As HEPI's Rose Stephenson notes in her blog, 'specialisation' is the magic keyword in the white paper. But what does it mean? Does it mean the same thing for students as for research projects? Is it the same in SHAPE and STEM subjects? Has anyone actually modelled it? Is there an evidence base? 2/2

Will the education white paper (for England) hamper student access? Well, the evidence suggests that this is already happening, not just for England but for the UK at taught undergraduate level in the subjects most students study: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/policy-and-r... What about research? 1/2

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Download the report, 'Audiences and workforce in arts, culture and heritage sectors: Recent trends and evidence for Scotland' by @drdaveobrien.bsky.social, @markrt.co.uk and Dr Ruoxi Wang. 👉 pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

The launch event took place at the University of @glasgow.ac.uk in partnership with the @ukri.org AHRC Place-based Research Programme. Watch the replay to hear the report's key findings and insights from our expert panel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpUa...

📊 The report is accompanied by 3 new interactive data dashboards, showing engagement and employment data for Scotland, and engagement data for England. These give local and regional policymakers access to data in their locality to support cultural strategies and effective policy interventions.

🆕 New research on Scotland’s arts, culture and heritage sectors finds persistent inequalities in participation, including by disability, ethnic group, gender, and geographical location. The latest report in our State of the Nations research series is available to download now: shorturl.at/IIt4s

Well everyone else seems to be doing it & so I will too! @manchesterup.bsky.social big summer half price sale 🥳. You can get my 'Housewives & Citizens' for just £12.50, worth it for the cover alone (in my humble opinion 😀). @womenshistnet.bsky.social #skystorians

4. Govt is doing some stuff about this. Removing levy funding for some higher apps (employers can still pay outside levy) & increasing incentives for employers to take on young apprentices. But not enough & in my view is diluting quality by reducing minimum app length & removing English & maths reqs

3. This is a system gone awry. Training for older people matters too, though is mostly higher apps for existing employees here. But there's 1m NEETs & the levy is a minimum £ not max - employers can pay for training senior staff outside levy & not all training has to be an apprenticeship.

2. Maybe things get better at 18? Not so much. Or young people are doing other forms of education? Unfortunately not. We're spending more on apprenticeships in England but fewer young people are doing them.

Have a look at this chart showing % of young people doing apprenticeships. It's gone from low to very low. The Govt's right to say it wants to 'pivot' the system more toward them (up to age 24, this chart is 16-17). But will need to do more.

Thanks @mpifg.bsky.social! And thanks to the Labour and Labour Movement Section for this award!

🏆 Congratulations to @bryanboyle.bsky.social and @dvandebroeck.bsky.social on their @asanews.bsky.social Distinguished Scholarly Article Award! Their paper, “The Labor of Distinction,” is based on an ethnography of the butler profession and shows how elite status is produced through service labor.

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We talk endlessly about tech bosses but know surprisingly little about how their entrepreneurial mindset is formed. In this new article, I develop the concept of the entrepreneurial gaze to explain how early-stage entrepreneurs come to see and evaluate the world www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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Really excellent (& detailed!) FT newsletter from @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social this morning on fiscal devolution.

. @manchesterup.bsky.social are having a site-wide sale, meaning you can get my book for £15, and a whole host of other great titles too. C'mon, you know a heatwave is the perfect time read about the fight for equality by women in public service jobs! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526146632/

@knoxharrington.bsky.social Otoboke Beaver!!!! 💃🏻

The @manchesterup.bsky.social sale also means the new and updated version of Culture is bad for you is just £5.50! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177810/

My book on New Labour and the Blair years is in the @manchesterup.bsky.social sale for **just a tenner**! Roll up, roll up, you won't get a better bargain than this today: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526146328/

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'In its latest annual skills report, for instance, it notes that “demand for key occupations in industrial strategy priority sectors is expected to increase by nearly a quarter over the next decade” and that most of these occupations require higher-level qualifications.' 3/3

'Amid mounting questions about graduate employment, student debt levels and the government’s focus on tackling unemployment among non-graduates, it can feel like Skills England is one of the only voices advocating for the importance of universities and high-level skills.' 2/3

'Almost two years on from that initial announcement and one year on from Skills England’s official launch, experts believe the body has produced some useful work, but there remains little optimism that it is capable of moving the needle on England’s complex skills crisis.' 1/3

'It would be impossible to envisage a system where we could guarantee every graduate would see a premium, and the government would win on every investment in higher education teaching. Life, and risk, does not work like that for anyone.' 3/3

'On average, graduates earn more than non-graduates – even when we adjust for differences based on background characteristics or prior attainment. And on average, the exchequer also sees a substantial lifetime return from state investment in educating an individual to graduate level'. 2/3

'On average the raw lifetime earnings gap for those aged 37 in 2022 who went to university, and those who could have but did not, was £290,000. And this includes a 3.5 per cent discount rate (applying Treasury Green Book rules) that lowers the value of earnings in later life'. 1/3

& @markrt.co.uk is launching that report live in Glasgow now!

New @creativepec.bsky.social report on Audiences and workforce in arts, culture and heritage sectors, with a deep dive on Scotland pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

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Job! Postdoctoral Fellow in Computational Humanities & Publishing at Carnegie Mellon - cmu.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CMU/de...

Now available for preorder, arriving in warehouse 10/02/2026: dukeupress.edu/content-mach... Duke UP gave me a discount code for 30% off paperback preorders: it's E26CNTNT ♥️👍

This is a really good move that will hopefully make the TV Festival more accessible, affordable and dynamic at a time when the UK TV industry is changing beyond recognition. We need all voices in the room to find a sustainable way forwards for everyone. 👏👏 deadline.com/2026/06/edin...

Listen! Christina Williams talks to @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about the brilliant "Work of Fiction: Making a Living from Writing in the UK" newbooksnetwork.com/work-of-fict...

Well, that was a wild few hours of being hacked. Normal service of academic podcast and paper links is hopefully back now!

"A brilliant diagnostic of the hypocrisies, ambivalences, and evasions of literary culture." -- Christopher Kempf Coming this fall: CROWD CONTROL, by Claire Grossman, Juliana Spahr, and Stephanie Young. tinyurl.com/36pd5bxh @columbiaup.bsky.social

Was a joy to talk with @drdaveobrien.bsky.social about The Alternative Press, founded by Ann and Ken Mikolowski in Detroit in 1969. Thanks to all the great folks who keep @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social going so strong!

The June issue of Cultural Sociology is live! Find articles on cultural translations of social movements, Chinese hip-hop, online commodification of leisure activities and more, below. journals.sagepub.com/toc/CUS/20/2

I've been eagerly awaiting this new book from @aarthivadde.bsky.social & it's finally out: this is important, original & timely research that should motivate an entire generation of literary scholars to take on the question of creativity, writing & digital platforms cup.columbia.edu/book/we-the-...

As Westminster reacts to Sir Keir Starmer's resignation as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, our latest Political Monitor rounds up the week's key developments for the creative industries. 📬 Read more and subscribe: creativepec.substack.com/p/political-...

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Listen! @rkokayokay.bsky.social talks to @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about the fascinating "Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: The Alternative Press" newbooksnetwork.com/detroits-alt...

Excited to announce that Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain will be out in paperback on July 16. I’ll be doing a launch event that day with the wonderful people at West Kirby Books. See below for tickets! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/liverpool-...

NEW on Wonkhe: Your next favourite pop star probably studied at a conservatoire or specialist music college - but you’d never know it, says Damian Morgan buff.ly/NvKt57q

My flyer for Edinburgh - front and back. Tickets can be booked below. Hope to see some of you there and thanks to everyone who has booked so far www.thespaceuk.com/shows/2026/t...

As Andy Burnham returns to Westminster, and is calling for "a new drive of re-industrialisation across the north of England”, what might be behind those words? My piece from a month ago: "Andy Burnham, Manchesterism, and Reindustrialisation" softmachines.org?p=3305

i wrote about the new version of placebo's debut album, and considered alt musicians taking creative approaches to their backcatalogues more generally, for @thequietus.com

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin is hiring a Senior Research Officer in quantitative sociology with expertise in social stratification, education, or integration. Apply by 3 July: candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...