By Beng Huat See, Professor of Education Research, School of Education, University of Birmingham
Daniel Wheatley, Reader in Business and Labour Economics, University of Birmingham
The Scottish government recently announced plans to pilot a four-day school week. The proposal comes amid growing concerns about teacher supply and wellbeing.
Teaching remains one of the most stressful occupations in the UK, with stress, exhaustion and burnout consistently cited as major…
(Full Story)
|
By John McAlaney, Professor in Psychology, Bournemouth University
“Rage bait” has been named the word of the year by the Oxford University Press. It means social media content that is designed to create a strong and negative reaction.
Posting content intended to antagonise people may not seem like a wise strategy for a social media influencer. But people who post content on social media can make more money if their channel has a high level of engagements – regardless of how positively people…
(Full Story)
|
By Alan Collins, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Nottingham Trent University
A family builds an off-grid home in rural Wales. TV celebrates it as a blueprint for net-zero living. But what if this vision of sustainability simply doesn’t scale up?
Television shows such as Channel 4’s Grand Designs have long celebrated ambitious one-off homebuilding projects. These programmes often frame bespoke rural housing as a model of sustainable living.
With large audiences, they wield real influence over what viewers imagine an environmentally sustainable lifestyle looks like. But the reality behind many of these supposedly “eco” homes is far more complicated.…
(Full Story)
|
By Clodagh Philippa Guerin, PhD Candidate in Refugee World Literature, University of Limerick
Poetry offers something that news and visual imagery cannot in times of crisis: depth over immediacy and meaning over spectacle.
(Full Story)
|
By Inès Otosaka, Assistant Professor in Physical Geography and Environmental Science, Northumbria University, Newcastle
There could be an irreversible retreat of parts of the ice sheets, raising sea levels much faster than currently planned.
(Full Story)
|
By Janet Hoek, Professor in Public Health, University of Otago
Andrew Waa, Associate Professor in Public Health, University of Otago
Jude Ball, Senior Research Fellow in Public Health, University of Otago
It is now clear the government has failed to meet New Zealand’s smokefree goal of fewer than 5% of people from all population groups smoking by the end of this year.
According to the latest New Zealand Health survey, 6.8% of adults smoked daily this year, which is similar to the previous year (6.9%) and 2022-23 (6.8%).
Tobacco remains widely available and large inequities in smoking prevalence continue, with smoking among Māori at 15%.
…
(Full Story)
|
By Jessica Ringrose, Professor of the Sociology of Gender and Education, Institute of Education, UCL
Rebecca Coleman, Professor of Sociology, University of Bristol
A ban on social media for under-16s in Australia comes into effect on December 10 2025. Young people will see their accounts deactivated, with social media companies responsible for enacting the ban.
In the UK, the government has committed to addressing young people’s use of the internet through the Online Safety Act rather than enforcing an outright ban.
However, children’s use of devices is often limited. Bans on smartphones in schools, as well as parent…
(Full Story)
|
By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (R) answers questions from the House of Representatives budget committee in Tokyo, November 7, 2025. © 2025 Kyodo via AP Photo During a parliamentary session on November 26, 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government would soon consider new legislation on “spy prevention.” Takaichi’s pledge to “speedily draft” such a law and her party’s past legislative efforts raise serious concerns that the new legislation would endanger free speech rights, media freedom, and the protection…
(Full Story)
|
By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image The Criminal Court of Appeal building in Yerevan, Armenia, July 12, 2018. © 2018 Asatur Yesayants/Sputnik via AP Photo Armenia’s appeals court on November 19 significantly weakened protections against disability-based discrimination and further restricted access to justice for people undergoing disability assessment.The court overturned a progressive ruling by a lower court and held that discrimination “on the basis of disability” can only occur under the law if a person has already been formally recognized as having a disability. This means people applying for…
(Full Story)
|
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Civilians in Ukraine are facing almost daily attacks and growing hardship as Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches the four-year mark, UN human rights investigators said in a new report issued on Tuesday.
(Full Story)
|