Archive for November 2025

Rabya Kataria’s powerful reflection on the workplace bullying she experienced and the promise she made if she became a manager

JS sat on her porch near Binghamton, New York (above), with toys, furniture, garbage bags full of clothing and other possessions piled up around her. She and her partner were being evicted after falling behind on rent. So last June, they and their children — then ages three, 12 and 15 — turned to New York’s emergency shelter system for help. It was built to provide homeless residents not only beds, but also food, help finding permanent housing and sometimes child care so parents can find work, attend school or look for apartments. JS and her family received almost none of that. Instead of placing them in a shelter, the Broome County Department of Social Services cycled them through four roadside hotels over three months, where they mostly had to fend for themselves.

On November 7, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) concluded negotiated rulemaking by the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) committee focused on restructuring student loans, phasing out Grad PLUS loans for graduate and professional students, establishing new loan limits, and simplifying repayment plans as established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). As part of this rulemaking, ED proposed and reached consensus on a definition of “professional student” that would impact borrowing capacity for current and future social work students.

The news comes with the regulator having increased its fees for practitioners by a third this year, meaning that the initial registration and annual renewal fees have both increased from £90 to £120. The decision was made despite opposition from the vast majority of about 8,000 respondents – mostly social workers – to its consultation and from the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Social Workers Union (SWU) and UNISON.

A biography of the tech company’s founder Alex Karp reveals the philosophy behind its troubling conquest of the world

In early November 2025, it was reported that Sheffield Hallam University had paused Professor Laura Murphy’s research on Uyghur forced labour in China, later apologised, and restarted the work. Media outlets linked the pause to pressure from Chinese authorities. South Yorkshire Police have referred the allegations on to counter-terrorism police as they are thought to fall under the National Security Act. A spokesperson for Sheffield Hallam said the pause arose from insurance and other procedural issues and denied any China-related commercial motive.