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Read Ciaron Tobin’s piece on hyper-connectivity in Oxford
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Jack Jacobs reports from the Varsity Ski Trip through rose tinted ski goggles Hilary Term, Week 1 | Friday 20 January 2023
OXFORD STUDENT The
The University of Oxford’s Student Newspaper, Est. 1991
The strikes will be held for 18 days across March and February, and thus may affect up to 45% of the 40 teaching days in Hilary. However, it is unclear just how much the strike action will actually affect individual students. In the last round of strikes in Michaelmas, some students found themselves without teaching, while others were barely affected at all. Only around 11% of eligible Oxford staff are members
Strike action to affect nearly half of teaching days
Milo Dennison Editor in Chief
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fter the announcement on Thursday by UCU that a further round of strikes will hit universities across the country in February and March, Oxford UCU have
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), which represents university employers, made UCU a payRead offer worth between more on page 3 4% and 5%. Yet Oxford UCU have hit back saying they’re disappointed in the offer as it is 9% below current RPI. Oxford UCU have also accused UCEA of failing to work on issues including “employers’
University slams ‘OxShag’ student matchmaking website for “misuse of personal Anvee Bhutani, Rose Henderson data” and Milo Dennison
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new website called “OxShag” appeared on the internet on the 8th January, offering students at Oxford University a “casual shag”. The site, whose motto was “for the overworked and undersexed,” claimed to be a matchmaking service for Oxford students, but it quickly came under scrutiny for its handling of personal data and lack of transparency. It has since shut down.
Upon launching, OxShag’s website featured a list of every person who currently holds an Oxford University email address, including students, academics, administrators and more. The list was compiled using information that is publicly available through the “Searching University of Oxford” tool, but the University’s terms of use specifically forbade the storing of personal data derived from the website. Read more on page 4
continued lack of engagement on equality, workloads, and their exploitation of precarious employment practices.” UCU staff will be re-balloted at all 150 universities that it represents in order to seek a mandate for action “well into 2023”. UCU have also said they will institute a marking and assessment boycott from April, shortly before exam season begins at many universities. Oxford UCU’s membership has increased by 15% since the start of the UCU Rising dispute. While the balloting is run centrally and thus disaggregate data is not available, Oxford UCU’s internal polling suggests that they would have comfortably beaten the ballot thresholds imposed by the Trade Union Act (2016) if the data were disaggregated. Oxford UCU’s Vice-President, David Chivall, commented “Not one of our members wants to take industrial action but until employers engage constructively, we have no other choice.”
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Not one of our members wants to take industrial action but until employers engage constructively we have no other choice.
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threatened to join the action, which may affect nearly half of Hilary term’s teaching days. The dispute, on-going since last Autumn, revolves around pay, conditions and what UCU describe as “attacks on pensions”.
- David Chivall, Oxford UCU Vice-President