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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News
@ukhenews.bsky.social
710 followers 150 following 470 posts
Watching the slow-motion suicide of UK universities evolve into its next phase: fast-motion suicide.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · Aug 15
Universities exist to produce scholarship that commercial interests would never create. That context made studying under those scholars valuable.

In the UK, universities have become proudly motivated entirely by commercial interests.

That was always going to be unsustainable.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1h
The core higher education debate between Labour, Conservatives, and Reform UK is about whether the UK HE should be reduced to 15, 7, or 2 universities, respectively.
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Reposted by UK HE News
qmucu.bsky.social
QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 1d
The VC of Leicester has been announced as the new Chair of UCEA.

He's been VC of Leicester since 2019. He's the one responsible for forcing out scholars in ways that employment tribunals showed was not permitted.

The the kind of guy UCEA values.
www.collectiveinkbooks.com/zer0-books/o... #UKHE
book cover of 'shaping for mediocrity': The cancellation of critical thinking at our universities.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 3h
Supporting universities was never going to score populist points.

But the reputation of the sector did not have to be as politically toxic as it is.

Maybe HE staff and students need to regain control over sector leadership from the VC cabal at UUK?
qmucu.bsky.social
QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 2d
*FIFTEEN THOUSAND JOBS LOST*.
If this were in a sector in which the PM could go and do a photoshoot looking like One Of The People, we’d have had a government intervention by now.
lopa.bsky.social
LopaLeach @lopa.bsky.social · 2d
Cuts equivalent to 15,000 jobs planned at UK universities – UCU www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cuts-eq...
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 13h
The core financial problem facing UK HE is not the 2025 budget shortfalls.

It's the fact that management killed the engine for future income.

Cutting costs won't solve that. It will actually make things worse.
ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 19h
Btw if UoM has not tried to increase student numbers by accepting in more applicants at the margins, that's a straight up anomaly in the sector.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 19h
That's absolutely correct. They think they can achieve 'rankings' via any number of pathways besides actually recruiting and retaining academics with international reputations. This consistently fails.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 19h
Most of your case is explained in my first caveat about the general phenomenon: a handful of unis actually do try to leverage prestige, but this relative position is mostly for historical reasons, not current incentives.

Moreover there is safety in numbers.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 20h
If academics could put their energy into one place, it should be toward decentralizing university governance.

This won't stop what's about to happen, but it can help make uni restructuring more humane and transparent, and reduce the odds of another HE boom and bust cycle.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 20h
The only real difference between a cynical immoral VC and a 'good' one is whether they feel bad about the consequences of their actions.

They both face the same overwhelming structural incentives, which create a trajectory toward financial instability and academic mediocrity.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 20h
Btw it is obviously true that these rankings do in fact draw international students. That doesn't mean they genuinely care about moving the needle (requiring sustained focus on academic research prestige) when they can simply lower entry standards for the 3rd year in a row.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 21h
Every uni claims to be concerned about QS and Shanghai.

Meanwhile what do they actually do with recruitment and retention?
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
It's a nice thought but this is unwarranted optimism. Besides the REF, leadership do not believe actual research leads to measurable increase in recruitment. Their interests in short-term metric gaming is an entirely different animal
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
The reason they can do this is that (90 percent of) unis are now seen exclusively as schools (certainly OfS agrees).

Its not that students will be disrupted, it's that they will get degrees without research academics being involved. OfS supports this.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
So such an analysis would need more variables than simply actual need to urgently cut costs. It depends on the priorities.
ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
If a VC does not see academic credibility as key to their business model, then it doesn't matter if they have options or not. They can justify their actions in good times and bad alike.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
There are about 10-15 universities in the UK that, despite having VCs as anti-academic as any, have nevertheless relied on a 'prestige' model in the tuition fees era.

In such cases, abandoning academic processes is somewhat less viable.

But should not use such cases to characterise the sector
ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
A problem UCU has to contend with is that academics have no leverage over management in UK HE.

Refusing to teach or mark is no problem for senior management, as they can bypass academic roles.

In fact, they are itching to sell degrees without any substantive academic involvement.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
A more nuanced take would be that if a uni has (bucking the trend) relied to mainly on maintain a prestige market position, and recruits students who are less transactional, the local UCU of course does have some leverage. However relatively few UCU members enjoy such circumstances.
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Reposted by UK HE News
ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
University managers used tuition fees to justify a model where the 'product' is simple information transmission, which ultimately can be delivered via an AI app.

That the market value for such 'degrees' will soon reach zero is not management's problem.

They get paid even as the sector implodes.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
University managers used tuition fees to justify a model where the 'product' is simple information transmission, which ultimately can be delivered via an AI app.

That the market value for such 'degrees' will soon reach zero is not management's problem.

They get paid even as the sector implodes.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
The idea of defunding universities on the basis of the sector's set of joke 'metrics' for success is the logical conclusion of the perverse consumer model of UK HE that UUK wanted.

Uni senior managers created this to justify their own salaries.

Now the entire sector will go down.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
But UCU and academics know that any open discussions of uni management failure may have the short-term effect of exacerbating the decline in public esteem unis now face, which is already motivating further policy destruction.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
Turning this around means changing (or simply repairing) the entire system, which in turn means drawing public and Government attention to the failure of the current UK HE model.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
A problem UCU has to contend with is that academics have no leverage over management in UK HE.

Refusing to teach or mark is no problem for senior management, as they can bypass academic roles.

In fact, they are itching to sell degrees without any substantive academic involvement.
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ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
Lol, he blocked me for the 3rd time... 😂
Reposted by UK HE News
ukhenews.bsky.social
UK HE News @ukhenews.bsky.social · 1d
Call it the 'WonkHE' effect
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