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Jennie @unabridgedopinions.com · 5h

I know we are a couple of weeks into term, but I went back to @jimdickinson.bsky.social ‘s recent wonkhe.com/blogs/for-st... because I think its message is even more important now our students are here. We have to keep asking what is being normalised, where we need to be calling attention.

That matters because normalisation is the enemy of change. If students "learn to love their limitations," policymakers have little incentive to do better. The lesson has always been that sometimes the most powerful intervention isn't a tidy solution or a polished set of recommendations, but the act of refusing to let the intolerable become invisible.

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Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 7h

VACANCY: KTP Associate – Peat Management and Restoration Project Officer based at @uhiinverness.bsky.social

(Desirable: Experience of 4 x 4 driving off-road)

www.nwh.uhi.ac.uk/en/staff/vac...

Staff - Vacancies - KTP Associate - Peat Management and Restoration Project Officer

www.nwh.uhi.ac.uk

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Wonkhe @wonkhe.bsky.social · 20h

NEW on Wonkhe: What looks like efficiency in UK higher education often masks systemic injustice. Jim Dickinson explores how policies around reassessment quietly entrench inequality buff.ly/89mzFbe

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Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 1d

Mental ill health is frequently caused or exacerbated by entrenched workplace cultures of overwork and bullying.

Until all UK workplaces are forced to take their statutory workplace mental health & safety duties seriously, people with mental ill health will be unable to return to or remain in work.

Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Specialist employment advisers will be based in GP surgeries and mental health services as part of government plans to get people back to work.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden speaks to #BBCBreakfast about the government’s plan to tackle long-term sickness

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John Lechner @johnlechner.bsky.social · 2d

Here's a little cartoon for #WorldOctopusDay 🐙

Ink and watercolor cartoon showing an octopus peeking out of a coconut shell underwater. The octopus says: "I've been working on a novel, but I'm afraid to show anyone. Maybe I'll put one page out there." A fish swims up to look at the page and says, "That stinks!" The octopus disappears inside the shell and says, "Everyone's a critic."

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Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · 3d

"The single most important behaviour, design or regulation for creating streets conducive to walking and cycling, was physical separation between the modes"

We've got a new study out, learning from a broad mixture of street users, planners and designers

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Highlights
For marginalised street users mode separation is the key to human-scale movement.
Streets conducive to walking and cycling have functional, safe and accessible design.
Professionals must approach street design, regulation and user behaviour holistically.
Combinations of influencing factors persuade people to either use or avoid a street.
There are no easy fixes to the public realm that will work for all non-drivers.

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German at Portsmouth @germanatportsmouth.bsky.social · 2d

8 October 1985: stamps issued in the GDR depicting bridges in East Berlin

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Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 2d

"Rebuilding in a way that is just & inclusive will be a slow process that starts with sharing our memories & perceptions of the city & the way we lived within it ... We have to learn to see the city in the ways that others see it, drawing maps and inviting others to draw with us ..." #deepmapping

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 3d

"The City and the City and the City"
by Ayham Dalal

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

Read more: placesjournal.org/article/mapping-homs-syria-rebuilding-after-war/

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 3d

With yet another university hosted event closed to 'non academics' (aka those not employed by a university)* I'm just going to leave this piece by @drhelenkara.bsky.social and myself here blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...

* yes I know it's utter nonsense and academics/researchers exist outside unis

Institutional affiliation should not be a requirement for doing research - Impact of Social Sciences

Universities espouse a universalist approach to creating research-based knowledge. Helen Kara & Petra Boynton argue, from the outside these claims are hollow.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 3d

NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses

Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is ‘pandering’ to Reform UK

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses

Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is ‘pandering’ to Reform UK

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Matt Pope @mattpope.bsky.social · 3d

Awful news from Wales, the St Fagan's Museum has been broken into and prehistoric goldwork has been taken. Its painful to think what objects might now be at risk. Thoughts with the museum team who must be devastated, all speed to the police and a curse on the crooks.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

St Fagans: Bronze Age gold jewellery stolen from musuem

Police are investigating a burglary at St Fagans museum in the early hours of Monday morning.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Michael Burchert @michaelburchert.bsky.social · 4d

See how teeny tiny the estimated HYPED recarbonation of concrete would be in 2050. (Lower right corner.)
This is used as THE argument vs bio based "temporary" storage to keep the status quo biz alive.
From:
Decarbonizing the cement and concrete industry, Griffiths et al.
doi.org/10.1016/j.rs...

$Cement/concrete production, ccus, end-use differentiated for contribution to net zero goals. Durable CO2 sinks are only a very small fraction compared to the ongoing marketing of these products$

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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 3d

The govt should be investing in NHS staff, not putting doctors at the start of their careers on the scrap heap. These newly qualified doctors have run up massive debts to get to that point, & the govt is then saying, sorry, no jobs for you.

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Sophie Vénétitay @svenetitay.bsky.social · 3d

Les politiques d'E.Macron ont conduit à ce désastre. La question n’est plus de savoir dans combien de temps l’École s’en relèvera mais si elle pourra s’en relever. Ce n'est pas juste un enjeu éducatif, c'est aussi un enjeu démocratique. Quelle cohésion sociale avec une École dans cet état ? 1/3

Le Monde @lemonde.fr · 4d

L’ampleur du mal-être des enseignants français confirmé par une enquête internationale

L’enquête Talis, menée par l’OCDE sur un échantillon de 280 000 enseignants et publiée mardi, est la plus grande étude consacrée à la profession. Les résultats de l’édition 2024 de ce bilan quinquennal témoignent des difficultés des professeurs français, dont le niveau de satisfaction quant à leurs conditions d’exercice a enregistré la plus forte baisse.

www.lemonde.fr

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Michael Burchert @michaelburchert.bsky.social · Jan 22

This MEGA transformation should be more popular.
In fact this should be a new category.
RAPIDLY RENEWABLE RETROFIT BRUTALISM
#straw
#timber
#bamboo
#Bauwende
This feels so 2024, let's do it.
Atelier Schmidt: www.atelierschmidt.ch/complemedis-...

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Fi Daisy G @fidaisyg.bsky.social · 4d

Unexpected bonus of a #NeverTooLate PhD; GP lined me up with a full set of going to Uni jabs - which I had not been eligible for whilst working as a Lecturer!

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 4d

So many HE colleagues at risk of redundancy are struggling with limited support and understanding.

Universities may believe they are putting packages in place but the realities of so much risk, change and threat are way more significant than is currently appreciated.

Political Quarterly @politicalquarterly.bsky.social · 8d

There have likely been 10,000 or more university redundancies in the academic year 2024-25.

@gsoh31.bsky.social, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes, argues that the Higher Education system as we know it is coming to an end.

Where now for Britain’s Universities?

UK higher education now faces a very bleak future, retreating in the face of little public sympathy and limited political interest.

politicalquarterly.org.uk

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 4d

I'd actually forgotten how extraordinary it is that when I won the leadership - I wasn't interviewed as it was too close to our party conference interviewed.

And then refused a second time!

Part of the antidote to all of this is creating our own media platforms.

Hey @boldpolitics.bsky.social 👋🏼

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 4d

BBC accused of 'extraordinary' anti-Green bias after party say the Laura Kuenssberg Show scrapped a promised interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Sunday.

Green sources say the show also refused to interview Polanski after he was elected as leader last month

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

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LTHEchat @lthechat.bsky.social · 4d

Join us for this week’s #LTHEchat which will explore Embedding mental wellbeing with @zoe-a-z.bsky.social on Wednesday, 8-9pm GMT/ BST. Read the blog post at: lthechat.com/2025/10/03/l...

#wellbeing #mentalhealthmatters #wellbeinginHE

LTHEChat 338 Embedding Mental Wellbeing

Join us on Bluesky with guest Professor Zoë Allman @zoe-a-z.bsky.social on Wednesday 8th October 2025 at 20:00 BST Mental health and wellbeing are important topics that are increasingly discussed i…

lthechat.com

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 4d

Many aspects of academia normalise abusive practices.

Like putting people through stressful situations, encouraging pile ons and put downs, all to be mitigated by alcohol.

When we ask 'who does this bring in? who does it leave out? who might it help? who might it harm?' so much becomes clear.

Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 4d

Academia turns its eye toward itself

(Source: The art of anthropology: Essays and diagrams / Alfred Gell 1999, edited by Eric Hirsch)

The British-style (anthropology) seminar is a peculiar institution with rules of its own. A regular weekly (term-time) event, the 'ideal' seminar usually brings together some 20 or more participants, around a table, under the chairmanship of an experienced teacher and seminar leader. The chairman introduces, and generally gives moral support to, the speaker, while the audience undertake the role of critics, and may, indeed, ask extremely hostile-sounding questions. In a good seminar, there are usually three or four expert seminar practitioners, who can be relied on to give the speaker something of a grilling. The questioning goes on for an hour, allowing time for the more junior members of the seminar to intervene as well and acquire the interrogatory skills of their seniors. However, the seminar is not as unfriendly an occasion as it sometimes seems to visitors unused to its conventions. There is an implicit rule that really severe questioning is reserved for speakers who have shown, in the course of their papers, either that they possess the dialectical skill to handle even the most destructive questioning, or, on rare occasions, that they are so bumptious and thick-skulled that they are unlikely to comprehend the devastating nature of the questioning they receive.

The mild, tentative, paper from an inexperienced speaker will not be dealt with harshly. Meanwhile, the skilled dialectician relishes the cut and thrust of debate, and exploits the opportunity afforded by hostile questioning to produce additional extemporized displays of wit, turning the questions back on the questioners and making fun of their positions. As the question period draws to a close, the skilled speaker elaborates the main points of the paper in a series of improvisations on themes suggested by the audience. Adrenalin flows copiously through the speaker's bloodstream by this time - now the hard questioning has been overcome - and unusual freedom of expression may be attained. The audience are enjoying themselves too. But the chairman must close the seminar once the time allotted for its duration is over, since, like Cinderella's ball, seminar bonhomie has a fixed temporal compass, which cannot exceed two hours, even by a second. At this point, the chairman thanks the speaker, conducts him to a place of refreshment, where adrenalin is tempered with alcohol, and happy, animated conversations ensue. The point is that the seminar is a social occasion, a game, an exchange, an ordeal, an initiation. To one of a naturally social disposition, to hear a paper in a seminar is intrinsically much more interesting than to read the same paper in cold blood, because one's social proclivities are excited as well as one's strictly academic or intellectual interests. I confess to being a social animal of this type. Consequently, it is much more exciting for me to write a paper for presentation at a seminar than it is to write for an imaginary reader, as one does when writing a book. Books do not give anything like the feedback that one gets from seminars.

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Pint of Science UK @pintofscience.uk · 4d

We're starting to organise #pint26 (18-20 May 2026) and are looking for volunteers in: Cambridge, Coventry, Leicester, Southampton and Worcester!

Please express your interest here and join the team!
forms.gle/HiSnvd14R1qZ...

Group of six Pint of Science volunteers at an event.

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Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 4d

"The Ministry of Defence spends around £1m a year sending children to private schools in north Wales because 'state schools teach some or all lessons in the Welsh language' "

What complete and utter stupidity - and an insult to us Welsh

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Defence ministry spends millions on private schools to avoid Welsh

Military personnel receive a private education allowance to avoid lessons in Welsh in state schools.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Wonkhe @wonkhe.bsky.social · 5d

Last week on Wonkhe: This week’s card from Hugh Jones’ postbag find us all at sea!

Higher education postcard: Warsash Maritime School

This week’s card from Hugh Jones’ postbag find us all at sea! This week’s card from Hugh Jones’ postbag find us all at sea!

buff.ly

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Peter Goodyear @petergoodyear.bsky.social · 4d

New open access paper by Simon Knight in AER. Lots to reflect upon.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Am I an Education Researcher? - The Australian Educational Researcher

How individual researchers and communities of scholars situate themselves with respect to each other has a range of consequences, relating to issues from identity and norms of practices, to how one is benchmarked or positioned to apply for jobs or funding. Education, perhaps more than other disciplines, has a longstanding attention to tensions in this situating. This paper provides a reflection from an individual researcher, relating their experience to the literature, and collated and original analysis of data relating to education research in Australia, to provide an instrumental case study. It does this through framing of disciplines in relation to areas of knowledge, organisational units, and communities of researchers. The paper provides an overview of the discipline, including some key organisational features and updating of data commonly used in benchmarking exercises (while recognising the significant limitations of such data). The paper is intended to support researchers in their own reflection, and perhaps provoke (senior) researchers in considering challenges we face.

link.springer.com

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Peter Welsh @peterwelsh68.bsky.social · 5d

I know one cure for
BBC prasinophobia
(fear of green)

It's a Question Time invite for @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Thursday night.

What's the point of Fiona even
having a preshow Green room if there's never any Greens in it?

#bbcqt
#Shrewsbury

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