Alex Stevens

Professor of Criminology @lawsheffield @sheffielduni. Trustee @HRInews & @cjalliance. My views, not theirs. Author: Drug Policy Constellations @BrisUniPress.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

Come follow me

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@Sony What's the point of your products having a warranty if your website makes it impossible to work out how to return the product to you for repair/refund?

[Sanho Tree @SanhoTree]

@ProfAlexStevens Here’s a URL to make it easier. The handles are a bit longer there so it saves typos. https://t.co/YJWyVU07Iy

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

So who should I follow on the other place?

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@Graeme2030 @SSA_Addiction @lawsheffield Give it time, Graeme.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

Off to Newcastle...

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

Next week at #SSAConf2024 @SSA_Addiction, I'll present our realist review of overdose prevention centres as spaces of safety, trust and social inclusion https://t.co/m7tvu1vATZ #OA #OPCPrep

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@DrRebeccaTidy @DrJamesCMorgan But Trump.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

A hint on why some UK universities are struggling to recruit senior staff in an international market where pay in UK HE is just not competitive. One of these jobs will be the pinnacle of a career. The other is entry level. The pay scales overlap.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@DrRebeccaTidy @DrJamesCMorgan Being Head of an academic school is a much more stressful, onerous, responsible and non-enjoyable job than being a mere professor, but the extra pay is minimal to non-existent.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@DrRebeccaTidy @DrJamesCMorgan Or move to Australia/Canada.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

Where is the evidence that league tables do anything but encourage managers to juke the stats? In schools? In universities? https://t.co/v8gRPwg4Fb

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

This is too little, too late, but still good to see a major economy take steps to reduce emissions #keepitintheground https://t.co/IQZa7bjD1Y

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

The whole university funding debate feels like we're fighting over scraps while missing the point: in a world where AI can do much of what we teach students to do, what are universities for?

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha Could we not adopt a more positive vision; that the expansion of HE opens the door for more people - and the country as a whole - to benefit from the joy of learning and the development it brings?

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

It's fair to criticise the current higher education system, but this article repeats the fundamental mistake that it is at the heart of of the current problems, which is... 1/3

[Sonia Sodha @soniasodha]

It's pro-aspiration to ensure that young people are not being mis-sold poor-quality degrees and to ask who, exactly, is holding universities accountable for how they spend this generation’s future earnings.

My Observer column.

https://t.co/At4WZv1HkD

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha Please don't get me wrong. I don't think everything is rosy in the HE garden. I'm just asking for a deeper consideration of what HE is for.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha You have been using that measure (and misleadingly comparing the lower part of the distribution for graduates to the average for non-graduates). But the wider problem is the absence of attention to the question of what HE is for, apart from financial return.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha What do you think 'value for money' mean in HE? (The measure you've been using - graduate pay - does not measure the quality of education).

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha That's a problem that's built into today's system, which your focus on financial ROI perpetuates. We need to rethink why we've turned HE into a pseudo-market, with all its perverse incentives, not just worry about how to make uni's more accountable to students.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha BTW, it's the same with rankings and league tables. Most people in uni's know they are misleading, manipulable BS. But managers and marketeers go along with the ranking game because that's the market that govt policy has created.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha Yes, I wish university marketing departments (as well as jounalists) would avoid using graduate pay as a measure of quality (which it is not). But that is forced upon them by the financial view of HE which your article also adopts.

[Alex Stevens @ProfAlexStevens]

@soniasodha Out of curiosity: when you chose a university course, on what basis did you choose it?