Richard Budd

A hierarchical cluster analysis on principal components showing five clusters of points, coloured by cluster, on a graph.

Our paper on clusters of schools across the UK is out.

We find five clusters: multi-racial & super-diverse middle & working-class schools of towns & cities, suburban white middle class schools, established elite schools & (post-)industrial white working class schools.

doi.org/10.1002/berj...

We'll make you sick and treat you for it so slowly that you'll never be okay.

It's a clever business model, really, but a parasitic one, and it's draining the host.

a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a window with his hands on his head . Alt: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a window with his hands on his head, hugely frustrated.

Not the first to say this: the absence of discussion in the supposedly left leaning @theguardian.com around what university rankings do is depressing. They just recycle (false) Oxbridge/Russell Group notions of superiority in their own league table and reporting.
#screamingintothevoid #academicsky

In a way this is the inevitable collapse of an educational empire, built on a somewhat undeserved, overinflated -reputation. The human cost of this is the real tragedy: exploiting international students for years until they lost patience, with staff now paying the price for poor policy/leadership.

Attacks on the humanities at Australian universities are not new – but they are now more lethal | Julianne Schultz Punishing fees for arts degrees must be ended if the country seriously wants to take part in the information age and give students the opportunities we need them to have

"Attacks on the humanities are ... now more lethal as the routines of corporate logic have been instrumentalised by university managements keen to squeeze the last penny out of challenged operational budgets, while capital budgets continue to be deployed to rebuild campuses as five-star resorts"

Tuition fees in England and Wales rise to £9,535 Maintenance loans have also gone up, meaning students can borrow more to help with living costs.

Please don't...
- Call them tuition fees
- Raise them (for students).

There needs to be a sensible conversation about funding HE before it's too late. Although it arguably already is.

BBC News - Tuition fees in England and Wales rise to £9,535 - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I am so happy to be part of this fantastic collection of academics sharing their 'stories of hope' as an invitation to reimagine education. The chapter that @Liz Bunting and I contributed is a reflection on the development of our website belongingthroughcompassion.myblog.arts.ac.uk

This is what a combination of poor policy and unimaginative leadership looks like once the rot is exposed.

The risks of following the business model too far in HE has been warned of for decades, and it seems that some people weren't listening or simply didn't care.

Lancaster University staff speak out on plans to slash hundreds of jobs Staff have hit out over plans for job cuts at Lancaster University.

Weird feeling to no longer be working at @edreslancaster.bsky.social as of midnight tonight...

I've not lost my job (maybe not yet - see below) but we're being merged into a multidisciplinary School. Some things will remain the same but a lot more probably won't...
www.beyond.radio/news/local-n...

Sign the Petition Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable

Lancaster University - following the same rule book (and opaque internal logics) as other UK unis - is seeking to impose mass redundancies. The impact on staff, students, staff's families, and the region, would be immense.

To protest against this, please please share/sign: chng.it/CyRHLRgrmb

Jayne Osgood talking to a room of people in rows.

Hugely insightful walk behind the curtain of the review and journal editing process from @profjayneosgood.bsky.social as part of our @edreslancaster.bsky.social Summer School. Particularly taken with the explicit approach of a feminist ethic of care in writing reviews - no room for Reviewer 2!!!

Charles Clarke and Paul Ashwin stitting at a table, talking towards a room of people.

Fascinating insights on connecting policy and research with @paulashwin.bsky.social and Charles Clarke as part of our @edreslancaster.bsky.social summer school.

Researchers must be clear and concise, representing their bodies of knowledge, providing concrete steps that policy makers can take.

Delighted this open access article with Laura Cordes Felby is now out.

@paulashwin.bsky.social, the Programme Director, will be hosting the final webinar re our fully online, part-time PhD in HEREE between 9am-10am on Tues 29th July via Zoom. If you'd like to take this opportunity to find out more about our programme, please register to join, the link is below.

www.lancaster.ac.uk/educational-...

International Academic Appeal Against Repression in Serbia We, members of the Serbian academic diaspora and our colleagues from the international academic community, are raising our voices in strong condemnation of the escalating violence, repression, and int...

Students and citizens in #Serbia are being arrested, beaten, and declared enemies of the state for opposing Vučić's authoritarian regime.

Academic colleagues anywhere in the world, please sign this petition in solidarity with them & spread the message.

Looking forward to being on the panel this event in Berlin tomorrow!

Certainly lots to discuss...

Thanks, Peter. The focus is not on teaching, actually, but the campus as a whole. I've included some work on teaching, as obviously it's relevant.

a close up of a man 's face with the word wentworth visible Alt: a close up of a man 's face with the words 'Time's Up

I've spent two days working on my newest (fascinating) paper, and am currently trying to forge a coherent path through publications from architecture and estates management to geography and pedogogy.

Another day and I'd have cracked it but I'm out of time. Next week now.
#academicsky

Australia’s university system is ‘battered’ and ‘broken’ – a new book surveys the wreckage and offers some solutions Our universities require a major overhaul. Reform is possible, but only if a government is prepared to take up the challenge.

'we are rapidly burning through our next generation of university teachers and researchers'

Insightful review of Graeme Turner's book 'Broken: Universities, Politics and the Public Good'

#HigherEd

theconversation.com/australias-u...

Layoffs, Budget Cuts at Colleges Pile Up in June As colleges wound down the fiscal year, a few cut dozens of jobs. But more cuts loom on the horizon due to federal funding concerns, anemic state support and enrollment challenges.

Quick rundown of all the cuts in the US university system, which are usually not about Trump but their general struggles - and the fact that their states won't help them much. www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...

Fewer pupils in less affluent English schools taking languages, survey finds Less than half taking foreign languages GCSEs compared with 69% in most prosperous state schools

What a terribly written headline. They could (should) have just said:

Poorer pupils systematically excluded from foreign languages.

And we wonder why languages in higher education are undersubscribed...not 'value for money' and all that. 🤬
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Birmingham City to axe 340 roles as it shifts focus to teaching Affected professional services staff will be given the chance to apply for one of hundreds of new posts

Today's university with the redundancies is Birmingham City, which is getting rid of 340 jobs. Every day in Higher Education is like this. It's madness. When will someone - anyone - call a halt? www.timeshighereducation.com/news/birming...

Two dogs, asleep on the floor.

My co-authors have tired of our running around in rhetorical circles; I have no choice but to press on, seeking a way out of the vortex.
#academicsky #writingissues
#academicdogs

For a poetics of rage in the business school undercommons - Chahrazad Abdallah, 2025 Drawing on the poetic work of Audre Lorde on anger and inspired by recent expressions of collective anger against the many regimes of inequality and injustice i...

'fierce competition for resources and symbolic status, obsession with metrics ..., pay freezes, staff cuts, crippling student debt ... and a profound loss of faith in a better future, are all constitutive of the business school experience today'

#HigherEd

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

As a few thoughts watching #Glastonbury...
- wishing I was there again but also doubt if I'd have the energy...
- so many good artists out there I've never heard of...
- people who don't see how the British establishment are being schooled by an Irish hip-hop trio don't know their history.

As part of my PhD I'm conducting a study looking at students' views of postgraduate research. The survey is open to current students in the UK (first degree and postgraduates). It's anonymous and should take no more than 10 mins!
lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
#students #PhDlife #PhD

How should higher education respond to calls to be relevant? - HEPI Higher education’s true value lies not in skills or facts, but in transformative access to structured bodies of knowledge.

New @hepi-news.bsky.social blog on how higher education should respond to calls to be relevant: www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/06/16/h...

Want to hang out with the Norwegian organizational scholars and talk about temporality and spatial aspects of HE organisations? NEON conference in Kristiansand in November, with Siri Borlaug we are organising a track on higher education. Check out the call here (ours is in English!)

www.neonnet.no