"Sector leaders expected more than 100 of the UK’s 140-odd universities to be making redundancies by the start of 2025, in what has been described as a “cataclysmic” situation where “everything is on the table”." www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers... - ThreadSky

lottelydia.bsky.social • 99 days ago

"Sector leaders expected more than 100 of the UK’s 140-odd universities to be making redundancies by the start of 2025, in what has been described as a “cataclysmic” situation where “everything is on the table”."

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-job-cuts-hit-10000-year-end-despite-fee-rise

Comments

materassassino.bsky.social•99 days ago

I bet it's all in the humanities and arts

lottelydia.bsky.social•99 days ago

Actually no -- Reading are talking about closing their chemistry department, Oxford Brookes closed their maths department. Because STEM courses are expensive and are cross-subsidized by Arts and Hums, which means when you cut the latter you then have to cut the former.

materassassino.bsky.social•99 days ago

Jesus christ it's coming for everyone except the damn business schools

davehitchcock.bsky.social•98 days ago

Oh don't worry, Business Schools tend on average to run a huge loss, once you account for what are called 'progression' and 'completion' of degrees. They are a fine example of the prestige effect in action in university portfolio planning.

materassassino.bsky.social•98 days ago

Tbh I like when business schools suffer, I don't think they offer anything of value to society

cardiffbookhistory.bsky.social•99 days ago

Business schools might be vulnerable too – while they can raise a lot of income, their overheads (e.g. large faculty size) seem disproportionately higher than other HASS departments. All it seems to take is a few bad cycles (e.g. poor international recruitment) and they move from asset to liability.

jhawn.bsky.social•99 days ago

Limiting graduate student visas and denying dependents is sure not going to help

cardiffbookhistory.bsky.social•99 days ago

Hopefully, the change of government will address that issue in the short term, but to have a sector so dependent on it speaks to the lack of investment. The previous government pushed universities to recruit internationally then pushed them for it. The system is broken and needs wholesale repair.

sinisterbulb.bsky.social•99 days ago

Is it just me - but surely a sector with a huge track record of pulling in paying customers from all over the globe is worthy of investment?!

materassassino.bsky.social•99 days ago

Don't be utterly stupid, this is the UK, nothing can ever be made better or even stay good.

jhawn.bsky.social•99 days ago

One would think but students count as immigrants and that scares pensioners who still think that rag the daily fail is a newspaper

hifilarry.bsky.social•98 days ago

Is this 10,000 academic positions, or across the board?

The University sector added 20,000 academic positions in the last 4 years.

So, perhaps not cataclysmic?

radekcdydd.bsky.social•98 days ago

What is even happening in this image?

lottelydia.bsky.social•99 days ago

Glad to see that THE remains committed to inexplicable stock image choices even for the direst of news stories.

drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social•99 days ago

Tag yourself, I’m the one the guy at the front just let go, hurtling ever quicker towards the ground.

lottelydia.bsky.social•99 days ago

Meanwhile, it's good to be reminded of why we should not accept Jo Johnson as the 'good' brother: "If you don’t have scope for market exit, you don’t really have a market because there is no incentive for institutions to ensure they are competitive." https://www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/it-time-reintroduce-student-number-controls-england

lottelydia.bsky.social•99 days ago

We had a thriving, even competitive HE system without "market exit", because we were competing a) internationally and b) for knowledge. We don't need to compete against each other for student numbers, or funding, or drive other universities to bankruptcy to be competitive. Academia is collaborative.

jhawn.bsky.social•99 days ago

So I know the lad government screwed it big time with there constant war on social sciences and limiting student visas but how else has it been screwed. I say as I start a career in this industry.

buckmeister.bsky.social•98 days ago

So much this

cardiffbookhistory.bsky.social•99 days ago

The lack, over the past decades, of even the semblance of an industrial strategy that integrates universities and their contribution has made the landscape even more fraught. Hopefully, the new Government and its plans for HE in 2025 will address some of these issues.

benlitherland.bsky.social•99 days ago

Frustrating and annoying that the quickest and most obvious win for students and staff post-massification would be more collaboration not less! Let students pick from a range of providers based on what they do well, do a mix of distant and local as needed etc.

historydev.bsky.social•99 days ago

Exactly. It was and is a crying shame that is forgotten, damaged and undervalued.

stephenshapiro.bsky.social•99 days ago

good to know that the THE thinks HE is only composed of white men in need of saving.

magnusramage.bsky.social•99 days ago

Tempted to say that the connection to the story is quite a stretch. But it's such an awful situation for HEIs that humour seems out of place. It's the boiling frog thing: terrible govt funding decisions and terrible university management for years are finally leading to disaster.

glostermeteor.bsky.social•98 days ago

I bet they havent reduced the Vice Chancellors and other Senior Management salaries. Higher Education is in a mess due to mismanagement and executive corruption.

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