Open Access for ESA images and videos
PARIS (the register) -- The European Space Agency has flung the data doors open and makes its images and videos freely available online. By adopting the Creative Commons attribution licence as its standard, the agency follows other intergovernmental organisations like the World Health
Organisation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation and various
United Nations bodies. The open access materials include earth observation images, Hubble shots and sounds from space ... read more 21.02.2017
Language crisis in Italy
ROME (corriere) -- More than 600 university professors have signed a letter to the government and the parliament in Rome to enact an emergency plan for better Italian language teaching in schools. Their alarm about the poor command of Italian shown by students has triggered a national debate and criticism of teacher training quality ... read more | and here 04.02.2017
Germans next against Elsevier & Co.
BERIN (div) -- A stand-off in which 60 German universities declined to pay for access to journals from publishing giant Elsevier has been temporarily resolved. After having blocked access to its journals for 40 days, the Dutch company has now reopened the shelves — as the negotiations go on. But now more and more universities and research organisations refuse to pay the exorbitant prices: a group of Berlin universities is planning to unsubscribe from Elsevier journals, too ... read more | and here 20.02.2017
Healthy exchange between Andorra and France
ANDORRA LA VELLA (ara) -- Good news are said to be ‘no news’, but Andorra’s ongoing good relation with France deserves mentioning. At a recent meeting with French colleagues, education minister Eric Jover expressed the importance of creating synergies between the three educational systems (the Spanish, Andorran and French) and of improving the student exchange between the three countries ... read more 03.02.2017
Oxford stays at home
OXFORD (cnbc) -- In response to media reports that it was in talks with French officials about the prospect of creating a so-called ‘Oxford-sur-Seine’ in Paris, Oxford University has refuted claims that there are plans to launch its first overseas campus in a bid to hedge against Brexit pressures. The same goes for Cambridge and Manchester, while the University of Warwick is currently in discussions with French officials ... read more 20.02.2017
US student debt hits $1.31 trillion
NEW YORK (inside he) -- Student debt in the U.S. hit $1.31 trillion (€1.23 trillion) at the end of 2016, according to new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In the fourth quarter of 2016, just over 11 percent of that debt was either 90 or more days delinquent or in default ... read more 20.2.17
University reshuffle after Crimea crisis
KIEV (kmu) -- 18 universities and research institutions have been temporarily displaced because of the military conflicts in Crimea and the Donbass border region. This is “not only a problem, but also an opportunity,” said education and science minister Lilya Grinevich this week on a meeting with rectors. “An opportunity to increase the variety of taught subjects in different Ukrainian regions” ... read more 18.2.17
Serbian rectors forever!
BELGRADE (politika) -- The contentious issue about the retiring age of university heads in Serbia seems to be settled. The draft law coming into effect this month sets no limit of age or to how many times rectors and deans can be re-elected. The law also introduces an independent National Body for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education ... read more 18.2.17
Slovakia struggles with brain drain
BRATISLAVA (denník) -- Only eight highly qualified professionals returned to Slovakia last year, following the bread crumbs of a 1-million-euro brain gain programme of the government. On the other hand, 300,000 citizens (or 5 percent of the population) left the country in the past 15 years, half of which are under 30 and one in ten with a college degree ... read more 01.02.2017
France helps Vietnam evaluate universities
HANOI (vientnamnet) -- Four Vietnamese universities will be the first to be evaluated and tested by the High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES) from France. They have to prepare self-reports in accordance with HCERES’ standards since last April and submitted the reports in January. Hceres will review the report ... read more 17.02.2017
The Dutch publish National Plan for Open Science
THE HAGUE (nether) -- Under the Dutch Presidency, the Competitiveness Council concluded that European research should be publicly accessible. The Netherlands has published a National Plan for Open Science which was initiated by ten Dutch research organisations and Sander Dekker, the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Research. Together, they want to achieve 100% Open Access for research publications from every Dutch research organisation and domain. The plan sets out four key ambitions that aim to make science more accessible ... read more 10.02.2017
Private universities in strive in Kurdistan
RBIL (rudaw) -- Private education providers with international curriculum in the Kurdistan Region have generated around 180 billion Iraqi dinars (around €137 million) in revenues in 2016, a record year. 261 private pre-college schools admitted over 40,000 pupils, 14 private universities and 9 private colleges enrolled just over 35,000 students ... read more 13.02..2017
Most UK universities are restricting free speech
LONDON (telegraph) -- More than 90 percent of British universities have been involved in restricting free speech on campus this year, a new survey claims. In the last year alone, 21 universities have banned high profile speakers from attending lectures, debates or speeches because of their views ... read more 14.02.2017
More Austrians into professional education
VIENNA (presse) -- Reinhold Mitterlehner, Austrian vice-chancellor, minister for economy and education and science in one person, wants to shift students from universities to the more vocational training oriented universities of applied sciences, streamline university curricula, merge faculties and possibly even entire institutions. All this is being developped in a strategy called “Future Higher Education” and put into action by 2019 ... read more 15.02.2017
No tuition fees in Poland - except for Medicine
WARSAW (polskie radio) -- Education minister Jarosław Gowin has excluded the introduction of tuition fees in Poland, it would be unconstitutional, he said. Paradoxically he thinks, medical students should pay. “Why shoud the relatively poor Polish society spend billions on training doctors for wealthy Frenchmen, Germans or Norwegians every year?” he asked and proposed fees covered by a hundred percent grant that to be paid off “in a few years after graduation” ... read more 09.02.2017
Swiss National Center for Data Science launched
BERN (netzwoche) -- Two Swiss research universities, ETH Zurich and EPFL (Lausanne), are creating a National Center for Data Science to foster innovation in data science, multidisciplinary research and open science ... read more | and here 06.02.2017
Slovenia deepens university ties with Russia
MOSCOW (sputnik) -- Slovenian foreign minister Karl Erjavec has signed a memorandum on the opening of a Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) affiliate in Slovenia. This MSU educational research center, based at the Primorska University in the Slovenian city of Koper, will provide students with the degrees of both universities and conduct joint research activities in the field of economic cooperation between Russia and Slovenia ... read more 11.02.2017
Lithuanian student numbers continue falling
VILNIUS (baltic course) -- “The number of students is falling, whether we want it or not, and it will continue declining all the way until 2015,” Lithianian education minister Jurgita Petrauskiene said. Accordiing to her plans, Lithuania should reduce the number of public universities down to five (plus one or two arts academies and the Military Academy) instead of the existing 14 state universities and a few dozen colleges ... read more 08.02.2017
Toy producer funds Cambridge chair
CAMBRIDGE (cn) -- The Lego Foundation is investing 2.5 million pounds to fund a professorship of play at the University of Cambridge and additional 1.5 million to support a play research centre in the university’s education faculty. The university promises research that equippes “children with 21st century skills like problem solving, team work and self-control.” A boy of 10 years has applied for the position ... read more 10.02.2017