💡 We're hiring for an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science Read more and apply before 11 October 👉️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Welsh government announces general Higher Education review. At last and at least *someone* is doing *sonething*. The university finance situation in Wales is by far the most dire of all the UK nations, so this is urgent. But in England, still nada. www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...

Major review of universities in Wales announced after years of cuts

The Welsh Government will look at university funding and organisation as bosses face a black hole of almost £100m

walesonline.co.uk

This should being done across the four nations as a coherent review. I understand it is in part a devolved issue, but they would be real strength right now in a UK wide review bringing together departments responsible for both teaching and research. www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...

Major review of universities in Wales announced after years of cuts

The Welsh Government will look at university funding and organisation as bosses face a black hole of almost £100m

walesonline.co.uk

By coincidence, read this today. It’s a great study with lots of relevance to making the more ambitious devolution framework work. (The associated book has even more detail)

Giles Wilkes@gilesyb.bsky.social · yesterday

Quotes: "during our period of study (1993-2024), mechanisms designed to regulate spending tended towards input control and short-term decision-making, struggled to support strategic investment and often failed to deliver sustained improvements in outcomes."

Two(!) permanent lectureships coming up at Cardiff: One in political behaviour/opinion cardiffuniweb.eploy.net/vacancies/52... One in British politics (very loosely defined) cardiffuniweb.eploy.net/vacancies/53... Feel free to get in touch and I'll be happy to answer any questions I can

MF team member, Pete Woodbridge, has designed Soundings, an interactive mapping tool for the UK's creative economy. It positions Liverpool as the UK’s leading music-focused large creative economy, with 1 in 5 creative businesses in music. Read more here: musicfutures.co.uk/liverpool-is...

New Soundings Platform Finding: Liverpool is UK’s most musical big city economy

Liverpool City Region has the UK’s strongest music-focused large creative economy, with one in five creative businesses operating in music, according to new analysis revealed through Soundings…

musicfutures.co.uk

‘The Treasury can count cash out of the departmental doors, but it then disperses through fragmented institutions… with little co-ordination or accountability, no ability to invest for the long term and scant evaluation.’ @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/4987...

How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else

The lesson from Manchester is that it takes time for public investment policies to show up in GDP

ft.com

Significant new report from @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social & colleagues makes the case that the UK has a mismatch between highly centralised institutions of spending control and increasingly fragmented systems of public service delivery (more so if devolution) www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/opinion...

The myth of Treasury control: What’s wrong with the UK’s public spending system and how to fix it - Nuffield Foundation

The long-standing model of centralised Treasury control over public spending has inadequately adapted to the realities of public service delivery.

nuffieldfoundation.org

“Treasury orthodoxy and the Green Book have created quite an unequal country. The north-south divide is no accident. It’s policy. The Treasury needs to reflect on that quite deeply.”

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2d ago

How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else ft.trib.al/KvmNepY | opinion

A couple of nice & not all that technical essays on AI in J Economic Perspectives, pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/... & pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...

You can respond as an individual or as an organisation - and you don't have to have direct experience of lottery funding to respond.

Calling MUSEUMS, LIBRARIES and ARCHIVES on BSky: The UK Govt is reviewing how National Lottery Good Causes money is used in the UK. At Heritage Fund we have invested around £2.5billion in museums, libraries and archives since 1994. Tell the govt your views by 23rd Sept: www.gov.uk/government/c...

National Lottery Good Causes: Fund what matters to you

gov.uk

Interdisciplinary PhD workshop on (un)employment at IAB in Nürnberg in January 2027. Submissions by 31 August. iab.de/en/iab-veran...

Listen! @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social talks about the fascinating "Fintech Capital: The Digital Transformation of Everyday Money and Finance" with @andrewleyshon.bsky.social & @paullangley.bsky.social the authors of @fintechcapital.bsky.social newbooksnetwork.com/fintech-capi...

Excited for the launch of @amit-singh.bsky.social's wonderful new book @princetonupress.bsky.social Cancelled Futures in September. More info on the book here: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Cancelled Futures

How race, class, gender, and place shape the ways working-class young people in Britain envision their transition from education to work

press.princeton.edu

Amit Singh@amit-singh.bsky.social · 2d ago

Cancelled Futures: Class, Race & Place in Post-Industrial Britain 16th September at UCL I'll be talking race, class & place with @alexkelbert.bsky.social & @lukedenoronha.bsky.social Hosted by @uclsociology.bsky.social & @sprc-ucl.bsky.social Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cancelled-...

We're excited to share that we've been awarded a £5million grant from The Leverhulme Trust to fund the 'Next Generation Democracy' doctoral programme, training up to 30 PhD scholars to investigate how 16 and 17 year-olds will shape, and be shaped, by UK democracy. More: https://ow.ly/Cw6R50ZuWt8

Research and innovation should be treated as part of the North’s core growth infrastructure. The North’s research-intensive universities are not simply stakeholders in the Northern Growth Strategy: they are essential delivery partners. Read our response to the #NorthernGrowth strategy consultation

N8 responds to the Northern Growth Strategy consultation - N8 Research Partnership

The N8 Research Partnership responded to the Government’s invitation for views on Northern Growth on 31 July 2026.

n8research.org.uk

🚨On 8th Sept. the BSA Digital Sociology Study Group are holding an event at University of Salford Media City Campus to map our future direction. We want to hear from digital sociology researchers in the field to shape our plans, so if you'd like to be involved you can register at the link below 👇

Listen to my convo with @bhgreeley.bsky.social about his book The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money newbooksnetwork.com/the-almighty... Where do $ come from? Is their global usefulness a function of US power, or something else? On @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social

My new article on Jorvik Viking Centre and its use of smells over the last 40 years has just come out today in The Public Historian! online.ucpress.edu/tph/article-... if you can't access it and want to read it, let me know.

Job Opportunity! Yale University - Assistant/Associate/Full Professor, U.S. Cultural History and Cultural Studies Seeks specialist of nineteenth- and/or twentieth-century cultural history of the United States, nationally and transnationally. networks.h-net.org/jobs/70183/y...

On Friday @4hundredblows.bsky.social begins his Edinburgh run at 9.45am. There will be nothing better to do on the planet at 9.45am that day and on the many subsequent days. Tickets are here: www.thespaceuk.com/shows/2026/t...

The Umbrella Man: What We Talk About When We Talk About the JFK Assassination (Martin Fitzgerald)

Dallas, 22 November 1963. The main event is supposed to be on Main Street - crowds fifty deep, a blizzard of ticker tape. A few blocks away in Dealey Plaza, the scene is quieter: a handful ...

thespaceuk.com

Worried about NEETs? We should be. 45% of young people who are NEET report having a disability (para 53, 'Young People and Work: Interim Report', 13 July 2026). Wonder which subjects recruit/graduate high %s of undergraduates with declared disabilities. Might many be in Arts & Humanities? 4/4

Who studies SHAPE?

This dashboard provides a system-wide view of student numbers in SHAPE subjects across UK higher education covering the period from 2015/16 to 2024/25, the most recent year for which data are availabl...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Then there's innovation in undergraduate work placements, a development pioneered in post-92 universities now desperately being seized upon by RG HEIs. Widening participation at local and regional level, anyone? We know what's happening for the subjects most students study. Not pretty. 3/4

Cold spots: Mapping inequality in SHAPE provision in UK higher education

This British Academy report reveals that many parts of the UK are becoming subject cold spots – areas with no provision in a subject within a commutable distance. These are often in rural, coastal or ...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Which methodological innovations flourished in former polys? Digital history had strong roots in this base, including @ Herts, and Leeds Trinity's Jnl of Victorian Culture points one in interdisciplinary directions more broadly. (Bigger units can create bigger/more defensive disciplinary silos). 2/4

Thinking through the unedifying, un-evidence-based rush to an undefined, apparently unmodelled paradigm of 'specialisation, what's being lost/threatened? Herts History was an excellent example of performing to a top standard in REF, but also much more than that. Questions to think with include: 1/4

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 3d ago

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

Meanwhile, most us doing the teaching out, of which I am one as things stand, are paid the absolute minimum possible to guide the remaining students through this.

Students who need to remain local will no longer be able to study History, English, Philosophy etc. That means working class, carers, mature students etc etc

Not only that but *the entire Humanities offering at Hertfordshire has gone and is being taught out*

Cordelia Beattie@cordeliabeattie.bsky.social · 3d ago

I see some people are reading this post as being about Exeter but it’s referring to the University of Hertfordshire. And that’s Owen’s point. Less coverage about the axe falling there but it’s equally sad.

My son Eemil is about to begin his studies at Rotterdam Business School this autumn. If you know someone in the region who needs a trusty tenant, please let me known! Anything in a commutable range would definitely be fine, Eemil has already extended his search to Delft, Gouda and Dordrecht.