New plans have been unveiled by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) for the renovation of The Eagle and Child, a famous Oxford pub. 

The historic pub, once frequented by C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien, has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. After the venue was bought by the EIT in 2023, it is now set to undergo extensive work to bring it back into use. The EIT was established by the world’s second richest man Larry Ellison, co-founder of the software company Oracle. 

Lewis and Tolkien were part of an informal group of writers known as The Inklings, who hosted regular meetings in the pub with other academics. The Rabbit Room, to the rear of the property, contains a small plaque commemorating the significance of the building.

The plans have been drawn up by world-renowned architects Foster + Partners, which has said that the “light-touch interventions” are designed to “revive and continue the legacy of the Grade II listed building”. The pub dates back to 1650, and has seen patchwork updates over the decades, many of which are set to be “retained and treated as part of the building’s evolving narrative”, with a “conservation-led approach”. 

A new dining room will also be added and the pub’s third parlour room will be reinstated, providing additional space. “The neighbouring 50 and 51 St. Giles’ Street will become a café that serves coffee and baked goods”, helping to transform The Eagle and Child into “an all-day destination”.

Gerard Evenden, Head of Studio at Foster + Partners, said: “The design preserves the unique character of The Eagle and Child and respects its many layers of history.

“The scheme is stitched together by a newly landscaped garden and restored passageway between the café and the pub – new social spaces that transition effortlessly from day to night.” 

With an estimated completion date of 2027 for the refurbishment of the pub, the development is the latest in a number of investments in Oxford from the EIT, including a  recent £890 million injection into Ellison’s technology institute at the Oxford Science Park and a £118 million pledge to fund an Oxford vaccine research project that aims to tackle pathogenic diseases using AI.

Having founded the American software company Oracle in 1977, Ellison has amassed a fortune worth almost $400 billion. The value of Oracle has burgeoned in the past year, as it has struck deals with companies, such as ChatGPT owner OpenAI, to build AI infrastructure and cloud computing capacity. Ellison has positioned himself as an ally of President Trump.

Ellison has also been in the process of building a new media empire, being at the forefront of a consortium of possible buyers for the US operations of TikTok and buying Paramount Global earlier this year, the owner of US news outlet CBS, through his media production company Skydance.

The 2025 World Anti-Corruption Conference (WACC) took place in Oxford for the first time on Friday 24th October. Hosted at Rhodes House, the annual event brought together academics, policymakers, business and civil leaders, and members of Oxford University to formulate actionable proposals to combat corruption. 

WACC, which is organised by the International Strategy Institute (ISI), began in 2019 as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Forum. After changing its name to the World Anti-Corruption Conference in 2023, the event expanded its scope to tackle corruption globally.  This year marks the first year WACC will be held at a venue outside of South East Asia. 

This year’s event, which is titled ‘United for Integrity: Innovation, Collaboration, and Accountability in the Fight Against Corruption’, featured topic discussions on subjects  such as corporate integrity, financial innovation and the empowerment of  future generations.

During the conference, there were speeches made by CY Cheah (Chairman of the ISI) and Dato’ Jamil, Director General of the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre in Malaysia, as well as multiple networking sessions. 

Before the event, Michał Pietrzak, a third-year student and former President of the Oxford Diplomatic Society, who attended the conference, and told Cherwell: “Although anti-corruption has never been my area of interest, it is an incredibly important aspect of any political endeavour, diplomatic or otherwise, and thus pertinent to all related fields. The conference is a great opportunity for me to learn more about efforts seeking to mitigate corruption through regulation and enforcement, and the monitoring processes used to determine their effectiveness.”

Pietrzak added that he is “particularly intrigued by the event’s inclusion of education and youth empowerment”, as well as the various networking opportunities. 

Through the 2025 conference, WACC aims to continue its mission of raising awareness of anti-corruption and promoting productive dialogue and “uniting global leaders to advance integrity, transparency, and accountability across sectors and borders.”

The University of Oxford and the Oxford University Student Union (SU) have launched a campaign to improve water safety awareness in Oxford.

The ‘Think Twice’ campaign follows a Conference of Common Rooms (CCR) motion in Trinity, proposed by Brasenose JCR. It aims to make students aware of hazards around Oxford’s waterways and communicate ways to access help.

The campaign urges students to pay attention to the temperature of water, which can be fatally cold even on hot days, as well as water level, which can change rapidly. Students are urged not to jump straight into open water, nor to walk, run or cycle through water where they cannot see the bottom.

Hazardous items can also be beneath the water, from rocks, rubbish, and glass, to boat motors that could catch on clothing and cause serious injury.

It highlights the danger of going near areas of open water under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, and urges students not to enter water wearing non-swimwear and/or footwear, even where swimming is usually allowed.

Open water can also be a risk to health due to poor water quality and pollution. Thames Water, who provide Oxford’s water, were fined £122.7m this year for breaching rules over sewage spills into the river, and were ranked the worst water supplier in England this week.

The initiative incorporates advice from the RNLI and the Royal Lifesaving Association, and will be communicated to students through common rooms.

Discussions of the motion last term saw various JCRs highlighting the danger of “pushing trashing and celebrations to more remote or less supervised locations”. 

Students currently face £150 fines for trashing, which the University’s ‘Celebrate SMART’ campaign warns against. A spokesperson for Think Twice told Cherwell that the SU will be working alongside the University to ensure “clear safety messaging” around water.

Rory McGlade, the proposer of the water safety motion and Brasenose JCR President, told Cherwell that “with continued advocacy, [common room leaders] hope to encourage colleges across Oxford to permit celebrations to occur on site”. 

Allowing post-exam celebrations to take place in college grounds would mean that students “aren’t pushed out to the edges of Oxford near waterways, but are brought back into the fold in central Oxford, where the risks are lower”.

Speaking about the risks of many Oxford ‘traditions’, McGlade expressed his hope that Think Twice is a strong starting point for water safety at Oxford, rather than being an end goal. He explained that “the initiative will evolve throughout the year, following input and debate by common room leaders”.

The SU will report back on the progress of the campaign to CCR throughout the year.

Katrina Mulligan, Head of National Security Partnerships at OpenAI, spoke at the Blavatnik School of Government last week about the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and global security, warning that “everything you know about AI is already out of date”.

Before joining OpenAI, Mulligan held numerous senior roles in the US government and launched the travelling press corps for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. She explained that after years in public service, she realised that “sometimes smart and well-intentioned people don’t always make the right decisions”, motivating her to join OpenAI and work on the frontlines of a technology she believes will shape some of the world’s most consequential choices.

Mulligan described OpenAI’s commitment to developing “technology for good” and discussed the frameworks the company has built to determine when and how AI should be deployed. She highlighted ChatGPT’s rapid growth, reaching 100 million users within two months of its launch, as evidence of how quickly the technology has entered everyday life.

To counter misconceptions, she noted that many common beliefs about AI, including views that it’s “not that good”, a “black box”, or “too risky”, are already outdated. Comparing AI to electricity, she said that while the technology may still appear dangerous or unpredictable, it will eventually become as essential to modern life as power itself.

Mulligan traced the evolution of OpenAI’s models, explaining that earlier versions performed at a “junior high school level” while current reasoning models now exceed PhD-level understanding. These newer systems “take time to think,” shifting the focus of scaling from data and computing power to deliberation and reasoning.

Encouraging the audience to experiment directly with AI tools, she remarked: “You do not get fit by reading about working out.”

She observed a growing disparity between generations and regions in how AI is perceived and used. People over 40, she said, tend to use ChatGPT as a replacement for search engines, while those under 30 increasingly rely on it as an operating system for daily life. Meanwhile, Western countries are far more focused on risk and regulation, whereas China and many developing nations prioritise rapid adoption.

When asked what concerns her most, Mulligan identified “mass surveillance”, “removing humans from decision-making”, and “weapon development”. She stressed that “no one company should dominate on this technology” and that international cooperation will be vital, since every country has “land, energy, and power” to contribute to the global AI ecosystem.

Reflecting on the accelerating pace of technological progress, Mulligan remarked that “the world is looking at a calendar, OpenAI is looking at a watch”. Despite her two decades in national security, she said her belief in “the good of humanity” continues to guide her work in ensuring AI’s development remains responsible and inclusive.