Category: National News

The Oxford Union has announced an additional four speakers to their already hugely varied term card line up, including ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg. Details of the new speakers, and further confirmed times and dates, announced are below. To see the full details of the previously released events, go here. Nick Clegg – 30th […]

In a talk yesterday at the Chipping Norton Literature festival, Nadiya Hussain spoke about the recent release of her new book, The Secret Life of the Amir Sisters. She won over the audience within seconds with her unfailing smile and down-to-earth, modest sense of humour: “Thanks for coming!” she said. “I never expect anyone to […]

As election campaigning gets underway across the country, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has spoken to the Oxford Student about Labour’s plans for education. Campaigning in Oxford’s Blackbird Leys area alongside outgoing Oxford East MP Andrew Smith and a group of Labour activists on Saturday, Mr McDonnell made a speech covering a wide range of topics […]

Theresa May has called a snap general election. Speaking on the steps of 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister announced that she intends for the election to be held on the 8th June. Citing her government’s small majority, and her fears the opposition is set to frustrate her Brexit plans, May announced that tomorrow she […]

Writer and actor John Cleese is the first speaker to be announced to speak at the Oxford Union this term. He will speak on 20th April at 8pm, on the subject ‘Why is there no hope?’ Co-writer of Monty Python and the award-winning Fawlty Towers, Cleese has recently announced his return to BBC sitcom since […]

Students at the University of Bristol have demanded that the Wills Memorial Building, housing the School of Law and Department of Earth Sciences, be renamed due to its namesake’s profiting from the slave trade. The campaign was inspired by the Oxford student-led initiative to pressure Oriel College into removing Cecil Rhodes’ statue from its position […]

Oxford Stand Up to Racism has called for a vigil to be held at the Carfax Tower from 5.30pm on Friday 24th March. The event coincides with a similar occasion on the same day outside Downing Street, the “Unity Vigil Against Hatred and Division”. This has also been organised by Stand Up to Racism, in […]

Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that the UK will notify the European Union of its intent to leave on 29th March. If negotiations are completed within the two years outlined by this section of the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon, the UK will exit the Union in March 2019. EU leaders have further said that […]

The House of Lords has backed down over amendments to legislation to leave the European Union, paving the way for Theresa May to trigger Article 50 and begin the Brexit process. With proposed revisions to EU residency rights and a Parliamentary vote on a final Brexit deal scrapped, the bill is likely to receive Royal […]

Pakistani girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai has received an AAA-conditional offer to study PPE at Lady Margaret Hall from 2017 If she meets the grades, she will follow in the footsteps of former, assassinated Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, an alumnus of the college. Head teachers at the Association of School and College Lecturers […]

Government plans have been unveiled proposing that English Universities will be able to offer fast-track two year degrees. For such courses, they will be able to charge more than £14,000 a year, the price of three years worth of tuition fees. If Universities were to introduce these changes then annual fees in England would be […]

Oxford has once again been named the UK’s least affordable city by the Lloyds Bank’s Affordable Cities Review. Now, the average home price is nearly 11 times the annual gross average earnings. Home affordability is measured by comparing average city house prices and average regional pay. The average city house price across the UK has […]

On 7 February 2017, the Department for Education announced Sir Michael Barber as the preferred candidate to become the Chair of the Office for Students, the OfS. The Office is a new public body to be established by the Higher Education and Research Bill. It seeks to combine the operations of the Higher Education Funding […]

Such phrases as Trumpertantrum, trumpkin, and trumponomics fuelled by the strong feelings engendered by the newly elected tangerine president of the U.S, will be considered for entry into the OED. The pejorative terms have stemmed mainly from debates between Donald Trump and his critics. Trumponomics refers to the president’s economic plan, a trumpertantrum refers to […]

‘Post-truth’ has been named the ‘Word of 2016’ by Oxford Dictionaries after a dramatic increase in usage following Donald Trump’s success in the US Presidential election, and the UK’s decision to leave the European Union. Defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals […]

Over 200 academics and art professionals have penned a letter to AQA strongly criticising their decision to axe their history of art A-level from 2018. It was the last examination board to offer the subject at A-level. Chief executive of AQA, Kevin Phillips, said in a statement: “the existing specification is challenging to mark and […]

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 […]

On 11 October, the Department for Education announced that EU students applying for undergraduate courses starting next year will receive student loans covering the tuition fees for their whole degree, regardless of Brexit. Under current regulations, full tuition fee funding is available for all UK and EU students for the duration of their undergraduate degrees. […]

The University of Brighton has announced that the first of its Global Opportunities Scholarships have been awarded to two refugees, one from Syria and the other from Palestine.  The two scholars, who will begin studying in this academic year, will benefit from a tuition fee waiver, a comprehensive mentoring programme, and financial support of up […]