On your marks, get set, go!
LISBON (eusa) -- A new sporting statute has been approved by the Portuguese government, which will enhance sports practice in higher education institutions in the country. According to FADU, the university sports federation, the statute will support sports students in the relief of absences, access to special seasons of exams, the postponement of delivery of works, as well as the performance of evaluation moments that coincide with sports competitions and more appropriate schedules to conciliate with sports activities ... read more 4.2.19
Cambridge receives record-breaking donation
CAMBRIDGE (daily mail) -- A former Cambridge student, now-turned-billionaire, has given £100 million to the university in the largest ever British donation to an educational institution. David Harding’s donation will go towards boosting the number of Cambridge’s postgraduates, supporting ‘debt free’ degrees, where underprivileged students pay nothing in fees or maintenance, as well as attracting applicants from low-income households and black families. Cambridge and Oxford are both under pressure to do more to take on students from deprived backgrounds ... read more 05.02.2019
University for Refugees launched
ROME (uninettuno) -- At the UN headquarters in New York, Rome’s International Telematic University UNINETTUNO presented the project ‘University for Refugees’, a multilingual portal created to offer refugees and asylum seekers free access to academic programmes. Already 12,680 students have downloaded UNINETTUNO’s mobile app to learn Italian, and 480 refugees and asylum seekers have enrolled to the programmes available on the portal ... read more 30.01.2019
Brexit threatens Irish cross-border collaboration
DUBLIN (nature) -- Until now, peace and common membership of the EU have allowed scientists in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to build a cross-border research system. But Brexit now risks upsetting that collaboration. Northern Ireland is particularly vulnerable to Brexit, as its researchers are already geographically isolated from the rest of the UK, and politically from the republic. Brexit could also damage partnerships involving EU money, as it’s not clear how the UK will participate in EU research-funding programmes post-Brexit. More than half of Northern Ireland’s projects funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme involve research partners in the Republic ... read more 30.01.2019
Macedonia name change creates new partnerships
ATHENS (nature) -- A political agreement between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia to change the republic’s name to Republic of North Macedonia and end political tensions will open up opportunities for cross-border collaboration in research and higher education. The Prespa Agreement will enable strategic partnerships, including in science, which is one of the areas specifically mentioned. Greek research minister and laser physicist Costas Fotakis welcomes the agreement as “very timely, especially considering that several research themes are of mutual interest in both countries” and cites biomedicine, agrobiology, energy and the environment as examples where the two nations could now share research ... read more 01.02.2019
EU bites back at Hungary
BUDAPEST (sb) -- EU vice president Frans Timmermans has said that “it is sad and very worrying” that teh hungarian government is continuing to erode academic freedom and the rule of law. Researchers at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences are worried about their future, as the government is seeking more control over the research budget. Hungarian MEP Tibor Szanyi said “the situation continues to get worse” ... read more 31.01.2019
Danish research careers in decline
COPENHAGEN (hedclub) -- A new report shows that careers in research are on a downward spiral in Denmark. Only one in every two have temporary employment, professorships and PhDs require more time, and the number of talented female researchers is decreasing. The DfiR’s report recommends more transparency on career paths, counselling which is geared towards employment, open and international recruitment, and more funding provided for full-time research positions in universities ... read more 31.01.2019
Slovenia increasingly attractive
LJUBLJANA (tsn) -- Slovenia attracts more and more foreign students. The majority is coming from south-east Europe and makes up 6 percent or nearly 4000 out of a total of 65,460 students ... read more 28.01.2019
Every cloud has a silver lining
BRUSSELS (sb) -- The EU has launched an ambitious new research project, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), aiming to link the electronic resources of all publicly-funded research on the continent, as well as research institutions and university libraries, and make them accessible through a single portal ... read more 31.01.2019
Romania’s budget delay frustrates researchers
BUCHAREST (sb) -- University researchers in Romania are being left in limbo over the delayed 2019 budget. Procurement of materials and equipment is not possible, and universities have to pay the base salaries of researchers out of their own funds and that is taking a toll on their limited budgets. “This is absurd,” says Daniel David, vice rector for research at Babeș-Bolyai University. The association of Romanian researchers warns of “catastrophic effects” ... read more 29.1.19
Kazakhstan forges links to the EU
ASTANA (eureporter) -- EU-Kazakhstan relations are “stronger than ever” and set to strengthen further still, says deputy foreign minister, Roman Vassilenko. This burgeoning relationship was also noted by Luc Devigne, deputy MD for Europe and Central Asia at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), who mentioned the 2000 Kazakh students who currently benefit from the Erasmus+ programme, as well as the 40 projects between universities in Europe and Kazakhstan ... read more 30.01.2019
International higher ed in Kazakhstan
ASTANA (wownews) -- Kazakhstan is embarking upon a mission to integrate itself into a European education system, which it hopes will lead to a place among the ratings of the leading world universities. 633,000 students are currently in higher education in Kazakhstan, and this trend is growing, as is the demand to be able to study abroad ... read more 24.1.19
Ethnic land swaps threaten Kosovan universities
PRIŠTINA (nature) -- A proposed land swap between Serbia and Kosovo, aiming to settle ownership of the remaining disputed areas between the two hostile neighbours, could threaten attempts at multi-ethnic research collaboration and education in universities.
The University of Priština, located in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica, is one such university facing great uncertainty. If Mitrovica is officially returned to Serbia, the university could lose its status as a Serbian bastion within Kosovo, which could threaten the multi-ethnic collaborations that depend on strong local research in both ethnic communities and could lead to a reduction in funds. But if the university remains in Kosovo, the university would have to apply for Kosovo’s accreditation to keep operating and, given Kosovo’s animosity towards Serbia, it’s not clear if it would get it. Stefan Veljković, an English student at the university, fears the worst: “If it were not for the university, the north Kosovo economy would crumble” ... read more 25.01.2019
University connects to digital degree
EAST ANGLIA (fenews) -- FutureLearn, Europe’s largest online social learning platform and owned by The Open University, has partnered with Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, to offer the University’s first course on the digital platform, an MSc in Project Management ... read more 30.01.2019