Author: Lottie Hayton

Two scientists from Oxford University have been awarded an £80,000 fellowship to develop their research into health and renewable energy sources. Tim Sudmeier’s project looks at creating ammonia through electrolysis in order to store electricity from wind farms and other renewable energy sources. The other project, led by Tom Fleming, has been researching drugs that […]

Every year the Norrington Table is released, an oft-cited and even more frequently bemoaned system for ranking Oxford colleges based on their exam results. But what if this system was based, not on exams, but your vote on vegetables? Hence the new ‘Vegetarian Norrington Table’ proposed by Oxford University Animal Ethics Society, a group created […]

Oxford has continued to receive more undergraduate applicants than Cambridge this year, 15% more than its long time rival. Although some have attributed this to Oxford’s attempts to improve student access from less privileged backgrounds others have also cited Cambridge’s tougher A-level grade requirements. Record numbers of teenagers have applied to both institutions this year, […]

Grants to pay for student living costs have been scrapped, a change that has today provoked a strong response from the NUS Vice-President. This comes after the NUS announced a national demonstration in November to demand an end to the marketisation of university and college education. Former Chancellor George Osborne revealed the decision in his […]

In an interview given to Belgium’s national francophone broadcaster this week, Martyn Rush, an MPhil student at St. Anthony’s College and current Politics Officer of the Oxford University Islamic Society, strongly criticised the government’s Prevent strategy, which has been established in order to combat radicalisation in schools, colleges and universities across the country. Describing the […]

A full-scale replica of Palmyra’s Arch of Triumph was displayed in Trafalgar Square last week. The millennia old monument had been reconstructed using advanced 3D technology and is part of an even bigger education project involving a number of Oxford researchers and Magadalen student volunteers. The Arch, costing over £200,000 and standing 20ft tall, was […]

A Facebook group allowing Oxford students to share photos of outrageous, fascinating and witty margin notes in library books was picked up by national newspapers this week. ‘Oxford University Marginalia’ currently has 5,556 members who post photographs of interesting margin notes. The group was noticed by The Telegraph last Thursday. The paper wrote: “Completing a […]

Sitting in the busy Oxford Union bar on a Wednesday night, the most successful female presidential candidate in U.S. history looks ever so slightly out of place. It’s not like the Union is any stranger to the great and the good of history; the numerous framed photos on the walls confirm that. Yet as we […]

In a joint initiative between the Oxford Faculty of Law and Mansfield College, the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights is going to open its doors at the end of 2016. It will be led by human rights barrister Helene Kennedy who also serves as Mansfield’s principal. £22m have been raised already for the construction works […]

Earlier this week Jo Johnson, the Universities and Science Minister, took a tour around Oxford’s leading quantum research facilities and robotics labs to announce new investment in front line physics and engineering. This move comes as part of an overarching government commitment to UK science investment, with £6.9 billion invested in laboratories and equipment to […]

Attendees at the Mansfield College Ball on Saturday were dismayed to find that much of the promised food and drink ran out before the scheduled time, in some cases by several hours. Held on 27 February, the Mansfield Ball was a ten-hour affair lasting until five in the morning. The ball’s theme, ‘The Doors of […]

One person has been confirmed dead and another three are missing and thought likely to have died following the partial collapse of the decommission Didcot A power plant. The combined coal and oil power plant has been closed since 2013 after 43 years of service, and lies about ten miles south of Oxford. After having […]

New research has shown that urban transport networks are becoming too complex for the human mind. A team of mathematicians and physicists from Oxford and Paris has shown that even a journey with just two changes comes close to exceeding the brain’s cognitive limits. After analysing 15 of the world’s largest transport networks researches found […]

A parent advice group has suggested that highly-selective schools can hinder some students’ chances of getting into Oxbridge. According to its Twitter page, The Parent Brief “offers advice and information on all the aspects of your child’s education and wellbeing”. Its latest book, Independent School Entrance, was published this month containing “expert advice”, league tables […]

Scientists at Oxford University have, for the first time, been able to identify the origins of the ‘Timebomb in the Testicles’ phenomenon. This is a set of severe disease causing mutations within the testicles of healthy men that go on to cause serious genetic disorders in their offspring, despite both parents being healthy. The mutations […]

Magdalen JCR is now requiring one of its committee members to eat lettuce at every general meeting. The undergraduate common room has proposed a constitutional amendment that  mandates the Oscar d’Tortoise (a JCR position with no real roles or responsibilities) to chow down on the vegetable at every GM. This amendment was part of a […]

Members of University College’s JCR have passed an emergency motion calling the decision to host pupils from the fee-paying Radley College at an access event “indefensible”. Earlier this week, The Telegraph reported that the Schools, Liaison and Access Officer from Univ’s JCR, Nelli Chamings, had sent an email to students asking for a pair of […]

The University of Cambridge has announced that it is instituting entrance exams for incoming undergraduates. Each test will be tailored specifically to a certain subject and will be administered either pre-interview or at-interview, depending on the course. The purpose of these tests are to provide admissions tutors with more evidence of an hopeful students’ abilities […]