Pete M

It’s never too late to read and share it around.

UCU stands with trans people, today and every day.

The Supreme Court ruling is not just wrong, it’s dangerous.

We will never stop fighting for trans rights and equality.

#TransRightsAreHumanRights #Solidarity

I wrote to my MP today about the recent UKSC ruling, which exposes the incoherence of UK law in this area, as well as Parliament’s failure to respond meaningfully to changing understandings of gender, sex and identity.

Reform that respects and reflects the reality of trans lives is urgently needed.

plus a venn diagram showing just how many parts of institutions depend on PhDs to do what they need to do!

i find an "sub-prime mortgage crisis" helpful: many parts of universities rely partly on PhDs, but few in whole. though it's difficult for individual actors (departments, divisions etc.) to gauge the risks, institutional/sector-level underinvestment = meaningful system-wide risks.

Too close to home? Stubbornness, spite, and sheer bloody-mindedness as contributors to perseverance in doctoral study - The Australian Educational Researcher Completing a higher degree is a complex and demanding undertaking for doctoral students. Along with the cognitive demands of study, there are competing personal and contextual factors which contribute...

Is perseverance in a PhD always about resilience?

A new paper say no: stubbornness, spite & sheer bloody-mindedness are just as important, especially those with caring responsibilities.

This really struck me, not just for what it reveals, but for what it demands.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Respondents foresee all the usual barriers - bureaucracy, tradition and inertia loom large - but 85% of examiners think we need to rethink the viva.

Time for change?

Link here: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2025.2475062

(3/3)

Support varies on the details, but there’s strong backing for stricter examiner selection, routine training for examiners & chairs, clearer guidelines on expected conduct, better feedback for candidates, and more attention to wellbeing & reasonable adjustments.

(2/3)

Important study just published on doctoral vivas: the findings are remarkable.

Zoe Stephenson & Amy Jackson surveyed 326 UK PhD examiners, and found that a whopping 97% support reform of the closed-door viva. Crisis-level consensus?

(1/3)

ah the joys of 232 pages of updated ts&cs, review & guidance documentation & impact assessments, published in the middle of term with an 8 month compliance deadline. (call it 5 since most committees don't meet after june.) that's rest of the year's plans up in smoke!

i feel there's a game to be played here. if you were to create a misleading abstract for one of your publications based on the fleeting and/or tangential appearance of a famous person, what would it be?

that (i'm more likely to watch films i know he's in) is very likely true, but he's in for approximately 5 minutes!

can't see any audible reviews...

having resolved to read more in 2025, my first purchase of the year is the 37.5 hour audiobook of stuart eizenstat's book on jimmy carter.

@pkandelic.bsky.social: i will need a rebuttal read/listen in approximately 6 weeks.

timely, given my sudden fascination with the english devolution white paper...

parental deafness is really kicking in. a 10 minute conversation just now centred on #1 thinking they were talking about their U3A french conversation class, and #2 thinking it was about their bell-ringing lessons at the local church.

hilarity did not ensue...

finally, 'murder most fowl'.

"norbot attempts to solve the core problem of the capitalist economy, according to your average bajillionaire plutocrat."

"what's that granny?"

"other people owning things and earning wages."

Plenty of places to start. Historiography on terrorism highlights a strong link between unmet life expectations and radicalisation, for example.

my contribution to the annual festive "draw a portrait of a family member on the children's' etch-a-sketch type thing" competition has caused a rift with my mother.

she is aggrieved at being drawn as "a cross between a gallagher brother and the butler from the aristocats."

next up, a close shave: "a clearly socialist critique in which only collective action can foil the machinations of a greedy capitalist villain who exploits workers (the sheep), profits from stolen resources (the wool), and uses destructive technology for personal gain."

followed by "the wrong trousers" as parable of public investment in innovation perverted by the profit motive.

christmas with my lot is very different from christmas with the in laws.

example: granny m is currently using a "my first sewing kit" toy as a pedagogical tool for a lesson to her 3 & 6 year old granddaughters on importance of solidarity on Ts & Cs *as well as* wages in collective bargaining.

a bit archaic, formal and polite, logical and skeptical: thatcher or heseltine.

fascinating... i wonder which tunes have been used to amp him up?

a man in a suit and tie is dancing in front of a flag ALT: a man in a suit and tie is dancing in front of a flag

agreed - man's got rhythm in his bone( spur)s.

i distinctly remember attending a meeting of oxford college deans in 2016 at which the blindingly obviously was stated, and then universally supported.

"zero tolerance policies are inevitably very tolerant because they fail the most basic test of any policy: they do not engage with reality."

for the avoidance of doubt: i mean the book.

sixty pages in, and this is spellbinding. many thanks @nedboulting.bsky.social!

Nine things we learned from the English devolution white paper | Institute for Government What the white paper does and does not contain, and what challenges lie ahead for the government.

"the Treasury clearly remains cautious about fiscal devolution."

well there's a surprise...

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/english-devolution-white-paper