Budget is the heart and soul of reform

ZAGREB (jutarnji) -- Predag Šustar, former philosophy professor at the University of Rijeka, was appointed as the new Croatian education minister on the 26th January. During his first press conference he emphasised the importance of an increase in the education budget … read more 26.01.2016

Streamlining of Finnish universities

HELSINKI (uutiset) -- “We could have even fewer universities than we do now,” declared the Finnish education minister, Sannu Grahn-Laasonen, expressing her support for the multi-hundred-million-euro cuts to universities. She believes that research can be made more focussed with the creation of department epicentres. However Grahn-Laasonen did recognise the difficulties in securing grants, promising to streamline the process by 2018 … read more

OECD: intellectual deforestation

LONDON (guardian) -- Many young people would be better off taking further education courses than studying for an academic degree, according to a report by the OECD, commissioned by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. One in ten university graduates are leaving higher education with “quite basic” levels of maths or literacy ability, prompting the OECD to claim that UK education funding would be better spent in schools and on education for 16- to 19-year-olds … read more 29.01.2016

Boom of Chinese students at Italian art academies

LECCE (qdp) -- The number of Chinese students at Italian art academies is growing. This year, at the Accedemia delle Belle Arti of Lecce in the far south, they make up 22 percent of the student population. “They are a cultural, but also an economic resource for us,” says rector Claudio Delli Santi, “since the number of local students is decreasing.” The difficulties of the professors, however, who have to teach more and more students with very low Italian language proficiency, are seldom discussed ... read more 15.01.2016

Corporate spirit at the Université Libre de Bruxelles

BRUSSELS (le vif) -- By appointing Pierre Gurdjian, the former senior partner of international consulting firm McKinsey, as its new president, the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) confirms its desire to be led like a corporation. Gurdjian will work alongside ULB director-general Michel Loebs, ex-president of Chiquita Europe … read more 24.01.2016

Landlord UCL held ransom by tenants

LONDON (guardian) -- Students of the University College of London (UCL) are refusing to pay rent to their university, demanding a 40 percent rent decrease. With a 56 percent rise since 2009, many argue the high fees equate to ‘social cleansing’ as those from poorer backgrounds have to sacrifice their studies for paid work in order to cover costs … read more 25.01.2016

University funding reform in Poland

WARSAW (bankier) -- The Polish science minister, Jarosław Gowin, has announced plans to reform higher education, promising innovation and a closer relationship with the economy. Following the example of Denmark, where similar reforms were successfully carried out in the nineties, he envisages a more competitive funding system for Polish higher education … read more 20.01.2016

University of Liege plays a risky game

LIEGE (sudinfo) -- The francophone universities of Belgium have invested part of their budget in the stock market. The University of Liege (ULg), for example, has placed 75 million of their 180 million euro budget into risky financial products. In 2014, however, the ULg received profits of 7 million euros from their investments … read more 23.01.2016

IDEX favours mergers

PARIS (20min) -- The winners of the second round of the French ‘excellency’ initiative (Idex/Isite), which has a total budget of 3.1 billion euros, are the universities of Nice, Grenoble, Lorraine and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. A debate has now ensued on university mergers, as some believe fusion universities are more likely to succeed in the initiative. Philippe Augé, president of the University of Montpellier, blames the university’s failure to secure Idex funding on Paul Valéry University’s refusal to merge with them, a claim refuted by the university’s president, Anne Fraïsse … read more | and here 25.01.2016

Generosity attracts scrutiny in Denmark

COPENHAGEN (ekstrabladet) -- The University of Copenhagen faces investigation from the National Audit Office, who will visit the university following a number of large one-off bonus payments to employees. Some university staff were awarded as much as 500,000 Danish krone (67.000 euros) … read more 25.01.2016

Students to foot the bill for Technologcal Universities

DUBLIN (irish times) -- Students to bear the brunt of the costs needed to create new technological universities, unions have claimed. The expenses will top 45 million euros, resulting in a considerable increase in student fees that will affect them for “many years into their working lives.” Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan had been advised by her own experts that mergers were a costly process … read more 27.01.2016

Austria: fees for university entrance exams

VIENNA (wiener zeitung) -- Austrian universities are planning to introduce a fifty euro fee for entrance examinations. Prospective medical students and all those wishing to study at the University of Innsbruck already pay to sit entrance tests … read more 22.01.2016

Hungarian National Bank building own university

BUDAPEST (bloomberg) -- The National Bank of Hungary intends to spend 200 billion forint (640 million euro) on a new economics programme and university campus. This sum equals the government’s total annual budget for higher education across the country. Prominent economists at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have condemned this movement in an open letter, saying the initiatives are not only illegal, but also go against international norms, with this public money being used to increase private influence. However allies of Prime Minister Orban have defended the plans, claiming scientific autonomy will not be compromised … read more 22.01.2016

Oil lobby at universities

LONDON (open democracy) -- ExxonMobil spent at least 5.6 million pounds on lobbying in 2014 alone, of which over 260,000 pounds was spent on European universities. An investigation by DeSmog UK showed Exxon to be one of the biggest spenders in EU lobbying … read more 20.01.2016

Weak Polish support for refugees

WARSAW (inside highered) -- A report finds Poland’s support for refugees in higher education to be lacking. Despite the government asking universities to do more to help refugees, only four institutions went as far as to offer broad support to those who may have applied. The policy has since been given little attention, whilst the political climate for supporting refugees has simultaneously worsened … read more 24.01.2016

France gets new degree database

Greenlandic on the brink of extinction

COPENHAGEN (independent) -- Cuts to Danish universities could see the removal of Eskimology and Artic studies from the syllabus by 2017. As the only course in the world where you can study Greenlandic at university level, many are appealing for the university to rethink this decision … read more 19.1.16

Finland tightens the belt

HELSINKI (uwn) -- After the latest batch of austerity measures, a total of 5,200 jobs at Finnish universities and polytechnics will have been cut since 2012. An independent survey revealed that the total budget reductions add up to 280 million euros … read more 22.01.2016

Research increasingly international

ARLINGTON (nature) -- A big US report documents increases in international research collaboration. Within the European Union, the United Kingdom, France and Germany had the highest rates of co-authored articles overall. US authors worked most frequently with authors from China, compared with other countries ... read more 19.1.

What about the European Innovation Council?

EU (sciencebusiness) -- Christian Ehler, MEP, has said that the European Innovation Council should be in its pilot phase by 2017. At the moment there is a discussion over the form this new EU body should take … read more 21.1.

French publishing industry up in arms

PARIS (europe1) -- The French Minister for Digital Affairs, Axelle Lemaire, has come under fire from publishers in France. They claim that her suggestion of a project to create an Open Access forum for scientific and research papers will threaten independent publishing houses, instead favouring ‘internet giants.’ Following other European countries like Holland and Germany, the legal proposal would mean the substitution of journal subscription with green and gold Open Access … read more 18.01.2016

Negligible NEETs rate

LUXEMBOURG CITY (lw) -- In Luxembourg just 6.5 percent of young people (aged 15 to 29) were not in education, employment or training (NEET) compared with the OECD average of 16.5 percent … read more 20.01.2016

Cooperation with industry: farsighted or foolish?

COPENHAGEN (information) -- Universities in Denmark are increasingly keen to cooperate with private companies, as demonstrated by the University of Copenhagen’s attempts to attract money from the oil industry. However, some academics claim it is a ‘dangerous development’ and, like economics professor Mogens Ove Madsen from Aalborg, worry that freedom of research will be threatened … read more 18.01.2016

Egyptian universities launch UK partnerships

LONDON (the) -- Universities in the UK and Egypt have signed 10 partnership agreements aimed at building scientific research and increasing opportunities for student and staff exchanges. These collaborations follow on from a visit of Egyptian government officials in 2014 and are set to last at least three years … read more 21.01.2016

Dutch student want more say

AMSTERDAM (telegraaf) -- Yesterday the Dutch parliament began discussions on a new law relating to student involvement in university administration. The bill was drafted after the Maagdenhuis occupation last year, which was a protest for greater student participation. However many feel the changes are still all bark, no bite — pushing for the inclusion of a student representative on the Executive Board and veto powers … read more 21.01.2016

Norwegian students receive 35 million in fraudulent loans

OSLO (aftenposten) -- In 2014, a total of 2200 students breached the conditions of their educational grant, costing the Norwegian Loan Fund 35 million krone. Recipients were unable to prove that they had not lived at their family home for the whole year, as the grant is available only to those living independently … read more 21.01.2016

Medical students in Belgium: Too many or too few

BRUSSLES (rtbf) -- Belgium is set to have a surplus of medical graduates in 2018, due to the Bologna Decree shortening medical degrees from seven years to six. Though this will help with the present shortage in trained staff, a recent study estimates, 30-40 percent will be unable to find an internship with a specialty … read more 21.01.2016

Foreign experts assess Slovak academy of science

BRATISLAVA (spectator) -- The Slovak Academy of Science’s (SAV) departments will be subjected to accreditation by foreign experts in 2016. The expert commission, led by Marja Makarow, head of the Finnish Academy of Sciences, will focus on SAV activities over the past four years ... read more 21.01.2016

Greek intellectual demands digital book revolution

ATHENS (iefimerida) -- Anotnis Liakos, President of the National Dialogue for Education and professor of contemporary history at the University of Athens, has caused controversy in the publishing industry by suggesting that an online open access platform of academic texts should be made available to students, claiming that this would be “infinitely cheaper than printing hundreds of thousands of volumes” … read more 16.01.

German university libraries, digitally outsourced

STUTTGART (buchmarkt) -- Hundreds of new e-service providers have started offering electronic reserve shelves for universities. In January, the libraries of the Universities Duisburg-Essen in Western Germany, signed a deal with Booktex in Bavaria allowing students to access and use 40,000 books from 25 publishers ... read more 18.01.2016

Iraqi students a ‘danger’ to Georgia?

KUTAISI (dafw) -- A handful of Iraqi students from Akaki Tsereteli University in Georgia have had their residency permits revoked. The students were told that they posed a security risk to the country, though the education minister, Tamar Sanikidze, was unable to elaborate on this … read more 16.01.2016

Romania curbs plagiarism

BUCHAREST (hotnews) -- The Romanian education minister, Adrian Curaj, intends to use an emergency ordinance to change the Education Act. Curaj said the government wants to amend the law on good conduct in scientific research, as universities should not be exempt from investigations into plagiarism. This comes in response to reports that doctorate degrees were plagiarised ... read more 19.01.2016

Students bring central London to a standstill

LONDON (bbc) -- Students protesting against government plans to scrap maintenance grants in England blocked Westminster Bridge for more than an hour and a half. Protesters were registering their anger with the government proposals to change means-tested grants to loans repayable after graduation, thus saddling the poorest students with more debt … read more 19.01.2016

EU funding to promote university-business in Croatia

ZAGREB (poslovni) -- Following EU advice, Croatia is to promote and develop cooperation between its academic and business communities: using 900 million euros of EU allocated funding, university research teams are to be linked with small and medium-sized companies, in order to promote business and innovation … read more 18.01.2016

Microsoft to donate $1 billion in cloud resources

DAVOS-KLOSTERS (t3n) -- In a fit of boundless philanthropy, Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella announced a one billion dollar donation in cloud computing resources over the next 3 years to 70,000 NGOs and universities worldwide. The services —including Microsoft’s Azure-Cloud and the Office 365-Suite— will be freely accessible for non-profit organisations and researchers. This will save universities the hassle and temptation of using free open source software … read more 19.1

Bulgarian universities to see change at last

SOFIA (mediapool) -- Long-awaited and urgently needed Higher Education reform has finally been prioritised in Bulgaria. The Ministry of Education has taken the first bold steps to dealing with the current inefficient financing system, allocating funding according to the quality of courses and job prospects of graduates rather than the number of students … read more 18.1.

Spain’s headache over mobility

MADRID (elmundo) -- Many Erasmus students are drawn to Madrid and Barcelona for a semester, but Spain struggles to tempt international students to undertake a whole degree in its universities. A new study … read more 18.01.2016

Universities in Muslim majority countries falling behind

AMMAN (jordan times) -- The research output of academic institutions in Muslim majority countries is disproportionately low compared to the rest of the world, according to an opinion piece in the Jordan Times. Its author calls for professors to dedicate themselves to writing textbooks and conducting science outreach, rather than simply publishing more papers … read more 18.01.2016

Purge of Russian university libraries

Degree trafficking in Toulon

TOULON (le monde) -- The former President of the University of Toulon, Oueslati Laroussi, faces trial this week for selling diplomas to Chinese students for up to 2,700 euros a piece. Bilateral agreements have created a growing influx of Chinese students into European universities, who are not always best equipped to study in a foreign language … read more 18.01.2016

EU science diplomacy in action

TEL AVIV (jpost) -- Research commissioner, Carlos Moedas has completed a visit to Israel and Palestine, in the latest example of the EU’s recently announced policy of ‘science diplomacy.’ He met with key entrepreneurial and policy figures including President Reuven Rivlin and Ofir Akunis, the Minister of Science, Technology and Space, and visited a number of academic and research institutions … read more 18.01.2016

University lectures for Genovese jailbirds

Russian maths stars are excelling abroad

MOSCOW (the) -- A new study suggests hundreds of Russian mathematicians who moved to the West are enjoying success in the US and Europe. The study counted the number of Russian surnames in international journals and found a third in the U.S., and between ten and seven percent in France, Germany, the UK and Canada … read more 13.01.2016

UK research universities demand special treatment

LONDON (the) -- The Russell Group of universities, which includes Oxford, Cambridge and 22 other leading institutions, have demanded that they be exempted from the Freedom of Information Act as they are private institutions and not public bodies, despite receiving almost four billion pounds a year from the taxpayer … read more 18.01.2016