@marcwelsh
Eclectic, inert, nerdish, a collection of spare parts. Niche Doctor Who references a forte. Masquerades as an academic with a political bent, tho mostly moans about how and why the current system doesn't work. Once wrote something something resilience.
UCU election results are out - turnout dreadful. Some welcome new faces and VPs (congrats to @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social), and interesting absences, including absence of option to vote for Wales HE rep. The latter needs to be rectified asap.
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1419...
Succinct. Clear. And I think broadly correct.
It's such a shame it didn't cut from the body into the "Mwa-naw na naawww" theme.
An important change as a result of the Employment Rights Act 2025. This timescale has changed in last few weeks (from April to after August) but is still happening this year.
This Acas guide is a useful primer.
www.acas.org.uk/employment-r...
Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.
The entertaining thing is Farage is safe until Reform get more than 100 parliamentary seats. Have a look at the Reform Constitution. Section 6.28.1.
The constitution as a whole ensures the party is under total control of Farage. Extraordinarily anti-democratic design. Unless Tories take over.
I think you have to look at the LPC tables to see where this figure comes from. It's table 9.2. Also in LPC Report.
I struggle to make a coherent narrative from it but you are right. It's quite striking! 220,000 salaries people paid below the NLW.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/698098...
21 MILLION? Oh. 😱 That's the end of some universities then. It's as simple as that. I'm sorry, I tried.
www.ft.com/content/a0cf...
Disappointed UCL did this. They have resources to defend that most others don't.
I have some sympathy for a case by students who were sold a lie, less with those that were simply subject to the same constraints as the rest of society.
Covid broke many in HE. This decision might break us again.
Bottom line is this stuff, which is accepted for student use in written work by most unis, now requires us to rethink how we define, engage with, and teach the use of AI.
We might even have to (whisper it) consider it actually useful.
I've been saying this for months. I've recently used Grammarly and it is pretty cool in terms of questions of tone. But the pretence it and Co-Pilot are just 'glorified spell-checkers' is outdated.
We preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act for its addictive design.
Our investigation suggests that the platform did not properly consider how these addictive features could harm the physical and mental wellbeing of its users, including children and vulnerable adults.
↓
Coming on the back of the French action against X today, and reference to the 'coalition of the digital willing' against the social media 'wild west'?! And is the UK one of them?
The push back against the idea of digital governance will be intense. Numerous academic papers will be written.
This is one hell of a step by Spain's Pedro Sanchez
The argument is compelling, the decision to change law, to track polarization footprints, to ban access to social media for minors, and to look at legally pursuing Grok, Insta, etc. feels like a line in the sand.
www.youtube.com/live/NElqgJ1...
UK information commissioner begins investigation into Grok re GDPR and undressing images
ico.org.uk/about-the-ic...
Don’t forget what Ukrainians are going through.
This is how it could be reported.
bsky.app/profile/pipp...
Finally watched Ari Aster's 'Eddington'.
Whilst using 2020 and COVID as a commentary on the fracturing of the US, after events this weekend in Minnesota it feels prescient. It seems to be saying we live in Brian and SolidGoldMagikarp's world now. Well the USA does. Worth a watch.
Happy Wednesday.
Something to add to this term's teaching - the quietly released UK Govt/Defra National Security Assessment on Global Ecosystems. Won't be a surprise, but it is ... stark.
"Every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse"
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696e0e...
BBC News headline: "BP set to scale back green investments as profits drop sharply"
BBC News headline: "BP scales back climate targets as profits hit record"
Profits go down: We regret to announce that we have to destroy the world.
Profits go up: We're delighted to announce that we have to destroy the world.
This is fascinating, a bit mental, but fascinating for teaching purposes.
If anyone wondered what the combination of monarchy, corporate global governance and family capitalism might look like then this looks to be a useful, albeit terrifying, case study.
This man child is clearly not in a healthy mental state. He's also so very very dangerous.
historically accurate☑️
Kind of more of the same "AI is bad" headline, but the Brookings and other studies cited point to other issues in schooling - not just indications and implications of cognitive offloading etc, but a deeper malaise in education and society - a focus on "transactional task completion".
Extraordinary level of interference in what can be taught at Texas A&M by its senior management/governing body, complying with State level legislation curtailing freedom of thought and speech.
For nonlawyers, it’s worth noting that statements like this have—as a formal matter—important legal effects as a matter of international law. If such statements are *not* made, and in volume, future arguments that Trump’s invasion sets a legal precedent will stand on much firmer legal ground.
Expect other global powers to use Trump's precedent to do the same. But hope that they don't. UK/EU has to take a lead here.
What the actual f ?!?
This might be England only but I suspect this is a study of particular pertinence for a university like Aberystwyth and a number of other Welsh communities and HE institutions. I hope Medr/Welsh Govt are doing something similar...
wonkhe.com/blogs/the-wi...
