Hi All. Just to say that for me, the BlueSky experiment isn't really working. For all sorts of reasons it hasn't hit the heights of the other platform that it sought to replace, and as of now I'm only active on (also differently imperfect) LinkedIn. Do please find me on there. Richard

Interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I'll be hosting an applicant webinar from 9:00-10:00 (UK time) Wednesday 25th March: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-sciences/events/phd-heree-applicant-webinar-25th-march-2026-higher-education-research-evaluation-and-enhancement/

Where are we with widening participation and student experience? ✍ SIGN UP: srhe.ac.uk/civicrm/?civ... 🗓️ WHEN: June 23rd 2026 11:00-15:45 🗺️ WHERE: in person at the SRHE offices in London (maps.app.goo.gl/9mR4pEyYo1yE...) @mannymadriaga.bsky.social @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social @soniailie.bsky.social

Thoughtful and critical of our book by @jimdickinson.bsky.social on @wonkhe.bsky.social. Addressing issues related to poverty and material need is incredibly important to a meaningful education wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

I have written @hepi-news.bsky.social blog that attempts to outline the central argument of our new book "Realising the Educational Potential of Mass Higher Education": www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/13/r...

Interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 17:00-18:00 (UK time) on Thursday 26th February: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...

I am delighted that our new open access book “Realising the Educational Potential of Mass Higher Education” has been published by @bloomsburyaced.bsky.social. www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...

Interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 13:00-14:00 (UK time) on Monday 26th January: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...

Today I am giving a keynote on Assessment for Social Justice in Theory and Practice for scholars in Chile committed to more inclusive higher education. eduinclusiva.cl?p=14220

I was delighted to receive my Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) fellowship at the recent @srhe.bsky.social Annual Conference, particularly as part of such an impressive group of new fellows.

👇 a piece that @mvanhoutte.bsky.social and I wrote for @theconversation.com. It's based on our analysis of PISA data from England & Flanders, published in @berj-2025.bsky.social. Below we've connected our work to the Curriculum & Assessment Review led by @beckyfrancis.bsky.social. shorturl.at/7pHms

Interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 9:00am to 10:00am (UK time) on Tuesday 16 December 2025 www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...

A @hepi-news.bsky.social blog on why the TEF will collapse under the weight of OfS & @departmentforedu.bsky.social plans. The points I raise are well known to those who understand the measurement of HE educational quality. Why are OfS/DfE so deteremined to press ahead? www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/11/30/w...

I am delighted that the third edition of Reflective Teaching in Higher Education has now been published. It's a privilege to work with such a brilliant international team of co-authors. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/reflectiv...

Session abstracts are now available online - do take a look to find out more about the range of topics we'll be discussing on Dec 16th :-) There is still time to register if you would like to join us in Lancaster - closes 5th Dec. See website at: socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/p...

Calling online PGRs! 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

Are you studying for a doctorate at a UK university via a programme that is wholly or mostly online? If so, please take part in an anonymous, 10 min survey about the impacts of online doctoral study on wellbeing and share the link lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_....

We're very happy to share the conference programme - you can view the range of exciting topics we'll be discussing here: socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/p... If you would like to join us on Dec 16th in Lancaster, registration is open - *closes 5th Dec*: socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/r...

Free online seminar – all welcome. Corridor Cultures: Transforming school cultures of gender and sexuality in partnership with students, teachers, and school leaders. Dr Victoria Rawlings, University of Sydney. Wednesday 26th November, 4.30-6pm (UK time).

Delighted to have this paper out in Disability & Society on autistic students' & graduates' experiences of negotiating diagnoses / identities whilst at university. Important insights for other autistic ppl at uni + staff and peers. It's #openaccess via link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Here's a piece by Emily Gray and me in University World News about our recent article on university staff experiences of gender-related violence in Australia and England: www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto... There's a link in the piece to the full article, which is available open access.

Was part of a panel with @rhordosy.bsky.social , @mannymadriaga.bsky.social and @soniailie.bsky.social as @srhe.bsky.social network convenors talking about wider widening participation dynamics for Cambridge Faculty of Education's new THRiVE research group. www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/gro... 1/2

"Such reliance on rankings means that universities are shaped not by the needs of society or by innovations driven from inside the international higher-education community, but by unappointed third-party ranking agencies." New article by @lizziegadd.bsky.social. 👇 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Really enjoyed contributing to the @wonkhe.bsky.social Festival of HE panel on knowledge & skills with Gemma Marsh, Tony Moss and @debbiemcvitty.bsky.social. Heartened by the panel's shared pragmatic commitment to making education meaningfully accessible to a diverse a range of students.

We're looking for a Lecturer in Technology Enhanced Learning to contribute to our PhD in E-Research and TEL for 12 months. Please share: hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Great to see my article with Emily M. Gray is now published open access.

Quoted on the danger of putting too much weight on TEF judgements by using them to allocate resources because it will completely undermine the TEF's already limited validity as a measure of educational quality in this @timeshighered.bsky.social piece www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/tef-so...

Nobody is more surprised than me that I'll be a keynote speaker for the Emerging Researchers' Group at the European Educational Research Association Conference in Tampere in August 2026. (Conference submissions open from the 1st of December, by the way.) eera-ecer.de/conferences/...

Interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 17.00-18.00 (UK time) on Wed 26th November on Zoom. Register here: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...

I took a deeper look at the HEPI/Kaplan Soft Power "Index". To me what it isn't saying - what is effectively being taken for granted - is far more important and interesting than what it purportedly tells us (which is of very little real value). ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/s...

Delighted my article 'The definition of educational quality in a quasi-marketised HE system: stumbling towards a knowledge crisis' is now published open access www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... & even happier it's part of a brilliant special issue edited by @jo-annebaird.bsky.social & Gemma Moss

me, @profstevenjones.bsky.social and others on the dangers of the Skills White Paper proposals for measuring and assuring the quality of education offered by HE institutions: www.timeshighereducation.com/news/risk-st...

There is still time to register for this applicant webinar this Thursday for our part-time fully online PhD in Higher Education. I look forward to seeing you there.

I'm looking forward to being part of a panel at the launch event of the Language Education Technology Research Group tomorrow. The Future of Technology in Language Education Wednesday 29 October, 2025 13:30-15:00 www.lancaster.ac.uk/confucius-in...

🎓 New publication alert 📢 Open access in British Educational Research Journal: "System failure? Exploring the interplay of fear of failure, competition, cooperation and sense of belonging in education in England and Flanders" with @carolynjackson.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/berj...

Excited to announce that the #SocMedHE25 keynote speaker will be @andytattersall! Andy will be speaking on '#AcademicTwitter Is Dead — What Died, What Survived, What’s Next?'. For more info, including the CFP and registration, see the website at: socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/k...

First day working in my new office, re-engaging with a paper I've not been able to work on for a few weeks for various (marking) reasons. It's not too bad, if - ahem - still 3k too long. #academicwriting #academiclife

Quoted as questioning “the wisdom of positioning a direct link between HE and the labour market,” over which HE has no control; instead universities "offer students... ways of engaging with the world that allow them to make use of the knowledge they’ve studied, to engage with the world in a new way"

Interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 13.00-14.00 (UK time) on Thurs 30th October on Zoom. Register here: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...

Registration for #SocMedHE25 is now open! The early bird rate is £95, available until 31st October, before the standard rate of £105. We hope to see you in Lancaster! Start your registration here: socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/10/03/r...

BERA @BERANews Upcoming event Leadership in a Time of Monsters: Responding to Contemporary Challenges @azumahcarol 7 Oct 2025 Register here: bera.ac.uk/event/leader...

The problem with many university strategies is that they’re completely divorced from reality. Launched with fanfare, press releases and high quality videos, the people of the university mostly roll their eyes because there is no acknowledgement of the problems that need to be solved. 1/

Do you work in #HEAccess and want to know how to present more effectively in your outreach? I'm delighted to be running a one-day training session with NEON and kindly hosted by Kings College London. Sign up here. www.educationopportunities.co.uk/events/neon-...

Attended a great symposium on #decolonising today, and it's striking how equity/inclusion work in UK HE feels so precarious. In spite of the election of a (slightly?) more progressive government, budget cuts and redundancies coupled with far right resurgence make for worrying times. Thoughts?

This year, #socmedhe25 will be coming to Lancaster University, on 16th December! The call for papers/session proposals is now open at socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/c... - please submit abstracts by *24th October* Hope you can join us - see you in December!

Very important questions here, but the comments section is gold.

'pressures on academic freedom must also be seen as part of a broader crisis of universities' Mégret, F./Ramanujam, N. (2024): Academic Freedom in a Plural World: Global Critical Perspectives. Central European University Press. (open access) #HigherEd #AcademicFreedom www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

🎵 Calling all primary school generalist teachers and primary music subject leaders - have your say: Primary Music Education and Digital Resources survey. 🔗Complete the survey here: app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edgehill/u...

It's Groundhog Day as 'students don't think uni is Value for Money' starts doing the rounds again. There's so little critical reflection on what this data does (and doesn't) show. It equates HE with salaries and only salaries, for one, which is absurdly narrow.... 1/3 yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

"There exist holes within a blanket of malaise enveloping the sector that give oxygen to positive declarations of university life that confound and partially arrest a torrent of disconsolation." Open Access: doi.org/10.1080/0307...