A University of Oxford student said he has been made to feel like a "caged animal" due to "mass " in the famous city. The undergraduate compared and colleges at the prestigious university to a "minefield" or an "obstacle course" because of the huge number of visitors.

Oxford welcomes around seven million daytime and staying visitors every year, according to the city council. Oscar Whittle described feeling under "constant observation" due to the tourists. He recalled: "It is a sad indication that one of the first memories I made here is being photographed by persistent flocks of seagull-like tourists squawking at me on my matriculation day, which made me feel more like a caged animal than a budding undergraduate."

In an opinion piece for , a newspaper run by Oxford University students, Oscar wrote: "While tourism brings in money to the City and the University, I cannot help but wonder if financial gain alone is enough to justify those of us who live here being constantly subjected to this pesterance."

Oscar wrote that, as his tutorials this term are at Christ Church College - probably the university's most famous - he is now "tortured far more frequently and far less avoidably" by crowds of tourists.

In the , headlined 'It's okay to hate tourism in Oxford', Oscar wrote one part of his journey to the college "can feel like being suddenly launched head-first into rapids and told to swim against the current".

While Oscar acknowledged the "considerable revenue" tourism provides for the university and local and national economy, he asked: "Are we really so shallow as to value something simply because of its commercial value?"

"I'd hope not," he added.

The student said possible solutions like limiting visiting hours for tourists or setting no-go areas appear "more like the machinations of some deranged dictator than viable policies".

However, Oscar said many of the issues surrounding tourists are due to a "general lack of awareness" rather than "deliberate ignorance".

He said not walking side-by-side could reduce overcrowding and argued more should be done to inform the tourists.

Oscar wrote: "Ultimately, as much as we can loathe the tourists and be pestered by their genuinely impressive capacity to always be standing in the most inconvenient places possible, maybe we as hosts - albeit rather unwilling ones - should try and do better to inform and explain rather than scoff and judge.

"After all, one day we might be playing the role of the annoying visitors in some strange and interesting land."

Oxford City Council says tourism brings in around £780 million of income for local businesses in the city every year.