The
OXFORD STUDENT
Friday 27th October 2017
oxfordstudent.com
Vol. 81, No. 4
Oxford fights back against Daily Mail’s anti-Brexit attacks
MP accuses Oxford of “social apartheid”
Charlie Willis News Editor
• Daily Mail accuses unversities of spreading antiBrexit propaganda following MP’s letter in Open Britain, the remains of the Alex Oscroft Editor-in-Chief
Heads of Oxford colleges and students from across the university have this week made their feelings clear in response to a Daily Mail front page that accused the university of spreading “Remain propaganda.” The original Mail article, headline “Our remainer universities”, cited a long list of professors and heads of colleges who have supposedly been pushing anti-Brexit propaganda in the university system. It highlighted academics supporting remain heavily, and allegedly handing out pro-EU leaflets in lectures and encouraging students to get involved
Woodward suspected of abusing loophole Anisha Faruk
Deputy News Editor
Comment
Harvey Weinstein and why we must keep speaking up p.9
Flickr
• Encourages students to report stories of Remainsupporting students to university@dailymail.com
Remain campaign from last year. Will Hutton, Principal of Hertford College, was accused of being a “leftie” along with several other heads of colleges across both Oxford and Cambridge. In a statement to the OxStu, he said that “Academic freedom and the capacity to think for ourselves cannot be suspended by the result of one referendum.” “The freedom to research, to follow where evidence leads, to argue, to be challenged, to exchange ideas freely and to disseminate the results is at the heart of academic life. The life of the mind knows no borders. “Academics, and those in leadership roles within universities,
must continue to think - including and especially about an event as seismic as Brexit - however discomforting the reflections for some politicians or newspapers. “They support their arguments with the best evidence they can marshall: and expect challenge. But they can never and should never stop. That would betray our vocation and what we are - the road to ignorance and the serfdom of the mind.” Mark Damazer is Master of St. Peter’s College, and in a phone interview he struck a more conciliatory tone. He said that “the press can express any views they want and I’m totally in favour of that,” although was doubtful that freedom of speech was under
any serious threat at universities. “Looking at the reaction to Chris Heaton-Harris’s letter, and not just from universities but also from Downing Street, gives us some sense that this isn’t something that’s going to gain traction in the country,” he said. The UK university sector receives over £1 billion in research funding from the EU every year. In a totally fool-proof plan, they encouraged students to submit their own stories of anti-Brexit bias to university@dailymail.co.uk. The article comes hot on the heels of a letter from Chris Heaton-Harris, a staunch
Lavinia Woodward, who was spared jail earlier this year for assault, has been accused of taking advantage of a loophole in Oxford University’s disciplinary process to avoid expulsion. Woodward has voluntarily postponed her studies for the duration
of her 10-month jail sentence suspended for eighteen months. This means that a staff panel due to decide whether she should be expelled cannot formulate a ruling until she expresses that she wishes to return. The medical student and aspir-
ing heart surgeon has been accused of trying to ‘set the terms’ on whether she will be permitted to return to the university, a decision made by university proctors.
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The origin of faith and the Ashmolean’s autumn exhibition p.16
Art & Lit
David Lammy MP has accused Oxford and Cambridge of “social apartheid” after data showed that ten of Oxford’s 32 colleges admitted no black British A-level students in 2015. Oriel College has admitted just one blackBritishAlevelstudentinsixyears. The data also showed that only 1.5 percent of all offers made by both universities to A level candidates were given to black British students. “Difficult questions have to be asked, including whether there is systematic bias inherent in the Oxbridge admissions process that is working against talented young people from ethnic minority backgrounds,” said Lammy. “There are almost 400 black students getting three As at A-level or better every year.” Eighty-one percent of offers in 2015 were made to members of the top two social classes, which constitute 31 percent of the national population. This had risen from 79 percent in 2010. On Wednesday, over 100 MPs signed an open letter to the vicechancellors of both Oxford and Cambridge universities demanding they do better work to increase access to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The letter accused the admissions system used in individual colleges of being “highly subjective,” and derided the fact that the “vast majority” of Oxbridge undergraduates continue to be drawn from “a small minority in terms of both Geography and socio-economic background.” “We call on you to set out exactly what steps you will be taking to address this situation and make good on this responsibility,” they said in the letter. Despite these statistics, both Oxford
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Fashion
The ‘Kardashian cult’ and its contribution to fashion p.27
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