The Student Academic Experience Survey (2026) is now out (HEPI/AHE), with a few trends getting early comment, including the value for money one (spoiler alert: 13 year high point). Aside from the headlines there are usually some random sections worth scanning. www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/the-...

Met no one with even the vaguest clue what's happening, largely thinking this is just a normal public sector squeeze. The point people realise, as with all things like this (NHS too) will be way past the point things broke and take a lot more than a small step back to fix.

Topical given the recent #uksotlalliance meeting. Scholarship takes many forms and we also need to expand to new ones.

This is like a team-up of my early/mid 00s memories: chatting on the Bad Science forum by day, watching Buffy/repeats by evening (some PhD research done at some point). (and that's now my local supermarket...)

New national HE agreement proposal: Set a 'basic reference' guideline that universities will provide for free - this can have most of the fundamental confirmation information (can figure automating much). Set agreed fees for anything else classified as 'enhanced reference, sensible time allocation

Given both current cost of living crisis but also placement, apprenticeship like learning and employability issues, I’m more interested in the possibilities around decelerated and variable pace degrees. Study over 4-5 years but able to hold job well, or later years job linked to the degree and uni

Universities in the U.K. forced off switches for thess detectors for the main anti-plagiarism software because AI detectors do not and cannot ever work. Any GCSE examining board using them is opening themselves up to huge appeals and possibly being sued.

Closing 5th June @seda-ed-dev.bsky.social has a FREE webinar 'Publishing with SEDA - From Blog to Book', 9th June, 11 am, 90 minutes, register: events.humanitix.com/publishing-w... and take our 5 minute survey: bit.ly/sedapubsurve... Please share with your networks. 🙏 #SEDABlog2Book #SoTL #EdDev

Headed yesterday to Leeds ready for this weeks Dales Dialogues in HE, with thanks to the work and hosting from the uni of Leeds. Looking forward to a lot of discussions on the new working groups for the #SoTLAlliance we set up last year, and hearing what’s happening at other institutions.

Some interesting thoughts in here from what sounds like an interesting debate event: wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/... I like the idea of us having open debate/conversations on campus more - management should see this not as a threat but an opportunity (and gain ideas).

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

Campaign to get teams, meet, zoom and everyone else streaming to adopt this as a) we need a quick common shortcut and b) we can resurrect 888 for the new gen who all use subtitles anyway too

Next week, taking a break from the marking to consider, appropriately enough, feedback!

Ah, must be assessment and marking time...

Annual pay talks have concluded with employers offering UK university staff a pay rise of 2 per cent, warning that “the near future looks bleak” for several institutions. Juliette Rowsell reports #highered #payrise #edusky https://ow.ly/bsH250Z18Xt

Income/expenditure for HEIs (HESA data) Playing around with the columns on income/expenditure on this is enlightening (along with some things that look odd or just without the context that explains specific cases). www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-ana...

Points I try to reinforce for students on citations etc: 1. You're putting your name to whatever is written, not read it, don't cite it 2. Citations are to help reader track and find the sources 3. Styles are agreed conventions, aim to reduce ambiguity 4. Make it clear what you are citing *and why*

Lovely end to party in the city ‘26 with a day of choirs in Green Park station on the sat, after the main event on Friday night. 50 venues, 250 acts, free and fun.

Finally! (Fingers crossed for sunday service in future) Now a little east-west line work and maybe we'll get to MK and Cambridge direct from Bath one day (or at least just change in Oxford and avoid London).

At the latest @seda-ed-dev.bsky.social SoTL CoP webinar, with a focus on ethics in SoTL. Lots of good discussion from the speakers from Calgary, Dublin and Leeds, and 80 in the audience. Looking forward to ideas to support academics on ethics in a form/area outside usually their 'home' discipline.

Approaches like this were clearly coming. Part of the response is the same I tell my postgrad students - you're putting your name to whatever you submit. Suspension/blacklisting coming, institutions as well as individuals (due to their staff) losing easy access. Gatekeeping issues may arise.

Students, if you’re thinking about dropping a note to that teacher or professor about what their class/project/mentorship has meant to you, but you worry it will be cringe or cheesy, let me just tell you they will coast on the fuzzy feelings prompted by that note for months, if not years

Today's marking tea is a spring gaba. An energising note to match the achievements of the students. Suitable for the focus in the zone. Today's marking snacks are literally every single thing I can find in fridge and cupboards. Everything. Every 2000 words.

The question is rarely whether AI can “do” your work, it’s whether those making hiring decisions *think* it can.

In hindsight perhaps we went a little too far with the authentic assessment project on our cyber security hacking module...

SEDA is holding a free online event ‘Publishing with SEDA - from Blog to Book’ on 9 June. For more details, including booking information, please visit: events.humanitix.com/publishing-w...

This year’s marking period sanity exercise is watching puffins

This comes up every so often. Happy for them to exist for those relevant. What I really want to see is a discussion on *decelerated* degrees (possible LLE links now?). www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/are-ac...

This is a nice idea: There are a set of tree trails in Bath. Found paper maps/guides at the library so decided to wander around the University of Bath campus route. I’ve been walking or running around the Woodlands and the fields and campus for over 10 years but never had a guide to the trees.

True, if arguably somewhat replicating the sighted experience where this is also distracting, annoying and disorientating. Example 18634 of inclusive approach actually being better for everyone else too.

Dear (various) UK universities, our assessments are criterion based and have been for a long time. The 'position in the year' of someone applying to your postgrad course is utterly irrelevant for a reference. Stop asking for this information.

Quite a few difficulties and failed products at the moment seem to be suffering from the contrast between what we think AI should be able to do, based on what in theory an intelligence could do (probably from watching lots of sci-fI), and the actual capabilities of “AI” systems we currently have.

Note to self, more lunchtime spring walks.

The shift to the staff experience in HE becoming more transactional, treated that way by HEIs or other social or working shifts, is at some point going to impact badly on the sheer amount of HE that runs in effect voluntary labour/quid pro quo esque sector wide culture.

Book and drink pairing on the menu needs to become a thing. Let's have more recommendations!

The results of Times Higher Education’s UK University Redundancy Survey vividly illustrate the deep human impact of the redundancy crisis on those who have lost their jobs. Read Part 1 of our analysis here: https://ow.ly/eY2650YP8Nj #jobcuts #highered #edusky

Given the erm 'maths' (or 'math') in the news, your regular reminder: A 20% increase followed by a later 20% decrease does *not* get you back to where you started (yes, using that number due to VAT) - equals 4% decrease i.e. 96% of original. (Also, same result for 20% decrease, then 20% increase!)

A level below mergers - will we see entire (ish) teams poached by other universities? I doubt we'll see much of it given how many institutions in similar boats, but I've seen several version of this in the past, research teams, teaching teams, even professional services.

Your midweek springtime timeline cleanse means lambs are on campus!

Truman University 2030: Student about to graduate suddenly realises they were in fact the only human and not just their tutors but also all their fellow students were AI.

In all seriousness this is an approach I took to a lot of new hobbies and sports in my 30s. Instead of doing things to be at top level, just experience them and learn, learning enough to get a feel for what was involved and a lot of respect for the people who were actually good.

This infographic explores the differences between ‘traditional’ AI and Generative AI, with practical examples to support teaching and learning. Beckingham, S., & Hartley, P. (2026). The Difference Between Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Want. Need to make this a thing in UK. Keeping the cool name though.

A useful blog looking at three related by distinct approaches: Scholarship of Learning and Teaching Educational Research Educational Evaluation srheblog.com/2026/04/14/i...

Next week we're taking a look at genAI again, but discussing evaluative judgmement. Evaluation skills come up a lot in discussions on this topic, both in terms of genAI outputs (or lack of evaluation often...) and also some case studies using it in development of these skills with students.

Our deep space probes took samples of our culture and what it meant to be human at the time. Our astronauts currently heading further than any have gone before have two versions of outlook, that don’t work properly. So same really.

Having grown up with the shuttle, books and TV promising stations and hotels, a moon base, on to mars, last night has been a very long wait, with mainly the ISS for company.

Dear journals, please stop making a cover sheet for pdf downloads in a completely different page size to the actual article.

Mentioned in this post is the ironies of automation - worth a revisit of that older work with our current AI/tech lenses: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Automating can leave the human with the hard/abnormal to deal with, but now without practising, aware of process/state.