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Will Tattersdill

@tattersdill.bsky.social

Writer and teacher. Literature and science, dinosaurs, fantasy/sci-fi, alternate history, worldbuilding, periodicals, museums, etc. Fiction as W. J. Tattersdill. He/him.

391 Posts1391 Follower260 Folgt
Ben Ansell@benansell.bsky.social · 4d ago

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

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4d ago

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

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 4d ago

Ignore the Russell Group-fixated headline. The universities with the largest declines are: Lincoln Bishop (down 51.4%), University for the Creative Arts (down 50.5%), Norwich University of the Arts (-40.4%), Falmouth University (-35.1%) and Goldsmiths, University of London (-30.0%). 1/2

Russell Group universities take £10m teaching grant hit - Research Professional News

Funding allocations confirm impact of £51m cut to Strategic Priorities Grant

researchprofessionalnews.com

Becca Harrison@beccaeharrison.bsky.social · 6d ago

Bridget Phillipson, reflecting on her years spent standing idly by while UK higher education crumbled into the abyss and tens of thousands of university workers implored her to do something, literally anything, to save their jobs: BUT WHAT ABOUT ME THO www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

‘It hurts to lose a job you love’: Starmer loyalist Bridget Phillipson fights on despite cabinet demotion

Exclusive: The former education secretary on her new role as Labour chair and continuing as the minister for women and equalities

theguardian.com

Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.

No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.

AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books

If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.

news.com.au

Jennie Batchelor@jenniebatchelor.bsky.social · 2w ago

Congratulations to Stephen Donovan and Matthew Rubery on their riveting and rigorously researched page turner of a book, Undercover: Victorian Investigative Journalism in Fact and Fiction (CUP) which has won the RSVP 2026 Colby Scholarly Book Prize, for which I had the privilege to serve as Chair 1/

Research Society for Victorian Periodicals@rs4vp.org · 2w ago

Announced at today's AGM: Huge congratulations to Stephen Donovan & Matthew Rubery, winners of the 2026 Colby Prize for Undercover: Victorian Investigative Journalism in Fact and Fiction! 🏆#RSVP2026 #PrintInMotion

Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 2w ago

When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

The Times: Net zero risks blackouts. Below a photo of French wildfires.
Dr Laura Sangha@lsangha.bsky.social · 2w ago

Last week, about a third of the History department were able to gather together on graduation day. Rather than lend our intellectual authority to the official procession and ceremony we invited our students to come and celebrate their achievements with us in a shady courtyard. They came. 1/

A group of world leading historians in their finery, some in gowns, stand together under a tree. Some carry signs saying 'Historian at risk', other raise a glass to the camera.
Natalia (娜塔莉)@nataliajagielska.bsky.social · 3w ago

$50.1 million could fund over 400 doctorates; 933 years worth of annual curator salaries (UK), or running cost for a millennium-worth of free events like the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival. It is inane that people can accumulate such wealth, and use it explicitly to cause public harm.

Steve Brusatte@stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 3w ago

Gus the T. rex fetched $50.1 million at auction, a new record price for a dinosaur If this is how much dinosaurs cost now, how can museums afford them? Where does that leave science & education? Will the public still have opportunities to be inspired? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Alex Wild@alexwild.bsky.social · 3w ago

The natural history collections at the University of Texas, holding maybe 5 million specimens, is partly closed down because our buildings are falling apart and UT is doing the bare minimum of life support. We could fix it for 1/5th the price of a vanity purchase of a single dinosaur specimen.

AFP News Agency@en.afp.com · 3w ago

🦖 A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed 'Gus' sells for $50.1 million at Sotheby's in New York, making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil bought at auction after a 10-minute battle between seven bidders u.afp.com/SKv4

Will Tattersdill@tattersdill.bsky.social · 3w ago

We saw this with Birkbeck as well, and it bears repeating for any HE colleagues reading this: a good REF return doesn't save you

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

Interesting to see a university management team interpret fostering 'specialisation' in line with government policy as trimming back the units with the highest QS rankings, at least 1 of which also scored a perfect 100% 4* in REF2021 for research environment. Bit of an amoeba, 'specialisation'.

Image depicting 6 different types of amoeba, each in a rectangular frame and each with a different shape, size and colour. Some are rounded or spherical, others are branch-like.
Karen Lord@drkarenlord.bsky.social · 4w ago

SF writers and readers are some of the nerdiest nerds on the planet. We love tech. We are so early-adopter that we imagined it before you built it. If you’ve lost us, you’ve lost the fight.

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 4w ago

"This is a genuine first in UK politics. Never before has a politician announced their intention to run for re-election on an explicitly pro-sleaze, anti-transparency ticket." bylinetimes.com/2026/07/08/n....

Nigel Farage’s 'Pro-Sleaze' By-Election Is A Sign Of Terminal Weakness

The Reform leader's desperate decision to call a back-me-or-sack-me by-election is a sign of a politician who knows he is finally being exposed for the man he really is, argues Adam Bienkov

bylinetimes.com

Will Tattersdill@tattersdill.bsky.social · last mo.

If I were the King of Universities (which, heaven forbid), I would place this finding at the exact centre of every single policy decision from teaching to research to estates to capital investment. At every level in every process, the question would be: are we as humane as education demands we be?

Screenshot from a Higher Education Policy Institute report. The key sentence is: "students are used to and want human teaching, human feedback, and human connection."