First Gay Pride Flag Flying Over An Oxford College

Wadham College was the proud supporter of "Queerweek", which is an occasion for talks and social events, hoy flying the rainbow flag above the 17th century college. This reportedly makes it the first Oxford College to do so, which is a good sign of Oxford moving with the times. The lights in the college's front quad were also turned pink. It was done so with the full support of the college dean and governing body .

Article and photo source (Ross Brooks) here

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Festive Season

For all those with dreams of snow, Santa and presents here are a few ideas to get into the spirit of things:

On 2nd December, Oxford will see the Christmas lights being turned on. This will happen at 18.30 GMT, with a lantern procession involving 400 people taking place just before. There are expected to be 20,000 people in total with music and street performance on Broad Street. So best get in your eggnog and malt wine early to avoid disappointment.

Blenheim Palace will also play host to some good events in the run up to Christmas. More information on them, can be found here.

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Chinese man claims to be at Oxford University, taking £595,000 from parents, but actually moves to Beijing...

A rather interesting story has cropped up in The Guardian. According to reports, a Chinese man informed his parents that he was studying at Oxford University, but actually just moved to Beijing and blew a third of it on an undeserving girlfriend....who then left him when he ran out of money. Oh, dear. He then went to a loan shark, and well, things went from bad to worse. Moral of the story: he should have asked for a larger amount of money...

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Oxford overtakes Cambridge

Rejoice, rejoice....Oxford University has officially overtaken Cambridge University on the Times World University Rankings 2011-2012. [Start childlike taunting....]

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Oxford University aims to raise £1.25 BILLION from alumni in 4 years.

The current University Chancellor Andrew Hamilton is currently undertaking a whirl wind fund raising event touring Australia. Australia is home to 2,700 alumni and it is hoped that they will contribute to the Oxford Thinking Campaign, which aims to raise £1.25 billion in 4 years, having already established £1.144 billion, with around a year left.

Famous Australian alumni include Bob Hawke (known for his record breaking drinking achievements at Oxford), along with Rupert Murdoch. For more details visit the all-knowledgeable Cherwell.

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Eco-Rally Comes To Oxford

Recently Broad Street became home to the starting point of the Eco-Rally. This was the fifth time the event has run, and it was started in 2007 by HRH Prince Charles. It is a time not only to see the most technologically advanced "green" cars currently available in the word, but also to underline the incredible developments in the field, which means they can get us from "A to B without the C" (C being carbon and costs). Our favourite was certainly the Tesla Roadster, a truly incredibly performance car and a technological achievement of gigantic proportions. Find out more about the Eco-Rally here.

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Oxford University's Bodleian Library drops $1.6 million on Jane Austen manuscript

In a perfect example of the huge financial power of one of the universities most important institutions, the Bodleian Library fought of international competition to buy Jane Austen's handwritten manuscript for "The Watsons". The story itself isn't complete and there are several interesting theories as to why this is (which can be found here, along with this lovely image above). But yes, you read that right; $1.6 million doesn't even buy you a finished story. Find out more about the library and its incredible collection on our tour! Yaaaaaay!

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