William Kay

eight years as a statistical consultant and ecologists still manage to collect weird data that I'm not immediately sure what to do with

(it's fun though!)

Can't seem to DM you.. feel free to drop me an email (kayw@cardiff.ac.uk)

Yes, and it will be recorded. I'll DM you the details.

I'm excited to share that this Wednesday (10th Sept at 12:00 BST) I'll be presenting this year's first National Centre for Statistical Ecology (NCSE) invited seminar: "How should we train the next generation of statistical ecologists?" #ecology #rstats

~4hrs of work planned for the journey this morning with @transportforwales.bsky.social only to find, yet again, that the WiFi won't connect. Very disappointing. Appears to be a consistent issue on trains on the Holyhead line...

Very wet and early start this morning to travel to Liverpool for CETL-MSOR 2025!

The RoSE conference is now live! A marathon 13 hr day of talks all about statistics education - what more could you want? It's not too late to join - register at this link: forms.gle/ebM2kPyYAhbv.... #RoSE2025Conf #StatsEd #EduSky #statistics

RoSE Network 2025 e-Conference Statistics Anxiety Talks: - Do neurodivergent individuals have higher statistics and mathematics anxiety? Evaluating evidence from the STARs study - How do Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) impact statistics anxiety and attainment? Insights from a secondary analysis - Exploring Undergraduate Students' Expectations for Psychology Statistics Courses - The Psychological Benefits of Collaborative Mock Exams: Examining Effects on Statistics Anxiety and Academic Self-Efficacy - Who Struggles with Stats? A Meta-Analysis of the Prevalence and Predictors of Statistics Anxiety - How to tackle anxiety about statistics – the student perspective

Do your students suffer from statistics anxiety? Don't miss our free #StatsEd conference on July 31st, and learn more about who struggles with statistics and potential solutions! Register to attend here: bit.ly/roseconferen... #EduSky #statistics #teaching #mathanxiety

On the move again, this time to the Year 2 Coastal Ecology field course in Dale, Pembrokeshire.

Thoroughly enjoyed my day return to Glasgow University for @ukcots.bsky.social #UKCOTS25. Another city with stunning architecture.

Nearly there #UKCOTS2025! Looking forward to meeting everyone at the pre-conference social on Monday. Just need to make sure I make the registration desk for 8am on Tuesday...

As both an academic staff member at Cardiff University and an active seafarer (volunteer lifeboat coxswain), this is devastating news.

Sign up for the Researchers of Statistics Education Network 2025 E-Conference! Registration is open: https://bit.ly/roseconference2025 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Iddo Gal on "What research is needed in statistics education, and why?"

Good news, researchers and educators in #StatsEd! The RoSE 2025 e-conference registration has just opened up! Sign up for our free international conference happening July 31st here: bit.ly/roseconferen...

Interested in external training courses on biological data analysis (and more!)? Follow @prstats.bsky.social! I've taught on their courses and sent students to them. I'd highly recommend! I attended my first spatial analysis course with them back in 2016. Website: www.prstats.org

Online Course - Live and Online

Full course details and registration:
www.prstats.org/course/onlin...

#SpeciesDistributionModelling #BayesianStatistics
#EcologicalModelling #RStats #QuantitativeEcology
#SpatialEcology #EnvironmentalDataScience
#Biostatistics #EcologyTraining #StatisticalModelling

Live & Online

Sep 22nd–26th
Instructor: Dr. Neftalí Sillero

Key concepts, data preparation, model calibration and validation.

Registration:
www.prstats.org/course/speci...

#SpeciesDistribution #Ecology #RStats #SpatialAnalysis #ENM #SDM #EcologicalModelling #EnvironmentalScience #RProgramming

Very pleased to share the news that I'm now a Lifeboat Coxswain at @SevernRescue. This comes after 3 years of training with SARA Newport, and ~5 years of prior service as Crew with @TheMumblesRNLI @RNLI.

Cardiff University releases breakdown of academics 'in scope' for redundancy Martin Shipton Cardiff University has released to Nation.Cymru the breakdown by School of the 1,807 academics who have been told their jobs are “in scope” to be cut. The university announced in Januar...

Six weeks ago today I and 1806 other academics @cardiffuni were told our jobs were at risk of redundancy.

Six weeks on, and the University has failed to give us information promised in the consultation document which is crucial to the submission of critiques by Friday.

nation.cymru/news/cardiff...

For the urgent attention of university vice-chancellors.

How bad statistical practices drive away the good ones I am interested in research integrity and reproducibility.

Its frustrating since there are a lot of statistical misunderstandings found in even the most prestigious medical journals, so they become enshrined as "correct" but contradict the expert statistician's understanding.

statsepi.substack.com/p/how-bad-st...

"Education Is Not A Product. The Students Are Not Customers. The Professors Are Not Tools. The University Is Not A Factory."

YouTube video by Llantwit1977 Dr Andy Williams from Cardiff UCU on the struggle to save 400+ jobs at Cardiff Uni. 10.03.25

I just a BBC Radio Wales interview for Cardiff UCU.
Cardiff Uni needs to work in true social partnership with the Union, and draw on its millions in available ££ to fund a more gradual recovery which doesn’t destroy 400+ jobs & irreparably harm the University/Wales.
✊👇
youtu.be/tqjaFuFdESM?...

Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

Indian nurses to help fill 2,000 NHS vacancies The arrival of 200 Indian nurses in Wales is welcomed - but a union warns of far greater shortages.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are we supposed to be celebrating the news that after Cardiff University gives up on training nurses, the Welsh Government scales up its recruitment of nurses from other countries that *can* be bothered to train nurses on our behalf?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Dystopian mismanagement. "There is no trust left. Even before the hammer fell, a survey found that only 31% of staff said they trusted the University Executive Board to be honest in their communications. People are also terrified."

Also shocking is Cardiff Uni’s VC plunging into partnership with Kazakhstan - a regime with an appalling human rights record

This is what the neoliberalisation of the HE sector results in: amoral institutions, led by sociopaths, no longer capable of fulfilling their civil society role

World Report 2024: Rights Trends in Kazakhstan

What’s equally shocking to me is Cardiff Uni’s Vice Chancellor eager to plunge into partnership with an authoritarian regime with an appalling human rights record.
This is what the neoliberalisation of the HE sector results in: amoral institutions incapable of fulfilling their civil society role

Key to the UK higher education crisis is that any whiff of financial concern energizes a Board of Trustees to shift from friendly advisors to aggressively interventionist. Every intervention is to impose the managerialism from their own sectors. It always fails, because universities are different.

the arrogance and haste reminds me of when Cardiff was created through a forced merger (I was a student activist there at the time).

But UC Cardiff was broke then. Now it has capital enough to build a new campus in Kazakhstan - yet is slashing courses in Wales.

Weekend reading in UK universities