Fair play at university games
PORTO (eusa) -- The 12th European Universities Football Championship in July this year introduced a “green card” to reward fair play. It was first shown in a match between University of Valencia and University of Montpellier, and a later one between Kuban State University and University of Lille ... read more 04.08.2017
The science industry loves Merkel
BERLIN (nature) -- In two recent opinion pieces, the science weekly nature praises German chancellor Angela Merkel saying she “shows a welcome immunity to the mood of anti-science resentment that has infected some democracies” and “increased annual science budgets in a stable, predictable, quintessentially German way” ... read more | and here 06.09.2017
Education funding in Europe: down by 11%
BRUSSELS (lllp) -- Average expenditures of EU member states on education decreased by 11 percent since 2009. “This trend is extremely worrying,” the Lifelong Learning Platform, an association of 40 European organisations active in the field of education commented. “It reflects the increasing privatisation of education in our continent, that will eventually enlarge the economic and social cleavage in Europe” ... read more 31.08.2017
Brexit ministry pray for good weather
LONDON (gov) -- The UK government sets out how it plans to continue to collaborate with the EU on scientific research and innovation. The paper, that describes objectives for an “ambitious science and innovation agreement” with the EU, is all but ambitious, as it contains no concrete measures, simply pretending that everything can carry on as before. Areas given special notice are medical research, atomic energy and the country’s close involvement with Horizon 2020 ... read more 06.09.2017
2 in 3 French students change their minds
PARIS (le monde) -- First year dropout rate has reached a record high, according to figures released by the French higher education ministry. This statistic comes as Minister Frédérique Vidal has met with universities and promised to reform the country’s university admission process by 2018. Part of planned reforms is to make universities’ entry requirements more severe. “We need to get out of the mind-set that university is the solution for everybody”, says President Emmanuel Macron ... read more 31.08.2017
Orbán brushes off European Commission
BUDAPEST (bbj) -- Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has responded to the European Commission’s statement on his now infamous ‘lex CEU’. He announced on August 14th “We can’t do anything about the fact that the restrictions harm the interests of George Soros” ... read more 14.08.2017
Fins use AI to recruit foreign students
TAMPERE (gbtimes) -- Finnish startup ‘Edunation’, launched earlier this year, is developing a new, AI-powered search platform to find prospective students. This comes as the introduction of tuition fees for people from outside the EU is expected to deter potential Chinese students ... read more 4.9.17
Universities at the forefront of IPv6
BERLIN (egovernment) -- Universities have been aware of the imminent shortage of IP addresses for a while. With the old protocol, IPv4 (which identifies online devices to each other), only 4.3 billion addresses are possible, and there are already 6 billion online devices worldwide. Universities are among the frontrunners switching to IPv6. This new protocol boasts easier connectivity to university networks, simplified data recognition and priority settings, and more efficient communication between machines including the “internet of things” ... read more 01.09.2017
German universities confront big publishers
BERLIN (enago) -- In negotiations with Elsevier, German research institutions were represented by Projekt DEAL, a consortium seeking a national licensing agreement. In June 2017, four major academic institutions in Berlin also announced that they would not be renewing their contracts with Elsevier. These were Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, Technische Universität, and Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin. These cancellations were in support of Projekt DEAL’s efforts to get Elsevier to agree to fair publishing charges. Projekt DEAL is also in negotiations with Springer Nature and Wiley. Together these three publishers account for 50-60 percent of many German libraries’ budgets ... read more 24.08.2017
University muscle contest
SHANGHAI (esna) -- This summer two new university rankings have blossomed in the garden. One is the 15th Shanghai Ranking, and the other is the Humboldt-Ranking, comparing German universities’ popularity with foreign researchers ... read more 15.08.2017