News in Brief
Oxford University has received an extra £2.5m to broaden its appeal to under-represented groups, according to a statement released by the University's Press and PR Office this week.
The money will be spent in attracting applications from the maintained sector and ethnic minorities, with eighty percent of the funding coming from the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE).
The statement claims that 50 new initiatives have been realized thanks to the HEFCE's support, with current students taking an active part in these projects. In March, for instance, Brasenose College, with the help of the student-led Oxford Access Scheme, will be holding a two-day residential event for teachers. Apart from the expected talks and tours, the teachers will also be meeting undergraduates from the college.
Trinity term will see students from Mansfield and other colleges exchanging e-mails with FE-college students, and throughout the year, the Oxford Medical School, along with OUSU, will be sending 'Student Ambassadors' from disadvantaged areas back to their local schools, to encourage them to apply.
Every year, the University organises over 75 similar initiatives,and makes around 200 visits to schools and colleges up and down the country.
Rowers and footballers have been auctioned off at Magdalen College as part of an auction of promises to raise money for Magdalen College Aid to the Balkans (MCAB).
The event, kindly carried out by an auctioneer from Christies, raised over £1000 for the organisation.
MCAB is a university-wide organisation that sends groups of up to fifty students to Bulgaria and Bosnia over the Summer and Easter vacations. The students are involved in helping to run local orphanages.
The money raised will contribute to sending much needed items to the orphanages as well as helping to pay the wages of a local aid work.
The auction which sold rowers and footballers as 'slaves' also included the sale of a goldfish and other coveted items.
28th Feb 2002