Friday 15th August 2025
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Graduate expectations continue to fall despite COVID-19 vaccine

Charlie Hancock
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Graduate expectations continue to fall despite COVID-19 vaccine

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced students’ confidence that they will be able to find a job after graduating and what salary they will be earning, according to research from Bright Network.

A majority of graduates surveyed (65%) said they were not confident that they would be able to get a graduate role, and 85% said uncertainty caused by the pandemic increased the amount of pressure they felt to find employment. The news comes as the UK unemployment rate rose from 4.5% to 4.8%, with people aged between 16-24 particularly badly effected. 14.6% of people within this age group who are “economically active” – excluding students or people unable to work due to illness, disability or caring duties – are unemployed.

The research also found that the earning potential of new graduates fell from £27,000 at the beginning of 2020 to £25,980. This is despite initiatives such as the UK government’s Kickstart Scheme, which offers employers £2000 for every person aged between 16-24 on Universal Credit they employ.

The approval of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19, which the NHS began to deliver in December, has not improved graduates’ confidence. Only 21% felt the vaccine increased their confidence that they would find a graduate role. This indicates graduates fear that the economic recovery from the pandemic will be slow. The UK economy fared worse than any other G7 nation, falling 20.4% in the three months before June 2020. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that the UK suffered the second-worst hit to their economy out of 37 member nations, and that the country stood at a “critical juncture” as it leaves the EU Single Market at a time when scientists are warning of a potential “third wave” of COVID infections.

Bright Network, who describe their mission as connecting “ambitious young people from all backgrounds with the best career opportunities” also identified how inequalities between students affected their confidence in finding a graduate position. Privately-educated students were 21% more like than those from state schools to say they had the right network to help them find employment. First generation students were also disadvantaged at continuing their education, with 70% complaining of a lack of access to adequate workspaces, and 42% saying their internet connection was consistently “poor”.

Graduates have responded to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic by looking for ways to make themselves more appealing to potential employers. 60% of students polled said they were planning on continuing their education beyond their undergraduate degree in order to stand out in a competitive employment market. 90% also said they wanted employers to help students by providing them with opportunities to learn key skills at university.

Commenting on the findings, the CEO of Bright Network James Uffindell said “Our Talent Tracker continues to highlight the real and long-lasting impacts the pandemic will have on the UK’s young people looking to begin their careers. Students’ persistent concerns about fewer employment prospects, despite the great news about the vaccine roll-out, tell us that the challenges students face to secure the right graduate job will persist beyond the pandemic – we know that the economy won’t bounce back immediately.

“It’s imperative that as we look ahead to 2021 and a recovery from the pandemic, we ensure the next generation are given the best skills training and opportunities to help build back the economy we need”.

Image Credit: Claire MacNeill / Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

CEO behind £150m Oxford donation claims company will be “huge winner” post-pandemic

Daisy Aitchison
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CEO behind £150m Oxford donation claims company will be “huge winner” post-pandemic

Questions have been raised about the business practices of one of Oxford University’s most prominent donors – who gave £150 million to the University in 2019 – after comments he made at the Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Virtual Conference.

Stephen Schwarzman, the Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone, an investment firm – with a personal worth of $20 billion – said that “Blackstone was a huge winner coming out of the global financial crisis. And I think something similar is going to happen [following the pandemic].

“Now, about half of the firm’s earnings are from a real estate business. Just to give you some idea how this breaks, we pick the good neighbourhoods, if you will. Real estate has a lot of different sub asset classes. And we’ve concentrated in logistics. It’s about 36% of all the real estate we own. We’re the largest owner of real estate in the private world. And that asset class has boomed with huge increases in rents, almost no occupancies, rent collections from almost everyone”.

The comments come as renters across the globe face losing their homes as a result of the pandemic. At the same time, Blackstone has been accused of increasing rates for its tenants and filing eviction cases. A spokesperson for Blackstone told Cherwell: “The comments made were specifically related to our investments in the logistics space and were characterized as such at the time. Any implication that these comments relate to our investments in the housing space or that we are pursuing evictions is entirely inaccurate.”

City Monitor has reported that rent levels for housing owned by Blackstone in Torrejón de Ardoz in Spain have risen during the pandemic for properties which previously had rent controls. In certain instances, this led to rates nearly doubling, with some tenants saying they will be unable to afford to continue living in their homes.

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project has also recorded instances of Blackstone filing for evictions of tenants from its properties in America, despite the pandemic and the eviction moratorium designed to protect renters. Overall, 30 to 40 million people in America are deemed to be at risk of eviction following the expiration of the eviction moratorium.

Following the 2008 financial crisis, Blackstone bought up thousands of properties which were either mortgaged by banks or were former social homes sold off by governments to try and raise funds. In a recent UN report, Blackstone was identified as a lead contributor to the current housing crisis. Leilani Farha, a UN special rapporteur, explained: “Properties are being purchased en masse, renovated and then offered at a higher rental rate, pricing tenants out of their own homes and communities.” Blackstone’s full response to these allegations can be found here.

It also has long-term investments in areas such as global logistics, which have performed relatively strongly during the pandemic. Schwarzman told Robert Peston in 2008 that “the real golden age comes when you have a mess. You have economies that are on their back. You know, capital inadequate. And when you start buying businesses at that part in the cycle you inevitably do extremely well”. Schwarzman has certainly done extremely well – Michael Gross, author of a book about the building the tycoon lives in, describes him as “the epitome of American capitalism.”

In response to the allegation that such business practices during a pandemic may be unethical, Blackstone told Cherwell: “This comment was in response to a question about the types of firms investors chose to allocate capital to after the financial crisis. We are proud to have earned the trust of investors around the globe, including pension funds representing tens of millions of retirees, by focusing on careful sector selection and deploying capital in areas that we believe can be resilient across economic cycles.”

“We are not evicting tenants during these challenging times. The only cases of eviction that have been filed involve matters of public nuisance and/or risk to public health or public safety. Our first priority is ensuring the safety and health of our residents, while making sure they can remain in their homes, and we have rolled out financial relief options across our portfolio of residential properties.”

In 2019, Oxford University announced that Schwarzman had donated £150 million towards humanities and artificial intelligence research. This was the single largest donation in the University’s history. The new Stephen A Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, which will be built with the money, is set to open for the 2024/25 academic year. It will house seven faculties in order to encourage “cross-disciplinary and collaborative study”.

Oxford University’s decision to accept Schwarzman’s money led to controversy, with an open letter signed by forty-two locals, students, academics, councillors and activists claiming that the donation came from “the proceeds of the exploitation and disenfranchisement of vulnerable people across the world”. At the time a spokesperson for Blackstone said that “the allegations which were put to us are false and unsupported by the facts” and that they act in full compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.

A spokesperson for Oxford University told Cherwell: “Mr Schwarzman has been approved by our rigorous due diligence procedures which consider ethical, legal, financial and reputational issues. The idea of a humanities building has been in ongoing discussion and consultation for more than a decade but we did not have funding for the building until Mr Schwarzman’s gift. The Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities will benefit teaching and research in the humanities at Oxford; its performing arts and exhibition venues will bring new audiences to the University; and it will build upon our world-class capabilities in the humanities to lead the study of the ethical implications of AI”. In February, the University refused to release documents to Oxford Students’ Union relating to the vetting of Schwarzman’s donation.

Schwarzman has donated to a number of educational institutions in addition to Oxford University, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale. He is also a prominent Republican, who backed Donald Trump and spent over $27 million in donations to US politicians this year. Bloomberg’s analysis of election funding found that Schwarzman had given Trump’s re-election campaign $3.7 million of the $4.8 million that Blackstone had raised from the U.S. financial industry in the previous 18 months, far more than any other figure or business in American finance.

The Financial Times also reported that, in a call with senior business leaders, Schwarzman appeared to defend Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election results, asking “whether other participants did not find it surprising that early votes in Pennsylvania had favoured Mr Trump, only for later counts to tip the state in Mr Biden’s favour”. In a later statement, Schwarzman said: “In my comments three days after the election, I was trying to be a voice of reason and express why it’s in the national interest to have all Americans believe the election is being resolved correctly. But the outcome is very certain today, and the country should move on.” He continued: “Like many in the business community, I am ready to help President-elect Biden and his team as they confront the significant challenges of rebuilding our post-Covid economy.”

Image Credit: World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org), swiss-image.ch/Photo by Remy Steinegger. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

‘We Don’t Need No Education’: Assessing What Matters in Schools

Jess Dunmore
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‘We Don’t Need No Education’: Assessing What Matters in Schools

Even over the grainy zoom call with my mum – an A-Level psychology teacher – I can’t help but notice the exhaustion in her face and voice. It is always difficult to maintain momentum in the long autumn school term, especially as the evenings draw in and the approach of Christmas provides a ready distraction from the work at hand. However, this year has been particularly draining. We spoke after she had just finished another day trying to teach effectively despite the technical challenges posed by ‘blended’ lessons and the ever-shifting regulations around school. And yet the thing causing most concern for her students and colleagues was not the problem of how to engage a class when half of the students are only intermittently present through video call, but the uncertainty surrounding assessment and exam grading.

Coronavirus has placed additional strain on schools and educational institutions over the last nine months, and has brought to light existing weaknesses in a system struggling after years of cuts and chronic underfunding. We have suddenly become aware of residual issues such as the lack of transparency within qualifications providers or the mistrust of teachers and their predicted grades. The particular pressures of the pandemic have also brought their own challenges, highlighted most shockingly in the recent unwillingness to extend free school meal programmes over school holidays. However, alongside these other concerns, one of the deeper flaws that coronavirus has exposed is how our current education system is made to serve exams rather than students. The emphasis falls on standardised testing at the expense of broader discussions about the state and purpose of education in the UK. Too often, learning is sacrificed in the attempt to sort, judge and appraise pupils, and in this drive to ascribe value to students, we risk losing sight of what learning can and should be: an ongoing, unfolding and communal process.

The prioritisation of assessment over learning is a problem that predates the pandemic, and is evident in the way we structure and conceptualise pedagogy in the UK. The academic cycle is centred around the exam period in May and June, and each year there is a sense of building up to, and working towards, these final examinations. Unlike in several European countries, younger students in the UK do not have to repeat a year if they fail their end of year exams, but the final assessments that UK students take in ‘non-exam’ years is crucial in habituating them to this established academic cycle. Exams are the point around which the year’s work revolves; teachers frantically try to cover the set topics and to deliver exam technique lessons before the crunch point in early summer, only for this relentless routine to begin again in September.

The constant sense of time running out not only contributes to student and teacher burnout, but also means that teachers are slaves to an exam-based curriculum that allows for no flexibility or variation. With the ever-looming threat of exams, teachers must use their limited lesson time to cover and consolidate the set content. Consequently, they are frequently unable to adapt this curriculum to suit the individual needs of their students, or to respond to current affairs. When the exam syllabus demands that they adhere to predetermined topics, how can they nurture their students’ curiosity for subjects that lie outside the curriculum? How can, for example, a history teacher discuss the recent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, or a drama teacher debate how mass virtual performances alters theatre, when to do so would mean that they cannot teach students how best to navigate the exam paper? Indeed, not only must teachers ensure that their students understand the key concepts within the curriculum, but they must teach these ideas according to how they will appear in the final exam paper. The emphasis is not on the concepts themselves, but on how these concepts can be used to meet the idiosyncratic marking criteria. Learning how to write a good essay and learning how to answer a particular question on an exam paper may be two different things, and it is a cause for considerable concern when formulaic exam technique takes unquestioned precedence over developing a student’s writing style. Writing essays as part of my English Literature degree, it is refreshing not to have to force ‘contextual knowledge’ into every paragraph as part of the PEEL essay structure required by the GCSE syllabus.

Of course, this is not to say that assessments are entirely valueless; certainly, it is useful to be able to gauge a student’s understanding of a topic (for teachers and students alike), and the process of revision can itself be an opportunity to reflect on learning. For some students, formal, standardised exams are a good way of structuring learning and can be a useful assessment tool for those who work well under these conditions. However, having a system in which the need to examine pupils dictates learning, rather than the other way round, means that we have lost sight of how to celebrate and encourage learning in and of itself. Although the exam system as it currently stands suits some types of learners, surely having a one-size-fits-all approach is as outdated as it is illogical. The student population is diverse; our assessment system should be flexible enough to allow all to thrive.

Part of the problem undeniably lies in how education is seen as simply a rung in an individual’s career ladder. Too often, students are encouraged to choose subjects that will enable them to study particular courses or enter certain professions and to consider how they can use their studies to secure a job. Such a career-orientated mindset presents education as an obstacle to overcome and fails to recognise learning as an ongoing, unfolding process. Moreover, the close ties between education and perceived economic capacity means that one of the principle purposes of school examinations is to ascribe value to students. GCSE and A-Level grades rank students in terms of academic achievement, but are also used as indicators of economic potential, with the assumption being that those with the highest grades will ultimately earn the most money. Grades are seen to be trustworthy, objective evidence of a student’s innate worth. This partially explains the furore over results in August 2020; this widespread anxiety about grade inflation belies the underlying fear that students had been over-valued, like goods sold at inflated prices. Higher education is, after all, an investment in the economy of the future. The government provides loans for students to gain skills, with the expectation that this financial obligation will later be repaid and the economy enhanced.

Under the pressure of coronavirus, the need to grade students has only exacerbated neglect of learning. Students have faced months of missed lessons, and continue to experience significant disruption as schools grapple with changing restrictions and cases. Meanwhile, teachers have had to dramatically adapt their teaching to allow for any eventuality, from complete distance learning to a fusion of live and virtual classes, as well as managing staff absences and their own health concerns. A particularly worrying impact of coronavirus is the widening of the educational gap between students from different social groups and in different countries in the UK: research from the National Foundation for Educational Research suggests that the learning gap between students from affluent backgrounds compared to those from less affluent areas increased by 46% over the first national lockdown. With 28% of pupils reporting that they do not have access to a computer at home, this disparity is likely to grow as students are forced to self-isolate and stay away from the classroom.

Given this challenging situation, it would seem logical for the government to prioritise catching up on missed learning, as well as providing additional support for staff and students in a period of uncertainty and loss. Instead, debates around education have been dominated by concerns about how best to run exams in summer 2021, specifically whether to use existing exam models or to move to a more teacher-based assessment or coursework approach. Again, what takes precedence is not the students’ learning and their development as young adults, but the need to evaluate their value after completing their courses. Neither of these suggestions addresses questions of how to help students catch up on missed learning, or how to ensure that schools remain places of relative stability, if not normality, especially for younger or more vulnerable students. Moving to a coursework or teacher-assessment approach only places additional strain on schools, who may have to run additional internal examinations whilst balancing student exam absences. Equally problematic is the prospect of insisting that normal exams do go ahead, which leaves teachers with the impossible task of trying to complete the syllabus after months of absence.

It is clear that the way we conceptualise education is deeply flawed, creating a system that undervalues students and their process of learning. The question remains, then, whether there are alternatives, and how we can start to reframe discussions around pedagogy to better appreciate the process of learning itself. Finland’s education system, which uses minimal standardised assessment, perhaps offers a model of how to reframe education around learning rather than exams. When forming their educational policy, the Finnish government identified key areas that would strengthen education, such as raising the status of the teaching profession, equalising educational opportunity and access, and creating a looser national curriculum. Consequently, a series of targeted reforms since 1970 saw a concerted investment in teacher training and development schemes, which made teaching a desirable and respected profession with opportunities for progression. Moreover, a more flexible curriculum was introduced, allowing students to pursue their own interests and manage their own learning. Play and creativity are celebrated as important learning processes, particularly for younger pupils, resulting in a more holistic teaching approach. Most importantly, however, the government decided to move away from a centralised testing system, which many felt disadvantaged certain pupils and barred them from accessing further opportunities. Now, Finnish students only sit one formal exam at the end of high school; in younger years, teachers instead use reports to reflect on their students’ progress, which opens up a discussion between student and teacher. Here, the open-ended reports suggest the possibility of continuing learning beyond the classroom, unlike final exams which signal a definite closure of the learning process.

Of course, we can not simply transfer this educational system from Finland to the UK as this risks ignoring the social and demographic differences between the two countries, such as population size, distribution and diversity. There have been significant educational reforms in England over the last decade, though the direction of travel appears to be away from the model offered by countries such as Finland. Far from reducing the importance attached to standardised testing, policies introduced by Michael Gove between 2010-14 made GCSE and A-Level courses in England more exam-based by eliminating coursework elements. Moreover, these reforms introduced significant changes to the curriculum, such as making maths more complicated at a younger level and structuring science courses around concrete facts. These reforms, which were implemented with little teacher consultation and which exacerbated resentment within the teaching profession, gave teachers less flexibility and encourage rote-learning. Even for students who perform well in exam conditions, the monotony of memorising reams of facts, figures, statistics and quotations often kills any love for their subject, leaving many disengaged.

Nevertheless, it is still worth asking ourselves what a newly reformed system could look like in the UK. Without the pressure of having to cover the whole exam specification, teachers would be able to be more responsive in their teaching, adapting their lessons to suit their class and engaging more with current affairs. Students could have more independence with their learning, dedicating more time to developing skills that genuinely interest them. Such radical reforms would entail a complete shift in educational policy as well as widespread changes to how the economy functions. There are some reforms currently being implemented, though it is too early to say whether Gavin Williamson’s recent announcement that actual grades, rather than predicted ones, will be used when offering university places will indeed be fairer to the disadvantaged pupils he hopes to support. However, as coronavirus forces us to change our ways of life, we should use this opportunity to reflect on whether our systems and institutions are working best for the people they are meant to serve. Ultimately, the question should not be about how to evaluate and grade students in the context of the pandemic, but what do we value in education? Can we find a way to celebrate a love for learning in and of itself, or must education remain subservient to the need to assess students’ worth?

Artwork by Amir Pichhadze

The dreaded ‘transitioning’

Chelsea Coates
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The dreaded ‘transitioning’

Transitioning. The word carries so much, it should be accompanied by spooky ghost sound effects every time someone dares to utter it. To those who are less acquainted with the term, welcome to the world of black hair! This word might seem to imply a transformation of seismic, life-changing proportions, but it’s actually just the term black women use for the process of allowing their hair to grow out of their head as it is. Except here’s the catch: this is not a simple process – hardly anything to do with black hair is. 

When you transition, you stop using the chemical sodium hydroxide to ‘relax’ (codeword for straighten) your hair, allowing your curls to come out once again. Gradually, you end up with a half-puffy, half-straight creature emerging from your head, at which point you have an important decision to make. If you cut all the relaxed ends off, your hair will be pretty short. If you leave them it will look quite strange. Some women opt for shaving it all off for a fresh start. Some women turn to trusted protective styles, such as wearing wigs, weave or braids to shield their hair during the transition period. I’ve previously heard several people of other ethnicities claim that we make such a big deal about our hair, but in the words of Fleabag, hair is everything. Anyway, if they also risked being suspended or even fired for their hair choices, they would probably make a big deal about it too. With a little patience, the time and the effort we spend on our hair are worth it in the end…but it’s still a lot of time and effort (and often money).

My ‘transition’ happened in lockdown. Since the age of 13 I’ve been relaxing my hair, and since the age when my brain began to efficiently store memories I’ve wanted to have long, flowing, essentially European hair. It was all well and good having hair that defied gravity or that didn’t need a hairband to remain in a plait, but none of my dolls, favourite Disney princesses or even female family members had afros. I was tired of entire Sundays being devoted to washing and detangling my hair when I could have been playing Club Penguin, or reading, or watching High School Musical. Most of all, I wanted to look pretty, and in the eyes of ten year old me, the words ‘pretty’ and ‘afro’ existed in two different dimensions. 

As I got older, natural hair began to make its presence felt beyond the closed doors of black hair salons. One by one, my aunts began to reveal their new manes. Fellow black girls in school began to don braids instead of fresh perms. Beyoncé released the Lemonade album. Gradually, I came to realise that natural hair too could be beautiful. Lockdown acted as a catalyst for my own transitioning for two reasons. The first was that having to stay at home made me go through a continuous cycle of learning to appreciate the familiar and then beginning to tire of it. In short, I got bored of the sight of myself in the mirror. If I couldn’t change my surroundings, I might as well change myself. The second reason was the fact that I was shielded from the societal pressure of being presentable. I had time to tackle the new terrain that my natural hair laid out for me, to try out new styles and see what worked, and, much more importantly, what did not.

So what’s the verdict? I’m not quite sure yet. Whereas the ten year-old me would not have been able to believe that she could be perceived as beautiful as long as she had her ‘fro, I’m able to see the beauty in my natural hair now. I have Janelle Monae, Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o to thank for that. However, I still have my reservations. As I mentioned earlier, natural hair requires time. In the first lockdown, this wasn’t an issue: if anything, sitting in front of a mirror for a couple of hours combing, parting, moisturising and plaiting was a form of free therapy in turbulent times. My hair is not such a therapeutic distraction now that I’m back at university, however. I also tend to feel a sense of dissociation when I look at myself in the mirror because in my brain, my afro is inextricably linked to my younger self. Although I would rather look younger than my age instead of older, the prospect of returning to my pre-pubescent self is quite frightening (I wouldn’t mind getting back the flawless pre-acne skin though).

The most pressing reservation of all, however, is the fact that when I look in the mirror at my newly-transitioned self, I get the sinking feeling that I look good, but I could look better. My ten year old self is still in there somewhere, reminding me that what is on my head still isn’t upheld in wider society as something to be admired in the way that European or Asian hair is, and when it is, it is often regarded as an exotic plaything. I’m reminded of classmates exclaiming “Look, her hair stays up!” whilst prodding it with various classroom paraphernalia, and pushing down the discomfort I told myself I didn’t deserve to feel. I’m reminded of all the times other tourists petted me like a cute dog on holiday, commenting on how soft my hair was and telling their family to join in too, and then beaming with delight at having finally satiated their curiosity – seriously, if my mum had charged them a pound for each petting, we could have paid for an extra holiday each year.

I’ve learnt to appreciate my afro’s beauty but I’m still learning how to love it. There is still the gnawing feeling that, regarding the many levels of beauty, my afro won’t be able to break the glass ceiling (not without a Beyoncé-sized budget anyway). Gradually emerging from and re-entering lockdown has made me realise how much my perception of myself, or more specifically of how beautiful I am, is formed by others, and that this needs to change. It has made me see that despite all the praise I will heap on black women that wear their hair in whichever way they choose – natural, relaxed, under a wig, weaved into braids – my ten year old self is still very much here, and she still sometimes craves the hair I will never naturally have.

 It seems her and I have some talking to do.

Artwork by Rachel Jung

Doom and zoom: student work life in 2020

Clementine Scott
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Doom and zoom: student work life in 2020

Like so many other current second year students, my Trinity term in 2020 was characterised by long, repetitive hours spent at a desk I hadn’t utilised since A-Levels, and a workload (two essays a week for the first time in my degree) which prevented me from engaging in many family activities which could potentially have broken the monotony. With this in mind, I was thrilled at the prospect of my Michaelmas 2020 – not only was there the widespread relief of returning to the irreplicable atmosphere of Oxford and to all the benefits of having friends nearby, but for me there was also the reassurance of my workload being reduced from two essays to just one short problem sheet per week, leading me to rejoice at the thought of eight weeks of enjoying learning without excessive pressure or deadlines and improving my mental health.

However, the reality has not been this idyllic; during this term so far I have found myself managing to slip all too often into the same patterns of repetition and monotony as I did during Trinity. It’s worth mentioning at this point that I’m a classicist, a degree with the quirk of exams in the middle of second year, so despite my lack of imminent deadlines, my longer term academic responsibilities threaten to ambush me should I take too much joy in the rarity of an Oxford term with a reduced workload. Aside from this, though, I have found that my lack of potential essay crises this term has forced me, paradoxically, to reconsider my approach to work in a similar way to a completely virtual Trinity with a heavy workload.

Part of this is due to the pandemic-induced closure of libraries and the ensuing necessity of working in one’s room or in a cafe; just as working from home in Trinity blurred the lines between the regions of my life concerned with study and those not concerned with it, the lack of designated study spaces this term (as well as the lack of physical distance between one’s room and tutorials which remain online) has granted similar ambiguity to the concepts of ‘work’ and ‘not work’ – this has caused me to be always in a no-man’s land between working and relaxing, rather than focus on one or the other. Moreover, I feel oddly as though my smaller workload this term has mimicked the lockdown in Trinity in terms of its effect on my ability to work efficiently. Both phenomena have appeared to promise abundant amounts of free time in lieu of the pre-pandemic social obligations, but in reality have illuminated my capacity for allowing work that should take a day to fill an entire week. In Trinity this unfortunate ability of mine was exacerbated by the lack of anything outside the home enforcing limits on my time spent working, and now a similar effect is achieved through my lack of work – it’s infinitely more possible to overthink and procrastinate a piece of work when one is not pressured by several other assignments that week, and this effect, as ever, is compounded by the reduced number of reasons to leave one’s room. Both this term and the very different one that preceded it have demonstrated to me that I need some sort of limit placed upon my work, either temporal or relating to the space in which I work, in order to be able to do it effectively.

This strange hybrid of a global pandemic and a lack of deadlines has caused many empty hours in which I’ve drastically reconsidered the working strategies that have always worked for me, and this hasn’t been easy to deal with at times. Nevertheless, there are advantages to the enforced monotony. A lack of both high academic pressure and opportunities for socialising with a wider variety of people has given me the chance to enjoy some simpler aspects of life which I rarely made time for last year – when I’ve been able to put aside the fear of exams next term, I’ve cooked more ambitiously, as well as exercising and making music, much more often than I ever did in first year. There is also the fact that even though it is still easy to fall into the solitude and assignments stretching out over days which characterised Trinity, the return to the physical environment of Oxford has had a far from meaningless symbolic effect on me; though we still can’t mimic the unique experience of studying in an Oxford library (at least without an unromantic booking system), it is surely better for my work to be studying in a city which contains all my memories of first year and hopes for future years, than in a home which, though I do love it, I put aside as a thing of the past when I came to university. Though it has been strange to experience the twin effects of pandemic-induced solitude and a lull in academic work, my way of life this term has somehow felt simpler than first year, and I hope I continue to have the chance to enjoy myself, reflect and reset before both my academic schedule and the state of global health return to normal.

The American Story, Part 3: The Future of America’s Pasts

Josh Self
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The American Story, Part 3: The Future of America’s Pasts

The act of conscripting American history for contemporary ends is as old as America itself. But today, Americans are more enamoured of their pasts than ever before. In a modern, atomised age, the promise of a shared history directly appeals to the most basic human instincts. Present political discourse is hence saturated with history, its deployment is routine, calculated and, more often than not, rewarding. Many Americans still believe that they are entrusted with humanity’s highest ideals and loftiest aspirations. But who can blame them? They are told as much in every speech.

On July 5th 2020, President Donald Trump delivered his ‘Independence Day’ speech at the foot of Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore is itself part of a cultic infrastructure designed to illustrate and reinforce the myth of American ‘exceptionalism’. The monument consists of the faces of four presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, who respectively signify the ‘founding, growing, preservation, and development’ of America. Mount Rushmore is, very literally, the ‘American story’ carved into stone; and like the ‘American story’, Rushmore is a monument by white people for white people.

From Rushmore’s very inception, the monument was a symbol of oppression. The faces of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt were carved not into just any mountain, but one illegally obtained from Native peoples. In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled that Mount Rushmore, known to the Lakota Sioux as ‘The Six Grandfathers’, had been unlawfully obtained by the US government. Rather than a ‘shrine of democracy’, therefore, Rushmore mocks any notion of inclusivity. It is telling that Trump believed this location appropriate for his 2020 ‘Independence Day’ speech.

Like the monument behind him, Trump’s speech intended to preserve the ‘virtues’ of former ‘patriots’, but only succeeded in exposing the hollowness of American memory. Although the ‘myth’ of American independence crumbles under Fredrick Douglass’ famous criticism (see my first article), Trump evoked his memory as proof of American exceptionalism. ‘Only America could have produced [Douglass]’, Trump mused, ‘No other place’. At Rushmore, Trump took history into his own hands, at once moulding and mocking figures like Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr. Here, two and a half centuries of myth-making collided to produce a mutant abomination of American history. And the crowd went wild.

The appeal of a mythologised American past has become nearly overwhelming. So usable is America’s past that historian Jill Lepore advises, ‘When in doubt, in American politics, left, right, or center, deploy the Founding Fathers’. Indeed, Americans have invested so much faith in the myth of the ‘founders’ that they are consulted as part of contemporary policy debate. When Congress began debating an overhaul of the health care system in 2009, the ‘Founding Fathers’ were, we are informed, very distressed. ‘The founders are here today’, said John Ridpath of the Ayn Rand Institute, ‘They’re all around us’. In truth, America’s history is hardly history at all.

The founders’ presence is now so pervasive that it transcends politics. Newsweek Magazine coined the phrase ‘founders chic’ to describe the explosion of the ‘fathers’ in American culture. Alongside new biographies, films and musicals (you know the one) charting the virtues of the founders, a strange but significant sub-genre describing the fathers’ culinary impact has taken-off. The highlights of these include:

 • Dave DeWitt’s The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine; (2010)

• Dennis J. Pogue’s Founding Spirits: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey; (2011)

• Robert W. Pelton’s Baking Recipes of Our Founding Fathers; (2004)

• Thomas J. Craughwell’s Thomas Jefferson’s Crème Brûlée: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America; (2012)

The founders are so great that their achievements do not stop with ‘America’, but—I guess—with burnt cream and whiskey.

Although appearing inane, these books’ attempts to introduce the long-dead ‘fathers’ into today’s celebrity culture is immensely problematic; this is especially the case considering that these books flirt with and often overtly deal with slavery. At best, the books refuse to discuss the inherently abusive nature of the master-slave relationship, at worst, they legitimise and justify the practice with delicious culinary ends in mind. In The Founding Foodies DeWitt suggests that ‘[the slave James] Hemings lived a charmed life’ and presents a quasi-familial bond between Jefferson and his slaves. Against the backdrop of recent revisionism regarding Jefferson’s relationship with James’ sister Sally, this myth-making proves awkward reading.

With the present rise in myth-making, interest in revisionism has grown in tandem. In 2019, The New York Times launched the ‘1619 Project’, aiming to place ‘the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of [American history]’. Many historians have expressed ‘strong reservations’ about the project, accusing it of replacing one ahistorical ‘meta- narrative’ with another, but critique has come at its most extreme from those who hold their ‘fathers’ closest. Senator Tom Cotton has introduced the ‘Saving American History Act of 2020’ which would defund schools that teach this ‘racially divisive’ curriculum. Defending his bill, Cotton retreated into the comfort of his ‘fathers’, whom he claimed constructed America ‘to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction’. In tacit support of Cotton, on 17th September 2020, President Trump announced the establishment of the ‘1776 Commission’ to promote ‘patriotic education’ and ‘the miracle of American history’ in schools. There can be no doubt that the sense of crisis surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement has brought with it a resurgent reverence for the ‘American story’. Similarly, Trump’s election defeat will serve only to inspire America’s myth-makers more.

Simply put, the ‘American story’ is so resilient and long-enduring because it is useful. It silences dissenters and manufactures consent; it destroys and creates in equal measure, invariably distorting all around it. For those silenced by the American story, a new ‘America’ is long overdue, and this ‘America’, envisioned by all of David Walker, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B Dubois, James Baldwin and Martin-Luther-King, is possible. In my final piece on the ‘American Story’, I am, again, reminded of Langston Hughes:

“I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath— America will be!” 

In case you missed it: now read Part 1 and Part 2 of The American Story.

Oxford Reopened: Temple Lounge

Max Mutkin
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Oxford Reopened: Temple Lounge

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Oxford students who wanted to catch infectious diseases had to venture into Cowley. Back in the ‘old normal’, Temple Lounge – an Oxford institution in much the same way that Man vs. Food is an American one – was a mecca for signet-ring-sporting rugby players, tin-toting footballers, ever-so-slightly-awkward subject gatherings, and (bizarrely) the occasional family of four with young children – that is, if Mecca were a medium-price curry restaurant with a shisha bar attached. 

Surprisingly little has changed. The walk across the Magdalen Bridge and into Cowley still has all the aesthetic charms of a walking tour through the centre of Birmingham. Once we had arrived, the food was up to its usual standards: the hummus and pitta was as flavoursome as ever, while one of your correspondent’s co-diners found the umami of white wine poured into a bowl of red curry very interesting. The yellow chicken was yellow, which is, at least, better than salmonella-pink. Likewise, the drinks did not disappoint. There was a wide array of wine on offer: the Echo Falls White tasted every bit as good as it looked; the citrus and peach notes of the McGuigan Estate Sauvignon Blanc were complemented especially by its presentation in a plastic cup; and, at the more expensive end of the scale, the Yellowtail Chardonnay lived up to its promise of ‘bringing a smile to everyone’s lips’, as well as bringing problems to their gastrointestinal tracts. For non-oenophiles, a mini-keg of Doom Bar offered a balanced and moreish alternative in sophisticated packaging. Meanwhile, one fresher, opting for a bottle of Glen’s vodka, ended the evening looking paler (and less healthy) than a vampire Matt Lucas. In other words, all the ingredients for getting up close and personal with the inside of your toilet bowl were present and correct. 

Indeed, the ambience – ‘the atmosphere of a Persian bazaar’, as the website improbably claims – was only slightly diminished by social distancing. Awkwardly long slightly wobbly tables have made way for weirdly small slightly wobbly ones. Distance has increased the decibel level, if not necessarily the quality, of conversation. Although pennying is now banned – those wanting to find out what it was like in Stalingrad in 1942 will have to go elsewhere – much is the same. The lighting remains surgical, the service anything but. The artwork on the walls still has all the charm and idiosyncrasy of a Premier Inn built in 1997. Lap dances are permitted (provided masks are worn). Similarly, clothes-swapping is tolerated: those wondering how a six-foot-two man looks in an Urban Outfitters tube top, New Look miniskirt and A-cup push-up bra need look no further. Fortunately, shoes continue to be among the more hygienic drinking vessels available. When I woke up the next day, it felt like my brain was being used as a hamster wheel. Oxford hasn’t seemed more ‘normal’ before or since.

Food: Edible, technically

Atmosphere: 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Vomit odour

Value for Money: Undoubtedly

Overall Rating: 10/10

Oxford’s homelessness services will not cooperate with deporting rough sleepers

Sasha Mills
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Oxford’s homelessness services will not cooperate with deporting rough sleepers

Oxford City Council have announced that they will not cooperate with the Home Office on their new deportation policy for rough sleepers. 

Rules introduced on the 1st of December grant the Home Office the power to deport foreign nationals on the grounds of rough sleeping, even if they are legally living in the UK. Over a quarter of rough sleepers in the UK are thought to be foreign nationals. 

Oxford City Council have previously passed a motion dedicating their commitment to being a city of sanctuary for migrants, and in July 2019 they made a statement promising that their homeless services would not pass personal data to the Home Office without explicit consent. 

Councillor Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, migrant champion, said: “It is distressing to see the government continue to pursue hostile environment policies by punishing our migrant residents who have been forced to sleep rough.”

“As the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group says, making rough sleeping grounds for removal of UK non-nationals will put victims of domestic violence and modern slavery at further risk.”

 “As stated in our pledge as a city of sanctuary, our homelessness services will continue their non-cooperation with the Home Office by refusing to share information for the purposes of immigration enforcement.”

Jane Cranston, chair of Oxfordshire Homeless Movement, said: “Along with many others who work in and alongside the sector I am very concerned that the effect of the new immigration rules will be to lead homeless and rough sleeping immigrants not to seek support.”

“Should we be running the risk that fear of being deported will lead those who are already vulnerable being exploited and even becoming victims of modern slavery?”

Review: Bring Me the Horizon’s ‘Post Humans: Survival Horror’ EP

Jennifer Goodier
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Review: Bring Me the Horizon’s ‘Post Humans: Survival Horror’ EP

In November 2019, frontman of Bring Me The Horizon, Oli Sykes, boldly claimed that the band were “not going to do an album again, maybe ever”. Almost a year later, on the 30th October 2020, they released the second product of this new musical approach the Post Human: Survival Horror EP. Their first experimental EP received mixed reviews, with some praising its experimentation and others criticizing its length. Nevertheless, it proved the seriousness of the group’s move away from being constrained by their heavy metal audience’s desires, something they’d been steadily working on since the release of That’s The Spirit in 2015.

The Post Human: Survival Horror EP, though, offers some redeeming features for Bring Me The Horizon’s earliest fans, with there being a considerable revival of the guttural scream. Adding to this ‘revived’ sound is the resonance of the subject, with Sykes’ lyrics harking to the insanity of these ‘apocalyptic’ times, and the appealing political rhetoric of corrupt and dangerous leadership. Indeed, the EP sees Sykes condemning Donald Trump’s attempted classification of Antifa and Extinction Rebellion as ‘terrorist’ organisations. 

‘Dear Diary’ punchily sets the pandemic-centric stage for the EP, invoking the diary-keeping obsession of the first lockdown. The lyrics manage to capture much of the pandemic feeling of repetition and confusion, “I’m going braindead, isolated”, and introduces the idea of the ‘end of the world’, something which remains a fundamental theme throughout. The end of the song blends beautifully into the beginning tribal sounds of ‘Parasite Eve’, one of the stand-out tracks on the EP. This song is another apocalyptic take on the pandemic, with references to sneezing, vaccination and quarantining, but in true Bring Me The Horizon style, the implication of mind-control and war exaggerate the feelings surrounding the virus. However, the eerie alien-esque pre-chorus, contrasted with the heavy guitar sounds of the chorus, combine to reinforce the main message of the track: “When we forget the infection/ Will we remember the lesson?”

As the post-apocalyptic alien voice fades out from ‘Parasite Eve’, the song ‘Teardrops’ hits with force and deals with the impact of lockdown on mental health, offering a hard-rock take on pop. ‘Obey’, very recently voted Annie Mac’s hottest record of the year, stands out in particular due to its collaboration with the up-and-coming singer-songwriter Yungblud, marking new territory for British rock and further proving the band’s desire to explore beyond the horizon of traditional rock-metal artistry. 

The short electronic transitionary song: ‘Itch for the Cure (When Will We Be Free?)’, is one of my favourites on the EP because, like their previous expertimentalisms, it is unlike their previous work. It also fades perfectly into ‘Kingslayer’, featuring another intriguing collaboration with the ‘kawaii-metal’ band Babymetal. As well as being a reference to a medal in the game Call of Duty, Sykes also reveals that the term ‘kingslayer’ is an ode to someone who is “willing to do what’s right even if it’s illegal”, which Sykes reveals is in reference to those denying the effects of climate change and trying to silence those actively working against this.

‘1×1’, featuring the Nova Twins, presents further comment on the guilt of humanity at the harm done to other species, genders and ethnicities, something which the pandemic has further served to highlight. The second stand out track in the EP, ‘Ludens’, despite being released in November 2019, is a perfect anthem to serenade the pandemic era. Harking to the fact that “a world covered in cables was never wired to last” and highlighting the frustration of isolation: “How do I form a connection when we can’t even shake hands?”, as well as the reiteration that we “need a new leader”, the song ‘Ludens’ expertly portrays the growing frustrations with politicians and lockdown isolation.

As the final song brings the 32 minute long EP to a momentous close, the feeling is certainly one akin to finishing a full-length album. Yet, the theme linking this stream of songs together somehow makes the experience more succinct and topical than their 2019 album Amo. With many fans entertained by the return to their earlier sound, even noting the similarities to Linkin Park both in musicality and artistry, parallels being found in the music video for ‘Teardrops’, the ability to focus on a smaller set of thematically linked songs has perhaps opened up avenues for both musical experimentation and reconciliation. Whether the band seeks to push to newer musical horizons, or to return to their musical roots, their recent release has given rock-metal fans further hope for the future of the genre.

Image credit: Markus Hillgärtner via Wikimedia Commons

Hilary term 2021: how has your college responded to staggered returns?

Abigail Howe
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Hilary term 2021: how has your college responded to staggered returns?

After the Department for Education advised students to return in a staggered manner, with some not arriving until February, colleges are now releasing their individual guidance. The latest suggested arrival date so far for students at the University is the 24th January, while some colleges are advising that all students arrive in Noughth week.

Balliol – In an email to students prior to the Department for Education’s announcement, students were assigned return dates in January which would stagger arrivals, particularly within households. An email after the new guidance was released stated that “happily, this [arrangement for arrivals] seems to meet the Government requirements” and “almost all the undergraduates should be back in residence by the Thursday of 0th Week (14 January)”. Ultimately, Balliol advised students in both tranches not to alter their plans for returning based upon the plans for some to learn remotely: “We suggest that students stick to their allotted dates for return, whether or not they will be having any face-to-face teaching in 1st Week”.

Brasenose – Brasenose informed students that they should “arrive in Oxford to complete the first two Covid- 19 tests before your advertised teaching start date” with two slots available. Those in the first group – students who will receive face-to-face learning in the first week of term – “can arrive from 10th – 14th January” while those who will initially be learning remotely “can arrive from 17th – 21st January”. In both cases, “exceptions to the above arrival dates will be considered on a case by case basis by the DB”.

Christ Church – An email from Christ Church to its students told them: “we have made the decision that the safest way to manage student returns is to designate arrival slots for UK-based undergraduate students according to household, as we did at the start of Michaelmas Term. These arrival slots will be between 8th January and 14th January. We expect to have notified all students of their arrival slots by early next week.” All students then, will arrive by the point they would have done if it were a typical term.

Corpus Christi – Corpus Christi reassured students that “College will be open as planned from 4th January, and our facilities (catering, the library) will be operating as this term from that date. Therefore, if you would like and need to return as you had originally planned, you may do so notwithstanding the date your formal in-person teaching now starts”.

Hertford – Arranging two main arrival “windows” for students to use, Hertford advised that those within the first tranche arrive from the 14th January to 16th January while those in the second tranche return from the 21st January to 23rd January.  However, they highlighted the need for flexibility, writing that “in some cases there may be reasons why a delayed return is not desirable, and the option to return in the first window (0th week) will also be available. Students may determine this for themselves, based upon individual circumstances”. The email continued: “For each window, you should arrive where possible on the Thursday, as this leaves four days for taking the first two arrival COVID tests ahead of the start of in-person teaching weeks”.

Keble – In a different approach to other colleges, Keble has altered their Licence Agreement so every student can spend a full term in their accommodation: “In order to facilitate the more flexible arrangements called for by the Government, for Hilary Term 2021 only the period covered by the termly rent will be extended by two weeks to the Saturday of Tenth Week (27th March).  This should allow every student, even those returning on 21st January (the latest date indicated in the University guidance) to spend a full term at the College at no additional cost”.

Lincoln – Lincoln sent a holding email to its students, advising them to check the College website over the next week for more details of how they would manage the beginning of Hilary term but, like most colleges, specifically referenced the difficulties for international students: “We are aware that many international students will have already booked their travel; if you have pre-existing travel plans, you do not need to change your bookings”.

Magdalen – Magdalen advised students not to change their original plans, urging them to “return when you had planned to return”. If students had not already arranged plans, though, they were urged to “please consider returning between Monday 4 and Saturday 9 January if your course is in the first group of subjects referred to in the University’s email, and between Sunday 10 and Thursday 14 January if your course is in the second group of subjects referred to in the University’s email”.

Mansfield – In one email, Mansfield urged students to contact them regarding their plans for returning to College in Hilary. They explained: “Once we have an overview of when students would like to arrive back in College, we will be in a position to confirm arrival dates. If the arrival dates are not sufficiently staggered, we may have to ask some students to arrive earlier or later than their preference. We do not expect this to be necessary for large numbers. If we do not contact you about this by Friday 8th January, you can assume that your preferred arrival date is confirmed.”

Merton –  For students who have face-to-face teaching initially, Merton instructed that they should “return in accordance with normal expectations”. For those who begin term with remote learning, an email to students outlined that they “may return within the window 9th January to Sunday 24th January, taking into account academic commitments that have a bearing on your need to be in Oxford”, continuing that these students “should let their tutors and Director of Studies know what their plans are for returning to Oxford so that these can be taken into account.”

New – New stated that they will be open from 10th January and “students may choose their return dates”, emphasising that “students may return as normal if they have reasons to do so such as lack of suitable accommodation, facilities or study space at home”.

Pembroke – In response to the staggered start, Pembroke told students that “we now expect latest return dates to be Thursday 14th or Thursday 21st January, depending on when your course returns to face-to-face teaching. You may have already elected to return sooner, or need to be back in residence earlier for academic reasons, to access library or IT facilities in College, for health and wellbeing reasons, because of travel challenges or otherwise. Given that (for those affected) term-time contracts begin on 13th January, there will be no problem with facilitating this”.

Queen’s – In a letter to students, staff at Queen’s College expressed concerns for student welfare: “As your health and well-being are vital to your intellectual growth, we are concerned not only for your physical health when your travel back to Oxford, but also for your well-being before and after you arrive here. The recommendation that some students arrive later in term presupposes that all students have, outside of term time, sufficient working conditions. From our experience last Trinity Term, we know this not to be the case. Additionally, in comparing this year’s two lockdowns, we saw — and many of us felt — the difference between isolation far from Oxford and isolation in College households. As we have all benefited from working with one another (albeit at a distance of more than 2m) I won’t belabour the point; suffice it to say that we remain concerned for the well-being of students who, by staying away from College, do not benefit from the level of support for their education that our collective efforts provide. For this reason, and consistent with our overall approach to do as much as we can safely and appropriately, we expect all students to be in residence by the end of 0th week. In order to facilitate staggered arrivals, we are relaxing the normal regulation (10.3) that requires you to come into residence on Wednesday of 0th week”.

Regent’s Park – For students who begin remotely, an email advised that they should “be back in College/private accommodation by the evening of Wednesday 20th January 2021 (Wednesday of 1st week). Those coming to College accommodation will be able to arrive from Saturday 16th January 2021”. Arrival slots will be released at a later date.

Somerville – In an email to students, Somerville provided a return window from the 10th January to the 21st January for all undergraduates, with variable accommodation charges: “Accommodation charges for HT21 will begin on the Wednesday of 0th week (Wednesday 13th January), with flexible calculations based on your arrival date until 24th January, after which all students will be charged for their rooms as per normal”.

St Catherine’s – St Catherine’s College provided a link to an external booking system so students can stagger their arrivals, as well as announcing a later final return date for the term: “exceptionally for Hilary Term, in light of the Government guidance and the University approach to staggered student returns, and for those who do not need to quarantine, the latest dates at which you can take up College residence and from which accommodation charges will apply, will be 14 January for Group 1 students and 21 January for Group 2 students. You may arrive earlier than these dates, if you have reason to, with charges being applied from the date on which you arrive”.

St Hilda’s – In an email to students, St Hilda’s announced: “we will be following the University guidance about return dates, but we understand, of course, that some of you will have reasons for returning more than four days before the start of in-person teaching, including pre-booked travel arrangements”. They continued that by “next week we will send you details of how to notify us if you wish to request to return to college accommodation before the advised return date for your course” and asked students to wait for further information.

St Hugh’s – St Hugh’s split their students into two groups, mimicking the tranches – “arrival Tranche 1 – For Practical or Placement Courses to arrive in readiness to commence face-to-face teaching from Monday 18th January 2021” and “arrival Tranche 2 – For all other Courses to arrive in readiness to commence face-to-face teaching from Monday 25th January 2021” and continued that “you should arrange to arrive in Oxford no later than four days before the advertised in-person start date to allow time for the Lateral Flow Tests to be self-administered”.

St John’s – In an email, students were told to wait for more information but reassured that they could retain their original return dates: “If your arrival date has already been agreed because you need to quarantine on your return, because you have extended terms, or because you have already booked tickets for your journey back to College which you cannot conveniently change, please don’t worry about how these new arrangements might impact on your arrangements; we are expecting that you will still be able to return as originally planned.”

St Peter’s –  St Peter’s was clear that “the dates of next term have not changed”, continuing with “you are asked to return to Oxford no later than four days before your course might start in-person teaching. So students on group 1 courses should arrive no later than Wednesday 13th January, in order to be ready to do your Collections on Thursday and Friday of week 0. Students on group 2 courses should aim to arrive in Oxford no later than Thursday 21st January”.

Trinity – Trinity has outlined two return slots for students: “Students in Group 1 courses are invited to return between Sunday 10 January and Wednesday 13 January (in 0th Week); students in Group 2 courses are invited to return from Thursday 14 January to Sunday 17 January inclusive”. Expanding on their choice of weekend arrival slots, the email continued that “both groups will therefore have an opportunity to travel at a weekend which may assist parents to provide private transport”.

University – In their email to students, University made it clear that arrangements for return in Hilary would be made on an individual basis – “the College will contact you to make arrangements about the date on which you return. We expect that all undergraduates will be asked to come back on (or no later than) the Thursday of the week before face-to-face teaching for their subject is scheduled to resume. This will allow you to take two voluntary lateral flow tests before your teaching is due to start, should you wish to do so.  You will not be charged rent for any days on which we do not permit you to be in your college accommodation.”

Wadham – Wadham advised that all students would be able to arrive in Noughth week with no changes to their previous arrival plans after the Department for Education’s announcement: “There is no change to the previous details about the arrival process for students who are leaving and not returning early on vacation residence. Arrivals will be staggered over the 11th, 12th and 13th January in order that everyone can arrive safely and that students can participate in the lateral flow testing before the start of term”.

Worcester – In an email to students, Worcester created a table of suggested dates of arrival, with those beginning with face-to-face teaching arriving by the 14th January and those who will initially learn remotely arriving by the 21st January. Those wishing to arrive outside of their tranche need to make a request by the 15th December; they were urged to “ensure you have provided enough detail as these requests will then be considered by a panel”.

Don’t see your college on the list? Have some more information regarding how your college is handling the pandemic, staggered starts or coronavirus rules? Get in touch and send us your college’s policy at [email protected].

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