masudhusain.bsky.social
Professor of Neurology & Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow, New College, Oxford. Editor-in-Chief, Brain
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On Sunday 11 May at Stratford Upon Avon Literary Festival, hear from @masudhusain.bsky.social on 'Our Brains: Our Selves'
@oxexppsy.bsky.social
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No golden eggs, no geese - of any kind!
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It is important that we move toward changing this before it is too late and leave us far behind researchers in other countries.. in fact, other items on the list, such as inflexible environments, also have roots in the designed beurucracy for clinical research in the UK.
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Additional: If you are on a committee, resist the need for more processes
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Minimum resistance: Challenge every new 'initiative' if you think it comes with more costs than benefits.
Moderate: Petition for change. You can do this within your University (Microsoft Forms) with other like-minded people.
Bold: Lobby funders. Why should they waste money? More on this soon.
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But it's up to us. That's what I meant by the responsibility of intellectuals (the bit of the article that seems to have been ignored; photo is of a young Noam Chomsky).
Sadly, we've got used to learned helplessness. I'm as much to blame as anyone else. Only way out is to resist in everyday life.
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2/ It's good if this has sparked an open debate but let's not conflate this with DOGE.
My view: If we want to improve things we need to change the culture. Challenge why something is done in a particular way. Canvas Heads of Dept to work together on this. If that doesn't work, lobby funders.
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1/ Thanks for taking so much care and effort to write this, Edwin. Beautifully crafted!
Many (most) aspects of my work are also 'bullshit'.
I've not advocated firing anyone.
Travel is the least of our problems. I chose it as an example because it is a common issue and potentially easy win.
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Some took offense to the travel example in the article (doi.org/10.1093/brai... ), so I outlined others in some detail: external compliance, internal weirdness, and some good processes with poor implementation. Importantly, we ALL benefit (administrative and academic staff alike!) from reduced BS.
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Totally ! Yes. As a scientist I used to think "meh! why am spending my time booking this trip myself …"
But fact is, when I booked the trips, it was cheaper and faster. Now, it is a back and forth of e-mails over several days or weeks until the agency makes the booking, while the prices increase.
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Academics in the UK remain fully behind our NIH colleagues and against the indiscriminate cuts and sanctions imposed upon them.
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Thanks and yes, I agree. If you read the article you'll see that I include senior academic administrators in the critique.
The litmus test is not about a person but the process that they are running.
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Yes, I agree entirely.
Why are some universities having to cut entire academic departments? Sure, the flow of overseas students might have reduced but there are also intrinsic costs that arise from the way universities administer themselves. And, of course, there will be other reasons too!
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That's right but at least we're having an upfront discussion about stuff we all (sorry, most of us) find challenging. We're supposed to be doing research, teach, present our findings....not be crippled by admin. As I say, many of our very valued administrators would agree.
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Thanks. This guy was Head of Department of two different departments. But he soon came to feel that there was really very little he could effectively do, apart from sign off various documents that were placed in front of him, or troubleshoot difficult situations. HoDs don't feel empowered an more.
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2/ Third, get other leaders in the University (e.g. HoDs) to join in flagging unnecessary burdens to central leadership (they need to know).
All of these extra commitments crept in incrementally. There is absolutely no reason that they cannot be dismantled one at a time, locally, if we're brave!
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1/ That's up to leaders like you and me. First, admit there is a problem (some people are in denial). Second, Identify the biggest problems. I also find out from admin staff what they think is a waste of time.
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Thanks. That isn't my point. If you read the article, you'll see that I also refer to academics in bullshit jobs. It's the processes and structures that we have created, and then of course populated, that mean we don't have sufficient time to do the job of thinking.
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These guys saw it coming ten years ago! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
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Great but even Heads of Department need a nudge. They’re also under a deluge of things to do, most of which they also find pointless
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2/ Do I check the wages of hotel employees? No. Do you?
If you're happy with the current state of affairs that's great, but I don't think many of the rest of us are
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1/ Thanks, Mark.
What's the evidence that it's *necessary* is where I start from.
Have I ever tried to book my own travel and found it cheaper than the travel agency offering? Yes, and so it would seem have others.
Financial breakdown? £3m given away to a travel agency at University of Oxford
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Mark, Nobody said they weren't amazing! My critique is about the structures and processes that have led to the current situation where we just don't have time to think. Nor do our administrative staff.
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b) Petitioning University leaders to cut unnecessary stuff
c) Lobbying funders. Why should they fund private sector companies that fleece universities?
Perhaps most importantly, we need to get out of this state of learned helplessness. Solutions don't always come from other people.
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2/ Clear solutions? Those depend on the problem, but can include:
a) Pushing back on everyday requests, challenging their value and pointing out the cost (to you and the organisation)
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1/ Thanks. I would hate this critique to be conflated with what DOGE is doing. I am not advocating that. In the UK - and many other places it seems - academic lives have been diminished by admin demands that just weren't there 25 years ago. We have to voice our concerns if we want change.
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Yeah collaboration agreements are one major example. While they have great potential purposes, our uni routinely takes 6 months to create them and the end result is always a legal nightmare while the researchers waste time and money, and everyone loses interest by the end.
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Thanks. The travel example was one I thought is common across the sector. But of course you're right: the problem is more pernicious and extends to other areas. The common theme is the need for more monitoring. You'd think that outsourcing this would lead to less work, but it's the opposite.
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Thanks. My take on this is that it's all about the level of risk that an organisation is prepared to live with. Don't mistakes happen under the current system?
Things can change. It requires enough people to push for it, and challenge the new orthodoxy. It doesn't have to be this way.
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Thanks, but I never said that administrative staff are unhelpful. Some of them are friends! This is a critique about how questionable 'processes' have led to expansion of admin. In private, many administrators will tell you they find it just as frustrating as we do. So why are we doing it this way?
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Thanks and good point. If you're interested, I dealt with the impact of 'Risk aversion in universities' in a previous editorial
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...
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This is great Masud -- There was a good description of Chomsky's position on anarchy and authority on the Philosophize This podcast that presaged bullshit jobs -- He argued that authority is required to justify its existence. www.philosophizethis.org/transcript/e...