Lynton Lees

@lyntonlees.bsky.social

709 Followers 377 Following

Senior Policy Manager, Public First. Previously British Academy, PhD history of universities and education in modern Britain, Columbia. Views my own.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Christmas Jumper from 2023.
Alexander Lukashenko in BBC interview being rude to Steve Rosenberg: ‘Save your breath, I’ll answer your question’
British Academy graph showing a 56% (-2.5k) decline in undergraduates studying student numbers in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Scandinavian languages and area studies at UK universities since 2011/12 (student numbers by Full Person Equivalent, FPE).
A copy of Morgan Jones’ new book No Second Chances: The Inside Story of the Campaign for a Second EU Referendum (available from all good bookstores) with a pint (widely available) on a sunny day.
Excerpt from interview with David Willetts, former universities minister and current chair of the Resolution Foundation, in Research Professional 13/02/26. Text reads: Stay the course We also had time to talk about the wave of course closures at UK universities. Willetts is particularly concerned, as we all are, about threats to arts and humanities subjects—not least modern foreign languages. Here, he spots a possible opportunity to use the government's current focus on security as an advantage. "I think there's scope for a rather unusual alliance between the arts and humanities in universities and security," he says.
A panel of speakers at the ten year anniversary of Our Migration Story website on October 27 2025 at King’s College, London.
A clip from ITV News Wales’ coverage of cold spots in humanities, social sciences and arts provision in Welsh universities, with full subtitles on ITV’s website.
Banner image for the British Academy's SHAPE Observatory, the home for data and interactive visualisations about SHAPE provision in UK HE.
Indicative map showing overall decreases in student numbers for Classics since 2011/12 in England and Wales and overall increases in Scotland. Northern Ireland shows no provision for Classics between 2011/12-2022/23.
Generic indicative map of SHAPE student numbers in North West/West Midlands, showing patterns of increases/decreases.
Generic image of map showing cold spots in SHAPE subject provision in UK higher education.
Map indicating potential cold spots in provision of SHAPE subjects. ©️British Academy, 2024.