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December 3, 2025

Federal funding cuts are only one problem facing America’s colleges and universities

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Roger Meiners, Goolsby-Rosenthal Endowed Chair of Economics, University of Texas at Arlington

American colleges and universities are often nonprofits, but they often operate in many of the same ways that businesses do. tc397/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Higher education is under stress. The highest-profile threat has been the Trump administration’s efforts to cut funding to several universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern.

Research universities heavily depend on federal money to conduct research and carry out other areas of work. For example, after tuition, federal money allocated for research made up 40% of the total revenue for two major research universities – Johns Hopkins University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology – in the 2022-23 academic year.

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has terminated various federal grants for universities valued between US$6.9 billion and $8.2 billion.

While there’s been a lot of public attention to the federal government’s financial pressure on universities, universities have been experiencing financial pressure from other sources.

Understanding that is key for applicants and parents to understand their bargaining position when choosing whether and where to pursue a college degree.

As scholars of public administration and economics and former university administrators, we think parents and college applicants need to understand this economic landscape to make smart choices about making such a major investment. Here are four key things to know.

1. Universities are an industry

Most American private colleges and universities are nonprofits, but they still care about revenue. These schools aren’t responsible to shareholders, but they may respond to pressure from alumni, students, employees, donors, boards, the federal government and, if the schools are public universities, state governments.

And like businesses, nonprofit colleges and universities need money. As a result, despite what you might think, most colleges are not particularly selective. Though they don’t advertise that fact, hundreds of schools will take any student who meets minimal academic requirements and can pay tuition.

The added cost of teaching additional students is minimal when there are empty seats, so admitting more students can lead to an increase in revenue for most schools.

This is important because colleges’ costs – largely staff salaries and building maintenance – are hard to cut and are mostly fixed. Those costs must be spread across fewer students when there are unfilled seats.

As the number of people who go to college is declining, colleges need to respond to people’s skepticism about the value of degrees – but change is difficult

Becoming a smaller school is challenging. If students show less interest in foreign language study and more interest in data science classes, the school cannot have a German language professor suddenly teach data science.

As a result, colleges can become stuck with faculty who teach course students don’t want to take.

Unlike business leaders, who may be rewarded for fixing a failing company by laying off workers, university leaders who eliminate faculty positions become unpopular among their peers. This can reduce their chance to advance their careers at their current universities or switch to a new school.

A young woman hangs a plant under a lofted bed with a brick wall against it. Another woman stands nearby her near a window. — A college freshman gets her new dorm room ready with her mother at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., in August 2025.
RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

2. Schools have to work to admit students

Colleges enrolled 8.4% fewer students in 2024 than when attendance peaked at 21 million in 2010. As a result, schools must increasingly compete harder to attract students.

One way is to offer a better price, meaning lower tuition. Like most elite schools, Harvard has a listed price of about $60,000 for tuition alone in one academic year – and nearly $87,000 when food, housing and other services are included. Few students actually pay that amount, though the exact percentage getting a discount is not public information.

The average net price a Harvard student paid in 2023-24 was $17,900, as colleges offered either financial aid, straight-up discounts or scholarships.

Most schools engage in this sort of price discrimination, the term economists use to describe charging different prices to different customers based on their willingness to pay. In some ways, this is much like airlines selling seats on the same flights at different prices.

3. Schools have a declining foreign customer base

Another enrollment remedy for colleges and universities to boost tuition revenue has been focusing on admitting international students, who typically pay full price.

One-fourth of all international students in the U.S. come from China, while another quarter come from India.

Most schools have not pursued this strategy of expanding foreign enrollment as aggressively as Columbia University, where international students approach 40% of the student body.

By comparison, international undergraduate students made up 6% of Columbia’s undergraduate student population in 2000, and 12% in 2011.

But the revenue that international students generate is not a guarantee. Foreign student enrollment declined 17% from fall of 2024 to 2025.

In part, that’s because of some students’ inability to get a visa or fear their authorization to study in the U.S. will be revoked.

Rising competition from universities in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, combined with stricter U.S. visa policies and geopolitical tensions with China, have led to rapid declines in Chinese students enrolling at American schools.

The number of Chinese undergraduate and graduate students attending U.S. colleges and universities has dropped from 317,299 in 2019 to 265,919 in the 2024-25 school year.

This change has increased the financial strain on American colleges and universities, many of which have grown accustomed to having large numbers of international students who pay their own way.

A group of young people wear light blue graduation robes and throw their caps into the air. They stand outside of a large building with columns. — Chinese graduates throw their hats into the sky at their graduation from Columbia University in May 2016.
Xinhua/Li Muzi via Getty Images

4. The value of the product is in question

With recent changes to federal loan forgiveness programs, some students and their parents are questioning the value of a college degree.

Just 22% of Americans said in 2024 that a college degree is worth the cost, if a student has to borrow money to get it.

The University of Texas system – made up of nine universities and four medical schools – shares information on the average income of graduates for every degree program after graduation.

In the case of the University of Texas at Arlington, the average salary for a drama, theater arts and stagecraft major is $14,933 one year after graduation. This amount goes up to $39,608 10 years after graduation, resulting in a negative $324,210 return on the price of college over that first decade.

Of course, some degrees pay off. A University of Texas at Arlington graduate with a degree in civil engineering earns an average of $67,920 one year after college and $105,377 10 years after graduation, demonstrating a positive return on investment of $1.15 million.

We believe that universities and colleges should reform to address the next generation’s uncertainty about higher education.

College applicants should be asking hard questions. What is the data on graduates’ earnings compared to the cost of their program? Where are graduates employed?

If more people treated buying a college degree with the same care they use to buy their first home – an equivalent investment – colleges and universities would feel pressure to become more transparent for students and parents. They would also become more aligned with the rapidly evolving demands of the workplace.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Federal funding cuts are only one problem facing America’s colleges and universities – https://theconversation.com/federal-funding-cuts-are-only-one-problem-facing-americas-colleges-and-universities-268974

December 3, 2025

A hard year for federal workers offers a real-time lesson in resilience

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Anne Pisor, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Demography, Penn State

Imagine going from having a book club with your co-workers to seeing them only on a Signal chat where every member has to be vetted – and the main conversation topic is when you might lose your job.

That’s what it was like for workers at one federal agency earlier this year.

“I’d never seen anything like the sort of organization that happened during the RIFs (layoffs, or reductions in force) in supporting each other with news, information and job resources,” said Anthony, a federal worker who’d been with the agency for almost a decade before his position was eliminated. He asked that his real name and other identifying details not be published, out of fear of retaliation.

Anthony’s not alone. So far in 2025, tens of thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs. And during the shutdown, approximately 600,000 were threatened with layoffs.

But something else happened alongside the cuts: Federal workers began building support networks online – connecting with colleagues inside their agencies and with strangers outside them.

I’m an anthropologist, which means I study human nature and human diversity, and I’m an expert in how people cooperate to manage risk. Watching federal workers use social media to provide mutual support offered a rare real-time view of the process. To deepen my understanding, I interviewed several federal workers who work in different parts of government.

They told me that in the past, federal workers haven’t always interacted with their co-workers outside of work, much less connected across federal agencies. But thanks to online platforms, that’s changing.

As they’ve faced RIFs, operational changes from the Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) and the longest government shutdown in history, current and former federal workers have come together in online spaces to support one another. The result is a vivid example of how people create resilient networks, often spanning group boundaries and distance, in response to uncertainty and threats.

Reaching out across groups and across distance

In 2025, federal workers built social networks like the ones we study in my lab. When experiencing widespread shocks – things such as droughts or mass job loss – humans past and present have relied on relationships that stretch beyond the individuals affected. Often that means getting support from people at a distance, and it can also mean reaching out across groups.

When just a few people reach across groups, social scientists call these connectors “brokers.” They often move information across groups. As a user of LinkedIn and Bluesky, I have observed that federal workers in positions of power, or who have been recently RIFed and thus have less to lose, are often brokers, because with visibility comes risk of retribution. These brokers share information on where to find unemployment benefits or how to sign petitions calling for scientific independence.

There are even more connections spanning distance and agencies when workers can remain anonymous. Platforms such as Reddit and Bluesky are places where workers feel safer to speak freely. There, workers can share information and also frustration, little wins, and some laughs.

What’s more, as my lab has shown, these long-distance relationships can also bolster collective action – working toward a shared goal, often across space and across groups, such as federal agencies.

For example, Julia Simon – who agreed to let me use her name but asked that other identifying details be withheld – has a friend who works at the same federal agency as her but lives in a different part of the country. This year, her friend suggested that Julia join the Federal Unionists Network. Members from across agencies provide mutual support and work together toward change in their union – the American Federation of Government Employees – and beyond.

“I’ve felt that within my own local and district I’ve been seen as too radical so my ideas tend to get shot down or ignored,” Simon told me in an interview. “But finding a group of other AFGE activists who have similar views and goals has been validating.”

Hunkering down among trusted others

That said, when people fear surveillance and possible retaliation, they may not reach out to long-distance connections. Instead, networks often shift toward tight-knit clusters, reducing risk of exposure and increasing trust.

In 2025, many federal workers leaned into private Signal chats with their co-workers. Users are vetted before they can join Signal chats to help workers feel safer in these spaces.

When workers were faced with RIFs, a visit from DOGE or the government shutdown, Signal chat activity would increase, workers told me.

“The content was largely ‘I heard from our division director that the RIF notices will go out Friday’ or ‘If you’re comfortable with it, here’s a Zoom workshop on how to manage your emotions during layoffs,’” Anthony said. At their peak, he told me, these chats had hundreds of participants.

Mason, furloughed from a different agency during the shutdown, gave another example. “Today, there are about a dozen messages among federal employees who are trying to provide information and support to each other about applying for unemployment benefits,” he said in an interview.

Though these Signal groups are tight-knit, long-distance relationships still are a source of information – bringing news from spouses and friends at other agencies and content from Reddit, LinkedIn and Bluesky.

For some workers, the most important benefit of these Signal chats is the sense of community they provide.

“These group chats and communities sprung up because we were being terrorized and we only had each other for support,” Anthony said. “I remember seeing some wild statistic early on that said a lot of folks support DOGE’s mission – from our side, it was like, ‘Guess we’re on our own.’ I can’t tell you how many times I heard, ‘Nobody is coming to save us’ – so that’s why we needed these groups.”

Learning from federal workers’ experiences

These stories from federal workers are a reminder of how hundreds of thousands of Americans working for the public may be experiencing uncertainty, fear, loss and isolation this year.

They also offer important lessons on how to build the resilient networks that sustain us as people.

First, if you feel you cannot trust others, trust can emerge in highly connected clusters that can pool information and take action. As Anthony highlighted, forming these clusters can provide individuals with a sense of community.

Second, connections spanning groups and distance open doors for transmitting information and, as Julia experienced, for engaging in collective action. Long-distance relationships can also help you access things that can be hard to find, such as information about what’s next, support with food or loans, and even new job opportunities.

These resilient networks are a reminder that online platforms have a silver lining. Many news stories focus on how social media use can negatively affect people’s mental health or social relationships. What federal workers highlight, however, is that the effect of online platforms on your well-being can depend on how you use them.

LinkedIn, Reddit, Signal and other platforms can allow you to create and sustain networks that might be impossible to have in person, either because trust is low or simply because you’re busy. Online platforms allow people to build tight-knit clusters or to have more long-distance relationships at greater distances than ever before.

So whether you’re looking for like-minded others, people who can help you face something you’ve never faced before, or a sense of community when you’ve lost so much, online platforms remain an important tool to help us find each other.

Anne Pisor receives funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Penn State Social Science Research Institute. She has a long-distance social relationship with a source for this article.

– ref. A hard year for federal workers offers a real-time lesson in resilience – https://theconversation.com/a-hard-year-for-federal-workers-offers-a-real-time-lesson-in-resilience-270272

December 3, 2025

The marketing genius of Spotify Wrapped

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Ishani Banerji, Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing, Clemson University

Charli XCX performs during a celebration of the annual release of Spotify Wrapped in 2022 in Los Angeles. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Spotify

Even before this year’s Spotify Wrapped drops, I have a hunch what mine will reveal.

I’m guessing I’ll be among Spotify’s top 1% of listeners for an obscure 2004 track titled “Rusty Chevrolet” by the Irish band Shanneyganock. I heard it first thanks to my son, whose friend had been singing it on the swings at school. My son found it utterly hilarious, and it’s been playing in our house nonstop ever since.

Like parents all over the world, I’ll rue how my son’s musical tastes have hijacked my listening history. But I’ll also be tickled to learn that our household is one of the few even listening to it.

Spotify Wrapped is an annual campaign by the popular streaming music platform. Since 2015, the streaming service has been repackaging user data – specifically, the listening history of Spotify’s users over the past year – into attractive, personalized slideshows featuring, among other data points, your top five songs, your total listening time and even your “listening personality.” (Are you a “Replayer,” a “Maverick” or a “Vampire”?)

As a consumer behavior researcher, I’ve thought about why these lists get so much attention each year. I suspect that the success of Spotify Wrapped may have a lot to do with how the flashy, shareable graphics are connected to a couple of fundamental – and somewhat contradictory – human needs.

Individuality and belonging

In 1991, social psychologist Marilynn Brewer introduced what she coined “optimal distinctiveness theory.”

She argued that most people are torn between two human needs. On the one hand, there’s the need for “validation and similarity to others.” On the other hand, people want to express their “uniqueness and individuation.” Thus, most of us are constantly striving for a balance between feeling connected to others while also maintaining a sense of our own distinct individuality.

At Thanksgiving, for example, your need for connection is likely more than satisfied. In that moment, you’re surrounded by family and friends who share a lot in common with you. In fact, it can feel so fulfilled that you may start craving the opposite: a way to assert your individuality. Maybe you choose to wear something that really reflects your personality, or you tell stories about interesting experiences you’ve had in the past year.

In contrast, you may feel relatively isolated when you move to a new town and feel a stronger need for connection. You may wear the styles and brands you see your neighbors and co-workers wearing, pop into popular cafes and restaurants, or invite people over to your home in an effort to make new friends.

Have it your way

When people buy things, they often make choices as a way to satisfy their needs for connection and individuality.

Brands recognize this and usually try to entice consumers with at least one of these two elements. It’s partly why Coca-Cola started releasing bottles featuring popular names on the labels as part of its “Share a Coke” campaign. The soft drink remains the same, but grabbing a Coke with your name on it can cultivate a sense of connection with everyone else who has it. And it’s why Apple offers custom, personalized engravings for products such as its AirPods and iPads.

Five soft drink bottles, each featuring labels with a different name. — Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign taps into optimal distinctiveness theory.
AP Photo/Business Wire

Spotify Wrapped works because it nails the balance between competing needs: the desire to belong and the desire to stand out. Seeing the overlap between your lists and those of your friends fosters a sense of connection, and seeing the differences is a signal of your (or your kids’!) unique musical taste. It gives me a way to say, “Sure, I’ve been listening to ‘Soda Pop’ nonstop like everyone else. But I’m probably the only one playing ‘Rusty Chevrolet’ on repeat.”

Text reading 'YOUR WRAPPED IS HERE.' is projected onto a black backdrop, visible over a silhouette of a large crowd. — What will be your most-listened-to songs of 2025?
John Phillips/Getty Images for Spotify

The Wrapped campaign is also smart marketing. Spotify turns listeners’ unique, personal listening data into striking visuals that are tailor-made for posting to social media accounts. It’s no wonder, then, that the Wrapped feature has led to impressive engagement: On TikTok, the hashtag #SpotifyWrapped garnered 73.7 billion views in 2023. The annual campaign has earned numerous honors, including a Cannes Lion and several Webby Awards, otherwise known as the “Oscars of the Internet.”

It’s been so successful that it’s inspired a wave of copycats: Apple Music, Reddit, Uber and Duolingo now release similarly personalized “year-in-reviews.”

None, however, has managed to achieve the same level of cultural impact as Spotify Wrapped. So, when Spotify Wrapped 2025 drops, what will be on your list? And will you brag, hide or laugh at what it says about you?

Ishani Banerji does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The marketing genius of Spotify Wrapped – https://theconversation.com/the-marketing-genius-of-spotify-wrapped-270135

December 3, 2025

Why one theologian’s advice for a bitterly divided nation holds true today

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Michael Bruening, Professor of History, Missouri University of Science and Technology

A monument to Sebastian Castellio in Geneva – using a French spelling of his name – reads, ‘Killing a man is not defending a doctrine; it is killing a man.’ MHM55/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Ideological division was tearing the country apart. Factions denounced each other as unpatriotic and evil. There were attempted kidnappings and assassinations of political figures. Public monuments and art were desecrated all over the country.

This was France in the middle of the 16th century. The divisions were rooted in religion.

The Protestant minority denounced Catholics as “superstitious idolaters,” while the Catholics condemned Protestants as “seditious heretics.” In 1560, Protestant conspirators attempted to kidnap the young King Francis II, hoping to replace his zealous Catholic regents with ones more sympathetic to the Protestant cause.

Two years later, the country collapsed into civil war. The French Wars of Religion had begun – and would convulse the country for the next 36 years.

I am a historian of the Reformation who writes about the opponents of John Calvin, a leading Protestant theologian who influenced Reformed Christians, Presbyterians, Puritans and other denominations for centuries. One of the most significant of Calvin’s rivals was the humanist Sebastian Castellio, whom he had worked with in Geneva before a bitter falling out over theology.

Soon after the first war in France broke out, Castellio penned a treatise that was far ahead of its time. Rather than join in the bitter denunciations raging between Protestants and Catholics, Castellio condemned intolerance itself.

He identified the main problem as both sides’ efforts to “force consciences” – to compel people to believe things they did not believe. In my view, that advice from nearly five centuries ago has much to say to the world today.

Foreseeing the carnage

Castellio rose to prominence in 1554 when he condemned the execution of Michael Servetus, a medical doctor and theologian convicted of heresy. Servetus had rejected the standard Christian belief in the Trinity, which holds that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons in one God.

A dark-colored statue of a downcast, seated man, positioned in front of trees and bushes. — A monument to Michael Servetus, who was condemned for heresy and executed, in Geneva.
Iantomferry/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Already condemned by the Catholic Inquisition in France, Servetus was passing through Geneva when Calvin urged his arrest and advocated for his execution. Servetus was burned alive at the stake.

Castellio condemned the execution in a remarkable book titled “Concerning Heretics: Whether They are to be Persecuted and How They are to be Treated.” In it, Castellio questioned the very notion of heresy: “After a careful investigation into the meaning of the term heretic, I can discover no more than this, that we regard those as heretics with whom we disagree.”

In the process, he laid the intellectual foundations for religious toleration that would come to dominate Western political philosophy during the Enlightenment.

But it took centuries for religious toleration to take hold.

In the meantime, Europe became embroiled in a series of religious wars. Most were civil wars between Protestants and Catholics, including the French Wars of Religion, a series of conflicts from 1562 to 1598. These included one of the most horrific events of the 16th century: the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, when thousands of Protestants were slain in a nationwide bloodbath.

Castellio had seen the carnage coming: “So much blood will flow,” he had warned in a treatise 10 years earlier, “that its loss will be irremediable.”

A painting in faded colors shows a plaza in a medieval city, with scenes of people slaughtering each other and throwing bodies in a river. — ‘The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre,’ by 16th-century artist François Dubois.
Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts/Wikimedia Commons

Remembering the Golden Rule

Castellio’s 1562 book, “Advice to a Desolate France,” was a rarity in the 16th century, for it sought compromise and the middle ground rather than the religious extremes.

With an extraordinarily modern sensibility, he decided to use the terms each side preferred for themselves, rather than the negative epithets used by their opponents.

“I shall call them what they call themselves,” he explained, “in order not to offend them.” Hence, he used “Catholics” rather than “Papists” and “evangelicals” rather than “Huguenots.”

Castellio pulled no punches. To the Catholics, referring to decades of Protestant persecution in France, he said: “Recall how you have treated the evangelicals. You have pursued and imprisoned them … and then you have roasted them alive at a slow fire to prolong their torture. And for what crime? Because they did not believe in the pope, the Mass, and purgatory. … Is that a good and just cause for burning men alive?”

To the Protestants, he complained, “You are forcing them against their consciences to attend your sermons, and what is worse, you are forcing some to take up arms against their own brothers.” He noted that they were using three “remedies” for healing the church, “namely bloodshed, the forcing of consciences, and the condemning and regarding as unfaithful of those who are not entirely in agreement with your doctrine.”

A sepia-colored illustration of a man with a long goatee, wearing a black jacket with buttons. — A portrait of Sebastian Castellio, made by 18th-century printmaker Heinrich Pfenninger.
Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In short, Castellio accused both sides of ignoring the Golden Rule: “Do not do unto others what you would not want them to do unto you,” he wrote. “This is a rule so true, so just, so natural, and so written by the finger of God in the hearts of all,” he asserted, that none can deny it.

Both sides were trying to promote their vision of true religion, Castellio said, but both were going about it the wrong way. In particular, he warned against trying to justify evil behavior by appealing to its possible effects: “One should not do wrong in order that good may result from it.”

In another essay, he made the same point to argue against torture, writing that “Evil must not be done in order to pursue the good.” Castellio was the anti-Machiavelli; for him, the ends did not justify the means.

Force doesn’t work

Finally, “Advice to a Desolate France” argued that forcing people to your own way of thinking never works: “We manifestly see that those who are forced to accept the Christian religion, whether they are a people or individuals, never make good Christians.”

Americans, I believe, would do well to bear Castellio’s words in mind today. The country’s two dominant political parties have become increasingly polarized. Students are reluctant to speak out on controversial topics for fear of “saying the wrong thing.” Americans increasingly think in binary terms of good and evil, friends and enemies.

In the 16th century, Christians failed to heed Castellio’s advice and continued to kill each other over differences of belief for another hundred years. It would be wise to apply his ideas to today’s bitter divisions.

Michael Bruening does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why one theologian’s advice for a bitterly divided nation holds true today – https://theconversation.com/why-one-theologians-advice-for-a-bitterly-divided-nation-holds-true-today-266457

December 3, 2025

Les professeurs des écoles travaillent plus qu’on le croit : enquête sur les coulisses de l’enseignement

Source: The Conversation – France (in French) – By Léa Chabanel-Kahlik, Docteure en Sciences de l’éducation, spécialiste de l’organisation du travail des enseignant·es du premier degré en France, Université de Lille

Le travail des profs ne s’arrête pas au temps passé en classe face aux élèves. Une recherche menée en école primaire nous permet de mieux comprendre quelles sont ces tâches invisibles, indispensables à la réalisation de leur mission et qui pèsent sur des emplois du temps hebdomadaires de 45 heures à 48 heures.

Le temps de travail des professeurs des écoles en France fait l’objet de nombreuses représentations sociales négatives, quand il n’est pas franchement question de « profbashing ». En tête de ces croyances, se trouve celle qu’il s’agirait d’un métier aux horaires faibles et accommodants, idéal pour qui souhaite concilier vie privée et vie professionnelle (et notamment, donc, pour les femmes).

Cette sous-estimation de leur charge de travail ne manque pas de provoquer une blessure professionnelle profonde chez des profs des écoles en quête de reconnaissance. La recherche, en effet, montre que leur travail, ne se réduisant pas au temps passé face aux élèves, est en réalité complexe et sous-évalué. Elle offre un autre éclairage sur l’activité dite « de préparation », phénomène peu connu, dont on estimait jusqu’à peu qu’il était grosso modo strictement l’affaire de préparations didactiques (c’est-à-dire de préparations de séances de classe, de « leçons ») réalisées en amont de l’enseignement, et de corrections, réalisées en aval.

Plus encore, en dépit de son rôle incontournable pour l’enseignement, l’activité de préparation ne figure pas dans le cadre réglementaire du travail des professeurs des écoles. Elle n’est pas reconnue, ce qui signifie qu’elle n’est ni prescrite officiellement, ni pourvue de conditions de travail, ni rémunérée. D’ailleurs, d’un point de vue strictement juridique, elle ne relèverait pas d’un « travail » à proprement parler (qui s’inscrit nécessairement dans un lien avec le droit), mais bien d’une forme d’activité gratuite.

Mais alors qu’est-ce précisément que l’activité de préparation ? Quel rôle joue-t-elle pour l’enseignement et quelle part du travail total représente-t-elle ?

Des préparations qui ne s’arrêtent pas à la préparation de leçons

D’abord, la recherche montre que les préparations des professeurs des écoles sont aujourd’hui plus complexes qu’elles n’y paraissent, dépassant les seules préparations de « leçons ». Elles comprennent en réalité cinq ensembles, allant des préparations didactiques (D) aux préparations de planification (P), en passant par les préparations administratives (A), les préparations relatives à l’évaluation (E) ou celles relatives à la gestion des élèves (G).

De plus, ces ensembles s’interpellent les uns les autres. Par exemple, les préparations relatives à la gestion des élèves (G) sont étroitement liées à celles relatives à l’évaluation (E), elles-mêmes liées à des préparations didactiques (D) qui sont, elles, adossées à des préparations de planification (P). Les préparations administratives (A), quand bien même elles sont souvent « jugées sans valeur », y compris par le corps enseignant, trouvent en fait d’importantes ramifications avec l’intégralité des autres ensembles de préparations.

Mais cela n’est pas tout. En réalité, un sixième ensemble de préparations rend possibles les cinq premiers. Il s’agit des préparations relatives à l’organisation (O) de l’activité de préparation. En effet, en l’absence de moyens spécifiques, les professeurs des écoles s’organisent et organisent (O) leurs autres préparations (D, P, E, A, G). En clair, ils compensent l’absence de moyens octroyés à la préparation.

Concrètement, sur leur temps libre et « avec leurs propres deniers », ils font divers déplacements, des achats ou encore (ré)aménagent leur espace de travail. Et si certains niveaux (maternelle) ou certains domaines (arts, sciences) sont réputés nécessiter davantage de matériel, un ou une prof des écoles exerçant en CE2, préparant une banale séance de maths, aura aussi le plus souvent à se procurer, par exemple, une plastifieuse et des feuilles de plastification très onéreuses, parfois même, du papier.

Des préparations indispensables à l’accompagnement des élèves

Et même lorsque les préparations didactiques n’ont plus nécessairement à être créées de A à Z, comme lorsque les enseignants sont en charge d’un même niveau pendant plusieurs années consécutives, le temps consacré à la préparation ne s’écroule pas. Loin de là. Sans même parler de ces autres préparations (P, E, A, G, O) qui ne relèvent pas des préparations didactiques (D) et qui, globalement, demeurent en dépit de l’expérience, il apparaît en réalité que les préparations didactiques (D) ont elles aussi quelque chose d’irréductible.

En effet, en l’état actuel de la vision de l’éducation telle qu’elle est donnée par l’éducation nationale et par les instituts universitaires de formation, enseigner à de jeunes élèves et à de très jeunes élèves, non autonomes par définition, ne peut consister à délivrer de manière frontale des cours magistraux. L’enseignement ne suffit pas, il requiert invariablement une préparation de la part du prof des écoles, chargé d’accompagner chaque enfant vers les apprentissages, de plus en plus individuellement d’ailleurs.

Aussi, contrairement aux idées reçues, le ou la prof des écoles ne réutilise pas telles quelles ses préparations d’une année à l’autre. Au minimum, il ou elle aura à réadapter ses préparations didactiques : chaque nouvelle classe se composant en effet de nouveaux élèves qu’il faut de nouveau intéresser, « faire rentrer dans les apprentissages ».

C’est là le propre de la pédagogie du prof des écoles qui se décline simultanément tant pour le groupe que de manière différenciée, ce qui provoque une charge importante de préparations de toutes sortes à réaliser. Le moyen mnémotechnique « PEDAGO » permet d’inventorier et de mémoriser les six ensembles de préparations incontournables à la mise en œuvre de la pédagogie du prof des écoles :

P : préparations de planification didactique
E : préparations relatives à l’évaluation
D : préparations pédagogiques et didactiques
A : préparations administratives et de concertation
G : préparations relatives à la gestion des élèves
O : préparations relatives à l’organisation de l’activité de préparation

Une organisation de travail complexe

Toutes les réévaluations effectuées suggèrent que la durée de l’activité de préparation des professeurs des écoles aurait augmenté, si bien qu’elle serait aujourd’hui proche, voire supérieure, au temps imparti à l’enseignement. Concrètement, au-delà des 44 heures de travail au total par semaine rapportées par une étude, ancienne déjà, leur temps de travail total hebdomadaire aurait atteint entre 45 heures et 48 heures.

Quelques comparaisons permettent d’ailleurs de démontrer que les professeurs des écoles français, au regard d’autres catégories d’actifs français ou européens, n’ont pas à rougir du temps qu’ils passent à travailler. Et la question de la durée des vacances, elle, doit être comprise au prisme de la question des femmes et du cumul d’activités qui leur incombe à leur domicile, pour un métier où plus de 8 professeurs des écoles sur 10 sont des femmes.

Il faut dire que l’organisation de leur travail est inédite, elle ne ressemble à aucun autre métier. L’activité de préparation se fragmente de tôt le matin jusqu’à tard le soir, au domicile, à l’école ainsi que sur le temps d’enseignement.

Le métier de professeur des écoles aujourd’hui est plus complexe qu’il n’y paraît, que ce que notre propre expérience d’écolier nous suggère et que ce que nos seuls yeux nous permettent de voir. Or, le faible intérêt que suscite l’activité de préparation, au regard de la place et du rôle qu’elle prend, questionne. Loin d’un simple « débordement du travail », elle représente une part colossale du travail total, une part non rémunérée et laissée finalement à la discrétion des enseignants.

Il y a trente-sept ans maintenant, dans un article publié dans la Revue française de pédagogie, « Le malaise des enseignants », José M. Esteve et Alice F. B. Fracchia s’exclamaient déjà :

« Peut-on améliorer les résultats de l’enseignement alors que les innovations et les efforts en ce sens doivent toujours se fonder sur le volontariat ? Peut-on demander aux enseignants de puiser éternellement dans leur temps personnel pour y participer ? »

J’ai exercé par le passé le métier de professeur des écoles au sein de l’Education nationale.

– ref. Les professeurs des écoles travaillent plus qu’on le croit : enquête sur les coulisses de l’enseignement – https://theconversation.com/les-professeurs-des-ecoles-travaillent-plus-quon-le-croit-enquete-sur-les-coulisses-de-lenseignement-268861

December 3, 2025

By hiding their faces, metal bands maximise the emotional punch of their music

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chris Waugh, Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, Manchester Metropolitan University

In 2024, along with 20,000 others, I attended a sold-out metal show in Manchester. Unlike most concerts at the Co-op Live Arena, however, none of us in the packed-out venue knew who we were actually seeing. The band was Sleep Token – a masked and anonymous collective formed in London in 2016, now selling out arenas across the UK and the US with their distinctive blend of progressive metal, indie pop and trap.

A few months later, I stood among thousands to watch the Swedish band Ghost, famous for dressing as a satanic clergy led by their masked frontman Papa Emeritus. Their show was an extravagant parody of religion. Theirs was an entirely different performance of concealment from Sleep Token, but one just as emotionally charged.

Then, earlier this year, I found myself in a concert hall on the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium. In a room filled with billowing smoke and illuminated only by the snap of strobe lighting and a single candelabra, I watched the death-metal outfit Dragged into Sunlight thrash and shriek through their gloriously misanthropic album Hatred for Mankind. Once again, I had absolutely no idea what they looked like.

In a cultural moment where visibility in popular music is at its zenith – where all eyes and screens fixate on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour or Oasis’s long-awaited reunion – something interesting is happening in the metal scene. Metal musicians are refusing to reveal their identities, names and faces, or (in the case of Dragged into Sunlight) even acknowledging that they have an audience at all, by playing with their backs to the crowd, and never speaking between songs.

Dragged into Sunlight perform with their backs to the audience.

Rock and metal musicians have concealed their identities before, of course. Kiss and Alice Cooper strut the stage in elaborate makeup. Slipknot and Gwar perform in grotesque masks or full-body costumes. And the use of “corpse paint” (skull-like facial makeup) and occult pseudonyms is par for the course in certain kinds of Black Metal, an extreme offshoot of heavy metal, characterised by shrieked vocals, tremello guitar playing and Satanic imagery.

However, anonymous metal bands such as Ghost, Sleep Token and Dragged into Sunlight draw attention to a paradox – concealment is what gives their performances their emotional power.

Researchers of the “affective turn” in social science argue that emotion isn’t just something we have; it is something that moves between us. Cultural theorist Sara Ahmed describes affect – those intensities that we feel, often before we fully know what we’re feeling – as “what sticks”. Affects are the energy that circulates between people, objects and ideas, binding them together.

As literary critic Raymond Williams has noted, affect often emerges before it’s fully articulated – inarticulate, but powerful. This is precisely what is at play in anonymous metal bands. When performers hide their faces and identities, they strip away one of the most recognisable cues in performance. In that absence, the audience and listeners become part of the emotional work – projecting, imagining and collectively generating meaning.

My research, due for publication next year, draws on ideas from affect theory to explore how hiding a performer’s face or identity creates new ways of generating shared emotion. Anonymous metal bands show how concealment itself can become a tool for feeling.

How bands use their anonymity

In the case of Sleep Token, the effect is a sense of both devotion and intimacy. Sleep Token’s lyrics explore spiritual and religious experiences, desire (both sexual and for connection) and vulnerability. Yet, at the same time, their lyrics are often ambiguous.

The lack of clear meaning, along with a lack of identity among the band members, leaves space for audiences to interpret and process their own emotions – even those that they cannot fully verbalise. Evidence of this is clear in Sleep Token’s active digital fanbases, where frequent posts on a Reddit fan page attest to how the absence of identity becomes a conduit for intimacy.

Sleep Token performing in masks.

In the case of Ghost, concealment lends itself to irony and parody. Ghost presents itself as a kind of Satanic clergy, with their front man, Papa Emeritus, playing the part of a Satanic pope-like figure, flanked by masked musicians, known as the “nameless ghouls”. This rather menacing presence is a means of satire. Ghost mocks the bureaucracy and power dynamics of the Catholic Church, promotes self-discovery, consent and mutual pleasure, and keeps its tongue firmly planted in its cheek. Ghost’s anonymity, then, takes the austere and the totalitarian, turns it on its head, and creates a space for fun, transgression and communal ritual.

If Sleep Token’s anonymity invites connection and Ghost’s invites laughter and collective joy, then Dragged into Sunlight weaponises their lack of identity.

Unlike the other bands, Dragged into Sunlight doesn’t wear masks, but instead performs with their backs to the audience, in poorly lit stages filled with billowing smoke. Their music, which blends black metal, death metal and grindcore, is blistering, chaotic and misanthropic.

By refusing to acknowledge the crowd and refusing to adopt clear identities, Dragged into Sunlight’s music – which focuses on mass killing, cruelty and social disarray – pummels the audience with pure affect. It consists of overwhelming volume, deafening distortion and indecipherable screaming fury, underpinned by a rigorous contempt for the subject matter of their lyrics. There is emotion here, but it is stripped of empathy, a kind of anti-performance that paradoxically heightens the experience.

Across these examples, concealment produces different emotional registers – intimacy, joy, rage – but in each case, it’s what makes feeling possible. These bands remind us that emotion doesn’t always depend on recognition. Sometimes it’s the very act of not knowing that allows us to feel more deeply. The face, once the centre of performance, gives way to atmosphere, sound and sensation.

Perhaps that is why audiences respond so strongly to these bands. In a world obsessed with being seen, they offer the relief of not being known – the freedom to lose yourself in something larger.

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Chris Waugh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. By hiding their faces, metal bands maximise the emotional punch of their music – https://theconversation.com/by-hiding-their-faces-metal-bands-maximise-the-emotional-punch-of-their-music-267934

December 3, 2025

Visual thinking: the strategy that could help you spot misinformation and manipulated images

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Shaun Nolan, Associate professor in English and sociolinguistics, Malmö University

A fake photo of an explosion near the Pentagon once rattled the stock market. A tearful video of a frightened young “Ukrainian conscript” went viral: until exposed as staged. We may be approaching a “synthetic media tipping point”, where AI-generated images and videos are becoming so realistic that traditional markers of authenticity, such as visual flaws, are rapidly disappearing.

In 2025, 70% of people struggle to trust online information, and 64% fear AI-generated content could influence elections. We are entering an era where seeing is no longer believing.

In such a world, learning to critically decode media is key to safeguarding truth, trust and democracy. “Visual thinking strategies”, a discussion technique originally developed for art education, offers a simple but powerful framework for navigating today’s complex media landscape.

It is based on three open-ended questions around a piece of visual media (like a painting, photograph or video):

ehat’s going on in this picture?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?

These questions prompt people to slow down, observe carefully and justify their interpretations with evidence. The approach is not only about looking, it’s about thinking together.

It usually happens in a group, guided by a facilitator – often a teacher – who paraphrases and connects participants’ ideas. Participants share and listen to individual observations, build on each other’s contributions, challenge assumptions and refine their thinking. This process surfaces biases, mitigates groupthink and promotes critical engagement.

Imagine you are shown a picture of a protest and asked “What is going on in this picture?” You say, “It looks like a climate march.” When asked, “what is it that you see makes you say that it is a climate march?”, you point to the signs. Others notice the police presence, the age of the crowd, the place where it’s happening or the lighting.

As the discussion unfolds, the group begins to see the image from multiple angles. This approach is exactly what’s needed in a world of manipulated images and political polarisation.

This strategy doesn’t guarantee “truth.” It cultivates habits of mind that resist manipulation: curiosity, evidence-based reasoning and tolerance for ambiguity. Even if someone responds in bad faith, its structure – especially the second question, which is intended to trigger critical analysis – requires them to explain their reasoning. This opens space for others to question, clarify and reframe.

Early classroom observations in the 1990s revealed that children carried these reasoning habits beyond the art class, asking, “what’s going on in this text?” or “in this maths problem?” Learners internalise this protocol and apply it intuitively to other activities in their everyday lives.

Why this approach matters now

The visual thinking strategies approach has positive implications not just for media literacy, but for fostering dialogue in divided societies and improving decision-making at a policy level.

Polarisation thrives on certainty and echo chambers. This strategy creates space for multiple interpretations and respectful disagreement, modelling the kind of dialogue democratic societies need. Participants consider alternative viewpoints and revise their thinking as new observations emerge. By showing how to disagree constructively, this technique can help rebuild trust in public discourse.

Amid mass migration, climate crises, cultural conflict and growing inequality, empathy is not just a moral virtue: it’s a strategic asset for education and social cohesion. Stepping into others’ perspectives through interpreting images that reflect diverse experiences and worldviews can help people navigate this, engaging with the emotions and contexts behind the images.

Leaders and policymakers increasingly rely on visual data such as maps, infographics and dashboards. Organisations like the OECD, World Bank and UN acknowledge this trend. Yet visual literacy is rarely taught in business or political science education, despite the growing use of visual materials in courses.

The benefits extend to fields where visual data drives critical action: humanitarian organisations using satellite imagery to track displacement, or climate scientists analysing environmental impact models. It can be used to train teams to notice patterns, question assumptions and surface alternative perspectives, supporting more informed, equitable outcomes.

As AI, climate change and economic disruption reshape our societies, we need tools that help us think clearly, communicate effectively and collaborate across divides. This is one such tool that requires no expensive technology or background in art; only a willingness to look, listen, and learn. In doing so, it cultivates the capacities – curiosity, humility and critical thinking – that our world urgently needs.

Try it yourself

Take a moment to look at the above picture. Then, alone or with a group, ask:

What’s going on in this picture? What’s your first impression? Is this a protest? A moment of mourning? A celebration?
What do you see that makes you say that? Look closely. Are you focusing on the clothing? The facial expressions or the way the people are standing? Do you recognise the language on the signs?
What more can we find? What’s happening in the background? Who is included – and who might be missing? Are there many people? What assumptions are you making about the people or the event? Why?

This image shows indigenous activists and students who forced their way into the COP30 venue in Belém, Brazil, on November 11, 2025. They clashed with security personnel at the entrance while demanding stronger climate action and better protection of indigenous lands. The questions above – and others you might ask – will help you understand what’s depicted, and deepen your thinking about this image.

Visual thinking strategies aren’t about finding the “correct” answer. It’s about slowing down, noticing more and explaining your reasoning. Try doing this exercise with a group – others may notice what you missed, challenge your interpretation or build on it. Together, you all begin to see more clearly.

Shaun Nolan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Visual thinking: the strategy that could help you spot misinformation and manipulated images – https://theconversation.com/visual-thinking-the-strategy-that-could-help-you-spot-misinformation-and-manipulated-images-269128

December 3, 2025

How mouth health affects diabetes – and vice versa

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aylin Baysan, Professor of Cariology in relation to Minimally Invasive Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London

Imagine trying to enjoy your favourite meal but finding that your gums hurt, your mouth feels dry and chewing has become uncomfortable. For people living with diabetes, this can be a daily reality that often goes unrecognised.

Diabetes care routinely focuses on the heart, feet, eyes, liver and kidneys. The mouth, however, is frequently overlooked, even though oral health both affects and is affected by diabetes in important ways.

One in nine adults worldwide has diabetes, and more than four in ten do not know they have the condition. By 2050, global projections indicate that one in eight adults, around 853 million people, will be affected, an increase of 46%.

Understanding the two-way connection between diabetes and oral health is therefore essential. It is not about achieving a Hollywood smile. Keeping diabetes under control supports good general and oral health in turn helps improve overall wellbeing.

Diabetes influences how the body processes sugar. When blood sugar levels remain high for long periods, they damage blood vessels and nerves, slow healing and weaken the body’s ability to fight infection. The mouth having soft and hard tissues and naturally diverse community of bacteria, becomes particularly vulnerable.

Oral health complications linked to diabetes include dry mouth caused by reduced saliva, high risk of tooth decay, gum disease involving inflammation and bone loss around the teeth, oral infections such as thrush, mouth ulcers, difficulty wearing dentures, changes in taste and ultimately tooth loss. These problems can affect nutrition, confidence and even blood sugar control.

My latest study showed a clear association between type 2 diabetes and severe dental decay. High blood sugar, combined with changes in saliva quantity and quality, may contribute to this progression. Many people are unaware of this link, which creates a vicious cycle. However, dry mouth and the dental decay that follows can often be prevented if awareness is increased among the public and healthcare professionals.

Gum disease and diabetes

People with diabetes are more likely to experience gum disease, and the relationship works both ways. Diabetes increases the risk of gum disease because high blood sugar leads to more sugar in saliva. Bacteria in the mouth feed on sugar and produce acids that irritate and damage the gums. Once the gums become infected, the supporting bone around the teeth can shrink. As bone is lost, teeth may become loose or fall out. Keeping blood sugar within a healthy range and maintaining good oral hygiene significantly lowers this risk.

Dry mouth and tooth decay

Dry mouth is another common issue for people with diabetes. Around 20% of the general population experiences dry mouth, with higher numbers seen in women and older adults. Certain medications used for treating blood pressure, depression or nerve pain can make dryness worse.

Saliva is the mouth’s natural protection. It washes away food particles, neutralises acids and helps prevent infection. Without enough saliva, the mouth becomes more acidic and teeth lose minerals, which increases the risk of decay. Dentists can offer personalised prevention plans for people at higher risk. These may include fluoride varnishes, specialist mouthwashes or high-fluoride toothpaste.

Saliva also plays a vital role for denture wearers. It cushions the gums, stabilises dentures and reduces irritation. When the mouth is dry, dentures can rub and cause discomfort, ulcers and infections such as oral thrush. Good denture care can greatly improve comfort, eating and overall health, including cleaning dentures daily, removing them at night, brushing the gums and tongue, using suitable cleaning solutions rather than hot water and attending regular dental check-ups to ensure a proper fit.

Dental implants are another option for replacing missing teeth, but diabetes must be well controlled before they are considered because high blood sugar slows healing, increases infection risk and makes it harder for the bone to fuse properly with the implant. Healthy gums, stable bone levels and good oral hygiene are essential for implant success. Dentists need to assess each person’s situation to determine whether implants are appropriate.

Good mouth care can make eating easier, support blood sugar control and improve quality of life. Staying informed, building healthy daily habits and attending regular dental check-ups all help manage the oral health complications linked to diabetes.

Aylin Baysan is the third inventor of an ozone delivery system for the management of root caries. She is co-recipient of a Life Science Initiative Award of £50,000 to work on a novel bioactive membrane for the regeneration of dental hard tissues.

– ref. How mouth health affects diabetes – and vice versa – https://theconversation.com/how-mouth-health-affects-diabetes-and-vice-versa-270182

December 3, 2025

The UK’s latest compromise on workers’ rights will not fix its labour market problems

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Danny Buckley, Workplace Learning Director, Loughborough University

The UK’s autumn budget tried to appeal to both workers and employers. But the decision the very next day to soften a key plan to improve workers’ rights shows how difficult that balance has become.

Just hours after Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her budget, the government announced it would backtrack on a manifesto pledge to give all workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from day one of their employment.

Business groups had warned that the plan could discourage hiring, particularly for smaller firms that depend on probation periods to assess staff. Critics, of course, call it a broken promise.

Other planned day-one rights – to sick pay and paternity leave – will still go ahead from next year. But the government argued that delaying protection from unfair dismissal until six months after someone starts a new job (it is currently two years) is a practical compromise.

The decision is supposed to be pro-business and pro-hiring. But while workers will now miss out on what would have been a major change to their rights as a new employee, the move is unlikely to be enough to encourage under-pressure firms to take on staff.

The fact is that this debate sits within a wider policy environment where employing people has become harder. Regardless of dismissal rights, rising labour costs, tight margins and increasingly complex rules mean many firms are hesitant to take on staff.

But this is not to say that watering down workers’ protections in a bid to help firms is the way forward. The standard employment relationship is still the main way workers access rights and social protection, so its erosion raises serious concerns for working conditions and basic benefits.

When formal employment offers fewer protections, the gap between secure jobs and insecure arrangement narrows. If the government is suggesting that strengthening workers’ rights is negotiable, then in the eyes of an employer it may seem like less of a leap to opt for informal hiring models that deny workers certain protections.

For example, bogus self-employment (when workers are classified as “self-employed” or “subcontractors” even when their working conditions are effectively the same as regular employees) allows employers to shift legal and financial responsibilities on to workers. Protections like sick pay, redundancy rights and holiday pay disappear. The worker absorbs the risk as the employer cuts their costs.

Wider research on the informal economy shows how quickly these models spread once the rules allow it. In essence, rather than encouraging firms to hire on standard contracts, weaker protections normalise risk-shifting and accelerate the move towards arrangements that sit outside standard employment law.

In sectors such as hair and beauty and construction, workers are often told they are “independent” while being given fixed hours, fixed prices and strict instructions. They look like employees in every meaningful sense, but receive none of the protections.

The unfair dismissal U-turn could legitimise the drift towards these models. And at the same time, issues that the budget did not address – such as the VAT threshold and the rising cost of employment – leave many small business-to-consumer (those that sell their products or services direct to the public) deliberately choosing not to grow.

For example, when firms cross the VAT limit with a turnover of more than £90,000, this increases their costs sharply. As a result, adding even one or two employees to the staff can make the business unprofitable – far more so than the risk of taking on a staff member who might not work out and may have to be let go quickly.

As such, many firms deliberately cap their growth, restructure their operations or rely on “contractors” as the only affordable way to bring in extra capacity.

The cost of complying

I’ve seen this repeatedly in my previous and ongoing research into the impact of regulations on small businesses in the UK service sector. Firms avoid formal employment not because they want to exploit people, but because the cost of compliance has become too high for them to absorb. Bogus self-employment becomes the only viable staffing model if they want to continue trading.

When this practice becomes widespread, responsible employers face a hard choice. Either they adopt the same practices to stay competitive or watch rivals undercut them. This is the classic race to the bottom. Rights fall away, protections shrink and low-quality employment becomes the baseline across the sector.

The government insists that new enforcement measures will prevent abuse but there is little evidence to suggest this will work. Enforcement capacity has been repeatedly cut and agencies such as HMRC, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the Health and Safety Executive struggle to investigate even straightforward cases. Ambiguous rules are easy to exploit and hard to police.

torso of a bricklayer adding mortar to a wall with a trowel — Weakening plans for workers’ rights could push entire sectors towards informal employment.
Irene Miller/Shutterstock

This is why MPs from across the political divide are calling for a full review of worker status. Closing loopholes is essential as ambiguity only helps those who want to reduce standards. This U-turn goes in the opposite direction.

The UK says it wants to “make work pay”. This requires tackling the VAT threshold and the rising cost of employing people, both of which encourage small firms to avoid growth. Some argue for raising the threshold to give firms more room to expand, while others support reducing the VAT rate for the sectors that are hardest hit.

While the U-turn on unfair dismissal is a blow to workers, at the same time it is insufficient to nudge pressurised firms towards employing formally. And this is important: a labour market built on insecurity is not efficient in the long run. It produces high turnover, low commitment and low productivity. It penalises responsible employers, rewards those that exploit grey areas and leaves workers in precarious positions.

If the UK wants a stable workforce, economic growth and a competitive economy, it needs employment rules that support both workers and the businesses that want to grow. This plan moves the UK further away from that goal.

Danny Buckley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The UK’s latest compromise on workers’ rights will not fix its labour market problems – https://theconversation.com/the-uks-latest-compromise-on-workers-rights-will-not-fix-its-labour-market-problems-271045

December 3, 2025

Data centres in space: will 2027 really be the year AI goes to orbit?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Domenico Vicinanza, Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems and Data Science, Anglia Ruskin University

Google recently unveiled Project Suncatcher, a research “moonshot” aiming to build a data centre in space. The tech giant plans to use a constellation of solar-powered satellites which would run on its own TPU chips and transmit data to one another via lasers.

Google’s TPU chips (tensor processing units), which are specially designed for machine learning, are already powering Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 3. Project Suncatcher will explore whether they can be adapted to survive radiation and temperature extremes and operate reliably in orbit. It aims to deploy two prototype satellites into low Earth orbit, some 400 miles above the Earth, in early 2027.

Google’s rivals are also exploring space-based computing. Elon Musk has said that SpaceX “will be doing data centres in space”, suggesting that the next generation of Starlink satellites could be scaled up to host such processing. Several smaller firms, including a US startup called Starcloud, have also announced plans to launch satellites equipped with the GPU chips (graphics processing units) that are used in most AI systems.

The logic of data centres in space is that they avoid many of the issues with their Earth-based equivalents, particularly around power and cooling. Space systems have a much lower environmental footprint and it’s potentially easier to make them bigger.

As Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said: “We will send tiny, tiny racks of machines and have them in satellites, test them out, and then start scaling from there … There is no doubt to me that, a decade or so away, we will be viewing it as a more normal way to build data centres.”

Assuming Google does manage to launch a prototype in 2027, will it simply be a high-stakes technical experiment – or the dawning of a new era?

The scale of the challenge

I wrote an article for The Conversation at the start of 2025 laying out the challenges of putting data centres into space, in which I was cautious about them happening soon.

Now, of course, Project Suncatcher represents a concrete programme rather than just an idea. This clarity, with a defined goal, launch date and hardware, marks a significant shift.

The satellites’ orbits will be “sun synchronous”, meaning they’ll always be flying over places at sunset or sunrise so that they can capture sunlight nearly continuously. According to Google, solar arrays in such orbits can generate significantly more energy per panel than typical installations on Earth because they avoid losing sunlight due to clouds and the atmosphere, as well as night times.

Hello spaceboy: Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
FotoField

The TPU tests will be fascinating. Whereas hardware designed for space normally requires to be heavily shielded against radiation and extreme temperatures, Google is using the same chips used in its Earth data centres.

The company has already done laboratory tests exposing the chips to radiation from a proton beam that suggest they can tolerate almost three times the dose they’ll receive in space. This is very promising, but maintaining a reliable performance for years, amidst solar storms, debris and temperature swings is a far harder test.

Another challenge lies in thermal management. On Earth, servers are cooled with air or water. In space, there is no air and no straightforward way to dissipate heat. All heat must be removed through radiators, which often become among the largest and heaviest parts of a spacecraft.

Nasa studies show that radiators can account for more than 40% of total power system mass at high power levels. Designing a compact system that can keep dense AI hardware within safe temperatures is one of the most difficult aspects of the Suncatcher concept.

A space-based data centre must also replicate the high bandwidth, low latency network fabric of terrestrial data centres. If Google’s proposed laser communication system (optical networking) is going to work at the multi-terabit capacity required, there are major engineering hurdles involved.

These include maintaining the necessary alignment between fast-moving satellites and coping with orbital drift, where satellites move out of their intended orbit. The satellites will also have to sustain reliable ground links back on Earth and ovecome weather disruptions. If a space data-centre is to be viable for the long term, it will be vital that it avoids early failures.

Maintenance is another unresolved issue. Terrestrial data centres rely on continual hardware servicing and upgrades. In orbit, repairs would require robotic servicing or additional missions, both of which are costly and complex.

Robot with pliers — Won’t come cheap.
BLACKDAY

Then there is the uncertainty around economics. Space-based computing becomes viable only at scale, and only if launch costs fall significantly. Google’s Project Suncatcher paper suggests that launch costs could drop below US$200 (£151) per kilogram by the mid 2030s, seven or eight times cheaper than today. That would put construction costs on par with some equivalent facilities on Earth. But if satellites require early replacement or if radiation shortens their lifespan, the numbers could look quite different.

In short, a two-satellite test mission by 2027 sounds plausible. It could validate whether TPUs survive radiation and thermal stress, whether solar power is stable and whether the laser communication system performs as expected.

However, even a successful demonstration would only be the first step. It would not show that large-scale orbital data centres are feasible. Full-scale systems would require solving all the challenges outlined above. If adoption occurs at all, it is likely to unfold over decades.

For now, space-based computing remains what Google itself calls it, a moonshot: ambitious and technically demanding, but one that could reshape the future of AI infrastructure, not to mention our relationship with the cosmos around us.

Domenico Vicinanza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Data centres in space: will 2027 really be the year AI goes to orbit? – https://theconversation.com/data-centres-in-space-will-2027-really-be-the-year-ai-goes-to-orbit-271018