I think what Phillipson *meant* to say was "charging full fees is justified on the basis of *high quality teaching across UK universities, in the face of unprecedented under-funding*” “University tuition fees in England to rise with inflation every year from 2026” www.bbc.com/news/article...

*Bucknell University Press to Close* And just like that, @BucknellU’s reputation plummets What is it that makes university provosts and vice-chancellors join the race to the bottom? #HE #HigherEducation #highered www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...

Ah, the patron saint of journalists 🙏

In Owthorpe lie Lucy Hutchinson (Order and Disorder, 1679) and her husband, regicide Colonel John Hutchinson @literarybritain.bluesky.social. In St Margaret’s church the John-Lucy memorial is opposite the (later and rather larger…) memorial to Richard Norton who entertained 4 kings of England

I know there are more important things to say than this but a chinook really does look like a frog mated with a dragonfly

Part of the playbook. Universities are a threat to fascism. Universities need to survive.

My book The Unnatural Trade came out late last year. It shows how the evidence provided by naturalists was crucial to the way British abolitionists were able to cast the slave trade as unnatural, a "dread perversion of nature". Find out more and look inside - brycchancarey.com/bookshop/unn...

I’m dreaming of an iceberg lettuce #stockmarketcrash

One big lesson of #HeathrowClosure #Heathrow … businesses need to build in #redundancy not cut every corner In #HigherEducation the equivalent is staff. Don’t strip back so there is no “redundancy” by making people redundant Efficiency sounds great until……… #HigherEd #ucu

Today was, I think, irrelevant in terms of what Trump has *already* planned. It was, though, significant in what we chose to learn from it. The ugly behaviour of Trump and Vance has, as Jeremy Bowen BBC says, all the hallmarks of a #PlannedMugging #Ukraine

My copy of this delicious book (edited by ThomasClifton and Hannah Yip) arrived today Sadly my essay’s focus on involuntary retirement remains all too topical… #HigherEducation #earlymodernbluesky

BP CEO Murray Auchincloss announced today that BP will increase its investments in oil and gas by about 20%. “This is a reset BP,” Auchincloss said, “with an unwavering focus on growing long-term shareholder value.” Now why does that sound familiar?

I stood there for over half an hour and nothing happened:

I’m back home from my travels so I had a walk in my own neighbourhood in #Northumberland today - first at #Boulmer, where I reliably identified a purple sandpiper for the first time, and then, as the sun went down, to the Aln Estuary and #Alnmouth.

It’s great to see my new book The Unnatural Trade on display at the @YaleBooks.bsky.social stand at #BSECS2025. Check it out - or if you’re unable to get to the conference, you can find out more at www.brycchancarey.com/bookshop/unn...

Dogs have topped and tailed my research trip to The Brotherton, Leeds Uni. From the start, my work has been overseen by a dalmatian, and in the last item on my list I found this farting dog poem (by William Fairfax, 1593-1621). Thanks to the wonderful Special Collections team!