Thread by @DJLdistraction, So, this afternoon the @guardian/@GdnUniversities published a couple of quite unfortunately shoddy [...]

David Lunn

DJLdistraction

So, this afternoon the @guardian/ @GdnUniversities published a couple of quite unfortunately shoddy pieces about SOAS. I’ve neither the time nor inclination to correct them line by line, & SOAS staff & union members are already preparing collective responses ( #WeAreSOAS

), but:

Let’s be clear about a couple of things:
- just as SOAS is struggling with the threat of #coronavirus, so is the wider UK HE sector. This is a direct result of marketisation, and the massive reliance on student fees for income. This shock is sector-wide, as @ucu has pointed out;

- that guff about “surviving the end of empire” is, well, mind-blowing. It does point towards a wider problem though: coloniality in the sector, which I ranted about recently. #WeAreSOAS, we do things differently, but is there will to support that? https://twitter.com/djldistraction/status/1258304810438270977

https://twitter.com/djldistraction/status/1258304810438270977

In terms of purely factual inaccuracies, see my colleague’s tweet below:
https://twitter.com/estariade/status/1266380989745426432?s=21 https://twitter.com/estariade/status/1266380989745426432

https://twitter.com/estariade/status/1266380989745426432?s=21

Sadly this points to some pretty lazy journalism: rather than fact checking, rather than really contextualising the issues facing SOAS with those of the sector more widely, there’s total reliance on what seems like a single “leak” and some ill-informed commentary.

Several of my fellow @UCUSOAS colleagues also not thrilled to be pictured at the top of the @GdnUniversities article — a nice shot from the strikes, perhaps, but really inappropriate here.

So, anyway, not a great start to the weekend. Additional pressure on all of us, particularly on friends & colleagues in misrepresented departments. But seeing the positivity all over my emails tonight; well, #WeAreSOAS