matthewbarnard.phd - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

For the sake of 10FTE jobs, UEA are still pressing ahead with compulsory redundancies. Some of these folk are friends & colleagues in my department. This doesn’t have to happen & is an enormous error of management #SaveUEA

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

This use of overseas students has literally been the government funding plan (even as they make it difficult to impossible).

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

This is utterly appalling www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre...

submitted 41 days ago • 2 comments

Really happy the website Dom and I have built together is finally out in the open!

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

🗳️ The May elections are a test for Reform UK. They want seats. They want headlines. They want to look unstoppable. But they only win if we stay quiet. 🟡 Join our big Week of Action (7–13 April) 🟡 hopenothate.org.uk/week-of-action

submitted 71 days ago • 4 comments

The new issue of the UK’s Private Eye.

submitted 78 days ago • 40 comments

Lifeworlds in Crisis: Applying Phenomenology (Dublin, Ireland | 27 – 29 August 2025) LAST CHANCE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS – papers, panels, posters, books - 21 March 2025 Joint international conference: BSP & University College Dublin www.britishphenomenology.org.uk/lifeworlds-i... #phenomenology

submitted 79 days ago • 0 comments

Knowledge and wisdom aren't the same thing, but other than that, a good article: 6 Tidbits of Wisdom You Gain From Using Linux

submitted 80 days ago • 1 comment

My piece for History Workshop looks back at what feels, I'm sure to me and so many other academics in the UK, like a decade-long crisis in universities. A crisis of politics, of a particularly venomous form of "education as market" ideology, and now a crisis of desperate, annihilating job cuts. 1/2

submitted 85 days ago • 8 comments

This is such a vital piece by @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the university funding crisis, which has been a decade in the making. www.historyworkshop.org.uk/education/a-...

submitted 85 days ago • 2 comments

It was just under 18 years ago that I received an offer for a funded PhD, made possible by government funding of research. Everything I've gone on to do is a direct result of this I am heartbroken for the next generation of students who have had this opportunity taken away from them by Trump & Musk

submitted 85 days ago • 1 comment

Still beaming. HEC did some stupid things over the last few months and you guys decided to mobilise and get the vote out. We still need to increase turnout but I'm so, so glad.

submitted 87 days ago • 3 comments

Splitting researchers from their outputs in the next REF could allow universities to submit the work of staff they have sacked, as job losses unfold across the sector, organisations representing English subjects have warned. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

submitted 87 days ago • 0 comments

Results are out, looks like you’re stuck with me for the next few years. Thanks to all the UCU members who voted, all the candidates that stood - and especially to @illdoitanyway.bsky.social. Look forward to working with everyone on HEC/NEC.

submitted 92 days ago • 12 comments

Trying to work out a strategy for replacing all US goods with their British equivalent. Trying to source an Amstrad computer and a Sinclair C5.

submitted 92 days ago • 6 comments

What the…

submitted 92 days ago • 3 comments

If Trump was President in 1940

submitted 95 days ago • 81 comments

Union says Westminster must follow devolved administrations in offering additional funding amid mounting bloodletting #AcademicSky #highered

submitted 94 days ago • 0 comments

"Have you said thank you even once?"

submitted 97 days ago • 31 comments

Lots of dumb chatbot results are explained away by "you need to learn to prompt it right". This means the AI is not being trained; you are.

submitted 98 days ago • 0 comments

I’m getting tempted to switch to light mode… what’s happening to me?!

submitted 99 days ago • 1 comment

When you’re reading Kant’s political essays that you used to find dull because the precepts of liberal democracy used to seem so uncontested, but now you’re like “oh that bit about an external rule of law above the state is a bit spicy”

submitted 102 days ago • 0 comments

Great mailout this morning from @vthuppil.bsky.social on how to grow UCU's strength and influence. I had no idea this proposal was possible, but it's the norm in other countries! Vivek's discussion paper is an absolute must-read (it fell off the NEC agenda because, well, NEC).

submitted 109 days ago • 2 comments

💥New elections mailout! Today we have a brilliant piece from @matthewbarnard.phd , who is up for a North West regional seat, who is running for the very first time! We think Matt does a brilliant job of turning the 'pessimism' narrative right onto its head: ucucommons.substack.com/p/introducin...

submitted 112 days ago • 0 comments

I've written a post for the UCU Commons newsletter on why I'm running for a seat on the UCU Higher Education Committee. If you're a member of UCU, whomever you decide to vote for, please do vote and encourage your friends and colleagues to do so to

submitted 112 days ago • 1 comment

The number of UK universities actively making redundancies has now risen to 89. As predicted here, soon that number will rise to 90 and then 100. The process is inexorable, inevitable. qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

submitted 112 days ago • 3 comments

Please sign if you believe: 1. Protecting jobs = the priority, not an extra % on last years pay 2. A pay rise is meaningless if you're made redundant 3. We shouldn't spend £200k on a strike ballot "to see what happens" See if the UCU Left majority on HEC agrees with you Then #vote for a new NEC

submitted 112 days ago • 1 comment

I've locked myself out of Commons Bsky, but in the meantime, here's an open letter for UCU members in HE to sign in support of a motion we're bringing to the meeting on Weds 19th which calls for a focus on defending jobs, reforming HE, & calling off a national ballot. ucucommons.org/2025/02/13/m...

submitted 113 days ago • 5 comments

💥New elections mailout! @matildaf.bsky.social tells us why she's running for the LGBT+ members' rep seat in HE, and her priorities if elected: open.substack.com/pub/ucucommo...

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

It's my mailout day! I've written for @ucucommons.bsky.social about the intersections between casualisation and LGBTQ+ issues, and what my priorities would be if I am elected 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

submitted 113 days ago • 1 comment

"When users had less confidence in AI, they used more critical thinking and had more confidence in their ability to evaluate and improve the quality of the AI’s output and mitigate the consequences": Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”

submitted 114 days ago • 0 comments

#UCD School of Philosophy is looking for a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the #Ethics and #Philosophy of Technology for a prestigious 5-year fellowship leading to a permanent position (subject to satisfactory performance). #PhilTech #PhilSci #AIEthics #PhilJobs www.ucd.ie/philosophy/n...

submitted 121 days ago • 4 comments

I wish that people who don't understand accounting, banking and finance would stop taking tips from academics on why all the talk of massive deficits in our sector is a lie because "there was a surplus!" We can be pissed off about a decade+ of mismanagement without delusions of being fine now.

submitted 127 days ago • 1 comment

Here are my recommendations for UCU NEC, Officer and Trustee elections for 2024–25. Please do share these widely, and happy to talk further about these via email (through website) or DM here. hagenilda.wordpress.com/2025/02/02/v...

submitted 124 days ago • 1 comment

Good! About time!

submitted 123 days ago • 0 comments

There has never been a more important time to engage with UCU's democracy and to make sure your elected representatives are accountable to you, the membership. Please vote in the NEC elections as soon as you receive your ballot pack.

submitted 128 days ago • 0 comments

'Across 103 universities to have posted financial accounts so far this year with relevant figures, £210 million was spent on compensation for loss of office last year. This was a 67 per cent increase on...2022-23. The severance payments...affected about 10,300 employees'. 1/4

submitted 126 days ago • 4 comments

If your D&D group can't decide which faction your party should join, and the FPTP discord poll your DM runs results in a tie, and so you advocate for and run an STV poll to resolve the issue, is does that make you a double nerd? Asking for a friend.

submitted 126 days ago • 1 comment

GAI and bitcoin are interesting challenges to the idea of free market competition. Why are these companies allowed to massively increase their power and resource consumption when its not proven to be necessary to create a final product that is not proven to be useful?

submitted 130 days ago • 0 comments

As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/

submitted 130 days ago • 224 comments

If it was a Nazi salute - and it may well have been - it was a very poor example. He should have kept his neck stiff and head up, not slant it back to keep his balance. Can’t even get that right.

submitted 136 days ago • 6 comments

Centre for African Phenomenology | CAP Continuing our series profiling phenomenology organisations from across the world, and showcasing the wealth of activities in the field today www.britishphenomenology.org.uk/centre-for-a... #phenomenology #philosophy

submitted 145 days ago • 0 comments

Lots of us got up at last week’s HEC and pointed out that this is exactly what would happen if we called the ballot. The ToRs were far from perfect, but they were a step towards tackling casualisation, and the member consultation indicated that they had strong support from the members. What a waste.

submitted 170 days ago • 0 comments