Ninety UK universities to have posted accounts so far cut 13,300 jobs last year, spending £303 million on severance pay - sector-wide total clearly going to be well in excess of predicted 10,000. Great reporting by @patrickjack.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spe...

Need to contextualise this (and to question the basis of the modelling). Introduction of late summer resits, vast improvements in student support, great variety in classification schemes and renewed attention to teaching quality all need a look. And compare UK stats to the typical GPA at Harvard...

THREE DAYS LEFT TO APPLY: AAH bursaries for doctoral and early career researchers to attend our 2026 Annual Conference are open for application. These competitive bursaries, which are assessed by our DECR committee, are available to speakers, session panel organisers and ⬇️

Events! Take a look through our upcoming events,book your places on them! Visit our archive of recordings for supply of inspiring expertise across sectors, Early Years through to Higher Education via Primary, Secondary & Further Education #Teaching #Curriculum etc. ⬇️ englishassociation.ac.uk/events/

JOIN US: our Associate Fellowship category is for those at an earlier stage their research careers - for example, completion of a #History PhD, or history professionals (teachers, curators, archivists etc) who make research possible. Applications welcome at any time bit.ly/44r8NTg #Skystorians 1/2

On the day we learned that 13,000 jobs were lost in UK universities last year, I guess it’s nice to know that the Office for Students is worrying about - well - something. 🤷🏻‍♂️ 1/3

Universities are having to make “a trade-off” between awarding pay rises and protecting jobs, according to the new chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association. Juliette Rowsell reports #academicsky #edusky https://ow.ly/oOi350XXgHP

Excited for our @ucflangs.bsky.social Winter Plenary today, beaming live from Senate House in London! Please register at the link below to join us online at 1pm today to get the low down on REF2029 from UoA sub panel chair and deputy chair, Jane Stuart-Smith and Susan Harrow, and other panels.

Please help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research. We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

'Nottingham will be the only Russell Group university not to teach modern foreign languages degrees if it approves plans to close a swath of courses including Spanish and French as well as music and dozens of others.' 1/3

Times Higher article out today explains the folly of yet more proposed closures in languages (also music, film, philosophy, and others). This time at the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham. Oversight of the changing UK HE landscape for our disciplines has never been more needed or vital.

Excellent article here. Our students are our greatest advocates. Counter proposals will be put forward, and we are supporting colleagues in Music, Modern Languages, Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at Nottingham with their campaigns www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Please consider signing against this nonsensical absurdity! c.org/vGgNqmXhNx

UK-German Funding Initiative in the #Humanities 2025/2026: 8th #CallForProposals in the bilateral collaboration by @artsandhums.bsky.social AHRC (part of UK Research and Innovation @ukri.org), and the DFG for outstanding joint research projects. Full details: www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles...

This week on Wonkhe: One of the problems the forthcoming white paper will try to solve is fragmentation in post-16 provision. Debbie McVitty reflects on what makes systems work

This week on Wonkhe: As a white paper on the future of post-16 education is expected imminently, Matthew Howling and Poppy Short make the case for the appointment of an HE Commissioner to facilitate mergers and other forms of radical collaboration

Did you know that you can find us on LinkedIn too? Stay connected, follow #UCFL for updates, insights, and the latest news. linkedin.com/company/univ...

New Post: Think Like a Linguist: It’s time for a national conversation about the value of languages  www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/10/14/t...

'The imminent post-16 education and skills white paper is expected to set out measures to enhance collaboration between higher and further education in England. Or at least pleasant words about the value of such collaboration – we’ll have to see.'

'But while universities...use fees from overseas students studying in the UK to cross-subsidise the cost of both research and teaching, it is not clear that...transnational education can shore up the financial position of universities under pressure from falling international student numbers.' 3/3

'The rise of India as a destination for British universities to open satellite campuses feels like the “California gold rush”, according to...Phil Allmendinger, pro vice-chancellor for education and partnerships at the University of London'. 2/3

'prime minister Keir Starmer...confirmed that the University of Lancaster and the University of Surrey had been given approval to open new campuses in India while on a trade mission to Mumbai, joining six more institutions already in the country.' (Lancaster is mooting 20% academic redundancy) 1/3

NEW on Wonkhe: The government sees “huge opportunity” for universities to get stuck into transnational education. Michael Salmon unpicks the policy context buff.ly/0hSkM7h

"Minister rules out international student levy in Wales - BBC News"

Without oversight of university mergers, the UK risks “sleepwalking” into a homogenised and “disconnected” higher education sector, it has been warned. Helen Packer reports https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-risk-creeping-death-unsupervised-mergers

NEW on Wonkhe: Have universities got the capacity and cash to respond to the government’s agenda? buff.ly/PaSmspS

This #InternationalPodcastDay tune into ‘Confessions of an Early Career Researcher’ – a new guide to the world of academia post-PhD. The first three episodes of the podcast are available now. Subscribe for our next episodes, live on 15 October: https://bit.ly/4pNaTp1

Read our response to the Government’s announcement that university maintenance grants will be reintroduced for certain courses, funded through a levy on international student fees https://bit.ly/4gPz7uO

Universities ‘must not forget EDI obligations’ amid REF 2029 pause. University of Oxford’s chief diversity officer says most Britons “believe EDI is a good thing”. #Lab25 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

We are now also on LinkedIn! Join us over there for updates and news 🗞️ www.linkedin.com/company/arts...

"GuildHE represents many of what Research England refers to as “less research-intensive and smaller specialist institutions”, so our interest was especially piqued by proposals to explore differentiated tracks and lighter-touch assessments for these providers. There is good intention here." 1/3

Hot off the press, the British Academy's Cold Spots: Mapping Inequality in SHAPE Provision in UK Higher Education report. Read it if you care about universities or access to the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for the rising generation. 1/5

Arts and humanities cold spots ‘depriving whole areas of courses’. Shape subjects are a “bellwether” for financial pressures on higher education, British Academy warns. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Major university merger announced. The start of a wave?

'The Office for Students (OfS), England's higher education regulator, welcomed the move and suggested more universities may explore similar options as they battle economic challenges, with 40% of English universities now believed to be in financial deficit.'

The names of panel members for the criteria-setting phase of REF 2029 have now been announced on our panels pages. 2029.ref.ac.uk/news/expert-...

The four UK higher education funding bodies confirm the pause in the criteria setting and publication of final guidance for REF 2029 for a short period, as announced by the UK Science Minister Lord Vallance today at the Universities UK conference. 2029.ref.ac.uk/news/pause-t...

The REF has been paused for 3 months as policymakers scratch their heads to figure out how to resolve various tensions. This prescient piece by @annamgrey.bsky.social lays out those complexities www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

In a busy semester this passed me by - but delighted to see some of my @artsandhums.bsky.social research with @aberuni.bsky.social colleagues cited in the House of Lords report on interpreting and language services in courtrooms lordslibrary.parliament.uk/interpreting....

‘What is the missing noun to which English refers: literature, language or both? Is its primary concern with literature in English or with the culture of Englishness?’ Colin Kidd on English studies: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

📣Applications still open for the Senate House Library Visiting Fellowships 📣 In 2025-6 up to two awards of £1500 will be allocated to support a fellowship of up to two weeks. Deadline: 15 September 2025 More info 👇 https://tinyurl.com/ykudv9tn

Bit more on the Guardian liveblog here www.theguardian.com/education/li...

NEW on Wonkhe: All the numbers and all the action from JCQ results day in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland buff.ly/5CKDVt8

Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.

Congratulations on all receiving A-level English Language, Lang & Lit, Literature results! 💫 And to all their teachers ! We commend the fantastic opportunities that study of these subjects offer 🥳. Find out what English studies brings ! englishassociation.ac.uk/case-studies/

The Royal Historical Society welcomes Fellowship applications from historians working in higher education and many other sectors, as well as independent researchers. Fellows make original contributions to historical understanding via research, public history and heritage bit.ly/4iOu51g #Skystorians

'Leicester’s UCU branch, meanwhile, has announced that it will open a strike ballot after it said the institution failed to rule out compulsory redundancies. Staff in chemistry, history, geography, film studies and modern languages have been informed they may face redundancy'. 3/3

'At Lancaster, the union won a consultative ballot in favour of strike action after the university announced plans to cut 400 full-time equivalent positions by July 2026 in a bid to save £30 million.' 2/3