Dons at an Oxford college want to cut opening hours in the students' bar - to drive up exam results.

But the idea isn't going down well with undergraduates at St Catherine's College - 250 of them turned out for a protest meeting in a bid to scotch the idea.

Dons are planning talks with undergraduates on a series of measures aimed at boosting academic performance at the college, which is currently languishing towards the bottom of the unofficial Norrington Tables league.

And the Junior Common Room bar - which serves alcohol from 7.30pm to 11.30pm - is in the firing line, with plans to limit opening hours from 9pm to 11pm.

JCR President Balveen Ajimal said: "It would be a bad idea to reduce bar opening hours.

"It would encourage people to go out into town which takes more time. It might encourage people to drink more in a short period of time and there's a benefit of having people in college when they're going to drink rather than send them into town. "The atmosphere of college is very friendly and warm and there's a strong sense of community and it would be a shame to lose that."

Ms Ajimal said the proposals for the bar were just one part of a whole set of measures designed to raise academic standards at the college.

St Catherine's ranking in the Norrington Tables, the unofficial measure of Oxford University colleges' academic performance, fell from 26 to 28 this year.

She said there was a 'mutual' desire among students and staff to raise academic standards, including the quality of tuition and lecturing.

Ms Ajimal added that both sides wanted to look at ways of ensuring students got more out of their degree. She said her primary aim in the discussions was not to up St Catherine's position in the Norrington Tables, but to make sure students got the academic support they needed. A poster on the JCR notice board hit out at college dons, saying they should consider whether they were doing enough to encourage students before branding them "feckless delinquents bloated on Castlemaine".

It invited academics to set a good example by cutting their consumption of wine at college dinners to ensure they able "to lead their sinful students back to academic paradise".

None of the academic staff was available to comment.

Story date: Monday 01 March

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