Girls drink for free in Italy
ROME (ilsole24) -- The Italian teaching, universities and research minister Valeria Fedeli has signed a decree to give financial incentives to girls wanting to study scientific degrees, in an effort to plug the black hole in the transition from school to university. 35 percent of female Italian school leavers choose STEM subjects, but only 15 percent arrive in technical and computer science departments. 64 million euros are designated to incentivise institutions and activities ... read more 08.01.2018
Students of former USSR look west
MINSK (eadaily) -- Belarussian and Ukrainian students are increasingly looking to Poland for higher education, where before they may have chosen Russia. In the 2016, the number of foreign students at Polish universities was 65,800, compared with 4,3000 in 1990. More than half of the students in Polish universities are Ukrainians ... read more 29.12.2017
Norway at crossroads with publishers
OSLO (fagpressenytt) -- Since autumn, Norwegian universities have been negotiating new joint subscription agreements with Wiley, and Taylor & Francis, but talks have turned stale, as an agreement can’t be reached on payment. “We are a long way yet from terms and conditions” says Nina Karlstrøm, from the Department of Education ... read more 07.01.2018
Hungarian students plan protest
BUDAPEST (hirtv) -- A student protest over the dire state of Hungarian public education is being organised by the Independent Student Parliament on the 19th of January. One of the organisers, Viktor Gyetvai has said “We are worried, not only for our own future, but for the future of the whole country” ... read more 08.01.2018
University of Paris by 2019
PARIS (le monde) -- Parisian universities Paris-Descartes, Paris-Diderot and the Paris Institute of Earth Physics are to merge, forming the aptly named “University of Paris”. The merger will mark a new step on the path towards the unification of the city’s universities ... read more 29.12.17
Norwegian universities hide survey
TRONDHEIM (khrono) -- Several Norwegian universities have gone against the decision of the Joint Complaints Board, in order to keep hidden the results of the so-called ARK survey. This survey charts the working environment and climate issues in the university sector which now demands that the board’s decision be changed. Knut Andreas Bostad of the board says their behaviour is unprecedented ... read more 15.12.2017
Ukrainian education ministry restricts Russian domains
KIEV (tass) -- The Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science has instructed its employees and those of subordinate institutions to restrict access to the Russian domain zones .ru and .ру. The measure comes as part of Ukraine’s attempt to shore up information security in light of perceived Russian aggression ... read more 29.12.2017
Publishers reluctant over Dutch open access
AMSTERDAM (volkskrant) -- Dutch universities fear a price hike for scientific journals. Since 2015 there has been an arrangement whereby more articles by Dutch scientists are available online. The publisher Springer now wants to see more money from the institutions, whereas the previous government stated that all Dutch scientific articles should be free to read, as the research was funded publicly ...
read more 27.12.2017
British universities fear social media backlash
LONDON (telegraph) -- Academics at British universities say they have been forced to leave the country, in order to pursue their research interests as British universities are accused of blocking studies for fear of retaliation on social media ... read more23.12.2017
Elsevier given the cold shoulder
BERLIN (nature) -- The subscriptions to Elsevier’s journals of around 200 German institutions have expired with the new year, yet the publisher is allowing them continued access in the hope that a deal can be struck ... read more 08.01.2018