University managers are already declaring that they can't have the optics of pushing this levy onto international fees (would be nice if they thought about the students themselves but 🤷) and that they will seek the money in operational costs. ie: government is further cutting into what makes unis.

Well that’s one way to drive down immigration. I highly doubt it will raise anywhere near £600m though. Labour may well end up being worse for the higher education sector than the Tories.

"The 'ceasefire' is a diplomatic sham – a cover for the continuing extermination, displacement and erasure of the Palestinian people in Gaza and a distraction for the international public and the media." — #AJOpinion by @yarahawari.bsky.social ⤵️ aje.io/p14911

The latest Drive Smart newsletter sees Steve Fowler reflect on his father giving up driving – and what autonomous cars could mean for keeping people mobile.

In almost all such cases of raptor poisoning, the poisoners are gamekeepers working for the owners of pheasant/grouse shooting estates. Yet another way in which the behaviour of the ultra-wealthy damages the natural world.

We are in our final week of the national ballot! Wednesday 26 Nov is the last safe date to post the ballot and the ballot closes on Friday 28th November! Make sure you have had your say! #wearetheuniversity

I appreciate Israeli historians like Ilan Pappé, who keep reminding us that what we’ve seen in Gaza isn’t some sudden reaction to Oct 7, but a long-standing plan that’s been in their archives all along, basically a blueprint carried over from the 1948 Nakba.

Call for boycott of firms criticised by Grenfell fire inquiry. Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex behaved with “systematic dishonesty”, “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market” 72 died in 2017. No one prosecuted.

Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.

'UUK said the promised tuition fee uplift would “only prevent the gap that has grown in funding the teaching of domestic students from growing further”, rather than fixing the sector’s mounting problems.' 3/3

'Despite these concerns, little positive news is expected for universities in the upcoming budget....the focus will...be on the proposed international student levy, which would result in universities being taxed on their income from overseas students.' 2/3

'Ahead of the autumn budget on 26 November, Universities UK (UUK) has calculated that funding per student for teaching in 2025-26 is at 64 per cent of the level it was in 2015-16.' 1/3

Does the government perhaps understand that this is very bad for Britain?

Or that having high tech successful industries (as per the industrial strategy and growth mission) requires research and researchers… ?

What a spectacular way to pour petrol on the flames of the UKHE financial crisis. If you want to change the economics of the sector then please do so, but this change alone without anything else (return of cap, direct funding for unis, increased Home student fees) will just speed up uni closures.

Get your replacement ballot in the next half hour: yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu.... And submit your ballot before the 26th. Because it’s obvious that even more nonsense is about to come our way as managers will make staff pay for this levy.

As I said at the time this was the landmine in the immigration white paper. It will cost unis much more than they're getting from inflationary rises in domestic fees.

And of course it affects domestic students too. Many courses won’t run without the income from overseas students. Universities are knowledge engines, driving our economy and raising our reputation overseas.

Rachel Reeves says there’s a “hole” in the public finances. A new decade-long Brexit study explains it: a 6–8% hit to GDP – that's £180bn-£240bn a year – means less tax, less investment and less money for everything else. Brexit made Britain poorer. Much poorer.

'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

You’d forgotten this, hadn’t you?

Racism is not justified by immigration levels or rising poverty, unemployment or crime. It is not justified, period. I see the rising wave of voices & arguments justifying the rising levels of racism as the most sinister political development in 2025 on the British landscape.

Newmarket MP Matt Hancock gave a £37bn Covid testing contract to Jockey Club director Dido Harding, who subcontracted it to Grand National sponsor Randox, employer of Tory MP Owen Paterson, whose late wife chaired Aintree racecourse. That's how the Tories handled the pandemic.

BREAKING: At least 24 people are dead and 54 wounded after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, testing the ceasefire that began in October, officials say.

Universities blame ‘societal shift’ for axing foreign language degrees Numbers taking languages at A-level and beyond has been falling for decades, although Duolingo says young people are using its app more than their elders www.theguardian.com/education/20...

“It’s the latest decision in a head-spinning saga that federal workers with disabilities and temporary health needs say has hindered their job performance and weakened their faith that the federal government is a place for them.”

🚨 SCOOP: Toyota and Aston Martin secretly lobbied a Conservative cabinet minister to weaken Britain’s climate policy. We only know this because Democracy for Sale won a two-year legal fight to force the government to hand over the documents. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/victory-we...

"Trans people could be asked about whether they should be accessing single-sex services based on their physical appearance." No. not "trans people". ANYONE. This moral panic leads inexorably to the policing of women based on their appearance deemed to be "unfeminine". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

His activities should be challenged and stopped - there are routes to this. He is unlikely to resign and Trump seems pretty happy with him so unlikely to sack him. Another route is he could be impeached- this is unusual but possible. There is a petition here

Kennedy is more unashamed than ever as he admits he directed the disinformation on the MMR vaccine to be posted on the CDC website. He wants to equate fraudulent studies with over 40 peer reviewed studies showing NO link between Autism and the MMR 🧵 #PublicHealth

🕯🇺🇦 Today we honor the memory of millions of Ukrainians whose lives were taken by one of the most terrible tragedies in human history - Holodomor. It was a crime carried out by Moscow totalitarian state. A crime whose purpose was not only to take away bread, but also to break spirit of Ukrainians.

This story is all Nigel Farage should be asked about by journalists for months

Cryptocurrency backed by Farage donor is used for Russian war effort, investigators say www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Here is Trump's full 28 point plan for Ukraine. It would destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state and leave it helpless to face a Russian attack in the future. It would also give Putin full vindication and immunity from prosecution. www.axios.com/2025/11/20/t...

Shabana Mahmood's proposal to stop being told to "go back home" is to send people "home". Her proposal to stop black and brown people from feeling like they don't belong, is to bake in to the immigration system that they will never belong.

1/ How does the COVID Inquiry's Module 2 report align with what we said in @independentsage.bsky.social at the time? A 🧵on Transparency, Early & Decisive Action, Scientific Advice, Integration of Social & Economic Harms, Communication and Behavioural Science, Governance, Data and Preparedness

All I can say is that Lady Hallett’s conclusions, certainly as far as England is concerned, vindicate everything set out in the Unequal Pandemic documentary @debbieabrahamsmp.bsky.social The governments across the UK need to action her recommendations asap 👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zhn...

Given that Grok, X’s AI tool, is now posting holocaust-denial commentary on X, I’d say we should well beyond the casual-review-but-do-nothing stage of investigation and moving swiftly on to legal challenges and all govt accounts/responsible media leaving X immediately.

Independent SAGE is mentioned in the report of module 2 of the UK Covid Inquiry. "Much comment and expertise existed in the public domain, with Independent SAGE (see below) being one of the most visible commentators." 1/4

‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

My new favorite kind of meme is "here are detailed instructions on how to turn off AI". 🔨

Physician who was no longer at the hospital but was on the email list had Otter ai installed and his bot “attended” the meeting, generated a transcript, and sent it to all 65 people on the email list, 12 of whom also no longer worked at the hospital.

Has anyone here worked on the evaluations for the New Deal for Communities? Maybe one of the team at Sheffield Hallam? I'm looking for a quick bit of advice on mapping NDC areas to wards.

I've got the corner of the nub of the grain of an idea about something and before I go too far down a road, I'd massively appreciate responses to 5 teeny questions from fellow academic types who have ever done (or claimed to do) thematic analysis. Grateful for reposts. forms.gle/K4N3Xg9mXSAZ...

WWPD

Yet Barbara's measures saw a huge drop in road deaths especially from drink driving. The Institute for Alcohol Studies suggest these measures saved over 62,000 lives. They made a huge difference and lowered road deaths. Look at the graph below from the House of Commons Library 👇