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Ben Phillips

@benphillips1989.bsky.social
313 followers 188 following 153 posts

Historian (of Russia, at Exeter). Didn't really want another social account but susceptible to peer pressure, so here I am.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Solidarity. If our experience at Exeter is anything to go by, your management will already have plans for compulsory redundancy in place (ours were about a year in the pipeline and dovetailed with the last VS round).
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵
technosphere.earth
The bonfire of the humanities
150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Lovely to meet you yesterday!
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Thanks Tom. It's not just Exeter itself: HASS Cornwall (the combined humanities department at Penryn) will be absolutely laid waste by these plans.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Thanks so much, Imogen. x
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Dr Imogen Knox (she/her) @imogenknox.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Heartbreaking and infuriating to see this proposed at the institution which I attended as an UG a decade ago (and chose for its stellar research reputation) and recently returned to on a temporary contract.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Unis as critical parts of national infrastructure have been passed over to ill-equipped management teams with very narrow remits - to smash and ruin. Is that a good idea in the era of national competition, economic stagnation and Cold War 2.0? 🤔 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
researchprofessionalnews.com
University of Exeter plans to cut 150 jobs - Research Professional News
Staff consultation underway, with UCU claiming 14 per cent of academic workforce is at risk
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks, Rob, solidarity reciprocated.
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Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The University of Exeter has become the latest Russell Group university to announce major job cuts, insisting it “must” take action to reduce financial pressures. Juliette Rowsell reports #highered #jobcuts ow.ly/K8bq50ZfYlY
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
'The University of Exeter is proposing to cut about 150 staff roles. A spokesperson for the university said it was "consulting with colleagues over limited and specific potential changes across some areas of our academic faculties".' 1/4
bbc.co.uk
University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff
The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks, Sarah, much appreciated.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks, Michael. A truly crap day and surely worse to come. Hope things are better with you.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Thanks Sarah. Been a truly miserable day.
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UCU Commons @ucucommons.org · 23/06/2026
Despicable: Uni of Exeter putting over 500 staff at risk of compulsory redundancy. Thoughts are with all Exeter branch comrades. #UCU #UKHE
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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Along with almost all of my colleagues in history, this afternoon I got an email telling me that I am at risk of redundancy. It looks like the University of Exeter sent this email to the vast majority of people in Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty. Bit hard to breath right now.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A grim day in a grim week in a grim month for UK higher education, with Dundee, Exeter and Hertfordshire all making major announcements of planned redundancies. Shrinkage of the research & teaching base by the invisible hand's visible fist is not an 'us' or 'them', SHAPE or STEM phenomenon. 1/2
Photo of an open hand, with part of 4 fingers showing.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
These cuts are terrible for all impacted, but they will be an absolute death blow for humanities and social sciences teaching and research. (If anyone has kids planning to come to Exeter for one of these subjects next year, you might want to know about this.)
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
The question was about things Burnham could/should do, not what I actually expect him to do.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
I had not heard this and enjoyed it muchly
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Same with universities, which is not a visible win in the sense meant here but still absolutely decisive for many regional economies and also really low hanging fruit in the short term
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
I think I have seen this photograph printed in another book (maybe Ermasheva/Zakharina, but can't swear to it) with a longer list of names. The tall guy at the back alongside Kravchinskii and Shishko is Chaikovskii, I think. Not sure on the others.
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Gav Maclean @gavmaclean.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
If I hear one more university leader say they're making "tough decisions" about redundancies or worsening our employment conditions, I will scream. They are not making tough choices, they're making the easiest decisions in the world. Tough decisions would be fighting the inevitability of job losses
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Broadly speaking I share this pessimism, but it is also possible that Simons has been persuaded that going quietly now may be the best thing for all concerned.
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Mollie Goodfellow @hansmollman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Wes Streeting has resigned to take the job he was born to do…regional sales manager for Moss Bros
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
You're safe, and we will be Spurs this time next year.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Good to see Chelsea back to winning ways, no doubt re-energised from taking the last month off.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
An ancient curse upon the inventor of the box hedge
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Was it recorded? (The algorithm has only just seen fit to show me this post, two days after your talk.)
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
They should have stopped the Top Gun reboot with Maverick, this looks shit
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 02/03/2026
Who up hating the Great Satan and its wretched imperialist running dogs
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Even the Spoons coffee machine is happy the Greens won
A Wetherspoons self-service coffee machine displaying a glowing green light.
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 27/02/2026
MATTHEW BADLOSS IS IT
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
This does seem like the obvious conclusion with the UKHE Covid class action. If students didn't get the teaching they paid for, their degrees are academically invalid and that's what needs fixing. (You'd hope their current employers would agree.)
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Yeah, quite key: it's not £21 million that is going directly to those 6500 students... The only ones winning anything (other than maybe £2000 per student) are the firm raking in the £7 million and the people keen to crash universities. Grim day for #UKHE.
	The amount each student is set to receive in the settlement will vary and is due to be determined by a committee of claimants, the email said.

Legal costs and payouts to litigation funders are not specified in the email seen by the FT. Thirty-five per cent of any payout was due to pay legal fees and litigation funders financing the case under a “no win, no fee” arrangement, the FT has previously reported.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Oh I am very sorry to hear this, and thinking of all of you at SSEES.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
I mean I'm not sure I actually knew what he looked like before this and from the looks of him being colonised by immigrants would do him the power of good
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
tom_ebooks
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Tom
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
This is not true. The overwhelming mood in the Lab selectorate after 2019 was wanting to vote for a slicker, more managerialist Corbyn, and that is how Starmer presented himself. We would be in a much better position now had he followed through on this.
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Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
"If McSweeney has a genuine talent, it's as a con man."
averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com
A Farewell to Morgan McSweeney
What a fantastic week. Peter Mandelson toasted to charcoal, the government being forced to make public all communications about him, the pos...
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
I see Starmer had a productive weekend grappling with his conscience then
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
...so you still *feel* precarious/ECR even if you no longer count as such; but also many ppl who got the permanent job while still ECR but now find there's no upward movement into the professoriate, partly because SL to AP movement within institutions involves stringent/unachievable grant targets
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
I think maybe two aspects to the problem - firstly as the OP says a growing cohort of academics who are already counted as mid career by the time they actually achieve permanency (often at unis where they had a long series of FTCs, so permanency comes through the HR/continuous service route...) 1/
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Your tiniest violin please, garçon
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Good for them. Hope all well with you too. A bit snowed under with teaching but almost at reading week - hope to be in touch soon about journal stuff!
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Seconded
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Three of those four things seem positive, am glad to hear of it.
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Always enjoy when you follow the advice and put your local radio station on because there's an extreme weather event in progress and they're just playing eighties dance classics as if nothing's happened
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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Hope you're planning to keep the intro/hype music from the last emergency pod.
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