Climate Emergency: UK Universities' Declarations and Their Role in Responding to Climate Change

Climate-amplified emergencies are vital sites for Indigenous resistance and resurgence, even as climate change compounds layers of colonial oppression. Drawing on the experiences of the Tŝilhqot’in Nation before, during and after record-breaking wildfires in the Nation’s territory (in British Columbia, Canada), this article describes how the Tŝilhqot’in employ strategies of resistance to presumed state authority and resurgence of their own laws and jurisdiction in response to the climate emergency. These record-breaking wildfires vividly illustrate how colonial laws and policies have converged over a century to produce the climate emergency. And yet, dominant discourses around climate change and emergency reproduce Indigenous erasure, vulnerability and marginalization. Counter to these discourses, the Tŝilhqot’in Nation has advanced sophisticated emergency responses in relation to the state. Moreover, the wildfires have prompted Tŝilhqot’in communities to revitalize deep-seated fire stewardship laws and responsibilities to properly care for the land, wildlife and each other in the face of the accelerating climate crisis. The Tŝilhqot’in Nation’s experiences reclaiming fire show how Indigenous resurgence provides pathways out of the climate crisis while also attending to its colonial roots and decolonizing the responses to it.

The rising concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the associated impacts of climate change have prompted the urgent need to reduce GHG emissions. In response, the cities of Manchester and Melbourne declared climate emergencies in 2019, calling for radical resource mobilisation to address global warming. Despite the increasing discourse on climate change policies and ambitions, there is limited evidence on the current practices in the built environment following these climate emergency declarations. To address this gap, this research conducted a comparative analysis of the building sector practices in Manchester and Melbourne. Through 63 in-depth interviews with building professionals and policy experts, this study sheds light on the alignment of these practices with climate goals. The findings reveal that while the United Kingdom has made notable progress in establishing its net-zero pathway, little attention has been given to driving this transformation at the building project level. In Melbourne, stricter regulations are necessary, particularly in the residential sector, to facilitate emission reductions and behavioural change. This paper, therefore, proposes a holistic cultural reform framework to support the transition of the sector towards a performance-based culture. By contextualising this analysis within the broader policy landscape and gathering insights from building professionals and policy experts, this research contributes to global efforts in climate change mitigation and offers practical implications for the building sector.

The climate emergency framework, which started in Australia around 2008, has been adopted in many countries, particularly the United States and United Kingdom. In terms of the Australian scenario, in my dual roles as an anthropologist and climate activist, I witnessed the initial development of the climate emergency framework and more recent efforts to update it in Australia at the 2020 National Climate Emergency Summit in Melbourne on February 14–15, 2020. From my perspective as an eco-socialist, I argue that the climate emergency framework seeks to operate within the parameters of global capitalism and in doing so downplays social justice issues. There is a need for the climate emergency movement to become part and parcel of a larger climate justice movement, not simply a climate movement that emphasizes techno-fixes, and that says, “system change, not climate change.”

Following vascular injury, endothelial cells become activated in the attempt to repave the damaged luminal surface. In addition, a physical interaction is established not only among the denuded subendothelial matrix, activated platelets, and circulating inflammatory cells but also with the progenitor cells (PCs).1 Endothelial survival, proliferation, and migration, necessary for re-coverage of exposed lamina, are aided by CD34+ PCs that express the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor-2/kinase-insert domain receptor (KDR). However, whether these cells enter the peripheral circulation as a predefined population or acquire their final antigenic phenotype on homing to the peripheral vasculature remains a matter of debate. See accompanying article on page 408 In this issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology , de Boer et al propose that human CD34+/KDR+ cells are generated from circulating CD34+ cells after immobilization on activated platelets.2 By using an ex vivo flow model, the authors show that activated platelets favor the homing of CD34+ cells to sites of vascular injury and that, on cell immobilization, KDR is rapidly translocated from an endosomal compartment to the cell surface. Presumably, PCs shed afterward to “carry the message” into the circulation. It is noteworthy that de Boer et al also report an increased coexpression of KDR on CD34+ cells in type-2 diabetes, which was reduced by aspirin treatment. The authors conclude that their data might have implications for the identification of patients with subclinical vascular injury, on the basis of the hypothesis that activated/injured endothelium provides more opportunity …

I n the 1980s, the United Kingdom's University Grants Committee responded to demands for greater accountability by introducing a Research Selectivity (later called Assessment) Exercise. The RAE ran over five cycles between 1986 and 2001. Panels in 69 discipline-based units of assessment (UoAs) awarded grades against performance data and strategy statements from every university and college funded for research, using criteria based on comparative national and international excellence. RAE grades not only assigned prestige but also weighted funding allocations. These powerful incentives led to measurable changes in efficiency. Resources, staff, and research students became concentrated in departments with world-class research profiles. Despite growing international competition, UK research improved relative to world benchmarks, reversing declines in the early 1980s. Average research performance, on the basis of publication and citation data, gained progressively from 1986 through 2000. This policy for research assessment has driven the quality of university research so successfully that UK research funding has run into some unanticipated problems. The RAE may now have reached its limits. It was designed to drive core funding by rewarding high achievers in a system with a spread of performance, so academics worked even harder to achieve excellence because higher grades led to better resourcing. Now, with some 55% of UK academics in the top-rated category, the funding differentials are being flattened, and the resource pot hasn't grown as fast as the improvements. Shortfalls in expected funding are likely to affect morale, so the United Kingdom now needs a replacement assessment and allocation system to maintain the momentum of research excellence. It may also need to rethink its broader justification for the core funding of research in universities, which are set for further major expansion. Freezing the present state of excellence is untenable, and it may not be feasible to differentiate among top performers in the present system or to assess them differently from the rest. The static grade criteria of the RAEcould be avoided by progressively raising the bar and applying grade normalization to each UoA in successive RAEs, but there is then the challenge of comparing excellence among subjects.[*][1] Any new system must continue to provide accountability for the use of public funds, must be at least as selective in distributing those funds to the places that will use them most effectively, and must be flexible enough to treat sciences and arts in a comparable way. It also needs to remain dynamic, so that funds can be reallocated between units and institutions as the peaks of excellence develop and shift. The dynamic nature of university research in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere is one reason why the scientific enterprise in these countries compares well with the national systems of research institutes in France, Germany, and Japan.[†][2][‡][3] Many alternatives have been floated, but it is unclear that any would serve UK science well. Institutional self-assessment is unlikely to build confidence in the process, and if institutions were to assess one another, then disciplinary and regional politics might bias the outcome. The system could shift from cycles to a rolling assessment, across either institutions or disciplines, but this could be an expensive logistical nightmare. (The RAE has been relatively cheap to operate: The attributable costs are only 1% of the allocation.) The United Kingdom could simplify its dual support of core and project research funding by gearing the core against project grants, but the close correlation between funding streams disguises a crucial residual variance: There can be twofold grant income differences for institutions with similar core funding because of differences in disciplinary portfolios. The RAE created incentives that channeled natural research competitiveness into a pervasive driver of excellence. It overcame initial opposition in the community by showing that those who deliver good research have little to fear and much to gain from well-structured scrutiny. So why is such an assessment system a rarity internationally? Other countries could benefit from the challenge that a dynamic allocation system presents. [1]: #fn-1 [2]: #fn-2 [3]: #fn-3

Brexit has represented a historic transformation in the relationship between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU), with significant impacts not only on the political and economic level, but also in the educational and academic spheres. This article explores the effects of Brexit on student mobility and research, analysing in detail the repercussions of the end of the UK's participation in crucial programmes such as Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe. In particular, it examines how the UK, after its withdrawal from Erasmus+, established the Alan Turing Scheme to support the international mobility of British students, albeit with reduced funding compared to the European programme. The impact on UK universities and their opportunities to participate in joint research initiatives is also discussed, highlighting the growing competition for Horizon Europe funds and the increase in bureaucracy following the separation from the European single market. The work concludes with a reflection on the future prospects for the UK and the EU, underlining the need for adaptations to migration, economic and research policies to mitigate the effects of Brexit and foster broader international cooperation. Finally, possible research directions are suggested to better understand the evolution of educational mobility programs, migration policy management and post-Brexit economic competitiveness, with particular attention to the growing role of global alliances such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Questionnaires to Assess Urinary and Anal Incontinence: Review and Recommendations

While there is extensive literature about public concern about climate change, most studies rely on cross-sectional static data. Based on a unique panel survey conducted in nine European countries in 2018 and 2019, we make a rare investigation of factors that explain why some young people (age: 18–34 years) are, have become or have lost their concern about climate and environmental issues at times of widespread discussions about the climate emergency. The analysis tests argument about the importance of individual-level factors such as values and political orientations and consider the role of cross-national variations, the experience of extreme weather events and youth-led climate strikes. Our results support prior studies as we find that young people with libertarian rather than authoritarian values, with more positive views towards immigration and redistribution policies, tend to be more concerned about climate change and the environment. We find little effect of contextual factors. Young people who have experienced economic hardship and have a right-wing political orientation are less likely to become concerned for climate and environmental issues. Socio-economic conditions, values and political orientations are crucial to understanding climate concern among young Europeans, affecting youth climate engagement at times of increasing inequalities and polarization.

During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, many universities around the world made a drastic change by transferring most of their offline classes to emergency remote learning (ERL). The aim of this study was to explore how Chinese students, who studied in United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) universities during the 2020/21 academic year, perceive their experiences of remote learning. As the UK and the US have two relatively advanced education systems, the arrangements of their universities for ERL and their support for international students are worth exploring. Moreover, during the ERL, a portion of Chinese students had online classes in their home countries instead of the country in which their universities are located. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were carried out to explore the academic experiences and social interaction of students who studied in UK and US universities, while remaining in China. The data were analyzed using the thematic analysis method. The findings showed that ERL was perceived negatively by students despite its flexibility in areas of academic learning experiences and social interaction.

Swansea University's United Kingdom (UK) Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Register is a platform that contains information on more than 17,600 people with MS living in the UK. The register has been in operation since 2011 and represents comprehensive information about people living with MS in the UK. It is considered the first register of its kind that can link information from patients to clinical data and has been established to answer different information needs about MS. Aim: To elucidate the trends in patterns of medicines currently used by people with MS in the UK MS register. Methods: This study follows an exploratory descriptive design using the UK MS register as data resource. A number of 4516 people completed the EQ-5D survey out of 8736 people who have given their consent to answer online questionnaires which represents around 52% of the register total population. Descriptive analysis and tests were performed with SPSS to address the research objectives. Results: There are several medicine names entered by people with MS in their profiles. These medicines are used either to manage MS symptoms or to treat its associated complications. Among the medicine types revealed in this study, disease modifying drugs (DMDs), muscle relaxants, and anticonvulsants are the medicine types mainly used by people with MS followed by antidepressant and antianxiety medicines. Conclusions: From the antidepressants used most widely, amitriptyline was chosen as a subject medicine for further investigation in the remaining studies of this research due to its high frequency use, the elevated depression rates discovered among people with MS who seek information on it online, and the high online content noted on websites about this medicine.

Going to university is a time of great change and adjustment for students, particularly for Chinese international students (CIS) who are crossing borders and cultures to pursue their studies. The existing literature has shown that CIS social interaction is associated with their sense of belonging at university which, in turn, is associated with their psychological wellbeing. However, there remains a paucity of work examining these relationships within a single study, especially among CIS in the United Kingdom (UK), where social interaction, sense of belonging, and psychological wellbeing, are reported to be of concern. In the present study, 85 CIS at UK universities, were surveyed for their social interaction (peer and teacher-student relationships) and sense of belonging at university as well as their psychological wellbeing. It was found that students' social interactions and sense of belonging at university were significantly positively related with psychological wellbeing. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that sense of belonging at university partially mediated the relationship between peer interactions and psychological wellbeing but fully mediated the relationship between teacher-student interactions and psychological wellbeing. Despite some limitations (e.g., sampling and methodological issues), this study makes a valuable contribution to understanding how different forms of social interactions (e.g., peer and teacher-student) affect CIS students' sense of belonging and, in turn, their psychological wellbeing. It also contributes practically, suggesting that initiatives such as expanded extracurricular opportunities and university peer mentoring programs may foster positive social interactions. These, in turn, may enhance students' sense of belonging at university and their psychological wellbeing.

In 2019, the United Kingdom (UK) became one of the first countries to declare a climate emergency. In this regard, many local governments in the country (which encompass districts, unitary counties, boroughs, and councils) have taken the lead to declare a climate emergency. Only a few local authorities developed and issued plans with specific actions on achieving the targets of their declared emergencies. The following policy memo sheds light upon the most pressing challenges in climate emergency action planning. A preceding comparative analysis (Kandzhova et. al., 2020) revealed that the currently published action plans differ considerably in structure, detailedness and overall approaches. The lack of standardisation of climate action planning from either the national government or other responsible institutions leads to varying local policy responses. The preceding analysis identified the most pertinent challenges to be in the areas of 1) securing finance; 2) social inclusiveness and equality; and 3) realisation of co-benefits of action plans. We present recommendations for each of the aforementioned areas.

This paper will describe a successful engineering study abroad program that occurs every summer for six weeks. The program participants are engineering and science students from Mississippi State University and Clemson University in the United States and the program takes place at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. The program is designed to handle approximately 30 students in total from the two US schools and permits wavering enrollments at one university to be compensated by the other. Thus, the University of Bristol can be assured of a reasonable number of students on a continuing basis to keep the program profitable. The first four weeks are spent at the University of Bristol, where students take two classes and earn six credit hours. The program ends with a two-week independent travel period where students typically tour the continent. While attending classes at the University of Bristol, the students experience British culture firsthand by living with host families.

A new report on higher education, which marks the 50th anniversary of the Robins Report, reveals that academics, instead of devoting more time to teaching, actually prioritise their research. Further, it is claimed that two-thirds of students receive no feedback. These findings have been publicised in a pamphlet which at the same time, discloses new predictions, including a huge increase in the number of university entrants by 2035. 
\nThe analysis of these findings, confronted with subsequent reasoning which may have caused them, should allow the establishment of the present trends that have been formed in higher education and are bound to be followed; especially by the ‘newer’ United Kingdom universities. Thus this paper’s main aim is to identify possible challenges and pitfalls which may well await these universities in the future. Also, such an evaluation becomes quintessential in view of the fact that at present students’ fees have risen to circa £9,000-10,000 for the very same courses which were available at the time when such tuition was free. 
\nThe paper provides evidence that the underlying reason for many of the present problems these ‘less prestigious’ universities are experiencing, is chronic under-funding. As the current pattern of expansion appears to be occurring even more speedily than expected, one needs to bear in mind that distortion usually results when such goals wish to be achieved with a minimum effort and more importantly, at minimum possible cost.

In academic research on intercultural communication (IC), students’ perceptions and experiences regarding English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been central to the discussion because they form the basis for English teaching policies and practices in multilingual and multicultural environments. Substantial theoretical research on ELF has called for a paradigm shift from emphasizing the over-simplistic correlation between language and Anglophone cultures to recognizing the legitimacy of non-native English learners’ home culture in English teaching pedagogy. Nonetheless, little empirical research has been conducted to examine how ELF speakers understand their home culture in ELF communications. Relatively fewer studies have investigated to what extent ELF users’ perceptions of home culture influence their IC practices. To address these gaps, this study aims to explore Chinese international students in a liberal arts university in the United Kingdom and their understanding of Chinese culture in authentic ELF interactions. In addition, the perceived effects of Chinese culture on students’ IC were explored in great depth. This study adopts a mixed-method approach, including a student questionnaire (N = 200) and follow-up semi-structured interviews (N = 10). Following descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of the obtained data, the findings revealed that most participants lacked a thorough understanding of their home culture, while they considered home culture playing a significant role in ELF communications. The contribution of this study builds on work in English users’ awareness of home culture in IC to identify the significance of enabling the presence of English learners’ home culture in English language teaching (ELT) classrooms.