#UCU members: UCU's guide for branch officers has been updated following the draft EHRC Code of Practice. @ucu.org.uk #UKHE www.ucu.org.uk/media/15820/...

'Despite calls on ministers to redress declines in the amount the state pays to universities, the Department for Education (DfE) is planning to announce the Strategic Priorities Grant for 2026-27 will be cut back to about £1.25 billion – down from £1.35 billion'. How to show you hate HE. 1/3

A system that relies on persistently and increasingly robbing Peter to pay Paul is simply not sustainable. From student loans to Strategic Priorities to draconian student visa regimes, government is opting to asset-strip higher education. Will your children and grandchildren thank them for it? 3/3

I have seen a few academics offering their takes on English HE in the last week. I don't think the issue of insolvency is really being grasped in these. Basically, it is worse than people think ... The Education Committee gives a good account of the issue: committees.parliament.uk/work/9012/hi...

We used to talk about the University as an "anxiety machine", producing intolerable working conditions (slowness, for example, was a response), but it's really become a "grief machine" and I'm not sure we know what to do with the pain and loss yet.

This is a very clear (and depressing) articulation of the current state of UK higher education by Stefan Collini. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Really curious if @andyburnham.bsky.social has anything different to offer UK universities that are drowning right now.

'The University of Sussex has said it plans to cut 200 jobs as part of an attempt to save £35m annually. The facility in Brighton will begin a 45-day consultation on Thursday over the potential redundancies, which include roles in admissions, student support and IT services.' 1/3

It's like no one knows what universities are for anymore. They're being used to plug systemic failures in the labour market that they aren't responsible for, but are now implicated in. I am so enraged by how cruelly we are treating our young people...

Equality is not conditional. Dignity at work is not negotiable. The EHRC Code of Practice has been published. UCU is examining it urgently. This is a significant and unsettling moment and we will not leave branches to navigate it alone. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1451...

'The University of Nottingham’s branch campus strategy remains a benchmark.' Sadly none of these authors gives any figures for, say, income stream over a period of time compared to expenditure, analyses what % of TNE ventures survive for a decade or how their HEIs are faring at home. Flying pigs?

Nearly half of our universities are forecasting deficits. Institutions across the country are closing departments and issuing redundancy notices. The government don’t yet consider this a crisis. How many more jobs must be lost before ministers act?

We really need to abolish the myth that education isn’t worth the investment. Universities and their students are an economic boon to their local areas and to the country as a whole, no matter what they study. And if anyone thinks humanities are a waste of resource, you’re proving why we need them

A strong call to the Labour govt from @drjogrady.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk. The sector is being allowed to collapse and needs immediate intervention to prevent irreparable loss. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Thinking about Starmer's nationalisation of steel to save 2700 jobs in Scunthorpe (good) & the news that at Nottingham Uni 2700 staff face redundancy risk (bad). How much of Lab's problem is a fantasy of heroic manual workers they'll "save", leaving some workers feeling patronised, others ignored.

Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?

How much worse do things need to get before anything is done? Universities cannot continue like this...

2014 REF: 2026: closing UG History

A strong statement from @ucu.org.uk on the University of Sussex win against the OfS. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1449...

Sharif (ex Aryamehr) University of Technology, where many Iranian engineers & scientists who later end up in US unis and Silicon Valley (many of whom are incidentally pro-war) has been hit with bunker-buster bombs! A university in a middle of a busy neighbourhood.

Please Don't Ask Me About the Harry Potter HBO Series charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/please-don...

Eid mubarik 🌙 and nowruz mubarik 🌱 Peace for all 💚

A multifaceted reading of a complex situation. An excellent article by @miraalhussein.bsky.social

Radical empathy ✊💚

It is never ok to kill any children anywhere ever.

Yet thou didst kill my children.

People living in the Middle East are not some special species that becomes more immune to tragedy the more they experience it. They are humans who are suffering at levels that are almost inconceivable To believe otherwise is to justify your cold indifference

What the British government is letting happen to universities is unconscionable

UCU - Labour's attempt to "outflank Reform" on international students "political suicide", says UCU www.ucu.org.uk/article/1415...

Plans to cut mental health courses at the University of East Anglia have been criticised as “short-sighted” and a “dereliction of civic responsibility”. More on the proposed Clinical Psychology course closures at UEA via @timeshighered.bsky.social - www.timeshighereducation.com/news/closure...

The outward ripples of the unchecked job cuts across Higher Ed in the UK this year that the govt has allowed to happen.

BREAKING: University of East Anglia plans to axe THREE vital mental health training programmes, putting 19 jobs at risk. These programmes train frontline NHS mental health workers who work directly with vulnerable patients.

UEA: the clearest case of ‘you can’t cut yourself to success’. Sort this out, government. It is on you, as you are the only ones who can put an end to the spirals of absurd recruitment projections, tinkering with entry requirements, and taking out megalomaniac loans-with-harmful-covenants. #UKHE

Add UEA to the list for the third time. The latest cuts are in clinical psychology affecting ~18 staff who train mental health professionals. Shocking & short-sighted the cuts will be devastating for staff, students and for the region too. @uea-ucu.bsky.social is fighting to save these jobs. ✊

The furore over certain Glastonbury performers' statements and banning Palestine Action are distracting tactics. We shouldn't allow our selves to get pulled away from the actual story which is the extreme violence being perpetrated daily on Palestinians, especially in #Gaza.

This. The cycle of redundancies is NOT the solution to the H.E. crisis. Well done @ducuuo.bsky.social!

The List in meme-format: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

How are we allowing scores of people to be killed daily when they come seeking the only access they have to food and aid? We are all complicit in this violence. #Gaza #FreePalestine

Wait, what? Sholay’s original ending was cut due to censors? www.bbc.com/news/article...

Repeat after me: protest is free speech

An example of a culture where it is one rule for those at the top and another for everyone else. University of Dundee culture change will happen only when people who have aligned themselves with the values of the previous Principal and interim Principal, resign www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/...

The Senior Management Teams of our universities should never have been put in the position where they either had to or were empowered to destroy a key sector of state infrastructure piecemeal. Basic governance failure.

Eight compulsory redundancies. Just how much do you hate your staff that you go through the trouble of destroying the livelihoods of these colleagues, for just *eight* salaries. What's that, in relation to the entire operating budget of the university? www.uea.ac.uk/about/news/s...

This is one situation where university executives taking a pay cut could likely find all of that cost

UEA has this week issued compulsory redundancy notices to a very small number of staff despite making most of their savings through voluntary means and a big restructure. This is the 2nd round of cuts in 2 years. We expect more to come. @uea-ucu.bsky.social will keep resisting these cuts.

We’ve just launched a free online course on ‘Born-digital research in the humanities’ reshaped.sas.ac.uk. It covers key concepts, ethics, copyright & accessing, collecting and analysing born-digital data. You can browse the course with guest access or create an account. All CC-BY-NC licensed!

And in the midst of the UK-EU news, this bit of devastating news for UK universities was lobbed in by the education secretary today. More cuts to h.e. funding... Ffs www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ofs-str...

You can blame ‘the tough wider context of HE problems’, but at the heart of it all are rotten managers and executives making unthinkably negligent decisions with destructive consequences for staff, students, and knowledge.

Important piece by @conorbollins.bsky.social not only explaining the situation, discussing remediation but posing the important question about "what universities are and what they should be"... @uea-ucu.bsky.social has been challenging mgmt on all these issues as we face redundancies.