Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Jim Dickinson @jimdickinson.bsky.social · 2h

It's increasingly looking like the long awaited Skills White Paper will be a barely-reheated Augar review, where fees were to be cut to £7.5k (which would be £9,692 now) only without the top up to the £9k avg for priorities. "Change" my arse. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching

Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met

www.thetimes.com

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Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 16h

Imagine being this lame

The Telegraph saying that an activist dancing dressed as a frog is a terrorist (in coward quotes), and for some reason they’ve added that the person is non-binary

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 16h

"Surge"? Oh sort yourself out BBC.
A frankly tiny number of people, in the grand scheme of things, with every right to do so coming to UK is hardly a "surge", but such language automatically frames them as a negative and is guaranteed to be used to stoke more division.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Surge in Chagos arrivals prompts row over housing costs

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

Shadow Justice Secretary has made a symbolic gesture of support for Quran burning, both in law & apparently in practice too

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Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · 1d

I see America is now at the “dissident professors fleeing the regime” stage

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 1d

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

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The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 2d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 1d

'Universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) suggests.'

Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens

University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 3d

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

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Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 2d

Any comment Wes Streeting? Or will you call the coroner a liar as well?

Sophie Molly @sophiemolly.co.uk · 2d

www.thepinknews.com/2025/10/09/n...

17-year-old trans girl's suicide over NHS wait times was preventable says coroner

A 17-year-old trans girl's death by suicide over NHS wait times could have been prevented with swift intervention, a coroner has ruled.

www.thepinknews.com

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 2d

From the time I left for uni, my mother, bless her, had to cope with ten minutes of phone-call once a week. She didn't see me for months on end.

If I want to talk to my son, 150 miles away, we can be face-to-face in seconds.

lizzybeesoraya.bsky.social @lizzybeesoraya.bsky.social · 2d

www.bbc.com/news/article...

I read the essay. There isn't a single study quoted to support the view that family life is being damaged by screentime. Also no mention of the use of technology for maintaining relationships over long distances or for people who find person interactions difficult. (1)

Kate warns too much screen time damages family life

The Princess of Wales says that smartphones and digital devices are causing an "epidemic of disconnection".

www.bbc.com

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 2d

Many congratulations to my colleagues in the Forms of Labour project team on the publication of their new monograph! 🗃️👏🎉

Brilliantly, The Experience of Work in #EarlyModern England is available open access:

www.cambridge.org/core/books/e...

news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

A woman’s place was not in the home: New book challenges assumptions about women’s work in early modern history

New research has revealed that women played a fundamental role in the development of England’s national economy before 1700. Far from being the unpaid homemakers and housewives of traditional historic...

news.exeter.ac.uk

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

"15 years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now Poland is growing twice as fast as we are," says Kemi Badenoch.

Any ideas what may have happened in the interim?

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Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 3d

It’s blame, too: blaming young people for not earning enough & for having problems with anxiety & depression. And not a thought about the social & economic conditions that might be making life tough for the young. Good luck getting this generation to vote for you, Kemi.

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Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 3d

From today’s Playbook - I find it curious that none of these political geniuses ever seem to consider how UK GDP growth might have looked in the few years post Brexit (a time of acute focus on relative economic performance) w/out immigration.

From today’s politico playbook:

Exhibit A: "The Boriswave — and we should call it that - has f*cked us. Our record on everything in the last government, prisons, immigration, economy, is sh*t," one Tory figure lamented last night. "There's naivety at the top about just how much time they need to be spending doing surgery and showing we're learning our lessons from the last government, and the whole 'we'll look like the grown-ups eventually' thing isn't going to work."

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Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 3d

Although Badenoch doesn’t mean Oxford. As ever (and we’ve seen versions of this not-quite-policy for years), it looks like it would target universities more than courses. Elitism is always ok.

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Prof. Liz Oakley-Brown @earlymodlancs.bsky.social · 3d

I agree with @eve.gd

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 3d

This makes me so angry. These people view all life as training for lifelong servitude/work. There's no room for interest, enjoyment, and culture in their bleak vision of education. At least she'll never be in power to see it through. Though Reform are probably worse.

Badenoch: Curb students taking "rip-off" degrees such as English. The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

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Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 3d

And within a minute there’s a Tory with a new group to blame for our problems. Young people with anxiety and depression: sounds like a decent electoral strategy. #r4today

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Prof. Bethan Evans @drbevans.bsky.social · 4d

This is dreadful news

Adam @abrokenbattery.bsky.social · 5d

Simon Wessely — the controversial psychiatrist once dubbed “Britain’s most hated doctor” has been appointed vice chair of Labour’s review into overdiagnosis of mental health and neurodivergence.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/controv...

Controversial professor to investigate overdiagnosis of mental health and neurodivergence for Labour

Get the benefits you're entitled to: help with personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit (UC), employment and support allowance (ESA),disability living allowance (DLA). Claims, assessments...

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk

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brocking @brrrocking.bsky.social · 4d

This interview with Lord Sewell is mental #bbcpm

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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 5d

Ah, yes. Tories' popularity is flagging, so why not ask one of Australia's most hilariously unpopular PMs for advice?

Tony Abbott's plan for undocumented migrants? "Hold them in some kind of a mothership" and invade a neighbouring country "on a quiet and moonless night". Clown.

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Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 5d

‘Good medicine is guided by the values of the patient, not those of a clinician, politician or commentator.’

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Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 5d

How gender-affirming care continues to work in Australia (as it once worked - albeit starved of resources - in the UK).

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Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 5d

Valuable perspective on the UK sociopolitical context.

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Andrew McRae @mcraeandrew.bsky.social · 5d

Quite a paragraph, methodically outlining the failings of Cass.

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