UKHE - despite all its bosses are doing - has brilliance in research+ teaching, sustains communities+ understanding, and offers opportunities to staff + students that go far beyond the (actually massive) contribution to local employment + development. The losses are human. We keep challenging 💪🏼

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · 3d ago

Definitely the case here. In two weeks we find which 9 of 12 in my group will be gone. The other 3 will then have a month to prepare and find hourly-paid replacements for all the classes across two degrees. And supervise 25 PhDs. Plus admin and pastoral care and research. Management doesn’t care.

Definitely the case here. In two weeks we find which 9 of 12 in my group will be gone. The other 3 will then have a month to prepare and find hourly-paid replacements for all the classes across two degrees. And supervise 25 PhDs. Plus admin and pastoral care and research. Management doesn’t care.

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

If you're arriving at uni this autumn, or maybe dropping your kids, remember that there could be a ghostly phalanx of absent redundant staff, lost modules and degraded degrees making it a very unhappy place. It may *look* the same, but it won't *be* the same. www.ft.com/content/e5b0...

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)

Where's the righteous anger the news about Exeter has engendered? Where are the think pieces about learning loss and unconscionable redundancies? The problem will never be understood or *addressed* if we do not, collectively, respond to the full scale of it.

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)

I never thought I'd live in a world where Amnesty International would dishonor itself by capitulating to transphobes.

Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 5d ago

Amnesty have issued an apology to JK Rowling and the rest. Adjust your expectations, and donations, accordingly www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/an-ap...

Yes, the relative silence of UK university leadership amidst what can only be described as a (self-destructive) assault on the sector by this government is quite astounding. Good on Larry for speaking out with clarity and force.

Ben Ansell@benansell.bsky.social · 4d ago

Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.

I've never seen a more incredible series of own goals than the last fifteen years of UK higher education policy. If the stupidity of the decade-long annual funding freeze/real-terms cuts had been properly communicated I think people would be rightly horrified.

Ben Ansell@benansell.bsky.social · 4d ago

Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.

There are 2 constraints on academics: the cuts in funding & restrictions on how universities manage their finances combined with a growing demand for more reporting of how they spend the monies. The 1st restricts the pie, the 2nd raises bureaucratic costs. Both stem from a deep suspicion of academia

Ben Ansell@benansell.bsky.social · 4d ago

Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.

Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.

Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says

LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance

ft.com

Please sign this UK government petition to compel AI companies to reveal whose books they used to train their data petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...

Petition: Protect creators' rights: require AI firms to disclose training data

We ask the Government to introduce a statutory duty requiring AI developers to disclose the copyrighted works used to train generative AI in enough detail for creators to identify use of their work, e...

petition.parliament.uk

"Fifty-two per cent of students have noticed cost-cutting, and 83 per cent of those say it changed the experience they were promised."

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

'On Tuesday the government published its response to the Education Committee’s report on higher education funding and the threat of insolvency. It’s 37 pages...read quickly, amount to a department competently batting away an inconvenient select committee.' 1/2

"The one instrument that forced a provider to commit, in a published document, to a substantive statement of the risks its students face [...] is being retired at the exact moment the risks are highest, and replaced with process text that nobody outside the institution can verify."

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

'On Tuesday the government published its response to the Education Committee’s report on higher education funding and the threat of insolvency. It’s 37 pages...read quickly, amount to a department competently batting away an inconvenient select committee.' 1/2

“Of the promises made when OfS was created, the ones that protected the sector’s reputation & the Treasury’s balance sheet have been kept meticulously. The ones that protected students have been dropped one by one, & this week’s response is the first document in which that is not drift but doctrine”

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

'On Tuesday the government published its response to the Education Committee’s report on higher education funding and the threat of insolvency. It’s 37 pages...read quickly, amount to a department competently batting away an inconvenient select committee.' 1/2

My dept is about to be reduced to 3 people covering 3 separate disciplines. The 25 PhD students will be left bereft of adequate supervision numerically and in terms of expertise. The government has decided that they should have no recourse (music to my university’s ears).

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago

'Read it on a substantial train delay – alongside the promises made to students when the Office for Students (OfS) was created – it is something much worse. It is the formal expiry of the deal that was supposed to make marketisation safe for the people paying for it.' 2/2

So much misinformation being spread on tiktok about the new EHRC Code by seemingly well meaning cis people who simply have not read a single thing trans people have been saying about this code or bathroom bills in general, and it's all being amplified by terrified and misinformed trans people.

Church in Wales says trans rights. I did not see this coming, brought me to tears & I'm not even a christian

Anupama Ranawana@msamrc.bsky.social · 3w ago

Incredible statement from the Church in Wales on the ignominious Code of Practice: "The Church in Wales will not use equality law exemptions to exclude trans people from our worship, our sacraments, our pastoral care, or our common life." www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/news-and-...

Vice-Chancellor of University of Bristol (salary £312,251): “I take a really personal view on this. My oldest daughter is the only child in my family who really is making a very significant amount of money.”

Elspeth Van Veeren@evanveeren.bsky.social · 3w ago

Another excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

"[N]early 4,000 academic posts in social sciences, humanities and the arts have been axed in one year alone. In the 12 months to December 2024, just under 3,000 social sciences, 820 humanities and 240 arts jobs went. All but 110 were in non-Russell Group universities, reducing student choice..."

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

tinyurl.com

In addition to today's data on staffing in UK HE, @britishacademy.bsky.social has produced several briefings, including one on the very significant decline in early career academics, 2012-24: bit.ly/4wGBTcl History has seen a 32% decline in early career staff numbers since 2012/13 #Skystorians 1/2

See also this new research which shows the vital role universities play in supporting place-based growth and innovation around the creative industries pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

Creative Clusters, Geography and University-Industry Links - Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre

This new report provides updated estimates on the spatial distribution of creative industries activity at the regional and cluster level.

pec.ac.uk

So a key question now is whether the new @andyburnham.bsky.social led administration will take the higher education funding crisis seriously as a threat to his aspirations around regional growth and skills…

‘The British Academy’s analysis also found that regional cold spots were accelerating, and some subjects were now virtually impossible to access at less selective universities... With more than 1,000 further job losses proposed at Russell Group universities… these cold spots will only increase.’

‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

theguardian.com

Amnesty International put out a major report documenting the influence of UK based anti trans gender critical organizations and their funding. Within hours, GC groups threatened defamation lawsuits and Amnesty was forced to pull it down. Proving the point they're anti rights. Anyways, here it is.

Think it's now fair to say that Britain's Higher Education system has descended into complete chaos. If it were a nation-state the IMF and the World Bank would be in and politics would be in a clearly pre-revolutionary situation. Instead nothing is done, and no-one even cares really. (1/2)

TERFs are attempting to infiltrate Mermaids by applying for their Trustee vacancies, in an attempt to sabotage the organisation from within. Please apply if you are able to, to prevent this: mermaidsuk.org.uk/jobs/

Jobs - Mermaids

Please do not send speculative CVs. Any vacancies will be updated here. See our Candidate Privacy Notice here. We’re Mermaids. We’ve been supporting trans, non-binary and gender-questioning children a...

mermaidsuk.org.uk

Another week, another round of news stories condemning the choices made by our administration. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Cutting language courses puts social mobility at risk, say UK experts

Exclusive: University moves and falling exam entries fuel concerns about opportunities for working-class pupils

theguardian.com

Both The Guardian and Times Higher Education are highlighting the devastating effects that closing our modern languages courses will have on the UK and the midlands. A similar argument can be made for every one of our courses on the chopping block. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cold-sp...

‘Cold spot’ fears over Nottingham language cuts

Plans to close courses would have national impact, politicians write in letter urging university to reconsider

timeshighereducation.com

Nottingham is the only Russell Group university that will have no modern language provision at all. The East Midlands is becoming a language cold spot. It's not too late to reverse the cuts and closures. @uonucu.bsky.social has a fully-costed plan to save our university.

Onni Gust@onnigust.bsky.social · last mo.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

As is my wont, here is a link to my lecture on Tuesday for accessibility and for people who will miss it. It's a work in progress, so you might see words changing as you read them. Feel free to comment! #IMC2026 @imc-leeds.bsky.social docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Disability and Embodied Difference in Ljósvetninga saga - Yoav Tirosh - Leeds IMC 7th July 2026

Disability and Embodied Difference in Ljósvetninga saga - Yoav Tirosh - Leeds IMC 7th July 2026 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7941-7092 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yoav-Tirosh https://www.linke...

docs.google.com