I think my fave thing about the immigration whitepaper so far is how it’s turned Askbrits on Reddit into a hive of memes mocking negativity towards immigrants. Never change, UK.

Waking this account up to comment on the immigration whitepaper. Find the ‘successive governments have failed to reduced lines a bit daft. Successive governments haven’t consistently tried (v. different approaches by Conservatives) and the 2024 policy has begun to work.

This morning I had to deal with an argument between my 9yo and 3yo regarding which Metallica song they wanted on Alexa. How’s your day?

Oh good. The Sunday Times found the franchising story.

NEW on Wonkhe: UKVI got new rules. Hours they count em buff.ly/ffkfppe

ICYMI: ESRC renews funding for two key economic policy research centres #ESRC #AcademicSky

Poor from the government; astute from @wonkhe.bsky.social wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Preach wonkhe.com/blogs/a-prop...

Just give Trump ratings. It’s not clever or complex. Treat him like a small child and give him things he can wave at his peers.

🤦‍♂️

Outgoing Trent VC Ed Peck new OfS Chair www.gov.uk/government/n...

This week on Wonkhe: This week on the podcast UK Research and Innovation and the Office for Students both have new leadership – but what does that mean for the future of regulation, research funding, and sector confidence?

Little bit on the apparent (but probably not) changes to post-study visas trailed in the Times this week. In short, eligibility to employment absolutely would impact PG recruitment (as our FindAUniversity Pulse data reveals). But it’s not time to panic yet. www.findauniversity.com/comment/1210...

Having a PG Masters loan to repay now takes some graduates substantially below the minimum wage. This, as with many aspects of our PG finance system, is a mess. wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

Can someone just do me a BBC News header that says ‘Trump Says Things’

Damnit! No-one told me that I could have just bought one of these in Lidl... #PhD #phdlife #academicsky #PhDSmart

"I’ve only been here a short time but to have that connection with the fans and the players only makes me more confident.." #swfc

Turns out someone screwed this up. Fair play tbh.

NGL - Professionally: Trump 👀 - Personally: Trump 🥱

I mean, it’s not wrong.

Small edit to the toilets at the Rose and Crown Wadsley #SWFC

There is a world of difference between good and bad Camembert.

Honestly

A little late sharing this from @dkernohan.bsky.social at @wonkhe.bsky.social. Analysis of PG loan take up showing unexpected trends - e.g. concentrated at smaller providers. wonkhe.com/blogs/studen...

It’s late 2024 and @uber is basically an app for getting late taxis and cold McDonalds.

Dear Microsoft, Please stop re-enabling this crap every time Outlook updates. Sincerely, Mark

🦉Here's how we line-up for tonight's clash with Blackburn! XI: Beadle, Valery, Iorfa, Bernard, M. Lowe, Johnson, S. Charles, Bannan (c), Musaba, Windass, J. Lowe SUBS: P. Charles, Valentin, Palmer, Chalobah, Ingelsson, Paterson, Gassama, Smith, Ugbo #SHWBLA

Last night I dreamt I was on a work trip and was chased down a road by an angry honey badger. I don’t make the rules.

PSA. You can follow a channel on here that’s just Cat Pics. Take that Elon.

Watching the penultimate episode of Bluey season 3 and actually tearing up.

Went to a metal gig. Moshed. Did not die. Win.

Finally seeing Baroness tonight. With the 15yo son of one of my best friends. When you feel you’ve waited a while to catch a fave band…

"‘Medieval apprenticeship system could save UK universities’" https://buff.ly/3BeC7jM

NEW on Wonkhe: How skills, careers, and industrial policy fit together https://buff.ly/3OrrPzS

It’s 2024 and accidentally pressing the “insert” key is still an absolute bastard.

Splendid.

A petition to reject the election result has reached 1million signatures. OK. Sounds like a big deal. But over 10million people didn’t vote Labour this year. Even if the 1million were all disaffected Labour voters they’d be about 10% of the popular vote for Starmer.

Trying to explain BlueSky to a friend on this weekend trip: ‘What do I do? Do I sign in using my Twitter details?’

Beds are basically wireless chargers for humans.

Ooops

Going well so far.

Stunning photo alert* Off for a much-needed weekend with some mates. We call it ‘The November Thing’ and it basically involves going somewhere a bit random, walking up, down and around things and drinking beer etc. This year it’s Masham. *look, I’m not on Instagram for a reason.

Important question: When is Count Von Count joining BlueSky? And will he start again from 1?

Geekily fascinated by @dkernohan.bsky.social’s plot of avg UCAS tariff data by subject on @wonkhe.bsky.social this morning. Obvs see a lot of Russell Group in top, but plenty of subjects that buck the trend. E.g. Architecture with Man Met in 3rd wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

This is basically one of my cats.

Bluesky won’t be complete until @tramlines.bsky.social is using it to announce the announcement of a lineup.

Fascinated to see if the gentle ambience here can survive a Premier League weekend.

Maybe the upsides of student choice outweigh it all. Maybe not. As I say, the point is that student numbers clustering involves trade-offs in other government departments, and for other citizens.

One thing that I didn’t have the space to put into yesterday’s article on mergers and student numbers distribution was the potential impact on housing.