The UK's University business model is now pretty stark.... fees from non-UK students, and drawing down reserves (and income from investments) are the only two things left to cross-subsidise the rest of universities' activities (research & the teaching UK students, both of which are 'loss-making').

This model cannot go on forever - international students are in a post-Brexit deciine reserves are by their character, limited!

The crisis in higher education is going to get deeper!

#universities

S 982: Potential penalties for #universities based on protest policies

"Would make federal #accreditation of colleges and universities—and thus their access to #FederalFunds—contingent on the institution’s policies on responding to protests. Under the 'No Tax Dollars for #CollegeEncampments Act of 2024,' universities would have to regularly disclose how they respond to campus 'incidents of civil disturbance,' defined to include 'a demonstration, riot, or strike,' and their accreditation would be linked to such policies and practices. The bill sponsor cited #ProPalestine campus protests as motivation for the bill; he introduced the same bill in 2024."

Status: pending

Introduced 12 Mar 2025.

Issue(s): Campus Protests, Riot

Post by bill's sponsor, Senator #JimBanks (R-Ind.):
https://www.banks.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-banks-introduces-the-no-tax-dollars-for-encampments-act/

Full bill text:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/982

#CriminalizingDissent #AntiProtestLaws #Authoritarianism #Fascism #Clampdown #StudentProtests #CampusProtests #CharacteristicsOfFascism

"Most of our students are functionally illiterate. This is not a joke. By “functionally illiterate” I mean “unable to read and comprehend adult novels by people like Barbara Kingsolver, Colson Whitehead, and Richard Powers.” I picked those three authors because they are all recent Pulitzer Prize winners, an objective standard of “serious adult novel.” Furthermore, I’ve read them all and can testify that they are brilliant, captivating writers; we’re not talking about Finnegans Wake here. But at the same time they aren’t YA, romantasy, or Harry Potter either.

I’m not saying our students just prefer genre books or graphic novels or whatever. No, our average graduate literally could not read a serious adult novel cover-to-cover and understand what they read. They just couldn’t do it. They don’t have the desire to try, the vocabulary to grasp what they read,2 and most certainly not the attention span to finish. For them to sit down and try to read a book like The Overstory might as well be me attempting an Iron Man triathlon: much suffering with zero chance of success.

Students are not absolutely illiterate in the sense of being unable to sound out any words whatsoever. Reading bores them, though. They are impatient to get through whatever burden of reading they have to, and move their eyes over the words just to get it done. They’re like me clicking through a mandatory online HR training. Students get exam questions wrong simply because they didn't even take the time to read the question properly. Reading anything more than a menu is a chore and to be avoided."

https://hilariusbookbinder.substack.com/p/the-average-college-student-today

#USA #Universities #HigherEd #Literacy #Illiteracy

"A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile, email account, and phone number removed by his employer, Indiana University, and had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why.

Xiaofeng Wang has a long list of prestigious titles. He was the associate dean for research at Indiana University's Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, a fellow at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a tenured professor at Indiana University at Bloomington. According to his employer, he has served as principal investigator on research projects totaling nearly $23 million over his 21 years there.

He has also co-authored scores of academic papers on a diverse range of research fields, including cryptography, systems security, and data privacy, including the protection of human genomic data. I have personally spoken to him on three occasions for articles here, here, and here."

https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/03/computer-scientist-goes-silent-after-fbi-raid-and-purging-from-university-website/

#USA #Universities #HighedEd #IndianaUniversity #FBI #China

“#Universities #Australia is seeking a definition that will shield the state of #Israel from public criticism”.

https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/the-dangers-of-criminalising-criticism-of-israel-interview-with-muslim-legal-networks-dr-oz-susler/

https://t.me/AntifascistSolidarity/54234

#classwar #ausgov #auspol #tasgov #taspol #politas #antinazi #antizionist #palestine #gaza #rafah #freepalestine

"A Yale professor who studies fascism is leaving the US to work at a Canadian university because of the current US political climate, which he worries is putting the US at risk of becoming a “fascist dictatorship”.

Jason Stanley, who wrote the 2018 book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, has accepted a position at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Stanley told the Daily Nous, a philosophy profession website, that he made the decision “to raise my kids in a country that is not tilting towards a fascist dictatorship”.

He said in an interview that Columbia University’s recent actions moved him to accept the offer. Last Friday, Columbia gave in to the Trump administration by agreeing to a series of demands in order to restore $400m in federal funding. These changes include crackdowns on protests, increased security power and “internal reviews” of some academic programs, like the Middle Eastern studies department."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/yale-professor-fascism-canada

#USA #Trump #Fascism #Canada #Universities #HigherEd

After a lengthy & detailed discussion of the Court of the Tangerine Tyrant's political attack on Columbia University, @adamtooze makes an interesting argument about the next major problem for the university sector in the USA; the likely attrition against China, which will then cause significant issues for a sector dependent on both Chinese Students & funding for China related academic undertakings.

There may be (more) trouble ahead

#politics #China #universities

https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-365-defend-columbia-but

“Surrendering to Authoritarianism”

by Chris Hedges in The Chris Hedges Report on Substack

“Liberal institutions, including universities, traditionally surrender without a fight to the dictates of autocrats. Ours are no exception”

https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/surrendering-to-authoritarianism?r=27oltk&utm_medium=ios

#Press #US #Trump #Autocrats #Authoritarianism #Liberal #Surrender #Universities #Tyranny #Columbia #Harvard #Princeton #Yale #Indoctrination

“Surrendering to Authoritarianism”

by Chris Hedges in The Chris Hedges Report on Substack

“Liberal institutions, including universities, traditionally surrender without a fight to the dictates of autocrats. Ours are no exception”

https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/surrendering-to-authoritarianism?r=27oltk&utm_medium=ios

#Press #US #Trump #Autocrats #Authoritarianism #Liberal #Surrender #Universities Tyranny #Columbia #Harvard #Princeton #Yale #Indoctrination

The Imperative of Solidarity in Response to Assaults on #Legal Services, #Universities, & Independent #Media

“If #journalists, #lawyers, & #academics are going to be able to play the role that they need to perform as bulwarks of #democracy & the rule of #law, they & their employers must begin to think & act in collective terms.“

https://www.justsecurity.org/109439/collective-law-firms-universities-media/

Dutch researchers get questionnaires from the US government about political views – if you are a European scientist who has received such a letter, please DM me.

https://www.staff.universiteitleiden.nl/announcements/2025/03/researchers-advised-not-to-respond-to-us-questionnaire #Trump #sciencepolicy #universities #university #research

Are #universities being taken over by the "analytics-industrial complex"? Maybe, but I think the author conflates actual developments and data company dreams and sales pitches.

#academia #university_rankings

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2025031909283299

Trump has turbocharged the attacks on free speech at US universities. I have seen it first-hand | Sandy Tolan https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/20/donald-trump-gaza-protests-us-universities-palestine-arrest-sanctions #Palestinianterritories #Trumpadministration #Antisemitism #Universities #DonaldTrump #Worldnews #Protest #Israel #USnews #Gaza

"Mahmoud Khalil, the green card holding legal permanent resident arrested by ICE on Saturday, and a group of other students are suing Columbia University, the university’s trustees, and a number of other officials, according to newly filed court records.

The move is the latest episode in one of the most high profile immigration cases in the country, which could set a precedent for under what grounds the U.S. can deport legal residents who have not been charged with a crime. Authorities have previously said that Khalil was arrested because he “led activities aligned to Hamas,” without providing evidence for how Khalil was aligned with the terrorist organization, and he has not been charged with a crime.

Specifically, the group is suing to stop Columbia University and Barnard College from producing “all student or student-worker disciplinary records” to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce."

https://www.404media.co/detained-protester-mahmoud-khalil-sues-columbia-university/

#USA #Trump #ColumbiaUniversity #HigherEd #Universities #Israel #Palestine #Gaza

Update. Thanks to @georgetown for making this public statement.
https://president.georgetown.edu/messages/what-we-stand-for-feb-2025/

"I know that the rapidly evolving external environment is unsettling to many in the community. Some of us have received directives to stop our research activities; some of our students have had job offerings rescinded; some have read repeated external communications that question the value of their work…We promote scholarship freely based on inquiring minds…We do not conduct these activities alongside our mission; they are the essence of our mission…Be assured that we are actively tracking all developments as they occur, assessing whether they affect our mission’s work, quickly partnering with those community members affected, and supporting them as they navigate change."

#Censorship #DefendResearch #Trump #Universities #USPol #USPolitics

Der Fuehrer sez he will seek to block federal funding for #colleges and #universities “that allow #illegalprotests” on campus.

“All Federal Funding will STOP for any #College, School, or University that allows illegal #protests. #Agitators (😎) will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,”... though he did not specify an enforcement mechanism."

Trump threatens to stop funding for colleges allowing 'illegal protests'
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5174865-trump-college-university-funding-student-protests/ @palestine

I imagine that #WomensStudies, #GenderStudies, #NativeAmericanStudies, and other history / anthropology studies will be next on the chopping block. #BlackHistory already is!

New York's governor orders college to remove #PalestinianStudies job listing

February 28, 2025

"The job posting at Hunter College had called for a historian 'who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to #SettlerColonialism, #genocide, #HumanRights, #apartheid, #migration, #climate and #infrastructure devastation, health, race, #gender, and sexuality,' according to screenshots published by the New York Post, which first reported the job announcement."

https://apnews.com/article/hochul-palestinian-studies-genocide-cuny-hunter-04f5e9bf1b718bf0441f9b6cde260141
#Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #SignsOfFascism #Resist #ResistFascism #Censorship #Universities #HigherEducation #DumbingUsDown #DenyingHistory #DenyingReality

The expansion of large developers moving into the student rental accommodation sector (especially when international students numbers are down) reflects, if Lancaster is any guide, a major move to cannibalise the business of local small scale renters using housing stock to accommodate students.

The big developers will claim they can offer better accommodation (broadband etc.) but really its just one more sector where consolidation into oligopoly is underway.

#universities #students #housing

"A central part of the student’s lawsuit is that the university violated its own rules by handling the students’ disciplinary process through the Center for Student Success and Intervention (CSSI) rather than the University Judicial Board (UJB), which is composed of and accountable to a democratically elected body in the university senate whose members include a mixture of administrative staff, faculty and students. The UJB administers the Rules of University Conduct, which were set up specifically to deal with student protests following the university’s handling of anti-war protests in 1968. Under the CSSI process, students do not have the right to an attorney and are unable to bring witnesses to speak on the record. According to the congressional report investigating antisemitism on campuses, “moving the cases to the UJB would almost certainly result in significantly weaker punishments than CSSI.” The University Senate also raised concerns in the spring about CSSI handling disciplinary actions over student protests.

In addition to barring the students from campus and classes during the interim suspension, the order also said they had 24 hours to vacate their housing which was leased to them by the university. The complaint states that the university violated New York state law by not giving the students a 30-day notice of their eviction.

“I was worried about where I was going to live, how I was going to sustain myself. I was worried about losing access to my healthcare, which I rely on for doctor visits and medication that are very essential to living,” Parisi said. “I was overwhelmed with emotions. And quite frankly, I was experiencing a lot of fear of the uncertainty of what's going to happen to my life.”"

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/columbia-students-sue-university-palestine-activism

#USA #Universities #HigherEd #ColumbiaUniversity #Palestine #StudentActivism

The #eXit wave of #universities continues in northern #Europe, in #Finland.

After the university of Oulu also the university of #Helsinki will stop communicating via X.

“X no longer serves the purpose for which we have used it: disseminating the University’s communications content to our desired target groups. ..,” says Director of Communications Taina Kyllönen.

“We don’t want to promote a conflict-seeking conversational culture, nor do we wish to expose our #researchers to offensive behaviour through our own posts,” says Kyllönen.

https://studies.helsinki.fi/instructions/news/university-give-x-formerly-twitter-end-january

#Unis4Mastodon

Tao Te Ching was right: „A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step“ 🚶
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_journey_of_a_thousand_miles_begins_with_a_single_step

Last week, two more universities in Germany started posting on Mastodon: the @unigoettingen and @HumboldtUni in Berlin. We warmly welcome them to the #Fediverse! 👋

The list of #universities active here is getting longer and longer, cf. our new logo image, which links directly to their Mastodon accounts. Download it from
https://tubcloud.tu-berlin.de/s/Wa24Jr8MbLBdixs
and feel free to share it on other platforms.

It is encouraging to see that #Europe is starting to disengage from media that were once considered social, but have increasingly become propaganda tools for a politics of lies.
Europe has given itself strong rules for a digitization
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-principles
that meets our values of #democracy, #justice and #solidarity. With #Mastodon, #Pixelfed and #PeerTube, we have the technical means at hand to make real progress on our journey. 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️

Interestingly, Labour are considering banning (or at least limiting) the use of Non Disclosure Agreements in employment cases (especially where they are used to cover up sexual abuse/misconduct at work).

Given their quite widespread use across the university sector to try to maintain the impression of high education as a safe space for female workers, this may lead to some interesting (negative) issues emerging from the shadows at universities.

#universities #workers
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jan/17/labour-ban-ndas-sexual-misconduct-employers-gagging-clauses-work

Gaza schools & universities

@palestine
#Gaza
#schools
#universities

The next spending review seems likely to include a mechanism for linking students' university fees to inflation, immediately prompting a rise to over £10k per year, but this is just papering over the cracks temporarily.

The growing financial crisis that has beset UK Higher Education in the last decades will not be solved (or even really alleviated) by tinkering with fees.

A wholesale reform of university sector financing is required. Until then the crisis will continue!

#universities
h/t FT

European Universities started …
.. leaving X

#Universities in #Amsterdam, #Vienna, #Berlin, #Karlsruhe, #Aachen and other cities in Europe have left microblogging service X during the last week(s).

They justify this step with the systematic lack of moderation on the platform, which has resulted in a flood of hate speech, disinformation and cyberbullying.

Some of them have already started to run channels on Mastodon: @univienna, @tuberlin, @KIT_Karlsruhe, @UniOldenburg @unibremen, @freieuniversitaet, @UniUlm , @HTW_Berlin, @uni_paderborn.

X is not a suitable medium for communication in #research and #education. Help get the other #universities to follow suit and sign the petition
👉 https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon
#unis4mastodon 🌻 👩‍🎓 #eXit

Man weiß gar nicht, was man schlimmer finden soll: Die Verkommenheit von Teilen der Studierendenschaft oder die Scheinheiligkeit der Uni Leipzig?

https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/bildung/israel-gaza-krieg-universitaet-leipzig-sagt-vortrag-israelischen-professors-ab-a-f695ac8c-5a17-490b-a9d7-271453576e80

Als angemessenen Protest gegen die grassierende Ignoranz und Unwissenheit gepaart mit Hass auf #israel in der „Intelligenzia“ empfehle ich Benni Morris‘ Studie „1948“, in der er die Wurzeln des Nahost-Konflikts offenlegt und die Verbrechen auf allen Seiten klar benennt.
#antisemitismus #universities

How Universities Cracked Down on Pro-#Palestinian Activism

Stricter rules and punishments over campus protests seem to be working. #Universities have seen just under 950 protest events this semester, compared with 3,000 in the spring.

from #NewYorkTimes #NYT
[gift article - link can be shared. Expires in 30 days.]

By Isabelle Taft
Nov. 25, 2024 Updated 8:53 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/us/university-crackdowns-protests-israel-hamas-war.html?unlocked_article_code=1.c04.7u24.BzgBMbsnenoS&smid=url-share

#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NotAnotherBomb
#StopArmingIsrael
#BDS
#CeasefireNow #DivestFromIsrael
#Gaza #Israel #Palestine #MiddleEast #WestAsia #politics
#USA #US #USPolitics
#media #news #press @palestine @israel

#Republicans Are Already Trying to Grant #Trump Dangerous Powers

Opinion by #HafizRashid
November 15, 2024

"House Republicans are trying to push through a bill that would give President-Elect #DonaldTrump powers as president to designate #nonprofit organizations as '#TerroristSupporting' even after it was seemingly defeated earlier this week.

"The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act #HR9495 would allow the secretary of the treasury the ability to revoke any nonprofit organization’s tax-exempt status by branding it with a terrorism label. Earlier this week, the bill failed to receive the necessary two-thirds majority in the House to advance to the Senate.

"But on Monday, the House Rules Committee plans to hold a hearing that could set up a new vote on the bill, which initially had the support of all but one Republican and 52 Democrats. With the GOP only holding a seven seat majority in the chamber, they would need the support of more Democrats to advance the bill, which was introduced to combat #protests against #Israel’s war on #Gaza.

"Under any circumstances, the bill would threaten #FirstAmendment rights to #FreeSpeech, but after Trump’s election last week, there are now fears that the president-elect could use these new powers to crack down on his enemies with little recourse. Many #universities and #NewsOutlets are nonprofit organizations in addition to #activist groups.

"After the bill’s initial failure on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union [#ACLU] celebrated the rejection of 'new broad and easily abused powers.'

"'The freedom to #dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy, and now is not the time to grant the executive branch new powers to investigate and functionally shut down and silence its critics,' said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel for the ACLU, in a statement.

"Now, the bill could be given a retooling and sent up for a vote again, giving a president who has already threatened to use the #military against his critics even more sweeping powers. The question is if #Democrats will recognize the bill as granting dangerous powers to the presidency, or see it as a chance to clamp down on protesters they have tried to ignore at their peril for the past year.'"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republicans-are-already-trying-to-grant-trump-dangerous-powers/ar-AA1uaihv

#ClampDown #WorkingForTheClampDown #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DonTheFascistCon #StopHR9495
#CriminalizingDissent #KristiNoem
#Blackwater #ErikPrince #Autocracy
#SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists
#AntiWarActivists #WaterProtectors
#PeaceActivists #ClimateJustice #Protests #StandWithStandingRock
#GazaGenocide #LebanonGenocide

Looks like the Govt. has decided the first step to solving the crisis in Higher Education is (after an 8yr freeze) to put up fees in line with the retail price index in Sept. 2025.

While this may offer some (but by no means enough) financial relief to universities, really it just leaves the same broken model in place & merely puts off a proper reconsideration of how we pay for post-18 university education.

At some point something will need to be significantly changed!

#universities
h/t FT

It will be no news to anyone that universities are in an ongoing financial crisis, with their main opportunity for cross subsidy - international student fees - also n trouble...

As previously posted the Office for Students seems to be expecting around ten universities to merge or close in the next couple of years & VCs are making the same sort of noises.

The experiment with the marketisation of HE looks to be reaching its end stage

h/t @fkamiah17
#universities

https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/aug/09/english-universities-face-autumn-tipping-point-as-financial-crisis-looms