Notices by Pauline von Hellermann (pvonhellermannn@mastodon.green), page 3

#AcademicVenting we are trying to fight draconian redundancies at Goldsmiths at a time when there is a concerted effort by government, the anti-woke brigade and others to reduce the HE sector as a whole. There are more and more articles like this one, talking about how little bits of optimism amount to a collective “cloud cuckooland”.
There is a real onslaught.

https://wonkhe.com/blogs/ofs-assessment-of-university-finances-warns-of-need-for-structural-change-to-stave-off-risks-of-provider-collapse/

#AcademicVenting this coincides with the UK government’s calamitous attempt to combat “net migration” by reducing the number of international students; they are no longer allowed to bring dependents (neither are care workers. The cruelty!) This is a tweet by our lovely prime minister. We have a government that is actively hostile to HE (one of the economically most important sectors in the country)

https://x.com/RishiSunak/status/1790692815111926010

#AcademicVenting They tried to go one step further by abolishing the current work visa for international students (allowing int students to stay for 2 years after graduating). Luckily the Migratory Advice Committee firmly pushed back on this last week, and hopefully none of this will come to anything once Tories are out, but it’s impacting
International students decision making - we already have offer holders pulling out of our MAs.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/14/no-evidence-foreign-students-abusing-uk-graduate-visas-review

#AcademicVenting Just to say again: all this is so stressful- losing 50% of your salary for a marking boycott that maybe won’t make any difference, given the wider hostile environment. It’s not even about the reality of challenges; it’s the fact that all these reports are out there, right now. It gives ammunition to those wanting to fire us, and weakens our case.

#AcademicVenting The crisis in HE (higher education) is so tangible it’s making headline news; our dangerous exposure to changes in migration/visa regimes and therefore whims of government ever more apparent.

Who is completely silent on all this (as fas as I know), as on everything else? Starmer, Labour. It would make a massive difference, and would work for them. But no. Everyone beholden to the same - imagined! - anti-woke, anti-immigration, anti-university voter.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/19/rishi-sunak-faces-cabinet-backlash-over-plans-to-curb-foreign-student-visas

#AcademicVenting Anyway, here a nice comment piece by Polly Toynbee

“Tories and their pollsters see as clear as day that the growth in highly educated citizens, above the OECD average, is a social and political revolution not in their favour: the more educated people are, the less likely they are to vote for what John Stuart Mill called “the stupidest party”.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/17/tories-foreign-students-universities-crisis-economy-soft-power

#AcademicVenting I haven't been writing much here as it's just been too stressful. We are now officially in Stage 2; none of the counterproposals, none of our objections during "collective consultation" made any difference; still planning to make over 130 of us redundant. But we are resisting! Students have occupied Deptford Town Hall! #NotADoneDeal #UCU @ucu

#AcademicVenting if anyone wants to know what Stage 2 of the redundancy process is like:

#HungerGames with mitigation forms.

#AcademicVenting #HungerGames

Today our “Individual Assessment Form” (IAFs - formerly known as SMQs - “skills management questionnaires” - no idea why the name change but who cares)
are due in. We all have to attach things like student evaluations and progression data as well as publications, grants, etc. Then we will be scored against each other and some of us selected for redundancy. I am in a pool of 4 (with 3 wonderful colleagues) - we are going down to 2.

#AcademicVenting #HungerGames for the last two days i have been getting the loveliest student testimonials and frankly been in a complete state. All that kindness and caring. But i can’t bear that simultaneously these are also instruments of potential harm against my colleagues. I have not even started work on my IAF, partly due to other deadlines, partly because i simply can’t bring myself to.

#AcademicVenting #HungerGames Here is my lovely colleague Michael Rosen at the picket line yesterday, asking:

how will they score “We Are Going On A Bearhunt”?

https://x.com/GoldsmithsUCU/status/1803077036061151286

#AcademicVenting Did this post separately but want to add to 🧵 😊

https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/112664947922775683

#AcademicVenting Well, we all submitted our "Individual Assessment Forms" last Wednesday. Now looks like ALL cuts in my department will be made at my level, Senior Lecturer; 3 out 5 of us are supposed to go.

It is absolutely INSANE how all this is unfolding; the kinds of people who are in charge of all this. We are supposed to hear on Friday who it will be.

#HungerGames

#AcademicVenting

Good to see a Guardian article about what’s going on Goldsmitths, featuring Michael Rosen and all.

There really needs to be far more public awareness of the crisis in HE. Really hoping that, with a big public outcry, these savage redundancies can be prevented.

Though putting people through all this (more than 300 of us have been sent “you are at risk”letters - i am personally in a pool of 4, for 2 jobs to go) is itself pretty savage.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/27/goldsmiths-university-of-london-redundancy-plans?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#AcademicVenting this piece by Gaby Hinsliff provides an excellent, worrying overview of what is happening in UK HE at the moment - the reasons why the tally above of struggling universities is expanding almost daily. Freefall is the right word 1/2

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/29/britain-universities-freefall-saving-them-funding-international-students

#AcademicVenting 2/2

The story starts with the freezing of tuition fees in 2017, creating a growing hole in university finances that many plugged by recruiting more foreign students (who pay more than British teenagers for the same degree). That kept the show on the road until the resulting immigration numbers became politically toxic, prompting a government clampdown on visas and a sudden 33% fall in foreign student numbers compared with the same time last year.“

#AcademicVenting ah! For years I have been thinking someone should write “Unlucky Jim” - a 21st century campus novel - now just came across this! Hope it contains all those little details I was thinking about when starting this thread.

https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Secret-Lecturer/Secret-Lecturer/9781914487217

#AcademicVenting I don’t know how many of you have children who are about to go to university, but if you do: it might be time to mobilise!

#AcademicVenting Please read this wonderful piece by Goldsmiths Emeritus Professor Angela McRobbie, capturing why we all weep and weep at what is happening at Goldsmiths now. It was and is something so important: brilliant arts, research, critical thinking in a very non-elite setting, for and by non-elite students. It is so important we don't lose all this. But read the piece.

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/a-goldsmiths-diary

#AcademicVenting Ok so this piece by Glen O’Hara really is venting.

I am conscious that I & others might come across as incredible whiners. And of course I am aware that we are, for now (50% chance of unemployment for me in 3 months) incredibly privileged. But what O’Hara describes here is completely accurate. In addition to so much other awfulness in the world, the reality of academic life creates its own unhappiness - linked to ideals of what we feel it should be.

https://voicesofacademia.com/2024/04/05/its-not-your-fault-that-academic-life-is-getting-harder-by-glen-ohara/