New balls pleaseA St. Anne’s fresher reduced his chances of achieving fatherhood during an animated game of pool. Following the first few pints in the college bar, his inebriated antics resulted with a painful groin injury. Although showing both pain and embarrasment following the event, one female witness told Cherwell “he has certainly made an impression – at least he’s got something large enough down there to complain about”.ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003 

Helena Puig Larrauri, student union President, followed a defiant stand against top-up fees at last week’s Labour Party Conference by working towards the creation of an alternative White Paper with Cambridge student union. At a fringe meeting the OUSU President challenged the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, to explain what will happen if (or when) the White Paper fails. Clarke’s angry response simply asserted that the paper will pass, indicating that the government will yet again bring out the thumbscrews against the predicted 170 rebellious backbenchers. In the debate, Helena defended the position of students against Clarke’s claims that they do not understand the real economic choices faced by governments. Afterwards, an impassioned e-mail to campaigners said she was “tired of the irresponsibility of a government which refuses to consider alternatives.” With Cambridge University Students’ Union, OUSU will provide that alternative through an Oxbridge ‘White Paper’. Based on the belief that some changes are required to meet the £10 billion funding gap facing universities, the report will urge consideration of progressive taxation as the fairest means of regaining university costs. CUSU officer Jo Read declared “we must show that it is not cost-effective to screw us over”. A Rough Guide to the White Paper Top-up fees are part of a White Paper brought forward by the Government as a means for increasing university funding. Under current proposals, each academic institution would be able to charge its students up to £3000 per year as compared to standard level of tuition fees. Unlike the present system, all charges would be paid by the student after graduation with most students leaving with a debt of over £21 000 by government estimates. Although the legislation has been praised for removing the up-front charges loathed by parents, the allowance of Universities to charge differing amounts according to academic prestige has caused fears of the creation of a two-tier system of higher education. A clause within the proposals would remove the £3000 limit after 2012, effectively offering universities a back door to privatization. The Russell Group of elite academic institutions, which includes Oxbridge, broadly welcomes the proposals and their head has recently stated that if top-up fees fail in Parliament, it would consider privatisation. The legislation will come before the Commons in November, with votes expected in December and February. Compiled by Eleanor Jupp AARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003 

Oxford University looks likely to reject government plans which urge top universities to lower offers made to applicants from state schools with low university acceptance rates. While Bristol and Edinburgh have taken the plunge, a spokesman for the University stated that “there is no intention of systematically making lower offers.” Government plans published recently argue that universities should take each applicant’s case into context upon admission, considering criteria such as GSCE grades, school league positions and even SATs results. The focus of university admissions offices would be close research of school success. This bias towards state schools has been condemned by independent school authorities as discriminatory and unfair.Whilst the report states that positive discrimination would end the idea that a high-grade student from a high-achieving school would be considered worth ‘more’ than his state school counterpart, Director of Undergraduate Admissions Jane Minto told Cherwell that the University is “completely opposed to anything formulaic or mechanistic that inadvertently discriminates against any specific group of candidates.”ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003 

Student rent charges are likely to soar even higher as the Estate Bursars’ Committee yet again places accommodation subsidies in the spotlight. An independent consultancy group is currently undertaking a real cost review of college accommodation across the University,, including figures such as capital depreciation. Their report will be presented to the Bursars’ Committee within the next couple of weeks. Dr Alex Hardy, Bursar of Oriel College, and leading advocate of the real cost review, has indicated to student representatives that this report will form part of the Estate Bursars’ ongoing decision over the proportion of college costs to be covered by students. Speaking to Cherwell, Dr Hardy was unable to deny the importance or the implications of this review, stating that “the consultants’ findings would be fully considered by all college bursars.” Helena Puig Larrauri, Student Union president, was fearful of the possible consequences of this further move to fix battels charges, saying, “it will be important to ensure the Estate Bursars don’t place the full burden of accommodation on students.” This move is made in the shadow of protest over the first wave of rent increases. With many JCRs locked into negotiations with college authorities, some are now considering rent strikes. Trinity College JCR is asking students to pay only the original charge after negotiations were broken off by the college authorities. The Trinity JCR President told Cherwell that “there was no agreed increase to recognise.” Trinity will begin a full rent strike if negotiations are not restarted by Hilary term.ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003 

Law academics at Oxford and Cambridge are to launch a national mediation service to solve clashes between students and staff. The new service will bring forward cases to discuss academic judgments, such as whether students have been unfairly denied the correct class of degree. A paper by The Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (Oxcheps), headed by New College fellow and bursar David Palfreyman, said that the new service would save a university years of senior administrators’ time and heavy legal costs as well as “[providing] a route to a win-win solution in which the institution and the student or member of staff can save face.” Until now, Lord Chancellors, Lord Presidents and bishops have all been called in for serious disputes at UK Universities but have more recently been hesitant in becoming involved in ‘alien’ academic quarrels. Oxcheps has complied a list of university legal cases and is putting together a group of mediators from university administration and professors specialising in education law. The first independent adjudicator is shortly to be announced by Universities UK, the vice-chancellors’ organisation.ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003 

Tony Martin will make his first public appearance since release from prison at the Oxford Union. Union authorities hope Martin’s appearance will encourage informed debate on the right to defend property, although the speech will be made without opposition.. Tony Martin was convicted of shooting a burglar on his own land, which he claims was in self-defence. With several speeches lined up, the Union appearance will kick-start a bid to place Martin and his case at the forefront of a campaign on the issues of rural crime and the use of lethal force to defend property. Union President Markus Walker said that “the Union is a forum rather than platform…If members are to be repelled, let them be repelled,” he added.ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003 

University of Warwick Freshers in Warwick were conned into paying £400 this week for briefcases filled with bottled water. In four separate incidents, the students were stopped in the street and offered expensive new laptops at knock-down prices, only to find – once the money had changed hands – that the briefcase contained six bottles of Evian and an ‘insulting note’ from the vendors. Rough.ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003