Oh goody!

a university manager who actually resigns after staff & students make clear they have no confidence in them. What a notion. (how many #UKHE Votes of No Confidence have we got by now? And how much have those VCs & the trustees shown a complete disinterest in staff & student experience?)

The REF, in every aspect, is a joke. It will only get more so as the research reputation of UK HE crashes.

Transparency in decision making isn't just a buzzword. It is needed to stave off arbitrariness and all the harmful decisions that come from that. The bare minimum step @qmul.bsky.social could do is to be less belligerent in its FOI responses.

The 'Freedom of Information' releases by #UKHE institutions really are the most fascinating pieces of abstract art. Here's @qmul.bsky.social's about a Deputy Principal we may or may not have (not knowing how deputisation is agreed feels like a big deal? 🤷) www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/docu...

A UK university has addressed a staff complaint on senior misconduct by gagging complainant & prohibiting communication with large sections of university community This is a violation of freedom of speech Matter has been referred to MPs and Office for Students

Senior University administration recruits mainly from two populations Those who did not succeed in academia Those who made it all the way to professor, found nothing left to think about & sought fulfilment in meetings & money This explains present condition of UK universities

The managerial career path in UK HE is a factory of corruption and incompetence.

Ultimately the real power of universities, whether in resisting their own corrupt management in the UK or a corrupt government in the US, depends on the reputation they have cultivated. Abandoning respect for commercialisation led to deteriorating public support, and thus powerlessness.

Which formerly research institution in UK HE will adopt year round teaching first?

Management do not see any downsides here.

This will definitely happen.

If you work in UK HE and don't hate your senior management, then you are not paying attention.

Many are asking why the media and government do not care about the destruction of universities. Ultimately this is a function of the sector's reputation with the public. Uni management -- and UUK collectively -- has been in a position to manage that reputation. What did they do?

A central part of maintaining corruption at UK universities is the installation of cronies with inflated salaries. Most senior posts at universities are occupied by incompetent people who could NEVER make 150-250k in any other post. So, they will never question policies that destroy the uni.

Really, vice chancellors (including recently departed ones) should donate all of their ill-gotten wealth to the universities they destroyed.

A central part of maintaining corruption at UK universities is the installation of cronies with inflated salaries. Most senior posts at universities are occupied by incompetent people who could NEVER make 150-250k in any other post. So, they will never question policies that destroy the uni.

If you work in UK HE and don't hate your senior management, then you are not paying attention.

This is going to get much worse soon.

Really, vice chancellors (including recently departed ones) should donate all of their ill-gotten wealth to the universities they destroyed.

Many are asking why the media and government do not care about the destruction of universities. Ultimately this is a function of the sector's reputation with the public. Uni management -- and UUK collectively -- has been in a position to manage that reputation. What did they do?

The Anglosphere in general has collectively decided to give up on leading the world in anything in the future.

Remember when the 'relevant' strategy was to orient universities around future-proof skills like learning to code? Well, those people are still in charge.

What is happening at those UK HE inner-circle senior management meetings where they keep no records and where they discuss the real motivations behind their actions? Whatever cynical private takes you might imagine from these corrupt charlatans, the reality is certainly far worse.

It’s a shame that hiring freezes and compulsory redundancies never hit senior management - the only group universities could do with less of.

Students! Would you like to go to a university with corrupt and incompetent management overseeing a precipitous self-induced reputational decline, protecting their cronies on the way down? Well, UK HE has exactly what you are looking for.

Couple that with the context of a decade or so of ongoing, systematic staff abuse.

Management does not relent in their incompetence and corruption when the money runs out. In fact, they double down.

What management is really saying is that they want everyone gone. They want 200 forced out, but they also want the rest to take any opportunity they have to leave—i.e. those with the most mobility. The rest will be piled even higher with teaching and admin loads. ResearchPlus indeed.

What management is really saying is that they want everyone gone. They want 200 forced out, but they also want the rest to take any opportunity they have to leave—i.e. those with the most mobility. The rest will be piled even higher with teaching and admin loads. ResearchPlus indeed.

This is basically EVERY university in the Anglophone world.

Fact-check: true

It was management corruption and incompetence that got us here.

Management gave up on being a university years ago. But there was enough money coming in to pretend otherwise—on the most superficial level. Now the money has run out.

It is not possible to rise to leadership in UK HE without hating university employees.

THE (and others) are complicit in the death of UK HE

The response of UK universities to their budget crises will diminish their reputations as well as damage staff capacity and morale. As a result, next year's recruitment will suffer. Current UK HE managers, who rose to power under easy money, have no idea what they are doing.

Has anyone bothered to explain why universities would be needed at all if they were market driven? The private sector is already positioned to supply any 'training' that is immediately profitable in the market for skills. Universities only have a comparative advantage at being universities.

The state of 'westerndemocracies' summed in one image.

Has anyone bothered to explain why universities would be needed at all if they were market driven? The private sector is already positioned to supply any 'training' that is immediately profitable in the market for skills. Universities only have a comparative advantage at being universities.

At what point will they stop this nonsense?

HR are effectively the goon squad for UK HE corrupt and incompetent managers.

Expect many of these stories over the next year. REF prestige was always an illusion used to make staff believe there would be a reward for success. The UK does not actually care about research

Expect many of these stories over the next year. REF prestige was always an illusion used to make staff believe there would be a reward for success. The UK does not actually care about research

Humanities will flourish in the future ... at a handful of elite universities.

'It is notable that in the last Research Excellence Framework exercise the Department of American Studies at Nottingham was ranked third in the Area Studies unit of assessment and was one of the top-performing units across the whole of the University of Nottingham.' 1/2

Well, UK HE is undifferentiated in one key sense: uniformly corrupt and incompetent management.

Higher Ed leaders lost the mission. They did it intentionally. They got rich off of doing it.

I wonder why UK HE had such limited 'winnings'?