Saturday 5th July 2025
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A first look at Oxford’s next Chancellor

Cherwell News
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A first look at Oxford’s next Chancellor

Six candidates running to be Oxford University’s next Chancellor spoke exclusively to Cherwell on free speech, balancing tradition with modernity, and supporting Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor. 

Lord William Hague was the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2001. He also held the position of Foreign Secretary as MP for Richmond from 2010 to 2014 during the coalition government. 

Lady Elish Angiolini, who has held the position of Principal at St Hugh’s College since 2012, is Solicitor General and Lord Advocate of Scotland. If elected, she would be Oxford’s first female Chancellor in its 900-year history.

Lord Peter Mandelson, who announced his candidacy exclusively to Cherwell last week, held positions including Director of Communications for the Labour Party, Secretary of State for Trade, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and European Commissioner.

Imran Khan was the prime minister of Pakistan and an international cricket star who previously captained the Oxford Blues team. He is campaigning – and answering Cherwell‘s questions – from prison on remand, where he is under “arbitrary detention” according to a UN human rights working group. Some of his charges – including leaking state secrets and un-Islamic marriage – have been overturned, while a corruption case remains in trial.

Who can know better than me right now how important all forms of freedom are?

Imran Khan to Cherwell

Dr Margaret Casely-Hayford is a lawyer and businesswoman who previously served as Chancellor of Coventry University. She is a Board member of the Co-op Group and was Chair of Shakespeare’s Globe.

Dominic Grieve served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. Grieve was commissioned to review the governance structure of Christ Church College.

Q: What is your view on freedom of speech at universities?

Hague: “Freedom of speech, understanding differing viewpoints, hearing uncomfortable truths and being open to the power of reason are all vital parts of learning at universities.” 

Angiolini: “Freedom of speech is a fundamental and precious element of any modern democratic society and must be supported in Universities. Speech can however be abused to cause real harm, for example, re Nazi propaganda and threats of physical assault. It is therefore a freedom that must be exercised responsibly.”

Mandelson: “I believe in freedom of expression and in tolerance and respect for others’ views and I particularly want to hear and listen to students’ views and opinions during this election. But none of us likes to hear hateful or unkind speech and we are entitled to say so.”

Khan: “An institution which denies people the ability to speak freely cannot call itself a university. Universities are founded on the concept of freedom – the freedom to think, speak, question, debate and create. As Chancellor I would fervently defend those freedoms… Who can know better than me right now how important all forms of freedom are?”

Casely-Hayford: “A University environment should encourage listening, debating and learning from each other.  As has been famously stated elsewhere: ‘I disapprove of what you said, but I will defend unto death your right to say it’, and for me, an important codicil is that within a civilised society this isn’t an absolute right.”

Grieve: “The right to freedom of expression under law and with civility is essential to a place of learning and underpins academic freedom. It is essential that it should be supported and I would do so.”

With pro-Palestine protests and encampments in Oxford and other universities, freedom of speech has been a pertinent topic of discussion.

Days before the Conservative government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 came into force, the current Labour government halted its implementation. The act required universities and student unions to protect freedom of speech, but opponents raised concerns that it may protect hate speech.

Presidents of four Ivy League universities in the US – Harvard University, Cornell University, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania – have resigned over criticism of their handling of campus conflict around the war in Gaza.

Q: What do you think is a right balance of modernity and tradition at Oxford?

Hague: “It is not so much a question of balance as of ensuring that tradition and modernity serve and strengthen each other, which will be vital in the unprecedented period of change now beginning. 

Angiolini: “The status quo.”

Mandelson: “Widening access to the university for students from different social backgrounds and parts of the country should be the main modernising effort. Otherwise, the university’s traditions are valuable and should be protected, including its traditional college tutorial system. New technologies should be utilised when there is demand from students, in ways that will benefit them.”

Khan: “There are two traditions which are more profound and which underpin all others: academic freedom and intellectual rigour. To continue to thrive, however, Oxford must embrace the modern world. It must open its ancient doors to the leaders of the future – the brightest minds from across the UK and the world, regardless of their income or background.”

Casely-Hayford: “Of course there are traditions that are the essence of this 800 year old institution that should be cherished but we should also recognise the need to modernise culturally and operationally and should not to be wary of embracing change as we move forward, in order to make the University continually relevant, pertinent and appropriately agile.”

Grieve: “Oxford’s great strength is the combination of its rich history, its traditions that support its shared life and its academic excellence as well as its modernity and being at the cutting edge of research and thinking. The correct balance between them cannot be fixed as it evolves all the time.”

Q: In his farewell interview with Cherwell, Lord Patten advised the next chancellor to support the Vice-Chancellor. How do you plan to support Irene Tracey and potential Vice-Chancellors?

Hague: “The Chancellor can support the Vice-Chancellor with private counsel when needed, public steadiness in a crisis, contagious enthusiasm for plans and achievements, and a global network of contacts and friendships.”

Angiolini: “Irene Tracy is an outstanding individual. She may not need a great deal of advice but more often the ability to debate an issue before she has come to a decision. Being a sage and good listener is one of the strengths of our current Chancellor.”

Mandelson: “The role of the Chancellor is not to be the same as the VC but to bring different personal experience, skills and a strong reach into the world of politics and business outside Oxford. With a new government in office, if elected I will use my longstanding political links to advocate both for Oxford and the university sector as a whole.”

Khan: “Oxford is a global university, and I would be a global Chancellor, drawing on my extensive networks and experience in fundraising to help Oxford raise the money needed for transformative research. Team work has also been a integral ingredient as a cricket captain and building one of the largest political parties in Asia.”

Casely-Hayford: “Support for the Vice-Chancellor should encompass being a wise old head, proffering good judgement and sound advice when it’s sought, and recognising that there are local and domestic roles as well as an essential function of global brand ambassador and fundraising figurehead.”

Grieve: “The role of Chancellor, apart from its ceremonial and Visitor functions for some colleges, is to support them in their work and to be an advocate for the University to government and generally and an adviser to it when required.”

Election updates

Although current undergraduate students cannot vote in the upcoming elections, scheduled for October, some have taken action through online campaigns.

Oxford University Conservative Association has officially endorsed Hague, while members of the Oxford University Labour Club are campaigning for Mendelson.

Historically, elections took place in the Sheldonian Theatre where the Convocation – made up of former students and members of the Congregation, Oxford’s supreme governing body – cast votes in academic dress. 

This election will be the first held online, a change made by the University earlier this year. An earlier version of the rules included a committee that will decide on the eligibility of candidates with “due regard to the principles of equality and diversity”. Following allegations that the committee might prevent the election of another white male candidate, the University dropped the “equality and diversity” plan.

Instead, the Chancellor Election Committee, which “plays no substantive role”, puts forth candidates with due regard to a narrow set of exclusion criteria only: A candidate must not be a current student or employee of the University or a serving member of an elected legislature. They must also not be disqualified from being a charity trustee and must qualify as a “fit and proper person”. No other requirements are asked of candidates.

Several fringe candidates have announced their interest, including Reverend Matthew Firth and Reverend Nigel Biggar, and Maxim Parr-Reid, who represented Trinity College in University Challenge in 2017. Firth has conveyed his interest in representing an “anti-woke” ticket, writing on X: “Please vote for me to be the next Chancellor of the University of Oxford. I’m the only candidate who will be publicly anti-woke, and that’s what academia needs.”

Underconsumption-core: Are students the perfect subculture to reclaim underconsumption?

Madelina Gordon
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Underconsumption-core: Are students the perfect subculture to reclaim underconsumption?

When it comes to consumer culture in 2024, most would agree that TikTok is among its most infamous drivers. TikTok itself claims that its users are 1.7 times more likely to engage in e-commerce behaviour than the users of any other social media or video platform. TikTok’s model is explicitly designed to incentivise consumption. On the user side, the platform’s proprietary algorithm provides users with personally appetitive content on their video feeds and rapidly circulates popular videos so that they can go ‘viral’ in a matter of hours. On the seller side, ‘TikTok for Business’ conjoins the addictive user model to an advertising function – its website entices businesses to begin their TikTok advertising journey by citing that 1 in 2 Gen Z users are likely to purchase something from the app.

Accordingly, there is no doubt that TikTok has been both a beneficiary and subsequent bolsterer of capitalist overconsumption. Consumption isn’t a side effect, it’s front and centre of the user experience. Users are exposed every few scrolls to massive haul videos; boxes of products gifted to influencers by advertisers; and product recommendations from regular users. Overconsumption is an embedded feature of capitalism, but on TikTok, the problem is incessant. 

So it comes as a surprise that TikTok, the very platform which so readily supports consumption, has played host to the ‘underconsumption-core’ trend that emerged this summer. The trend entails people showing the parts of their lives that reflect an ethos of underconsumption, or as many videos cite in brackets, ‘normal consumption’. Think: reusable coffee cups, revamped second-hand furniture, three-product skin care routines and keeping scraps of veggies for soup stock. To the untrained eye, these might just be seen as routine habits anyone might adopt to save money. Yet culturally, this trend represents a grander, paradigmatic shift.

Reducing consumption is not something new. It’s been performed by millions of families for centuries, as it is today. Moreover, this isn’t the first time saving money has been trendy (Depression-era feed-sack dresses weren’t just cost-efficient; they were fashionable). But the glamorisation of these lifestyles, that by their nature lend themselves to recycling, reusing and reducing consumption of excess products, on social media, has the potential for exploiting the ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ effect of TikTok trends to encourage sustainable consumption on a level so far unachieved through public information campaigns.

The question I ask, though, is to what extent is this trend really taking off, and does it, albeit still in its nascent stages, have any potential as a countering force to the massive engine of overconsumption? A TikTok trend will not unravel the entire capitalist system that exists today. However, ‘underconsumption-core’ marks the beginning of a process of cultural reclamation – one that students might be the perfect subculture to catalyse.

University students are almost all on budgets, seeking to save money in a host of creative ways. Students don’t have large disposable incomes to spend on luxuries, let alone additional items above and beyond essentials. In efforts to reduce expenses, students naturally limit themselves in what they consume, and many look to how they can reuse and revitalise things they (or others) already own. Some sell and buy clothes and furniture on Vinted and Facebook Marketplace; many own only single sets of dishware and only one or two sets of sheets. Living at university – with lives bundled completely and entirely into 4-by-4-metre rooms – requires prioritising the necessary. In doing so, students learn vital skills, which retain relevance even in their futures when they might indeed have more money or more space.

So many people say that their university years are the best in their lives. Is it a coincidence that these years are the ones where they consume the least? Where the emphasis is on connections, people, and ideas rather than the things that are owned? The ability to live perfectly happily, without constant gratification from an excessive abundance of things in a one-bedroom accom room, creates the space for introspection and relationships that ordinarily compete with material distractions.

A TikTok trend will not dismantle capitalism. But the student experience – and the simple joys of our university years – offer us a glimpse into what life could be if we rejected our capitalist-rooted impulses to constantly consume.

Lord Peter Mandelson officially announces candidacy for Oxford chancellorship

Éilis Mathur
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Lord Peter Mandelson officially announces candidacy for Oxford chancellorship

Lord Peter Mandelson has confirmed that he will be running for Chancellor of Oxford University, Cherwell can report. 

This comes after Lord Christopher Patten announced his retirement from the role in February of this year. Mandelson now joins a small pool of frontrunners seeking to become the next Chancellor.

A former Labour Party politician and life peer in the House of Lords, Mandelson has held several Cabinet positions during his career, including Secretary of State for Trade and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. In the latter role, he oversaw the establishment of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. His tenure as Director of Communications for the Labour Party gained him the nickname ‘the Prince of Darkness’ for his handlings with the media. 

Mandelson has also been European Commissioner and is honorary president of the Great Britain-China Centre. More recently, he reportedly advised Prime Minister Keir Starmer and has been described as having “significant influence inside Starmer’s office.” 

Mandelson studied Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at St Catherine’s College, matriculating in 1973. He told Cherwell: “I have a great attachment to Oxford but also feel passionately about the University sector as a whole.” In a previous interview with Cherwell, Mandelson mentioned his indifference to the Oxford Union during his student days, describing how “the greasy pole didn’t attract [him].”

If elected, Lord Mandelson would be the first Labour Party member to hold the position. Historically, the role has been occupied by Conservative Party politicians. Out of the nine Oxford chancellors in the last century, seven, including Lord Patten, were Conservative politicians. 

Mandelson told Cherwell: “The last Conservative government gave universities and students a really hard time financially. Universities were denigrated by ministers and I am glad that has ended with the election of a new government.”

He also said he would “use [his] political links with the new government to advocate for Oxford and the university sector” and his “extensive network with the rest of the world, especially America and Asia.” 

Mandelson will face, among others, Lord William Hague, former Leader of the Conservative Party, and Lady Elish Angiolini, former Lord Advocate of Scotland and Solicitor General. While these three are considered the front runners of the election, other reported candidates include former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and lawyer and businesswoman Dr Margaret Casely-Hayford. 

The election, which is scheduled for the third week of the upcoming Michaelmas Term, will be the first in Oxford’s history to be carried out online, opening the process to 250,000 eligible voters. The Convocation, which consists of former Oxford students and the Congregation, which includes academic staff and members of University governing bodies, will elect the new Chancellor. Mandleson said he hoped current Oxford students would have a say in the election despite not being eligible to vote. 

Even prior to the announcement of his candidacy, Labour students at Oxford University began an online campaign in Mandelson’s support. A member of Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) told Cherwell: “As current Oxford students, we want a Chancellor who will stand up for our interests and advocate for desperately needed reforms to higher education funding.” Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) have publicly endorsed Lord Hague on their social media platforms. 

Chancellor of the University of Oxford, historically an eminent public figure, is a highly coveted role which involves serving as the titular head of the University and presiding over all major ceremonies. Mandelson acknowledged that it is “largely ceremonial” but also said: “I hope it will be enjoyable, participative, and energising for the University.”

Mandelson described how “Oxford never stands still. It’s always going forward” and referenced the upcoming election as “a chance to think about our future and where it is going.” He told Cherwell: “I hope the Chancellor election will be a spur in this conversation about the future.”

How Oxford defeated fascists the first time

Louis Johnson
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How Oxford defeated fascists the first time

Monday 5th August saw antifascists rally at Oxford’s Carfax Tower in a show of solidarity with communities of colour and a rejection of the racist violence that has engulfed Britain in recent days. The tragic murder of three young girls in Southport led to an explosion of misinformation as false rumours that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker gained massive traction online. Far-right protesters first attacked Southport’s mosque before bringing riots and racist attacks to towns across the country. Wednesday 7th was anticipated to be a nationwide day of action for the far right, with more than 100 anti-immigration protests purportedly planned, including one in Oxford. But they didn’t turn up. Maybe they remembered what happened last time the far right were faced with antifascists in Oxford. It didn’t end well for them.

The Battle of Carfax is the lesser-known brother of the historic Battle of Cable Street, when the people of London’s East End fought against a British Union of Fascists (BUF) march designed to threaten the area’s large Jewish population. While Cable Street was a deliberate provocation in an area naturally opposed to fascism, Carfax was the culmination of an attempt to drum up support in Oxford for the BUF, the main fascist party in Britain throughout the 1930s. The BUF had received large donations from William R Morris, a businessman and the founder of Nuffield College. Even more shamefully, Oxford was home to the Oxford University Fascist Association (OUFA), which was one of the country’s most active fascist student groups and whose members praised Hitler. 

A few months before his Blackshirts would march on East London, the BUF’s aristocratic leader Oswald Mosley scheduled a meeting for the Carfax Assembly Rooms (now the site of HSBC) after being denied the use of the Town Hall. He had visited the OUFA once before in Carfax three years previously, a meeting which was relatively uneventful (some reports suggest this was because leftists in the city were otherwise busy that day). On the 25th May 1936, Mosley and his jack-booted lackeys descended on Oxford. Fascism was more notorious in Britain by then: the Nazis had begun their murderous march across Europe with the reoccupation of the Rhineland in March that year and already antisemitic persecution of German Jews was rampant. 

This time, Oxford’s residents would be prepared for the Fascists. The meeting halls were packed: around 1000 people attended Mosley’s speech, many of whom were not there to applaud. Those who fought against Mosley’s men that day were mostly ‘Town’ rather than ‘Gown’: antifascist workers and bus drivers, Jewish residents and leftist activists. Oxford was a very different place then; both the Oxford University constituency and Oxford itself were longtime Tory stalwarts. Compare that to Cherwell’s recent polling showing the resounding strength of Labour among the student body. Of course, the vast majority of Tory voters would not have supported Mosley’s Fascists, but Oxford’s clear right-wing lean was fairly fertile ground for Mosley’s insidious ideas to spread.

Mosley addressed the crowd to the tune of the Nazi Party’s anthem, levelled antisemitic bile at the Labour Party and at one point insulted the antifascist hecklers from primarily working-class Ruskin College, mocking their “stage guardsmen accents”. When Blackshirts tried to violently remove Liberal journalist Basil Murray from the meeting, the powder keg was sparked. Future Labour politician Richard Crossman recounted:

“[Murray] was dragged off his chair by the face, one Blackshirt digging his nails into his cheek” and was “dragged along the floor, and rabbit punched from behind”. As antifascists fought back using chairsone Christ Church tutor was “roused to a berserk fury” after being hit with a steel chain by a Blackshirt.

The result? On the antifascist side, some nasty bruises and cuts. On the Blackshirt side, four men hospitalised. The result was no less humiliating for Mosley himself, who scarpered out of a side entrance once the fighting began and never held a meeting in Oxford again. The violence initiated by Mosley’s supporters that day, antifascist activism by people such as Abraham Lazarus and later the horror of the Spanish Civil War discredited the BUF in Oxford and their support plummeted. 

The violence of Mosley’s Fascists mirrors the violence of today’s far right; this time, they were dwarfed by the sheer number of counter-protesters preaching peace and tolerance, and violent clashes between both groups were largely avoided. The Battle of Carfax is a vital chapter in both the history of Oxford and of British antifascism. Those who came to protest Mosley largely did not seek violence, unlike his thugs. Those who protest the far right today largely do not seek violence either. For violence is inherent to far-right ideology; as shown in Oxford, my very own Walthamstow and across the country, antifascists win through peace.

Has Oxford made us hate reading?

Victoria McKinley-Smith
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Has Oxford made us hate reading?

As Oxford students, we are supposed to like reading. Reading critically, reading for our tutorials, reading for our essays. But what happened to reading for pleasure? Amidst the endless lists of books and academic journals from your tutor which you *definitely* read, it’s easy to end up not reading anything for fun at all. Ever felt like you were suffocating under a pile of books, making the idea of picking up yet another feel utterly daunting? You, my friend, were experiencing a reading slump. 

What does this actually mean? Put simply, a reading slump is a period in which you read very little or not at all, even feeling physically unable to. It can last anywhere from a few days to a few months and is every reader’s worst nightmare. During a reading slump, the desire to pick up a book diminishes significantly and the usual excitement associated with reading feels distant and unattainable. It’s as if the connection between the reader and the world of books has been temporarily severed. Readers may find themselves staring at their bookshelves, feeling a sense of frustration and helplessness. You might attempt to start several books, only to abandon them after a few pages and turn to the old foe Instagram reels instead. 

But what do we do about this? Sure, we may be able to dissect a text with surgical precision for our tutorials and our essays may be analytical masterpieces (shout-out to ChatGPT), but it seems like Oxford has destroyed our ability to read for enjoyment. Reading for fun may seem like a distant memory, especially for foreign language students – like myself – who read less in their native language than their language of study. However, reigniting your passion for reading is entirely possible: it’s simply a matter of being mindful of the material you choose to engage with. It goes without saying, but Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is probably not going to be the beach read to ease you back in.

But has Oxford made us too critical? Can we still read without a purpose? Undoubtedly, university has changed our relationship with literature, and our criteria on deciphering a good book from a bad one has altered significantly from our days of reading Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Wilson. Even subconsciously, we judge the books that we read, which is both a blessing and a curse as we cast a discerning eye over the books stacked on the shelves in Blackwell’s.

Despite our best efforts to unwind and switch off our academic brains, it is all too easy to slip into the judgemental habit of analysing characterisation, narrative structure, and literary style rather than valuing pure escapism and enjoyment. For this reason, it’s easy to feel plagued by guilt when reading books unrelated to our degree subject. There will always be another white-haired academic publishing another book on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis to be recommended by our tutors or to mysteriously appear in our pidges. 

Are we still able to appreciate less intellectual and potentially – dare I say – even kitsch, lazy, and poorly written books after being subjected to some of the best literature of the past 1,000 years? This is a matter of perspective. If you are conscious that what you are reading is not claiming to be the next Great American Novel, then guilty-pleasure literature is more than capable of serving its purpose (presumably relieving academic stress). In fact, it can be exactly what it takes to begin a new chapter of our relationship with literature. After all, who doesn’t love a cheesy romance book undoubtedly destined to end up as a Netflix series starring Jacob Elordi? 

But what does this mean for the industry of the trashy novel? It’s very possible that this phenomenon is just another product of our age of overconsumption and instant gratification. You pick out a novel, about 300 pages long, devour it in a couple of sittings, and then quickly move on to the next one. This pattern is reminiscent of binge-watching Netflix series or scrolling through social media, constantly seeking the next quick fix. Authors therefore thrive on this cycle of rapid consumption and immediate gratification.

Publishers churn out these books at an astonishing rate, knowing that there is a ready market of readers eager for the next quick and easy read. The formulaic nature of these novels – predictable plots, stereotypical characters, and sensationalised storylines – ensures that they can be consumed without much mental effort. This allows readers to escape into a familiar and comforting world, even if only temporarily. Such books may be easy to read but this often comes at the cost of quality and development. They offer no real lessons, but maybe that’s the intention. As with many things in this life, self-awareness is key. 

You may think that it is only books we do not enjoy that can push us into such a predicament, but let me introduce you to a ‘novel’ concept – ‘the book hangover’. Whilst this may just sound like the amalgamation of two staples of the Oxford lifestyle, this is a very real phenomenon: when a book you read has such an impact on you that you feel unable to move on from it, prompting a complete aversion to any other books and a total loss of literary appetite. Then begins the struggle for the next great read, which can be easier said than done. 

If finding a new great book proves too much of a challenge, there is always an old faithful sitting on your shelves to return to and re-read. Think of it as meeting up with a friend who you haven’t seen in a while, yet once you do it feels like you’ve never been apart. You know the characters, you know the plot’s twists and turns, and perhaps most importantly you know how the story ends. There’s a sense of comfort and nostalgia that comes with re-reading a beloved book. You can pick up on details you might have missed the first time, appreciate the nuances of the writing, and relive the emotions that the story evokes.

It’s like slipping into a pair of favourite old shoes that miraculously still fit. The familiarity allows you to relax and enjoy the journey without the uncertainty that comes with a new read. Moreover, revisiting an old favourite book can remind you why you fell in love with reading in the first place. It can reignite that spark and inspire you to dive back into the literary world with renewed enthusiasm, hopefully before you’re hit with another set of literary criticism readings for next term… or next week.

Sometimes, the key to breaking a reading slump lies not just in what you read, but how you read. Changing your reading habits can make a significant difference to how much you enjoy a book and can often even be linked to location. Sometimes all it takes is to romanticise your life a little, grab your oat latte from Jericho Coffee Traders and find a quiet spot to delve into the world lying within the pages of your book.

Granted, for academic reading this is not quite the same, and sometimes you need the silent pressure and judgemental looks that come from  being in the library. After all, an English and Modern Languages student may read an average of 105 books over the course of their four year degree. Yet taking the pressure out of reading for fun is absolutely essential to rediscovering the joy we once experienced, as well as the ability to read at a leisurely pace, a luxury not afforded to those of us who inevitably leave our vac reading until the final month of summer. 

There are many disagreements regarding the remedy for a reading slump, with the two extremes being either to seek out quality literature or to reach for something a little less challenging. There’s a reason that the classic ‘enemies to lovers’ trope is one of the most popular amongst readers, and it is not for its originality or innovation. This literary equivalent of fast food can act as an intellectual palate cleanser from the struggles of academic reading. Books that are ‘so bad that they’re good again’ are often the key to rediscovering the joy in reading. Just try picking up that trashy romance novel with the mildly risqué cover, it might be the secret to overcoming your reading slump. 

Crankstart Scholarship expands to include graduates

Mair Andrews
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Crankstart Scholarship expands to include graduates

An expansion of the Crankstart Scholarships will extend initiatives across a wider group, including graduates and students from disadvantaged and underprivileged backgrounds from the age of 14, Oxford University announced in a press release.

The Crankstart Scholarships currently support 17% of the University’s full-time UK undergraduate students. It is offered to students across the whole university who are completing their first undergraduate degree and have a household income under £32,500. 

This funding will be extended to graduates through supporting the University’s pre-existing Academic Future scholarships which support students to graduate courses applying from under-represented backgrounds and aim to help improve equality, diversity and inclusion in the graduate student body. Academic Futures is currently aimed at refugees and those with care experience. 

New support is to include “outreach to schools, engaging with students from the age of 14; transition support for students starting university or moving into graduate study; additional graduate scholarships’ and careers support.”

“The University relies on bringing the very best minds from across the world together, whatever their race, gender, religion or background to create new ideas, insights and innovations to change the world for the better.”

The Crankstart Scholarship provides one of the most generous undergraduate bursaries in the UK. Established in 2012 through a donation from Christ Church alumnus Sir Michael Moritz and his wife Harriet Heyman, it has supported over 1,000 students since its launch. 

Up to 50 full awards are already available across Academic Futures’s three streams: Black Academic Futures, Refugee Academic Futures, and Care-Experienced Academic Futures. Each scholarship offers eligible students a grant for living costs and covers the full course fees for the duration of the course and the students fee liability. While the undergraduate scholarships are only available to full-time students, these graduate scholarships are open to both part-time and full-time students.

Undergraduate access is still developing with new initiatives such as BeUNIQ, a programme for 14 to 16-year-olds in UK state schools who are under-represented among Oxford undergraduates. Students from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds in schools within Birmingham, Bradford, and Oldham are the focus of the first programme which aims to “foster academic confidence and support educational aspirations”. Currently, this group make up 3% of students at highly selective universities, despite making up 5% of those achieving top grades.

Other existing programmes are also receiving increased funding. UNIQ, the University’s flagship programme offers around 1,300 places each year to UK state school students in their first year of higher education, including the opportunity to stay in Oxford on a residential. A similar programme, UNIQ+, gives around 130 interns from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to experience postgraduate student life and support in the transition to graduate study.

Oxford’s £10m Azerbaijani donor can remain anonymous, court rules

Roy Shinar Cohen
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Oxford’s £10m Azerbaijani donor can remain anonymous, court rules

A judge has ruled that Oxford University could maintain the anonymity of donor with ties to Azerbaijan’s ruling family. The ruling from July ended a months-long legal struggle with news website openDemocracy, which revealed a £10m donation to the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre.

The judge said: “The [University] has a committee and a process in place for just this purpose and in this case after careful scrutiny it found no issues that would render the donation unwelcome.” 

In December, ​​openDemocracy filed a Freedom of Information request to Oxford “asking for the identity of the donor and copies of communications around the handling of the donation.” But the University refused to disclose the information, citing commercial interests that could be harmed by the information being disclosed as well as data protection concerns.

However, it revealed that the donation came from Azerbaijan and that the person behind it was a “highly successful businessperson who wished to remain anonymous.” The University has also made known that the donation was “facilitated” by Azerbaijan president’s sister-in-law.

Consequently, openDemocracy contested the case with the Information Commissioner’s Office, which earlier last month sided with Oxford.

Alexander Morrison, interim director of the Nizami Ganjavi Centre, told Cherwell that the University is “mistaken” in accepting the anonymity: “The question of the donor’s identity has ended up overshadowing all the good work that the centre actually does in funding independent, high-quality academic research on the Caucasus and Central Asia.”

The initial report by OpenDemocracy found that Oxford accepted by far the highest amount of anonymous donations since 2017 – £106m from just 68 donors – out of the 24 Russell Group universities that collectively received more than £281m.

Notably, in April of this year eight Oxford academics joined more than 120 academics, campaigners, politicians and journalists to publish an open letter calling for legislation requiring universities to publish a register of large donations and research funding. OpenDemocracy’s findings, along with fears relating to Chinese influence on UK universities, were a driving force behind a campaign for stricter disclosure rules for universities.

A spokesperson from the University told Cherwell: “Donors have no influence over how Oxford academics carry out their research, and major donors are reviewed and approved by the University’s Committee to Review Donations and Research Funding, which is a robust, independent system.”

In June of 2023, MPs did not pass legislation to ensure UK universities would publish the names of any foreign donor who gave a university more than £50,000.

Riots and resentment: How racist elites exploit working class rage

Anita Okunde
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Riots and resentment: How racist elites exploit working rage

We are living through history. As we saw in the 1980s and 2011, race riots have once again ambushed our high streets and our towns. Vulgar chants about ‘taking back our country’ and violent outbursts targeted at brown and black people have plagued the news. 

In particular, the tragic murder of three girls in Southport by Axel Rudakubana, a Welsh native, was the trigger for many of the riots happening across the country. It is clear that these riots are being led by terrorists who have been blinded in rage over false information and their Islamophobia and racism. When false information regarding this tragic crime was first reported, which claimed that he was an asylum seeker, the news spread like wildfire, creating lots of the havoc we see today. It is also showing what we have known all along: despite the UK’s strong emphasis on being a polite and tolerant nation, the racist underbelly of the country has not disappeared and deep-seated issues regarding racism still remain. However, there is a key element being missed from the discussion. 

This is not just about race. It is class warfare that has been stoked by right-wing politicians for over a decade. Right-wing politicians have a large part to play in creating a safe space for xenophobic feelings to manifest. Furthermore, current jokes about ‘little Englanders’, their lack of GCSEs and their inability to get a job do not help the situation or get to the bottom of it, but rather stoke frustrations that have been rising for years. The fact that working-class people are finding it hard to get a job compared to well-accomplished immigrants isn’t the funny take it has been seen as over the last few days.

The role of right-wing politicians in creating an environment that makes this behaviour seem acceptable boils down to three areas: blaming, validating and justification.The anger that has come from working-class people is warranted, rightfully so. We have seen record levels of rising poverty for the UK in the last few years, compounded by a cost of living crisis that has ravaged the poorest communities, and a property ladder so inaccessible to the working class that even the aspiration of owning a home has become privileged thinking. However, the response from right-wing politicians has been to blame the nation’s woes on immigrants. 

After they have placed the blame on immigrants, politicians continue to validate the anger at immigrants by pandering to anti-immigrant rhetoric in their speeches. Richard Tice and Nigel Farage, leaders of the Reform Party, are prime examples of politicians who continuously encourage hatred for immigrants under the false premise of nationalism. Immigration hate in the name of nationalism in a nation which was built off immigration, and is still dependent on it, is an ironic tale. 

When these feelings of hatred and intolerance towards immigrants have been validated by politicians and the right-wing politicians are in opposition, they can then justify the displays of hatred over the last few days, blaming the new Labour government for a lack of action on immigration policy, instead of facing the problem of racism.

This behaviour is reflective of the relationship between right-wing politicians and white working-class people. Politicians and their friends get rich off the misfortune of working-class people. These same politicians then blame the working class misfortune on immigrants, riling up their frustrations and anger. This leads to a vicious cycle where they ‘both reach for the gun’ – a verbal and now physical attack of hatred against people of colour. 

However, the root of the problem lies in the underfunding of poorer parts of the country. White working-class men have long been relegated to the role of a ‘gotcha’ statistic in political debates, not real people. People who I grew up with in my hometown of Rochdale are facing a cycle of poverty that racists using them for political point-scoring have never tried to make better.

Unlike the immigrant experience I had as a child, characterised by a narrative of upward mobility despite initial hardships, there exists a disdain for education in white working-class communities, cultivated by lived experiences and hardships that have gone unfixed for too long. Their plight is highlighted in racist rhetoric and arguments, without any substantive efforts to improve it. This neglect has fueled their resentment and contributed to the societal tensions we witness today. 

The harmful nature of class-based jokes about working-class rioters is endemic to the country’s classist roots. To fight racism with classism is not a move that helps advance the principles of equality and fairness. Furthermore, people who make these jokes do not seem to grasp the consequences of what they say. These comments imply that immigrants without GCSEs or other formal qualifications also don’t deserve jobs and decent lives, a notion that is both unjust and inhumane. 

Such rhetoric fuels arguments against the very type of migration that is arguably most important – namely, asylum seekers, who are often impoverished and lack formal qualifications due to the dire circumstances from which they are fleeing. These ‘jokes’ inadvertently perpetuate the model minority myth, creating an intolerant space for immigrants who don’t fit the high achieving expectations.

In the end, the recent riots are symptomatic of deeper, more complex societal issues than mere xenophobia. They reveal the dangerous intersection of class struggle and xenophobic rhetoric, stoked by right-wing politicians who deflect responsibility for systemic failures onto immigrants. This narrative has created a breeding ground for hatred, allowing racism to fester. By ignoring the educational neglect and economic disenfranchisement of the white working class and instead mocking them, society has left this group feeling marginalised and resentful, a frustration that is easily manipulated by those who yearn for power.

Expected far-right protest in Oxford fails to materialise amid low turnouts nationwide

Cherwell News
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Expected far-right protest in Oxford fails to materialise amid low turnouts nationwide

Far-right protesters did not turn out to an expected demonstration in Oxford tonight after a week of violent anti-immigration riots across the country, triggered by a fatal stabbing attack in Southport on 29th July.

Over three hundred “anti-racist” counter-protesters organised by Oxford Stand Up to Racism (OSUTR) still gathered around 7pm outside Asylum Welcome, a refugee centre on Magdalen Road, where the far-right protest was originally scheduled to meet. Thames Valley Police officers were also present in anticipation of protests.

Police expected over 100 far-right demonstrations across Britain this evening. However, anti-racist protesters have overwhelmingly outnumbered far-right protesters, often with hundreds against a dozen to none. This is in contrast to the greater far-right social media engagement and popularity seen this past week.

Today’s crowd in Oxford chanted “there are many many more of us than you” – a repeated line at Monday’s OSUTR “anti-fascist” rally outside Carfax Tower. Other chants included “we’re Black, white, Asian, and we’re Jews” and “say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here,” according to posts on X. Protesters also sang “Free Palestine” according to another post on X.

Earlier today, Oxford University Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey made a joint statement alongside Oxford Brookes, NHS Trust, and local council leaders to “stand together in opposition to the recent violence, racism and Islamophobia”.

The statement continued: “While Oxfordshire has not been impacted by the scenes of violent disorder that have taken place in other places across the country, we appreciate that people will feel anxious and concerned.”

The Oxford Student Union stated that any students planning to attend an anti-racist counter-protest are “encouraged to do so peacefully,” to attend with others, and to seek help from their college’s porters lodge in case of an emergency. 

Across the country, police forces braced for violent disorder, including organising 6,000 riot police nationwide. Since riots began on 30th July, the police have made over 400 arrests across the country, of which 120 have resulted in charges including three-year prison sentences.

A statement by Thames Valley Police said: “Should any planned protests or spontaneous incidents escalate into violent disorder seen elsewhere in the country, we are prepared and officers will swiftly and robustly respond and deal with those choosing to cause harm to our communities.” 

Hundreds rally in Oxford for ‘anti-fascist protest’

Jacob Newby
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Hundreds rally in Oxford for ‘anti-fascist protest’

Around two hundred people attended an “anti-fascist protest” today near Oxford’s Carfax Tower amid national far-right protests sparked by the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport. The rally was organised by Oxford Stand Up To Racism and Oxfordshire and District Trades Union Council.

The rally began at 4pm in Cornmarket Street. There is no far-right protest yet, but there remains a police presence.

Chants include “throw the fascists into the sea” and “there are many many more of us than you”. Protesters carried signs calling to “stop the far right” and to “smash fascism & racism by any means necessary”. Several Palestinian flags and one Communist Party flag were also flown.

Shermar Pryce, an Oxford student who attended the rally, told Cherwell that “troublemakers decided to stay home” and the rally was a “passionate demonstration denouncing racism, fascism and other related ideologies.”

An Oxford student who advertised the rally told Cherwell: “Our very own Oxford University has led to these riots. We Oxford students must examine our predecessors’ complicity in this before we replicate their shameful bigoted propaganda.”

Various University of Oxford bodies, including the Philosophy Faculty, Classics Faculty, Queens College, and Magdalen College, have sent out emails warning students to exercise caution when travelling in the Oxford area.

Another rally is planned for Wednesday outside the Asylum Welcome offices on Magdalen Road, organised in response to a national far-right callout for protest in the same location.

The Oxford rally is among a series of national counter protests to far-right demonstrations, which saw hundreds of arrests after riots. Prime Minister Keir Starmer today called an emergency Cobra meeting to address the anti-migrant demonstrations.

Cherwell has contacted Oxford Stand Up To Racism, Thames Valley Police, and the University for comments.

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