Brian P
@brianpatton.bsky.social
Scientist based in Scotland. Photography, sci-fi and who knows what else may make an appearance here.
Reposted by Brian P
Budget getting you down? Retake the initiative and submit that ballot by 5pm today: qmucu.org/2025/11/21/v... #UKHE
November 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Budget getting you down? Retake the initiative and submit that ballot by 5pm today: qmucu.org/2025/11/21/v... #UKHE
Reposted by Brian P
This is an excellent piece of work. It is a playbook of vexatious litigation. It’s written for the leaseholders in the case reported by @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social but it is useful for anyone facing lawfare. www.facebook.com/100064191813...
Councillor David Grant
Its Been a Leasehold/Mr. Milne day today. If your worried after receiving his threats, residents in sheffield have compiled a factsheet to try to help. they are really gathering pace in Sheffield...
www.facebook.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:18 AM
This is an excellent piece of work. It is a playbook of vexatious litigation. It’s written for the leaseholders in the case reported by @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social but it is useful for anyone facing lawfare. www.facebook.com/100064191813...
Reposted by Brian P
VOTY MCVOTEFACE!
If that hearing yesterday showed anything, it is that the regulator, minister, and managers are not taking the crisis seriously and that staff needs to make it their problem. Let's get that mandate and let's drag this sector out of its impasse.
If that hearing yesterday showed anything, it is that the regulator, minister, and managers are not taking the crisis seriously and that staff needs to make it their problem. Let's get that mandate and let's drag this sector out of its impasse.
TODAY IS THE LAST SAFE DAY TO POST YOUR BALLOT!
‼️📮This is your reminder that tomorrow (Wed 26 Nov) is the last day to safely return your postal ballot in the national dispute. 🧵Here’s why this dispute matters for us at Goldsmiths:
November 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
VOTY MCVOTEFACE!
If that hearing yesterday showed anything, it is that the regulator, minister, and managers are not taking the crisis seriously and that staff needs to make it their problem. Let's get that mandate and let's drag this sector out of its impasse.
If that hearing yesterday showed anything, it is that the regulator, minister, and managers are not taking the crisis seriously and that staff needs to make it their problem. Let's get that mandate and let's drag this sector out of its impasse.
Reposted by Brian P
If the Government do go ahead with the mooted plan in here to (effectively) remove workplace pensions from salary sacrifice schemes I am genuinely a little in awe of how bad their "growth strategy is."
www.ft.com/content/ca5e...
www.ft.com/content/ca5e...
The four audiences Reeves’ ‘high-wire’ Budget must satisfy
Chancellor needs a lot to go right if she is to somehow reconcile interests of Labour MPs, markets, business and the public
www.ft.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:40 AM
If the Government do go ahead with the mooted plan in here to (effectively) remove workplace pensions from salary sacrifice schemes I am genuinely a little in awe of how bad their "growth strategy is."
www.ft.com/content/ca5e...
www.ft.com/content/ca5e...
Reposted by Brian P
Universities closing is bad news for many reasons
One concern I haven't seen data on is that those universities w/more low income students are likely greater risk
It might be seen as an accidental consequence but i will have short and long term effects on social mobility and economic grwoth
One concern I haven't seen data on is that those universities w/more low income students are likely greater risk
It might be seen as an accidental consequence but i will have short and long term effects on social mobility and economic grwoth
Chief exec of OfS 'said the OfS believes there are 24 institutions at risk of exiting the market in the next 12 months, seven of which are large providers with more than 3,000 students. There are another 25 or so institutions of various sizes at risk over a two- to three-year period, she added.'
Seven ‘large providers’ at risk of going under in the next year
Skills minister says no higher education institutions are at imminent risk of collapse this year but OfS confirms more than 20 providers are being closely monitored
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Universities closing is bad news for many reasons
One concern I haven't seen data on is that those universities w/more low income students are likely greater risk
It might be seen as an accidental consequence but i will have short and long term effects on social mobility and economic grwoth
One concern I haven't seen data on is that those universities w/more low income students are likely greater risk
It might be seen as an accidental consequence but i will have short and long term effects on social mobility and economic grwoth
Reposted by Brian P
7 x 3000+ students + 17 smaller institutions must mean 30,000+ affected students. That’s about the same size as Sheffield uni, which employs 8000ish staff. Why is the government tolerating the impending collapse of up to 24 related employers and 8000+ more lost jobs? Where is the sense of crisis?
Chief exec of OfS 'said the OfS believes there are 24 institutions at risk of exiting the market in the next 12 months, seven of which are large providers with more than 3,000 students. There are another 25 or so institutions of various sizes at risk over a two- to three-year period, she added.'
Seven ‘large providers’ at risk of going under in the next year
Skills minister says no higher education institutions are at imminent risk of collapse this year but OfS confirms more than 20 providers are being closely monitored
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:57 AM
7 x 3000+ students + 17 smaller institutions must mean 30,000+ affected students. That’s about the same size as Sheffield uni, which employs 8000ish staff. Why is the government tolerating the impending collapse of up to 24 related employers and 8000+ more lost jobs? Where is the sense of crisis?
Reposted by Brian P
The other problem with this is that research is a type of spread bet/lottery. You do lots of it and hope some of it pans out. If we had a perfect way of selecting which small bits of science and scholarship we "need", we'd have solved the funding problem. But we don't know this.
'Science minister Patrick Vallance has rejected concerns that focusing on “doing fewer things better” in research will lead to funding being concentrated in larger research-intensive universities from the Russell Group.' 1/3
Post-16 plan ‘not recipe for Russell Group domination’ – Vallance
Science minister dismisses as ‘bizarre’ fears that government push for ‘teaching-only’ specialists will further concentrate research activity in small number of institutions
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:11 AM
The other problem with this is that research is a type of spread bet/lottery. You do lots of it and hope some of it pans out. If we had a perfect way of selecting which small bits of science and scholarship we "need", we'd have solved the funding problem. But we don't know this.
Reposted by Brian P
How can this be treated as anything other than a national emergency
“exiting the market”
November 25, 2025 at 6:54 PM
How can this be treated as anything other than a national emergency
Reposted by Brian P
oh they're going to exit in an appropriately polite way, are they? Well, that puts every staff member, student & local business owner at ease. We couldn't possibly have some *disorderly* collapse of an institution that provides higher education, jobs, and an anchor for the local community, could we?
“exiting the market”
November 25, 2025 at 7:44 PM
oh they're going to exit in an appropriately polite way, are they? Well, that puts every staff member, student & local business owner at ease. We couldn't possibly have some *disorderly* collapse of an institution that provides higher education, jobs, and an anchor for the local community, could we?
Reposted by Brian P
We remember a time when we were called doomthinkers for mentioning that the collapse of a university would be bad in and of itself, and additionally have bad knock-on effects.
Now they're talking about 50, and just doing it with that euphemism.
Time for a dispute with the Secretary of State? #UKHE
Now they're talking about 50, and just doing it with that euphemism.
Time for a dispute with the Secretary of State? #UKHE
November 25, 2025 at 7:42 PM
We remember a time when we were called doomthinkers for mentioning that the collapse of a university would be bad in and of itself, and additionally have bad knock-on effects.
Now they're talking about 50, and just doing it with that euphemism.
Time for a dispute with the Secretary of State? #UKHE
Now they're talking about 50, and just doing it with that euphemism.
Time for a dispute with the Secretary of State? #UKHE
Reposted by Brian P
'“During that roundtable, we heard that a provider could collapse before the end of the year,” she [Helen Hayes] said. As the hearing was in late November, this was “essentially a warning of an imminent collapse of a higher education institution”, she added.' 1/3
MPs told collapse of UK higher education provider could happen by Christmas
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...
MPs told collapse of UK provider could happen by Christmas - Research Professional News
Education Committee chair says situation is “not hypothetical”, but skills minister and regulator rebut claim
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:41 PM
'“During that roundtable, we heard that a provider could collapse before the end of the year,” she [Helen Hayes] said. As the hearing was in late November, this was “essentially a warning of an imminent collapse of a higher education institution”, she added.' 1/3
Reposted by Brian P
The terrifying thing is that this could be almost any of us. We have an all-staff meeting next week! Maybe this is where *I* work!? It'll be fun to find out!
'The committee had heard about one institution that had been approached by another regarding a potential merger. The institution approached had been “doing their due diligence” by gathering information, but after examining the financial situation concluded that the other provider “can’t go on”.' 2/3
November 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM
The terrifying thing is that this could be almost any of us. We have an all-staff meeting next week! Maybe this is where *I* work!? It'll be fun to find out!
Reposted by Brian P
So really everything our minister thinks she knows about the financing and incentive structure of this truly enormous sector is... wrong. Completely wrong at the most basic and most important of levels.
November 25, 2025 at 1:12 PM
So really everything our minister thinks she knows about the financing and incentive structure of this truly enormous sector is... wrong. Completely wrong at the most basic and most important of levels.
Reposted by Brian P
Reflecting on this bit, about tuition fees, over lunch. This comment shows me just how little Smith understands UK HE. In an uncapped system driven by reputation and student choice, raising the fee itself does not, in fact, represent any financial stability. It only intensifies the market pressure.
Smith mow spinning tuition fee increases with inflation as a "remarkable certainty about income" that private sector would envy. Reply is that national insurance rises completely wipe that out.
November 25, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reflecting on this bit, about tuition fees, over lunch. This comment shows me just how little Smith understands UK HE. In an uncapped system driven by reputation and student choice, raising the fee itself does not, in fact, represent any financial stability. It only intensifies the market pressure.
Long, but important thread for those in UK higher education. My takeaway? Those supposed to support, guide and champion the sector apparently have absolutely no clue whatsover what and how we do things, have no wish to learn and are willfully misguided. Catastrophic outcome
"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink.
per this morning's education committee.
per this morning's education committee.
November 25, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Long, but important thread for those in UK higher education. My takeaway? Those supposed to support, guide and champion the sector apparently have absolutely no clue whatsover what and how we do things, have no wish to learn and are willfully misguided. Catastrophic outcome
Reposted by Brian P
Asked about impact of Teacher's Pension Scheme, Smith says she's talked to some folks. They are, apparently, "looking", and "discussing", "what we can do to support the sector", "no easy way".
At this point I wail in despair: HOW do we keep getting landed with these people as our HE ministers?
At this point I wail in despair: HOW do we keep getting landed with these people as our HE ministers?
November 25, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Asked about impact of Teacher's Pension Scheme, Smith says she's talked to some folks. They are, apparently, "looking", and "discussing", "what we can do to support the sector", "no easy way".
At this point I wail in despair: HOW do we keep getting landed with these people as our HE ministers?
At this point I wail in despair: HOW do we keep getting landed with these people as our HE ministers?
Reposted by Brian P
No we don’t! We literally do not! Do I have to engage with my air fryer? Do I have to have a co-dependent relationship with Google Maps?
November 25, 2025 at 12:04 PM
No we don’t! We literally do not! Do I have to engage with my air fryer? Do I have to have a co-dependent relationship with Google Maps?
Reposted by Brian P
It's an attack on Education. Labour has gone from
Education Education Education
To
Feck Worcking Class kids aspirations.
Overseas student fees help subsidise Education for oor kids
Education Education Education
To
Feck Worcking Class kids aspirations.
Overseas student fees help subsidise Education for oor kids
November 23, 2025 at 11:22 PM
It's an attack on Education. Labour has gone from
Education Education Education
To
Feck Worcking Class kids aspirations.
Overseas student fees help subsidise Education for oor kids
Education Education Education
To
Feck Worcking Class kids aspirations.
Overseas student fees help subsidise Education for oor kids
Reposted by Brian P
Anyone who can look at the current underfunded state of UK universities and think there's half a billion quid you can take out of the sector without doing catastrophic damage is just not fit for office.
November 24, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Anyone who can look at the current underfunded state of UK universities and think there's half a billion quid you can take out of the sector without doing catastrophic damage is just not fit for office.
Reposted by Brian P
University managers are already declaring that they can't have the optics of pushing this levy onto international fees (would be nice if they thought about the students themselves but 🤷) and that they will seek the money in operational costs.
ie: government is further cutting into what makes unis.
ie: government is further cutting into what makes unis.
These are HEPI estimates of the 20 institutions affected: I think this illustrates the impact if the tariff is absorbed in full by institutions.
What share of the 6% tariff different universities may try to pass on to fees - or the impact might be on demand if they did - is not publicly known.
What share of the 6% tariff different universities may try to pass on to fees - or the impact might be on demand if they did - is not publicly known.
November 24, 2025 at 10:52 AM
University managers are already declaring that they can't have the optics of pushing this levy onto international fees (would be nice if they thought about the students themselves but 🤷) and that they will seek the money in operational costs.
ie: government is further cutting into what makes unis.
ie: government is further cutting into what makes unis.
Reposted by Brian P
I'm sure those poorer British students will benefit greatly from grants to attend the universities that no longer exist because Labour have bankrupted them.
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 24, 2025 at 8:15 AM
I'm sure those poorer British students will benefit greatly from grants to attend the universities that no longer exist because Labour have bankrupted them.
Reposted by Brian P
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
Reposted by Brian P
![Social media screenshot:
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
In a normal world, this should be an immense scandal in Europe.
Le Monde has a long article describing the hellish life of Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the ICC in The Hague, due to U.S. sanctions punishing him for authorizing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
Guillou's daily existence has been transformed into a Kafkaesque nightmare. He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction.
He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands.
That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are:
- punishing a European citizen
- for doing his job in Europe
- applying laws Europe officially supports
- at an institution based in Europe
- that Europe helped create and fund
and Europe is not only doing essentially nothing to protect him, they're actively enforcing America's sanctions against their own citizen - European banks closing his accounts, European companies refusing him service, European institutions standing by while Washington destroys a European judge's life on European soil.
Again, in a normal world, European leaders and citizens should be absolutely outraged about this. But we've so normalized the hollowing out of European sovereignty that the sight of a European citizen being economically executed on European soil for upholding European law is treated, at best, as an unfortunate technical complication in transatlantic
[further text missing]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jrzyao2holfkgrsfbq2tue27/bafkreiga2xugyfyqaagrd3essidr6sktmwm72xodvy7aatg3yebuvygiyi@jpeg)
Reposted by Brian P
As we near the last safe day for ballot posting in the current national UCU ballot (get 'em in by Wed, preferably sooner), let's remember what we're fighting for. We'll start with the graphs we made last week. Decades of pay erosion has left many of us a full pay spine point below where we should be
And here we are! Literally every spine point is paying less in real terms than it was back in 2008. Spine point 5 (now replaced by the real living wage) is down by about 3.4%. By spine point 10, we're down over 10%. By spine point 23, over 20%, ultimately reaching a 22.1% reduction. 3/3
November 21, 2025 at 8:11 AM
As we near the last safe day for ballot posting in the current national UCU ballot (get 'em in by Wed, preferably sooner), let's remember what we're fighting for. We'll start with the graphs we made last week. Decades of pay erosion has left many of us a full pay spine point below where we should be
Reposted by Brian P
While it feels like I'm repeatedly slamming my head against a brick wall repeating this massively simple concept. Saying "Reform would be worse" doesn't make what Labour is doing better. Labour is now the most anti-immigration, anti-any marginalised group, government we have seen in decades. 1/
Very long thread: As with many of Labour's anti-immigration policies, this isn't new. British police have been stationed in other countries for this purpose for a long time
It does however show how Labour is pushing more on anti-immigration than previous governments. 1/
www.lbc.co.uk/article/shab...
It does however show how Labour is pushing more on anti-immigration than previous governments. 1/
www.lbc.co.uk/article/shab...
Home Secretary orders police and border 'hit squads' to Albania to stamp out people smugglers | LBC
Shabana Mahmood will send hit squads of police and border force teams to Albania in a fresh drive to stamp out people-smuggling gangs upstream.
www.lbc.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 5:36 PM
While it feels like I'm repeatedly slamming my head against a brick wall repeating this massively simple concept. Saying "Reform would be worse" doesn't make what Labour is doing better. Labour is now the most anti-immigration, anti-any marginalised group, government we have seen in decades. 1/