‘Lottery’ for Paris medical students?
PARIS (france 24) -- Places at medical schools in the Paris region have been limited to 7,500 this year amidst accusations of an application lottery. This comes as the number of applicants has sky-rocketed. Whilst Paris universities have denied claims of a lottery, university applicant union FIFDL condemned the reduction, saying it was “playing with the lives of graduates” … read more
More than 800 cheats at Irish universities
DUBLIN (independent) -- More than 800 Irish students have cheated in their exams in the last three years, figures show. The National University of Ireland in Galway at the West coast topped the list with 329 cases, whilst University College Dublin was the only institution to suspend students as a result. None of the universities reported an expulsion … read more 02.05.2016
Lithuania aims high
VILNIUS (kauno diena) -- Europe’s no. 1 health and biotechnology centre – that’s what Lithuania hopes to become by 2020. Already a major player in biotechnology, the country aims to increase the number of biomedical PhDs and biotech companies and has provided 77.1 million euros from EU structural funds to boost the sector … read more 03.05.2016
Moscow orders more mergers
MOSCOW (ep nuffic) -- Following Russian higher education reforms in 2011 which saw 23 specialist universities closed and merged into multidisciplinary ones, five more will be merging, including the State University of Management merging with the Kutafin Moscow State Law University and the Moscow State Forest University joining the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. The mergers aim to increase the overall quality of education … read more 28.4.16
Underfunded universities in Northern Ireland
BELFAST (the) -- “Efforts to boost the economy in Northern Ireland by cutting taxes, which experts believe could create 90,000 jobs and economic growth worth £300 million (380 million euros) a year, are likely to be undermined by the loss of prestige and capacity of the two landmark universities.” This sophism, uncritically repeated by the Times Higher Education magazine, serves to pressure universities in Northern Ireland to raise tuition fees. That cause and effect are inverse, that tax cuts lead to funding cuts at the expense of university staff and students, shows the sadness of editors in THE who either have no brains or no professional ethics … read more 04.05.2016
Indian universities go neoliberal
SINGAPORE (the wire) -- Amid the large-scale onslaught of corporatised agendas that seek to turn universities into instrumental workshops, protesting students across India offer the hope for another imagination, grounded in an ethics of care, says Mohan J. Dutta, professor for communications and new media in Singapore... read more 07.05.2016
UK: Inevitable effects of tuition fees
EDINBURGH (herald) -- Student representatives in Scotland fear that tuition fees will create “a two-tier system with institutions differentiating between those who pay fees and those who don’t and racing to recruit the former at the expense of the latter”. Vonnie Sandlan, president of student body NUS Scotland, commented on the fact that Scottish universities —which offer tuition free studies to indigenous students— are increasingly dependent on fees income ... read more 07.05.2016
Education reforms in Croatia
ZAGREB (tportal) -- Croatian education minister Predrag Šustar disclosed in an interview that upcoming reforms will streamline the operations and structures of universities in the country and promote a more meritocratic culture in them. Universities will have more responsibility for their budgets and scholarships and other funding for STEM subjects will be increased … read more 07.05.2016
Boost to Spain’s Erasmus programme
MADRID (el mundo) -- Spain’s Erasmus programme, which facilitates students studying within the EU, has received a boost with an increase of five million euros to this year’s budget, making it 90 million, and an increase in the placement length from five to seven months. Grants have been increased but academic requirements have been made tougher … read more 05.05.2016
Fraud investigation at Dutch universities
AMSTERDAM (ad) -- The Dutch Inspectorate of Education has launched an investigation into financial irregularities at eight universities in the country. It involves claims for hotels and chauffeur-driven cars which were filed incorrectly. The findings will be released in mid-autumn … read more 3.5.16
Your country needs you!
WASHINGTON (inside sources) -- American scholars are increasingly worried about the threat posed by cyber-attacks, many of which are coming from China, Russia and North Korea. Few universities make cyber-security a priority in computer science courses, despite the fact that there are 209,000 job vacancies in cyber-security … read more 04.05.2016
Italy’s University for Refugees
ROME (corriere) -- #U4Refugees, the University for Refugees, is an initiative launched by Italian education minister Stefania Giannini to allow refugees who have already started a degree course in their homeland to continue it in Italy. A joint initiative between the Ca’ Foscari of Venice, Politecnico di Torino and the University of Venice has already provided an example of how to do this … read more 04.05.2016Lights, Camera, Education!
LONDON (bbc) -- Films play an important role in determining where students want to study. Films such as A Beautiful Mind set in Princeton, Legally Blonde in Harvard or The Graduate in Berkley have shown US universities to the world and this adds to the international students studying in the States, who bring in an estimated $20 billion to the economy … read more 27.04.2016
First German-Iranian university cooperations
TEHRAN (nordwest zeitung) -- First France, now Germany. Universities in Lower Saxony in Germany have signed several contracts with Iran. The University of Göttingen’s Medical School signed an agreement with the Medical University of Tehran to share information and later to cooperate on gastro-intestinal diseases and cancer therapy, whilst the Technical University of Brunswick signed a similar agreement which will lead to an exchange of academics and research cooperation … read more 19.04.2016
Shrinking student numbers in Hungary
BUDAPEST (nol) -- In the last five years the number of graduates in Hungary has decreased by almost a fifth, a reduction of 30,000. This is due to fewer applicants, which is partially blamed on reforms to the higher education system. However, the government insists that the drop is not necessarily bad: fewer students means a lower drop-out rate … read more 03.05.2016High speed for Kazakh students
ASTANA (times) -- In the next three to four years, access to broadband internet will reach 90 percent of students in Kazakhstan, education minister Erlan Sagadiyev announced. “Hundreds of respected colleges and universities now offer online courses, and we would be wise to take advantage of it. High-speed internet will become the main educational backbone of our infrastructure,” he added … read more 26.04.2016
EU: Progress made against radicalisation
BRUSSELS (aca) -- The Paris Declaration, an agreement signed last March following the Paris attacks which aims to combat radicalisation through education, has borne fruit. According to a EU report, 65 percent of EU member countries have made significant changes to education policy, in areas such as professional teacher training, learning contents and student engagement. However more needs to be done in adult and higher education to combat extremist ideology … read more 29.04.2016
English students paying top dollar
LONDON (uwn) -- English students face some of the highest tuition fees in the world – higher than the US – and the highest average debts at graduation. The average fees at a public university in the States is 9,700 dollars (8,400 euros), whilst in the UK it is 8,800 pounds (11,200 euros), and many private American universities offer generous bursaries. However the vast majority of UK student debt is held by the state, with income-related repayments and interest rates of just three percent… read more 28.04.2016
50 ways to improve a French student’s life
PARIS (le parisien) -- Easier access to grants, simplified internship contracts, digital IDs for students. These are some of the 50 policies French higher education minister Thierry Mandon announced to simplify students’ lives. The digital ID “will allow the university to access all documents concerning the student”, said Mandon, provided student consent is given. The minister said that France has been lagging behind other European countries such as the Netherlands in student data digitalisation … read more 28.04.2016
Greek opposition backs HE commodification
ATHENS (avgi) -- Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of Greece’s main opposition party New Democracy, laid out his vision for education at his party conference and was heavily criticised by education minister Nikos Filis. Mitsotakis’ plan involves a commodification of education, seeing students as consumers, which Filis saw as downgrading “the right to education to a market process and merchandise” … read more 28.04.2016
Georgia takes a slice of the research pie
TBILISI (xinhua) -- The EU's innovation programme Horizon 2020 has a new member: Georgia. The country’s research institutes, universities and individual researchers will now have access to all opportunities offered by Horizon 2020 that funds diverse scientific areas … read more 29.04.2016
Germany: Rents out of reach
BERLIN (welt) -- In five years, rents in many German university cities have skyrocketed, in Berlin by one third. 530 euros for a 20 sqm room in a student residence is not a rarity. Many have to choose their university based on rent and many poorer young people are put off studying altogether … read more
Cyprus as a ‘training centre’ for Iranians
NICOSIA (in-cyprus) -- Cypriot education minister, Costas Kadis, meeting with the Iranian Deputy Minister for Health and Medical Education, Mohammed Larijani, wants to transform Cyprus into a regional training hub and provide higher education to students from surrounding countries. The two ministers discussed prospects for a cooperation among their countries’ universities and research institutions, in particular in medicine … read more 1.5.16
Performance-oriented funding in Finland
HELSINKI (verkkouutiset) -- A new funding model for Finnish universities is being discussed: less basic funding and more performance-oriented criteria. While universities will have control over a bigger share of their budget, a higher share will be allocated according to research impact, student ‘employability’ or innovative teaching … read more 29.04.2016
‘Educational hysteria’ slammed in Austria
VIENNA (presse) -- The promise of social advancement through (higher) education has been put into question in Austria. Matthias Burchardt, a ‘philosopher of education’ of the University of Cologne, spoke at a conference in Vienna saying that there is an ‘educational hysteria’, a ‘myth of academisation’ which misleads many students into going to university. He criticised the OECD’s promotion of mass higher education while praising Austrian science minister Mitterlehner’s plans to divert students into technical colleges … read more 02.05.2016
Bulgaria opts for New Public Management
SOFIA (dnevik) -- The Council of Rectors in Bulgaria have shown their support for a new law in effect from 1st March which has switched funding from mere student numbers to quality indicators of teaching and research. At the same time, the number of subsidised students is being reduced … read more 28.4.16
Switzerland increasingly dependent on foreign scientists
BERN (rsi news) -- Switzerland is growing increasingly dependent on foreign scientists for its research and innovation, a new report reveals. As a result, the country needs to ensure its continued attractiveness to foreign scientists but must also use home-grown talent, said state secretary for education Mauro Dell’Ambrogio … read more 27.04.2016
Bosnian student president posts homophobic insults
SARAJEVO (global voices) -- After what happened at the alternative cinema Art Kino Kriterion in the city centre in March, Haris Zahiragić, Sarajevo University Student Parliament President, went on Facebook and wrote homophobic comments that seemed to support the attack of hooligans against the LGBT-friendly popular spot. With over 30,000 students, the University of Sarajevo is the largest and oldest university in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his rant, Zahiragić deemed homosexuality a “systemic and contagious disease” and blamed the WHO for the AIDS epidemic ... read more | and here 3.4.16
Croatia consults World Bank on higher education funding
ZAGREB (nacional) -- At a workshop held in Zagreb this week, Croatian education minister Predrag Šustar discussed changes in higher education funding in Croatia and other European regions. Organised by the World Bank, it was attended by the education ministers and other senior representatives of the Czech Republic, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovenia and the experts of the World Bank and the European Commission. As one might expect, the proposals aim at a performance-oriented, externally evaluated financing model ... read more 26.04.2016
Academic freedom on trial in Turkey
ISTANBUL (wp) -- On Friday, four imprisoned scholars from Istanbul faced charges of terrorism. Their alleged crime? Signing a public petition calling for renewal of the peace talks between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) ... read more 26.04.2016