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Shaun Wilson

@shaunwilson.bsky.social
426 followers 351 following 66 posts

Sociology prof, Macquarie University, Sydney.

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Reposted by Shaun Wilson
Sandy Horne @sandyhorne.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
The ever-present and common Australian pipit can be seen cheerfully skipping along dirt roads ahead of your car in rural areas. And they often pose beautifully, like this one near Wilmington. Fun fact: These are closely related to wagtails, whereas willie wagtails are not true wagtails at all.
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NTEU @nteunion.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
We’re out in force at Macquarie University today because management’s cuts are destroying jobs, slashing courses, and undermining the future of our university. Join us today: nteu.au/join
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NTEU @nteunion.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
A message from ACTU Secretary @sallymcmanus.bsky.social for NTEU members at MQ! We support all union activists and will advocate against these redundancies. Join us to fight for what’s right: nteu.au/join @damiencahill.bsky.social
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Ben Spies-Butcher @bspiesbutcher.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
What do voters think about the housing crisis? Just out in @aunz.theconversation.com our piece (w @shaunwilson.bsky.social @alistairsisson.bsky.social Kristian Ruming and Adam Stebbing) for MQ's Housing and Urban Research Centre exploring #Housing attitudes theconversation.com/most-austral...
theconversation.com
Most Australians agree there’s a housing crisis. But they differ on what’s causing it – and how to fix it
New research shows older voters believe immigration is crunching housing supply, while young voters blame high interest rates and low wage growth.
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David Peetz @davidpeetz.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Want to lift workers’ productivity? Let’s start with their bosses www.thenewdaily.com.au/work/2025/08...
thenewdaily.com.au
Want to lift workers' productivity? Let's start with their bosses
Business has the biggest influence on productivity – a much bigger impact than workers, who are typically blamed when things go wrong.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
"Australia has the second-lowest public expenditure on tertiary education institutions in the OECD…This has resulted in an endless chase for dollars (international students & “the next big thing”) rather than thinking about what an educated Australia should look like” www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
smh.com.au
Universities such as mine are making poor decisions, and we’re not allowed to know why
UTS has announced a “pause” on enrolments in 100 courses. Vacating these critically important areas diminishes not only the brand of UTS but the state it was designed to benefit.
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Josh Holloway @jholloway.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
with what's been going on at ANU, UTS, Macquarie, etc. seems like an appropriate time to again post this 2021 study. Gives some good hints as to where some alternative savings might be found link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 15/08/2025
UTS academics describe ‘culture of fear’ as enrolments put on hold for nearly a fifth of courses
theguardian.com
UTS academics describe ‘culture of fear’ as enrolments put on hold for nearly a fifth of courses
The freeze comes as the university pursues $100m in cost cuts and after it announced in April it could axe 400 jobs * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Academics at the University of Technology Sydney have described feelings of stress and a “culture of fear” after the educational institution temporarily paused student enrolments for nearly a fifth of its courses, leaving staff wondering if their jobs will be among the hundreds set to be axed. The university has stopped taking in new students for 120 of its 615 courses, including masters degrees in teaching primary and secondary education. More than 50 of the affected courses were international study options attached to other degrees. The pause will last until the end of the autumn 2026 semester. Continue reading...
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
"Europe Sees Dangerous Heat Wave as North America Sets 3,000 Temperature Records" via @truthout.org: truthout.org/video/europe...
truthout.org
Europe Sees Dangerous Heat Wave as North America Sets 3,000 Temperature Records
This comes as GlobalChange.gov was taken down, along with information on how global warming is affecting the US.
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Human Rights Watch @hrw.org · 01/07/2025
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act isn't a solution to economic inequality or for managing immigration and asylum procedures — it's a blueprint for cruelty. The US deserves a health care system that fulfills everyone’s human right to health, and a budget that makes this possible.
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SEIU California @seiuca.org · 01/07/2025
Unbelievable. Senate Republicans just voted to TERMINATE healthcare & SNAP for millions — all to funnel more billions to billionaires. This vote exposes Trump’s MAGA agenda: always for billionaires—not for working families fighting for care, food, dignity. seiuca.org/press-releas...
seiuca.org
SEIU California | Republican Senate Vote to Terminate Healthcare and SNAP for Millions Americans Exposes MAGA’s Big Lie: Trump’s Bill was Always for Billionaires, Not Working People
Republicans in the U.S. Senate today voted for the biggest cut to healthcare and nutrition in our nation’s history in order to deliver on Trump’s campaign promises of tax cuts for the mega-rich.
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Cam Walker @camwalker.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Excellent news. Great work from the ALP, Greens, Animal Justice & Legalise Cannabis parties. Of course, the LNP refuses to come out of the 1950s. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
First Peoples’ Assembly set to become permanent voice to Victorian parliament with crossbench support
Exclusive: Advisory body will be renamed and granted statutory powers after Labor secures numbers to make it permanent
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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Please sign and share - a worthy petition to protect Sociology at Macquarie and, more generally, to protest the declining commitment by university managers to strong social sciences in Australia. Their value cannot be over-stated. www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...
megaphone.org.au
SAVE SOCIOLOGY AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY
We urge Macquarie University management to reverse this decision and preserve the vital disciplines of Sociology and Politics. Sociology has a key place in the social sciences as the broadest and mos...
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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Please sign and share - a worthy petition to protect Sociology at Macquarie and, more generally, to protest the declining commitment by university managers to strong social sciences in Australia. Their value cannot be over-stated. www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...
megaphone.org.au
SAVE SOCIOLOGY AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY
We urge Macquarie University management to reverse this decision and preserve the vital disciplines of Sociology and Politics. Sociology has a key place in the social sciences as the broadest and mos...
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Dr Peter Davidson @pagdavidson.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
Oh god yes, the next time I read (incl from uni peak bodies) that unis are a leading export industry Ill throw up! Among other things they are key to boosting productivity. Won’t happen if corporatised production line approach persists.
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The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) @sociologyaustralia.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
🔥 FINAL HOURS! Early Bird registration for #TASA2025 closes at midnight tonight! Be part of Australia’s leading sociology conference and connect with scholars, researchers & change-makers from around the country. 🎟️ Register now and save: www.tasa.org.au/content.aspx... #DeadlineDay #TASA2025
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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
I think the new universities regular ATEC should make a rule — every time a university kills off a course like music or politics or sociology, they should also have to reduce the salary of the vice-chancellor by $100k
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Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · 27/06/2025
‘Academics are leaving, exhausted by stifling workloads…Students are unhappy…paying through the nose for an insipid version of the…experience their parents enjoyed. We’re so busy beating up universities…we forget what a disastrous own goal we’re kicking…’ www.theage.com.au/national/a-k...
theage.com.au
‘A kind of monster’: Why does everyone hate universities?
Neither side of politics is giving universities the love they need, but the unis need to smarten up – for all our sakes.
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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
www.afr.com/policy/healt...
afr.com
Universities aren’t pizza joints; stop treating them that way
Policymakers must set aside the fiction that universities are just another industry that can generate its own funding and that academics can be turned into entrepreneurs.
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Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · 27/06/2025
University policy has been broken for 40 years. ‘Our policymakers must be brave enough to argue that education is unequivocally and intrinsically a public good, vital to the interests of the nation, and therefore worth funding properly.’ www.afr.com/policy/healt...
afr.com
Universities aren’t pizza joints; stop treating them that way
Policymakers must set aside the fiction that universities are just another industry that can generate its own funding and that academics can be turned into entrepreneurs.
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Milo Kei @milokei.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Maq Uni restructuring is symptomatic of the rot infesting university mgmt throughout the land (and elsewhere). Just when you think the hollowing out has to stop somewhere it accelerates into new disciplines. #Sociology now at risk there due to pitifully small thinking #AcademicSky #SaveHASS
We must oppose the reductive logic underpinning the Macquarie proposal. The HASS fields, including
sociology, remain crucial to the international standing of Australian universities, and are a drawcard for
our students. We note that the Job-Ready Graduate Package has done nothing to deter students’
interest in HASS. The contention that HASS courses are financially unviable is simply not born out by
indicators of teaching and research income.
Despite this, the management of Australian universities has been reduced to forms of ‘strategic
planning’ that amount to cherry picking (and often guessing at) the most profitable fields – and
restructuring accordingly. This reflects an inability to envisage and enact innovative institutional
responses to national and global developments shaping higher education. It fails to uphold a vision of
the contemporary university as one that balances income and profit with intellectual contribution, social
purpose and cultural impact. We urge the senior management of Macquarie University to revise their
current restructuring proposal and adopt a more constructive and future-orientated vision. We extend
this plea to other Australian universities currently reviewing their programs and staffing. Our collective
task is to strengthen what our universities are and can be, not deplete them.
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History Council of NSW, Inc. @historynsw.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Will History fall silent? We are extremely concerned to hear about the planned downsizing of academic positions in the Arts Faculty Please read our statement of concern on the proposed staff and course cuts at Macquarie University via the link below buff.ly/8ThbLgf
buff.ly
Statement of Concern - Proposed staff & course cuts at Macquarie University
The History Council of NSW expresses concern about the proposed staff and course cuts to History at Macquarie University.
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Ariadne Vromen @ariadnevromen.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
It’s heartbreaking to read about the dissolution of the Politics Department at Macquarie University along with the decimation of Sociology - so many brilliant scholars livelihoods being destroyed www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say
Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Yes to this but why stop there? Let’s go for full comprehensive universities established on co-operative principles. VCs to be elected by staff, paid the same as other professors and rewarded for the burden of their 4 year stint with a sabbatical afterwards. Local govt on the board too.
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Penny Wong, 2003: "I say suspicion is not enough. To justify going to war we need more than suspicion. What sort of world would we live in if suspicion alone was justification for participation in unilateral military action outside the auspices of the UN? "
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Mike Hudema @mikehudema.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
From the edge of extinction Spain and Portugal were able to save the world's most endangered cat from the brink. We have the solutions. Implement them. #ActOnClimate #climate #energy #nature #rewilding #GreenNewDeal
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Jamie Wood @larusnz.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Impressive work - The number of recognised genera of Australo-Papuan treefrogs has just been increased from 3 to 35! academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
A message from Bernie as we head into the final weekend before the election.
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The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) @sociologyaustralia.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
TASA is deeply dismayed by Macquarie Uni’s proposed restructuring that would decimate sociology. The social sciences matter — they help us navigate a complex world. Our full statement & call to action here: www.tasa.org.au/docs.ashx?id... #Sociology #HigherEd #SupportHASS
tasa.org.au
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Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · 19/06/2025
Thank you, @jasonclaremp.bsky.social! The minister has taken the extraordinary steps writing to ANU leadership asking them to explain themselves and referred to the university regulator. I hope the government inquiry into university governance is extended. www.afr.com/work-and-car...
afr.com
Education minister refers ANU concerns to regulator
Jason Clare has intervened around issues with governance and leadership at ANU, writing to the vice chancellor and referring concerns to the regulator.
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Senator Bernie Sanders @sanders.senate.gov · 16/06/2025
Netanyahu began this war with his attack on Iran. In the process, he sabotaged US-Iran negotiations on nuclear issues and assassinated Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s lead nuclear negotiator. The US must not be dragged into another illegal Netanyahu war – either militarily or financially.
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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
www.afr.com/work-and-car...
afr.com
David Pocock blasts ANU leadership for ‘trashing’ institution
The independent senator believes urgent action is needed and has written to education minister Jason Clare about management of the national university.
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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
www.afr.com/work-and-car...
afr.com
David Pocock blasts ANU leadership for ‘trashing’ institution
The independent senator believes urgent action is needed and has written to education minister Jason Clare about management of the national university.
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prof-alistair.bsky.social @prof-alistair.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Rarely have we needed graduates competent in political and sociological analysis than we do now. Dreadful move by @Macquarie_Uni @Thesis11 #politics #Sociology #HigherEducation
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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 18/06/2025
🎨🌞 Cool paint – literally New paint keeps buildings cooler by reflecting sunlight and releasing water. It even works on walls in humid places like Singapore. Less heat, less energy use – smart and simple. 🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scie... 🧪 #ClimateAction #SciComm
doi.org
Passive cooling paint enabled by rational design of thermal-optical and mass transfer properties
Integrating radiative and evaporative cooling shows promise for enhancing passive cooling, but durable self-curing integrated cooling paints remain underdeveloped. We designed a modified cementitious ...
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jumanabayeh.bsky.social @jumanabayeh.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Politics, Sociology, Ancient History, majors in Media, Music may be decimated @ MQ. 4/8 Politics staff with no more Politics units. 11/14 Sociologists to be axed. Ancient History recently the jewel in the MQ crown is being destroyed. This is beyond save Arts & SS @ MQ. Thank you @auspsa.bsky.social
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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Shambolic. If teachers can use AI to mark, why can’t students use AI to write? And here we go: students not doing the work and teachers not doing the marking. Why don’t students not bother to go to school and teachers can stay at home? How about we all don’t get out of bed in the morning?????
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AusPSA @auspsa.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
APSA is deeply concerned about the proposed cuts to Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University. Our letter to university leadership outlines the discipline’s outstanding research, strong teaching record, and impact. 📄 Read the full letter here: auspsa.org.au/job-alert/ap....
auspsa.org.au
APSA's letter to Macquarie University - Australian Political Studies Association
APSA Statement on Proposed Cuts at Macquarie UniversityAPSA has expressed deep concern over proposed cuts to Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University, including the resting of the ...
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
America's descent into suppression of dissent 🧵 I've been tracking Trump's actions since Jan and have included 93 actions that I consider to suppress dissent. They fall into 4 domains and their use is quite different over time. 1/16
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NTEU ACT @nteuact.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Great to see ACT Senator @davidpocock.bsky.social putting university governance front and centre at #ANU. Very popular discussion topic for those in attendance. 👏 @nteunion.bsky.social
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Rick Morton @squigglyrick.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Universities are in trouble. But is Nous Group the answer? The business model of the consultant is sharp and sophisticated. They bought the sector 'benchmarking' data and use it to sell services. Griffith Uni even hired 4 exec staff from them. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/educati...
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
‘Mind-boggling stupidity’: The consultancy that captured universities
Nous Group has slowly taken over the university sector, filling VCs’ offices with ex-staff and buying ‘incredibly sensitive’ data that is sold back for benchmarking.
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Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 14/06/2025
Opinion from Auckland University: The findings of a new IMF report suggest NZ is not just underperforming, but actively backing the wrong kinds of growth.
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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Excellent article by Rock Morton in the Saturday Paper this morning, on consultants Nous. These guys are so endemic in university managements I ended up writing a whole paper about them. They're basically vampires www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/educati...
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
‘Mind-boggling stupidity’: The consultancy that captured universities
Nous Group has slowly taken over the university sector, filling VCs’ offices with ex-staff and buying ‘incredibly sensitive’ data that is sold back for benchmarking.
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Spooky Morales @spookymorales.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
These are the people that make America great 🇲🇽🇺🇸
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Michelle Arrow @michellearrow.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Excellent coverage of Macquarie Uni’s proposed restructure: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say
Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses
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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Macquarie University isn't unique here, but university managers across the sector are rapidly turning the undergraduate curriculum into boring, mass teaching with smaller, more interesting, and intellectually alive units wiped out on questionable financial grounds.
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Stephanie Russo @drstephr.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say
Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses
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Bernard Hickey @bernardchickey.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
We’re gutting ourselves not-so-slowly
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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Why Australia's productivity growth is low: # short-term rent seeking managerialism: profits thru cost-cutting v LT investment # oligopolistic product & labour markets produce rents w/o innovation # lack of industrial capacity + R & D # service/care economy: productivity gains don't make sense
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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Automation won’t necessarily lead to either mass unemployment or a utopian workless future. Power and politics impact how automation affects work — which means that automation can create dignified jobs through class struggle.
jacobin.com
Automation Doesn’t Have to Mean Unemployment and Misery
Automation won’t necessarily lead to either mass unemployment or a utopian workless future. Power and politics impact how automation affects work — which means that automation can create dignified jobs through class struggle.
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