Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Finally got around to reading this, a prolonged elaboration of Benjamin's note on revolutionary 'loosening' in 'The Work of Art', & it's really good. 110
Reposted by Matt CharlesAurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 02/10/2026Solidarity with all the colleagues on strike across higher education at the moment Another university is possible and this is what this manifesto is about While I'm at it, solidarity with French students too obviously and anyone fighting for better sites.google.com/view/manifes...sites.google.comMANIFESTO TO SAVE HIGHER EDUCATIONThe Manifesto to Save Higher Education arises out of the ongoing attack on jobs and programmes across UK campuses. It was coordinated by members of UCU and Unison branches from around the country. C... 0196
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Currently on a sabbatical to undertake research for my next project on Walter Benjamin. Pleased to report I've figured him all out. 010
Reposted by Matt CharlesRobert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Five corporations control 90% of the US media. Airlines have merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today. A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry. Four giants control 80% of meat processing. The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere. 720160456064
Reposted by Matt CharlesGrumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 21/09/2026Friends in many other institutions have reported the same stripping out of interesting research-led academic content for generic skills & subject material. I see it at my own too. Often, these courses are team taught because growing stress & workloads are increasing sickness levels. 21511
Reposted by Matt CharlesChris Millard @chrismillard83.bsky.social · 21/09/2026“Universities have managed staff costs significantly below inflation,[between 2016-17 and 2023-24] increasing only 14% compared to the 41.2% increase in RPIX [measure of inflation]” Substantial real terms pay cut, which continues a trend existing years before that…gov.ukCost of undergraduate provision and qualifications in EnglandA study of the full economic cost of providing undergraduate-level higher education and other qualifications in England. 65538
Reposted by Matt CharlesPlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Is it ok for management to phone students asking them to take modules not validated on their degree because they’ve sacked people and can’t staff the modules listed? A working day before teaching starts? Hypothetically, obviously. 2214843
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 18/09/2026"The man... who knows himself to be in accord with the most ancient heritage of his class or nation will sometimes bring his private life into ostentatious contrast to the maxims that he unrelentingly asserts in public..." 100
Reposted by Matt CharlesPlashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Does everyone want to hear the latest twist in my compulsory half-sacking that is simultaneously a 'new post' and a 'variation of contract' that doesn't attract any compensation for my income being halved in two weeks time, and for which I got a congratulations letter? 1014823
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Maybe the ex-citizens of Piddington could be Ed Sheeran's support acts? Kills two birds 000
Reposted by Matt CharlesDaniel 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: 13598709
Reposted by Matt CharlesNew-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Whether it's legal or not, HR doctrine in universities these days appears to be that an employment contract is binding only for one party, and that party is not the employer. (Below is the list of agreements that the University of Brighton have unilaterally decided to cancel.) 34621
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Excuse me for my naivety here but might a possible reason for the coordinated AI "slow-down" response be that, having hyped up AI for investment, these companies are now jointly hyping down the expectations of ROI? 100
Reposted by Matt CharlesByline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 11/09/2026James Orr. Peter Thiel. Race science. Tech authoritarianism. We've spent years tracing the networks behind Britain’s ‘Dark Enlightenment’. Help us launch an urgent new investigative project to follow the money and map how it operates. #LightUpTheDark subscribe.bylinetimes.com/lightuptheda...subscribe.bylinetimes.com#LightUpTheDark – Byline TimesDark Enlightenment: The US Far-Right War on British Institutions Help Byline Times Fund aN URGENT New INVESTIGATIVE SERIES #LightUpTheDark What is the Dark Enlightenment? The extraordinary anti-DEI me... 16540330
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Maybe HEIs could ask employers to help with graduate outcomes/premium by employing more people and paying them higher wages? 000
Reposted by Matt CharlesChris Millard @chrismillard83.bsky.social · 10/09/2026ok so the minister responsible for UKRI doesn't know he has responsibility for humanities research? and thinks that the Culture Media and Sport minister does the humanities research stuff instead? have I got that right? 3118
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/08/2026'If a funding model recognises laboratory costs but not the diseconomies of small-cohort regional delivery, it may miss one kind of structural cost... unclear assumptions about teaching costs can lead to blunt cuts or the withdrawal of provision that is structurally expensive but publicly important' 000
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Educational materialist accounts of pedagogization 000
Reposted by Matt CharlesJohn Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 07/08/2026New from me: Britain’s graduate earnings premium is falling, cue “too many go to university!” But non-university outcomes are also bad, cue “we must reform vocational routes!” Both miss the point: people used to think education drove economic outcomes, but the economy drives educational outcomes. 19535169
Reposted by Matt Charleswill pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 05/08/2026does anyone know of any work that’s been done on career trajectories of (UK humanities) academics who have been made redundant? eg information about how many go into school teaching, early retirement, independent research? appreciate this is complex, sensitive and much data is too recent 108231
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/07/2026My review of Peter E. Gordon's biography 'Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver' - in which I attempt to "out-aquatize" Gordon - has been published! Thanks to Sara Dominici, Robin Mills, and Kerstin Wright for help in editing. Here's a (limited) link to a free eprint: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WCTNU... 022
Reposted by Matt CharlesDundee UCU @ducuuo.bsky.social · 03/07/2026The Scottish Funding Council waved through the University of Dundee's Strategy to Recovery, even though it broke their funding conditions. The Scottish Gov need to ACT NOW and ask the SFC to reverse their decision, and stop the redundancy process TODAY. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/...thecourier.co.ukEXCLUSIVE: Funding council waved through Dundee University £20m cuts plan despite own concernsThe strategy is crucial to the university unlocking another £20 million in rescue funds. 01819
Reposted by Matt CharlesMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026First they came for the languages. In the hope that no one would have the words to say what was happening. 1/9🧵bbc.co.ukUniversity of Aberdeen's plans to cut modern language degrees were 'rushed' - reviewThe University of Aberdeen says it accepts there were "missteps" in its process in 2023. 7314198
Reposted by Matt CharlesAndrew Defty @adefty.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Yesterday 142 academic staff at the University of Lincoln were put at risk of redundancy including the entire Politics and International Relations team. This follows cuts since 2024 which have already seen over 500 people leave the university. This is the 'University of No Regrets'. 35868
Reposted by Matt CharlesNaomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world. 7043322446
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026In further time-filling news, my university's Frankfurt School Critical Theory reading group now turns its attention to accounts of cartel capitalism in Neumann's 'Behemoth' and Otto Kirchheimer's 'Changes in the Structure of Political Compromise', in response to Pollock's state capitalism thesis 130
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Waiting to pick my son up from his school production so time to let you know I'm working for the rest of the year on a project on Walter Benjamin's theory of fascism: article on fascist/antifascist mimicry, chapter on the temporalization of modern barbarism, book on 'The Slave Revolt of Technology' 020
Reposted by Matt CharlesMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026'The proposed industrial action is over plans to cut 200 jobs as the Brighton facility attempts to save £35m annually. It comes after more than 600 staff were put at risk of redundancy across academic, technical and professional services departments.'bbc.co.ukUniversity of Sussex staff vote whether to go on strike over job cutsHundreds of people face redundancy as the Brighton-based facility tries to save £35m. 24643
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026"Academia is not alone here, but research in 2021 found that, in the UK, HE staff have lower wellbeing than average for other sectors across all of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) psychosocial hazard categories and more than half of staff report working over 40hrs a week" (1/2) 110
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 02/07/2026"A teacher who teaches teachers nothing teaches no one" 000
Reposted by Matt CharlesGeorge Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Something 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.earthThe bonfire of the humanities150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences 381042507
Reposted by Matt CharlesRebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 01/07/2026A depressingly long list of universities who are implementing cuts and redundancies, as well as the petitions and actions against them (via @onslies.bsky.social) qmucu.org/qmul-transfo.... This is a national emergency that should be responded to with national policy.qmucu.orgUK HE shrinkinga live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly. 03630
Reposted by Matt Charlesbecimay @becimay.bsky.social · 27/06/2026In case you didn’t know, Exeter uni, where I work, has announced a plan to make 25% of staff in my English department redundant. Left-over staff will do double the teaching while their research time will be shrunk to 1%. Meanwhile admissions for English at Exeter are HIGH, and on the rise this year 36236110
Reposted by Matt CharlesRonald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 27/06/2026It makes sense to share this text again. "Good managers are those who gets things done, which tends to mean that they are not hampered by either sensitivity for others’ feelings or democratic scruples.“ (David West, 2016) demosjournal.com/article/the-...demosjournal.comDemos Journal - The Managerial University: A Failed Experiment?Recent decades have seen a protracted attack and painstaking demolition of the traditional or ‘old’ university and an associated purging of academics. The rise of managers and ‘man... 052
Reposted by Matt CharlesGreg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 27/06/2026The crisis in UK higher education is worsening week by week — Exeter University is one of the best in the UK, with superb lecturers (and several You’re Dead To Me guests), but it’s planning massive job cuts in History, Archaeology, Classics — see the petition below to lend your voice in support 10226122
Reposted by Matt CharlesKatherine McDonald @katherinemcdon.bsky.social · 25/06/2026Ok, look, what's been particularly infuriating about the redundancies at Exeter (and Nottingham and Newcastle and and and) is this weird idea that it only affects those individuals and institutions. It harms us all because we are so closely interconnected. 317451
Reposted by Matt CharlesMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 25/06/2026It's not the worst aspect of the University of Exeter news, but the fact that the scale, focus and timing of the planned redundancies came as such a shock to staff says something quite fundamental about the staff of staff/management relations in UK HE today. Where is respect? Collegiality? Teamwork?dictionary.cambridge.orgpoleaxed1. past simple and past participle of poleaxe 2. to hit someone so hard that… 26424
Reposted by Matt CharlesRev. Dr. Liz Gloyn @lizgloyn.bsky.social · 25/06/2026As meetings start to take place which reveal the extent of proposed damage, do take a moment to sign this petition against compulsory, unnecessary cuts at Exeter that disproportionately target the humanities.change.orgSign the PetitionStop Redundancies at the University of Exeter 044
Reposted by Matt CharlesIain Soutar @isoutar.bsky.social · 25/06/2026Many are following this. Those at risk here on Exeter's Cornwall campus include myself and colleagues in Geography, Environmental Science, Marine Science, Renewable Energy, and Environmental Maths, Humanities, and 1/2 the Environment and Sustainability Institute. I really hope this can be resolved.bbc.co.ukUniversity of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staffThe university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes". 69761
Reposted by Matt CharlesKatherine McDonald @katherinemcdon.bsky.social · 24/06/2026Colleagues at Exeter have asked me to circulate this petition as widely as possible: www.change.org/p/stop-redun... 14750
Reposted by Matt CharlesGlen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026It's much too late now to save large parts of Higher Education, but there's lots that can still be done if we stop and pause this madness. Otherwise most HE will just be concentrated in SE England at Oxbridge, LSE, Imperial, Kings and a few others. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...timeshighereducation.comUniversity 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 12920
Reposted by Matt CharlesGlen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026Unis 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.comUniversity of Exeter plans to cut 150 jobs - Research Professional NewsStaff consultation underway, with UCU claiming 14 per cent of academic workforce is at risk 1279
Reposted by Matt CharlesGlen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026What's happening at the University of Exeter is a disaster for both the region and the country. The way the sector is set up, it is *inevitable* and *unstoppable* that this will continuously happen everywhere. We need to stop, get out a blank sheet of paper and start again. 03015
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/06/2026I'll also be given a keynote speech on why the real crisis of universities isn't their current underfunding but their overcapitalization in 2010s. (Joking, joking) 010
Reposted by Matt CharlesGlen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026The cuts at Exeter University won't work. They never work. The high-ups will be back for more in a year or two, then even more a year or two after that. Unis just keep doing the same thing consultants tell them to do, over and over again. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukUniversity of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staffThe university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes". 34519
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 24/06/2026"Growing Humanities" @wminhumanities.bsky.social London on Monday (29/06/26) bit.ly/4euUYIw Translating/(Re)Valuing/Frontline Hums, Histories & Environments & workshop Plenary by @cnewf.bsky.social on "The Future of Literary knowledge as a University Institution” Do join us (and say hello)!eventbrite.co.ukGrowing Humanities: Flourishing Futures in Challenging TimesThis conference celebrates the enduring importance of Humanities disciplines and collectively plans for flourishing futures. 000
Matt Charles @mattcharles.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Please sign to help support Philosophy at Dundee (and non-analytic philosophy, which is under threat of extinction across the UK)c.orgSign the PetitionSave the Philosophy Programme at Dundee University 013
Reposted by Matt CharlesTarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 17/06/2026It seems a good day to remind people that in the UK 3 times as many people work in Indian restaurants or for McDonalds as in the whole coal and steel industry. 5 times as many are academic staff at universities. If Labour does not understand its electorate, there is no way to appeal to it. 182127617