The fetish of ‘excellence’
LONDON (nature) -- A recent paper by a group of open access researchers and advocates has taken a sharp look at the science world’s pervasive use of the word ‘excellence’. They go so far as to call it a fetish and conclude that it’s having negative consequences for research. “Excellence is not excellent, it is a pernicious and dangerous rhetoric that undermines the very foundations of good research and scholarship,” they argue ... read more 22.03.2017
“Some girls want to become snipers”
YEREVAN (ysu) -- Commanding officers of the Armenian army expressed satisfaction with student interest in the military profession. Regular student visits are organised with folk and patriotic songs and dances. The majority are girls asking about weapons and the soldier’s daily life, some of them, a Major recalls, want to become snipers ... read more 06.03.2017
Cap on student numbers aggravates IT skills shortage
VIENNA (standard) -- The Austrian IT sector criticised the cap on student numbers at the University of Vienna and the Technical University of Vienna. This has aggravated the skills shortage with currently over 5,000 unfilled IT positions ... read more 24.01.2017
Portuguese students oppose university foundations
COIMBRA (tsf) -- Around twenty students welcomed former Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates with banners and insults at the entrance of the economics faculty of the University of Coimbra. They hold him responsible for the law in 2007 which allows universities to transform into public foundations under private law. With this, one protester said, “this thief opened the door to university privatisation” ... read more 18.03.2017
Predatory science publishers on the rise
SUSSEX (nature) -- Predatory publishing is becoming an organised industry. By 2015, more than half a million papers have been published in predatory journals and most are hosted by publishers including some industry giants. The researcher Katarzyna Pisanski and colleagues made up a fake identity and applied as editor in 360 journals ... read more 22.03.2017
Albanian universities left in uncertainty
TIRANA (reporter) -- The new Albanian higher education law is so contentious, that two students threw eggs at the Prime Minister’s car when he came on campus. Party squabbles obscure the debate further. Among other problems, the law lacks clarity on tuition fees limits, leaving universities and students in uncertainty. In the last five years, student numbers at Albanian public universities dropped from 27,000 to 18,500 ... read more 20.03.2017
Less Germans get student grants
BERLIN (gew) -- In the 1970s, the German student grant BAföG was non-repayable, today he is a shadow of himself. The number of recipients, an report shows, dropped by 90,000 in three years, students over 30 are excluded and the government exempted itself from self-monitoring. The 250 euro rent subsidy has long been overtaken by reality ... read more 21.03.2017
European big data research initiative gets underway
BERLIN (irj) It is one of the largest projects funded by the European Commission (EC) within its Horizon 2020 programne, both in terms of its 18.7 million euro budget and the fact that it has 47 partners from Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, including PTV and Fraunhofer Germany, Thales, infrastructure managers Adif, Spain, and Network Rail, Britain, and several universities ... read more 21.03.2017
Erasmus+ for refugees?
BRUSSELS (euractiv) -- In 2015, refugees became a declared priority group in Erasmus+ but the actual ability of the programme to support them is indirect and limited to cooperation projects with a focus on refugees. EUA director Michael Gaebel said providing grants to refugee students and academics would be one way to start ... read more 20.03.2017
Hungary counting foreign student money
PÉCS (ht) -- Some 11,000 foreign students at the universities of Debrecen, Szeged and Pécs, Hungary, spend an annual 43 billion forints (140 million euro) in 2016/2017, a survey shows. One half was spent on accommodation, food and entertainment, the other half on tuition. An estimated average 1.2 workplace was created by every foreign student ... read more 17.03.2017
How to strengthen early research in Hungary
BUDAPEST (m1) -- Hungary wants to help talented students to start an earlier scientific career. Education minister László Palkovics announced a multi-million euro tender (co-funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme) aimed at the development and broadening of the research competencies of early-stage researchers. This is part of larger efforts to transform Hungary from a mere manufacturer to an innovation centre by upgrading infrastructures of universities and research institutions ... read more 17.03.2017
Irish “essay mills” under fire
DUBLN (irish times) -- The Irish Department of Education is planning to introduce laws to prosecute “essay mill” companies who offer to write students’ assignments in exchange for money. The move is a response to mounting concern over the practice which allows students to circumvent their college’s plagiarism detection systems ... read more 12.03.2017
More and more Turkish universities cancel speeches
ISTANBUL (turkey purge) -- Istanbul’s Bilgi University cancelled a speech titled “No to Violence against Women” by independent MP Aylin Nazlıaka last week. The rector apologised saying: “There is great pressure on me,” from the government. Similar cancellations occurred at several other universities ... read more 17.03.2017
Navracsics asks EU states to invest more in Erasmus
BRUSSELS (euractiv) -- EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, Tibor Navracsics, said at an EIT event in Spain, in order to eliminate the inequalities in the Erasmus programme the member states will need to “invest at least 40 percent more”. He has just launched a public consultation with the aim to establish how to improve the scheme ... read more 03.03.2017
Student housing market booms
LONDON (pm) -- A market report estimates there is four to five billion Euro of capital looking for student housing across Europe and recommends investments especially in Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. In ten years, student numbers in Europe are set to reach seven million by 2020, up from 4.1 million in 2014, and English taught courses have increased by 5500 in the last ten years ... read more | and here 17.03.2017
Norway’s conservatives want fees for non-EU students
OSLO (uwn) -- Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, Norway’s education minister, presented a proposal to introduce “moderate tuition fees” for students from outside the European Economic Area. Students oppose the idea, Marianne Andenæs, chair of the national student union NSO, said the recent experiencs of Sweden show that “Norway in fact will lose by doing it” ... read more 17.03.2017