Reading Starmer's letter to Streeting, and a teeny bit disappointed that he didn't sign off with just 'Regards'

Wake up! The House of Commons Education Committee says fifty - yes fifty - Higher Education Institutions are at risk of insolvency within the next three years. Wake up! committees.parliament.uk/work/9012/hi...

Edinburgh-ing. REF wise.

Best film adaptation of The Odyssey. Wrong answers only.

Happy #edballsday to all who celebrate. Don’t call him a Labour politician, whatever you do. Appropriate that it should also fall on #tittytuesday.

PERSON OF THE DAY. 28 April 2011. Labour politician Ed Balls tweeted his own name on his Twitter account seemingly looking for references to himself. Ever since this day is known on Twitter (X) as Ed Balls Day to celebrate his gaffe. #EdBallsDay

Evergreen #edballsday

BBC News - Iris Murdoch's lost poems to be read at Oxford Brookes festival - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Get your tickets now! This looks excellent and will book up fast.

🌟 We’re back! My brilliant colleagues at Oxford Brookes. Join us on campus and in the city. 🌟

After 7 years or so of watching Bing, there are at least two scenes where I am convinced Flop is hungover. And that he's in a friend with benefits situation Ama. As you were.

My book on New Labour and the Blair years is out in just over two weeks... And it's now **ON SALE** for just £12! Come on, you can't say fairer than that when it comes to the bargains. Roll up and/ or repost! It's just twelve quid! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526146328/

How are people fitting work in today whilst keeping fully immersed in the Beckham saga? Asking for a friend.

Taken from the 'gram but still lol-ing 🤣

Yeah, I give my kids sweets when I want them to get in the car too> BBC News - Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner presents her medal to Trump www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

For those who would like to see me dorking out over Christina #Rossetti's 'In the Bleak Midwinter' on Xmas telly, I give you: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

REF2029 unpaused. -PCE replaced by Strategy, People and Research Environment - Disciplinary -level statements in CKU and E&I, gone - CKU: 55%, E&I: 25%, SPRE: 20% - Max 5 outputs recommended per researcher but can be exceeded

"The 1992 reforms did not “invent” research in the ex-polytechnics. They recognised it – opening the door to participation in the RAE, quality-related funding and Research Council grants. Once given visibility, excellence surfaced quickly. It did so because it had always been there."

Super piece on REF history, why it matters and why specialisation is not the panacea that it seems. wonkhe.com/blogs/labour...

@WarwickHistory are recruiting for an Assistant Professor in Environmental History - with an open chronological and thematic focus. Come join our excellent department with wonderful colleagues and students. warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G... #history #envhistory #earlymodern

Very excited to share that today is publication day for my first monograph!! Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration is published as a part of Bristol University Press's Law, Society, Policy series. bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/queering-uk-...

Applications Now Open for the University of Glasgow Library Visiting Research Fellowship scheme - supporting scholars from across academic disciplines to come to Glasgow to work on our unique research collections. Please RT or pass on: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...

2 fantastic-looking history of medicine research fellowships at Warwick: Traumatised Minds, Neurosis and Hysteria in Soviet Medicine and Culture, 1917-1953 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK288/r...

pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.

At some point, the men in my life may realise I'm no longer upstairs... Until then I'm going to sit quietly on the sofa for as long as I can.

The problem was never that Boris Johnson studied classics... Perennial favourite reader's letter from 2021.

General registration is now open for our upcoming conference The Hand: Emotions, Embodiment and Identity at London College of Fashion, 8-9 January! Visit our website to register: www.thevictorianhand.uk/conference

Use of the REF 2029 logo by HEIs withdrawn following "fresh legal advice" 🙄🤯

Contender for least surprising news of this month

For UK academic folk, in case you don’t know about this service, the AHRC does publish all panel outcomes, with figures for numbers of applicants, numbers of successful awards etc. There is a lag, though, so the most recent info is from January 2025.

🤮 www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/uk...

On behalf of introverts everywhere: talking to people is exhausting enough, don’t make me spend all day talking to an anthropomorphised calculator.

'Now, Alexandra Wilson’s new book, Someone Else’s Music, unpicks the myth that opera is alien to the working class. For much of the past century, Wilson shows, opera was a hugely important thread in working-class lives.'

HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA > www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science...

Imagine the outcry if it were steel > BBC News - Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you are in the North West, check out this talk. It's a panel and a book launch. It's a fantastic topic. Please repost!

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

🙌

My eldest stood for school council with a manifesto promising to ban broccoli from school dinners. He wasn't elected sadly but "you know mummy, maybe some kids just like broccoli?" Welcome to his TEd Talk.

Wonderful blog post!

Today I offer a reminder of the word ‘forswunk’ (13th century): exhausted from too much work. To be ‘foreswunk’ (my own version) is to be exhausted before you even begin.

If you are Academia [edu] platform, now might be a good time to delete your account

One of the best explainers of thoughts,feelings, mood around 'the pause' from @hiddenref.bsky.social 'What the REF!?!' podcast youtu.be/wzwP_eCFtcY?...

🤔 👀🕵️‍♂️😨> Could REF pause lead to Trump-style diversity crackdown? share.google/cSiiYYIxhEg0...

Absolutely astounded that the UCU and Unison branches at Kent and Greenwich were not consulted, and that staff only found out about the merger this morning via BBC news and Kent Online. Solidarity to all colleagues.

I mean, mergers were expected but I didn't quite believe it until it happened.

And a big Ph-uck too

Woah....> BBC News - Greenwich and Kent announce merger to form 'super-university' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Let’s see what gets done in three months that couldn’t in three years. I strongly suspect that not everyone’s going to like the result. www.ukri.org/news/new-pro...

Oh good. R3f0rm are screwed.BBC News - Ex-Tory minister Nadine Dorries defects to Reform UK www.bbc.com/news/article...