UK
TagThe Guardian’s 2021 Philosophy Rankings
The Guardian has released the 2021 edition of its “Best UK Universities” list, which includes discipline-specific rankings.
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Developments at the Royal Institute of Philosophy
The Royal Institute of Philosophy (RIP), a charitable organization based in London dedicated to the advancement of philosophy, has announced that it has several new officers. (more…)
Placement Patterns in the UK Philosophy Job Market
“Who gets to teach at good philosophy departments in the UK?” That’s the question taken up in the following guest post* by Philip Schönegger, a graduate student in the St. Andrews and Stirling Graduate Programme in Philosophy who is working in ethics and experimental philosophy. (more…)
Media Reports on Campus Free Speech “Out of Kilter with Reality”
“The press accounts of widespread suppression of free speech are clearly out of kilter with reality,” says a new report on free speech at universities by the UK Parliament. “Any inhibition on lawful free speech is serious, and there have been such incursions, but we did not find the wholesale censorship of debate in universities which media coverage has suggested.” ..
Leeds Declares Punitive Pay Measures Against Faculty; Philosophers Respond By Resigning As External Examiners
The University of Leeds has told its faculty and staff that they will not be paid while on strike, and will be docked 25% for each day, after they’ve returned to work, that they fail to reschedule class time missed during the strike, according to Leeds Live. (more…)
Why Are UK Academics Striking?
Since late February, professors and staff at UK universities have been striking over changes to their retirement plans. (more…)
Philosophers Object to Denial of Asylum to Humanist Unfamiliar with Plato & Aristotle
Two weeks ago, the British government’s Home Office rejected the asylum request of Hamza Bin Walayat because, while he described himself as a “humanist” worried about religious persecution in his home country of Pakistan, be could not answer questions about Plato and Aristotle. Now, 120 philosophers have signed onto a letter objecting to the decision. (more…)
What Graduate Students In Philosophy Are And Should Be Paid For Teaching
The graduate students in the philosophy program at the University of St. Andrews are concerned about their teaching conditions, some of them tell me, but they don’t have a good grasp on how their situation compares with that of philosophy students elsewhere, particularly in the UK. (more…)
Philosophers On Brexit
Last week, a majority of voters in the United Kingdom supported Brexit, the proposal for Britain to leave the European Union. The referendum’s outcome was a surprise to many elites, journalists, and academics, and even some pro-Brexit voters are experiencing “bregret” (aka “regrexit”). A petition has been circulating to run a second referendum, but exercising that o..
No Women Philosophers in the British A-Level OCR Philosophy Courses? (updated)
A reader brought to my attention a petition from 17-year-old Zishi Zhang claiming that there are currently no women included in the A-Level OCR Philosophy and Ethics syllabus, and calling to change this . (A-levels are the course and exam requirements students in the UK and elsewhere must typically meet in order to graduate from high school and attend college. “OCR”..
UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) & Philosophy
A few days ago, the results from the UK government’s 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise were released. I suspect that a lot of non-UK readers are largely unfamiliar with the REF, so first some basics:
The REF is used by the government to assess the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. It replaced the earlier Research Assesment E..