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Student Gateway

Issue 2 - Hilary Term 2013

Welcome to the latest issue of Student News, containing a roundup of information on news and events from the University. Check out the Student Gateway or follow us on Twitter for up-to-the minute information.

Latest news

Events

Latest news

Student Gateway survey

The Student Gateway website provides a single point of access to information, services and resources for current students. To ensure the website remains an effective means of student communication a project is currently taking place to refresh its design and structure. A short online survey is available that will take no longer than 5 minutes. Your response will help to improve the website’s navigation and structure.
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Hilary Term 2013 Mock Exams and Exam Orientation

The Exam Schools will be holding two mock exam sessions in Week 6 of Hilary Term as follows:

  • Thursday 21 February: 14:30-17:30 – Mock Exam 1
  • Friday 22 February: 09:30-12:30 – Mock Exam 2

Each session will be a fully invigilated 3-hour examination, designed to mirror true examinations as much as possible and will be followed by a question and answer session. The sessions are designed to be as real as possible to allow you to experience the atmosphere and the emotions of sitting an exam, with the hope that it will better prepare you for the real thing.

In addition, a 30-minute exam orientation session as follows:

  • Thursday 21 February: 14:30-15:00

This is aimed at those interested in experiencing what happens during the first half hour of the examination only, such as finding your exam room location on arrival, listening to the pre-exam announcements and checking your sub-fusc with invigilators. You will have an opportunity to ask questions after the invigilators announcement in the exam room.

Please ensure you sign-up to the session/s you wish to attend via the Mock Exam WebLearn site and read the Information Sheet available before you attend the session. If you have not signed up to previous mock exams you must join this site to be able to sign-up, by clicking the 'Site Info' link, then the [Join this site] button. If you are no longer able to attend nearer the date, please cancel your booking.

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Oxford University Society Networks Bursary Awards

A number of regional alumni groups in the UK make awards to students from their area currently studying at Oxford. The following are available:

  • The Cornwall Branch has established a Bursary Fund to assist undergraduates who are in their second year with bursaries of £250, or more in exceptional circumstances, to carry out worthwhile projects during the long vacation in 2013.
  • The Dorset branch is offering one travel bursary of £350 to a deserving Dorset based undergraduate in connection with a 2013 Summer Vacation project.
  • The Hertfordshire Branch has one or more bursaries of up to £300 to provide part funding for projects involving travel, either overseas or in the UK.
  • The East Kent branch wishes to make several grants of up to £750 to deserving students from East Kent to assist in summer activities relevant to their degree courses.
  • The West Sussex branch is offering a bursary to students of up to £300 for a worthwhile summer project connected with their degree course.

For more information on the awards above visit the Alumni website.

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Keep informed with Oxford Talks

The Oxford Talks website attempts to solve the problem of finding out what’s going on across a multi-divisional collegiate University. The site acts as a one-stop shop for all academic seminars, regardless of subject or degree of specialisation; you can search by date, talk, series, speaker or venue. Seminars are organised into lists and groupings and you can tell Oxford Talks what you are interested in, so if you find a list you want to follow, you can receive daily/weekly emails or have just those seminars appear in your calendar.
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Are you a finalist? National Student Survey 2013

The 2013 National Student Survey has been open for the past two weeks for all eligible finalists and is currently recording a 23% response rate among Oxford students. Ipsos MORI will have emailed you with details of filling in the NSS if you are eligible. The NSS helps the University to make the changes you want to see, and the results and improvements we made based on last year’s survey can be viewed on the Student Gateway. If more than 50% of Oxford students respond, our results will also be published on the Unistats website used by applicants thinking of applying to Oxford. It only takes 5 minutes to complete the NSS, so visit www.thestudentsurvey.com and take part: your response can make a real difference.
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Oxford Students invited to partake In Irish “Junior Nobel Prize”

Final and penultimate year undergraduates are invited to submit their coursework to the Undergraduate Awards (UA), an Irish academic awards programme that has been cited as the Irish “Junior Nobel Prize”. Oxford student, Fay Niker, was named as a highly commended entrant in the 2012 Undergraduate Awards. The awards represent a range of academic disciplines, and receive backing from government and corporate partners, including Google, KPMG and Digicel.

In November of this year, the nominees for the 2013 Undergraduate Awards will be invited to Dublin to attend the UA Summit – a three-day pop-up incubation centre comprised of networking events, fireside chats and hands-on workshops. Coined as “a Davos for students”, the unique student conference provides a collision point for the brightest undergraduate minds, leading researchers and entrepreneurs to collaborate, share ideas and build relationships. The winning students will be awarded by the patron of the awards programme, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, at the Undergraduate Awards Ceremony, which will form part of the UA Summit. Interested students can register or submit their coursework on the Undergraduate Awards website before Friday 24 May 2013.

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Events

Val McDermid - 2013 LGBT History Month Lecture

Wednesday 6 February 6pm, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda's College, Cowley Place, Oxford, OX4 1DY. Val McDermid (Best-selling crime writer and alumna of St. Hilda’s College) will return to Oxford to give the annual Oxford University Lecture for LGBT History Month. The lecture titled “A Queer-Like Smell”, in reference to her home town of Kirkcaldy and a poem by fellow Fife-er, Mary Campbell Smith, will touch upon themes of growing up gay in a world of silence and how finding her voice as a writer was tied inextricably to finding her gay self. For more information see the Val McDermid poster. This is a free event but booking is essential at http://tinyurl.com/oxlgbt.
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Staying in the UK to work

Monday 25 February 12-1pm, Careers Service, 56 Banbury Road. The Visa and Immigration Advisers will be giving a presentation for students wishing to remain in the UK to work. More information is available on the Careers Service website.
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Oxford Student Mindfulness Society

Mindfulness meditation is a well researched, non-religious, effective means of alleviating stress, anxiety and depression, and promoting well-being and top performance. The following sessions are available:

Monday, 5th week (11 Feb) – beginners taster session, run by Chris Cullen from the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, an international centre of excellence within Oxford University’s Psychiatry Department. Time and venue will be confirmed via the OSMS facebook page and mail list. Please subscribe by emailing oxfordstudentmindfulnesssoc@gmail.com.

Regular Monday group - open to those who have been to a taster session, done a mindfulness course, or have a longstanding meditation practice from another background. Mondays, 7:00-8.15pm, Sainsbury Common Room, Worcester College. £3.50 per session.

8 week beginners courses – to receive notification of Trinity term’s courses, email OUmindfulnesscourses@gmail.com.

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