taking a step backwards in focusing on women’s issues in the university. Things like sexual assault, harassment and rape still occur here, the change away from Women’s Rep suggest that these are no longer issues that need addressing which is simply not true. An equalities and liberations officer would not be able to represent women’s issues adequately, the name itself is vague and lacks focus on a particular group or issue.”

Incidents of spiking are a concern in Oxford too, with over 500 students taking to the streets last year to boycott nightclubs in response to the national spiking epidemic. Greaves said this protest was a significant factor in motivating her to run for the position of VP Women. “We’re not where we need to be in terms of women’s representation and I think there’s a risk of moves to tackle sexual violence being left behind”, she said, adding “There’s a reason that the role [VP Women] has been around for so long and I think it’s as relevant today as it was in the 1990s”.

A female student at St Hilda’s College: “In general removing the position of VP Women is huge step back and dangerously overestimates how far we’ve come in tackling gender-based inequality. Of course it is necessary for the SU to be as reflective of its student body and the minority groups within it as possible, but the rightful increase in concern for their representation should not be enacted by cutting support for those who identify specifically as women.”

Attempts to remove the role of VP Women have been a challenge in Oxford for many years. Indeed, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss spoke in favour of abolishing the position when she was a student in the 1990s, calling the role “completely undemocratic”. She also criticised the position of a college Women’s Officer, although the VP Women for 1994 described this attitude as “very short-sighted and a huge step backwards”.

Today, however, the SU’s eventual decision to change VP Women is reflective of other student unions across the UK. Cambridge University is now the only SU which still has a designated Women’s Officer. 

Despite this, Greaves said her beliefs about the role’s importance should be evident from the fact that she campaigned for it last year, adding, “I will continue to prioritise women for as long as I’m in Oxford.”

A female student at Oriel College: “Following the news on the scrapping of the VP Women’s role at the SU I would ask for further transparency as to this decision. This will help all women*’s officers and gender reps feel more comfortable with the direction of the SU that we all rely on and work with so much.”

WomCam, It Happens Here, and The Oxford Period have all been contacted for comment, which may be provided pending approval by SU Communications. This article will be updated to reflect any responses received.

Image credit: Nils Linder

Oxford students launch campaign group to support Iranian citizens

Cecilia Catmur
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Oxford students launch campaign group to support Iranian citizens

Students have formed a new group to protest the Iranian government’s treatment of its citizens.

In a statement, pre-released to Cherwell, Oxford Students Against Repression in Iran (OSARI) “condemn the state violence of the Islamic Republic of Iran against its own citizens, especially women,” and express “solidarity and support for the brave protestors challenging this systematic repression.” 

The groups’ statement addresses the current, 43-year ongoing “systematic oppression, inequality, corruption, mismanagement, and hypocrisy” in the Islamic Republic. Iranian people have been protesting since mid-September in response to the killing of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman by the Islamic Republic’s morality police. 

Furthermore they call for solidarity, for university students and staff across the world to “join (their) call in amplifying the voices of Iranians.” 

The statement details ways in which university members can help their cause. They call university students and staff to form collectives to support protestors. They also encourage the spreading of statements supporting protestors and calling “for the immediate release of all students, academics and activists arrested in the protests” from university administrators. The statement also encourages students and staff to contact local politicians to “call on their governments and the international community to hold the Islamic Republic to account for its abuse of human rights and crimes against humanity through all diplomatic and judicial avenues.” Finally, they ask for awareness to be raised on social media about the human rights abuses in Iran. 

Finally, they address “our compatriots protesting in Iran”: “We are standing by your side and are inspired by you courage. We will do everything in our power to amplify your voices and rightful demands and make them echo throughout the world. We will not let your sacrifices and heroic efforts to combat tyranny go in vain.” 

The campaigning group hopes to “work together to build a free Iran based on democracy and equality for all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, or political orientation.”

Her death has sparked what the statement deems “rightful and repressed” anger across Iran and the world. However, this response in Iran has been met by brutal suppression. It has led to the killing of hundreds of peaceful protestors, and the arrest of thousands more. 

OSARI are “especially horrified by the murder of innocent children, attacks on universities and schools, arresting and torturing the students, and the complete disregard for fundamental human rights.”

The release of this statement follows a demonstration on October 11th where Oxford’s community gathered to commemorate and protest Amini’s death 

Image credit: Oxford Students Against Repression in Iran

SU to carry out major reshuffle of sabbatical officer roles

Freya Jones
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SU to carry out major reshuffle of sabbatical officer roles

The Oxford University Student Union has decided to bring in significant changes to its sabbatical officer roles, which will come into force next academic year. These changes are the result of a role review carried out by last year’s sabbatical officer team and will affect the forthcoming SU elections in Hilary Term 2023.

Sabbatical officers are the six student representatives elected by the student body to lead the SU. They include the President and five vice-presidents, each of whom has a distinct area of responsibility. Typically, sabbatical officers work with student campaigns and sit on taskforce committees to coordinate strategy for student initiatives, while undertaking projects on a range of issues affecting students around Oxford. They are called sabbatical officers because they rusticate in order to carry out the role.

Previously, the sabbatical officers of the SU have been as follows:

  • President
  • Vice-President (Access and Academic Affairs)
  • Vice-President (Charities and Community)
  • Vice-President (Graduates)
  • Vice-President (Welfare and Equal Opportunities)
  • Vice-President (Women)

However, the new roles, listed below, have now been approved:

  • Vice-President (Activities and Community)
  • Vice-President (Undergraduate Education and Access)
  • Vice-President (Postgraduate Education and Access)
  • Vice-President (Welfare)
  • Vice-President (Liberation and Equality)

The role review, spearheaded by the SU President for 2021-2022, Anvee Bhutani, was carried out because sabbatical positions had not been scrutinised since the 1990s. It also aimed to tackle an alleged workload discrepancy between sabbatical roles and meet the changing nature of the student body.

Notable changes are the division of Education and Access responsibilities between the designated Undergraduate and Postgraduate roles, and the replacement of VP Charities and Community with VP Activities and Community.

The role review proposal document, seen by Cherwell, stated that VP Charities and Community didn’t work directly with charities, and only supported RAG (Raise and Give). It consequently held that the position would be better suited to the organisation of activities.

Another change is the designation of an entire sabbatical role to Welfare. While the SU acknowledges the importance of student welfare, current team members have raised concerns that this may be too much responsibility to put on one officer, and that there is a risk of Welfare suffering if the workload isn’t shared.

The final change is the replacement of VP Women with VP Liberation and Equalities, which the role review suggested for inclusivity reasons. However, this has also sparked internal controversy and fears for the representation of women* at Oxford University.

The role of President is the only position which the role review argued against changing, stating “It is good to have a central point of contact administratively,” before adding “The remit can be better defined but having them as the “floater” sabb is good”.

Bhutani’s team first proposed this role review in Week 3 of Hilary Term 2022, opening a six month inquiry period, after which the changes were approved by the SU Trustee Board and former CEO.

However, some members of the current sabbatical team were not told about these changes until July 2022 when they took up their positions, causing surprise and uncertainty about how handover will look next year.

Meanwhile, the SU has not yet widely advertised the role change, despite the next cohort’s need to start planning their election campaigns. When contacted by Cherwell, the SU said that details of the role changes had been included in a Freshers’ Guide and made available in the minutes and agenda of Student Council meetings last year. However, many students in second and third year do not appear to have been reached by this information

Last week, it was proposed that the role changes would be re-submitted to Student Council this term, to be voted on by this year’s cohort. However, this decision has been overturned, with the SU now confirming to Cherwell that the review has passed and won’t be returning to Council. An inaccuracy of the minutes from Hilary Term 2022 caused this confusion, but has now been amended. This role review passed with a total of 11 votes, 9 in favour and 2 against.

Currently, sabbatical officers at the Oxford Student Union have a salary of £25,642 per year, having just seen a 3% increase in line with inflation.

Anvee Bhutani, President of Oxford SU 21-22, commented: “Changing the Sabbatical Officer portfolios was a daunting and time-consuming process but I’m glad I was able to make it happen during my Presidency and I know it will allow the SU to better represent students for years to come. I’m very grateful for the hundreds of people – including JCR and MCR Presidents, Campaign Chairs, University staff and many more – who took part in the consultation and feedback process as we conducted this review. The new roles cement the contemporary priorities of the Oxford community and allow us to best cater to the change we hope to achieve.”

*The term women includes transgender, intersex, nonbinary and gender expansive people, whose interests are all represented by VP Women

Editorial note: This article was updated between 10th and 12th November to remove one comment at the request of the person who made the statement and to replace it with other, previously unused student comments.

Lead pipes and room shortages: Anne’s accommodation drama

Bintia Dennog
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Lead pipes and room shortages: Anne’s accommodation drama

Students at St Anne’s College are becoming increasingly dissatisfied following recent accommodation updates, including the discovery of lead pipes in an accommodation block, and planned renovations which will create a room shortage and require students to move out of college. 

Students discovered lead pipes in one of the on-site kitchens after a parent, who happened to be a plumber, noticed them. The affected students emailed the college and pressed for a reply, upon which St. Annes confirmed that there was indeed lead pipework.

The use of lead in water pipes has been banned since the 1970s. Exposure to large amounts of lead can be harmful to health, potentially leading to intellectually disabling lead poisoning.  

Whilst the college acknowledged that “there may be some concerns over the safe use of water”, it ultimately only advised the students to regularly flush the pipes. According to a student who attended an estates meeting, there is not enough lead piping for it to be harmful. A water hygiene company also regularly monitors and samples the water. 

St Anne’s commented on the matter, expressing that the water is safe, and is tested regularly, explaining: “A short piece of lead piping is present in one house. This is not unusual in older buildings. The Estates Manager has offered to meet with any residents of that house who have concerns.”

Students are equally expressing concern regarding the “Bevington Road project,” a renovation of on-site accommodation which “massively reduces” room availability. The renovation is expected to last for two years, where students are expected to move out to college off-site accommodation in Summertown, which is a 25 minute walk from St. Anne’s. An email to students from St Anne’s claimed that “a large number of students” will also need to organise their own accommodation in addition to moving many students off-site. 

St Anne’s told Cherwell that in order to avoid requiring all second years to “live out,” undergraduates “will be given the opportunity to choose rooms in a number of flats in Summertown that are usually allocated to post graduate students.”

A current first year student claimed this was particularly frustrating, as “many people applied as one of their big selling points was 3 years of onsite accommodation.” The college-owned off-site accommodation, which was previously classed as “living out” of college, will from now on also be classified as “in-college”. Consequently, students on a four year course, who were guaranteed three years in college, might actually only spend two years living inside the college. 

The college claims that the project is essential however, and the houses are in need of “significant renovation” in order to bring the accommodation up to date, to reduce the environmental impact and costs of heating and maintaining them, and to increase the number of rooms available for student occupation.

A further issue for the students is that most tenancy agreements outside of college are for 37 weeks, which will put students under significant financial strain, especially those who don’t require accommodation during vacations. Whilst St. Anne’s has suggested there will be some flexibility with the tenancy length, the extent of this remains unclear. One student voiced concern about the uncertainty of the whole situation, calling it “stressful and overwhelming”. 

A Crankstart scholar  told Cherwell that she chose St. Annes primarily due to “cheaper accommodation prices” as it “seemed like the most financially accessible college. She called the current situation “particularly worrying”, since the cost of living crisis already creates financial uncertainty and having to potentially pay for accommodation over the vacations only adds to this. Finding a group with a similar budget to live with is also particularly hard after only 5 weeks at university. Moreover, she stated that “[t]he most affordable properties are in Headington, [which is] an hour’s walk away from college”. 

An Oxfess post detailing the current accommodation struggles exclaimed: “Surely by now people have to see how St Anne’s is the worst Oxford college.”

The time for rhetoric is over: We need safe and legal routes now

Oliver Hall
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The time for rhetoric is over: We need safe and legal routes now

Sleeping on the floor, forced to go to the toilet with the door open, environments rife with disease.  These are not the conditions facing sufferers in a faraway land.  They are the conditions facing asylum seekers in Manston, Kent.  Forced to flee their homelands and seeking salvation they are instead branded ‘invaders’ by our home secretary and herded like cattle into processing centres operating at four times their capacity for three times longer than intended.  Divisive language and unworkable headline-grabbing policies have provoked crisis in our asylum system for far too long – the time to provide safe and legal routes to applicants is long overdue.

Successive governments and home secretaries have struggled to grapple with various different waves of asylum seekers over the years and it is of course true that they are generally driven by global events outside of our control.  What makes this one different is the manner in which it has been amplified by years of dangerous populist rhetoric, incompetence and cruel policy decisions. 

This rhetoric first began to hit the mainstream of British politics in the lead-up to the 2016 Brexit referendum, fuelled initially by the rise of Farage’s UKIP and then taken on by the right of the Tory party that promised a split from the EU as a chance to take back control.  Like many elements of the Leave campaign, the reality has been very different.

In the year ending June 2021, some 573 000 people immigrated to the UK, an increase of nearly 100 000 on the year before.  The number of people crossing the channel this year is already estimated to be 40 000, up from 8 404 in 2020 and just 434 in 2018.  The true result of separating from the EU has been an even greater loss of control.  Whilst within the bloc, the UK at least technically had the right to send migrants back to their first safe country of arrival under the Dublin Agreement – now not even that option remains.

The problem is of course far deeper than Brexit.  Initially, migration is caused by crises abroad.  Considering this, the decision of the Johnson government in 2021 to cut foreign aid by £4 billion from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5% seems even more nonsensical.  Not only are there basic moral issues with choosing cuts that left the government ‘with blood on their hands’ according to the Global Justice group.  It is also completely non-sensical given the seemingly endless struggle of governments to get immigration ‘under control’.

As well as providing less support to those living under unstable environments abroad, the chaotic cabinets of our own in recent times have left the UK completely unable to cope on an administrative level.  There have been five different home secretaries in office in the last year.  The result?  Inevitable mismatches in policy direction and U-turns.  Grant Shapps today told Sky News that he was warned when in the job for just four days that the Manston site was ‘at risk of becoming illegal’ by government lawyers.  Suella Braverman, both his predecessor and successor, has refused to acknowledge any such comments.  Chopping and changing of policy and personnel, from crackdowns on lorry crossings to the illegal and unworkable Rwanda policy, have left civil servants in a perpetual state of disorder as they try to get their heads around what is asked of them.

And through all of this it is the refugees themselves who are vilified.  Politicians continue to play into the narrative that they are the ones in the wrong, mislabelling asylum-seekers as ‘illegal’ or fuelled by ‘economic motives’.  Of course, there will always be some who come to our country in hope of higher wages and better public services but statistics show the true reality: almost everyone who flees their homeland does so for a reason.

Last year, more than 81% of applications were successful, even after the long and costly waits that almost all applicants face.  Among certain demographics that number is staggeringly high, with 99% of Syrians and 97% of Eritreans admitted at first application.  At the end of 2021 though, there were 81,978 cases (relating to 100,564 people) awaiting an initial decision, 60% higher than the previous year. The number of cases awaiting an initial decision has shown an overall increase in the last ten years, and more rapidly since 2018, when there were 27,256 cases awaiting an initial decision at the end of that year.  Despite the fact that the vast majority of these cases are eventually approved, systemic inefficiency at multiple levels is leaving hundreds of thousands of people unable to work and costing the taxpayer millions.

There’s no denying that this problem is complex with no easy solution.  There is however one thing that could and absolutely should be being done already to make the situation far better for all parties.  That solution is the setting up of safe and legal routes for asylum applications abroad.  That way, instead of driving thousands of desperately vulnerable people into the hands of people smugglers at the channel, applicants would have a genuinely safe way to make their case without risking their lives.

This approach is far from unprecedented.  The Russian invasion of Ukraine saw the government set up processing centres in France and 125 900 successful applications as a result.  Similar nationality-specific schemes are in place for Afghan nationals and people in Hong Kong.  Seeking asylum is not illegal, countries are obliged to offer it under international law, but for the vast majority of people there is still no legal way for them to make an application to the UK government.

Establishing these routes and processes wouldn’t be easy and is no quick fix.  The system undoubtedly needs an overhaul at almost every level but it is without a doubt the most logical step for everyone involved.  Above all though, the way to improve the situation is to put a stop to the kind of dangerous and hate-fuelling rhetoric that leads to terrorist attacks such as the one at Dover last week.  Instead, every decision should be taken with compassion at its heart.  

Image: CC2:0//John Englart Via Flickr.

Flavours of Europe

Archie Moss
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Flavours of Europe

For this week’s piece I sat down with a good friend of mine, Giovanni, to discuss the food of his homeland, Sardinia. Having visited the island myself this summer, I can say that the sense of regional identity is very much apparent. Residents would often tell me when asked that they consider themselves “Sardinian first, Italian second”, and this sense of pride is reflected in the island’s history and in their culture. I will now share some interesting excerpts from our lengthy conversation.

A: How do you think regionalism comes about in culture and cuisine?

G: Anywhere in Italy, or Europe in general, regionalism is quite evident. Islands in general have the capacity to resist change, and since Sardinia is a strategic island in the Mediterranean, like Sicily, so many people have passed through it in one way or another. There are many odd surviving cultural elements all over the island, which are very tiny and might not be noticed immediately, but they are there. Carloforte (a smaller island off the Sardinian south-western coast) is influenced by the tuna which migrates around the island, and the best tuna probably in Europe will come from either Sicily or Carloforte. However, most of the tuna actually goes to Japan for sushi because they pay a lot of money.

A: What are some examples of traditional Sardinian dishes and whereabouts on the island do they come from?

G: The real Sardinian identity is an inland identity, not of coastal heritage, because a lot of the coast had problems with Malaria, which was there until the 1900s. This means the coasts were not as lived in and Sardina became an insular and land-based culture. One very famous Sardinian bread is Pani Carasau, which is a very thin, double-cooked bread. This is like a pizza, except cut in half and baked again. This is made because it can be preserved for weeks, since it is dry. You can smash it into pieces and have with dry sausage and Pecorino cheese, which comes from the East of the island. Interestingly, the originally Tuscan Pecorino cheese-making industry was taken over in the post-war period by Sardinian producers, and today most of the Pecorino from Tuscany is made by Sardinian people. It still uses the Tuscan approach but was refined and improved by the Sardinians.

A: Would you describe the food in Sardinia as simple, or are there examples of refinement?

G: Generally food in Sardinia is simple, but there are forms of refinement, such as ritual breads displayed at weddings or other events. These are dry and meant to be aesthetic; these are extremely elaborate breads which are cut very finely and display motifs which you could find on objects or buildings. These breads take a lot of hours to make. Another typical thing would be pork from a piglet, cooked over the fire for half an hour and glazed, with herbs and a glass of strong wine. Winemaking in Sardinia has improved greatly over the last decade, and some of the best Italian wines are made in Sardinia. There are many interesting grape varieties, for example Vermentino and Cannonau, which is very strong and earthy.

A: Why did wine improve so much over the last decade?

G: Tourism. But also, the wine industry in general has been growing and there is more demand globally. I was in America a couple of years ago and I wanted to bring a gift so I thought it would be nice to bring a Sardinian wine. I decided to take with me a bottle of i Fiori Pala, a nice but simple Vermentino. I thought my friends would never be able to get a bottle of this wine, but I was wrong! I went to a local wine shop when I arrived and they had the exact same bottle that I had bought, even the same year. There is a real global market for Sardinian wine now.

Image Credit: Archie Moss.

The pressure of choosing your degree

Sofia Della Sala
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The pressure of choosing your degree

It might just be me, but I chose my undergraduate degree based on what subjects I was good at in school and which classes I enjoyed going to. Was this naïve? Maybe. Uninformed? Potentially. Do I regret it? Not really.

Many may fear that what you study at university locks you in for life: that since I studied chemistry, I must now be a chemist. However, I am happy to assure you that this is not the case. Degree disciplines are a lot more fluid than just the subject you study, as they should be. How are you expected, at 17 years old, to be able to decide on a lifelong career, especially given that you may not have ever even heard of half the subjects offered at university before?

Something I had to quickly learn was not to be scared of change. I embarked on a five-year degree in a subject which today I no longer pursue. And that is ok. I loved chemistry at school and did well in it, so it seemed like the logical choice for progressing into higher education, but, as I got into the nitty gritty of the subject, I realised that I didn’t want to stand in a lab working with molecules I couldn’t even see. Now I am entering the field of Earth Science, looking at rocks and oceans, areas which I have no experience in, which explains the catching up I have to do.

If you choose to go on to do a post-grad degree, it doesn’t have to be a continuation of your undergrad course. For some people it is, and it is great that they have managed to find what they like so early on; but if you are like me, you might be thinking that you are not sure you have a ‘passion’ like someone who has been obsessed with space since they were four. You can start afresh, and dip your toes into another pond to see if the water is to your liking.

The future is always scary – I get stressed about what I am doing next week, never mind next year. When I graduated from my undergrad, I was so lost that I applied to masters programmes ranging from archaeology to social security. I do not recommend that to anyone, but it highlights the non-linearity of where degrees can take you. You may, like me, have chosen a subject in high school on a whim, stuck through it for years, and are now unsure of where to go next. I wish there was some concrete advice I could give you, but I am just at the start of my post-grad adventure, so let me get back to you in a couple of years.

If you love learning and studying, then don’t be worried about changing fields and going off the beaten path. Sure, it might not be as well-lit as the others, but hopefully there will be people around you to help show you the way.

Image Credit: Ekrulila via Pexels.

Oxford applications fall for first time in eight years

Ashmeet Bhaumik
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Oxford applications fall for first time in eight years

Amidst a cost of living crisis and cuts to the value of maintenance loan, Oxford University has seen a decline in admissions. There were just over 23,000 applications this year for the approximately 3,300 undergraduate places on offer, representing a 2.6% fall. It is not just Oxford however, that has suffered a decrease: there has been an across-the-board reduction in early applications through UCAS. Cambridge had a 5% decline and Medicine applications at Oxford reflected a 10% decline.

The decline comes during a burgeoning cost-of-living crisis and as changes in student loan repayment rules from 2023 have been implemented.

From the next admissions cycle, students will be required to pay back their student loans over 40 instead of 30 years and will start repaying at a lower threshold of £25,000 instead of the £27,500 it is set at currently. This, coupled with growing living costs across the country and retail inflation crossing 12%, is likely to have put off some prospective students from applying.

Applications from overseas students, which includes those from EU countries as of 2021, are in decline, not just this year, but over the past few years. Oxford University noted a 12.2% decline in EU applications for the 2023 cycle, along with a 6.4% decline in overseas applications as a whole.

The University’s decision to increase fees across the board, with an 8% increase for most humanities courses to £35,080, played a part. Visa regulations and threats from the government could also have put off many applicants, as the newly returned Home Secretary Suella Braverman had earlier threatened to restrict the number of graduate post-study work visas that can be issued. The programme, only re-introduced last year, allows students who have graduated with a UK degree to work in the country for up to two years after graduation, without the onerous restrictions applied to the points-based work visa regime.

The faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford is likely to deal with dropping numbers this year and in the future. Fewer students are opting to take two languages at A level, limiting demand for the array of dual-language options offered within the Modern Languages degree. This year, a fall of approximately 10% has been noted in applications for the approximately 160-170 places on offer for languages.

Professor Jonathan Thacker, the Modern Languages faculty chair, told Cherwell, “The Faculty is aware of the drop in numbers in taking some Modern Foreign Language A-levels in schools in the UK and has been addressing the issue with increased outreach work. We have a dedicated Schools Liaison and Outreach Officer as well as an academic Director of Schools Liaison. We have also developed pre-sessional courses for many first years who are beginning or continuing with learning a Modern Language at Oxford. We offer most of our languages from a beginner’s level so that those who haven’t had the chance to take a particular language at school can learn it from scratch at university.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Dr Jonathan Patterson, the coordinator of the UNIQ Summer School in French, noted that attendance to the programme had been strong this past summer, perhaps as an effect of post-COVID readjustment in the education system. He also provided an overview of the variety of outreach efforts undertaken by the faculty, including but not limited to, participation in the Opportunity Oxford Bridging Programme, along with targeting prospective students from Key Stage 3 at the secondary level. This might attract a greater number of students, as GCSE choices permit or limit language study at a higher level.

Demand for places remains strong, especially among UK students, who are applying in similar numbers to the previous admissions cycle (2021-22), while the drop is pushed down by EU and overseas applicants.

Hedgerows or hedge funds? Hitchens and Hannan at the Sheldonian

Luke Dale
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Hedgerows or hedge funds? Hitchens and Hannan at the Sheldonian

Well, good—I was getting a bit worried there for a moment. That Liz, and her league of ideologues, setting everything alight with their strange economic ideas, which I didn’t understand as a humanities student, seemed pretty radical and scary. The media were reporting too many crises to bother reading about. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. With a new leader proclaimed, a new era is promised. ‘Sensible’ Sunak will provide a balm for us decent folk for whom the “Kamikwasi” budget was a step too far. So it seems to some.

But what, beyond ‘common sense’, does Sunak stand for? Despite what his PR productions may lead us to believe, he’s not actually very ‘common’ at all. His personal wealth exceeds that of the King, making him, above all, a representative of the crushing defeat of aristocracy as the lucre-stained hands of the upwardly-mobile bourgeois. His avowed adherence to “Yorkshire values” is presumably an attempt to imply he’s just an average John; in fact, he is a Wykehamist and an Oxonian, and “Yorkshire values” are not real. Of course, his elite schooling should not be held against him—we in Britain have an odd prejudice against the best educated of us. But at least Boris had charisma along with his elitism. Rishi tries to hide the silver spoon.

With the evident absence of ideology at the helm of the Conservative party, then, it is perhaps unsurprising that hundreds flocked to the Sheldonian last Monday, the very day when Sunak’s victory was announced, for the public lecture titled After Conservatism. They were there first and foremost for Peter Hitchens, considered to be the nation’s premier soothsayer by Britain’s traditional right, who indeed has, in his later years, assumed the aspect of a prophet by virtue of his impressive grey beard. Hitchens was joined by Dan Hannan, Brexiteer extraordinaire, whose footing in the discussion that would ensue was admittedly weakened by the fact that his values broadly align with the collapsed Truss administration. Indeed, that both men identify as conservatives reveals the complete meaninglessness of the term: Hitchens is a King and Country patriot, a lover of fields and hedgerows, and deeply negative about the UK’s future. Hannan’s lifelong political goal has been Brexit and he prioritises hedge funds over their rustic cousins, so has more reason to be hopeful.

Hitchens is an Oxford towny. He talks about the urban fabric of the city with profound seriousness, verging on spirituality, as the endowment of our ancestors. But he argues that, for the tourists who flock through the sun-gilt streets, the city is little more than a Disneyland experience where modern fabrications are ignorantly treated as originals. This characterisation speaks to much of Hitchens’ view of Britain: a hollow façade of a nation, whose great monuments are of generations past and whose current inhabitants can, at their most benign, only preserve desperately, and at their most destructive, vandalise. One such vandal was Hitchens’ brother Christopher, whom he recalls graffitiing a builder’s hoarding near Trinity College in 1968. Peter too, as a student, was a radical: a Trotskyist, as he likes to remind us on every occasion he can—it was prominent on the Hitchens-bingo card a friend had put together for the talk. But, according to Hitchens, it is only having been among the thinkers of that leftist sect that one can understand the worldview of our politicians today.

One example is immigration. This issue was, as often the case among right-wing commentators left implicit in much of Hitchens’ address but came to the fore as he mused about his erstwhile socialism. “We [Trotskyists] supported immigration because we hated Britain,” he says. This attitude he links to Labour advisor Andrew Neather’s now-notorious comment that New Labour had pursued mass immigration to “rub the right’s nose in diversity.” Of course, speaking on the day Rishi Sunak had been confirmed as the next PM, it is evident that such polemic does not appeal to all conservatives. Hitchens’ idea of Britain is a deeply traditional one: he ended his speech with an emotional reading of the Second Collect for Peace from the Book of Common Prayer, which he cites alongside Shakespeare as the great national text. “Since 1968,” he contests, “the Left has been a moral, cultural and social project,” referring to Gramsci and arguing that immigration should be understood as one factor contributing to the kind of radical social change he had once pursued. 

Hannan tempered Hitchens’ despair with a call to hope. For him, Brexit really could represent a new dawn for Britain, a new international golden age. But the audience’s allegiance to the doomsayer was broadly unambiguous. It is indeed hard to be positive about British politics under current circumstances. But it is irresponsible, I believe, to slip from recognising the reality of our decline to preaching a disinterested millenarianism. For Hitchens, for the modern conservative in Britain, “the only honourable life for those of us who can stay and bear it is internal exile.” Like the predicament of Okonkwo, the tragic protagonist of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, social changes have destabilised his framework to such an extent that he lives in a world which he does not understand, a world that seems to operate according to values that are alien to him. But conservatism cannot simply die like Achebe’s character does; the weakness of Hitchens’ worldview is that it offers no way forward for those who agree with his premises but not with his pessimism.

Images: CC2:0//Billy Wilson via Flickr.

Birra for breakfast

Monty Jones
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Birra for breakfast

The romance of my trip to Italy had been enticing – an expedition paid for by a studio committed to funding a film I’d written with the very intention of securing a free holiday. But a holiday this was not. My producer overlords had been very clear that this was to be a work trip, and, with just two days to complete their demands, what had originally promised to be an escape from Oxford’s crushing workload was looking increasingly work-heavy. Already a logistical challenge I was entirely unsuited for, I would also be responsible for two companions: Ellis, a photographer friend of mine, and his girlfriend, Liska. Both half a decade older than me, my attempts to assert my maturity and responsibility as the one in charge were almost immediately undone when it became clear that I had entirely confused Milan’s two airports. We were not in fact landing at Linate, a convenient walking distance to the required train station, as I’d anticipated, but Malpensa, an airport which was not just further away from the station but in fact lay a substantial distance outside the city itself. We subsequently missed the last train and spent the night roaming Milan, drifting from club to club until five in the morning, when we caught the train to the little town where we were staying. We finally arrived at the Airbnb, a rather grand villa, to be greeted by the owner Alberto, a well-dressed, white-haired man poking his head out of an upstairs window with a look that suggested he had not been expecting his tenant to be the hoodied teenager wobbling at his door. After confirming my identity he did end up letting us in and I promptly collapsed onto the sofa and into oblivion.

Day 1

I woke, sore and dazed to Ellis shaking me firmly and to the realisation that my first obligation, meeting representatives of the local film commission in the nearby town of Crema, was due to begin in a quarter of an hour. I rushed frantically down to the villa’s courtyard and, noticing an available-looking old bike, grabbed it hastily and began peddling away on what I could only imagine from its rattling frame and screeching brakes must have been an ancient relic. Steering with one hand and holding Google Maps out in the other, eventually, dripping with sweat, I arrived at the café to find a group of men sitting outside chatting boisterously in Italian over red wine and cigarettes. They welcomed my arrival with raised hands and a chorus of “ciaos”, pulling out a seat at the table. I would spend the next four hours there, occasionally discussing my film, constantly being plied with wine. By the time the meeting had concluded the sun had begun to set and I was very much feeling the effects of the wine. I remounted the bike with some difficulty and started wobbling along the road as the amber glow that bathed the Italian countryside faded into darkness. Over an hour later, and having toppled over twice, I finally managed to make it back to the villa. Finding Ellis and Liska asleep, I sat for a moment on the couch to catch my breath and then promptly slept.

Day 2

Our second and final day started with another alarming revelation, that the checklist of shots required by my eccentric director of cinematography remained entirely unchecked. We rushed to the train station and into Crema with the list in hand. The apparently essential images took us all over town, and required multiple changes of clothes, the purchase of cigarettes, the accidental gatecrashing of a wedding, and, finally, a GPS location for a list of shots under the title “water”. The train took us as close as public transport could and still left us with a long walk to the remote red marker on Google Maps. After half an hour of trudging across fields and hopping fences, we finally arrived at an unremarkable clump of trees in the middle of a field. It was only as we walked through them that we discovered the oasis within, a pool of the most picturesque, crystal-clear water. We all stripped off excitedly and dove in before quickly reemerging to shiver on the banks –apparently the water gets pretty cold in October.  With a watery checklist still to complete, Ellis and I, fortified by several glugs of wine, plunged into the water once more and after some time (and a great deal more wine) it became almost tolerable. We had just about finished the required photos and most of the wine when Liska, reclining in the sun, alerted us to the time and the ten minutes left before the last train passed through the station. Still soaking wet we hurriedly pulled on our clothes, downed the last drops of wine and set off back across the fields at a slightly erratic sprint and, despite some extra difficult fence-hopping, made it to the station just as the train arrived to return us to town.

At four in the morning, after handing over the keys to a relieved Alberto, we took a cab from the villa back to the airport. It turned out to be a rather short journey that in retrospect could have easily saved us our night-long Milanese bar crawl – information I chose not to share with my comrades sleeping in the seats next to me. After we’d passed through security and settled down in a café, I opened my laptop to send off the completed reports and images. I took a moment to appreciate the impossibility that we had completed the entirety of the studio’s requirements in two days, which I could best recollect as a surreal, alcohol-tinted dream, as a waiter approached to take our order, turning to me last. I looked down at my inbox full of “high importance” responsibility and shut my laptop. “Birra, per favore”. Reality could wait a little longer.

Indeed, reality waited exactly until our plane took off whereupon I experienced one of the worst hangovers of my life and subsequently missed my train to Oxford. Please drink responsibly.

Image Credit: Gracie Oddie James.

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