98 posts in this category · all categories
What is a University Press?
8 June 2025
On dropping the REF OA mandate for books (this time)
15 August 2024
Some personal notes on the REF OA mandate for books
21 June 2024
The problem for REF 2029
19 March 2024
Augar, The Humanities, Covid: Gazing into the Crystal Ball
18 July 2021
While the government introduces new freedom of speech rules at universities, the biggest threat to academic freedom remains their insistence on the financial destabilization of institutions
15 May 2021
My resignation as an external examiner at the University of Leicester in the wake of proposed cuts to English
3 February 2021
The Observer should not offer column inches to allow Oxford College principals to denigrate other universities
4 October 2020
Rapid-response grants and disciplinary boundaries
21 August 2020
Rethinking assessment during the pandemic, particularly re. disability equality
18 August 2020
Why academic bookstores?
24 April 2020
Open access monographs and the REF-after-REF 2021
14 February 2020
The new REF individual circumstances setup: the good and the bad
12 December 2019
Opting out of league tables is, of course, a type of prestige game
10 June 2019
The supervisory frustrations of AHRC Doctoral Training Partnerships
24 April 2019
Birkbeck updates draft REF code of practice to specify that it will not submit anyone on compulsory redundancy, despite not having any such redundancies anyway
31 January 2019
Some jottings on academic freedom and Plan S/open access
23 October 2018
Where we are with the OA monograph mandate for the Third Research Excellence Framework
1 July 2018
Thoughts on the UUK offer and why I voted yes
5 April 2018
On the OA "mandate" for books in the Third REF and the worry over trade books
2 April 2018
Action Short of a Strike Must Recognize That 9-5 is Not Always Helpful
20 March 2018
Who was actually responsible for the Toby Young OfS debacle?
6 February 2018
On ECRs, long-form-outputs, and the non-portability of outputs for REF
21 July 2017
My responses to the Consultation on the Second Research Excellence Framework
6 January 2017
The thing that's gone missing in the revisions to the REF consultation between February and December 2016: the 5* category
9 December 2016
Points from my first reading of the Consultation on the Second Research Excellence Framework
8 December 2016
Five un-busted aspects of the TEF
6 December 2016
Stern and REF: assessing the past to fund the future with non-portability
8 August 2016
The Stern review of REF
28 July 2016
On the ownership, portability and accreditation of research
28 July 2016
Transcript of meeting between Elsevier and the Minister for Higher Education in the UK, Jo Johnson
4 May 2016
It looks unlikely that UK universities are going to get out of the Freedom of Information Act
1 March 2016
A world reimagined without the university
26 February 2016
Evolving notes on the political philosophy of David Willetts
23 February 2016
The postponed REF consultation document
18 February 2016
Trying to understand Ofqual's inter-subject comparability Rasch model tests for easy/hard subjects at GCSE and A-Level
16 February 2016
Institutional Finance and Academic Freedom
30 January 2016
My response to the HE Green Paper
6 January 2016
HE Green Paper: response to question 28
6 January 2016
HE Green Paper: response to question 27
2 January 2016
HE Green Paper: response to question 26
31 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 25
31 December 2015
Internal review of FOI2015/25797
28 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 24
24 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 22
16 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 21
11 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 20
11 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 19
11 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 18
10 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 17
6 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 16
6 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 15
6 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 14
2 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 13
1 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 12
1 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 11
1 December 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 9
29 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 10
29 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 8
26 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 7
26 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 6
25 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 5
22 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 4
22 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 3
21 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 2
21 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 1
21 November 2015
BIS, metrics and non-selective QR-allocation
18 November 2015
HE Green Paper: response to question 23
10 November 2015
What TEF is really for
8 November 2015
Jo Johnson: your proposals for British higher education will not yield the competitiveness you seek
30 October 2015
'It's not about stifling academic freedom'
18 September 2015
TEF, REF, QR, deregulation: thoughts on Jo Johnson's HE talk
9 September 2015
Additional contexts for reading the emergence of new UK university presses
19 August 2015
The link between teaching, tuition fees and research publication economics
28 June 2015
Define: impact
6 September 2014
My short additional response to the HEFCE metrics consultation
19 June 2014
Ann Wordsworth, Critical Theory, Faculty Contingency and the University in Ruins
4 June 2014
Why OA mandates don't compromise academic freedom
1 April 2014
HEFCE's Post-2014 Open Access Policy: the short "what you need to know" version
31 March 2014
HEFCE (REF2020), IR deposit and embargoes
10 February 2014
Publication: Review of Humanities in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Utility and Markets
19 December 2013
HEFCE, the State of Open Access in the UK and Post-2014 REF
27 July 2013
Open Access, "Neoliberalism", "Impact" and the Privatisation of Knowledge
10 March 2013
The Grim Phoenix: The New Challenges for Open Access
22 October 2012
What will the Humanities do Post-Finch? (or: where are the OA venues?)
8 September 2012
The real problem with this mode of "curbing grade inflation"
23 August 2012
More unpaid academic positions and apparent "culture of entitlement"
2 August 2012
Perverse advert for BITE: "Keep Calm About University Fees"
1 August 2012
The undervalued book collection and peer review
19 July 2012
Guest piece in the Guardian: Secondary schools are not adequately preparing students for higher education
22 December 2011
HEFCE board appointments: learning through Argos
27 August 2011
UK HE White Paper day
28 June 2011
Angry Young Academics: The "Directors' Cut"
22 June 2011
Media piece: "Taking Back the University", The Guardian
15 June 2011
"(Un)Reasonable" fees by which metric?
15 March 2011
Vince Cable's Orwell-esque doublethink
22 November 2010
DEMO 2010
9 November 2010
OUSU Freedom of Information requests
28 April 2010