Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of @durham.ac.uk - this is University College, which occupies the castle If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm
Liz Morrish
@lizmorrish.bsky.social
UK independent scholar. Critical University Studies. Fascinated by US politics. Tweets mostly about Higher Ed issues. Open Water swimmer. Blog https://academicirregularities.wordpress.com/
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 agoIf 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...
Segregated lunch counters at the National Gallery, reflecting the ethnicisation of outsourced, low-paid jobs. Disgusting behaviour. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
National Gallery security staff segregated like ‘second-class citizens’, curator claims
Exclusive: Outsourced guards, largely from ethnic minority backgrounds, barred from staff hub for mainly white employees
theguardian.com
“When corruption is the very foundation of a regime, those who battle it are extremists.” - Navalny
Between the 1970s and 1990s the UK state made a strategic bet to expand Higher Ed. They poured in untold billions of your money. Now it's been handed over to private creditors to burn in a furnace. Then they just laugh at you: at all the taxes you've ever paid or will ever pay. True story. (2/2)
They subpoenaed an 85-year-old man who has testified before Congress 250 times. They published his private diary first. Then screamed profanity at him for not talking. Six years of investigation. Zero charges. This is what having nothing looks like. www.JackHopkinsNow.com
I reserve the right: A) to laugh at the Tory party because they're awful and the Tories failing is funny B) to be deeply alarmed about the collapse of the centre right and rise of the far right We can't have every election be a game of Russian roulette with our democracy
Danielle Blake SUPPORTER OF ARSENAL FC, CHAMPIONS@abradacabla.bsky.social · 5d agoOn both sides of the pond you get responses like this to people correctly saying “hey given that liberals can’t win every election forever, we really need a non-extremist right of centre party here” because they can’t see past the ends of their noses.
And I imagine the university will still demand loyalty from these 'employees'. Sunderland U has sold its soul.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 6d agoAnother one bites the dust. All new Sunderland casual tutors employed from 1 August will be ineligible for TPS, and employed by the University's wholly-owned subsidiary. UCU estimates this will save SU £36,000 this year while it will see savings going forward due to lower TPS costs of £3M p.a.
Another one bites the dust. All new Sunderland casual tutors employed from 1 August will be ineligible for TPS, and employed by the University's wholly-owned subsidiary. UCU estimates this will save SU £36,000 this year while it will see savings going forward due to lower TPS costs of £3M p.a.
Sunderland to employ junior staff through subsidiary firm
Union warns move will create ‘two-tier’ workforce and save university only £36k
timeshighereducation.com
just incredible to watch the US president take Iran's side when my state's water systems are under cyberattack
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a global conference www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
The terrible, stupid waste of UK universities policy continues. Your cash down the drain. www.irishnews.com/news/norther...
New Ulster University buildings will ‘sit gathering dust’ if job cuts go ahead, council told
Over 400 positions are set to go from April 2027 at Ulster University as it tackles £25m deficit
irishnews.com
The terrible, stupid waste of UK universities policy continues. Your cash down the drain. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/new-bri...
New British Academy fellows at risk in Exeter jobs cull
Being at the ‘top of your game’ no guarantee of job security, warns decorated historian now facing the chop
timeshighereducation.com
All I can do to help in the present existential crisis of Britain's universities is reiterate my evidence to the Commons Education Committee. There isn't anything else.
Jim Carrey's 'Good One' Laugh
ALT: Jim Carrey's 'Good One' Laugh
static.klipy.com
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.HANNITY: Elon Musk talked about Americans not even needing to save for your retirement like we have historically because of the abundance AI will create. Do you believe that? BESSENT: I do, but I think I would change the timeline. Elon is so far ahead of the curve
Somewhere a university academic is being told to "do more with less" by someone whose job title didn't exist two reorgs ago.
Found our motto here: “Very little achievement is required in order to pity another man's shortcomings.” George Eliot, Middlemarch
"It is as if academic staff and intellectual work have been designed out of the imposing atriums and glass-walled suites where ‘hot desking’, noise, distractions and the smell of colleagues’ food deter a presence at the workplace." Do nevertheless meet all deadlines & benchmarks or risk job loss.
Liz Morrish@lizmorrish.bsky.social · 2w agoTwo recent pieces analysing why universities are so far from being civic anchor institutions. (1) www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/uk-d...
UK devolution must extend to its authoritarian universities
Institutions whose managers are unaccountable to their staff can never be truly civic universities, says Krzysztof Nawratek
timeshighereducation.com
Much of the USA is a very hostile natural environment for human beings tamed by extensive and systematic public health efforts. And when they are relaxed …
Biff Whipster@biffwhipster.bsky.social · 2w agoI live in Texas, and right now we’ve got salmonella eggs, screw worm beef, typhus fleas, and diarrhea lettuce Are we great again yet?
Universities: Lights on, nobody home - New blogpost by Liz Morrish. #HigherEd #UKHE academicirregularities.wordpress.com/2026/07/23/u...
Universities: Lights on, Nobody Home
This piece is about the current mood of hopelessness in higher education. It is escalating rapidly as new cuts and redundancies are announced. And the consequences are now apparent on many campuses…
academicirregularities.wordpress.com
This piece is about the current mood of hopelessness in higher education. It is escalating rapidly as new cuts and redundancies are announced. And the consequences are now apparent on many campuses which have all the vibe of the Marie Celeste. Do universities have a future as anchor institutions in…
Universities: Lights on, Nobody Home
This piece is about the current mood of hopelessness in higher education. It is escalating rapidly as new cuts and redundancies are announced. And the consequences are now apparent on many campuses which have all the vibe of the Marie Celeste.
academicirregularities.wordpress.com
the new right makes men *undisguiseably* repellent then frames that as women's fault
The recent low point was having a beautifully-constructed introductory module abolished without our consent, followed by school managers presenting us with a ChatGPT-generated list of topics we could teach instead. Then they got angry that we weren’t impressed.
Sending ICE Agents to intimidate voters at polling places, declaring martial law to try to delay or cancel the election, seizing ballots-As he gets more desperate, there's nothing he won't do to try to save his pathetic orange ass. ALL states should preemptively prepare to defend Democracy! 🇺🇸 ✊
I keep seeing versions of this argument. Yet I am still waiting for it to be taken seriously by those institutions responsible for maintaining the humanities.
Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 3w agoWe need humanities more than ever in the age of AI ft.trib.al/SDdQK9q | opinion
“They’ve arrested more people for touching the peeling paint at the Reflecting Pool than they’ve arrested from the Epstein files.” @jamielynn261982.bsky.social
Hoodlum 🇺🇸@nothoodlum.bsky.social · last mo.PRIORITIES. 🙄
I want to take some time to unpack Trump's bonkers speech from last night. Some thoughts... https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-real-message-of-trumps-address
I just heard someone call Trump’s speech The Pettysburg address and now I have to go lie down 🤣🤣💀
If the head of US intelligence isn't able to say who won the election in 2020, then maybe he shouldn't be head of US intelligence.