We will- I have no doubt- look back at this as one of the greatest scandals of our time. It he killing of the golden goose for the UK. A destruction of one of the most profitable and successful sectors.Yet, for now all politicians have their head in the sand on this one… A critically important read.

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

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...

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

We are now moving from the chronic to the acute phase of the university crisis. The next few months will be vital in seeing what can be saved and what is too far gone. www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/stateme...

British Academy President: UK higher education crisis risks irreversible damage

As course closures, shrinking provision and widening regional inequalities threaten the future of UK higher education and research, President of the British Academy, Susan J Smith calls for an immedia...

thebritishacademy.ac.uk

Ira Noveck, about to deliver his plenary talk at ESPP, in Utrecht. #linguistics #philosophy #ESPP

It's not the worst aspect of the University of Exeter news, but the fact that the scale, focus and timing of the planned redundancies came as such a shock to staff says something quite fundamental about the staff of staff/management relations in UK HE today. Where is respect? Collegiality? Teamwork?

poleaxed

1. past simple and past participle of poleaxe 2. to hit someone so hard that…

dictionary.cambridge.org

Petition against redundancies at Exeter. Humanities and Social Sciences staff are hardest hit, with 25% of posts in subjects including History, English, Modern Languages and Politics slated to be cut.

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

It’s bizarre really that so much debate is had on banning young people from social media, when things like the Farage riots demonstrate that the vast majority of people who should be banned are grown adults.

Why is the universities crisis being ignored? Essential piece by @gsoh31.bsky.social for Arguably on the “grim dribbling away of one of Britain's great triumphs and economic advantages” – and why so few politicians seem to care. www.arguably.uk/p/the-quiet-...

The quiet collapse of British universities

One of our great triumphs and economic advantages is fading away

arguably.uk

Last year, we shared a paper showing that Labour's accommodation of the radical right did not work. We now have a new version of the paper online: osf.io/preprints/so...

Regressive policies aimed at discouraging international students from choosing the UK have led to a funding crisis for universities, and devastating job losses are now in prospect. Our world-class institutions should not be losing world-class staff like this. Govt must welcome students again.

Chris Havergal@chrishavergal.bsky.social · 2mo ago

University of Sussex planning to cut ~200 more jobs, with 500 having already taken voluntary redundancy www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sussex-... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social

Quite a lot of defending universities in their true sense (critical & innovative research & teaching) seems to hinge on convincing society that not everything can be reduced to profit. Which makes it all the more vital to preserve these institutions as a counterweight www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

This is an unforgivably stupid situation. It is an astonishing own goal to try and drive student numbers down to move an immigration number that in turn is totally ignored by the anti-immigrant head bangers.

Giles Wilkes@gilesyb.bsky.social · 2mo ago

UK universities cut jobs, research and teaching amid squeeze in overseas students - www.ft.com/content/ded7... I don't really understand why any administration would not try to reverse the fall in overseas student numbers, but I guess I'm a naive liberal

Very good on why the uk is in its current mess. (Like Wren-Lewis I think George Osborne is causally responsible for brexit - also Nick Clegg, therefore.)

Simon Wren-Lewis@sjwrenlewis.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New post: Why Labour's current disarray is ultimately the consequence of Osborne’s austerity mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/05/why-... The media's belief that 2010 austerity was necessary led to Corbyn's victory, which then led to Starmer's Blue Labour and their subsequent polling disaster.

2,700 in limbo for months, with more than 600 expected to lose their jobs. Having been at risk of redundancy last year, I can’t imagine the impact of so many feeling so insecure and devalued. Cruel and destructive. Solidarity to all.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo ago

Thousands of University of Nottingham staff told they are at risk of redundancy

this post was a great articulation of why we teach, and especially why we teach subjects that students might not go on to "use" (a highly suspicious word). It's also why students should take classes in a variety of fields, to learn new ways of thinking, not necessarily to learn new information

Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 3mo ago

new blog post about, like. why i teach syntax, i guess. may be a little bit inside baseball, curious about your thoughts kconrod.medium.com/build-me-a-b...

Great post, the majority of which will be incomprehensible to non-linguists, with a beautiful brilliant final paragraph about the point of universities (I think)

Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 3mo ago

new blog post about, like. why i teach syntax, i guess. may be a little bit inside baseball, curious about your thoughts kconrod.medium.com/build-me-a-b...

Yet more evidence that the post-2012 funding model for universities has been a complete and utter disaster, piling resources into poor quality provision, allowing the top institutions to cannibalise those just below then pulling the rug from under the whole system once its failings became obvious

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The problem(s) with Business. Interesting to see (at last!) a reference to cross-subsidisation (how else did they think the lights were staying on after years of under-funding?). Also good in asking the question: what is/are the alternative(s), for HEIs & students. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Free speech is being demanded of universities. I think there’s a misunderstanding of education at the heart of these concerns, and focus on academic freedom would be more helpful. Blog post: #highereducation matthewbarnard.phd/posts/2026-0...

Free Speech and the University · Matthew J. Barnard

Matthew J. Barnard

matthewbarnard.phd

#caturday #catsofbluesky

Bloody hell. Researchers invented a disease, published two fake papers to see if LLM’s would ingest them and kick them up as fact — and then it broke containment and all the major AI’s bought in. Information pollution. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I very rarely do petitions, but please sign this one. Reverse the visa brake on Study Visas for citizens of Myanmar. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...

The US military has 22 sites in the UK. Every day long range US bombers are taking off here to drop bombs on Iran. This is a rogue state carrying out war crimes, and threatening more. The UK Government must grow a spine - and stop our bases being used for this war.

A devastating read. Some of the personal stories behind the Conservative and Labour government's haphazard pivots between encouraging universities to attract international students and making Britain a less appealing place for them. www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK

The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

theguardian.com

Another war crime by Israel and the USA. An important place for free, independent philosophy of science in Iran destroyed by criminal bombing. #philsci

Justin Weinberg@dailynous.com · 4mo ago

A top university in Iran was bombed earlier today. The university "housed a Department of Philosophy of Science, an extraordinary effort to [build a] bridge between philosophy, science, and technology"

Quiet night in.

America not being a signatory to a number of treaties does not mean that international law does not exist. The US is conducting clear war crimes, and boasting about it. They should be treated as a pariah state. They definitely shouldn't be getting a Royal visit.

This critique is accurate but misses the main point - as so many accounts of politics do: the ideological context. These consultants are a symptom of the problem, not the cause. They are only so powerful because neoliberal ideology has captured our universities. 1/2

Management consultants are ruining UK universities

Relentless off-the-peg commercial rewiring has undermined British higher education

ft.com

The vital importance of immigrants to a democracy is not just as sources of cheap labor, population replenishment, or as conveyors of culture, capital, & skills (‘good immigrants’), but because immigrants fight for–and model for everyone–the right to have rights. Thank you, Wong Kim Ark. 6/6