I’ve been thinking a lot about universities lately. In part, it’s because I’m part-employed by one – teaching journalism at one of the North East’s five leading institutions alongside my work in the media sector – and in part because my household is a two-income one, reliant on universities for both salaries. (My partner teaches at another of the region’s universities.)
My engagement with my university is largely within the classroom. I try, where possible, to keep out of the more complicated – and dull – institutional and hierarchical conversations.
But at all the universities across the region, and in fact across the country, it’s been hard to avoid the reality of what’s going on in the higher education sector....