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Why ‘No Bad Memories’ is my album of the year

Willow Jopp
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Why ‘No Bad Memories’ is my album of the year

After a lovely evening celebrating one of my best friends’ birthdays on 15th October, I returned to my room filled with a sense of hope for the future that I hadn’t felt in quite some time. It had been around a week since I’d returned to Oxford for my final year, but the dread that once accompanied this change had slowly given way to an understanding that this would be a particularly beautiful period of my life. I knew I was living through a moment I would look back on fondly, and, perhaps due to my drunken state, I found myself completely in love with my surroundings and the people in my life. As I sat on my windowsill, I received a notification about the release of an album that I had been excited for for the past few months – The Avalanches’ No Bad Memories. Listening to it, it felt as though every feeling I was experiencing – nostalgia, a childlike joy – had been meticulously assembled into one album, and I fell for it instantly. I didn’t expect how perfectly my personal happiness would fit an album so preoccupied with the sounds of old advertisements and obsolete electronics, filled with the relentless optimism of a world that believed the future could only get better. 

How do you describe The Avalanches to somebody who has never listened to them before? They are an Australian ‘electronic’ group (I use inverted commas because the term feels inadequate in this instance), somewhere between Daft Punk, Nujabes, MGMT, and DJ Shadow, yet vastly different from each. Their music comes from exploring what happens when disparate, unrelated sounds are placed alongside one another. Since the release of their beloved 2000 debut album, Since I Left You, they have been making infectious and danceable tunes by compiling countless samples, sound effects, and audio clips, and have garnered a passionate fanbase, myself included.

No Bad Memories, their fourth album in their 32 years together as a group, is no different. Like its predecessor, 2020’s We Will Always Love You, it is, at its core, a concept album. But while their previous album looked to space and the future, No Bad Memories looks to the familiar, preceding each track with distorted jingles or glitchy ads for a myriad of fake products, each with its own aesthetic, making the album experience feel like flicking through vintage radio stations or Saturday morning TV. Its sounds sometimes overwhelm or outright sabotage one another, but somehow this makes the album feel even more alive. The ‘core’ tracks themselves are bouncy, fun, and make use of Mort Garson-esque synths, colourful guitar, pulsing bass, and glittery pads. The myriad of features are a testament to the friends The Avalanches have made across their career, with frequent collaborators like Jamie XX, Panda Bear, and Rivers Cuomo alongside newer voices like Portraits of Tracy. The feeling of friendship that is so integral to the album is part of what makes it so enjoyable for me. The lyrics talk about being together forever, having all the time in the world, and giving everything you have to those you love, creating a joy and sense of fun that felt genuinely refreshing to hear. Contemporary music is often expected to justify itself through the seriousness of its themes, but No Bad Memories doesn’t need to offer a manifesto. It knows it can be excessively cheerful and still be worth taking seriously. Its nostalgia is an attempt to recover the pleasures that remain buried within the discarded sounds of the past. 

The role of advertising in No Bad Memories, the language that permeates it like a computer virus, is part of what elevates the album above an average dance album. TV and radio commercials are obnoxious; every product wants to occupy as much of your attention as quickly and efficiently as possible. On No Bad Memories, as strangely comforting as they sound, adverts bombard you, constantly interrupting each other with promises of making you better, faster, more beautiful. Advertising is always in love with the future. Every product promises a better life just around the corner. The strange thing about hearing these sounds now is that so many of the futures they once promised have become obsolete. The phones, software, and products may be gone, but their jingles remain, still insisting that tomorrow will be better. The album is fascinated by the commercial machinery that shapes our desires, but it is also fascinated by its sounds. It is at times dizzying and confusing, but in the age of AI, data scraping, commodification of social media interaction, and marketing from big companies trying to come off as humane, No Bad Memories is imagining techno-optimism.

Artist Richard Hamilton famously described Pop Art as “popular”, “transient”, “expendable”, “mass produced” and, ultimately, “big business”. These are precisely the qualities No Bad Memories celebrates and subverts at once. Like British Pop Art of the 1950s and 60s, The Avalanches assemble music using the most recognisable sounds of the modern world – the language of advertising – turning them into something both hopeful for the future and nostalgic for the past (or as my mother put it when she listened, “a collage of joyful loveliness”).

This is why No Bad Memories has stayed with me: it has taken the disposable sounds of a bygone, more optimistic age, and turned them from music intended to sell into music which makes us feel something. I don’t necessarily think the album is arguing that the past was a better time, or that the future will be. It is simply finding beauty in the sounds that were once left behind. The future may not be as bright as those old adverts promised, but while listening to No Bad Memories, at least, the music makes it feel that way.

CUSP’s Dan Stock on the memories behind ‘English Country’

Evelyn Shepphird
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CUSP’s Dan Stock on the memories behind ‘English Country’

On Friday, CUSP, a Milton Keynes-based indie rock band, released their debut album, English Country. It recalls guitar bands from the ‘90s, but with a clear indie streak. Richly coloured with soaring strings and a utopian imagination of (unsurprisingly) the English countryside, the record is emotional without losing its energy. I got the chance to sit down with Dan Stock, singer, songwriter, and guitarist of CUSP, to discuss making his debut album. 

Dan is a lovely, passionate, and clearly very clever interviewee. CUSP’s Instagram sees him as a tall, thin man with an affable face. His haircut recalls a pre-Beatles, 1958 George Harrison, and his dress sense is at once Richard Ashcroft and ‘70s Bruce Springsteen. More than that, he was clearly born to be a musician; early in the interview, he recalls being “obsessed” with songs, leaving out more popular childhood fanaticisms like ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Lord of the Rings’: “I’ve been writing songs for as long as I can really remember. I was learning other people’s songs – the Beatles, or, like, Arctic Monkeys – I’d learn the songs but then re-write the words.” I had never heard of somebody doing that before. “It’s a good cheat code!” defended Dan. “Because you think – how do you learn anything? You start by copying, don’t you? So it’s a really playful way to learn, and there’s no rules, as well. I think it means that I learned how to reverse-engineer songs. I find that I can write songs really easily, and I think that’s because I have loads of material in me from being a kid.”

His ten-thousand hours of writing practice as a child have paid off on this record. The opener, ‘English Country’, is a driving, melodic piece with a hell of an opening line: “Congratulations on the engagement / do you still hate my guts?”. Full, rich instrumentals underline Dan’s vocals, which sound a bit like Richard Ashcroft in his lower register. ‘English Country’ establishes a pervasive theme of the album, that of England as a utopian space embodying freedom, happiness, wellness, and love. Rooting these dreams in the land itself both recalls the ‘Cool Britannia’ of the ‘90s, when clear influences like Oasis and the Verve held the throne, and extends that sense of English pride and identity into musicianship in the 2020s. 

Slower tracks, like ‘Edge of Tears’, maintain that theme. ‘Edge of Tears’ is a remarkably vulnerable title which is offset by a pretty musical enmeshment of some almost folk-y techniques with distortion effects common in ‘90s rock and 2000s indie. Dan earns the Verve comparisons with some soaring strings on this track. Those, along with the steady drums, counterbalance the heavy lyrics. The titular line, ‘I’m on the edge of tears’, is a lovely, soft, and honest confession. The best line, ‘Is anybody home? / Except that old depression / that takes the wonder out of walking ‘round an English garden’ continues to establish that sense of English identity within the record.

I asked Dan if the creation of that English identity was a priority when making the record. “I think it was natural, because that’s my experience. And I think it goes back to where my influences come from. My influences were American – Springsteen, or Tom Petty, or Dylan. And their songs were about specific places, so I kind of want to do that.” Though I had asked Dan if he was a big reader earlier (“I don’t know if I have the attention span for novels,” though he noted he likes reading poetry), Dan referenced literary history by way of music: “Van Morrison – he’s inspired a lot by William Blake, who will take the idea of England and mystical England, and dreams, and mishmash all of that together. It’s kind of my attempt at that – it’s the idea of the English country.” 

Dan emphasized how much of an impact Bruce Springsteen had on him, “Bruce taught me everything about life. I just lived inside that music as a kid. It gave me an imagination – when I was a kid, I went on holiday to Jersey, between here and France – I was on holiday there and listening to Bruce Springsteen, and he was talking about Jersey, and I didn’t know he was talking about New Jersey in the States, so I was like – ‘Oh! He’s talking about Jersey! And here I am in Jersey!’ So it’s just amazing, your imagination. 

After he mentioned it, I could see some threads of Americana within the album. Lines like ‘I carry a gun and a bible in the glove box’ on ‘Forever, Forever’ (a track more on the indie-pop side than anything, though included in Spotify’s ‘All New Rock’ playlist) sound more descriptive of America than England. I happily noted a reference to Dylan’s ‘Blood on the Tracks’ on ‘Love is a Dying Art’. ‘Temporary Sky’, which is an almost overwhelming song, has the singer taking advice from “the Americans”. 

Musically, ‘Temporary Sky’ has an intense build. While not as dramatic as some of the other instrumentals on the album, the strings and guitars trading melody and the incessant drum feel immensely cinematic, and profoundly hopeful. The song feels like running towards something, which, of course, implies running from something else. Another pervasive theme within the record is the tension between a negative perception of one’s identity and an irrepressible optimism and hope for the future. 

“Something I find really cool is when the singer beats himself up,” Dan explains. “Like, Elvis or Springsteen, or Alex Turner, or someone like that: I’d always look at the singer as a god. So when they’re beating themselves up, or showing frailty: I think that’s really cool.” Tracks like ‘English Country’, ‘Human Nature’, and ‘Shadow Boxing’ (the album’s great closer) foreground imperfection within the speaker. On ‘Human Nature’ in particular, both Dan and Tom Smith, a feature, sing “I’m gonna get my shit together / by this time next year / I’m going to show you who I can be / I just need a little time”. While confessional, that sense that the singers are, even if imperfect, trying to get better, is extremely endearing. 

When I pointed out that many of these songs are “quite sad”, Dan laughed. I asked if putting out such a vulnerable piece of art into the world was at all frightening. “You can’t think about that,” Dan said. “As a creative in any form, I just think you can’t let that go into your brain. It just happened that the things that were quite vulnerable and the most honest, and probably the things that I wouldn’t say out loud, tended to be the things that moved me. When I’m then writing, and lines come, and I feel physically moved, I just follow that feeling. It tends to have that same effect on the listener. So you just have to trust yourself.” 

I had to try to see if the breakup songs had any basis in reality. “Well… yes and no. It’s not a preconceived thing. People really only want to hear love songs. But there’s a song of mine that comes to mind that I wrote about when I was solo, and I got dropped by a record label, and that broke my heart. I wrote a song about that through the lens of a romantic relationship, but it wasn’t romantic. It was between me and this sixty-year-old boss of a record label. But I could get these lines that were really weighty and meaningful, and true to me, even though I wasn’t singing about a girl.” 

I thought ‘Caledonia’ was the standout track on the album. Romantic, imagery-heavy lines slot nicely alongside catchy juxtapositions in the first half. The second half, however, features the best instrumentation on the entire album. The sweeping strings of the first half fade out into delicious, distorted, incessant guitar riffs. Dan’s voice soars out over that vital, lively instrumental drive. The second half of ‘Caledonia’ is, I would argue, a real example of a renaissance of rock music. 

Not every track was exactly as watertight as ‘Caledonia’: though largely forgivable, certain instances of awkward lyricism pop up in ‘Human Nature’ or ‘English Country’. I found ‘Help Yourself’ and ‘Forever, Forever’ to be largely more indie-pop (or country-pop!) than indie-rock, though overall these aren’t mortal sins: ‘Help Yourself’ recalls country-pop ballads at their prime: romantic, catchy, and grounded in reality. Ultimately, all the tracks work very well together. English Country, as a record, is more than the sum of its parts. 

“I always think in terms of albums,” Dan said, “I would always write albums – that’s the art form. With us, it definitely feels like more of a slow burn. We decided we wanted to make a full-length piece of work. I believe that hopefully, once people hear it, things will continue to grow. For me, it feels like the first of many. It’s very much just scratching the surface of what we want to release.” 

I asked Dan about the start of the band – who else is in it, and how long had they been together before releasing this debut? “We actually got together just before COVID, and that delayed us, which was a blessing and a curse. The good thing was we had a lot of time to write and make music, because we weren’t playing shows. So even though we’ve been together as people and musicians and friends for a long time, we haven’t really been out in the world gigging as a band for as long. The band is me, Dan, singing and playing guitar and writing songs, and then we have Adam on the bass, Jack on drums, and we’ve just added Joey recently, in the live setup, on acoustic guitar. 

“Me and Jack, the drummer, had been playing together for a long time now. We know each other locally – we’re from a town called Milton Keynes. There’s not much culture going on here. It tends to be the kind of place where, when you’re eighteen, you leave and you go to uni in a big city, so when we got to around that age, there’s not really many people left in the town. I don’t want to say we were the only people our age into that kind of music, but we kind of are. So we gravitated towards each other, and got really lucky.” 

I wanted to ask about the cover art for English Country, which is an odd, sort of surreal photo of somebody doing a headstand with a guitar between his legs. “There’s actually a story behind it that no one really knows,” Dan explained. “It’s a picture of my girlfriend’s dad, who passed away, when he was in his twenties. When we met – me and my partner – a couple months after, he got diagnosed with cancer, and he was in his mid-forties. He then deteriorated and then passed away, but this image, their family found. He was the biggest music fan I’ve ever met, but he kind of lived a quiet and normal life – he focused on raising a family, and he had a job that he probably didn’t love, but that put food on the table for his family. 

“He loved music more than anyone I’ve ever met. We also had very similar taste. Me and the family found this picture, and it really stuck with everyone, because – why is he on his head with a guitar between his legs? No one knows,” Dan said, with a smile in his voice. “And then when I was thinking about the album art: one day, for Christmas, I got my partner those pictures made in a frame that we have at home. And I was just sat there, and I looked at that picture, and I was like, ‘that looks like an album cover’. And then I realized that all of those things in the album about freedom and what music can do at its best – the joy and sadness – was kind of expressed in that image. And I think the image alone looked quite iconic even without the story. So I love it because there’s so much packed into it. It is incredible; it’s also surreal for them, and for us – the fact that he would have loved that so much. Because he loved records so much himself.”

‘English Country’ has been very well received in the indie rock world before and since its release. Excitingly, for the band, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher complimented a track of theirs (‘Coming up Roses’; not on English Country) whilst on a podcast. “Somebody’s paying a lot of money to record shit like this.” Noel, characteristically irreverent, remarked. “It sounds like it was done in the nineties. It’s good though. The guitars are all great.” 

I wondered what Dan thought of the review. “It was amazing. When I knew he’d be listening to it, I was kind of bracing myself to be ripped to shreds, because it’s Noel Gallagher. I don’t know if he’s mellowed in his old age, or what… if it was the nineties, it might have been different. It’s not that he was sweet; it’s like he gave a slight backhanded compliment. ‘How did these peasants afford this?’ That it sounds expensive, and the guitars sound great – you hear in his voice that he’s kind of surprised, because I don’t think he has much faith in new bands, so it was a massive compliment. And we’re lucky that Bonehead in Oasis commented on Instagram; that was unexpected. It’s nice.” Bonehead commented ‘Tune’ on an Instagram post about ‘Forever, Forever’. And Noel wasn’t right about the band spending a lot of money to record the album – the band “pulled favors, basically”, and “did it really cheaply”. 

It seems like CUSP is well received by more than just old gods of Britpop. Dan reflected on a great festival season, where CUSP played Isle of Wight, Truck, and Y Not. “The funny thing is when we were making the album, we weren’t really thinking about singles or songs for festivals. I love it for that, but then when it comes to playing festivals, it’s kind of hard, because some of them are quite sad songs.” ‘Forever, Forever’ apparently did very well on the festival circuit. 

When promising even more new music next year, Dan said, “I just want to make music that connects with people in that way. So rather than this first album, which was quite dark and sad in places, I want to make big songs, or songs that are immediate, and work live.” 

CUSP is on tour for the rest of the year, starting in Manchester on the 22nd of October, and ending in London on the 7th of November. “If it was up to me and no one else, we’d kind of decide what we were playing the night of.” Dan said. “Very Radiohead.” I noted. “Yes, the others are making me stick to a setlist. I did an acoustic gig, and I just took requests from the crowd, and it was my favourite gig in a long time,” Dan remembered. “Because I was relearning the song in the moment, and I didn’t know if I’d remember all the words, and I loved the uncertainty.” 

I’ll be in London for the November 7th show, and though they don’t play it often, I’m holding out hope for ‘Caledonia’. “We’ve got the staples, and then there’s a bit of a revolving list.” Explained Dan. I may have a chance. Dan is looking forward to the tour and said he’s excited to get out into his community. “In 2026, the people that buy tickets to watch small bands are incredible. Normally, you see the artists you love, and tickets are so expensive for big gigs, aren’t they? Even leaving the house, for a lot of people – there’s so much to compete with, with social media and TV. So to go out and watch a band is an amazing thing. So I have a lot of gratitude.”

Ultimately, English Country isn’t a challenging record, but it is catchy. There are some standout tracks – notably ‘Caledonia’ – but generally the record stays within the boundaries of indie-pop-rock: it is both danceable and likable. While generally playing it safe, its relentless hopefulness is endearing enough to forgive weaker elements of certain tracks. CUSP certainly has potential, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for any new releases.

Sport Spotlight: Sam Fitzgerald

Gavriella Epstein-Lightman
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Sport Spotlight: Sam Fitzgerald

Sam Fitzgerald only took up cycling during his undergraduate degree, and yet he’s now President of Oxford University Cycling Club. He first joined the cycling club at Cambridge, where he studied engineering, before moving to Oxford to pursue a DPhil in Renewable Energy.

Cycling at both Oxford and Cambridge offers the opportunity to explore the surrounding countryside – the club’s weekly cycle rides take place between the Cotswolds and the Chiltern Hills. Cyclists enjoy venturing out into the countryside and exploring nearby villages. 

Alongside these leisurely weekend rides, Fitzgerald tells me that the club trains for more serious competition. For the first time, it now has a club coach and is moving towards a more formalised training plan to prepare for competitions. 

Fitzgerald’s cycling journey has seen its fair share of unforgettable experiences. “I have been hit by a car crossing the road in Spain,” Fitzgerald recalls when I ask if there are times things went wrong. “I had to try to explain to the police what had happened in broken Spanish.” 

A highlight for Fitzgerald was the Lincolnshire BUCS race last year. “In Lincolnshire you race with hundreds of people by the side of the road, playing music, like a party by the side of the road,” he tells me. “Oxford was fourth overall – we came very close to getting a BUCS medal together.”        

But cycling races rarely have that festive feel. They often take place deep in the countryside, and while there might be people from nearby villages watching on, often “it is just you and the countryside”, Fitzgerald says. He describes races as a mental struggle as much as a physical one. “You’ve got to be aware of who to follow, who to chase. You’re also aware of the pain in your own legs as you catch up with those ahead.” “Having the crowd there distracts you and allows you to push to a level that you didn’t think you could,” he adds. “In the Lincolnshire race, my power levels were higher than they have ever been before or since. That can only be attributable to the crowd support.”

Oxford University Cycling Club was founded in 1873, making it one of the oldest student cycling clubs in the world. At the time, cycling was a new sport and a novel, exciting mode of transport: a technological invention which opened up new worlds for its intrepid adventurers. From novel Victorian invention to modern university sport, Oxford’s Cycling Club has endured. Fitzgerald is excited about what is to come. 

No Greek life doesn’t mean no rape culture

Ruya Oral
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No Greek life doesn’t mean no rape culture

CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, drugging

In November 2024, The Cornell Daily Sun broke the news of a sexual assault reported to the Cornell University Police Department, alleged to have taken place at the university’s Chi Phi fraternity house. The case was brought up again in the student publication on 18th September 2026, after the victim, identified as ‘Jane Doe’, filed a civil complaint against the university, the fraternity chapter, seven current and former students, and related organisations including a campus bar and several university sororities. She claimed to have been gang-raped by several men belonging to the fraternity, who knew she was too intoxicated to consent and further coerced her into taking ketamine and other drugs. Part of the evidence cited in the complaint is an image taken from a Snapchat group chat, wherein one of the defendants encourages other fraternity brothers to join in the assault by directing them towards “free pussy” on the premises. None of the 57 members of said group chat have yet come forward or claimed to have intervened. 

According to the lawsuit, after an initial suspension of the fraternity chapter’s activities, the university’s investigation resulted in two of the accused being expelled, while the rest were “offered a chance to mitigate conduct by submitting essays”. The Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office has since reopened a criminal investigation into the case, though District Attorney Matthew Van Houten claims the victim’s initial report contained no accusations of non-consensual behaviour. Doe will be allowed to present her case before a grand jury, two years after she was allegedly forced to leave the university following the university and local police department’s inaction. Cornell allegedly refused to refund her tuition payments, though she reportedly felt she would never feel safe enough to return to the university. At the time of writing, the five students who remain at Cornell are on track to graduate in the next year. Many have high-profile jobs lined up. 

Every news and social media platform I have browsed in the last week has been flooded with further details and reactions to this story. Some respond in anger, some in disbelief. Some have found the strength to share their own experiences with collegiate rape culture. None of the stories ends happily, and with the horrifying rollback of protections under Title IX under the current US administration, it’s hard to believe that this or any subsequent ones will. 

There is no doubt in my mind that there are men I know, men I share social and academic spaces with, who are reading about this story and pompously thinking to themselves: “Well, that’s the kind of thing that would only happen in America”. While it is undeniable that Greek life has fostered a particularly vicious culture that permits, if not glorifies, gender-based violence (as well as elitism and racial discrimination – whether Greek life should be allowed to retain its current standing without serious reform, or whether total dissolution is called for, is a separate yet increasingly urgent conversation), the building blocks that create this toxicity are plainly reflected in many prestigious UK universities, including Oxford. 

A 2025 Office for Students sexual misconduct survey found that nearly twice as many students reported sexual harassment at selective universities compared to ‘low tariff’ universities. In recent years, Oxford in particular has faced backlash for the mishandling of sexual misconduct cases involving students and staff associated with the university. Though institutional malpractice certainly both emboldens perpetrators and weakens victims, it’s easy to look at official statistics and famous faces and forget that unhealthy sexual attitudes often emerge casually, unremarkably, and without any big names to blame. 

When I was in high school, I knew this guy – let’s call him John Smith – whom everybody in my year affectionately called ‘Consent Smith’. The nickname emerged from an instance where he had engaged in some consensually dubious sexual acts with a girl whose identity is unknown to me, but was very public information for most of my classmates. Strangely, though, none of them seemed to recall the origin story when they referred to him this way. It was always said with a laugh and a playful punch on the shoulder, and received with a smirk and eye-roll. I’m ashamed to admit it, but the normalcy lulled me into silence, as I imagine was the case for many of my peers. None of the hush-hush behaviour that typically surrounded criminal conduct, behaviour that suggested people knew what was happening was wrong, was present here – it was completely out in the open. It was funny.

Since starting at Oxford, I have borne witness to countless cases nearly identical to that of John Smith. Variations of ‘rapist’, ‘molestor’, ‘nonce’, and ‘paedophile’ are shouted across hallways, in tones anything other than accusatory. The addressees may be completely innocent, or they may be people publicly known to have displayed sexually inappropriate behaviour. Those that claim to have been sexually harassed at the hands of these friendly ‘molestors’ are told not to flatter themselves. He does this to everyone, they say. Don’t go thinking you’re special now. The plausible deniability is strengthened by the implication that his friends wouldn’t be joking about it if it were serious. Of course, what these people consider ‘serious’ is anybody’s guess.

As women, we are conditioned to think about sex as private, if not illicit and shameful. The casual violations we face every day that we are told to shrug off – but often end up internalising instead – only exacerbate these negative associations. This is part of the reason why, according to a 2021 investigation, 83% of the 3.4 million acts of sexual violence committed every year in the UK go unreported. ‘Locker room talk’ is so clichéd it almost feels removed from reality, but the Chi Phi text chain proves that, amongst men, sex is talked about as a winning game where the opposing side never stood a chance. Fraternities, as well as, say, rugby and football clubs, are able to reinforce this model of thinking through ritualistic synchrony and cyclical violence. As long as hazing is a requirement for men to join masculine social spheres, they will view casual acts of violence as social rather than violatory. As long as other men continue to reaffirm this behaviour as unserious, funny, something to bond over, 2.8 million Jane Does who are never heard from will continue to emerge.

Perhaps the most effective tool we have at our disposal against casual sexism is casual feminism. Whilst it is our hard-earned prerogative to call for radical change, calling out misogynistic and sexually inappropriate behaviour we perceive in our day-to-day interactions is equally important to driving institutional change. One of the greatest resources that Oxford has available to promote casual feminism is collegiate feminist societies. Despite its century-long history as a women’s college, St Hugh’s has only had an active Feminist Society for just over a year. Co-founders Eleanor Suh and Alex Cutmore say carrying the legacy of the college’s history was part of their reason for setting up the society. “It’s important to honour our history,” Alex tells me. “Keeping alive what notable alumni, like Emily Wilding Davison, fought for is one of the central aims of the society.” Eleanor agrees, contending that “Oxford has a very male history in a lot of ways – FemSoc is one way of counteracting that.” 

However, it is important to both the founders that FemSoc is a space that allows for communication between students of all genders. “In our experience, the men who attend FemSoc meetings tend to have the right attitude. We are yet to have anyone in attendance who only showed up to make a joke out of everything,” Alex says. “It’s up to the individual space to decide their own guidelines regarding who can attend, but I believe that FemSoc is first and foremost a political space, rather than a representative or social one. The primary factor that should draw people to the society is that they are feminists, not that they are women. To me, it is imperative that all people are welcome – we should be united by our politics, rather than our identities.” I ask them whether they think a tangible stigma inhibits men from contributing meaningfully to feminist discussions. 

“I have had conversations with some men who believe they cannot come to FemSoc, even though they identify as feminists, because of a belief that the space isn’t for them. They don’t want to ‘speak over women’.” Eleanor thinks this is a weak excuse. “You can come and just listen! I’ve found that many men intellectually present as feminists, but don’t apply the principles of feminism to their own lives. Part of our objective as a society is to make feminism practical and visible, and not have it sidelined as an abstract, academic ideal. Having a male attendance at meetings where we explicitly discuss topics like sexual assault is necessary. I find it very upsetting when people think they are not allowed to participate in feminist spaces, because having people voice their varied perspectives is what leads to tangible progress.” 

I wonder what their experience with rape culture has been, and what role they think the society plays in combating unhealthy sexual attitudes. “Rape culture in university spaces is mostly upheld through humour,” Alex asserts. “What makes hazing in social spaces centred around drinking and sports so powerful is that nobody takes it very seriously. They are means of socialising that are well-integrated into college life. Greek life has an added element of having to pay to become a member, which compounds the corrupted power dynamics, but in order to participate in many collegiate societies here at Oxford, you have to implicitly agree to not interfere with the rituals of that particular social sphere.” FemSoc is both a foil and an accessible alternative to these social spaces. “I believe that FemSoc is a passive threat to rape culture. It’s not just a deterrent, but a way of acknowledging that there isn’t a monoculture at our college.” People who condemn these male-dominated rituals do exist and, using the society as a vehicle, are less afraid to make themselves known, she says. This is a remarkable advantage for all the female members of the college. “Even if you don’t come to meetings, just knowing that FemSoc exists, that there are like-minded people around you, can be comforting.”

Alex and Eleanor agree that despite the positive impact that FemSoc has had on their lives, as well as those of all its members, it is difficult to quantify whether there has been a tangible decrease in sexism in college spaces. As hard as we fight back, we cannot be responsible for the bulk of the necessary changes – that must come from men themselves. What the Cornell case reveals is not that there are some deranged men, or that educational institutions are ill-equipped to respond to reports of sexual violence, or even that the justice system frequently fails victims of sexual violence. All this, we have long known. What it has successfully, awfully brought to light is that for every seven men who commit unimaginable acts of sexual violence, there are 50 men who watch silently. There are 50 men who will later joke about it. I want to be ambitious – I want to say I hope this is where the cycle breaks, and men start speaking out against each other. But let’s start with immediately achievable goals: I hope this will urge the men I know to have the decency not to laugh.

The art of reaching out to old friends

Ilya Rosenbaum
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The art of reaching out to old friends

During the summer vacation, I decided to reach out to a friend I’ve known for more than seven years. We graduated from high school together, each moved to UK universities, and are both navigating the second-year experience of applying to internships, studying, and socialising. Yet, despite the parallels between our lives, I hadn’t seen my friend since last December. We didn’t text everyday or call very often. Our communication at university went no further than the occasional Instagram comment. 

So naturally, when I asked them to meet up, a question nagged at my mind: “If we’re not sending each other constant updates, are things going to be awkward?” 

Coming to university, I realised that the stable, effortless reliability of my friends from home was, all of a sudden, precarious and difficult to maintain. As if turning off a light, the brightness of a friendship can abruptly dim when both of you are dealing with the hurdles of Freshers’ Week, getting used to the workload, and settling into a new routine. Finding time to text can feel impossible, and, before you know it, you haven’t talked in a month. Or two. Anxious thoughts creep into your head. Without even realizing it, you’ve managed to convince yourself that someone who was once a dear friend is now a complete stranger.

Then I met my friend. Jokes galore, laughs about, memories resurfacing, and promises to call more often. Talking with my friend, I realised that time and distance do not have to strain a relationship. Leading separate lives does not negate what you had in the past, nor does it define your future. Not only did our conversation go well, we even spoke about reaching out to more old friends. 

I explained how it felt weird to call up a friend at a random time, in those moments where you’re alone in your room and have nothing to do. Aren’t I intruding into their personal lives? What if they’re busy? Aren’t I annoying them with my pestering? My friend’s response to these worries changed my perception completely about reaching out: “When you get a call from an old friend, don’t you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside?”

I am here to tell you to reject the thoughts of doubt. When you flip the situation, you realise receiving a text from someone you’ve known for such a long time is not just a welcome surprise; it’s also one of those things that makes you wonder why you hadn’t thought of it yourself.  Speaking with my friend helped me realise how the barrier to reaching out is really just a mental one. Especially in our digital age, where sending a message is instantaneous, emotional distance to someone is only created in your own imagination. Making the first move then becomes a matter of experience. The more you do it, the easier it becomes to keep in touch. 

Now don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t always work out. Sometimes you’re left on delivered, or even worse, read. A change in mindset is what I propose: being left on read by a friend could be their own mistake! Assuming malice or ignorance is merely jumping to conclusions with little evidence, which, as Oxford students, we should understand is not always rational. If not, however, we’ve arrived at our worst-case scenario. Congrats! Rock bottom, as it turns out, is not so bad. Unfortunately, growing apart is a part of growing up. Not everyone you reach out to is going to rekindle a flame of friendship.

Rejection from one, however, does not equal rejection from all. To let one sad experience colour your view of how every instance of reaching out will go is a mistake. This leads me to my next point, which is: double texting is not the end of the world! In stressful times like the beginning, or even the middle, of university, it’s not unusual for texts and calls to get lost. The art of reaching out includes being alright with the ‘embarrassment’ of saying “hi” multiple times, and to multiple people. 

But when all seems lost, when a person insists on staying a brick wall to your texts, perhaps it becomes time to move on. This is alright too. Reaching out requires balance: being brave enough to poke a friend, but also recognising when your efforts should lie elsewhere. After all, you’re at Oxford now! Seeking out new friends should also be a part of your goals. The interesting point about reaching out is that it also helps build your skills in finding friends. Just like meeting new people, breaking the silence requires confidence, acceptance that rejection is possible, and the chance to train a muscle everyone should build. 

To end on a happier note, I am glad to say reaching out to my friend led her to visiting me in Oxford. My two worlds collided, and I couldn’t be more excited about the way a balance could be created between my old life and my new one. This is a call to all Oxford students: reach out to your old companions, you might never know what could come of it.

Politics must not serve as a barrier to education

Ti-Jean Martin
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Politics must not serve as a barrier to education

As this article goes to print, Oxford University is missing two of its offer-holders. In a haunting echo of the trials faced by approximately 78 Palestinian students last academic year, several of whom held places at Oxford, two Sudanese doctors are unable to begin master’s courses at the University this October. This comes after the High Court dismissed their legal challenge to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s ‘emergency brake’ visa policy, which also affects applicants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Myanmar. 

As the Oxford Sudanese Society stated in its recent announcement, the decision is a “collective penalty” against students who have faced extraordinary barriers in accessing higher education. Based on rhetoric accusing students from the four nations of “abusing” the visa system to claim asylum in the UK, it is symptomatic of an en vogue desire to pander to anti-immigration sentiments. This flies in the face of the educational meritocracy successive governments have said they wanted to achieve.

If the UK holds itself to be a centre of educational excellence, it cannot deny deserving students access to universities on political grounds. The Home Office’s own figures, moreover, do not scream “abuse of the system”. In 2025, the four affected nations made up only 0.7% of study visas granted; 380 of the 1,480 Sudanese students given visas between 2021 and 2025 went on to claim asylum.

The rhetoric used to prevent talented individuals from taking up deserved places at Oxford and elsewhere, therefore, appears to be no more than a string of buzzwords. Effectively, the government is punishing students for falling foul of the current political landscape’s value systems. It did the same to the aforementioned Palestinian students, who could not be granted visas without registering biometric information that has been impossible to acquire in Gaza since 2023. 

After a summer of uncertainty, at least six of these scholars reached Oxford last academic year, benefiting from the University’s Palestine Crisis Sponsorship Scheme, which allowed them to carry out the biometrics process in Jordan. Yet many students without sponsorship remain unable to acquire the necessary documents. Some, who cannot meet the requirement of having to leave dependent families in a warzone, have had to make what one St Hilda’s College offer-holder described as the “heartbreaking choice” to remain. Many are therefore as shut off from British education as their Sudanese counterparts. 

There is hypocrisy to this at every level. It is, of course, obvious that falsely claiming that students are “exploiting British generosity” contravenes both universities’ efforts to attract diverse intellectual talent and the basic human right to education. But on a deeper level, we must examine British complicity, both contemporary and historical, in the current state of the countries the government has denied visa access to. 

There are no visa offices in the Gaza Strip partly because it is being bombarded by a state the UK continues to have a defence relationship with. There are, arguably, conflicts in Sudan, Afghanistan, and Myanmar partly because of British actions dating from the peak of the British Empire to the present day – and it is largely because of these conflicts that student visa-holders would choose to seek asylum. 

And if they were to seek asylum in such great numbers, why would it be a problem? Are we not facing a shortage of skilled, specialised minds, for example in the medical profession? Would the NHS not benefit from the government allowing students to study International Health, Genomic Medicine, or Health Service Improvement (a selection of the MSc courses that Sudanese and Palestinian offer-holders held places for), rather than blocking them from entering the country? 

Most saddeningly, this decision disadvantages students aiming to use higher education to better ameliorate the problems facing their home nations. One of the Sudanese students barred from entering the country saw an education at Oxford as her way to “help rebuild health systems in a country devastated by war”. It is paradoxical to take the current situation in Sudan as justification for preventing its students from accessing an education that could help lessen its severity. 

Every student with an offer from Oxford deserves to take up their place, regardless of nationality. By denying a whole generation of students their future on trumped-up charges of asylum ‘abuse’, the government is dealing direct harm to both Britain and the wider world. 

“Everyone has the right to education… higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26(1))

University rankings can be misleading

Saba Ahmadzadeh Noughani
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University rankings can be misleading

When I came very close to rejecting Oxford for the University of Exeter, a non-British friend of my mother said to me: “I hadn’t heard of Exeter until now, but the name Oxford? I’ve known it since I was a child.” Another person remarked that “you can pick Exeter, but as good as it may be, Oxford’s prestige will never be taken away”. 

The Exeter course of my choice, Middle East Studies, had for many years ranked higher than the equivalent course at Oxford. But since Oxford had been consistently ranked first overall for the past decade, I felt it would come across as foolish to reject what is often dubbed ‘the best university in the world’ for an institution that was, while outstanding, not ranked in the top ten globally.

Where I study, or who has studied there before me, has never been of any importance nor a source of pride for me, but it is widely accepted that some of the best writers, poets, scientists and public figures the world has ever seen received an Oxbridge education. Therefore, Oxford and Cambridge being ranked outside the top three universities in the UK was not something I ever expected to read. 

And yet, in this year’s The Sunday Times Good University Guide, Oxford was ranked four places below St Andrews, which came first.

Last year, the guide ranked LSE first in the UK, even though Oxford was ranked first globally by both the QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education for the tenth consecutive year.

The most recent university rankings, published by Times Higher Education (THE) last week, place Oxford as the  ‘number one for a record 11th consecutive year’. Oxford holds the longest reign at number one of any university in the history of the ranking.

Chancellor William Hague wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday that “Rankings are only one measure of a great university, but to sustain this position for 11 consecutive years in an increasingly competitive world is a tremendous achievement.”

While The Sunday Times ranks St Andrews 1st in the UK, the QS World University Rankings place it at 115th, and the Times Higher Education places it at 185th worldwide. 

In contrast, The Sunday Times ranked Oxford  5th in the UK, but the QS World University Rankings placed Oxford 4th globally, while Times Higher Education (THE) ranked it 1st.

These numbers may initially seem contradictory and confusing on the surface, but asking which university is the best  in the UK, or globally, simply depends on who you ask and which factors they consider.

The Times and The Sunday Times UK ranking is first and foremost designed around the undergraduate student experience and prioritises factors like student satisfaction, teaching quality, graduate prospects, entry standards, research quality, and more.

By contrast, both the Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings assess global university performance and place greater emphasis on global academic position and research standing. They prioritise academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations, global research networks, international students and staff, and research productivity.

While one ranking is concerned with the undergraduate student experience in Britain, the global rankings, which consistently place Oxford among the top 5 universities globally , place  more weight on a university’s global academic influence and profile.

When comparing St Andrews to Oxford, it is important to recognise that St Andrews is a relatively small and undergraduate-focused university. Oxford, by contrast, is a large, internationally oriented institution with considerably greater research output and global influence. I would not necessarily expect Oxford to rank 1st in rankings that focus on the day-to-day undergraduate experience. 

In fact, the current Sunday Times ranking explains Oxford’s fall to fifth place partly by pointing to its student feedback performance. THE has no direct student-satisfaction measure; instead, it considers research environment and quality, industry knowledge and transfer, and reputation surveys.

It is therefore not surprising that St Andrews, despite not dominating global research to the same extent as Oxford, has scored highly on the factors that a UK undergraduate league table like The Sunday Times prioritises, such as student satisfaction.

As someone who also initially applied to St Andrews before withdrawing, and later accepted an offer from Oxford, St Andrews now being ranked first in the UK by The Sunday Times does not make me regret my choice because I understand what that ranking was primarily measuring. It does not focus on global academic reputation, research influence, international standing, or fully capture the breadth and scale of research.

Oxford’s reputation is built upon nine centuries of academic history. Its rival, Cambridge, was founded by former Oxford academics. Yet despite St Andrews ranking first as the UK’s best university, I doubt we will see an influx of students rejecting their Oxford offers for St Andrews overnight. 

In fact, when I once told a former teacher that “Oxford is just a name”, they replied: “A name that holds power in so many rooms.” 

St Andrews attained 1st position according to one particular ranking and its specific set of criteria, but even if, for the sake of argument, THE did not rank Oxford 1st, I would feel no different. No ranking table that can erase Oxford’s institutional reputation and traditional prestige.

A jarring Mann: ‘Fatherland’ (2026) in review

Freddie Lewis-Hedley
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A jarring Mann: ‘Fatherland’ (2026) in review

Fatherland, which recounts celebrated Modernist author Thomas Mann’s return to a Germany in wreck and rubble, deals with great personal malaise against a backdrop of great political unease. The year is 1949 and Mann is giving a reading tour through East and West Germany, at least ostensibly hoping to edify and uplift his war-traumatised audience. It is clear, though, that Mann’s grandiloquence will not conjure a better order into being. Some of the brightest shots illuminate gaping expanses of rubble between the town halls and churches where Mann holds forth to packed crowds, and after these addresses, drunken candour and old wartime songs abound. All of this is observed by Mann’s daughter Erika, played by Sandra Hüller, who does a good job of balancing critical winces and bitter-sympathetic smiles as she is dragged between events, silent except in her capacity as an interpreter for Mann’s’ interviews to a cloying international press. She also acts as the family’s moral conscience. Her brother Klaus, played by August Diehl, is profoundly depressed and not in touch with his haughty ‘magician’ father, and when, after a devastating incident Erika also loses contact, the daughter-father drama intensifies until emotional release is forced in the film’s last moments. 

I watched Fatherland shortly before the tense mid-September Berlin elections where the far-right Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) and far-left Die Linke party both gained significant ground, so at least the atmosphere, if not the specifics of the political turbulence depicted in the film, was of a piece with my surroundings. The Kino International venue, huddled near the centre of the dreadful, looming Communist concrete of Alexanderplatz also put me in mind of the East-West tensions strikingly portrayed in the film by the story’s progress eastwards, across checkpoints and into sparser rural space; my interest was primed for a scintillating political piece. 

Instead, though, I found the personal drama far more compelling than the film’s political commentary, which often felt simplistic and lacking in the former’s emotional intelligence. The first scene, a study of Klaus in strikingly focused despair over a literary and personal crisis of meaning, shows the 30-something’s lithe, sinewy torso in exposing, crisp black-and-white. There’s a shadowy, blurred one-night-stand in the background above the bed (Klaus was gay but, intriguingly, the long-haired lover is genuinely androgynous), and as they move passively, perhaps indifferently, Klaus writhes about in angst and indecision while on the phone to Erika. It is one of the longest scenes of the film, and the camera’s static, steady character study reminded me of some of Bergman’s best psychological work in Scenes from a Marriage. Klaus’ initiating scene casts an ironising shadow over the ensuing bourgeois soirees on his father’s speaking tour, and his brief screen presence conveys as much character as Zischler manages to in his role as the main Mann. 

I always admire when cinema makes political events moving; films as diverse as The Battle of Algiers, Paths of Glory and Steven Spielberg’s Munich have all brought me to tears with visually eloquent set pieces set in war or its aftermath. Fatherland is not so articulate. Pawlikowski relies on easter egg quasi-gags to poke fun at history’s villains, including Gustaf Gründgens, a Nazi-era thespian (though no Leni Riefenstahl; the remarkable Gründgens is a prime case study for the ‘art versus artist’ dilemma) and friend of the Manns who is portrayed as a charmless, bigoted representative of the postwar German intelligentsia in a brief, brusque interaction with Erika. I refer readers to Uncle Max in The Sound of Music for a complex, queasily likeable Nazi sympathiser, and to Mephisto for a nuanced confrontation with Gründgens himself. 

Other objects of political criticism are crass, materialist American propagandists in the West and, more interestingly, a slimy, Mephistopheles-quoting Soviet general and his East German underling from the culture ministry. This last official follows the party line with Mann, but his sometimes faltering, conflicted manner concisely betrays all the sorrow, uncertainty and daunting weight of his countrymen’s past and future. Occasionally, the cinematography achieves the same political poignance: in a devastated West German town, the camera lingers on a bleach-white empty church hall, suggesting false innocence and secular angst. 

Indeed, black-and-white is deployed to great effect. Many mornings on the road are shot through with searing sunlight turned eerily silver and cold by cinematographer Lukasz Zal, and the sombre aesthetic somehow enhances a closing burst of Bach from the organ of an almost-abandoned East German church, the site of Mann’s much belated emotional unloading – a scene which, albeit, has by my reckoning somehow more bathos than pathos. 

I would almost venture to say that Fatherland much more resembles a certain kind of cosy, historical dramedy than a serious political piece. Mann appears too hapless and bumbling to offer us a protagonist apt to deal with the ongoing turmoil within his family and fatherland. Well-paced and clocking in under 90 minutes, it goes down enjoyably, though maybe too comfortably, but its occasional flashes of emotional incisiveness are to be commended. 

Anti-hunting group protests against alleged illegal hunt on St John’s College land

Orla McMahon
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Anti-hunting group protests against alleged illegal hunt on St John’s College land

Anti-hunting protesters gathered outside the Sheldonian Theatre during matriculation on Saturday to protest against alleged illegal hunting activities on land owned by St John’s College.

Locals Against the Warwickshire Hunt allege that on 1st September an illegal hunt crossed onto land owned by St John’s at Heathcote Farm, near Stratford-upon-Avon. The organisation opposes and monitors the Warwickshire Hunt, a historic fox hunting pack dating back to the 18th century. The organisation told Cherwell that the Warwickshire hunts’ actions result in “cruel and barbaric torment of wildlife” and that they “blight local communities”.

Officially, hunting groups in England can only practise trail hunting, in which an artificial scent is laid for hounds to follow. Using hounds to kill or maim wild animals, or using trail hunting as a cover for hunting an animal, is illegal under the Hunting Act 2004. Locals Against Warwickshire Hunt allege the hunt breaks these laws to illegally hunt foxes. 

St John’s issued a statement on 3rd September denying that illegal hunting took place on their land. They note that the hunt travelled across Heathcote Farm with “express consent” of the College’s tenants. The College also stated that it “would not knowingly permit unlawful activity to take place on its property” and that it had “found no evidence” that an offence was committed.

The College met with representatives from Locals Against the Warwickshire Hunt on 5th October to discuss their concerns; however, the group still decided to go ahead with their planned protest last Saturday 17th October. 

Around 20 individuals gathered outside of the Sheldonian Theatre at 10am, some holding placards calling for the College to ban trail hunting on its lands. Oxfordshire Coalition of Animal Advocates and Oxfordshire Hunt Saboteurs also joined the group. As students came out of the Sheldonian for matriculation, the protesters told them to tell their colleges to “stop the hunt”.

At the protest, Brian, a spokesperson for Locals Against the Warwickshire Hunt, told Cherwell: “Local people have had enough… we have people that go out and get their roads blocked… they get hounds through their gardens… pets disappearing. It can’t go on.

“What we’d really like would be for St John’s College to say that’s it. We’re not allowing it on our land any more. And then we’re all friends again.”

Another member of Locals Against the Warwickshire Hunt told Cherwell: “It’s just not acceptable. They [Warwickshire Hunt] had an opportunity over 20 years ago to legitimise their actions. Trail hunting was brought in to allow them to do things, providing they called their dogs away. They use it as a smokescreen… They know that they have broken the law. They do it deliberately because they have a bloodlust for murdering animals.”

Following the meeting with Locals Against the Warwickshire Hunt, St John’s has stated it is considering the matter through its statutory governing processes, which will ensure a “potentially significant decision” is made about trail hunting on College land. In the meantime, the College has temporarily removed permission for Warwickshire Hunt to access its land until November 2026. 

Oxford University and councils announce partnership to build Greenway cycle lanes

Vanisha Karna
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Oxford University and councils announce partnership to build Greenway cycle lanes

Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, and the University of Oxford have announced plans to build expansive new walking and cycling routes in the Greenways plan. The new Greenways would link Oxford to nearby towns and villages, connecting 200,000 residents to the city on traffic-free paths. 

The plans include 18 proposed routes, most extending 5 to 8 miles around Oxford. They will involve creating new routes, as well as upgrading and incorporating existing ones. The plans would cover around 60 towns and villages within cycling distance, including Woodstock, Abingdon, and Kidlington.  

All routes will be car-free, either through paths next to busy roads, as on Marston Ferry Road, or completely traffic-free paths. One route will go from the Peartree Roundabout at the end of Woodstock Road to Blenheim Palace. 

Oxford University told Cherwell: “The University keenly supports the Oxford Greenways Masterplan, which will help create a better, more livable city for everyone”, adding “we are committed to helping our staff and students commute… in a healthy, sustainable way”. Between 2023 and 2024, the University committed £33,000 to the project. 

Oxford University has maintained its top position in the Times Higher Education rankings globally for its 11th consecutive year. However, in certain categories its lead has narrowed, with MIT outperforming Oxford on citation impact and research strength. When announcing the plans earlier this month, the vice-chancellor emphasised the importance of attracting research talent. 

The University has also been building a growing number of facilities outside the centre of the city, including the Oxford University Science Park in Begbroke, which would receive better traffic-free connections if proposed routes were to be implemented. There are plans to build 1,800 new homes near Begbroke, and the plans would make commuting to the centre more feasible. 

While the concepts of each route have been agreed, construction is expected to be delivered in stages, dependent on investments from the council and government as well as developer contributions and partnerships. 

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