JustRoryDuncan
@profroryduncan.bsky.social
Lots of education, research, govt policy, funding, higher ed, teaching. Now I like helping people with this, and cooking, fermenting things, bread and stuff. https://www.duddingstonconsulting.co.uk
Pleased to see the UKRI commitment to people in their Strategy. £3.4m to the Collective Talent Fund and importantly; 1000 FLFs by 2030 (will be interesting to see if fellowship applications are decided faster, as promised for other schemes)
Interesting shifts in the UKRI Strategy 2026-30 and particularly in their Delivery Plan. When I worked with UKRI we argued for an expansionist system to absorb rising R&I budgets. The counter argument from some then that didn’t land was to focus on elite talent and organisations.
Licensing laws in England are in the news. My local: hold my pint
Flying boat. I assume Chinese, they’re so far advance compared to us.
When a PGR in Newcastle, I found myself bemused in a heated pub conversation about where the North began. Fellow students concluded Nottingham, mainly because someone was from there. I’m from Inverness, to me the North is Wick.
Literally awesome electrical storm over Edinburgh last night. I have the dentist first thing. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Back on my usual beach run and musing that when the sun is out it’s just as nice as southern Italy…
Fed up with the Scottish summer lately so took off on the spur of the moment to Puglia. Sunday morning church bells
Came across this bad boy on my evening walk. What a beauty
Interesting conclusions from the DfE. The committee confirming that international student recruitment has become operating capital sustaining the baseline university model - in other words, infrastructure finance. The Home Office thus hold key HE policy publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...
Higher Education and Funding: Threat of Insolvency and International Students
Report of the Education Committee
publications.parliament.uk
Leith docks in Edinburgh are dominated by huge wind turbine components arriving by sea. Here are some arrivals appearing over the horizon. In other breaking news, the earth doesn’t seem to be flat. Huge ship carrying wind farm parts docks in Leith www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Edinburgh tourist season not really yet in full swing and Arthur’s Seat is nearly as busy as the Everest summit
Worth a look. Conflation of ‘British’ with ‘English’ - the Scottish system is very different and arguably even more under pressure. Research not mentioned: cost recoveries are declining, adding to pressure. As said in the piece: the political responses, leading public misunderstanding, are pitiful.
Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 3mo agoI'm in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today looking at why so many unis are in financial trouble and what the government needs to do to save HE. observer.co.uk/news/columni...
Someone here linked to this recipe for lime pickle roast chicken… I tried it, it’s ace, would recommend www.theguardian.com/food/2026/ap...
Ottolenghi butter bean recipe is awesome, because of huge amounts of oil and garlic. I don’t imagine he thought of having Stornaway black pudding with it, but omg it’s good www.theguardian.com/food/2020/oc...
