A meeting was held at Jesus College this week to solidify plans for a scholarship for students from the Gaza strip in Palestine.

The College plans to raise funding for  a scholarship which would enable one student a year from the Islamic University in Gaza to study at Oxford.

The Gazan university was partially destroyed in attacks near the end of the 2008-2009 Gaza War. Science, engineering, and medical facilities were the worst affected.

At the time, Oxford’s Senior Proctor declared that “efforts to attract endowments to fund scholarships at Oxford for the most academically talented Palestinian students, to help lessen some of the obstacles to education that now prevail, would be welcome.”

A similar scholarship to was set up in 2009 at St. Edmund Hall, and there is now a Palestinian scholar reading Engineering.

Last term students at Jesus sought to emulate Teddy Hall. Motions were passed in both the JCR and MCR to provide the scholarship fund.

Student Emily Dreyfus set up the Jesus College Scholarship Committee, which is working to find sources for funding the leftover expenses and also speaking to tutors in the pertinent fields for the purposes of the scholarship.

A portion of the scholarship is funded by members of the JCR and MCR at £5 per student per term and a charitable foundation, and the rest funded through a fees waiver.

“There was some opposition from the members of the Common Rooms,” said Dreyfus. “Most of it involved questions of, ‘Why Gaza?’”

In response, last Thursday a discussion was held at Jesus where speakers delivered presentations on the situation in Gaza was and a Q&A session was held to answer any questions concerning the scholarship.

Attendees included Dr. Swee Ang, co-founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians, as well as Dr. Karma Nabulsi, University Lecturer in International Relations and Fellow in Politics at St. Edmund Hall.

Ang shared a slideshow presentation of her time spent working for Red Crescent after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and her subsequent visits during the Gaza War.
Nabulsi spoke of her personal history in Palestine and her current involvement with the organisers of the scholarship at Jesus.

She expressed her hope that the initiatives to fund these types of scholarships occur in “one JCR after another so that it becomes institutionalised.”

Tracing the success of the push for these scholarships back to the occupation of the Clarendon building in January 2009, Nabulsi said, “The students who occupied the libraries made simple demands. They demanded we make connections.”

The Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Christopher Patten, has been tipped for a prestigious position in the BBC.

Patten, 66, has been named in reports as the favourite to be appointed BBC Trust Chairman. His name is currently waiting for approval from David Cameron, but according to insiders, the Prime Minister’s consent is expected to be a formality.

Patten was nominated for the position by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. In his pitch, he made it clear that he wanted the job as a final act in politics and public life.

The University Press Office said, “the Chancellor is usually an eminent public figure elected for life and serves as the titular head of the University, presiding over all major ceremonies.”

Lord Patten was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Bath between 1979 and 1992. From 1989 he held a position in the Cabinet.

His current position at Oxford is part time, and until 2009 he also combined the role with the Chancellorship of Newcastle University.

The BBC role, also part time, currently has a salary of £142,800 a year.

The Trust Chairman is head of 12 Trustees, who represent the public who pay for the BBC. On the BBC website it is stated that “the Trust makes sure the BBC is run in the public interest and in the interests of licence fee payers.”

All Trustees, including the Chairman, are appointed by the Queen on advice from Ministers after an open selection process.

Other candidates for the position were Dame Patricia Hodgson, the principal of Newnham College, Cambridge; Richard Hooper, a former chairman of the Radio Authority; investment banker Anthony Fry; and Sir Richard Lambert, former Director General of the CBI and a previous editor of the Financial Times.

It has been reported that Lambert was Patten’s main rival.

Second year Arabic students are set to return to Cairo to continue their year abroad after being flown back to the UK three weeks ago amid widespread protests and rioting before the fall of President Mubarak.

This comes as the Foreign Office relaxes travel advice for British citizens heading to Egypt this week.

The Foreign Office’s advice, put in place on 28th January, previously advised against “all but essential” travel to Cairo, Alexandria and Suez.

Now, it continues to warn the situation across Egypt is “unpredictable and may change quickly,” reminding British citizens there is still a “high threat” from terrorism. It says, “Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in public places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers, such as hotels and restaurants.” A nationwide curfew is also still in force in Egypt.

Gabby Odah, a second year Arabic and French student from St Catz, told Cherwell, “I have booked my flight back on 2nd March. I consulted the Oriental Institute before booking the flight back to Cairo; staff were due to have a meeting to discuss what we should do on Friday. I was also waiting for the Foreign Office [advice] to change. After this was changed, I checked with the University again, who said it was fine to book flights back.”

However, the University has advised all students returning to Egypt to obtain Syrian visas, so that if Egypt becomes violent again, students can go straight to Syria and continue an Arabic study programme there.

Odah continued, “I was upset to have to fly back from Egypt. As I got to the airport and got on the plane I realised how much I would miss Cairo. I am happy to be going back, although I have mixed feelings, as I will miss home.

“We are not worried, and now we are prepared with our Syrian visas. We are all really looking forward to getting back. One student is already back now, and the rest of us are flying out in the next few days. At the time, I was really glad to get away from the violence – I did not think we were in danger while we were there, as we left just before things became really violent in Cairo.”

Other language students are on progammes in Syria where concern over the prospect of civil unrest is rising. So far the country has remained calm.

President Bashar al-Assad has promised to push through political reforms after inheriting power from his father, Hafez, in 2000, after three decades of authoritarian rule.

A brain imaging study carried out at Oxford has shown that patients’ prior expectations can significantly alter their responses to pain-relief drugs.

The research into the placebo effect, and its opposite, the nocebo effect, led by Professor Irene Tracey, showed all of the impact of a drug  could be undermined by poor expectations of pain relief beforehand.

Equally, when patients mistakenly believed that the dosage of pain relief had been increased, brain imaging scans showed that they really did experience less pain, despite constant administration of pain relief drugs.

The researchers have proposed that doctors confront patients’ beliefs and expectations before they administer a drug, in order to optimise the outcome of the treatment.

John le Carré has announced plans to donate of his entire literary archive to the Bodleian Library.

85 boxes of books, manuscripts, papers and digital material arrived at the Bod last summer and a selection will be on display on 3rd March as part of the World Book Day celebrations.

The collection includes very early manuscripts of his famous novela in which the lead character, Smiley, like le Carré himself, is an old Oxonian who goes on to work for MI6.

The author of 22 novels said, “I am delighted to be able to do this. Oxford was Smiley’s spiritual home, as it is mine.”

Richard Ovenden, the Associate Director of the Bodleian Libraries, said, “We hope the collection will also be appreciated more widely, through exhibitions, seminars and conferences as well as through digitisation initiatives.”

NUS President Aaron Porter announced this week that he will not stand for re-election.

He said he feels the Union needs a “fresh start” and “there needs to be a new President to lead the student movement into that next phase”.

As leader of the NUS since July 2010, Porter played a central role in the student activism over the tuition fees increase. He said in his blog that he was proud of his achievements and claimed that the student response would “go down in the history books”.

Porter has received increasingly personal attacks from those who desire a more radical student response.

He said that “the challenge for the new President will be great”. His successor will have to lead the response to the cuts whilst negotiating calls for militant action from what Porter terms “factional groups”.

The new President will be elected at the NUS National Conference in Newcastle in April.

Oxford University students have been warned that if they do not complete their census forms, Oxford City and County Councils could lose out on thousands of pounds worth of funding.

The census data is used to work out funding for services as diverse as education, transportation and health. 

According to the Q&A document produced for students, this “will ultimately benefit the living environment of all Oxford residents – which includes the student population.”

James Bennett, Home Bursar of St Catherine’s College and the Chair of the Domestic Bursars’ Committee said, “It is vitally important that students living in colleges (and in private rented accommodation) understand and participate in this process.

“The data collected in the census are used to underpin decision-making on the allocation of resources to local authorities.”

Mr Bennett also met with OUSU President David Barclay with a view to spreading information through JCRs and MCRs.

Barclay encouraged students to get behind the census, commenting, “This year’s census is more important than ever for students, because the data collected will be used to inform how resources are allocated to local Councils.

“At a time of massive cuts to their funding, its crucial that Government gets a true picture of the population of Oxford, and particularly its student population.”

The census takes place every ten years, meaning that the last census, in 2001,occurred when most current undergraduates would have still been of primary school age.

The 2001 census showed that over a quarter of the working resident population in Oxford were full-time students, which was the highest percentage in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Figures from December 2010 showed there were 21,535 students at Oxford University.
The nationwide date for the census is 27th March 2011. However, for students living in college or University communal accommodation in Oxford, the census will take data from those resident between 3rd and 7th March 2011 in order to avoid a clash with the Easter vacation.

The 2011 census campaign includes initiatives endorsed by the NUS, such as a photography competition to help raise awareness among students.

Oxford University Labour Club have defiantly renounced their affiliation from ‘Labour Students’ following a vote last Wednesday.

Labour Students is the national umbrella organisation for all student Labour clubs and is responsible for their co-ordination and for building bridges between them and the central Labour party.  It holds annual conferences, arranges social events and campaigns and sets policy stances.

OULC voted 19 votes to six to end their association with the organisation. The decision was taken with co-chairs Kat Shields and Jack Evans abstaining, believing that the decision should rest with the club membership.

In an open letter to the organisation, OULC said, “This was not a course of action we were happy to take, or one we took lightly.”

The transparency of the Labour Students’ internal democracy appears to have been an important factor in determining the vote. The letter, which appears on OULC’s web-
site, stated, “we could no longer remain within an institution whose democratic failings we feel increasingly threaten to undermine its positive work”.

OULC noted that every position on the Labour Students Exec had been elected unopposed in this year’s elections. One student was also supposedly told not to oppose a particular candidate, as the lines of succession had already been pre-determined.

The letter also questioned the lack of availability of Labour Students’ constitution to members, asking, “How can individual clubs be expected to argue for change if they can’t even consult the constitution?”

OULC also stated that during the recent election, the official campaigning materials OULC received from Labour Students were insufficient, forcing OULC to create and finance their own.

The disaffiliation has, however, provoked hostile reactions. Wes Streeting, Ex-President of the NUS who stood as the Labour Student’s candidate, tweeted the following day that he hoped “no Labour MPs will now speak at the club”.

Criticism has also surfaced in Oxford. A letter signed by three former OULC chairpersons claims that the disaffiliation has left OULC “cast adrift” and states that while Labour Students may not be a perfect organisation, the work that they do and the resources that it presents to OULC are invaluable.

Kat Shields, current co-chair of OULC, has responded to the criticism by stating that the vote was not taken out of spite and that previous efforts to alter the dynamic of Labour Students from within had simply met too much opposition.

Hoping to re-join as soon as significant changes had been made, Shields stated that the vote was not simply a protest vote but one designed “to inspire a discussion and bring about reform”..

It has also been questioned why Tony Blair, who distanced himself from student politics while at Oxford, was recently made an honorary member of the OULC. The co-chairs of OULC stated that the honorary membership was largely out of recognition for his career in national politics.