Top college chiefs are pushing the University towards privatisation in a blow to both government tuition-fee plans and the student campaign against top-up fees. Speaking at a major educational conference, Lord Butler of Brockwell, Master of University College, asserted that students with the ability to pay the realistic cost of their education and accomodation charges must be charged in full. In conversation with Cherwell Lord Butler stated that the government proposals “fall between two stools. £3 000 per student would not solve Oxford’s problems, and the charges would act as a dissinsentive to those from poorer families.” He made no qualms over highlighting his College’s financial woes, suggesting that student and government payments contrribute only 53% of the actual costs. “Many students would be able and willing to pay more,” he added, “Such a move would also solve the current problems over increasing rent charges.” However Butler made it clear that this was not a case of the rich subsidising the poor as fees would be limited according to the cost of their course. He added, “No-one would be more delighted than me if costs were paid through taxation, but education funding is understandably spent at more electorally popular levels.” The plan proposed by Butler, a former head of the Civil Service, has been supported by other wardens, principals and masters. In an unpublished paper, prompted by current debate, David Palfreyman, New College bursar, divides students into three groups according to their parents combined annual income. Students from “Rich England” whose parents earned £150 000 per year would be expected to pay up to £15 000 in annual tution fees, “Middle England” (earnings £75 000+ pro annum) would pay up to £10 000 whilst those earning between £30 000 – £50 000 would pay £1 500 – £3 500+. Families earning less than £25 000 would pay nothing. Dame Jessica Rawson, Warden of Merton, believes the shortfall of funding is even greater, arguing that the government is unable to provide for Oxford’s unique style of teaching. “The current [Government’s] proposals would not benefit colleges at all”, she claimed. Academic inclinations towards the private setting of charges comes in light of the increasing likelihood that the government proposals to charge students a potential £3 000 a year will suffer defeat at the hands of rebellious Labour back benchers. Alan Ryan, warden of New College said that he was in favour of Oxford charging higher fees than other universities because of the long term benefits of a prestigious degree. Proposals such as these would put Oxford on par wth the Ivy League universities, charging up to £18 000. The lure of doubled salaries, job security and reasearch grants has resulted in a growing exodus of academics to America. Recent Nobel prize winner Sir John Sulston was educated at Oxford but produced his breakthrough research at Illinois University whilst ex-Oxford historian Niall Ferguson has also crossed the Atlantic to continue his research. OUSU President Helena Puig Larrauri doubted the credibility of these proposals. In this weeks Funding and Finance Campaign, she told members that “the plans are not only wrong, they are unfeasable”. However David Palfreyman had a chilling warning for both students and the government alike, “If fees are not brought in, Oxford will run itself into the ground. The rich kids a will go to America and we will become like the grotty European universities”.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

Oxford students were portrayed as molly-coddled and spoon-fed by the national press last week in the wake of foiled plans by the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) to ferry freshers a mere 500 metres by bus “in case they got lost.” The plan was intended to make the “trip to OUSU offices part of the freshers’ fair experience,” as well as to alert freshers to the new location of the offices in Bonn Square. But the project had to be cancelled just a day before the event after it emerged that Stagecoach Oxford had overlooked Oxford City Council’s stringent environmental regulations and “forgot” to ask the Council’s permission to drive through the city centre. The debacle provoked ridicule in the national press, with both The Daily Telegraph and the Oxford Mail stressing OUSU’s lack of confidence in their students. Student Union representatives have emphatically denied that they underestimated freshers’ intelligence and have accused The Daily Telegraph of misquoting OUSU President Helena Puig Larrauri’s fears that freshers would be unable to find their way. Nicola Johns, a fresher at Keble College, declared herself “insulted” by the plans, saying, “I’m sure that if they provided freshers with a map we could find our way around.” Fellow fresher Natalie Cobden said, “Everyone here should be intelligent enough to find their own way.” The project’s failure has left many freshers without the annual Oxford Handbook, which OUSU had planned to distribute as part of the bus scheme. When asked why no contingency plans had been made to replace the buses, OUSU said that it had considered a walking tour but had rejected the idea as “too labour intensive.” Although OUSU guides were stationed along the High Street, it is feared that the collapse of the scheme has compromised freshers’ overall awareness of OUSU’s location and function. No new plans have been made to distribute the handbooks and freshers are being asked to find the organisation’s new offices to collect it for themselves. David Whitley, Stagecoach manager, has accepted responsibility for the mistake, saying that the company should have been “more sensible.” However, he went on to say that the issue was “not a matter of blame” and implied that media hype had been the real reason behind the Council’s ban. The situation has also provoked an attack on OUSU’s environmental policies. Paul Sargent, City Councillor for Carfax, emphasised the high rate of pollution in the city and said that “OUSU needed to think more carefully” about their potential solutions. Due to Oxford’s complex one-way systems, the proposed bus route would have been over three times the length of the pedestrian route, raising fears over congestion. “We try to preserve the city centre by licensing only local buses to drive through the city centre,” he said. “This scheme does not comply with our regulations.” The oversight has attracted criticism from within OUSU’s own ranks. James Blackburn, Co-chair of the Environmental Committee, said that they had not been consulted about the issue and called the scheme a “bizarre use of resources.” “This is definitely not in the best interests of the environment,” he told Cherwell. “OUSU will have to plan more carefully next year.”ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

The Oxford Baha’i Society held an open meeting this week following the media frenzy surrounding the death of one of its followers, Dr David Kelly, in Oxfordshire last July. Guest speaker Barney Leith, the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i of the UK, spoke on the topic of “The Baha’i Faith: Fostering Unity in a War-Torn World”. Mr Leith, a local Abingdon resident, told Cherwell that “the Baha’i faith is a religion and not a sect,” as reported by some areas of the press in the Hutton Enquiry into Dr Kelly’s death. “Some parts of the media view religion as easy pickings to draw a scandal, if Dr Kelly had believed in another faith then his religion would not have been an issue. “The Baha’i faith is a progressive religion based on rational thought and a universal ethos of tolerance. We believe that the teachings of the Baha’u’llah are the key to resolving conflict in the world and bringing about a just and prosperous society.” Juliette Doostdar, a member of the Oxford Baha’i Society said that since the Hutton Enquiry there had been increased speculation and interest as to what the faith was. “We have an obligation to share our faith and by holding an open forum we felt we could create a happy medium to meet those who are interested in finding out more.”ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

A new report reveals that for the large majority of working class graduates, the chances of getting “interesting and meaningful” work are slim. The report’s author, Professor Phil Brown of Cardiff University, identified a large “oversupply of suitably qualified candidates” which typically results in 50 talented graduates applying for every available fast-track appointment. While Oxford graduates had a one in eight chance of being chosen, the success ratio for those from ‘new’ universities with a higher working class contingent was one in 235. The study adds to concerns over the government targets to provide higher education for 50% of school leavers by 2010, at a time when technical skills are in short supply. The report also makes clear that simply being an Oxbridge undergraduate is not enough to gain the best employment. “The stereotype of Oxbridge man is no longer the gold standard in a number of organisations. Narrow experiences, even those of the upper classes, may now be discounted as lacking the flexibility to work in different social contexts.” Employers increasingly seek graduates with what the report calls a “cosmopolitan” status, achieved through work experience and travelling. OUSU Vice President, Josefa Henry-Bochan said, “People know that while getting any job is not that hard, finding something in the area they are interested may prove quite difficult.” But both she and Paul Brown, the Careers Service’s Assistant Director, were quick to point out that the University was hardly struggling in terms of CV-enhancing opportunities and motivated students.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

Police put an abrupt end to Wadham’s freshers’ bop on Friday night following complaints from local residents over the “unbearable” noise. The organisers cut short the school-uniform themed bop at 12.30am following a warning from police under the Health and Safety Act. The incident has worrying implications for future Wadham events such as the celebrated Queer Bop in Michaelmas term and Wadstock, the popular open air festival which normally takes place during Trinity. Talking to Cherwell, Abby Green, Wadham JCR president said that it was questionable whether these events could continue. She said “Wadham students take great pride in their entz events and are keen for them to continue. The student’s union is very concerned about the complaints and we intend to work hard with college to find a reasonable solution to the problem.” Wadham has reported that a female resident living along Saville Road made the complaint, claiming that nearby residents were unable to sleep. She is suspected to be the Headmistress of New College School but she declined to comment on the matter. Sujay Pandit, a Wadham fresher from America said, “it’s kind of ridiculous that the residents didn’t think that living next to a college would be a problem. We don’t encounter this kind of thing back home and our parties can go on until 4am” The fortnightly bops have been subject to complaints in the past both from residents and other colleges including Hertford.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

A University wide campaign, launched to discourage freshers from joining the Union has been traced to anti-smoking campaigners. In a renewed attempt to ban smoking in the Union bar, anti-tobacco activists entitled ‘Students for an Honest Union’ (SHU) have placed posters and distributed flyers urging freshers “Please Don’t Join the Oxford Union”. These moves fulfil an ultimatum made to last term’s Union President Ambrose Faulks. In an email, the campaign’s perpetrator Patrick Mackerras, warned that if a referendum was not initiated on the issue, he would “run the biggest anti-membership drive Oxford has ever seen”. Patrick Mackerras, who completed his studies at Oxford three years ago, and was a former head of the student wing of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), organised the successful campaign that banned smoking in Michaelmas 2000, though this was subsequently overturned in a controversial referendum two years later. Union President Markus Walker responded that it was “pathetic that a man who left Oxford years ago cannot let the matter lie.” Although SHU have attempted to maintain anonymity, indeed naming their spokesman as the non-existent “R Smith of Balliol”, it is thought that a Mackerras family contact in Oxford has conducted the campaign in the city.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

Clubbing students watched in shock as a tourist plummeted two storeys through a glass roof outside the Bridge nightclub on Monday night. The young girl in her twenties miraculously survived the fall from a backpackers’ hostel next to the nightclub, but she sustained multiple wounds to the arms and stomach. She was taken away in an ambulance after firefighters arrived at the scene to free her from the collapsed roof. A second-year linguist from LMH, described her witnessing of the event as a “horrific” start to a night out and is still traumatised as a result. Police believe that the fall was accidental, but environmental health officers have been called in to investigate the hazardous area. The Bridge was quick to dissociate itself from the incident, reassuring students in the queue that their premises were not the site of the accident.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

A former drug and gambling addict has been awarded the prestigious Man Booker Prize by a committee chaired by Merton’s Professor of English, John Carey. DBC Pierre scooped arguably the most sought-after prize for English Literature with his first novel, Vernon God Little. The book, which describes a Texan high school massacre, was described by Carey as a “coruscating black comedy reflecting our alarm but also our fascination with America”. The judges voted four to one in favour of Pierre’s book. Carey insisted it was the quality of the novel rather than the author’s private life which captivated the judges. He commented, “The language is extremely vivid, most inventive, it’s extremely exciting and very funny”. DBC Pierre or ‘Dirty But Clean Peter’ is formerly known as Peter Finlay, but took on the pseudonym to hide his colourful past. He recently confessed to betraying his friends to fuel his drug and gambling addictions, running up huge debts in the process.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003

University of Cambridge Cambridge’s Christian Union has some useful ideas about exam ‘technique’, as students attempting to access its revision advice website have been taken to a hard-core porn site. The portal, set up without CUSU’s knowledge, features such finalist diversions as ‘just turned 18 cam’ and ‘fast schoolgirls ride ponies’. One History student was delighted, saying “it provides a marvellous method of stress relief.”ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003 

University of Melbourne, Australia A female Biology student was rushed to hospital last week after being accidentally shot by a friend with a James Bond-style gun disguised as a pen. The tragic accident occurred in a Bond-themed party in a local nightclub, organised by the University’s Film Society. Federal Police Detective Constable Naomi Binstead said the victim required surgery to remove the projectile, believed to be made of metal, fired from the pen gun.ARCHIVE: 1st Week MT2003