No Past, No Future“One of the early inventors of computers, Turing, wrote that there were many arguments against the possibility of machine sentience that…Apr 105Apr 105
A Bad Moon Rises Over UK Higher EducationPerhaps you’ve noticed that the timbre of news stories and opinion pieces about UK Universities has shifted in recent years. Perhaps you’re…Jan 231Jan 231
UCU StumblingSometimes you need to write just to work through what you think, how you are feeling, and why. Sometimes you need to write to try to get…Mar 18, 2023Mar 18, 2023
University Challenge: Paying Your StaffMy timeline is absolutely full of people all across the higher education sector — whether striking academics like myself, or journalists…Feb 15, 20236Feb 15, 20236
Fighting In Separate Corners: Disaggregation and the 2021–22 UCU Four Fights DisputesOn 9 September 2021 my union called a special conference. Delegates voted to ballot for industrial action in our two disputes: over the USS…Jun 4, 2022Jun 4, 2022
On Why UK Higher Education Urgently Requires Student Number ControlsI have been trying, together with some elected union representatives, to get some form of motion supporting the reinstatement of student…Sep 17, 2021Sep 17, 2021
Poverty and the New Malthusianism: Learning Something from History, Just This Once.It is pretty obvious that, past a certain threshold of crisp data visualisations and internally robust statistics (which all end up…Apr 10, 2021Apr 10, 2021
What is academic work and how should it be counted?In managerial feudalism, ‘most of the important players are lords and vassals at the same time.’ (David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs, 181)Feb 7, 20211Feb 7, 20211
The Pet TeacherOn May 27th,1933, the philosopher Martin Heidegger gave his official Rector’s Address to the gathered faculty of the University of…Jan 9, 2021Jan 9, 2021
At the Heart of Pandemic University: A Moral Vacuum.We have only just started teaching, and I can tell you already that it is over: this ship is going to crash. The course is set, the shoals…Oct 17, 2020Oct 17, 2020
