Latest news with #BalliolCollege
India Today
11-08-2025
- General
- India Today
Assamese girl becomes first from state to earn Oxford degree in Sanskrit, Classical Hindi
An Assamese girl, Arani S Hazarika, 21, has become the first Assamese to graduate in Sanskrit and Classical Hindi from Oxford University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree on August 9 at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford's ceremonial studied at Balliol College under the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern programme combined Sanskrit with Classical Hindi, covering linguistic structure, literature, and historical texts. University records, according to her family, indicate that she is also the first Assamese student to earn a BA in Sanskrit from Oxford. Her father, Partha Pratim Hazarika, a senior journalist based in Guwahati, confirmed the milestone. 'As per available records, this is the first time an Assamese has graduated in Sanskrit from Oxford,' he CLASS 12 TO OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP AND SPECIALISATION IN SANSKRITArani's path to Oxford began soon after her Class 12 board examinations. The university offered her a place in its BA Sanskrit programme and awarded her the Simon and June Li Undergraduate Scholarship, which supports high-achieving students from underrepresented backgrounds. She joined the course in October her degree, Hazarika focused her dissertation on the standardisation of a 15th-century Sanchi manuscript of the Dakshinpat Satra in Majuli, a key Vaishnavite monastery in work involved detailed study of the manuscript's linguistic features, orthography, and preservation academic performance has earned her an offer to continue at Oxford for a Master's degree in the same field. She is expected to begin her MA at Balliol College under the same department later this ASSAMESE HERITAGE WITH GLOBAL ACADEMIC CIRCLESArani's achievement marks a rare combination of regional heritage and global academic recognition. Sanskrit, though an ancient language, continues to be studied in international universities as part of wider research in linguistics, philosophy, and classical Sanskrit programme has trained scholars from across the world, but Hazarika's enrolment and graduation bring Assam into that Assam's academic community, the milestone is likely to encourage more students to consider niche subjects and pursue them at leading global institutions. It also draws attention to the scope for research on Assamese cultural and literary history in international progression from undergraduate to postgraduate study at Oxford adds another chapter to the story. For now, her graduation sets a benchmark for aspiring students from the state and the Northeast who aim to blend local scholarship with global platforms.(WITH INPUTS FROM PTI)- Ends
Deccan Herald
10-08-2025
- General
- Deccan Herald
Guwahati girl becomes 'first Assamese' to graduate in Sanskrit, Classical Hindi from Oxford
The 21-year-old Assamese girl pursued her BA in Sanskrit and Classical Hindi at the university's Balliol College under the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, the statement added.
Otago Daily Times
09-07-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
PhD at Oxford hits close to home
Few 23-year-olds sit around stewing about the effects of dementia and the likelihood that it will one day affect them. But it is something that occupies a lot of Ronan McNeill's mind. "I've had four family members in the past 10 years who have passed away with various different dementias. "Unfortunately, it's quite prominent in my family. "There's a strong genetic link through many different age disorders, and various dementias aren't an exception of that." The University of Otago neuroscience, psychology and computer science graduate said seeing his elders "drift away" with dementia was difficult to watch, and he now fears he will have to see it again in his grandmother and his mother in the not-too-distant future. "In some forms of dementia, the decline is very rapid. "In others, it's a long drawn-out process, and I saw that in the wisest leaders of my childhood, where they lost their autonomy, their independence. "And to see them drift away to the point where they don't recognise you any more, it was quite sad. "For me, it's my mother and my grandmother — the two central figures in my life who've raised me — that I'm really worried about. They could go down a similar path in the future." While the process was tough, it had also been "formative" and he was now headed for Balliol College at Oxford University, England, to develop advanced neuroimaging tools that could improve clinical monitoring, early detection and the effective treatment of dementia, he said. The research will be part of his PhD at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. "In my opinion, this is one of the leading challenges that the world's going to be facing within the next century, and families all around the world are facing this problem." His research would focus on microglial cells — the primary immune cells of the central nervous system. They play a crucial role in maintaining brain health and responding to injury or disease. In a healthy brain, they contribute to homeostasis, synapse pruning and neuronal support. However, they can also become activated in response to various stimuli, leading to neuroinflammation which contributes to the progression of neurological disorders. "Microglial cells are quite unique in the brain, because they have an ability to migrate towards damage or pathogens. "If we can find a way to use various different types of MRI scans to recognise the fingerprints of these microglial cells, we may be able to identify a person that has early signs of dementia." His research at Oxford was expected to last up to four years, and was paid for with support from two Universities New Zealand scholarships — the William Georgetti Scholarship and the LB Wood Scholarship. Not surprisingly, his strong connection to family means he will return to Dunedin once he has finished. "That's a major drive for why I'm doing this research and wanting to undertake this experience and opportunity for growth. "I'm looking forward to coming back home and sharing what I've learned with the next generation of New Zealand leaders in this field."
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Bleary eyed students head home after Oxford University's prestigious £165-a-ticket Balliol College May Ball
Bleary-eyed Oxford University students were pictured making their way home from a May Ball in the early hours of this morning. Revellers donned ball gowns and bow ties as they ambled through the town's historic streets following the Star Crossed Lovers themed event at Balliol College. The night ran from 8pm until 4am when those who stayed to the end had a 'survivor's photo' before making their way home. One trio of stragglers were seen munching on sandwiches as they tried to refuel themselves for the journey back. Meanwhile, another group, including a man holding a croquet mallet, wheeled a wagon carrying crates of unused beer down the road. Others clutched their shoes as they tried to give their tired feet a rest while one woman hitched a ride on a friend's shoulders. Some chose to cycle home, with one cheerful pair beaming and waving at the camera as they pedaled away. Early on Saturday evening excited students wearing masquerade masks lined up along Broad Street in the city centre as they waited for the doors to open. The night's headliner was early 2000's band, Toploader known for hits like 'Dancing in the Moonlight'. Revellers donned ball gowns and bow ties as they ambled through the town's historic streets following the Star Crossed Lovers themed event at Balliol College. One trio of stragglers were pictured munching on sandwiches as they tried to refuel themselves for the journey back The lavish event boasted a silent disco, dancers and even a rave room pumping out techno into the surrounding streets. Drone footage captured what was happening behind the prestigious university's walls and showed the different stages and areas of the ball. In one aerial image the campus resembles a festival - with colorful strobes lighting up the courtyards. The sold out Balliol Ball had tickets that included food, drink and various games and music acts were available for Alumni students for £165. The college, which is the oldest in the city and founded in 1263, was where Boris Johnson and Rory Stewart studied. Various other Oxford Colleges also had their balls on the same evening, including Lady Margaret Hall where attendees were also seen making their way home at 5am. In recent months, some colleges from Cambridge have shunned the traditional May Ball for lesser garden parties or discos as prices spiraled and left many students unable to afford tickets. In February Robinson College announced it was going to scrap the extravagant bash - in favour of hosting a 'more accessible and inclusive' event instead. With entry to the previously annual Ball setting students back as much as £270, the institute opted for an 'alternative' event which it hopes will have more appeal. Early on Saturday evening excited students wearing masquerade masks lined up along Broad Street in the city centre as they waited for the doors to open The sold out Balliol Ball had tickets that included food, drink and various games and music acts available for Alumni students for £165 The night's headliner was early 2000's band, Toploader known for hits like 'Dancing in the Moonlight' Robinson College, which is Cambridge's newest college having been founded in 1977, will now hold a 'mega bop' in June in place of the May Ball. This new event will retain the original Ball's 'film noir' theme, but will see tickets made available to all Cambridge University undergraduates at much cheaper prices. It is believed that the May Ball has struggled in recent years to attract Cambridge students, with the lofty £270 ticket prices turning off many young people as they endure increased living costs. Ticket sales were in fact so poor in 2019 that the event was cancelled altogether. A statement on the Robinson May Ball committee's social media said that the decision had been made to cancel this year's event to 'ensure as many students as possible' can enjoy the college's new 'mega bop'.
Telegraph
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Robert Peston: ‘Liz Truss looked broken when I told her she'd trashed the Tories'
Born in 1960, Robert Peston read philosopy, politics and economics at Balliol College, Oxford, and began his career as a stockbroker in the City, before shifting direction to journalism. After spells at The Independent, the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph, he became the BBC's business editor in 2005, and broke multiple scoops during the 2007 and 2008 financial crisis. After two years as economics editor, he left the BBC in 2015 to become ITV's political editor, launching his show Peston on Sunday – later renamed simply Peston – in 2016. He has one son, Max, with his late wife, Siân, who died in 2012, and is in a long-term relationship with Guardian journalist Charlotte Edwardes. Best childhood memory? We always did Passover with my grandparents, Joe and Rose, my great-aunt and uncle and sometimes their grandchildren. It was always a big, bustling, chaotic meal, partly because my dad, who died in 2016, was an arch rationalist and thought all religion was hocus-pocus. He never rejected his Jewish heritage, though, so there was always this slight sense of tension at Jewish, semi-religious events. It was one of those occasions where the whole family felt unified and came together, and every single year horrifically undrinkable red wine got spilt over my grandmother's pristine white tablecloth. And the great thing about our kind of chaotic Judaism is that although traditional Passover meals can go on for hours before you eat anything, we always rushed through the religious stuff straight into my grandmother's rather extraordinary chopped liver and roast chicken. Best day of your life? I know it's a cliché, but it would have to be the day my son, Max, was born. There are certain events in your life that are imprinted on your memory in an astonishingly indelible way. He was born at the Royal Free Hospital in London, and my late wife hadn't found either of her pregnancies easy [she also had a son from a previous relationship], and the day that he was born, I just felt an overwhelming sense of happiness. Best political interview? Looking back, it feels more like an event than an interview, but during the day that Liz Truss sacked her chancellor, she did a press conference, and I was the last person to ask a question. I said, 'You've trashed the Conservative Party 's arguably only asset, which is its reputation for financial and economic competence. Do you want to apologise?' It was a really painful moment because she just froze and I actually thought she was going to burst into tears – it was one of those moments that I just thought, 'Oh my God, I've gone too far,' as in the end, even though it's my job to hold people to account, one is not immune to people's humanity. Whatever one thinks about her performance as prime minister, she just looked utterly broken. She did her normal thing of not apologising and sidestepped the question, then she just walked off the stage. It was the shortest press conference ever. It felt like a very big and dramatic moment. Best personality trait? That I don't give up. The thing that's always driven me is getting scoops, and I've written about that addiction to getting scoops in both my thrillers, The Whistle Blower and The Crash. You've got to have a curious mind about what's going on in the world that might interest people, but also you have to keep going. If you get knocked back, you've got to pick yourself up and carry on and be persistent. And that's what I do; I just keep going. Best thing about OCD and ADHD? I had quite serious obsessive-compulsive disorder as a teenager and although I've never been formally diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, I've self-diagnosed myself with it, but the one great advantage it does give me is the ability to hyper-focus. If I've got a project that I really care about, for example writing a book or finishing an investigation, I can focus on it and screen out pretty much every bit of noise, which is very helpful professionally but incredibly frustrating for family and friends who care about me, because they can struggle to get in. Best decision? Moving away from print journalism into broadcasting is certainly the most important career decision I've made. When the job as business editor at the BBC came up immediately before the financial crisis, because I'd been City editor at The Sunday Telegraph and I had a good understanding of banks and financial markets from my earlier career, I was in good position to get lots of scoops about it and I immediately became a much more visible and, I suppose, much more famous journalist and broadcaster than I might have been if I'd taken that job in quieter times. So it was a very lucky break, and I could never have known that it would transform my life quite as much as it did. Best advice you've ever received? My dad was obsessed with the concept of there being no point crying over spilt milk. You just move on. In economics that's an important concept, where if something's failing and you decide to change direction there's no point worrying about that sunk cost. That spilt milk. You have to consider what the additional costs might be. More importantly, it's an incredibly important concept for life. We all make mistakes, and we have a temptation – and I know I do this – that when we've made mistakes, we learn from it, you try not to do it again, but at that point you regard it as spilt milk, but you write it off and then you get on with your life. Worst childhood memory? The only thing that does quietly haunt me – and my sister, Juliet, says she doesn't remember this – but I was the older brother, and I was very mean to her a lot. I remember teasing her in a really horrible way and it fills me with absolute horror. It still fills me with a sense of shame. I've repeatedly apologised to her, and she says she can't remember, which is great, so I suppose I'm torturing myself for no reason, which is the story of my life. I spend my life torturing myself. Worst moment of your life? Being with my late wife, Siân, as she died. She was only 51 at the time. She didn't want to die. At that time, I was sleeping on the floor of the hospice that she was in, just holding her hand while she died. Frankly it was pretty awful. Worst television experience? There are endless examples, but two stand up as particularly terrible. First, when my show was on a Sunday morning, we had Miriam Margolyes on and she got quite heated and turned to me and said there was something she wanted to say about a particular person, and my producer in my ear shouted, 'Whatever you do, don't let her say what she's thinking,' and I misheard and said, 'Say whatever you want,' then at 10 in the morning on a Sunday she used the C-word very loudly and we had to spend the rest of the programme apologising. And I know it's a bit of a cliché, but I did the Jeremy Hunt mispronunciation too – I think every broadcaster has at some point – and on election night recently, I misidentified the former Conservative minister Gillian Keegan as the actress Gillian Anderson at 3am; fortunately she took it very well. Worst thing anyone has said about you? I'm pretty thick-skinned, actually. I care about what the people I care about say and think about me, but you can't do what I do if you take the barrage of noise that comes your way on social media and be affected by it. I'm pretty prominent on social media and to stay relatively sane you can't get upset by the vicious things people say. I just screen it out, as you become a lightning rod for people's anger – and their anger is normally about other things in their lives but they've decided they're going to crystallise it by saying something disgusting and hurtful about you. It's impossible to do what I do if you don't have a pretty rhino-like hide. Worst personality trait? Hyper focus is a double-edged sword. My ability to screen out things and people enables me to be incredibly productive, but I can be not attuned enough and sensitive enough to the needs of the people I care about. Historically I have definitely lived my life in different compartments, so the thing I've been trying to do is break down those psychological walls so that even if I am engaged in some kind of work project, I'm still hearing and listening to those whom I care about when they need me. Am I succeeding? Look, it's a work in progress. That's for others to judge, but I recognise it's something I need to do. Worst decision you've ever made? I've made tons of dumb relationship decisions in my life, but professionally I left journalism to try a dotcom thing in about 1999 or 2000 and it was a mistake. I'm a journalist to my core and I was really miserable for a year or two. I don't often get depressed, but I actually was then.
