Please write to your MPs. All this questionable data and denying access to data is rife across #UKHE, and the Department for Education likes to hide in plausible deniability. Make that impossible. Suggested template to get you going: docs.google.com/document/d/e...

John Heathershaw@jheathershaw.bsky.social · 4d ago

I never thought that I would have to write this piece about my university. But after weeks of demonstrating privately to senior managers that their case is based on a false prospectus, that their data are inaccurate and their claims misleading, there was little choice. substack.com/@lucasamin/n...

Thank you @casmudde.bsky.social for your solidarity with colleagues here at Exeter and other institutions suffering from destructive management.

C🅰️S Ⓜ️UDDE@casmudde.bsky.social · 2d ago

Higher education is far from perfect but neither illiberalism nor neoliberalism has addressed the imperfections. Instead, they are destroying many of the aspects of higher education that did work well.

Behind 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...

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

I never thought that I would have to write this piece about my university. But after weeks of demonstrating privately to senior managers that their case is based on a false prospectus, that their data are inaccurate and their claims misleading, there was little choice. substack.com/@lucasamin/n...

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

substack.com

A piece reflecting on kleptocracy in the context of Kazakhstan, the UK, and Animal Farm. "Napoleon the king pig needs lackeys like Squealer. Every corrupt leader needs their enablers. Many Kazakh kleptocrats have their British professional service providers." www.seenandunseen.com/kleptocrats-...

The kleptocrats you will always have with you? | Seen & Unseen

seenandunseen.com

Or… he could admit that the landmark global conference (on illicit finance) that he promised before Keir Starmer entered Downing Street has still not happened. Why is the British state so good at rapid reaction and so bad at following through on promises?

Chatham House@chathamhouse.org · 3w ago

"I think that history will write up the Keir Starmer period as tremendously strong on foreign relations." Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy discussed the legacy of Keir Starmer's premiership at our 2026 London Conference.

Thank you @petergeoghegan.bsky.social for your solidarity with @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social academics

Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 3w ago

"It’s a gamble based on dodgy data and questionable assumptions." Must read dispatch from @jheathershaw.bsky.social on the assault on the humanities at Exeter University, and across English HE. Appalling, and wrong headed johnheathershaw.substack.com/p/the-price-...

Like, "a bunch of clever people discussing climate change in an air-conditioned room while it is 38 outside. An air of exchanging Oxford wisdom while few academics outside Oxbridge can count their jobs as safe. An air of fiddling while Exeter burns." www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hous...

The House of Lords fiddled while Exeter burns

At last week’s HE debate, a host of Oxford-associated grandees made the usual points while the sector continued to melt down, says Andrew McRae

timeshighereducation.com

We met yesterday at chapel to pray for everyone affected by the job cuts. I wrote up my reflections on how the university assesses the work of its academics. open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...

The Price of Some Things and the Value of Others

There is very little evidence of humanity in the process used by the University of Exeter to cut its academic staff. But hope is found in steadfastness and solidarity, mercy and love.

open.substack.com

I found time this morning to write down some considered ideas about how we got into this mess at UK universities. I discuss government neglect, university mismanagement, and the general problem of relying on management and strategy from the top down. johnheathershaw.substack.com/p/the-crisis...

The Crisis in Britain’s Universities

The cuts that have been proposed at the University of Exeter demonstrates the crisis of purpose in Britain’s universities. Should not universities also be places to prepare for "eternal dwellings"?

johnheathershaw.substack.com

THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER PLANS TO CUT NEAR 25% OF HASS ACADEMICS - BUT NEAR 25% OF ITS PAY COSTS ARISE FROM HIGHLY PAID MANAGERS WHO ARE EXEMPT FROM THE REDUNDANCIES In the last 5 yrs, the Exeter has been cutting costs to the bone while overseeing a vast increase in highly paid staff. [1/8]

My university is cutting almost a 1/4 of academics in humanities and the social sciences. Despite what managers say, it's not about the money. They are using a national crisis born of 15 yrs of govt neglect as a pretext to make ideological moves against HASS fields. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff

The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".

bbc.co.uk

The number of American intelligence officials with curious and sometimes offshire links to Russia is notable. One would think suchb appointments might indicate that Trump's business networks are deeply tied to Russia. But that would be preposterous!! Oh wait... www.icij.org/investigatio...

Trump intelligence adviser previously helped father pursue millions from Kremlin-linked bank, leaked documents show - ICIJ

Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, who recently stepped down from two senior administration posts, was serving as a CIA officer during the dispute.

icij.org

2 days left in the Yale UP sale with 50% off books including Dictators Without Borders! Just £7. This pbk edition has an epilogue on Trump (written in 2018). Maybe even we are surprised at the extent to which Trump has adopted kleptocratic & authoritarian practices. yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Dictators Without Borders - Yale University Press London

A penetrating look into the unrecognized and unregulated links between autocratic regimes in Central Asia and centers of power and wealth throughout the West...

yalebooks.co.uk

Things look grim. But hope can be found in exposing and confronting this mess. open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...

What keeps me awake at night?

Speaking to the University of Exeter Grand Challenges on 1 June 2026, I try to find hope in the exposure of and response to some of the darkest stories of global politics.

open.substack.com

JOIN US! Conducting Research on Illicit Finances & Professional Enablers Date: 16 June 2026 Venue: Public Library, Maqsut Narikbayev University, Astana With @tenaprelec.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Conducting Research on Illicit Finances & Professional Enablers

Research Seminar: Conducting Research on Illicit Finances & Professional Enablers This seminar will provide participants with insights into contemporary research on illicit financial flows, financial ...

docs.google.com

“The task facing a mature society is to adapt its methods of financing universities to sustaining the purposes for which such institutions exist – rather than, as at present, the other way round.” www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities

The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...

lrb.co.uk

Really enjoyed reading and writing up some thoughts on @lkatfield.bsky.social excellent book Furious Minds. She brilliantly demonstrates the perils of ideas-first determinism. I was especially interested in how the Christian Right has been corrupted. open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...

The Faithful and the Furious: A review of Laura Field’s "Furious Minds"

A book on the MAGA New Right demonstrates the pitfalls of ideas-first political thinking and how conservative Christian intellectuals have been corrupted by fantasies of power.

open.substack.com

open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...

The Bright Side and the Rise of the Far Right

The Far Right feeds on fear. In a guest post, Carolyn Whitnall shows how it also relies on the power of "positive thinking". True hope begins in everyday acts of lament and compassion.

open.substack.com

@kevinhargaden.bsky.social "What we find in all of these interactions is not a surplus of religiosity but its deficit. Trump’s depiction of himself with a transfigured glow bringing about miraculous healing rightfully strikes people as egotistical, not faithful." 👍 www.jcfj.ie/2026/04/24/t...

The Pope, the President, and the “Post-Secular” - Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice in Ireland

“The Pope is weak on crime.” At first glance, one struggles to make sense of it. How can it be that this is something that the American President has said – published, indeed – in an attack on Leo XIV...

jcfj.ie

I wrote about Trump’s “empty words” and the reckoning that American evangelicals who have supported him face as his emptiness is unveiled. open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...

Empty Words and their Exposure

It is not the immorality or strategic incompetence of Trump that will bring him down but his emptiness. It is the Christian apocalyptic task to recognise and expose it.

open.substack.com

Comparing the 1st and 3rd gulf wars is comparing the strategic to the moronic. economist.com/united-state...

The terrible occasion of another war in the Middle East occuring over Holy Week might cause us to reflect on that war’s utter pointlessness. open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...

The Iran War in Holy Week

How might the gospel’s account of Holy Week cast light upon the war in Iran and give us hope that it is the Prince of Peace who is driving history?

open.substack.com

📣 New #GIACE blog! @jheathershaw.bsky.social argues we need a legal conception of kleptocracy fit our current era of personalist global politics where transnational inter-elite relations and illicit activity have been revealed to span Epstein, Putin, and Gulf monarchies.

Kleptocracy has gone global - our laws haven’t

John Heathershaw argues that we need a legal conception of kleptocracy fit for the kind of transnational inter-elite relations and illicit activity that we see in the era of Epstein, Putin, and Gulf m...

bit.ly

We need a legal conception of kleptocracy fit for the kind of transnational inter-elite relations and illicit activity that we see in the era of Epstein, Putin, and Gulf monarchies. giace.org/kleptocracy-...

Kleptocracy has gone global - our laws haven’t

John Heathershaw argues that we need a legal conception of kleptocracy fit for the kind of transnational inter-elite relations and illicit activity that we see in the era of Epstein, Putin, and Gulf m...

giace.org

Doing things neither because they are beneficial for the country, nor because they are just, but because they are popular...

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 5mo ago

Would you support or oppose increasing the amount of time that migrants have to live in the UK before they are legally entitled to stay on a permanent basis? Support: 53% (+3 from Feb 2025) Oppose: 28% (-1) yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...

Some thoughts from an extraordinary week in Ukraine. johnheathershaw.substack.com/p/five-thing...

Five Things I Learnt From a Week in Ukraine

War is devastating but also transformative. The Ukrainian church is building peace amidst the ruins. The global church must continue to stand with them.

johnheathershaw.substack.com

There are so many parallels between the Epstein files and data leaks concerning oligarch and kleptocrat “money laundering”. One thing is the importance of private school fees. For both Epstein and the kleptos it is about networks of influence. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/n...

One of Epstein’s Levers of Power: Access to Elite Private Schools

nytimes.com

I would encourage anyone who thinks that the US-Israeli attack on Iran is about geopolitics and security dilemma to think again. It’s best understood as the threat perceptions, economic interests & strongman ideology of a small number of males who have unrealistic views about the utility of force.

On the mystery of lawlessness in world politics and the biblical-theological origins of the idea of a “balance of power“. open.substack.com/pub/johnheat...

Who or what restrains evil? The abuse and better use of 2 Thessalonians’ katechon

The biblical concept of the katechon has been abused for poilitical purposes. Sound exegesis and political history confirm those that restrain evil are often also lawless.

open.substack.com