Thursday 17th July 2025
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Prime Minister’s former chief of staff becomes Wadham fellow

Cherwell News
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Prime Minister’s former chief of staff becomes Wadham fellow

Theresa May’s former chief of staff, Nick Timothy, has been appointed a visiting fellow of Wadham College.

Cherwell understands that some senior staff members resisted the appointment, since the College’s statutes recommend that visiting fellow positions should be given to academics.

The ex-aide was reportedly considered by a panel before being voted on by members of the College’s Governing Body, according the The Times.

One student told the paper: “Did he know our nickname was the People’s Republic of Wadham before he put in his application?”

The College is popularly treated as among the most left-wing across the University.

Nick Timothy resigned from his role as the Prime Minister’s chief political adviser after the 2017 General Election, in which the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons.

This followed Tory MPs and members blaming Mr Timothy, and his fellow joint Chief of Staff Fiona Hill, for his role in the Conservatives’ loss of seats, despite a previous 20-point lead in election polls.

He has since been commissioned to write for The Sun and hired as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph.

Wadham College have been contacted for comment.

Is it time to think about those 0th week exams?

Simone Fraser
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Is it time to think about those 0th week exams?

It’s 0thweek, all your friends that you haven’t seen in weeks are doing something fantastic, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and you’re sat at your desk with approximately 50 hours of work and revision for 3 collections that you need to get done by 9am the next morning. We’ve all been there, and it’s not exactly fun.

However, there are some reasonably simple things you can do to avoid being in this situation. Obviously, the only real solution is to do the work beforehand. You can do this in a way that means your vac is not just a rerun of term-time, but with less pretty study sessions in the rad cam, and more of your parents deciding to hoover just at the moment you finally sit down to get going. There are certainly ways to cope!

Although the absolute last thing you want to do deep into the summer is plan ahead, this is definitely going to save you a lot of hassle further down the line. Give yourself a fighting chance! If you’re spending a month backpacking through Asia it’s unlikely you’re going to spend your evenings getting to grips with the complexities of thermodynamics, so pick out a handful of days where you can drag yourself to the nearest overpriced coffee shop, sit down, and try and plough through a bit of the work. Try to be reasonable; there are going to be days that you planned to work but things come up and I doubt you’ll be diligently telling your best friends that you would love to go for an afternoon in the September sunshine at the pub, but you simply must read the works of K. B. McFarlane. Make sure to be flexible.

The best thing you can do though is be kind to yourself. Ultimately, its time for a break. Vacs are supposed to be just that – vacations. Oxford terms are really intense, as I’m sure none of you need to be told, and for the good of your health and happiness, you probably need to switch off for a bit and spend a few days in bed, watching Brooklyn 99 on repeat and eating Doritos for all three meals. So, don’t be too hard on yourself, and remember that your wellbeing is more important than any essay. So keep enjoying the vac, but maybe start to think about making life that little bit easier for your future stressed-0thweek self too.

Eat Your Heart Out review – ‘A nuanced and authentic exploration of a stigmatised subject matter’

Cesca Echlin
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Eat Your Heart Out review – ‘A nuanced and authentic exploration of a stigmatised subject matter’

Eating disorders are a difficult subject to tackle on stage. Those affected by them experience them in vastly different ways, and such disparity in experience presents a challenge for one attempting to recreate these kinds of issues. In ‘Eat Your Heart Out,’ Tightrope Productions have succeeded in creating a piece of drama that approaches this conventionally stigmatised subject matter with sensitivity and nuance, whilst bringing to it moments of real light-heartedness.

The story follows 17-year-old Bel (Ella McCallum), introduced to the audience as the kind of down-to-earth teenage girl any of us could have known, or in fact been. As the play progresses, however, Bel develops anorexia, and we are confronted with the rippled effects this illness has – not only on the individual, but also on the people closest to them.

The work of the ensemble is compelling from the outset, and proves particularly effective when the actors embody the bustle of the world Bel inhabits. A stand out moment was the initial bus-to-school scene in which our central character is penned in by obnoxious, bragging schoolboys and Cardi B-rapping fellow travellers. This opening scene made visceral the mundane but anxiety-inducing realities of teenage life. Another effective ensemble scene was the visual representation of Bel and her friend, Nicole (Mia Georgis), as they lie in bed (see picture above), texting each other. It is in this crucial scene that Nicole introduces Bel to the world of fitness and health instagram accounts. That Bel’s interest is problematic is made clear from the beginning – yet at turning points like this, the audience are provided with comic relief as the ensemble mimic iMessage text alerts.

In this production, social media plays a pivotal part in the development of Bel’s anorexia – from the outset she and her friends are glued to their IPhones, strung into an all-consuming relationship with the Instagram world of hash-tags, ab workouts and clean eating. What Tightrope Productions have really put their finger on is the crucial role perception plays in the development of eating disorders. Bel defines herself from an image she pulls together out of various fragments, regardless of whether or not these are projections generated by the self.

In terms of individual performances, Ella McCallum made for a considered and likeable central character. I also thought Charlotte Dowding performed the role of Bel’s mum with grace, highlighting the potential for parental insecurity and anxiety as their child’s eating disorder takes hold.

The play’s writer, Alistair Curtis, and director, Philippa Lawford, must be particularly commended for this production. The piece was devised back in Oxford with around thirty people who have experience with eating disorders. Such a process has evidently given the end result it’s authenticity, and such authenticity should not be undervalued where this subject matter is concerned. I strongly urge others to see Eat Your Heart Out, and I for one am excited to see how it develops further.

Outgrowing the teen trope

Amna Mujahid
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Outgrowing the teen trope

“The brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, the criminal. You see us as you want to see us — in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions.”

While hopefully none of us are like Mr Vernon from 1985 cult classic The Breakfast Club, it seems that almost every high school film we saw growing up forced us to see its characters through the eyes of its middle-aged, unfulfilled teacher – as a stereotyped set of teenagers, each falling neatly into pre-ascribed categories.

The Breakfast Club, with its host of seemingly one-dimensional characters, is anomalous in the genre of mindless and yet absurdly entertaining high school films (hint: Mean Girls).

It takes the limited cast, confined to one space for most of their screen time, to the 66th minute mark to finally open up to each other – to become multi-dimensional, in a sense.

These developments of character are only achieved after ‘blazing up’ in true 80s style with an obligatory dance break to Karla Devito’s ‘We Are Not Alone’. The lyrics foreshadow the characters’ realisations of how alike they really are when they break free from the pressures of their performative identities: “Cause when you cut down to the bone, we’re really not so different after all.”

The 80s and 90s witnessed the height of coming-of-age stories broadcast and embedded into the minds of whole generations. To name just a few: Pretty in Pink, Heathers, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, and American Pie.

Notable for its plethora of famous tropes ranging from the Saturday detentions to the highly predictable makeover (honourable mention to She’s All That), the genre is perhaps most known for its typical cast of shallow characters, like those in The Breakfast Club.

How are the characters of such films depicted these days? Are the Brian Johnsons and Andrew Clarks still occupying separate, dislocated parts of our screen? Or are the complexities of identity finally playing out from the start of films in a way as close to reality as possible?

It seems safe to say that there has been general progress in the representation of those oh-so chaotic (yet significant) teenage years. A few notable examples include: Me, Earl and The Dying Girl, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, and, most significant for me, The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

In these more recent films, art mimicking reality is not the desired outcome. Instead, art is used as a catalyst for wider representation, to inspire us to reflect on ourselves, to live and be better.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written in 1999 by Stephen Chbosky, was only made into a film in 2012, after much encouragement by leading actor Emma Watson.

She is quoted saying on Anderson Cooper’s Live Show that nobody would touch the script with a “ten-foot barrage pole”, pointing to the film industry’s reluctance to produce a film engaging with the real issues of growing up – without glossing over the realities of abuse, homophobia, drugs, and suicide.

While several topics only made it into the film’s deleted scenes – importantly a discourse surrounding abortion, which played a key role in Chbosky’s novel – the film was still able to capture the dynamic authenticity of his characters, which made the book so well-loved.

Chbosky’s teenagers simultaneously enjoy the freedom of high school and work through the different problems pervading their lives. Their individual experiences are neither perfect nor terrible, they are simply relatable.

As the film’s protagonist, Charlie, so fittingly contemplates: “This is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.”

The pertinence of The Perks of Being a Wallflower doesn’t just lie in whether you identify the issues explored. The story lingers in our minds because it so truthfully captures individuals on the cusp of adulthood – in the midst of their uncertain endeavour to become themselves.

The rise of narratives realistically depicting the struggles of young people represents the film industry finally coming to terms with the fact that difficulties can arise at any age. Life does not just suddenly come raining down on you on your 18th birthday, and people want to delve into that at times unattractive reality.

As someone who still loves The Breakfast Club and will re-watch it at least once a year, its value as a feel-good classic is undeniable. It seems the film was a stepping stone, leading us to some of the more ‘real’ depictions of growing up we see today.

And The Breakfast Club characters? Well, they will live on as a cultural memory and hopefully a marker of growth and transformation on-screen. As the individual characters of coming-of-age films grow and develop, so does the genre itself, expanding to more realistic horizons. And the crowds are loving it.

The Oxford Revue: ‘Wasted’, and ‘Group Work’ Reviews – “More time in the writing room necessary”

Emily Lawford
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The Oxford Revue: ‘Wasted’, and ‘Group Work’ Reviews – “More time in the writing room necessary”

Bad comedy can be fun to watch. That’s partly what makes the Edinburgh Fringe so good: we all love to laugh at a terrible pun or an awkward punchline. But far too often in the Oxford Revue’s two comedy shows, it felt like the joke was missing entirely.

While watching Wasted, the Revue’s sketch show, I kept wondering how much time the team had actually spent writing the script before they began rehearsals, as a lot of the gags felt like the kind of adolescent banter that’s only actually funny to the people involved. It’s not that the acting was bad: the four-person cast weren’t lacking in charisma or chemistry. Moments of really excellent comic timing from each of them managed to get chuckles from weak lines. It was just a pity that the lines were so very weak.

A sketch about a fifth member of a Swedish band called ABBCA being kicked out to make a neater-sounding name fell flat, as did an imagined meeting where M tells James Bond that if he keeps introducing himself as “Bond, James Bond” he will ruin his reputation as the “most secret spy”. Other jokes made me cringe – such as a sketch revolving around a captain wanting to hide a rude word in his ship’s name (Tit-anic), and a scene where a girl’s boyfriend is seduced by her father and runs off to “lick the back of his stamps”. Had I somehow missed the funny bit?

Entry was free for the stand-up show, Group Work, which gave it a relaxed atmosphere more suited to the group. The opening act, by Olley Matthews, consisted mainly of repartee with the audience that they were amused by (although I think more by their own answers than anything else). Laura Mckenzie’s set, that focused on her loneliness, had some laugh-out-loud moments, but lines such as “people think I’m chill because I dress casually, but actually if my personality were an outfit it would be a Ted Bundy-style skin suit of people that I’ve loved” provoked more grimaces than giggles.

I began to think maybe I was simply not the right audience for this kind of comedy. The (mostly middle-aged) crowd were definitely enjoying it more than I was. Maybe my headache and general Fringe fatigue was making me too miserly with my laughter. However, others I spoke to after shared my disappointment.

The shows were at their strongest when they touched on issues we’d consider particularly relevant today. Elaine Robertson’s set about being a northerner at Oxford was funny and energetic, as she joked about southerners thinking she was “feral”, and recounted how a woman recently congratulated her for leaving her home town of County Durham. And a sketch about toxic masculinity in Wasted got some rare belly laughs from the audience.

Perhaps that’s the direction the Revue should look towards in future productions. Or perhaps they just need to develop what they already have. Either way, a lot more time in the writing room is necessary: otherwise the group’s talent is wasted on telling jokes with no punchlines.

On Reading Lists

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On Reading Lists

Around the 4th of September last year, I received an email from my soon-to-be tutor. ‘Make sure you’ve read Villette, Middlemarch, Our Mutual Friend, and Bleak House before we start in October’ it said, and little else. All of those books range between 600-1,000 pages in the average paperback copy, and I had read none of them. We’d been told to try and read 30 books from a reading list over the summer, and I had got a good way through them, but apparently these were the all-important four, dropped on us at the last moment.

I never used any of these books in my essays. Other than now being able to pretend I know about about Chartists and pocket-boroughs from Middlemarch, and having the reading behind me to freely complain about Dickens’ structural and political flaws to other English students, my degree itself didn’t gain from me storming through those four bricks, each in only a couple of days.

Equally, the longer reading list instructed us to read ‘any three major modernist novels’, and after spending some time researching the options, I chose first to read D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love. It came to be the novel that would shape my world-view and academic course more than any other. Having read all of Lawrence’s novels now, I know that if I’d been told ‘read Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with the rest.

What I think I’m trying to highlight here is the importance that choice plays in vacation reading. Applying to Brasenose, I knew that our tutors’ attitudes were going to be that of allowing us to have intellectual freedom to pursue what we wished, but I didn’t know how far that would extend until I arrived at Oxford. I have written essays on books that not only weren’t on the reading list, but were so obscure that they’d never had essays written on them before – by anyone!

The best hint you could get towards tackling summer reading is to find out what your tutors’ individual approaches to teaching are. Maybe they’ll teach on an author-by-author basis, in a chronological style, in a thematic style, or maybe they’ll let you have totally free choice on your topics. Sending them a quick email to ask how the overall teaching in the term will be structured in terms of content could save you pursuing topics that aren’t particularly personal to you, or won’t come up for certain. You’re more likely to engage with something that you’ve chosen, and the close attention that the tutorial system allows means that tutors are capable of letting you pursue your own interests, if you show enough drive and enthusiasm to pursue a particular avenue. Ask older students whether such ultimatums as ‘you must read X’ are to be taken with a pinch of salt or taken as law, and enthuse about what really matters to you to your tutors.

The reading lists we receive on a weekly basis are purposefully impossible to complete, and part of the skill of the degree is selectively finding what is both the most interesting and the most useful. You’ll be happier, grow more as a person, and be more attentive in your work if you are able to pursue what you care about, and very often in the humanities your tutors want to see these qualities in you, and will enjoy giving you recommendations that go beyond the more canonical choices.

How much does your Ofo bike cost? Your privacy?

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How much does your Ofo bike cost? Your privacy?

Students returning to Oxford last year may have noticed an unfamiliar sight on the city streets: countless new, dock-less bikes. They came in three varieties: yellow, silver and blue, representing the three major bike sharing firms operating in the city (Ofo, Mobike and Pony Bike). By now, the presence of these bikes has become a familiar sight to most of us. Indeed, Oxford is just one of many cities engulfed in a global bike-sharing boom and reports have proliferated in recent months of bike firm wars in Sydney, Mobike trips in London and even bike graveyards in Shanghai.

The system is simple and its appeal obvious. Users download an app, enter their card details, turn on location data and then use the app’s built in map function to find, swipe and unlock bikes, which they can then use within the city limits for as long they like. Fares are low: all three firms charge just 50p for a 30-minute ride (Mobike also charges a refundable 15-pound deposit). The convenience and inexpensiveness of these apps have already made them a firm favourite amongst the student population, and recent months have seen the firms replacing and updating their bikes.

The sudden proliferation of these bikes does, however, raise a few questions. Firstly, why did three firms appear in the city almost simultaneously? Should one firm have not realised the potential in the market and cornered it? Secondly, how can charges of 50p per ride possibly fund the purchasing and maintenance of so many bicycles?

Whilst the deposit fees charged by these companies can be a useful source of initial capital, Mobike is the only firm in Oxford that charges such a fee. Thus, as with many start-ups, it is likely that dock-less bike sharing firms are not funded by self-generated revenue, but rather by external investment. The two largest firms operating in Oxford, Ofo and Mobike, are owned by Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent respectively, making the Ofo/Mobike competition but one field in the two firms’ ongoing global battle. This showdown encompasses everything from social media, video-streaming, ticket-selling, lift-sharing, bill-paying, food delivery and, now, bike-sharing apps.

Wang Yijian, a Chinese tech journalist who authored a report on the finances of the global bike-sharing boom, explains that, as the major investors in the two firms, Alibaba and Tencent are not interested in interested in profit, but rather seek to utilise user data to strengthen their payment apps, Alipay and WeChatPay. In the very earliest stages of setting up each app, users enter their phone number, email and card details as well as enabling the app to track their location. The apps gain further information, like age and personal details, from other sources, such as linked social media accounts.

It’s access to this sort of information that attracts investors to bike-sharing firms.

Whilst recent controversies and changes to data protection laws have forced these firms to be less explicit with their data sharing activities (before the Cambridge Analytica scandal, “I consent to Mobike sharing my data with other firms outside of Mobike and outside of the EU”, was one of the very first conditions users were required to agree to when setting up the Mobile app), the data policy of each firm still allows them a considerable degree of leeway when it comes to personal data usage. All three state in their data policy that they may share users’ data with parent companies, affiliate companies and any contracted “partners”, as well as with firms who eventually buy them out. What’s more, all three apps are only usable once users approve long and somewhat ambiguous lists of entities with whom they can rightfully share user data.

I contacted each of the firms asking what exactly is done with this information: whether it is ever sold, where the money to buy the bikes comes from and whether access to data was a major incentive for investors. Ofo failed to respond to me at all and Mobike declined to comment, instead sending a thirty-page whitepaper entitled “How Cycling Changes Cities”, which focused on urban planning. Only Clara Vaisse, co-founder of PonyBike, offered a full response:

“One of the Pony promises is to never sell the data to any third party…we’re extremely proud to say that every Pony ride is profitable. The money to buy new bikes comes from the profit generated by running the scheme. The business is privately owned by the founders and Angel investors.”

Ponybike is an Oxford-based start-up and operates in just one other city. This difference in scale is, perhaps, crucial: where Ponybike exists to provide bikes and make a profit, Ofo and Mobike, both operate in over 200 cities and are entwined in a global battle – one fuelled by tech-giant rivalry and investors’ pursuit of data.

There’s a greater lesson lying behind the Norrington Table

Daanial Chaudhry
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There’s a greater lesson lying behind the Norrington Table

The value of the Norrington Table is called into question almost every year it is published. However, what’s actually important is not what we see, but what we don’t. Less discussed is the cause of individual colleges’ success year upon year.

At the end of the day a degree from Oxford is a degree from Oxford, why then does it appear that some colleges consistently appear to achieve more Firsts and 2.1s?

Resource endowment is certainly a good place to start. Although hard graft of course matters, having a helping hand along the way clearly benefits some students. Indeed, there is a significant disparity in the wealth of individual colleges. The decentralisation of resources inherent in the Oxford system means that colleges have autonomy on how and where these resources are spent.

Wealthier colleges are likely to be able to assist students, attract better tutors, better able to offer permanent teaching contracts, and are more likely to have better resourced libraries.

And, indeed, looking at the wealth of colleges, guess who topped that table: St John’s College. Incidentally, the college that came bottom of the Norrington Table, Harris Manchester, also came bottom in terms of college assets.

This may simply be coincidence, I hear you shouting.

Based on Norrington Table rankings combined with the ranking of colleges based on their net assets, a Spearman’s Rank Correlation Test (my maths isn’t perfect, so I’ve had this double checked), reveals an R-value of 0.6111.

There is a undoubtedly a moderately positive correlation between a college’s wealth and its place on the Norrington Table. Indeed, Cherwell analysis last term of Norrington Table data between 2006-2017 shows that seventeen of the top twenty best academically performing colleges are also among the top twenty richest colleges.

Now, as the age-old adage goes, correlation does not imply causation. But here’s the thing. There is evidently an advantage for undergraduates that differs depending on what college you are at.

Indeed, Christ Church offers students 30 free days of vacation accommodation each year for academic purposes. Incidentally, they are also second in terms of college wealth. Now picture this: you are a History, an English, or a CAAH student, and in the vac between second and third year you have thesis research and reading to do.

The local library at home is probably going to be of little use to you given the esoteric topping you are researching. But, if you happen to be fortunate enough to go to Christ Church, you have access over the vac to the entirety of the Bodleian resources. You are also free from your parents hounding you as to why you have been in your room all day (and more importantly free from the stresses that home life can bring for so many students, and which may adversely affect performance).

Similarly, at Magdalen, grants covering 75% of book costs (up to £100) mean that students are easily able to buy books of their own, without the need to borrow them from college libraries. Again, this is likely to have a material effect on students’ degree outcomes – Magdalen took second place on the Table.

College wealth clearly dictates how well colleges do on the Norrington Table, and if we are going to take any message from the table, it shouldn’t be that St John’s is better than the rest.

It should be that St John’s is better than the rest, to a large degree because St John’s is richer than the rest. The correlation between wealth and student outcome is reason for us to demand greater centralisation of resources, and greater consistency across colleges, in order to create a level playing field for all fortunate enough to study at Oxford.

OULC Women’s* Caucus demand faster action on abortion clinic safe zones

Isabel Morris
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OULC Women’s* Caucus demand faster action on abortion clinic safe zones

Oxford University Labour Club Women’s* Caucus have called on the Home Office to “accelerate their promised announcement” on the possible wider implementation of safe zones outside abortion clinics as a “matter of urgency”.

Proponents argue already established buffer zones, like the one outside Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing, West London, limit the amount of abuse, intimidation, and attacks people visiting the clinics face. Such zones have been “beneficial for the wellbeing of clinic employees and visitors.”

The statement, authored by OULC Women’s* Officer, Lottie Sellers, was signed by both incumbent OULC Co-Chairs, Charlotte Austin and Francesca Best.

The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, has promised an announcement on the issue by September.

The Women’s* Caucus said: “The Caucus, as emphasised in earlier statements, fully supports reproductive autonomy and believes that access to safe abortions is vital, and that people should be able to seek these without feeling threatened, harassed or endangered.

“We call for the Home Office to accelerate their promised announcement on widening the implementation of these buffer zones as matter of urgency, in order to safeguard and respect the rights and wellbeing of those seeking reproductive health services, be they abortions or the wider provisions of the clinics.”

OULC Women’s* Officer, Lottie Sellers, told Cherwell: “As emphasised in the statement, OULC Women’s* Caucus believe that the availability of safe abortions and family planning services is vital.

“Furthermore, it is not enough that these services should simply exist – people should be able to access them without facing prejudice and abuse.

“As it stands, the provision of these services in countries such as the USA is marred by intimidation and violence from protestors who seek to restrict the bodily autonomy and rights of visitors to the clinics.

“This is a phenomenon which is very much on the rise in the UK too, as a small but significant and threatening group of campaigners copy the examples of their American counterparts, behaving in ways which go beyond freedom of speech and expression and instead are actively threatening.

“The Home Office are being lukewarm at best in their response, and having acknowledged the call for the protection of British clinics by safe zones, they are nonetheless taking a potentially dangerously long time on a decision which is of great importance to people’s rights of safe abortions and bodily autonomy.”

Ealing Council was the first local authority to introduce a public spaces protection order (PSPO) for the area around a Marie Stopes clinic in April this year.

Labour MP for Ealing and West Acton, Rupa Huq, is leading a cross-party effort to pass national legislation widening the model implemented in Ealing.

St John’s professor sues University over ‘forced retirement’

Cherwell News
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St John’s professor sues University over ‘forced retirement’

A fellow at St. John’s College claims that he was forced to retire two years ago in order to meet workplace diversity expectations, an employment tribunal has heard.

Prof. John Pitcher, an English professor who has taught at the college since 1982, had plans to work past the university retirement age of 67. However, he was allegedly told by the College that he would have to retire from his job, which brings an annual salary of £83,000, at the age of 67.

Although an initial retirement date had been set for 2012, Pitcher was made a Founder’s Fellow of the college, with a fixed contract until 2020. He undertook a fundraising position within the college under the assumption he would be employed up until then, and now claims he was “forcibly retired” four years prior to the agreed date.

The move by St John’s to enforce the initial retirement date apparently came under Oxford’s Employer Justified Retirement Age (EJRA) policy, which sets a compulsory retirement age at 68.

Pitcher has since taken his case to an employment tribunal, where he is now suing the University for £100,000 for loss of earnings after an internal appeal was rejected.

Court documents from the case indicate that the college believed the move was necessary to “safeguard the high standard” and to move towards “inter-generation fairness”, with “succession planning” and “diversity” also used to justify the move.

President of St. John’s College, Maggie Snowling, echoed these documents in a witness statement: “The EJRA helped both the college and the university take steps towards a more diverse academic body and will continue to do so.

“It is a proportionate means of ensuring increasing diversity and intergenerational fairness.”

Professor Pitcher said: “I believe that decision was discriminatory because of age and was not justified and was also unfair.

“The EJRA for both the college and university which applied to me applied a retirement age of 67 years that retained the status quo from the mid-1980s.

“This age is far too low and I can see that I would be able to carry on working, as would many of my colleagues, well into my mid-70s.

“I felt it was unfair that I had to try and ‘convince’ the university and college panels that my continued employment was appropriate.”

The English Fellow added: “None of these other institutions have reduced their standards by not forcibly retiring staff. There is no evidence to support the need to ‘refresh’ the academic workforce in terms of turnover.

“The university is effectively seeking to justify discrimination on the grounds of age in order to promote equality and diversity of other protected characteristics.

“I fully accept the importance of equality and diversity. I am myself from a working class background and the importance of these kinds of social aims weighs strongly with me.

“I did not wish to retire, as I did not see the relevance of my age to my ability to carry out the duties of my post in research or teaching for the duties of the Founder’s Fellow.”

Professor Pitcher was given the option of reapplying for his job, though appears to have decided against the move.

He noted: “Trying to satisfy an unreasonably high threshold test that I am virtually indispensable to the university when I had given decades of impeccable service is degrading and humiliating.”

There have been successful internal appeals against the University’s compulsory retirement age in the past. In 2014, Denis Galligan, a law professor at Wolfson College, challenged his set retirement age of 67. Peter Edwards, a professor of inorganic chemistry at St. Catherine’s College was also allowed to keep his job at 69.

Cambridge is the only other Russell Group university to have such a policy.

The University of Oxford declined to comment. St. John’s College were contacted for comment.

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