You can either have the VCs agitating to end the REF so that they can decrease the proportion of research time in staff contracts or the ones reifying REF-ability as the only marker of a genuine academic. Tying pension access to REF status is a new low:
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sheffie...
2023 - one in four UK universities was reported to be operating a food bank for their students.
Paper exploring the geographies of food poverty in UK HE out now in Area ⬇️ @rgs.org #OpenAccess
As well as being an appallingly unfair travesty of a decision, this isn’t going to look good in their REF submission either… #UKHE
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sheffield-hallam-restricts-tps-access-ref-academics-only
'Elsevier made £1.04 billion in profit in 2025, according to its parent company’s latest annual report, up 7 per cent on 2024.' 1/2
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Yes that would be fascinating..
Reading the @wonkhe.bsky.social article on student complaints this morning reminded me of this research we did at Plymouth uni. Still surprised by how little consistent analysis there is of student complaints.
pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/cgi/viewcont....
We are proud to have joined the Health Research Authority, the NIHR, and other organisations in a pledge to improve public involvement in research.
Learn more: https://www.arthritis-uk.org/news/2026/january/arthritis-uk-joins-public-involvement-pledge/
hralatest.bsky.social nihr.bsky.social
Reform councillor Graham Eardley has been suspended for behaving so aggressively towards a female volunteer that security had to escort him out. That’s at least 63 Reform councillors gone in ten months – nearly one in ten!
Just filled in a fee claim form for examining a PhD, UK university. I reckon it pays £4 and hour. I'd have made more on a paper round.
Well done to the majority of UK universities. It's about time government(s) and public bodies did the same.
The majority of UK academic institutions now no longer post on X - LSE Impact share.google/Uo7ZscsQl4tS...
'the survey of more than 12,071 academics from 17 universities across nine countries found some 50 per cent agreed that roles focused on university teaching were “career-limiting” at their institution, while one in five (20 per cent) disagreed.' 1/2
I know this helps no one, but I grew up in the Tory shires, live in London and work in a university. I’m married with children and a mortgage and am mildly left wing. I would have thought that, these days, either the Tories or Labour might be attempting to get my vote. They are not and it’s weird.
Thank you! Can’t really take al the credit though as three of them were PhD papers from my fabulous ex-students.
Major-Smith, K., Borne, G., Wallis, L. & Cotton, D. (2026) Still niche? Stakeholder perspectives on growing the plant-based meat and plant-based dairy industries. Cleaner Food Systems. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S3050835526000100?via%3Dihub
Two glasses of sparkling wine being toasted by people out of shot. Evidently not a recent photo as the sun is shining!
Celebrating having had my fifth publication of 2026 out this week! Think it’s a record..
Labour MP Clive Lewis doesn’t hold back on the Gorton and Denton result in this interview with ITV
Yes, this>>
So rather than accepting that Starmer’s Labour Party have alienated their core voters, he decides to attack the Green Party. Talk about failing to read the room…
Yet again we in Higher Ed get everything bad from being private institutions, and everything bad from being seen as part of the public sector. We can be sued and sued again for actions which we didn't cause, which hit *us*. And yet ppl think we are backed by govt. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I agree with your point about salaries. But there are a lot of other costs, buildings, maintenance, energy etc which are crazy high. And unis can’t increase fees - in fact they’ve barely been increased for years because government have prevented it..
Have you considered the difference in cost of living? UK much higher than most of Europe… https://en.uhomes.com/blog/life-in-uk-vs-europe#life-in-the-uk-vs-europe-cost-of-living
Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.
FDA Chief Makary just said that most drugs should be sold over the counter and not require a prescription, unless it’s “unsafe, you need laboratory tests to monitor…or if it could be used for some nefarious purpose or it's addictive”.
Bacteria celebrate as antibiotic resistance enters the chat.
“It’s a UK winter endurance medal”
From the new Private Eye, out now.
This>>
Obviously it’s not your fault, but also I was saying only this morning that UCL could potentially bring the sector down with this action..
Number of academic staff in UK higher education falls for the first time | HESA
"They're only popular because they're on every TV programme" complaint from right wingers.
Media appearances per MP:
LibDems: 624
Reform: 70,732
bebroadcast.co.uk/politics-who...
