Sunday 15th June 2025
Blog Page 995

Brexit will harm the reputation of UK universities, say Vice-Chancellors

Tony Diver
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Brexit will harm the reputation of UK universities, say Vice-Chancellors

In a survey conducted by the Liberal Democrat Education Spokesman, John Pugh, 75% of responding vice-chancellors said they believed Brexit threatened the international standing of UK universities.

On subjects such as mobility, funding and staffing, university heads described the “considerable” problems created by Britain’s impending departure from the single market. More than 80% of the forty-eight responding vice-chancellors said they believed it was essential to preserve free movement of people to protect research and collaboration, while the same proportion believed the risk to funding would be “considerable”.

In particular jeopardy are year-abroad courses, which could be endangered by Britain’s withdrawal from the Erasmus programme. The Vice-Chancellor of Bristol University said that modern languages courses, for which “mobility is an essential part” might not recover from Brexit.

Perhaps the biggest concern of universities for life after Article 50 is a question of funding. The head of the University of Cumbria replied to the Lib Dems’ survey with the worry that it was “difficult to see the UK government being able to provide a 100% uplift”, in place of lost EU funding.

Both the University of Warwick and Royal Holloway stated that they would lose Marie Curie research fellowship programme funding, with Warwick saying that American and Australian colleagues “no longer want to collaborate with the UK and are approaching France, Germany and Holland”.

Meanwhile, Oxford’s own Louise Richardson again expressed concerns following Brexit in an interview in Paris. She noted that Iif EU students have to pay international fees, “we could reasonably anticipate that the numbers would decline… That would be a loss for them and a loss for us.” Richardson also fears that academics whose research is funded by the ERC are vulnerable to being “poached” by other universities.

Oxford Brookes’ Chancellor, Alistair Fitt, remarked that despite the government’s protestations, the Brexit vote can be interpreted as “we are not open for business”.

A third of vice-chancellors said legislation on university research should be delayed, to wait for clarity over losses of EU funding, though nearly 40% said they believed the bill should go ahead anyway.

Last year, EU contributions made up 12% of Oxford University’s budget. Speaking to Cherwell in July, the University Research Services European Team said: “while we have a strong stream of competitively-won awards from many other sources, including industry, charities and the UK Government, we cannot overlook or underestimate the importance of access to ERC grants”.

John Pugh concluded, “While Theresa May, Boris Johnson and David Davis endlessly repeat ‘Brexit means Brexit’, this research confirms that our most important academic institutions are seeing their international reputation thrown into jeopardy”.

 

Oxford robotics group builds driverless car with “brain”

Tony Diver
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Oxford robotics group builds driverless car with “brain”

Oxford-based research group Oxbotica are the latest firm to throw their hats into the self-driving car ring, with their offering with a “brain” that has the capacity to learn.

Unlike traditional laser-and-sensor style driverless cars, the likes of which are in the testing stage around Google campus, Oxbotica’s car is built on ‘Selenium’ software, which makes decisions on the road based on its experience, rather than just on sensory data.

The software, which has already been used in tech as diverse as NASA’s Mars rover and forklift trucks, will soon be used to develop “driverless pods” intended for pedestrianised areas. This innovation pits Oxbotica against the segment of the industry interested in automated taxi rides, which has so far attracted the attention of ad-hoc taxi giant Uber.

Recent research from Morgan Stanley suggests that the proportion of personal transport provided by taxi services will increase to more than a quarter by 2030, making plenty of space and providing revenue for automation and innovation.

Yet although the pods are soon to be seen in Greenwich and Milton Keynes, the robotics group says they are also looking for investment from traditional car manufacturers looking to automate. The likes of Ford and Tesla have already invested hugely in this technology, but Oxbotica are confident in their ability to take their slice of the market share.

Paul Newman, Oxbotica co-founder said: “first to the market does not equal first for all time. We’re talking about all things that move for all time. There’s not going to be one guy that does that for all time”.

“If you had a prang, you are probably a different driver because of it,” says Professor Newman.

Explaining the importance of a car ‘brain’ that can learn, he says that “the ability for shared learning from those mistakes is something that machines offer that humans don’t have”.

This unique form of collective learning is facilitated by Caesium, which is a cloud-based platform that connects the vehicles together.

Ingmar Posner, the company’s other co-founder, said: “Oxbotica has been founded on the principle that there is an infinite number of things you can do if you have software that can help a machine work out where it is, what is going on around it and where it has to go next.”

Their ‘Geni’ driverless pod is expected to hit UK streets soon, either as small-scale transport or for Ocado deliveries.

Keep off the Grass: College life decrypted

Matthew Fuller
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Keep off the Grass: College life decrypted

Colleges (and their lesser known relation, permanent private halls) are essentially their own miniature universities that make up the wider university of Oxford. For most students they are where you’ll eat, sleep and work during your time here. Depending on the college you’re likely to be housed either on-site or in college owned accommodation somewhere in Oxford in first year while most freshers will eat at least some of their meals in their college hall. Each also has its own library that has most of the books you might need in first year – personally I didn’t learn how to use the faculty library until the middle of my first year. For many subjects your college may also be where you have many of your tutorials or classes, particularly in first year.

While your college is important for most students at Oxford it’s not the be all and end all of studying at Oxford. There’s plenty of capacity to mix with people from other colleges. University level sport, drama and societies like the Union are perhaps the most obvious way to meet people if college feels a bit claustrophobic but it’s also very doable to get to know people on nights out or just via friends of a friend.

While colleges are far more similar than they are different it’s worth saying that many of them do have some sort of reputation that comes with them. I’m sure Merton students probably find it hilarious the fiftieth time they’re told that their college is ‘where fun goes to die’ but these stereotypes rarely limit your Oxford experience.

College families

To help freshers settle into Oxford each first year has a set of college ‘parents’ and at least one fellow fresher will be their college sibling. College parents are just a pair of second, third or fourth years who volunteer to help out. As a result the level of parental care can vary, many of the first years I know were effectively raised by single college parents but others have gone on to stay friends with their parents through to second year.

College parents are generally meant to introduce themselves to you digitally before term starts and in person in freshers week so you have a point of contact to ask questions if you need to. They also tend to take you out for a meal in freshers week to further help you get to know your college family.

Once you start at Oxford people pair up quite quickly with their college partner of whatever gender. Proposals vary in seriousness at different colleges but usually it’s just a case of asking a friend, or as potential partners begin to run out, anyone you vaguely know. I sealed my first marriage with a handshake and my second (bigamy is usually frowned upon) with a Haribo ring. Deciding whether you actually want to have kids is a decision you save till the end of first year though.

Scent and Sense

Oli Williams
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Scent and Sense

Our sense of smell is crucial to both impression and memory, and has a massive impact on the ways we interact with and think about each other. Smelling something can quite literally transport our mind’s eye to a memory that we may never have recalled otherwise, just like how we suddenly remember dreams; and how someone smells is an attribute that carries great weight in our overall perception of them, sometimes devastatingly so. Here’s my (hopefully) thought-provoking exploration into scent and human interaction as I bring you a journey through scent in the next eight weeks.

The world of fragrance is often undervalued and underestimated. Society spends lavishly on appearance – on clothing, hair, accessories, skin and dental products. What I have found we often seem to neglect, however, is how we smell. Many of us will have experienced first-hand how crippling an offensive odour can have on our first impression of someone. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that a bad smell nigh-on irreversibly discolours any physical impression whatsoever. With one whiff of body odour or bad breath, that person who seemed so attractive before dramatically becomes a figure of objective repulsion. Or look at this way: as humans, we are wont to appreciate and even love one another’s imperfections (the slight lisp, the short temper, the scar on the forehead from a motorbike accident, you name it), but we never appreciate a bad smell. This is because of the profound effect our nose has on our perceptions, making bad odours so much more unforgivable than offensive sights or sounds. For an odour is, I suppose, a chemical stimulus that causes a chemical reaction in the brain which we are unable to ignore. Perhaps this is why scent plays such an important role in the ‘first impression’ scenario: we only get one chance to make that chemical reaction a positive one.

For the same chemical reason, in as much as a bad odour can revolt, a pleasing scent can have an attractive force much more meaningful and complicated than, for example, simply looking ‘nice’. I believe that the way we smell has a long-lasting and powerful effect on our identities in the eyes of other people. It is a part of us that others will, whether consciously or not, include in their overall mental image of us, because the sense of smell is such a powerful trigger in the limbic system. Our scent is as much ours as our face or voice, and it will stick in the mind of our peers as something which contributes to their perceived definition of us because it is unique – even manufactured perfumes smell differently on different people’s skin.

So, in as much as we put effort into our hair, makeup, or outfits, our fragrance needs to be looked after. Of course, I won’t insult the reader by discussing how to smell good, but I hope to have piqued an interest in fragrance and its vital importance as a result of its effect on the brain.

Balliol students set up new refugee scholarship

Daniel Sutton
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Balliol students set up new refugee scholarship

Balliol College has announced that it will offer a scholarship for a student with refugee status or a pending claim to asylum, starting in October 2017. It was established by the JCR and MCR, after they unanimously passed motions to raise an opt-out levy of £4.00 per term to raise money for it, and their funding was matched by alumni, the College and the University. The scholarship covers full tuition and College fees, full living costs, and one return flight per year for students with primary residence outside the UK.

The JCR President, Annie Williamson, said, “Education is a fundamental tool to empowerment, but higher education opportunities are snatched away from refugees, who face great uncertainty about whether they can ever return to study – even the most able students. There are currently over 20 million refugees worldwide, and Balliol JCR and MCR have responded to this crisis in the small way that we can, by establishing the Balliol Student Scholarship.”

JCR Secretary Steven Rose added, “That both the JCR and the MCR unanimously passed motions to make this possible, and that it’s been made possible through alumni and the College to achieve this real and tangible good has made me as proud of Balliol as a community as I expect is possible.”

Balliol commented, “Balliol has a proud history of being open to all on merit, supporting students in need and welcoming refugees, notably in the case of Jewish refugees prior to and during the Second World War. It is delighted that another chapter has been added to that history through this initiative, led by students but involving the whole Balliol community.”

Throughout this process, Balliol students have been advised by Stacy Toupouzova, an Oxford DPhil student in Refugee Law and co-founder of the Sofia Refugee Centre in Bulgaria.

This new scholarship comes after, earlier this summer, the Oxford Students Refugee Campaign raised almost £250,000 to fund eight refugee scholarships.

 

Keep Off The Grass: From School to University

Miriam Nemmaoui
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Keep Off The Grass: From School to University

No matter what your background, where you’re from, or what type of school you went to, starting your Oxford degree will be a new challenge. As well as all the usual difficulties facing a fresher living independently for the first time, you are faced with the task of crossing the gap between school work and the academic rigour of Oxford. When I was sent my reading lists and lecture list, I remember feeling overwhelmed, to the point where I was questioning my decision to come to Oxford. However, I was surprised at how quickly I adapted and fell into a pattern with my work.

Attending my first meeting with my tutors, in the same room where my interviews had taken place all those months ago, I was convinced that I’d got in by mistake, or that I’d somehow tricked them into letting me in. Of course, I knew I had the right grades to be there, but, coming from a background where few people go to uni, I was sure that my new course-mates were far more prepared / cultured / intelligent than I was. Speaking to these course-mates later on in term, I discovered that they too suffered from this ‘imposter syndrome’ at times. Unsurprisingly, given the (disproportionate) prestige heaped upon Oxford by the press, no-one seems to feel ‘good enough’ – but you should rest assured that the tutors don’t make admissions choices lightly, and so you definitely did not slip through by accident.

Quietly acknowledging that you’re good enough to be here is the first step towards bridging the gap. Of course, it goes without saying that the work will be more difficult than school work. There will be lots of new concepts and terminology to grasp, no matter what your subject. Furthermore, you will need to adapt to the tutorial system, which is daunting because it requires you to perform on the spot (potentially with lots of holes in your knowledge – or worse, a hangover –  to disguise). Yet, what I found most difficult to adapt to was undoubtedly the workload.

I would be lying if I said the workload here is easy, and so you might find yourself questioning whether you are up to it. Like many people at Oxford, I had gone through GCSEs and A levels doing relatively little independent work, in many subjects doing the minimum to achieve the grades I wanted. This attitude does not work at Oxford. I soon had to adapt and learn to be a proactive learner. When feeling overwhelmed, you need to organise, even if, like me, you’re a floordrobe, last-minute kind of person. In the most basic sense, to organise you need to figure out exactly what you need to do, and divide up your time accordingly.

Figuring out what you actually need to do can be a lot more difficult than it sounds. This is especially the case for humanities students, who, contrary to popular belief, are not nocturnal creatures exempt from the stresses of Oxford. Whilst with maths and science subjects, lectures and labs will usually be compulsory, humanities students have to choose which lectures to attend, and spend much of their time studying independently. At first, I had serious FOMO if I missed a lecture, and attended just about all of them all of them. This is an easy mistake to make since I found that many of the lectures are genuinely interesting. However, this ended up eating too much into the time when I was supposed to be studying and working on essays, so I had to learn to be more selective. I would advise you to attend the majority of lectures in the first week, especially those which your tutors recommend. After the first couple of weeks, you will have a feel for which lectures you enjoy, which are most relevant to the topics your tutor is covering, and which lecturers’ styles you find the most interesting. Now, you can trim your lecture timetable down to make it more manageable. I would not recommend skipping too many though – lectures often sparked interest in new things not on the reading list and allowed me to go off on tangents, making my essays more individual as a consequence.

Between classes, lectures, and tutorials, you will also be expected to do a hefty amount of reading too. As I’ve said, n the first few weeks of Michaelmas, I found the reading overwhelming – especially since it’s so different to A levels, where all the information you need to know is set out neatly in textbooks or specifications. One of the best things about Oxford is also one of the most challenging – that you can pick what you read and therefore tailor your studies to your interests. Of course, there is usually required reading, and I would really not recommend skimming over that (I had a few hairy tutorials early on where my knowledge of the required reading was very below par). However, your tutor will usually expect you to choose other things off the list to read. If, like me, you often leave things until the last minute, it can be useful to ask your course-mates what they enjoyed reading and go for that!

As you approach your first term in Oxford, I think it helps a lot to shake things up and try different routines. For example, I had never been a morning person, nor did I like working outside of the comfort of my bed, but I found that sometimes the best time to write an essay is at 7am, when your head is clear (and so are all the desks in the college library!). It’s also useful to explore the numerous libraries which you now have access to – not only is it refreshing to work in different spaces, but you’re less likely to get distracted by familiar faces in a library other than your college one. Some days, when I wanted to mull over a question or find inspiration for a new approach, I’d head to the Taylorian or the Rad Cam, which have beautiful architecture and atmospheres perfect for daydreaming. But if I wanted to speed write an essay or power my way through a book, the Gladstone Link is great – it’s so compact and plain that there are no distractions.

The gap between school and Oxford is undoubtedly a daunting prospect at first, but before you know it, you slot into your place in Oxford and A Levels become just a wistful memory.

What’s The Big Issue: The Best Fashion Magazines of October 2016

Ebere Nweze
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What’s The Big Issue: The Best Fashion Magazines of October 2016

COSMOPOLITAN

There’s No Doubt that this month’s COSMOPOLITAN will impress with Gwen Stefani as its cover star.

Price : £1 (At a price like that, you can still afford the kebab from Hassan’s.)

Price per Page of Content: 0.78p

Number of Ad Pages1: 76 out of 204

Freebies: None really. A few shampoo and perfume samples, and the odd voucher.

Fashion: Cosmopolitan caters to a younger audience than the other three magazines, so it’s no surprise that they’ve included more affordable items.  Boot Camp (p.69) is perhaps its most practical feature, with almost 50 boots styles at a range of prices. Contrary to what the title suggests, the Wild At Heart shoot (p.120) is rather safely styled, but Once Upon A Time’s (p.166) gender-neutral makeup more than makes up for it.

Features: In Is This The Best Place On Earth To Be A Woman? (p.140) Jennifer Savin paints a vivid picture of working women’s lives in rural Orkney. Refreshingly, she avoids the lazy conclusion that we should all just move up there – though it does sound idyllic – and writes with considerable nuance. Fans of Cherwell’s Trinity Term investigation into study drugs will enjoy Anna Hart’s Rise of The High-Flyers (p.156). The fact that many Silicon Valley employees also rely on performance-enhancing drugs suggests that this is not just an Oxford issue, but a problem affecting high-achievers worldwide. £10 Dinner Party (p.187), however, disappoints; four portions of butternut squash stew do not a dinner party make.

Most Memorable Quote: “I once came home to find my flatmate butchering frogs for her dinner. There were twitching legs everywhere.”  

Verdict: 3/5

VOGUE

Victoria Beckham spices up this issue’s cover.

Price: £2 (Normally £3.99)

Price per Page of Content : 1.11p

Number of Ad Pages: 180 out of 360

Freebies: Just a few one-use perfume and moisturiser samples.

Fashion: Easily the best of the lot, at least when it comes to fashion-related articles. Carolyn Asome explores seismic changes in the business of fashion in Continental Drift (p.125); the future of the post-Brexit fashion industry is discussed, as well as the decline of Paris, London, Milan and New York as all-important fashion hubs. Vintage fans will envy Hamish Bowles’ stunning archive of vintage couture in The Collector (p.267). This issue’s fashion shoots, Puff Piece (p.224) and I Should Coco (p.236) are good but don’t particularly stand out from the shoots in the other magazines.

Features: Vogue does not shy away from reporting on the most topical current affairs here, and is so much the better for it. The Women of Washington (p.203), a report on the women working together to climb the ranks in American government, is an obvious must-read, especially with the upcoming American election. Elsewhere, Sophie Dahl talks about the history of immigration in her family in The Long Way Home (p.274). It’s a story that takes us to Palestine, Burma and Egypt among other places, and makes us reflect on the problems modern refugees face in today’s world. And I couldn’t finish a summary of Vogue’s best features without mentioning Oxford alumna Radhika Seth, who won the 2016 Vogue Talent Contest with her interview on author Nancy Tucker (p.166).

Most Memorable Quote: ‘Robert Frost wrote, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Where do you live? Where are you from?’

Verdict: 4/5

 

MARIE CLAIRE

It’s Britney, b*tch, on this month’s cover of Marie Claire.

Price: £2.50 (Normally £3.99)

Price per Page of Content: 1.31p

Number of Ad Pages: 139 out of 330

Freebies:  A much appreciated Ciaté nail polish, in a shade one might actually wear.

Fashion: With 90 pages of fashion content inside, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a September issue. Edgy folk may relish the article on How To Work AW16’s Trickiest Shoe Trends (p.189), but the idea of pairing socks with heels is too much for my delicate constitution. The History Girls fashion shoot (p.220) is more to my taste – brocades, silks and embellishment reign supreme. Delectable. 

Features: Did you know that even in 2016 less than a third of children attending schools worldwide are girls? I certainly didn’t, which is why Light Up Her Future (p.106) is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the plight of women in the developing world, or to support Marie Claire’s female education campaign. Otherwise, it’s no wonder that Britney chose Louise Gannon for her only UK interview (p.230); having interviewed the star at both 16 and 18 years of age, Gannon makes interesting observations about Britney’s personal growth. On the whole, however, Marie Claire’s features don’t appeal as much as those in GLAMOUR or Vogue. The issue may have also suffered from some editing oversights – the same beauty product appears twice in the same section. The Marie Claire team really, really likes Origins’ new Rituali Tea Matcha Madness Revitalising Powder Face Mask, apparently.

Most Memorable Quote: “I got chatting to a girl on Tinder – turns out we are related.”

Verdict: 3.5/5

GLAMOUR

This month’s GLAMOUR features a rather radiant looking Jenna Coleman.

Price: £2

Price per Page of Content: 1.16p

Number of Ad Pages: 108 out of 280

Freebies: Hardly anything that could really be called a freebie. There’s a £40 Hello Fresh voucher, but you can only use £20 per transaction and the cheapest box is £32. There are also various samples, most notably a rather peculiar foundation tester from Rimmel, who have come to the conclusion that everyone who reads GLAMOUR will match the 100 Ivory sample provided.

Fashion: Coats! Jeans! Jumpers! GLAMOUR showcases items we actually need, and some we can actually afford. (I think I even saw a £10 blouse, but my eyes may have been deceiving me.) We all enjoy a bit of fantasy though, so the excessively-beribboned, gold-embroidered, price-on-request Gucci military jacket was a welcome addition.

Features:  A varied and substantial selection of articles. Kate Leaver’s Give Yourself A (Career) Break (p.97) explores ‘prodigy guilt’ – a term describing the guilt felt when we haven’t achieved impressive feats in our youth. It’s a concept that will feel strangely familiar to many in the Oxford community. Poldark fans will love GLAMOUR’s interview with the show’s four leading gentlemen (p.78), while others will be inspired by April Underwood’s How I Got Here feature (p.76). In it, she describes how she became Vice President of messaging app Slack. (Clue: She probably didn’t suffer from ‘prodigy guilt’.)

Seeing as the rest of the articles were so interesting, I was a little surprised (and quite frankly, insulted) by Soup Is The New Juice (p.73), which proceeds to tell us that soup is, in fact, good for you. If this is news to any GLAMOUR reader, I am deeply concerned.

Most Memorable Quote: “When she was three, Alma Deutscher picked up her first violin. At six, she wrote her first piano sonata and, at seven, her first opera. Now she’s taking her first full-length opera to Vienna. She’s 11.”

Verdict: 4/5

What’s The Big Issue? Vogue just about edges it over GLAMOUR – more content at the same price, and longer articles.

*The cover dates of magazines are rarely the true dates of publication. Publishing companies often use a cover date that is a few weeks after the publication date, in order to prolong shelf life. These issues, therefore, are at their most current in September.

1The number of pages dedicated to advertisements. This does not include promotion features (which are often as entertaining as regular content) or the classified ads at the back (because, quite frankly, we’ve all stopped reading by this point).

May opposes ‘safe space’ policies in universities

Katherine Pye
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May opposes ‘safe space’ policies in universities

In Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Theresa May argued that self-censorship in universities curtailed freedom of speech and could negatively impact Britain’s overall economic and social success.

May declared, “We want our universities not just to be places of learning but to be places where there can be open debate which is challenged and people can get involved in that. I think everybody is finding this concept of safe spaces quite extraordinary, frankly. We want to see that innovation of thought [is] taking place in our universities. That’s how we develop as a country, as a society and as an economy.”

The Prime Minister spoke in answer to a question from Victoria Atkins, the Conservative MP for Louth and Horncastle, who declared that freedom of speech was a “fundamental British value” undermined by university ‘safe spaces’, “where a sense of righteous entitlement by a minority of students that mean that their wish not to be offended shuts down debate.”

‘Safe spaces’, as defined by the Safe Space Network, are places where “anyone can relax and be able to fully express, without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe on account of biological sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, cultural background, religious affiliation, age, or physical or mental ability.”

May’s comments come amid fierce and ongoing debate among academics, politicians and students about limits on the right to free speech on campus.

In December last year academics such as Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Canterbury, and Joanna Williams, education editor at Spiked, criticised criticised the “small but vocal minority of student activists” arguing for universities to become “safe spaces” in the Telegraph. They warned of attempts in universities to “immunise academic life from the intellectual challenge of debating conflicting views.” 

Oxford University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Louise Richardson has also given indicators that she may not be in favour of ‘safe spaces’, highlighting in her inaugural speech the duty of universities to ensure students “appreciate the value of engaging with ideas they find objectionable”.

However, in May 2016, the university decided to issue “trigger warnings”, or alerts of upcoming content that might upset some in the audience, to undergraduate law students attending lectures on criminal law. Lecturers make these before covering material which is deemed “distressing”, particularly detailed descriptions of sexual offences which may have traumatic effects on rape victims.

Notably, Marine Le Pen’s speech at the Oxford Union in February last year attracted significant protest, with some 300 students demonstrating outside the Union building, disputing Le Pen’s right to speak publicly in Oxford under free speech laws.

As of 2015, the University’s official code of practice states that “the University believes that a culture of free, open and robust discussion can be achieved only if all concerned avoid needlessly offensive or provocative action and language.”

Hilary Boulding elected next President of Trinity College

Ebere Nweze
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Hilary Boulding elected next President of Trinity College

In a statement released this afternoon, the governing body of Trinity College announced its decision to elect Hilary Boulding as the next President of the Oxford college. The Principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama will succeed Sir Ivor Roberts as the institution’s President on 1 August 2017.

An alumna of St Hilda’s College, Ms Boulding studied Music at Oxford before embarking on a successful career in the arts and broadcasting. She produced and directed Music and Arts programmes for BBC radio and television, before becoming Director of Music at Arts Council England in 1999. Ms Boulding took up her current role as Principal of the Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2007.

“I am honoured to have been offered this important position at one of the leading colleges of Oxford University,” she said in her official statement, “Trinity is well placed to build on its significant achievements during the presidency of Sir Ivor Roberts and I look forward to playing a full part in its future development.”

Outgoing President and former diplomat Sir Ivor Roberts welcomes the decision: “I welcome the election of Hilary Boulding as my successor and as the twenty-eighth president of Trinity. I wish her every success and look forward to working with her to ensure a smooth transition.”

Trinity students also seem to be optimistic about the new appointment. “I’m looking forward to see which direction she’ll take Trinity College in the future, and especially how she might develop the arts scene in college.” remarked WeiKheng Teh, a 3rd year Engineering student.

University pioneers robotic eye surgery

Stephen Hawes
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University pioneers robotic eye surgery

Surgeons at John Radcliffe hospital have performed eye-surgery using a small robot operated by joystick. The procedure, the first of its kind, took place on 9th September,  when a device was used to remove a membrane one hundredth of a millimetre thick from the patient’s right eye, restoring his sight.

The robot was operated by Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford as well as a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Oxford Eye Hospital, who described the procedure as ‘a vision of eye surgery in the future.’ He was assisted by Dr Thomas Edwards, a Nuffield Medical Fellow.

The device, known as the Robotic Retinal Dissection Device (apparently referred to as ‘R2D2’) was being trialled in a series of experimental procedures funded by the University, the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs John Radcliffe.

The patient in this procedure was the Reverend Doctor William Beaver, a 70 year-old Oxford resident and Associate Priest at St Mary the Virgin, Iffley. Until last year, he had been the chaplain to the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment. In July, doctors had discovered the membrane growing at the back of his right eye, damaging his vision by creating a hole in his retina. Dr Beaver described the procedure as ‘effortless’ and a ‘godsend’.

R2D2 was developed by Preceyes, a Dutch company linked to the Eindhoven University of Technology which specialises in producing precision surgical equipment. Their technology has improved the effectiveness of micro-surgery by limiting the effect of surgeons’ hand-tremors, which can include movements as small as a pulse. Preceyes have claimed that the movement of their devices is precise to within the thickness of a human hair.

Surgeons hope that using robots small enough to fit into the human eye will allow for a greater number of intricate procedures to be carried out successfully. Professor MacLaren said that robots may soon treat blindness using gene therapy and stem cells placed under the retina.

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