Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image description: a cartoon character getting a coronavirus test. Matt Hancock said last Wednesday that around 25% of those seeking COVID-19 tests were ‘not eligible’, complaining of a ‘rise in the number of people who are not eligible’. Those who don’t have symptoms, he warned, should not be tested. The government website has also added […]
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Image description: A pile of blue masks. Lockdown is a social responsibility – Rita Kimijima-Dennemeyer It’s true that the number of severe cases and fatalities have dropped significantly since April. We also have a better idea now of who will be most severely affected by coronavirus, and the good news for the majority of university-age […]
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Clinical trials of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine will resume after they were paused on September 6th due to unexplained neurological symptoms in a participant. At the time, AstraZeneca described it as a “routine” pause in the case of “an unexplained illness”. In a press release, AstraZeneca announced that “Clinical trials for the AstraZeneca Oxford coronavirus […]
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Following news that Cambridge University would be conducting weekly, in-college testing of asymptomatic students, many students at Oxford have expressed concerns as to why their university had not announced a similar policy. The University has now offered an official response exclusively to The Oxford Student, explaining their testing system, and why they do not have […]
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The government’s ‘Moonshot’ testing scheme, announced this week, is aiming high: 10 million tests a day, 15 minutes for a test to be returned, £100 billion price tag. But the UK is currently so far from the Moonshot ideal the plan sounds nonsensical. And there’s no point to it – or to any kind of […]
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Image description: A sprinter crouching before beginning a race. A petition signed by hundreds of students has been circulated widely following news that the University is considering plans to turn Iffley Road Sports Centre into academic spaces for the new term. The Sports Federation, in an email sent to all sports club committee members on […]
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From freshers’ week to Christmas dinner, Michaelmas is usually a term filled with fun and festivity. This year, it’ll look slightly different. Students are returning to Oxford’s halls for the first time since March – though not to Exam Schools or the Four Candles but to online lectures, staircase bubbles, and outdoor boozing at a […]
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Way back in early March, I woke up to a letter from College advising everyone to wash our hands to avoid the spread of a new disease that had started to circulate around China and, although in small numbers, the UK. Being young and all too preoccupied with essays and bops, I paid scant attention […]
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Image description: woman receives face massage with a towel around her head as her skin is moisturised In amongst the controversies of the past few weeks, there has been growing fury over the re-opening of beauty salons and clinics. The guidance for the beauty industry in the pandemic has not been received well by those […]
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Image description: K.K. Shailaja, Kerala’s health minister, smiling Kerala is a small state on India’s Malabar Coast – home to 35 million people and renowned for its peaceful backwaters and the tea-covered mountains of the Western Ghats. Despite being over 5,000 miles away from the UK, Kerala’s careful yet unrelenting response to the COVID-19 pandemic […]
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Image description: students sit exams in person in sports hall The University has confirmed that it plans to assess some students remotely in some of their Trinity term exams. This comes following Wednesday’s email to English students stating that on the advice of the University Registry, it would not be possible to ‘plan in-person exams […]
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Image description: Two figures walking in opposite directions while wearing face masks. With the advent of the novel coronavirus came the advent of the mask. To some of us, this painfully unfashionable garment has become something of a necessary evil. To sport one is to do what is right, denying so would be folly. This […]
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Two cabinet ministers walk into a Pret. One is wearing a mask, and the other is not. If it seems farcical that this was on the front of a major newspaper, then that’s probably because it is. Masks in shops, but not in pubs and restaurants? Fines, or no fines? The government has kept us […]
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Image Description: People sitting around a table with their laptops, working together Oxford students have joined a national consultancy effort to support local charities that have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus crisis. Six Degrees Oxford, a sustainability consultancy group, has partnered with the COVID-19 Student Response Network (CSRN), led by University of Bristol students. […]
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Image Description: Graphic of the virus with “COVID-19” text overlay An Oxford University expert believes coronavirus may have come into existence before its outbreak in China. A senior associate tutor at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) at Oxford, Dr Tom Jefferson, stated that the virus was found to have existed elsewhere long before surfacing […]
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The University of Oxford has confirmed that all admissions interviews will not take place in person this December. The Oxford Student originally uncovered this news in a leaked video from the Biochemistry Department, and it has since been confirmed by the University. The video was uploaded 11 days ago to Panopto, the software used for […]
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Image Description: A street view in Berlin In March almost all third-year linguists were forced to return home and had their year abroad cut short. These stories depict the unique challenges that those on their year abroad have faced in the last months and the disappointment of having to continue a year abroad in the […]
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Image Description: A medical syringe stuck into a model of a virus on a blue background. The COVID-19 vaccine, developed by researchers at the University of Oxford, has been called the “leading candidate” according to the World Health Organisation’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, as it undergoes large-scale, mid-stage human trials. At a news conference on […]
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Image description: students in Oxford University Martin Williams, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education), sent an email to students which outlines Oxford University’s developing plans for the academic year of 2020/21, including a commitment to face to face, small-group teaching. The email was received by current students this morning (the 17th of June), with a similar email sent […]
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