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Elizabeth Elliott @elizabethelliott.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“Meaningful consultation” by ACAS standards remaining ever-elusive for HE management, I see

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Timothy C. Baker @timothycbaker.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is an excellent piece that captures what many (most?) of us think.

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Prof Tracey Hill @tracelarkhall.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Baroness Spielman went to Cambridge (for FREE), an institution where term has only just started versus post-92s where they're into week 3 already. But that's not what she means by kicking their heels, is it

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toc13.bsky.social @toc13.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

No language courses in the region? That's removing the opportunity & possibility from how many students who have to stay local?

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Podcasting is Praxis @praxiscast.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

We talked to @lottelydia.bsky.social last week about the ongoing crisis in university sectors; this is only the latest implosion caused by years of terrible government policy and neglect. E455 - Master and Remander www.podbean.com/ea/pb-v5ub2-... (FREE)

podbean.com

E455 - Master and Remander ft. Dr. Charlotte Riley

We've got some global finance news for you all (things are great, don't worry), a TERROR round up (things are great, don't worry), and an update on everyone's favourite nautical troublemaker (lol. lma...

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Bethan Anghorrid @bethanangharadl.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Our higher education institutes are collapsing before our eyes & no one is doing anything to stop it.

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Kate Arnold @dulcimerkate.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Shocking and sad, shortsighted and stupid. The Nottingham music dept (where I had PhD supervision) has been vibrant and an important centre for Early Music. Music and languages are not dispensable. They're the lynchpins of humanity.

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Judah Grunstein @judah-grunstein.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Simply put, across the US and UK, university administrators, their management consultants and their funders no longer consider the arts and humanities worthy of being studied, taught and transmitted. Their vision of human society is anti-humanist. No wonder the kids are at the barricades.

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Hugh Jones @hbsj.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Which means that universities are stewards of knowledge and practice which inform generation after generation after generation So when a university decides to close a department, the impact is felt not just by us today, but by future generations too

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Hugh Jones @hbsj.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The thing is, we don't know what knowledge and capacity future generations will need No knowledge is absolute - science works by a process of removing falsehoods; humanities work by interpretation and reinterpretation Whilst a discipline may not seem relevant today, who knows what tomorrow needs?

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Simon is on strike ✊🏻 @simonxix.com · 01/10/2026

Since I'm on strike, I haven't checked my work emails but I've heard about this email that HR have sent asking us to be nice to senior management. Tell me, is it nice of them to make staff redundant? Is it nice of them to cut Scottish literature and Gaelic courses? Are these nice behaviours?

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Dundee UCU @ducuuo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

No surrender until the University of Dundee rule out making colleagues compulsory redundant. Donate to our campaign as we seek crowdfund support for a Judicial Review of the governance decisions that led the University Court to approve staff and programme cuts www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/judicial-r...

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Angela Cassidy @angecass.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"On September 3, the university announced that enough of us had opted for voluntary redundancy for the threat of compulsory job losses to be retracted. But we are a skeleton ship of summer-long insomniacs, missing indispensable faces and cherished expertise."

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Daniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:

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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 11/09/2026

Every worker facing redundancy at the University of Birmingham is from a migrant or minority ethnic background. UCU members will meet on 17 September to decide whether to ballot for strike action. No compulsory redundancies. Release the equality impact assessment. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1463...

ucu.org.uk

University of Birmingham staff to consider strike ballot over redundancies that fall entirely on minority ethnic staff

Staff at the University of Birmingham will meet next week to consider potential strike action in a battle against redundancies, the University and College Union (UCU) said today (11 September).

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

British universities are both thinner and greedier now. They’re thinner in that they’re doing less and offering less (fewer courses, fewer modules, fewer assessments, fewer staff, far less student and staff support). They’re greedier in that they demand more of both students and staff: more money…

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Oh wow, nobody saw that coming. If you let yourself be entranced by the same three snake oil salesmen who have captured the entire sector and who only understand "staff cost" as an entry in a spreadsheet, not all the contributions we make that don't fit that silly excel box, this is what you get.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

'It notes that institutions “routinely” hire consultancies for these restructures as well as change management specialists, however, these processes often introduce additional management layers, “adding cost rather than removing it”, while “productivity drops".' Hollow laughter across the sector.

hepi.ac.uk

The invisible majority: Professional and support staff and the future of UK higher education - HEPI

Universities are cutting the skills they need most, then paying to rebuild them. Universities are cutting the skills and capabilities they need most, only to pay to rebuild them later, according to ne...

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Julia Laite @julialaite.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Anyone working in the sector already knows, but still good to see it in black & white. Professional services *people*--not just interchangeable hubs of administration--are essential to a good university. Their institutional knowledge has been consistently undervalued & their loss is catastrophic.

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I once worked at a university that gutted an entire (very popular and useful) learning center and replaced it with two guys who would teach you how to host blogs. every student had to have a blog. Every single one. Our syllabus had to mention blogs. We had to teach WITH blogs.

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Dr Basil Arnould Price @basilaprice.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

You have just over a month to apply to the sessions Hunter Phillips and I organised at @kzooicms.bsky.social on either DISENTANGLING ECOCRITICISMS ( tinyurl.com/ICMS2027-S1) or DISAPPOINTING ECOCRITICISMS (tinyurl.com/ICMS2027-S2). (Sponsored by Medieval Ecocriticisms) Join us! #medievalsky

CALL FOR PAPERS: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDIEVAL STUDIES 2027 (MAY 13-15). RETHINKING ECOTHEORY, SPONSORED BY MEDIEVAL ECOCRITICISMS This pair of sessions questions 'entanglement' as the predominant idiom of ecocritical thinking, arguing that the medieval past both yields and necessitates alternative ways of thinking about our ecological investments, both affective and ontological. Drawing upon recent critiques (Swarbick and Tremblay 2024), this pair of sessions interrogates the limits of 'enmeshment' as the predominant idiom for ecocritical approaches to the premodern past. Although the (specifically European) premodern past is often identified as 'The Green Middle Ages' (e.g. Chavannes- Mazel 2023, Kehnel 2024), these sessions question the recuperation of this period as one of ethical, reciprocal, and harmonious relations between humans and the natural world. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: SEPT 15 Organised by Hunter Allen Phillips (hap48@cornell.edu) and Basil Arnould Price (basil.price@oneonta.edu).

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G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 06/08/2026

THERE IS NO WAY

IKEA Advertisement for a wicker bench that reads “husband material,” clearly making reference to the spicy discourse surrounding the film Wicker

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Lisa Rullsenberg @rullsenberg.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

UKHE - despite all its bosses are doing - has brilliance in research+ teaching, sustains communities+ understanding, and offers opportunities to staff + students that go far beyond the (actually massive) contribution to local employment + development. The losses are human. We keep challenging 💪🏼

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

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.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Thinking through the unedifying, un-evidence-based rush to an undefined, apparently unmodelled paradigm of 'specialisation, what's being lost/threatened? Herts History was an excellent example of performing to a top standard in REF, but also much more than that. Questions to think with include: 1/4

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Katie Turner @katieturnerphd.com · 02/08/2026

Where's the righteous anger the news about Exeter has engendered? Where are the think pieces about learning loss and unconscionable redundancies? The problem will never be understood or *addressed* if we do not, collectively, respond to the full scale of it.

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Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 01/08/2026

I never thought I'd live in a world where Amnesty International would dishonor itself by capitulating to transphobes.

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Daniel de Kadt @dandekadt.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Yes, the relative silence of UK university leadership amidst what can only be described as a (self-destructive) assault on the sector by this government is quite astounding. Good on Larry for speaking out with clarity and force.

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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I've never seen a more incredible series of own goals than the last fifteen years of UK higher education policy. If the stupidity of the decade-long annual funding freeze/real-terms cuts had been properly communicated I think people would be rightly horrified.

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Pavithra Suryanarayan @pavisuri.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

There are 2 constraints on academics: the cuts in funding & restrictions on how universities manage their finances combined with a growing demand for more reporting of how they spend the monies. The 1st restricts the pie, the 2nd raises bureaucratic costs. Both stem from a deep suspicion of academia

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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

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.

ft.com

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

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

"Fifty-two per cent of students have noticed cost-cutting, and 83 per cent of those say it changed the experience they were promised."

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Stephen H. Jones @stphnhwrdjns.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

"The one instrument that forced a provider to commit, in a published document, to a substantive statement of the risks its students face [...] is being retired at the exact moment the risks are highest, and replaced with process text that nobody outside the institution can verify."

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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

“Of the promises made when OfS was created, the ones that protected the sector’s reputation & the Treasury’s balance sheet have been kept meticulously. The ones that protected students have been dropped one by one, & this week’s response is the first document in which that is not drift but doctrine”

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Elizabeth Elliott @elizabethelliott.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Solidarity, this is utterly disgraceful!

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

My dept is about to be reduced to 3 people covering 3 separate disciplines. The 25 PhD students will be left bereft of adequate supervision numerically and in terms of expertise. The government has decided that they should have no recourse (music to my university’s ears).

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Ashley Nova — Unfiltered, Unhinged, Uncaring @ashleynova.space · 20/07/2026

So much misinformation being spread on tiktok about the new EHRC Code by seemingly well meaning cis people who simply have not read a single thing trans people have been saying about this code or bathroom bills in general, and it's all being amplified by terrified and misinformed trans people.

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frank n furter @mxfrankduffy.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Church in Wales says trans rights. I did not see this coming, brought me to tears & I'm not even a christian

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Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Vice-Chancellor of University of Bristol (salary £312,251): “I take a really personal view on this. My oldest daughter is the only child in my family who really is making a very significant amount of money.”

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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

"[N]early 4,000 academic posts in social sciences, humanities and the arts have been axed in one year alone. In the 12 months to December 2024, just under 3,000 social sciences, 820 humanities and 240 arts jobs went. All but 110 were in non-Russell Group universities, reducing student choice..."

tinyurl.com

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 15/07/2026

In addition to today's data on staffing in UK HE, @britishacademy.bsky.social has produced several briefings, including one on the very significant decline in early career academics, 2012-24: bit.ly/4wGBTcl History has seen a 32% decline in early career staff numbers since 2012/13 #Skystorians 1/2

he British Academy
Mapping SHAPE academic staff briefing:
Pathways for early career
SHAPE
academics are in decline

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

See also this new research which shows the vital role universities play in supporting place-based growth and innovation around the creative industries pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

pec.ac.uk

Creative Clusters, Geography and University-Industry Links - Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre

This new report provides updated estimates on the spatial distribution of creative industries activity at the regional and cluster level.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

So a key question now is whether the new @andyburnham.bsky.social led administration will take the higher education funding crisis seriously as a threat to his aspirations around regional growth and skills…

"Universities will be central to achieving the regional growth aspirations of our new prime minister, but they are suffering a major financial emergency," Shah said.
"The result is greater inequalities, fewer opportunities for students and the gradual erosion of the world-leading research our economy, democracy and global standing rely on.
«The alarm bells are ringing, and policymakers should treat these findings as a wake-up call before more lasting damage is done."

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

‘The British Academy’s analysis also found that regional cold spots were accelerating, and some subjects were now virtually impossible to access at less selective universities... With more than 1,000 further job losses proposed at Russell Group universities… these cold spots will only increase.’

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 12/07/2026

Amnesty International put out a major report documenting the influence of UK based anti trans gender critical organizations and their funding. Within hours, GC groups threatened defamation lawsuits and Amnesty was forced to pull it down. Proving the point they're anti rights. Anyways, here it is.

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Think it's now fair to say that Britain's Higher Education system has descended into complete chaos. If it were a nation-state the IMF and the World Bank would be in and politics would be in a clearly pre-revolutionary situation. Instead nothing is done, and no-one even cares really. (1/2)

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What The Trans?! 🏳️‍⚧️ @whatthetrans.com · 10/07/2026

TERFs are attempting to infiltrate Mermaids by applying for their Trustee vacancies, in an attempt to sabotage the organisation from within. Please apply if you are able to, to prevent this: mermaidsuk.org.uk/jobs/

mermaidsuk.org.uk

Jobs - Mermaids

Please do not send speculative CVs. Any vacancies will be updated here. See our Candidate Privacy Notice here. We’re Mermaids. We’ve been supporting trans, non-binary and gender-questioning children a...

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