Friday 15th August 2025
Blog Page 225

Will the full-time whistle be blown on Rugby Union?

Oliver Elliot-Williams
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Will the full-time whistle be blown on Rugby Union?

The Rugby Union has much to be commended. It offers tense and exciting exhibitions of strength, speedm and skill; for the most part, players and coaches adhere to ideals of fair-play, sportsmanship, and respect; the women’s game continues to grow. For the first time, all twenty-six of the Women’s Rugby World Cup matches are being covered by ITV in the UK this autumn. Yet English Rugby Union must front up to a multifaceted challenge.

First, the Premiership’s financial crisis must be abated. In a culture that has commodified sport, it might seem bizarre that English Premiership rugby clubs had, as of September this year, a combined debt of £500 million. This season, the Premiership has lost both Worcester Warriors and Wasps to financial administration. Additionally, Saracens were relegated in the 2019/2020 season after a point deduction penalty for breaching salary cap regulations. It has not helped that the pandemic forced the rugby world to an abrupt halt. The government’s £147 million loans to Premiership clubs could not mitigate halted ticket sale, sponsorship, and advertising revenues especially in light of the already looming financial issues resulting from club owners’ poor decision-making. In a sporting culture where a ‘pay to win’ approach is increasingly necessary for attracting superstar players who will draw spectators to matches and produce game winning plays, a club in financial crisis is faced with a choice: struggle to compete or risk the fate that has befallen Worcester Warriors and Wasps.

If this were the sole dilemma, though, Rugby Union would be redeemable. Smart financial management, investors who are keen to preserve the sport and a renewed emphasis on providing professional players, coaches, and club staff with financial stability and provisions for injuries could solve or mitigate the financial crisis and restore trust in the owners of Premiership clubs. Yet, a recent survey published by the Statista Research Department shows that from 2016 – 2021 participation in senior rugby in the United Kingdom has nearly halved. Though a threat to the top division’s future and the disintegration of what united two communities of fans might create some loss of interest in Rugby Union, this decline suggests Rugby Union faces challenges at grassroots level too.

The first challenge is cultural. Rugby clubs’ laddish reputations are becoming increasingly problematized and outdated. Tragic instances such as a university fresher dying of alcohol poisoning during a hazing ceremony in 2019 at Gloucestershire University show in a heart-wrenching manner how rugby’s sub-culture often involves peer-pressure into at best questionable and at worst life-threatening activities. Fears of having to eat unknown substances and the like provide a stumbling block for many new players considering taking up the sport.

Additionally, rugby remains somewhat exclusive. Public schools still provide the most clear pathways into the sport. Consequently, state-educated students are less likely to be drawn to Rugby Union instead of football. The women’s game, though becoming increasingly popular, still requires more coverage and awareness to equal that of the men’s game. Additionally, after the RFU ruled in July 2022 that trans-females cannot participate in women’s competitions, a method for safely including anyone regardless of gender identity needs to be devised where all feel comfortable and accepted. Thankfully, exclusivism and lad-culture are not essential to Rugby Union as a sport. Through outreach programs to state schools and by emphasising values such as teamwork and inclusivity, rugby’s amenability with modern cultural concerns can be demonstrated and its problematic associations shed.

An increased awareness of the health risks involved in Rugby Union, however, provides perhaps the strongest challenge to the sport. The long-term risks of multiple sustained concussions have finally been acknowledged. Former England hooker Stephen Thompson’s diagnosis of early onset dementia exemplifies how the health risks involved in Rugby Union might outweigh the rewards, especially for amateur players. In light of this, attracting new players becomes increasingly difficult. Projects such as headcase and return to rugby have improved management of concussed players at amateur levels. Nonetheless, Rugby Union has to do more. Red-carding any contact to the head with no mitigating circumstances works only in so far as players, intentionally or not, never tackle high. In the best-case scenario, human error will mean that Rugby Union remains a risk-laden sport. Despite touch rugby providing a popular alternative to the contact game, the latter remains the more popular and attractive to many.

Rugby Union remains in danger unless it can adequately address the intrinsic dangers to player well-being implicit in its contact nature. Well-publicised provisions at both grassroots and professional levels such as support networks and, where possible, medical care for players or ex-players experiencing short or long term effects of post-concussion syndrome, are essential. Education about risk factors is vital; it would be deceitful and dangerous to downplay the injury risks prevalent in rugby. So much about Rugby Union is worth preserving that reforms which acknowledge the concussion issue without drastically changing the nature of the sport are paramount. 

Image Credit: TonyAjas/ CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Ashmolean Museum questioned over looted Cambodian artefacts

Ana Lanzon
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Ashmolean Museum questioned over looted Cambodian artefacts

The Cambodian government has called on British museums to return statues and artworks that were looted during a period of civil war and political unrest between 1975-1979. The looted pieces are scattered amongst the Western art scene after being smuggled to art markets. Cambodia’s ministry of culture is attempting to enable their return in a drawn-out and complex process. 

As part of this investigation, a 10th century statue in Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum has been called into question by Cambodian government delegates. The statue, in the “India from 600” room, came into the museum’s permanent collection in 1999 and depicts the Buddhist deity of wisdom Prajnaparamita holding a rosary and a sacred text in her upper hands.

Having once stood within a temple site called Prasat Ta Muen Thomtemple, the statue’s journey to the UK has aroused concern over its provenance. The temple site was controlled and looted by the Khmer Rouge during its brutal regime in the 20th century. Cultural looting came to fund guerrilla campaigns, and the temple’s abundant treasures have since made their way into the black market. The statue has been deemed “highly suspicious” by Brad Gordon, the Cambodian delegation’s legal adviser for its arrival at the Ashmolean in the 90’s. The area was “a no-go zone well into the 90’s” according to Gordon. Documents have been requested to detail the statue’s arrival at the museum, to explain how the plundered object has made its way into a collection in the West.

In response to the delegates’ requests, the Ashmolean has pledged to assist Cambodia’s government campaign in the restitution of looted artefacts. Investigations will be conducted into other objects that have raised suspicion, including a stone figure of a lion, its experts say.

The investigation into the presence of Cambodia’s plundered artefacts in the UK is the latest phase in the campaign, as 30 antiquities were returned from the US in August 2022. The British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum were also called upon in May 2022 to investigate the provenance of objects from Cambodia or identified as ‘Khmer’. In a letter to Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Culture at the time, Cambodian culture minister, Phoerung Sackona mentioned that many pillaged artefacts would have “passed through the hands of Douglas Latchford”, a late British art dealer, explaining their presence in the UK.

“This was a time of conflict. The whole world knew it. Large museums like the British Museum or the V&A, they shouldn’t have accepted these pieces,” said Cambodia-based lawyer Brad Gordon in May 2022.

Image Credit: Remi Mathis/CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Oxford University joins UK Monkeypox Research Consortium

Canqi Li
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<strong>Oxford University joins UK Monkeypox Research Consortium</strong>

Fever, headaches, muscle aches, chills, and a characteristic rash – monkeypox is a disease which causes disgust and panic for most of us. Now Oxford University has joined a new Monkeypox Consortium with 12 other leading scientific research institutes across the UK to better understand the virus. 

Scientifically, monkeypox is an infection caused by a DNA virus in the Poxviridae family’s Orthopoxvirus genus. It is a zoonotic infection, meaning animals with monkeypox can transmit the virus to humans. However, sexual, skin-to-skin, and prolonged in-person contact with infected individuals have been cited as the most common routes of transmission. Asymptomatic cases can also occur, but the likelihood of transmitting the virus from asymptomatic individuals is still being investigated. 

A Science article cited monkeypox as a “second public health threat” that evolved during the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, according to the Daily Mail, a Texas man recovering from monkeypox claimed that the disease is “100 times worse” than COVID-19, stating that his swollen lymph nodes and skin eruptions made him look “like a frog” and feel as if his skin was exposed to a potato peeler. As of October 31, 2022, a total of 3,704 monkeypox cases have been reported in the UK. Although monkeypox is not considered a deadly disease, the fatality rate of the condition has recently been between 3% and 6%.

To handle the monkeypox outbreak more efficiently, 25 leading scientists are now doing research as part of the Consortium  Co-led by The Pirbright Institute and the MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus Research, the Consortium has the goal of conducting more research on diagnostic tests, vaccine effectiveness, and treatment options. UK Research and Innovation has allocated £2 million funding to support the Consortium.

 Co-leader of the Consortium at The Pirbright Institute, Bryam Charleston, said there are huge implications of the current monkeypox outbreak. “As well as tackling the current outbreak, we also need to be fully prepared for the next outbreak, because worldwide there’s a huge reservoir of infection,” Charleston wrote, adding. “One of the key ways we can do this is to develop rapid tests, which are very important to help clinicians on the front line to manage the disease.”

Oxford University scientists Tao Dong and Miles Carroll are leading research groups to contribute to our understanding of immune response mechanisms and the identification of monkeypox, respectively. Dong’s research team is specifically investigating T cell responses to the virus and the cross-reactivity of the smallpox vaccine against monkeypox.Carroll’s research team is developing a lateral flow device for a more accurate diagnosis of the disease.

Having worked on investigating T cell responses for almost 30 years, Dong stated that her research area used to be neglected because of the low infection and fatality rates associated with monkeypox, telling Cherwell: “The monkeypox virus is very similar to the eradicated smallpox virus and so vaccines against smallpox have been effectively used to reduce monkeypox infections without specific studies into the mechanisms.”

Dong was invited to the Consortium by influential pox virus expert Geoff Smith, due to her previous work on T cell responses to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. She was happy to join the research, as her group’s main goal is to use its collective expertise to contribute to the understanding of a host system’s immune responses to infectious pathogens. “This information is valuable for both infection control and vaccination strategies,” said Dong.

Dong told Cherwell that finding participants for her research was the main challenge. However, she is grateful for patients’ and volunteers’ willingness to “(take) part in the vaccine trials that provide us with our samples”. At the moment, she feels a pressing need to contribute to our knowledge about the virus. “Now that monkeypox infections are on a sharp increase across the world it is timely to fully understand immune responses to the virus,” she stated.

Room for Improvement: Oxford’s craziest college accommodation

Maggie Wilcox
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Room for Improvement: Oxford’s craziest college accommodation

The average Oxford student living in college will be allocated a basic, yet comfortable room. Yes, the room ballots are hectic and the living, cooking and bathing areas outside of one’s own bedroom are often messy and cramped, but each room serves its purpose and provides its occupant a place to (hopefully) relax at the end of the day. Some students though will be lucky enough to get an above average room, maybe with an ensuite, double bed or attached living room. The luckiest though will live in truly unique surroundings. These are the focus of this investigation. Over the course of the past two weeks, Cherwell has searched far and wide to find the most unique, impressive or otherwise iconic student bedrooms the university has to offer. 

Brasenose: Paneling, Paintings and Poshness

This is the sort of grand and ornate room, steeped in history, that immediately comes to mind when you think of Oxford. Originally called Frewin Hall, the building once housed the future King Edward VII in 1860 while he was a student at the university. Drawings depict him in similarly paneled rooms, so current occupants may well claim to live in a former royal residence. Even if the historical record isn’t entirely clear, its furnishing suggests grandeur. Wooden paneling covers the walls and the marble fireplace is topped by intricate carved arches. Its spacious interior contains multiple wardrobes, a large sofa, bed and a set of modern table and chairs, which seem a bit out of place in what could fight in well on any lavish country estate. 

Those who know the room well also highlight the “really creepy portrait on the wall”. Although perhaps not the most hospitable and homely room, a stay in the Panelled Room at Brasenose would be memorable!

Part of the wood-panelled room in Brasenose

New: A Room with A View

This next room is not particularly remarkable for its furnishings or history, but rather for its surroundings. At 110 steps up in the air, nineteenth- century Robinson Tower houses the highest undergraduate rooms in Oxford. If the stunning panoramic view of the city and its dreaming spires isn’t enough to impress you, the workout each occupant faces every day certainly should. Former resident and current 2nd year Psychology and Philosophy student, Daniyal Houssain, remembers the daily physical beating his legs took. He cherished the view and his physical gains, adding that now his “quads are massive”.

Robinson Tower
The view from Robinson Tower

Jesus: Back (and Down) in Time

This next room isn’t particularly large and definitely isn’t known for its view. In fact, the fresher who gets this room in Jesus’ Ship Street Centre accommodation will be living in an entirely subterranean room. 

What it lacks in natural light though it makes up for in character, as one of its walls is part of the city’s original medieval walls. Only 30 Jesus freshers will be fortunate enough to even get into this building, whose reception area also includes some of the original city walls, so the first-year who got this walled room (with ensuite!) really lucked out.

The subterranean room in Jesus

St. Peters: A Modern Loft at the Anglo-Saxon Uni

Upper years who live in the Chavasse Building at St Peters are not given an interesting room, by modern standards. In Oxford, however, the iron clad loft bed and stairs add an industrial-chic aesthetic that is rarely seen in this old city. Although those stairs do seem like quite a hazard after a night out, the views from the elevated bed facing the large windows makes the climb worth it. These rooms are located in a recently remodelled building named after the college’s founder. The remodelling project won design awards for its sustainability and its innovative design that made use of a small space. Small, but classy the little Chavasse rooms certainly do stand out.

Chavasse in St Peter’s College

Magdalen: A Truly Oar-some Room

Many colleges have ornate JCR president rooms with paraphernalia from over the years, but few can boast a Captain of Boats room chock full of rowing memorabilia. At Magdalen, the countless 6 am wake-ups and brutal erg sessions pay off for one dedicated rower each year, as they get a truly distinctive room to call home. 

The room features oars from years the Magdalen boats have won blades on the ceilings and cabinets made out of old hulls. Current resident and Captain, Miranda Connolley, says that although it is a bit strange, she’s grown quite fond of it. On top of the size and massive bay window looking out over High Street and the Botanical Gardens, she also adds that she didn’t “have to spend time decorating it”. Photographs, trophies and all sorts of rowing items from the last 150 years adorn the walls and shelves, leaving little space for personal decorations. 

Connolley has found herself hosting many social events, especially for rowers, in this large room with a rare comfy sofa. Although she won’t describe it as “cozy”, she loves this iconic room.

Magdalen’s Captain of the Boats’ Room

Is a winter World Cup feasible?

Zoe Abereoje
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Is a winter World Cup feasible?

A typical World Cup is held in the summer between the previous season and the upcoming one. Instead of having months on end to lounge about an expensive, far away tropical paradise, the best of the best players jet off on a plane set to play for their country in the biggest tournament in the football world. This system works. The complex football calendar manages to fit domestic and international club cups as well as the top tier leagues allowing the World Cup to cause minimal disturbance.

That’s not the case for this year.

Hosted in Qatar, this year’s World Cup has been pushed to the winter. Why? Because the average Qatar summer sees temperatures of 40-50 degrees celsius. If this year’s World Cup had been hosted in Qatar, then all the players would have had the unforgettable experience of being roasted to a crisp. Not very interesting football might I say.

So, the World Cup had to be pushed to the wintertime, allowing the players and spectators to have a much more pleasant experience during the tournament. But the story doesn’t end there— the inability of Qatar to host a World Cup in November has had an enormous impact on the football year. All top tier domestic and international club tournaments have had to be suspended for the World Cup to go ahead because that is the only way players could compete.

This sounds like a simple enough solution, except in practice we are seeing that maybe winter World Cups haven’t happened before for a reason. In order to make way for this tournament, in the UK, the off season had to be cut short to make way for an earlier start of the premier league. Not only this but more midweek games needed to be hosted to make up for the month or so that the World Cup occupies mid-season. For clubs competing in European competitions like the Champions, Europa or Conference League they have found themselves playing a greater volume of matches in this shorter time to ensure the group stages are finished before the World Cup begins.

What this has meant is that players are finding themselves playing more games than usual before one of the most important competitions in their career. Not only is this a lot of effort, it’s also a fool-proof recipe for injury. Typically, players are accused of phoning it in in the run up to an international competition but this year there has been no room to do so because the system is rigged to overwork all the players.

Kante, Pogba, James, Chilwell, Fofana, Jota. Listing the players that have been ruled out of the World Cup due to injury, you can’t help but feel bad for those who have missed out. While injury is inevitable whether or not the World Cup is in winter, the system felt rigged against players, who, had the tournament been in summer, may have been able to compete.

However, some suggest criticism towards a winter tournament is wrong because it suggests that certain countries should be excluded from the World Cup. If winter World Cups are never repeated, then essentially all countries with extremely hot summers would never host large football tournaments. Countries like Kuwait, UAE, or Pakistan would be prevented from hosting it. For a sport that is labelled as being global, excluding certain countries seems counter-intuitive and unfair.

But surely arguing that excluding certain countries from hosting is unfair is actually unrealistic. Certain countries can’t host sporting events due to their environment and that’s been the way it is. Spain couldn’t host a winter Olympics, Greenland probably couldn’t host a summer one. Location and environments must be a dividing factor between hosting or not hosting. Perhaps if the hosting of football events was chosen on the basis of feasibility this winter’s wounded player situation could be avoided.

Image Credit: SpesBona/ CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Week 5 editorial

Cherwell Editors
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Week 5 editorial

Pieter Garicano, Cherwell Editor-in-Chief:

A feature of student journalism is the lack of distance between the journalist and their subject. The media in London get derided for being too chummy with those they’re reporting on, but that dynamic doesn’t start there. In Oxford, subject and object can live in the same staircase. One way it manifests itself, of course, is through favourable coverage. Many pieces which we’ll get will be flattering to the author’s favoured student society, play, or hack.

While not inherently undesirable — we rely on the unpaid labour of the people willing to write, and people like to write on things they like — it can lead to certain voices and biases been further amplified, whilst neglecting others. The writing of student journalists reflects their specific, broadly similar interests, rather than a representative sample of the broader University. Self-selection, and a perceived lack of accessibility, plays a large role in the composition of the staff at the student papers — that, in turn, affects the output.

But, worse, and much more common than when chumminess leads to favourable coverage, is when it leads to its suppression. Pieces about groups and colleges in Oxford will sometimes be scrapped out of an author’s fear of retaliation. Many students who profess to value free speech and the truth feel entirely comfortable harassing fellow students who write pieces they dislike. Living in the same staircase or sharing the same community can make it all too easy. Anonymous platforms such as Oxfess lower the threshold further, whilst reaching a much wider audience. JCRs are some of the most hostile organisations when they receive negative coverage — worse than the oligarchs, dodgy dons’ greenwashers, and other nefarious types Cherwell reports on. Many of these problems are structural; the intimacy between student-author and others students is definitional. But another part of it is learned — both excessively narrow coverage from authors and outright hostility from subjects does not need to be the case. A little understanding goes a long way.

Leah Mitchell, Cherwell Editor-in-Chief:

Last week, Pieter and I sat down to write a document with some guidelines for whoever Cherwell’s Editors-in-Chief next term may be. At the start of the document, we decided to include a distillation of what we believe Cherwell’s key values to be. Writing this down felt daunting – who are we to decide, or even to know, the values of an institution over a hundred years old? – but also slightly thrilling, akin to writing a manifesto or pledge. Components which fizzed to the surface immediately included editorial independence, transparency, free speech, abhorrence of bigotry, and ascription of goodwill apart from in cases of overwhelming evidence to contrary – lofty principles indeed, perhaps, but I think worthwhile ones.

Does this mean that our deeply well-intentioned but probably half-baked Google Docs notes should become some sort of binding canonical text for future editors? Of course not – our opinion holds no greater weight than theirs, and I think it is good for beliefs and practices to be constantly re-evaluated and recalibrated for an ever-changing environment. But the act of consolidating one’s principles – or at least, taking the time to think about doing so – is in my view of great importance in itself, despite how intimidating or impossible it might feel. It is also something that all of us can do, every day, even if only in the backs of our own minds. 

In a world which sometimes feels like it increasingly values aesthetics over action, polish over principles, it seems to me perhaps more important than ever to stand for something. I for one would rather discover that I am wrong in good faith and have to modify my stance than be so afraid of disagreement, error, and even embarrassment that I do not dare to use my voice at all. So, this week, I urge you to adopt what we have determined to be the Cherwell spirit and do the same – write your own manifesto, if you will. What do you have to lose?

The power of the perfect song(s)

Freya Buckley
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The power of the perfect song(s)

Over the lockdown I decided to bring back blogging (well, I wrote three blogs that were just me sort of saying ‘we’re in a lockdown – how weird!’ – profound) and I was having a little read of it the other day when I found this gem of a line: 

‘I used to wonder what it would be like if I was actually living in a film. What kind of film would it be? A romance? A coming-of-age story? A drama about a teenage writing prodigy?’ I even wrote a poem about those very thoughts that I shall not be sharing here as it is quite frankly the work solely of my hormones and they steal enough of the limelight already.

The end of this little thought was that it turned out we were probably (sadly) in some sort of pandemic-based film, but that’s beside the point. The point is I have always been (and yes still am) obsessed with viewing life as a film: call me narcissistic if you like! (Actually please don’t, I’ll be really sad). And what is crucial, nay integral to a good film? A cinematic score obviously. Which leads me onto my thought of the week: playlists. 

I have many a playlist (a surplus one might say – a boring one mind you) and each one has a very specific vibe, a specific function, a certain “je ne sais quoi”. ‘In April we Dance’ obviously referred to dancing in April, but has since morphed into the ultimate pres playlist. ‘Bops but like chill bops but still bops’ does exactly what it says on the tin, and ‘NEW (old)’ is a new playlist where some of the songs are old favourites. I’m straightforward in my playlist naming. And each of these playlists has a moment. For example, my ‘film soundtracks’ playlist is what I write essays to. My friend has a playlist entitled ‘room’ which unsurprisingly she plays in her room. Another friend uses the classic playlist for the month format. 

If clothes are, as I discussed in my sparkly top article, something we swaddle ourselves in when we want to feel protected but also undeniably ourselves, then I think the playlists we curate are our audio equivalents. I have a playlist that I made to listen to on a train journey to London that is not only now synonymous with London for me, but is what I listen to whenever I need to feel powerful and BIG and like I can stomp through a city and really, really confidently use the tube. And it works. Playlists are just one of the many ways that I think we all compartmentalise our lives through what we are consuming at any one time. They are auditory scrapbooks and they’re so uniquely us. Only I know why Feist, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Mazzy Star demand to all be in a playlist entitled three star emojis (ok well yeah the last one might be a bit self-explanatory). 

They’re also collaborative! No matter how cynical you are, you have to admit doing a Spotify blend with your mates is fun – especially during exam season when you get to see everyones’ deranged revision music. And in this spirit of collaboration, I would like to invite you all to join the collaborative playlist linked here and in the spirit of honesty, in the spirit of people who are really cool being the people who do not try to be cool (yes, I sound like a mam, but mam’s are always right), put the songs you LOVE, the songs you dance to in your room to make you want to go out, the songs you listen to before a tutorial and maybe we can all have our ‘life-is-a-film-and-this-is-my-theme-tune’ moment. Because I don’t know about you, but I’d quite like to dance through life. 

What is Human Sciences?

Freya Jones
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What is Human Sciences?

This year, Human Sciences is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a degree at Oxford University. Founded in 1969, the programme saw its first cohort of students graduate in 1972 and has received a steady trickle of applicants ever since. But what actually is it? BA Human Sciences. Is it a science or is it a humanity? Or is it both? With an eclectic list of modules and a seemingly infinite number of career prospects on the course website, I wanted to know what you actually learn from the degree course and whether it really helps us to address global challenges. I spoke to three current Human Sciences students to try and find out.

Teagan Riches – 3rd Year, Hertford College

Freya Jones: Thank you for speaking with me, Teagan. Why did you choose to study Human Sciences at Oxford?

Teagan Riches: I was actually really indecisive about what I wanted to do in sixth form. All the way up until the age of sixteen I wanted to study contemporary dance, but then I got too many injuries to be able to do that. So suddenly I had to rethink everything. Then an Outreach Officer from Oxford came into my school and was trying to encourage us to apply, and my head of sixth form turned round and said, “have you thought about Human Sciences? It sounds like the perfect course for you.” At first I wasn’t sure, because I didn’t particularly want to go to Oxford, but I went to an open day and looked more closely at the course content. When I picked my unis, I applied for Biology or Genetics everywhere else but put Human Sciences here as my first choice, because it allowed me to keep both biological and social interests open.

FJ: What does a typical week look like for a human scientist?

TR: In a typical week you’ll have about nine lectures, sometimes all on completely different topics. You can go from anthropology to biology one day, and then the next day have one on geography and another on statistics. And at the same time you’ll be writing essays on human evolution and ecology. It can be really difficult in first year, because you’re getting hit by a lot of topics at once, but you get used to that. Being interdisciplinary, the different subjects are deliberately taught at the same time, because then you cab go to your genetics lecture while writing an essay about evolution and be like, wow, there’s some kind of link I could use there. And that’s the magic of it.

FJ: Do you find that having so many topics going on at once impacts your ability to specialise?

TR: It does detract from specialisation if I’m honest, but if it wasn’t done like this, it would change the purpose of the degree. They’re very clear from the outset that it’s interdisciplinary and I think this is just what we need, because being able to view things from both a scientific standpoint and a cultural standpoint means you can develop wider ideas in so many ways.

FJ: In terms of the teaching itself, and the lectures, how would you say it compares with any expectations you might have had before coming to Oxford?

TR: I didn’t know what teaching at Oxford was going to look like really, but I think the tutorials for Human Sciences are brilliant. My only sadness, which I think a lot of people share, is that we become a kind of afterthought when we’re in class with students from other courses. For example, if we’re in a biology lecture, the teachers will help the students doing biology and then they’re like “Do we have time to help the people doing Human Sciences?” So going forward, it would be nice if we could start having more dedicated Human Sciences lectures. On the other hand, it’s nice to have classes with so many different tutors because you get to meet everybody and experience lots of different approaches.

FJ: Human Sciences is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary of being a degree this year. How relevant do you think the course content is now and what do you think the degree might look like in fifty years’ time?

TR: I think Human Sciences is probably going to become more relevant than ever as we go forward, especially as we study some of the biggest challenges our generation is going to face, like climate change and food insecurity. I also think it’s important to have people who can look at these issues on multiple levels. For example, if you have doctors who do Human Sciences as a first degree and then take graduate medicine, they could bring a lot of cultural and social insight to their patients. Or someone who wants to report on climate change as a journalist would have a good grounding in science. What I will say though, is that lots of our senior tutors who’ve been around since the foundation of the degree are retiring, and they’re not being replaced. Overall there’s a lack of human scientists, which means there’s little incentive for more colleges to start offering it and there’s a fear it will die out because of lack of funding. However, I really hope the degree will grow and people will see how important it is, because we really can’t lose it.

FJ: It’s so interesting to hear this! Before doing these interviews, I’d seen Human Sciences being labelled as quite an incongruous degree, but your subject content sounds fascinating. What’s your take on these sorts of stereotypes about the course?

TR: Well, it’s true that the first thing people ask about my subject is “What is Human Sciences?”. I also agree there’s a common assumption that it’s a “jack of all trades, master of none” kind of course. But what people don’t realise is that we cover what we do study on a really deep level, albeit a broad range of things. And while there’s a misconception that it’s kind of a floater degree, prospective applicants are often really interested in it. I do a lot of Access and Outreach work, speaking to school children, and when they hear it exists, they’re usually like “that sounds brilliant”. I just don’t think it’s talked about enough.

FJ: If there was one thing you could change or improve about Human Sciences at Oxford, what would it be?

TR: I think a lot of human scientists would love it to be a four-year course, with an integrated masters, so we could actually keep our studies broader for longer. Some people are unsure how a Masters of Human Sciences would look, but lots of students take on really interesting visitations and field work anyway, which I think could make a good final year after using three whole years to get through the content. I also think Human Sciences should be offered at more colleges, so we’d have a bigger cohort for exchanging ideas.

Charlie Hancock – 3rd Year, Hertford College

Freya Jones: Thanks for talking to me, Charlie. Why did you apply for Human Sciences?

Charlie Hancock: I didn’t know it existed until I got into sixth form, but I’ve always had very broad interests and spent a lot of my school career wanting to go into sciences. Then the real world started happening, and events made me think that I didn’t want to go in a purely scientific direction. I also figured it would make sense for me to do a degree which would give me lots of areas of knowledge to draw on, because I was pretty certain by sixth form that I wanted be a journalist, and I wanted to learn things that would make me an attractive person to have in a newsroom. Essentially, I considered Human Sciences, PPE, and History and Politics and I chose Human Sciences because it had the greatest number of modules – like genetics – that I couldn’t teach myself and where I would actually need to be taught.

FJ: Thinking about the breadth of your degree, what’s it like to jump between such a wide range of topics at the same time?

CH: Short answer, not easy! You have to learn very different styles of essay writing and studying for your different papers. Genetics essays are very dry and factual, so you’re essentially just memorising facts and regurgitating them as you go along. But essays for demography or sociology are far more like your “typical” Oxford essay, and those are two of my favourite papers. But overall it’s good to have the flexibility.

FJ: How often does the degree structure give you a chance to specialise in particular areas of interest? 

CH: I wouldn’t use the word specialise because I think it’s too narrow. But out of the seven papers we have to take for our finals, we only have a choice over three of them. Some of the compulsory options are really fascinating, like human ecology, and together they really show the potential of the degree. But I also wonder whether having so many compulsory papers is to try and stop us from specialising and force us to have broad interests. 

FJ: What does this look like in terms of teaching? I’d imagine it can be quite hectic if your teaching is spread between multiple departments.

CH: I never counted my contact hours exactly, but I remember having two or three tutorials a week in first year, which was intense. For Prelims, it’s a lot more like a STEM subject, with some lab sessions and a lecture every day, but later on in the degree it’s definitely about striking that balance between STEM and humanities.

FJ: That sounds like quite a balance! Obviously you plan to go into journalism, are you aware of the rest of your cohort having clear career plans?

CH: I think a lot of people want to go into NGO work, for which Human Sciences would be very useful, because it teaches you about nutritional anthropology in developing countries and so on. Lots of us also have plans to go on to further study, and quite a few are involved in consulting. But I think people choose Human Sciences because it’s a springboard which introduces you to lots of different things.

FJ: That’s interesting. And as someone who knows what they want to do, how useful has Human Sciences been for your career prospects?

CH: Well frankly there are many aspects of my degree which I’m never going to use. For example, a lot of anthropological studies might satisfy my curiosity, but I’m never going to return to them. On the other hand, I’ve gained a set of skills which should be useful in the newsroom, such as being mathematically competent and knowing how to analyse datasets. It also helps you to think outside the box and make connections between different ideas, which is very useful for journalism.

FJ: Is there anything you would change about the degree?

CH: I think I’d make it more customisable. The course has some pretty impressive potential, but it’s frustrating to have so many compulsory papers and that – when you actually get to make decisions – there are still relatively few options to take. So it would be nice to see a wider range of optional papers.

FJ: How important do you think Human Sciences is as a degree, both today and going forward?

CH: I acknowledge Human Sciences is a weird degree, but I think it’s a very good thing that it exists. The basic principal of having people who are competent in both the sciences and the humanities is crucial. However, I do think the degree will have to evolve. The greatest threat to Human Sciences is that, by its very nature, we’re reliant on different departments for teaching and we’re a small course. There isn’t much impetus for colleges to start taking human scientists. Going forwards it will also have to integrate how technology impacts human lives.

Molayo Ogunde – 3rd Year, St Hugh’s College

Freya Jones: Molayo, thank you for speaking with me. Why did you choose Human Sciences when you were applying for Oxford?

Molayo Ogunde: Interesting. I think I decided to apply for Human Sciences more than I decided to apply for Oxford itself, actually. I originally applied for med school, but then I took a gap year and decided I wanted to do something which was a combination of my interests. At school, I was pushed towards medicine because I was interested in biology, but I wanted to do something else and I thought, why not give this a go?

FJ: How have you found the balance between sciences and humanities in your degree now you’re here?

MO: I think it’s largely dependent on which options you take. In the first two years of the course, there’s already quite a good balance, but in third year you can choose to concentrate more on humanities or on science. Personally I’ve tried to keep a balance with both, to explore my biological interests as well as more critical things.

FJ: How challenging is it to keep track of what I’d imagine is a very broad range of topics?

MO: It’s definitely challenging. One moment, I’m doing coding, the next moment, I’m reading about health economics, or writing an essay on anthropology. I try to structure my days so that I can delve into different topics at different times.

FJ: Do you have opportunities to go into as much depth as you’d like to in subject areas of interest?

MO: Not always, but I think that’s because we’re a three-year degree. There’s only so much you can cover, and going into the same depth as other degrees on everything would be quite intensive.

FJ: How does the quality and style of teaching compare to any expectations you may have had before coming here?

MO: I guess one thing I did expect was more lab work, but I’m not too upset about that because the course has been good regardless. It’s really nice to study with such a variety of different people and be taught by tutors from different fields. For example, you’ll get one lecturer who talks about how much he loves birds, and then you’ll be hearing what your tutor things about designer babies.

FJ: Thinking of the world beyond Oxford, how well has the degree prepared you for what you want to do personally?

MO: Well, I did a consulting internship in summer and I think it prepared me pretty well for that. Because it’s so broad, it really equipped me to manage interpersonal relationships with the people and clients I was working for. It’s also good to get more transferable skills, like a grounding in statistics, which you wouldn’t strictly pick up from, say, biology.

FJ: If there was something you could change about Human Sciences at Oxford, what would it be?

MO: To start with, I’d get a bigger building. At the moment we literally have our classes in a house, which feels a bit weird. It would also be nice to have our own consistent lectures, as opposed to just dropping into other people’s where Human Sciences isn’t really in focus. But equally, I think that’s part and parcel of being an interdisciplinary degree.

I was surprised by how much I learnt from these conversations. As a die-hard humanities student, I had my doubts about the substance of any BA with “Sciences” in the name, but HumSci really does seem rigorous, interesting, and supportive of outside-the-box thinking. The way in which interdisciplinary work (potentially a logistical nightmare) is viewed as the basis for employability and a uniquely attractive skillset was also striking. Thus, with current plans in the works for the launch of a student-lead Human Sciences Society, many hope to attract more applicants and crucial funding. Meanwhile, one wonders which course content and case studies will be used for Human Sciences in fifty years’ time.

Ahmad Nawaz clinging to Union presidency after vote forces his resignation

Freya Jones
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Ahmad Nawaz clinging to Union presidency after vote forces his resignation

Ahmad Nawaz, President of the Oxford Union, finds his presidency hanging by a thread after the access committee voted to reject his explanation for missing the previous meetings, triggering an automatic resignation. Now, he must find the necessary signatures to overturn the motion, which will trigger a vote on his presidency at the debate next Thursday. 

The Union Access Committee meets every Thursday and the President is obliged to attend. Failure to turn up on three occasions triggers an automatic resignation unless a valid reason for absence can be given. Under Union rule 23 (c)(ii)(2), “Any member of any Committee… having missed three ordinary meetings of that Committee without good reason in the same term, shall be deemed to have submitted his resignation from that Committee.”

Union rules state that a valid reason includes attendance at Public Examinations, “disabling or infectious diseases”, as well as other engagements deemed to be pressing, unavoidable or important to the Society. Nawaz claims he missed the meetings due to illness, but members of the committee disputed the truth of this. A senior member of committee called it “[Y]et another in a long string of derelictions from the President.”

Nawaz posted pictures of himself with a guest speaker, Bhad Bhabie, on Thursday 2nd November, the same day as the meeting he claimed to have missed due to illness.

He also chaired that evening’s debate in a filled chamber, but cited a high temperature as having prevented him from attending the Access Committee earlier that afternoon.

In an attempt to pass the validity of his excuse due to this alleged illness, Nawaz called to move it through committee. However, multiple members registered their objections, triggering a secret ballot among the committee; he required a simple majority to be successful. He lost with 9 votes against him, 7 in favour, and 1 abstention. This meant the auto-resignation would come in full effect on Friday 11th November.

Nawaz can attempt to prevent this if he can collect the signatures of 30 members, which would permit him to bring a vote on his presidency to the debate chamber on Thursday 17th November (Week 6 of Michaelmas Term). 

Union members who spoke with Cherwell were critical about the term so far, saying that despite the number of big names on the termcard, Nawaz’s interviewing rendered many speaker events disappointing.

One member of the committee said Nawaz’s leadership was “quite terrible” with “no predictable decision-making”. 

Remarking on Nawaz’s absence from Access Committee, a committee member told Cherwell: “It shows that he is irresponsible and in the Union for his clout rather than for the sake of [our] events or principles”.

Even if Nawaz succeeds in collecting signatures and bringing a vote on his presidency, it is “possible” he will be permanently removed.

If he is removed, the role of President will be covered by another member of the Union’s Senior Team for the remainder of term.

Rule 38(b)(vi) states, “The President-Elect shall be succeeded by the Librarian, the Librarian-Elect shall be succeeded by the Treasurer, and the Treasurer-elect shall be succeeded by the Secretary.”

Nawaz told Cherwell: “I am extremely disappointed by the manner in which the rules appear to be arbitrarily and selectively applied to some but not to others. For instance, the individual who objected to me passing an absence due my own illness had passed her own absence on the very same grounds, the previous week. This level of hypocrisy is completely unacceptable in any setting but is certainly not what members should expect from elected committee. I would also add that the role of President is extremely time-consuming often with multiple speaker meetings, events and internal meetings in the same day which is why I have had to miss parts of earlier internal meetings this term. It is clearly absurd that illness is not deemed an acceptable reason for an absence with a grossly disproportionate penalty. Nonetheless, I have acquired the necessary number of signatures to put the motion before the house where I am convinced that the membership will vote for common sense.”

Correction: This article initially claimed that Nawaz was pictured drinking. This claim was incorrect, as Nawaz does not drink, and has been removed. Cherwell apologises for the oversight. A full retraction will be published separately.

The conundrums of a PhD: student or employee?

Sofia Della Sala
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The conundrums of a PhD: student or employee?

Do you live to work or work to live? Hopefully the latter, although having a job you enjoy makes working that little bit better. Though an upsetting reality, money is what drives our day-to-day life: will you buy a coffee at Horsebox or are you saving those pennies? Will you opt for the craft ale or stick to Carling? And for most people the way to earn money is simple: you work.

However, there is a section of the population that live in a grey area within the job sector, one that has been contested time and time again – those trying to get a PhD. Are they students or employees?

The answer may appear simple; many will refer to themselves and others as PhD students after all. But then again, many will also say things like: ‘I am at work’ or ‘my colleagues’, both of which are not sentences you expect students to use when referring to their studies or peers. PhD students are trainees, novices in a niche area of research that get a stipend to compensate them for the work they do and allow them to pay their living costs.

We get paid, but don’t have to pay tax, carry out research but are not a member of staff, and sometimes even teach other year groups what we know. It sounds a bit like we are an employee without the benefits of actually being employed.

Even though the UKRI increased its minimum PhD stipend from £16,062 to £17,668 just before the start of this academic year, it is still below what you would earn as a graduate entering the job market. Currently, the UKRI minimum stipend is below what you would earn working full time in an Oxford living wage job. The Oxford living wage is currently set at £10.50 an hour. If PhD students calculated how many hours a week they worked and worked out how much money they could be earning in another job, the result might be extremely upsetting.

The disparities do not only concern pay. Employees also have a set holiday allowance, with companies choosing how much to reward their workers with each year. Oxford students have vacations that last for weeks at a time. PhD students have neither. Technically, some PhD students have a set holiday allowance but whether they take them or not is mainly up to their group and departments.

The role of a PhD student is more than just churning out data and numbers. It is about acquiring new knowledge and information, bringing in money and collaboration, and in general representing and enhancing the reputation of their institution. They may not be full employees, but they aren’t really full students either. They are trainees, like people on a grad scheme at a major company, getting to grips with what could become their career. This should be reflected in the rights and protections offered to them.

As unfortunate as it is, you hear horror stories of PhD students working 14-hour days, seven days a week to meet demands. To me that sounds like living to work, rather than working to live. You should be able love your research and be devoted to it without it consuming your life. Because the reality is that we aren’t being paid enough for us to let it.

Image Credit: Stanley Morales via Pexels.

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