Ronald Hartz

UK universities offered to monitor students’ social media for arms firms, emails show Loughborough, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow corresponded with companies concerned about campus protests Universities in the UK reassured arms companies they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts after firms raised concerns about campus protests, according to internal emails. One university said it would conduct “active monitoring of social media” for any evidence of plans to demonstrate against Rolls-Royce at a careers fair. Continue reading...

UK universities offered to monitor students’ social media for arms firms, emails show

Yet more proof that despite our romantic idealisation of universities, in practice they are run by people who volunteer to call the cops on their own students and staff. I say this as someone given a written warning for a tweet about what seagulls and managers have in common.

I want to tell all students of the so-called 'rip-off degrees' named below that your critical thinking is important and makes valid contributions to culture and society

Without your skills, we wouldn't be able to unpack toxic discourses and do something about them

Cutting Corners: a message to the next Vice Chancellor at Goldsmiths On 1 October 2025, a short announcement was put on Goldsmiths’ website to say that Vice Chancellor Frances Corner was stepping down with immediate effect. This came off the back of an announcement …

I wrote something on my time on returning to Goldsmiths as an associate lecturer, 17 years after graduating with my first degree. It’s a plea to Frances Corner’s successor to learn from mistakes made over the last 6 years and change course. #UCU #UKHE

ucucommons.org/2025/10/06/c...

In a woodcut released today the Guild of Thieves and Cutpurses declared that enforcement of regulations against Thieving and Pursecutting would ‘devastate a growth industry’ and damage the economy.

Badenoch’s number caps plan would cut 100,000 university places Tory leader to use conference speech to attack ‘debt trap degrees’ and pledge more money for apprenticeships

Kemi Badenoch wants to decide what your child is allowed to study at university & where. This is far more draconian than even the Trump higher education 'compact' but interfering in the academic curriculum to purge 'woke degrees' is a far right priority

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/badenoc...

Badenoch: Curb students taking "rip-off" degrees such as English. The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

This makes me so angry. These people view all life as training for lifelong servitude/work. There's no room for interest, enjoyment, and culture in their bleak vision of education. At least she'll never be in power to see it through. Though Reform are probably worse.

Minister Robert Jenrick ordered painting over of child asylum unit murals - BBC News Robert Jenrick is reported to have considered the cartoon images in the Dover centre too welcoming.

This is who Robert Jenrick is.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...

The more you work, the more you regret your HE The headline in this year’s HEPI/Advance HE Student Academic Experience Survey was that over two-thirds of students now undertake paid work during term time, an increase of more than 12 per cent from ...

'The most alarming finding from their longitudinal analysis of 2021-2025 data is that approximately 30 per cent of students now work and study for more than 50 hours per week, with around 18 per cent exceeding 60 hours weekly.'

Data from the #AcademicFreedomIndex reveals declining levels of #academicfreedom across authoritarian and democratic contexts. Over the past decade, in fact, global academic freedom levels have shrunk at an accelerating pace. Read why in #Free2Think2025:
www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/fr...

A quick overview of our industrial action:
What we are doing, why we are doing it, and how you can support us.

Organising resistance in the university Shaping for Mediocrity: The Cancellation of Critical Thinking at Our UniversitiesGibson Burrell, Ronald Hartz, David Harvie, Geoff Lightfoot, Simon Lilley and friends, Zer0 Books, £7.99THIS criti...

Shaping for Mediocrity reviewed in the Morning Star.
It's particularly timely since workers at University of Leicester are right now in the midst of yet another struggle against restructuring and redundancies. @ucu.org.uk

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/orga...

"Einige der Autor*innen sind Mitglieder des Netzwerks Wissenschaftsfreiheit. Andere sind vor allem als Anti-Woke- bzw. Anti-Trans-Aktivist*innen bekannt. Wir haben daher gute Gründe anzunehmen, dass sich eine Fachzeitschrift hier für die politische Propaganda [...] instrumentalisieren lässt".

Data protection (UK GDPR) Obtain confirmation that Anthology will continue to meet its UK GDPR Article 28 obligations as your data processor throughout the process. Get clarification of sub processor stability (no changes planned; if changes are anticipated, please provide advance notice and details). Confirm that no organisational changes arising from the restructuring will alter how your personal data is accessed, processed, or transferred; if any changes are envisaged, please outline controls, locations, and safeguards.

The situation with Blackboard - now its owner is bankrupt and it's coming under new private equity ownership and control - is serious enough the UK agency for HE tech is advising all affected universities to seek assurances regarding data security inspiringlearning.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2025/10/s...

Rocketing visa costs have forced UK research-intensive universities to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds extra to recruit international staff over the last two years—with costs at individual institutions reaching as high as £2 million a year.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

Trump will getreue Universitäten mit Fördermitteln belohnen US-Präsident Trump versucht, weitere Unis auf seine Linie zu bringen: Er stellt mehreren Hochschulen Gelder in Aussicht, wenn sie bestimmte Forderungen erfüllen - sie sollen etwa die Zahl ausländische...

"Auch soll sich die jeweilige Hochschule zu strengen Definitionen des Geschlechts bekennen."

www.tagesschau.de/ausland/trum...

Can You Say ‘Transgender’ in a Texas Tech Classroom? The Answer Is Complicated. The provost released guidance saying state law allows it under some circumstances — then took that down.

“Everyone's so scared right now. Everyone's just trying to not get fired,” said one associate professor. “People don't go to campus as much because why would you? They shut their doors. They don't want to meet.”

Day 4: chalk signs, an amazing teach out, and more picket dogs.
When we fight, we don't fight alone!

It’s Extremely Divisive of You to Tell the Truth Our nation is incredibly divided right now, and the last thing we need is someone standing up and further dividing us with statements based in fact...

"All you care about is dividing us by saying words that are true and sentences that are also true."

www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/its...

My workload has at least doubled (in terms of teaching hours, numbers of personal tutees, admin commitments etc.) since I started.

The members of the governing council of the Royal Society are disgraceful cowards. Quite aside from the racism, misogyny, & attempts to destroy democracy, their unwillingness to take action against a man who has done so much to undermine scientific values & principles is contemptible.

International students left in limbo by UCL after university exceeds visa allocations Hundreds of students accepted on courses facing costs and even deportation after being told to defer studies until 2026

🎓Higher Education🎓
Hundreds of international students accepted on courses by University College London have been left in limbo and facing thousands of pounds in costs, after the university admitted it had run out of places just days before many were due to start. #academicsky #edusky

Workload is the major factor forcing academics to quit their roles, with some of the perceived benefits of working in universities actually adding to the strain, finds a new study. Juliette Rowsell reports https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/benefits-working-academia-can-add-workload-stress

If they capitulate, they should be boycotted.
archive.is/ycQrr

'Almost 4,000 courses fall prey to university funding crisis, with humanities degrees hardest hit'

'Less selective universities have been most affected by the cuts, however elite universities, including those in the Russell Group, have not been immune to having to axe courses.' 1/2

Ein neuer Tag im deutschen Wissenschaftssystem, ein neuer Kollege, der nicht mehr da ist, weil in diesem dümmsten aller Länder gute Wissenschaftler*innen regelhaft alle paar Jahre gefeuert werden. Es ist alles so unfassbar irrational und ineffizient.

#IchbinHanna

My UKHEI colleagues continue to deliver exceptional commitment to their students while trying to navigate unacceptable working conditions caused by government dictats and ineffectual SMTs

Almost 200 Cardiff University staff left in limbo as they face losing jobs Cardiff University confirmed it cannot rule out compulsory redundancies as it also apologised to students for problems with a new timetabling system as the academic year begins

'The affected staff, in the schools of foreign languages, history, religion and music, have been warned the university cannot rule out compulsory redundancy.'

A statement from the President of the Royal Society | Royal Society A statement from Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, regarding threats to the values that allow science to flourish.

Deeply disappointing. Once again the @royalsociety.org has avoided explaining how *actions* by Elon Musk that clearly repudiate the Society's values are consistent with the code of conduct that Fellows must adhere to. royalsociety.org/news/2025/10...