This year, #socmedhe25 will be coming to Lancaster University, on 16th December! The call for papers/session proposals is now open at socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/c... - please submit abstracts by *24th October* Hope you can join us - see you in December!

TEF is “a completely inadequate measure of teaching excellence as it is, so the idea that [it] could now be used for some other purpose is seriously concerning”. Views from @tom-richmond.com @paulashwin.bsky.social et al www.timeshighereducation.com/news/tef-cha... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social

A @wonkhe.bsky.social blog on the OfS idea to link tuition fees to TEF results. It's unworkable as it was when it was first muted 10 years ago. It suggests that the OfS doesn't understand how the TEF works or the impact on the sector of making such ill-founded suggestions wonkhe.com/blogs/back-t...

Interesting start to the academic year (okay, actually day 2!) with a lecture from @paulashwin.bsky.social on the role of theories in educational research. Food for thought!

I was asked by the editor of The Geographer, the @royalscotgeosoc.bsky.social magazine, to comment on the discussion around imposing domestic student fees in Scotland. This is an online accessible version of my piece. ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/f... #academicsky #studentfees #highered

🚨Vital conversations about violence against women are being hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda. We've joined 200 organisations to urge the Government to address this dangerous weaponisation of VAWG. Read more: mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

This International Women's Day, Rights of Women is celebrating its 50th anniversary Find out more about how we are reflecting on progress to #AccelerateAction since 1975 and how you can join our ongoing work to increase women's access to justice www.rightsofwomen.org.uk/about-us/rig... #IWD2025

I've written a blog on the entirely expected (and predicted) crisis that (UK) HE is in and where it's going, with three broad predictions: - Increasing Elitism - Soaring Precarity - Poorer Student Experiences Do you agree? What have I missed? #academicsky ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com/2025/08/27/l...

I am delighted and honoured to be giving a speech at the Opening of the Academic Year at the University of Amsterdam on 1st September about 'What is special about a university education?' student.uva.nl/en/events/20...

Fascinating insights on connecting policy and research with @paulashwin.bsky.social and Charles Clarke as part of our @edreslancaster.bsky.social summer school. Researchers must be clear and concise, representing their bodies of knowledge, providing concrete steps that policy makers can take.

Hugely insightful walk behind the curtain of the review and journal editing process from @profjayneosgood.bsky.social as part of our @edreslancaster.bsky.social Summer School. Particularly taken with the explicit approach of a feminist ethic of care in writing reviews - no room for Reviewer 2!!!

Delighted this open access article with Laura Cordes Felby is now out.

@brettbligh.bsky.social, the Programme Director, will be hosting a webinar re our mainly online, part-time PhD in TEL between 5pm-6pm on 29/7 via Zoom. If you'd like to take this opportunity to find out more about our programme, please register to join, the link is below.

If you're interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in Higher Education, why don't you join me next Tuesday morning (UK time) for a chat? 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇

I agree with you about content-less HE, so here's my response to Peck et al's HEPI paper. @paulashwin.bsky.social academicirregularities.wordpress.com/2025/06/22/p...

Excited to have received copies of the Chinese translation of ‘Transforming University Education: A Manifesto’

New @hepi-news.bsky.social blog on how higher education should respond to calls to be relevant: www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/06/16/h...

Many congratulations to James Chircop who successfully defended his thesis on 29/4. He completed a #PhDinHEREE and was supervised by @janmcarthur.bsky.social. Many thanks to the Examiners @paulashwin.bsky.social and @profmattoleary.bsky.social‬. @centreforhere.bsky.social

If your interested in studying for a part-time, fully online, PhD in Higher Education, then why don't you join me to find out more about our Doctoral Programme in Higher Education Research, Evaluation and Enhancement? 👇👇👇👇👇

@brettbligh.bsky.social, the Programme Director, will be hosting a webinar re our mainly online, part-time PhD in TEL between 9am-10am on 23/6 via Zoom. If you'd like to take this opportunity to find out more about our programme, please register to join, the link is below.

Our final online #EdResSeminar of this academic year will take place at 12.30pm(BST) on 11/6, and will be presented by Funda Karapehlivan. Her seminar is entitled "Academic Resistance and Solidarity: Imagining Alternative Futures for Higher Education in Turkey". www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-...

Enjoying greatly and being inspired by the University of Warwick’s Education conference. Also it was a plus not having the travel to Lancaster to listen and be inspired by @paulashwin.bsky.social

'If we're going to realise our educational vision - we need to understand why the knowledge we create and teach is powerful and how it changes our students and their understanding of the world.' Paraphrasing @paulashwin.bsky.social 's inspirational conclusions there!

This week: online @edreslancaster.bsky.social seminar on Wednesday (4th of June) at 12:30. M. Oluwatobiloba Odetoyinbo will be talking about academic motherhood and career trajectories in Nigeria. #academicsky #highered All are welcome. Details/registration at: www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-...

Delighted that this Open Access article, with Ashish Agrawal, Mags Blackie, @janmcarthur.bsky.social, Nicole Pitterson and Renee Smit, on students' accounts of chemical engineering is now out. It's from our @cghe.bsky.social project. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I am honoured to have been elected as a member of Academia Europaea www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-...

Interested in studying a part-time, fully online PhD in Higher Education? Why not join me to find out more about our HEREE programme?

The choice of global university rankings to determine who is a ‘high potential individual’ is weird. There are lots of oddities, but it favours a very wealthy global elite plus the beneficiaries of needs blind admissions at a few universities. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2022/11/18/t...

Meanwhile, the Home Office likes the ‘High Potential Individual’ visa. If you can get yourself into the ‘top’ US universities (50% of HPI holders) then you can get this visa pretty automatically. ‘Top’ is determined by league tables that favour one type of university. www.gov.uk/government/p...

The Home Office continues with its long term hope that metrics will save them having to make judgments about provider behaviour. The BCA will be ratcheted up by 5 percentage points and a RAG rating published. www.gov.uk/government/p...

What we need is a rich, democratic conversation that allows us to fundamentally rethink what and who higher education is for, and how it is provided. The end result may (will/should) be quite different from how it looks now, and how it is 'imagined'. The recording will be online in due course! 4/4

Enormously wide ranging and thought-provoking contributions in our @centreforhere.bsky.social round table with @gunjans.bsky.social, @ronaldhartz.bsky.social, Kalpana Shankar, and Susan Robertson, about why UK HE - and HE more broadly - is in (its current state of) crisis. 1/4 #academicsky #highered

Hi Paul, is now a good time to mention my recent podcast episode with Ewart Keep and Ellen Hazelkorn that explored this fascinating policy question of tertiary education in England?.... :) www.buzzsprout.com/1874905/epis...

This is what you might describe as a tertiary treasure trove of stuff…

Really good thread - and links - to special issue blog pieces on the challenges and potential solutions related to a combined approach to tertiary education in England. Contributions from policy makers and academics, so covers really important practical, social justice, and conceptual angles.

Really worth reading for anyone concerned about tertiary education in England today. @edreslancaster.bsky.social

This @beranews.bsky.social Blog Special Issue examines possible futures for tertiary education in England and the challenges that are faced by policymakers, institutional leaders, educators and researchers in realising these futures. (1/13)  www.bera.ac.uk/blog-special...

Great to see this BERA Blog Special Issue on Tertiary Education out!

📝 NEW BLOG SPECIAL ISSUE Potential pathways towards an integrated tertiary education system in England Guest edited by @paulashwin.bsky.social and Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke Read here: bera.ac.uk/blog-special...

Labour and the OfS are sitting by while UK HE crumbles, selling off land, shedding staff, closing courses, as if this is just a natural market realignment, not a huge failure in policy and leadership. They're not asleep at the wheel, they're not even in the car. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

A timely reminder of our @centreforhere.bsky.social public online roundtable on Monday next week: Why is UK HE in crisis, and (how) can we fix it? Discussants are @gunjans.bsky.social , @ronaldhartz.bsky.social, Kalpana Shankar, and Susan Robertson. www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-...

Really excited to be part of this important webinar with such thoughtful colleagues. I'll be talking about Higher Education's responsibility to nurture political sensibilities. @edreslancaster.bsky.social

@brettbligh.bsky.social, the Programme Director, will be hosting a webinar re our mainly online, part-time PhD in TEL between 5pm-6pm on 27/5 via Zoom. If you'd like to take this opportunity to find out more about our programme, please register to join, the link is below.

Emily Henderson's wonderfully thoughtful personal remembrance of Claire Callender: conferenceinference.wordpress.com/2025/04/25/f...

Lovely @cghe.bsky.social tribute to Claire Callender: www.researchcghe.org/blogs/tribut...

There's still time to register to join @paulashwin.bsky.social for this webinar tomorrow ......

Great stuff.

If you’re interested in doing a part-time PhD in Higher Education, why don’t you join me tomorrow? 👇👇👇👇👇

Reminder: our unmissable online roundtable on the crisis in UK HE and how/whether it's fixable. We'll be hearing from @gunjans.bsky.social, @ronaldhartz.bsky.social, Kalpana Shankar, Susan Robertson, before opening up the discussion. #academicsky #highereducation www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-...

Next week's online @edreslancaster.bsky.social on the 7th of May, 12:30-2pm UK time. NEET Youth: Education, Needs, Hopes and Aspirations, from Dr Liam Wrigley @leedstrinity.bsky.social Details and registration: www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-...