Reforming a flawed system
Latest plans for secondary education reform are to include plans to merge GCSEs, A-Levels and Advanced Extension Awards into a single four-tier diploma. The changes, to be phased in over the next ten years, include merging all current secondary school exams into one diploma.
Features: A Dangerous Liaison
With a practised artistic frown, Christopher Hampton gazes with a mixture of love, longing and fear through the window of Magdalen Summer Common Room and across the quad, into the room which once was the site of his tutorials. As his honey-like voice trickles gently through the air, his talents as a writer are apparent. The fear is induced by memories of turning up to his tutorials week after week without an essay: "In the end, he told me just to stop coming!" Hampton is talking about his Philology tutor, who was the inspiration for the main character in the first of his plays to show on Broadway, The Philanthropist. ...
Features: Tories-R-Us
One tends to arrive at university with a particular notion as to what constitutes a 'student'. The sector of society that you are to join is lazy, unwashed, opinionated, and extremely left-wing. Yet whilst there can be little doubt that Oxford students, on the whole, have no trouble exhibiting the first three of these characteristics, those expecting to see evidence of the fourth here will tend to be somewhat surprised. Simple observation would appear to indicate that, far from being unapologetic Marxists, Oxford students are generally very much to the right of centre. OUCA - the University's Conservative Association - claims to be the largest student political organisation in Europe, with a membership of over 700. The Oxford Union, meanwhile, regularly passes motions singing the praises of the Tory party (whilst lamenting the present government). Indeed, it is difficult to envisage tonight's motion - 'This house believes the future is blue' - not being passed by a considerable margin. We seem to be a university in which conservatism reigns supreme....
Features: Sex and the Union
Louise Bagshawe is on familiar territory. A decade after her heroine Rowena Gordon shocked her audience by baring her breasts in the novel Career Girls, Bagshawe is again appearing at the Union, where she served as its Secretary whilst at Oxford. One half-expects the best-selling novelist to talk about matters titillating and scandalous, perhaps about the racy adventures of the glamour girls in her books. After all, glitz is what Bagshawe specialises in. Women with platinum-blonde locks, wearing Prada and Max Mara, claw their way to the top of their careers, scratching immaculately-manicured fingernails in the process. Along the way they are seduced by powerful, often older, men, who take them as mistresses and, occasionally, wives. ...
Features: Contenders at the ready:
The Wisconsin primary on Tuesday last week was notable both for prompting the withdrawal of Howard Dean from the presidential race, and for the boost it gave to John Edwards' campaign.
Features: Admirable Nelson
Celebrities seem to be getting rather too big for their Dolce and Gabbana boots these days. It's not often you meet one who would be grounded enough to venture into the depths of the Purple Turtle. Well, this is where I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong. Just as Trevor Nelson was saying his goodbyes at the Union I sensed an opportunity. It was a long shot, but, what the hell. ...
Features: Calling all artistic contemporaries
"Basically, I wanted to join a society, but couldn't find the right one for me." Richard Taunt is founder and President of the new Oxford Contemporary Arts Society (OCAS), due to be launched next week.
Features: The case for disestablishment
The French have always prided themselves on the secularity of their state, a position reinforced by the large-scale immigration of people from former French colonial territory in North Africa.
Features: The Write Stuff
It is every writer's dream to see one's work in print; to see the novel on the shelves of every bookshop from Land's End to John O'Groats. Top that with a decent advance, and life can't get any better. Budding playwrights, on the other hand, want to see their work performed. Thanks to the OUDS New Writing Festival, now in its seventh year running, student-written dramas are making the leap from page to stage....
Features: The Other Oxford
Central Oxford is home to some of the most picturesque and impressive architecture in England, and most students take this for granted. They will breeze around the museum-like bubble, surrounded by centuries-old buildings that have housed some of the most important thinkers in history without taking a second glance. In fact, many will complete their degree and leave Oxford with the impression that this is what Oxford is really like - it isn't. ...
