A study published in the journal BMC Medicine has shown that a larger number of patient transfers from lower risk hospitals may pose a greater absolute threat of spread than a small number of transfers from hospitals that have been identified as higher risk.

The researchers from the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit at the University of Oxford used data from the National Health Service of England Hospital Episode Statistics to examine the number of reported cases of the antibiotic resistant microbe carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) between 2008 and 2014.

The number of reported cases of CPE across all of England rose from 26 cases in 2008 to 1,649 in 2014. There were large regional differences in reported cases, which reflected patient movements between hospitals within each of the 14 referral regions across the country. However, the vast majority of patients with CPE came from within a hospital’s own region, and only 1.8% came from outside the region – even if hospitals outside the region were high risk.

Dr Tjibbe Donker of the Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, said: “Controlling the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria is a high priority for health care providers, which is why hospitals are advised to screen high-risk patients for antibiotic-resistant bacteria on admission. Patients are usually identified as high risk if they are being transferred from hospitals with known antibiotic resistance problems.

“Our study showed that the effect of the numbers of patients moving from hospital to hospital between and within regions was mostly more important than the effect caused by the difference in antibiotic resistance prevalence between the regions. This means that it would be more efficient for hospitals to focus on their own populations or region to control the spread rather than focusing on higher risk areas elsewhere.

“Performing regular point prevalence surveys would allow health care providers to actively track and share their antibiotic resistance prevalence numbers, even if they are relatively low. These numbers are critical to distinguish between the actual and perceived levels of risk.”

Responsibility for control and prevention of antibiotic resistant bacteria currently lies with individual healthcare institutions.

The full paper, ‘The relative importance of large problems far away versus small problems closer to home: insights into limiting the spread of antimicrobial resistance in England,’ can be read in the journal BMC Medicine.

On Wednesday 26 April 2017, Cassini became the first spacecraft to ever plunge between Saturn and its innermost rings. In doing so, it came closer to the planet than any probe before it. This historic manoeuvre marks the beginning of the end, for what has been a landmark space mission.

Led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the probe was first launched over twenty years ago. Since leaving Earth it has informed a new age of science, enabling unparalleled understanding of Saturn’s activity. Over the next five months the satellite will make a series of bold orbits around the planet (twenty-two in total), delivering valuable, high quality data. Before finally, burning into oblivion, as it runs out of fuel and crashes into Saturn’s atmosphere. The culmination of decades of work, the end of Cassini will be bittersweet for all involved, including the team of scientists at Oxford University and RAL Space in Didcot, who built some of the instrument’s most significant components.

The original Cassini mission launched in 1997 and the Department of Physics at Oxford University has been involved with the satellite’s creation from the start, with the team even attending the launch at Cape Canaveral. The joint US and European Cassini-Huygens mission is the most complex and ambitious unmanned space expedition in history. Cassini was the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, and has informed scientists’ understanding of its structure and atmospheric make-up, including the realisation that the planet has sixty two moons, twenty more than first thought.

Cassini/CIRS has been the bedrock of our scientific exploration of the solar system for the last 20 years and has come closer to Saturn than any probe before it. For some of us, who got married around the same time of the launch in 1997, the mission has particular personal resonance and we will thus be very, very sad to see it finally finish.

From a collective statement given by the Oxford University team involved in the Cassini mission to Saturn.

Scientists from Oxford provided significant components to one of the mission’s main instruments; the “Composite Infrared Spectrometer” or “CIRS”. The CIRS measures the heat emitted by a planet’s atmosphere or surface, and reveals the individual elements present in samples of minerals and gasses, revealing their chemical make-up.

The Cassini instrument was led overall by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, but here in Oxford, the team provided two critical structural elements; Firsty, the radiative cooler, which is the radiator that sits on the side of the spacecraft, cooling the CIRS infra-red detectors to -190C; and the mid-infrared focal plane assembly, which holds the infrared detectors and focuses the light from the instrument’s main telescope, a bit like the retina of the lens of an eye.

As the mission draws to a close (due to complete and self-destruct in September 2017), the technology has allowed the team to use CIRS data to analyse and observe the atmospheres of Saturn and its giant moon Titan. CIRS has been involved in some major discoveries, such as mapping the temperature variations on Saturn’s moons, and identifying the heat pouring out of Enceladus’ south polar region. It has also informed an understanding of the atmospheric variation and dynamic processes at play in Saturn’s atmosphere. (e.g. the north polar ‘hexagon’ in Saturn’s thermal structure, seasonal variations and mapping the development and chemistry of a giant stratospheric ‘beacon’ seen in 2010). It has also made great advances in understanding the complex organic chemistry and seasonal variations in the atmosphere of its giant moon Titan.

Led by Dr Simon Calcutt of Oxford’s Department of Atmospheric Physics, the team included;  Dr Patrick Irwin, Professor of Planetary Physics (who went on to lead the scientific analysis effort), Dr Neil Bowles, University Lecturer, and Dr Jane Hurley, previously a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Oxford, and now Project Manager at Science and Technology Facilities Council RAL Space.

Speaking on the mission’s imminent conclusion, the Oxford University Cassini team said: “Cassini/CIRS has been the bedrock of our scientific exploration of the solar system for the last 20 years and has come closer to Saturn than any probe before it. For some of us, who got married around the same time of the launch in 1997, the mission has particular personal resonance and we will thus be very, very sad to see it finally finish.

“The instrument has been an amazing success and worked pretty much flawlessly since arriving at Saturn in 2004.  The Oxford and RAL teams have a long history of supporting the operations of the instrument and spacecraft, including designing many of the observations of Saturn, Titan, and icy moons. The project has however not come without its challenges: the instrument is programmed using software here at Oxford, and commands are then sent on to Nasa, who up-link them to the spacecraft. This has sometimes been technically challenging, particularly keeping the glint from the planet’s rings or a moon out of the instrument’s line of sight. Ring-dodging was an occupational hazard that none of us imagined when starting to work on this! None the less we are all tremendously proud of the mission’s accomplishment, and to have played a part in such a monumental piece of planetary research.”

Researchers from Oxford University created the technique to test the effects of new or commonly used drugs on heart function, as well as exploring new ways to treat diabetes.

The new method involves flashing blue light onto the cell and watching how it responds by looking at it with a red light.

The technique involves inserting genes from blue-green algae and tropical coral into heart or pancreatic cells, which are created in the laboratory. The modified cells are introduced to a laser beam in a microscope, which the researchers named ‘the Death Star’, and the process is then filmed with a camera.

The laser beam turns the cells on and off, making them contract and relax to a fixed beat, which enables researchers to observe small changes that the drugs make in the way the cell responds.

For the past 60 years equivalent work has been conducted by capturing cells on a needle and then running an electric current through them.

Current experimental techniques are carried out on a cell by cell basis, which make them slow and inefficient, while the new method enables multiple cells to be used simultaneously. The new technique also enables cells to be controlled and observed remotely with light, rather than with direct contact.

Lead investigator, Dr Matthew Daniels from the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at Oxford, said: ‘This research works using a simple microscope and a virus and means we no longer need to touch the cell or the dish. This allows hundreds of cells to be studied at the same time – so we have made the process a lot more efficient, and a lot easier to do.

‘This will help us to identify drugs to treat diabetes and prevent sudden death, as we can detect helpful changes in pancreatic cells, and harmful changes in heart cells with this approach.

‘It is a lot quicker and easier to do, meaning that work that usually takes three months and millions of cells can be conducted in three days on a handful of cells.’

The full paper, ‘Non-invasive phenotyping and drug testing in single cardiomyocytes or beta-cells by calcium imaging and optogenetics’, can be read in the journal Plos One.

A technique that revolutionised scientists’ ability to manipulate and study materials at the nano-scale may have dramatic unintended consequences, new Oxford University research reveals.

Focused Ion Beam Milling (FIB) uses a tiny beam of highly energetic particles to cut and analyse materials smaller than one thousandth of a stand of human hair. This remarkable capability transformed scientific fields ranging from materials science and engineering to biology and earth sciences. FIB is now an essential tool for a number of applications including; microscopy, researching high performance alloys for aerospace engineering, nuclear and automotive applications and for prototyping in micro-electronics and micro-fluidics.

FIB was previously understood to cause structural damage within a thin surface layer (tens of atoms thick) of the material being cut. Until now it was assumed that the effects of FIB would not extend beyond this thin damaged layer. Ground-breaking new results from the University of Oxford demonstrate that this is not the case, and that FIB can in fact dramatically alter the material’s structural identity. This work was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from Argonne National Laboratory, USA, LaTrobe University, Australia, and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, UK.

In research newly published in the journal Scientific Reports, the team studied the damage caused by FIB using a technique called coherent synchrotron X-ray diffraction. This relies on ultra-bright high energy X-rays, available only at central facilities such as the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab, USA. These X-rays can probe the 3D structure of materials at the nano-scale. The results show that even very low FIB doses, previously thought negligible, have a dramatic effect.

Felix Hofmann, Associate Professor in Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science and lead author on the study, said, ‘Our research shows that FIB beams have much further-reaching consequences than first thought, and that the structural damage caused is considerable. It affects the entire sample, fundamentally changing the material. Given the role FIB has come to play in science and technology, there is an urgent need to develop new strategies to properly understand the effects of FIB damage and how it might be controlled.’

Prior to the development of FIB, sample preparation techniques were limited, only allowing sections to be prepared from the material bulk, but not from specific features. FIB transformed this field by making it possible to cut out tiny coupons from specific sites in a material. This progression enabled scientists to examine specific material feature using high-resolution electron microscopes. Furthermore it has made mechanical testing of tiny material specimens possible, a necessity for the study of dangerous or extremely precious materials.

Although keen for his peers to heed the serious consequence of FIB, Professor Hofmann said, ‘The scientific community has been aware of this issue for a while now, but no one (myself included) realised the scale of the problem. There is no way we could have known that FIB had such invasive side effects. The technique is integral to our work and has transformed our approach to prototyping and microscopy, completely changing the way we do science. It has become a central part of modern life.’

Moving forward, the team is keen to develop awareness of FIB damage. Furthermore, they will build on their current work to gain a better understanding of the damage formed and how it might be removed. Professor Hofmann said, ‘We’re learning how to get better. We have gone from using the technique blindly, to working out how we can actually see the distortions caused by FIB. Next we can consider approaches to mitigate FIB damage. Importantly the new X-ray techniques that we have developed will allow us to assess how effective these approaches are. From this information we can then start to formulate strategies for actively managing FIB damage.’

For further information please contact Lanisha Butterfield in the University of Oxford press office at Lanisha.butterfield@admin.ox.ac.uk or on+44 (0)1865 280531

They are Professor Desmond King who specialises in the study of the American state in US executive politics, and race and politics in American political development; and Dr Keith Stewart Thomson, emeritus professor of natural history and former director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at the University of Oxford.

Dr Keith Stewart Thomson, emeritus professor of natural history and former director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at the University of Oxford.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centres, convening leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to respond to national and global challenges.

Members contribute to Academy publications and studies in science, engineering, and technology policy; global security and international affairs; the humanities, arts, and education; and American institutions and the public good.

Don Randel, Chair of the Academy’s Board of Directors, said: ‘It is an honour to welcome this new class of exceptional women and men as part of our distinguished membership. Their talents and expertise will enrich the life of the Academy and strengthen our capacity to spread knowledge and understanding in service to the nation.’

‘In a tradition reaching back to the earliest days of our nation, the honour of election to the American Academy is also a call to service,’ said Academy President Jonathan F Fanton.

‘Through our projects, publications, and events, the Academy provides members with opportunities to make common cause and produce the useful knowledge for which the Academy’s 1780 charter calls.’

Professor Desmond King, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of American Government, Nuffield College

The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 7, 2017, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The full text of Professor Richardson’s letter reads:

Sir,

The Hungarian Government is proposing legislative changes which will prevent Budapest’s Central European University from awarding degrees accredited in both the US and Hungary. These changes would endanger the academic freedom vital for CEU’s continued operation in Budapest, and would strike a blow against the values that enable all universities to flourish.

In twenty-five years, Central European University has established itself as a private international university with a global reputation for excellence in teaching and research in the social sciences and humanities. It attracts students from 117 countries and faculty from 40. CEU’s masters and doctoral programmes are accredited by the Regents of the State of New York. The University as a whole is accredited by the US Middle States Commission on Higher Education. CEU’s programmes are also certified by appropriate Hungarian authorities. The university has complied in full with all Hungarian laws.

In a very short time, CEU has acquired global recognition among its peer universities around the world. In international rankings, some of CEU’s departments are rated among the top 50 in the world. It is the most successful institution in securing European Research Council grants in Central and Eastern Europe. Several of its faculty, in fields as various as medieval studies and network and cognitive science, have won the most prestigious awards in their disciplines.

CEU’s achievements have made it a valued member of the international academic community. Its presence in Hungary has added to the reputation of Hungarian academic life on the international stage. I believe that the government’s proposed legislation to alter its statutes of operation in Hungary would compromise its academic freedom, would abrogate prior agreements with and assurances from the Hungarian Government, and would set a dangerous precedent by curtailing the indispensable condition of academic freedom and independence.

As Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and a recently elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Central European University, I respectfully urge the Hungarian government to reconsider this proposed legislation. They should bear in mind the damage it would do not only to this admirable university but also to Hungary’s international academic reputation, and its long and proud tradition as a home for culture, the arts and intellectual achievement.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Louise Richardson

Vice-Chancellor, Oxford University

A new study published in Nature Medicine could change the lives of millions of people living with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) who don’t respond to the current standard of care.

Researchers at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and Translational Gastroenterology Unit, University of Oxford have identified a potential therapeutic target for IBD. The findings are of particular importance to the 40% of patients who don’t respond to anti-TNF therapy, the current treatment option available.

The new study published in Nature Medicine on 3 April 2017 shows that IBD patients have higher concentrations of Oncostatin M (OSM), a protein linked to inflammation, in their intestine and suggest that blocking OSM could prove to be a successful treatment for IBD.

The research also shows that patients with high amounts of OSM in their intestine respond poorly to anti-TNF therapy (such as adalimumab, golimumab, or infliximab), which has been the most effective therapy for IBD for almost 20 years. When tested against samples from a phase 3 trial of anti-TNF therapy, the amount of OSM in gut tissue predicted lack of response.

IBD are chronic painful diseases, which include conditions such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. IBD affect at least 5 million people worldwide and this number increases annually, especially in East Asia, although it is most common in Europe and North America.

Director of the Kennedy Institute and lead researcher on the study, Professor Fiona Powrie says: “This is a very important finding, because at the moment we are unable to predict which patients will respond well to current therapies; this has an impact on the care we are able to provide to these patients.”

She adds: “By understanding more about the immune system in IBD patients we hope to identify markers that allow us to predict which patients will respond to which therapies, ensuring treatments are targeted to those most likely to benefit.”

Genetics plays an important role in IBD, but so do molecules called cytokines that are made by the immune system and regulate the amount of inflammation. Several of these proteins have been considered as treatment targets for patients who don’t respond to anti-TNF therapy, but few have proved effective for treating IBD.

For this study, the research team searched for additional cytokines that could be promoting IBD. Patients were found to have more OSM cytokine in their intestine than healthy controls, with the highest concentrations of OSM predicting which patients would have a poor response to anti-TNF therapy.

This suggests that blocking OSM could prove a successful alternative treatment for IBD and work is underway to test this.

Anti-TNF therapy is expensive and some patients don’t respond well. A test to measure OSM could help target this therapy to patients most likely to benefit.

Professor Powrie said: “With around 2 million patients worldwide not responding to the current treatment, it is of paramount importance to find new therapies for IBD. The identification of OSM as a new disease mediator in these patients offers hope for new therapies that can be tested in the clinic.”

Professor Simon Travis, Professor of Clinical Gastroenterology at the University of Oxford and also a co-author confirmed this view: “This is really exciting. Until now no one has been able to predict who will or will not respond to anti-TNF therapy. OSM has real potential for selecting the right patient and also as a target for novel therapy to help patients suffering from IBD.”

It is worth noting that OSM is involved in a range of processes to maintain a healthy body, including liver repair and cardiac tissue remodelling. Unfortunately, its over production seems to promote a number of diseases, such as skin and lung inflammation, atherosclerosis, several forms of cancer and possibly arthritis.

For further information, please contact Chris McIntyre in the University of Oxford press office at christopher.mcintyre@admin.ox.ac.uk or on +44 (0)1865 270 046.

Karma lectures on social movements and philosophies of war and peace to students in the department of politics and international relations at the University of Oxford, where she is currently director of undergraduate studies. She is a Fellow in Politics at St Edmund Hall, and an Oxford UCU equalities officer, and a member of the staff BME network. She recently directed “The Palestinian Revolution”, a bilingual Arabic-English digital teaching resource exploring Palestinian revolutionary thought and practice in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Sponsored by the British Academy, the endeavour was a collaboration with universities, institutes and museums across the global south specialising in anti-colonial history.

This “Inspirational Leader” award  is for everyone at Oxford and universities across the UK: students, staff, and faculty, who are championing equality, curriculum diversity, and innovation in research and teaching on the global South every day

Professor Karma Nabulsi, winner of Inspiring Leader award

This award honours a leader who has brought out the best in their team and achieved exceptional results. They champion innovation and collaboration, deliver real change, and inspire the higher education community.

We look for examples of brilliance in all types of universities – and then we trumpet those successes to Guardian readers around the world

Judy Friedberg, Guardian universities editor

Of Karma, the judges said: ‘Without her patience, dedication and commitment the experiences of numerous students at Oxford and elsewhere would have been immeasurably poorer. She avoids all self-celebration, but it is hard to imagine a more worthy recipient.’

‘What is so fantastic is that, after being nominated by judges from the Higher Education sector, this award was chosen through a public vote,’ said Karma. ‘I know students’ participation was at the heart of this result and a real collective effort. So this “Inspirational Leader” award  is for everyone at Oxford and universities across the UK: students, staff, and faculty, who are championing equality, curriculum diversity, and innovation in research and teaching on the global South every day. This is such lovely encouragement!’

The Guardian’s universities editor, Judy Friedberg, said of the awards presented at Wednesday night’s ceremony: ‘We don’t judge all universities by the same clunky metrics. We look for examples of brilliance in all types of universities – and then we trumpet those successes to Guardian readers around the world.’

The new facility, known as the Joint Academic Data Science Endeavour (JADE), forms part of a combined investment of £20m by EPSRC in the UK’s regional Tier 2 high-performance computing facilities, which aim to bridge the gap between institutional and national resources.

JADE, which will be the largest Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) facility in the UK, will provide a computational hub to support the research of the world-leading groups in machine learning at the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, Sheffield, King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London and University College London (UCL). It will also provide a powerful resource for data science and molecular dynamics researchers at the universities of Bristol and Southampton.

Machine learning has experienced huge growth over the last five years, with applications including computer vision for driverless cars, language translation services and medical imaging. JADE is the first national computing facility to support this rapid growth.

Professor Mike Giles of the Scientific Computing department at the Oxford Mathematical Institute, who is leading the project, said: ‘For the first time, JADE will provide very significant national computing facilities addressing the particular needs of machine learning, one of the fastest growing areas of academic research and industrial application.’

JADE will be delivered through a partnership between Atos, who will provide and integrate the system hardware, and STFC’s Hartree Centre, who will host and support the system for the three-year initial duration of the facility. Exploiting the capabilities of the NVIDIA DGX-1 Deep Learning System, JADE will comprise 22 of these servers, each containing 8 of the newest NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPUs linked by NVIDIA’s NVlink interconnect technology.

 ‘For the first time, JADE will provide very significant national computing facilities addressing the particular needs of machine learning, one of the fastest growing areas of academic research and industrial application.’

Professor Mike Giles, Scientific Computing department at the Mathematical Institute, Oxford University

To support researchers using the system, five software engineering posts are being created by Oxford, KCL, QMUL, Southampton and UCL. This is a key investment to ensure the necessary expertise is in place to derive maximum benefit from the new facility.

Speaking on JADE’s potential research impact, Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s Chief Executive, said: ‘These centres will enable new discoveries, drive innovation and allow new insights into today’s scientific challenges. They are important because they address an existing gulf in capability between local university systems and the UK National Supercomputing Service ARCHER. Many universities are involved in the six new centres, and these will give more researchers easy access to High Performance Computing.’

Dr Prout is currently Director General of the Government’s High Speed 2 rail programme and has extensive experience of project management and policy-making in central and local government. As Pro-Vice-Chancellor he will lead Oxford’s institutional and strategic planning, as well as its resource allocation, to support the University’s mission as one of the world’s outstanding academic institutions. He will also oversee budgets for all Divisions and departments, with a combined annual expenditure totalling more than £1.3 billion.

Dr Prout’s responsibilities also include taking forward Oxford’s ambitious capital programme to enhance its research and teaching resources. He will guide the development of new academic buildings, the purchase of highly advanced equipment and the modernisation of existing facilities. Key projects will range from much-needed housing for graduates and staff to a new humanities building, new laboratories for interdisciplinary bioscience and continued expansion of facilities for innovation and commercial enterprise. His post also includes oversight of plans for University’s libraries and museums, and for the administrative service.

For Dr Prout, the role marks a return to the city where he grew up and later studied. His father, Prof CK Prout, was an inorganic chemist and Vice-Provost of Oriel College who was continuously associated with the University from when he came up at age 18 until his death at the age of 73. David Prout studied Modern History at Wadham College and went on to take a PhD in architectural history from the Courtauld Institute of Art.

In 2013 Dr Prout was asked to lead the Government’s £55 billion High Speed 2 programme. Phase 1 of HS2 from London to Birmingham received parliamentary approval in February and preparatory construction works are now under way.

Before taking on his role on the HS2 project, Dr Prout was a Director General at the Department for Communities and Local Government, responsible for all aspects of local government policy. Prior to that he worked at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as Executive Director with responsibility for planning and regeneration. He worked on housing estate regeneration and in particular on the deal to relocate the Design Museum to the old Commonwealth Institute in Kensington High Street – a project that was completed last year. He has held a range of other high profile civil service positions including Principal Private Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister.

Dr Prout said: “I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and working with the academic community, colleges and University Administration Services to help make the best university in the world even better. The next few years will be tough, but by working together – and in particular with central government and the City Council – we can come through them stronger and better equipped to pursue the University’s brilliant academic mission.”

Professor Louise Richardson, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: “I am delighted to have found in David Prout someone with a rare combination of success in the delivery of complex projects, experience working at local and national level, and a deep personal affinity with Oxford.”

Dr Prout will be building on the substantial achievements of Professor William James, who has overseen considerable growth and development during a challenging funding period for the University.

As Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Planning and Resources, Professor James has overseen major new developments in the University’s science park, in its medical facilities and the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, including the Blavatnik School of Government. He will continue his research and teaching work at the Medical Sciences Division as Professor of Virology, with a particular research interest in preventing the replication of the HIV-1 virus.

Dr Prout is due to take up the position in September 2017.

In their article, Associate Professor Abigail Adams, from the Oxford Department of Economics, and Associate Professor Jeremias Prassl, from the Oxford Faculty of Law, argue that the 2013 Order introducing Employment Tribunal Fees is a ‘clear violation’ of long-established UK and EU law, as the cost of bringing a claim now outweighs the benefit of a potential win for many claimants. They describe the government’s introduction of the measures as ‘disproportionate’, especially when seen in the light of the government’s own policy goals.

Since 2013, fees of up to £1,200 (more than a month’s salary on the minimum wage) have been charged to bring a claim before the employment tribunals. The article notes that the effects of this reform have been ‘dramatic’ as within a year, claims dropped by over 70 per cent and have not recovered since. Dr Adams and Dr Prassl analyse official government data on claimant behaviour, including detailed records of award size and costs incurred. They find that up to half of workers with a high chance of winning if they pursued the case would expect to lose money. This helps explain why claims for relatively low amounts of money, such as those typically brought by low-income, zero-hours workers, have been hit especially hard by the policy, says the article.

With fees ranging from £390 to £1200, it does not make economic sense for many claimants to enforce their rights…fee levels should be reduced in line with the value of the claims

Dr Abigail Adams from the Department of Economics

Dr Prassl says: ‘The Employment Tribunal fees are a clear denial of access to the courts, which has been a cornerstone of our justice system since Magna Carta. The conclusions of the Prime Minister’s Taylor Review into Employment Rights will be meaningless without a credible way for workers to week justice.’

Dr Adams comments: ‘The average award for some employment claims, such as unauthorised deduction from wages, is as low as £600. With fees ranging from £390 to £1200, it does not make economic sense for many claimants to enforce their rights.’

The new fee regime was designed to lower tribunal costs, encourage early settlement, and deter vexatious claims said to waste employers’ resources. The Oxford academics found that the changes may be having the opposite effect. For example, unscrupulous employers are no longer willing to settle cases, knowing that in many instances it won’t be rational for workers to bring a claim. Based on their findings, they believe that the few genuinely vexatious litigants in the system are likely to the least deterred by the prospect of fees.

The academics conclude that if recent concerns about workers’ rights, from the Uber case and Sports Direct to the Prime Minister’s Taylor Review, are to change anything in practice, the tribunal fees regime must be struck down, repealed, or significantly revised.

‘Suffice it to say, at the very least, that fee levels should be reduced in line with the value of the claims, and greater scrutiny needs to be given to the timing of fee payments,’ Dr Adams concludes.

The article notes that the judicial review proceedings that followed the introduction of the new fees upheld the Fees Order because litigants could not show that any one claimant had been unable as opposed to unwilling to pay the fees.
Dr Prassl argues: ‘The lower courts’ approach was inappropriately narrow in its interpretation of English and European law: a right without a remedy is of little value.’

The academics say that the measures should have been scrutinised to see whether the introduction of fees violated the very essence of the right of access to a court or tribunal, and whether the measures were a proportionate way of achieving the government’s stated aims.

Academic tutors, admissions staff and current students from the two universities will be on hand at seven locations across the UK, armed with the latest advice on courses, the application process and student life.

The conferences begin tomorrow in Edinburgh before taking in Merseyside, Newcastle, Surrey, Lisburn, Birmingham and Swansea in a roadshow designed to give students and teachers the most up-to-date information on life at two of the UK’s leading universities.

The conferences are free to attend and are aimed at students who have already completed GCSE exams or equivalent and are now undertaking further study.

Full details of the conferences and information on how to book your place can be found here.

Emma Hogg, a second-year Biomedical Sciences student at Oxford, will be helping out at the conference in Birmingham. She said: ‘The student conferences make Oxford and Cambridge accessible to everyone and are a great way to learn about the universities without having to travel very far at all. I attended the Birmingham conference while at school, which helped me decide to apply to Oxford to do Biomedical Sciences. I’m so glad I did.

‘I was initially a bit worried about applying to Oxford, because I’d heard a lot of myths and wasn’t sure if I would fit in. However, I’m now half way through my course and could not imagine being happier anywhere else. Studying at Oxford has helped me to develop both academically and personally.’

Harry Rawcliffe, a second-year Philosophy, Politics and Economics student at Oxford, added: ‘The north-west Oxford and Cambridge Student Conference in 2014 was the first event I went to when I was considering applying to study at Oxford or Cambridge. At that point it seemed very much a pipe dream for me – I had good grades and some of my teachers had encouraged me to think about it, but the whole thing seemed very much out of reach for me. This frame of mind quickly faded away when I got to the conference. What I soon discovered, to my own surprise, was just how “normal” the Oxford and Cambridge students at the conference were.

‘Applying to study at Oxford was without a doubt the best choice I have ever made, and I am taking part in this year’s Student Conferences as a student ambassador to show future Oxford and Cambridge students that I am what an Oxbridge student looks like.’

Dr Samina Khan, Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach at Oxford University, said: ‘Oxford and Cambridge recruit students from across the UK, and we are well aware that the potential to be an excellent student is not restricted to those from a particular background. Holding conferences across the UK is just one demonstration of our commitment to working with schools and teachers in every nation to seek out academically talented students and encourage them to find out more about what’s available to them.’

Dr Sam Lucy, Director of Admissions for the Cambridge colleges, said: ‘There are so many brilliant students across the country, and we want to meet as many of them as possible. These conferences help us to find students with great academic potential and passion for their subject, and encourage them to think about applying to Cambridge and Oxford. Meeting current students who went to school here and getting friendly advice from staff really help participants to make informed decisions and boost their confidence.’

University launches Mindgrowing campaign to reveal the unique discoveries that can be found at its amazing sites mindgrowing.org

The University of Oxford has launched an exciting campaign to encourage tourists and visitors to Oxford to discover its incredible cultural attractions. The University has some of the finest collections in the world, located in historic venues which are just a short stroll from one another – the Ashmolean Museum, Museum of Natural History, Pitt Rivers Museum, Museum of the History of Science, Bodleian Libraries and Botanic Garden. Entry to most sites is free of charge.

Oxford University’s museums, libraries and gardens offer an experience which is not only enjoyable and memorable, but enables visitors to tap into centuries of knowledge and scholarship at the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

The University’s new campaign celebrates the ‘mindgrowing’ nature of its museums, libraries and gardens – encouraging visitors to expand their minds and go on a journey of discovery through culture, science and natural history. Marvel at a fragment of a 4.55 billion-year-old meteorite at the Museum of Natural History and see how its outer crust is smooth and dark where it melted as it fell through the atmosphere. Study the blackboard used in 1931 in a lecture given by Albert Einstein – now preserved at the Museum of the History of Science – whose equations connect the age, size and density of the universe. Examine a Bronze Age Celtic war trumpet at the Pitt Rivers Museum, whose deep low notes could strike fear into enemies’ hearts. And feast your eyes on modern masterpieces and Anglo-Saxon treasures at the Ashmolean, such as the Crondall Hoard which includes the first coins produced in Britain after the departure of the Romans two centuries before.

The advertising campaign targets tourists and day visitors to Oxford, inviting them to spend a few hours or a full day discovering these attractions and exploring the beautiful city of Oxford by roaming from site to site.

Local residents are also encouraged to rediscover these amazing attractions on their doorstep. With most sites offering free entry and a huge range of events, they are the perfect destination for families and visitors of all ages, especially at half term.

‘This is the first time the University has launched a campaign to promote all its cultural attractions at once,’ said Dr Silke Ackermann, Director of the Museum of the History of Science. ‘We want visitors to explore and enjoy these unique sites and their eclectic collections; they really are a must-see on any visit to Oxford. The University’s museums, gardens and libraries have contributed to scholarship and inspired learning for centuries and are places where visitors, too, can grow their minds.’

The ‘Mindgrowing’ advertising campaign consists of outdoor and print advertising as well as online advertising and social media. The bright green posters – featuring illustrations of dinosaurs, books and Roman busts – can be seen across Oxford, from Park & Rides to the rail station, as well as in Marylebone and Paddington stations and the London underground. A free map showing the location of each site – together with suggestions for 2-hour, 4-hour and full-day visits – can be picked up in venues across Oxfordshire and at all seven sites.

The advertising, which uses quirky illustrations and witty headlines, encourages visitors to ‘Book a Day Out’, ‘Find Time’ and ‘Roam Rome’. The illustrations also feature on a range of merchandise, including pencils and tote bags, which can be purchased in the on-site shops.

The campaign, which runs from 30 January to 5 May, was developed by London-based creative agency Lovers working with creative consultants Jane Wentworth Associates. www.mindgrowing.org

For further information or images, please contact: Matt Pickles, Media Relations Manager, University of Oxford News Office matt.pickles@admin.ox.ac.uk , Tel: +44 (0)1865 280532,  www.ox.ac.uk

Backed by over £100 million of investment, the RFI will be a national centre of excellence in technology development and innovation. Physical scientists, engineers and life scientists will work together to develop new techniques and instrumentation and apply them to key challenges in the health and life sciences – leading to improved understanding of disease, faster discovery of new treatments for chronic conditions that affect millions of people worldwide, new jobs, and long-term economic growth.

Managed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the facility will focus initially on the development of next-generation imaging methods (including techniques that will allow dynamic, real-time imaging of molecular processes or chemical reactions – the microscopy equivalent of a shift from a photograph to a video) and on new chemical methods and strategies for drug discovery.

The RFI will draw on expertise from across the UK. Its central hub will be based at Harwell in Oxfordshire, with linked sites at partner universities including Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, Imperial College, King’s College London, and University College London.

The development of the RFI has been led by Professor Ian Walmsley, Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Oxford. Speaking on the Institute’s key purpose and the University’s role in its creation, he said: ‘This is a new joint venture between some of the UK’s leading universities and key partners in industry and Research Councils.

‘The aim is to speed up the applications of cutting edge physical science insights, methods and techniques into life sciences by providing an interface between research programmes at the forefront of these areas, co-located at the Hub and connected, dynamically, to the wider UK research base.

‘We anticipate innovative new businesses will grow from this effort over time, as the Institute will engage with a range of key industries from its inception. The collaborative structure allows the RFI to make the most of interactions and draw on a wide range of existing research excellence from across the UK.’

The Institute is named after Rosalind Franklin, the pioneering scientist whose work on the use of X-rays to study biological structures played a crucial role in the discovery of the structure of DNA, the famous ‘double helix’.

Professor Dame Carol Robinson, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Oxford, who is leading the RFI’s biological mass spectrometry theme and is, herself, a previous recipient of the Royal Society’s Rosalind Franklin Award (2004), said: ‘It is fitting that this new Institute bears Rosalind Franklin’s name. She achieved so much in a relatively short life and without her work many of the advances that have taken place since would not have come about. Work in the Institute will include development of the next-generation of physical tools including mass spectrometry, instruments for X-ray science and for advanced microscopy – fields directly descended from her research interests.’

Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, and a key architect of the RFI vision, said: ‘The Life Sciences sector is widely recognised as a key part of the UK economy, employing over 220,000 people and contributing to our health and wellbeing. Less well known is that many of the key life sciences breakthroughs – from unravelling the structure of DNA to MRI scanning and sequencing of the human genome – were only possible due to earlier innovations in the physical sciences and engineering. By supporting collaboration, the RFI will help to underpin and accelerate the next wave of physical sciences innovation and its application to health and life sciences – and keep the UK at the forefront of research.’

The RFI will contribute directly to the delivery of the EPSRC’s ‘Healthy Nation’ prosperity outcome, its Healthcare Technologies programme, and to the Technology Touching Life initiative, which spans three research councils (BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC) and seeks to foster interdisciplinary technology development research across the engineering, physical and life sciences.

Speaking on the value and long-term potential of the RFI, Chair of the Research Councils and EPSRC Chief Executive, Professor Philip Nelson said; ‘The UK is currently in a world leading position when it comes to developing new medical treatments and technologies in the life sciences. However, other countries are alive to the potential and are already investing heavily. The Rosalind Franklin Institute will help secure the country as one of the best places in the world to research, discover, and innovate.’