I spoke to @apache.be about the dispute over colonial-era geological archives from Congo held in a Belgium museum.
New demand for copper and other minerals has given long-neglected mining archives a new economic significance:
apache.be/2026/03/03/c...
Similarly, the Sudanese students I’ve taught have been incredibly accomplished, and have been working actively to improve lives in Sudan and in the UK. I’m lucky to have taught them, and other students are lucky to have studied alongside them. We are weaker as well as crueler for this rule change.
I have personally seen the applications of many Afghani students to our gender studies programme: people who have started grassroots LGBT orgs; who have fought for women's education; who want to come to the UK to study to make their country & the world better...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
My parents have a subscription but only get it delivered Saturday and Sunday as that’s all the newsagents can offer.
That married couple could very easily be 1, 3, 4 and / or 5. I‘m guessing age, education, housing status, ethnic background, children’s ages all make pretty big differences in who those couples vote for and what issues they think are important.
She still doesn’t understand that spreading out single vaccines is more dangerous because of the longer period unprotected from the different diseases. And she would still prefer her kids to not get the chickenpox vaccine include!
I know I had the MMR as a kid, but my records didn’t show it so I had it again as It was needed for US grad school. There had been a mumps outbreak at my uk undergrad university so definite advantages to making students be vaccinate!
A reminder that if you live in England or Wales & were born between 1970-1990 – or even before 1970 – you can help protect your community by getting the MMR vaccine free from your NHS GP now. I did last year. www.nhs.uk/vaccinations...
I did The Crucible at A-level and loved the play performed but hated it as a text, where it’s full of Miller’s extra instructions, as he clearly didn’t trust anyone else to understand it’s very obvious themes and modern parallels.
When people talk about the idea that some universities must go under, there’s a certain tendency to behave as if these smaller local campuses are negligible- regrettable casualties perhaps but not ‘real’ universities. This report does a great job of illustrating why that’s wrong.
I think it also comes from US discourse, where much higher percentages did go to uni in the 50s, 60s & 70s
My mum tells the story of reading that to me as an infant, and my Nan fussing that i wouldn‘t understand. (My mum pointed out that I also didn’t understand eg “rabbit” or “lettuce”!)
It’s about an American college, though so will be one of probably 4 classes the students are taking. From my experience teaching at a US college roughly equivalent to my UK undergrad, the US students were expected to read much more weekly, but did not have the peaks for essays and revision.
A DR Congo supporter has watched all their of three African Cup of Nations 2025 games holding his pose as the statue of Patrice Lumumba, who was born a century ago in 1925, and assassinated as prime minister in 1961 shortly after independence
www.telegraph.co.uk/football/202...
And the playlist! (More articles should come with a playlist!)
Enjoying @jimmy-pieterse.bsky.social’s article on campus radio in South Africa
The way a lot of universities work it is handwriting-unless-there’s-an-adjustment. Absolutely nowhere will be insisting every student writes by hand as you’re right that it would be discriminatory.
Not being able to drive or having access to a car shapes how you participate in society, but it certainly doesn’t simply exclude you from participating! For many serious driving offences I’d opt for shorter prison sentences and longer / lifetime driving bans.
This 3% figure is surely incorrect. They must be talking about fluency level amongst pupils starting school, right? So much much higher counted across the entire population of “pupils who don’t speak English as a first language” - or even counted later in the school year!
Or possibly comes and is then *made* to leave, wanting all the time to stay as obviously the UK is the best / would be the best if only [insert racist fantasy]
I don’t know if it still exists, but the free hot chocolate in December was always a highlight
Or just forget that they were against whatever change / infrastructure that is now completely accepted.
One of the reasons that emergence of ‘cold spots’ of subject provision matters: 52% of 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged backgrounds (the most deprived quintile in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation) plan to live at home when they go the university
www.thetimes.com/article/22cc...
The number of global deaths of children under-5 is projected to increase this year (from 4.6m to 4.8m) for the first time this century. (FT)
The price of aid cuts.
I’ve a lot of affection for Northwestern and respect for faculty there (who voted against this!) But this is deeply shameful.
I think somewhat separately there are some students who currently do business who might be better off waiting & working. If you’re studying business because you’re not interested in anything and just want a job … maybe you should get a job, and return part or full time when you have a reason to.
Columbia and Northwestern are the academic homes to the most prestigious journalism schools in the country and they are the two universities that caved to the Trump administration’s extortion demands that are directly connected to the First Amendment. Just gonna sit with that for a while.
Also of course, a blinkered view of university. Many, many students live at home! Many others stay local and go home frequently. Most universities are not Oxford!
What a weird view of the working classes! My working class Nan left school at 14, but seemed happy that her grandkids had more options. Her working class husband moved long distances for work & the life he wanted. It doesn’t honour them to remove opportunities and choices from their descendants!
