Kelly Smith
@smithkj.bsky.social
Enterprise and entrepreneurship educator at the University of Birmingham. Art collector and greyhound guardian. PFHEA, Fellow and Life Fellow of EEUK, and Fellow of ISBE.
One of the first "outrageous" claims I saw as Jason Arday's media hounding unfolded was that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days! Wow! What a thing to claim! And the newspapers all suggested there was no evidence he actually did it. Well, they clearly didn't look very hard 🙄 🧵 1/26
Aside from the issue of courses closing so these students can't study what they want/need, I just find it incredibly sad that the formative experience of almost-independence is being denied to young people. Living in halls, negotiating with room mates, cooking for yourself, budgeting. Crucial skills
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · yesterday'Over 81,000 UK 18-year-olds said in their accepted university application that they intended to live at home this year, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) - just over one in three students in that category.' 1/2
“Hepi says most young full-time students now work in paid employment during term time to make up the difference between their maintenance loan income and the cost of living.“ In other words, they are not full-time students. Many are not even close.
More students planning to live at home for uni over 'insane' living costs
Students like Jessica say they worry about missing out on student life, but feel they have no choice but to stay at home.
bbc.com
If you ask someone today to name the builder of Hadrian's Wall, they would give you a funny look. But historical memory is odd, and right up to the 1800s we forgot who built it. Until in 1840 John Hodgson, an obscure Northumbrian clergyman, published the LONGEST footnote in history... 1/22
£6.3bn really is a huge gap for unis to fill on research each year It's sometimes said that's what QR is for, but QR is part of the calculation: without it the gap would be close to £9bn The biggest way that gap is filled is international student fees (yellow bar), but we all know how that's going
Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 5d agoAnnual research shortfall remains above £6bn at UK universities Institutions recovered 67 per cent of research costs in 2024-25, as concerns over sustainability grow www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Finished reading the hardback copy I got my husband this week and going to re-read the audio book to experience it again. Will make sure I’m not in company this time for the last few chapters so no one can see me sobbing. Would definitely recommend.
Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · last wk.NEWSFLASH/FUCK IT. I am giving away 5 signed copies of the paperback of my latest novel, Everything Will Swallow You. To enter, simply repost this & pop a reply below. You might like it if you like any of these things: Community Knitting Folklore The sea Dorset Silliness Old records CONTINUED...
Back in Southampton after an amazing holiday. Can’t wait to pick up Daz this afternoon and give him a cuddle. This is our last holiday without him. He loves dog camp and they obviously love him too but he’s getting old and increasingly tired.
This will likely result in widening participation going backwards w/fewer children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Britain attending universities, having less financial support when they do While I am v sympathetic to the financial situation, universities need to prioritise access & participation
The Guardian@theguardian.com · last wk.UK universities face ‘financial crisis’ amid collapse in international students
Many people are housed in hotels. Instead of asylum support hey get their food plus £9.95 per week. Most asylum seekers that we know dislike hotels.
It’s good to see a continuing rise in no. of disadvantaged students attending higher education. But less positively, there is no improvement in 2 of the most significant + longstanding gaps in participation. The 2 charts indicate no progress on tackling regional gaps or IMD quintile gaps.[2/3]
I have had an AMAZING day and it’s not over yet. Visited Santiago di Compostela and saw the Portico of Glory. Watched a total eclipse of the sun at sea. And dolphins have just been playing under our window in the ship’s wake. Now waiting for it to go dark to see if we can see some shooting stars.
what if i do not want to be optimized. what if i want to make mistakes because that’s how you learn; what if i want to do nothing sometimes, what if i want a world that is weird and challenging and has mysteries left to reveal. what if i like taking the long way
I started including a session on procurement, tendering and bidding in entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship modules a good number of years ago now. Pleased I did! I didn’t see it in any textbooks on the topics but felt it was important.
Ben Paxton@drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 3w agoHealey and Haigh have asked ministers how they will use procurement as a "strategic lever to deliver innovation and growth in every postcode" (as per @lucyfisher.ft.com). New comment from me on some of the answers departments should give www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/andy...
#AcademicSky #PsychSciSky Writing a paper now. Seeing links in the literature I'd not seen before. Feel like a detective! Sorry, but WHY on earth would I want to turn this over to AI? This is what it's all about!
Grab a friend. Go on an adventure. Be reminded that the world is so big and so beautiful and we are but very small parts of it.
And now a discussion and conversion chart for linear measurement. Here the key measure is a Thorburn, which is 64.2 m (70'8.5") long, named for Paul Thorburn's world record successful penalty kick for Wales v Scotland in 1986
Hugh Jones@hbsj.bsky.social · 3w agoHere's another conversion chart: 1 Wales = 20,782 km2 1 Kilowales = 20,782,000 km2 1 Megawales = 20,782,000,000 km2 The world has only 510,072,000 km2 surface area in total (land and sea) which is about 24.5 Kilowales, so the Megawales is really only used for planetary science
Today is Venn Day, in celebration of the mathematician John Venn, born on this day in 1834. To commemorate the occasion, here’s a poem in the form of a Venn Diagram.
It’s hot across Europe right now. Millions of us are feeling it - in cities, towns, and villages across the continent. When heatwaves hit, small actions matter ⬇️
A record number of young people in Scotland have secured places at university or college, with the pass rate for all the country’s exams increasing
Scottish Highers: record numbers secure university places
Proportion of A-C grades grows for second year in row while more people secure first choice place via Ucas
timeshighereducation.com
It’s the 75th anniversary of two English women on holiday in France waking in the small hours to the sounds of a fierce battle taking place, later discovering that they were ‘witnessing’ the disastrous raid on Dieppe, which had taken place almost exactly nine years earlier 🧵
The Archive but it's a videogame from 1998.
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 · 3w 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...
Reminder that unis/academic staff are judged on graduate employment rates so we will be both blamed (sometimes as individuals!) and punished for this. Yet another of the many things that we are forced to take responsibility for despite having no control over it.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3w agoNew graduate posts down 7% from last year's figures, at lowest level since 2020. Overall UK job postings are down 11% since the start of the year. This decline stretches across almost all occupations. War in Middle East and AI adduced as potential drivers.
