80-year-old Erasmus student
VALENCIA (el país) -- Miguel Castillo is getting a university degree in history, and next week he will travel to Italy on the Erasmus programme. Oh, and he is 80 years old, a retired notary public with three daughters and six grandchildren. He is also something of a celebrity ... read more 14.02.2018
EU students owe UK £592million
LONDON (sun) -- Fears are growing (and being fueled by The Sun) that EU students may not pay back the tuition fee loans that enabled them to study in the UK. The Student Loan Company confirmed yesterday EU students have so far paid back 104.7 million pounds of what they borrowed — with 592 million pounds still on the books ... read more 19.02.2018
EU-wide funding scheme for big universities?
BONN (hrk) -- European universities are pushing for the implementation of a new continent-wide “excellence initiative” that would see the European Union provide institution-level funding to help “increase the competitiveness” of higher education systems. The “European Excellence Initiative” has been proposed by ... read more | and here 14.02.2018
Unprepared STEM students
LONDON (fe news) -- Chemists believe university curricula to be problematic, with just 61 percent firmly of the belief that too little time is spent solving real-world problems, a recent survey shows. An overwhelming majority (84%) of chemists said that being ‘technologically savvy’ with new digital tools is either ‘crucial’ or ‘very important’ to career progression ... read more 15.02.2018
Armenian students protest against helmets
YEREVAN (uwn) -- A new law obliges male Armenian students to sign contracts with the defence ministry and to serve in the military for three years after completing their undergraduate studies. The law sparked protest from hundreds of students from different universities, several opposition parties and public figures in Armenia ... read more 16.02.2018
10 pennies for the humanities
BRUSSELS (science business) -- Eleven universities, including Ghent University, La Sapienza in Rome and the Freie Universität Berlin, are urging the European Commission to set a target under its next research framework programme of spending at least 10 per cent of the budget on social sciences and humanities ... read more 13.02.2018
More money for Czech postgraduates
PRAGUE (prague daily) -- Czech public universities will receive 50 percent higher contributions for postgraduate students this year, education minister Robert Plaga has announced. Postgraduates have been complaining for a long time that they cannot fully devote to their study because the low scholarship does not cover their costs of living ... read more 13.02.2018
TU Delft stops interationalisation
DELFT (dutchnews) -- Delft University of Technology has said that from 1st February 2018, no non-EEA students will be considered for its next bachelors of computer science and engineering course, due to a massive increase in applications. “It is important to have experiences with other cultures, but there must be a bit of a balance, and 50:50 Dutch and international is a nice number,” a spokeswoman said. The Dutch education ministry was cited as saying it would be illegal to stop considering students from certain countries ... read more 16.02.2018
Easier access to Estonia
TALLINN (err) -- A bill approved by the Estonian government, translating an EU directive from May 2016 into Estonian law, will make it easier for third-country nationals to stay in the country for the purposes of research, studies and training ... read more 1616.02.2018
Austrian lack of doctors
INNSBRUCK (tt) -- A lack of practicioners, especially in rural regions, is plaguing Austria. How to substitute the half of 180 doctors working in the periphery who will be retired within 10 years and only few newcomers apply? Social and health minister, Beate Hartinger-Klein, does not want to dare more than advertising campaigns. The regions Südtirol and Vorarlberg plan a private Medical School with high fees and a grant systems that obliges graduates to serve far from the cities for a while (not so bad those old Soviet ideas in the end) ... read more 18.02.2018
Busy ghostwriters
ZURICH (tagesanzeiger) -- According to Thomas Német, director of Acad Write, a company who helps people with difficulties in writing their own degree thesis, 200 Swiss students have used their services and bought a “scientific draft” in 2015. The texts cost 3,000-10,000 euros. Universities have little power to discover the truth ... read more 15.02.2018