Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image Description: outside Kabul, children play atop the carcass of a tank “A war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange mixture of easiness and timidity, brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government which directed, or the great body of troops which wages. […]
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Image description: excerpt from map showing Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh, with areas of clash in September coloured red. When the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic on 11th March, many commentators predicted a decrease in war as challenging times changed priorities. Certain surveys have supported this. The ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data) […]
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It was the end of 8th week Hilary: the last week of term. There is something inexplicable about the way that Oxford life – and the city itself – becomes a strange bubble during the term. Each of us gets sucked into a routine of sorts, moving from college to college, library to library, faculty […]
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Image Description: travellers walking in an airport Xin-Ci Lum, MSc Migration Studies, Lady Margaret Hall As I write this, I’m back in Singapore having just finished a 14-day quarantine in a hotel apart from my family. Since 25th March, this has been compulsory for all UK arrivals. The reason is simple. In comparison to other […]
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Oxford It was around 6th week. My home country, South Korea, was being ravaged by this new coronavirus. But I tried not to think of that – in Oxford, my new second home, there was so much work to do and so much life going on. Each time I’d submitted another essay I went on […]
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Staying at home has been onerous for many, and we’re all starting to miss the once ostensibly small but now perceivably luxurious activities that would assumedly come with the return home for the vac. There are many parts of the pre-COVID-19 world for which we all feel saudade; activities as futile as a stroll around […]
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I was spending the night in a hotel room in London when I received the news that yet another person from my college had tested positive for the Covid-19 Coronavirus. Knowing that I had been nearby them in a timespan of less than two weeks ago only heightened my pre-existing anxieties about travelling. My flight […]
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An international peer mentoring initiative has been launched this Michaelmas Term by the Student Union, where new students can sign up to be assigned a ‘mentor’ of the same country of origin. The scheme aims ‘to foster a more inclusive environment for international students’, where mentors are expected to give advice on adjusting to life […]
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In recently published QS rankings for 2019, Oxford University has come first in five subject areas including English Language & Literature, Pharmacy & Pharmacology, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Geography, as well as the broad subject area of Arts and Humanities. This is the highest number of subject firsts in the UK and globally below only Harvard […]
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Image credit: Facebook Yotam Vaknin is from Israel pursuing his MSc in Physics. One evening during my second week at Oxford, my flatmate explained to me how to read the little pictures on the stove that illustrates to which stove each switch is connected to. You might expect that getting accepted to Oxford would suggest I am […]
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Image credit: Pixabay Evalena is a visiting student from New York reading English. This is my first year at Oxford and the longest time I’ve spent in the UK. So, as a disclaimer, I have had admittedly limited exposure to Oxford’s particular words and their meanings. But by asking British students to explain what they mean, […]
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Image credit: Facebook Danielle is from Canada and is undertaking a DPhil in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. “Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the programme of your dreams for start in October 2018.” Opening email, my heart dropped. It sank due to disbelief; I’m not sure why I, amongst the […]
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If you were to cast your mind back to the finest music of 2002, it’s unlikely that the first thing to come to mind would be a Russian chart topper. That year, a song titled ‘A Man Like Putin”, in which a Russian girl-band sang about how they wanted a man like Vladimir Putin, dominated the Russian charts. Unsurprisingly, it propelled the band to worldwide […]
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Safer Waters: Writing from a Distance It’s summer again, and I’ve been thinking about the sea. I often wonder if growing up on an island has meant that I can hear its siren call even here, in landlocked Oxford: a low foghorn sounding up the Thames, rattling the boathouses. Its undertow can be strong, too […]
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One year on from the devastating earthquake in Nepal, the Red Cross reports that millions are still living in sub-standard temporary shelters. Rebuilding after the disaster has been painfully slow, and with over 800,000 houses destroyed, this has had profound consequences. The reasons given for the delays are numerous. The Nepalese government is keen to […]
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Oxford has a vibrant street food scene, and not just when the Bitten Street market is in town. The covered market presents a myriad of cafes and food outlets while the Gloucester Green market on a Wednesday is a great opportunity to experience exciting, international cuisine. Covered Market Alpha Bar Catering to all vegan and […]
Continue ReadingFind a new university in sixty days or get kicked out of the country. This is the message that the two-thousand strong population of international students at London Metropolitan University woke up to yesterday. It is a result of immigration minister Damian Green’s decision to abruptly revoke the university’s ‘highly trusted sponsor’ status, meaning that […]
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