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Searching ‘Oxford’ on YouTube brings up what you might expect. One thumbnail invites the viewer to “Study With Me”, the title superimposed over the Radcliffe Camera. Another recounts “a week in my life at Oxford”, complete with “dorm tour, high table dinner, [and] studying”. The status of Oxford online is almost mythological. Polished lawns and gothic spires have brought the University from a solely academic arena to an idol of dark academia aesthetics. Study influencers have eagerly engaged in this reverence, and have not halted at distant adoration. Most popular are a slightly different type of videos: “How I got my offer”.
The popularity of study influencers reflect a generation concerned about work prospects and looking for some stability. Short-form videos bragging about UCAS results respond to contemporary anxieties about the precarious job markets. They mirror popular perceptions of Oxford not just as a place of learning, but an antique idol of security. At a time when the future of work is increasingly unclear, the rigid routines of study influencers provide some ritualistic certainty. The rise of study influencers seem to emerge between the two intersection of work-market anxiety and academic fetishism.
However, the lives these influencers present, and the version of Oxford that they create, are beyond idealised. Waking up at 5, taking no breaks while studying, and maintaining a constant posting schedule are beyond almost anyone’s abilities. For pre-uni viewers, study influencers seem to suggest that Oxford provides a perfect study routine the same way it does accommodation. But for Oxford students, the videos about their own university can end up fuelling even more anxiety.
The rise of the study influencer
Study influencers have been a mainstay of social media, with informality and relatability some of their main attractions. Like many online spaces, the isolation of COVID exploded the study influencers out of their niche corner of social media. The companionship offered by study influencers became doubly comforting with the social alienation forced upon students by the pandemic, particularly with schools and universities closed, and exam results uncertain. Live, multi-hour study livestreams on YouTube and TikTok became a psychological anchor for many students at home. Unlike the 2010s StudyTube creators, pandemic-era study influencers appealed mainly to companionship, not aspirational performance. As the pandemic faded away, the COVID-era casual intimacy of the study influencer swung in the opposite direction.
Economic instability during COVID revealed uncertainty in the job market, changing the way people work and increasing remote work at a time where in-person positions are increasingly scarce. AI as a competitor to humans has become a major concern, particularly for entry-level jobs. 2023 represented one of the worst years for the banking sector since the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The Financial Times recorded over 62,000 job cuts across major banking companies such as UBS, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley. In an increasingly difficult market for graduates, top institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard can provide certainty to those looking at university.
Study influencers became sources of reassurance, highlighting that academic strength was the solution to professional insecurity. It seems that the raw companionship of pandemic study influencers has vanished.Their content has returned to tours of ‘elite’ universities and intensely disciplined daily routines, capitalising on the youth’s dependency on secure institutions.
The myth of Oxford
In the study influencer world, Oxford is such a draw that creators can capitalise despite not actually studying at the University. David Cai can be seen as a representative of the contemporary era. His Instagram account boasts 108,000 followers, and on TikTok 27,700 followers. He has been posting study content since the beginning of sixth form. His Instagram reel on receiving his Oxford offer was reposted by the Oxford University Instagram page. However, Cai is a first-year student at UCL. He missed his Oxford offer. Up until his recent entrance into university, his content focused mainly on sharing his own sixth form experience through tips and advice.
Some of his projects seem to lean towards an authoritative stance. In September 2025, Cai held paid webinar sessions with the title ‘Oxbridge Application: Everything You Need to Know’, offering ‘every little trick that helped us get our offers’. The intention is admirable; Cai’s description talks of increasing accessibility about information surrounding the applications. At the same time, it is hard to ignore that this authority comes from only two sources of credibility: an Oxford offer, and posting study content. Merely by making videos on the topic, Cai has transcended from a fellow student passing around helpful study experience, to a gospel of university admissions – an Oxford idol in himself.
There is an element of blindness from the study influencer’s perspective. I interviewed Cai, who acknowledged that he has no concept of the tangible impact he has on his audience. From his side, his viewers are merely ‘numbers’. No matter what he says about accessibility and genuine human engagement, he is unable to control how his viewers actually perceive his content. His viewers might be truly drawn in by study tips and relatability. But it might equally be the aesthetics and status of universities Cai has come to embody.
The content he creates is equally for himself: Cai says that the work that performs the best is when he is “talking to myself”. Content creation is a sort of therapeutic, self-assuring process for Cai. Despite his extraordinary success in his admissions journey, he is ultimately just another student. By his own words, Cai’s motivation in his content was to reassure other sixth form students that he’s “struggling as well”. Yet through the title of study influencer, as well as his Oxford offer, he has become perceived as a figure of authority.
Even as part of one of the ‘stable’ institutions, Oxford students are not immune to job anxieties. Terms are packed with essays, and working a job is banned, so hopes of employment seem to rest on the vacation periods. Instead of sustained employment, most Oxford students’ main exposure to the job market will be through spring weeks and summer internships, notoriously competitive and incredibly opaque. To drudge through the specialised application process of each individual company is a ruthless task alongside the frenetic workload of the Oxford student.
Often, it’s difficult to know what you are doing wrong. Was it the application, the grades, the extra-curriculars – or did you simply not know the right person? The study influencer provides some hope here. Their polished ‘day in the life as an Oxford student’ advertises that academic rigour translates into stable prospects. But there is a bitter contradiction that, whilst Oxford students may be realising the limits of their university, the same prestigious name draws in viewers for the study influencer. In a city that practically breathes imposter syndrome, study influencers are a constant reminder that you could be doing more. With their perfect study locations, immaculate morning routines, and superhuman work ethic, they seem like ‘real’ Oxford students. But this is nothing but detrimental for those who work differently, and idealises overworking.
Reassurance or insecurity?
I spoke to one first-year student at Oxford, whose immediate reaction to ‘study with me’ short videos was to “scroll past that”. On one hand, this distaste stemmed from an awareness of artifice. Post-COVID, the oversaturated arena of study influencers means intense competition with one another to wake up the earliest, to study the longest, most continuous period. Mia Yilin’s ‘4AM Stanford Student Morning Routine’ is commonplace amongst a sea of supposedly early risers. Whilst it is unfair to accuse all study influencers of portraying a false image online to promote their content, the student argued that these routines were unsustainable, and unproductive to their own motivation.
On the other hand, despite acknowledging the unrealistic nature of extremist routines, he accepted that the main reason for avoidance was guilt. There is something ironic about viewing study content on Instagram and TikTok – these platforms are primarily a medium of guilty procrastination. Study influencers only seem to exacerbate this guilt, as their curated snippets of perfections become reminders of academic inadequacy. During the A-Level revision period, which he characterised as a time of constantly worrying that “what you’ve done is not enough”, the study influencer’s videos fuelled only stress, rather than competition. A half-minute video from a dubious source undermines all the reassurance of an Oxford offer and personal academic success.
The short video format has exacerbated all of this. Speaking to Cherwell about his Instagram and TikTok, his two main platforms, Cai is clear that he disagrees with the short video format. He considers that “social media is a terrible thing … it is terribly addictive”, especially to sixth-form students vulnerable to stress and distractions. Similar to the sentiment of guilty procrastination, there is a reductive contradiction in the medium of study influencer content. Engaging in addictive reels-scrolling is undeniably detrimental to studying, yet the authority of the study influencer seems to persuade the viewer that scrolling is somehow productive.
The curt nature of short videos means that the information conveyed is brief and simplistic: advice becomes imperative, where an Instagram reel on the Pomodoro technique declares it to be the only method of effective study. The medium itself is damagingly addictive. Even if you study ‘correctly’, the constant comparison and the unsustainable study habits and routines impressed by ‘study with me at Oxford University’ videos are equally insecurity-fuelling. Even as a then-prospective student at Oxford, the student I spoke to described the “shame spiral” this drove him into.
From the study influencer’s perspective, Cai states that the algorithm is a “difficult one to cater to”; to balance genuine personal content with content that performs well is a struggle. The equal desires to perform well online, and to provide the most genuine personal stories thus compete within the study influencer. For both viewer and creator, the short-form video medium can often be a source of distress.
The more accessible Oxford is online, the more distant it becomes. Antiquity and prestige establishes Oxford as a stabilising symbol; Oxford is desired for its aesthetic glamour and the job security it seems to promise. The study influencer, in the present day, reflects an anxiety-fuelled fetishism of established institutions, and presents ‘foolproof’ ways to get good grades
Besides the intentions of individual influencers, the perception of study influencers by their viewers is one of stressful competition. The viewer engages in addictive, superficially comforting reels, well aware that they should be studying, while the creator, for all their good intentions, loses any pretence of nuance in short video formats, leading to the impression of unsustainable study habits. The study influencer, and the Oxford study influencer in particular, is a paradox: when you’re on the outside, they give you a way in. But once you’re in, they might make you feel like you shouldn’t be.
Over the past year, I’ve spent more time in male-dominated spaces than I ever had before. Growing up with a sister, attending an all-girls’ school, and moving in the art, theatre, and music scenes of South London, my world was shaped mostly by women.
My first year of university brought a whole new set of dynamics to navigate – shifting friendships, uncertain first impressions, the trial and error of finding my place. Some of the men I’ve met are now among my closest friends, while others have made me more cautious about taking certain claims at face value. From the latter, I learned something else entirely: you cannot trust a man just because he calls himself a feminist.
At first, this felt like a personal lesson about who I could and couldn’t rely on. But the more time I spent in these circles, the more I realised it was part of something bigger: the way words like feminism can be emptied out when they’re too easy to claim. Of course, this isn’t new – a list as long as my arm of ‘60s activists accused of sexual abuse would say otherwise — but it feels particularly pressing now.
As social media has turned identity into aesthetics and trends, calling yourself a feminist has become less about conviction and more about appearance. This is especially the case in communities where the term is taken as the default. The label works like social camouflage – a quick signal of belonging that shields men from scrutiny, even when their behaviour tells another story.
I began to notice it most in smaller moments – the offhand jokes and comments that hang in the air longer than they should. I initially protested their words through pointed silence, and, when the guilt of my non-confrontation finally forced me to call them out, I would be brushed aside, accused of not understanding the laddish culture of his rougher hometown. As if a postcode could launder the meaning out of the words. As if the fact of his self-proclaimed feminism erases the very real discomfort they are meant to provoke.
And it’s not just the words. It’s hidden in the Instagram account where his grid slips in a corner of a Simone de Beauvoir cover, carefully annotated and underlined. But he still follows a rapper with domestic abuse allegations, Andrew Tate, or a string of bikini models he’d never admit to liking in front of you. It’s the friend who insists he “hates toxic masculinity,” yet calls his ex-girlfriend “psycho” the minute her name comes up. Or the subtle drop in enthusiasm when you’re talking and another man enters the conversation, suddenly the real audience he wants to impress. None of these moments are catastrophic on their own, but together they form a pattern that speaks louder than the label he’s chosen for himself.
The rest is aesthetics. The chivalry in holding doors open or extreme politeness that abruptly vanishes the moment sexual interest is off the table or the ego is bruised. The cigarette, lit just long enough to suggest a pitiable tortured edge, carefully obscuring the comfortable stability of a middle-class upbringing. The sudden, almost indulgent flare of paper-cut anger, sharpened against another man’s misogyny – a release that flatters his feminist credentials even as the violence of the gesture lingers, unsettling, for a more critical eye. These aren’t random quirks; they’re part of a curated brand designed to be read as safe, progressive, and desirable.
But a performance only holds until it doesn’t. Sometimes it’s a flicker – a smile snagging sharp when you tease out a contradiction. Other times it’s a full unravelling: the frantic defensiveness, the voice pitching up like cheap fabric under strain. That reaction isn’t about protecting feminism; it’s about protecting himself, the fast-fashion facade that was always going to fray.
And the truth is, there’s no cost to this label of allyship – at least not in my small social bubble at university. I’m glad, genuinely, that there’s been an increase in discussion and a reduction of stigma around the term “feminist”. That’s not something to be undervalued, especially in the face of rising red-pill and anti-feminist rhetoric. But alongside this comes a troubling ease: men can take on the label without ever having to grapple with what it means, or risk anything by using it. That lack of cost – even the presence of incentives – creates a gap between the safety women are induced to feel around a ‘feminist’ man and the actions those same men sometimes take. And it’s in that gap that the danger lies.
And here’s what I’ve learned most clearly: the moments when a man’s feminism really matters aren’t the ones lit up for display. They’re not in the loud declarations or the carefully crafted performances. They’re in the private spaces – in the dark, where intimacy makes a moment both beautiful and vulnerable. That’s where trust is tested, where instincts and intuition are all you have to go on. And it’s in those spaces that the gap between words and actions shows itself most vividly. Too many of us know what it feels like when the man who called himself a feminist still crosses the line, still ignores a “no”, still believes his desire matters more than your safety. That’s the place where the slogans can’t reach, where the mask slips, and where the cost of misplacing trust becomes something you carry with you. That is why I will never give away that trust freely again. The benefit of hindsight revealed the hollowness behind his words I couldn’t see before.
So, when I say I no longer trust men who call themselves feminists, I don’t mean that there are no men who use this label and truly mean it. Instead, I mean that I have been reminded that trust has to be earned, and as always, actions speak louder than words.
The University of Oxford prides itself on high ethical and reputational standards for its donors and funding. The list of scholarships offered at the University is long and comprehensive, but how transparent is it who the people behind them are? Alastair Tulloch, the trustee of Hill Foundation which supports a scholarship at University of Oxford, has managed to balance his role with running a firm that set up and managed offshore companies for sanctioned Russian officials and businessmen.
The Hill Foundation Scholarship is a programme that supports Russian nationals and residents pursuing a second bachelor’s degree, full-time master’s or DPhil. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, around ten scholarships per year have been awarded to students.
The scholarship fully covers fees and also provides a grant towards living costs. It has supported 56 graduate scholars over the past 5 years. One of the scholarship’s eligibility criteria is that students should intend to leave the UK upon completing their degree. Whether this means that students would have to return to Russia is unclear.
One of the three named trustees of the Hill Foundation is Alastair Tulloch, a lawyer who has reportedly been involved in multiple financial schemes, such as the purchase of Whitehall flats for Igor Shuvalov, former First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. He is also the only trustee listed in the contacts section of the Foundation’s website. Cherwell discovered that a range of companies linked to Russian oligarchs with minimal online presence have Tulloch as one of their directors and share the address with the Hill Foundation.
University and ethical donorship
More than three years have passed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine. There have been over 40,000 civilian casualties, and 3.7 million people are internally displaced with 6.9 million fleeing Ukraine. Many countries including the UK, US, and EU have imposed sanctions on Russian gas and oil, but also personally on individuals who support the war.
According to the register of charities, Tulloch is the oldest standing trustee for the foundation, having been appointed in May 2007. As a trustee, he is partially responsible for awarding the scholarships to the candidates “who demonstrate extremely high academic ability and personal and social qualities of a high order”, according to the University website.
The other two trustees are Professor John Nightingale at Magdalen College, appointed in February 2022, and Professor Catriona Kelly at Trinity College, Cambridge, appointed in May 2008.
The University Freedom of Information (FOI) Officer told Cherwell: “We have not discovered any correspondence concerning UK sanctions against Russia and the appearance of Alistair Tulloch in the Pandora files or other investigations.”
Other scholarships supporting Russian students have been under pressure since the beginning of the war. The Chevening Scholarship, a fully-funded UK government programme priding itself in supporting “emerging leaders”, was suspended for Russian residents in 2022. The decision to reinstate it for Russian students received backlash due to concerns that such education benefits Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Meanwhile, the absence of communication regarding the sanctions, as FOI’s show, between the University and Hill Foundation means the reassessment of compliance to the University’s policy on ethical donorship has not been conducted.
Better Call Tulloch
Tulloch is a founding partner of TGW Law, a firm focusing on corporate transactions and reorganisations, investment funds, and UK charities. TGW Law and its address frequently appear in the financial paper trail of Russian investments with links to government officials and oligarchs.
Tulloch is a director of at least 5 companies and has been a secretary or a director of more than 50 companies and charities in the past. A significant number of these companies have minimal online presence and share the same office and communications address as the Hill Foundation and Tulloch’s law firm.
TGW Law appears in a leak of over 6.4 million documents, around three million images, over a million emails and almost half-a-million spreadsheets obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – the Pandora Papers. These revealed numerous international networks of companies set up across borders and hiding ownership of assets.
According to the leaks, TGW Law firm assisted with the management of offshore companies for former Russian Deputy Finance Minister Andrey Vavilov who served under former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and Vitaly Zhogin, a banker wanted in Russia for alleged fraud. His firm also structured a network of companies for Alexander Mamut, a Russian billionaire who was included in the ‘Putin List’, a US Treasury Department list of 210 Russian political and business figures and has faced US sanctions since 2018.
Tulloch was also linked to Igor Shuvalov’s real estate purchases. Igor Shuvalov served as the First Deputy Prime Minister in both Putin’s and Medvedev’s administrations and is currently the Chair of the Russian state development corporation VEB.RF. He has been sanctioned by the US, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The University spokesperson responded to the questions about Alastair Tulloch’s position in the Foundation to Cherwell: “All donors are subject to our policies on the acceptance of gifts, and all significant donors and funders must be approved by the University’s Committee to Review Donations and Research Funding, which is a robust, independent system taking legal, ethical and reputational issues into consideration.”
Cozy offices in Mayfair town house
Two addresses keep appearing in the records of a number of foundations linked to Russian businessmen, 4 Hill Street and 46 Laurier Road. For over 60 companies, they are listed as either correspondence addresses or registered offices. Cherwell has independently verified that the buildings at those addresses appear to be small London town houses, and unlikely to be large enough to headquarter that number of separate offices.
Tulloch’s firm TGW Law is also registered at 4 Hill Street, and so is the Hill Foundation. Cherwell understands that the foundation which supports the Oxford scholarship takes its name from this address.
Many of the companies that Tulloch was a director of have minimal online presence. A number of them are connected to Russian businessmen such as Alexander Mamut, Evgeny Lebedev, or Yury Milner. There is no public information regarding who the donors of Hill Foundation are. This absence of transparency raises many questions about the people behind the scholarship.
A humble flat for Shuvalov
Shuvalov, Putin’s former Deputy Prime Minister, was the richest member of the government in 2012, according to government records owning a house in Austria, seven cars, and a number of flats in Russia. In 2018 Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation revealed that Shuvalov used a £38 million secret private jet to fly his wife’s Corgis to the UK.
In 2018 Alexei Navalny, Russian political activist and head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, uncovered Shuvalov’s 483m2 flat worth £11.4 million in Whitehall Court, a 19th century Westminster luxury apartment block. The records, such as applications for listed building consent, show the flat was owned by a number of different offshore companies, including Central Cove Ltd. Central Cove Ltd. also shared the address with Hill Foundation and Tulloch’s law firm.
This, however, was not the end of Tulloch’s law firm involvement in “fixing” the housing for Shuvalov. In 2014 the flat was bought by Sova Real Estate LLC, a company owned by Shuvalov and his wife Olga. During registration of the company, the due diligence was conducted by none other than Tulloch & Co (now known as TGW law) and the person with overall responsibility was Alastair Tulloch.
Ex-KGB Spy and Boris Johnson’s friend
Cherwell has also found that Tulloch was one of the directors of the Lebedev Foundation, before the company dissolved. However, the 14 years at Lebedev Foundation does not conclude Tulloch’s business relationship with the Russian-British businessman. Tulloch was a director of the Journalism Foundation together with Evgeny Lebedev from 2011 to 2013. Finally, Tulloch was a secretary of an obscure company El Private Office Limited, which was directed by Evgeny Lebedev.
Evgeny Lebedev is an investor in The Independent, and the owner of The Evening Standard. He received life peerage from Boris Johnson, which received criticism considering Lebedev’s father, Alexander Lebedev’s past as a KGB agent. According to the chair of the House of Lords, Lebedev’s nomination for peerage was paused after MI5 advice, but approved with a note that the appointment would be controversial. Channel 4’s documentary has alleged that government officials asked Queen Elizabeth to block Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage.
Evgeny Lebedev’s influence on the UK government and particularly Boris Johnson was a subject for concern of many. Boris Johnson was criticised for meeting in private with the businessmen and his father, an ex-KGB agent. However, Lebedev himself denies there was “security risk” to the meeting. Tulloch’s professional relationship with the Lebedev family seems all too similar to his other relationships with Russian businessmen close to power.
Matryoshka of shell companies
Trustees of Hill Foundation Scholarship have the say in who receives the financial awards. Connections to a range of Russian officials and businessmen and a track record of involvement of his company in setting up shell companies to conceal identity of the owners of assets reflect the deeper link of Tulloch to the so-called world of ‘Londongrad’.
The scholarships support the education of people who, as Hill Foundation website puts it, will “work for the betterment of Russian life and culture”. What kind of ‘betterment’ do the trustees with links to sanctioned officials and shady businessmen have in mind?
The paper trail of a number of charities and companies leading to 4 Hill Street highlights the strong connection between Tulloch and Russian oligarchs in London. It is unclear who the key donors for the foundation are, as neither the website is transparent on whose donation established the foundation nor is the University. Whether the University will conduct a reassessment of the ethical and reputational standards following a range of investigations in Tulloch’s operations remains unclear as well.
The University receiving funds from reputationally dubious donors and foundations has raised concerns in the past. Cherwell reported on Potanin, Russian oligarch and Putin’s ‘hockey buddy’, donating $150,000 to the Said Business School in 2017 for a fellowship.
According to the press release provided by Alastair Tulloch:”The Hill Foundation, a UK registered charity, was founded in 2001 under the chairmanship of Anthony Smith, the then president of Magdalen College, Oxford and at the instigation of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a longtime critic of the Putin regime who was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience in 2011 during his unlawful and unfair prosecution by the Kremlin.
“The Hill Foundation has in the past been funded by the Khodorkovsky Foundation, then a related party, but funding ceased upon the Khodorkovsky Foundation and the Oxford Russia Fund (also a related party and now called the New Eurasia Strategies Centre) being designated as undesirable organisations by the Russian Government in 2021. The Hill Foundation’s continued grant giving activity relies on its 2001 GBP13.5m [sic.] endowment. The Russian Government has not designated the Hill Foundation as an undesirable organisation (which would adversely affect its ability to provide scholarship funding utilized by Russian nationals) and Russian students have not been prevented from taking up scholarship funded courses at Oxford.
“The current trustees of the Hill Foundation are John Nightingale, a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, Catriona Kelly, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and Alastair Tulloch, a graduate of Magdalen College, a trustee of the Khodorkovsky Foundation and the New Eurasia Strategies Centre and whose law firm, TGW Law, provides the day to day administration for the Hill Foundation.
“The Hill Foundation has provided scholarship funding to Oxford University since 2001 enabling over 200 students from Russia to undertake post graduate courses at Oxford University. Scholars are selected on a competitive basis by a selection committee composed of Oxford University academics. Scholars are expected to confirm their intention to return, at some stage, to Russia after the end of their UK academic studies. The intention is not a legally enforceable obligation. It is the intention of the trustees that graduates of the programme make a meaningful contribution to the development of Russia and promote east/west understanding [sic.]. In the past, graduates have returned to Russia to make their contribution directly in the country and it is hoped that in the future this will be possible again.”
Walking around Oxford you often feel like you’re part of the city’s tourist attraction. The long walk up to the Radcliffe Camera entrance, pushing the heavy door to enter your college: there’s always an eerie feeling of being watched. The feeling is right, you are always observed. Not necessarily by other people, but certainly by the myriad of statues, gargoyles, and grotesques throughout Oxford’s architecture. Many statues represent benefactors or founders of colleges, like in the case of The Queen’s College. Other common symbols are saints, like St. John in the tower of St John’s College. Oxford’s architecture is a controversial part of student life, considering the protests against Oriel College’s Rhodes Statue in 2020, or the architectural inequalities between ancient and modern colleges.
Modern perceptions of such decorations as wasteful expense ignores their important influence on college culture as well as identity. Sometimes looking up at new figures, ideas and bizarre statues can change our perspective on our environment. As we oppose statues that do not represent our values as an academic community–it can also be a fun exercise to examine what other figures dot our college rooftops.
If you’ve ever gone to the fifth floor of the Weston Library, or looked up during Matriculation, you’ll spot the statues atop the Clarendon Building. With some of them under maintenance, the building usually features the nine muses. A glance up when walking down Broad Street introduces you to the particularly striking Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, holding out her mask in a foreboding sign of how you’re about to do in your exams if you haven’t been revising.
For a more shocking experience, don’t miss Antony Gormley’s Another Time II of a nude man atop Blackwell’s gazing down on the tourist packed Broad Street. Its near human silhouette often catches the unaware mind. Exeter College seemingly prides itself on its unique acquisition that contrasts the classical sculptures atop Trinity College across the street. What’s better than a bit of college rivalry expressed through statues?
Oxford’s tradition of the bizarre figures continues further down Broad Street. Right beside the nude man, you have the mysterious Sheldonian Emperors, always a favourite for a bizarre tourist photo. They are centuries old with little documented reason for their creation.
To move from their gigantism to the miniature, St John’s boasts an impressive collection of grotesques (small figures without a drainage or water use) in its baroque Canterbury Quad. With each new President being given the right to choose a figure of their choice, it features depictions of the Green Man, eagles, lizards, Kings, dragons, and a variety of crest-bearing angels. It also boasts some rare gargoyles on its neo-Gothic walls.
Oxford rooftops are a place for colleges to show off their learning and development. Trinity College chapel has four women, each representing Astronomy, Theology, Medicine, and Geometry. St John’s similarly features busts of the seven liberal arts alongside the seven virtues on either side of its quad.
Looking up reminds us that these are not simply pretty constructions for colleges, but they are sets of symbols and messages to undergraduates. Statues are not just entertainment, they have always been created with key values. The gothic and neo-gothic styles emphasised instruction as well as decoration. Magdalen’s medieval cloisters feature an eclectic set of imagery with statues representing everything from drunkenness to lust. In each corner there are the four medieval professions for graduates: a priest, a teacher, a doctor, and a lawyer. There are also statues of greed and fraud, warning undergraduates what to avoid, while also informing them of their ideals and future. Always ask yourself, what are you looking up to? Literally and metaphorically.
Many of these statues and figures will become staples of your college tours, or photos. Learning your surroundings, what they represent, and what their intention was, is always a fruitful way of understanding the past.
More current world leaders have studied at Oxford University than any other higher-learning institution except Harvard University, according to the latest annual Soft-Power Index published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and the educational services organisation Kaplan.
The results measure the educational soft power of different countries by counting how many monarchs, presidents, prime ministers, or similarly high-ranking government figures from other countries graduated from their higher-level education institutes. The results of the index reveal that Harvard has 15 current world leaders among its alumni, whilst Oxford has 12.
Soft power is defined as a state’s ability to influence the foreign policy of other countries through ideas and cultural influence, rather than military pressure or force. Universities influence the soft power of countries by imparting ideas and cultural knowledge. Higher education can improve a country’s global perception and partnerships, with some international students becoming advocates for their host countries after returning home.
In response to the index, Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey said: “That so many world leaders have studied at Oxford speaks to the transformative power of education – to shape ideas, deepen understanding, and inspire service on the global stage.”
The findings also show that five of the top six global institutions for educating world leaders in the Soft-Power Index are located in the UK. The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst educated eight world leaders, the University of Manchester educated six, the University of Cambridge educated five, and London School of Economics educated four.
In total, 59 of the 170 leaders who studied outside their home countries did so in the UK – they collectively represent over a quarter of countries across the world. These leaders include Alexander Stubb, President of Finland; Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada; Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary; Abdullah II of Jordan; and Naruhito, Emperor of Japan.
The results of the HEPI 2025 Soft-Power index suggest that the educational soft power of both the US and the UK has remained stable over the past year. In 2024, 70 current heads of state were educated in the US and 58 current heads of state were educated in the UK. However, the number educated in France has fallen from 28 to 23, whilst the number who studied in Russia has risen from 10 to 13.
The release of the 2025 Soft-Power Index follows the creation of a Soft Power Council, announced in January 2025. This is a government advisory board dedicated to promoting the UK’s economic growth and international partnerships. The Council has 26 members, including the Provost of Oriel College, Neil Mendoza CBE, and the BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell.
Nick Hillman, the director of HEPI, welcomed both the Soft Power Council and the government’s promotion of education exports, but also said that the initiatives were “counterbalanced by the incoming levy on international students, huge dollops of negative rhetoric and excessive visa costs”.The Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University, Duncan Ivison, said that the UK has a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the UK the global destination for the best and brightest in the world given what is happening elsewhere”.
An entrance fee will be introduced at the Museum of Oxford from January 2026, ending five decades of free admission to the local history museum.
Visitors will be charged £4 for standard admission and £2 for those who are eligible for a concession ticket, with students qualifying for the reduced rate. Free access will also be retained by children under the age of five, those receiving benefits, council employees, and Oxfordshire school-trip parties.
Annually, the number of visitors to the museum has dropped substantially from 74,000 in 2021 to 55,000 in 2024. This drop resulted in a £77,000 shortfall for the city council in the past year. The council currently subsidises the museum by almost £250,000 annually, but have agreed to reduce this to £152,000.
Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning and Culture, said: “The Museum of Oxford has been very successful at the work it has done, as a place where the culture and history of this city’s people can be celebrated. However, we must not forget that the creation of its museum in its current format… was with an aspiration that it could be self-sustaining financially, and that has never been achieved.”
The proposal faced significant opposition, with more than 650 people signing a petition to keep the museum free. Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran also firmly opposed the plans.
Marta Lomza, former community engagement officer at the museum, criticised the decision at Wednesday’s council meeting. She said the proposal showed “an attitude to Oxford’s residents which can only be described as contemptuous” and included “little to no evidence, poor understanding of financial modelling, editorial errors and simply bad maths”.
A council spokesperson told Cherwell: “The charge is being used to raise funds to reduce the current subsidy that the Council gives to the Museum, from almost £250k a year to the agreed subsidy in the Council’s budget of £152k a year. This overspend by the Museum is taking away money from other potential Council services.”
The museum marks its 50th anniversary this year, and houses a large number of significant Oxford artefacts. These include a Red Cross medal that belonged to Alice Liddell, who is believed to have inspired Lewis Carroll to write the Alice in Wonderland novels, as well as St Frideswide’s grave slab. The Museum of Oxford underwent a £2.8 million refurbishment in 2021, tripling the size of its exhibition space.
Despite the controversy, the museum recently received news that they will receive a £227,952 award from the government’s Museum Renewal Fund to support ongoing operations and marketing.
Councillor Alex Hollingsworth further said the museum received only £5,000 in voluntary donations last year, far short of the quarter of a million pounds needed to run the facility. The charge will be permanent but subject to future review based on visitor numbers and income.
Thames Valley Police (TVP) has banned a planned anti-immigration protest and counter protest due to take place tomorrow at an Oxford hotel which houses asylum seekers. The ban is due to a football match taking place nearby.
Cherwell understands that an anti-immigration protest was planned outside the Holiday Inn Express hotel near Kassam stadium, and that a counter protest by local community groups was planned for 12:30pm. The hotel houses asylum seekers, most of whom are believed to be male.
Oxford United is due to play a home game at the Stadium tomorrow at 3pm. The police have issued a dispersal order in parts of Littlemore from 8am on Saturday to 8am on Monday, as well as imposing Public Order Act conditions which ban these protests from taking place between 12:30pm and 7pm tomorrow.
The police have the power to direct people who are, or are likely to be, engaged in anti-social behaviour away from the area covered by the dispersal order under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. If these individuals return to the area, they may face arrest.
A senior police officer is able to impose time restrictions on any planned protest under the Public Order Act 1986 when they believe the restrictions are necessary to prevent disorder, damage, disruption, or intimidation.
These protests come after Hadush Kebatu, a convicted sex offender from Ethiopia, was accidentally released by the Home Office instead of being deported. He was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in London on 26th October, and has since been deported back to his home country after being paid £500 by the government under the Facilitated Returns Scheme. The government has pledged to close all asylum hotels by the next general election.
Regarding the protest ban, Assistant Chief Constable Tim Metcalfe said: “Everyone has the right to protest peacefully, but we will always take appropriate steps to ensure our communities remain safe.
“We are aware of recent tensions involving anti-asylum seeker protesters and residents of the Holiday Inn hotel. We want to be clear: any criminal activity – whether from protesters or residents – will not be tolerated.”
Disclosure: the author of this article is a volunteer with a local refugee charity, Asylum Welcome.
Oxford’s Story Museum is this year’s winner of the JM Barrie Award for Outstanding Achievement, granted in recognition of their significant contribution to children’s arts and literature.
This marks the second time that the museum has received national recognition since its reopening in 2021 and the first since it opened its new permanent gallery, The Story Arcade, earlier this year.
The award – which this year highlights the themes of early years, the power of stories, and the ties between arts and sciences – highlights the work which the Museum has done for local schools and communities. Programmes operated by the Museum have shown the museum’s central role and value to children in Oxford. This includes the ‘Start With A Story’ Project and 2023’s ‘Everything Is Connected’, where the Museum collaborated with contemporary children’s authors to run workshops in secondary schools across Oxford. The ‘Start With A Story’ Project is partnership with Growing Minds and Donnington Doorstep, where the Museum provides children story-based learning activities in underserved areas of Oxfordshire.
This year’s awards will be presented on Thursday 6th November at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, where CEO Conrad Bodman, Emeritus Director Tish Francis, Director Kim Pickin, and former Director Caroline Jones will attend as representatives of the Museum.
The JM Barrie Awards are presented by the charity Action for Children’s Arts, which was founded in 1998 by Vicky Ireland MBE to raise awareness and support for the importance of children’s artistic interests and activities. Aside from running the JM Barrie Awards, the charity also runs campaigns to support childhood access to art across the country, having worked with institutions such as the National Theatre, the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, and the Young Vic.
The Story Museum is located at 42 Pembroke Street, and is open from 10am to 5:30pm, seven days a week. Entry to the Museum starts at £7, or £7.70 including a donation to the Museum.
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