Elections for Oxford City Council on 3rd May 2012 saw Labour increase its existing majority by three: Labour now holds 29 of 48 seats. The Green party succeeded in maintaining its total of five seats, including the Holywell ward where students make up the vast majority of voters. Sam Hollick of Christ Church College was elected Green Councillor for Holywell, gaining 356 of 902 votes cast.

The Liberal Democrats, however, have lost three seats in comparison with their previous total, a trend that looks set to be reflected nationwide. One independent candidate was also elected to Oxford City Council: Mick Hanes in Marston Ward, who took the seat from Labour with 877 votes to their 636. 

Students across Oxford expressed their outrage after Universities Minister David Willetts dined at Keble’s High Table on Tuesday.

Willetts, who was invited to dine by a Fellow of the College, has been a controversial figure in Oxford since he announced his higher education reforms last year. In June, Oxford formally passed a near-unanimous vote of no confidence in Willetts, with 283 votes to 5.

A spokesperson for Keble’s Warden Sir Jonathan Phillips said, ‘Willetts was invited to dine by a College Fellow, and it would have been extremely discourteous not to welcome him as a guest.’

However, many students believed that hosting Willetts undermines the University’s decision to oppose his policies.

Queen’s JCR President Sean Robinson, who was present at the dinner, told Cherwell, ‘I was shocked that Willetts was invited to dine at the institution that recently condemned him. Congregation voted that they have no confidence in the minister; the decision to host Willetts shows contradicts that decision.

“The fellow who invited him may have just thought he was inviting a friend to dinner but he wasn’t. He invited to supper the man who was in charge of bypassing parliament in order to undemocratically sneak through the privatisation of the higher education system – and thus deny to thousands the educational opportunities that he, and everyone else dining in that hall, have received. By inviting the minister he signals that he is okay with the Con-Dem government’s unopular policies on higher education.’

Keble student Edward Knight commented, ‘Inviting David Willetts to Keble’s high table undermines the University’s voice on and opposition to the government’s higher education policy, which it has openly condemned and voted no confidence in by a vast majority.’

Another student, also at Keble, added, ‘Many of us were surprised that Willets had been invited to High Table given that the fellows had passed a historic vote of no confidence in the minister for higher education last summer and OUSU has also campaigned against him and his policies.’

However, some felt it was less of a political issue. Basil Vincent, Keble’s JCR President, commented, ‘Although I appreciate that David Willetts’ presence might have appeared controversial given the University’s feelings towards the Minister, I reject the idea that inviting an alumnus of the University to High Table at Keble is tantamount to unequivocally endorsing their political opinions.’

Similarly, St Anne’s medic Andrew Mawer acknowledged, “As much as I disagree with David Willett’s policies and as unlikely as I am to invite him to dinner myself, I see nothing wrong with him dining with a friend, who happens to go to Keble college, in his own free time.’

One anonymous Keble student agreed, telling Cherwell “I’m no fan of Willets but I don’t think decrying fellows’ dinner guests is a particularly productive or edifying use of anyone’s time. Let Two Brains have his three courses.”

Oxford University declined to comment, as the invitation was to a private dinner.

The motion against Willets, that “Congregation instructs council to communicate to the government that the university has no confidence in the policies of the Minister of Higher Education” was passed by Oxford academics on June 7th 2011.

Students at Keble College have been reminded about the need for silence in their college library in a sharply written notice from the Senior Dean, Dr Simon Hunt.

The notice, which has been displayed in the lodge for over a week and was emailed to all Keble students in a response to ‘consistent complaints’, stated, “It is mainly just chit-chat by people who don’t take the trouble to converse outside the library…[but] there are other inconsiderate noises such as noises in earbuds and crinkling wrappers.”

It warned that “on library etiquette there are no grey areas” and that “the deans and librarians would show no leniency” when dealing with disturbances. Hunt also added that they wished students to “exert peer pressure to alter the culture so that making a noise becomes simply unacceptable.”

The Dean reminded students, “that this term in particular, with exams and revision already ongoing, it’s essential for all students to observe proper silence in the Library at all times”, and wrote that the “Dean Team” would be making “random visits”. The Dean added that the college “would not hesitate to fine those making a disturbance’, warning students that there would be no ‘second offences”.

This new enforcement of library etiquette has met with mixed reactions from students. One fresher, who did not wish to be identified, said, “It is very distracting when people leave their phones out buzzing really loudly and whispering to each other, but I think the email did go a bit far.”

First year Classical Archaeology and Ancient History student Justyna Ladosz commented, “Even though it is really annoying when people make a noise in the library, I don’t think that the ‘Dean Team’ are nearly scary enough to make any difference.”

The email was also met by rather bemused reactions. First year linguist, Ben Haveron, told Cherwell, “The phrase, ‘there will be no second offences’ sounds like they’re going to kill you” but still advised that “at 4am you can make all the noise you want and there’s no one to get annoyed.”

Second year student, Owen Campbell-Moore, commented, “The email was pretty hilarious”, and remarked that people were already being stricter in the library, adding, “last week I whispered something quickly to my girlfriend next to me and someone told me to shush.”

Another first year, who did not want to be named, commented on the harsh nature of the email, saying that sticking to the new etiquette “will be difficult, I’m not a quiet person.”

They added, “People are people, you’ll see someone you know and talk, but I will try to help keep a good working environment now.”

Keble College librarian, Ms Yvonne Murphy, told Cherwell, “We are trying to make the library a good place for everyone, the restrictions haven’t changed – there’s nothing different, they’re just being re-enforced.”

Two Christ Church students have been fined £175 each for adorning the Mercury statue with Chelsea paraphernalia, following their team’s qualification for the Champions League Final on Tuesday.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, in response to Chelsea’s victory, undergraduates Theo Oulton and James Ware jumped into the pond surrounding the famous Mercury fountain in Tom Quad. They waded up to the figure, and wreathed it with a Chelsea football team flag. They then proceeded to add a woolly Chelsea hat to the 84 year old statue.

When asked to explain his actions, Oulton told Cherwell how he and Ware “proudly…front-crawled into the middle [of the pond] holding aloft the mighty blue. [We] climbed up, covered ourselves in cuts in the process [as] the Chelsea boys would have done, no less, and crowned Fernando’s shrine.”

The two were eventually identified by Oulton’s wallet, which was left at the scene. The disciplinary action that followed was swift, and has been deemed “harsh” by many students.

The Junior Censor at Christ Church, David Nowell, defended the action taken by the college, citing the possible peril which the boys might have brought upon both themselves and the statue.

He stated that “the statue concerned is fragile and potentially dangerous to access”, and refuted claims that the pair had been punished for what was called by some an essentially “harmless act”.

The celebrated Mercury fountain is also home to a large koi carp, donated by the Empress of Japan and reported to be worth a small fortune, the safety of which may also have been a cause of concern. Oulton commented that he had to overcome his “chronic fear of fish” in order to carry out the feat.

Nowell added that “the ‘adornment’ of the statue was only one of a number of disciplinary matters taken into consideration” when a suitable punishment was being decided upon.

Oulton and Ware received receipts detailing the breakdown of their £175 fines. They were each charged £75 for the actual stunt, and £25 for each offence of being drunk, failing to respond to the fire alarm, “causing a disturbance/playing music at 5am,” and being “not suitably dressed” in public.

The overwhelming reaction from students has been one of amusement at their actions and sympathy for the boys. Tyler Alabanza-Béhard, a first year student at Christ Church, remarked, “Everyone knows that Mercury is a massive Chelsea fan, so it was great at last to see some pride on his part.”

Another Christ Church fresher commented, “My morning walk across the prestigious Tom Quad in the rain was somewhat improved by the sight of Mercury showing his support for Chelsea’s victory, much to the confusion of several hundred Chinese tourists”.

Oulton expressed no regret for his actions, commenting simply that, “The lads deserved nothing less. Torrrrreeeeeeees!!!”. Ware stated that he was “still too ecstatic to comment”.

Sam Cato, a student at New College, similarly judged it “the perfect way to celebrate Chelsea’s win”, and a St Catherine’s fresher was likewise impressed, commenting, “LOL top banter!”

However, not everyone was as sympathetic. A fresher at Lady Margaret Hall commented, “Whilst their endeavour and commitment merits respect, I cannot help but express disappointment that they failed to realise that the only team’s flag worthy of adorning such a venerated statue is Everton’s. Huzzah!”

Nearly a fifth of state school teachers never advise their brightest pupils to apply to Oxbridge, with only 44% doing so at all – a figure down on five years ago, according to the latest research.

The recent survey, conducted on behalf of the Sutton Trust, also found that almost three-quarters of teachers also thought that state school pupils are in the minority. In fact, 57% of Oxford’s undergraduate body is made up of pupils from the maintained sector. Moreover, 64% believe that state school pupils form less than 40% of the student body, when at Oxford this has never been in the case in at least the last two decades.

Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust, commented, “The sad consequence of these findings is that Oxford and Cambridge are missing out on talented students in state schools, who are already under-represented at these institutions based on their academic achievements. We need to do much more to dispel the myths in schools about Oxbridge and other leading universities.”

When asked with what frequency they would recommend their brightest pupils to apply to Oxford, only 16% of teachers said ‘always’. Just under half answered ‘rarely’ or ‘never’.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), insisted that teachers were not careers advisers, and that students were entitled access to independent, qualified advisers when making educational choices. He said, “Applying to Oxbridge is only one of many appropriate routes for our brightest young people. Social mobility is about far more than entry to Oxbridge.”

Hannah Cusworth, OUSU Vice-President for Access, said, “It was clear that the students took what their teachers said about applying to university to heart. Teachers’ negative attitudes towards Oxbridge need to be turned around if access is to be widened.”

“The teachers that the University most needs to reach are those are most reluctant to engage with Oxford. School leaders, the government and these teachers themselves need to take more responsibility, instead of just blaming Oxbridge.”

However, Angela Trigg, principal of London Academy, opened in 2004 as one of Labour’s five flagship academy schools, told Cherwell, “Far from discouraging students, it is an explicit intention that as many of our students as possible attend Oxbridge”.

Dr Graham Wright, a headmaster in Rochdale, defended state schools’ reasons for discouraging applications to Oxbridge. He told Cherwell, “Many of our students, whilst capable of attaining good degrees, lack the vital edge necessary for Oxbridge consideration. It is not appropriate for all of our students, even our brightest, as many of them will not be good enough, and we would be setting them up to fail.

“We would always push those students capable of Oxbridge study. If we do consider them to have some potential, we encourage them to take part in access and help prepare them for interview.

“In fifteen years of being a state school headmaster I have rarely come across teachers biased against Oxbridge.  Many of us realise and want our students to benefit from the opportunities that successful study at Oxbridge brings.”

Rochdale submitted only 13 applications to Oxford last year, the second lowest of all local authorities in England.

Another teacher, who works at an inner-city comprehensive, writing on the Guardian website, voiced frustration at “the way the other teachers spoke about Oxbridge and other highly selective universities like Durham and Bristol”.

They added, “I don’t think it’s any of our business whether we think it’s elitist or ‘not for the likes of them’. When I have taken groups to Cambridge, they have been overwhelmed by how different it is from their own environments, but really excited by the idea that they could be part of it. We mustn’t inflict our prejudices on our students.”

First-year Hertford historian Rhys Owens told Cherwell that he owes his success to the support of his “amazing” history teacher. However, he added, “My teachers were really caught up in the misconceptions about Oxford, and some of them didn’t expect me to get in. Even the ones who did have faith had no clue how the system worked.”

Founder of the high-profile West London Free School, Toby Young, was unsurprised by the findings. Young studied PPE at Brasenose before a successful career in journalism. Speaking to Cherwell, he remarked, “When I was at Oxford, I discovered how little encouragement most sixth formers in comprehensives were getting from their teachers.

“The main problem was anti-Oxbridge prejudice within the teaching profession. Oxford was viewed as an elitist institution full of posh boys carrying teddy bears. I still think that image persists today.

“I think things are gradually improving. There’s a whole cadre of new state schools which are unapologetically aspirational on behalf of their pupils, and a new generation of teachers, many of whom have come up through the Teach First programme, who are really committed to getting more children from working class backgrounds into Russell Group universities.”

A spokesperson for the University called the results “frustrating”. They added, “State school students are in the majority here, we run over 1500 outreach events a year, and we spend millions on activities. Sadly, just one bad headline can unravel that work in an instant, so we don’t blame the teachers: media coverage of Oxford tends to be negative and stereotyped.

“Teachers play such an important role in getting students to aim for Oxford. These findings make us more determined than ever to continue our work with them. Misperceptions are a hurdle we must overcome.”

Responding to Cherwell’s concerns about sample size, the NFER said, “Our panel of teachers is nationally representative and we feel these surveys provide sufficient information to gauge current opinions within the teaching profession.”

The survey of 730 teachers working in 468 English secondary schools in the maintained sector was carried out by an independent body, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), on behalf of The Sutton Trust, an educational charity aimed at promoting social mobility through education. 

Two graduates have set up a company that aims to boost access to elite universities by employing doctoral students to give tutorial style master-classes to bright students at underprivileged schools.

Simon Coyle and Jonathan Sobczyk are both former Teach First ambassadors and left their teaching careers to start the Brilliant Club in March 2011.

 Thus far the programme has 36 confirmed secondary school programmes and is in the first stages of exploring expansion into working with primary schools. The programme has also been awarded a grant by the Sutton Trust, which told Cherwell it was impressed by the “clearly defined and compelling proposal.” The Trust is optimistic about the “real potential for impact and scalability”, raising “aspirations and attainment” by utilising the “largely untapped resource” of PhD students.

At the NUS National Conference in Sheffield last week, OUSU delegates argued for a fairer system of maintenance loans based on where a student goes to university.

The amendment proposed in a speech by Thomas Rutland, an OUSU delegate, recognized that the current basic maintenance loan is too low to cover the costs of student living in certain areas like Oxford.

Statistics published by the BBC in 2007 show that Oxford is the third most expensive university to study at in the country after Imperial College London and the Royal Academy of Music.

The figures were made using three indicators: student housing, groceries and drinks. The report shows that living costs for Oxford are 35% higher than the National average.

The amendment, which passed with a “handsome majority” according to Rutland, suggests that the government is considering introducing weighted loans outside of London.

Currently, a student living in London can obtain a maintenance loan which is £2000 bigger than students studying outside the capital to reflect higher living costs.

Findings from the NUS show that the average cost of living in London for a student is £11,697 per university year whilst it is £10,607 elsewhere.

Following the amendment, NUS has resolved to investigate the viability of loan weighting outside of London so that students from equally expensive cities are properly supported.

It will promote any positive findings to the government and lobby them to take action on the issue.

Rutland, the OUSU delegate who proposed the amendment is “very pleased” that it passed as he believes that it will “put more money in the pockets of Oxford students.”

“Students from the university often find that their maintenance loan doesn’t even cover their Battels bill for term,” he continued.

Charlotte Simpson, a first year studying History at Exeter College, commented that “Oxford itself is a very expensive city because it is a tourist trap.” “However, many allowances in the form of discounts are made for students,” she pointed out.

Millie Greene, a classics student, emphasised the burden of housing costs in private accommodation. “Next year I will be living out in Cowley and I will be paying a lot more than my friends in other universities,” she said.

Greene said she “welcomed” any changes to the maintenance loan system which would better reflect the “true cost” of living in Oxford.