More on the state of British academia.

Such cruelty and brutalisation effected through these processes that are dismantling disciplines and universities in the face of governmental indifference

I'm so sorry. This is awful. Solidarity to you and your colleagues.

My uni’s marketing department: we won’t advertise your course. It’s not a ‘hero’ course.
Management: you haven’t recruited. We’re shutting you down.

My uni's head of digital' - previously IT specialist in banking his entire career: 'the future of HE is tech- and process-led, not academic led'.
Managers/BoG: 'hook it into my veins'.
What we're actually *for* other than sharing profits between senior managers and PA Consulting remains unexamined

Just out of an emergency @uculincolnbranch.bsky.social meeting - large turnout despite many members being on leave reflects deep concern about latest voluntary severance scheme, announced on Monday, and what may follow. Widely expressed lack of confidence in senior management.

NHS restructure is greatest danger to Streeting’s effort to revive service Health secretary still confident of success but critics say scrapping of NHS England has been ‘a total car crash’

Huge numbers of colleagues will be leaving the NHS this week following restructuring of ICBs; same is happening in NHS England. Staff are distracted, demoralised and exhausted by the whole thing. How well the NHS operates involves more than the frontline.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

A photographer friend of mine is starting a visual and literary project around dementia, memory and time - if anyone would like to join in, it's here:

www.becomingunmapped.com

Cuba’s Maternity Wards Navigate Total Energy Collapse As a nationwide fuel blockade cripples Cuba`s power grid, Havana’s maternity hospitals fight to keep neonatal wards operational amid rolling blackouts.

This makes me so angry
streamlinefeed.co.ke/news/cubas-m...

GenAI – an enabler, a disrupter: how should universities respond? - CDBU Words by Professor Leo McCann and Professor Simon Sweeney, University of York The sudden availability and widespread usage of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI...

“GenAI systems throw out ‘best guess mashups’, generating articles that bear some similarity to the work that academics publish, but are simply unreal. Meanwhile, the real publications written by actual people very much do exist, and have never been easier to find”

March 20, 1916 Ota Benga dies by suicide after being kept in Bronx Zoo as exotic exhibit. [Colorized photograph of Ota Benga holding a chimpanzee and wrapped in a long loincloth, on display in the Ape House of the Bronx Zoo, 1906]

#OTD in 1916 Ota Benga died by suicide.

He was an Indigenous Mbuti man. The Mbuti people are hunter-gatherers who live in the Congo rainforest. He was sold in the slave market and arrived in the US, where he was treated like an animal.

First bit of work/industrial sociology that really stuck with me was Harvey Ramsay's cycles of control. I can imagine that we're about to get a load of seemingly good natured extra holidays ("in recognition of a tough year") and WFH directives in HE if this crisis carries on.

A senior HE director today: ‘in future HE will be technology and process-led, not academic-led’.

So what, exactly, is the point of universities beyond them being a cash machine for senior managers?

Diary – Dementia Doesn’t Wait! Monday 16th March 2026 If you would rather listen to my blog than read, you can click the link below When we think of life’s biggest killers, most will think of heart disease, cancer, strokes…Demen…

Monday Blog
You are welcome to read, share or just listen

When we think of life’s biggest killers, most will think of heart disease, cancer, strokes…Dementia rarely comes to mind.

Find out more by clicking the link below

dementiaalzheimers.home.blog/2026/03/16/d...

Keeping it Wild Trainees - Job page - London Wildlife Trust

The job market is tough for young people atm, but the London Wildlife Trust has PAID traineeships available for those looking to get into nature recovery and conservation

Deadline is this Sunday 22nd March, so be quick

careers.wildlondon.org.uk/job/c00274af...

Thing is, given that we're going to see a wave of failed PhD vivas downstream of this, how long do we give it before the "academia must adjust to the new realities" crowd start to argue that the nature of the PhD viva itself needs to change?

Background is a light blue square with a light pink border. At the top is the Disability Culture Lab logo in teal. Below the logo is a square picture of Dr. KáLyn “Kay” Coghill, a Black femme with multi-colored glasses, a tan shirt, and short blonde and pink hair sitting in front of a gold and white bookshelf filled with different books of multiple colors and sizes. Below the photo is the headline of their Essence magazine op-ed: “I’ve Battled Racist Online Trolls For Years. AI Is A Whole Different Beast.” Underneath the headline, the quote from Dr. Coghill in teal text reads, “Where online trolls have long perpetuated racist narratives through words, now they can do the same via images churned out in seconds and spread online even faster. But despite its name, AI can’t shake the fact that it has human DNA. AI mimics what real people, not robots, program it to do and the data it does it with.” Below the quote reads, "Dr. KáLyn “Kay” Coghill (they/them), Disability Rising Fellow" in all caps. At the bottom is teal text that says, “Read Now: linktr.ee/DisabilityCultureLab.”

Disability Rising Fellow and Black feminist scholar @drkalyncoghill.blacksky.team recently wrote an op-ed for ESSENCE where they speak to the ways AI amplifies racist attacks against Black nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant people. Read now: linktr.ee/DisabilityCultureLab.

What do you say to a child who asks 'where is [person's name]?' after they've died?
That's my question in my latest book, out tomorrow 'Where are you, Eddie?'
@walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

Carers UK response to Baroness Louise Casey's speech at the Nuffield Trust Summit | Carers UK

The average person has a 50:50 chance of providing care by the age of 50.

Unpaid care touches every family, and we all have a stake in building a system that works. Today Baroness Casey delivered a powerful message that social care needs urgent reform.

https://carersuk.pulse.ly/12xnvfnueb

Grateful for reposts and shares so that we can reach as many parents and carers as possible.

Morning everyone. We are looking for carers/ parents who are artists or academics in arts, social sciences or humanities to take part in our survey. More info here: lncn.ac/care . Reposts and shares appreciated.

Day 9. Redundancies now in a HE labour market like this mean many of the thousands of people being made redundant right now might not get back into the sector at all. I'm striking because I care.

I remember writing about the Work Programme 10+ years ago. Same as it ever was.

UK employers less likely to recruit disadvantaged ethnic minority graduates Ethnic minority graduates from a low socio-economic background are 45% less likely to be offered entry-level professional roles compared to more advantaged White applicants, finds a new report led by ...

roles, even when they have similar qualifications and apply in the same numbers.

This isn’t about aspiration or talent. It’s about discrimination in the workplace. Higher education has widened access. But if the labour market doesn’t change, we risk creating access without mobility.

Golden retriever sitting on grass with a red bandana, illuminated by sunlight. Background includes bare trees and a brick building.

Paws for Carers is back!🐶

Help us celebrate #NationalLoveYourPetDay and walk 60 miles in 30 days this April with your pup to support unpaid carers across the UK.

Enter now and get your free dog bandana after your first donation.

Find out more https://carersuk.pulse.ly/t101mepliv

UoL colleagues: please complete the Staff Experience Survey (open until the 27th).

If you have views on One University values, workplace culture or trust in leadership, this is your chance to say how things really feel. The more staff who respond, the harder the results are to ignore.

#Reform

Lee Anderson MP, welfare spokesperson for Reform UK showed his contempt of disabled people when commenting about a protest in Newcastle

He said, The Great Unwashed, I’d wager half of them are on PIP

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/reform%...

I've argued for a long time that demonstrable commitment to inclusive and accessible teaching and assessment should be part of academic promotions processes, to help focus the minds of some academic colleagues. Because currently there is no carrot and also no stick

A1 Listening and being listened to, learning from others and sharing what I know, respect within and across professional boundaries, embodying an ethic of care, knowing that we made a difference #LTHEchat

AI is hitting UK harder than other big economies, study finds Britain is losing more jobs than it creates owing to artificial intelligence, Morgan Stanley research suggests

Two things can be true - AI is currently not living up to its promise and AI is losing this country jobs. It's a side effect of the hype, our fragile economy and employers' eagerness to cut labour costs when remotely possible.