Open Access — publishers cash in double

LONDON (the) -- Cash registers are ringing at Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis as well as Oxford and Cambridge University Press. Not only did the big science publishers divert attention from decades of overbilling academic libraries for journal subscriptions at public expense, not only did they consolidate their balance sheets by engaging in Open Access and labelling prepaid online publishing as ‘gold’. Now extra profits are generated by ‘double-dipping’ or pocketing Author Publication Charges (APCs) for OA publishing without lowering their subscription revenues ... read more | and here 24.9.15

French universities crisis

“Flanders is too small for five top universities”

BRUSSELS (div) -- By claiming that “Flanders is too small for five top universities” Rik Torfs, rector of the Catholic University of Leuven, has triggered a heated debate in the Durch speaking part of Belgium. His elitist provocation was taken badly from his colleagues of other universities ... read more | and here | and here 21.09.2015

Gender quotas getting smart

HEIDELBERG (science 2.0) -- There is no perfect way to assure gender balance in academia, a recent report suggests ‘smart quotas’ that take into account the number of available, qualified candidates ... read more 24.09.2015

‘Overeducation’ — a case for immigration policy

DUBLIN (euractiv) -- If over- education is explained by factors such as excess supply of graduate labour, is there a role for policy, as Adele Bergin argues? A recent study examines the relationship between migrant status and labour market mismatch ... read more 22.09.2015

Science in the lobby trap

BRUSSELS (orf) -- Medicine, food, health — more and more complex sectors require scientific counsel, especially on a European level. But observers criticise that corporate interests use a scientific disguise (by setting up and funding think-tanks) to safeguard their interest. The NGO Corporate Europa Oberservatory (CEO) demands more transparency and the inclusion of critical stakeholder groups in advisory panels. These are exactly the concerns that led to the demand of the dismissal of the European Commission’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Anne Glover, last year ... read more 22.9.

Scotland risks being ‘anti-science’ with GM ban

EDINBURGH (scotsman) -- Scientific advice in favour of corporate interest is being held against civil society, once it is overruled. But governments maintaining their antipathy for transgenic crops are sensibly balancing public consent with scientific evidence. However, the Scottish government allegedly risks a reputation as being “anti-science” over a ban recently imposed on genetically modified crops ... read more | and here 25.09.2015

Tallinn University of Technology sets out ‘Nordic ambition’

TALLINN (sciencebusiness) -- The newly-elected rector of Tallinn University of Technology (TUT), Jaak Aaviksoo is casting his gaze towards the wealthy Nordic countries. “I want to build partnerships with leading technical universities in the North.” With Estonia’s reputation as a tech-star long since established, working with the best technology-driven universities in Finland and Sweden is a high priority ... read more 24.09.2015

Czech Republic: Foreign students pay 1bn crowns in taxes

PRAGUE (čtk) -- 35,000 foreign students at Czech universities and colleges bring about one billion crowns (37,000 euro) to the state budget annually, this is the sum collected in VAT from their spendings ... read more 24.09.2015

Science without Borders to be suspended

BRASILIA (folha) -- Owing to lack of funds, Brazilian has decided to suspend the offer of new scholarships as part of the programme Science Without Borders. Launched in July 2011, the programme has become one of President Rousseff’s flagship policies. After the creation of 101,000 places by last year, the promise for her second term was to create another 100,000. But next year’s budget, a total of 2.1 billion real (470 million euro), is only enough to cover students who are already abroad ... read more | and here 7.9.15

Portuguese universities on strike

LISBON (observador) -- For the first time in six years, Portuguese professors and researchers across the country went on strike in protest against cuts and precarity yesterday. António Vicente, speaking for the national teachers’ union SNESup and addressing the umcoming government, said budgets have been reduced by 30 percent over the last five years and half of the professors work on short-term contracts, while work loads are rising ... read more | video 22.09.2015

Heavy student accomodation crisis in Ireland

DUBLIN (irish times) -- Ireland’s seven universities have called for “urgent remedial action” to address the student accommodation crisis. They claim a funding gap on campuses of 2 billion euros ... read more 22.09.2015

Financial irregularities at Madrid universities

MADRID (el mundo) -- An audit by the Chamber of Accounts uncovered “continuous irregularities” in the way four public Madrid universities conducted their financial affairs. The supreme control body said that several contracts of the university authorities and the Community of Madrid should be decared null as they are inconsistent with the law and contravene “principles of transparency, equality and non-discrimination” ... read more 17.09.2015

MOOCs for Russia

MOSCOW (russia direct) -- Last week, a new Russian online educational platform was launched. OpenEdu is the first site in Russia to offer students massive open online courses (MOOCs) equal in weight to more traditional modes of study ... read more 22.09.2015

Europe pushing for a world-class start-up culture

HELSINKI (business insider) -- “As technology upends industries and lifestyles at breakneck pace, the Old Continent is not producing any of the online giants like Google, eBay or Facebook. Its best and brightest prefer to emigrate to Silicon Valley.” The campaign for deregulation continues ... read more 21.9.15

First US colleges slash tuition fees

Ukraine faces “serious brain drain”

KIEV (interfax) -- As the Ukraine is shifting closer to Western Europe, including liberalised markets and mobility, education minister Serhiy Kvit warns that “the problem of a brain drain is quite serious now.” Only “developing international relations, promoting education and training our students and professionals in the best Western universities, teaching them foreign languages,” he believes, “will prevent emigration of Ukrainian researchers and intellectuals” ... read more

Lomonossov University to build her own Silicon Valley

MOSCOW (occrp) -- 28 year-old Katerina Tihonova, previously known as an acrobatic rock-and-roll dancer and allegdly Vladimir Putin’s daughter, is heading a 110 billion ruble (1.5 billion euro) project to double the size of Moscow State University (MSU). She supervises a fund, established in 2012 and generously supported by the State energy companies Rosneft and Transneft, which is aimed at developing the concept of the MSU Science and Technology Park to encourage collaboration between the university and hi-tech corporations ... read more | and here 22.09.2015

Scientific interest vs. privacy rights

LONDON (nature) -- Public unease about online privacy is rising, as private companies operate as data brokers and many scientists argue that there are legitimate scientific uses of using data retrieved and cross-referenced from various sources, including public records ... read more 22.09.2015

IBM Watson enters Spanish universities

MADRID (tech week) -- The Technical University of Madrid (UPM) has partnered with IBM to launch courses with access to the company’s Watson computer. The courses are the latest step in a larger effort by IBM “to fuel an ecosystem of innovators who will help make cognitive computing the new standard of computing”. UPM is the first Spanish university to enter into such a cooperation, according to IBM, there are 100 such partnerships, 13 of which in Europe ... read more | video on WATSON 21.09.2015

Rush on French universities

PARIS (afp) -- With 65.000 more students enrolling this year (exceeding a total of 2.5 million), French universities are worried how to cope. “Universities are burnt out”, Jean-Loup Salzmann, president of the rectors conference CPU, told the press. “It is as if we were to create two new universities a year,” he said, warning that if university funding will be the same as last year, “already 300 million euros are lacking” ... read more 16.09.2015

Polish public universities in a financial crisis

WARSAW (prawna) -- Despite major cost-cutting efforts, many Polish universities are in financial trouble. Ten out of 101 public institutions report a negative annual result in 2014. However, public expediture in education and science is expexted to fall further below 0.7 percent of GDP ... read more 1809

Hostile climate against Anti-Mafia University

CATANZARO (gdc) -- Adriana Musella is exhausted. The head of the national association against the mafia Riferimenti considers returning the premises made available by the city of Limbadi in Calabria, southern Italy, for the construction of a research university on organised crime in Italy. The property had been seized from a former mafia boss, but eversince, members of the association including Musella herself, who lives under police protection, have been threatened ... read more 17.09.2015

Students occupy Athens Technical College

ATHENS (kathimerini) -- Protesters have prevented teachers and students entering the Athens Technical College (TEI) since Sunday, September 13, demanding that convicted anarchist Nikos Romanos be given leave from prison with an electronic tag to study at the institution ... read more | and here 21.9.

EIB grants record loan to Oxford

LUXEMBOURG (express) -- The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide 200 million Pound (275 million Euro) for Oxford University’s programme of improvement and expansion of research and teaching facilities. The United Kingdom is the largest beneficiary of EIB university lending, receiving 1.45 billion Pound (2 billion euro) in the last five years, prompting fears that British researchers might not remain impartial in the run up to the ‘Brexit’ referendum ... read more | and here 17.9.

Austria takes the ‘golden’ road to Springer

BERLIN/WIEN (standard) -- The Austrian Academic Library Consortium and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) have reached a deal with science publisher Springer. The three-year licensing agreement subscribes to 2.000 journals and gives Austrian scholars prepaid “golden open access” to 1.600 Springer publications. After a similar agreement with Dutch universities in late 2014, Springer hopes to finalise comparable deals in the United Kingdom and Germany ... read more | and here 17.09.2015

German universities: satisfaction along the money line

BERLIN (focus) -- A triennial survey on the ‘mood’ of German rectors found an overall improvement compared to three years ago. Most satisfaction with public policy, however, were where the money went — to excellence programmes and to private universities.
The survey called Hochschul-Barometer also highlights German university managements’ stronger focus on internationalisation ... read more 17.09.2015

Danish ‘code of conduct’ for internationalisation

Euro-Mediterranean Institute of Technology launched

FEZ (ufm) -- The Euro-Mediterranean Institute of Technology, which was created with engineering schools and universities of from Morocco, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, has admitted its first 192 students. Their joint-diplomas will be recognised by the Moroccan and the French government and the European network of engineering schools ... read more 14.09.2015

Science advisors for the EU Commission appointed

BRUSSELS (ec) -- The European Commission is eager to appoint a new group of scientists to advise it, departing from the previous system with a single chief scientific adviser. Now there are 150 nominations. The members of the group shall be chosen by the end of October, science commissioner Carlos Moedas said, and operative by the end of the year ... read more | and here 15.09.2015

Ericsson extends research programme across Europe

LAS VEGAS (cable) -- Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson is to expand its 5G research and development programme —on network technology for mobile devices— to include new partners across Europe. Among them are technical universities such as Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa; TU Dresden; Universidad Carlos III of Madrid and King’s College London ... read more 18.9.

“Ban on profession” widespread in Belarusan education

MINSK (eurobelarus) -- “Ban on profession” is a phenomenon that is almost forgotten in our days, but it is still widespread in the Belarusan education system. According to public records, there are about 500 cases of lecturers banned for ideological reasons. Often it is hidden by the universities, but also by the dismissed teachers themselves, hoping to find work in private schools ... read more 18.09.2015

Fraud detection software works in Spain

BARCELONA (euronews) -- The Open University of Catalonia —one of Europe’s largest online universities— has been perfecting its anti-plagiarism software for the past five years and cheating has dropped by 80 percent ... read more

Bank of Lithuania funds university research

VILNIUS (baltic course) -- The Bank of Lithuania (LB) and Vilnius University have founded a research centre with the aim of attracting foreign economists who, jointly with local scientiests, cary out joint research projects, prepare seminars, conferences, publications, and exchange good experiences in the fields of banking and finance. The centre’s focus lies on risk management, analysis of new financial products, shadow economy, and fiscal policy ... read more 18.9.15

Belarus between Bologna Process and nation-building

MINSK (eurobelarus) -- While transformations according to the Bologna Process in Belarus will result in a brain-drain, some forces in the country want to see a National University established as a means of nation-building. Education expert Tacciana Vadalazhskaja explains the current challenges Belarus is facing in higher education ... read more 10.09.2015

German-Russian research relations improving

BONN (df) -- Despite the tensions, on a political level, between Russia and Germany since the Ukraine crisis, their scientific relations flourish. DAAD expert, Thomas Prahl, sees co-operation on all levels increasing ... read more

Edward Snowden addresses UK students

GLASGOW (sputnik) -- Former CIA contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed the extent and methods of mass surveillance used by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s GCHQ spy agency, has called on students to oppose plans to increase surveillance powers ... read more 15.09.2015

New university in southern Luxembourg

ESCH-BELVAL (df) -- No tuition fees, but excellent research conditions: In the old steel town Esch-Belval in southern Luxembourg this week a new university opened ... read more | and here 15.09.2015

Wikipedia under fire for relationship with Elsevier

BERKELEY (ars technica) -- Scientific publisher Elsevier has donated 45 free ScienceDirect accounts to “top Wikipedia editors” to aid them in their work. Michael Eisen, one of the founders of the open access movement, fears that this will encourage Wikipedia editors to add references to articles behind Elsevier’s paywall — and thus trigger commercial activity ... read more | and here 14.9.15

Eastern training network in nuclear technology

MINSK (belTA) -- Three Belarusian universities plan to take part in the regional education and training network in nuclear technology STAR-NET. This network will include 13 universities of six states: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kazakhstan. STAR-NET, initiated by Russian research universities in 2008, aims to foster cooperation between educational institutions and nuclear industry-oriented training centres to ensure the continued availability of talented human resources in the field ... read more 15.09.2015

International students in France reach 300K

PARIS (the local) -- Close to 300,000 international students will be in France this year. Moroccans (34,000), Chinese (30), and Algerians (22) dominate, around 9,000 from Germany and Italy respectively ... read more 15.09.2015

Universities worldwide embrace cryptocurrency

LONDON (coindesk) -- Mexico’s Universidad de las Américas Puebla became the first institution in Latin America to welcome bitcoin on campus last month, after a coffee shop began accepting payments in the cryptocurrency. Which are the most crypto-friendly universities across the globe? ... read more 14.9.15

Scottish university cities offer juicy investments

EDINBURGH (property wire) -- University cities in Scotland offer the best areas for profit for buy to let investors in the UK, with the overall best average rental yield in Edinburgh ... read more 14.09.2015

Yet another ranking

LONDON (div) -- European heavy weight ETH Zurich, with 10,000 staff and an annual turnover of 1.5 billion euro, made it into the top ten of the latest QS university rankings. Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters, partner and data provider for THE university rankings, set out to find “the world’s top 100 innovative universities empirically”, distinguishing and thus promoting patent protection and commercialising of scientific discoveries ... read more 15.09.2015

Counter-revolution against the democratic university

AMSTERDAM (joop) -- Dutch education minister, Jet Bussemaker, wants to undo the democratic reforms introduced at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) after protests and occupations last spring.
The rebellion of students and staff had put an end to financial mismanagement and the commercialisation of university property by creating participatory structures, which the minister —despite her lip service at that time— wants to abolish now to put the former top-down managerial powers back in place ... read more 10.9.15

Scholarships in Luxemburg are not sufficient

LUXEMBOURG (le quotidien) -- An evaluation of student aid in Luxembourg showed that it does not support students from low and average income households enough. Especially children from families living under the minimum wage and families with many children are penalised ... read more 11.09.2015

Will Erdoğan’s illegal palace become a university?

ISTANBUL (today’s zaman) -- Some want the palace, Turkish prime minister Recep Erdoğan had built illegally in an environmentally protected area of Ankara (for 400 million euro), to be demolished. From a recent architectural competition however, proposals emerged to transform it into a university campus, a museum or a nursing home ... read more 14.05.2015

The needle eye into Czech universities

PRAGUE (df) -- Entrance exams to enroll at a Czech university are a long procedure every year. 10,000 pupils are applying for 26 universities and they have to pass written and oral tests ... read more 21.08.2015

ESS becomes ERIC

LUND (div) -- The multidisciplinary research centre European Spallation Source (ESS) is the world’s next-generation neutron source currently under construction in Lund, Sweden. The co-operative project of 17 countries has now been approved by the EU Commission as European Research Infrastructure Consortium, or ERIC ... read more | and here 08.09.2015

The pros and cons of Polish internationalisation

WARSAW (inside highered) -- Internationalisation of universities is becoming a new mantra for the Polish government. In June, the science ministry signed an agreement with the UAE to attract more of their students. It already has similar agreements with Oman, Malaysia, and China. Daniel Kontowski, an early-stage researcher in sociology, and Philip Altbach, an old-school scholar on higher education policy, analyse this strategy in a dialogue (part one) ... read more 13.9.15

EU funders claim fair recruitment

MANCHESTER (the) -- Universities could lose up to a quarter of European Union research funding if they fail to comply with new rules designed to promote fair recruitment, a Brussels official has warned. Breaches of the rules designed to stamp out sexism, nepotism, localism and cronyism when hiring researchers could lead to severe financial penalties for those who have won European Research Council awards ... read more 14.09.2015

Study reveals major risks of university IT security

NEW YORK (ars technica) -- An American internet security firm has published a study (unfortunately à l’américaine they need a gun or a race to create interest, so it’s in form of a ranking) that highlights the major security risks, universities are running because of their unsafe IT structures or internet behaviour ... read more 11.09.2015

Russia and India forge science cooperation

MOSCOW (focus) -- India and Russia are working on a “general agreement” on collaboration in science and technology, which will enable the countries to exchange ideas on technology, scientists and students ... read more 12.9.15

Students fall for housing scam in Dublin

DUBLIN (irish times) -- Two Austrian students who found a flat in Dublin on Facebook, were swindled out of 550 euro by a fake landlord ... read more 14.9.15

“Policy Reviews in Higher Ed” calls for papers

Danish university budget - no exception

COPENHAGEN (uwn) -- Science minister, Esben Lunde Larsen sees no reason why Danish universities shall not contribute to government budget reductions “on a par with other governmental institutions” ... read more 04.09.2015

Jo Johnson: Open UK higher education market

LONDON (telegraph) -- Universities should be allowed to fail in a “properly-run market”, the British universities minister, Jo Johnson, said and added, announcing a lift of the moratorium on bids for degree-awarding powers from new institutions: “This government values competition. We want a diverse system that can offer different types of higher education” ... read more 09.09.2015

Car-sharing companies fish for students

BERLIN (shz) -- Car-sharing companies in Germany are luring students with special offers: 1,99 euro per hour and no taxes, no repairs, no assurance. But car-rental firms are close on the heels ... read more 10.09.2015

Transgender panic at German college

POTSDAM (pnn) -- The initiative of a working group at a vocational college in Potsdam, near Berlin, shows clearly: the German path to tolerance is still long. A toilet, tagged ‘unisex’ for transgender people, caused panic attacks and rape accusations ... read more 05.09.2015

(Swedish) Catholics like it this way

STOCKHOLM (unt) -- Student representatives are always good to send up a trial balloon. Therefore, some ambitious members of Swedish christian-democratic student unions launched a debate saying “Swedish universities need more freedom and a company-style management” ... read more 9.9.15

French government excludes increase of tuition fees

PARIS (educpros) -- A revised national strategy for higher education in France has been handed over to President Francois Hollande. Concordantly, the state secretary for higher education, Thierry Mandon, assured that a raise of tuition fees “would contradict our social model”. The student union UNEF said a freeze of fees is “not sufficient” and announced mobilisations ... read more | and here

Portuguese rectors instruct the upcoming government

ISBON (ao) -- The National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) wants the next Portuguese government to commit itself to rescind 12 measures introduced by the current education minister Nuno Crato. Among their demands: the revision of privatisation and municipalisation of universities along with the hiring and evaluation processes ... read more 04.09.2015

Italy: how to make students richer by magic

ROME (l’espresso) -- A change in the academic income calculation (Isee) has made many Italian students richer — so it seems. But oh, one quarter of them don’t qualify for public student aid anymore! In an online petition, student unions call for immediate government intervention ... read more 8.9.15

Students pay £600 million for flats in London

LONDON (property wire) -- The 107,000 international students studying in London contribute some 600 million pound (825 million euro) in rental income to the capital’s rental market. The wealthiest Chinese, Russian and Malaysian students typically spend up to £1,500 per week to live in plush addresses in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and South Kensington ... read more 09.09.2015

No moratorium for ‘reactionary’ Spanish university law

OVIEDO (el comercio) -- In a motion to the Asturian parliament, members of the opposition party Podemos demanded a moratorium on the ‘reactionary’ higher education law LOMCE, named after former national education minister, José Wert. The same motion in twelve of the autonomous regions of spain has been rejected by the new education minister, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo ... read more 03.09.2015

Danish university budget - no exception

COPENHAGEN (uwn) -- Science minister, Esben Lunde Larsen sees no reason why Danish universities shall not contribute to government budget reductions “on a par with other governmental institutions” ... read more 04.09.2015

A free credit card for students

PERUGIA (pt) -- It’s called ‘Genius Card’, a free credit card for students provided by Unicredit Bank, that representatives of the University of Perugia have proudly presented. The old university in central Italy has a traditional relation with Unicredit and expects improvements in the financial transactions of students. The card was presented in a press conference by university’s rector, Franco Moriconi, and the head of the regional bank branch ... read more 08.09.2015

French students more indebted

PARIS (les echos) -- The average amounts borrowed by French students are rising. Not only the number of borrowers climbs, the volume of credit does, too. Time for an old-school socialist bank regulation? ... read more 07.09.2015

Push for more university commercialisation in Norway

OSLO (nifu) -- A new evaluation report concludes that the Norwegian universities’ technology transfer has become more professional. The report also shows that commercialisation has become a more accepted activity among Norwegian researchers. At the same time, it urges universities to do more to strengthen the culture for commercialisation ... read more

EU and China launch new Co-Funding Mechanism for research and innovation

Midi-Pyrénées and Paris are R&D champions

PARIS (la croix) -- From a comparison of investment into research and development in France emerged that the regions Midi-Pyrénées and Île-de-France (around Paris) have scored highest. While the former spent 4.8 percent of its GDP, the latter invested most in absolute figures, 18.5 billion euro in 2012. 41,000 people are full-time employed in R&D in France ... read more

Tehran to welcome five scientific delegations from Europe

TEHRAN (mehr) -- Deputy science minister, Hossein Salar Amoli, said five scientific delegations from European countries are due to visit Iran in the near future. A large academic delegation from Austria arrived in the Iranian capital on Monday, 7th September, after German vice-chancellor Siegmar Gabriel was first to come in July. Improving international relations on one hand didn’t prevent the regime however, to execute 694 persons in the first half of 2015 ... read more 08.09.2015

University for refugees launches crowdfunding campaign

BERLIN (the) -- An online university for refugees in Berlin has launched a crowdfunding campaign. Several universities in Germany have signed up to the initiative, while the organisation is in the process of seeking more partners in the UK ... read more 07.09.2015

Higher education in Greece after the bail-out

ATHENS (uwn) -- The austerity imposed on Greece by the Eurogroup lingers on. Last year’s law on higher education can’t be passed; ATMs abroad and research project funds were blocked, in the long run it is the suspension of all library subsriptions, the early retirements, the scientific brain drain and students’ restricted choices that will be harder to reverse ... read more 04.09.2015

Top down mergers in Hungarian higher education

BUDAPEST (eduline) -- 200 protesters waited at the press conference where Hungarian state secretary for higher education, László Palkovics, announced the merging and restructuring of universities earlier this month. Corvinus University and the University of West Hungary will be partly integrated, despite objections from these institutions; others will be merged completely ... read more | and here 1.9.15

STEM more popular in Flanders

BRUSSELS (engineeringnet) -- The Agoria Barometer, counting the applications of students for technology studies in Flanders, rose in one week from 4000 to 5500. “We need 9000 each year to fill all vacancies in technological jobs,” says Agoria director Wilson De Pril ... read more 1.9.15

Great Britain: higher fees, lower standards

LONDON (scmp) -- In an attempt to lure more European students, British universities have lowered the A-level grade required for entry and are offering bursaries and other inducements to fill their places. At the same time, the smear campaign against defaulters on student loans from the EU continues ... read more 06.09.2015

Greece lowers entrance hurdels

ATHENS (kathimerini) -- Almost a quarter of university and technical college departments have accepted new students that attained less than 50 percent in their entrance exams, once considered the pass mark ... read more 26.8.15

Slovak universities could lose accreditation

Finland announces big investment in education

HELSINKI (ht) -- The Finnish government announced to invest one billion euros in its spearhead Education minister, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen is now eager to provide urgent funding primarily, to encouraging the digitisation of basic education, and to knowledge-hubs created through co-operation between research and higher education ... read more 02.09.2015

EU backs project to test students across Europe

BRUSSELS (the) -- A new project to create an “internationally comparable” test of what students learn across European higher education is to launch with a 500,000 euro grant from the EU. This autumn will see the start of a feasibility study ... read more 04.09.2015

New open-access journal to publish entire research cycles

SOFIA (eurekalert) -- A new journal promises a paradigm shift in academic publishing: for the first time, it advertises, materials from all stages of the research cycle can be published, across a broad suite of disciplines. All its contents —including reviews and comments, data and code— will receive a persistent unique identifier, will be permanently archived and made available under open licenses without any access embargo ... read more 01.09.2015

US university abandons paper books

MARYLAND (umuc) -- For the first time, a major American university has replaced 100 percent of its undergraduate textbooks with no-cost digital resources ... read more 27.08.2015

VAT hits hard on private schools in Greece

ATHENS (kathimerini) -- The EU-imposed raise of VAT tax on Greek businesses endangers private schools, too. Some private schools, offering preparatory courses for the university exam, are now in danger. Middle-class parents fear an increase of education costs ... read more 6.9.2015

Anti-European French students unite

PARIS (la croix) -- A new anti-European student union under the name of La Cocarde has been officialy launched. It unites republicans, souvereignists, gaullists and some ultra-national students from 16 regions of France. This severs the “cordon sanitaire” towards the fascists of Front National. Their leader, Marine Le Pen, founded an organisation to win the students’ hearts, the collectif étudiant Marianne, just one year ago ... read more 01.09.2015

German law against ‘precarity’ in higher education

BERLIN (stz) -- A law proposal of German science minister Johanna Wanka wants to put an end to unfair short-term employment at universities. More than 80 percent (approximately 400,000) junior scientists or lecturers in Germany work under ‘precarious’ conditions with insecure career prospects ... read more 02.09.2015

Dutch push for university disintegration

THE HAGUE (turkse) -- “The days of the university for everyone are numbered” — that’s how the Dutch liberal think-tank Rathenau Instituut starts its latest opinion-making foray. The autors, Patricia Faasse and Barend van der Meulen, put the public function and democratic structure of universities into question and advocate their regional and functional specialisation ... read more 28.08.2015

Trouble for medicine students in Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG (l’essentiel) -- Medicine students in Luxembourg are worried. Since a law change in neighbouring Belgium, for many of them, the continuation of their studies in the Belgian partner universities is no longer guaranteed ... read more 31.08.2015

A university in a refugee camp

GENEVA (le temps) -- The visual artist Yvelyne Wood has dedicated her work to the women in contemporary wars. She has now also launched an initiative to open a university in a refugee camp in Burundi. The central African country is relatively stable, she explains in an interview, relations with the authorities and the UN agency for refugees, HCR, are positive. The youngsters are highly motivated and especially women are encouraged to apply. National universities are not accessible for refugees ... read more 31.08.20152015

Horizon 2020 threatened of further cuts

BRUSSELS (leru) -- A group of European research universities is warning that within the EU institutions new plans are ripening to divert further funds from the research programme Horizon 2020 to other purposes. “It is terrible to witness how Finance Ministers have become the gravediggers of the EU’s research policy and budget”, states Kurt Deketelaere, secretary-general of the university association LERU ... read more 31.08.2015

European education and training cooperation: new priorities

Pro-EU stance of British universities under attack

LONDON (breitbart) -- Opponents of Great Britain’s EU membership criticise the association Universities UK for campaigning in favour of it ... read more

Spanish flat shares for students are Europe’s cheapest

MALAGA (expatica) -- While Spanish shared housing costs (229 euro) are well below the European average (350 euro), students in the UK pay almost four times as much (808 euro), a study shows ... read more 31.08.2015

Lazy attitude among Danish students?

COPENHAGEN (the local) -- Higher education minister, Esben Lunde Larsen says a “culture shift” is needed among Danish university students who often show up unprepared in class. 30 percent of professors have given their students passing marks even though they should have failed ... read more

Estonia rolls up the sleeves

Poland opens up for foreign students

WARSAW (the) -- The Polish government has introduced measures to promote further internationalisation of its higher education system by bringing in more foreign students. First of all: the upfront payment of tuition fees has been abolished ... read more 30.08.2015

Protest against new ‘sharing policy’ of Elsevier

BERLIN/ZURICH (div) -- Late April this year, Elsevier made troubling changes to its “sharing policy”: authors now have to wait up to four years before they can share an Elsevier-published manuscript through repositories. A new petition calls for boycott. A recent study at the of ETH Zurich found out that a switch to open access —even to paid “golden open access”— would reduce the university’s susbscription costs significantly ... read more 31.08.2015

New ways of cheating

AMSTERDAM (scienceguide) -- American researchers found a new way of cheating being used in online education to receive good grades. It is called CAMEO cheating, a technique particular to MOOCs ... read more 26.09.2015

The downside of Hillary Clinton’s Education Plan

NEW YORK (forbes) -- Hillary Clinton’s higher education plan is extensive and expensive. 350 billion dollars over ten years are intended to help students out of the debt trap and secure funding for institutions, but ... read more 28.08.2015

New European Director-General for Education

BRUSSELS (aca) -- The newly appointed Director-General of DG Education and Culture, Ms Martine Reicherts, is to assume the post on 1 September 2015, after eight years of holding the same position in DG “Publications Office” in Luxembourg. The change in DG EAC is the result of a broader reshuffling in the Commission ... read more 31.08.2015

An e-book VAT exemption for schools in Europe?

How to appoint a professor in the Czech Republic?

PRAGUE (ihned) -- In her first appearence in the new academic year, new Czech education minister Kateřina Valachová announced a “final consenus” for the appointment of professors. Appointments have been an apple of discord between rectors and President of the State Miloš Zeman, who intervened with his veto several times in the last year ... read more 21.08.2015

Little trust in university advertising

LONDON (the) -- Prospective students in the UK are most likely to trust information about universities that they perceive to be impartial —such as university websites and printed prospectuses— and place only limited weight on advertising and social media, a study suggests ... read more 26.08.2015