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robwitts.bsky.social
rob wittsmas
@robwitts.bsky.social
510 followers 1.1K following 1K posts
a guy who hangs around universities and opera houses
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Reposted by rob wittsmas
davidandress.bsky.social
Once again, entirely the fault of politicians who, having restored income-per-student to its 1970s level in real terms, then, for more than a decade, refused to increase that with inflation, until its value had been eroded by more than half, & unis were making a significant loss on every UK student.
robwitts.bsky.social rob wittsmas @robwitts.bsky.social · 7h
Apropos of nothing: it is astonishingly clear how badly the marketisation of UK universities has failed. The architects of the fee system have enabled a system where half of institutions are no longer financially viable www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-provider...
Office for Students infographic on University finances November 2025 update What does our latest modelling show? £438m reduction in tuition fee income across the sector compared with forecasts 45% of providers could report a deficit in 2025-26 UK undergraduate recruitment has increased but is below the sector forecast UK recruitment varies significantly across the sector by different types of provider International recruitment has increased but is below the sector forecast
December 9, 2025 at 12:42 PM
robwitts.bsky.social
I am so proud that @chase-dtp.bsky.social was able to support the incredible work by PGR journal editors with colleagues and students at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza this year. It's a remarkable piece of scholarly solidarity with people working in the direst possible circumstances. Please share widely
chasebejournal.bsky.social Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 3d
The first pieces for our issue on Pedagogical Resilience, Challenges and Adaptive Strategies, created by students & faculty of the English Department at Al-Aqsa University, are now live!

www.briefencounters-journal.co.uk/BE/issue/12/...

#EducationMatters #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #Palestine #فلسطين
Decorative.
December 9, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
warwickmansell.bsky.social
New: two schools which fought off privatisation get “wonderful” early Christmas present – as donor clears their debts
educationuncovered.co.uk/news/two-sch...
Heartwarming story sees anonymous donor appear to come up with a six-figure sum for these two schools in Brighton and Hove.
Education Uncovered | News| Two schools which fought off privatisation get “wonderful” early Christmas present – as donor clears their debts
Anonymous donor appears to have come up with a six-figure gift, to ease schools' money worries.
educationuncovered.co.uk
December 9, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
stuarthallfdn.bsky.social
Dr Ben Carrington delivers the inaugural ASA Culture Section Stuart Hall Award Lecture: “‘The university is a critical institution, or it is nothing’ - Stuart Hall, The Elephants’ Graveyard and the Sociology of Race.”

📅 Wed 10 Dec
🕕 10am (Pacific) / 6pm (UK)

Register:
emory.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
"The university is a critical institution, or it is nothing" - Stuart Hall, The Elephants' Graveyard and the Sociology of Race The ASA Culture Section Stuart Hall Award Lecture given by Professor Ben Carrington, University of Southern California Moderated by Professor Bin Xu, Emory University Wednesday December 10th, 2025 10AM (Pacific Time) Drawing upon the work and ideas of Stuart Hall, in this talk I offer a critique of recent arguments within the sociology of race that have attempted to downplay the continuing significance of racism. Against this conservative shift, I argue for a renewed form of imaginative sociology as a way to save the sociology of race and ethnicity from the elephants' graveyard of redundant subdisciplines. Reorientating sociology towards a more critical project is the only way for the discipline, and universities more generally, to remain relevant and capable of challenging the present reactionary moment.
December 5, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
mgearsolidarity.bsky.social
Waking up at about 10am, sleepily picking up my phone as I drink my bean to cup automated flat white and checking WhatsApp to see what I will be writing about today in my job as a columnist.

We're going after the wheelchairs! Finally!
December 9, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
thatdocphoenix.com
Radio 4 and BBC and Channel 4 News and all the papers completely skewing the Peggie story so your average person will have no idea what actually happened. Doesn’t this make you furious? Integrity in journalism is dead, not just in the US
December 9, 2025 at 9:11 AM
robwitts.bsky.social
Apropos of nothing: it is astonishingly clear how badly the marketisation of UK universities has failed. The architects of the fee system have enabled a system where half of institutions are no longer financially viable www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-provider...
Office for Students infographic on University finances November 2025 update What does our latest modelling show? £438m reduction in tuition fee income across the sector compared with forecasts 45% of providers could report a deficit in 2025-26 UK undergraduate recruitment has increased but is below the sector forecast UK recruitment varies significantly across the sector by different types of provider International recruitment has increased but is below the sector forecast
December 9, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
jessothomson.co.uk
The proposals to limit Article 3 are absolutely terrifying. I struggle to think of something that has come out of any UK government which has concerned me more. This must be resisted absolutely.
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d
Rights groups warn against UK plans to weaken torture protections in ECHR
Rights groups warn against UK plans to weaken torture protections in ECHR
Exclusive: Ministers face pushback over potential changes to asylum seekers’ rights before Council of Europe meeting Human rights groups have warned UK ministers against weakening protections against torture or other mistreatment for asylum seekers before a crucial European summit this week on how to respond to migration. David Lammy, the justice secretary, is expected to help lead arguments at the Council of Europe meeting on Wednesday on how the European convention on human rights (ECHR) could be reinterpreted to limit the scope of rights under article 3, which prohibits torture and “inhuman or degrading treatment”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 6:44 AM
robwitts.bsky.social
but soft, what light from yonder window breaks?
it is the boys and they are back in town
knitted nativity figures on a windowsill
December 7, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
shaunvids.bsky.social
racists roll their eyes at this, they're not happy with any message short of 'send them all back' & they don't trust labour trying to pander to them. people who aren't racist recognise this as divisive patronising nonsense. labour's approval rating is 12% and i'm surprised it is that high
jonkingh.bsky.social Jonathan Kingham @jonkingh.bsky.social · 2d
This is so disgusting.
December 7, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
jerryn13.bsky.social
One of the little joys of social media are these Marshall McLuhan in "Annie Hall" moments.
December 6, 2025 at 10:00 PM
robwitts.bsky.social
Annual PSA that to watch the full version of Muppet Christmas Carol as Brian Henson intended on Disney, you have to go into the Extras menu
December 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
animalarchaeology.com
Horrific and disgusting. British citizens - this is being done in your name, especially those of you who continue to defend the horrors being proposed and perpetuated by Labour.

When will it be enough for you all?
scotnational.bsky.social The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 4d
The Home Office hopes the deportation of UK-born children will be seamless', a minister has said
Labour minister wants 'seamless' deportation of UK-born children
www.thenational.scot
December 6, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
greenparty.org.uk
As Israel have been allowed to compete in Eurovision 2026, the UK must follow in the footsteps of Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands and boycott the competition.

The world's largest live music event cannot be used to whitewash Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.
BOYCOTT EUROVISION With photo of a destroyed car and buildings in Gaza Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
December 5, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
vickythelabrat.bsky.social
"The Life and Loves of a Sea Devil" came to me at 2am, I apologise.
Tom Baker in The Lives and Loves of a She Devil, with a crudely photoshopped Sea Devil from Doctor Who.
December 5, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
paperghost.bsky.social
i saw that post vanish in real time, like tears in the rain and so on
ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social Sir Almaviva @ilcontealmaviva.bsky.social · 4d
Predictably the post has now been deleted, it was this.
Toby Perkins MP @tobyperkinsmp.bsky.social Follow I think our NHS only survives if its a National Health Service not an International Health Service, and our NHS is dear to me, and I think it is progressive. In order to preserve that, and for many other reasons, I do believe in protecting our borders. 5 Dec 2025, 00:08
December 5, 2025 at 8:26 AM
robwitts.bsky.social
Great day to have a Zoom board meeting and discover that Zoom is down because something called Cloudflare isn't working. It used to board meetings would be scuppered by problems with the trains, it's great to be living in the future
December 5, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
robinince.bsky.social
I think it is important to know WI and Girl Guides have not voluntarily moved into excluding trans girls and women they have been pushed into by bigot zealots and the law being an ass
robinince.bsky.social Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 5d
I wonder how many cigars JK Rowling smokes as she mumbles “I love it when a plan comes together” as she giggles, picturing all the children she has made feel sad and more alone today
Jk Rowling on yacht with cigar
December 4, 2025 at 10:00 PM
robwitts.bsky.social
me when multiple scholars of eugenics have done extensive work debunking my position on social media
December 4, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
leewilliamdesigns.bsky.social
I was reading an interesting post on FB about the GG and WI situation. Essentially both have been secretly fighting legal action from anti trans groups for a little while and they can’t afford to continue, according to the post. Well funded TERFs are forcing their hand.
G Sabini-Roberts • Follow ... 1h • Q I need to drop a post here today to expand on the goings on yesterday. Yes, the decisions by Girlguiding and the Women's Institute are awful, but yesterday, as the dust settled and more information leaked out, a different picture started to form. It's important we all understand that new picture so then the righteous anger we all feel can be directed where it actually needs to go. We now know that both GG and WI have been fighting legal battles behind the scenes from attacks by the small but very well funded and vicious anti-trans lobby for some time. Neither organisation has talked publicly about this. I wonder if, at this point, they can't. In both cases, they have now reached a David Vs Goliath moment whereby if they continued to try and fight those legal battles, they as organisations would cease to exist. They would have to put everything into those fights. Fights that they may even win, eventually, because the law on this is still untested and we are still awaiting the outcome of the initial legal challenges against the EHRC back in April. But it would be a long and very expensive fight. You can't win a fight if the fight itself would take more than you have. Regardless of right or wrong. Both these women's organisations do a lot of essential work providing community and support for thousands of women and girls. They have both, yesterday, been forced to bend to the legal challenges they are facing because to continue would mean they could no longer support anyone. And they are, both, working hard to try and find 'alternative' ways to support trans women and girls as a way to keep doing their work in a way that isn't going to kill them in legal fees to fight a vicious and entirely unnecessary attack. And, like I explained yesterday, actually enforcing their new rulings is all kinds of problematic and they don't know how they will do it yet. The way they have gone about communicating those decisions and managing the fallout could have been done infinitely better, true. There are huge lessons to be learned on all of that. But again, they can only learn those lessons if they can stay alive long enough. So if you're writing to your MP, or going to a protest, or discussing this with others and explaining why this is all happening, it's not the organisations that we should be directing our anger at. Or the majority of it anyway. It's the anti-trans lobby. It's she who must not be named. It's the people who, for some still unknown reason, believe passionately that excluding trans women and girls from women's spaces - where they have happily been an unremarkable part of the community for decades - is more important than keeping organisations that support women alive. They believe cis women are safer alone, isolated, with no support network than they are by sharing a village hall with a trans woman. So what do we do now? We lead with that message. If we withdraw from those spaces we make sure that it is known why so we contribute to the evidence gathering showing that the decision to exclude trans women and girls is not a 'proportionate' means to ensuring all girls get the support they need. Because by going so, the membership leaves in droves, leaders step down, groups close. Excluding trans women and girls means that everyone loses. We need that evidence. I'll pop some stuff in the comments to things you can contribute to as I come across it. We need to spread this message. Because yesterday, 'Girlguiding/WI is bad' was an easy headline. Today we know it's far more nuanced. The more people who understand that the less we get drawn into a fighting each other and can collectively focus on fighting that small, angry but very rich minority who have decided that their hate is the only way forward. And sometimes their actions do a very good job of making the rest of us fight each other before recognising it's them who are the real problem. I'm certain that if those legal challenges were withdrawn, both organisations would revert back to being trans inclusive immediately. So let's work to make that happen.
December 4, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
flyingrodent.bsky.social
For non-Brits: nobody can afford to get sued by revved-up wingnuts and crackpots armed with JK Rowling’s money, and nobody wants to be the next organisation protested by the far right and monstered into the heart of the earth by the world’s most poisonous media outlets. So they are folding.
December 2, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
rotster.bsky.social
Wes Streeting is a prick.

#ThatIsAll
December 4, 2025 at 8:07 AM
robwitts.bsky.social
this seems... not great for our democratic process
December 4, 2025 at 9:03 AM
robwitts.bsky.social
I particularly enjoyed the both-sidesing in which Luigi Manzeoni is cited as a leftist influencer (??) on a par with Andrew Tate, clearly an amazing mind at work
profdanhicks.bsky.social Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · 7d
Caught up with first of this year’s Reith Lectures. The bloke giving them claims the Fabian Society “revolutionised” Britain, and doesn’t even pronounce Gramsci properly 🙃🤷
December 3, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by rob wittsmas
andraswf.bsky.social
why is that every single one of these cunts look like this
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5d
GB News now broadcasting calls to remove the ethnic minority MPs from parliament
December 3, 2025 at 7:47 PM