Hello! My name is Ayala and I am the USG for Community Building. I am in my second year studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics, meaning I will graduate in 2026. My role mainly consists in speaker recruitment, managing the access program and planning delegate activities.

Hi guys! I’m Ayala, the Under-Secretary-General for Community Building and I’m going to explain a little more about my responsibilities and my role in the conference. I absolutely love what I do and hopefully by the end of this blog you’ll understand why - if you have any questions about my job please feel free to come and have a chat in November!

Oxford University is, on many levels, a very strange place. It is full of bizarre traditions, eccentric tutors and creepy buildings. How does this all fit into a regular student’s experience, and how does one make the most of Oxford’s quirks while maintaining a sense of normalcy in day-to-day life? I’m going to answer this question by taking you through a day in my life as a student studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford.

Being an English city, Oxford is home to many different coffee shops (80 to be exact). So much so that it becomes very hard to choose where to get your daily fix of caffeine. To help you in this difficult task, I will list below just 3 of my favourites:

Under Secretary General for Content is the role that covers the writing, editing, formatting and final publishing on the Background Guides that delegates use to inform their research on their committee, as well as side-tasks such as proofreading these blog posts, designing training materials for both delegates and chairs, and running mock sessions! It’s an exciting role with a lot of variety and creativity involved, so without further ado, meet you USGs for Content:

The position paper. There are those who love writing it, and there are some who don’t particularly enjoy it. The question really is: how to write a good position paper to start your conference off on a high note?

Meet Ian, the other Under-secretary General for Business! In this interview, Ian talks about his role at Oxford Global and offers some tips for delegates.

The Oxford application process is quite an adventure. Some people achieve their desired goals at the end of their journey, others unfortunately don’t make it, but whether you end up coming to Oxford or not, the application process is certainly an adventure.

The Under-Secretary Generals for Business are responsible for managing Oxford Global’s social media accounts, aiming to attract new delegates and keep current ones engaged and informed about the latest conference updates. You can see their recent progress in revealing the committees and the secretariat team on Oxford Global’s Instagram @oxford.global. Additionally, the under-secretary generals for business seek sponsorships and partnerships with businesses to facilitate the running of the conference and enhance the delegate experience through potential discounts from local businesses. They are also tasked with managing external staff for the conference and designing the training for volunteers.

We are already looking forward to welcoming you all to Oxford in November! While our previous blog posts explained our Rules of Procedure (RoP), this one is about all the things that make OxfordMUN OxfordMUN, the little things that are fun side quests. 

Oxford University is made up of 43 colleges spread out across the city. Being a student at Oxford means you are a member of a college, as well as your subject’s department. Each college will have its own character and unique elements, but all have a porters’ lodge (staffed reception), dining hall, library, tutor’s teaching rooms, music rooms, laundry, green spaces, and a common room to socialise in.

Maria, our USG for Logistics, introduces to us her role in our team at Oxford Global, as well as her Model UN journey.

As an almost 1000-year-old institution, Oxford University is home to a rich history of traditions. These customs, some dating back centuries, imbue the university with a unique character and provide a sense of continuity and community. Here’s a glimpse into some of my favourite Oxford traditions.

The best part is working with an amazing team (the Secretariat) and designing a MUN conference as big as OxfordMUN from scratch. I get to work with so many interesting individuals, bringing together great ideas on how to make the coming conference as exciting as possible.

In the last blog of the series, David walks us through the actual conference and gives first time delegates a quick explainer of 7 strange things that happen at MUN conferences.

Okay. So now the rules of procedures are all clear, hopefully you’re still following. But there seem to be a lot of ambiguities. How do you decide when to move into a moderated or unmoderated caucus, for instance? The answer would be what’s called ‘motioning.’

Alright, a weekend of debate has gone by, what are you left with? If your debate has been productive, you should be left with a resolution paper. Simply put, a resolution paper is the whole point of the debate. Both in real life and in MUN, simply debating won’t get you anywhere, you need to take action to solve a problem. The debate is simply to clarify what type of action you want to take. Resolution papers are documents that delegates work on throughout the weekend, and details the actions that they, representing their countries, believe that the UN should take to solve the problem. 

So now you’ve done all of your research and you are ready to debate. You show up to the conference, sit through the opening ceremony in anticipation, and race to your committee room. You take a seat at the table with your placard on it. Now what? Since it’s the first time you are meeting the chair and your fellow delegates, the chair will probably get you to all introduce yourselves, maybe play some icebreaker games. The chair will then explain the rules of procedures again, just in case anyone is confused or wants clarifications. Then, the debate begins.