French student protests gain momentum
PARIS (médiapart) -- The French government feared a unison between students and workers in the 21st’s general strike, but that’s exactly what they got. In Paris the mobilisation against the new ‘loi Travail’ is more determined than ever, and in Rouen, 500 students turned out to protest their university’s lack of resources ... read more 21.09.2017
Plavčan’s replacement as Slovakian education minister
BRATISLAVA (business insider) -- Peter Plavčan has resigned as Slovakian education minister, following accusations of granting EU research funds to companies with no history in research. Andrej Danko, leader of Slovakian National Party (SNS), has appointed his replacement, while insisting that there had been no wrongdoing ... read more 13.9
Leading Russian unversities offer cryptocurrency courses
MOSCOW (bitcoin) -- A number of Russian universities are to introduce special courses and master’s degree classes on the topics of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The new courses will be incorporated into finance curricula in the academic year 2017-2018. In the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, students will collaborate with Sberbank to study data analysis. And in the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology (MIPT), researchers will focus on the currency’s technical components ... read more |and here 18.9.17
SAP targets Hungarian universities
BUDAPEST (hwsw) -- So far, thirteen universities in Hungary have begun to use SAP’s management software, but the company wants to expand to additional institutions. SAP has developed an integrated system that simultaneously implements accounting and purchasing tasks, but is also highly applicable to study systems ... read more 18.09.2017
What 14.7 billion Danish crowns could be used for
COPENHAGEN (uwn) -- Cuts to Danish university budgets between 2016 and 2021 are set to reach DKK14.7 billion (€1.98 billion). The Education Alliance, comprising over 40 Danish student organisations, is calling for a demonstration across Denmark on October 5th against cuts, which will cost Copenhagen University alone 5.8 percent of its current budget ... read more 16.09.2017
New international Brazilian research program
BRASILIA (wes) -- The prematurely terminated Science without Borders program now has a replacement. The Brazilian Universities Excellence Initiative is to take a more strategic approach, requiring universities to submit an internationalisation strategy before taking part, explains Prof. Abílio Neves of the education ministry. The new program aims to send Brazilian students and scholars abroad, to reinforce the country’s research ties with Europe and North America ... read more 18.09.2017
Austrian rectors on the short leash
VIENNA (standard) -- New Austrian science minister, Harald Mahrer has been blamed for ambiguities in the higher education draft law. It all comes down to distribution; universities criticise the ministry for reserving the right to decide how much money will be allocated to the key areas of teaching, research, and infrastructure ... read more 15.9.17
City council in Split bills university €4.7 million
SPLIT (slobodna dalmacija) -- In 2005 a deal was struck between the University of Split, Croatia, and the city council over the construction of buildings within the campus. The university would pay only ten percent and, in lieu of the remaining 90 percent, fund the construction of municipal infrastructure. The documents regarding the university’s contribution, however, were left incomplete, and the city is now asking them to record a municipal contribution of HRK35 million (€4.7 million) to its books. To complicate the matter further, the county authorities are siding with the university, and blocking the City’s efforts ... read more 30.08.2017
Hungarian universities make landlords rich
BUDAPEST (bbj) -- Gross returns on rental properties have exceeded seven percent in Hungarian university towns. This is exceptionally high compared not only to elsewhere in the country, but also Europe-wide ... read more 14.9.17
Switzerland highly international
BERN (fm1 today) -- Switzerland prides itself in the fact that more than half of Phd students are from abroad. Only Luxemburg has more, according to OECD statistics. Furthermore, 17 percent of students at Swiss universities are foreigners, signficantly more than the the OECD average of six percent... read more 12.9.17
Cheating business students in Greece
PATRAS (enca) -- More than 100 business students gave the exact same answers in an entrance exam for Patras University, Greece, triggering suspicion of foul play. As consequence, the 106 students are forbidden from taking part in the rest of the September exams, which, according to Giorgos Androulakis, the leader of the business faculty, is the mildest punishment they could expect ... read more and | here12.09.2017
Lithuanian university to accept bitcoin
VILNIUS (alfa) -- Kazimieras Simonavičius University in Vilnius, Lithuania, has begun to accept bitcoin as payment for tuition, and other expenses. University rector, Arūnas Augustinaitis says that not only is the currency convenient in terms of speed and cost, but it’s also attractive to foreign students ... read more 00.09.2017
German students feel “disconnected from reality”
BERLIN (hertie school) -- According to a new survey conducted by the Allensbach Institute, German youth is critical of the fantasy working world that universities are preparing them for. “[Students] sharply criticise the disconnect between education and reality,” says Klaus Hurrelmann, Professor of Public Health and Education, and advisor on the study. “They see a particular deficit in the fact that pupils learn too little in school about the world of work, the economy and finances” ... read more 00.09.2017
Italian professors struggle for fair pay
MILAN (corriere) -- We are two weeks into the Italian university professors’ strike over pay, and over 8,100 people are involved. Pressure on science minister Stefania Giannini is growing, as the protesters are committed to continue boycotting exams until the 31st of October.
The outrage was caused by the fact that the education ministry froze salaries for a second time in five years. Carlo Ferraro, who teaches at the Polytechnic University of Turin and is a voice of the protest movement explains: “Teacher and student numbers have gone down 20 percent since 2007. First we want the freeze lifted, and then we will fight for a new hiring plan, more research funding, and student grants” ... read more 14.09.2017
Erdoğan laments brain drain to the West
ASTANA (hurriyet) -- Public funding for schools, universities and research has increased during the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) rule. However, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the Islamic world “is losing its brightest brains to the West.” At the Science and Technology Summit in Kazakhstan, the Turkish President stressed that 55 percent of the Islamic world is illiterate and complained about the brain drain ... read more .05.2017
European University in Russia faces closure
ST. PETERSBURG (science business) -- With its teaching licence revoked and the forced removal from its premises, the European University in St Petersburg is on life support. “We have lost virtually everything,” says one of its professors ... read more .05.2017