Martin McQuillan

1 week ago | researchprofessionalnews.com | Martin McQuillan

Are universities about to see national industrial action by the UCU? Not content with being on strike against itself (see the long-running dispute between its staff and its leadership), the University and College Union is now considering going on strike against [checks notes] the government. Yes, that’s the Labour government. Delegates at the UCU’s annual congress in Liverpool over the weekend passed a motion calling for a national strike over university funding. Frances Jones has the details.

2 weeks ago | researchprofessionalnews.com | Martin McQuillan |Chris Parr

Higher education groups decry drop in funding as “making an already difficult situation worse”The amount of funding that universities in England receive from the strategic priorities grant, which funds teaching and learning, has been cut by more than £100 million. This article on Research Professional News is onlyavailable to Pivot-RP, Research Professional and Research Professional News only users.

2 weeks ago | researchprofessionalnews.com | Martin McQuillan

What has been agreed, or not, with the EU? Some of you might have been forgiven yesterday for thinking the sun had finally decided to shine on higher education with a possible agreement on British universities rejoining the Erasmus+ scheme. However, that meant it was also a good day to bury bad news, as the Office for Students revealed an effective cut to specialist subject funding for the next academic year. Let’s start with the good news, if you can call it that.

3 weeks ago | researchprofessionalnews.com | Martin McQuillan

Another higher education funding review is in the offing—this time it’s Sinn Féin’s problemTrouble is brewing in Northern Ireland. Mercifully, that is a sentence we have seen less and less as the years have passed since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. But battle lines are being drawn this week—not between denominational communities but between universities and the politicians in the Stormont assembly. At stake is a plea for a £1,000 rise in tuition fees.

3 weeks ago | researchprofessionalnews.com | Martin McQuillan

What does Labour think it is doing to universities following its migration white paper? For years, Google’s corporate motto was “Don’t be evil”. After some time as a virtual monopoly supplier of online content, that was downgraded to “Do the right thing”, which interestingly was also the title of Spike Lee’s 1989 film about race riots in Brooklyn. We guess it’s an example of how values can shift over time.