McCoul was dismissed in September after a video went viral, showing a student confronting her in class and claiming the professor’s gender identity lesson was illegal. McCoul is actively appealing her termination. The documented justification for her dismissal was that McCoul’s course content and material did not match the description in the course catalog, but the faculty council said this was false.
“The content of the course was the reason for the dismissal and not the stated reason: failure of academic responsibility,” the council wrote in its report. “Given the timeline of dismissal, the political pressure brought to bear, and statements by Regents that the course content was illegal, President Welsh’s assertion that the firing was for failure of academic responsibility appears pretextual.”
In an Oct. 2 memo obtained by the Tribune, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Blanca Lupiani rejected the council’s conclusions and said the council acted outside its charge to review matters that were “largely unrelated to academic freedom.” The complaint about McCoul was never assigned to the council, Lupiani said in the memo.
University rules require the department head to write charges for dismissal, seek approval from the dean and give the faculty member a notice of intent to dismiss with five business days to respond, but Welsh requested McCoul’s dismissal on Sept. 9 “effective immediately,” the Tribune reported.
How Faculty Expertise Boosts AI Search Results in Higher Ed
Many higher education enrollment teams assume that the key to growth is spending more on paid leads. It feels logical: increase visibility, boost inquiries, fill the pipeline. Yet, too often, they end up paying for quantity, not quality — resulting in higher budgets that fail to yield students who are a good fit. They see short-term spikes in inquiries, followed by low conversion rates and retention challenges from mismatched students.
Achieving sustainable enrollment growth doesn’t have to mean spending more. What’s needed instead is smarter strategies that enable institutions to attract the right students earlier in the decision process — when they’re still exploring their options, defining their goals, and forming impressions of institutions’ credibility.
Shifting the focus of enrollment strategies from paid acquisition to earned attention — building organic visibility, authority, and trust with prospects before they fill out an application form — is the key to true growth. This approach is increasingly important as more and more students use artificial intelligence (AI) to navigate their higher education journey.
Building Organic Demand with AI and GEO
AI is reshaping how students discover institutions and their programs. While Google used to dominate prospective students’ search efforts, they are increasingly using AI-powered search assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini to find, summarize, and compare higher education offerings. A 2025 study by the Online and Professional Education Association (UPCEA) found that roughly 50% of prospective students use AI tools at least weekly to research programs, including about 24% who use them on a daily basis.
As AI’s role in higher education marketing expands, institutions have begun to adopt generative engine optimization (GEO) strategies to improve their visibility in AI-driven search results. Unlike standard search engine optimization (SEO) — which focuses on keywords and backlinks — GEO prioritizes structured, authoritative content that AI systems can easily understand, cite, and incorporate into their responses.
When institutions feed these systems with content featuring faculty-driven subject matter expertise and clearly structured information, they train the AI algorithms to view them as authoritative and credible, and to surface them in students’ search results more often. This makes it easier for these institutions to engage high-intent students earlier in their enrollment journey.
The Role of Faculty in Building Authority
No one conveys academic quality and institutional credibility better than the people who embody them. Faculty members represent some of an institution’s most trusted — yet often underutilized — marketing assets. Their expertise not only validates the institution and its programs but also humanizes them.
When faculty voices appear in thought leadership articles, Q&A features, or explainer videos, they do more than share knowledge — they strengthen confidence in the institution among both prospective students and their families.
Leveraged strategically, faculty expertise can enhance multiple facets of an institution’s marketing ecosystem:
Public relations: Faculty insights can position schools as trusted commentators in media coverage on industry trends.
Search: Content that highlights subject matter expertise is seen as more credible by both traditional search engines and AI assistants, improving the content’s organic rankings and GEO performance.
Enrollment marketing: Faculty-driven content that targets prospective students — such as video Q&As, informative blog posts, and interactive webinars — can help bridge the gap for these prospects between aspiration and application.
When institutions center faculty in their marketing efforts, they connect academic storytelling with enrollment strategy, transforming their outreach from promotion into education.
Improving Efficiency and Results
Today, higher ed enrollment growth depends on smarter strategy — not higher spending. Institutions can achieve greater success by balancing their paid and organic channels, building durable content engines, and aligning their marketing spend with actual enrollment outcomes.
Balance Paid and Organic Marketing
Paid campaigns still have great value. But overreliance on them can drive up cost-per-enrollment (CPE) while producing prospective students who are a weaker fit. According to data from UPCEA, the average cost per enrolled student is more than $2,800. By mixing organic channels — faculty thought leadership pieces, GEO-friendly content — with paid efforts, institutions can achieve lower long-term costs while improving the fit and retention of their prospects.
Create a Long-Term Content Engine
Temporary campaigns can deliver short-term boosts, but real authority that leads to sustainable enrollment growth stems from consistent, faculty-led content. Building a content engine anchored in faculty expertise and optimized for AI and GEO is essential, allowing institutions to maintain their visibility and credibility. Over time, this strategy can lower acquisition costs, boost engagement, and support retention.
Align Marketing Spend With Enrollment Outcomes
Too often, marketing dollars are funneled toward maximizing the volume of leads rather than focusing on actual outcomes. True budget efficiency comes from aligning spend with each stage of the student life cycle — supporting strategies that move prospects from application to enrollment to persistence. When institutions’ budgets prioritize quality, engagement, and long-term fit over volume, they can strengthen both their conversion rates and their retention outcomes.
Key Takeaways
More leads don’t always translate to real growth. Sustainable enrollment comes from reaching the right students — not just more of them.
By embracing GEO, leveraging AI in their higher education marketing strategy, and elevating faculty expertise, institutions can deliver content that builds organic authority and attracts qualified prospects earlier in their decision journey. This approach reduces institutions’ reliance on paid efforts, improves their cost efficiency, and enhances their credibility.
Schools that invest in faculty-led content strategies can gain stronger conversions, better retention, and enduring brand trust — the foundation of meaningful, measurable enrollment growth.
Drive Enrollment With Faculty Voices
At Archer Education, we partner with accredited institutions to help them leverage AI and faculty thought leadership to build their credibility and drive their enrollment growth. Contact our team to learn how our tech-enabled marketing and enrollment solutions can help your institution attract the right students more efficiently.
The funny thing about the story about today’s intervention by the Office for Students is that it is not really about grade inflation, or degree algorithms.
I mean, it is on one level: we get three investigation reports on providers related to registration condition B4, and an accompanying “lessons learned” report that focuses on degree algorithms.
But the central question is about academic standards – how they are upheld, and what role an arm of the government has in upholding them.
And it is about whether OfS has the ability to state that three providers are at “increased risk” of breaching a condition of registration on the scant evidence of grade inflation presented.
And it is certainly about whether OfS is actually able to dictate (or even strongly hint at its revealed preferences on) the way degrees are awarded at individual providers, or the way academic standards are upheld.
If you are looking for the rule book
Paragraph 335N(b) of the OfS Regulatory Framework is the sum total of the advice it has offered before today to the sector on degree algorithms.
The design of the calculations that take in a collection of module marks (each assessed carefully against criteria set out in the module handbook, and cross-checked against the understanding of what expectations of students should be offered by an academic from another university) into an award of a degree at a given classification is a potential area of concern:
where a provider has changed its degree classification algorithm, or other aspects of its academic regulations, such that students are likely to receive a higher classification than previous students without an increase in their level of achievement.
These circumstances could potentially be a breach of condition of registration B4, which relates to “Assessment and Awards” – specifically condition B4.2(c), which requires that:
academic regulations are designed to ensure that relevant awards are credible;
Or B4.2(e), which requires that:
relevant awards granted to students are credible at the point of being granted and when compared to those granted previously
The current version of condition B4 came into force in May 2022.
In the mighty list of things that OfS needs to have regard to that we know and love (section 2 of the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act), we learn that OfS has to pay mind to “the need to protect the institutional autonomy of English higher education providers” – and, in the way it regulates that it should be:
Transparent, accountable, proportionate, and consistent and […] targeted only at cases where action is needed
Mutant algorithms
With all this in mind, we look at the way the regulator has acted on this latest intervention on grade inflation.
Historically the approach has been one of assessing “unexplained” (even once, horrifyingly, “unwarranted”) good honours (1 or 2:1) degrees. There’s much more elsewhere on Wonkhe, but in essence OfS came up with its own algorithm – taking into account the degrees awarded in 2010-11 and the varying proportions students in given subject areas, with given A levels and of a given age – that starts from the position that non-traditional students shouldn’t be getting as many good grades as their (three good A level straight from school) peers, and if they did then this was potentially evidence of a problem.
To quote from annex B (“statistical modelling”) of last year’s release:
“We interact subject of study, entry qualifications and age with year of graduation to account for changes in awarding […] our model allows us to statistically predict the proportion of graduates awarded a first or an upper second class degree, or a first class degree, accounting for the effects of these explanatory variables.
When I wrote this up last year I did a plot of the impact each of these variables is expected to have on – the fixed effect coefficient estimates show the increase (or decrease) in the likelihood of a person getting a first or upper second class degree.
One is tempted to wonder whether the bit of OfS that deals with this issue ever speaks to the bit that is determined to drive out awarding gaps based on socio-economic background (which, as we know, very closely correlates with A level results). This is certainly one way of explaining why – if you look at the raw numbers – the people who award more first class and 2:1 degrees are the Russell Group, and at small selective specialist providers.
Based on this model (which for 2023-24 failed to accurately predict fully fifty per cent of the grades awarded) OfS selected – back in 2022(!) – three providers where it felt that the “unexplained” awards had risen surprisingly quickly over a single year.
What OfS found (and didn’t find)
Teesside University was not found to have ever been in breach of condition B4 – OfS was unable to identify statistically significant differences in the proportion of “good” honours awarded to a single cohort of students if it applied each of the three algorithms Teesside has used over the past decade or so. There has been – we can unequivocally say – no evidence of artificial grade inflation at Teesside University.
St Mary’s University, Twickenham and the University of West London were found to have historically been in breach of condition B4. The St Mary’s issue related to an approach that was introduced in 2016-17 and was replaced in 2021-22, in West London the offending practice was introduced in 2015-16 and replaced in 2021-22. In both cases, the replacement was made because of an identified risk of grade inflation. And for each provider a small number of students may have had their final award calculated using the old approach since 2021-22, based on a need to not arbitrarily change an approach that students had already been told about.
To be clear – there is no evidence that either university has breached condition B4 (not least because condition B4 came into force after the offending algorithms had been replaced). In each instance the provider in question has made changes based on the evidence it has seen that an aspect of the algorithm is not having the desired effect, exactly the way in which assurance processes should (and generally do) work.
Despite none of the providers in question currently being in breach of B4 all three are now judged to be at an increased risk of breaching condition B4.
No evidence has been provided as to why these three particular institutions are at an “increased risk” of a breach while others who may use substantially identical approaches to calculating final degree awards (but have not been lucky enough to undergo an OfS inspection on grade inflation) are not. Each is required to conduct a “calibration exercise” – basically a review of their approach to awarding undergraduate degrees of the sort each has already completed (and made changes based on) in recent years.
Vibes-based regulation
Alongside these three combined investigation/regulatory decision publications comes a report on Batchelors’ degree classification algorithms. This purports to set out the “lessons learned” from the three reports, but it actually sets up what amounts to a revision to condition B4.
We recognise that we have not previously published our views relating to the use of algorithms in the awarding of degrees. We look forward to positive engagement with the sector about the contents of this report. Once the providers we have investigated have completed the actions they have agreed to undertake, we may update it to reflect the findings from those exercises.
The important word here is “views”. OfS expresses some views on the design of degree algorithms, but it is not the first to do so and there are other equally valid views held by professional bodies, providers, and others – there is a live debate and a substantial academic literature on the topic. Academia is the natural home of this kind of exchange of views, and in the crucible of scholarly debate evidence and logical consistency are winning moves. Having looked at every algorithm he could find, Jim Dickinson covers the debates over algorithm characteristics elsewhere on the site.
It does feel like these might be views expressed ahead of a change to condition B4 – something that OfS does have the power to do, but would most likely (in terms of good regulatory practice, and the sensitive nature of work related to academic standards managed elsewhere in the UK by providers themselves) be subject to a full consultation. OfS is suggesting that it is likely to find certain practices incompatible with the current B4 requirements – something which amounts to a de facto change in the rules even if it has been done under the guise of guidance.
Providers are reminded that (as they are already expected to do) they must monitor the accuracy and reliability of current and future degree algorithms – and there is a new reportable event: providers need to tell OfS if they change their algorithm that may result in an increase of “good” honours degrees awarded.
And – this is the kicker – when they do make these changes, the external calibration they do cannot relate to external examiner judgements. The belief here is that external examiners only ever work at a module level, and don’t have a view over an entire course.
There is even a caveat – a provider might ask a current or former external examiner to take an external look at their algorithm in a calibration exercise, but the provider shouldn’t rely solely on their views as a “fresh perspective” is needed. This reads back to that rather confusing section of the recent white paper about “assessing the merits of the sector continuing to use the external examiner system” while apparently ignoring the bit around “building the evidence base” and “seeking employers views”.
Academic judgement
Historically, all this has been a matter for the sector – academic standards in the UK’s world-leading higher education sector have been set and maintained by academics. As long ago as 2019 the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (now known as the Quality Council for UK Higher Education) published a Statement of Intent on fairness in degree classification.
It is short, clear and to the point: as was then the fashion in quality assurance circles. Right now we are concerned with paragraph b, which commits providers to protecting the value of their degrees by:
reviewing and explaining how their process for calculating final classifications, fully reflect student attainment against learning criteria, protect the integrity of classification boundary conventions, and maintain comparability of qualifications in the sector and over time
That’s pretty uncontroversial, as is the recommended implementation pathway in England: a published “degree outcomes statement” articulating the results of an internal institutional review.
The idea was that these statements would show the kind of quantitative trends that OfS get interested in, some assurance that these institutional assessment processes meet the reference points, and reflect the expertise and experience of external examiners, and provide a clear and publicly accessible rationale for the degree algorithm. As Jim sets out elsewhere, in the main this has happened – though it hasn’t been an unqualified success.
To be continued
The release of this documentation prompts a number of questions, both on the specifics of what is being done and more widely on the way in which this approach does (or does not) constitute good regulatory practice.
It is fair to ask, for instance, whether OfS has the power to decide that it has concerns about particular degree awarding practices, even where it is unable to point to evidence that these practices are currently having a significant impact on degrees awarded, and to promote a de facto change in interpretation of regulation that will discourage their use.
Likewise, it seems problematic that OfS believes it has the power to declare that the three providers it investigated are at risk of breaching a condition of registration because they have an approach to awarding degrees that it has decided that it doesn’t like.
It is concerning that these three providers have been announced as being at higher risk of a breach when other providers with similar practices have not. It is worth asking whether this outcome meets the criteria for transparent, accountable, proportionate, and consistent regulatory practice – and whether it represents action being targeted only at cases where it is demonstrably needed.
More widely, the power to determine or limit the role and purpose of external examiners in upholding academic standards has not historically been one held by a regulator acting on behalf of the government. The external examiner system is a “sector recognised standard” (in the traditional sense) and generally commands the confidence of registered higher education providers. And it is clearly a matter of institutional autonomy – remember in HERA OfS needs to “have regard to” institutional autonomy over assessment, and it is difficult to square this intervention with that duty.
And there is the worry about the value and impact of sector consultation – an issue picked up in the Industry and Regulators Committee review of OfS. Should a regulator really be initiating a “dialogue with the sector” when its preferences on the external examiner system are already so clearly stated? And it isn’t just the sector – a consultation needs to ensure that the the views of employers (and other stakeholders, including professional bodies) are reflected in whatever becomes the final decision.
Much of this may become clear over time – there is surely more to follow in the wider overhaul of assurance, quality, and standards regulation that was heralded in the post-16 white paper. A full consultation will help centre the views of employers, course leaders, graduates, and professional bodies – and the parallel work on bringing the OfS quality functions back into alignment with international standards will clearly also have an impact.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Best Personal Academic Websites Contest hosted by Jennifer van Alstyne, Brittany Trinh, and Ian Li. This contest celebrates great examples of academic websites from people in Higher Education.
About the Awards
Congratulations to this year’s award winning academic websites!
Hi there, I’m Jennifer van Alstyne. This is our 3rd Best Personal Academic Websites Contest. This page celebrates the 2025 award winners. We hope their websites help inspire people around the world to create space for themselves online. Please share these award winning websites with a friend you think should have a website too.
There are 12 award winners in this year’s contest. In a year we’ve had more entries than ever before, these academic website stood out. Each of the award winners in this year’s contest received a perfect score from the judges.
While their websites may grow and change with them over time, these award winning academic websites deserve to be celebrated for the work they’re already doing to share their story. Thank you.
Best wishes, Your Contest Co-Hosts
Jennifer van Alstyne of The Social Academic
Brittany Trinh of the Beyond Your Science Podcast
Ian Li, PhD of Owlstown
What you’ll find on this page
Check out the award winning websites
Read what inspired people to create their website
Find what the judges thought
Resources to help you create a website of your own
Subscribe for when the contest re-opens in 2026
Thank you for participating in this year’s contest
To each person who entered their website into the Contest, thank you. Thank you for creating that space for yourself online. Thank you for being open to sharing it with people. I’m so glad your website is in the world.
Would you like feedback from the judges on your website? We’re happy to share our thoughts with you if you’d find it helpful. Each person who entered the 2025 contest can request feedback from the judges. Email Jennifer van Alstyne at [email protected]
The Best Personal Academic Websites Contest was open for entries from April 22, 2025 and closed on August 15, 2025. It will reopen for entries in 2026.
Want to hear about next year’s contest? Subscribe to The Social Academic.
Overall Best Personal Academic Website Award
Madeline Eppley and Dr. Roberta Rosa Valtorta (tied)
“I made my website because I feel there is a substantial gap in science communication training for graduate students and the broader field of biology. I graduated undergrad in 2020 when a lot of networking and resources went virtual. During this really pivotal stage in my career development, I needed to develop better digital presence and science communication skills to keep pace with the rising importance of networking in virtual academic spaces (e.g. virtual conferences and social media). Through this process, I ended up finding my current PhD position on social media, and also built a digital network that made me feel more connected to the science community online.”
—Madeline Eppley
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: A visually engaging story-rich website. I hope Madeline’s website inspires people to take more photos because it makes such a difference. For instance, there’s a lot of content on this website, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming. While the top menu is initially hard to read, when I start scrolling there’s contrast. I like how Madeline’s research page shares ongoing research and completed research.
Brittany Trinh: I love Eppley’s website, from the bio to all the photos of the field research. On the homepage, Eppley makes her passion for research and science communication clear, as well as her future goals. The research page explains the importance and impact for each research project and specifies which projects are ongoing or completed. Looking at her website, I am now inspired to go update my own website and incorporate more science in it!
Ian Li: Eppley’s website is well-organized and provides a lot of details on what inspires her work and the results of her research. She also describes her outreach to college and high school students. Her blog has lots of stories about her research and experience on the field.
“I created my personal academic website for several reasons. First, to have one central place where all my work, publications, and projects are collected, making it easier for potential collaborators and anyone interested in my research to find accurate, up-to-date information. Second, to maintain control over my online presence, so that people searching for me don’t just find scattered pieces of information in different places. And finally, for a more personal reason: research can sometimes test self-esteem due to its competitiveness and constant pressure. Having a space where everything I have done is brought together helps me remember who I am, my roots, and the progress I have made.”
—Dr. Roberta Rosa Valtorta
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: A thoughtful use of space on an Owlstown website. Dr. Valtorta has an expansive portfolio of publications, projects, and teaching. This website also shares teaching values, such as ways courses contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From downloadable syllabi to accessible data, this is a great academic website example.
Brittany Trinh: Valtorta’s website is great example of what you can do with an Owlstown website! The project pages include an overview, related awards, and related publications, which makes it easier to understand the impact of the research. The teaching pages provide a summary about the classes taught so we can understand the topics covered and importance of the course.
Ian Li: This is such a great example of an academic website. It is well-organized. Projects are described with related publications, Publications and courses are summarized well. Her intro describes her passion for her research and points to the development of her work. She also shares a blog that is regularly updated. She also provides information in both English and Italian, which widens the reach of her work.
“I thrive on creativity! Science communication, teaching and new research ideas keep me going. So I wanted to create an online space to portray my work for networking with folks similar to my interests, and importantly serving the broader community via outreach. And being an academician is a good enough reason for building a digital presence as it strategically aligns with my tenure and promotion goals by amplifying the impact of my work beyond traditional boundaries.”
—Dr. Akshata Naik
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: I get such a sense of personality from an Owlstown website. This is great. Publications with abstracts make a difference. The buttons, like ‘Get to know me’ stand out as a lovely way to be approachable. The ‘Generated using Canva AI’ disclosure on an image on the blog feels thoughtful (and like the kind of information people appreciate even if they don’t use AI art themselves). The use of emojis in the middle of sentences isn’t ideal for accessibility, and is something I’d recommend revising.
Brittany Trinh: Naik does a great job on her Owlstown website sharing what she does and why she does it. My favorite page is her Speaking page because it highlights the different talks she has and shares more of her story.
Ian Li: Naik’s website is a great example of an Owlstown website. It’s very organized with information about herself, her publications, and her speaking engagements. She also shares a blog.
“I am an educator in the field of structural and earthquake engineering. I originally created my website to make structural and earthquake engineering concepts more accessible to my students, fellow educators, and professionals. My goal was to share open educational resources, interactive tools, and practical examples (I use in classroom) with a wider audience. Knowing that it is making a difference and inspiring others means a lot to me.”
—Dr. Fawad Ahmed Najam
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: A wealth of resources made accessible through this online space and good organization. While I don’t love the rotating icons for accessibility, every page of this website has videos, articles, blogs, and data to help people. I hope this website inspires people to consider: what do I already have that can help my students I’m open to sharing online?
Brittany Trinh: Najam’s website is jam-packed with resources for his courses. His website is well organized and the content is probably super helpful to his students and others who are interested in structural engineering!
Ian Li: If you want to learn about structural engineering, Najam’s website is the place to go. It is well-organized and has pages for course materials, YouTube videos, links to publications and resources.
“I created my personal academic website to make my collaborative research more accessible, with the aim of fostering transparency, promoting interdisciplinary dialogue, and broadening the dissemination of knowledge. By sharing my work openly, I hope to spark new connections and collaborative efforts that not only advance science but also translate research into meaningful improvements in healthcare and community-based health promotion.”
—Dr. Patrick Manser
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: What a great welcome note video! I love it. That stood out because it was simple and invites folks to explore areas of the website. I felt like if I didn’t explore anywhere else, the video shared what, why and invited folks to get in touch. This website has far more on it than expected. While it’s mostly text-based with few visuals, it’s clear, easy to read, and well organized. I hope this website inspires people to consider video. Ooh, and requesting testimonials for their website too.
Brittany Trinh: Manser’s website is very extensive regarding his research and how it has been highlighted in media. Additionally, he includes many stats regarding his academic contributions in many different areas such as awards, grants, peer review, and more.
Ian Li: Manser’s website is full of information on his research work: publications, courses taught, media, grants, etc. He also provides short descriptions for every item, so you have an introduction to the item. It’s a great example of how an academic website can serve as a portfolio.
Dr. Allie Sinclair | Learning & Behavior Change Lab
“I was excited to make this website for my new lab, as I’ll be starting a faculty position at Rice University next year. I’ve spent many years dreaming of starting my own lab, although the exact vision has evolved over time. Now that the official website is ready, it finally feels real! I was motivated to create a fun and informative website this summer because I will be recruiting people to join my lab over the next year. I made the website with Owlstown, which made it easy to build and customize. I especially appreciated the features geared toward academics, like searching PubMed to find your publications and adding Altmetric badges.”
—Dr. Allie Sinclair
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: Scroll down the homepage of this website and you have a great sense of what their research is about. Words, graphics, and illustration shares the story, and we’re then invited to explore the research and team. Folks are getting so creative with their Owlstown sites. I like the illustrations. There’s a lot of info for folks who are considering joining the lab which shares it’s recruiting for Fall 2026. Cats, Lara Croft and Moxie the cats have their own space on the team page. Yes. I’m so into this.
Brittany Trinh: This is one of the best stylized Owlstown websites that I’ve seen. I love the cohesion of the color schemes in the visuals. I liked how they organized the research areas into three separate topics and had a link to the related publications. The publications page has the filter function so we can find papers related to a specific topic more easily.
Ian Li: This is a great example of a lab website. You get a comprehensive understanding of what the lab does. Research projects are summarized and linked to relevant papers. There’s also links to media appearances and collaborators. Plus, the website is beautifully done with graphics and well-chosen colors.
Dr. Tetine Sentell | Public Health Resonance Project
“Our interdisciplinary public health research collaboration is working together to help build the evidence base for regionally and culturally relevant physical activity for public health promotion. This work is designed to help connect and build this evidence base for public health promotion to produce actionable results for individuals, advocates, and communities to improve health outcomes and health equity. We wanted a beautiful and well-organized website to share information to support this goal. We plan to keep building on this website as the project continues and have been grateful to Jennifer van Alstyne for her support to make this possible!”
—Dr. Tetine Sentell
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne designed this website. She did not judge this entry.
Brittany Trinh: This website is very well organized on their research page. Additionally, I love the use of real photos of the group in action in the field or at different events. It adds a personal flair to the website that makes it unique!
Ian Li: This website is a great example of a lab website. It has full descriptions of lab members, research projects, lab activities, and outreach. It shares links to media and conference appearances. You get a detailed picture of what the lab does.
“I built my academic website to share what university profiles never did: my passion for research, my path as a mentor, and my dedication to protecting our planet. I believe each person in Academia carries a unique and inspiring journey that led them to science. A personal academic website offers the perfect space to share such story and remind others that research is also deeply human.”
—Dr. Erika Iveth Cedillo-González
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: Personal and professional with pops of color. This website shares Dr. Erika Iveth Cedillo-González’ passion for science. It has science communication that invites the general public to learn and engage. There’s clarity not only on what the research is about, but how it impacts people. Accessible communication without sacrificing the science, in this website you get both.
Brittany Trinh: I love how Cedillo tells her story of how she became a scientist and how it informs her research right from the start on her homepage. I also love that she has a blog for the Spanish-speaking ECR community, which serves as a resource and ties into her purpose and mission.
Ian Li: The story of Cedillo’s work really comes together on this website. Her bio shows what inspires Cedillo, then her research shows how inspiration resulted in findings, then her outreach shows how she spreads her research to the broader community.
“I was looking for a new fun way to express my creativity, and learn new ways to code and use version control!”
—Dr. Cecilia Baldoni
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: Wow. I love the homepage interactivity. The blog post on Sketchnoting was great and the photos had captions. The Shrews page was visually engaging. I wish the text were a bit bigger (it felt like a lot of negative space on the text side). I’m obsessed with the Projects > Illustrations page. What a cute title page for their dissertation! Go explore this website. I hope it helps you imagine what’s possible for sharing your story too.
Brittany Trinh: My favorite page is the Shrews webpage. As you scroll down the story and research unfold, and it’s a very unique way to share their research findings.
Ian Li: The website has a bunch of interesting interactive elements. The Shrew’s page is a great example of how research can be presented in an interactive manner which elevates the understanding of the work. Baldoni also shares her slides which are viewable directly on the browser. Also, the city-like navigation on the front page.
“I’ve always had a website for my art portfolio, and as I was about to enter the real world, post graduate school, I saw no reason to not also utilize my website for my scientific endeavors. Especially with a budding career as a science communicator.”
—Meg Mindlin
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne did not judge Meg Mindlin’s website for this contest.
Brittany Trinh: I love this website so much! It is a great example of how to incorporate your science and entrepreneurial ventures, while tying it together with your personal story! It is now my inspiration to update my own website.
Ian Li: The illustrations and photography on this website are awesome. It’s a great example of visual communication of science.
“I made this website to tell the story of my non-linear, multidisciplinary career trajectory. It was an excellent reflective exercise for me.”
—Hira Javed
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: This felt like a great portfolio website. A professional, resume-esque website without apology. I love that. The graphics are informative, visually engaging, and are thoughtful uses of color throughout the website. I wish that the My Journey section were built into the website rather than graphics. This section is beautiful, but the graphics make it less accessible. A favorite part of this website is the Presentations page where there’s a photo from each conference or event. That’s the dream.
Brittany Trinh: I love the color palette and cohesion between the illustrations. I also like how Javed’s resume is color-coded and organized- it’s a creative way to showcase your experience, which you can only do on a website, and not in your resume.
Ian Li: The coordination of the colors between the background, fonts, and graphical elements is really well done. The design serves the presentation of the Javed’s research projects, teaching, and presentations.
“As a researcher interested in science outreach, I noticed my work was spread across platforms. People who searched for my scientific papers rarely saw what I wrote for the public, and the mix of English and Slovenian further split my audience. I wanted a home where visitors could find everything I’m proud of, regardless of language or format. A personal website felt right, and the Best Personal Academic Websites Contest nudged me to make it happen.”
—Dr. Ana Rebeka Kamšek
Notes from the judges
Jennifer van Alstyne: Dr. Ana Rebeka Kamšek starts her website by sharing her value “I believe in making them accessible and impactful through science communication, data visualization, and engaging digital content.” This website does exactly that. You don’t need a huge website to share your story. A few figures, photos, with thoughtful text that considers what to say and how to share it.
Brittany Trinh: I like that Kamsek’s publications page includes a short overview and takeaway from the papers, instead of relying just on the abstract. Additionally, the papers, related news highlights, and codes are linked for easy access.
Ian Li: I really liked that Kamsek grouped her papers and described the relevance of each grouping. She also listed the related papers and linked to them. This made it easier to understand her work in context. She did something similar in the Science Communication page.
This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.
Dive Brief:
Trinity Christian College plans to close after the 2025-2026 academic year amid mounting financial issues, the private liberal arts institutionsaid Tuesday.
“The board has worked faithfully and tirelessly to consider every possible option in the face of significant and rapidly evolving financial challenges,”Acting President Jeanine Mozie said in a video message.
In explaining why it was closing, Trinity, based near Chicago, cited persistent deficits, falling enrollment, shifts in charitable giving and financial challenges since the pandemic.
Dive Insight:
Trinity said it worked with advisers on possible solutions to its financial struggles, including “significant programmatic changes” and strategic partnerships with other institutions.
“However, there is no sustainable path forward for our beloved institution,”Mozie said in the video message, in which she appeared with board chair Ken Dryfhout.
Between fiscal years 2020 and 2024, the college’s total assets fell by nearly14% to $72.3 million. Much of that decline came in its cash holdings, which fell by nearly $8 million during that period, to $5 million.Trinity also reported operating deficits every year during that time.
In June, Trinity reported that it could fail to meet bond requirements for cash on hand and a metric measuring its ability to pay its debt obligations. The college said at the time that it was soliciting donors to help it meet the covenants.
Many of Trinity’s financial woes stem from its shrinking student body and the pressures on small liberal arts institutions. Already small, the college’s fall enrollment dropped to 883 students in fall 2023, a nearly 22% decline from five years prior, according to the latest federal data.
Enrollment declines hurt Trinity’s revenue. In fiscal 2024, net tuition and fee revenue stood at $12.1 million, roughly 14% less than 2020 levels.
The revenue drop also came after a period of steep inflation in higher education and the broader economy. At Trinity, total expenses rose at nearly the same rate as revenue declined between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2024, reaching $32.9 million.
Mozie was appointed acting president, replacing Aaron Kuecker, just two months before she announced the college’s closure. Prior to that, she was Trinity’s chief operating officer.
Founded with a nondenominational Christian mission, Trinity elected its first board of trustees in 1959.It soon opened a two-year college with just five faculty members and roughly three dozen students on a former golf course, using a renovated clubhouse and pro shop. By 1971, the institution was issuing four-year degrees, and it added graduate programs in 2012.
Trinity plans to hold its last commencement next year for the class of 2026. It is allowing students to take above the max course load per semester to graduate as many as possible, with the rest offered teach-out and transfer options.
The college has teach-out agreements in place for most undergraduate programs with regional neighbors Saint Xavier, Calvin and Olivet Nazarene universities.It is working on agreements for many of its remaining programs.
Trinity said it plans to sell its property after closing to repay its debt. As of fiscal 2024, Trinity owned property and equipment valued at $44.2 million and owed $14.8 million in bonds.
An academic advisory group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has opposed most of the program cuts recommended by the institution’s chancellor and is calling for more time before considering major budget reductions.
A majority of the Academic Planning Committee members voted against eliminating four of the six programs put on the chopping block by UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett in September as part of an effort to save $27.5 million annually.
The 21-person committee — composed of 10 faculty members as well as deans, administrators, staffers and students — officially issued its recommendation to Bennett in an Oct. 24 memo.
Bennett plans to issue his final recommendation in the coming weeks, and the University of Nebraska System regents will consider it in December.
In the memo, the committee pointed to concerns raised by faculty about the process Bennett and other UNL leaders used to determine which academic programs to slash. Those issues largely revolved around potential problems with the metrics and the short evaluation period used to make permanent decisions.
“We strongly recommend to the Chancellor, the President, and the Board of Regents that the approval of any budget cuts be delayed allowing time for units to identify creative alternative solutions that reduce or prevent the need for these cuts,” the committee said.
In a note Friday, Bennett thanked the committee for its work and said, “I am now carefully reviewing the APC’s recommendations and continuing consultations with our shared governance partners before finalizing the budget reduction plan.”
A ‘top-down’ process for judging programs
Over the past month, the academic planning committee has been collecting feedback from UNL stakeholders through hearings and nearly 3,000 submitted comments, the memo noted.
Many questioned the validity and usefulness of the statistical metrics and data used to evaluate programs, while also accusing the administration of not being transparent about those measures.
Those metrics led to Bennett’s proposal that UNL permanently eliminate degrees in community and regional planning; Earth and atmospheric sciences;educational administration; landscape architecture; statistics; and textiles, merchandising and fashion design.
In past budget deliberations, deans were given a target for reductions and could design unit-specific ways to meet goals, a process the committee described as “bottom-up.”
“In the current process, metrics were used in a ‘top-down’ approach to identify lower-performing units, and then a holistic review of those units was undertaken by upper administration,” the committee said.
Moreover, leaders only shared metrics to make program decisions confidentially with deans and the academic planning committee, which left faculty scrambling to understand those measures.
“No one was able to fully validate the metrics, either through confirming the accuracy of the underlying data or via analysis to confirm that the metrics were statistically valid ways to quantify the desired performance indicators,” the committee said.
For example, faculty from multiple units said that programs were revenue-positive, meaning cutting them would cost the university more in lost revenue than it saved in expenses. Others pointed to the extension work done by programs that make them important to the state and help UNL fulfill its mission as a public land-grant university.
But the comments from faculty and other UNL stakeholders weren’t just critical — they were also creative, suggesting alternative ways that programs and the university could save on costs or generate new revenue, the committee said.In fact, every unit had ideasof ways to generate revenue and save costs.
“Given that a budget deficit has been looming for years, it is unfortunate that the process was invoked with so little time to engage the creativity and collective intelligence of the full University community,” the committee said. “When the energy of our faculty, staff, students, and stakeholders is unleashed on the problem of the budget deficit, creative and selfless solutions can emerge.”
Given all those concerns, the committee voted against eliminating four of the programs that Bennett proposed slashing: community and regional planning, landscape architecture, statistics, and Earth and atmospheric sciences.
Those who voted in favor of eliminating UNL’s education administration program noted similar programs in the University of Nebraska System and state and concerns about its high graduate tuition remission rate, though they recognizeding its role in training state education leaders and the need for thoughtful deliberation before a final decision. Committee members who favored the administration’s plan to cut UNL’s textiles, merchandising and fashion design program hoped it could be realigned and retained.
‘I don’t see this financial crisis’
Meanwhile, UNL’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors has raised questions about whether the university is facing a true fiscal crisis that necessitates program cuts.
A financial analysis conducted for the AAUP chapter in October concluded that UNL has been in good fiscal health based on financial statements going back to 2019, with increasing net position, revenue that exceeded expenses in all but one year between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2024, and high bond ratings for the University of Nebraska System.
At an Oct. 29 press conference, Bonnie Fox Garrity, a business professor at D’Youville University, in New York, and a financial analyst for the AAUP, said that UNL could avoid the proposed cuts. “I don’t see this financial crisis.”
The report also noted that the number of full-time instructors at UNL dropped by 7.8% between 2019 and 2025, while full-time noninstructional employees increased by 7.6%.
“Budgets are an expression of values,” Sarah Zuckerman, an educational administration professor at UNL and head of its AAUP chapter, said in a statement last week. “This budget reduction makes clear University leadership does not value the teaching and learning that is central to UNL’s contribution to Nebraska.”
Prior to Bennett’s proposal, UNL had already reduced its budget by tens of millions of dollars.
The academic planning committee acknowledged that UNL is “facing a significant budget deficit that must be addressed, and that this will necessitate hard decisions.” But the committee isolated the budget challenge’s source in lethargic public funding rather than the university’s expenses.
“We do not have a spending problem on this campus: we have an investment problem,” the committee said in its memo to Bennett. “This is evidenced by the fact that we have cut $75M from our budget in the last six years, yet this has failed to prevent our budget deficit from growing.”
Libraries worldwide are exploring or ramping up their use of artificial intelligence, according to a new report by Clarivate, a global information services company.
The report, released Thursday, based its findings on a survey of over 2,000 librarians across 109 countries and regions. Most respondents, 77 percent, worked at academic libraries. The survey found that 67 percent of libraries were exploring or implementing AI this year, up from 63 percent last year; 35 percent were still in the evaluation stage.
Academic libraries incorporated AI into their work at a higher rate than libraries over all, the report found. Only 28 percent of academic libraries had no plans to use AI or weren’t actively pursuing it, compared to 54 percent of public libraries. Academic and public libraries also had different priorities, with student engagement top of mind for academic librarians and community engagement the central mission for public librarians. Libraries’ top objectives for AI use were to support student learning and help people discover new content.
Libraries tended to be further along in implementing AI if they incorporated AI literacy into librarians’ onboarding and training, gave librarians dedicated time and resources to learn AI tools, and had managers who encouraged AI implementation. Librarians in the process of implementing AI reported feeling optimistic about its benefits, compared to other librarians.
However, AI adoption, and optimism, varied by region. For example, U.S. libraries lagged in AI implementation, and only 7 percent of librarians surveyed said they felt optimistic about it; in Asia and the rest of the world, that share fell between 27 and 31 percent. The report also found differences in attitudes toward AI among senior and junior librarians. Senior librarians, who served as associate deans, deans and library directors, expressed more confidence in their knowledge of AI and prioritized using it to streamline administrative processes, compared to junior librarians.
What can academic writers do to have a digital presence that shares their writing and helps them connect with people online? Dr. Katy Peplin interviews The Social Academic podcast host, Jennifer van Alstyne in honor of Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo) in November.
Timestamps
0:00 Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo) with Dr. Katy Peplin and Jennifer van Alstyne 2:28 Your online presence is more than just social media 5:02 Cultivating authentic connections online for graduate students and faculty 10:18 Overcoming imposter syndrome and the lasting impact of sharing your story 14:56 Safety and community building online for academics and researchers 22:39 Jennifer van Alstyne’s tips for your personal academic website or research lab website 31:20 Did your university offer you a website? Yay. Keep this in mind 36:44 Aligning your online presence with your personal and professional goals 39:52 Your impact, your writing, your academic life matters 45:17 Build confidence by being intentional about how you show up online 49:09 Increase your impact with strategic approaches to your online presence
Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo)
Jennifer van Alstyne: Yay. I am so excited to talk about academic writing today because this is honestly a love of mine and I don’t do it anymore, but I help academic writers all the time with their online presence. I’m really focused on the digital side. Today I have Dr. Katy Peplin from Thrive PhD, and she’s going to ask me questions for academic writers because next month is academic writing month. Well, before we get to the questions, tell us a little bit about amo.
Katy Peplin, PhD: Okay, so I’m so excited here, but AcWriMo, which is so much more fun to write than it is to say, but is a National Novel Writing Month, which is a sort of longstanding decades old internet tradition at this point where people sign up and try and write 10,000 words of a novel draft in the month of November. There had long been sort of a community around novel writing in that way. Starting the origins of it now are sort of lost to the miss of internet time, but academics have been jumping onto it. I’ve been doing programming for this since 2018, which is quite a few years ago now. But I am really excited because the kind of way that we do it in the Thrive PhD universe, and now I have this great collaborator, Dr. Kate Henry, but we really believe in sort of building a writing practice.
Not necessarily belting yourself to your chair until you write that journal article or that chapter, but thinking about this as a month to intentionally touch in with your writing, touch in with your projects, experiment with things, and build some awareness around that writing practice. Let’s face it, November is the time where the end of the year looms closer and closer. All of these things that felt really far away in September or July when you’re like, “Sure, I’ll have that done by the end of the year,” suddenly become very real at the same time that semesters end and holiday stuff ramps up. Human things are so complicated. And, at least where I am in the northern hemisphere, the daylight goes away very suddenly. There’s just a lot of things that make writing in November even more challenging. I find that it’s been really fun and helpful to provide as much support as we possibly can for free that whole month.
Jennifer: I love it. This is one of the things that we’re creating to be a free resource for people. If you’re watching this and you are an academic writer, you’re friends with or supervise an academic writer, please share it with them. We’re going to be sharing tips, advice, and really the struggles that people sometimes go through when it comes to sharing their writing. So this video is for you. It really is.
Katy: Yes. I’m so excited to be asking you some questions because you’re such a leader and expert in this space.
I would love to just for the academics among us, how do you define an online presence? Because I know that’s one of those things that can feel bigger than it is, but also smaller than it is. What do you include under that umbrella?
Jennifer: I’m so glad you asked this question because I feel like people have a really limited view of what it is to the things that we create about ourselves. “If I don’t have a website, if I don’t have a social media, then I don’t have an online presence.” But that’s not true.
Your online presence is anything that people can find about you online, whether it’s intentionally created by you or not. So that’s Google Search results. Maybe if people ChatGPT get to learn a little bit more about you, what comes up? There’s a lot of ways that we can find what our online presence is, but there’s also a lot of ways that we can be intentional in creating and shaping how people find our story online.
Katy: That’s such a generous way to look at it because I know so many people who are like, I don’t want to be on LinkedIn or I don’t want to be on this platform. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be there. All of that makes sense to me. But it also can be what you want it to be. The kind of point is to be intentional about it.
Jennifer: When we think it’s only social media, or only websites, or sometimes even only faculty profile, the thing that we’re often missing is your academic bio. Your bio is ending up on conference websites for journals, for events, programming, maybe fellowships or associations that you’re involved with. There’s so many places where your bio can show up online that it really ends up becoming a massive part of your online presence. People don’t expect that.
Katy: As somebody who has to regularly produce bios about myself and almost always feels some tension about it. Yes. That it’s such a good point that it’s more information about us circulates beyond where we put it on purpose. Right, exactly. Okay.
Cultivating authentic connections online for graduate students and faculty
Katy: What are the benefits that you see of for academics or people in the scholarly space that really do take that step to be intentional and thoughtful about the way that they show up online? What are the benefits that people can see from that?
Jennifer: I think the benefits that people maybe assume that they’re going to see is a lot of reach or maybe a ton of reads on their writing. And that kind of myth is, I mean, it’s not inaccurate. If you share more, people will find you more.
But the truth is that the benefits are really about the more individual connections, the reader who reads your writing and not only understands it and relates to it, but is citing it and helping share it with a larger goal in mind of being part of the research community. When I think about the connections that people are sometimes hoping for online, it doesn’t always equate to the meaningful deep relationships that they really enjoy that have come out of it. So whether that’s research, collaborations, new friends in your field, learning about a new conference or association that maybe you hadn’t heard of before, there’s so many opportunities for connection that we miss because maybe we just don’t think there’s agency in doing that, especially if networking feels uncomfortable to you.
Katy: Yeah, absolutely. I love the sort of way that you’re framing that because I think that for so many of us who reads us or even our H-index or these kind of really concrete data things are the easiest to measure. So we measure them first. But often they not separate from, but not necessarily as meaningful as we might want them to be in terms of the results we’re actually looking for.
Jennifer: To give you an example, so to be honest, I don’t share my academic writing much. I haven’t done academic writing since grad school. When I think about my own academic writing and my experience of sharing it, it’s been very surprising. I shared I’m in medievalist literature, and so when I shared an article that I had published, I was very surprised by the people who were responding to me: people who were not in my field, people who were not academics, people who cared about the literature, but I didn’t know that they did because they weren’t in the kind of environment that I was used to having these discussions in. Even my own experience, even though it’s relatively old now, I think that it was so meaningful for me to see the kind of invitation that my post ended up being that I didn’t expect.
I wasn’t like, “Oh my gosh, eight people are going to go read this article now that I’ve posted it on my personal Facebook.” But that’s what happened. Not only did that happen, but someone was like, “Oh, after I read this article, I brought it back to the grad school class where we’re talking about this book.” So then everyone ended up reading it, and I really thought that I was just posting to brag to be like, “Hey, I got this article out.” Like, you did it. This is great. As a grad student, I was very proud of myself and I wanted to share that feeling with people. While sharing your article can be the intention of your post, it’s also okay if you know what you’re sharing is more like me, like a feeling or the kind of warmth that we feel about our article and about our writing. It’s okay to be open about that even if you think that the people aren’t going to read it.
Katy: I love that so much, and I think that it’s such a brave and kind of generous thing to share because so much of the academic discourse is like I have officially done this important thing and I talk about it with important people and in important stoic ways. And sometimes you really are just like, listen folks, I passed my exams. There’s something so important about sharing authentically. I think that that’s something that academics can miss because in a lot of spaces we have that authenticity gently guided out of us or sometimes with a lot more force than that.
Jennifer: That’s true. Sometimes when my faculty clients we’re working together on social media. It’s pretty rare, but sometimes we’re actually focused on sharing their book or a specific publication or report that they’ve written. When that happens, they think that I’m going to tell them what to do. They think that I’m going to give them: here’s the specific template, we’re going to do all the things. Instead oftentimes we’re just having a conversation. I’m taking notes while we’re talking.
The things that you think already? The things that you want to share about your book already? Are good enough. They don’t need someone else to come in and tell you how to do it. Or what to do or what to say. It’s just that sometimes there’s things that we can add, or tweak, or enhance, because the thing that comes right out of our mouth, sometimes it needs a little bit of revision to help more people understand it.
Overcoming imposter syndrome and the lasting impact of sharing your story
Katy: That leads so beautifully into this question that I have because I tend to work with a lot of early career scholars, so grad students, post-docs, people who are just getting their feet wet. There is this real anxiety about who am I to be sharing about this thing? To your mind, what counts as expertise? What makes this important enough to share? Or do you measure it with something else altogether?
Jennifer: That’s a good question. I don’t think that I measure it, which is maybe the most interesting part of that. I’ll give an example. I had Meg Mindlin, who is an amazing graduate student, here on The Social Academic podcast. She has a very large platform on social media. She shares video. She shares octopus art. She is so cool. And, she has that same kind of feeling like, is this good enough to share? It doesn’t matter how large your platform is. You can still have that imposter syndrome. And frankly, it doesn’t matter where in your career you are. Meg is feeling that as a recent master’s student graduate.
And my clients who are mid-career and senior faculty? Many of them also still feel that way. I would encourage you to recognize that feeling. But maybe still practice it anyway because it might not go away. But you know what always makes it go away?
When my clients and I are doing this live on a call, we have a post, we’re ready to post it, we put it up and they get engagement sometimes while we’re still live. They’re like, “Oh, that’s a relief.” That’s a relief because I was scared about posting it. I did it. I was on the call with you, but now it’s out there and people are seeing it. The act of actually doing it, even if it’s just once or twice for this, even if you feel uncomfortable, it’s good practice. And I would say it’s okay to sit with that discomfort a little bit if you’re talking about something sensitive.
If you’re attracting negative reactions, I think that’s a different consideration. But for the vast majority of the things that you post, there are ways to talk about it that are not necessarily going to invite that kind of negative reaction. I just want people to feel a little bit more open to exploring it.
If you draft a post, hit publish, if it’s about your publication. Hit publish even if you’re not sure. So many of the people that I chat with are like, “Oh yeah, I drafted it, but it didn’t end up published.” Yeah, my hope for you is that it ends up published.
Katy: Oh, what a generous hope. It really reminds me of some of my favorite pieces of writing advice, which almost all boiled down to doing the thing is doing the thing. Writing isn’t necessarily thinking about writing, learning about writing, strategizing about your writing, drafting your writing, writing is writing. I think what you’re saying is sharing and building your presence is about sharing and building your presence. That there’s so much benefit in practice and doing it and learning that way as opposed to trying to perfect it up here first.
Jennifer: The results are long-term. Especially if we’re thinking about, I guess to be specific like a social media platform like LinkedIn, your post goes out today, maybe tomorrow, but that post has potential to reach people next week, next month, next year.
I literally went into my LinkedIn analytics yesterday and was like, wow, some of these posts are from over a year ago and they’re still reaching people this week. It’s surprising, but I think that potential was missed on old Twitter. You could reach a lot of people fast, but when the relevant people missed it the first time, they’re not going to see it later. That potential is possible on a profile like LinkedIn. It means that maybe it’s okay, you put a little bit of energy into your LinkedIn profile, even if you’re not job searching, you’re not doing any of the things like I get it, but LinkedIn can still help you reach all those people when you have something you want to say. It doesn’t have to be all the time.
Katy: As somebody who’s trying to uplevel on LinkedIn at this exact moment, I’m really resonating with what you say because it is this kind of vulnerable. They make it so easy to measure things like likes and metrics and shares, and you’re chasing that dopamine hit. You forget that the post lives beyond that initial kind of chemical brain reaction. It’s helpful to know good or bad that there’s a long tail.
Safety and community building online for academics and researchers
Katy: So I now have as from where you’re sitting, say I’m a graduate student, I’m an early faculty member, I’m even a late faculty member. Goodness knows, we’re all busy. I only have a certain amount of time.
What’s your best pitch for investing some of my precious energy into building this presence when it might not necessarily be something that’s directly measured by my advisor, my chair, my tenure committee, my colleagues? Why do it?
Jennifer: That’s a good question. I think that the advice that I had even a year ago probably would have been different, but I’ve had a lot of graduate students reach out this year because they want a stronger online presence. They don’t have the time, especially mid-career people with family or folks that are in a transition of fields. If you don’t have the time, but you still want an online presence, there’s ways to have that happen. You don’t have to work with me, but just know that there’s people that can help you and that you don’t have to do it yourself. Or, you can do it with a friend. There’s different ways to take back or make better use of some of that time if doing it yourself is not ideal. When you are planning to stay in academia, when you’re planning to have the research thinking projects that you’re working on now, be something that people can engage with long-term.
It’s always a good investment of your time to create your online presence. I would never suggest someone not create an online presence unless personal safety was really at not just the forefront of their minds but could affect their mental health. I’m saying that as someone who has been there before, I’m a survivor of domestic violence. When I left my physically abusive ex-husband, I deleted all my socials. I didn’t have anything. I didn’t want to be found online by anyone. So I’ve been there. But I also know the power of taking that space back and being really intentional about what people find there. Do I literally still worry that my ex-husband is going to email my clients and harass them? Yes, I’m not going to lie. Honestly, that is possible. And so when I think about how I show up online, I am very intentional about who is going to see this, how they can engage with it, and what the potential ramifications are if something goes wrong.
I think about that also right now in terms of protecting my clients when things in America are politically quite volatile for freedom of speech. There’s a lot of things that we can take into consideration in terms of time and energy that are beyond just us, that are a part of the larger world. But when it’s your own time, it doesn’t all have to happen at once. Any small change that you can make for your online presence.
Whether you’re in grad school or early career researcher, or much later on in your academic career, that time and energy makes a difference. Maybe you’re only updating a sentence or two in your bio. Maybe you’re spending a day focusing on creating that LinkedIn profile that you really did not feel like you needed in the past.
There are things that you can do and you have agency in doing, but it doesn’t all have to happen at once. And, it doesn’t have to happen at all if it’s not a goal for you. But for most writers that I talk to, it is a goal at least sharing their writing, sharing their research is a goal. I encourage you to have that online presence, even if it’s not the personal online presence that maybe you see friends or colleagues having too.
Katy: That is such generous advice. I’m so happy to hear you talk about the sort of risk of this because I know that I personally am working with a lot of clients who are afraid not just for their own sort of reputation online, but for the funding of their labs, for the ability to get doxed if they’re studying a thing that somebody finds. I think what you said earlier in kind of our conversation that you have an online presence, whether you work on it or not, that being able to shape things like how I appear on my department website, how I appear in my bios in places that people can access and could potentially freedom of information actor get access to.
All of that information exists online for most of us through these old conference programs, through all of these other things that more and more are being ingested or searchable in maybe ways that weren’t even two years ago. It’s going to happen whether you are intentionally engaging with it or not. This is maybe a moment for people to say, okay, how can I think about these presences and show up in them in a way that accurately represents my research. But also takes into account that “I need to stay safe, my colleagues need to stay safe, my students need to stay safe, and if they’re going to write it, I might as well write it.”
Jennifer: There’s power when we show up online. There is also an invitation for folks who maybe look like us, or think like us, or worry about the same things as us, or care about the same things. There is potential for those people to see the space that you’ve taken online and feel that they can claim some of that too, that they can also create more storytelling, more openness, more connection through what they’re able to share online.
Katy: I think about that with sort of my own presence all of the time because I am pretty open about my mental health struggles on my blog. I am incredibly privileged to do that in a lot of ways because I’m my own boss, so nobody’s going to fire me if I say something. If I can be the one to take on some of that risk and say, “Hey, I had a really crappy mental health day, and here are six ways that I reset,” and knowing that I’m putting that information out for people to encounter it when they need it to? If I can take that risk, then that lets other people take some of that burden off. That’s one of the ways that communities can function really generously is to say, okay, I have this space to take some of this on. Why don’t I host the meeting point for this idea so that you can benefit from it and maybe not have to take that on yourself.
Jennifer: Yeah, I really like that. And for graduate students who are teaching, early career researchers who teaching, is not just a focus for you, but something that you care about your online presence can really help your students. I have a whole article on The Social Academic blog. I feel like there’s so many people who maybe they’re not going to make an online presence for themselves. They’re not going to make an online presence for their writing, even if they want more people to read it. But they will make an online presence if they understand ways in which it helps more people, especially the people they’re teaching or helping mentor. I encourage you, even if you’re not thinking about this for yourself, it’s okay to think about it for other people too. Because sometimes you’re doing it for other people, and it ends up helping all of you. I think that’s really beautiful.
Katy: Yes, please do link that for me and for everybody. I think that’s one of the important ways to sort of think about this is that this nourishes all the way down. Just to give a practical example, I work with a lot of people who are looking for labs to join, looking for advisors, or they’re looking for even job searches and they’re trying to figure out fit. There’s so much information intentionally there and not sometimes that lets people know this is a good fit for me. I would be safe to research here. If you think about it like that, these are secret love letters to help you find the grad students who would be really aligned for you, the collaborations that would be really helpful. Then that can give an incentive where you should make a LinkedIn so that you can have a LinkedIn might not have that same hit.
Jennifer van Alstyne’s tips for your personal academic website or research lab website
Jennifer: Could I give an example of that?
Katy: Yes, please do.
Jennifer: I was working with a PI. We were working on the content for her website pages for the teaching section, and she was kind of wondering, “Should I make this more for the students? Should it be more for people who are evaluating me? I’m not sure who the audience of this page was.” I was like, first of all, let’s make it for the students because I think that’s what’s going to be most helpful. But second, if we can provide a little bit more information for them about your lab, about what it’s like to work with you, it will help them in their future careers.
She had this light bulb moment, which was, “Oh, last time I was looking through applications for people who wanted to join my lab. I noticed that one of the candidates had a specific lab that I had no idea what it was listed in their resume.” And she was like, “I couldn’t find information about it online other than a quick mention on a university website. So I had no idea how the research from this lab related to mine, and I almost passed the graduate student up.” When they met, they actually talked about the lab and had opportunity to see the connection more clearly, but that hesitation that almost stopped her from reaching out to the student to schedule that interview. When I think about the potential that is missed because PIs haven’t taken the chance to have a little bit of a stronger online presence, it can harm your students. I don’t want that to happen. If you have the capacity, if you have the space to think about how you’re showing up online. Or, if you’re a student in that lab that doesn’t have an online presence, can you add a description of it to your LinkedIn profile so people can learn more about it? You have agency, whether that’s inviting or letting your PI know that you would love for them to have a stronger online presence, or trying to find ways to create space for that yourself. You have options.
Katy: Yeah. That makes me sort of lead into this next question, which is writing for an online audience is such a specific skill. Are there ways that you can suggest that people can? Because I know that personally, if somebody said, “Hey, make a website to describe your lab,” I might be like, “I don’t know how to do that,” and sort of push it off because it’s so much harder. What are your top tips for helping people build that skill of writing for this specific context?
Jennifer: Before we can write for the specific contents, we kind of have to know what we want to write. The best resources that I have for folks who are like, “I want to create a website and I’m not sure what goes on it” is: I have one for personal academic websites and one for research lab websites. So there’s an answer for both of you, but it is a long list, a descriptive list of page ideas for your website. There’s so much content that you could add. And, there’s only a handful of that content that probably is most relevant to you. Before you start writing, think about what’s most important for me to share? I will link those articles below as well because they are great resources for anyone who is creating a website, updating a website. If you’re an academic who has that kind of permanent space online, check out these resources because that’s definitely the first place that I would recommend going.
A lot of people get stuck in the writing process. It’s a reason the services that I create really take most of that away, off of the plate of the faculty who I’m working with. So, I end up doing a lot of writing for folks. Sometimes that’s bio writing, which is its own project. Oftentimes, it’s condensing the things that we talk about in interviews and the materials that they’ve sent to me into written website content. But I want you to know that if you are like, “I can design my own website and I don’t really want to do my own writing,” there are still people who can help you with that. So reach out to me and I’ll help connect you with someone who may be able to support you in that process if you’re not wanting to do it yourself.
You can be a very strong academic writer. You can be a very good public speaker. You can be very good at all of these things and still feel like your web writing isn’t where you want it to be. This is not an insult to you. This is not a lack of knowledge or skills or capacity. Oftentimes, it’s much harder to write about ourselves than it is to write about other things. Especially things where, yes, you’re in research, you’re getting all of these inputs, data, places that you can cite and source and organize and reorganize. You are used to spending a lot of time on that. And when you think about spending that same amount of time on writing about yourself? It probably doesn’t feel the same way as you feel about your research. That’s okay. One: it’s okay to seek help.
Two: it’s okay to do it in steps. You could do a one page website first and grow it over time. Three: it’s okay to just publish it. If you’re not sure about your web writing and you maybe want to improve it, but you still want your website up, please, please publish it. Writing can always change over time and your website will 100% change over time. There is almost no one that I’ve ever met that is like, “I made this website once and haven’t touched it since then.” Oftentimes, it’s not going to happen every year, but every once in a while you’re going to notice, “This doesn’t quite feel like me anymore.” Those are things that you can address and change because it’s your space, because it’s your website.
Katy: There’s so much good advice and strategy in there. One of the things that I’m really hearing that is one of the common phrases out of my mouth too is that as academics, we are sort of taught that “writing is forever.” Once it gets published, it’s a thing and it exists and it’s citable. The reality is both about anything that’s kind of online and also in a lot of ways your academic writing, there’s snapshots of your thinking and time. If time changes and your thinking changes, then you get a new snapshot.
Did your university offer you a website? Yay. Keep this in mind
Katy: So many of us carry this kind of really resistance to being like, “I’m not sure that this accurately captures everything.” I can’t tell you: I changed my website five, six times a month because I’m always catching typos or things that didn’t flow or things I want to change or things I want to tweak.
Those things are so much more visible to me than they are to anybody else. I have built a thriving web presence with zero capital letters and many typos everywhere all of the time. That’s just sort of the brain that I have and the way that I show up. I move a little bit faster and break more stuff and have to kind of redo it. There’s something to be said for learning to do a skill and building it in public. A lot of us as academics are really used to learning in private building, in private researching in private and then presenting publicly and having it be really big stakes. I’m so much better of an academic writer because I started publicly writing those skills feed each other in a way that I didn’t expect.
Jennifer: Now, one thing that I want to mention about that is a free tool, especially for graduate students, early career researchers. Owlstown is a free academic website builder. If you are wanting a website and you’re like, “I don’t have website skills, I don’t really want to develop them,” Owlstown can set up your website in like 15-30 minutes. You can have a website today for free that’s easy to update and keep with you and kind of personalize a little bit even over time. I just want you to know that that is an option for you. If you’re wanting a website, you’re not wanting to do it yourself or work with an academic website designer like me, that’s okay. There’s options for you to still have that space online.
Katy: Also to have another sort of low cost plug, I know that my first academic website was hosted through my library at my university. Oftentimes there is somebody in the kind of beautiful war in of resources in libraries that if they don’t know where to do it for free on campus, they can absolutely help you with almost all of those parts.
Jennifer: This is definitely true, but I am hesitant to recommend it to folks. That’s because I have met so many people whose websites just disappeared when their universities decided to stop offering that service.
Katy: Oh, wow, okay.
Jennifer: Sometimes there’s notice, but sometimes there’s not. And so, I just want to be a friend. If you are creating a space on a site that is internal, that’s hosted by your university, yay, I’m so excited for you. Save a copy of all of your text. Save a copy of all your photos just in case. Just in case something goes wrong, I want you to have that so it’s movable to another space if you ever need it.
Katy: Yes. Speaking from people who lose access to their emails all the time, there is real wisdom in being use the university if they’ve got it. But keep a copy for you.
Jennifer: Oh, I feel like when I was in grad student, so much of the advice that was given to me was always use your university email address. This is how people are going to know that you’re legit. But the truth is, I lost access to all of those emails. I have no idea of any of the conversations that were shared, and I did not save them in time in order to keep them. When I think about that loss, that loss of what feels like archive to me, it makes me sad. So when I think about the writing that you do, yes, academic writing is important, public writing is important, anything that you create is important, but so are the emails and conversations that you have if they’re meaningful for you to keep. Yeah, this is kind of all areas of your life. If it’s meaningful for you, try and find a way of saving it.
Katy: Wow. That’s such good writing and information. This is what I find with so many of my conversations with really brilliant people in the academic spaces that we all find the places where everything all connects. One of them is that it just is really important to keep hold of what’s yours, whether that is your data, your information, and if there are ways to keep it personally, then it almost always behooves you to do it because as much as we would like to trust that the Higher Ed institutions are eternal and that our web space and storage will always be there. Goodness knows that things really can shift.
Jennifer: They really can shift. I was actually just hosting for ContentEd Live. It was a 48-hour Higher Education conference. What I found was that there’s so many people who are making very large decisions about things like website, things like technology infrastructure. They’re coming from a top down approach of making decisions that help and improve things for the entire community. Oftentimes they’re making decisions that affect faculty without recognizing some of the loss that can happen when this kind of decision happens. One example (this is not from the conference), but last year I had a client who came to me because his faculty profile. All of a sudden they’d removed all the email addresses from faculty profiles. So the place that was the home for his online presence no longer helped connect media, journalists, or research collaborators with how to actually get in touch with him.
All of a sudden there was this new need for an online presence that allowed for those things. Sometimes when those decisions come down from the top, they really do help everyone. This university got 30+ million SPAM and phishing emails each month. I understand why decisions are sometimes made. But when we don’t have control over them, it means that we need to be aware of what our options are for taking up space outside of those structures. We’re all working towards helping students, helping research, helping facilitate the meaning of Higher Education in the world and how it impacts the real lives of the people who are in it. But if we’re losing access to the things that matter most to us, then sometimes we have to recreate those spaces ourselves.
Katy: Absolutely. There’s something so important as we think about this whole umbrella of an online presence is thinking through what are the most important things for you in this presence? If one of them is “I want outside collaborators to find me, I want to be available for media, I want to be public facing,” then probably where you’re going to spend your time and energy is completely different than “I’m a PI. I want a steady stream of people in my lab who are values aligned and project aligned. They might spend their two or three hours a month completely differently than somebody who has these other kind of options.
Aligning your online presence with your personal and professional goals
Katy: One of the things that I’m sure that you see as well as I do is that people kind of get the advice. You have to have a website, you have to have this, you have to have that. And they don’t really think through, okay, what do I want this project? Because it is a project to do for me. And the more clarity you can have about that, the easier it is to make that project fit the need as opposed to trying to collage seven or eight things because somebody told you they were important.
Jennifer: 100%. Oftentimes I found that actually it may be seven or eight things that are important to you, but there’s a hierarchy for what those things are in terms of your energy, your capacity, what actually fits into your life. Sometimes we’re designing a website that is going to be attractive for media, for podcast invitations, even if that’s not something you’re actively reaching out to. But, the vast majority of our energy is going into explaining the lab and inviting people to explore the projects that you’re doing. I want to encourage people to create intentional time for yourself to think about the people you want to come to your website or to come to visit your online presence. Maybe it’s a LinkedIn profile. Who do you want to come there? How do you hope that they can engage with you? I had one person be like, I just want a repository.
I don’t actually want to engage with people, but I want them to find my writing.” That’s okay too. We just published her website. It is out there and it’s going to be with her for, frankly, a lifetime. Websites can be there with you for your lifetime. They can grow and adapt with you as your goals and needs change. Maybe media, podcasting, is not a goal for you now. But when you’re running a lab in three years, actually it would be great to have your research on a research podcast in your field. How cool would that be to reach only people who are really into the thing that you’re talking about?
Katy: Exciting. That’s pretty cool too. Yeah, I think it just is. So with so many things, the intentionality is key. And a little bit of effort in the front to be like, what am I doing with this? And, why do I want it? Can just pay dividends.
Jennifer: If you don’t want to work through that on your own, reach out. I’m happy to help you with that process. Or, to design your website for you. Whatever feels supportive.
Your impact, your writing, your academic life matters
Katy: Awesome. Are there any other things? I guess my last final question is if you were to kind of sum up the very best thing about working with academics specifically on their online presences (as opposed to micro influencers or content house kids or, I taught digital media, so I’m always like, Ooh, the handlers of famous internet cats). What’s sort of so special about this group that keeps you coming back to this incredibly specific but pretty diverse niche?
Jennifer: I’m really glad you asked about this. This is a question I’ve been thinking of a lot this year. This is the first year in my business where people from outside Higher Education are really like, what are you doing in there? What are you doing? It seems like your industry is imploding. You should consider coming and working over here, go work over there. I’ve had referrals for very large projects that are outside of academia and I don’t want any of them. The people who refer them, they love that about me to be honest, but they keep trying. And when I think about that, it’s really because the researchers, academics, graduate students that I work with, they are each creating meaning in the world. They’re each creating really interesting thinking, writing, teaching. The things that they do are also really varied. So my brain that really likes to be creative in different ways gets to work with people in a lot of different fields.
I get to learn so much from the people that I work with. I get to hear their stories and experiences and I relate to them. Even though I’m not in academia, I only work with academics. I mostly work with individuals. I’m not part of the academic world entirely, but I am supportive of this world entirely. Actually, at the conference yesterday, someone said, “We’re all across universities all around the world. We’re all working towards this hope.” And I thought, oh my goodness. I’m not a Chief Marketing Officer at a university, but I am someone who’s working on the same problem, who’s working towards this same future where research, and education, and teaching, and mentoring, and the service work, and all the things that faculty do for their society, it’s meaningful. And it makes a difference. And it doesn’t have to stay hidden.
I help people make connections that make more meaning and matter in the world for the things that they care about. And yes, I could go do that for a big company. I could go do that for, I don’t know, celebrities if I wanted to. I remember the first time that I actually, I pitched a musician on bio writing and he said yes. And I was like, “Oh wait. I dunno.” I didn’t end up doing that project, but I remember feeling like I can do a lot more. And also I don’t want to explore that, because I love who I work with. I’ve had to build some things into that flexibility to reschedule things. And that does change how I work with people. But it also means that I get to work with exactly who I care about supporting and I love it.
Katy: I got choked up when you talked about the hope because I think that I know. I was on parental leave for about 18 months and I kind of came back to a completely different online landscape. But also a pretty different higher education landscape too. I work with people and I think that appeals to a lot of people who are like, listen, I wouldn’t do this work if I didn’t believe so strongly that someone needed it somewhere.
There’s something so important to me about being a tiny bit of the support that holds up the people who are doing that work. There’s so much. I think about it a lot. I am not the rock that goes in the pond that has the ripples that we can’t even track, but if I can help hold that hand up just long enough so that they can drop it, they did all of the work. But if I could be on the side of the pond cheering and be like, it’s okay to drop it, I love it. I think that that really goes because there’s such a misperception about what academics are or what we’re doing or what we spend our time on. The majority of people are deeply invested in their research because they believe it has the power to change something for someone oftentimes for the better. The more that we can do this important work of being like, this is what happens in this lab, this is why it’s important that we put shrimp on treadmills, and this is why it’s important that I go through these archives and I look at all of these things. The more visibility, I think the more options that we have to change that narrative that we’re all just spending money and brainwashing kids because that’s not it.
Build confidence by being intentional about how you show up online
Jennifer: I think that the hope that I am feeling that I’m working towards, I really felt it yesterday because, so I was hosting (moderating) four keynotes, seven breakout sessions, two Welcome to the Americas. It was two days back-to-back of being host and moderator and I loved it. But I realized at the very last session, the speaker who was so amazing, he was like, “I had recognized you from tv.” And I’m like, “Oh! TV. Am I on TV?” Have I been on TV? I was like, “Wait, ooooh, you mean the conference lobby screen.” And all of the sessions I introduced and led Q&A for. I literally forgot that I was on camera. Many people met me and got to know me over the last two days, even though I didn’t really get to know them as well because they were webinar attendees.
But I’m so proud of my online presence. I’m so proud of what I know they’ll find if they want to connect with me further. That feeling of relief for networking, for sharing something, for putting myself out there in some way is huge. As an introverted person, I dunno, that surprises some people, but I’m very introverted. I spend most of my time at home working from my office here in San Diego. I connect with people online. But part of that connection, I would not feel as comfortable with it if I didn’t feel confident in what people found about me. So if you’re feeling like networking, or sharing your writing, or just being more open about who you are is uncomfortable? Sometimes doing this work upfront is the key to making it feel [sigh of relief].
Katy: Yeah, I absolutely do know. I send out a newsletter every Thursday and I had published a pretty vulnerable one this week about how I had gotten this advice to write every day as a early PhD student, and I pretty much destroyed myself trying to follow it and all of the work that it’s taken me to be like, you know what? I’m an okay writer even though I’ve never had an unbroken writing streak and I’m an okay writer even though I’ve never done 30 days of writing. I woke up, my emails are scheduled to send out at 5:56 AM Eastern time, and I woke up out of a dead sleep at 5:45 and was like, “I should cancel that email. That feels vulnerable, that feels tender. I’m not going to do it.” And I was like: Go back to sleep. The baby is asleep. You should be sleeping.
Then sort of went about my morning and kind of forgot that I had put this thing out there and to thousands of people. When I came back from drop off and breakfast, there were three emails in there that were like, “Thank you for saying this.” This is something I didn’t know. I just remembered how I am never going to be the person who will say that to a stranger on a bus. I probably wouldn’t even have said it live to my students, but if I can take the time to craft it, if I can revise it, if I can think about it, if I can be intentional about it and send it out in this way, I can also connect, I can share, and it doesn’t have to be gate kept. I can do it. This is my email list. People can unsubscribe if they choose not to be interested in this kind of vulnerable share. I wish them well in that particular way. But there’s a power that I didn’t always feel as an academic trying to publish or go to conferences or be in those places that when I control the flow, I can show up in ways that are so much more intentional.
Increase your impact with strategic approaches to your online presence
Jennifer: One of the things you said really brought up something I want to be sure to add to this call, which is that there are so many people who feel like a social media post should be a 10 minute project or less. The truth is that if we’re talking about even your university, even your college, your department, if they have someone who’s in charge of this, they are probably putting a lot more effort, a lot more time into social media posts than you think. This is true for the vast majority of creators on the internet. If you’re seeing something, it’s possible 30 hours went into that one minute short video, like a short vertical video. So I just really want people to consider, yes, your time is precious. Yes, your time is limited. But your words are meaningful. It’s okay to give yourself more time for that social media posts, or revision time for that social media posts, if it’s something that you feel like will help you. You can take more time. You can take as much time as you want. But just don’t let it be so much time that you’re never hitting publish at all.
Katy: Yes. Well, and not to sing the praises of LinkedIn because it’s not really my particular jam, but there is something really beautiful about some of these other, X was so fast and things were so ephemeral. And now there have been sort of algorithm shifts in a lot of different places. But for better or for worse, LinkedIn is one of the places where you don’t necessarily get punished for publishing once every six months, once a year. Definitely not. They do kind of maintain this beautiful archive for you. If you are a person who likes to think about things and likes to be really deliberate and really intentional it, you don’t need to necessarily opt out of all of these things. You can find a project, a place in the sort of online umbrella that meets the tempo that makes you feel safe enough to do it
Jennifer: And meeting the tempo, it makes you feel safe. That’s a really good point. There are people who push themselves to be on social media platforms they think they should be on, but it really doesn’t work for their personalities. And it really doesn’t work for their lifestyle. And sometimes it makes them angry, and frustrated, and even guilty at not having done more of this. When people come to me and they’re feeling like that, I say, “Get rid of it. It’s okay. Stop.” It’s okay to stop. It’s okay to not do it. If you are going to have a platform that I still recommend you have a profile on but you’re not posting it, that’s not what you want to do. LinkedIn is that place. I have a free LinkedIn Profile course that’s great for grad students, researchers, faculty. I have lots of links to drop in the chat after this, but I want you to know that this LinkedIn Profile course exists. It will walk you through step-by-step making that profile because that profile is one of my favorite ways to have an online presence. If you are a graduate student, if you are an early career researcher, this will really help you get connected with people who can inform your career, who can help guide the decision making that you have, especially if you’re open to chatting with them.
Katy: Yeah. Well thank you. This has filled me up top to bottom, just this…
Jennifer: …Has been so good! This is the first time I’ve done this kind of Q&A. love it.
Katy: Okay, good. We’ll keep going. You’re a star at it. Just appreciate star in the making. Thank you so much for having me on and for being willing to spread a little bit of the word about AcWriMo out. If you’re looking for someplace where you want intention around your writing and not necessarily belt yourself to the chair and get it done, Dr. Kate Henry and I we’re your people
Jennifer: Thank you so much. Everyone. Be sure to like subscribe. Hit the notification bell if you want to let get an email next time we go live. Thank you everyone.
Dr. Katy Peplin is the founder of Thrive PhD, a business born out of her own journey through the PhD, and the joys and challenges of being a grad student and a human at the same time. She earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan, with a dissertation centered on animals on film and media. Throughout her degree, she also worked as a teaching consultant at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, practiced yoga regularly, and lived with chronic illness and anxiety. These days, she’s super into knitting, colorful water bottles, and helping graduate students around the world treat graduate school like part of their career and life, and not just the holding period before the real stuff begins.
UK universities are under mounting financial pressure. Join HEPI and King’s College London Policy Institute on 11 November 2025 at 1pm for a webinar on how universities balance relatively stable but underfunded income streams against higher-margin but volatile sources. Register now. We look forward to seeing you there.
This blog was kindly authored by Philip Bakstad, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at Liverpool John Moores University.
Chris’s mum died soon after his birth and his dad was out of the picture. He was brought up by his Nan, living with her in her council house. Chris’s Nan passed away while Chris was doing his foundation year at Liverpool John Moores University. The council wanted the house back. Still grieving for his Nan, Chris was at risk of becoming homeless and dropping out of university.
Stories like Chris’ are not uncommon, yet they are at risk of being overlooked as university staff across the country gear up for the return of students each September. More on Chris later…
The start of the academic year is both an exciting and hectic time for students and staff on university campuses across the country. For care-experienced and estranged students (CEES), this time of year often comes with a unique set of anxieties and challenges, as they not only navigate the usual issues around meeting new friends, understanding timetables and deciding which Freshers events to attend, but also transition into new living set-ups which will often now be their permanent home while studying at their new university.
A diversity of experience
The terms ‘care-experienced’ and ‘estranged’ encapsulate a broad range of lived experiences of students who have faced particular challenges related to their family circumstances while growing up. This can include having previously lived in a formal foster care arrangement with a Local Authority; being raised by another family member in kinship care or becoming estranged from their parents after the age of 16.
Much has been done across the sector over the past two decades to address the under-representation of care-experienced and estranged students in higher education, but there remains a great deal of inconsistency. Young people who meet the formal definition of a ‘Care Leaver’ are eligible for a level of statutory support but this varies by Local Authority. For students who do not meet this legal definition but have experience of care or have faced other family disruption, there remains no national benchmark for what key support should be offered by all institutions across the higher education sector.
Organisations such as NNECL, the Unite Foundation and the much-missed charity StandAlone have been invaluable partners as universities have developed Access and Participation Plans and specific interventions to not only improve the number of care experienced and estranged students accessing higher education, but also ensure that each care-experienced or estranged student receives a holistic support package, tailored to their individual needs.
A home for success
A key element of most institutions’ offer will be the provision of extended tenancies or ‘all year round’ accommodation. This recognises that many care-experienced and estranged students will be making their new accommodation their permanent base once the academic year begins. While this is now broadly accepted as best practice across the sector, many students still face difficulties in providing a guarantor or raising the funds for a deposit to secure the accommodation that will best suit their needs.
At Liverpool John Moores University, we have long operated a ‘Guarantor Waiver’ scheme as part of our partnership arrangements with our accommodation providers in the city, ensuring that no care-experienced or estranged student should be excluded from accessing accommodation at this key transition point in their lives. The Unite Foundation, led by students on their scholarship programme, are now campaigning for all universities to provide similar support.
The following case studies provide some insight into the experiences of care experienced and estranged students and highlight the importance of accommodation as an invaluable support during their degree studies. Some details have been changed to protect anonymity.
Case study 1 – growing up in kinship care
Chris had been raised by his grandmother since an early age. During his Foundation Year at LJMU his grandmother sadly passed away and he contacted the Student Advice team for support as he would no longer be able to return home to their council house at the end of the academic year. Chris’ mother had passed away shortly after his birth and he had no contact with his biological father so he was at immediate risk of becoming homeless over the summer period.
In the first instance, our accommodation partnership meant the university was able to reassure Chris that he would be able to extend his tenancy over the summer. At the same time, LJMU provided academic and wellbeing support to ensure his studies weren’t adversely impacted.
Chris’ key worry was having a stable home for the duration of his studies. He was very clear that living in halls worked for him as he had built up good relationships with the staff there. Moving into private accommodation and the logistical issues that posed caused him a great deal of anxiety.
The university signposted him towards the Unite Foundation Scholarship and his application was a success. Chris lived in a Unite Students property, with his rent and bills covered by the Scholarship, for the duration of his studies at LJMU.
As he navigated this complex period in his life, knowing that his university accommodation was guaranteed for three years was an anchor for Chris. He graduated with a 2:1 and is currently working in the IT sector.
Case study 2 – becoming estranged at 18
Alice became estranged from her mother aged 18, following a breakdown in the relationship between her and her mother’s new partner. She was asked to leave the family home and slept on friends’ sofas before her college became aware of her circumstances. She then moved into a young person’s foyer – a supported living space for young people who would otherwise experience homelessness.
Alice’s Foyer Support Worker contacted LJMU as she was unable to provide a deposit or guarantor to secure her accommodation and had questions about how to apply for student finance as an independent student. Our partnership agreement enables LJMU to request that partner accommodation providers waive the need for a guarantor for care experienced and estranged students, so the university was able to quickly provide reassurance that the absence of a guarantor and deposit would not be a barrier to Alice booking her chosen accommodation.
Upon arriving at LJMU, Alice met other estranged students at a social meet-up and chose to live in an LJMU partner hall with three other students for years 2 and 3 of their studies. While their family circumstances were all different, this sense of community and peer support was invaluable to Alice and her flatmates. She is now a high school teacher and keeps support staff at LJMU updated on new developments in her life.
In conclusion
There is so much to be excited about at the start of each academic year. Meeting new students and supporting them to step into independence is a privilege for both academic and Professional Service staff at universities across the country. It is an important milestone in every young person’s life but, for care experienced and estranged students, can be an even more pivotal moment of change and uncertainty. While I’ve only touched on the importance of accommodation in providing stability in this blog, it’s worth reflecting on the fact that not every student moving into university accommodation will be doing so with the support (and ‘Bank of’) Mum and Dad and that, for this group of students, we need to continue to go the extra mile to ensure they are able to get in and get on in higher education.
Dartmouth CollegeFile photoDartmouth College has declined to sign the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” becoming the latest prestigious institution to prioritize institutional autonomy over preferential federal funding access.
In a statement released Saturday, Dartmouth President Dr. Sian Beilock firmly articulated the college’s position ahead of Monday’s deadline, emphasizing that governmental oversight—regardless of political affiliation—represents an inappropriate mechanism for directing the mission of America’s top research universities.
“I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact—whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House—is the right way to focus America’s leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission,” Beilock stated.
The compact, extended to nine select institutions, promised enhanced access to federal research dollars in return for compliance with several administration policy mandates. These requirements included adopting the administration’s gender definitions for campus facilities and athletics, eliminating consideration of race, gender and various demographic factors from admissions decisions, and restricting international student enrollment.
Despite rejecting the compact’s terms, Beilock expressed openness to dialogue, indicating her willingness to explore how to strengthen the traditional federal-university research partnership while maintaining higher education’s focus on academic excellence.
The decision followed significant campus pressure, with nearly 500 Dartmouth faculty members and graduate students signing a petition advocating for rejection, according to the Valley News.
In her statement, Beilock emphasized the fundamental principle at stake: “Universities have a responsibility to set our own academic and institutional policies, guided by our mission and values, our commitment to free expression, and our obligations under the law.”
She framed institutional independence as essential to rebuilding public confidence across political lines and preserving American higher education’s global preeminence.
Dartmouth’s decision aligns with rejections announced last week by peer institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California, suggesting a coordinated defense of academic autonomy among elite research universities.
