#universities

27 posts · Last used 11h

You'll see a lot of media coverage of strikes by university academic staff in the next weeks; so, whatever the immediate/local causes of industrial action, the underlying (albeit linked) factors are these:

  1. the Govt. & political class no longer really value a strong university sector & treat it merely as a unprofitable personal service;

  2. Universities' senior management have lost sight of the fact that their academic staff are vital to their institutions success.

#universities #politics

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British weapons manufacturer BAE Systems worked with UK universities to counter campus protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, according to emails and internal documents. #Gaza #BAE #Universities #GazaProtests #UKPolitics Weapons Firm Gave Advice to UK Universities on Countering Gaza Protests | Novara Media
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The commitment of Universities UK to offer *all* students work experience during their degree programme by 2035 (half by 2030), seems like a good response to the concern among employers that graduates lack work experience.... But hold on, recent data shows that the majority of students already have to work while doing their degree to cover their costs.... so, this then starts to look a bit more like free labour under the guise of employability? #universities #workers #politics h/t FT
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Plagiarism has been in the news (due to the case of Jason Arday).... so its worth noting: Much academic work is mostly 'inter-textual', it builds on & responds to previous academic work (published in the area of research). So, apparent plagiarism is often just referencing failure! Missing or incomplete references end up looking like unattributed use. This is why when I taught undergraduates I was very hard on bad referencing; my view is you *cannot* over reference. #universities #plagiarism
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There are many ways the university system is failing, but one (almost mandated by Govt. it sometimes seems) is to make 'widening participation' harder while proclaiming it as a policy aim. Many parents expect to & do help finance students years at university, topping up student loans to pay for food, rent & other living expenses; for poorer families in society this isn't just hard, its impossible - once agin limiting their children's educational opportunities. #universities #politics h/t FT
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"‘Full cooperation’: How Tel Aviv University serves Israel’s security state From Shin Bet recruitment to military training programs, Israel’s defense establishment is becoming increasingly embedded in academic life." https://www.972mag.com/tel-aviv-university-security-state/ #israel #militarism #TelAvivUniversity #IDF #palestine #students #universities
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An investigation reveals how Canadian universities coordinated to spy on and violently remove their students’ anti-genocide encampments. Then, they denied the existence of records, delayed their release and deleted chats. #universities #Canada #genocide #censorship #zionism
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Update. The Trump admin is demanding a list of Jewish faculty, staff, and students at #UPenn. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/upenn-trump-jews-list Trump's #EEOC asked for the list last July. Penn refused, and the EEOC sued the university in November. What's new is that several groups just filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the lawsuit on the side of the university -- the American Association of University Professors (#AAUP, national and UPenn chapters), the American Academy of Jewish Research, the UPenn Jewish Law Students Association, the UPenn Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty. From #StevenWeitzman, UPenn prof of religious studies and past member of its antisemitism taskforce: “Part of what sets off alarm bells for people like me is a history of people using Jewish lists against Jews. The Nazi campaign against Jews depended on institutions like universities handing over information about their Jewish members to the authorities.” #Academia #AcademicMastodon #Antisemitism #Trump #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
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Update. Yesterday #UPenn filed a 163-page brief in federal court condemning the #Trump admin demand for a list of #Jews at the institution as “extraordinary and unconstitutional". https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/us/university-of-pennsylvania-trump-jewish-staff.html "The #EEOC insists that Penn produce this information without the consent — and indeed, over the objections — of the employees impacted while entirely disregarding the frightening and well-documented history of governmental entities that undertook efforts to identify and assemble information regarding persons of Jewish ancestry. The government’s demand implicates Penn’s substantial interest in protecting its employees’ privacy, safety and First Amendment rights." #Academia #AcademicMastodon #Antisemitism #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
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Update. "Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/politics/trump-jews-penn-list-judge.html Penn will appeal the ruling. “We continue to believe that requiring Penn to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns.” #Academia #AcademicMastodon #Antisemitism #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
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Australia's universities were once seen as a public good. Now they're increasingly run like corporations, with executive salaries soaring while governance scandals and questionable decision-making keep making headlines. This Crikey interview with higher education journalist Julie Hare examines how we got here — and what it would take to restore universities to serving students, research and the public, rather than executive interests. #auspol #education #universities #corruption

Australia’s university sector is in tatters. Why?

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“AI didn't kill #programming. You killed programming decades ago by stripping it of all individuality and #curiosity to satisfy the whims of giant #corporations. You created #universities that taught only one #language and trained programmers to never think of programming as personal expression. You turned programming into a sterile #profession who's only purpose is making other people money. You even went so far as to hunt down and threaten anyone who dared to disagree with you. You threatened their jobs, their reputations, and their mental health over petty bullshit like an underscore in a variable name. You worked extremely hard to frame programming as only a profession that serves corporations, and made sure anyone who threatened the great corporations was shut down, ridiculed, humiliated, and fired. So everyone fell in line, made only projects for corporations, and talked only about how they could best serve corporations. Even when they tried to fight back against the corporate mindset they came up with a movement that's still about corporate efficiency. Congratulations bootlickers, you got what you wanted.” Don’t ever change Jed ☺️ #OpEd / #LCTHW / #JedAShaw
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The crisis in the UK's universities includes attrition by management on its key resource & asset, the staff. Bethan Evans suggests while staff with 'energy limiting conditions' are most effected by these problems, all staff suffer are impacted by: an Intensified & unmanageable workload; materialising overwork in campus spaces; a culture of overwork & exclusion; 'survival of the fittest'; and hypercompetition. Academic staff are burning out #universities
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More than 40 civil society groups across #Australia are calling on #universities to protect the #right to #peaceful #protest and #academic #freedom on #campuses as vice-chancellors appear at the royal commission into #antisemitism. The statement, signed by organisations including the #HumanRightsLawCentre (HRLC), #AmnestyInternational Australia and the #AustralianDemocracyNetwork, expressed “grave #concern at the increasing adoption by universities across Australia of measures that #restrict protest and related student and staff #political #speech”. A senior lawyer at the HRLC, #ReginaFeatherstone, said various anti-protest policies have had a “chilling effect on protest and #dissent on #campus”. The president of the #NationalTertiaryEducationUnion, which signed the statement, Dr #AlisonBarnes, said universities “should be places where staff and students can #speakfreely and organise without fear of #surveillance, #discrimination or other #adverse consequences”. On Wednesday, the interim vice-chancellor of the #UniversityOfMelbourne, Prof #GlynDavis, said #ProPalestine #SitIns on campus led to the institution “quite sharply” changing its protest policies and that further restrictions could arise. #auspol #KneeJerkReactions #Zionism
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