Marco Benoît Carbone University College London University of the Arts, London As part of my research interests, I have been drawn to reflect on the potential social impact of a scenario in which Higher Education in the United Kingdom, and in particular the field of the humanities, may become increasingly privatized, embracing the tenets of …Continue Reading

John Downey Loughborough University About 17% of all teaching and research posts at UK universities are held by non-British EU citizens. About 14% of all research funds for British universities come from the EU. About 5% of all undergraduate students are non-British EU citizens. British universities have benefited enormously from the work of non-British EU …Continue Reading

Paul Lashmar University of Sussex Just occasionally a cliché does the job, and as John Pilger said of the late Gavin MacFadyen, at the memorial to Gavin in December: “They don’t make them like that anymore”. Gavin was in every way larger than life and the obituaries which have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian and …Continue Reading

Julian Petley Brunel University In its referendum coverage, the BBC stood widely accused of misinterpreting its statutory requirement to treat news and current affairs with “due impartiality” as an obligation to be “balanced”. As a result, as David Cox puts it, “viewers and listeners seeking information were instead bombarded with contradictory and impenetrable claims and counter-claims” and …Continue Reading

Des Freedman Goldsmiths, University of London  Academics like to talk of ‘critical junctures’: moments of great instability when different pressures and crises come together to produce the possibility of dramatic change. I don’t think it would be too controversial to argue that we are facing a such a juncture in relation to the public service media …Continue Reading

John Jewell Cardiff University It is clear that for regional and local journalism these are troubled times – with many titles facing crises which threaten their existence. Morale amongst journalists is demonstrably low – as editor of the Press Gazette Dominic Ponsford has pointed out, at least half the jobs in local newspapers have disappeared in the past decade and …Continue Reading