The Neda Agha-Soltan Graduate Scholarship is a scholarship for post-graduate philosophy students at The Queen's College (pictured), with preference given to students of Iranian citizenship or heritage. It was established in 2009 following the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, an Iranian philosophy student, in the street protests that followed the disputed Iranian presidential election. The college received offers from two anonymous donors to establish a scholarship, followed by many individual donations from members of the public and former students of Queen's. The Iranian embassy in London told the college that the university was involved in a "politically motivated campaign... in sharp contract with its academic objectives". In response, The Times praised the scholarship, saying that the establishment of the scholarship was indeed politically motivated, "and admirably so", given the regime's reaction to her death and continuing problems in Iran. The college has denied that it took a political decision in establishing the scholarship, arguing that refusing the donations would itself have been a political act. Anonymous British diplomatic sources were reported as saying that the scholarship put "another nail into the coffin" of relations between Britain and Iran. (Full article...)

Richard Barrons (born 1959) is a general in the British Army, currently Commander, Joint Forces Command. After studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen's College, Oxford, his early army career was spent in various staff and field posts, serving his first tour of duty in the Balkans in 1993. After a tour in Northern Ireland, he became a Military Assistant to the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and then to the Chief of the General Staff. Between 2000 and 2003, Barrons served again in the Balkans, in Afghanistan during the early days of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and in Basra, Iraq. As a brigadier in 2003, Barrons served his second tour in Northern Ireland, this time as a brigade commander. In 2005, he was appointed to Assistant Chief of Staff, Commitments. He was promoted to major general in 2008 and deployed to Iraq for the second time, with responsibility for joint operations. He then served briefly with the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps before heading an ISAF reintegration unit in Afghanistan to provide incentives for Taliban soldiers to surrender. He later became Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Operations). (Full article...)

St Cross College was established by the university in 1965 to cater for the growing numbers of graduate students and academics who lacked a college affiliation; Wolfson College was set up in the 1960s for this reason as well. St Cross has approximately 400 graduate students at any one time, studying for degrees in all subjects. There is a strong emphasis on international diversity, with 67 % of the students from outside the UK. This is reflected in the college motto Ad quattuor cardines mundi ("to the four corners of the earth"). The Fellowship (led by the Master Sir Mark Jones, formerly Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum) is similarly diverse and represents a broad range of academic disciplines in the sciences and the arts. The college was originally established at a site on St Cross Road, near St Cross Church; it moved to a site owned by Pusey House in the centre of Oxford, on St Giles' Street, in 1981. The buildings, by the Gothic revival architect Temple Moore, date from between 1911 and 1926, with a new wing added in 1993. Alumni include the philosopher Alan Carter, the Olympic gold medallist Tim Foster, the historian R. Joseph Hoffmann, and the writer Hermione Lee. (Full article...)