Author: Nathan Akehurst

The Oxford Student are here at NUS National Conference 2014, where hundreds of delegates from student unions across the country are gathered to set policy for our national union for the coming year, and elect our representatives. For most students, it might be something that you’ve never heard of, have no idea about or simply […]

With the media’s short attention span winding away from Ukraine now that wild speculation about the possibility of a world war is over, it was almost inevitable that foreign policy wonkery would give way to tabloid storms-in-teacups at some point. This was signified by the Sun’s bizarre apparent coming out in favour of Russian imperialism, […]

I was surprised when I learnt about comments that had been accusing the Palestine Society of being a ‘vicious hub of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate’. Ironically of course, opposition to racist colonization of Palestine is the root of the struggle; thus opposition to all forms of racism is what Palestinian solidarity is about. Anti-Semitism is […]

Dozens of Oxford students alongside staff members, local councillors and Brookes and Ruskin students gathered last night in Wadham to establish a new Oxford-wide activist organisation. The meeting, which ran over two hours, was split into two broad halves- one focussing on discussing specific previous and existing campaigns and the other debating what a new […]

As of New Years’ Day 2014, restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens’ right to live and work in the UK were lifted, ending the temporary measures that had required employers to apply for a work permit for such workers, and for workers  to apply for a Work Accession Card. Much of the discussion of this […]

The Conversation is a new Comment project aimed at engaging our readers to contribute their thoughts on relevant issues. This week we are discussing equality and employment- email oxstu.comment@gmail.com if you would like to pitch a response to anything you read.  George Gillett’s criticism of Boris Johnson’s comments on inequality and IQ, Joe Miles’ response […]

Young Knives have just finished their 2013 UK tour. When I went to see them at the Cellar in October, they were testing out material from Sick Octave, bravely playing the album through from start to finish. Early on in their career, the Cellar was as big a venue as the trio could fill, but since releasing […]

The events of the last few days should be recognised for what they are; not just an attack on students and higher education but on our democratic freedoms. Violent and coercive repression of student activism and protest in general are not new. In 2012 a Cambridge PhD student was suspended for seven terms for reading […]

The government has formally announced a £900m sale of 1990s student loans, with a view to eventually selling off the whole stock, believed to be worth some £40bn. It’s an issue that requires a rigorous understanding to get the finer nuances of, and is considerably more complex than the most recent major national student issue; […]

I’m an American. Ironically, I was in America for almost none of the government shutdown. And yet, I like most of the world, couldn’t help but feel like the brouhaha down in Washington had no more impact on my life, even as a temporary expat, than whether to get a bacon bap or a traditional […]

Whilst I don’t entirely lack sympathy for Vice-Chancellor Andrew Hamilton’s concern at the increasing funding gap, he has completely missed the point with his most recent statement on fees and in the process made comments which are deeply damaging to the progress Oxford is making on fair access. He argues that to meet the costs […]

  As of September 25th, Oxford’s UCU (University and College Union) as well as Unison are balloting for strike action against a real-terms pay cut. It comes after what an email sent to UCU members says is ‘years of below-inflation pay settlements and therefore real-terms cuts in pay. This year higher education staff nationally were made […]

As I approached the grandiose marble Capitol building in Washington DC that very first day, I had absolutely no inkling of what to expect in my six week fellowship in Congress. Silence was the overarching theme of those auspicious first weeks. The corridors of power were confusingly empty – the suits and high heels characteristic […]

Politics has a tendency of putting little-known locations on the map. The day after Gordon Brown called some bigoted woman a bigoted woman, a far greater number of people suddenly knew where Rochdale was. Islington’s Granita restaurant is remembered as the place where the deal was sealed for Blair to lead the Labour Party to […]

The Oxford Union, perhaps or perhaps not in an attempt to wipe from public memory its most recent scandal, has moved headlong into another one. Racist of the month Tommy Robinson/Stephen Lennon/either two of his other aliases has been cordially invited to address a debate at the Union this coming Michaelmas. It is an argument […]

Trenton Oldfield, of boat race protest fame, has this week been handed a Home Office ruling ordering him to leave the United Kingdom. At the time of the 2012 Boat Race I was fairly vocal, and argued somewhat with compatriots on the Left, about thinking his protest was quite frankly a little bit silly. My […]

The National Union of Students’ annual conference is supposed to be the pinnacle of organised student involvement in democratic structures. It is an event that brings together several hundred delegates and observers from universities across the UK, to debate and decide national policy and practice for the ‘student movement.’ Motions up for discussion ranged from […]

The bedroom tax is sick. There is no better word I can think of to express my feelings on it. It is the sort of policy that caused Aneurin Bevan to famously and belligerently declare that the Conservative Party were ‘lower than vermin.’ It is sick because it is deliberately yet thoughtlessly creates poverty, social […]

Sussex University has become the latest frontline in the battle for British higher education. On one side are those who want our universities at the whims of the market. The project is one of full-spectrum transformation, from the stealth privatisation of courses and campus jobs, cuts to student support that are rolling back the frontiers […]