@rhordosy
Sociologist | Higher education | Research/teaching nexus | HE transitions and widening access | International comparative education | Associate Professor at UONottingham | Sheffield-based | Views my own https://www.rhordosy.com/
There, I fixed it:
"We’re *paying* so much money *to* people *in leadership roles* who … are not really capable of *creating a collaborative and supportive university environment for students from a range of backgrounds*."
The *anger* I feel at the sector // HE policy after talking to some incredible ECRs/recent PhDs over the state of the academic labour market and short/medium term prospects... Just employ these enthusiastic, amazing scholars!! (Or don't turn my research funding apps down, so I can!)
Nottingham cuts ‘threaten status as research-intensive university’.
Move to reduce academics’ protected research time to 25 per cent brings union warning.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Job losses at UK research-intensive universities double in two years.
Exclusive: Scale of redundancies branded a “disaster”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
💭 Join us for this exciting @srhe.bsky.social event by the #SAEN network to discuss how widening participation, fair access and student experiences have evolved in English higher education amid persistent inequalities - with speakers Rhiannon Jones, Kimberley Simms, Chris Millward and Neil Harrison
EVENT DETAILS WHEN: June 23rd 2026 11:00-15:45 WHERE: in person at SRHE offices (8 Regents Wharf, All Saints St, London, N1 9RL) From Social Justice to Risk Management? Re-conceptualising Widening Participation Across Policy, University Culture and Personal Identities - Rhiannon Jones - PhD researcher at University of Cambridge and an Access and Outreach Officer at Jesus College Cambridge Starting Earlier, Working Systemically: NTU’s Early Years, Collective Impact, and Community Responsive Approaches to Social Mobility - Kimberley B Simms - Head of Widening Access and Community Engagement at Nottingham Trent University Re-shaping the meritocracy: access policy in England from Blair to Starmer - Chris Millward - Professor of Practice in Education Policy at University of Birmingham and Interim Director of Fair Access and Participation at OfS How do young people make decisions about their future? - Neil Harrison - Professor of Education and Social Justice at University of Exeter
Where are we with widening participation and student experience?
✍ SIGN UP: srhe.ac.uk/civicrm/?civ...
🗓️ WHEN: June 23rd 2026 11:00-15:45
🗺️ WHERE: in person at the SRHE offices in London (maps.app.goo.gl/9mR4pEyYo1yE...)
@mannymadriaga.bsky.social @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social @soniailie.bsky.social
...agree! Our summer ride by the Seine on hire bikes was fabulous! The map is somewhat bitty and confusing at times, but still. Here in the supposed "outdoor city" we'd be happy with half as much provision...
Our typology shows that choosing sociology as a degree is ranges from an explanation for personal experience; to gaining tools to understand society, politics and broader inequalities; to sociological studies being a general basis for a career; and to hope for changing others’ inequalities
📜 ...another paper assigned to an issue now in @edreview.bsky.social, jointly with Meryem Betül YASDIMAN and Jenny Norris doi.org/10.1080/0013...
Why sociology?– comparing the driving forces behind university degree choice in Norway, Hungary and England
📃Superb paper by Dr Zihao Liu using the possible selves framework to explore post-college transitions:
How Chinese Higher Vocational Education and Training (HVET) Students Determine Their Post-College Pathway in the Post-Covid 19 Era
journals.suub.uni-bremen.de/index.php/ij...
Share a photo of a mountain you have taken
🛷
Reflections of sailing boats moored on the icey Lake Balaton
View of the Danube in Budapest from the Szabadság Híd, looking towards the Budai Vár
Child walking in the snow
We all needed a break - and had some lovely time visiting family and seeing friends over the holidays in HU ❄️
...whilst celebrating Anto getting her thesis finalised and Biz's graduation, we got a notification that our paper out earlier this year has been assigned to an issue:
“How ‘International’ Are Sociology Journals? Analysis of Stated Aims and Editorial Board Networks” - lnkd.in/eiF2pSG5
Dr Davis talking about his project "Academics of working-class heritage talking project"
My lovely colleague Charlie Davis @uonsoe.bsky.social talking about his experience of getting a Newer Researchers Award from @srhe.bsky.social, and the immense changes this prompted in his research career, networks and thinking. Awards are now open, deadline March 2026:
srhe.ac.uk/research/pri...
Two conference talks on a slide, along with a wintery photo of the Trent Building, UON Conceptualising research skills: How do students develop them in university and graduates use them at work? Daria Luchinskaya, Rita Hordósy, Siyu Yuan Parallel Session 2:7 15:30-17:00 Tuesday, 2 December 2025 Making of a field: higher education journal networks, aims and editorial boards Rita Hordósy, Elizabeth Brown, Anto Vega Castillo, Martin Myers Parallel Session 4:5 13:30-15:00 Wednesday, 3 December 2025
Looking forward to the @srhe.bsky.social conference from today and catching up with colleagues I rarely get to see. Come and say hi to @soniailie.bsky.social & @mannymadriaga.bsky.social, the Student Access and Experience network always looks for new ideas! (We'll miss @ddubdrahcir.bsky.social)
Educational Review Article of the Year Award announcement. Monday 15th December, 5-6pm GMT. Winner: "Thin places of resistance: a caring response to refugees in rural American schools" by Kerry Ann McKeon, Betty Merchant, Christopher Flanagan-Gonzales & Saleha Sultan. Discussants: Reza Gholami, University of Birmingham; Laurence Lessard-Phillips, University of Birmingham. Chair: Jane Martin, University of Birmingham, Executive Editor, Educational Review. Sponsored by Routledge. Event webpage and registration: https:bit.ly/AotY2025
Register for the online Educational Review Article of the Year seminar! 🎉 Featuring our latest winners, expert discussants, and audience Q&A!
Plus #FreeAccess to the winning article via the events page 👇
www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/educa...
This paper examines the impact of the UK's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) in 2016. Using almost a decade of data since the referendum, we combine simulations based on macro data with estimates derived from micro data collected through our Decision Maker Panel survey. These estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%. These large negative impacts reflect a combination of elevated uncertainty, reduced demand, diverted management time, and increased misallocation of resources from a protracted Brexit process. Comparing these with contemporary forecasts – providing a rare macro example to complement the burgeoning microliterature of social science predictions – shows that these forecasts were accurate over a 5-year horizon, but they underestimated the impact over a decade.
Read 'em and weep. (www.nber.org/system/files...)
A great discussion with amazing colleagues; catching up with @pallavibanerjee.bsky.social was the icing on the cake. We have superb seminars planned for @srhe.bsky.social #SAEN for 2026, watch this space!
Say hi at the SRHE conference in Nottingham next month! srhe.ac.uk/internationa...
Photo of Nash Point in South Wales with rain clouds on the horizon, and a faint rainbow 🌈
Tru dat
@mannymadriaga.bsky.social is leading a #ESRC funded project drawing on Black, mad and disability studies to explore and enhance the mental health of Black students in four English universities.
Project details: bit.ly/3KZOBk4
Are you a graduate who started their university journey in the first years of the 9K fees? If so, please consider contributing to this important research project lead by my colleague Farhana Ghaffar
🧵🚨
The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.
Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...
1/11
Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:
I feel seen
Ooh we've opened our call for small research grants. £10k for any humanities or social sciences research. Open to independent scholars. We use partial randomisation to allocate the funding: random allocation between all that meet the quality threshold
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...
...with two papers.
Child with their back watching Farmageddon on a tablet, with headphones on a train
Not realising, we didn't get to thank him for all the superbly useful info that helps travelling through Europe with a toddler... Enjoy your holidays!
Morning moods towards Vienna ☕
