AN end-of-term rally outside Oriel College took place earlier today by students and members of decolonisation campaign group Rhodes Must Fall.

The protesters made the headlines last year after staging a series of dramatic protests calling for a statue of controversial colonial figure Cecil Rhodes to be removed from the building in Oriel Square.

The demonstration at midday outside Oriel saw more than 50 people attend.

Rachel Harmon, 23, a Rhodes scholar and campaign organiser, said: "It’s important to keep pushing. I think it’s easy for protests to die out and I think that is what a lot of people hope will happen to RMF.

“The issue is that the college see our concerns as the concerns of a small number of people but I don’t think that is true.

“The university need to realise it's 2016 and they need to act if they want to be representative of their students rather than just their donors and people who graduated 50 or 60 years ago.”

The campaign for the statue’s removal was launched last year but Oriel College decided in January the statue would remain.

At the time the college said: "The continuing presence of these historical artefacts is an important reminder of the complexity of history and of the legacies of colonialism still felt today.

"By adding context, we can help draw attention to this history, do justice to the complexity of the debate, and be true to our educational mission."

At today’s event people gave speeches explaining why they wanted the statue pulled down and took part in chants.

They also presented the college with a cheque written for the amount of 'name the price' for however much students had to pay to get the statue pulled down.

Femi Nylander, 21, who studied politics and economics at Oxford, was one of the protesters who spoke at the rally.

He said: “Last year they began to act like they were going to do something when they started to get negative attention that they worried would damage their reputation.

“There’s not much we can do other than talk about it and make more people aware of this issue.”

In March this year RMF held an 'alternative walking tour' of Oxford to mark one year since the start of the campaign.

June also saw supporters gather outside All Souls College in High Street to protest the naming of the Codrington Library after a major plantation owner.

An Oxford University spokesman said: “Oxford University is a welcoming, tolerant and diverse community. More than 25 per cent of our undergraduates and postgraduates are black and minority ethnic students.

"We are continually working with students on many initiatives towards greater inclusion and representation for all ethnic groups. For example, we ran a highly successful summer conference to encourage more UK minority ethnic applicants from state schools, jointly led by students in the University’s African and Caribbean Society.

"We are also working in consultation with minority ethnic students on curriculum change, and supporting this process with a series of high-profile public lectures on cultural change in higher education.”