Jews reportedly banned from U.K. campus lecture
WARWICK (haaretz) -- David Collier, a journalist and blogger on anti-Semitism, has said he and two other Jews were stopped at the entrance to a lecture at Warwick University. The event, alleging Israel was intentionally undermining the fertility of Palestinians, “was organised by group of researchers and students,” a university spokesman said, “not by the University” ... read more 21.1.18
National education funding gap in Europe widens
BRUSSELS (euractiv) -- Data shows that the divide between higher education systems that reduce public funding for universities and research, and those that increase it, is getting wider, even more as the latter are more likely to win EU funding. Thomas Estermann, policy director at the European University Association (EUA) proposes that some of these funds could be ring-fenced to finance the best research proposals of underrepresented countries ... read more
French teachers protest university reform
PARIS (médiapart) -- Parcoursup, the new French undergraduate admissions platform is now in action. Despite the law not having yet been officially adopted, teachers and researchers are already fighting a reform, which, according to them, will weaken the already weak. A call to strike on the first of February has been issued ... read more 22.01.2018
Closer regional ties for Danish university
SØNDERBORG (jv) -- The University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg is to strengthen its cooperation with local businesses, and has employed two new consultants for the task. “We would like the university’s knowledge to be available to as many people as possible”, says Frederik Gottlieb, one of the new recruits. Companies that partner with the university will also benefit from state and EU funding ... read more 17.01.2018
Quiet reform in Greek universities
ATHENS (efsyn) -- Greek higher education is, despite enduring problems of insular localism and sporadic violent protests, slowly improving according to Spiros Georgatos, president of the Greek National Council for Education and Human Resources Development. He says funding for universities and research is steadily increasing, all while the process of rationalising the country's higher education and research administration makes big progress ... read more 15.01.2018
Apple’s gift to Europe
(iLounge) -- Marketing works wonders: Apple — the firm that tried to evade 13 billion euros in taxes, a sum that could easily double the entire annual education budget of Ireland — expands its ‘Everyone Can Code’ programme to 70 universities in Europe. The full-year course designed to teach coding and app design is a generous present to the world ... read more | and here 22.1.18
Education technology skyrockets
BERLIN (twitter) -- Private sector spending and investment in education is increasing. According to the latest UN Education report, spending on both private tutoring and education technology is expected to exceed US$200 billion (€163 billion) in the next five years ... read more 22.01.2018
Eugenics at UCL
LONDON (london student) -- A eugenics conference held annually at University College London by an honorary professor (Richard Lynn), the ‘London Conference on Intelligence’, is dominated by a secretive group of white supremacists with neo-Nazi links, a student paper revealed. UCL said in a statement that it had not approved the events and has now launched an internal inquiry ... read more 10.01.2018
Irish universities struggle with Brexit
DUBLIN (ut) -- Only “robust investment” will be enough to allow Irish higher education to weather the challenges of Brexit, which is already posing a threat to Ireland’s links to UK universities, says a new report. What Ireland stands to lose is the common travel area between Southern and Northern Ireland, with consequences for staff and student mobility ... read more 11.01.2018
How to tackle the ‘reproducibility crisis’
AMSTERDAM (science) -- Scientists, universities, funding agencies, and journals alike should be doing much more to ensure the reproducibility of scientific research, according to a new report. The number of voices calling for fundamental changes in the way science is conducted and published is growing ... read more 16.01.2018
Hungarian students protest for education reforms
BUDAPEST (reuters) -- Thousands of Hungarian university students and schoolchildren protested outside parliament on Friday to demand reform of an education system they say fails to prepare them for life in the 21st century. The students say the system is too rigidly focused on rote-learning and blind memorisation of facts and does not encourage critical thinking or creativity. One leaflet demanded a free choice of textbooks and a bigger student say in educational matters ... read more 19.01.2018
Science advice in decline under Trump
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS (science) -- Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, expert panels that provide key federal agencies with science advice have had fewer members and met less often than at any time since 1997, when the government started tracking such numbers, a new analysis concludes ... read more 18.01.2018
Hungarian universities not to talk to press
BUDAPEST (24.hu) -- The Hungarian Ministry of National Affairs has sent out letters to vocational training schools, outlining what to do in the event of press inquiries. The schools are now required to write draft replies to the questions and send them on to the ministry, which will provide guidance on how to respond. Similar measures are soon to be introduced in other higher education sectors, but with more power in the hands of rectors and chancellors ... read more 10.01.2018
Italian excellence competition
ROME (ilsole24ore) -- The Italian science ministry has announced how it will distribute 1.3-billion euro of an initiative aimed at boosting research excellence. The money will be given out over 5 years to 180 university departments. Among the winners, just 25 were from universities in the poorer south of the country. Minister Valeria Fedeli pledged to use 110 million euro of European Union subsidies to bolster prospects in future excellence competitions for researchers in disadvantaged areas. ... read more 09.01.2018
Erasmus University sitting in court
ROTTERDAM (nos) -- Lars Klappe, chairman of the Student Law Office is taking his university to court. According to him, the practice of stopping students who get below a certain mark from continuing their studies breaks Dutch law. The Erasmus University of Rotterdam wants to hold on to the system in order to keep the dropout rate low ... read more 17.01.2018
Romanian rectors enter the bullring
BUCHAREST (adevarul) -- Rectors from Romania’s biggest universities have signed an open letter to Liviu Pop, Minister of Education. They seem to be calling for the dismissal of George Doca, newly appointed director of the Romanian Language Institute, over his lack of scientific credentials, and who fired council members in opposition of his candidacy ... read more 17.01.2018