In 2008, Faridah Newman spent weeks at a time in her Corpus Christi room, weighed down by severe depression. The college gave her two terms off to get better. It's a typical university story, and one that doesn't always end well.
Except Faridah is now back in Oxford, not only thriving academically but earning hundreds of pounds a month with her online jewellery business, Sugar Mouse (sugarmouseshop.co.uk).
In a university where many consider "taking time out" to be akin to failure, the tale of her turnaround stands out. She takes a more modest view, simply saying her time away from Oxford "could have gone a lot worse":
"I was sat at home without work, bored to death. It was the year everyone had their 21st birthday, so I saved money by making people's presents. I bought some charms and strung them into different designs.
"The recipients didn't seem too disgusted and said I should sell them, and I thought: 'you know what, I will.'"
The result was an online shop offering five designs of home-made brass jewellery. One year on, her Sugar Mouse creations have been featured in NME and Look magazine, the range has expanded exponentially and the orders are flooding in. Which surely adds to the stress of final year?
"No, it's just the time I used to spend in my first year on the lash - now instead of spending loads of money on alcohol I'm making jewellery and getting money for it, so it's great.
"It's very easy to feel guilty here for not working, and I'd probably be watching TV anyway, so at least if I'm doing this at the same time it's OK.
"I judge myself visually on what I've done. In one day I might read two articles for revision. But if I can see that I've made ten necklaces, I find that really rewarding."
Rewarding financially, too, despite her charitable mark-up of only £4 from each £10 item. Taking into account the cost of the materials, tools and PayPal fees, Faridah comfortably covers her food expenses and receives roughly £100 to play with every week.
"It's afforded me the things I want, like tattoos. I'm going to Edinburgh next week for one. That's a £50 train to Leeds, petrol money for my friend, overnight stay in a Travelodge, £300 for the tattoo. Of course that's not standard behaviour for me, it's an extravagance, but it wouldn't have been an option without Sugar Mouse."
It's all a far cry from the committees, meetings and posturing of so many Oxford start-ups. She says she finds the concept of organisations like Oxford Entrepreneurs "quite intimidating":
"It seems to be quite androcentric and filled with people who like to talk about business. But half of it is having a great idea. You can know in great depth how to run a company - and I don't claim to know everything about it - but you have to have a great idea first for something you think would sell, rather than theorizing about business practice and not having anything to apply it to.
"With something like this I don't need to go to Oxford Entrepreneurs and network. I'm a one-woman business so the only networking I need to do is with creative people like the girl who did the drawing for my website and the guys that did my logo and website."
She's also taken advantage of having a mutual friend with model Alice Dellal for promotion.
"We'd met just briefly, so I sent her a message on MySpace and offered her any items she wanted if she wore them out. She was really awesome about it and picked a couple of things. It's no skin off my nose sending her 20 or 30 quid's worth of stuff.
"I was going to send some stuff to Peaches Geldof of all people, because her people said they'd be interested, but I'm not so keen on her, so I didn't go with that. I try to pick and choose who I contact.
"And I looked into getting with a small PR agency. But even the smallest ones want a grand a month of stuff which I can't afford to do. Yeah, I'd make more than that back but I just can't afford to venture that amount. I'd rather do it off my own back. Especially in my final year, if that generated masses of orders, I couldn't cope with it."
Faridah also goes to summer festivals to sell her merchandise. The outlay for a stall and insurance ("in case someone garrottes themselves with a necklace or impales themselves on a brooch") can be eyewatering, but she emerged this summer with a clear profit.
So where next for Sugar Mouse? With an MSc lined up for September, Faridah plans to stock up to make sure business can continue. And beyond that, her dream is of a Sugar Mouse cafe selling indie jewellery... and cakes.
"I want to get a job that will pay for me to go to patisserie school, then I want to open that shop. People say, 'oh why have you effectively wasted X thousand pounds on Oxford if you're just going to be a baker?'
"But being here is such a brilliant experience, I don't see why you have to just have one or the other."
