So if I understand today’s news correctly, the UK is threatened by AI-powered foreign eggs that arrive on small boats.
I hope everyone caught this Lancet study confirming that Elon Musk & DOGE are responsible for genocidal levels of suffering & death.
Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis
USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...
thelancet.com
"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."
Analysis: OpenAI is a loss-making machine, how can it survive?
Don't call it a bubble! Loss-making monster OpenAI is on the hook for $1.4 trillion (with a T) in compute commitments. How can this go on?
windowscentral.com
Change the name of the institution and the vampire consultants and this is the same story at any number of different institutions. A national scandal.
Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 4w agoBehind the bewildering transformation of British universities, are management consultants being paid millions Really proud to have this vital piece on our unis are being gutted from the inside by @jheathershaw.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale. Do read democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...
I gave evidence to the House of Commons Education Select Committee: very short account here schoolsweek.co.uk/secondary-en...
Curriculum 'crowds out' reading for pleasure, says expert
'Teach for the test' approach and a focus on phonics are taking the fun out of reading, say experts
schoolsweek.co.uk
A deeply destructive and inexpert management consultancy class has emerged whose sole purpose is to shrink Anglosphere universities and to undermine their future - all the better to secure more work. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...
Inside Britain's university crisis
As teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter
democracyforsale.substack.com
How can anyone not want to eat in a place called George Lobster?
The Guardian gets with the programme www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial
Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed
theguardian.com
Meant to include @gsoh31.bsky.social
Mark Robson@markrobsoninfo.bsky.social · 2mo agoAs TS Eliot almost put it: ‘Facts don’t fall from the sky like rain, they are laid like bricks into the place prepared for them’. Where ideology meets university-as-business spreadsheets are mind-maps @ducuuo.bsky.social
As TS Eliot almost put it: ‘Facts don’t fall from the sky like rain, they are laid like bricks into the place prepared for them’. Where ideology meets university-as-business spreadsheets are mind-maps @ducuuo.bsky.social
Katherine Stiles@katherinestiles.org · 2mo agoHumanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year 🔗⮛
I don't think we can fix the currently tattered contract between generations if we keep on doing stuff like this. It's like the reverse of future-proofing. Future damning?
Arts Professional@artsprofessional.co.uk · 2mo agoPerforming and creative arts university courses will no longer receive funding from a government teaching grant as part of “difficult decisions” about spending priorities, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.
The UK has now said it will actively harm or damage: *Chemistry *Nursing *High-end physics *Languages *Astronomy *Creative arts *Theatre and performance *Cultural industries *Europe-level science The UK has lost its mind. 🇬🇧
Much of the world’s violence stems from the desire to prevent the coming generations from changing the world, so as to preserve the status quo from which those in power benefit. It begins by limiting attempts to imagine that different world. This matters. www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/dfe-sla...
DfE slashes creative and performing arts teaching grants for universities - Arts Professional
Performing and creative arts university courses will no longer receive funding from a government teaching grant as part of "difficult decisions" about
artsprofessional.co.uk
I remember a game on Twitter that allowed you to boot Farage into the sea. Did it make it to Bluesky?
Thank god Farage never had any credibility. He’d be in trouble now otherwise, but.
Education, education, ssshhhh. The sheer negligence of this highlights the contradiction between the casual destruction of higher education and every policy ambition (social mobility, growth, employability, economic health of ‘regions’, etc.). Self-interest doesn’t need to be very enlightened here.
Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe Department for Education has confirmed that universities will receive £50.9 million less in teaching grants next academic year. Bridget Phillipson, the education minister has defended the reduction in light of tuition fee rises. https://ow.ly/6UWJ50ZkLlf
Wonderful that that nice Mr Trump thinks Harry Kane, scorer of of one goal, is great. I wonder why he didn’t mention Jude Bellingham, scorer of two goals? Thankfully we can’t suspect any prejudice, or else it might seem odd.
The special issue on ‘The Sentence’ that I edited for them in 2025 is currently the freely available sample issue. www.euppublishing.com/toc/count/11/1
Edinburgh University Press Journals - Table of Contents - count: Vol 11, No 1
euppublishing.com
wanna learn more about myths and lies, and truths and numbers, on lifetime employment opportunities for english majors and other humanists? we've got (free) merch! humanitiesworks.org
HUMANITIES WORKS – posters, postcards, and handouts to support the humanities
humanitiesworks.org
Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · 2mo ago"Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new LinkedIn data shows." ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH 69% VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 68% www.forbes.com/sites/courtn...
Good start to the week with a couple of enjoyable days in Oxford for a @countertext-eup.bsky.social roundtable.
Watching A Very Peculiar Practice partly out of nostalgia, and it’s still sharp and funny, but painful to see the normalisation of what Andrew Davies saw (rightly) as the unhinged undoing of the university.
There are plenty of things to agree with in Alan Milburn’s report on our responsibility to a generation. What is inexcusable is to make no connection to presiding over the wholesale collapse of the higher education sector and to fail to see how these are linked. Denial is not a solution.
Streeting as stalking horse theory (he knows he can’t win but sets it up for …). Hard to see who. So, who stands to gain most from showing that there are no viable candidates? Starmer. All a bit House of Cards, but … @mrjamesob.bsky.social
Watching election coverage on BBC. Kuennsberg puffs minor Reform gains, ignores Labour holding a council. Eventually says it was impossible for them to lose, discounting those who voted as insignificant. So much for democracy. No fact checking of unelected Dr Bull’s, er, bull. I’m off to bed.
Read more about our current ballot at the University of Dundee on the BBC website. #SaveHE #StopTheCuts www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Dundee University staff balloted on new strike action
The move by the University and College Union (UCU) is part of a long-running dispute over cuts.
bbc.co.uk
Just noticed that September is going to be great for readers of Mathias Énard: the next volume of Mélancolie des confins and a translation of La Perfection du tir from @avecsesdoigts.bsky.social and @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social