“I am left wondering if we will ever see ANU Council and university leaders take responsibility and face accountability for what has happened.”
@nteunion.bsky.social says time for #ANU Council to go.
region.com.au/anus-125m-bu...
Ffs... you can't fucking complain of having no cash and then do this
“The feeling among the Mexican community here is that they used us and took advantage of the dreams of capable people, of outstanding students, and simply flaunted their own names,”
QMUL went into a dodgy partnership. And 38 students are paying the price. Please have a read #UKHE
"Universities collectively paid at least £440,000 to the firm since 2022, funnelling public money into monitoring their own students."
And of course @qmul.bsky.social is one of the 12. No #UKHE horror story without QMUL... www.ukfactcheck.com/article/244/...
Fortunately for @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social, most UK universities are currently shedding jobs, thousands between them each year, and the sector has been run off the cliff into financial oblivion by gov. and managers, soon there won't be much speech to protect of any kind.
qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...
Seriously, turn on that Spanish translator. It's absolutely abysmal what these students have been put through the past few years, despite SO MANY efforts of staff & students to get them better supported, all, mysteriously, rebuffed by the Principal's Office.
and now 29 of them might never graduate
Genuinely, journalists from the Guardian & the BBC saying it's too small, they don't have time for this, while these international partnerships are behind so much of the research in the sector, and thse students are all put in incredibly precarious positions. This horror case encapsulates a rot.
Why is this not getting people's attention? 39 international researchers, their futures shattered and years of work possibly voided because university managers cared more about their cvs than about ensuring due diligence.
That encapsulates the entire shitshow that is #UKHE, dramatically so.
Oh, we have a lot of words. Just none that are suitable for public broadcasting.
So many staff members and students have spent the past few years trying to get this partnership sorted for fear something like this would happen, all rebuffed by @qmul.bsky.social & the Office for Students
These brilliant students now pulled together a webpage with a timeline and explanation of what they have been trying to do over the years to get some firmer protections once they realised they had been promised very different things from what ray got: phdmexuk.netlify.app #UKHE (petition coming)
All the official channels failed these students. Makes you wonder how many more disasters like this are currently taking place or about to take place.
Or have taken place, but since the visa rules are so strict, they are made to disappear back to their home country. #UKHE
Students on the partnership had complaints upheld and received thousands of pounds of compensation, but not a change to the situation of exploitation created.
Students' and Trade Unions tried to move management without success.
The Office for Students was notified and did nothing. #UKHE
The story of these 38 Mexicans who are facing having to leave the country and end their degree is urgent, but it captures the broader failures of #UKHE to support & protect the international researchers the sector relies on for funding & research.
So. Many. People. raised the alarmbell about this
All the official channels failed these students. Makes you wonder how many more disasters like this are currently taking place or about to take place.
Or have taken place, but since the visa rules are so strict, they are made to disappear back to their home country. #UKHE
Students on the partnership had complaints upheld and received thousands of pounds of compensation, but not a change to the situation of exploitation created.
Students' and Trade Unions tried to move management without success.
The Office for Students was notified and did nothing. #UKHE
The story of these 38 Mexicans who are facing having to leave the country and end their degree is urgent, but it captures the broader failures of #UKHE to support & protect the international researchers the sector relies on for funding & research.
So. Many. People. raised the alarmbell about this
These Mexican explain their situation in this handy leaflet: qmucu.org/wp-content/u...
@timeshighered.bsky.social @theguardian.com @privateeyenews.bsky.social @financialtimes.com @branwenjeffreys.bsky.social @amyborrett.ft.com
Good casework meeting today @qmucu.bsky.social where we took a bit of time to reflect on the trends coming up. Makes such a difference to see colleagues watching out for each other and bringing unions to life
The man behind Olly Robbins is Dave Penman, General Secretary of the FDA, the trade union representing senior civil servants.
The message here? Join a union and have your union rep with you when you need them!
Jose argues that his situation exposes structural gaps in the university’s scholarship agreements rather than isolated failures. He says there appears to be no clear framework governing how funding bodies assess academic performance when universities have already conducted formal reviews. Nor, he argues, is there transparency in how disputes between universities and external sponsors are handled when students are caught in the middle. SBBS, he says, informed him that it does not maintain direct communication channels with IPN. Meanwhile, he says IPN indicated that information about his performance had been relayed by the university, though he has not been shown the specific basis for that claim.
Student newspaper covering the shameful treatment of our Mexican post-graduate students & how @qmul.bsky.social is failing them through a questionable partnership that does not seem to have adequate oversight.
Angel’s case. Sadly, more to come
Full article: www.theprintqmul.co.uk/post/bullied...
“The feeling among the Mexican community here is that they used us and took advantage of the dreams of capable people, of outstanding students, and simply flaunted their own names,”
QMUL went into a dodgy partnership. And 38 students are paying the price. Please have a read #UKHE
Jose argues that his situation exposes structural gaps in the university’s scholarship agreements rather than isolated failures. He says there appears to be no clear framework governing how funding bodies assess academic performance when universities have already conducted formal reviews. Nor, he argues, is there transparency in how disputes between universities and external sponsors are handled when students are caught in the middle. SBBS, he says, informed him that it does not maintain direct communication channels with IPN. Meanwhile, he says IPN indicated that information about his performance had been relayed by the university, though he has not been shown the specific basis for that claim.
Student newspaper covering the shameful treatment of our Mexican post-graduate students & how @qmul.bsky.social is failing them through a questionable partnership that does not seem to have adequate oversight.
Angel’s case. Sadly, more to come
Full article: www.theprintqmul.co.uk/post/bullied...
If London South Bank is doing this from financial distress then it should have notified OfS that there’s a serious danger of bankruptcy so students can be protected.
If it’s not, then this is simple asset-sweating cartoon capitalist evil and their leaders need to be sacked. Like mine.
How did it take this long for this very basic step to be implemented though? Some common humanity would have had this in place as part of the announcement of this mishap, no?
It's the Principal's KPI (drawn up with NOUS), with uptake of the staff survey as the *only* metric for staff relations.
So the Senior Executive Team ONLY hears about the uptake. NOTHING about the content.
Loads of money well spent. Very clear signaling of how much they value staff's input.
How many of us in #UKHE are hearing this exact same script these months? They don't even have the decency to treat staff with dignity.
Also: the slashing of jobs didn't solve anything in 2022, neither did making the portfolio bland. Stop making the problem worse, managers.
15 minutes; no questions; tells you enough about how staff is valued at universities in the UK.
He said: "By shifting the vast majority of university funding into the hands of the aggregate decisions of 17-year-olds, the English system of choice has become an enormous machine for finding out who has the best marketing department, with some world-leading research sprinkled in certain places."
Quite the quote from the John Blake, the former director of fair access at the Office for Students
www.thetimes.com/article/1cb6...
Went to check on campus: the beautiful playground that had been specially built mere months before the closure (AMAZING planning, such wise investing) standing derelict. The little sign on the doorbell still reading 'please ring for the nursery'. The building going derelict.