Oxford not a 'university'
A NEW OUSU report on inequality between colleges suggests that students' academic experiences across Oxford are so different "that the very nature of Oxford as a university is questionable".
The long-awaited report confirms the preliminary findings last term, and backs up with comprehensive statistics the widely-held fear that academic performance - and the welfare of students - is seriously affected by disparities in college wealth.
The report lists library provision, accommodation, hardship grants, teaching and domestic services as the areas of student life "unduly influenced, to the disadvantage of students in poorer colleges."
Accommodation is the single largest financial strain on students: the four colleges who force all second years to live out (Pembroke, St. Catz, St. Peter's and Teddy Hall), are, unsurprisingly, some of those least able to help out with hardship grants. St. John's, Trinity and Lincoln are among those who accommodate all their students for the duration of their course.
OUSU V-P Welfare, James Rowlands, in a press release given on Tuesday, maintains that: "we support Oxford's collegiate system but we oppose college inequality. Oxford is first and foremost a University". However, Rowlands and his co-authors also find the collegiate system to be lacking in many areas, not least teaching.
Teaching wages across the University vary widely. While Fellows at Merton can expect to earn a salary of £33,220, those at Harris Manchester survive on an average of only £8,821, less than an OUSU sabbatical.
This can obviously affect the ability of colleges to attract and sustain a fellowship of a comparable standard across the University. The statistics do not include details of facilities provided to fellows, such as accommodation, that varies from college to college.
The report criticises the choice of some colleges to pay for outside tuition, which is cheaper than employing a tutor full-time, noting the lack of motivation to "equalise provision of academic and pastoral care within colleges". St. Edmund Hall pays £160,866 whereas Christ Church spends £68,179 to send students to other colleges for tuition, despite having a nearly identical ratio of students to Fellows.
The figures do not reveal the ratio of 'expensive' science students to their arts colleagues who are more likely to be taught in college.
More clearly noticeable to students is library provision, which varies widely across Oxford. Christ Church has four times as many books as Wadham or Keble, with 160,000, and St. John's spends £186,895 on 1,000 new books a year.
Magdalen's £266,628 spent annually on its library is twelve times more than the contribution St. Peter's receives as top of the list of recipients of the College Contribution Scheme. It shows the £7,690 Pembroke scrapes together for its library as the scandal it is.
Under the current College Contribution Scheme "it would take over a century for the endowments of the poorer colleges to reach the levels of the larger contributors". The report therefore encourages an arrangement to include more than the most poverty-stricken colleges, by which monies gained through this system could be used as income to spend on provisions of immediate benefit to students.
According to the report, College libraries should be open for reference to all students with every book registered on OLIS.
The next stage is for the report to go through as many JCRs as possible, with the hope that they will take the findings to their governing bodies. The report has gone to the University Joint Consultative Committee, before being sent to University Council, so applying pressure across the board.
2nd May 2002