Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · 6d

@edgeuk.bsky.social's What's in a Word? is BACK: scrutinising purposes and politics our choices of language serve.

Highly presciently given their prominence in Starmers' address this week, Jennifer Coupland considers: 'Apprenticeships', the state, and massification: www.edge.co.uk/research/wha...

1 1

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · 9d

New from me:

Tertiary pathways in practice: Institutions’ views of partnerships between HE and FE in Scotland and England

Collaboration in competitive systems driven by resource scarcity rather than alignment to regional/national agendas. Full report:

www.edge.co.uk/research/pro...

Tertiary pathways in practice

www.edge.co.uk

2

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · 28d

Launched a personal website recently: so while I have space/ideas, thoughts on Greenwich-Kent merger news from yesterday:
1. how much is this a rerun of older federal universities?
2. what's happened to the poly/uni divide here?
3. nobody mentioned Crosland

joshsdpatel.wixsite.com/joshpatel/po...

The Greenwich-Kent merger: some (historical) thoughts

I recently launched this site and, now that I have the space and the blog to jot down longer thoughts, I thought I might as well make some unsolicited comments on the big news in universityland this w...

joshsdpatel.wixsite.com

1 2 5

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

JVET @jvetjournal.bsky.social · Sep 8

JVET ECR + Edge ERN Joint Session: Bridging research and policy: tips for early careers

Registration: lnkd.in/dRVP4JMa
Date & Time: 11:00 am (UK time), 25 September 2025
Duration: 90 mins

Geng Wang, Josh Patel, The EDGE Foundation, Paulina Bravo Contreras

hashtag#JVET hashtag#JVETECR

1

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Mike Dickison @adzebill.bsky.social · Aug 31

Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

7 660 1.3K

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · Sep 1

Very exciting news!! My first book, 'Universities and the Purpose of Higher Education Expansion and Development in Post-War Britain' has appeared on the Routledge website! 📖

Currently anticipating a January 2026 launch!

www.routledge.com/Universities...

This thought-provoking book addresses the persistent anxieties surrounding the purpose and direction of higher education, offering a nuanced historical perspective on its transformation. Read more on the link included.

2 4

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · Aug 8

The University of Warwick has paid a lot of money, I'm guessing, for their internet banner ads on the Guardian and elsewhere.

But they can't spell "curiosity". This isn't a US-UK variant. They just, genuinely, have a massive spelling error in their banner ads.

A banner advert for the University of Warwick, which says "Beyond ignores curiousity". This is a spelling error.

110 290 1K

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · May 19

Opinion: “A career is meant to be something you grow into – layered with experience, trust and time – but in academia these days, you’re uprooted before anything can truly take hold.”

A mid-career academic scientist writes

#highered #AcademicSky

I’m tired of the academic road to nowhere – but it’s too late to exit

For one mid-career academic scientist, precarity is becoming unbearable. But they are too experienced for entry-level industry jobs and not experienced enough for senior ones. They’ve stayed too long,...

www.timeshighereducation.com

2 6

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · May 12

On universities the white paper only reduces the graduate visa from two years to 18 months (which is a win for the DfE).

The bigger thing universities will be worrying about is this little timebomb.

21 68 240

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 12

Delighted to be speaking on my research with @edgeuk.bsky.social on 'Four Nations’ approaches to tertiary collaboration and tertiary journeys' at @qaa.ac.uk Scotland's event: 'Understanding and Supporting Student Transitions in Scotland', in Dundee, 29 May:

www.qaa.ac.uk/scotland/new...

2 3

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · May 10

‘Baroness Smith, the universities minister, said many institutions were failing to rein in spending despite demanding financial support from the government.’

Which institutions are these? We’ve seen absolute carnage in redundancies across the sector, so I’m curious which she is thinking of

1 37 170

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 6

Also does anyone know where Augar's doctorate in history (Wikipedia/various bios claims he has) was awarded from?

2 1

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

Maybe this shows a way forward: restore faith in universal human potential and collaborative productivity. The state as investor, the obligation to deliver on that investment, collective freedoms, and better metrics of what value means. ??? 🤷🏽‍♂️ would recommend tho big thumbs up from me

1 8

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

Most relevant to my work: these are Hayek’s bastards. The gulf between them and 'eu-neoliberals' (ugh) like Lionel Robbins is huge. Never really known what to make of Robbins’ phrasing of this between ‘Nazi or a Brahmin’ and I left it out post-thesis, but clear distinction; he wouldn’t suffer them.

From my thesis, 'Imagining the Role of the Student in Society: ideas of British higher education policy and pedagogy, 1957-1972', 71.

Robbins also permitted himself what he recognised was an unscientific but egalitarian assumption in the name of fairness which permitted him to advocate the expansion of ‘pastoral power’. There was, he recognised, no way to scientifically prove that utility or satisfaction obtained by one individual from any given resource was of equal satisfaction to another individual. In an example he would frequently deploy, if members of another ‘civilisation’ told ‘us […] that members of his caste were capable of experiencing ten times as much satisfaction from given incomes as members of an inferior caste, we could not refute him […] in any objective sense’. He clarified elsewhere: ‘A Nazi or a Brahmin will choose one method of counting, a western liberal another’. But Robbins permitted the assumption on the grounds of moral necessity that the good society should assume that all individuals did possess equal faculties for the realisation of satisfaction.

1 4

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

Neoliberal is probably an unhelpful category for alt-right; QS invents 'ethno-economy' (10-11). But what do we do? I wasn't sure: this is an anti-capitalist struggle, but why has this ethno-economy become so attractive for the disenfranchised?

1 7

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

Wildly this explanation brings me some reassurance?? From this wave of cruelty being entirely incomprehensible there is now a route towards, not necessarily empathising with a good nazi, than at least dialogue. A lot of the scientism stuff feels like angry noise looking for epistemic certainty.

1 7

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

3) Redistribution/ justice a smokescreen: doomed mission to involve nonwhite-migrant (and gender/trans issues? mentioned but not developed) populations into a society they are intrinsically unable to contribute to, damming the ethno-elect. Interesting relationship in Britain with declinism (109).

1 7

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

2) The welfare state is recast as an elite tool: a mechanism to purchase votes using taxpayer money under the guise of redistribution (a kind of ‘folk version of Public Choice theory’, 136). Green politics as the post-1989 evolution of the reds (75).

1 3 8

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

1) At its core: the new fascism sustains a key faith in the unequal distribution of faculties and fitness to participate in productive society. Cultural arguments are the softest expression; racial arguments the most explicit.

1 3 12

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · May 3

Just finished'Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right' new from @quinnslobodian.com and it’s very good. Finally bringing some clarity to the assault of contradictions of the rise of global fascism. Some takeaways from me:

3 10 35

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Edge Foundation @edgeuk.bsky.social · Apr 24

🤝 Employer-led education—what does real employer involvement look like? This month in the second part of our new series, What’s in a Word? we investigate what role employers can really play. @joshpatel.bsky.social www.edge.co.uk/research/wha...

‘Employer-led’: VIPs or B-listers?

www.edge.co.uk

1

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Edge Foundation @edgeuk.bsky.social · Mar 27

📢 Edge launch a new monthly series today - "What’s in a Word?" We explore the language of education—how words shape policy, practice, and perception. It all gets underway with an introduction and our first entry… www.edge.co.uk/research/wha...

What's in a Word?

www.edge.co.uk

1 1 3

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Adriana Guatame-García @adrianaguatame.bsky.social · Mar 6

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.”
Absurd we still need to go through this
🧪👩‍🔬

There have been people less than helpful in my journey here. I wanted to acknowledge those too, bc I know I am not unique in this experience.
No thank you to the physics study assoc that made me sing songs about how women couldn't study physics without sleeping with the professor, the day I stepped into university life. No thank you to the 5th year physics student that decided to assign me a stripper name within the first minute of meeting me in the physics coffee corner in my first year. No thank you to the technician that was responsible for onboarding me on the use of the cluster in my third year who raised his eyebrows and asked me if that meant I was some sort of computer girl. No thank you to the senior researcher that sent me utterly inappropriate texts after a conference, then proceeded to apologise months later by telling me they had not been meant for me anyway so no hard feelings remain hopefully And no thank you to him for attending every conference I've been to since. No thank you to the people who told me that it was surprising that I was doing a PhD since I was a girl. No thank you to the man who mistook me for a coffee lady at a conference, and after having to correct him two times that I did not work there, responded with you should consider it. No thank you to the researcher that asked me what I was wearing underneath my outfit during a conference. No thank you to the physicist who declared to a room full of other physicists that biologists don't know how to design an experiment. No thank you to the people who have called me scary instead of strong and intimidating instead of intelligent.
And finally, no thank you to the exec board of the TU Delft, whose knee-jerk reaction to being held up a mirror about the social safety at the university, was to sue the party holding up the mirror instead of looking at the problems they highlighted.
... You have made me feel like I do not belong in science & I cannot forgive you for that.

120 2.4K 6.6K

Dr. Josh Patel (he/him) @joshpatel.bsky.social · Mar 6

Hello education/history Bluesky: does anyone know of any recent material on the Manpower Services Commission (1974-1988) in the UK? Aware of material from the 90s by Patrick Ainley and Brendan Evans: but aware there might be more recent material my survey of literature didn't capture. Thanks!!

Reposted by Dr. Josh Patel (he/him)

Mike Ratcliffe @mike-rat.bsky.social · Feb 25

When people talk of challenger institutions of HE, they rarely talk of the for-profit business management providers in converted office blocks.
Martin Williams is right that DfE & OfS should check whether this was intended consequence of market de-regulation.
www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/02/25/f...

Freckles - or something else? - HEPI

The government must critically assess whether the post-2012 higher education market serves the public interest or prioritizes private profit.

www.hepi.ac.uk

2 6