Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Political Quarterly @politicalquarterly.bsky.social · 7d

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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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 12d

@kdclewin.bsky.social on Virginia Woolf’s room of her own and the role of writing spaces in the creative lives of literary icons.

A Pilgrimage to Monk’s House, Where Virginia Woolf Found a Room of Her Own

I can’t say how long it’s been there, but I have an image in my mind of the place where writers work. I picture the writer; I picture the space; I conjure an atmosphere of quiet calm in which someo…

buff.ly

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RRRMMM @strongmisgiving.bsky.social · Sep 5

I scream, you scream, we all scream for we live in the UK

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Kiron Ward @kironward.bsky.social · 11d

Man dressed as hotdog says 'We're all trying to find the guy who did this'

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 11d

“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.

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Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 16d

i have to say, as a trans journalist who has covered the "trans debate" for about a decade now, there is no daylight between how the trump administration and conservatives lie about tylenol and autism and how they've lied about youth trans care.

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 17d

you know what's great for teaching excellence, a whole sector in a spiral of austerity trying to pack in as many students as possible while employing as few staff as possible

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 17d

'Two sorts of institutions will face the most significant challenges. The first, obviously, are providers rated Bronze in 2023, or Silver-rated providers whose indicators are on a downward trajectory.' 1/2

From improvement to compliance – a significant shift in the purpose of the TEF

Former Teaching Excellence Framework chair Chris Husbands and deputy chair Janice Kay unpick the Office for Students’ proposals for the future shape of the exercise Former Teaching Excellence Framewor...

wonkhe.com

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Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 21d

All UK HE news talks of contraction. Bronze TEF providers will be defunded. Research funding is to be more "targeted". Total continuation of the Conservatives' vision for HE, under Labour.

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MAREcus 👻/ 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 21d

UK meritocracy and social mobility update from The Guardian

Bar chart with blue bars:

Privately educated people dominate the UK's most influential roles
Professions with the highest independent school attendance
Armed forces* 63%
Senior judges 62%
Cricketers, men 59%
Young power list** 54%
Diplomats 53%
House of Lords 52%
Shadow cabinet 52%
Cricketers, women 50%
Columnists 50%
FTSE 100 chairs 47%
Political commentators 47%
Permanent secretaries 47%
Whole UK population 7%

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Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.bsky.social · 21d

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose???

This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

By creating an Account with Academia.edu, you grant us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license, permission, and consent for Academia.edu to use your Member Content and your personal information (including, but not limited to, your name, voice, signature, photograph, likeness, city, institutional affiliations, citations, mentions, publications, and areas of interest) in any manner, including for the purpose of advertising, selling, or soliciting the use or purchase of Academia.edu's Services.

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Kiron Ward @kironward.bsky.social · 22d

absolutely horrific x

Ernesto Priego @ernestopriego.com · 22d

Simply astonishing. Maybe Lecturer A should not have to mark over 100 essays in a two-week window in the first place? Invest in qualified staff and reduce impossible workloads FFS www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strate...

Screenshot. King's College London page. Examples of effective practice

The following scenarios follow the above guidelines and offer insights into ways that academic staff can use AI transparently and in an assistive capacity, always ensuring human oversight and judgment remain central.
Scenario A – Scaling feedback while maintaining quality

Lecturer A is responsible for marking over 100 essays within a two-week window.

Conscious of the limitations this workload places on the depth of individual feedback, they adopt a hybrid approach using their university’s approved or supported LLM tool, Copilot.

Without ever uploading student work directly, Lecturer A composes an anonymised summary for each student, noting which marking criteria were met and the approximate percentage achieved for each. They input this summary alongside the official rubric into Copilot, prompting it to generate supportive, criterion-referenced feedback. This feedback is then carefully reviewed, adapted, and personalised before being uploaded to the marking platform.

Students are made aware of this process in advance and shown a demonstration, reinforcing transparency and trust.

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Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 26d

(the rule is that using speech to advocate for fascism is just doing good old liberal politics, the right way, but on the other hand, asserting that a fascist is a fascist is violent anti-speech and there is blood on your hands for it)

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 27d

Can we shift away from low-quality UUK leadership?

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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 27d

we can tell what that robust good research is because it reaffirms the marketing narratives of big tech corporations

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Will Tattersdill @tattersdill.bsky.social · 27d

The last REF found that 98% of UK research was either "internationally recognised", "internationally excellent", or "world-leading". If you think low-quality research is the noteworthy challenge in UK higher ed right now, you are wilfully looking in the wrong direction

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 27d

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ .

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News

Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Kiron Ward @kironward.bsky.social · 27d

congrats to my forever-comrade @kdclewin.bsky.social ✨💃

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Kiron Ward @kironward.bsky.social · 27d

excellent mail

The Writer's Room by Katie Da Cunha Lewin

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UCU University of Greenwich @ucugreenwich.bsky.social · 29d

What they said! 👇 We are stronger together (but in a 'solidarity' way, of course) - so have a coffee and a chat with colleagues & invite them to join UCU if they haven't already www.ucu.org.uk/join

UCU University of Kent branch @ucukent.bsky.social · 29d

We've had a staff briefing at Kent from our acting VC and we don't really know any further than has been reported. This is the beginning of a process that we've been told will be transparent.
There were lots of questions but no answers yet.
Talk to your colleagues. We are stronger together.

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Hugh Pumphrey @hughpumphrey.bsky.social · Sep 9

I remind readers of my plot of pay at the University of #Edinburgh in real terms, and of the blog post showing how I calculated the results: blogs.ed.ac.uk/hughpumphrey... (and its linked predecessors)

Plot showing pay at a UK university (Edinburgh) in real terms (by CPI/RPI/CPIH and by UK average weekly pay, all as a percentage of how it was in 2008. All the lines go downwards from about 2010 onwards.

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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · Sep 6

Here's something a bit different. We've been reporting from Edinburgh to try to get to the bottom of a mystery in London. Princes Street is the Scottish capital's most famous shopping street — and it's gaining the *exact same* tatty gift shops as London. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...

The Edinburgh connection to London's tax-evading gift shops

Plus: A chat with the Transport for London boss running the tube strike negotiations — and how the "hardworking businessman" putting up flags in south London tried to scam an insurer.

www.londoncentric.media

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Katie da Cunha Lewin @kdclewin.bsky.social · Sep 4

First book spot in the wild (Foyles at St Pancras) 😱

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DB Maggi @dbmaggi.bsky.social · Sep 2

"A boycott is in place until further notice."

Utrecht University becomes first Western academic institution to announce an academic *boycott* of Israel.

This is the result of strategic, ethical work by students & university staff.

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · Sep 1

“I don’t want asylum seekers to live on my street” is genuinely a wild thing to say as a notionally progressive politician

Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · Sep 1

Oh nothing, just the actual Prime Minister telling people they’re entirely correct to drive asylum seekers out of their communities

From BBC news website:

I 'completely get' concern over asylum hotels - Starmer

Starmer is asked how he would feel if a hotel housing asylum seekers was at the end of his street.
"I completely get it," Starmer says, adding: "Local people by and large do not want these hotels in their towns, in their place, and nor do I. I'm completely at one with them on that."
Starmer says he understands why people want the hotels closed and he wants that too "as quickly as possible".
Asked to put a date on it, Starmer reiterates his commitment to do so by the end of this Parliament.
When it's put to him that is four years away, he says he would like to bring that date forward, but does not commit to another date.

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Andrew Fisher @fisherandrew79.bsky.social · Sep 1

If correctly written:

"Ministers are to announce a tightening of migration rules as the government hands over the political agenda to Nigel Farage"

Both immoral and politically inept. Well done Yvette Cooper.

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