£14,115,906 spent on consultants (2019-2026)
FOURTEEN MILLION. Goldsmiths spent *14 MILLION* on consultants.
That's just 1 uni. @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social, please do as ABC did in Australia & put a spotlight on just how much money gets funneled from public institutions to for-profit firms & the harm it causes abc.net.au/news/2026-03... #UKHE
Most recent updates (in the past fortnight, approximately; last updated 31 March 2026) Cambridge (!!) is restructuring and making redundancies Goldsmiths is facing yet another round of cuts The University for the Creative Arts has opened another Voluntary Severance Scheme
Right. Cambridge (!!) is on The List. Will people care now?
And, no, a hedge fund manager slapping their name on a very specific pet project doesn't solve the structural problem of failure of funding in #UKHE.
qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...
🤩 Actual forty-seven minute documentary about the harm done to universities in Australia!! iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2603...
FORTY-SEVEN MINUTE DEEP-DIVE! 🤩
Is the tide turning? Are people finally taking this seriously? Can we also have one about #UKHE, @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social? #SaveHE
QMUL used to be number 1 in 2017-18.
We're at 31 now. Tumbling 17 places in this last year alone.
You'd think that that would embarrassing for the Principal who keeps going to fancy parties to accept a 'Social Mobility Champion' glass trophy, wouldn't you? #UKHE
Look, mum, we're on a massive powerpoint slide!!
It's grim though. It's so grim.
here's that webpage: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo... #UKHE #uksg2026
SO GOOD to see Australia ask questions about the harm done by the external consultants. It's some much money that's being leaked out of the public sector while making all decision making ever more obscure and turning each uni bland.
May #UKHE join this inquiry NOW rather than 2 years down the line
The Albanese government has vowed to implement a new set of university governance principles that would force universities to properly disclose any consultancy spending, its purpose and value.
Like music to my ears!!!
Finally. FINALLY. #UKHE has too long been a year or two behind Australia in the marketisation. May @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social be wise and learn from abroad rather than wait until we have to experience the worst ourselves here in the UK.
![Federal Education Minister Jason Clare was also stunned by Professor Cortese's findings.
"It is shocking, but what is also shocking is that you can't break it down, and we should be able to know. We invest a lot of money in our universities," Mr Clare told Four Corners.
"[Universities] do great things. But if you're spending some of that money on consultants, then the Australian people do have a right to know who are the consultants, what's the work they're doing, and what's the justification for it?" he said.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:u45kqxhsal7x7tzmjmvaddfi/bafkreihw7bhkkt5wzlmqab5euxdszqjqrbckaskhjadyngyocfnw3czjkq)
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare was also stunned by Professor Cortese's findings. "It is shocking, but what is also shocking is that you can't break it down, and we should be able to know. We invest a lot of money in our universities," Mr Clare told Four Corners. "[Universities] do great things. But if you're spending some of that money on consultants, then the Australian people do have a right to know who are the consultants, what's the work they're doing, and what's the justification for it?" he said.
We can guarantee that you too would be interested to hear just how much money and accountability is being absorbed by those for-profit consultancies, @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social
Or do you simply not want to know so you can claim Plausible Deniability on #UKHE?
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...
Can we have one of these inquiries here, please? #UKHE is also leading a stupid amount of money from the public institutions to these leechy private businesses. And yes, the lack of accountability is a key part of the issue about that.
So healthy. Governance in the sector really top notch.
We need the funding reform, but if it happens without a governance reform #UKHE isn't saved.
Can someone in the political/media clout please say that government has to intervene on the immanent collapse of so many universities?
Asking for the #UKHE sector and the local, regional, and national economies dependent on us.
A very easy step the Secretary of State could make is to shut down the use of consultancies in #UKHE. It leaks SO MUCH money out of the (public) sector to for-profit firms, is creating a truly dangerous monoculture, and is so seemingly obscure none outside the sector will be pissed off.
NOUS is wrecking destruction all over the #UKHE sector. The list of clients isn’t pretty, seeing how they’re the ones with the most dire stories in a sector full of dire stories: Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Plymouth, Edinburgh, QMUL.
Who else has got NOUS in? Cc @timeshighered.bsky.social
Would be good to know who else. We know Plymouth got decimated by them. Cardiff suffered them. Derby is going through it. Coventry same.
Not exactly the most promising track record…
Know of any others who got Nous in in #UKHE?
As an #HE educator, if you wonder, “when will COVID start to end?”, it is 2038: that’s when the first cohort enters uni whose development was not impacted by locked down nurseries, schools, and unis. #UKHE
What is needed now is not managed messaging but honesty.”
Relieved to see politicians recognise & call out the terrible managerial practices so many have been gaslit in accepting. No, behind-closed-doors tickbox conversations aren’t consultation. No, evidence-free decisions aren’t acceptable. #UKHE
Oof. #UKHE
They even had a little Organigram. Those Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 & Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 very obviously apply to info gathering and offer. #UKHE
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64771f...
So while having university posts administrative, neither individual seems to be notable at all in area of #UKHE policy other than through the slop funnel of #HEPI.
Information provision during your interaction with prospective students 4.4 Consumer protection law applies at each of the three main stages of interaction between an HE provider and prospective student: (a) Stage 1: research and application stage – when the prospective student considers options for what and where to study, and then makes an application. (b) Stage 2: offer stage – when the prospective student decides whether to accept an offer of a place with an HE provider. (c) Stage3:enrolmentstage–whenthestudentenrolswiththeHE provider. 4.5 This is set out below in Figure 1, which focuses on how the CPRs and CCRs apply to the UCAS application route, and in Figure 2, which indicates the route when applying direct to the HE provider. In Figures 1 and 2 ‘PCI’ refers to ‘pre-contract information’.
The Office for Students only upholds their ideological drive to turn students into “consumers” when it comes to hurting staff, it seems? Not when it requires protecting students?
In theory they should, as application stage is key
CMA on #UKHE: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64771f...
Where on earth is the Office for Students. These courses have been advertised, applicants have been engaging with the advertised material.
The Consumer Protection Law as applied to #UKHE (🤢) declares that universities have to be accurate in their information from the first contact with applicants.
www.hepi.ac.uk/about-us/who...
Hillman was the architect of the current failing #UKHE financial structure, which he is both immensely proud of (it earned him an OBE) and does not want to be blamed for the current crisis of his, Willets, & Gove's making.
I feel like its important to understand who runs #HEPI, the #Tory #UKHE slop engine, that #TimesHE gave a free advertisement to yesterday.
www.hepi.ac.uk/about-us/who...
Here's some info about NOUS at QMUL.
They're the ones who set up the Principal's Strategy 2030 when he first arrived. And now their 'framework' is used to diminish our academic calibre and hollow out 'university' from the inside. #UKHE
Defend degrees, defend jobs These cuts wipe out courses, programmes, shared knowledge, teaching and research excellence and a whole learning community, which has been decades in the making Talk to your tutors, lecturers, and professors Demand the Schools, Faculties, and University end these cuts Join upcoming meetings, letters, and petitions
These cuts and how they have been implemented undo what it means to do university. The academic community should own the courses, not some external consultant.
Students & Staff need to have a meaningful participation for a university to be a university. #SaveHE #UKHE
Nous: QMUL paid at least £435,000 to the Australian consultancy firm NOUS NOUS has a track record of cutting programmes Programme cuts lead to job losses and department closures Staff & students kept in the dark QMUL acknowledged inaccuracies Modules cut regardless Student choice completely diminished
NOUS has a track record of cutting programmes which lead to cutting jobs & departments.
Their Cookie Cutter University model means the only differentiation is the (superficial) prestige institutions have from simply being old. The strength of academic research&education is gone. #UKHE #SaveHE
295 modules cut in the School of the Arts Race and Racism in Performance Performing Illness and Disability Performance and Visual Culture in South Asia Queer Borderlands Iraqi Literature in English / English Translation Transgender Perspectives and Interventions Refugee Writing Indian Cinema Slavery, Colonialism and Postcolonialism Language and Ethnicity Multilingualism and Bilingualism Cinema and Disability Intersectional Feminist Writing Reading South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh Plus cuts to Arabic, Bengali, Catalan, French, German, Japanese Mandarin Chinese and Russian! Management is cutting The research-led modules that make QMUL QMUL
Management paid nearly a quarter million to the external consultancy NOUS, whose generic 'framework' is now used to turn QMUL into a Cookie Cutter University.
These modules make QMUL. They bring students in contact with the cutting-edge research & widen the scope of academia. #UKHE
