Blog

Fixing Universities: A Collective Approach to Financial Crisis

August 01, 2025

UK-universities funding-crisis collective-procurement shared-services education-policy institutional-efficiency

Universities in the UK are in financial trouble. Instead of individual cost-cutting that shrinks institutions, the sector could save billions through collective action and smarter revenue diversification.

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Beating The Odds: Four Months in Mid-Life Employment Limbo

July 31, 2025

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I was made redundant 4 months ago today. Fast-forward four months: zero salary, zero job, and—rather paradoxically—a very busy diary. So what's it actually like, drifting through middle-age employment limbo with a gym membership you no longer use and a freezer full of salted-caramel regret?

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Beyond the Balance Sheet: Why UK Universities Need a Busyness Model

July 28, 2025

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Calling a university's strategy its 'business model' is like calling the Royal Opera House a karaoke bar. Universities need a busyness model focused on public value, not just profit margins.

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Governmental Shrugs: When Car Factories Matter More Than Universities

July 25, 2025

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Westminster rushes to save 1,300 car jobs at Lotus but shrugs at 10,000 university redundancies. Apparently some independent organisations are more independent than others.

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Ethics in Artificial Intelligence: Yes, There Is a Problem

July 23, 2025

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Artificial intelligence has catapulted from the plaything of graduate students to the digital weather system that now soaks every corner of the economy. The upsides are dazzling; the downsides, well, they're the reason you're reading this article instead of a holiday brochure.

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Why Can't We Be Friends? The University Collaboration Paradox

July 20, 2025

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Universities compete fiercely while claiming to collaborate generously. It's time to examine why the sector's most obvious solution—working together—remains frustratingly elusive.

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The Rightsizing Rant: When Corporate Jargon Eats Reality

July 15, 2025

rightsizing corporate-jargon university-management redundancies business-speak euphemisms

When 'rightsizing' becomes the euphemism du jour for mass redundancies, you know corporate-speak has officially jumped the shark. Let's decode the jargon that's chloroforming common sense.

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Why Can't We Be Friends? Universities and the £1.5 Billion Collaboration Challenge

July 10, 2025

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UK universities could save £1.5 billion through collaboration, but pyramid politics and cultural feudalism keep them competing over stationery while students foot the bill.

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Flatpacks Not Ivory Towers: Why Universities Should Be Built Like IKEA Furniture

July 10, 2025

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Universities are built like medieval cathedrals when they should be assembled like flatpack furniture. Modular, efficient, and possible to rebuild when you inevitably lose the instructions.

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Cheaper, Easier, Efficienter? The Curious Tale of UK Universities and Private Contractors

July 09, 2025

university-outsourcing private-sector-partnerships cost-savings efficiency market-forces higher-education-policy

Fifteen years after ministers promised that private partnerships would revolutionise British higher education, we ask: who actually made any money? Spoiler alert: nobody ends up bathing in gold coins, but at least the catering's cheaper.

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How to Murder a University: A Guide to Institutional Death

July 08, 2025

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A UK university cannot simply press CTRL-ALT-DELETE and vanish. Here's what actually happens when institutions reach the end of the financial road.

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Who Actually Owns a University (and Why Treating One Like a Corner Shop Is a Terrible Idea)

July 07, 2025

university-ownership charitable-status royal-charter governance OfS university-autonomy public-benefit

Universities belong to exactly the same person who owns Stonehenge and the Shipping Forecast: nobody in particular and everyone in theory. They're magnificent, slightly aloof, and impossible to sell on eBay.

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Who Actually Owns a University (and Why Treating One Like a Corner Shop Is a Terrible Idea)

July 05, 2025

university-ownership charitable-status royal-charter governance OfS university-autonomy public-benefit

Universities belong to exactly the same person who owns Stonehenge and the Shipping Forecast: nobody in particular and everyone in theory. They're magnificent, slightly aloof, and impossible to sell on eBay.

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Flatpacks, Not Ivory Towers: A Blueprint for Community-First Campuses

July 03, 2025

university-governance lean-management hierarchy administrative-bloat kaizen participatory-budgeting flat-structures

British universities have morphed into Versailles-sized palaces of PowerPoint where the managerial pyramid grows faster than academic staff. Time to flatten the hierarchy and trust the people who can actually spell phenomenology.

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Fixing Universities: A Collective Approach to Financial Crisis

July 02, 2025

UK-universities funding-crisis collective-procurement shared-services education-policy institutional-efficiency

Universities in the UK are in financial trouble. Instead of individual cost-cutting that shrinks institutions, the sector could save billions through collective action and smarter revenue diversification.

Read more →

Beyond the Balance Sheet: Why UK Universities Need a Busyness Model

July 01, 2025

university-business-model SROI social-return-investment public-good UK-universities university-finance

Calling a university's strategy its 'business model' is like calling the Royal Opera House a karaoke bar. Universities need a busyness model focused on public value, not just profit margins.

Read more →

Governmental Shrugs: When Car Factories Matter More Than Universities

June 30, 2025

university-funding job-losses government-response economic-policy UK-priorities car-industry

Westminster rushes to save 1,300 car jobs at Lotus but shrugs at 10,000 university redundancies. Apparently some independent organisations are more independent than others.

Read more →

When Jargon Stops Clarifying and Starts Chloroforming the Truth: A Brief Rant About 'Rightsizing' in UK Universities

June 25, 2025

business-jargon rightsizing university-cuts corporate-speak euphemisms academic-jobs redundancy

67 UK universities have redundancy schemes running, but they're calling it 'rightsizing.' It's time to sack the euphemism and interrogate the plan.

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Stop Calling Everything 'Slop': Build a Smarter AI Quality Checklist

June 19, 2025

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The term 'AI slop' has become a lazy catch-all for any machine-assisted work. Here's a detailed taxonomy for more precise AI quality assessment—because clear language is the first step toward cleaner machine-made work.

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Why I'm Staying Away from UK Higher Education—For Now

June 18, 2025

universities employment academic-jobs uk-education career-change

After spending most of my life inside universities, I find myself on the outside looking in—and I don't plan to go back any time soon. Here's why the current state of UK higher education is pushing talent away.

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