Stephen Green
@stephenrgreen.bsky.social
Black holes, gravitational waves, and AI. UKRI Future Leaders Fellow @ University of Nottingham. https://www.stephenrgreen.com/
Letter from the executive director of the Modern Language Association to the Uni of Exeter VC: ‘We are aware of no university on the financial footing of Exeter that has seen the need to make dramatic cuts to the humanities such as you propose.’ #DefendExeterUni
Very happy for my student Jacopo Lestingi in getting this paper out! We adapt Rayleigh-Schrödinger perturbation theory to the black hole setting to work with quasinormal modes.
arXiv gr-qc General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology@grqc-bot.bsky.social · 2w agoJacopo Lestingi, Laura Sberna, Stephen R. Green: Schr\"odinger perturbation theory for black hole quasinormal modes https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.19492 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.19492 https://arxiv.org/html/2607.19492
Last week a paper in Nature claimed a detection of Gpc-scale anisotropic cosmic structures, violating the basic principle on which all #cosmology is based: www.nature.com/articles/s41... This week, a preprint says they made an elementary coordinate mistake: arxiv.org/pdf/2607.01172 🔭🧪 🧵 1/? ⬇️
Detection of anisotropic cosmic structures on a gigaparsec scale - Nature
Using the parameter-free Angular Distribution of Pairwise Distances for measuring directional correlations, evidence is found for coherent anisotropic structures extending over gigaparsec scales,...
nature.com
In case you didn’t know, Exeter uni, where I work, has announced a plan to make 25% of staff in my English department redundant. Left-over staff will do double the teaching while their research time will be shrunk to 1%. Meanwhile admissions for English at Exeter are HIGH, and on the rise this year
... as well as an improvement to the current voluntary redundancy scheme. The employer refused and merely offered a short extension to the current consultation period." Another clear indication that this administration simply does not care about the education of its own students.
Marking boycotters face heavy sanctions as assessments disrupted: Edinburgh extends pay deductions to those who refuse to cover for colleagues taking part in industrial action https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/marking-boycotters-face-heavy-sanctions-assessments-disrupted
UK businesses have failed to “transform this country from a GDP perspective”, so let’s apply their ideas to universities…
Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 2mo agoPeer-reviewed papers are ‘old hat science’, says millionaire investor. Candy Crush businessman Mel Morris says universities “must embrace AI” to transform into economic powerhouses. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i...
Excellent essay here on the state of higher education in the UK. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities
The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...
lrb.co.uk
My university made the FT, not in a good way. The squeeze in overseas students is definitely an issue. But the corporatization of UK university management has been disastrous.
UK universities cut jobs, research and teaching amid squeeze in overseas students
‘Very sharp downturn’ in enrolments risks hitting economic innovation and academic pipeline, lobby group says
giftarticle.ft.com
How does the Department for Education keep getting away with these non-statements? You clearly did not take any action that meaningfully improved the situation in the #UKHE sector, as 79% of said sector is making voluntary redundancies. Can journalists please push back? www.ft.com/content/ded7...
(Corrected) table showing proposed academic headcount reductions at UoN. Still just as unjustified and drastic as before.
Stephen Green@stephenrgreen.bsky.social · 3mo agoFor even further context: here’s a list of cuts across the university. From a financial standpoint we are roughly break even right now, once you remove the non-cash real estate write down and redundancy payments. Nothing to justify this.
To the 800+ of you who have signed the letter of support for Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham since yesterday, I cannot thank you enough. Please continue to sign and share as much as you can. nottinghamphysics.github.io/Open_Letter/
Save Nottingham Physics and Astronomy
We, the undersigned, call on the University of Nottingham to reverse its plans to impose compulsory redundancies on its staff in the School of Physics and Astronomy.
nottinghamphysics.github.io
For even further context: here’s a list of cuts across the university. From a financial standpoint we are roughly break even right now, once you remove the non-cash real estate write down and redundancy payments. Nothing to justify this.
Onni Gust@onnigust.bsky.social · 3mo agoFor further context: almost everyone in the Faculty of Arts is at risk of redundancy. Music, Modern Languages & American & Canadian Studies courses to close completely. History will not close but staff numbers will be significantly reduced. This is what 'right-sizing' looks like, apparently.
Hardly the point and solidarity with all arts & humanities colleagues everywhere facing this nonsense, but here's where the British use of "redundancy" doesn't seem right--the American "fired without cause" is perhaps more apt.
Nottingham job cuts ‘pose systemic risks to research’, union warns. Research-intensive university told it risks “intellectual stagnation” as 2,700 staff put at risk of redundancy. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Nottingham job cuts ‘pose systemic risks to research’, union warns - Research Professional News
Research-intensive university told it risks “intellectual stagnation” as 2,700 staff put at risk of redundancy
researchprofessionalnews.com
The University presents this as 'Future Nottingham' but it absolutely guts the arts and humanities. They want to sack 40% of the Dept of English, for example. Languages will be cut entirely. If that's the future, it's shit (and very far from what a University should be)
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo agoThousands of University of Nottingham staff told they are at risk of redundancy
Thousands of University of Nottingham staff told they are at risk of redundancy
Thousands of University of Nottingham staff told they are at risk of redundancy
Institution says it could run out of money by 2031 and wants to cut more than 600 academic and support posts Thousands of staff at the University of Nottingham have been told to prepare for redundancy as part of swingeing financial cuts that academics say will harm the institution’s future. The university’s administration sent letters to 2,700 staff on Tuesday, notifying them their role was at risk of redundancy after its leadership said it could run out of money by 2031. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
Coincidentally, the number of staff currently at risk of redundancy (2700) at the University of Nottingham is the same as the number of jobs at risk at British Steel. Yesterday, the govt said they aren't neutral on job losses & so pledged to save those steel jobs. Watch as they blithely ignore HE.
2,700 staff at the University of Nottingham have received 'at risk' letters from the management. The same management which refused to cut their own pay, and the same management which refused to resign after losing £60 million on a disastrous attempt to build a new campus. #JoinAUnion
University of Nottingham UCU branch@uonucu.bsky.social · 3mo agoPhoto by @tregenza.bsky.social
There are several universities who pay the fees to be in the Russell Group (it's a membership*, not inherently a marker of quality) that are slashing + burning the curriculum breadth, hollowing out multiple disciplines, limiting capacity to research, stacking workload 1/2 *At least over £100k p.a.
Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 3mo agoNEW from me: many of our universities are now in a dying fall. A new global-national-regional-local split is opening up, which could choke off progress on almost all the Government's plans. Do they have a plan? Nope, nothing, not a clue. 👇 isrf.org/blog/whats-t...
My scorching hot take on this (at least in the uk) is that a bunch of more public-sector-ish jobs: teaching, universities, media, civil servant had been relatively downwards mobile in this time and it’s actually falling inequality that is making people mad.
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 4mo agoHard not to feel a little smug watching Pearkes get pilloried for saying this. Guess what, the left is almost uniquely psychotic on this topic! They’ll absolutely assassinate your reputation for years on end if you dare try to insist on following empirical data on it.
When will the UK government wake up to the wholesale destruction of HE that's happening? This affects towns and cites across the UK, our businesses, the NHS, schools, young people, our global standing, everything! Higher Education, Universities, contribute over £265 BILLION to the economy.
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 5mo ago'Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Edinburgh are to begin strike action following management's plans for £140 million in cuts and up to 1,800 job losses.' 1/2
‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question ft.trib.al/EYhqm5I | opinion
‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question
The graduate earnings premium isn’t really measuring what most people think
ft.trib.al
This is emblematic of the consumer culture that fees have engendered. What the hell did the students expect? It was a ONCE IN A CENTURY PANDEMIC. There were LAWS against congregating in public. Staff worked themselves to the bone to get online delivery working. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Students begin Covid compensation claim against 36 more universities
It comes after University College London settled a claim from students there over lost learning in the pandemic.
bbc.co.uk
1) Today (23:59) is the deadline for submitting responses to the Home Office "consultation" on their plans to make life a lot more difficult for foreigners living in the UK: www.gov.uk/government/c...
A Fairer Pathway to Settlement: statement and accompanying consultation on earned settlement (accessible)
gov.uk
I urge you to fill in this consultation if you can - with this very helpful support from Amnesty International - although AND because ! it is heart-breaking that this country has sunk so low that Amnesty suggest in a number of cases to provide no answer as the terms of the question are so evil
Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe UK government is proposing radical and punitive changes to settlement rules. This is settlement, not citizenship. The consultation is open until 12 February; please respond to it and oppose these evil proposals. Amnesty have a good guide: www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/gu...
