‘We urge the Government to prioritise this issue. Should this situation continue unchecked, the damage to the health of higher education, research and innovation will be profound and have long-lasting consequences.’ www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/stateme...

Our study on gender differences in feelings of political efficacy and ambition among youth wing members is now out, open access, with @politicsgenderj.bsky.social ✨ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I was saddened to learn of the death of Raul Pacheco-Vega earlier this week. I’ve known Raul for a very long time. I’ve written something for my website. Read here: jovanevery.co.uk/in-memoriam-...

Brilliant analysis countering much of the "education is failing young people" and screen-phobia of the Milburn Report. It is 20 years of zero growth that means the job market is not there to support students and young people. Political class should look internally for the problem and not scapegoat.

This is incredibly sad news. A generous scholar & person. What a huge loss.

Number of universities in the QS Top 100 world ranking by country in 2026 USA = 27 UK = 17 Australia = 8 China = 5 South Korea = 5 A top five UK service sector export (c.£25bn) that we should probably support and champion more if we want to maintain an advantage.

📣Tomorrow: Stevenson Trust launch of the Scottish Election Analysis Report ⬇️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/after-the-... Stellar panel @profnicolamcewen.bsky.social @merylkenny.bsky.social @ailsahenderson.bsky.social

Thinking a bit more about @samfr.bsky.social Observer piece about HE, and the FT's piece about the growth of Business degrees... I don't accept the argument that there's some transcendental sense of what a university is. Over the 1000+ years they've been around, they've changed a lot, and usually...

I'm in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today looking at why so many unis are in financial trouble and what the government needs to do to save HE. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Four weeks to go! 🗳️ We'll be publishing analysis on our blog every Thurs + Tues, looking at data beyond the immediate horse-race 🏇📊 First up, @cjcarman.bsky.social on what Scots think about changes to voting rights in recent years! scottishelections.ac.uk/2026/04/09/e...

Important if grim read

Harriet Taylor Mill officially recognised as co-author of 'On Liberty'! dailynous.com/2026/03/19/o...

I’ll be teaching about this (and more) again next year - Autocracy and Dissent in the 21st Century. Open to Edinburgh 3/4 years (and visiting students).

SES scoop out @scotvoting.bsky.social

Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.

🔴NEW: The principal of the University of Edinburgh has confirmed he is working a paid second job while overseeing cuts that have seen hundreds of staff leave the institution. Read the full story: https://www.theferret.scot/edinburgh-job-loss-mathieson/

*PSA Mackenzie #BookPrize Shortlist 2025-26* Congratulations to Prof. Elizabeth Evans @elizabethjevans.bsky.social & Dr Stefanie Reher for ‘Disability and Political Representation', published by Oxford University Press @academic.oup.com ➡️ Find out more buff.ly/X13TKjK #Books #Politics #Disability

I am heart sore this morning at the death of Jeane Freeman, a wonderful Cabinet colleague. Jeane gave selfless service to Scotland especially as Health Secretary during Covid. In designing Scotland’s social security system, she put dignity and respect at its heart. (1/2)

When people talk about the idea that some universities must go under, there’s a certain tendency to behave as if these smaller local campuses are negligible- regrettable casualties perhaps but not ‘real’ universities. This report does a great job of illustrating why that’s wrong.

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?

Missing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...

🙋Did you know that Edinburgh's "official" Hogmanay festivities are an ancient tradition dating back to the last century? 🎆 1993 to be precise. The event was dreamed up by Edinburgh Marketing and Unique Events Ltd. to "[package] Edinburgh more effectively" and thus "improve the visitor experience" 🧵👇

🙏 Josephine Ortleb for hosting @odihr.pl at the @bundestag.de 🇩🇪. We hope that the lectures by the guests from the @scotparl.bsky.social - @merylkenny.bsky.social, @petrahrens.bsky.social and me have inspired discussions on gender-sensitivity of the parliament www.instagram.com/reel/DSIV5vh...

"How is the dispute at Dundee University affecting students?"

It’s here! Gendering Party Politics published with Oxford University Press & available in all good bookshops in hardcover & paperback. Edited by @merylkenny.bsky.social and @elinbja.bsky.social academic.oup.com/book/61464

Interesting piece “From my experience of universities, one of the most important elements of that is the culture around the senior management table, which is not the governing body,” he said. “You cannot have…an overbearing culture where essentially the executive is run in a hierarchical system.”

In less jest - yes, it's good if universities can help students develop skills for the labour market. However, the pointless venom of the current government about one of the few world class sectors in the British economy is tiring, enervating and just plain sad. Get a grip lads.

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

As staff at Edinburgh Uni strike over job cuts, the principal is under pressure to reveal whether he’s being paid for a second job at a company with historic ties to the university. Our latest: theferret.scot/mathi...

*NEW PSA BLOG* A hard-hitting report by @britishacademy.bsky.social illuminates how large areas of the UK are/becoming cold spots for #HE degrees in #SocialSciences & #humanities. PSA CEO @seasonedcomms.bsky.social highlights the issues and impact

Unfunded research is by definition, free. It’s the funded research, that never fully covers costs and requires massive cross-subsidy, which is a major contributor to the HE funding crisis.

We've got a chunky @britishacademy.bsky.social report out looking at the emergence of 'cold spots' where you can't study arts, humanities or social science subjects close to home. We call for an urgent review of HE funding & monitoring of at risk subjects www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/univers...

📝 Don't miss this #openaccess article from the current issue of #BJPIR - Volume 27, Issue 3 (August 2025) 'Experiencing the executive: Gender, ministers and institutions in Scotland ' by Alan Convery & Meryl Kenny. 🔗: buff.ly/IDGFiBM @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social

My dad died last week, and he was - by any objective measure - the very best. You can read about him here: obituaries.startribune.com/obituary/wil...

“Universities educate students, but they are also incubators of new knowledge and discovery. ... For example, by supporting areas of research that might not be economically “efficient” but which will be required for our future.” theconversation.com/universities...

NEW from me today... In case you missed it earlier, I'm in the @politicalquarterly.bsky.social asking 'Where Next For Britain's Universities?' The answer: a very long and grim retreat. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🎉 Delighted to share new research out today: The Political Consequences of the Mental Load 📄 European Sociological Review doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaf019 @europeansocreview.bsky.social What happens to political engagement when the “mental load” of running a household gets too heavy? 🧵

UKRI award rate halves in seven years as grant applications double. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

New gig for me & River the unicorn

NOW OUT ON FIRSTVIEW!! Making #Political #Parties #Accessible for #People with #Disabilities: A New Research Agenda By @elizabethjevans.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S153...

Super excited (and relieved!) to see this paper finally published. Both men and women politicians experience incivility and, overall, the more famous they are, the more abuse they receive. BUT women in Europe receive uncivil tweets even when they're not well known www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

📰What are the 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀 in federalism, regionalism and territorial governance? 📌Don’t miss our editorial note 👉https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2025.2518752 @davidevampa.bsky.social @filippoboni.bsky.social @assefafy.bsky.social @merylkenny.bsky.social @marielylopezs.bsky.social & M.Zulianello

New publication in Political Studies – the first based on my PhD research! Are policymakers more responsive to their own ideas or to external social demands when deciding upon policy action? I examine this question in relation to in-work benefits in the United Kingdom and France. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

University failure now a ‘top tier’ risk for education department. Risk rating escalation comes as regulator says accounting firms are conducting “deep dives” at institutions www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

I wonder how many jobs have been lost in UK universities over the year. (Edinburgh Uni alone is looking to shed approx 2,000 jobs). I genuinely wonder whether over 2 year there will have been 40,000 jobs lost across HE sector via early retirement, redundancy, limited tutor roles & non-replacement

I've been working on something on this and here's a sneak peek of recent trends in Politics job adverts on jobs.ac.uk Here's a scatterplot and (GAM) trendline showing that the number of advertised politics jobs has pretty much halved since 2021.

Pulling no punches, outgoing president of the British Academy slates 'confused, if not incoherent' ministerial (DfE) approach to universities and urges action to remove higher education from the 'too difficult box'. With a sharing link for 3 non-subscribers. 1/2 on.ft.com/4kHmNwJ

Edinburgh real estate of the day (what I spend sick leave scrolling) - ‘full of timeless character and original charm’, yours for a steal at offers over £340 k, clown murder vibes are free espc.com/property/38-...