Alex Buckley

I know this is the equivalent of being in the remainder bin but still, if you want a bargain guide to becoming a confident assessor in higher education, my book is on Amazon currently for less than £5. #AssessmentInHE www.amazon.co.uk/Confident-As...

Cartoon by Stephen Collins for the Guardian. [Scene is BBC BREAKFAST with two presenters and a guest on the sofa]. 1 PRESENTER: Now - some disturbing new research has shown 2 PRESENTER: that as many as 10 non-Reform political parties may currently operating ‘under the radar’ across the UK. [Show on screen logos for Greens, Lib Dems, Conservatives  3 PRESENTER: In the studio to discuss this, Nigel Farage [We see the guest on the sofa is indeed Nigel Farage] 4 PRESENTER: Nigel, what’s your view?  FARAGE: Well I think this very worrying. 5 FARAGE: And just another reason why we should ban all immigration. 6 PRESENTER: I won’t push back on that FARAGE: Absolutely! 7 PRESENTER: Funnily enough, this is what your new show’s about, isn’t it? FARAGE: Oop - plug time! PRESENTER: Ha ha 8 FARAGE: Yes it’s a 12-part BBC documentary called ‘In Search Of The Political Parties That Aren’t My One’. 9 [Show on the TV screen Farage presenting a documentary series titled In Search Of The Political Parties That Aren’t My One. He is wearing his farmer's getup and looking dreamily at the UK from hillsides, visiting pubs and chatting with the locals, etc] FARAGE: It’s a really emotional journey  10 FARAGE: with lots of dreamy footage of me looking relatable...  11 FARAGE: as I answer the question: *Am I the only option for Britain?* 12 [Cut back to studio] PRESENTER: I won’t push back on that FARAGE: Absolutely! [ends]

"how long do you think we'll get away with being terrible at our jobs Laura?"

"at least another few years Robert"

Not good enough. When policies are proposed which threaten people’s security and future on this country journalists need to do their homework properly and hold those proposing them to account.

1 Nurse: It’s become a real problem in this area 2 Nurse: We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction 3 Show a building sign posted: Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it Nurse: Ministers, Spads, Researchers… 4 Nurse: Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely [Nurse on phone taking a call] Ok - we’ll be right over 5 Nurse: We just have a gentle chat [Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster Minister: I understand your concerns… 6 Nurse: Are you OK love? Minister: Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters 7 Nurse: That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian [Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters] Nurse 2: Give us your phone, love 8 Nurse: At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to [We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.] 9 Minister: YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR [woman looks baffled] 10 woman: I just want a bus service Minister: LOOK AT MY FLAG [produces a St George's flag] [ends]

In which Nick Hillman tells some home truths to the 'Battle of Ideas' about HE myths and the alleged 'alternatives': in fact we need more education, not less.

“Bloodless Pedantry” - The Ideas Letter The academic study of philosophy tends to inspire contempt, from within and from without. Stephen Hawking’s pompous pronouncement in 2010 that “philosophy is dead” is just one version of a…

I wrote something about analytic Philospphy, and Christoph Schuringa’s book for the Ideas Letter @stefanschubert.bsky.social @lbenardo.bsky.social www.theideasletter.org/essay/bloodl...

Jo Grady’s evidence from UCU: 28. The UCU welcomed the government's belated decision in January 2021 to keep the majority of learning at colleges and universities online until mid-February, although we again emphasised the need for consistent, effective and advanced planning rather than last-minute chaos [JG/24 - INQ000649311]. Nevertheless, in February 2021, the Prime Minister indicated that there would be a wider reopening of college and university campuses from 8 March 2021, which we highlighted as irresponsible and risking undoing the country's hard work to get Covid-19 rates down [JG/38 INQ000649327]. Then, in April 2021, it was announced that remaining HE students would be able to return to in-person teaching from 17 May 2021. Our view was that this made little sense for students and staff as most lessons would have already finished, and that it would be better to wait until the following term for a wider reopening as more people would have been vaccinated. We described the decision as "a stupid end to a stupid year beset by government mismanagement' [JG/26 - INQ000649313].

Sir Gavin Williamson has been giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 inquiry today. Much of the focus will be on children, but this module includes young people. Evidence from NUS and UCU is in the bundle published last week and is a reminder of the decisions taken about HE.

If this happened at a steel plant there would be talk of government bail out to secure jobs

If a news organisation is making -200% margin after five years, it is not a commercial operation and should be assumed to have a different purpose.

A thread of inspirational quotes from two of my idols: Kemi Badenoch and Ange Postecoglou

(uh-oh, I may have gotten some mixed up... or have I??)

🧵

I wouldn’t normally endorse AI prompts but these are indeed essential for all academics.

As Labour conference wraps up, I've done a piece for the Swingometer looking at their record in the polls so far.

Visual summary below...

swingometer.substack.com/p/labour-how...

“Thank you for your email. We are currently on a leadership hiatus and will deal with your message after a future vote of no confidence.”

"By making apprenticeships a gold standard option for ambitious young people, we are sending a message that technical excellence is as highly valued as academic prowess."

Prime Minister David Cameron, 2012

Correct. Unless the government is going to impose limits on the number that can go to university, it's meaningless. (They're not).

Fair play for getting headlines out of dropping a mythical target for HE entry, briefing it as being anti HE, and in fact setting a new target for tertiary participation. Piss off the people who ought to be happy and make happy the people you want to irritate?

Slide - US HE under the second Trump administration

Eve Darian-Smith’s book Politicising Higher Education - the anti democratic attach on scholars and why it matters

Your reminder there’s a weekly window into scholarship on higher education from @cghe.bsky.social Today’s bleak session has been part of the Universities under Fire series. The conclusion is that the US HE system has been seriously destabilised.
www.researchcghe.org

No, it never existed, and then the imaginary target was scrapped by the Conservatives years ago anyway.

The rise in numbers going to uni was entirely down to higher demand from students.

Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...

And if one of the poorest students wants to study philosophy or music?

This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.

So why are Labour doing the same thing it criticised the last govt for?

1. ministers in Westminster have identified the same issues as the last govt and want to do something about them

2. LAs are not doing what central govt wants because they have no money (they also want to do these things btw)

You can't joke about anything anymore. Because you signed a multi figure contract with the Saudi government that said they wouldn't pay you if you did.

"It is the belief of this Labour government that it would be better if you or your loved ones did not exist. Can we rely on your vote?"

we have gone from a world in which we were told not to cite wikipedia because it was unreliable to a world where wikipedia might be the only reliable source left on the internet and we all owe a lot to the pedantic nerds who got us there

formally launching my "Burnham is a symptom not a solution" take

if your Labour party finds itself turning to Andy Burnham and going ohhhhhh should we maybe go for him instead then that means your Labour party is feeling poorly and must be tended to, don't ignore the Burnham warning signs

The problem is that the centre-left can't win every election. And trying can make them cautious, when they need to be bold.

Really successful govts - Attlee, Thatcher, Blair - secure the things they believe in by forcing their opponents to change. But that requires a confident project of their own.