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Local and business leaders in Oxford sleep out for homelessness

Barnaby Carter
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Local and business leaders in Oxford sleep out for homelessness

Forty-eight business and community leaders slept out in University Parks to raise money for homelessness as part of the annual Oxfordshire CEO sleepout on 8th October. 

The charity event has raised over £45,000, with 655 donations at the time of publication. The event attracted figures from local politics and the University of Oxford alike, including Labour MP for Oxford East Anneliese Dodds, City Councillor Mike Rowley, University Church Vicar William Lamb and Director of Accommodation at Jesus College Angela Unsworth. Unsworth has participated every year since it began, and Jesus covered logistics on the night, with its catering team helping prepare for the event. 

Unsworth told Cherwell: “Even when the weather has been atrocious, it does us all good to remember that we can go home, have a shower, and breakfast. We don’t have the problem of drying out all our kit, finding dry bedding, and having to do it all again the next night.” Before trying to catch some sleep, participants heard from Jack and Tony, who talked about their journey out of homelessness and experience with it. Unsworth also highlighted talking to Steve every morning, a 70-year-old man sleeping rough in the city centre who cannot afford accommodation. Unsworth told Cherwell: “These are good people who just need a chance.” 

CEO Sleepout, an organisation dedicated to uniting the business community against homelessness, held the event in partnership with Oxfordshire Homeless Movement (OHM). They hold similar sleep outs in cities across the UK, and have raised £4.5 million for various charities to date. Oxford CEO Sleepout is organised by Oxfordshire Homeless Movement, the partnership of all the organisations helping people experiencing homelessness across the County. Over the past 5 years, OHM has raised almost £300,000 for its project work and partners from the Sleepout events.

Yvonne Pinner, Project Director of OHM, told Cherwell: “Oxfordshire Homeless Movement (OHM) is lucky enough to have our core costs paid for by a donor, and so all the funds raised will go towards delivery of our project work and partners. This means that all money raised will help someone locally.” Pinner also added that students can get involved in the initiative by “talking about the event to lecturers, college staff, and management and getting them to sign up”.

More than 1,700 people died on the streets of the UK in 2025, including 51 children, both figures being the highest ever recorded. Although the national number of households assessed as threatened with homelessness dropped by 4.5% from January to March 2025 compared with the same figure in 2024, in Oxford the number doubled. Oxford’s average monthly rent reached £1,875 in 2025, an 11.5% annual increase, being the highest average monthly rent outside London. As many as 41 individuals were reported as sleeping rough in November 2024, but this figure likely underreports the population of homeless women in Oxford. This is because women are much more likely to experience ‘hidden homelessness’, staying in hidden or unsafe places to avoid danger on the street. 

Homeless Oxfordshire’s CEO Simon Hewett-Avison has called for a greater investment in social housing in the city. He also highlights that addressing rent hikes isn’t the only way to go about the problem, saying that: “The average age of death in the homeless population is early 40s and the incidence of poor physical and mental health within the homeless population far outweighs that of society as a whole”. He has called to “work more closely across sectors”. 

Students can join a number of organisations tackling homelessness, including Oxford Student Social Action Coalition, Food Rescuers, and Oxford Mutual Aid. 

Record 15,000 runners participate in Oxford Half Marathon

Gavriella Epstein-Lightman
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Record 15,000 runners participate in Oxford Half Marathon

A record 15,000 runners took to the streets of Oxford to complete the annual half marathon on Sunday 11th October. Thousands of supporters lined the course to cheer the runners. Alex Miell-Ingram won the race in 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 21 seconds. 

Many ran the half marathon for charity. Helen and Douglas House, the world’s first children’s hospice, was the headline charity partner, with 300 people running in support. The charity supports terminally ill children and their families in Oxfordshire. This year, it aims to raise £200,000, the cost of funding a hospice bed for one year. 

Twenty people ran for Asylum Welcome, a charity which provides advice and support for refugees and asylum seekers living in Oxfordshire. Among them was the charity’s Joint CEO Dr Hari Reed. The group hope to raise £10,000. 

The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Chewe Munkonge, was among the 15,000 runners on Sunday. He ran the half marathon to raise funds for Sobell House Hospice, one of this year’s charities, which provides specialist palliative care. Munkonge said he would not wear his mayoral regalia on the course, saying: “This Sunday, I’ll be swapping the mayoral chains for running shoes”. “This will be my first half marathon, so there are definitely some nerves,” he added. 

Simon Lewthwaite, who has epilepsy, ran his first half marathon in an official NHS patient hospital gown to raise money for Oxford Hospitals Charity. He said that completing it with epilepsy would be “an even greater test of resilience and determination”.

The Oxford Half Marathon began in 1988 and was won by athlete Bill Domoney in 1 hour 11 minutes and 14 seconds. The 51 Rotary clubs in the area organised the race to raise money for the PolioPlus campaign, a programme aiming to eliminate six killer diseases. People came from overseas to run past Oxford’s historic hotspots, and the oldest entrant, veteran Arthur Stone, was aged 70 at the time. Oxford’s Rotary clubs continued to organise the event until 1993. 

The half marathon returned in 2011, with 1,800 runners. Just two years later, in 2013, it had 5,500 runners, and the number of runners and spectators has grown steadily year on year. In 2025, more than 13,000 runners signed up and places sold out in January. That year, the event raised over £1.5 million for more than 180 charities. 

Cherwell spoke to students who ran the race. Ioanna Bezirtzoglou, a third-year DPhil student at Pembroke, ran as part of Oxford Girls’ Running Club and volunteered at the race last year. She ran dressed as a princess. “I love the fact I have a community as encouraging as Oxford Girls Running,” Ioanna told Cherwell. “Having volunteered last year at the Oxford half, it’s so exciting to be able to run it this year!”

Dina Graham from Pembroke told Cherwell that “the energy from the crowd really carried me through and was a highlight throughout”. “People stood outside their homes with bowls of sweets that you could grab,” she added. Dina ran for Maggie’s, a charity for people with cancer. “It was motivating to raise money to support them. It gave a purpose and a reason why I’m running.”

This year, the race sold out general entries in less than three weeks – three months faster than in 2025. This puts it ahead of wider industry averages, even as the half marathon industry is expanding overall. The latest Mass Participation Pulse report shows events are selling out ten days earlier than in 2024, and almost a month earlier than 2023. The Hackney Half Marathon, for instance, has also sold out its tickets faster year on year, having sold out in two days for the 2026 race. 

With record popularity and turnout in 2026, the Oxford Half has now cemented its place in Oxford’s sporting calendar. What was once an event with little more than 1,000 runners has now become an unmissable fixture involving 15,000. 

Image credits: Maryam Nawaz, with permission

Students join march against the far right at matriculation

Cherwell News
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Students join march against the far right at matriculation

Approximately 300 demonstrators joined the ‘Oxford Unites Against the Far Right’ unity march Saturday afternoon, amid matriculation ceremonies. More than 23 local organisations took part in the peaceful march from Cowley Road to the Sheldonian Theatre, challenging the far right’s rise across the UK. 

Oxford Stand Up To Racism organised the march, which included representatives from political parties and matriculating students at the University of Oxford. 

A representative from Stand Up to Racism, Monique, opened the rally: “We are going to show the love of Oxford today. We’ve got to find our humanity – it feels like this country has forgotten that.” Speaking to Cherwell, she added: “The message is simple: everyone should be welcome. That is the way England has always been, giving refuge to those who need it.”

In her speech, Labour Councillor for Blackbird Leys Lubna Arshad referenced the City Council’s commitment to make Oxford an anti-racist city. “We must turn those commitments into action,” she told the crowd. “The far right does not speak for Oxford. The far right will not divide us.”

A small group within the crowd booed the councillor’s speech, shouting “F*ck the Labour Party” and “Labour is a racist Party”. The crowd hushed them, and Stand Up To Racism said: “Today is for unity. The far right wants to divide us. We are all speaking the same message.” At the end of the event, Ian McKendrich, a representative for Oxfordshire Stand Up To Racism, said: “We need unity irrespective of our differences on other issues.”

Crowds of newly matriculated students in sub fusc cheered as the march approached the Sheldonian Theatre, some joining in to sing ‘Bella ciao’ down the High Street. One matriculant told Cherwell: “I wanted to show there’s no place in Oxford for the far right, as much as Ghislaine Maxwell and Boris Johnson have come from here.” 

Emma Jones, speaking on behalf of the Coalition to Keep Campsfield Closed, called the detention centre “one of the biggest symbols of division in Oxford”. Since its reopening in December 2025, the centre has drawn regular protests. “Immigration detention is racist,” she told the crowd, “for more than 30 years, people in Oxfordshire have refused to accept Campsfield. The biggest danger of a thing like Campsfield is that we become accustomed to it.” Plans from the government to more than double Campsfield’s capacity are currently undergoing a public inquiry. 

The demonstrators held placards including “Make Nazis afraid again”, and banners which called for the protection of Oxford as a city of sanctuary. Seth, the former Co-Chair of Oxford Labour Club, told Cherwell: “These marches show the people to whom the far right poses a genuine, tangible threat that they are not the only ones who have a voice, that there are people everywhere in the community that care and that will stand up with them.”

“It achieves genuine things,” he added. “Look at Shabana Mahmood – she has changed her policy on immigration rules that she imposed last November because of these constant protests.”

This is the second consecutive year that Stand Up To Racism has led the march in Oxford. Reflecting on last year’s demonstration, a drummer from Extinction Rebellion told Cherwell: “I think it was appreciated by people who can feel under attack at the moment. People come out of their houses clapping and thanking [us] – it is in solidarity with those people too.” 

Oxford is one of eight cities to hold unity marches this Saturday. Speaking with Cherwell, Ines Wilhelm, the newly elected Chair for the Oxfordshire Green Party, said that “this is a happy protest. Lots of people are coming out, having a good time, and showing that they care about each other.” 

Additional reporting by Mair Andrews, Stanley Arlidge, and Freya Robson.

A year abroad for all

Leo Jones
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A year abroad for all

As Michaelmas rolls around once again, I open my phone to the unmistakable signs of a new academic year at Oxford. Society committee pleas, ads for upcoming club nights, and emails welcoming a new wave of freshers fill my inbox and feed. But this year, scrolling through those familiar notifications leaves me with a feeling I did not expect. 

Now in my third year, the time has finally come for the long-anticipated, even longer-in-the-making ‘year abroad’. While friends return to Oxford, I find myself watching the new academic year unfold from a distance – no collections to revise for, no frantic search for a last-minute BOP costume, and no Plush Thursday to inevitably mark the weekend drawing near. 

As I sit writing this from Buenos Aires, Argentina, I feel deeply conflicted. Of course, there is a certain melancholy in watching friends slip so effortlessly back into the rhythms of university life. It can be oddly unsettling to see a place that has played such a significant part in my adult life carry on as though I had never left.

Yet simultaneously, I am glad not to be there. The concept of lining up for hall food, pulling an all-nighter in the library, or squeezing into the queue at Bully is significantly less appealing from 7,000 miles away. For all the nostalgia that comes with watching Oxford from afar, distance has also given me something I didn’t realise was needed: perspective. 

And no, this is not going to be a long rambling of how I ‘found myself on my gap yah’. Although, somewhere between getting on the wrong bus to work and confidently preparing mate in entirely the wrong way, I have started to wonder why an experience this valuable should be reserved for students studying certain subjects. 

There is something liberating about being somewhere where nobody knows your name, your college, or your subject. While abroad, I am no longer simply an Oxford student navigating the same routines of term-time life; I am an outsider, and, most importantly, a beginner again. The world suddenly feels much bigger than the few square miles I had grown accustomed to calling home.

It would be easy to romanticise this feeling. I am not Anthony Bourdain, travelling the world with a camera crew filming an episode of Parts Unknown. I am, instead, entirely reliant on a far less glamorous student loan, a questionably downloaded eSIM, and what appears to be a complete inability to read Google Maps.

Indeed, it can at times be overwhelming to think just how much I have left behind. Over two years’ worth of friendships, routines and rituals do not simply disappear because you board a flight. Friends are still there, returning to university for their final year, before graduating and stepping into the increasingly structured world of work. From a distance, it can feel as though everyone else is moving forward along a path that I have temporarily stepped away from.

For my friends back in Oxford, that step is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. With 78% of graduates reportedly worried about finding employment, and 71.9% already in professional-level roles within just 15 months of graduating, it is hardly surprising that the job market can feel overwhelmingly competitive. Talks of internships now dominate a FaceTime catch-up, and for many, there is little choice but to climb to the first rung of the corporate ladder as soon as possible. The opportunity to travel, experiment, and explore a different way of living (both personally and professionally) can all too easily be pushed aside in favour of getting on with the ‘more serious’ route of starting a career. 

That is precisely what makes the time away so valuable. It is a rare opportunity to step away from the well-trodden path for a while, without having to abandon it altogether. As more UK universities begin to offer years abroad across a wider range of subjects, it seems worth asking why Oxford should be any different.

The benefits are far from merely personal. I am now working at an Argentine news network, using a language I have spent years studying, but in an environment where getting the grammar right is rather less theoretical than it is in a classroom. Language students are fortunate in this respect: learning a language inevitably means learning something about the people and culture that speak it. But what about everyone else?

At its core, it is an exercise in empathy and human connection. A PPE student can encounter political and economic ideas outside the British context; a historian can experience another country’s relationship with its past; a scientist can apply their technical skills in a professional environment shaped by an entirely different set of assumptions. With funding available to make these experiences more accessible, there is little reason for the year abroad to remain the preserve of language students. Studying something is one thing; being forced to apply it somewhere unfamiliar is another.

With this may come the feeling of being out of one’s depth. But, certainly for me, that is the most important part. At a time when immigration, integration, and national identity occupy so much of British political debate, there is value in experiencing what it actually feels like to enter a society in which you do not automatically understand the language, the customs, or the unwritten rules. 

Here, I am a newcomer trying to work out how things are done. More than once, I have forgotten to kiss the cheek of a superior at work, or have asked for completely the wrong thing at a supermarket. With that comes a certain humility, as you become constantly more aware that integration is not simply a matter of arriving somewhere and expecting to feel at home – an all-too common attitude of ‘Brits abroad’. 

And perhaps that is the greatest argument for going abroad. Not because everyone needs to spend a Bourdain-esque year in South America, or because life in Oxford is somehow too small. It is because it is surprisingly easy to mistake the familiar for the universal. Living somewhere else forces you to question assumptions you did not even realise you had – about work, education, politics and culture, or even something as simple as whether a greeting calls for a firm handshake or a warm embrace and kiss on the cheek. 

Eventually, I will return to Oxford, and life will presumably slip back into its familiar rhythms. But I hope to return with a little more perspective on the bubble I have spent two years inhabiting – less convinced that Oxford is the centre of the world, and considerably more curious about everything beyond it.

St Edmund Hall unveils new eco-friendly accommodation 

Isa Bojaj
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St Edmund Hall unveils new eco-friendly accommodation 

St Edmund Hall has opened new, sustainability-focused accommodation in Norham Gardens, one of Oxford’s most affluent neighbourhoods.

 The College describes the buildings, which took three years to construct, as an “exemplar” of sustainability. Designed by architects Wright & Wright LLP, they are certified with a Passivhaus standard, widely regarded as the industry benchmark for energy efficiency, and were built using “sustainably sourced and low-embodied carbon materials”. According to a press release on the Teddy Hall website, the buildings will use 70% less energy than the typical modern building. 

It contains 127 en-suite study rooms, split across three new buildings: Willis House, Ashton House, and Elliott House, on the nearly 50-year-old Norham St Edmund site. The buildings, which back onto University Parks, are powered at least in part by solar panels and are heated by air-source heat pumps. 

The rooms include heated towel racks, big double beds, and dimmable lights. Despite the luxury, the College kept the nightly rate in line with the rest of its Norham housing. The College told Cherwell that it “recognises the need to keep rents as low as possible” and that its accommodation costs are “below the median of all Oxford colleges”. By that standard, tenants are expected to pay around £30 a night. 

Rooms on the site will be reserved for Teddy Hall returning undergraduates. They will not be available to postgraduates and, by extension, not be offered through the Oxford University Collegiate Accommodation System, now in its second year of opening college rooms to students from other colleges. The accommodation will allow Teddy Hall to accommodate all undergraduates for their whole degree. 

The development’s outdoor spaces are boasted as climate-resilient and biodiverse, with landscaped gardens and lawns. For budding geographers and biologists, the most intriguing feature may be an ecology pond. 

Chancellor William Hague said in a press release: “Norham St Edmund is a world-leading blueprint for future student accommodation projects and sustainable building design, both in Oxford and beyond. I look forward to seeing it serve a thriving college community for generations to come.

Summit calls for human rights safeguards on AI

Cherwell News
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Summit calls for human rights safeguards on AI

Human rights experts called for stronger legal protections against the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) at an Oxford AI and Human Rights Summit, with speakers arguing that human rights standards must be embedded into AI governance and technology. 

The summit was hosted at the newly redeveloped Rhodes House in Oxford and organised by the Institute for Ethics in AI. It built upon Professor Yuval Shany’s consultation on a white paper, published in 2025, on the need for and feasibility of an international AI Bill of Human Rights, which proposes ways to adapt existing human rights standards so as to better address some of the unique challenges posed by AI systems and their uses. 

An opening video address from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk outlined how AI policy can keep pace with a fast-developing technology. He said that “great power demands responsibility on the same scale, and when the two don’t match, we have a problem”. Corporate control, he explained, means that AI policy stretches beyond existing national borders. He continued to praise this summit for bringing together leaders and representatives at the forefront of the discussion.

 Speakers called on the UK government to establish legislation, recalling Labour’s manifesto commitment to an AI Bill of Human Rights. The panellists broadly agreed on the importance of human rights, but appeared less aligned on what enforcement should look like in practice.

 In an exclusive interview, Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, told Cherwell that political short-termism risks undermining efforts to address the long-term consequences of AI. “We are infected across our societies with shorttermist responses to the great issue of our societies and politics,” he said, adding that electoral cycles make it difficult for politicians “to think beyond the next election”. 

O’Flaherty also noted that younger generations no longer take the international human rights system for granted. “There is no longer an assumption that the human rights system is safe, that it will survive,” he told Cherwell. He argued that political leaders increasingly treat human rights selectively, saying: “Increasingly, leaders are treating human rights, if they are respected at all, as an a la carte buffet. We take those rights because they serve our goal. We’ll ignore others because they get in the way.

The summit also heard concerns about the effects of AI-generated misinformation on communities that may have limited access to, or awareness of, the technology itself. An audience question asked human rights experts to consider the impacts of AI on populations, such as those in India, who might be unaware of its existence. The focus on the impact of AI on populations in developing countries more vulnerable to the power of big tech was a key theme of the summit. 

Eileen Carter from the South African Human Rights Commission warned that underrepresentation of African languages in large language models could exacerbate existing inequalities. She also raised concerns about the effects of misinformation and deepfakes on elections, referring to more than 360 deaths associated with unrest and the amplification of narratives. 

The third panel, which offered a civil society perspective on promoting human rights in AI systems, offered some hope. Across all speakers, the potential for AI to transform the beliefs that underpin human rights, including the rights to water, education, and an interpreter, was debated. When asked about AI’s potential to unravel and alter the definition of human rights, such as what is included in the ‘right to education’ O’Flaherty told Cherwell: “The damage that can be done by AI has hit more dramatically and more visibly than perhaps any other sector within education through the phenomenon of cognitive loss, of cognitive transfer. We’re only beginning to realise the extent to which we have allowed education to be fundamentally undermined for an entire generation. 

“It’s time to seize that now and engage it. I’m not sure that the classic understanding of the human right to education is particularly well-framed for this extraordinary development.”

 In a discussion on different countries’ regulatory approach to AI, Suresh Venkatasubramanian, professor at Brown University and former AI advisor to US President Joe Biden, argued that AI systems should not be treated as inevitable developments beyond human control. “We continue, I think, to talk about AI as a thing that emerged out of nowhere that we just have to deal with,” he said. “We forget that these aren’t coming from an alien planet and they were built by entities that choose to build them in a certain way.” He called for pressure on technology companies to make different choices about how AI systems are developed. 

Questions of accountability also emerged during discussions about AI’s potential to improve access to justice. Research presented by Philippa Webb said that only 10% of people who have access to a lawyer can get one while there are thousands of bookings for an interpreter in a court covering 150 languages. However, this progress is not cemented as “general-purpose chatbots hallucinate 58% of the time on a legal task”. The use of AI in moderating legal proceedings raised fundamental questions about humanity and authority. Thompson Chengeta from Liverpool John Moores University said that “human rights is the last line of defence so when we say we want a human rights based governance… human rights is not an idea, it is an obligation. There is a gap that can only be recovered by a legally binding instrument”.

The event culminated in a panel offering an industry perspective. Co-host Dr Caroline Emmer De Albuquerque Green questioned representatives from Meta, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Michael Karimian, who works in digital diplomacy at Microsoft, discussed the role of private sectors in engaging with AI, defining corporate responsibility as something which “provides transparency and identified risks”. 

All companies supported having formal programmes to ensure that they have an AI policy in place. Within their own companies, they suggested protective measures such as specialised training to ensure that policies, such as whistleblowing, are understood. Alexandria Walden from Google described how consultations with stakeholders could be used to identify when the product breached users’ boundaries. These assessments, according to OpenAI’s spokesperson, “feedback into tangible technical input” and “benchmark it”.

Fundamentally, understanding the rationale behind human rights is imperative, though lacking. Alexandria Walden from Google said: “Whether or not they understand human rights, they care enough to infuse it in their company… we might not always get it right, but it is something we care about.” 

Where former panels discussed controls to ensure human rights are considered in the development and implementation of AI products, this panel focused on mitigation. A spokesperson from Google pointed out that technology is inevitably going to move faster, so multiple tools are needed. Companies, OpenAI’s representative noted, still encounter issues such as discrimination and free speech. Consequently, they regard this as an additional policy which companies have a structured model to deal with, but newer companies, and newer industries, haven’t learnt it yet. 

In her concluding remarks, Green called for policy makers to “make the abstract actionable” at both governmental and corporate levels. She argued that, by framing the issues posed by AI as human rights issues, we gain a “foundation” for recognising AI’s many societal impacts.

All work and no pay: Why Oxford students aren’t allowed to have jobs

Emma Heagney
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All work and no pay: Why Oxford students aren’t allowed to have jobs

In the periods between the regular read-plan-write cycles of an Oxford term, a student is free to relax, travel, and, most likely, procrastinate on revision for next term’s collections. Strangely enough, however, the ‘vac’ is also the only opportunity for an Oxford student to work, not through problem sheets and essays, but in the most fundamental sense of the word. The University of Oxford maintains a controversial policy that largely prohibits undergraduate students from taking up paid, part-time employment during term time.

The stipulations of this policy are rather unclear. Accessible information is scarce, with most online advice directed towards graduate students. In all fairness, the University does set out defined limits on the amount of paid work a graduate student can undertake: encouraged forms of employment include teaching, research assistantships, and working as a junior dean for a college. Graduate students are “advised to undertake no more than 8 hours of paid work per week, and to discuss this work with their supervisor beforehand”. 

However, for those who work in hospitality, retail, or other non-academic industries, this cap provides little opportunity to earn enough to meet Oxford’s living costs. An eight-hour shift worked once a week at the Oxford Living Wage amounts to £449.92 per month, while the average rent for a one-bedroom flat in Oxford is £1,353 – this wage covers just a third of such a large expense, without accounting for bills, groceries, and other costs. To supplement this income, the University advises graduate students to contact former and potential future employers, as well as to request funding from companies with corporate social responsibility aims.

For undergraduates, the University’s recommendations are few and far between. Perhaps the most substantial source of information can be found on the Careers website, which states that “term-time employment is permitted only under exceptional circumstances and always with the explicit agreement of your tutor and senior tutor”. Exactly what these “exceptional circumstances” may be is unclear, leaving room for flexibility.

The University’s main priority seems to be that students treat their studies as a full-time job. Granted, it makes sense – Oxford is infamous for its intense workload across all subjects, as well as the short terms which cram up to 16 essays or problem sheets into just 8 weeks. Balancing such an intense workload with a part-time job could prove incredibly difficult and certainly could threaten the academic development of Oxford’s brightest. 

When asked about the purpose of the policy, the University told Cherwell that its “approach to paid work during term time is intended to enable undergraduate students to focus on their studies and make the most of Oxford’s intensive academic terms.

“We recognise that students can face financial pressures during their studies. The University provides a range of support for students experiencing financial difficulty, alongside substantial bursary provision for those from lower-income households. This includes Crankstart Scholarships and other targeted support, as well as financial assistance for students who experience unexpected difficulties during their course.”

Even during the vacation, when students are supposedly free to work a part-time job or internship, the University states on the Careers site that “during the vacations you will have academic work, and this should take priority among your other commitments”. In the long vacation, for example, undergraduate students are prohibited from undertaking an internship in the Summer Internship Scheme longer than eight weeks.

Instead, the University recommends a few alternatives. These may be useful, but are not realistic for everyone. For instance, it mentions “part-time or seasonal work supporting the running of the University and colleges” and “internship programmes… that you can work on during the vacations”. Both are viable options, although Oxford-based opportunities may depend on students being able to secure vacation residence, provision of which varies by college.

One particular alternative, however, is commonly taken up by many undergraduates, and often seems like the only suitable way to earn money while abiding by the policy: “Ad-hoc work can sometimes be found by advertising your skills locally as a tutor, translator, or proof-reader.” As students at one of the world’s most renowned universities, famous for its low acceptance rate and exceptional academic standards, many are well positioned to succeed as tutors alongside their studies.

For example, Anne, a Biology student at Merton College, has tutored throughout her entire degree. However, she has found that tutoring is not always an efficient source of income. “Having multiple students of the same subject definitely makes it worthwhile as it decreases the amount of time needed for research and preparation, but it’s harder when that isn’t the case, because you just aren’t working enough hours a week for it to mean something.” The financial gain from tutoring is very helpful, she says, mainly because it lets her have a good social life, which she otherwise might not have been able to afford. For international students, however, even a job as casual as tutoring is out of the question, with visa restrictions prohibiting freelance work.

Other students manage to bypass the no-job policy without the University ever finding out. Silvia graduated in 2025 with a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) from New College – while working a corporate job in London at the same time. Although the logistical challenges were manageable, the mental burden of keeping such a huge secret from her tutors was especially taxing. Silvia told Cherwell that “you constantly have to prioritise things it’s materially impossible to prioritise: a job you really care about with real deliverables and people relying on you, versus exams you worked so hard to get to and the outcome of which will (I thought) determine the direction of your life”. For Silvia, it was often a struggle to perform basic daily tasks – “I had to make a calendar event on my phone so I made time to wash my hair” – while saddled with the dual pressure to work and revise.

Silvia managed to pursue her Hannah Montana-esque lifestyle by simply not telling her tutors. Keeping quiet on LinkedIn, carefully scheduling tutorials, and even hiding her job from her friends allowed her to maintain the façade. Thankfully, her employer was more than supportive: “I genuinely think sometimes my boss cared more about the outcome of my exams than I did.” It is undeniable that the obligation to commute physically from Oxford to Waterloo multiple times a week was not compatible with the need to spend her spare time in the library, but Silvia’s workplace allowed her to be flexible with deadlines and even take time off for collections – “if only Oxford did the same!”

For Silvia, taking such a huge risk was worth it, particularly for the financial benefits. Perhaps the greatest result of her job, however, was the significant advantage it gave her when looking for another job. “I see so many recent graduates who are way more brilliant and accomplished than me struggle to get jobs because they’re only eligible for entry-level ones and they’re one of thousands of applicants. Working through university put me in a massively better financial and professional position in the long run, and despite the stress, I really had an amazing time doing it.” 

Yet, she also sees value in Oxford’s ‘no jobs’ policy, in large part due to her concern that normalising employment would put pressure on students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. “I think Oxford should take on more of a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy – part of the difficulty balancing the two for me came from the fact that I had to actively hide I had a job, and the stress and fear of what would happen if I was found out. A better way would be if the University still strongly discouraged working students without punishing the exceptions.”

Naturally, the University of Cambridge, an institution with a comparable workload to Oxford, similarly restricts term-time employment. An overview of other British universities, however, reveals an overwhelmingly encouraging sentiment – King’s College London, for example, describes the benefits of part-time work as including “experience and exposure to different types of work which will provide you with valuable workplace skills, experience and confidence”. Some, such as UCL, even offer their own temping agencies, in which students can apply to work on campus. Where universities do have limits on employment hours, they are often recommendations, rather than strict policies, and do not impose a blanket ban on part-time employment, as Oxford does. For example, the University of Bristol advises a cap of 15 hours per week.

For many students across the UK, paid employment can make a degree accessible. Soaring living costs mean a student loan is simply not enough to live on at Oxford, and must be supplemented by help from family members, external (and fiercely competitive) scholarships, and part-time work undertaken while at school, amongst other things. For students whose families cannot readily make up that shortfall, a restriction on earning during term can therefore have a very different effect from one experienced by students with substantial parental support. 

A student at Oxford whose parents both earn the minimum wage (roughly amounting to £24,784.50 a year each) may be eligible for £7,033 in government maintenance loans, which are also intended to cover the vacation periods. In addition, they would not be eligible for the Crankstart Scholarship. Say they are randomly allocated to Pembroke College, having been pooled from their original choice – their rent would cost anywhere between £5,453.53 and £10,716.81. This eye-watering sum is completely disproportionate to the maintenance loan they receive, requiring them to rely on the help of their parents, who already earn the minimum wage and have little room to provide up to £3,000 of support, excluding groceries and other living costs. The University’s own resources estimate nine months of living costs to total between £13,275 and £19,575 – the maximum maintenance loan a student could receive at Oxford is just £10,830. Whatever the means, the assumption is that a student receives funding from somewhere else.

The University and its colleges do aim to provide plenty of financial support when a student needs it. The Oxford Assistance Fund, for example, offers grants of up to £3,000 to applicants in need, and up to £750 can be accessed from the Student Support Bursary. Several colleges have similar hardship funds, such as Merton’s Student Financial Support Fund, and many also subsidise expenses including food, books, printing, and travel. The principle is that, with the financial support available, you should not have to give up your time to work a part-time job, but this does not always mean that students can survive otherwise.

In fact, there are rare exceptions in which students can work casually for the University and its colleges, such as through working in their college bar or as a chapel officer. Perhaps most commonly, students are employed as student ambassadors, attending Q&A sessions and working through strenuous open days. 

Céline, a recent History of Art graduate from Christ Church, worked for the University as an Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach (UAO) ambassador. She describes the job as flexible and casual, with her able to fit sessions around her studies, and she certainly found the work meaningful as she was able to make a difference in young people’s lives. However, the irregular shift patterns meant that it was never a primary source of income for her. She also had another job, working for an online tutoring company, and felt pressure to keep this work a secret from her college. “I sought out a job with few and flexible hours so that I could hide my job from tutors who often arranged tutorials one or two days prior”, she told Cherwell. “I would absolutely seek a job with more regular hours and pay if it were allowed.”

The vacancies available to students, although limited, do display an attempt by colleges and the University to provide paid opportunities. These vacancies are especially important in a wider job market that has seen a sharp decline in casual roles and employment rates for 16-24 year olds. Students restricted to vacation work must also find employers willing to hire them for only part of the year. Perhaps this is a greater incentive for the University to relax its term-time policy, giving students the flexibility to work both at home and in Oxford.

Nevertheless, working a part-time job at university is exceedingly common and often necessary, not just for financial stability but also to learn crucial life lessons. After three years of tutorials and socials, nothing has taught me more about the world and communicating within it than working behind a bar. Especially at a university so overpopulated by the most privileged in society, there should perhaps be more of an emphasis on encouraging the privileged to enter the ‘real world’, rather than simply expecting the working classes to assimilate into Oxford’s traditional, upper-class culture. At the end of the day, we are adults, and working a part-time job is often a necessary component of growing up – the need to ask your teacher for permission perhaps ought to be left in secondary school.

As I pull yet another pint for an endless stream of punters, I feel incredibly lucky to have a casual job that allows me to return to Oxford each term, even if it means doing the gross tasks that no one else wants to do. My job helps to keep me financially stable, and I only wish that I could work more, rather than feeling punished for needing to dedicate my time to my job rather than to my studies. Oxford students are known for working hard academically, but we rarely talk about the often mundane jobs that fill our vacations – perhaps we would, if they overlapped with our university terms, but as long as our workload remains so intense, any relaxation of the University’s policy is unrealistic.

Oxford University launches Ebola vaccine trial in Uganda

Jeremy Azzopardi
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Oxford University launches Ebola vaccine trial in Uganda

Ugandan participants in a clinical safety study received an Oxford developed Ebola vaccine this week. 

Researchers vaccinated the first participants on 6th October in Masaka, Uganda. The phase follows the launch of a first-in-human Phase I trial in the UK evaluating the same vaccine candidate. 

They received the vaccine as part of an evaluation of the safety and efficacy of a ChAdOx-based Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine candidate developed by the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) and the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford. 

Development for this vaccine began in May this year in response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The research, led by OVG’s Professor Teresa Lambe and Professor Simon Drysdale, is funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). No licenced vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus currently exists. 

In a statement to Cherwell, OVG said its involvement includes collaborating with the Ugandan research team to support “the study’s scientific design, clinical trial coordination, safety oversight, and evaluation of vaccine safety and immunogenicity”. The Phase I clinical trial addresses a rare strain of Ebola virus affecting communities in the DRC since May. The phase is a collaboration between the Medical Research Council/ Uganda Virus Research Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). 

Dr Nicole Lurie, CEPI’s Executive Director for Emergency Preparedness and Response, told Cherwell: “It [the Bundibugyo outbreak] remains the fastest-growing and second-largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded – and we currently remain without a licensed vaccine or treatment.” The Bundibugyo Ebola epidemic in the DRC has surpassed 8,600 cases, with almost half of infections proving fatal. 

The outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in May. 

OVG told Cherwell: “For more than a decade, the University of Oxford has performed many clinical trials of candidate viral-vectored vaccines. Some of the most promising vaccines used a modified chimpanzee adenovirus, a harmless version of a common cold virus. The Oxford-AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1) COVID-19 vaccine was approved for emergency use in the UK in December 2020 and was estimated to have saved six million lives during 2021 alone, and over 3 billion doses were used worldwide.” The adenovirus vector vaccine technology trialled in this study was successfully used worldwide as part of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. 

More funding is necessary to ensure the development and approval of the Ebola vaccine. Lurie told Cherwell: “Without sufficient additional funding, we are at risk of not being able to develop these promising vaccine candidates… CEPI urgently needs US$128M now to keep our Bundibugyo emergency R&D response moving. Without it, we are putting the DRC, and the world, at tremendous risk.”

Innovation and technology define Vice-Chancellor’s annual Oration

Cara Hene
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Innovation and technology define Vice-Chancellor’s annual Oration

Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey opened the new academic year on Wednesday, 7th October, with the annual Oration at the Sheldonian Theatre. 

The Oration allows the Vice-Chancellor to define the priorities of the University’s highest office and reflect upon the past year at the University. This year, these include AI ethics, bridging the gap between “town and gown”, and the increasing importance of scientific innovation for the University. 

The Vice-Chancellor commented on the University’s influential role in shaping the AI landscape, both through technical research and noting work on AI governance from the newly launched Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice. Tracey referenced the university-wide rollout of ChatGPT-5 last year, while stressing the need for places where “students are taught to think critically and independently”. She identified Oxford’s tutorial system as a “unique asset” in combating the potential pitfalls of AI in learning. 

Tracey also spoke about local community work, such as partnering with the homelessness charity Emmaus Oxford: “I want my hometown people to actually feel that having the world’s number one university on their doorstep really does make their lives better.” 

From the start, the Vice-Chancellor also referenced that the turmoil facing British politics today might reflect “a nation not sure of its identity”. 

As for Oxford’s identity, Tracey pointed at the role of innovation and STEM, lauding a dizzying array of successes.“It is estimated that over two billion people worldwide are using or benefiting from a piece of research that came from Oxford… that’s impact,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

 The Vice-Chancellor also praised the “eye-watering investment” that Oxford quantum spin-outs have attracted. One such spinout, Oxford Ionics, was acquired for $1.075 billion by US-listed IonQ last year, while Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) closed a £260 million funding round this June – the highest ever won in Europe by a quantum computing company. 

“I sense we’re more comfortable now owning [innovation] as part of our identity,” the Vice-Chancellor said. 

For a university traditionally prized for the humanities and philosophy, with eight out of the last eleven prime ministers studying at Oxford, this is a notable shift.

The Vice-Chancellor went on to link these achievements in innovation to strong investment, referencing the University’s £6.9 billion in net asset value. In it, she thanked the Syrian-Saudi Arabian businessman and philanthropist Wafic Saïd for a “transformational” £15 million donation to the new Global Leadership Centre. 

The Vice-Chancellor then spoke about Oxford’s unique financial stability amongst struggling UK universities, calling for “that difficult national conversation about how we fund the UK higher education sector”. Just last week Nottingham University confirmed the closures of all modern language and music degree courses. However, Oxford is not immune to financial pressures. Oxford University Press workers are also still striking over offshoring jobs to India. 

The Vice-Chancellor also affirmed her support for diversity in higher education. She said: “If you are serious about excellence, the potential for excellence and finding top talent, you will end up with a diverse team.” “Look at the Premier League, or my beloved Everton”, she said. 

As said at the beginning of this year’s oration, the Vice-Chancellor concluded by arguing that “at this critical point in our collective history”, the University would make a mark on Britain’s identity as a “place of ambition, excellence, kindness and hope”.

Why does everyone like East of Eden so much?

Abigail Riley
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Why does everyone like East of Eden so much?

East of Eden is a special book in many ways. It is beautiful, for one, and loving too. John Steinbeck dedicated it to his editor and long-term friend Pascal ‘Pat’ Covici. In the preface, he describes East of Eden as though it were a box, a wrapped gift; for his dear friend, the author has packaged “the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation”, there is also “on top of these” “the love I have for you”. Above that “gratitude and love,” trapped with all the “joy” and “despair,” is the empty space of human potential: “Still the box is not full.” 

Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas; thus, an unmistakable personal nostalgia colours the voice of the semi-autobiographical narrator. “I remember my childhood names for grasses and flowers,” he begins on the first page, “I remember where a toad might live and what time the birds awaken in the summer”. Throughout, despite, or perhaps because of, the various horrors the author explores, he always makes time for nature. In chapter eight we meet Cathy, one of those “monsters born in the world to human parents”. Amongst the schemes of her girlhood, Steinbeck remembers to mention “the young grass” that “bristled under the sun” and “the yellow dandelions”. In part, I think the explosion in East of Eden’s popularity is due to Steinbeck’s affection for Salinas Valley. The compulsiveness of his characters is present, as always, so is his ability to render any landscape powerful, visceral in prose. But there is something, ironically, lapsarian about East of Eden: it is a relic of the author’s own childhood. 

Everyone enjoys beauty; a beautiful book, written in a determinedly readable style, is bound to become popular, not to mention the endless power of nostalgia. But there is something else in East of Eden, I believe, that has catapulted it from the fame of every book-tok influencer’s favourite lists to a multi-million dollar Netflix show. I read the book in 2023, perhaps a little ahead of the curve – if that’s possible for a book published in 1925. Since then, I have recommended East of Eden to everyone who asks. But, I would not say it is my favourite book; it might not be in my top five. Rather, I recommend East of Eden in the same way a film buff recommends Good Will Hunting.

It’s feel-good; it’s the ultimate feel-good book because it tells you that your life is your choice. Be good, be bad, be a little bit the one and a little bit the other: just don’t imagine for a second that it is not under your control to be so. The message emerges slowly over the first few hundred pages, but arrives suddenly at the forefront in chapter 24, through the voice of Lee, a Chinese man who cares for Adam Trask’s boys when both father and mother have abandoned them. Adam Trask, of course, embodies his biblical namesake as husband to the ‘monster’ Cathy, and father to the Cain/Abel parallel, Cal and Aran. 

Lee describes the arduous process of translating Hebrew with four elderly Chinese gentlemen who live in San Francisco, smoking opium and solving whatever problems people bring them. After two years, he and the four elderly gentlemen can translate the passage – thus resolving a discrepancy in English translations of the Bible. “The American version orders men to triumph over sin… The King James translation makes a promise… But the Hebrew word, the word timshel – ‘thou mayest’ – that gives a choice,” Lee concludes, “It might be the most important word in the world”. Regardless of whether or not Steinbeck’s Hebrew translation is correct, which it likely isn’t, he’s right that ‘may’ is the most important word in the world: it is the belief in choice, the hope at the bottom of the jar, the empty space in the box that is “still not full”.

If it weren’t couched in the natural beauty of Salinas Valley, or the fascinating moral drama of the Trask and Hamilton families, Steinbeck’s message wouldn’t work so well. That said, the message is central to the book. Whilst other authors of his period reach for obscurity, designing their work to be a puzzle, a dream that requires clever interpretation, Steinbeck teaches a lesson. He delivers an earnest sermon. East of Eden is didactic; it is a fantastic book, it has beautiful language and compelling characters, but it is ultimately didactic. People enjoy reading it because it gives them a sense of control: Netflix could gamble millions on its popularity because they knew it was something that made people feel good about themselves, something they would want to watch on the screen.

East of Eden is a book like Pandora’s Box. It is well crafted, beautiful to look at. Inside, the author examines what he sees as the fringes of humanity, our best and worst parts: “Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts.” When all this has been discarded, when we think the box is nearly empty and the indomitable Trask lies dying, Steinbeck presents us with the final gift. It is the word timshel, the choice to be good or bad in our lives: hope.

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