Campus Watch

Posted on by The Gryphon Web Editor

University of Oxford: A Lidl Bit Goes a Long Way for German Students

German supermarket chain Lidl has announced that they will fund one graduate wishing to undertake a Masters in Modern Languages with German as their principle language at Oxford University every year. This aims to provide financial support to those who demonstrate exceptional academic merit but, due to financial circumstances, would normally be prevented from studying the language.

They have also agreed to sponsor competitions where undergraduates can win prizes of up to £500 as of next year.

The sponsorship was created after education experts stated that the number of students learning German are dwindling. Just over 3,000 students took German A-Level this year, which is almost half as many as in 2010. The subject performed significantly poorly in comparison to Spanish, which saw 7,600 entries for A-Level – more than double the numbers of students who took German.

Christian Härtnagel, Lidl’s UK CEO, gave the following statement:

“As a British supermarket with roots in Germany, we saw this opportunity as a great fit and are incredibly proud to be working with Oxford, to support both undergrad and graduate students of German”.

Charly Loughin

University of Aberdeen: Wii Will Rock You – Late Night Nintendo Singalong Leads to Students being Kicked Out of Halls

In what might be the strangest university noise complaint we’ve ever come across, a group of Aberdeen students were recently kicked out of their residence by a university porter, after their singing along to Nintendo Wii’s Mii Channel music at 1am led to complaints of excessive noise.

By the time the porter arrived, the singing had reportedly gone on for 10 minutes; it was disruptive enough that the porter had to ask the twelve students to leave.

The well-known Mii Channel music saw a boom in pop-culture popularity last year, and has since been the background music for many viral videos.

Fresher Liam Daniel, who had been kept awake by the ‘musical performance’, expressed his disappointment in his fellow Grant Court residents’ level of culture:

“I’m ashamed at the social standard of the place. They could have played some classic bangers like Wonderwall or at least something by ABBA, but naw.”

Laus D. Jørgensen

Kolkata’s National University of Juridical Sciences: Harry Potter and the Indian Social Class

A top University in the Eastern state of the West Bengal, India, has introduced a course based around the magical wizarding world of Harry Potter. Designed by Professor Shouvik Kumar Guha, that the course is part of an experiment to ‘encourage creative thinking’ at the University.

Forming part of a law degree, where students are usually expected to simply follow the ‘black letter’ of the law,  the course is called ‘An Interface Between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special Focus on Rowling’s Potterverse’ and will include around 45 hours of discussion-based teaching.

Professor Guha told the BBC that some of the topics covered show how social and class rights in India can be equated to “the enslavement of house elves and marginalisation of werewolves”. Others, he told, focus on the innocence of Sirius Black and the persecution of Tom Riddle.

The aim of the course is to encourage students to consider how pre-existing cases can be related to a beloved series that many grew up reading and loving, encouraging them to engage with cases they might not otherwise be interested in.

Yasmin Filali

University of the West of England, Bristol: Only Candidate for Men’s Officer Steps Down

Student James Knight, the only candidate to run for Bristol UWE Men’s Officer, has quit the election following significant online harrassment.

Knight revealed that online ‘trolls’ had branded him a sexist and ‘woman hater’, leading to his step-down from the role. The student said that he had run for office because he wished to bring up awareness for men’s mental health, something he himself has suffered from in the past.

The National Union of Students commented, telling BBC News that although men’s mental health has come under focus the past years, women and transgender people are still affected most by gender-based oppression.

The Facebook campaign ‘InRonWeTrust’ claims that the role was created undemocratically and it was already voted down by the student’s union the former year. Knight agreed that there were also ‘valid’ criticisms against the description of the role, such as making the remit the same as the women and trans officer positions.

The university said it will be investigating the harassment, and had confirmed that Mr. Knight is no longer running for the office.

Laus D. Jørgensen

Clemson University, South Carolina: The Bass Drops at Frat Party, And so do the Students

Thirty people were recently injured at a South Carolina frat party, after the floor suddenly gave way amidst the students’ dancing.

Clemson University’s Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity were leasing The Clubhouse for their annual homecoming weekend party.

The house was reportedly packed, and the guests were dancing, when suddenly the centre part of the dance floor fell into the basement below, taking many partygoers down with it. Student Leroy Pearson said that, when he went to help, he saw that many of those who were injured appeared to have broken their arms or legs.

Larissa Stone, a sophomore at Clemson, recalled the scene: “So everyone was jumping. The beat was about to drop, and literally the whole floor collapsed. It happened so quickly.”

The police and ambulance arrived quickly on the scene and transported those injured to local hospitals. Although the property manager refused to comment on whether the party had exceeded the limit of people allowed in The Clubhouse, he did assure that none of the injuries sustained were life-threatening.

Nikita Zychowicz

Image: [Pixabay]