Ice cream makes you smarter

TOKYO (independent) -- What’s the ideal breakfast for a healthy brain? Muesli? Porridge? Greek yoghurt? How about ice cream? An experiment by Yoshihiko Koga of Tokyo’s Kyorin University found that people who had eaten ice cream had faster reaction times and were better at processing information than a separate group that hadn’t had any breakfast, and a group who simply had cold water to mimic ice cream’s temperature … read more 24.11.2016

Foreign student shortage in Serbia

BELGRADE (politika) -- The fact is that Serbia is not a hot destination for international students. At the University of Belgrade, the nation’s largest, only five percent of students are foreign, half of whom are from the former Yugoslavia. According to vice-rector Ivanka Popović, the situation urgently needs improvement, it is necessary, she said “to force the introduction of student visas, to solve the problem of accommodation for foreign students and to offer programmes in foreign languages” … read more 26.11.2016

EIB funds innovation in the Western Balkans

BELGRADE (srbija) -- Building a better research and innovation infrastructure is essential for Serbia’s growth and also its accession to the EU, as Serbian science minister Mladen Šarčević reiterated at a EIB conference in Belgrade last week. For decades the European Investment Bank has been engaged in funding and shaping policy in the Western Balkans, lending over 28 billion euros to the region in the last ten years ... read more 28.11.2016

Belgian unis circumvent Flemish language rules

LEUVEN/GHENT (la libre) -- Flemish universities are supposed to offer a Dutch-language course for every English-language master’s they provide. In reality, they come up with “creative solutions” to avoid this. Often, courses that are supposedly in both languages are actually taught exclusively in English … read more 28.11.2016

Not all mergers are created equal

PARIS (l’étudiant) -- The policy of university mergers in France is continuing without significant opposition. But professor Paolo Tortonese of the university of Paris III Sorbonne-Nouvelle has spoken out against the methods behind the process in light of the planned merger of his institution with three others. He highlights the lack of consistency and empiricism, and the fact that economic expediency takes precedent over the successful scientific collaboration that all scholars wish for ... read more 23.11.2016

Sweden’s got a new research policy bill

STOCKHOLM (sd) -- The Swedish government has handed over a bill to the Riksdag that covers the next ten years of research policy in the country. The basic tenets of the bill include higher basic university funding, increased research subsidies and more resources to foster innovation. “It is rather important to create good long-term prospects for researchers and research” said higher education minister Hellene Hellmark Knutsson … read more 28.11.

Long term solutions for long term issues

FRANKFURT (gew) -- The Education and Science Workers’ Union of Germany (GEW) has criticised the shortsighted, anti-worker policies of the government. Union chairman Andreas Keller is demanding sustainable, long-term funding strategies instead of the patchwork “Higher Education Pacts” as well as the creation of 50,000 full length academic contracts to combat the dominance of precarious employment … read more 25.11.2016

Students honor Fidel Castro

HAVANA (le courrier) -- One reaction to the announcement of the death of Fidel Castro at the age of 90 was silence, in contrast to Havana’s usual tumult of omnipresent music and moped engines. As far as students are concerned, small groups have been materialising discretely, particularly outside universities. In Havana on Saturday evening, hundreds of students gathered for a vigil in front of the faculty where Castro made his political debut at the end of the 1940s … read more 28.11.2016

Bulgarian mathematicians boycott education ministry

SOFIA (dnevnik) -- Good relations between a ministry and academia can depend on small things. The Bulgarian education ministry should have listened to mathematicians’ proposals for next year’s International Maths Olympiad. But in ignoring them, they are now faced with boycott, protest and discontent … read more 25.11.2016

Bare-knuckle fight in the backyard of Uni Maribor

MARIBOR (vecer) -- He was accused of not taking sufficient action against an employee accused of sexual harassment. Now the rector of the University of Maribor, Igor Tičar, has issued a private lawsuit against the president of Slovenia’s Higher Education Union for defamation. In return, the union has released an open letter defending their position and accusing Tičar of trying to “silence the union and its president” … read more 23/11/2016

British R&D subsidies increased by £2bn

LONDON (guardian) -- Prime Minister Theresa May wants “Britain to become the global go-to place for scientists, innovators and tech investors”. Her government just announced a £2bn increase in research spending per year. Critics say the increase falls way short of the recommended target of spending three percent of gross domestic product or GDP, reaching just 1.7 percent ... read more | and here 24.11.

German university websites outdated

13 universities in EIT food project

ESNA podcast - Greece and private universities

BERLIN (esna) -- The latest ESNA podcast has just been uploaded! In this episode, we talk to Dr Panagiotis Glavinis, associate professor of law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, about the prohibition of private universities in Greece. He makes it clear to us what Article 16 actually stipulates and the historical context that goes to explain in part why this became a fundamental part of Greek higher education. He also tell us why he thinks that the law should change, and the constitutional and parliamentary processes that might allow that to happen in the next five years ... listen here 24.11.2016

EU Commission supports start-ups

BRUSSELS (europa) -- The European Commission’s new Start-up and Scale-up Initiative will be welcomed by Europe’s budding entrepreneurs. Bringing together existing and new schemes, the initiative will provide improved access to finance, insolvency aid and simpler tax filings ... read more 22.11.2016

Hey big spender

ANKARA (aa) -- Turkey’s gross domestic expenditure on research and development in 2015 amounted to a not-insignificant 20.6 billion lira (7.1 billion euros) - a 17.1 rise compared to 2014, according to TurkStat. Higher education accounted for 18.1 percent of this figure. The number of full-time R&D personnel was 122,288 a third of which are women ... read more 18.11.2016

The old must make way for the new

ZURICH (nzz) -- The last remnants of classical European education are fading away. The University of Zurich is abolishing the mandatory Latin prerequisite for certain degree courses such as German and literature studies … read more

Student housing - Danish students stay afloat

COPENHAGEN (euronews) -- If land is too expensive, why not live at sea? Danish company Urban Rigger has fashioned a prototype floating student home in Copenhagen's port made out of shipping containers. The 300 square metre area provides 12 dorm rooms, a courtyard, BBQ area and roof terrace ... read more 19.10.2016

Italian universities crack down on slow students

ROME (corriere) -- Universities in Italy are coming up with ways to prevent students from overstaying their welcome. At the Sapienza University of Rome, for example, you pay 50 percent more in fees after your third year; and at the Polytechnic University of Turin and the University of Bologna, strict time limits to complete studies are being put in place … read more 18.11.2016

Finns and the post-truth era

HELSINKI (savonsanomat) -- Finland’s triennial Science Barometer indicates that nearly 70 percent of Finns are very or fairly interested in science and research, which is an increase on the last report. Nevertheless, Professor Markku Löytönen, chairman of the Scientific Information Association, is concerned about a growing anti-scientific climate and expressed reservations about the credibility of polls and surveys ... read more 20.11.2016

University of the Azores to digitise old documents

PONTA DELGADA (açoriano oriental) -- The University of the Azores will begin to scan and digitise almost 4000 documents, some originating from the institutions’ first days. Librarian Fernando Ribeira said the process was “of fundamental importance for the present and future” … read more 15.11.16

Women-only elections at Dutch science academy

AMSTERDAM (science mag) -- Almost 90 percent of members at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences are men. As a bold way of addressing this imbalance, all of the 16 new recruits that will be elected over the next two years will be exclusively women … read more 15.11.2016

Iceland gets ranked

REYKJAVIK (icelandmonitor) -- For the first time ever, the University of Iceland features on the Times Higher Education Global University Employability Ranking, at 136th place … read more 17.11.2016

Spanish universities improve transparency

MADRID (20minutos) -- Out of 49 Spanish public universities, more than half were classified as transparent by the Commitment and Transparency Foundation (FCyT), but just two of 26 private universities received the same classification. The FCyT emphasised the improvement noted in the five years since their first report … read more 15.11.

New ‘Guild’ of European universities

LEUVEN et al. (div) -- The Université catholique de Louvain and the University of Oslo are amongst the 16 institutions to recently join The Guild of European research-intensive universities, which aims to strengthen cooperation and lobby European policymakers … read more | and here 16.11.

More English at Czech private universities

PRAGUE (novinky) -- What is the biggest difference between state and private universities in the Czech Republic? According to a survey by social network Management Mania, the latter place a much heavier emphasis on English, where 47 percent use study materials in the language compared to just 27 percent at state institutions … read more 18.11.2016

Third edition of the Morpheus Cup announced

BERTRANGE (heute) -- On April 28, 2017 the third Morpheus Cup will take place, offering European students the chance to win prizes by creating projects in one of 20 different subject areas. 25,000 euros in cash, connections with employers and investors, and material prizes are up for grabs … read more

Dozens of academics arrested in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (aa) -- The Turkish government seems to be far from finished with its purge of public institutions following July’s failed coup. Three more academics from Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul have been arrested, bringing the total number in detention in the city to 76. The detainees are accused of being members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organisation and using secret messaging app ByLock … read more 18.11.2016

Denmark to cut study places

Belarusian students protest job distribution

MINSK (naviny) -- Belarusian student organisations have launched a campaign to reform the compulsory distribution system of graduate jobs. Students want to ensure the right to choose whether they take the state’s guaranteed job or to seek employment independently. Revision of this system is part of Belarus’ Bologna Process roadmap. Campaign lawyer Marina Shtrakhova said that even a small reformative step “would be a tremendous leap forward” … read more 17.11.16

New admissions system for Greece

ATHENS (ipaideia) -- The new Greek education minister, Kostas Gavroglou, has revealed plans to overhaul the system of admissions into university. The idea is to adopt a ministry-organised national baccalaureate to create a single area of higher education through cooperation between universities, technological institutes and research centres … read more 15.11.

EU monitors education

BRUSSELS (science guide) -- The European Education and Training Monitor of 2016, intended to support Member States in improving education systems, showed that public spending on education increased by 1.1 percent EU-wide, but 10 Member States recorded reductions in spending … read more 8.11.16

The right to cheap eats

BOLOGNA (agi) -- Students and precarious workers at the University of Bologna have protested against “the exaggerated costs of the canteen,” a few dozen occupying the vice-rector of students’ office … read more 17.11.2016

International students’ day

BRUSSELS/ATHENS (esna) -- The 17th November is not only the day of 1939 when Fascists ended student protests in Prague with a bloodbath, it is also the day of 1973 when fascist tanks rolled into the Athens University. The former is an occasion for the European Student Union (ESU) to initiate the campaign #fundourfuture, that unites “students all around the world in calling for an education system that is affordable and accessible”. The latter is a national holiday in Greece which commemorates the heroic uprising of students against tyranny, reminding us of the utmost importance of critical universities for a democratic society ... read more | see photos

Baden-Württemberg’s Higher Education Act unlawful

STUTTGART (df) -- “Universities are not economic enterprises.” This is the assessment of Bernhard Kempen, president of the German University Association (DHV) in accordance with a judgement by the Baden-Württemberg Constitutional Court that professors don’t have enough of a say in university administration, thus structurally endangering scientific activity. “This is now going to happen in all other federal states” … read more 15.11.2016

Austria: He who pays the piper calls the tune

VIENNA (wz) -- Funds are tight at universities, and the Austrian state’s reform to facilitate private donations, presents a dilemma. Markus Scholz, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Vienna, notes that “cooperation with foundation companies can change the research agenda”. The Austrian Fundraising Association sees it differently. Gerhard Kratky of the science fund FWF claims care must be taken “that private income is not complicated, let alone prevented, under the smokescreen of ethics” … read more 09.11.2016

Budget for Bulgarian higher education in 2017

SOFIA (offnews) -- Bulgarian state universities are to receive an extra 10.9 million lev (5.5 million euro) in 2017, and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences sees an increase of 5 million lev. The Academy, however, does not see this as sufficient and is staging protests against the underfunding of science … read more 15.11.2016

Russian regions drift apart

YEKATERINBURG (izvestia) -- Certain Russian regions are losing out in higher education. A study by scientists at the Ural Federal University has found large disparities in numbers of universities and students. Some cities lack a single institution while Moscow has the most of any region. “If before we spoke of inequality between individual institutions, we now see a dismal picture of inequality in higher education in entire regions and federal districts” said Harold Zborovskiy, president of the Russian Society of Sociologists … read more 10.11.2016

Protests in Turkey following rector’s appointment

ISTANBUL (dtj) -- Turkish president Recep Erdoğan’s recent interventions in the higher education sector have sparked protests by both students and professors, leading to multiple arrests. Making use of his ‘emergency decree’ powers, Erdoğan installed a rector of his own choice at renowned Boğaziçi University, ousting the popular democratically elected predecessor ... read more

New budget law in Italy

ROME (div) -- Italy’s budget law for 2017 reveals explicit policy intentions with regards to higher education. A clear aim is to expand the country's commitment to the ‘right to study’ in what has been dubbed the ‘Student Act 2017’. Students of low-income families will receive fee exemptions, and the most talented students will benefit from scholarships worth 15,000 euros. Tax breaks for employers are also supposed to incentivise the recruitment of graduates and 270 million euros will also be allocated to prestigious departments, in an effort to foster excellence ... read more | and here 11.11.2016