Sunday 27th July 2025
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Oxford professor says government development plans for Ox-Cam arc will “destroy Cambridge”

Ben Wormald
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Oxford professor says government development plans for Ox-Cam arc will “destroy Cambridge”

The government-proposed development of the ‘Ox-Cam arc’ has been met with criticism from activists. An Oxford University professor of ecology, David Rogers, said that the plans have the potential “to destroy Cambridge”. 

The Ox-Cam arc, which covers Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, and Cambridgeshire, has been earmarked as a potential “world-leading and globally renowned centre for business, innovation and investment”, with 1 million homes to be built along with a new rail network that improves interconnectivity between the counties. Cambridge has been identified as a key area of industry within the arc, as a thriving hub of technological and scientific development. 

The rapid economic expansion in this area is of concern to the ‘Stop the Arc’ campaign, headed by Oxford professor of ecology David Rogers.

Professor Rogers claims the construction of over 1 million houses would “destroy the reason people like to live in Cambridge”, which is renowned for its greenbelt land as well as its historic buildings. 

A recent boom in Cambridge’s biomedical and technological industries has attracted new inhabitants at a rapid rate, with the local population increasing by around 30% between 1961 and 2011. The city is also a popular settlement for people working in London. 

However, of the proposed 1 million homes, Professor Rogers argues: “A quarter is earmarked for London commuters. So the arc is going to partly be a dormitory for London because London isn’t building enough houses.”

Professor Rogers is also concerned about how the project is to be managed: “If you invest in the arc and you build a million houses, where will the people come from to live in them?” 

Due to the area’s low unemployment rates, workers from the north would need to be brought in to carry out development of not only housing but also sewage facilities, for example. This in turn raises questions about the neglect of northern communities, which the government said it would “level up”. 

Cambridge’s growth has resulted in soaring house prices “many times beyond median incomes”, according to Cambridge Commons in their report ‘Supersize Cambridge’. The increased density of the area has also led to an “overloaded transport network” which the government has identified as “failing”, leaving “local roads [that] cannot bear the weight of traffic”, having as much as 97,000 vehicles travelling within the city each day in 2018 . 

While skilled researchers and development workers are attracted to companies like AstraZeneca, long-term residents and key workers “increasingly turn to surrounding villages and further afield, swelling traffic congestion as they commute in lengthy queues into the city for work”.

In addition to the infrastructural problems caused by Cambridge’s growth, the local environment is also at risk. Increased congestion has driven up levels of pollution, and more pressingly the area’s ecosystem is struggling with the increased demand on water-supplies created by these new housing developments. 

It was recently alleged that Cambridge Water, which oversees the city’s water facilities, has not enforced a hose-pipe ban since 1991, despite the strain on local chalk streams. Local councillors have called on the company to address the issues. However, the streams could become “exhausted” if the ‘Ox-Cam’ project goes ahead, Cambridge Commons claims.

The proposal views Cambridge as “the goose which lays a golden egg” in the ‘Ox-Cam arc’. 

A consultation on the government’s proposal closes on 12th October.

Image credits: Alex Brown/ CC BY 2.0 via Flickr

French connection: My first two months in Paris

Lily Kershaw
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French connection: My first two months in Paris

Culture shock is real. 

I honestly couldn’t imagine it being a thing before I came here, let alone imagine being shocked on any level by Paris. Surely, one shouldn’t be blamed for imagining Paris to be just like London but with French people? They have Pret and tea and baked beans and all the creature comforts of Oxford living and, being a firm believer that people are the same no matter where you go, the stereotypes of cold Parisians seemed unrealistic and outdated (I would actually argue that London is worse for rudeness). 

Nevertheless, I have experienced culture shock… though perhaps that is the wrong word; I have been shocked by how different I feel to those around me due to aspects of my appearance that I would have previously considered relatively “normal”. Wearing skirts above the knee in 30° weather, wearing bright colours, even just being a mixed-race woman in a major city are just some examples of qualities that have been highlighted as sticking out here by friends and strangers alike. 

I laugh in an English way, I write like an English person, I dress like an English person. None of this is positive or negative, it’s just different, yet these are all things which I assumed to be somewhat universal, or at least European. You can’t send emails here during weekends without attracting the ire of some administrator, some of the metro doors require manual opening, you need to say bonjour whenever you enter a shop, and bonne journée whenever you leave. The term “culture shock” implies some sort of extreme reaction, but I wasn’t taken aback by these mundane aspects of Paris living, I was just surprised to find that things I’d considered universal just weren’t. It’s not the differences which you expect that shock you, it’s the little things which you assume to be the same until shown otherwise. 

But beyond all that, the biggest difference has nothing to do with Paris, it’s not even about France, it’s about me. I have never had this level of independence before, and it is both exhilarating and terrifying. I feel like an adult in ways that I wasn’t quite prepared for: signing contracts in a language I barely understand, trying to explain my needs in French in an unnecessarily complex bureaucracy, discussing rent with my landlord… a lot of it has been a little overwhelming. But I enjoy the freedom more than I’d initially expected. Exploring Paris on my own is exciting, it’s fun to feel totally in control of my own time, to wake up at 6am some days to study and go to galleries and go to sleep at 7am other days after partying all night. I feel like I’m responsible for only me, and I love it. This is likely going to be the last point in my life where I am this free and I want to make the most of it, use it to discover what I truly want and who I truly want to be. 

I catch myself trying to acclimate in as many ways as possible. Parisians are more conservative? I put away my crop tops and trade them for shirts. I trade hugging for kissing people on the cheek as greeting. I often question whether my actions will appear “too English”. I carry a lighter around in my bag since, while I don’t, everyone here smokes, and I hate to say non when asked t’as un briquet? But if I’m so prepared to give up so many little cultural habits and swap them for new ones, were they really my habits at all? How much of our own personal expression is just culture? How much is truly us?

I feel so foreign here, partly because no one prepared me for the racism or the sexism. I spent most of my life in London and I thought things would be the same here, but they’re just not. I didn’t expect strangers to stop me on the street so often, just to say “you’re mixed race, right? Where are you from?”, or even the egregious “Calypso, Calypso” because “you’re from the Caribbean right?”. I didn’t expect to be followed so often when walking at night, or have men block my exits when alone on the metro when it’s dark. For the most part this is all fine and I go home, safe, and laugh it off. I laugh when my friends are concerned about me walking back home alone, catching the metro in the early hours, or taking an Uber. I’m independent, aren’t I? These are basic things that I’ve done a million times before, but the danger is there. And when I’m made to constantly feel so different when living here, the acclimation almost feels like a necessity. I can’t change my identity (not that I would want to) but I can change my outfits and my habits. When I don’t look so English and more French, the racism isn’t so bad, and the street harassment isn’t nearly on the same level. When you’re seen as foreign, these behaviours are considered more acceptable, but when you’re seen as French, less so.

Coming to another country, however, really strips you down. Without English and without the ability to properly express who I believe myself to be, who am I? Struggling to convey the complexities of my identity and understand the subtleties of those around me, I find myself repeating the same script in an attempt to have some kind of universal appeal, covering the same inoffensive topics of languages, school, and the differences between England and France. I adopt an overly friendly air, avoid jokes (in a world where timing is everything, stilted French is unhelpful), smile a lot and act enthusiastically at the least provocation. I sometimes feel myself to be a caricature of who I truly am yet, in many ways, I feel I have no other option. 

In many ways, it’s like being a fresher again. I feel unknown for the first time in a while, and it’s given me time to re-evaluate who I really am – without all the people I know, without having my support network in immediate reach, without any words, who am I? One of my closest friends told me to stop aiming to be my English self when I’m speaking French, that it puts too much pressure on me and I should just relax into whoever I become in this new language, and she was right. I am a different person in French. The only way to possibly reconcile this dual existence, my French and English selves existing simultaneously, is to admit that there is no singular self – everything on the surface, my hair, my clothes, even my actions, they’re all fickle and subject to a great degree of change very quickly. Everything deep down, who I truly I am (whatever that means), can never fully be expressed to anyone, let alone in French. I am a different person to everyone I meet but having another language just exaggerates those pre-existing differences. 

I really can’t overemphasise how much I love it here though. Paris, despite all the ups and downs, really feels like somewhere I can see myself living in the future. The people I’ve met here are lovely and the experiences I’ve had in the past two months have been incredible and are so special to me. I feel a genuine sense of pride in how my language ability has improved and have grown to appreciate the smaller triumphs, like no longer feeling like I’m going to have a heart attack before I speak to a French person, along with the larger ones. I feel like I know myself better, I’ve grown more confident and comfortable with who I am. To be honest, I can’t wait to see whatever the future here brings.

Tinder Troubles: A cautionary tale of a match gone awry

Daisy Clague
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Tinder Troubles: A cautionary tale of a match gone awry

Ronan* was sitting cross-legged on the pavement outside the pub, engrossed by his Kindle. As a first-time Tinder user standing anxiously at what I imagined to be the vanguard of online dating, I had been naively endeared by his suggestion that we skip the virtual small talk and just get to know each other in person. He stood up to greet me. “Ah, that was a lovely hug.” It dawned on me that this may have been a mistake. 

“It’s a book about how to bring the Buddha’s practices into your daily life,” he explained, ordering a glass of tap water. Ronan, a white man from North London, proceeded to describe what spirituality meant to him and how long he could sit in meditation (fifty minutes on the floor, longer if he had a cushion), much of which I struggled to hear over the deafening irony of his sheep-wool gilet, pseudo-Aztec-print headband, and private school education. He told me he planned to study and travel in Europe for a few years, immersing himself in his meditation practice. He didn’t ask me a single question about myself, apart from whether I had heard of Sapiens or read Rousseau’s Social Contract. Ronan spoke with a posh drawl, self-consciously clipping the occasional ‘t’ off the end of his words. The silences he left for me to contribute to the conversation over the next one and a half hours were honestly so few that I started to wonder if he remembered my name.

I think our respective expectations of how the night might go first diverged when my foot accidentally grazed his under the table. “Ooh, I like that,” he giggled. By this point I had adopted a kind of flirty-teen ‘I hate you’ persona to obscure the fact that I did, in fact, hate Ronan, but was at a total loss for how to tell him I wasn’t interested. I wanted to go home but felt that it would be too mean to say so. At 18 years old I hadn’t yet learned how to say no to people without feeling guilty, especially if those people were men. This was how I found myself agreeing to a post-pub walk in the park that February evening, mounting an impassioned defence of my brand-new hatred for PDA as Ronan tried to hold my hand.

In the park, he did a cartwheel and urged me to do the same. I said I was getting tired, and declined. He climbed a tree and urged me to join him. I said I was getting tired, and declined. We sat down on the grass at the top of Primrose Hill. “You know, this is the softest part of someone’s body to rest your head on.” Ronan rubbed his upper chest like an elderly relative inviting you to sit beside them on the sofa. “You can rest yours here, if you like.” I declined.

We walked on, his arm around my shoulder now as my faux jokey, don’t-touch-me attitude wore thin. Ronan was quiet for a moment as we descended the hill. Without my glasses, the London skyline was a sparkly blur of white lights beneath a dimmer cityscape of stars.

“Guess what?” he asked, with a coy smile.

What now? What else could you possibly have to say to me, Ronan? That you wear a hair shirt under your gilet to feel closer to God? That the reason you want to move to Amsterdam isn’t to smoke reems of hash? 

“You’ll never guess,” he giggled, and he was right. “I have a semi. Do you want to touch it?”

I know now that I should have been more upfront: excused myself for a family emergency after our first glass of tap water or closed the evening with a platonic hug at the door to the pub. But six years ago, with the relative anonymity of a dating app to hide behind and a teenage life’s-worth of practice at having confrontations with my friends via Facebook and text rather than ‘offline’, I simply wasn’t confident, direct, or considerate enough to brave the momentary awkwardness of saying – to a stranger’s face – no, I’m sorry, you’re just not for me.

I declined to touch his semi-erect penis. We reached the gates of the dark, emptying park. I told him I was going that way. No, you don’t have to walk me home, thanks. 

“I’d love to see you again.” His arms enveloped me. For the hundredth time that evening I didn’t know what else to do. We kissed. 

Computer Science at Oxford ranked top in the world

Thomas Coyle
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Computer Science at Oxford ranked top in the world

The University of Oxford’s Computer Science department has been ranked top in the world for the fourth year running. The department is one of the oldest dedicated to Computer Science in the world, having originally begun research as Oxford University Computing Laboratory in 1957. 

Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg, the head of Computer Science at the University, has described the ranking in a statement as “continuing recognition” of the department’s “outstanding teaching and research”.

Goldberg is the first woman to lead the department, taking over from Professor Michael Wooldridge on the 1st October. Gender imbalance within the department remains high: just 18% of academic and research staff were women, whilst 16.7% of students were women in the most recent data shared by the Oxford Women in Computer Science Society (data published in 2017).  

Speaking in a statement by the department, Wooldridge remarked that “Oxford is the most exciting place to be a computer scientist in Europe.”

The list, which is compiled by the Times Higher Education magazine, was published last Wednesday. Oxford’s overall score was 93.1, narrowly beating Stanford University’s 92.8 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology‘s 92.1.

The University typically accepts 41 applicants onto its undergraduate Computer Science courses: just 6% of applicants are successful. The average salary for those completing the course is the highest for any course from any university in the country, with graduates earning a median £45,000 only six months after graduation.

In producing their rankings, Times Higher Education consider thirteen different performance indicators, which are grouped into the five areas they believe should be the core missions of any University. They take into consideration the overall teaching environment, the volume and income of research, the influence of any completed research, the proportion of international students and staff, and the overall transfer of knowledge and research from the institution into the industry.

When judging Computer Science, Times Higher Education rank the teaching environment and the department’s research equally. The Department’s current research projects include a method of sensing floods from space, using artificial intelligence to visualise the parts of the moon that never see sunlight, and using machine learning to estimate lion populations from the sound of a collective roar.

Image: luis gomes/ CC BY-SA 4.0 fia flickr

Reuben Foundation increases donations to new Reuben College

Eva Bailey
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Reuben Foundation increases donations to new Reuben College

The Reuben Foundation has increased both the number of undergraduate scholars it funds at Oxford University, and its donations for buildings at Reuben College.

The new graduate college, located on Parks Road, Oxford, has welcomed its inaugural students this year, with 136 graduates taking almost 70 different subjects. It is the first new college across both Oxford and Cambridge since 1990, which saw the establishment of the graduate Kellogg College. Provisionally names Parks College in December 2018, Oxford University named Reuben College in recognition of the £80 million gift given by the Reuben Foundation towards an endowment and Scholarships.

The Reuben Scholarship Programme forms part of the Reuben Foundation, formed in 2002 by brothers Simon and David Reuben for the betterment of health and education across the glove. The programme aims to support high-achieving students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds in their life at University.

Since the establishment of the programme in 2012, it has provided financial support to hundreds of undergraduate students each year, with a further 132 scholars joining Oxbridge in Autumn 2021. The growth of this programme means that 400 Reuben scholars will be studying at Oxford by 2023-24; approximately 70 new scholars will be welcomed onto the programme each academic year.

Second place on the Sunday Times Rich List 2021 (with an estimated net worth of £21.465bn) and rumoured to make use of offshore tax havens, the Reuben brothers are controversial figures. They have been known to make donations of up to £2.5 million to the Conservative Party. Further, Reuben Brothers are property developers with links to dangerous aluminium-composite cladding – the type used on Grenfell Tower. The Reuben Brothers co-own European Land and Property, which developed the Paddington Walk block of flats in West London using this cladding.

The Reuben Brothers have a history of supporting the University, including significant donations of healthcare equipment to Oxford University Hospitals during the pandemic. The Foundation has pledged to donate a further £8 million in order to refurbish and maintain the Worthington and Jackson buildings. Additionally, the site on Winchester Road, comprising three Victorian villas and a newly constructed “Reuben Graduate Centre” at the back of the gardens, will be funded by the donation.

Reuben College initially identified three key areas on which its research would be based: artificial intelligence and machine learning, environmental change and cellular life. In November 2020, ethics and values became the college’s fourth academic theme, adding to the rich culture of enterprise, innovation and public engagement with research that the college champions.

When the £8 million donation was pledged, Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, Professor Louise Richardson, said: “The Reuben Foundation has been extraordinarily generous in supporting disadvantaged students and, more recently, in funding the creation of Oxford’s newest college … students and scholars across Oxford are in their debt.”

President of Reuben College, Professor Lionel Tarassenko, commented: “This latest gift demonstrates the extraordinary commitment of the Reuben Foundation to our college. It makes a significant contribution to the refurbishment of our heritage buildings, and enables us to expand the accommodation available to our students, including the provision of a social hub in the Reuben Graduate Centre.”

A spokesman from the Reuben Foundation said that the Graduate Centre “will be the social hub for students outside study hours, offering a Graduate Common Room, gym and cinema.”

Donations from the Reuben Foundation have enabled the first cohort of Reuben Graduate Scholars to begin postgraduate qualifications this academic year, with the scholars split evenly between research students and students undergoing taught degrees.

The aim of the Reuben Graduate Scholarship Programme is to attract a diverse range of talented students, with the expectation that many of them will become leading Oxford University academics in the future. The first Reuben Graduate Scholars are both UK and international students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds; the scholarship will allow them to commence interdisciplinary studies at Oxford without financial concerns.

The Reuben Brothers, Reuben Foundation, and Reuben College have been approached for comment.

Image: Allyox/CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Magdalen could become richest college after selling £160 million stake in Oxford Science Park

Thomas Britton
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Magdalen could become richest college after selling £160 million stake in Oxford Science Park

Magdalen College announced last week that it has sold a 40% stake in The Oxford Science Park (TOSP) to the Singaporean investment fund GIC, for an estimated £160 million.

The valuation obtained by the Financial Times is a staggering ten times more than what it was worth only five years ago in 2016, a testament to the extraordinary growth of Britain’s medical and life science research sector in recent years. The huge jump in demand for laboratory and office space since the easing of lockdown restrictions has also fueled the remarkable valuation.

Magdalen could now lay claim to be Oxford’s richest college. St. John’s and Christ Church have traditionally competed for the top spot, but with this new influx of cash Magdalen’s endowment fund, set to reach £606 million, could overtake both.

Magdalen has called the sale “a strategic partnership”, and Dinah Rose QC , President of Magdalen, told Cherwell: “it will give the college the opportunity both to enhance the provision it makes for its own students, and to benefit the wider university.”

There have been criticisms of the decision to put the money in an endowment, however. Anvee Bhutani, President of the Oxford Student Union, when speaking to the Guardian, expressed frustration that: “Oxford and its constituent colleges have a lot of money but oftentimes, having this money in investments and endowments means that they are unable to draw on it on a day-to-day basis.”

She also urged: “that colleges prioritise and financially support current initiatives around big issues such as sustainability, diversity, access and more.”

Dinah Rose told Cherwell: “The additional income will principally be used for the benefit of Magdalen’s students,” and the list of plans for the extra spending seem to fit with the Student Union President’s wish list. They include “financial support and student welfare”, “broadening access and outreach”, “sustainability initiatives”, and “improved accommodation and facilities for both graduate and undergraduate students.”

How quickly these benefits come about is yet to be seen, however, as Rory Maw, Bursar of Magdalen College and Chief Executive of TOSP, has said: “[the additional income] will take five years to feed in fully.””

The Science Park, founded in 1991, was originally a joint project between Magdalen and M&G Real Estate, but in 2016 Magdalen acquired full ownership, buying out their partners for £18.1 million. Now the park as a whole is valued at around £400 million.

It is home primarily to start-ups in the field of medical research and life sciences, and hosts over 100 companies and 3,500 employees.

Notable companies based there are Vaccitech, who developed the chimpanzee adenovirus technology that was used in the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine; Exscientia, who use artificial intelligence in drug development, and were recently valued on Nasdaq at $3 billion; and Oxford Nanopore, who on September 30th almost reached a valuation of $5 billion.

The buyer of the 40% stake is GIC, formerly called Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund with an investment portfolio of £300 billion. It is owned by the Singaporean government, and its mission is to manage the foreign reserves of Singapore.

Rory Maw has said of GIC: “its objectives are aligned with ours… and of Magdalen College.”

The President of Magdalen College JCR was approached for comment.

Image: Ed Webster/CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The pain scale needs a revamp

Robbi Sher
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The pain scale needs a revamp

If you’ve been to A&E, you’ll probably be familiar with the pain scale. It goes something like this: a caregiver shows you a scale with one being “no pain”, and ten being “worst possible pain”. They ask which number best matches the level of pain you’re in, and you stare, perplexed, wondering how on Earth one comes up with such a number. What does “worst possible pain” mean? Would childbirth be a ten? What about getting your leg amputated with a rusty chainsaw? Even more confusing is the row of increasingly distressed smiley faces above the scale – you wonder if you have to be red-faced and in tears for your pain to score highly, and why the whole thing resembles something you might have found on ClipArt in 2008.

It all boils down to two issues. Firstly, and most obviously, pain is subjective. One person’s three could easily be another person’s seven, and the numbers on the scale have little meaning without a common reference point.

The second issue arises when the patient can’t communicate their pain. This could be if they have Alzheimer’s, or they’ve just had a tracheostomy, or they’re a newborn baby. If they’re conscious, we use the Behavioural Pain Scale (BPS) and the Critical Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT), which quantify pain with behavioural parameters like facial expression, muscle tension and movement of the upper limbs. 

These have problems of their own; the BPS and CPOT assume that every painful stimulus comes with a visible or audible indicator, and vice versa; that each of these indicators results directly from a pain stimulus. Often, neither are the case. They also rely on the patient being conscious and able to move, so can’t be used during surgery – heart rate and blood pressure are used instead, but these are also poor surrogates for pain.

We need a universal, objective method of measuring pain, so that pain can be properly managed. Too much medication and the patient risks developing a dependence on it (about 6% of patients continue to use opioids after surgery). Too little medication, though, and they end up with damage along the pain pathway, which can later lead to chronic pain. And that’s not to mention the psychological distress closely intertwined with poor pain management.

This problem allows treatment recommendations to be influenced by doctors’ bias. Racial bias in pain management is based on false beliefs about biological differences between white people and people of colour. A study showed that for patients with extremity fractures indicating similar pain scores, 74% of white patients in the emergency room were given analgesics, compared to only 57% of black patients. In a second study of 940,000 children diagnosed with appendicitis between 2003 and 2010, 18,800 fewer black patients received opioid analgesia than white patients. Disturbingly, ethnic minority groups face additional barriers when self-reporting pain. A good pain management device could highlight this disparity, and eliminate it.

In a society with medical technology constantly evolving, where we map entire genomes, 3D-print prosthetics and use artificial intelligence in healthcare, it is astonishing that something as fundamental as pain is still being measured using smiley faces.

Innovation is in its early stages. Medical device companies have explored parameters like changes in pupil width, skin temperature and conductance (Kipuwex), electroencephalography (electrical activity in the brain; PainQx) and plethysmography (changes in blood volume around the body with each heartbeat), as potential indicators of pain, if the patient can’t move or communicate. 

One company, Medasense, uses artificial intelligence to combine four of these parameters into a single index called the nociception level index (NoL), measured by a finger probe. The idea is simple: the NoL needs to stay between 10 and 25 during surgery. If it exceeds 25, more analgesic is given; if it falls below 10, the anaesthetist knows they’re administering too much opioid, and can alter the dose accordingly. 

This works – a recent study boasts a 33% reduction in postoperative pain scores following NoL-guided surgery, and NoL monitoring features in several peer-reviewed journals. The limitation of Medasense’s device is that it’s only approved for use on anaesthetised patients. Their next challenge is to produce a device that gives reliable readings when the patient is conscious, with emotional stress, agitation and movement potentially complicating things. 

The goal is to eliminate the guesswork – that is, assumptions based on age, ethnicity, culture, level of education and social background – so that physicians can offer personalised analgesia to their patients. Mistakes don’t just waste a whole lot of money ($560-635 billion annually in the US), but affect the quality of life of hundreds of millions globally, especially those with disabilities and chronic pain. Treating pain is at the utmost core of medicine, and the journey to tackle this clinical need has only just begun. 

Unaddressed servers: Is online gaming gaming you?

Maurício Alencar
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Unaddressed servers: Is online gaming gaming you?

If you’ve ever been one to get back from school on a weekday, switch on the PlayStation or Xbox to talk to your friends for a solid 3 hours and then realise you hadn’t done your homework and it’s already 22:30, then you’re not alone. If you’ve ever created goofy characters on FIFA with your mates and long-lasting memories that will undoubtedly be talked about when you’re sitting in a pensioner’s home, then you’re definitely not alone. But if you’ve ever been kicked out of your friends’ online party because you are having a “stinker”, been lured into buying expensive FIFA points or GTA money to level up your standing in the game, or overheard some nasty abuse and not addressed it properly… hey, again, you’re not the only one. Welcome to Los Santos; welcome to the zombie apocalypse; welcome to the pubescent-boys-only, exhilarating, and overwhelming world of online gaming. Come and play. 

China’s had enough of it. Online gamers under the age of 18 are now banned from playing on weekdays and can only play for a couple of hours or so in total on the weekend. This ban is certain to have a crippling effect on the industry. The country claims it seeks to prevent young online players from suffering from gaming disorders.  

What’s that, this ‘gaming disorder’? It might help to remember Flappy Bird. The game’s creator, Dong Nguyen, deleted it from the App Store since he felt the game was too addictive. The International Classification of Diseases classified gaming disorder as a “pattern of gaming behavior characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority to gaming over other activities”. Around one in 10 children are addicted to gaming; there may be severe knock-on effects on children’s sleep, interest in academic work, and general health from this disease. 

One study from UCL contradicts this claim, suggesting that video games might actually lower the risk of depression. So much for thinking young people’s mental health is deteriorating as they spend hours in front of their screen. 

Linked to this, many mistakenly scapegoat the online gaming industry for terrible tragedies and mass shootings. US conservatives have been the best players of this blame-game. The likes of Donald Trump and the NRA claim violent shooting games are accountable for school shootings. These groups and individuals look to divert conversations away from the country’s gun rights laws by – in a typically Trumpian fashion- making baseless claims about behavioural science. Only 4 shooters out of 33 mass murders between 1980 and 2018 in the US were fans of video games. Sandy Hook was one of the 4, and one of his favourite games is said to have been Dance Dance Revolution. 

That said, there are still some seriously disconcerting examples that need to be discussed further. When the shooter Brenton Tarrant killed 49 Muslim people in New Zealand, he livestreamed himself crying out “Subscribe to PewDiePie”. The world-famous Youtuber PewDiePie has had to apologise on numerous occasions for various misogynistic and antisemitic comments he has made in his viral videos. One wonders what kind of ripple effect this has had on his subscribers’ own language. 

Indeed, 22% of parents claim their children had learned offensive language from playing video games; another survey found that 86% of parents did not follow age restrictions on video games. In addition to the dangers of offensive language online, scientists from the University of Leeds estimated that young children who play video games are more likely to be obese by the time they become a teenager. Online grooming also still remains to be a serious threat for young people; 14 year-old Breck Bednar died in 2014 when he met with his online “friend” in real-life. 

So, is gaming gaming you? Is it harmful or is it beneficial? The world is only now somewhat understanding the industry’s advantages and disadvantages to young people and the rest of society, but much still remains unknown. For an industry that attracts north of 2 billion people in the world, the control of online gaming by different countries’ governments varies greatly. Now that online gaming is all but banned in one of the sector’s biggest markets, there is an enormous pressure on the industry to survive. Whether China’s Watchdog’s intervention is a Super Smash success or a Fallout failure, the video gaming industry might be heading into a Battle Royale with governments and other regulatory bodies across the world in the coming decade. 

Money Diaries: A Fresher at Merton College, Oxford

Cherwell Money Diaries
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Money Diaries: A Fresher at Merton College, Oxford

Occupation: Fresher

Age: 19

Location: Central Oxford

Income: £150/week

Rent: £1,309/term with bills

Course fees: £9,250/year

For any university student, money is going to be an issue, and for freshers having to deal with budgeting for the first time it can be a tricky topic to try and figure out. Alongside the stress of a pre-reading list that seems to go on forever and trying to work out just how much will physically fit in the car, freshers have to sit down and work out how they are going to afford the next three years.

This is easier said than done; even after working out how much income I’d have to spend, planning how I was going to spend it proved to be a significant challenge. My first port of call was the university’s guide to student living costs. In many ways this was quite helpful: it provided a handy breakdown of estimated living costs with upper and lower bounds. Yet it also increased my confusion even more. It suggested budgeting up to £100 per month for study costs and between £20 and £55 for a mysterious ‘other’. 

Gradually though, I was able to piece together a weekly budget. Some costs such as food and rent were relatively fixed, while other costs such as personal items could be estimated fairly well. Then, once I had established a minimum that I needed to budget for each week, I was able to split up the remaining income I knew I would have for social activities and general shopping. 

To keep track of all this, I decided to use Excel. I looked through various student websites for different templates, before settling on a weekly tracker where I could record money both in and out from various categories. Nowadays, there are lots of apps that can do similar things, which provides a handy starting point if you don’t have much experience budgeting, but I liked the ability to customise my tracker to suit my individual needs.

However, all this careful planning went out of the window when freshers’ week finally arrived. Things that I couldn’t possibly have previously contemplated paying for suddenly started to seem essential: a gown and mortarboard weren’t on my packing list! The freshers’ fair was by far the worst culprit; like every fresher, I put down my name down for lots of different societies and clubs, signing myself up to endless mailing lists. What I hadn’t yet realised was that many societies charged membership fees. Most of these fees seemed reasonable enough, especially if I would only have time to take part in a couple. 

The membership fee that really took me by surprise was the Union. As I had walked into the freshers’ fair I had been accosted by a member and told that it was the essential “Oxford experience” which it would be silly to miss out on. It was only later back in college that I realised they wanted over £200, which they were presenting as a bargain due to a £30 discount! For now, I’m still undecided as to whether I should become a member. They clearly invite some brilliant speakers and have great events, but the fee would really throw off my budgeting for the term. 

All in all, I feel confident that I’ll be able to budget effectively over the next three years. By setting up a good system and knowing how much I can spend each week, I hope that I won’t run into any problems with money during my time here.

If you would like to share your personal finance stories and contribute to Cherwell’s money diaries, you can anonymously complete our money diaries form here.

Oxford Half Marathon returns this weekend

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Oxford Half Marathon returns this weekend

The Oxford Half, the city’s annual half marathon, will take place again this year. The event will be held on Sunday 17th October, and follow a route that covers some of Oxford’s most well-known sites.

Last year, the event had to be cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s event will comply with COVID-19 safety measures, such as the requirement for participants to have completed a Lateral Flow Test and a health declaration in the 12-24 hours prior to the race.

The half marathon’s route starts on Broad Street and goes through University Parks, Summertown, the banks of the River Cherwell to eventually finish on Parks Road. Colleges such as Balliol, Keble and St Hugh’s feature on the route, as well as other Oxford hotspots including the Radcliffe Camera and the Taylorian. Live music and other forms of entertainment are set to greet runners along the way, with a lineup soon to come.

Image: Irene Airuo Zhang

Local charities such as Oxfordshire Mind, Helen & Douglas House and Sobell House are partnering with the Limelight Sports Club to host the event, with Cancer Research UK acting as the lead charity partner. Aside from supporting local charities, this year’s event will also be the largest race route outside London to be completely plastic-free. Recyclable cups will be distributed to runners instead of plastic water bottles, as part of the club’s sustainability initiative.

The weekend of the race will also see a series of road closures around Oxford, with the Broad Street section of the route closing at 8:00am on Saturday 16th October. The remainder of Broad Street, as well as parts of Museum Road, will close later that afternoon.

The race village, where the route begins, opens at 7:30am on Sunday 17th, with the marathon itself starting at 9:30am. Those placed first, second and third in the race will receive a sum of prize money, along with automatic entry into next year’s event.

Image: Barry Cornelius/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via flickr.com

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