Western Sydney University students and alumni emailed to say their degrees had been “revoked”. These incidents are damaging because they mirror the officious and depersonalised tone of so much comms. If acting in more human and humane ways was the norm, these incidents wouldn’t be so harmful.

The Sorbonne ditches university rankings

“Sorbonne University has chosen to withdraw from the World University Rankings, produced by Times Higher Education (THE). The university will stop sharing the data required to be included in the ranking as of 2026… This choice marks a new chapter in Sorbonne University’s ambitious and voluntarist strategy for Open Science and the reform of research assessment."

Mrs Mop

A black spider with a distinct red marking is crawling on a metallic, perforated surface - a redback on the inside of a mop bucket.

I’m proud to announce my new role as Chief Content Officer for SlopApp and I look forward to the many challenges of the role.

“OpenAI Is Preparing to Launch a Social App for AI-Generated Videos”

University of Technology Sydney plans to cut public health at the worst possible time - Daniel Demant at InSight+

voids

A building interior void with curved balconies, red-carpeted stairs, and a glass wall.

Rick Morton in the Saturday Paper:

> The University of Technology Sydney denied the existence of a KPMG spreadsheet ranking the research performance of academics, in breach of its own enterprise agreement, until it was forced to release it.

Bert Flugelman’s Six figure group (1963) outside Goldstein Hall at UNSW

A group of abstract bronze sculptures in expressionist style stands on a rectangular platform surrounded by a shallow pond in a building courtyard. A jacaranda’s branches are visible, partly shading the area.

A small way of showing your support for students and staff at UTS:

Petition · Save UTS Public Health – For Students, Communities, and Equity

Prestige over merit: An adapted audit of LLM bias in peer review

The ever-diminishing set of use cases for LLMs…

A Croakey post by me: Calls for action to stop public health cuts at University of Technology Sydney

Me 🫴 The Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers 🦋 is this real? (It’s very well done)

Three influential policy groups that together receive almost $20m in donations a year refuse to reveal their key donors, including those whose commercial interests may overlap with their public advocacy campaigns. The progressive Australia Institute, the right-leaning Centre for Independent Studies and the conservative Institute of Public Affairs argue they cannot reveal their donors without exposing them to attack from political opponents.

Slack. Good on Grattan, CEDA and Per Capita for being more honest about their funding.

Reported by Henry Belot for _The Guardian _

In irony is dead, we dug up its body and put its head on a pike news Microsoft is mandating three days in the office per week from next year. Enjoy your IRL Teams meetings.

Going home time

An elevated view of a suburban neighborhood with tree-lined streets, set against the backdrop of Sydney’s CBD skyline at sunset.

Seen in the first day at the new office

A person is relaxing on a round bench by a large window with a view. They’re not wearing their shoes?

Me IRL

A medical training room features life-sized mannequins dressed in blue gowns and various medical equipment. One looks dead, lying on a table. Another is seated, head tilted back with mouth open, slackjawed.

This TikTok is a useful reminder that everyday, shoulder-shrugging, just-asking-questions racists are the soil in which Nazis grow

Australian and kiwi pedestrians beware, Tesla are coming for you

Prof Michelle Arrow is one of the finest writers on Australian society and how we’ve ended up where we are. In this piece for The Conversation she tackles a timley issue: what are Australian universities for?