Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Richard Budd

@ddubdrahcir.bsky.social

1.8K followers 1.7K following 680 posts

He/Him. Lecturer in Higher Education, Lancaster University, UK HE, in particular social justice, lived experience (esp. students), decolonising, policy, geographies, organisational cultures. I think out loud on here: https://ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com

ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · Nov 18

Thanks to new followers and a renewed hi to old friends. In case you're wondering who I am and what I'm into, here's a mini introduction/reminder.

I'm omnivorous when it comes to #highereducation, having taught/read/dabbled/supervised across a range of areas but I'm really interested in...

1/7
🧵

1 21

Reposted by Richard Budd

AzumahCarol @azumahcarol.bsky.social · Aug 9

BERA
@BERANews
Upcoming event

Leadership in a Time of Monsters: Responding to Contemporary Challenges
@azumahcarol

7 Oct 2025

Register here: bera.ac.uk/event/leader...

Leadership in a Time of Monsters: Responding to Contemporary Challenges

We live in an era when the old-world order has passed but a new world order is yet to fully take shape: evocatively described by Antonio Gramsci as a time of monsters. Marked by profound global...

bera.ac.uk

3 5

Reposted by Richard Budd

Prof Damien Page @profdamienpage.bsky.social · 14d

The problem with many university strategies is that they’re completely divorced from reality. Launched with fanfare, press releases and high quality videos, the people of the university mostly roll their eyes because there is no acknowledgement of the problems that need to be solved. 1/

2 5 11

Reposted by Richard Budd

Johnny Rich @johnnyrich.com · 14d

Do you work in #HEAccess and want to know how to present more effectively in your outreach? I'm delighted to be running a one-day training session with NEON and kindly hosted by Kings College London.
Sign up here.
www.educationopportunities.co.uk/events/neon-...

NEON Access Academy Training - Engaging your audience: presentation skills for outreach - NEON

In Person Event – Kings College London. How do you grab the attention of a group of teens at 9am on a Monday morning? How can you change the course of a life through what you say? Whether public speak...

www.educationopportunities.co.uk

1 1

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 14d

Attended a great symposium on #decolonising today, and it's striking how equity/inclusion work in UK HE feels so precarious. In spite of the election of a (slightly?) more progressive government, budget cuts and redundancies coupled with far right resurgence make for worrying times.

Thoughts?

1 1 4

Reposted by Richard Budd

Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference @socmedhe.bsky.social · 15d

This year, #socmedhe25 will be coming to Lancaster University, on 16th December! The call for papers/session proposals is now open at socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/c... - please submit abstracts by *24th October*
Hope you can join us - see you in December!

Call for session proposals

This year, we are delighted to host the 11th international Social Media for Learning in Higher Education conference at Lancaster University, co-chaired by Dr Katy Jordan and Dr Kathy Chandler. The …

socmedhe25.wordpress.com

8 7

Reposted by Richard Budd

Prof. Pam Birtill @diervilla.bsky.social · 16d

Very important questions here, but the comments section is gold.

Wonkhe @wonkhe.bsky.social · 16d

NEW on Wonkhe: As universities rely increasingly on international fees, Daniel Sokol asks whether financial pressure is blinding institutions to a growing trade in deception buff.ly/YVffQG5

2 4

Reposted by Richard Budd

Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 16d

'pressures on academic freedom must also be seen as part of a broader crisis of universities'

Mégret, F./Ramanujam, N. (2024): Academic Freedom in a Plural World: Global Critical Perspectives. Central European University Press. (open access)

#HigherEd
#AcademicFreedom

www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

Academic Freedom in a Plural World

The notion of academic freedom dates back to the creation of universities and has long been understood to be central to their vocation. This freedom has come under attack by different actors throughou...

www.aup.nl

1 2

Reposted by Richard Budd

Dr Anna Mariguddi @drannamariguddi.bsky.social · 17d

🎵 Calling all primary school generalist teachers and primary music subject leaders - have your say: Primary Music Education and Digital Resources survey.

🔗Complete the survey here: app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edgehill/u...

2 2 1

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 19d

Absolutely; I'm sorry you guys went through that, it was egregious and transparently wrong, even from the outside. The idea that management (and economics) is some kind of tick-box, text book technical approach that leads to unfathomable wealth and doesn't need interrogating is a major issue.

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 19d

Student funding (among other things in HE) needs a radical overhaul. A good proportion of the participants in the survey appear to recognise this: over 40% think that it should be state supported.

Worth noting that most undergraduate now have never known a time when UK HE was free/subsidised.
3/3

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 19d

If you factor in how the labour market is bad, unfair, and underpaying, particularly relative to rising living costs AND that placing all of the burden of cost of study - albeit through state loans - on learners doesn't make sense, then OF COURSE it's not "Value for Money".
2/3

1 1

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 19d

It's Groundhog Day as 'students don't think uni is Value for Money' starts doing the rounds again. There's so little critical reflection on what this data does (and doesn't) show. It equates HE with salaries and only salaries, for one, which is absurdly narrow....

1/3
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

Two thirds of students in England and Wales say university is poor value for money | YouGov

Eight in ten nevertheless say they are satisfied with their course

yougov.co.uk

1 1 4

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 19d

This is someone who studied geography/environment, then did a PhD in community development, and yet claims (based on visiting Stanford 'years ago') that UK students lack 'drive' and bemoans the intellectual exploration of HE. 🤷

Also bizarre the article then trundles into a rankings discussion...

1 1

Reposted by Richard Budd

Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 19d

"There exist holes within a blanket of malaise enveloping the sector that give oxygen to positive declarations of university life that confound and partially arrest a torrent of disconsolation."

Open Access: doi.org/10.1080/0307...

Whilst concerns about rising managerialism have reverberated around the higher education sector for decades, there is evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated such trends and deepened cracks within the system. Whilst it is relatively easy for such discussions to become polarised – where ‘managers’ are pitched against ‘staff’ – the reality is far more complex. In this paper we analyse and interpret findings from a survey of 780 academic and professional services staff who have left, or are considering leaving, UK higher education. Drawing on thematic coding of qualitative responses that indicate interdependencies between respondents’ views on positive and negative aspects of working in the sector we reveal fault lines within popular accounts of the erosion of academic and professional identities and the demonisation of university leaders. The discussion explores ‘knotted’ tensions associated with identity, purpose and change, that provide insights for leadership and management policy, practice and development that might help stem the flow of staff from the sector and create a greater sense of engagement amongst those who remain. We conclude with calls for a more nuanced critique that acknowledges the interdependencies between different aspects of university life. It is this unravelling of the effects of relational difference that we argue is necessary for navigating the current crisis within global higher education.

1 1 8

Reposted by Richard Budd

Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 19d

'The purpose of higher education is not simply to hand out degrees in exchange for fees but to cultivate knowledge and skill, to educate. If universities fail to address the growing industry of deception, they risk betraying that purpose.'

#HigherEd
#UKHE

Jim Dickinson @jimdickinson.bsky.social · 19d

NEW on Wonkhe: As universities rely increasingly on international fees, Daniel Sokol asks whether financial pressure is blinding institutions to a growing trade in deception buff.ly/YVffQG5

1 3

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 19d

No, we don't. Miss Hilary Mantel at times like this...

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 23d

So many conversations with people whose communities are being im-/explicitly targeted by the UK-based flag campaign etc. It's creating real cultures of fear and changes around (shrinking) where people feel safe.

If this is not when the government takes a principled stand against racism, then when?

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 27d

VC's tenure represented a 'tumultuous period marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture'. Hmm, feels familiar.

I have a little sympathy with uni leaders, but they've often played a poor policy hand very badly.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Julie Bishop vows to stay on as ANU chancellor after vice-chancellor resigns amid leadership crisis

Genevieve Bell’s resignation follows tumultuous period marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture

www.theguardian.com

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 28d

Solidarity will colleagues north of the border. I have a strong suspicion that we'll be there soon, too.

✊

UCU Scotland @ucuscotland.bsky.social · Sep 8

Pickets across @edinburghuni.bsky.social campus this morning opposing £140million cuts and up to 1,800 jobs going, including by compulsory redundancies #SaveHE #NoCompulsoryRedundancies #StopTheCuts

1 7

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 29d

One of my @edreslancaster.bsky.social supervisees is looking at how professional services staff view university communications in times of crisis. Obviously very timely.

Please share and/or have a look (and participate) if you're eligible etc.
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Qualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience Management

The most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com

3 1

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · 29d

Linking student fees with TEF is simply unworkable for the very clear reasons that Paul Ashwin lays out here.

It begs the question as to whether OfS either doesn't understand what it's doing and what HE looks like right now, or if it's posturing for future policy moves.

Paul Ashwin @paulashwin.bsky.social · 29d

A @wonkhe.bsky.social blog on the OfS idea to link tuition fees to TEF results. It's unworkable as it was when it was first muted 10 years ago. It suggests that the OfS doesn't understand how the TEF works or the impact on the sector of making such ill-founded suggestions wonkhe.com/blogs/back-t...

Back to the future for the TEF? Back to school for OfS?

OfS is again flirting with the idea of linking tuition fees to TEF outcomes – a proposal that, as Paul Ashwin argues, is as unworkable now as it was a decade ago. OfS is again flirting with the idea o...

wonkhe.com

2 7

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · Sep 5

While Farage's tax affairs are decried by some in the press but nothing happens. Rayner's axing could be seen as a reassertion of probity in public service, but I doubt it.

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · Sep 5

Absolute facepalm moment. If you have university leaders who don't actually understand what teaching is and how it works, how on earth are universities supposed to work?!

Part of the issue is that uni leaders haven't been resistant to terrible policy, and stuf like this.

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · Sep 5

Lol. It's well known that TEF doesn't actually capture teaching quality, so penalising courses that don't perform well on it is like a dog chasing its own tail.

Also, when the university sector is in freefall, bashing it with this stick is astonishingly tin eared.

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · Sep 4

The OfS is making the university sector into a laughing stock. 'Oh is your course failing? What a pity - we'll cut its funding so it falls apart. That'll make it work better'. Genuinely beginning to think their 'work' is some form of performance art. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

University fees could be linked to teaching standards, regulator says

England's universities regulator says some institutions might have to charge less than others.

www.bbc.co.uk

Richard Budd @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social · Sep 5

I wonder if someone can/will do some analysis on the aftermath of UK HE's 'mini' implosion. It's almost unfathomably big and can't be captured beyond the stats of budgets and jobs.

The wider losses around the arts/humanities, changed working practices, equity for students and staff, are colossal.

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · Sep 5

The scale of loss in UK Higher Education really is astonishing. Most of you can't see: only the actual redundancies (of which there are tens of thousands) really show up in the news. The real destruction goes far deeper. (1/2)

13 20