iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

'This research indicates that AI substantially harms learning for half of all students, what the researchers call the “Generative AI penalty,” and provides no discernible benefit to the other half.' Must read from @benjaminjriley.bsky.social buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/the-50-per...

buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com

The 50 Percent Problem

Empirical evidence of the educational harm of generative AI

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

'The programme was designed in part because girls who benefit from higher education are up to six times less likely to marry as children and are less likely to experience violence from a partner. Women who have advanced levels of learning also increase their earnings.'

theguardian.com

Overseas education project for women and girls axed by UK after two years

The programme, aimed at keeping 1m girls in school across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, withdrawn after aid cuts

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The proposals will mean that Exeter’s history, English, modern languages and politics courses could see up to 25 per cent of their staff cut, it said. 3/3

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

'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

timeshighereducation.com

University of Exeter cuts an ‘existential threat to humanities’

Russell Group institution cites changing student demand as it puts 500 staff at risk of redundancy, with 150 jobs set to go

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Jo Grady @drjogrady.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

'Speaking at the British Academy’s Shape conference in London on 4 March, Tickell said that students who want to study modern foreign languages in the Midlands will only be able to start courses at two institutions: Birmingham and the University of Warwick.' 1/3

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Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Well, this happens when you close down your language departments.

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Terri Windling @terriwindling.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

A poem for Winter Solstice: "The Shortest Day" by Susan Cooper, author The Dark is Rising and numerous other luminous books. The image is from www.thelostland.com. The poem is © Susan Cooper.

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper: And so the Shortest Day came and the year died / And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world / Came people singing, dancing, / To drive the dark away. / They lighted candles in the winter trees; / They hung their homes with evergreen; / They burned beseeching fires all night long / To keep the year alive. / And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake / They shouted, reveling. / Through all the frosty ages you can hear them / Echoing behind us—listen! / All the long echoes, sing the same delight, / This Shortest Day, / As promise wakens in the sleeping land: / They carol, feast, give thanks, / And dearly love their friends, / And hope for peace. / And now so do we, here, now, / This year and every year. / Welcome, Yule!

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UCFL - University Council For Languages @ucflangs.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

The University of Nottingham has announced the suspension of all Modern Languages and Cultures (MLC) programmes from September 2026. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Emma Cayley 谷曦 @emmacayley.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

We all know the difficulty the HE sector is in. But let’s work together to come up with solutions. The nuclear option damages our students & the reputation of our institutions. @ucflangs.bsky.social & @artsandhums.bsky.social are supporting colleagues www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

University of Nottingham students fight 'insane' cull of courses

Traitors composer Sam Watts is among those against plans to cut University of Nottingham courses.

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx 'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.' Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.

bbc.co.uk

Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham

In a statement the institution also says it is

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Diane Watt @dianewatt.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

T o celebrate the forthcoming print publication of our Encyclopaedia and Palgrave’s 25th anniversary this year, four chapters are free-to-view throughout October. blogs.surrey.ac.uk/medievalwome...

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Dana Stevens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.

Quote from a story on changes at the U of Chicago that notes they are "pausing" doctoral eduction in Classics, Comp Lit, Germanic studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Romance languages and literatures, and South Asian Studies.

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Constance Bantman @constancebantman.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

(Minute autopromo #2) Si vous vous demandez comment occuper votre ado politisé.e ou vous-même pendant les vacances, que lire à la plage ou ailleurs, (re)découvrez ces histoires de révolutionnairEs, de Théroigne de Méricourt pendant la Révolution française aux collectifs féministes contemporains.

Couverture du livre "Femmes de Révolution" (Seuil, 2025)

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Leona Archer @larcher.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

I read the ill-informed opinion piece to which this responds with dismay (especially since the author works in a humanities discipline also impacted by severe cuts across the sector). This is a thoughtful and necessary rebuttal:

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Hard-hitting and reflective piece. It would be a public service to higher education in the UK and internationally if @timeshighered.bsky.social made it free to read, even if only for 24 hours. Kudos to the authors: Anonymous, Martin Mills (Aberdeen), Nick Megoran (Newcastle) & Les Back (Glasgow).

timeshighereducation.com

The UK’s redundancy crisis: four views from the front line

Higher education news feeds are currently dominated by near-daily announcements of large job cuts across the UK. But what effect is all this having on the atmosphere within the departments affected – ...

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Arts and Humanities Alliance @artsandhums.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

The Arts and Humanities Alliance have written an open letter to Bridget Philippson, Secretary of State for Education, on the recently announced cuts across the sector. We are concerned that these measures disproportionately affect our disciplines and call for an urgent government review.

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Sharon Black @sharonblack.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Cardiff University has announced it will axe its teaching of modern languages and merge four of its schools, cutting staff numbers by 50%. Please sign and share this petition in support of the wonderful School of Modern Languages at Cardiff! www.change.org/p/save-mlang...

change.org

Sign the Petition

Save MLANG at Cardiff University!

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Christie Margrave @christiesmbc.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Please help us to save Modern Languages at Cardiff University: chng.it/Hmtvvdtptg

chng.it

Sign the Petition

Save MLANG at Cardiff University!

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

This is real. I just turned it off. They track you everywhere, because they can.

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UEA UCU says join a union @uea-ucu.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

😕 Here we go again. timeshighereducation.com/news/deeply-... 📢 Follow us for updates about the ongoing situation at UEA. #SaveUEA #UCU 🦋 Please share this post with followers, to let them we're now also on Bluesky. 💪 UEA UCU Branch Meeting this morning at 10am. Check your inboxes for full details.

timeshighereducation.com

Risk of compulsory redundancies as 170 staff face axe at UEA

Announcement follows the departure of 400 staff members last year as efforts to close budget black hole continue

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Leona Archer @larcher.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Sad news of more cuts in languages, this time at Northumbria.

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Andrew WM Smith @smidbob.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Thought-provoking rebuttal, particularly the final words. It's always worth reminding students that they are creative & intelligent, that our job is to help them accentuate that, & that the "hype cycle" around "AI" will rob them of that opportunity (as well as, you know, boiling the oceans)

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Adam Cecil @fakeadamcecil.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

I love Quiet Posters — can be pretty easy to miss friends or other infrequent posters in the following firehose, this does a great job of plucking them out for you. bsky.app/profile/did:...

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Leona Archer @larcher.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

I really enjoyed the first episode of 'Wolf Hall: the Mirror and the Light', but thanks to watching too much Cbeebies these days, I can't hear Mark Rylance's voice without thinking of Flop. "The dissolution of the monasteries... it's a Bing thing!"

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skELLY @ellyzoe.bsky.social · 31/10/2024

You guys, my kid just discovered a *whole book* of poems in French that, when read in French, sound like mother goose rhymes in English (but said with a heavy French accent). They are grammatical in French! 😵‍💫 The one below is Humpty Dumpty. This is depraved and wonderful. I love/hate it.

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UCFL - University Council For Languages @ucflangs.bsky.social · 08/07/2024

📢New report on Modern Languages Closures & Restructurings A recent survey conducted by Wendy Ayres Bennett, policy advisor for UCFL, provides evidence of worrying signs across the HE sector & the pressing need for support & curriculum innovation university-council-for-languages.org/2024/07/08/r...

university-council-for-languages.org

Report on Modern Languages Closures and Restructurings

A recent survey conducted for UCFL on closures and restructurings of modern languages degrees in Higher Education provides evidence about the decrease of the subject area over the last ten years. This...

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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 09/09/2024

I’ve come to abandon the use case for LLMs to summarize text because the summaries usually miss vital parts and are disappointing when I look closer. Australian government now has proof this is the case. Another proof that LLMs have more limitations we need to understand.

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 31/08/2024

I just did, as an experiment, a google scholar search on an important well-covered topic. It put an undergrad honors thesis as the #1 response. It's fine thesis (on a quick skim), but there are hundreds, thousands, of peer reviewed books and articles on this topic.

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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 19/08/2024

60% of those who speak French daily now live in Africa, and 80% of children studying in French are in Africa. There are as many French speakers in Kinshasa as in Paris. “French flourishes every day in Africa,” said Souleymane Bachir Diagne, professor of philosophy & French at Columbia U. Gift link

nytimes.com

How Africans Are Changing French — One Joke, Rap and Book at a Time

More than 60 percent of French speakers now live in Africa. Despite growing resentment at France, Africans are contributing to the evolution and spread of the French language.

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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 10/06/2024

"University drama, theatre, arts, adult learning, evening classes, school visits, walking clubs, discussion groups, sports facilities, museums, displays, galleries—they could all be gone. Everything, in fact, that makes life worth living. That would be the unkindest cut of all."

prospectmagazine.co.uk

Crash course

The UK’s universities are among the best in the world. So why do many appear close to collapse?

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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 04/06/2024

UCU have declared an academic boycott of Goldsmiths in response to job losses: Please do not— * apply for jobs * speak at/organise academic or other conferences * give lectures * accept positions as visiting prof/ researcher * accept new contracts as an external examiner for taught courses #UKUnis

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Rachel Moss @menysnoweballes.bsky.social · 21/05/2024

GMS and SFMS have put out this joint statement about the chilling state of redundancies in UK universities, which pose an existential threat to arts and humanities IMO: medievalgender.co.uk/gms-and-smfs...

medievalgender.co.uk

GMS and SMFS Statement Protesting UK University Redundancies – Gender and Medieval Studies

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Dan Elphick @danelphick.bsky.social · 16/05/2024

Universities have long been one of the things that the UK does really, really well. In a short span of just a few years, they have been utterly run into the ground. Absolutely grim. www.ft.com/content/8d85...

ft.com

England’s universities face ‘closure’ risk after student numbers dive

Report from Office for Students warns ‘significant changes’ needed to ‘funding model’

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Rev. Dr. Liz Gloyn @lizgloyn.bsky.social · 02/05/2024

For context, in 2021-22 there were 285 higher educations providers in the UK who returned data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. We're pretty much at the point where a fifth of them are making redundancies.

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Leonie V. Hicks @lvhicks.bsky.social · 30/04/2024

I took a look at 'Onward's' webpage and their intentions couldn't be clearer: 'Ending taxpayer subsidies for failing university degrees and changing low-quality universities into institutes focused on STEM, technical and vocational education.' This restricts opportunities. 1/

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Karen Gregory @karengregory.bsky.social · 26/04/2024

Very good colleagues across the UK are facing redundancy for having done everything right-- REF success, grant income, programme building on top of the everyday work of teaching and admin and service. We have the wrong business model, the wrong vision of what matters and we're going over a cliff.

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Matthew Daniel Eddy🌻 @bookscribbler.bsky.social · 12/04/2024

I wish the headline wasn't true, but alas.... www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cca6...

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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 15/03/2024

Every research report: Humanities majors have great career prospects! Every research university: Here's why sadly we must restructure the humanities,

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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 06/03/2024

The UK is to open its first flying taxi centre. Meanwhile, it's 4x more expensive to take a train in Britain than it is to fly to your destination. These are policy choices.

bbc.co.uk

Bicester: Plans for 'UK first' flying taxi test centre revealed

Skyports Infrastructure will develop what is says is the UK's first vertiport testbed in Bicester.

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Leona Archer @larcher.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

I didn't expect to spend so much time today thinking about historical chickens, yet here we are, and there is still joy to be found online.

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Doc Sarah Lonsdale @sarahjlonsdale.bsky.social · 05/02/2024

The University of Kent, self-styled Britain's 'European University ' is phasing out language teaching. Mais tu blagues!

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Leona Archer @larcher.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

Horrendous news from the University of Kent.

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Joanne Harris @joannechocolat.bsky.social · 24/01/2024

So happy to be a part of this. A prize for YA authors from both sides of the Channel, which celebrates the translators as well as creators... www.thebookseller.com/news/joanne-...

thebookseller.com

Joanne Harris to judge €8k Entente Littéraire Prize

Author Joanne Harris will lead the British-French jury for the new Entente Littéraire Prize for writers of young adult literature.

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