Simon Varwell
@hisasimon.bsky.social
Director of Student Engagement & Representation (“dosser”) at @thinkuhi.bsky.social’s Students' Association. Arnstein's Ladder stan account. PFHEA. Masters in Student Engagement. Ex-sparqs. He/him. Inverness, Scotland. Personal: @simonvarwell.bsky.social
Pinned
Simon Varwell
@hisasimon.bsky.social
· Feb 3
I've set up a starter pack for student engagement and partnership - in all its myriad forms! Fire away if you can suggest someone I should add (or have embarrassingly failed to add you!). go.bsky.app/5jFu51s
A very good piece. England-specific in terms of policy scope, but the implications are clear elsewhere: how do we meaningfully engage students in community-building in a way that isn't a deficit model nor (my common rant) beating students over the head with a belonging stick?
NEW on Wonkhe: Despite sector-wide consensus on how to tackle belonging gaps, Jim Dickinson explores how the latest APPs risk entrenching disadvantage by misreading the social psychology behind inclusion buff.ly/PDsei4E
November 14, 2025 at 10:28 AM
A very good piece. England-specific in terms of policy scope, but the implications are clear elsewhere: how do we meaningfully engage students in community-building in a way that isn't a deficit model nor (my common rant) beating students over the head with a belonging stick?
Reposted by Simon Varwell
🎧 Postdigital Pedagogies & Experimental Research with Dr James Lamb
Join CDN online next Wednesday & explore how digital technology shapes where and how learning happens.
🎨 Expect creative methods - from playlists to walking ethnographies!
📩 To join email jo.turbitt@cdn.ac.uk
Join CDN online next Wednesday & explore how digital technology shapes where and how learning happens.
🎨 Expect creative methods - from playlists to walking ethnographies!
📩 To join email jo.turbitt@cdn.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 10:37 AM
🎧 Postdigital Pedagogies & Experimental Research with Dr James Lamb
Join CDN online next Wednesday & explore how digital technology shapes where and how learning happens.
🎨 Expect creative methods - from playlists to walking ethnographies!
📩 To join email jo.turbitt@cdn.ac.uk
Join CDN online next Wednesday & explore how digital technology shapes where and how learning happens.
🎨 Expect creative methods - from playlists to walking ethnographies!
📩 To join email jo.turbitt@cdn.ac.uk
A really interesting report - specifically chapter 8 on the learner voice in vocational training and education.
www.coe.int/en/web/educa...
Good morning all you wonderful folks who like a bit of learner representation with a sprinkling of European flavour.
Come feast your eyes on what @simon.insanity.tube has written.
Good morning all you wonderful folks who like a bit of learner representation with a sprinkling of European flavour.
Come feast your eyes on what @simon.insanity.tube has written.
www.coe.int
November 12, 2025 at 11:10 AM
A really interesting report - specifically chapter 8 on the learner voice in vocational training and education.
These two skeets (thanks @ronaldhartz.bsky.social for shares) both ask a good question that's vitally important at a time of change and cuts: what do students actually think? Why isn't asking them baked into processes?
bsky.app/profile/nick...
bsky.app/profile/davi...
1/4
bsky.app/profile/nick...
bsky.app/profile/davi...
1/4
November 10, 2025 at 9:14 AM
These two skeets (thanks @ronaldhartz.bsky.social for shares) both ask a good question that's vitally important at a time of change and cuts: what do students actually think? Why isn't asking them baked into processes?
bsky.app/profile/nick...
bsky.app/profile/davi...
1/4
bsky.app/profile/nick...
bsky.app/profile/davi...
1/4
I'll be talking about student partnership on a @strivehigher.bsky.social panel on Thu 13th Nov next week. Details for registering (plus the think piece by Ben Rogers that inspired the panel) are at events.teams.microsoft.com/event/1104b9...
Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams
Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams
events.teams.microsoft.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I'll be talking about student partnership on a @strivehigher.bsky.social panel on Thu 13th Nov next week. Details for registering (plus the think piece by Ben Rogers that inspired the panel) are at events.teams.microsoft.com/event/1104b9...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
🚀 We’re excited to share that STEP has launched a new set of collaborative projects for 2025, bringing together colleges, universities, student associations, and sector bodies to address shared challenges and enhance learner experiences across Scotland’s tertiary sector: buff.ly/CqEKxGq
November 4, 2025 at 3:00 PM
🚀 We’re excited to share that STEP has launched a new set of collaborative projects for 2025, bringing together colleges, universities, student associations, and sector bodies to address shared challenges and enhance learner experiences across Scotland’s tertiary sector: buff.ly/CqEKxGq
Higher attainment liberates lots of wider education enhancement nationally.
October 31, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Higher attainment liberates lots of wider education enhancement nationally.
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Interesting and depressing piece about student housing. One model not mentioned that works in many countries is co-operative student housing, owned and run via students’ unions.
NEW on Wonkhe: Jim Dickinson exposes the disconnect between student housing needs and the systems meant to meet them, explaining how fragmented policymaking and market-driven development fuel the crisis in university towns buff.ly/LpLyOTD
October 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Interesting and depressing piece about student housing. One model not mentioned that works in many countries is co-operative student housing, owned and run via students’ unions.
I suspect that in the future we will see more federations and/or mergers, partly driven by costs. @thinkuhi.bsky.social mentioned in this helpful overview of such institutions.
NEW on Wonkhe: James Coe takes us through the past, present, and future of university federations as a model for higher education reform buff.ly/zihf8Nn
October 29, 2025 at 3:49 PM
I suspect that in the future we will see more federations and/or mergers, partly driven by costs. @thinkuhi.bsky.social mentioned in this helpful overview of such institutions.
Our students' association is ten years old! Which is exciting. It's been so exciting to watch HISA from afar and then in the past two years as a staff member develop a strong regional student voice in @thinkuhi.bsky.social. hisa.uhi.ac.uk/news/article...
HISA's 10th Anniversary
HISA celebrates 10 years as an organisation by looking back in order to look forward.
hisa.uhi.ac.uk
October 29, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Our students' association is ten years old! Which is exciting. It's been so exciting to watch HISA from afar and then in the past two years as a staff member develop a strong regional student voice in @thinkuhi.bsky.social. hisa.uhi.ac.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Witty part of academic paper title: Serious description of what the paper is about
October 27, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Witty part of academic paper title: Serious description of what the paper is about
This is a sobering and evocative reflection by @jimdickinson.bsky.social on the events of spring 2020 when the pandemic began. It reminds me of my article reimagining Arnsten's Ladder for emergency decision-making, and my observation that we were seeing the full range of good to bad engagement...
NEW: As the COVID-19 Inquiry concludes its look at education and young people having overlooked university students, Jim Dickinson dissects a damning record of political failure, regulatory evasion and a system that left students to bear the costs of the pandemic.
A generation of students has been failed and forgotten again
As the COVID-19 Inquiry concludes its look at education and young people having overlooked university students, Jim Dickinson dissects a damning record of political failure, regulatory evasion and a…
buff.ly
October 24, 2025 at 12:14 PM
This is a sobering and evocative reflection by @jimdickinson.bsky.social on the events of spring 2020 when the pandemic began. It reminds me of my article reimagining Arnsten's Ladder for emergency decision-making, and my observation that we were seeing the full range of good to bad engagement...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
We are now on Bluesky! Show us some love and hit the follow button 💜
#UHI #ThinkUHI #UCU #UCUScotland
@ucu.org.uk @ucuscotland.bsky.social
#UHI #ThinkUHI #UCU #UCUScotland
@ucu.org.uk @ucuscotland.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 8:40 AM
We are now on Bluesky! Show us some love and hit the follow button 💜
#UHI #ThinkUHI #UCU #UCUScotland
@ucu.org.uk @ucuscotland.bsky.social
#UHI #ThinkUHI #UCU #UCUScotland
@ucu.org.uk @ucuscotland.bsky.social
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Sofia Corradi probably did more to promote a united Europe than any politician. Who knows how many partnerships, relationships, friendships, research programmes, businesses owe their existence to her. She helped open the minds, widen the horizons and stoke the ambitions of millions.
The woman who "invented" the Erasmus exchange programme, Sofia Corrado, formerly Professor of Adult Education at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, has died aged 91. She was affectionately known as "Mamma Erasmus."
Sofia Corradi, che ha inventato l’Erasmus “per amore di un americano”. L’ultima intervista a d
Aveva 91 anni e 5 milioni di “figli”: tutti gli studenti partiti con il programma di scambio culturale che ha inventato quando, a fine anni 50, è partita negli…
d.repubblica.it
October 20, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Sofia Corradi probably did more to promote a united Europe than any politician. Who knows how many partnerships, relationships, friendships, research programmes, businesses owe their existence to her. She helped open the minds, widen the horizons and stoke the ambitions of millions.
Reposted by Simon Varwell
🚀QAA Scotland & CDN have opened a call for proposals from staff and students across Scotland’s colleges and universities for a funded project on ‘Delivering Tailored, Targeted and Personalised Support’.
📅 Deadline: 3 Dec 2025
🔗 More information and application form here: buff.ly/YN4sG4A
📅 Deadline: 3 Dec 2025
🔗 More information and application form here: buff.ly/YN4sG4A
October 20, 2025 at 2:45 PM
🚀QAA Scotland & CDN have opened a call for proposals from staff and students across Scotland’s colleges and universities for a funded project on ‘Delivering Tailored, Targeted and Personalised Support’.
📅 Deadline: 3 Dec 2025
🔗 More information and application form here: buff.ly/YN4sG4A
📅 Deadline: 3 Dec 2025
🔗 More information and application form here: buff.ly/YN4sG4A
We are recruiting for a new Chief Exec! It's been great working with Rachel our incumbent the past two years and she'll be sadly missed. But it's a great opportunity for someone to take @thinkuhi.bsky.social's students' association to our next phase. Please share! hr.breathehr.com/recruitment/...
October 20, 2025 at 2:31 PM
We are recruiting for a new Chief Exec! It's been great working with Rachel our incumbent the past two years and she'll be sadly missed. But it's a great opportunity for someone to take @thinkuhi.bsky.social's students' association to our next phase. Please share! hr.breathehr.com/recruitment/...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
The harm caused by AI detectors is again in the news today.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
#aiineducation #ai #aidetector #academicintegrity #genai
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
#aiineducation #ai #aidetector #academicintegrity #genai
Over a dozen universities are using AI to catch AI — and getting it wrong
At least a dozen Australian universities are using AI to detect AI. But they're not always catching cheats. Instead, they're wrongly accusing students of academic misconduct.
www.abc.net.au
October 20, 2025 at 7:00 AM
The harm caused by AI detectors is again in the news today.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
#aiineducation #ai #aidetector #academicintegrity #genai
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
#aiineducation #ai #aidetector #academicintegrity #genai
Reposted by Simon Varwell
Hello Bluesky! 👋
We’re excited to join the conversation.
Follow along for updates, insights and opportunities across international higher education. 🌍🎓
We’re excited to join the conversation.
Follow along for updates, insights and opportunities across international higher education. 🌍🎓
October 20, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Hello Bluesky! 👋
We’re excited to join the conversation.
Follow along for updates, insights and opportunities across international higher education. 🌍🎓
We’re excited to join the conversation.
Follow along for updates, insights and opportunities across international higher education. 🌍🎓
I have finished the week (and am about to start some leave) in Ghent, Belgium (a country the size of Belgium) where I’ve been privileged to participate once again in the Flemish HE sector’s project on student participation and share experiences from HISA/UHI. Much to learn from Flemish practice.
October 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I have finished the week (and am about to start some leave) in Ghent, Belgium (a country the size of Belgium) where I’ve been privileged to participate once again in the Flemish HE sector’s project on student participation and share experiences from HISA/UHI. Much to learn from Flemish practice.
Some really useful research from Josh and I am looking forward to getting stuck in. Nice to see @thinkuhi.bsky.social cited as a model.
New from me:
Tertiary pathways in practice: Institutions’ views of partnerships between HE and FE in Scotland and England
Collaboration in competitive systems driven by resource scarcity rather than alignment to regional/national agendas. Full report:
www.edge.co.uk/research/pro...
Tertiary pathways in practice: Institutions’ views of partnerships between HE and FE in Scotland and England
Collaboration in competitive systems driven by resource scarcity rather than alignment to regional/national agendas. Full report:
www.edge.co.uk/research/pro...
Tertiary pathways in practice
www.edge.co.uk
October 1, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Some really useful research from Josh and I am looking forward to getting stuck in. Nice to see @thinkuhi.bsky.social cited as a model.
Reposted by Simon Varwell
We've got a vacancy for a Corporate and Governance Manager. Find out more and how to apply bit.ly/4nxnvP4
Vacancies
Colleges Scotland is the collective voice of the college sector in Scotland; striving to create cohesive and sustainable partnerships, demonstrate positive impa
bit.ly
October 1, 2025 at 9:04 AM
We've got a vacancy for a Corporate and Governance Manager. Find out more and how to apply bit.ly/4nxnvP4
I enjoyed reading this piece by @jimdickinson.bsky.social not for the core point (about English student funding) but the wider examination of practice including the trip down memory lane of the Cubie report. Takes me back to my student officer days and the great campaigning we did on this in '99.
NEW on Wonkhe: I have a lot of questions about the LLE buff.ly/dbBjjPJ
September 30, 2025 at 7:43 AM
I enjoyed reading this piece by @jimdickinson.bsky.social not for the core point (about English student funding) but the wider examination of practice including the trip down memory lane of the Cubie report. Takes me back to my student officer days and the great campaigning we did on this in '99.
This is the really interesting (if grim) beginning of what I am sure will be a big and important series.
NEW on Wonkhe: Debbie McVitty introduces the first tranche of findings of the Wonkhe HE staff survey, exploring quality of work against a backdrop of financial pressure buff.ly/KDJPywf
September 30, 2025 at 7:32 AM
This is the really interesting (if grim) beginning of what I am sure will be a big and important series.
Based in our @uhiinverness.bsky.social office today (forgot to take a photo on my way in). Lots of meetings, but always nice when here to bump into so many staff and students. Really thrilled (and proud of team) about our recent successful by-election here. hisa.uhi.ac.uk/news/article...
Meet Your New Inverness Depute President!
The results of the Inverness Depute President By-Election are now live!
hisa.uhi.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Based in our @uhiinverness.bsky.social office today (forgot to take a photo on my way in). Lots of meetings, but always nice when here to bump into so many staff and students. Really thrilled (and proud of team) about our recent successful by-election here. hisa.uhi.ac.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Simon Varwell
WE ARE NOW PODCASTERS 👏 Check out our episode from the RAISE Conference on NStEP to date, next steps and the future of student engagement in Ireland
open.spotify.com/episode/3ozJ...
open.spotify.com/episode/3ozJ...
Episode 4 - NStEP at 10: Reflections, Strategy, and the Future of Student Engagement.
open.spotify.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:42 AM
WE ARE NOW PODCASTERS 👏 Check out our episode from the RAISE Conference on NStEP to date, next steps and the future of student engagement in Ireland
open.spotify.com/episode/3ozJ...
open.spotify.com/episode/3ozJ...