“People who work in universities are feeling absolutely betrayed by being dragged into this conversation as if their contribution is not recognised.” Migrant staff put down roots, build lives and make an enormous contribution to our universities and communities.

this is all fine and good, but the Western media should really focus on why their governments are complicit in this shit. For instance, while all these were happening, the Turkish opposition was stonewalled by the UK Labour Party and their leader Özgür Özel repeatedly called Labour out on that.

Emily Wither@emilywither.bsky.social · 2w ago

In Turkey, opposition mayors, journalists, students and even comedians are increasingly finding themselves in court. My new doc investigates the crackdown, looks at how Turkey’s justice system evolved under Erdogan, & explores what space is left for free speech: www.bbc.com/audio/play/p...

If I were to count up how much of my own time I have spent as a precariously employed academic writing grant applications and paid myself minimum wage I could fund my research for a fair while. And all of that is time I didn’t spent doing actual research too. It’s so depressing being precarious.

Dr. Erika Graham-Goering@jeanneologist.bsky.social · 2w ago

For the record, "fewer larger grants" is the opposite of how to fund good research. Give a bunch of researchers financial stability and basic funding, without wasting their time on increasingly competitive applications and widening the have/have-not gap, and look how far we'll go.

Fewer, larger grants means narrowing the scope of research to a few pre-selected topics. Fewer, larger grants means wasting talent and having fewer eyes on the problem. Fewer, larger grants means losing steady, reliable progress. Fewer, larger grants means more pressure and more failure.

For the record, "fewer larger grants" is the opposite of how to fund good research. Give a bunch of researchers financial stability and basic funding, without wasting their time on increasingly competitive applications and widening the have/have-not gap, and look how far we'll go.

i don’t want “accelerated”, “increased-speed” or “fast-paced” research. in fact, am not interested in any shortcuts to mindful, intentional, and slow science

Nigel Farage is a grifter. He always has been and he's continuing to grift. He knew he was heading towards a byelection anyway so has pulled the trigger early. The people Vs the establishment?! Reform are literally part of the establishment.

data visualization is my passion.

Paris is cooking

I am once again begging universities to realise that staff - academic, professional services, estates, all of them - are the product they are trying to sell. Without staff there is nothing to sell. No amount of flashy buildings will replace staff in universities. UKHE is in freefall.

Discussing grind culture and the games industry on X. And unsurprisingly, 280 characters wasn’t enough, so I accidentally wrote an essay instead It’s about why I think we’ve started confusing self-sacrifice with professionalism. I hope people still read😅 open.substack.com/pub/troymccr...

The Games Industry Doesn’t Have a Talent Problem. It Has an Opportunity Problem.

How the games industry started confusing self-sacrifice with professionalism.

open.substack.com

“Palantir tracks everyone. So we built a site that tracks Palantir. They've been watching us. Now we can watch them. Contracts. Lawsuits. Executive pay. Global footprint. Lobbying activity. Media strategies. All in one place.”

A London bus stop. Seems accurate to me.

Up to half of FE lecturers walk away within three years. Not because they stopped caring but because the workload broke them. Chronic overwork. Escalating stress. No support. This is a workforce crisis.

This isn’t an internal battle over party leadership no matter how global media keeps framing it. Riot police stormed the CHP’s headquarters today, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at party members and supporters gathered outside. This is state violence against Turkey’s main opposition party.

Turhan Bozkurt@turhanbozkurt.bsky.social · 4mo ago

📢 Ankara Valisi'nin talimatının akabinde polis, CHP Genel Merkezi'ne böyle girdi.

This website shows you what your browser is leaking about you. sinceyouarrived.world/taken

taken.

A web page that tells you what your browser gave away the moment you arrived. No login, no form, no permission. Most pages do this. None of them tell you.

sinceyouarrived.world

Have to suspect that some of my erstwhile senior managers, who are usually so keen to turn every list into a league table, might be less keen to see how far up this one they have driven their institution.

A rambling: Capitalism is deeply rooted in the economic model created slavery by legitimising wealth extraction, labour exploitation. Enslaved Africans were accounted for in balance sheets as capital assets and created hoards of profit on plantations for the imperial power. 1/

Superb post! I fully resonate with this although my experience has had differences but plenty of common points. #UK #HigherEducation #AcademicChatter #AcademicSky

Dani Beck, PhD@danibeck.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I wrote a short piece on what funding and hiring committees often overlook when assessing merit. @academic-chatter.bsky.social

University staff : 1.4% pay rise Vice Chancellor: 5.6% pay rise This is University of Staffordshire -- but pattern is widespread across UK universities Executive pay up Staff pay down (in real terms) Goodwill & trust gone www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Strike threat over University of Staffordshire pay offer

The Unison union says it is balloting members on whether they will be prepared to go on strike.

bbc.co.uk

Labour is not the alternative to Reform, it's the gateway to it.

The Scales ⚖️@shakethescales.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Peter Mandelson advised the government to use Nigel Farage as "a bridgehead, both to President Trump & to Elon Musk. You can’t ignore him, he’s an elected member of parliament, a public figure. National interest is served in all sorts of weird & wonderful ways." Including legitimising fascists...

Higher Ed retaliation is real. The fact that so many survivors stay silent isn’t proof that it doesn’t happen—it’s proof of how well universities suppress it. 🪜 🎓 📜 🍎 ♀️ 👩🏾‍🔬 👩🏼‍🔬 👩🏾‍🎓 #PhDSky #Blackademia #AcademicChatter #AcademicSky #MeToo #HigherEd #PhDChat #TimesUpHigherEd

In the next days, we'll see Labour, Reform and the whole lot trying to decide whether the Greens are sectarian Islamists undermining Britain or reckless hippies who are attempting to force-feed the PM's son crack cocaine.

Think there might be some truth in this matrix... (creator: unknown)

This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition, The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance Iconic imo

Loving this. "Antirender" engine converts architects presentation drawings into the likely reality of the designs :) antirender.com

Harvard just opened an investigation into Larry Summers's ties to Epstein. That's just PR cover for Harvard. They've known this entire time. Epstein literally had an office at Harvard for years.

Last Sunday. #WeAreTheUniversity #UCU #UK #HigherEducation #AcademicChatter #AcademicSky

👏 "There are over four million kids in child poverty in the UK and there are four and a half million people who can't get a dentist appointment." "We spend 90% of the political capital and discourse and media focus discussing 37,000 people."

Happy Republic Day of Turkey ! Without the foundation of the Republic, there would not be academics from Turkey who made significant contributions to the world literature. #AcademicChatter #AcademicSky #HigherEducation