You think your subject discipline is important? Nottingham might not. A sorry state of affairs. #Petitions

Thread.

An amazing day of solidarity with staff, students, and community members saying NO to compulsory redundancies and unnecessary course closures.

My former employer, @uniofnottingham.bsky.social, will be the first Russell Group university to cut #Theology degrees from next year onwards: thetab.com/2025/11/06/r... Do consider to sign this student-led petitions: www.change.org/p/stop-the-r... @uonucu.bsky.social

This pup is as bewildered as you are by planned course closures at UoN. What kind of future will the next generation have without languages, music, theology, education, social work, microbiology & plant sciences, agriculture & nursing?? @uonucu.bsky.social photo credits @rullsenberg.bsky.social

More of Chris' photos are here: tregenza.com/uon-ucu-22nd...

This is well worth a read to understand what a complete mess higher education has become with @uniofnottingham.bsky.social among those leading the way muircheartblog.wpcomstaging.com/2025/11/06/q...

I leapt up swearing. Nottingham! Of Nottingham French Studies fame. A terrific, storied, innovative and important department.

A thing about AI in higher ed right now is that half of us are scrambling to deal with the implosion of our information environment that broke reading/writing/source verification, while the other half is trying to achieve a massive institutional buy-in of the very thing that's causing the implosion

Looking at the list we've been sent in the staff newsletter, it includes the entirety (I think) of modern languages undergrad teaching. I feel sick. Ashamed, even. I rave about how good the course is. So what if it's less than 5% of students? I now really feel worthless as a graduate.

Mathematical Physics MSci at UoN earmarked for closure as mgmt start the cuts. As the custodians of Einstein’s famous blackboard, this is especially worrying. Will we still teach his greatest ideas in years to come? @uonucu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

It's not just music and language courses- it's 48 courses across the university. But here's the thing- our UCU colleagues at other universities (like @Cardiffucu.bsky.social) have faced the exact same threats, fought back, and won. So we can too.

A massive number of our members just got word that the courses they teach on will be "suspended" by the university, effecting out current and future students in every single faculty and school at UoN.

Very soon, if you were to create a triangle with Sheffield, Birmingham and Cambridge as its three extremes, not a single language course will remain within that triangle. The waste of expertise and opportunity is bad enough, but it's also becoming a case of state strategic failure.

@christianilbury.bsky.social Yep, this has been confirmed. Around a third of Arts programmes suspended in total, and absolutely all modern languages provision. It's a very sad and frustrating day here in Nottingham.

...and music and lots of philosophy, to add to American & Canadian Studies, that was suspended a year ago. If only management hadn't spent millions on a set of buildings in the city, that HMRC left years ago because they were no longer fit for purpose...

We’re gonna be running the wollaton park run next week in memory of our wonderful friend and legendary pres, Agnes, taken from us far too soon. We’re raising funds to support her beloved trade union campaigns. Please sponsor us. @uonucu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

Our latest episode is out!

Is saying racist things really racist though? Join us on every fucking talking heads talk show for the rest of eternity to discuss this ridiculous question over and over and over and over again.

"Many scholars, including us, have highlighted the threat posed by techno-solutionism in education: Rather than expanding our intellectual horizons, these technologies undermine the very conditions that allow us to think for ourselves." 1/n www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

“They cheated on a commercial” - a totally sane person definitely fit for the Presidency

No result closes out a ridiculous passage in World Cup history, that in a sane world would cost administrators their jobs, but won't, because the ICC are an unaccountable sea of open corruption from top to bottom. #CWC25 icc-cricket.com/tournaments/...

No administrator will face any consequences for these decisions. This could be the last World Cup for many, or the first and only one for others. The only people who suffer, are the players, and the fans. The ICC's message to them (you) couldn't be clearer. They simply don't care. #CWC25

Palestinian olive oil from the 2025 season will go on sale here, in 4 days oliveodyssey.com It is the best oil I have ever tasted, and it supports farmers. Highly recommended.

An excellent piece on attitude towards women’s cricket #CWC25 🏏 revsportz.in/misogyny-in-...

I love Hannah de Keizer’s suggestion to use a mini-playlist as a timer for tasks like tidying your desk, triaging email, etc. Just 1 of the tips in the new blog post about the importance of your physical environment to your focus. ICYMI: You can read/listen now.

I feel someone needs to ask this govt "what is the point of the economy?" Because if it isn't to improve the lives, health and prospects of us ALL, I suggest we need a new system. Right now the system seems to be "throw the littlest ones on the fire to keep the rest JUST warm enough to work".

The problem is not that AI can replace professors - it is that a significant portion of university management think it can.

fish and chips, the native British dish invented by sephardic Jewish migrants in the 18th century using a vegetable no one on this island had encountered before the 16th

Today, I became one of those people in all the news articles who turned up for their covid and flu jabs, as booked, as told to book, as told my eligibility was my the infernal NHS app, and was denied a covid jab. This is my face while I was waiting for staff to confer and confirm.

WonkHE survey: "My organisation takes my wellbeing seriously." Only 39.7% of academics agreed. Meditation apps whilst cutting staff and demanding 60-hour weeks isn't wellbeing. It's box-ticking. If you're one of the 60% who don't feel supported, you're not alone. #AcademicSkyUK

A transphobic pressure group is trying to ban trans women from Hampstead women’s pond – it's time to fight back https://goodlawproject.org/petition/keep-hampstead-womens-pond-inclusive

Oh so it's just racial integration he's commenting on, he's not being racist. That's why he referenced the historically important Black Handsworth not (e.g) North Norfolk (98.1% white) or Allerdale (98.5% white). Sure sure

There are plenty more like Graham. Six-figure salaries at the top, cuts and chaos for staff. We’re exposing the hypocrisy in higher education. 🎥 Thurs 7PM | UCU Live: www.youtube.com/live/rZRbCP0... #WeAreTheUniversity #VoteYes

#Handsworth could teach @RobertJenrick how to live in a global society. #BenjaminZephaniah - spirit of #Birmingham - said "Handsworth for me is...where I learnt all my skills, my communication skills, my hustling skills, my poetic skills, everything."

This petition calls on Ottawa to enforce the Canada Health Act, attach strict transparency rules to federal transfers, and stop provinces from hiding the true costs of privatization. Sign protect health care, education, and infrastructure from costly privatization. www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en...

Just the university sector functioning perfectly well, nothing to see here

This is a very necessary but depressing list. More jobs being cut. Worse for staff and worse for students. Our working conditions are student learning conditions.

"Labour peer suggests destroying the local economy of several towns"

The "he" here is Lord Glasman, who studied Modern History at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. I am assuming that Catz isn't on his list of potential conversation-starters, but you never know.

“Hello I would like to sack many tens of thousands of workers and wreak havoc on regional economies without any real plan but ‘just to open the conversation’. I am not a crank.”

There's a callous obscenity to all of Maurice Glasman's positions, which usually confines itself to foreigners, the wokes, etc. But we see here that he truly yearns to create a generation of British young people with fewer opportunities than their elders. He actually does want to hold them down.

No country in the history of the world has ever prospered by deliberately lowering the educational attainment of its citizenry. No other country in the world today (not even Trumpist America) is proposing to do so. Suggesting the UK should do it, systematically, is a marker of deranged idiocy.

I am begging Canadians to understand that Canada Post, like public transit, should not be a business - it's a service. Canada Post is a lifeline for rural, remote and Northern communities and overall, we need to re-evaluate why people think they "need" random shit delivered ASAP.

Imagine a Canada Post where the people in charge wanted it to grow, instead of whatever they've done the last five years. Canadians want to buy Canadian! Why doesn't Canada Post mgmt want a piece of that? I have no idea who is benefiting from these choices!

🚨 TEACH OUT ANNOUNCEMENT🚨 On Monday (29/9) at 14:00, our fabulous member Dr Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins (@drhannahrobbins.bsky.social) will be presenting an online lecture titled "'Solidarity Forever': Musical Theatre, Workers’ Rights, and Protest."

the post office is a public service. it doesn’t need to make money. public transit doesn’t need to make money. the library doesn’t need to make money. some things exist for the public good and we desperately need lawmakers to stop thinking about them in terms of capitalism. these are not businesses.