<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Dr Lubna Sid]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dr Lubna Sid]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2026 21:27:17 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Being an Educator in Practice: When Students Become Part of the Learning]]></title><description><![CDATA[In my previous post, I reflected on my journey towards becoming an educator and how, for a while, I had moved away from the approach to teaching and learning that had shaped me over many years. Returning to that approach was one thing. Putting it back into practice in the classroom was another. I went back to the flipped classroom approach and started treating my students as what they were: adult learners who already brought knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences into the classroom. I...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/being-an-educator-in-practice-when-students-become-part-of-the-learning</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c2f9f27effade82b0cff6</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:46:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_878c5b7ed235438d9cdbf36b16e8a063~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Becoming an Educator: More Than Being a Lecturer or Tutor]]></title><description><![CDATA[My understanding of education did not begin with any of my university degrees. It started much earlier, as a child moving between classrooms in Europe and Asia. Yet, despite a lifetime of studying and teaching across different continents, I recently found myself losing sight of the very educator I had spent decades becoming.   To understand how I arrived at that point, I have to look at the vast tapestry of my background. I hold several degrees in education covering K–12, college, and...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/becoming-an-educator-more-than-being-a-lecturer-or-tutor</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a7f77ada7a7d1a936d28517</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 20:27:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_8c6203f7dcbb4b27bbab6faf584c7d34~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Humans, Climate Change and AI: One Earth, Running Out of Time]]></title><description><![CDATA[It's hot. Not a pleasant, sit-in-the-garden kind of hot; the kind that feels wrong. Europe is sweltering, the UK is bracing, and somewhere between the weather apps and the news cycles, most of us are getting on with our days as if this is just... summer. I keep thinking: how did we get here? More quietly, more worryingly: how much longer can our beloved earth sustain us? We Used to Build Things That Lasted, and So Did We Cast your mind back a few centuries. The Industrial Revolution, roughly...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/humans-climate-change-and-ai-one-earth-running-out-of-time</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a60f9c9bc66ff1e99e15a15</guid><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:21:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_7eb0d5bbac2a4496a0c3417390ff0a1f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Towards a Different Relationship]]></title><description><![CDATA[Part Three of a Three-Part Series on AI, Education, and the Human Cost of Always Being Online At the end of a series like this one, there is a temptation to offer a checklist. Five ways to use AI responsibly. Ten habits for healthier digital living. Three things universities should do differently. Lists are comforting because they imply that complex problems have simple solutions. They allow us to feel that we have understood something simply because we have organised it.   The questions...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/towards-a-different-relationship</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3ed73f44ca276d30d4b77a</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2026 20:01:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_95aeae6d516345aca2e650db0287ba65~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The University's Quiet Bargain]]></title><description><![CDATA[Part Two of a Three-Part Series on AI, Education, and the Human Cost of Always Being Online There is a moment many academics will recognise. A piece of student work arrives that is technically proficient, well-structured, almost impossible to fault; and entirely hollow. The conventions have all been observed. What is absent is the writer. The thinking. The alive quality of a human mind working something out.   After nearly two decades in learning and development and higher education across...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/the-university-s-quiet-bargain</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3ed58dd3770ea960eb4c26</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2026 20:01:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_cca2956f643249bbb9a8fc5575e9aae8~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Scroll That Never Ends]]></title><description><![CDATA[Part One of a Three-Part Series on AI, Education, and the Human Cost of Always Being Online There is a particular kind of tiredness that sleep does not fix. You wake up already braced for something, though you cannot quite name it. Before you have properly arrived in the morning, your hand has found your phone. You scroll. You see several notifications, and then there’s the news, and perhaps a podcast that contradicts your own opinion. The opinions of strangers impact you. Something in you,...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/the-scroll-that-never-ends</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3ed2aba79d1da57f7382f9</guid><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2026 19:33:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_d4c9d8c3dbcc426a820107806ba08bea~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[They Wrote It as Fiction. We Built It Anyway.]]></title><description><![CDATA[Working at the intersection of people and technology for as long as I have, I have learned that the most revealing moments are often the quietest ones. A small observation that opens into something much larger. I have been running an experiment. Nothing formal, just curiosity. I took the same prompt, the same problem, and put it in front of several different AI tools running on different models. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI, Copilot, Notion. Same input. Very different...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/they-wrote-it-as-fiction-we-built-it-anyway</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a188f7fc2da9ec2684a527d</guid><pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 19:19:55 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_d44004d0422148638eebf117f8564b5d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Fear That Never Really Changed]]></title><description><![CDATA[What a visit to a central bank in South Asia taught me about AI anxiety — decades before AI arrived Some stories sit quietly in memory for years, waiting for the world to catch up with them. This is one of those stories. Long before the words "artificial intelligence" became the defining anxiety of the modern workplace, I witnessed something that I would only fully understand much later, a scene so human in its contradictions that it now reads like a dress rehearsal for what is happening...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/the-fear-that-never-really-changed</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0dc744cb0791383ec2ce6a</guid><pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 15:35:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_cc2976169daa4a58af1780ba10881ccf~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Fragmentation of Society: Morality, Capitalism &#38; the Collapse of Community (Part 2)]]></title><description><![CDATA[Capitalism accelerated individualism. Society moved from “we” to “me.” People are told to prioritise themselves, protect their peace, cut people off, focus on self-care, build personal brands, heal constantly, and optimise every aspect of life. Even suffering has become commercialised. Therapy, wellness, self-improvement, social media validation, entire industries now exist around human insecurity and emotional pain. Of course trauma exists. Mental health matters. Science matters. Progress...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/the-fragmentation-of-society-morality-capitalism-the-collapse-of-community-part-2</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a00a7fc9b0abb41c54520c8</guid><pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2026 15:48:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/bc5c340bba08a61cf0a0adc6016ff8d0.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Fragmentation of Society: When Every Generation Tried to Do Better (part 1)]]></title><description><![CDATA[There was a time when society was not built around the individual. It was built around the family, the community, and the collective survival of people who depended on one another. Today, despite all our advances in science, technology, psychology, and wealth, many people feel more disconnected, anxious, fragmented, and alone than ever before. The question is: how did we get here? Perhaps the answer is simpler and more human than we realise. Every generation tried to become a better parent...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/generational-parenting-fragmentation-when-every-generation-tried-to-be-better-part-1</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a00a29eecab90113756d618</guid><pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2026 15:42:18 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_8b51ac4d22d34646af40d1f9708a8459~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Being an Academic in 2026: When Dedication Meets Entitlement]]></title><description><![CDATA[A reflection on the state of international higher education — honest, uncomfortable, necessary. There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from overwork, but from caring deeply about something that others treat as a transaction. This past semester brought me to that point. I am writing this not to vent, though perhaps some of this is exactly that, but because I genuinely believe this conversation needs to happen — loudly, openly, and without the usual diplomatic softening that...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/being-an-academic-in-2026-when-dedication-meets-entitlement</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69dd57cdc31b00fb8514cd27</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Apr 2026 21:00:54 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_111e2717ce59484ea99981ae4fec2dbc~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When the Ground Shifts Beneath Us]]></title><description><![CDATA[Living Through Limbo I am writing today after quite some time. The last few months have been heavy in ways I didn’t expect. Personal challenges, professional uncertainty, everything arriving at once. I made it through, though the weight of it still sits somewhere inside me. I spent weeks in limbo, not knowing what would happen next, and that feeling stayed with me long after the decisions were made. The lack of government funding has pushed universities into a corner. Institutions began...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/when-the-ground-shifts-beneath-us</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ce6d24d6854e26a0aa33cc</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:16:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_df9653f4065a4a3c9e790f6fd5224350~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When International Employment Law Meets Lived Reality]]></title><description><![CDATA[Beginning With the Law Yesterday I was teaching International Employment Law. To introduce discrimination and the Equality Act 2010 — and to compare UK and international contexts — I drew on my Australian experience and used news reports from both countries. We began with tribunal cases, legal definitions, and the narrow circumstances in which a Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR) can apply. The class was lively, analytical, and grounded in legal reasoning. When News Stories Hit Close to...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/when-international-employment-law-meets-lived-reality</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6994f20731440415cc6959cd</guid><pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2026 23:14:05 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_414f2d757a5f408aa752721f0c492e15~mv2_d_2500_1415_s_2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[We Don’t Train Humans. We Facilitate Learning.]]></title><description><![CDATA[Adults are not taught the way children are taught. Learning is facilitated.” — Malcolm Knowles  (paraphrased) “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.” — Peter Senge The word training   made me cringe the day I realised why. I trained my dog! I taught him to sit, to stay, to respond to commands. I rewarded what I wanted. I corrected what I didn’t. It worked — because that is how training works. And then, without warning, a question landed in me: When adults are “trained”, what...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/we-don-t-train-humans-we-facilitate-learning</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6964067dcca849701e8f47b3</guid><pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 21:00:11 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_28d12ec23a0142289a0e695ef0e1bdee~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[At the Turning of the Year]]></title><description><![CDATA[A World in Quiet Transition As one year closes and another begins, it feels natural to pause—not in celebration or despair, but in reflection. Over time, something subtle yet significant has shifted in how many of us live and work, often so gradually that we only notice it when we stop to take stock. Work feels less certain than it once did, institutions feel less steady, and long-held assumptions about security and progression no longer hold in the same way. In many places, even...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/at-the-turning-of-the-year</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6956d93e39769ac6ceb15a39</guid><pubDate>Thu, 01 Jan 2026 21:20:25 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_67bbe4cedcda4267861504ac3334c910~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_768,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When Paperwork Says "Fluent" but Reality Says Otherwise]]></title><description><![CDATA[A student sits in my office, unable to explain what the assignment requires. Their IELTS score says 6.5. The conversation we're struggling through suggests otherwise. This scene repeats itself across campuses worldwide—a gap between documentation and reality that no one wants to acknowledge. Universities as Businesses: Survival, Not Malice Universities today operate less like places of learning and more like businesses driven by recruitment targets. This shift did not occur out of ill intent....]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/when-paperwork-says-fluent-but-reality-says-otherwise</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6949b8caadc391625af7dae2</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2025 21:40:51 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_2ced1ee7df10471f8116b4a5910fa31a~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_900,h_594,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When Learning Loses Its Shape]]></title><description><![CDATA[Walking into the classroom with hope There are days when we walk into the classroom carrying more than slides and lesson plans. We carry hope. The quiet hope that something will shift, that a spark will catch, that learning will still take root. That hope is held carefully, knowing how easily it can be disturbed. Lately, the wind has been strong. The gap students arrive with Students arrive in the UK having invested enormous sums of money, with families waiting at home and futures resting on...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/when-learning-loses-its-shape</link><guid isPermaLink="false">693de4f342832d49aebd4301</guid><pubDate>Sat, 13 Dec 2025 22:24:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/03c5c59e7e2748159fa0d753985f1052.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[My SFHEA Journey Across Continents, Classrooms and Communities]]></title><description><![CDATA[I recently received confirmation of success for my Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) with Advance HE. The message arrived quietly, yet it prompted a moment of reflection in a year filled with transition across the sector. It allowed me to look back on a journey shaped across countries, disciplines and communities, and on the principles that have guided my work. Beginnings in Pakistan: Teaching and Organisational Development My path began in Pakistan, teaching at Preston University and Hamdard...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/my-sfhea-journey-across-continents-classrooms-and-communities</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69306dce68373123b35a8587</guid><pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2025 17:45:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_9b3b086ba161426bb54c2df484cda123~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_733,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why Local Students Prefer Apprenticeships Over University: A Reflection from 30,000 Feet]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Quiet Shift in Student Choices I felt this shift more sharply on my last flight than in any policy report or academic paper. I had settled into my seat, tired but grateful for the familiar hum of the cabin, when a young, chatty girl sat beside me. She had just completed high school and was excited about the future. I asked her the kind of question I always ask young people, a habit formed from years of teaching: “Which university will you be joining?”  I mentioned in passing that I was a...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/why-local-students-prefer-apprenticeships-over-university-a-reflection-from-30-000-feet</link><guid isPermaLink="false">692395638c513b4f517b804e</guid><pubDate>Sun, 23 Nov 2025 23:25:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_9a4b225d16424551b4a3ba4bf5435d13~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[AI and Women: Rising Into a Future We Deserve]]></title><description><![CDATA[A Quiet Shift in Power Some transformations arrive like storms, shaking everything in their path. Others slip in quietly, almost unnoticed, until one day you realise something has changed inside you. AI feels like that kind of change — gentle, unexpected, yet profoundly shifting. For years I carried strength alone, especially after my father passed. He had been my loudest supporter, the one who believed in my direction even when I didn’t. When he left, the world felt heavier, narrower,...]]></description><link>https://www.hyacinthconduit.com/post/ai-and-women-rising-into-a-future-we-deserve</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6917b8130dbc57ddd09899d6</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2025 23:24:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3a56d0_61f14e9d60e043c4a0eb8a08ba549f2d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Lubna Siddiqi</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>