Under £20,000 a year for a job that requires a doctorate and full-time commitment

Under £20,000 a year for a job that requires a doctorate and full-time commitment. And this offer comes from Oxford. How does that strike you, siiiir?

New College, one of the most prosperous in Oxford, invites historians to take up a one-year post as something between a tutor and an adviser to undergraduates and graduate students. The annual pay is £19,743, plus £960 for books and research and £160 for publications.

Yes, for Oxford this is a routine arrangement, but it is simply insulting! It means that the opportunity of employment is closed to people of modest means. Those from wealthy families will certainly be able to afford to live on a stipend of less than £20,000 a year thanks to family capital; if you are not rich, you are invited merely to live in penury. Voilà: a job at a prestigious university becomes a question of class.

The funniest part is the note appended to the vacancy letter, stating that New College follows a policy of equal opportunities, ensures inclusivity and upholds a context of respect for rights and dignity

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Under £20,000 a year for a job that requires a doctorate and full-time commitment

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s