Andrew McRae
@mcraeandrew.bsky.social
English prof, Uni of Exeter. Prone to talk about UK politics, higher education policy, the 17th century, the excellence of English studies, & Aussie sports.
The government’s transphobic statutory guidance is now in force, telling organisations that provide services they can no longer be trans inclusive. This will have a devastating impact on the everyday lives of trans people. So we’re backing a legal challenge against it: https://goodlaw.social/pmbo
We’re supporting a legal challenge against the code of practice | Good Law Project
The government’s transphobic statutory guidance is now up and running – we’re fighting back
goodlaw.social
📢PROJECT UPDATE📢 You may have seen the news that the University of Exeter, home of the wills project, has placed 500 academics at risk of redundancy. The project leader Prof. Jane Whittle & project co-investigator Dr Laura Sangha are both at risk, alongside almost all of the History department. 1/
That Joshua Bonehill-Paine is a suitable Tory candidate but Grant Shapps and Gavin Barwell have been excluded is quite a good indicator of how many seats the Tories will realistically regain at the next election.
These people are criminal thugs and should be treated as such.
Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · yesterdayLeaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
Good to see science and universities bundled into the same analysis rather than treated as separate entities (as they are by their dismemberment in separate government departments). But it would be QUITE NICE if 'science' could be construed in the European sense of science. It's not STEM alone.
Time for Andy Burnham to smile on UK science
Waning support for basic research threatens Britain’s technology ambitions
ft.com
"There's a real thing going on in the composition of the staff...does that not have to be looked at as well?" Nick Robinson, on Today, discussing this news.sky.com/story/nhs-st...
Patients refusing to be treated by non-white staff as NHS reports shocking rise in racism
Paul Awah, a Bedfordshire-based diagnostic radiographer originally from Nigeria, said: "It's definitely got worse – people are more expressive."
news.sky.com
Odd how this becomes the BBC’s lead story, with no recognition that Russia is targeting civilians daily. Not the first time the BBC has done this, either. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Russia says seven killed and 40 injured by Ukrainian drone hitting busy beach
Three children were killed when the drone crashed at a popular resort on the Black Sea.
bbc.co.uk
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
Lowest number of graduate job openings since 2020. This is a core labour market problem that universities cannot fix, but routinely get the blame for.
UK graduate job openings fall to lowest level since pandemic
Indeed’s findings point to challenge facing Andy Burnham to boost youth unemployment and cut welfare bill
ft.com
It’s important to understand that when 1.2 million Americans are dying from a disease, any government action is excessive and tyrannical, but if a dozen trans women want to play soccer no government action can go far enough
Perimeters, not parameters. An excursion, not an incursion. Six genders, not cisgender. Insane asylums, not asylum. Transgender mice, not transgenic mice. The IQ of a potato.
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 agoSo 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 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
‘The financial data and/or strategic rationale are the starting/reference point from which we are proposing these changes.’ Folks, this is a genuine sentence, on which 153 academic jobs hang. #DefendExeterUni
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
hello hivemind. I’ve a wild plan to stage an apprentice riot from the 1590s, as part of a public practice-as-research event. unfortunately the original location, Tower Hill, is a no go. can anyone suggest venues with outdoor spaces (preferably London) that might be open to this sort of thing?
Hmmm. Many STEM scientists argue that science isn't and shouldn't be political, a view many in Humanities and Social Sciences view with great scepticism. Big literatures on this. But should we really be using Jodrell Bank to argue for a more politically-inflected science policy at UKRI? Really?
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 5d agoThe new UkGov "may be more willing to hold UKRI to account for its specific prioritisation decisions based on the reality that they are political choices with political consequences". 🤞 #SaveUKAstronomy #SaveJodrellBank
I always wondered what it would take for the Telegraph to decide there might be a downside to climate breakdown. Well, now we know. Even so, this article manages not to mention it.
'Strip away the grandiose language and a pattern emerges – some combination of fewer, larger modules, almost always wedges of 30 credits, an all-core or heavily prescribed first year, reduced optionality in later years, curated pathways instead of individual module choice... [cont.] 1/4
Curriculum reform is a wedge issue
With curriculum reform converging on fewer, larger modules across the sector, Jim Dickinson argues that consolidation solves institutional problems while reallocating regret onto students least able t...
wonkhe.com
The sec of state who has seen at least 15000 academics lose their jobs just said this. Out loud. Mercy me. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘It hurts to lose a job you love’: Starmer loyalist Bridget Phillipson fights on despite cabinet demotion
Exclusive: The former education secretary on her new role as Labour chair and continuing as the minister for women and equalities
theguardian.com
a must read gift link here 🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...
Opinion | Why Do We Tolerate Elon Musk’s Racist Commentary? (Gift Article)
Why does the owner of X get a pass for what he says and does there?
nytimes.com
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · last wk.BOUIE: ".. Musk spends a large part of his free time fomenting violence and spreading .. hateful ideology .. ".. It is that fact, and not the cars he builds or the rockets he launches, that ought to define his place in public life." @jamellebouie.net www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...
Please read and read again this stunning reflection on what’s happening at Exeter — and on the personal cost (for far too many and for far too long) of struggling to uphold the humanities within a system bent on grinding them down and squeezing them out. #DefendExeterUni
Lizzy Williamson@lizzywilliamson.bsky.social · last wk.Also the feeling, currently being lived painfully and angrily by hundreds of academic and academic units across the UK including at Exeter, when you've worked sedulously and very effectively for years to attain research and/or teaching excellence, only to be at risk of sweeping redundancy.
University of Exeter Special Collections@exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social · last wk.The feeling when you've been looking at a handwritten document for an hour and you still can't read THAT word...! This illustration of a sea monster can be found in our sixteenth-century atlas of the counties of England and Wales by Christopher Saxton. 📷 Rare books B 1590/SAX/XX
Excellent point about BBC's Burnham interview
Robert Saunders@robertsaunders.bsky.social · last wk.It's noticeable, too, that there wasn't a single question on the climate, at a time when Europe is experiencing catastrophic wild-fires & record-breaking heat. It's astonishing how low down the political agenda this remains in Britain, when all the environmental indicators are signalling disaster.
