Alex Prichard
@profalexp.bsky.social
Anarchism. A Very Short Introduction (https://tinyurl.com/54r98nv6), Constitutionalising Anarchy with Ruth Kinna (https://tinyurl.com/4y9pn3v4 coming soon). Uni Exeter, UCU, HEC Rep. UCU Commons. DM me re anything UCU UK-wide HE. I’m your rep. #ynwa
The government has effectively outsourced HE policy to consultants, including Nous, KPMG and others. At Exeter it’s Nous www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...
‘Nousferatu’: the notorious consultancy advising Edinburgh uni amid 'huge' cuts
Scotland’s largest university has turned to Nous Group at the same time as it is making savings that could lead to nearly 2,000 job losses. Staff say they were misled about the extent of its work.
theferret.scot
Harvard paid McKinsey a quarter of a mill to tell them to sack loads of people in Arts and Hums! Nice work if you can get it! 🤡 www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
Harvard Paid McKinsey $250,000 For FAS Consultation, Internal Documents Show | News | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard paid McKinsey & Company at least $250,000 to consult on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ staff restructuring efforts, according to internal documents obtained by The Crimson.
thecrimson.com
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
One rule for thee, and another for me? We are told the University of Exeter is at risk because of falling income, but management salaries & consultancy costs have risen markedly. What's going on? 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 am also in this faculty and, reader, it shows. UK unis are in their bullshit jobs era now: "In my faculty, six administrators support ten managerial roles at faculty level while another six administrators support departments with their 900 FTE academic staff who teach 10,000 students."
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
open.substack.com
A deeply destructive and inexpert management consultancy class has emerged whose sole purpose is to shrink Anglosphere universities and to undermine their future - all the better to secure more work. 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
It is unbelievably bad. Completely erasing Ukraine and completely reversing the pure aggression of Russia. It’s astonishingly bad.
Dr Anna Hájková@ankahajkova.bsky.social · 4d agoDiane Abbott’s naming of the Russian full scale war in Ukraine as “NATO campaign against Russia” is a disgrace. m.youtube.com/watch?v=SMBj...
@jheathershaw.bsky.social on the structural shift towards unaccountable managerialism in UK HE and the effects at Exeter. 👏🏻
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
open.substack.com
An excellent piece by colleagues pooled for redundancy at Exeter
What universities count – and what they cannot afford to ignore - HEPI
This blog was kindly authored by Anna Zimdars, Christopher Playford, Eve Worth, Luke Graham, Joanna Merrett and Joseph Crawford, members of the Centre for Social Mobility, University of Exeter. He tha...
hepi.ac.uk
Look at this fantastic new addition to the Contemporary Anarchist Studies series with MUP!! Congratulations to Rita Filanti! #voltarinedecleyre #anarchism
Answer to sub head: yes. Industrial strength with save HE, but more broadly, we need everyone to get stuck in. We can’t leave this sector to managers and wonks. They just don’t know how to consult and lead.
How to kill a university's reputation
After Exeter’s announcement that it will cut 150 academic jobs, is there any hope for higher education?
newstatesman.com
Good old Nige. Nice bloke down the pub Nige. Friendly, likes a laugh and a pint Nige. Open, honest, man of the people Nige. Eh? Eh? (His aggression & fragility when faced with the slightest of scrutiny just highlights how infrequently the press have bothered to do it for the last couple of decades)
Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 4w ago🚨 WATCH: Nigel Farage threatens a Sky News journalist who asks about his undeclared gifts from convicted criminal George Cottrell "You harass my family anymore, there will be serious consequences"
The UK govt is spending £1.2m a day (about £1.5bn total by 2028) supporting remnants of an inefficient, doomed, steel industry that employs under 40k people Meanwhile it throttles what was a vibrant, growing, internationally competitive HE sector that employs >440k Explain industrial policy to me
Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 4w agoThe Department for Education has confirmed that universities will receive £50.9 million less in teaching grants next academic year. Bridget Phillipson, the education minister has defended the reduction in light of tuition fee rises. https://ow.ly/6UWJ50ZkLlf
PSA, BISA and UACES joint letter in support of my own discipline at Exeter, currently facing decimation.
Letter of support: Proposed changes at the University of Exeter
Letter to the University of Exeter from PSA, BISA and UACES concerning proposed PIR redundancies.
bisa.ac.uk
A letter in The Times in defence of the humanities at Exeter. Exeter has a degree of social capital that other institutions do not, but also the scandal here is we’re not in deficit and have loadsa cash. So if this debate can compel a rethink on of the funding model for HE, I’ll be delighted
Pensions update from a UCU USS negotiator @bparsia.bsky.social
TL;DR: The (Good, for Once) TPS News
Note: While I (Bijan Parsia) have served on UCU's Superannuation Working Group and am now (2026-2027) an elected USS alternative negotiator, I am not a pensions expert per se, e.g., I'm neither a prof...
ucucommons.org
Jeffrey Epstein attempted to gather the best minds of science around him. His interests were rooted in a perverse, eugenic fantasy
A twisted breed
Jeffrey Epstein attempted to gather the best minds of science around him. His interests were rooted in a perverse, eugenic fantasy
newhumanist.org.uk
So much economic ‘planning’ reminds me of a proposal I once saw to reduce the university’s deficit by cutting 10% of the academic staff. I pointed out that they also generate 10% of the income and asked how the shortfall would be made up. (Much then was per capita funding.) The plan was dropped.
FOI the ever living shit out of EVERYTHING that even passed through the same room as this plan. www.exeter.ac.uk/departments/...
Info requests | Information Governance | University of Exeter
exeter.ac.uk
Alex Prichard@profalexp.bsky.social · last mo.@exeter.ac.uk is not in deficit, has £200m+ cash reserves, hasn’t invested in white elephants, doesn’t have a recruitment problem, never had 1000s of international students, and deliveres outstanding outcomes in teaching and research. If UEB’s data projects a deficit won’t they share it with UCU?
This is the third and easily most epic industrial dispute I’ve taken part in and led, and the workload is relentless, the emotional labour is intense, and the need to be alert and aware means I’m always ‘on’. But my Garmin tells me I’ve haven’t slept better in the entire time I’ve worn it!! #keepfit
@exeter.ac.uk is not in deficit, has £200m+ cash reserves, hasn’t invested in white elephants, doesn’t have a recruitment problem, never had 1000s of international students, and deliveres outstanding outcomes in teaching and research. If UEB’s data projects a deficit won’t they share it with UCU?
We just ran a branch meeting to pass a strike motion that attracted 707 members!!! I meant whaaaat?! And we passed the six amendments, and the motion itself in half an hour! WTF! And we had time for a discussion to close!!!! Boss chairing by yours truly and Michael Flexer. @exeterucu.bsky.social