Please enlighten me: how reliable is the 'market research' in subservience to which we (UKHE) are increasingly made to hollow out or ‘streamline’ our study programmes? Is market prognostication still relying on the methodology that, say, spectacularly failed to predict the 2008 recession, 1/3

The first school to market itself as AI free is going to corner the market on people interested in actually learning. And I would not be surprised if rich families and the children of people creating this tech were the first movers.

When's the last time you heard a VC whose university has financial woes speak openly & eloquently about why what his/her/their institution does really matters & merits investment? Why can't/won't university leaders work to change the conversation? With this profile, this VC should be able to. 2/2

'At the high risk of becoming one of those bores at a conference whose “question” is a speech about that very issue, I do think there is a choice to be made. We ought at least to ask if universities exist to sort and qualify, or to form and transform. AI forces the question.'

We loved hearing all about our own Steve De Hailes' Medieval Mountain project! 🏔️ #medievalsky #skystorians

There are many reasons to question the term 'AI' and its inflationary use. Here's a particularly good one from @katecrawford.bsky.social's 'Atlas of AI':

@uobartsmatter.bsky.social, @uobrishistory.bsky.social, @bristolcms.bsky.social, @bristolunienglish.bsky.social, @bristoluni.bsky.social

Partly an effect of the business speak (and approach) applied to universities. “Providers” “exit markets” all the time. It’s how The market works! Collective institutions of public good…now those are different things.

I keep coming back to this

Oh for goodness sakes. What do they think science is? Just getting as many bogus publications as possible?

Delighted to announce that more than 80 MS fragments from Gubbio, dating to s. XI-XII, have just been published online, thanks to the hard work of my PhD student, Laura Rogari. You can access them on @fragmentarium.bsky.social: fragmentarium.ms/search?sQuer...

Please do pass this on to anyone who may be interested! ☺️ #medievalsky #skystorians

Want to start the new year by learning new things? In January 2026 Anna Somfai will teach an online course on medieval philosophical and scientific manuscripts. More information here 👇 @warburginstitute.bsky.social @ies-sas.bsky.social #MedievalSky please reskeet! ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

It’s the universities encouraging students to use AI that really gets me. All this “we need to accept it’s here and teach them to use it” does not help students learn to think. Writing is for thinking and communicating, not just producing words.

Ah yes Leicester, a tip-top History UoA in REF2021 currently eviscerating it’s History provision (among other subjects). Have they also won the THE irony of the year award?

Please sign this petition against the further diminishment of Nottingham University, which seems not to appreciate what makes for a university.

📢Fully Funded PhD Opportunities @thetimes University of the Year @durham_uni's Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 🎓 durham.ac.uk/research/ins...

Back by popular demand, Introduction to Latin Palaeography will run online in February 2026 #MedievalSky 👇 ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

We are SO excited to announce that applications are now open for this year's Medieval Studies Summer School! 🎉 Please do pass this information on to anyone you think might be interested! We'll be sharing some highlights of last year's programme over the next few weeks! #medievalsky #skystorians

anyone in the area needs to attend this- the original was next-level and this one is not to be missed!!

Our brilliant PGRs are at it again! After last year's inaugural and highly-successful brat symposium (organised by CMS PGRs Shauna Roach, Sarah Collinson, Harry Lewis, and Isla Dawson), this year's committee is once again inviting Bristol PGRs to consider how 'brat' connects with their own research.

Our online Winter School is now open for booking! We’re offering online courses on a range of topics for those interested in pre-modern books. Courses begin on 26 January. Check it out 👇 ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

University leaders: [terminate programs, close campuses, cave in to political pressure from demagogues] Faculty, students, staff: you’re killing the university Management consultants: looks like you got a real comms challenge here

'Our University would do well to stop neglecting the threats to humanities education, and start publicly taking up the banner of the humanities.' Could (and should) be said of so many universities, across the globe.

Happy Bobby G day!

Periodic reminder that hostility to 'useless' arts and humanities degrees is another (though much, much longer-standing) area of Labour/Conservative consensus.

a fascist president, a corrupt president, a vindictive president, a senile president we might endure — but a pelagian president?

ChatGPT Edu is built for conning education executives into subsidising and edu-washing planet-burning slop machines via non-consensual access to young people’s creativity AND DATA while attacking their ability to learn. At a university.

Niche but spot on.

🤩 Check out the shiny new website of Bristol's world-class Centre for Medieval Studies (@bristolcms.bsky.social), home to over 35 full-time medievalists and over 160 research students and research associates: medievalstudies.blogs.bristol.ac.uk 🤩 @uobartsmatter.bsky.social #medievalsky #skystorians

Breaking news: OpenAI researchers use actual intelligence to discover that bears shit in the woods! Stay tuned for their “landmark study” on the pope’s religious affiliation. (PSA: it is a category mistake to call the generation of falsehoods “hallucination”.) www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

Good (albeit dismal) reading. With a a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers: on.ft.com/4gzymFV

The point of going to university is to explore research and knowledge, not to start an effing business. The skills and experiences gained might help you start a business, as might the interactions with the people you meet, but it is not the purpose of a degree. Fed up of this manure.

do you work in a university/faculty/school in the UK that abolished “departments”? willing to share experiences (by DM if preferred)? RTs also appreciated

it’s important to remember that in general these people are not “folding” or “surrendering” — they’re maximizing shareholder value

One thing I wish would come up in common discourse on justifying why it's good to learn ancient languages is it gets you used to the idea that a dictionary entry is a repertory of a lot of meanings which are defined by lots of contexts and we often don't know exactly what all or any of them mean

-Those bells are getting louder. -Oh, look, the church! It's getting closer! It's coming down the hill! -Now it's opening the gates! www.svtplay.se/video/KnDgQ9...

'Bristol Night II' by contemporary UK painter Cath Read #womensart

A pragmatic example from Cardiff University of one of the ways that theological research can enhance the quality of life and contribute to the work of the NHS: results2021.ref.ac.uk/impact/799c0...

I think we’re on the cusp of mass attempts to automate teaching, and I also think it is going to be a massive wasteful failure in ways that will make the “learning loss” of the pandemic look like a speed bump next to a mountain.

I see that yet again nothing has been learned from the annual “putting mid-career funding deadlines in school holidays is not great, especially for women” debate.

I once created this folder with links (some may be dead now) to sites with digital images of medieval manuscripts. Might be useful to someone #medievalsky www.livebinders.com/play/play?id...

The only jobs that are broadly understood and respected are those that involve turning raw materials into physical consumer goods. But much real value is in jobs that turn human beings into more fulfilled human beings. (Creative sector, education, care, many services.) Far better for the planet too.

Registration DEADLINE Friday 16th for online summer school Advanced Readings in Medieval Latin, May 27–July 3. Two 1½-hour classes per week for 6 weeks, $500 (£375ish). We've not had many takers, so at just over £20 per hour this is pretty cheap for small-group tuition. marco.utk.edu/summerlangua...

'when AI generates summaries, students bypass the cognitive engagement required to actively interpret academic work. It is precisely this engagement – the effort to comprehend, synthesise and relate ideas – that catalyses learning.' 1/3

‘A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside of it, for it lay in our language, and language seemed to repeat it to us inexorably.’ Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, §115

Je suis luddite