Simon Varwell

A group of people at a polling station. There is HISA and UHI branding visible on pop up banners and posters.

A roaring trade at our @uhimoray.bsky.social polling station yesterday. Lovely to chat to so many students from across the campus. Back at the desk today then Elgin again tomorrow!

We also have a referendum in the same period for our proposed revised Articles and Schedules - do a busy week for democracy at HISA!

A view, blurred by train movement, of a campus and buildings. There’s a tractor in the foreground.

An early start this morning - it’s voting week in our Student Elections, and I’m off to @uhiperth.bsky.social for a day of polling station duties. @uhiinverness.bsky.social and the moon looking nice in the morning light. Vote, early, vote… well, just once. #Lead

Yes this is so powerful. "It is a commercial transaction disguised as a social connection, providing the illusion of companionship without the ethical obligations that sustain a real community." And education at its best should be social connection and real community.

I feel compelled to reply to your post, with sympathy.

Really excited to see our candidates' manifestos launched for our 2026 Student Elections. It's been a lot of hard work to get us to this point with a such good number of candidates. Here's to a bustling campaign period! hisa.uhi.ac.uk/studentvoice... #LeadHISA

This is good, if provocative: criticising some co-creation practice as just free student labour or insufficient shift in the actual power/ownership, and at worst manipulation (makes me think of Arnstein's lowest level!). While I agree, I do sympathise because shifting that power dynamic is SO hard.

OK great thank you!

Excited to see our HISA Awards launched for 2026 nominations. Well done to colleagues for getting this out and live. Looking forward to seeing all the great things @thinkuhi.bsky.social students have to say about UHI staff. hisa.uhi.ac.uk/about/hisaaw...

hi folks, is there more information about these events, to pass on to colleagues?

Very well put.

Who knows! Of course, no course designed to be a vanity course would ever get through a half-decent internal quality process so it's an entirely moot point anyway.

Very well put. Working at a students' association where a past principal created a furore over a remark about "vanity degrees", this hits home.

What’s wrong with a ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree? As it turns out, absolutely nothing. A few readers might have seen a comment I recently put on a LinkedIn post from Times Higher Ed COO Phil Baty, who was playing anti-university bingo with Suella Braverman’s, Reform UK’s …

I was mildly incensed at the latest use of 'Mickey Mouse degree' as a derogatory term for any course that's not directly industry-tied and/or actually helps develop critical thinking skills, to the point where I wanted to write something about it.

drsamuelsaunders.wordpress.com/2026/02/18/w...

I love this. I also read a thing the other day on creative uses of phones in classrooms, but this is compelling too - effectively "forcing" creativity but not in a threatening way. I guess for me the question is how are you encouraging creative/critical thinking, more than what tool you're using.

'We believe this is the way to do it’: Exploring the City St George’s merger - HEPI City St George’s: HEPI report sets out practical insights and recommendations from a landmark university merger. A new HEPI report, ‘We believe this is the way to do it’: Exploring the City St George’...

This is an interesting account of the merger that created @citystgeorges.bsky.social. There are key insights in here but as noted there isn’t a mergers playbook, so each one will be different. Headroom - both financial and institutional capacity - is key.
www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/we-b...

A modern office building. A presumably handsteered pavement gritter has left a yin yang shape (a circle with a curvy diameter) on the pavement outside.

Nice yin yang with the gritting outside my office this morning. Perhaps a metaphor for student partnership or the collaboration inherent in our sector or something.

Was there a freedom of speech breach at Bangor? A proper 2022-style freedom of speech on campus panic plays out

And a good @davidkernohan.bsky.social piece in @wonkhe.bsky.social on this, methodically taking down the arguments the complainers had. wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of ‘no platforming’ at British universities since the 1970s, looking at more than four decades of student protest against racist and fascist...

And seeing as how this has done some numbers, anyone interested in the topic may wish to read @evansmithhist.bsky.social's very thorough and helpful book on the history of "no platform" in unis and SUs which actually gets the distinction between the two. www.routledge.com/No-Platform-...

Quite. How many people on the ground/in the commentariat get that, I'm less sure.

Indeed!

I think the media has a big part to play in this, as they often do not recognise and articulate the existence of SUs as autonomous policymakers in such debates. Universities in these sorts of situations have often had to patiently explain "we didn't make that decision, we are not the SU".

One a bunch of anarchist freethinkers who aim to persuade people of how the interface of knowledge and humanity is key to improving the world, and the other...

Just presented an update from HISA to the @thinkuhi.bsky.social Foundation. What a rich and diverse wealth of experiences its members have. Much to learn from them and follow up on. Also a thought-provoking presentation by the Green Freeport with their vision and plans for the region's future.

Remember to check the sparqs' sector job board - there is a current vacancy advertised at Edinburgh College for a Representation Assistant - www.sparqs.ac.uk/sector.php?p...

A university building in open fields. There’s a wee loch too.

Heading over the bridge to @uhiinverness.bsky.social to see the gang there and join our SVR meeting. A chilly morning for a walk but lovely light.

Presumably it was open all hours.

An external keyboard and a laptop keyboard. The former is quite dirty.

Back in the office today after a long closure, home working and of course the holidays. Lots to catch up on, and various SVR meetings this week to join and support. And yes my external keyboard needs a dust.

Obvious gap in the market here, @thinkuhi.bsky.social! "A unique and young blend of ten different regions and specialities...", the blurb almost writes itself.

This is good. I love the idea in here of "friendship interviews" - doing research into student experience in context of already knowing people. Ideally as a community all a rep/SU does is in that context, and I wonder how much we consciously plan it like that with meaningful existing connections.