What the actual..?

Love Larry…

Interesting way to visualise and explore the developing BlueSky community(ies?). Also shows (roughly left vs right end ish?) perhaps different types of community - professional, social vs political/news orientated? We're down in the bottom left, "UK HE Commons" people!

Sunday morning started with an argument about Johns Hopkins university and ended here: https://studyinternational.com/news/universities-weirdest-names/ Any suggestions for weirdest Uni names in #UKHE ? (I think Bishop Grosseteste changed their name or they would win for sure!)

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #UKHE

🚨BREAKING: Steve Bannon said Tuesday that the federal government is planning to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to patrol polling stations during this year’s midterm elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Mergers and closures: UK universities, 2026

Excellent article but stark reminder that for all the perceptions of universities as ivory towers for elites, they are actually vital hubs in towns n cities supporting local businesses and providing key services as well as education….

"I'd love to play their calls to Rachel Reeves." Do callers Elliot and Kieran illustrate the implicit unfairness of the student loan system? @benkentish.bsky.social thinks so.

My experience is that this model results in old, white men getting all the research time while young women and scholars of colour end up being pushed into the teaching-heavy roles.

'We likely require fewer academics with research in their remit, but those that do need greater time allocated, and must be subject to a strategic research management regime'. I remain very sceptical/negative about the medium- and long-turn impacts of separating research and teaching. 1/2

Education is a public good. The cost should be met from general, progressive taxation, not dumped on the shoulders of these and future generations www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

What does sustainability education look like when economic survival, inequality, and decolonisation shape the classroom? New paper on ESD in South African business & economics education. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

At last, the issue of student loans is properly hitting national politics.

In so many ways - student loans that take 9% of your marginal income without ever being paid off, higher rate tax threshold freezes, mortgage and housing costs - we have seen the return of the "squeezed middle". A huge political opportunity/risk. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Completely unsustainable and makes Rachel Reeves’s comments earlier this week even more objectionable.

Happy February! Welcome to most underrated and fastest improving month. You start in the depths of winter and end waking up in the light to the sound of birds singing, to the sight of snowdrops, daffodils and early blossom in the trees #BigFebruary

Will it ever stop raining? # WelcomeToDevon

Amongst other things, this is deeply disingenuous wording. The letter states (as positive framing?) that "curiosity-driven research will be the largest component of UKRI's portfolio over the SR period" Yet the majority of that bucket (61%) is QR funding. This is really conflating two very 1/2

OOOOH Researchfish Is going extinct 🐡🐟🐠 help.researchfish.com/en_US/resear...

I show this sign to people I manage at work. It's just as applicable to humans and their bodies as it is to anything else.

Your reminder: £20 billion is the cost of cancelling all student loans £10 billion is the annual cost of abolishing tuition fees £90 billion is the lost tax revenue because of Brexit

It’s time to abolish tuition fees and cancel student debt. Education is a public good, not a commodity.

In that case: Can all the people across society who didn’t go to university give all the benefits of university research and local economic activity back please.

Finding a lot of the news very stressful at the moment. If you’re like me, please accept this quick reminder to breathe… Here’s a cute photo of a cat to help you.

Get serious about Socials in 2026 I'm running a free online session to guide you through the world of TikTok. Discover how researchers are using videos to increase their reach profile & impact. Organised by CDICE. Open to UK university research staff & PhD students www.cdice.ac.uk/events/tiktok/

Universities of Sheffield, Lancaster and Surrey latest to opt out of new Elsevier deal https://www.europesays.com/uk/725355/ Three more UK universities have confirmed they are not taking subscriptions to Elsevier journals, with one Russell Group…#uk #news #uknews

British Library placements for doctoral students at UK universities: www.bl.uk/services/res... Good opportunity to spend focused months at the BL. One of these is 'Describing the British Library’s Illustrated and Illuminated Incunabula'! Deadline's 27 February.

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Oof. Just had to wade into my Junk Email folder - what a cesspool! Tons of emails from predatory journals and conferences asking (sometimes mildly threatening) me to submit a paper, give a talk, etc. This illustrates the importance of mentoring in an academic discipline. A layperson... (1/2)

As a climate scientist I am quite sure I could use this reply at least two dozen times per week.

And so it begins... 3 UK universities (Essex, Sussex & Kent) have just gone public about walking away from their Elsevier Read & Publish deals, despite Jisc's recently announced agreement. Expect to see more of these over the coming months. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/three-m... #OpenAccess

No one would choose to be part of the United States if they had free healthcare, let alone if they also had free education. Hell, even without those things, the US looks toxic to outsiders. There seem to be a small but noticeable minority of Americans even here who don’t realise that last.

Recent research showed that papers with a female first author spent seven days longer under review than papers with a male lead author >> www.timeshighereducation.com/news/papers-...

So Disney deleted their post on Threads asking users to post Disney quotes that show how their feeling - I suspect this is because it didn't quite go as they expected but the internet is forever so, for your delectation and delight...

A year ago? I’m not convinced Trump knows what he said a week ago..

It’s incredible that Farage was too ill to go on BBC Breakfast last minute, but has enough energy to do a Reform rally and Davos this week. He must have a severe allergy to scrutiny.

AI detectors – especially when it comes to text – are always unreliable, and often just outright scams.

It’s a tremendous honour, really tremendous - to be presented with a ‘World No.1 University’ ranking from Oxford. Very smart people. The best. Everyone knows it. Nobody thought it could happen, but here we are. Absolutely incredible.

WWII, the gift that keeps on giving. One confirmed UXO - a 50Kg Nazi German drop bomb - discovered on a building site in Plymouth, and one suspected UXO dredged up in Exmouth Marina

Sector colleagues and friends with kids all whispering about just how low the A-Level grade offers are from 'prestigious' UK universities. It's crazy stuff - surely it'll destroy the perceived value of A-Levels entirely over time.

This current financial system for the university sector does not work. It doesn't work for staff, it certainly doesn't work for students. And since a university is those two, it doesn't work for universities. Time for an urgent change to the financial system of #UKHE

This week we will feature @hopkinsdavid.bsky.social exploring Redundancy, Resilience, and Finding What’s Next #LTHEchat

Fascinating write up of a recent paper I published with Dr Damien Hackney. I was really impressed by the way the author has made a complex topic so accessible: dailyneuron.com/why-your-nat...

Well I have no idea on most of these but it was an interesting set of questions. Have a go!

Two-thirds of UK voters wrongly think immigration is rising, poll finds Exclusive: Voters say they have little confidence that government can control borders despite sharp falls in net migration www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

A week ago the Telegraph published a piece purportedly ahead of a report of the Tax Payer’s Alliance. Except, the report has not appeared. So this was all false: a press release without a report. This is what fake news really looks like.

Welcome to everyone joining Bluesky in the recent influx.