and the last four years have been so very rosey...

UK unis: we need to pay mid-six figure salaries to the people in charge, because it is imperative we get the best and brightest to lead us. Also UK unis: It isn't reasonable to expect us to do anything to solve any of our problems, or even to check whether a new problem might be brewing.

Well now, doesn’t feel like gaslighting at all that individual programs are being made “accountable” for the future earnings of their graduates. !!!!

What *did* they do all day? Because this feels like a key part of the job, the whole ‘knowing what’s going on’ bit?

Shout out for the learned societies keeping a beady eye on the state of the disciplines that university senior managers are so swiftly dismantling. Keep an eye on the state of UK university Geography with the help of the @rgs.org 's new report, published this week.

Stefan Collini in 2013: "Future historians ... will at least record that, alongside its many other achievements, the coalition government took the decisive steps in helping to turn some first-rate universities into third-rate companies." #HigherEd #UKHE www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

Constructive dismissal claims are notoriously difficult to win. These are when someone resigns their employment, arguing that the situation was so bad at work — that a "fundamental breach of trust and confidence" occurred due to management actions — they had no choice but to resign.

Important detail bsky.app/profile/qmuc... Really looks to me like amoral lawyers taking advantage of a bad situation and higher academia folding quickly. This can ruin UKHE.

I’d like to apologise for my university’s craven actions, failing to defend staff and throwing the rest of the UK university sector under the bus on this issue. UCL had the resources others do not have to fight this properly in court.

This is on top of their Employment Tribunal loss which showed that QMUL was making promotion decisions 'tainted by sex'. (both won by staff who defended themselves, against QMUL's fancy lawyers)

Management @qmul.bsky.social lost yet another Employment Tribunal: the judge ruled it constructive unfair dismissal. Can we please keep senior managers under control *within* QMUL? They keep using uni money for fancy lawyers & be told by judges that they can't actually do the things they do...

Yup. This hurts. We worked ourselves to the bone during Covid to keep the show on the road. I ran virtual fieldtrips & recorded endless bite-size lectures, with a 2-year old balanced on my lap while the nursery was closed for 6 months. Our students were MAGNIFICENTLY patient and gracious 🙏

The students 'win' £14 million because the law firm is pocketing 35%. There were 6500 students in this case, so that's about £2,000 each. Worth it for kicking #UKHE even further in crisis? Abominable law firm. Frustrating UCL didn't resist as WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE ALTERNATIVE COVID TEACHING?

Universities didn't create Covid, didn't choose lockdowns, and didn't set public health policy. By this logic every airline owes you damages for a hurricane. This is a masterclass in punishing institutions for surviving a crisis. This will accelerate the collapse of UK higher education #AcademicSky

These are such inhumane terms. Throw over your life (all the training, all the moves and overwork) within the space of three weeks. Oh, and in those three weeks keep delivering worldclass teaching and research. Just add the existential crisis to the evenings.

*AT A UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFF*??? How is that legal? He makes decisions that impact the resources (financial or otherwise) that that spin-off benefits from.

Ah, surprise, surprise. Our VC's second job at a UoE spin-off *is* paid after all. We'd like to know since when, and why his SFC declaration of interests has only recently been updated. www.theferret.scot/edinburgh-jo...

Yeah, quite key: it's not £21 million that is going directly to those 6500 students... The only ones winning anything (other than maybe £2000 per student) are the firm raking in the £7 million and the people keen to crash universities. Grim day for #UKHE.

I feel so miserable about this. Nearly broke myself working 16, 18 hour days during the pandemic. We did everything we possibly could, then doubled it, tripled it. HE is still struggling to get back off the floor, years later. Now another financial punch in the face. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📣 Unite UCU TU Victimisation Strike Rally ⏰ Weds 18 February @ 7pm 📍 In-person: Mechanics’ Institute, Manchester 💻 Online access: unitetheunion-org.zoom.us/j/9198478678... Everyone welcome ✊✊✊

More crucial reporting from Josh Hartley at Nottinghamshire Live. At what point will this university wake up to the fact that digging a deeper hole doesn't help turn finances around? #stopthecuts #savehe

A lot of the FT opinion pages have been decent on UK higher education for a while, I sometimes wonder why they have not done something a bit more collective and high-impact on the subject, given how a. messed up it is, and b. important it is to the national economy.

But with Martin Wolf's piece on this today in mind, the claim that UK policymakers had no other practical and moral option than squeezing a loans and fees ratchet for higher ed does not mesh well with very different financing choices made around the EU.

UK universities are currently facing a significant financial crisis. Recently, we undertook a snapshot survey across all UK higher education institutions offering geography. Read our new report by Professor Jenny Pickerill, the Society’s Vice President for Research and Higher Education.

Opinion: “There is a worrying regional inequality in who has access to geography at university. The underserving of certain regions impacts the most disadvantaged students.” The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings, write five professors #highered https://ow.ly/VI5L50YgHBe

Management @qmul.bsky.social lost yet another Employment Tribunal: the judge ruled it constructive unfair dismissal. Can we please keep senior managers under control *within* QMUL? They keep using uni money for fancy lawyers & be told by judges that they can't actually do the things they do...

'If they choose to take up the Voluntary Severance Scheme, open to all academic staff in the School of Humanities and the School of Modern Languages, staff essentially make themselves redundant in return for a good pay-out.' 9 months' pay; 3 weeks to decide. 1/3

Ah, the tactics of the obfuscatory Q&A and the weaponised ignorance. Looks like Frances Bowen took some notes during her time here at QMUL.

also, this paragraph is incredibly funny (and true):

the open letter by the students is so thoughtful and sharp, it makes me incredibly proud of our students and very grateful to get to be part of the same University community: bsky.app/profile/ucue...

Solidarity. The situation in UK higher education is so much worse than people think. The chronic uncertainty combined with hostile and toxic workplaces means so many educators are at risk of more than unemployment, but of serious psychiatric injury.

Last week our Branch Chair spoke to reporters from @thenorthernrose.com about our latest strike action against the derisory 2025/26 HE pay offer. Students from University of Manchester and MMU also give their views on trade unions and the state of HE. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIqn...

Please don’t upset Pebbles. Keep the Southend campus open.

more importantly, students are too: bsky.app/profile/ucue...

good morning, it is day 3 of strikes at the University of Essex to save 400 jobs across all depts & stop the closure of our Southend Campus and our Foundation Year programme. The campus cat Pebbles is in solidarity 💕

With Court agendas missing, minutes published late and papers non-existent, it’s our view that the important governance meetings at the University of Dundee should be live streamed and recorded, for openness and transparency.

Results are in: #ANU ranks 5th worst in terms of psychosocial risk among universities. #UniCanberra doesn't fare much better. @nteunion.bsky.social endorses recommendations including continuing monitoring & more funding to stop job losses & excessive workloads.

*actual* public proceedings of the governance infrastructures of universities. Now there's a thought! It would finally make visible the manipulation of these boards done by a handful of fixers, and maybe get people to realise how this isn't how big institutions should be run in the first place.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE CAMPUS CAT IS IN SOLIDARITY WITH @ucuessex.bsky.social. If you chose destructive marketisation, you disappoint Pebbles. And you don't want to do that. #CatsAgainstCasualisation

For fifteen years the press and policy makers have been putting a microphone in front of a guy who made something up during an all-nighter, high on RedBull, and who's been aggressive lashing out at anyone who dared to query the wisdom of it.

If you want to understand David Willetts' game plan for High Fees / Massive Loans, watch this. College, Inc. | FRONTLINE | PBS share.google/laiwMjBOhWkz...

@joshpizpom.bsky.social was that you guys and your amazing reporting, by any chance? Going completely blank on this at the moment... #UKHE

Students continue to be brilliant: confirmed. Someone please obtain or leak (1) which agency led the search for the new VC at Essex, (2) what their criteria were, (3) what expectations of the new VC coming in to ruthlessly was already part of the negotiation last Spring. #SaveHE #UKHE

From the north of England @northumbriauni.bsky.social to the south, it seems senior managers are obsessed with attacking staff pensions. ✒️✍️📝Please sign and share this petition from Southampton Solent students and UCU to help fight back: c.org/WYTx5ZTGVd @ucu.org.uk

📣 Fed up with “doing more with less”? So are we. Join Birmingham UCU - collective action makes us stronger

LSE on here is so confusing. How much do we think it's because of the Minouche Shafik link? Given Trumpianism's sole focus on individuals and personal loyalties?

For fifteen years the press and policy makers have been putting a microphone in front of a guy who made something up during an all-nighter, high on RedBull, and who's been aggressive lashing out at anyone who dared to query the wisdom of it.

One day Willetts declares the student loan system is too entrenched to change, the next his puppet admits that it was smashed together in a hurry to get electoral kudos. So not driven by the needed infrastructure of higher education but a short-term political game. web.archive.org/web/20260213...

😑 You made it up, Dave. You did the mess with the loans and the market-creation. It's not that 'deep-seated'. What is deep-seated is that education is a public good which serves all of society, not a privilege for the few. This pretense that this is somehow a universal eternal system is bunk.