Yesterday saw two substantial and valuable interventions on the crisis facing UK higher education: 2. 'Demographic decline and predatory recruitment: The twin threats to English higher education into the 2040s', bit.ly/4xc62l4 by Bahram Bekhradnia @hepi-news.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/3

Bonfire of the Universities continues 600 staff at Sussex Uni will receive notification that their positions are “at risk” & asked to volunteer for redundancy If 200 volunteers don't come forward, compulsory redundancies will follow Grim & upsetting www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'In the...[Hepi] paper, published on 28 May, the institute’s president Bahram Bekhradnia says that with the population of young people set to decline rapidly from 2030, the income that UK institutions derive from undergraduate fees will fall by nearly 20 per cent by 2040.' NB 'UK' problematic. 1/2

HM Government will continue to get the blame for ‘Trumpflation’ unless it has a clearer message.

OK, so Helen Whately and the Express are doubling down and going all out hysterical at this point...🙄 They've actually "calculated" the state benefits a man with ELEVEN WIVES could claim!! And this time, they've done it behind a paywalled article🤷‍♀️ But don't worry, I got behind it!🤓 🧵1/20

'All undergraduate programmes at the Russell Group university will contain an element of practical experience going forward, Duncan Ivison, who has led the university since August 2024, has announced.' 1/3

'Funders are being pushed into taking measures to cope with a widespread increase in grant application numbers, with factors including artificial intelligence and university financial pressure blamed for the rise.' Not to mention some HEIs' policy of mandating x number of applications p.a. 1/3

A sweltering hot day is the perfect time to think about a winter trip. Come join us January 6th-8th in beautiful Exeter for the next BIAPT conference! Deadline for submissions is July 24th. Full cfp 👇 www.associationforpoliticalthought.ac.uk/call-for-pap...

Shorter: there are no jobs and pay and conditions are getting worse

Results from UUK's spring 2026 survey, with 140+ respondents. 'Staffing has become one of the most common areas of cost saving with 79% of universities pursuing voluntary redundancies and 79% implemented hiring freezes or pauses to recruitment over the last three years.' 1/3

Reviewers in two groups were given identical resumes for Emily Clarke and James Clarke and told they had used AI. Emily's was 2x as likely to raise doubts about competence. "She can't even write a CV herself." But James "just needed a bit of help." fortune.com/2026/05/10/i...

If I’m not evolved enough to understand it, then why did they have to steal my writing to train it?

Here’s just one detail from @thenerve.news #HarborneReceipts timeline. On the *exact same day* Christopher Harborne gives Reform £3m, Nigel Farage says Reform will lift cap on stablecoin ownership. Where does Christopher Harborne’s money come from, you ask? Stablecoins!

📢 Job Alert! 📢 Do you work on critical approaches to militarism, war, and technology? Do you have expereince teaching introductory and advanced courses in international relations? Then come and work with us at the University of Amsterdam. #AcademicSky werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

The Society's President and Council have released the following statement on the proposed closure of undergraduate degrees at the University of Hertfordshire, in #History and the wider humanities bit.ly/4dmV5oO This comes at a time of further bad news from Essex and Nottingham #Skystorians

New research has found 63% of universities now run food banks and a third offer free meals to students in need. Reported in @mirror.co.uk, a new study funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme reveals how students are increasingly relying on free food pantries and vouchers.

'The University of Nottingham has chosen not to renew five publishing deals this year as the research-intensive institution struggles under severe financial pressure.' Said to include T&F, CUP, OUP and Wiley. 1/3

Rousseau said that the greatest trick ever played was that the rich managed to get the poor to use their strength against themselves. That was in 1762. You would have thought we would have seen through it by now.

Lecturer in European Comparative Politics #ECPRMemberJobs 📅 Fixed term appointment of 3 Years 🏫 @ucddublin.bsky.social ⌛ Tue 19 May buff.ly/tyz9D3q #PolSciJobs #PoliSky #AcademicSky

Actually, SHAPE subjects cross-subsidise STEM subjects in most comprehensive UK universities annually through differential central charge or 'contribution' models. It's another reason we're all in the current HE crisis together, whether our own particular discipline is 'at risk' at present or not.

One of the largest drops in nhs waiting lists on record, which no one will now hear about. Opportunity cost from all the leadership turmoil www.england.nhs.uk/2026/05/heal...

TWO great jobs in History and Philosophy of Science at Sydney! Rank from Lecturer (Assistant Prof) to Assoc Prof. Particularly interested in candidates working in the areas of early modern science, or science or medicine in Asia, or Indigenous knowledge systems... #HPS #STS #histstm #histsci

We 'are a long way from proactive system stewardship. Course closures continue, and the landscape keeps shifting – and contracting. With our interactive maps updated using new 2024-25 HESA data, we can now see, one year on from our first assessment, how closures are reshaping provision [cont.]' 1/4

'Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly, according to the latest study to link taking an active interest in art and culture with improved health.' Study after study after study suggests funding the arts funds good health, not that policy reflects it. 1/2

🚨Job alert🚨 Postdoc position: Political Theory and History of Ideas (100%, 3+2 years) @unigreifswald.bsky.social Deadline: 24.06.26 Happy to answer questions via email. Please share widely! www.uni-greifswald.de/en/universit...

We’re very pleased to share news of this research fellowship position, working with our wonderful CECS / English Literature colleague Prof Mary Fairclough @maryfairclough.bsky.social on the collected works of Mary Wollstonecraft: 🔗 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRL782/r...

Teaching in one science department is “now bare-bones, with our pro vice-chancellor using the term ‘minimum viable product’ as the goal”. A politics academic keeps “trying to be positive, but it is exhausting. I moved my whole family here for this job; the guilt is horrendous." 1/3

White-tailed Eagle. Magnificent photo taken by Phil Gower in Mull, Scotland. #eagle #bird #whitetailedeagle #ocean #seaeagle #wildlife #scottish #mull #scotland #nature #bsky #hebrides

Planning your fieldwork? Don‘t know where to start? We’re offering our course again on field research planning, logistics, implementation across methods, funding applications, ethics, participant recruitment, etc at the @essexsummerschool.bsky.social. Apply here. bit.ly/4kkxDue

🔔 PhD opportunity 🔔 Professor Sofia Vasilopoulou is inviting applications for a PhD position to work on the research project INEQCHANGE. The PhD is fully funded for three years and the planned entry date is 1 October. More ⬇️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Good point-by-point assessment of the Sussex/OfS findings, and their implications for the sector.

Following our successful judicial review against the Office for Students (OfS) in the High Court, hear more from our Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Sasha Roseneil.

'Perhaps most damaging for the regulator meant to oversee freedom of speech, the accusation of bias in the process was also upheld. Mrs Justice Lieven said the OfS had "closed its mind" to anything that would lead to not finding failure to uphold freedom of speech and therefore fine the university.

It's today! Come meet Matt Kenny and chat with him and Dr Sarah Steele about masculinity, competitive sports and more. Everyone welcome, 5:30 ARB S1!

Pollution levels in Paris after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.

Call for new fellows open! We're looking for projects on three themes: public engagement environment, climate change, energy use the unique features of UKHLS Read the full call and download the application form on our website: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/research/fel... Apply by 27 May.

📣 Call for paper - SISP conference in Trento, 3-5 september 2026! Our section on "Gender, sexuality and intersectionality in politics" features a wide range of panels on timely topics 👉 urly.it/31fjpp Deadline: 29 May Further information 👉 urly.it/31fjpr Don’t miss it! #gendersky #polisky

Humanity can survive without AI. Human civilisation is unlikely to survive in +2°C world though.

“The coming redundancies will officially be called ‘voluntary’ but this is the equivalent of giving a condemned man a pistol in his cell prior to being led to the gallows and classifying him shooting himself as suicide.” Grim and stark. The human faces of the UK university omni-crisis. 1/3

"Three young Barn Owls looking out of the quatrefoil of a church in North Norfolk."

The Earth laughs in flowers Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is good. Very light on the research side of the equation but more than sane and informed on the teaching side, including failure of marketisation and a recognition that ‘cheap’ subjects subsidise expensive one. Well worth reading.

Read this: epic waste on consultants by uni VCs, superbly critiqued by @gsoh31.bsky.social. We need a positive substitute to this "hawking". There's a gaping gulf between uni practice + real research on the "Big Con" by @rosiecollington.bsky.social[email protected] www.ft.com/content/5032...

The School of Politics and International Relations is hiring an Assistant Professor (fixed-term, 3 years) in European Comparative Politics. Deadline: 19 May 2026 Job ad and details: my.corehr.com/pls/coreport... @ucdpolitics.bsky.social

JOB: Philosophy at Warwick are advertising two one-year Teaching Fellowships. Come and work with us! warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

Call me Cassandra, but if you make thousands of HEI staff either compulsorily or 'voluntarily' redundant and create conditions in which senior staff take early retirement in an attempt to save more junior colleagues' careers without significant new hiring, a critical loss is exactly what happens.

Keen to meet a new generation of historians researching British history in the (very) long 18th century? Join us for our annual Lightening Talks presentations and Q&A on 29 April at 5:30pm. All welcome. Free. In person at the Institute of Historical Research in London or online on Zoom. #Skystorians

Telegraph newspaper editorial on Mandelson's appointment in December 2024 versus editorial today

Three year postdoc going at @qmulsse.bsky.social working with @karlpike.bsky.social on ‘Politics and mythmaking: disentangling myth from ideology’, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Details here: