Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
The curve has been flattened. The peak has been passed. Life might soon, slowly begin to return to normal. There is no doubt that lockdowns imposed by governments across the world and social distancing guidelines followed by millions have strongly reduced the transmission of coronavirus and have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths. But as […]
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In 1918, at the close of World War I, the first known cases of a deadly disease were recorded in the USA. It would go on to kill many more than the preceding war had done – more, in fact, than the next world war would too. The virus had actually been circulating amongst soldiers […]
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The University said on Tuesday that non-essential members of staff must work remotely and all UK-domiciled undergraduate students must return home absent exceptional circumstances. This was in response to Boris Johnson’s announcement of strict nationwide measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. The fresh restrictions come as COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus […]
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By decriminalising the non-payment of TV license, the British Government would galvanise the erosion of British culture, a process begun during Thatcher’s Era. Over 90% of the licence fee is spent on BBC TV channels, radio stations, BBC iPlayer and other online services (including education services). It is no doubt that if you were born […]
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Recently the UK government offered Nissan up to £80m to remain in the UK and continue to produce vehicles in their Sunderland plant, where it currently employs roughly 7,000 people. Government subsidies aren’t in themselves unusual – they ensure that significant amounts of innovation and production can take place in a number of sectors, or […]
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Image credit: Voice of America Imagine a world in which the British government monitored your life, controlling whether you could purchase the home you desired, judging your behaviour and rewarding and punishing you as they saw fit. This goes far beyond the dystopian world created by Black Mirror, in which tyranny of the crowd created […]
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Nick Clegg’s rise to power was meteoric, if unexpected. After being a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for five years, he was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam in 2015. Within just two years he had been elected as leader of his political party, the Liberal Democrats. Little did he […]
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Interest rates on student loans in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are set to rise to 6.3%, in a move that has aroused controversy in some quarters. For current students the interest rate will rise from 6.1% to 6.3%. For those who have graduated rates will vary from 6.3% for the highest earners to 3.3% […]
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Much has been written about the electoral shock suffered by the Conservatives earlier this year, and how they might recover, if at all. Many proposals have been put forward, including a Conservative equivalent of Momentum and a ‘Tory Glastonbury’. The Conservatives, however, are never going to be cool or counter-cultural. The failure of Activate, which […]
Continue ReadingGovernment 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 […]
Continue ReadingThere has been an 11% rise in EU applicants this year, according to the University’s recently created Brexit Strategy Office. 2417 students applied to study at Oxford in 2016, up from 2169 in 2015. Between 2011 and 2014, meanwhile, the number of applicants stayed between 1940 and 1961. In an interview with the Oxford Student […]
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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 […]
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We are living in dissatisfied times. The representative democracy which governs daily Western life is not ideal – perhaps some disenchanted voters in Europe think that democracy itself is not ideal, threatening a return to authoritarianism on the far right for the sake of some certainty. This is not an idiosyncratic moment in history; indeed, […]
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A full house at the first Oxford Union debate of the year voted in favour of the proposition, “This House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s government” this Thursday evening. The results were counted as 185 for and 135 against. Speakers included MP Mhairi Black and MP John Mann for the proposition, and MP Andrew […]
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The National Union of Students (NUS) has today renewed demands for the government’s Prevent strategy to be scrapped. The fresh calls come following the publication of a Home Affairs Select Committee report on radicalisation and countering extremism. The report published this morning said that internet giants such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were “consciously failing” to […]
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As tourists begin to crowd the streets of Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics, the Western world seems to be holding its breath. Broadcasters have for months been describing Brazil’s Olympic preparations as unsafe and inadequate, and these discouraging labels seem to have stuck to the event before it has even begun. However successful […]
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On a recent visit to Denmark, I was amazed by the number of Danes who spoke so passionately about their tax system. This, despite it claiming on average more than a third of their income. In fact, Danes are frequently touted as some of the happiest people on the planet. How is this possible given […]
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The government has announced plans to grant Universities in England the power to increase their tuition fees above £9000 from the autumn of 2017. The plans allow for Universities whose teaching is judged to be of a high quality to increase their fees in line with inflation from the 2017-18 academic year, at present fees […]
Continue ReadingThere was public outcry last week when it came to light that residents at a privately run but government funded refugees home in Cardiff had to wear wristbands. The purpose of these wristbands was to entitle them to their three free meals a day, however some compared them to the yellow stars Jews were forced […]
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