Oxford library comes a step closer to buying archive of photographic pioneer

A photograph taken by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1844. Photograph: Royal Photographic Society/SSPL via Getty Images

The Bodleian Library in Oxford has won a ￡200,000 grant from the Art Fund charity, to be announced on Wednesday, bringing it close to the ￡2.2m target to buy a unique archive of one of the pioneers of early photography, William Henry Fox Talbot.

Fox Talbot invented one solution of fixing the image captured by early cameras, the negative allowing multiple prints to be made, as opposed to images fixed on single silvered plates developed by his contemporary – and rival claimant to the "father of photography" title – the French physicist Louis Daguerre. He also published the first book illustrated with photographs, The Pencil of Nature, which came out in instalments between 1844 and 1846.

News of the appeal – first disclosed in the Guardian – has also brought the library a long loan of a previously unknown collection of early experiments by Fox Talbot in "photogenic drawing" where the image was exposed directly on to the prepared photographic paper.

The prints, mostly annotated by him, include images of botanical specimens, a hazy view of Oxford's Botanic Garden, a piece of lace, a breakfast table, and a Thomas Bewick engraving of a tiger. They are owned by Sir John Venables-Llewelyn, whose great-grandfather John Dillwyn-Llewelyn, who married into the Fox Talbot family, was also an enthusiastic early photographer. His ancestor was inspired to take up the new craze when Fox Talbot gave him examples of his experiments, as he did to many of his relatives.

Fox Talbot was a landowner and amateur scientist, who gave an address in 1839 to the Royal Society about experiments he had been conducting at his home, Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, using chemicals and specially made lenses set into wooden boxes made by his estate carpenter, and had found a way of permanently fixing images of the real world on to paper. It was, said Richard Ovenden, deputy director of the Bodleian, a night that would change the world – within a few years the craze had spread across the world.

The ￡200,000 Art Fund grant means the Bodleian now has almost ￡1.9m towards the purchase from a specialist dealer in New York who bought the Fox Talbot archive from the family. The library has already secured a ￡1.2m grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and the dealer has also extended the deadline for raising the last ￡375,000 until August 2014.

Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, said he was delighted to support the appeal, adding: "This collection of material is of unparalleled importance in shedding light on both his life and his pioneering work."

The archive holds Fox Talbot's earliest notes and records, as well as family papers such as a touching letter he wrote to his mother when he was six in which he asked for green plums and wrote sadly: "Come to me, you have been away three weeks and six days," as well as his own photographs, and hundreds of images which he acquired from other pioneers. It is the last major archive of his work in private hands. The appeal is backed by leading contemporary photographers including Martin Parr and Hiroshi Sugimoto, as well as the artist David Hockney.

‧ This article was amended on 1 August 2013. It originally stated that the library had secured a ￡1.2m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant came from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. This has been corrected.

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Student ball at Oxford University ends in 'catastrophe'

A straw boater on a punt in Oxford, where students have had an end-of-term ball to forget. Photograph: Jeremy Trew, Trewimage/Alamy

It was supposed to be a night of "decadence, debauchery, and indulgence", but instead guests of an Oxford University end-of-term ball endured a "catastrophe" with some left with burns, in tears and without food and drink.

Guests at Last Ball at Somerville College, Oxford, paid up to ￡150 for tickets but found that entertainers that were advertised did not turn up and almost all the alcohol had run out before 1am, five hours before the end.

May balls are a tradition at Oxford, Cambridge and other universities. They are normally extravagant and usually well managed by student committees.

The organisers of the ball – planned jointly by Somerville College and Jesus College – had great ambitions; they had planned to exhibit a live shark until they were inundated with complaints. In the event, the ball descended into farce with guests questioning what the organisers had done with the money paid by 1,000 guests.

The Cambridge Tab reported "Food ran out early on in the evening, with only one food stand to cater for 1,000 people. Vegetarians went hungry, with pita bread and cupcakes acting as measly substitutes for the previously mentioned hog roast. What's more, all the alcohol (with the exception of rum) had run out by 1am, and by 4am even that had run out."

Cherwell, the Oxford University magazine reported: "Somerville-Jesus 'Last Ball' goers are 'ripped off'. A 'violent scrum' for food, misleading advertising and 'unprecedented prices' criticised by students and alumni."

Guests using the maze got stuck in bottlenecks and some were injured when it was left unstaffed.

Guests set up a Facebook page to list complaints. Some posted pictures of burnt skin and dresses, caused by crowds waiting around the hog roast for up to an hour. One guest complained that he had to pick up tickets in person despite paying for postage. The same guest had to wait for an hour for a pork roll and suffered bruising in the melee to get food before it ran out.

Another student described how she was prevented from going to bed by overzealous security guards. "I'm a Somerville student and felt ill at about 2am on the night of the ball. Being cold, hungry and having drunk a fair bit I asked to be allowed to go to bed. I spoke to security and a member of the ball committee and when I wasn't allowed to go to bed I burst into tears and explained that I was feeling ill and suffer from depression. I needed sleep but was instead sent to the first aid room," she wrote.

She also noted that other Somerville students were not allowed to go to their rooms to pick up possessions such as asthma inhalers because of "security reasons".

Some of the ball organisers posted a letter apologising for their failures and denying charges of embezzlement. They blamed their failings on their inexperience and the small numbers of committee members. They blamed the injuries sustained at the maze on "some of the maze staff going rogue; a handful of maze actors attempted to leave their positions and sneak into the ball as guests."

‧ This article was amended on 25 May as it mistakenly said that Jesus College was in Cambridge

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Oxford and Cambridge outperformed on employability

Graduates from the University of Derby are sought after by employers. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

Students at Robert Gordon, Glasgow Caledonian and Derby universities outperformed Oxford and Cambridge graduates when it came to securing jobs or places on postgrad courses last year.

This table released today shows a graduate's chances of securing a job after leaving university depend heavily on where they choose to study.

In total, 97.7% of Robert Gordon graduates, 96.2% of Glasgow Caledonian graduates and 96.1% of Derby graduates were working or studying further six months after finishing their degree.

This compares with 94.9% of last year's Cambridge graduates and 92% of those who were at Oxford, according to data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa).

The employability figures include those working in part-time and non-graduate-level jobs. A breakdown showing the proportion of leavers working in graduate-level positions by institution is not yet available.

Robert Gordon comes in at 55 on the Guardian league table of universities for 2014, while Glasgow Caledonian comes in at 96 and Derby at 79. Cambridge (1) and Oxford (2) top the league again.

While more than a fifth of students at some institutions were not in work or studying six months after graduating last summer, almost all students at some other universities – particularly small specialist colleges – found employment or were continuing their education.

All 25 graduates from the Royal Academy of Music were employed or studying after finishing their course last year, along with 98.9% of those at the Trinity Laban conservatoire of music and dance, and 98.2% of those who studied at the UCL School of Pharmacy. The University of Buckingham, a private institution, also performed strongly, with 96.9% of leavers finding work or study.

At the other end of the scale, around 22.6% of last year's graduates from London South Bank University were not in work or further study six months after leaving, along with 20.6% of those at the University of East London.

The Hesa figures show that overall, 90.8% of first-degree graduates were in employment or further study after six months.

The majority of the 163 UK institutions surveyed saw between 90% and 95% of graduates in work or study, while at 18 universities more than 95% of students were in this category.

Among the prestigious Russell Group universities all but one – Queen Mary (87.5%) – had an employment and study rate of over 90%.

The figures come just days after research revealed that around 46 graduates are applying for every job this year.

It suggested that job prospects have improved for those leaving university this summer, with a rise in the number of graduate positions available.

But it also warned that top employers are still receiving high numbers of applications for every role on offer, with some firms, such as consumer goods and media companies, being sent more than 100 applications for each position.

The rise in tuition fees means many universities are taking employability more seriously, says Nick Petford, vice-chancellor of the University of Northampton, where 95.7% of leavers find work or further study.

"Frankly, students are paying a lot more money to go to university now and it's only fair that they should expect universities to take their future welfare and employability more seriously."

He puts Northampton's success down to the university's vocational heritage. "We have lots of students taking nursing and teacher training courses who progress directly into employment. We also have highly specialised courses in, for example, leather technology or lift engineering where we work very closely with industry. Students who leave those courses have a 100% employability rate."

Sue Morrison, learning development manager at the University of Derby says employability is now embedded within and outside the curriculum. "Our careers service works closely with course teams across the university, talking about the curriculum and how it's designed as well as contributing directly to lectures.

"We also offer lots of support outside the curriculum – for example, we do employer mentoring so that students can speak to employees who are already doing the jobs that they aspire to do. This helps to enthuse students."

The employability statistics are based on the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey of 2011-12 graduates. The survey was changed for 2011-12, so the results are not comparable with those for previous years.

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Protestations de visages de school de l'Université de Oxford business sur visite par le Président du Rwanda Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame, the unique boy poster development whose reputation has been tarnished by accusations of authoritarianism and fomenting conflict in Congo, will be greeted by protesters when he attends the Said Business School tomorrow to give a conference speech.

A coalition of activists, including Congolese refugees and a prominent Oxford University, are backing calls for the University to cancel the invitation, saying: it's a vote of confidence in Mr. Kagame at a time when it is under pressure from human rights violations.

The clash is the latest controversy surrounding Rwanda leader, who last year saw Britain suspend 16 million pounds of direct budget support to the Government by "credible" information that supported guerrilla M23, responsible for atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo nearby.

The ongoing dispute has done little to dent the enthusiasm in financial and political circles for continued economic growth in Rwanda, which will reach 8% this year. The first country ever sell Eurobonds this month, securing $ 400 million in funding for infrastructure and investment projects, was over-subscribed.

In a sign of thaw of relations with Britain, help single donor who rest by Rwanda, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the country, Louise Mushikiwabo, met Foreign Minister William Hague Thursday during the visit to London by a large Rwandan delegation.

But critics said the decision by the Oxford Business Network for Africa, a student organization within the school of commerce, to Mr. Kagame the first recipient of the Distinction of honour for African growth might taint the University.

A petition calling on the Group of students and the business school to cancel the price reached yesterday near 5500 signatures. A counter-petition, applauding the award, had collected 2,300 signatures.

In a letter to the Dean of the school, Professor Barbara Harrell-Bond, founding Director of the University of respect Refugee Studies Centre, said: "give honor to Mr. Kagame at a time when he and his Government are increasingly isolate themselves faced with evidence of their mounting human rights violations represents a serious error of judgment."

"It positions the organizers of the Conference and the University of Oxford, against the international efforts to pressure Mr. Kagame to end its abuse and play a more constructive role in the realization of African peace and development".

A spokesman for a coalition of opposition groups Rwandan and Congolese, including the release, a group of Congolese women's rights, added: "It would be shameful as the caliber of any Oxford University to ignore all information in the public domain on the Kagame crimes both on his people and abroad to roll out a red carpet for him."

School of business, ranked in the top ten outside the United States, said that the price was the decision taken by the Group of students but said that it allowed the event to today go forward due to its commitment to freedom of expression.

In a statement, the school said: "we attach an open discussion and... we have not sought to prevent students from the extension of this invitation. The presence of President Kagame in the Said Business School does not imply an endorsement by the school or the University, its opinions or actions. We are aware that President Kagame is considered by some as a controversial figure. ?

Group of students has defended the sentence, saying it was "in recognition of the work of [Mr Kagame] into the opening and development of the economy of Rwanda"and there would be a possibility for those who critique of his Government to ask questions. ''

The Rwandan Commission in London did not respond to The Independent requests to comment on the criticisms of Mr Kagame, who also will attend a celebration of the day of Rwanda for hundreds of members of the Rwandan diaspora in London.

Rwanda has strongly denied any involvement in the M23 and condemned a report of the United Nations, the Chronicle of links between the Group and senior members of the Rwandan army. Critics have also accused Mr Kagame's trampling on the media and political freedoms, maintaining a hostile environment for opposition politicians.

The Independent revealed that Scotland Yard has also served notice on two dissidents based in the United Kingdom in 2011 warning of "reliable information" that their lives were under threat from the assassins sent by the Rwandan authorities.

Britain earlier this year reinstated aid to Rwanda after put an end to direct budgetary support to the country in November last due to the activities of the M23. The 16 million books will be distributed in the form of direct payments to the poor to Rwandans and textbooks for schoolchildren.

The Independent understands he has no immediate plans to reinstate payment of direct aid to the Rwandan Government.

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