Amazon backs student innovation
ROME (repubblica) -- The technology innovation contest, backed for the first time by e-commerce giant Amazon, for polytechnic students in Rome, Turin and Milan has reached its final stage – designing the use of robots for the management of a warehouse. The young university students have had two months to pitch and produce their product ... read more 12.02.2019
Amazon, like other tech giants, has begun investing in education for some years now. A hot debate is currently taking place in the United States where elementary schools are being targeted by the corporation’s selfless charity ... read more 08.02.2019
Hackers reveal weak university security
CÓRDOBA (sevilla abc) -- A group of hackers calling themselves the Digital Research Team claims to have accessed the databases of a number of Spanish public institutions, including the University of Córdoba and several federal ministries. The team’s leader has promised that it is an ‘ethical’ hack and that it aims to “only report vulnerabilities on websites to ensure them and repair errors of your web infrastructures” ... read more 13.2.19
White working class students don’t make the cut
LONDON (neon) -- More than half of England’s universities have fewer than 5 percent of poor white students in their intakes, according to a report. The results show low numbers of white students from deprived areas in many top universities. There are only 3 percent at the University of Oxford, compared with 28 percent at Teesside ... read more 14.02.2019
Italian smash-and-grab thieves arrested
NAPLES (repubblica) -- Thieves who stole over 120 thousand euros worth of electronic devices from the university Suor Orsola Benincasa before fleeing the scenes in a taxi in Naples in January have been arrested and charged. The three thieves, one of which was Giuseppe Tufo, 22, with the two others yet to be identified, entered the multimedia hall of the private university through a window, and then stole 111 electronic tablets ... read more 11.01.2018
Swiss higher education on the up
BERN (swissinfo) -- A government report has indicated that, by 2037, half of Switzerland’s population aged between 25 and 65 will have a higher education degree or vocational qualification. An increased demand from employers, as well as rising student numbers, is causing the upsurge, with a further rise of 21 percent in the next 20 years is expected ... read more 06.02.2019
Russian-US joint ventures may decrease political tensions
MOSCOW (tass) -- Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, believes the successful cooperation between the two countries on scientific projects, university partnerships and cultural exchanges will ease political tensions in bilateral relations. Antonov stressed that Russia continues to put forward initiatives in its dialogue with the US designed to simplify bilateral relations: "In general, we put forward plenty of proposals. We expect positive reactions from our US colleagues" ... read more 10.2.19
Germany vs. Elsevier
BERLIN (books+publishing) -- Researchers are hitting Dutch journal publisher Elsevier’s paywall up to 10,000 times a day, as they remain without access to new papers, after failing to agree on new subscription deals. The dispute centres around the access of academic journals, with publisher Elsevier demanding excessive fees ... read more 6.2.19
EU could slam the door in Switzerland’s face
BERN (swissinfo) -- Academics in Switzerland fear missing out on the Horizon Europe research programme, if it fails to reach agreement with the EU on a political framework for future relations. The EU has already classified Switzerland in category 4 of non-EU states in the new programme. Although the EU denies this will not affect funding of Swiss research projects, the lowly category could allow Brussels to restrict funding or impose conditions ... read more 05.02.2019
West German university chiefs reign supreme
GÜTERSLOH (spiegel) -- The typical director of a German university is male, 59 years old and born in West Germany, a recent CHE study shows. Of all 81 public universities, none of the executives were born in East Germany, which shows that, even 30 years after reunification, westerners are still dominating. “When it comes to student educational biographies,” CHE Managing Director Frank Ziegele says, “there is diversity on campus, so why not more diversity in leadership positions?” ... read more | and here 07.02.2019
Serbia gets an upgrade in Erasmus+
BRUSSELS (esu) -- A new agreement between Serbia and the EU has been signed, upgrading the country from a Partner to an Erasmus+ Programme Country, placing its participation in the scheme on an equal level with EU member states. Education commissioner, Tibor Navracsics, said that the new agreement “will allow Serbia to participate more in the fields of higher education, and start its involvement in sport, vocational education and training.” Already since 2014, almost 7,000 Serbian students and staff have had an Erasmus+ experience abroad, and around 4,300 Europeans have gone to Serbia to study or teach ... read more 05.02.2019
Top ERC official retires early
BRUSSELS (sb) -- Pablo Amor, a top EU civil servant at the European Research Council (ERC), has announced his early retirement, citing policy disputes. He sent an email to staff, outlining frustrations about the direction of the basic research funder – and said he will be retiring on August 1, a year earlier than planned. In his email, Amor wrote: “I've decided that it was simply time to go. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention. From controversial common support systems to a few decisions not going exactly our way I just felt that things were not quite moving in the direction I wanted” ... read more 05.02.2019
Piggy bank empty for Irish universities
DUBLIN (uwn) -- The Irish university system is one of just two in Europe categorised as ‘in danger’ due to reduced funding combined with rising student numbers. Between 2008 and 2017, funding fell from around €1.5 to €1 billion, but student enrolment rose from 160,000 to 200,000. Jim Miley, director general of the Irish Universities Association, said that the figures “illustrate just how out of step Ireland is with our European neighbours” ... read more 1.2.19
French research grants on the up
PARIS (nature) -- One year on from his appointment as head of the French National Research Agency (ANR), Thierry Damerval is en route to achieving his main goal — raising the success rate for grant applications to 20 percent. The ANR has funded around 15,000 projects since its inception in 2005, with a with a success rate below 10 percent in 2014.
Damerval plans to strengthen links between research and innovation, in partnership with other French funding agencies and ministries ... read more 01.02.2019