Author: Einar Thorsen

Kulraj PhullarIndependent Scholar “Decolonisation” is a term that has become familiar to many of us in recent years. Last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests across the UK contributed to the global wave of solidarity with African Americans following the killing of George Floyd, and raised the political stakes of decolonising our disciplines, histories and institutions. …Continue Reading

Julian PetleyBrunel University London In his triumphant and swaggering Brexit speech at the Greenwich Royal Naval College on 3 February 2020, we find one of Boris Johnson’s earliest mentions of the coronavirus. It is a warning, but not of imminent peril. Rather it is a warning of the danger posed to the economy by what he regards …Continue Reading

Simon CottleCardiff University As our academic field gears up and sets about interrogating the ways in which media and communications have variously engaged with and communicatively enacted this unprecedented – though in truth long-predicted – global pandemic, it is worth considering what appears to be on the research agenda and, importantly, what seems to be …Continue Reading

Alison Scott-Baumann & Simon PerfectSchool of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) There’s no such thing as free speech and it’s a good thing too, according to American academic Stanley Fish. By this he means that there is no situation where speech is truly ‘free’, without constraint; in every scenario there are rules, explicit or implicit, which …Continue Reading

Abigail GardnerUniversity of Gloucestershire So, we’re off the podium then. No more Gold, Silver or Bronze. The OfS has listened to Dame Shirley Pearce on this one. The TEF gongs were too simplistic and the Pearce review pointed out exactly why. No-one likes to come third. Recognising that ‘bronze’ played particularly badly internationally, the OfS …Continue Reading

Janet JonesUniversity of Westminster The UK is lucky to have an incredibly strong and resilient Higher Education sector. It’s been buffeted back and forth across multiple ideologically based funding reviews, and Augar won’t be the last. Just as we look ahead, we need to look back, and ask, has any one set of prescriptions for …Continue Reading

John DowneyLoughborough University Gavin Williamson has become a figure of fun as Secretary of State for Education. He is probably the most incompetent Cabinet minister in a government not known, quite frankly, for being able to govern. He is already the comeback kid having served in even higher office. His meteoric rise through the ranks …Continue Reading

Einar ThorsenBournemouth University Boris Johnson has made a habit in the past year of failing to mention Higher Education during his many announcements to alter course in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Specific guidance for Universities would trickle out in the days following policy changes, requiring staff and students to jump through hurdles at short …Continue Reading