Author: Comment team

About a month ago, current President of OUCA Jack Matthews wrote a very interesting and informative article about his considerable experience of being a Conservative and involved with OUSU and the NUS. If, like me, you are a libertarian or you identify with the political Right, it makes very disturbing reading. At first, he describes […]

As someone involved in the workings of OUSU, I am starting to get slightly tired of the latest trend in the student press, which involves reeling off ranting comment pieces, slamming OUSU, OUSU Council, OUSU members, OUSU’s campaigns – or in fact, anything else within reach. A recent example of this came in Alexander Rankine’s […]

Tom Rutland was last night accused of a ‘descent into madness’, with students and staff alleging that he has repeatedly abused the enormous power bestowed upon him by his elected office. Rutland’s tenure has repeatedly seen him challenge the established boundaries of his constitutional prerogatives. Witnesses report that he moved the OUSU office stapler from […]

This article is a response to Jake Hurfurt’s piece entitled ‘The ghost of Oswald Mosley still lurks’ in Issue 2. Send replies to any of our articles by emailing comment@oxfordstudent.com There seems to be an awful lot of misinformation about UKIP. And believe me, if the discourses were true, I would certainly not be a […]

Sick pay, paid holidays and pensions are often the first employment rights to be eroded in a time of austerity. Increasingly, they are depicted as a part of a ‘something-for-nothing’ culture, yet they remain essential to employee wellbeing and it is important to defend them during waves of financial cutbacks. Some, however, have nothing to […]

On Friday 7th February the Olympic Torch will be lit in the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, and the 22nd Winter Games will be underway. For just over two weeks after that we will be treated to some of the most hair-raising sports imaginable as the world’s finest athletes go so far as to throw […]

For the last 30 years 75-82% of the British population have consistently stated they support a change of legislation to allow a choice of an assisted death for terminally ill, mentally competent adults. Comment Editor Mirela Ivanova speaks with Paul Teed, a junior doctor in A&E about assisted dying, and the role played by students […]

Let’s start by making one thing clear, the examination system in England needs reform. Unfortunately, this writer does not possess the intellect to devise reforms that will benefit all. Despite this, it is still obvious that Gove’s GCSE reforms will considerably hamper social mobility in Britain, and curtail access to top universities like Oxford. So, […]

The latest development in Ukraine has been another round of negotiations between representatives of the Ukrainian government and the figureheads of the opposition movement. Yet, with an incoherent opposition and an anti-Yanukovych sentiment prevailing, it is unlikely that the negotiations will be fruitful any time soon. In fact, it’s possible that President Yanukovych won’t leave […]

At this year’s World Economic Forum, income inequality was identified as the second gravest trend facing the world. In today’s society the richest 1% own almost half the world’s wealth ($110tn), with the most affluent 85 people possessing the same combined wealth as the poorest half of the world. Given the correlation between the rising […]

An alarming new study conducted exclusively for The Oxford Student suggests that more students are trying Conservatism than ever before. The poll showed that 40% of students had been involved in Conservative activities over the last year; an increase of 250% on previous years. Tom Rutland, president of OUSU, has stated the following: “Obviously it’s […]

When Michael Gove made his predictable comments on World War I earlier this month, it made me think back to my own AS-level English course on World War One literature. Half way through the year, unsolicited, the class had erupted into a debate about how people today should remember and represent World War One. We’d […]

We decided to run an issue on war and conflict because of two events this year. One is the end of a British commitment in Afghanistan that leaves behind thousands of dead, injured or traumatised Afghan and British civilians and combatants. The other is the explosion of patriotism due to accompany the centenary of WWI. […]

As the Syria Geneva II conference has turned Western attention back to the Levantine tragedy, the mythical Western narrative of the conflict persists. This dangerous narrative conforms to Western standards of ‘good guys vs. bad guys,’ the framework has led to colossal failure in the past (see: Vietnam War, 2003 invasion of Iraq). There is […]

In July of this year, Britain will enter a prolonged period of historical remembrance. Not only will the centennials of the events of the First World War arrive in a steady flow until late 2018, but the Second World War will supply its own, 75-year, anniversaries. There will be a vast array of commemoration and […]

I was once waiting at Oxford train station when a group of soldiers came through the barriers, laden with kit and visibly burdened by their load. Quite understandably, they don’t like it when you get in the way, even if you’re trying to help. I noticed a helmet perched alone on a wall. “Excuse me,” I […]

The inevitable mocking faced by arts students from their science counterparts (usually along the lines of “what, you sit around drinking herbal tea and reading plays all day?” and “what use is the ability to decipher rhyme and rhythm when we can blow things up?”) may occasionally hit a bit close to home. The financial […]

Amazing, life-altering, the best few years of your life. All of these, I’m sure, are words you’ve heard used to describe the university experience. Film and television tell us that we’ll meet our soulmate on the first day, while everything we’ve seen in prospectuses and on open days is – for obvious reasons – belligerently […]

The University of Oxford has announced that it will no longer be awarding degrees after research demonstrated that every single member of the student body ranked academic study as the activity with the lowest priority. The poll of over 10,000 students revealed that most preferred activities such as competing in university sports teams, drunkenly plotting […]