Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Upon arriving at Oxford, I was initially tentative about dipping my toe into the water of the LGBTQ+ ‘scene’, as it were. As a closeted and very awkward fresher, I assumed that I would continue down the path which I had precariously followed for the previous years of my adolescence, i.e. attempting to deflect all […]
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Image Description: A 3D printed skull, in side profile, with interior and exterior anatomical features showing. Last year, the Arts Council, a government organisation tasked with promoting and developing arts and culture across England, published its draft document entitled ‘Shaping the next ten years.’ This document, to be fully published later this year, stated that […]
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Image description: A pride flag hangs above a building in Oxford. Something dawned on me while I was watching the BBC interview with Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price during the recent election. Why, in 2019, was a politician’s sexuality still worthy of discussion? Too often, LGBTQ+ people are viewed more as representatives than as individuals. […]
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Image Description: Angel of Grief statue at Holy Sepulchre Cemetry, Rochester, New York With its 8-week terms, abundant workload, and ceaseless movement, Oxford isn’t exactly renowned for being forgiving – the smallest of obstacles can easily set us back, and tarnish the chances of even trying to meet our deadlines. So it’s no surprise that, […]
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It’s internship season. Many of my friends and I are currently sniffing the internet for the elusive summer placement to hone the edge of a CV that, fingers crossed, will slay the job market for years to come. Whilst I’m looking for something to fill my second summer as a student at Oxford, in a […]
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Look, I’m not one to paint with a broad brush stoke, and I know that not all crew dates are bad. But unfortunately we live in a world where the worst case scenarios are the ones that stick. Crewdates stories are the stuff of the Telegraph and The Daily Mail’s dreams, as they seek to […]
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Advertisements for teaching abroad summer camps are a common sight on JCR pages in Hilary and Trinity, with China being one of the most common destinations. That’s how I ended up spending the summer vacation teaching English – I wanted to travel abroad to Asia and saw four weeks teaching in Guangzhou as a fair […]
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Recently, a spate of cases from the Home Office have cropped up involving academics being threatened with deportation or having their or their children’s visas rejected. This has doubtless caused significant emotional and psychological turbulence for these academics, but we might go deeper and ask: Why now, are there so many patently unfair decisions being […]
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Image Description – Glasses of Wine I’m not exactly a crewdate connoisseur. I’ve only been to about three in my entire university career, and aren’t sporty enough to go to one of the top geezer affairs Oxford legend states the rugby or football crewdates are. But I do believe crewdates, much like organised religion, student […]
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Living in Oxford sometimes feel like living in a bubble: the big quads, formal halls and black-tie events seem to bring us ever further away from reality. I wished so many times that I could go back to the normal-looking, charming streets back home with shops that don’t just sell souvenirs or over-priced food. But […]
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Oxbridge have introduced a new bursary aimed at supporting women studying STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths). The Taylor Bursary is for exceptional female state school students from south Oxfordshire who have received a place at Oxford or Cambridge to study a STEM subject, and is funded by the generosity of Mr Bernard Taylor, […]
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From cannon-bluster to the Turl Street dash, and from recognition in the Daily Mail in 1979 to more modern recognition as a particularly fierce rivalry on Wikipedia, the Turl Street rivalry between Exeter and Jesus is rather exciting, as far as college rivalries go. Compare the pitiful ‘wars’ of recent times exemplified by the petty […]
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An anonymous second year student at Hertford college, has recently been fined £500, as well as being banned from all social spaces within his college for Michaelmas term due to stealing a stuffed fox from Hertford’s MCR. The student was trashed after his first year exams holding the fox, and has since then been discovered […]
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Reuben Cooper – DON’T BAN BORIS FROM BALLIOL IF YOU BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH Whatever your opinion of the man, to bar Boris Johnson from Balliol would be censorship in all but name. It would feed into the unfortunate stereotype of ‘wokeness’ or ‘snowflake-ism’, often touted by the political right to decry the increasing levels […]
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Common Ground Oxford released a statement on Monday condemning the ‘Gandhi at 150’ symposium that is being held by Somerville and Balliol on the 23rd October. The symposium marks the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and is being organised by the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development. There will be an introduction from the Chancellor […]
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Image description: scenes from the protest on Monday evening The Oxford Climate Justice Campaign disrupted a recruitment event held by Glencore on Monday night. Glencore is one of the world’s largest natural resource companies and the Climate Justice Campaign described them as “climate criminals”. The official event, organised and advertised by the University careers service, […]
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Imposter syndrome is an idea spoken about a lot in Oxford, especially during the start of the academic year. It’s the feeling that you don’t quite belong here – that your offer was a result of a mistake and someone else should have been accepted instead. Imposter syndrome is not unique to Oxford, but the […]
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Image description – Library books tunnel The ‘Oxford bubble’ is a concept we all know well – when in the bubble you can think of nothing but your Oxford workload. Completing your essay feels like a matter of life and death. But it is also a dangerous one. When I was in my worst place, […]
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My dearest Solomans, You’ve been my one and only since freshers’. I cemented our love with a loyalty card, each smiley stamp bringing a sense of achievement I have yet to experience in other aspects of my life. But I have a confession. I didn’t mean to do what I did, you have to […]
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