Behind the bewildering transformation of British universities, are management consultants being paid millions Really proud to have this vital piece on our unis are being gutted from the inside by @jheathershaw.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale. Do read 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

🧵UK media has been duped about net-zero (again) The playbook is identical: 1️⃣ Find a big scary number 2️⃣ Speed-dial non-specialist hacks 3️⃣ Do say “serious economic damage” 4️⃣ Don’t say “we pretended gas is free” 5️⃣ That's it! Many papers still fell for it 🤷

The Cognition Group in the Psychology dept at Exeter are at risk of redundancy because "basic cognitive psychology research does not align with the current priorities of funding bodies" If you think this is overtly wrong and misguided, please sign this open letter docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Open Letter in Support of the Cognition Group, University of Exeter

To Executive members of the University of Exeter, including Vice Chancellor Prof. Lisa Roberts, Senior Vice-President and Provost Prof. Dan Charman, Pro Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean Prof. Sallie...

docs.google.com

This surely demands a joint response from @ucu.org.uk @universities-uk.bsky.social @ucea.bsky.social and NUS Asking students to pay more to prop up universities is one thing. Asking them to pay more to prop up the Department for Education and Office for Students is something else entirely.

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · last mo.

The 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

Ok this is just ridiculous. How can you see a sector apparently on the brink of collapse and think the right thing to do is undermine them further? Sue Gray had universities collapsing on her shit list in 2024. The government seems to think that was a goal rather than something to avoid.

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · last mo.

The 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

I think an underpriced scenario is that Trump fights for and wins the GOP nomination to go for an unconditional third term, he is then hammered in the election, and spends his final days escaping accountability by claiming his advanced dementia makes him unfit to stand trial or give evidence.

We just had a meeting with over 700 (!!) of our members and OVERWHELMINGLY voted in favour of a motion to calling for a strike ballot! 🩷 We're doing this together. We are the University! #DefendExeterUni.

Wish I had more time to engage with your excellent Bluesky posts? Then get the University of Exeter to withdraw its proposals to cut 200 staff by signing this petition! #DefendExeterUni c.org/ySvZyTfKcf

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

I’d love it if you’d sign this. It might not prevent me and my colleagues losing our jobs, but it will draw attention to the ideological vandalism being perpetrated by the wealthy execs running our university. Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter - sign the petition below! c.org/NpvY4sR9gH

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

So my employer, the Uni of Exeter, is proposing to cut up to 200 jobs (153 full time equivalent). The axe is mostly falling on our highly esteemed Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences... and we can't even get a clear answer why? Please sign this petition to get them to rethink! c.org/pfjK7HLjkH

Help Anonymous Academic grow this petition! 🚀

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

If you asked me, off the top of my head, to name a non-Oxbridge university in England synonymous with excellence in the Humanities - I would probably think of Exeter first. This feels like a very deliberate, targeted and ideological Bonfire of the Humanities

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

'About 150 academic roles are set to go at the south-west institution, which said it was targeting areas that are “no longer sustainable” or have seen changes in student demand.' History and English are name-checked. 1/3

Some serious birther shit here from Tesco. Trump would be pleased.

I'm guessing "I'm a white man"?

CNBC Make It@cnbcmakeit.cnbc.com · 2mo ago

Add these 4 words to your vocabulary right now, experts say: They can make you more influential at work

Hi All, we now have an official text of the USA-Iran MOU from the US point of view. It is extraordinary. The US is in a far weaker position than before it started this war fewer than four months ago. Here is a free, blow-by-blow description why. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Midweek Update #15: The MOU Is Out

Hi all,

open.substack.com

Given one of the most common complaints from former and current government ministers is that when you pull on the levers of power, nothing happens, I think we should rapidly discount anyone whose professional experience involves orders being followed without question. It's no preparation at all.

Yes it should be axed - here is what I would replace it with to ensure it is sustainable and doesn't lead to pensioners once again slipping into poverty as they did before the triple lock. bsky.app/profile/tmsn...

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2mo ago

Time to axe ‘unfair’ triple lock, suggests UK’s cost of living tsar ft.trib.al/TrgXV00

It is absolutely frightening. Lots of money and social media clout is behind a far right vision of this country that would see it ethically cleansed and its politicians and civil servants imprisoned for having carried out lawful duties. They are also dragging the mainstream in their direction.

Toby Buckle@polphilpod.bsky.social · 2mo ago

this should frighten you

Ah yet another HTA model I'm involved in which would be so much quicker to build in R but, for reasons I cannot divulge, must be made in Excel. In fairness, when I have been able to do the models in R, it usually results in more complexity to fill the time rather than increasing leisure...

Decorate in haste and Repaint at your leisure

This, on the death of Henry Nowak, is an outstanding piece of journalism by @stephenkb.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/aa94...

What Henry Nowak’s murder does — and does not — tell us about policing

Kemi Badenoch says his killing needs to be seen as a ‘Stephen Lawrence moment’ but the failures in both cases differ

ft.com

On Monday the HSJ named me as the "arguably the single most influential voice on ethics and AI policy" on their list of top 50 influential people for NHS tech in 20216 www.hsj.co.uk/news/the-50-... is (a) very kind; (b) most likely untrue. BUT FWIW here are my current top 10 AI messages 🧵:

#stats

Dear #Rstats users, please do not name your main data table/frame "dt" or "df". One day, you will thank me when you need to use the probability density function for the Student's t or F-distribution! ("d" or "dat" are safe 😊)

Interestingly, this ONE WEIRD TRICK can achieve proportional representation with single member constituencies... Everyone casts a single vote for the person they would like to win, and a vote is drawn at random from all the votes cast. Probability of winning is exactly proportional to your vote.

Tristan Snowsill@tmsnowsill.bsky.social · 2mo ago

As a rule, if an electoral system involves electing a single person per geography, it will not be proportional. It can still be an improvement on first past the post (plurality voting), but for proportional representation you need to have multi member constituencies or "top up" seats.

As a rule, if an electoral system involves electing a single person per geography, it will not be proportional. It can still be an improvement on first past the post (plurality voting), but for proportional representation you need to have multi member constituencies or "top up" seats.

Rob Ford@robfordmancs.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A lot depends on what form of reform Burnham commits to tho. He doesn’t say here, and the article incorrectly describes earlier GM mayoral elections as Single Transferrable Vote (where you rank all candidates). They werent - they were Supplemental Vote (two preferences, 2nd used if no one gets maj)

I am really hoping there is a blue wave which busts the GOP gerrymanders. Explanation 🧵 Under plurality voting (first past the post), your vote share can be (in)efficient. The most efficient way to turn votes into representation is to win small and lose big...

www.maptap.gg May 13 97🔥 97🔥 95🏅 95🏅 97🔥 Final score: 960 First time playing, think I might quit while I'm ahead!!

Adjudicating between departments is harder, but infinitely more productive, than hanging your head in your hands and saying "I thought we'd costed for having cake AND eating it"

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 3mo ago

And they are right not to. Effective and good governments need a prime minister who will adjudicate between departments, sell the government's message, and not appoint someone known to have slept over at the home of a convicted paedophile.

I thought humans didn't have a thymus! I literally remember reading that T cells in immunology are so called because they are produced in the thymus *in birds* but that humans didn't have a thymus so they were produced elsewhere. Ugh I can't keep up...

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 3mo ago

For decades, a mysterious, two-lobed organ nestled behind the breastbone has been overlooked by most physicians. Now, research is recasting it as a potent regulator of aging and immune health across the lifespan.