Michael O’Neill
Inorganic Chemistry || University of Liverpool || Education || Blogging || Textbooks || www.michaeloneill.org || PERIODically Podcast supporter
- Teaching ligand field theory to a class where some study symmetry and some don’t, which is a fun challenge. This year I am aggressively leaning into sigma/pi labels, which is going pretty ok I think.
- Very interesting HEPI paper on Awarding Gaps. Analysis of TEF data shows that *large* gaps were completely compatible with winning TEF Gold. The case for including gaps as a metric in future regulation is explored very thoughtfully, I think. www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/maki...
- Excellent piece on how universities are important economic players in local economies, but also how they have been giving people hope about the future in very practical ways. 5min read.
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- "A pedagogy of the inevitable does not liberate students; it calibrates them to some forecast of future employment demand." A really thoughtful piece looking at how an academic case for GenAI in teaching is presented. 20min read. read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
- Excellent piece on the Welsh government’s recent HE policy analysis. 10min read. wonkhe.com/blogs/welsh-...
- Free meeting (coffee/lunch included) on links between UG Chemistry teaching and industry on Friday Feb 20th in Liverpool. No need to be a member of the RSC or the Higher Education Group. Sign up link in blog.
- **New blog post** I have taken over running the RSC Higher Education Group Network meetings. This post describes the direction of travel and details for signing up. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2026/1/14/the-rsc-higher-education-group-network
- Increasingly hard to see how the student loan model can be sustained in its current form.
- I feel the most worrying pressure is on assessment. Whatever the (many) drawbacks of the timed exam, it is a format which guarantees that a student did the work. #LTHEChat
- Blog on the admissions story at Trinity Hall in Cambridge, trying to draw something a bit wider from it about the internal structures of Cambridge and national politics of state secondary education. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2026/...
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Michael O’NeillFollowing coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.
- **New blog post** I have taken over running the RSC Higher Education Group Network meetings. This post describes the direction of travel and details for signing up. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2026/1/14/the-rsc-higher-education-group-network
- Maybe the real curriculum review is the friends we made along the way
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- I used to teach here, and find this very sad. The targeting seems to be about subjects which are increasingly hard to sustain in state education (classics, languages, music), which is not a good sign for these disciplines. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
- Imagine being an academic before emails and you come back after Christmas and there is a tiny bundle of post for you.
- Lots of people are surprised at how wide the ceramics industry is. Many smart materials are ceramics designed and made in Britain. These are often high-margin products developed to address urgent challenges like climate change. 1/2
- *substituting parsley for cumin in an Ottolenghi recipe* 🎶no-one cooks like Gaston 🎶
- Cambridge have done a 2-page spread on their curriculum review progress, which is good. Exciting to see both immediate concrete changes and thoughtful ambitions for the longer term. But also good to see UG teaching featured so prominently in their external communications.
- Have started my break and am now chomping through Wolf Hall. The hype is all true - it’s *really* well written.
- Reposted by Michael O’NeillWell, it's finally up. Thanks @sarahbraner.bsky.social @cenmag.bsky.social for profiling me and my journey from @cmu.edu to @ucddublin.bsky.social. It's been a hell of a ride. I'm glad I'm here safe, at least. ⚗️ #newpi #disabledinstem #lgbtqinstem #transinstem #leavingus #howtoleave #ireland
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- **new blog post** I thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like if tuition fees had grown with the "triple lock" approach of the state pension. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/...
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- I had a very lovely trip to Keele this week. I'd never been before, and it's beautiful. My talk was on the closure of Departments, and hopeful ways through the economics and geography of a difficult moment for Chemistry.
- Aim: get 3 books as Christmas presents. Outcome: get 2 books as Christmas presents and 3 books for me. Evaluation: huge success.
- The RSC Higher Education Group is looking for new committee members as the terms of some of the committee are closing. I have found it a really positive and thoughtful group. If you are an RSC member, consider standing for election! www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/SJMOSO/
- Liverpool is hiring for a Professor who would also be Head of Chemistry. Application deadline Jan 4th. Interviews Feb 5th. I really like it here; maybe you would, too. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ019/p...
- I read the generic guidance about peer observations in preparation for observing a colleague. There are helpful lists of ideas for what to think about. Something missing: the skill of a teacher to explain technical concepts. Wondering if this is very Chemistry-specific (or Science-specific).
- **New Blog Post** The economics of offering a Chemistry degree. I've been trying to understand what's going on for about a year now, and this is my best attempt at explaining why so many departments are under threat. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/...
- **New blog post** Slightly personal one, in which I start by thinking about how I felt as a slow student in undergrad labs and develop some reflections about speed as a goal in lab teaching. www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2025/11/28/being-slow-in-labs
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Thoughts with staff at Leicester as this awful situation develops while they're also busy teaching.
- Article on student complaints about being taught with AI-generated materials. The language in the University's statement was fascinating. 5min read. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
- Been doing very quick storyboard sketches to help students connect with the wider story of a lecture course in magnetism. I think it works ok.
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Obviously there are major geopolitical implications, but honestly thanks to President Trump for saying "no-one knows what a magnet is" in a discussion of trade policy for rare earth elements a week before my lecture on rare-earth magnetism. An electrifying video to show students after Hund's Rules.
- Interesting piece on the university structures relating to (?causing?) student loneliness. 10min read.
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- I was teaching in Engineering this morning, and saw this sign about the invention of the goal net by the @evertonfc.com fan the building is named after.
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- This is excellent. Describes graduate salaries in the context of employers failing to invest in productivity growth. 10min read. theconversation.com/university-s...
- Prepping for teaching magnetism next week, and discovering in an idle google that the word “quench” comes from an old English word for “extinguish”.
- Reposted by Michael O’NeillEurope's MSCA postdoctoral fellowships are now attracting many researchers who would have gone to the US. So the payline has dropped below 10% (~1,600 fellowships to 17k applicants). Super tough situation. One more reason to double the next Horizon budget, as proposed by the EU Commission.
- Applications for MCSA are up 64%! 50% now come from outside the EU. Trump effect? The European Research market just got a hell of a lot more crowded. EU should turn on the tap marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/news/msca-po...
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Michael O’Neill[Not loaded yet]
- Something I have found interesting over the last few years is how first year students are so keen to draw Hess cycles in ways which reflect the energies of each system. Sheer horror in the workshop when I draw cycles like this.
