There was consternation in Oxford when the news went round – like wildfire, as this sort of news invariably does – that the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, Professor Martin Williams, had written to the current students at St Benet’s Hall to say that “the University has taken the decision not to permit St Benet’s any new undergraduates in the next academic year”. To ears attuned to this sort of thing, it rang like a death knell, heralding the very real possibility that Benet’s, as the hall is always known, might have to close.