David Roberts
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davidrobertsarch.bsky.social
David Roberts
@davidrobertsarch.bsky.social
1.1K followers 570 following 85 posts
Archaeologist at Cardiff University, directs Teffont Archaeology. Views my own not my institution's.
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Reposted by David Roberts
hetanshah.bsky.social
The recent White Paper called for more specialisation in HEIs. But let’s avoid a one size fits all mindset here for research - social science, humanities & arts (SHAPE) don’t tend to have the high capital costs of some STEM disciplines & so you can have excellent departments in many institutions
It is important, too, that the call for specialisation in the white paper does not take a one-size-fits-all approach across disciplines. Humanities and social sciences tend to have few capital costs, and it is possible to maintain strong research departments across many institutions in a way that may be trickier for some stem subjects.
December 7, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by David Roberts
hetanshah.bsky.social
In the meantime, we are seeing big changes in universities. I suggest that in England the Office for Students should take on the mantle that HEFCE used to have to monitor the health of disciplines and to watch for ‘cold spots’ of provision
We are seeing cuts to provision, with individual vice-chancellors making difficult decisions in their institutional context. At scale, and cumulatively, that could have major regional or national implications. For example, whose job is it to stop a 'cold spot' developing for students wishing to study modern languages in the East Midlands? The Office for Students should therefore pick up the role once played by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in relation to monitoring the health of disciplines so that we do not accidentally close all our departments in areas of vital strategic interest, such as Russian or Chinese language training. We are already seeing departments closing in rural and coastal areas, where students are least likely to be able to travel far to study in another part of the country.
December 7, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by David Roberts
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'In a survey of almost 400 academics and professional services staff conducted as part of the study, the majority of respondents strongly disagreed with all aspects of using AI in the REF.'

Access report here, 2/3
Research: REF-AI project | Centre for Higher Education Transformations
chet.bristol.ac.uk
December 1, 2025 at 8:47 AM