Access must be priority

By Unknown Author

Trinity means rent. Endless negotiations, another round of protests, petitions across the University as JCRs prepare to oppose college authorities they perceive as unthinking and unsympathetic. It's a neverending cycle.

Unlike the issue of top-up fees and higher education funding, changes for the future that are regarded by many current students from standpoints of apathy or indifference, the question of rent increases is of far more immediate and pressing relevance. It is not just OUSU or some politico clique who recognise the problem of scraping together an extra couple of hundred pounds. It is an issue which affects every student at Oxford.

Oxford is pricing its students out of the University, reducing access on the pretence of doing the exact opposite. The reduction of blanket rent subsidies in many colleges may indeed free up money to help those who are in most dire need of support, but it may also make the cost of an Oxford education simply unaffordable for a number of other less affluent students.

Last week, The Oxford Student revealed how we already pay almost 50 per cent more for accommodation than students elsewhere, and are forced to do so out of government loans which take no account of this fact. Now yet another major hike in college rents could put even those students who do get to live in University housing under unacceptable financial strain.

Even if students were entitled to loans on a par with those of London universities - the call of the Student Union and a reasonable and realistic demand - a fundamental issue remains: If Oxford wants to retain its reputation as a world-class institution, it needs to attract students of the finest intellectual calibre, regardless of their background, and it needs to provide the facilities in which these students can not only survive but thrive. The Oxford Student understands the economic needs of not only the students at the University, but of its colleges. We also believe these colleges have an obligation to listen to the voice of their students, and to do everything in their power to protect the value of an Oxford education.

6th May 2004