Blog Page 6

Sport Spotlight: Sam Fitzgerald

Gavriella Epstein-Lightman
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Sport Spotlight: Sam Fitzgerald

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Greek life doesn’t mean no rape culture

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

CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, drugging

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The art of reaching out to old friends

Ilya Rosenbaum
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The art of reaching out to old friends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Politics must not serve as a barrier to education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

University rankings can be misleading

Saba Ahmadzadeh Noughani
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University rankings can be misleading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oxford University and councils announce partnership to build Greenway cycle lanes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Local and business leaders in Oxford sleep out for homelessness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Record 15,000 runners participate in Oxford Half Marathon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image credits: Maryam Nawaz, with permission

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