Richard Budd
He/Him.
Lecturer in Higher Education, Lancaster University, UK
HE, in particular social justice, lived experience (esp. students), decolonising, policy, geographies, organisational cultures.
I think out loud on here: https://ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com
- Reposted by Richard BuddI am delighted that our new open access book “Realising the Educational Potential of Mass Higher Education” has been published by @bloomsburyaced.bsky.social. www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...
- Reposted by Richard BuddInterested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 13:00-14:00 (UK time) on Monday 26th January: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...
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- Reposted by Richard BuddI was delighted to receive my Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) fellowship at the recent @srhe.bsky.social Annual Conference, particularly as part of such an impressive group of new fellows.
- Reposted by Richard Budd👇 a piece that @mvanhoutte.bsky.social and I wrote for @theconversation.com. It's based on our analysis of PISA data from England & Flanders, published in @berj-2025.bsky.social. Below we've connected our work to the Curriculum & Assessment Review led by @beckyfrancis.bsky.social. shorturl.at/7pHms
- Reposted by Richard BuddInterested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 9:00am to 10:00am (UK time) on Tuesday 16 December 2025 www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...
- Reposted by Richard BuddA @hepi-news.bsky.social blog on why the TEF will collapse under the weight of OfS & @departmentforedu.bsky.social plans. The points I raise are well known to those who understand the measurement of HE educational quality. Why are OfS/DfE so deteremined to press ahead? www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/11/30/w...
- Reposted by Richard BuddI am delighted that the third edition of Reflective Teaching in Higher Education has now been published. It's a privilege to work with such a brilliant international team of co-authors. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/reflectiv...
- Reposted by Richard BuddSession abstracts are now available online - do take a look to find out more about the range of topics we'll be discussing on Dec 16th :-) There is still time to register if you would like to join us in Lancaster - closes 5th Dec. See website at: socmedhe25.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/p...
- Calling online PGRs! 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
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- Reposted by Richard BuddFree online seminar – all welcome. Corridor Cultures: Transforming school cultures of gender and sexuality in partnership with students, teachers, and school leaders. Dr Victoria Rawlings, University of Sydney. Wednesday 26th November, 4.30-6pm (UK time).
- Reposted by Richard BuddDelighted to have this paper out in Disability & Society on autistic students' & graduates' experiences of negotiating diagnoses / identities whilst at university. Important insights for other autistic ppl at uni + staff and peers. It's #openaccess via link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Richard BuddHere's a piece by Emily Gray and me in University World News about our recent article on university staff experiences of gender-related violence in Australia and England: www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto... There's a link in the piece to the full article, which is available open access.
- Was part of a panel with @rhordosy.bsky.social , @mannymadriaga.bsky.social and @soniailie.bsky.social as @srhe.bsky.social network convenors talking about wider widening participation dynamics for Cambridge Faculty of Education's new THRiVE research group. www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/gro... 1/2
- As we discussed, there has been a lot of progress on promoting #inclusion in many ways but nowhere near enough. Even those with the best of intentions face countermanding pressures ranging from sectoral hierarchies and poor governance to insufficient resourcing and knowledge sharing. 2/2
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- Reposted by Richard BuddReally enjoyed contributing to the @wonkhe.bsky.social Festival of HE panel on knowledge & skills with Gemma Marsh, Tony Moss and @debbiemcvitty.bsky.social. Heartened by the panel's shared pragmatic commitment to making education meaningfully accessible to a diverse a range of students.
- Reposted by Richard BuddWe're looking for a Lecturer in Technology Enhanced Learning to contribute to our PhD in E-Research and TEL for 12 months. Please share: hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
- Reposted by Richard BuddGreat to see my article with Emily M. Gray is now published open access.
- Reposted by Richard BuddQuoted on the danger of putting too much weight on TEF judgements by using them to allocate resources because it will completely undermine the TEF's already limited validity as a measure of educational quality in this @timeshighered.bsky.social piece www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/tef-so...
- Nobody is more surprised than me that I'll be a keynote speaker for the Emerging Researchers' Group at the European Educational Research Association Conference in Tampere in August 2026. (Conference submissions open from the 1st of December, by the way.) eera-ecer.de/conferences/...
- Reposted by Richard BuddInterested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 17.00-18.00 (UK time) on Wed 26th November on Zoom. Register here: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...
- I took a deeper look at the HEPI/Kaplan Soft Power "Index". To me what it isn't saying - what is effectively being taken for granted - is far more important and interesting than what it purportedly tells us (which is of very little real value). ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/s...
- Reposted by Richard BuddDelighted my article 'The definition of educational quality in a quasi-marketised HE system: stumbling towards a knowledge crisis' is now published open access www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... & even happier it's part of a brilliant special issue edited by @jo-annebaird.bsky.social & Gemma Moss
- Reposted by Richard Buddme, @profstevenjones.bsky.social and others on the dangers of the Skills White Paper proposals for measuring and assuring the quality of education offered by HE institutions: www.timeshighereducation.com/news/risk-st...
- Reposted by Richard BuddThere is still time to register for this applicant webinar this Thursday for our part-time fully online PhD in Higher Education. I look forward to seeing you there.
- Interested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 13.00-14.00 (UK time) on Thurs 30th October on Zoom. Register here: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...
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- First day working in my new office, re-engaging with a paper I've not been able to work on for a few weeks for various (marking) reasons. It's not too bad, if - ahem - still 3k too long. #academicwriting #academiclife
- Reposted by Richard BuddQuoted as questioning “the wisdom of positioning a direct link between HE and the labour market,” over which HE has no control; instead universities "offer students... ways of engaging with the world that allow them to make use of the knowledge they’ve studied, to engage with the world in a new way"
- Reposted by Richard BuddInterested in studying a fully online, part-time PhD in higher education? I will be hosting an applicant webinar for our HEREE programme from 13.00-14.00 (UK time) on Thurs 30th October on Zoom. Register here: www.lancaster.ac.uk/social-scien...
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- Reposted by Richard BuddBERA @BERANews Upcoming event Leadership in a Time of Monsters: Responding to Contemporary Challenges @azumahcarol 7 Oct 2025 Register here: bera.ac.uk/event/leader...
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- Attended a great symposium on #decolonising today, and it's striking how equity/inclusion work in UK HE feels so precarious. In spite of the election of a (slightly?) more progressive government, budget cuts and redundancies coupled with far right resurgence make for worrying times. Thoughts?
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- It's Groundhog Day as 'students don't think uni is Value for Money' starts doing the rounds again. There's so little critical reflection on what this data does (and doesn't) show. It equates HE with salaries and only salaries, for one, which is absurdly narrow.... 1/3 yougov.co.uk/society/arti...
- If you factor in how the labour market is bad, unfair, and underpaying, particularly relative to rising living costs AND that placing all of the burden of cost of study - albeit through state loans - on learners doesn't make sense, then OF COURSE it's not "Value for Money". 2/3
- Student funding (among other things in HE) needs a radical overhaul. A good proportion of the participants in the survey appear to recognise this: over 40% think that it should be state supported. Worth noting that most undergraduate now have never known a time when UK HE was free/subsidised. 3/3
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- So many conversations with people whose communities are being im-/explicitly targeted by the UK-based flag campaign etc. It's creating real cultures of fear and changes around (shrinking) where people feel safe. If this is not when the government takes a principled stand against racism, then when?
- VC's tenure represented a 'tumultuous period marked by redundancies, proposed course closures and allegations of a toxic work culture'. Hmm, feels familiar. I have a little sympathy with uni leaders, but they've often played a poor policy hand very badly. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
- Solidarity will colleagues north of the border. I have a strong suspicion that we'll be there soon, too. ✊
- One of my @edreslancaster.bsky.social supervisees is looking at how professional services staff view university communications in times of crisis. Obviously very timely. Please share and/or have a look (and participate) if you're eligible etc. lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
- Linking student fees with TEF is simply unworkable for the very clear reasons that Paul Ashwin lays out here. It begs the question as to whether OfS either doesn't understand what it's doing and what HE looks like right now, or if it's posturing for future policy moves.
- A @wonkhe.bsky.social blog on the OfS idea to link tuition fees to TEF results. It's unworkable as it was when it was first muted 10 years ago. It suggests that the OfS doesn't understand how the TEF works or the impact on the sector of making such ill-founded suggestions wonkhe.com/blogs/back-t...
- Lol. It's well known that TEF doesn't actually capture teaching quality, so penalising courses that don't perform well on it is like a dog chasing its own tail. Also, when the university sector is in freefall, bashing it with this stick is astonishingly tin eared.
- I wonder if someone can/will do some analysis on the aftermath of UK HE's 'mini' implosion. It's almost unfathomably big and can't be captured beyond the stats of budgets and jobs. The wider losses around the arts/humanities, changed working practices, equity for students and staff, are colossal.
- This piece on private schools and university access by @samfriedman.bsky.social and @aaronreeves.bsky.social is really interesting, particularly on their school numbers stats and how to level things further. Not convinced that changing acces to 'elite' universities is really the answer... 1/2
- The state sector is hugely varied and in part selective (postcodes/grammars etc), and this just passes the problem upwards. 'Top' unis aren't better at education, they just recruit people certain kinds of people and the labour market's snobbish. Uni hierarchies need unpicking, too. 2/2
- I was asked by the editor of The Geographer, the @royalscotgeosoc.bsky.social magazine, to comment on the discussion around imposing domestic student fees in Scotland. This is an online accessible version of my piece. ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/f... #academicsky #studentfees #highered
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- When you need another coffee - and want to re-hang the laundry outside because the rain has finally stopped - and one of your research assistants (whose birthday it is, incidentally) decides he needs a lapnap... #AcademicsWithCats #AcademicSky
- I've written a blog on the entirely expected (and predicted) crisis that (UK) HE is in and where it's going, with three broad predictions: - Increasing Elitism - Soaring Precarity - Poorer Student Experiences Do you agree? What have I missed? #academicsky ddubdrahcir.wordpress.com/2025/08/27/l...
- Good to see university architecture in the press but it's also worth bearing in mind that: - Award-winning designs and overbuilding have created debt issues we're now paying dearly for; - Post-occupancy evaluations of how/if new buildings/campuses work are rare. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
- Email - dispelling the myth that nothing happens in universities over the summer. I've only been away for two weeks... #academicsky #backtowork #academiclife #inbox
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- Goodbye to D27, my on-off LU home for the past six years. We're all being shunted around - mostly into shared offices - as part of the grand faculty reorganisation/cost cutting/interdisciplinary master plan (delete as appropriate). My daughter did leave a message for the new incumbent-/s...
- It's only 'plunging demand' due to progressive governments narrow mindedly aligning the value of a degree with earnings and imposing a disastrous funding model underpinned by that logic.
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- Colour me shocked: a Guardian UKHE piece which isn't awful. The current system only "works" because staff are underpaid and overworked, and students exploited. How mass redundancies and £300 more per UK student are going to solve this conundrum is anyone's guess. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- This is policy is absurd, and this article is absurd. How can you write about levying fees around international students while ignoring the fact that the UK HE is in freefall, in part due to already dreadful funding policy. Tax the rich, not struggling HEIs. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
- Reposted by Richard BuddOur paper on clusters of schools across the UK is out. We find five clusters: multi-racial & super-diverse middle & working-class schools of towns & cities, suburban white middle class schools, established elite schools & (post-)industrial white working class schools. doi.org/10.1002/berj...
- Not the first to say this: the absence of discussion in the supposedly left leaning @theguardian.com around what university rankings do is depressing. They just recycle (false) Oxbridge/Russell Group notions of superiority in their own league table and reporting. #screamingintothevoid #academicsky
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- Please don't... - Call them tuition fees - Raise them (for students). There needs to be a sensible conversation about funding HE before it's too late. Although it arguably already is. BBC News - Tuition fees in England and Wales rise to £9,535 - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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- This is what a combination of poor policy and unimaginative leadership looks like once the rot is exposed. The risks of following the business model too far in HE has been warned of for decades, and it seems that some people weren't listening or simply didn't care.
- Weird feeling to no longer be working at @edreslancaster.bsky.social as of midnight tonight... I've not lost my job (maybe not yet - see below) but we're being merged into a multidisciplinary School. Some things will remain the same but a lot more probably won't... www.beyond.radio/news/local-n...
- Lancaster University - following the same rule book (and opaque internal logics) as other UK unis - is seeking to impose mass redundancies. The impact on staff, students, staff's families, and the region, would be immense. To protest against this, please please share/sign: chng.it/CyRHLRgrmb
