Saturday 14th March 2026

Features

War within earshot: A year abroad in Jordan

A large part of my decision to study Arabic is owed to my father’s passing. Having now experienced life in the Middle East, including its wars, I now understand him far more than I ever could have anticipated.

The essay and its long history in Oxford

In 1811, a student at University College published a pamphlet including an essay titled ‘The Necessity of Atheism’ that he later distributed to the Heads of Oxford Colleges. The student, after disputes with the Master of University College at the time, was “sent down” on the grounds of “contumacy” (disobeying authority). This student was Percy Shelley. 

Who Owns Net Zero? Climate Action in a Collegiate University

Oxford University’s sustainability ambitions are increasingly visible. At the central level, strategic commitments articulate ambitious targets, governance mechanisms, and investment frameworks. In built form, newly completed University buildings such as the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and the Life and Mind Building are presented as low-carbon exemplars of Passivhaus design and biodiversity integration.

Bridging the gap? Oxford’s fight against wealth inequality

The life of a student is rarely one of luxury. Pot Noodles for dinner, Vinted bids in place of new clothes, and the widely-prized Tesco Clubcard have become small but vital saving graces as the cost of living in the UK continues to soar.

The secret life of a Frat Bro: Debauchery, hedony, and misogyny

The promise of huge parties, limitless booze, and a social scene that feels like it should last forever. The opportunity to join a band...

A Londoner’s Take on the Highlands of Scotland

Scotland is an unknown for most of the English population. Yes, the population is very aware of the dominance of the SNP in its...

How did Truss’ Cabinet become so anti-LGBTQ?

The role of the LGBTQ+ community in politics is a complex one. UK gay rights have advanced rapidly in the space of thirty years...

Why multinational corporations need to invest in African economies

Ghana, known as one of the largest and most stable economies in Africa, is currently in the midst of an economic crisis; its population...

£3.50 meal deals, a cost-of-living crisis, and the same old story.

£3. The sacred Tesco meal deal. The bargain every Oxford student knows about. The day I walked into Tesco to see £3.50 plastered on...

UK Democracy is broken. Here’s how we can fix it.

As a new prime minister enters office after only earning 57% of the Conservative member vote and receiving the lowest vote share of any...

What’s the real deal with Oxford PPE?

Freya Jones interviews three PPE students to find out what the degree is really about.

The Guardian of the Constitution: an institutional look at the jubilee

Imagine you were asked by a visitor from another country, or perhaps even another planet, to explain the unusual activity in the UK this...

How did we get here? Democrats, political power, and the fight for American abortion rights

On the 24th of June, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, decisions which for...

The life-sucking vampire: exams and the logic of capitalism

Elena Rotzokou makes the case against exams as a mode of assessment, pointing towards their arbitrariness as well as the negative impacts of their all-or-nothing nature. Rotzokou claims that the unhealthy logic of exams cannot be disentangled from capitalist and neoliberal thinking.

Northern Ireland’s three-way split

For the first time since the foundation of Northern Ireland, a nationalist/republican party with the expressed aim of a united Ireland is the largest...

Beyond the Etonians: Simon Kuper’s Chums in today’s Oxford

"If the structure of undergraduate life then had such adverse outcomes and is so worthy of condemnation – and the structure fundamentally hasn’t changed – what does that imply for Oxford now?"

‘Doomer politics’: The death spiral of Russian civil society

"The end of doomer politics will require the ideal scenario of regime change, and then that the West actually demonstrate to Russians that there is a workable alternative to the way their country is run."

A Month of Reconnection: Ramadan Practices in a Post-COVID World

"But more importantly, the cohesion of the Muslim community, the ummah, and the congregational aspect of worship has been threatened."

Raging against the dying of the light: what the DUP’s predicament tells us about the state of unionism in Northern Ireland

"But on 5th May 2022, when Northern Ireland goes to the polls to elect representatives to its legislature, the DUP is expected to have its long shadow over Northern Irish politics substantially shortened. Polls have consistently shown the party’s leader – Sir Jeffery Donaldson – as the most unpopular of the Northern Irish political leaders, and the party has been embattled by resurgent intra-community political rivals."

“Not your best Judy”: The gay man’s misogyny

Fiónn McFadden discusses the problem of misogyny among gay men and how it relates to the stereotype of the "gay best friend".

A critique of the critique ‘industry plant’

Aarthee Pari discusses the meaning of the term 'industry plant' and its validity as a critique of musicians.

Flinching before a dead god

God is Dead, but lots of us miss him. We look for his shadow in astrological charts, turn that shadow into beams of light that...

“Now it’s just around the corner”: Impacts of the Russo-Ukrainian crisis in Romania

Jack Twyman interviews Florin Misiuc, a member of the Romanian diaspora, on the effects of the conflict in Ukraine as felt in Romania.

Voices from Ukraine

CW: War, violence, death Seeing everything going on in Ukraine at the moment, I was struck by the fact that one thing stayed constant, the...

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