Tuition fees on election agenda in Wales
CARDIFF (bbc) -- Tuition fees have proved a decisive factor in previous elections. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, wants to remove fees and reintroduce maintenance grants in England. Labour believes this would cost £11.2bn a year. Welsh Conservatives have only nebulous ideas. Welsh Liberal Democrats would want to provide financial support for the daily living costs of all students, the equivalent of the national living wage, and a £1,000 annual non-means-tested universal maintenance grant ... read more 6.6.17
Sci-revoir post BREXIT?
LONDON (varsity) -- 18 British unversities will have more than half their funding slashed if we exit the EU without a deal. On the human side of the story, there are currently 31,000 (16 percent university researchers) academics in the UK who are non-British EU citizens ... read more 03.06.2017
In Turkey, crackdown threatens academia
ISTANBUL (apa) -- Psychologists are raising awareness of the mass purges of academics, government workers and others ... read more 01.06.2017
Controversial new uni campus in Milan
MILAN (div) -- Not only is the Expo in Milan a big business for some, a great expense for many and a big useless space afterwards: the University of Milan plans to create a new campus on former Expo ground. 240 faculty members in biosciences, mathematics, physics and chemistry would have to be transferred to Rho by 2022. Student and profs protest against these plans and a debate about academic and urban development on one side and building investments instead of science funding on the other has ensued ... read more | here | and here 05.2017
Bumpy lane to merge two universities
BRUSSELS (le soir) -- The rectors of the Catholic University of Leuven (UCL) and of the Université Saint-Louis discuss since a year how to merge the two institutions. But political, doctrinal and other invisible arguments impede the path to international glory and competitiveness ... read more 30.05.2017
French government sanctifies lottery
PARIS (le point) -- The supreme court of administrative justice in France, the Conseil d’État, has ruled that the lottery system will not be suspended, thus confirming the universities’ right to sort out students in degree courses with excessive demand. A petition had been denouncing the practice as unfair while neo-science minister, Frédérique Vidal, vaguely dislikes the lottery, but prefers “not to put universities in difficulties” ... read more 02.06.2017
Law eases penalties for plagiarism in Croatia
ZAGREB (balkan insight) -- Croatian education minister Pavo Barišić’s move to push for a law that takes a more lenient approach towards people found guilty of plagiarism has appalled many academics. Barišić himself has had problems over alleged acts of plagiarism ... read more 29.05.2017
Russia set to triple student scholarships
MOSCOW (ura) -- The Russian Duma will soon discuss an amendment that raises the minimum student scholarship and links it to the minimum wage. The trifold increase would require an extra 5.5 billion rubles (86 million euros) from the federal budget annually. The support aims at students with ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ marks who have no academic debts ... read more 1.6.17
Romania’s science reforms prompt boycott
BUCAREST (nature) -- Researchers in Romania are stepping up protests against controversial government science reforms. Since Romania’s current government took power in January, it has replaced formerly independent research councils with state-controlled bodies and has thrown international scientists off review panels ... read more 06.06.2017
Czech university wants habilitation in English
BRNO (prague monitor) -- Masaryk University in Brno wants habilitation theses, for which the docent academic degree is granted, only to be written, defended and assessed in English or in another world language. “We have agreed that the local (academic) community is so small and interlinked by personal bonds to such a high extent in the Czech Republic that we must open the assessment to an international community,” rector Mikuláš Bek told the press ... read more 10.05.2017
Norway: Is the election of rectors outdated?
BERGEN (uwn) -- Structural reform of Norwegian higher education has led to heated debates regarding the governance and leadership of universities, and whether rectors should be selected by the Ministry of Education and Research or elected by the staff and students ... read more 02.06.2017
Occupation for international fairness in Belgium
BRUSSELS (jW) -- After the successful occupation of the two university rectorates in Brussels and Leuven (VUB and KUL), students are now seeking support in Parliament to secure their achievements: a cap on fees for international students and 11 more countries on the exemption list ... read more | and here 01.06.2017