Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Balliol has over the centuries seen a number of great figures cross the verdant lawns of its quad and grace its JCR – everyone from Tory leadership contenders, to the great Roy Jenkins, and even a number of Norwegian kings. However, none loom larger in the contemporary Balliol imagination than the illustrious ‘Pantry Ducks’ (as […]
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“Ohh, interesting… that’s quite far out, isn’t it?” – The automatic response of any high street collegiate in the textbook exchange of introductory questions. One repressed eye-roll later and I find myself speaking in defence of my humble, radically modern home, St Hilda’s, perched on the river across Magdalen Bridge (that’s right, Cowley country). Yes, […]
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When I came to Oxford for my undergraduate interviews, none of the other applicants had heard of Whitby. And yet, when I actually started my degree, everyone had heard of it. Even the master of my college came out with the classic ‘been-on-holiday-to-Whitby’ line about how wonderful the fish and chips there is. And now, […]
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“You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same organic and decaying matter as everyone else” – Fight Club’s Tyler Durden bluntly informs us. One of the words to make its entry into the 2016 Collins English dictionary, the term ‘snowflake’ is often used as a derogatory shorthand […]
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Image Description: The confusingly named City5 and City8 buses outside Queen’s Lane bus stop. It’s been annoying me for some time how inconsistent the numbers are on buses in Oxfordshire. I realise this doesn’t hugely matter. But it does probably make journey planning confusing for people visiting the county, and we’re not exactly short of […]
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Smartphones are one of the best tools in modern history. We have a second brain in the palm of our hands, ready to help us answer and solve the many problems we cannot fix on our own. The Internet itself is a modern marvel and having access to it anywhere and everywhere opens up a […]
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Living abroad in the United Kingdom for the last few months, I’ve come to realize that despite no language barrier, the American and British cultures have many more differences than expected. More than fish and chips and extra letters in words, Oxford culture in particular provides a completely different lifestyle for university students compared to […]
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Picture the scene: it was a bleak day at the dying end of Hilary term. For at least six months, my friend and I had been battling through blustery British weather and a relentless onslaught of essays about medieval manuscript culture; our reward was a tutorial in which the tutor refused to refer to my […]
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If I told you I spent every Wednesday evening in a basement playing with Lego, you could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow. Admittedly, it’s probably not the first thing that springs to mind when you think of “extra-curricular activities,” “societies” or “thriving social life.” And yet this is what I have chosen to do […]
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“What are your plans for after you graduate?” – I am asked, again and again. “I’m not too sure yet,” I answer, “I’m keeping my options open”. But the truth is I’m still looking for options, and the existential anxiety is getting harder to ignore with each step closer to the end of my degree. […]
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College. It’s the place we all feel most at home. It’s where we first meet all our friends in Freshers’ Week. It’s where we spend hours slogging away at essays, then go to our friends’ rooms to pre before we hit Bridge. For many, college is everything they know and experience of Oxford, the be-all-and-end-all […]
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“So, which coffee shop do you want to work in?” the presenter of Shark Tales asked an inebriated linguist, outside Park End on a cold February night which would have made Rasputin himself freeze stiff. For those too young to remember, Shark Tales was a video series Cherwell used to do, which involved someone dressed […]
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As an English student, I got the chance to live the exotic European life over the past year, more specifically in France and Portugal. Despite unexpectedly bagging myself a long-distance British boyfriend while in Paris, I got a chance to dabble in le Tinder français beforehand. And in Portugal, my amigo número um João has […]
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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an Oxford student nearing graduation must be in want of three things: a First, a Blue, or a spouse. It’s easy to scoff at this unofficial Oxford doctrine but the search for a meaningful life does not always need to involve curing cancer or becoming a top barrister. […]
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1989 was one hell of a year. In international politics, the Berlin Wall fell after 28 years, one of a series of events that would see the end of the Soviet Union, while Brie Larson, of Captain Marvel fame, was born. Here in Oxford, in Hilary Term, something else was born, the Oxford Doctor Who […]
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Image description: The Volga Embankment, Yaroslavl Four years ago, I sat looking through some testimonials in Oxford Modern Languages leaflets at an open day, in awe of the list of amazing places students had been on their years abroad. With law internships in Berlin, banking placements in Zürich, and events management in various châteaux in […]
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The St. Hilda’s college bar; home of the fabled Rhino, Thursday Night Live, our BOPs, and our hearts. The bar is nestled at the bottom of Hall Building and also serves as our Junior Common Room and Buttery. The space is large, and although in the ‘basement’ of the building, does not share the same […]
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The St. Hilda’s college bar; home of the fabled Rhino, Thursday Night Live, our BOPs, and our hearts. The bar is nestled at the bottom of Hall Building and also serves as our Junior Common Room and Buttery. The space is large, and although in in the ‘basement’ of the building, does not share the […]
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It was the kind of day that we all dream of, but never seems to come. That elusive, sunny Oxford afternoon when students, like the rays of the sun, beam in all-too-momentary freedom from the dark, grey cloud cover of essays and deadlines. Revelling in that glorious British sunshine, I finished my tea, switched off […]
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