Traducere a ştiinţei pe înţelesul tuturor, în 3 minute
Studenţii şi cercetătorii ieşeni au şansa şi anul acesta să se înscrie în competiţia internaţională organizată de British Council – Fame Lab, un concept inedit de popularizare a ştiinţei. Practic, cei care se înscriu în competiţie trebuie să fie capabili să explice un concept ştiinţific complex pe înţelesul unui public larg, în maximum trei minute, într-un mod cât mai inovativ şi creativ.
„Competiţia este deschisă pentru toţi tinerii care au peste 19 ani, care studiază sau lucrează în domeniul ingineriei, medicinei, tehnologiei, biologiei, chimiei, fizicii sau matematicii. Se adresează inclusiv angajaţilor din sectorul public şi cel privat“, au precizat organizatorii. Concursul are mai multe etape, iar după ce se va face o triere la nivel naţional va exista un reprezentant al României care va participa la finala internaţională FameLab din Marea Britanie. Pentru a se înscrie în competiţie, participanţii trebuie să trimită o prezentare video de maximum 3 minute, online, despre un subiect care le este familiar din ştiinţă, existând o serie de rigori pe care trebuie să le respective prezentarea respectivă. Termenul limită de depunere a acestor filme de înscriere este de 31 martie, iar din rândul concurenţilor juriul îi va selecta pe cei care se vor califica la preselecţiile regionale.
„Concurenţii selectaţi pentru finală vor participa la un masterclass, care îi va ajuta să îşi îmbunătăţească abilităţi esenţiale de comunicare media şi de prezentare. Masterclass-ul va fi susţinut de un trainer din Marea Britanie şi se va desfăşura în luna aprilie, în Bucureşti. Toţi finaliştii care vor participa la masterclass vor intra în finala naţională Famelab care va avea loc în luna mai. Câştigătorul finalei naţionale va reprezenta România la FameLab International în Marea Britanie. Finala internaţională va avea loc în cadrul Cheltenham Science Festival în perioada 4 – 9 iunie 2019“, au precizat organizatorii. La preselecţii şi în finala naţională, prezentările vor fi în limba română, cel care va reprezenta ţara la nivel internaţional va trebui să îşi susţină prezentarea în engleză.
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași
Șase medalii pentru șase studenți de la TUIASI la Olimpiada internațională de matematică SEEMOUS
Toți cei șase studenți care au participat din partea Universității Tehnice „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iași la cea de XIII-a ediție a Olimpiadei internaționale de matematică pentru studenți „South Eastern European Mathematical Olympiad for University – SEEMOUS 2019” s-au întors acasă cu medalii.
Tinerii politehniști ieșeni au reușit să obțină două medalii de argint și patru de bronz la competiția desfășurată între 12-17 martie 2019, anul acesta fiind organizată la Devin, în Bulgaria, sub patronajul Mathematical Society of South Eastern Europe – MASSEE și a Societății de Științe Matematice din Bulgaria. La olimpiadă au participat 84 de studenți de la 16 universități din Bulgaria, Grecia, Macedonia, România și Turkmenistan.
Cei șase studenți medaliați provin toți de la Facultatea de Automatică și Calculatoare: Cristian Grecu și Vlad Corduneanu au luat medalia de argint, în timp ce bronzul a fost obținut de Vlad Batalan, Iulian Rusu, Ioan Stanciu și Alexandru Berigoi.
„Anul acesta subiectele au avut un grad de dificultate foarte ridicat, mai ridicat decât la alte ediții, dar este pentru prima dată când echipa Politehnicii ia medalii cu toți participanții. Este o generație foarte bună și avem speranțe foarte mari și pentru anul viitor, fiindcă au dreptul să mai participe și la ediția următoare. Sunt rezultate îmbucurătoare, se remarcă un trend ascendent”, a declarat lect. univ. dr. Marcel Roman, directorul Departamentului de Matematică și Informatică de la TUIASI.
Acesta a precizat că selecția celor șase membri ai echipei de matematică s-a făcut din peste o sută de studenți care s-au înscris inițial la Centrul de Pregătire de Performanță în Matematică de la Politehnica ieșeană.
La centrul respectiv se pregătesc în permanență studenții care reprezintă universitate la competițiile naționale și internaționale, sub îndrumarea profesorilor Ariadna Pletea, Marian Panţiruc, Radu Strugariu şi Marcel Roman.
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași și Evenimentul și Bună Ziua Iași
O noua poveste de succes in lumina reflectoarelor studioului BZI LIVE! Toti romanii trebuie sa fie mandri de ceea ce au realizat acesti oameni
Miercuri, 20 martie 2019, incepand cu ora 15.00 in lumina reflectoarelor Studioul BZI LIVE este programata o editie speciala pentru intreaga comunitate locala dar si un exemplu pentru intreaga Romanie! Invitati la o emisiune – dialog sunt invitati cercetatorii stiintifici Andrei Asandulesei – noul coordonator al celei mai moderne Platforme de cercetare stiintifica interdisciplinara pe zona Arheologiei din tara respectiv ArheoInvest si Sorin Tascu – coordonator al proiectului Centrului RAMTECH (Research Center on Advanced Materials and Technologies) ce are drept scop extinderea competitivitatii, prin crearea unui grup de experti de inalt nivel stiintific focalizat pe domenii de cercetare care pana acum nu au fost abordate teoretic si experimental. Alaturi de acestia vor fi abordate aspecte ce tin de CERCETAREA romaneasca, munca pe care o realizeaza alaturi de echipele pe care le coordoneaza! De precizat ca invitatii fac parte din nucleul de viitor promovat de Universitatea Cuza din Iasi pe segmentul esential al Inovatiei si Cercetarii din tara noastra!
Daca aveti intrebari pentru invitatilor nostru, le puteti lasa aici, la rubrica de comentarii sau pe pagina de Facebook BZI.ro, urmand a primi raspunsul asteptat in direct in cadrul emisiunii BZI LIVE de marti, 19 martie, cu incepere de la ora 13.00.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
„Despre Europa” – concurs pentru studenti, la Universitatea „Cuza” din Iasi
Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” (UAIC) din Iasi lanseaza invitatia pentru studentii interesati de dezbaterile legate de Uniunea Europeana (UE), care doresc sa expuna si sa argumenteze viziunea proprie referitoare la procesul de integrare europeana sau sa propuna un proiect al „Europei de mâine”. Acestia sunt invitati sa participe la urmatoarele activitati: Sesiunea nationala de comunicari stiintifice studentesti în domeniul studiilor europene, Concursul de eseuri „Visul meu european”, Concursul de postere „EUreflect”.
„Studentii se pot înscrie în aceasta competitie cu o lucrare stiintifica, un eseu argumentativ sau cu un poster despre: subiecte importante aflate pe agenda europeana (alegeri pentru Parlamentul European, Brexit etc.); ce fel de Europa îsi doresc tinerii si care sunt oportunitatile, respectiv constrângerile oferite de spatiul european de astazi; ce fel de provocari apar în contextul noilor realitati economice si sociale din UE; în ce mod se regasesc tinerii în modelul european actual de integrare. Argumentele participarii la un astfel de concurs: cele mai bune lucrari vor fi premiate; prezentarea ideilor într-un cadru de dezbateri academice împreuna cu colegi de la alte universitati; un exercitiu util pentru pregatirea în vederea sustinerii publice a unei lucrari sau îmbunatatirea CV-ului. Informatii complete despre conditiile de participare pot fi consultate la adresa http://www.cde.uaic.ro”, au reliefat cei de la „Cuza”.
Termene limita: 22 aprilie 2019 – înregistrarea participantilor, 9 – 10 mai 2019 – prezentarea lucrarilor. Evenimentele sunt organizate de Centrul de Documentare Europeana si Centrul de Studii Europene al Facultatii de Drept din cadrul Universitatii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Iasi, cu scopul de a promova interesul studentilor pentru domeniul studiilor europene si de a încuraja dezbaterile legate de Uniunea Europeana.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Forumul European al Roboticii are loc în Bucureşti în luna martie
Peste 600 de expozanţi vor fi prezenţi la Bucureşti, în perioada 20 – 22 martie, în cadrul primei ediţii a Forumului European al Roboticii (European Robotics Forum), eveniment în cadrul căruia ţara noastră va fi reprezentată, printre altele, de prima companie autohtonă de roboţi umanoizi şi de servicii.
Forumul European al Roboticii aduce în premieră pentru firmele de robotică din Europa ultimele rezultate ale cercetărilor în cadrul proiectelor de robotică. Practic, acesta este locul în care companiile prezintă noutăţi puse la cale de-a lungul anului şi pe care le promovează pentru a identifica noi parteneri şi pieţe de desfacere.
„Ceea ce aduce nou pentru România, anume că este un tip de eveniment unic până acum, în format Forum, 50 de ateliere de discuţii timp de 3 zile, şi o expoziţie cu roboţi. Acest eveniment se organizează în fiecare an, în urma unei competiţii, în altă ţară, şi anul acesta este prima dată când vine la noi, dar şi în Europa de Est”, susţin organizatorii evenimentului, pentru Agerpres.
Robotul biped – una dintre atracţiile evenimentului
În total, la European Robotics Forum, care va avea loc la un hotel celebru din Bucureşti, vor participa peste 600 de expozanţi din toate ţările Europei, dar şi din Asia şi Statele Unite ale Americii. Printre expozanţi se vor afla universităţi prestigioase din Europa, marile firme de braţe robotice, start-up-uri de roboţi etc.
România este prezentă cu câteva firme expozante în cadrul acestui eveniment, respectiv: Bucharest Robots – prima firmă de roboţi umanoizi şi de servicii din România, Comau, Elektrobit, Hyperpragma şi INCAS – Institutul Naţional de Cercetare-Dezvoltare Aerospaţială, precizează sursa citată.
Pe lista atracţiilor ediţiei din acest an a forumului se află: PAL Robotics – robotul biped, înalt cât un om, şi care vorbeşte nouă limbi, Lux.ai – roboţi folosiţi pentru copiii cu autism, Bucharest Robots, sisteme de mâini inteligente – Schunk, Shadow şi QB Robotics, roboţi modulari, care pot simula mâini, picioare sau animale cu mai multe membre (Hebi Robotics), roboţi pentru depozite logistice, ca Amazon şi Robotnik, tehnologii pentru maşini autonome, roboţi pentru fabricile viitorului, majoritatea lucrând alături de oameni (Universal Robots, ABB, KUKA şi Rolls-Royce.
Piaţa roboţilor umanoizi, în creştere
Conform ultimelor rapoarte privind industria mondială a roboticii, piaţa roboţilor umanoizi va creşte de la 320,3 milioane de dolari, cât este în prezent, la 3,9 miliarde, până în 2023.
ajorarea accentuată se va datora, pe de o parte, dezvoltării constante a capabilităţii roboţilor, precum şi preţurilor din ce în ce mai accesibile ale acestora, dar şi datorită schimbărilor ce vor avea loc în societate.
Studiile previzionează, totodată, o creştere a numărului de roboţi umanoizi folosiţi în Educaţie, dar şi în industria de retail şi cea a ospitalităţii, cea din urmă cu scopul de a personaliza cât mai mult experienţa clientului. De asemenea, industria medicală şi cea a logisticii vor integra tot mai multe capabilităţi ale Inteligenţei Artificiale (AI) în aceşti roboţi pentru a răspunde nevoilor din aceste domenii.
În cadrul celor trei trei zile de European Robotics Forum 2019 de la Bucureşti vor fi prezenţi şi oficiali de top din România şi din străinătate, precum Lucilla Sioli – directorul pentru „Inteligenţă Artificială şi Industrie Digitală” de la DG Connect, respectiv Peter Dröll – director pentru Tehnologii Industriale, DG Cercetare şi Inovare.
Publicație : Adevărul
Master’s degrees make no difference to skill set, most employers say
‘Students shouldn’t expect employers to place a premium on the fact they have done a master’s’
Most employers do not believe postgraduate degrees give workers an edge in terms of their skills, a new poll has suggested.
Only 19 per cent of employers said graduates with a master’s had better skills than those who did not take a postgraduate qualification, a survey from the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) revealed.
The report shows no employers in the consumer goods sector valued the qualification, while only 6 per cent in the IT sector saw the benefits of a postgraduate degree.
A vehicle navigates in snowy conditions near Newby Head in North Yorkshire, as up to 10cm of snow could fall on higher ground as temperatures drop across the UK this week PA
The findings may come as a surprise to hundreds of thousands of students who choose to stay on for an extra year and pay more than £9,000 for an additional qualification to boost their job prospects.
Stephen Isherwood, chief executive of the ISE, said: “In reality, most employers simply don’t discriminate between those with a master’s and those with a degree. They see them as the same.
“They are treated the same when they join. They do not go on a faster track or get paid a premium. I think that is a bit of a shock to some master’s students going into the labour market.”
He added: “Students shouldn’t expect employers to place a premium on the fact they have done a master’s. Just because you have been through the master’s process doesn’t necessarily prove that those skills will go through to the world of employment.”
The survey also revealed that employers are almost four times as likely to raise concerns about how apprentices dress for work in comparison to university graduates.
But there are little differences in key skills such as resilience, leadership and dealing with conflict.
Mr Isherwood said: “Graduates generally arrive more polished, with a better array of both technical and interpersonal skills and some cultural capital, but employers are less convinced that they outperform apprentices in more fundamental attributes.
“As apprentices acquire more skills and experience, they may well catch up and outperform those who have been through the graduate route.”
A Universities UK spokesperson said: “Higher level skills are a key driver of economic growth with employers reporting an increasing demand for these skills in the future. Additional qualifications can enhance the valued analytical skills of students and can also give them greater depth of knowledge in key subjects and sectors.”
Publicație : The Independent
Erasmus scheme in chaos as UK students left in limbo
The 17,000 students about to do a year abroad face huge uncertainty over funding and accommodation
Alice Watkins, who is hoping to study French abroad from September, says: ‘Turning up in France with nowhere to live is a big stress.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
For Alice Watkins, a Manchester University student, a year in Paris, then Madrid, as part of her degree was a dream. Now, with the turmoil of Brexit, she is preparing to arrive in France this summer with nowhere to live and no idea whether the money will still be there to support her.
“It’s horrible not knowing,” Watkins says. “We’ve been told to take at least £1,200 of our own cash to cover us for the first six weeks, and that we can’t realistically sort any accommodation before we arrive. Turning up abroad with nowhere to live is a big stress.”
Last Wednesday the European parliament voted to guarantee funding for UK students already studying abroad on the Erasmus+ student exchange programme, in the event of a no-deal Brexit on 29 March. It also promised to continue supporting European students already in the UK on the scheme.
But uncertainty hangs over the 17,000 British students who had planned to study in Europe under Erasmus+ from this September. A technical note, published by the government at the end of January, failed to guarantee any funding for the scheme if Britain leaves the EU with no deal.
In recent weeks both Spain and Norway have advised their students planning to study in the UK to go elsewhere.
Watkins, like many language students, regards a period living and studying in Europe as a crucial part of her degree in French and Spanish. “We are people who plan to live and work abroad in the future. We were too young to vote in the referendum and we are the ones whose future is being affected. It’s all such a mess,” she says.
Vivienne Stern, director of the international arm of Universities UK, the vice-chancellors’ body, says the organisation had been under the impression that the government would create a national alternative to the Erasmus+ scheme to protect students in the event of no deal. She says, however, there is no evidence of this happening.
“As we understand it, there is no money on the table for an alternative scheme, and no work is under way in the DfE to prepare one.”
Universities UK also says British students currently on Erasmus+ in Europe have been getting in touch over fears they will left without health insurance. Many have insurance that stipulates they have an EU health insurance card, and are struggling to switch provider while abroad.
Joseph Corcoran, far left, with other current Erasmus+ students in Madrid. ‘With Brexit, students have been forgotten,’ he says.
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Students who spend time studying abroad are at an advantage, research published by UUK shows: they outperform their peers in the classroom and job market, being 19% more likely to gain a first and 20% less likely to be unemployed.
In addition, a CBI/Pearson skills survey has shown that seven in 10 small and medium-sized companies think that future executives will need foreign language skills and international experience.
Newcastle University has been so exasperated with the uncertainty surrounding Erasmus+, that it has invested £1m in underwriting exchanges for its students for 2019-20.
Prof Richard Davies, pro vice-chancellor, global, for the university, says: “We want our students to be world citizens. Months ago we understood the government would underwrite this, but in December their language about what would happen with a no deal suddenly seemed far less confident.”
Davies is also concerned about losing exchange students from Europe, which he says would leave a major gap in British institutions. “We want our university to remain truly multicultural. It should feel welcoming to as many nations as possible and Erasmus+ is a big part of that.”
He says: “It is especially important for modern languages degrees that students have this chance to practise their language and immerse themselves in a different culture. European exchanges are also especially useful for our law and business students.”
Prof Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, says that studying abroad has “huge benefits, at relatively little cost”. He says: “We’ve created a generation of mobile students, but Britain is still lagging far behind other European countries on the numbers who choose to do this.”
Riordan is lobbying the government to set up an alternative exchange scheme as a back-up. “If we believe the rhetoric about global Britain we really should be doing this,” he says.
The threat of no deal has affected the plans not only of British students, but of mainland European students for the next academic year. At the end of last month, the Spanish National Mobility Agency began advising those with places at UK universities to consider other countries instead. Norway, which subscribes to the EU scheme although it is not an EU member, has been doing the same.
Stern says: “I do have some sympathy with the Spanish and the Norwegians. The difficulty is that if you’re a student going abroad in 2019 you should already have made a bid for funding, and we still don’t really know what is happening.”
Meanwhile, Ben Cisneros, a third-year Cambridge University law student who studied in Madrid thanks to Erasmus+ funding last year, says the experience made him a stronger person. “It was a life experience. People underestimate how difficult it is to go and set up somewhere alone.”
And Joseph Corcoran, a Leeds University student studying at a university in Murcia, Spain, for a year on Erasmus+, says the experience has been invaluable for his language skills. “It was quite a culture shock, because this isn’t a touristy city; it’s real Spain. So I have had to use my Spanish all the time, and after a while it becomes second nature.”
Corcoran has joined a tight-knit community of Erasmus students from all over Europe. “This experience has been something I will never forget,” he says. “I feel that with Brexit, people have been focused on issues like trade, and students have been forgotten. But that’s wrong. We are the future.”
Publicație : The Guardian
US universities resisting reform in wake of admissions scandal
Public mesmerised by arrests for cheating to gain elite enrolment, but major reforms seen unlikely
The Great US College Admissions Scandal has produced shock, anger, anxiety, jealousy, jokes, laughter, titillation, arrests, firings, moralising and more.
But will it produce major change? The betting right now appears to be on: “No.”
There have been suggestions, from the small – one US senator wants to end tax breaks for academic donations aimed at bolstering applicants – to the profound – one leading expert has suggested that colleges hold a lottery among any candidates meeting a minimum threshold.
But in the immediate aftermath of the FBI’s big bust, universities were largely sticking to the narrative that any blame rests solely with those formally charged in the case, that the system generally works well, and that any possible policy responses will be limited.
“I suspect, two years from now, things will be different,” said Terry Hartle, the senior vice-president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education. “I’m not sure it will be transformative.”
It is not just his prediction, but his hope. “What I worry about is that events like this have an outsized impact,” Dr Hartle said. “The public trusts colleges and universities to do the right thing.”
Based on early signs from both Congress and the White House, he may not have too much to fear. A full two days after the scandal broke, education secretary Betsy DeVos finally issued a statement saying that her department would check if any existing regulations were violated. She made no suggestion that the regulations themselves may be inadequate.
Such tranquillity stands in contrast to the sustained angry reaction among the wider public, where the scandal has held front-page news status for days, stoking demands for action to confront an apparent audacity of financial privilege that many said they long expected but could not prove. Some rejected applicants are suing.
Fifty people have been charged with paying, receiving, arranging or participating in bribery aimed at securing admission to leading universities over the past eight years. The operation allegedly helped 33 students falsify sporting and academic credentials.
The potential for serious public pressure on colleges may be getting diluted by the scandal’s numerous alleged components – cheating on admissions tests, cheating by sports coaches, falsely claiming a disability – that may make it hard to know where to start.
The celebrity factor is also squeezing out sober attention. A leading subject of breathless coverage is Olivia Jade Giannulli, the YouTube celebrity and 19-year-old daughter of television actress Lori Loughlin, one of the parents charged with paying bribes for admission to the University of Southern California.
Leading sector agencies have shown no haste to make changes. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, which oversees university sports, and the College Board and Act (formerly American College Testing), which oversee the main entrance examinations, all issued statements saying that they would review the FBI case seeking evidence of policy violations, but made no reference to changing the policies themselves.
“Maybe I’m being a bit cynical,” said Douglas Webber, an associate professor of economics at Temple University, who suggested a lottery system for admissions, “but honestly I don’t feel like much is going to change.”
Publicație : The Times
Conference axed after threats from transgender activists
The Open University cancels prison reform conference after pressure from militant feminist groups over organiser’s advice on transgender prisoners
Threats by transgender rights activists to disrupt an academic conference on prison reform over the organiser’s allegedly “transphobic” views on how inmates should be segregated have led to its cancellation.
More than 300 people were expected to attend a two-day conference on prison abolition in the UK at the Open University’s campus in Milton Keynes at the end of May, but delegates have been notified that the event has been called off.
The organisers, the Centre of Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS), an educational charity, did not explain the exact reason for the sudden cancellation to delegates, but Times Higher Education has learned that it was scrapped after activists vowed to target the event over the group’s policy that transgender prisoners should be incarcerated separately from cis-gender female offenders.
Its advice, published in February, follows the case of transgender prisoner Karen White, who was jailed in October 2018 for sexually assaulting inmates in a women’s prison while on remand for rape charges.
However, campaigners have claimed that the centre’s recommendations support “state-sanctioned murder”, given the suicides of several transgender prisoners in male prisons.
A leaflet distributed by the Trans Liberation Assembly – a collective of militant feminist groups – describes the “abhorrent transphobia [of] so-called respectable academics at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies” as a “sinister factor in this increasingly violent treatment enacted against trans women who are victims of the prison estate”.
That literature, which criticised “measures [that] demonise trans women as posing an inherent threat to ‘real’ women”, was handed out as 50 protesters occupied the Ministry of Justice on International Women’s Day on 8 March.
With reports that the same protesters intended to target the OU event in May, organisers emailed delegates on 9 March to say that the conference had been cancelled after one of its partners [the OU] had been “subjected to concerted pressure by those intent on disrupting the conference”.
In a statement, the Open University suggested, however, that it had cancelled the event over “concerns that discussion around this conference was moving away from its main, originally intended, focus – to debate the past, present and future of prison abolition”.
The event’s cancellation is the latest in a series of flashpoints over academics’ views on gender self-identification and whether transgender women should have access to areas, such as prisons, where vulnerable women are housed. In December, Rosa Freedman, professor of law, conflict and global development at the University of Reading, told how her office door had been covered in urine and how she had received threatening anonymous phone calls after debating proposed gender law changes.
One activist group, the Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee, has claimed that the CCJS’ director Richard Garside, a senior visiting research fellow at the OU, is guilty of propagating “sustained transmisogynist pressure” in the media by supporting “transphobic measures to segregate incarcerated trans women”.
Kathleen Stock, professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, who has faced hostility from students over her views on gender identification, said that the cancellation was the latest example of how pressure from transgender campaigners was having a “chilling effect on the richness of discussion” in this area.
“Richard Garside’s views on this are incredibly moderate and well-considered, so if you can’t make statements like these, then something is really up,” said Professor Stock.
“People have stuck things to my office saying I am not welcome on campus and students have held placards on campus saying that I am transphobic,” Professor Stock added. “I think the worry about no platforming can be exaggerated, but it is happening in this area.”
Publicație : The Times
International students and cheating: how worried should we be?
Some evidence shows international students are more likely to use essay mills, but academics say this reflects wider problems in global higher education
As universities around the world step up their efforts to combat essay mills, knowing which students are more likely to pay someone else to complete an assignment for them is increasingly important.
A recent study found that as many as one in seven recent graduates may have been guilty of contract cheating and, for Western university sectors that are increasingly reliant on international students, emerging evidence points towards an uncomfortable truth that such learners may be more likely to break the rules than their domestic peers.
Some essay mills are targeted specifically at international students. The issue was thrust into the spotlight in 2013 when a contract cheating service aimed at Chinese-speaking students in New Zealand, called Assignments4U, was exposed. The following year, hundreds of students at 16 Australian universities were found to have used the contract cheating site MyMaster to write their essays and even to sit online exams for them. Written in Chinese, the website was aimed at Chinese studying abroad.
Looking at cheating and plagiarism as a whole, a 2016 investigation by The Times into more than 100 UK universities found that students from outside the European Union were more than four times as likely to be caught cheating as their classmates from inside the bloc, including the UK. The same year, a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from 14 leading US colleges found that international students were five times more likely to be found guilty of cheating than their American counterparts.
A self-selecting survey of 230 academics from around the world conducted by Times Higher Education adds fresh evidence to the debate. Asked whether international or domestic students were more likely to use contract cheating services, 51 per cent said that the risk was the same for each group; but 42 per cent said that international students were more likely to use essay mills, compared with only 8 per cent who identified domestic learners as being the greatest danger.
As the THE survey indicates, none of this is to say that domestic students’ use of essay mills is not a significant problem. However, many academics regard the challenges facing international students as the elephant in the room of the contract cheating debate, and one that can no longer be ignored.
Anecdotally, sector experts identify a range of issues that might make some international students more likely to cheat: for some, having English as a second language; in a number of cases, the intense pressure to succeed that comes with having a significant proportion of familial income invested in your education; and perhaps an unfamiliarity with Western academic norms and experience of a more didactic educational culture in which reciting others’ words is seen as a mark of respect, not plagiarism.
Emerging academic evidence supports some of these assumptions. A 2018 survey of about 14,000 students in eight Australian universities found that students who spoke a language other than English at home were significantly more likely to say that they had cheated in assessments than those who used English. A 2015 UK study that explored which students were most likely to purchase essays came to similar conclusions.
Tracey Bretag, director of academic integrity at the University of South Australia Business School and one of the authors of the Australian study, told THE that it was important to note that the findings were about language, not national or cultural heritage. “Our research found that domestic students for whom English is a second language also had serious problems. Of course the bottom line is, at least in the Australian context, 80 per cent of our second language learners are international,” she said.
For Dr Bretag, the problem is that in the drive to recruit more international students – and the hefty tuition fees they command – the language requirements needed to study at university have become too low.
The most common official assessment of English language ability used by Western universities is the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which grades students from one to nine. Universities usually require a minimum score of six, while in the UK the government minimum is 5.5, but native English speakers would score a nine. “[A six] is not adequate for the linguistic manipulation you need for academic writing,” Dr Bretag said.
In a 2018 paper, Danijela Trenkic, an associate professor in second language education at the University of York, found that the English vocabulary of international students in the UK was on average just under half the size of that of home students, even though the students in the study all had an IELTS score of 6.5 to 7.5. Furthermore, they read and processed information in English at half the speed, understood significantly less of what they read and were less able to summarise in writing what they had read.
According to Dr Bretag, although these students arrive at university thinking they are prepared for the rigours of academic study, they are not. “We set them up for failure, knowing that they will need more support and a lot more training…and they don’t have time to access any non-mandatory support that is on offer,” she said. “Then, on top of that, we have unscrupulous, marketing-savvy essay mills that target those vulnerable students.”
Rather than disappoint their parents – who have often worked hard to afford to get them there – the students turn to contract cheating, she said.
Lord Storey, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education in the UK’s House of Lords, agreed that many of the students who resort to essay mills do so for this reason. Lord Storey put the main problem international students have down to “cultural learning differences, because education is different between countries. How students learn in Asia is different to how you learn in the UK, and that is different to America, for example.”
A 2018 paper by Louise Kaktiņš, a lecturer in the linguistics department at Macquarie University in Sydney, which found “particular concerns” regarding international students and contract cheating, said that their use of essay mills was a side-effect of the “increasingly corporatised, commercialised university culture”.
“Universities are now in fierce competition with one another for a share of the international student market,” Dr Kaktiņš told THE. “It is not surprising that entry requirements for international students are becoming less stringent and increasingly flimsy and porous, especially as regards students’ academic suitability.”
In THE’s survey, asked whether university admission standards were partly to blame for the rise in contract cheating, 43 per cent of respondents agreed that they were. Only a quarter (26 per cent) felt that they were not, while a third (32 per cent) were undecided.
One Australian respondent said that international students were more likely to turn to essay mills “because we assure them that their English is of a sufficient standard to get by in our courses when often it isn’t – that is our fault, not theirs. The purchasing power of international students has been used in lieu of appropriate and sustainable government funding. We should hardly be surprised if that purchasing power is used in ways we can’t control.”
However, Cath Ellis, associate dean (education) in UNSW Sydney’s School of the Arts & Media, cautioned that the perception that international students were more likely to contract-cheat might actually be because academic staff found it easier to detect in the work of students for whom English is a second language. “These students are probably less able to cover their tracks. In other words, it may actually be a kind of reporting bias,” she said.
How, then, should universities respond? Singling out international students might serve only to increase their isolation and push them towards essay mills, and the perils of this approach were demonstrated earlier this year when the University of Liverpool was forced to apologise for sending an email suggesting that international students did not know what cheating was.
Many of the solutions apply to all students: the Republic of Ireland recently said that it would follow New Zealand’s lead and make essay mills illegal, while technology company Turnitin last week launched Authorship Investigation, software that claims to be able to use machine-learning algorithms and forensic linguistic analysis to detect whether a student is indeed the author of a submitted essay.
Some academics recommend a shift to more assessment by exams, rather than essays, while others advocate greater use of vivas and other forms of assessment that involve direct interaction with academics.
For South Australia’s Dr Bretag, the most significant step relating to international students would be to introduce higher language-related entry requirements. “But there need to be strict criteria on the agents who recruit international students and to make sure our IELTS testing centres, and other centres, are free from corruption,” she said. “I’ve spoken to students who can barely speak English and yet they show me their certificate and it says 6.5.”
Dr Kaktiņš recommended the introduction of invigilated “diagnosis” exams when international students arrive to stream them into the right preparatory courses, while Dr Ellis said that institutions needed to provide better support to students who found themselves struggling with language and academic culture.
However, both Dr Bretag and Dr Kaktiņš said that success would be limited without more government funding for universities that are reliant on international student fees.
“[Contract cheating by international students] is a symptom of a wider issue in higher education. It’s a system under stress,” Dr Bretag said. “It’s not good enough to blame institutions for being inefficient with funding, to blame tutors for not doing a good enough job in teaching or catching cheating, and it’s certainly not good enough to blame students, particularly second-language learners, for being cheaters.
“It’s a systemic issue and, unless we look at the big picture, all we’re doing is putting band-aids on minor players who can do very little to change things.”
Publicație : The Times
Foreign students at Israeli university ‘made to work on farm’
Tel Aviv University launches investigation into complaints made by African and Asian learners on industry-backed master’s
One of Israel’s leading universities has launched an investigation into claims that international students from Africa and Asia were put to work on farms, sometimes labouring for 12 hours or more a day.
Students felt “humiliated and exploited” after their experience on the master’s course in plant sciences at Tel Aviv University, which is operated in partnership with a company called the Arava International Center for Agricultural Training, Haaretz reported. The newspaper said that the 15-month course, which costs NIS22,000 (£4,600) in tuition fees, consisted of only a single month on campus.
The other 14 months were spent on a farm run by Arava, with two days a week of studying and three or four days a week of work, according to Haaretz.
The students were on student visas, which prohibit them from working, and the farm work had been presented as the practical element of the course, but the students said that the tasks they performed had little to do with their academic fields, the report says. Admission to the course, which has been running since 2014, requires a BSc in life sciences or a related field.
Michal Tadjer, a labour and immigration attorney at the Worker’s Hotline (Kav La’Oved) non-governmental organisation, who is representing one of the students in a lawsuit against Arava, told Times Higher Education that students were made to do gruelling work but felt that they could not leave for fear of jeopardising their degree.
Tel Aviv’s website bills the plant sciences programme as combining “academic research with hands-on agricultural experience in the Arava desert, Israel’s largest vegetable exporting region”.
However, one student told Haaretz that they had ended up “harvesting and planting alongside workers from Thailand. Sometimes we worked 16 hours a day.”
Ms Tadjer said that the students’ experience was deeply concerning. “This would not have happened to white European students,” she said.
Details of the case have emerged just weeks after Israel announced plans to double its intake of international students by 2022. Given many Western students’ opposition to the country’s treatment of Palestinians, increasing recruitment in Africa and Asia is seen as key to the success of this strategy.
Philip Altbach, founding director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, said that it would hinder Israel being seen as a welcoming country for international students.
“The optics of this are about as bad as it gets – using students from developing countries as ‘indentured agricultural labour’,” he said.
A Tel Aviv spokeswoman told THE that the plant sciences programme “meets high academic standards” and claimed that some of the points made in the Haaretz article were “inaccurate”.
“The university treats the matter at hand with utmost gravity. The university will never give a hand to exploitation of students or any human being,” she said, adding that the university had “appointed an investigation committee to examine the claims raised”.
Arava told Haaretz that the programme had so far graduated 64 students, “all of whom went back to their home countries and received quality jobs”.
Publicație : The Times
Réforme des études de médecine: les députés votent la fin du numerus clausus
La réforme fait partie du projet de loi «Ma santé 2022», en examen depuis lundi à l’Assemblée nationale. Parmi les autres changements prévus, la fin de la paces, et l’ouverture d’une licence santé. Le sort que celle-ci réserve aux étudiants est encore flou.
Le dossier est épineux. Figurant dans le projet de loi santé examiné par les députés ce lundi, la réforme des études de santé est l’un des points scrutés avec attention, susceptible d’enflammer le débat public. La loi adoptée par les députés ce mardi après-midi prévoit en effet la fin de la première année commune aux études de santé, la fameuse Paces, et la fin du numerus clausus. Voilà pour ce qui est acté. Pour le reste, c’est encore un peu flou. «Les modalités précises seront déterminées par des décrets et des arrêtés», explique Jean Sibilia, président de la Conférence des doyens des facultés de médecine, qui reconnaît qu’«il reste encore beaucoup de travail, dans un délai très serré».
Cette réforme sera appliquée dès la rentrée 2020. Il faudra donc que le contenu des décrets soit fixé d’ici début avril pour respecter le calendrier d’une loi particulièrement impactante puisqu’elle concerne chaque année plus de 60 000 étudiants en première année. La loi devait également inclure la réforme du second cycle (concours de l’internat en sixième année), mais les universitaires ont obtenu son report d’un an.
La fausse mort du numerus clausus
Selon Agnès Buzyn, la réforme doit permettre d’«augmenter de 20%» le nombre de médecins formés pour permettre un «meilleur accès aux soins sur l’ensemble du territoire». Autrement dit, il faut faire sauter le célèbre numerus clausus, fixé jusqu’alors à l’échelle nationale. Parmi les 60 000 candidats, tout le monde ne pourra pas devenir médecin pour autant. Le nombre d’admis sera désormais du ressort des universités, qui fixeront un nombre d’admis en fonction des besoins du territoire.
«Il faut déterminer ce nombre par rapport aux besoins en matière de soins dans 10 à 15 ans».Jean Sibilia, président de la Conférence des doyens des facultés de médecine.
Jean Sibilia reste prudent. «Le numerus clausus n’a cessé d’augmenter, il est passé de3 500 à 9 000 en médecine depuis les années 2 000», explique-t-il, rappelant que les effets de l’augmentation du nombre d’étudiants n’est pas immédiat. «Il faut déterminer ce nombre par rapport aux besoins en matière de soins dans 10 à 15 ans, en tenant compte de la future organisation du système de soins qui se modernise. Or ces données sont difficilement évaluables», reconnaît ce doyen de la faculté de médecine de Strasbourg. «Augmenter le nombre de médecins est une bonne décision, à condition de renforcer les moyens des hôpitaux, car tous les services ne peuvent pas prendre des stagiaires et internes» affirme un externe en médecine.
Du «concours» à l’«examen sélectif»
Un décret devrait par ailleurs remplacer la Paces par deux voies distinctes, pour accéder aux métiers de la santé. La première serait un «portail santé», c’est-à-dire une formation d’un an dont les cours seraient assez similaires à ceux de la Paces, mais «plus diversifiés» explique Jean Sibilia, pour permettre aux élèves de se diriger vers d’autres voies en cas d’échec. Contrairement à la Paces, ce «portail santé» offre aux élèves 60 crédits Ects -l’équivalent d’une année de licence-, mais ne permet pas de redoubler.
«On aimerait bien qu’il y ait un oral pour déterminer l’admission»Jean Sibilia,président de la Conférence des doyens des facultés de médecine
Les élèves du portail santé auront des examens pour valider leur année, puis il y aura une deuxième étape pour déterminer de leur admission en deuxième année de médecine. Les critères de sélection seront a priori fixés par chaque université, mais «Le décret fixera sans doute un cadrage national», explique encore Jean Sibilia. «On aimerait bien qu’il y ait un oral pour déterminer l’admission», ajoute-t-il. Cet oral permettrait d’évaluer la réflexion éthique des candidats. Il restera toutefois une part de QCM, plus restreinte qu’aujourd’hui. «Il n’y a pas de compétences sans connaissances», martèle Jean Sibilia.
Ces «examens sélectifs» seront-ils vraiment différents d’un concours? «Autant être honnête, on joue un peu sur les mots, reconnaît Jean Sibilia. Emmanuel Macron l’a dit dans son discours du 18 septembre, la formation en médecine restera sélective».
» LIRE AUSSI – Réussir ses études de médecine après la Paces
Le sort incertain des étudiants en licence santé
La deuxième voie pour accéder à ces métiers serait une «licence santé», une licence à l’université en droit, histoire, philosophie, physique etc. avec une «mineure santé» (c’est-à-dire des UE en complément). Les étudiants choisissant cette voie après le bac pourraient rejoindre la deuxième année de médecine en passant un examen classant, «quand ils seront prêts», indique Jean Sibilia. C’est-à-dire, «à la fin de leur L2 ou de leur L3», précise-t-il. Pour le président de la Conférence des doyens de médecine, «ces mineures santé ne sont pas une voie de contournement. Les critères de sélection seront les mêmes que ceux du portail santé, nous tenons fermement à l’équité».
«Ces élèves auront certes des crédits Ects, mais ne feront pas du tout ce qu’ils voulaient »Sacha, étudiant en 6ème année de médecine
Inversement, les étudiants ayant validé leur année de portail santé mais non admis en deuxième année de médecine, pourront se diriger vers d’autres filières, notamment les licences santé, pour poursuivre leurs études. Une question demeure en suspens: à quels débouchéspourront-ils prétendre à l’issue de cette filière?
À défaut de devenir médecins, on leur assure qu’ils pourront être journalistes spécialisés dans la santé. Un «lot de consolation» qui réserve peu de postes… «Ces élèves auront certes des crédits Ects, mais ne feront pas du tout ce qu’ils voulaient, ce pour quoi ils avaient signé à la base», regrette Sacha, un étudiant en sixième année de médecine. «Chaque année, il y a 45 000 élèves non casés à l’issue de la paces, admet Jean Sibilia. Il faut réfléchir à de nouvelles filières, nous allons développer une sacrée belle diversité de métiers alternatifs, en biomaths, biostatistiques, etc.» Pour l’heure, le chantier est loin d’être terminé.
Publicație : Le Figaro
Près de 9 étudiants juifs sur 10 ont déjà été victimes d’actes antisémites
L’union des étudiants juifs de France (UEJF) et l’Ifop ont réalisé la toute première enquête sur l’antisémitisme à l’université. Si les étudiants juifs sont très nombreux à être victimes de violences, ils ne sont que 1% à aller porter plainte.
L’antisémitisme se banalise dans les universités. C’est le bilan de la première enquête jamais effectuée sur les actes antisémites dans les établissements d’enseignement supérieur, dont nous livrons ici les premières données. Commandée à l’Ifop par l’union des étudiants juifs de France (UEJF), cette enquête inédite fait suite à une multiplication des actes violents envers des étudiants ou des institutions juives, comme le saccage du local de l’UEJF en mars dernier, ou la découverte de tags antisémites à HEC en octobre. Et d’après ces premiers chiffres, on note qu’une immense majorité d’étudiants juifs ont déjà été témoins d’actes antisémites, même s’ils sont très peu nombreux à porter plainte.
Ils sont en effet 89% d’étudiants juifs à avoir été déjà victimes d’actes antisémites et 20% à des agressions. Par ailleurs, 45% des répondants à l’enquête, étudiants juifs ou non, ont déjà été confrontés à des actes antisémites sur leurs lieux d’études. «Il y a une banalisation de l’antisémitisme depuis une dizaine d’années, explique au Figaro Sacha Ghozlan, le président de l’UEJF. Sur internet, sur les réseaux sociaux, mais aussi dans les couloirs des universités, la parole de haine se banalise. Dieudonné a été le premier à instrumentaliser la haine antijuifs pour en faire de l’humour, et depuis, c’est devenu presque normal.»
Stéréotypes
Malgré ces données inquiétantes, l’étude note pourtant que les stéréotypes sur les juifs sont plus faibles en milieu étudiant qu’ailleurs. «Les gens sont globalement plus éduqués à l’université, ce qui empêche certains clichés de véhiculer, note encore Sacha Ghozlan. Malgré tout, les étudiants juifs sont très souvent victimes. Cela signifie que les factions antisémites à la fac, bien qu’assez rares, sont très actives et virulentes.»
Ces violences récurrentes ne poussent pourtant pas les étudiants juifs de France vers le commissariat: ils ne sont en effet que 1% à aller porter plainte. «20% d’entre eux ont peur des représailles en cas de dépôt de plainte», poursuit le président de l’UEJF.
Référents absents
Il y a trois semaines, les responsables des dix universités du Grand Est et des Hauts-de-France avaient mis en ligne un texte pour lutter contre la violence antijuifs dans leurs établissements. Un rôle qui n’existe pas ou passe bien trop inaperçu dans la plupart des universités, selon Sacha Ghozlan. «Les étudiants ne savent pas vers qui se tourner, poursuit-il. Il faudrait que le jour de l’inscription, quand ils viennent se renseigner pour les bourses ou les associations, on leur fasse une présentation du référent.» De fait, 88% des étudiants sondés ne savent pas qui est le référent racisme et antisémitisme dans leur université.
Publicație : Le Figaro
Università di Pescara, professore di scienze motorie assente per quattro anni
Una mail degli studenti al rettore: „Lezioni affidate a insegnanti non abilitati”. L’avvocato dell’ortopedico: „Non ci consentono di difenderci”
ROMA – E’ sotto procedimento disciplinare per non essersi presentato a lezione nelle ultime quattro stagioni accademiche. E’ un professore ordinario di Scienze motorie che all’Università di Chieti e Pescara, oltre ad essere il titolare del corso di Medicina fisica e Riabilitazione, è direttore della scuola di specializzazione, presidente del corso di laurea in Fisioterapia, direttore di Master, responsabile delle attività di insegnamento nel suo settore scientifico. Una figura importante Raoul Saggini che, a 66 anni e con duecento pubblicazioni scientifiche sul tema, ha rapporti con la Regione Abruzzo, il settore giovanile della Federcalcio, collabora con cliniche romane e ha fondato un centro riabilitativo nella sua Firenze.
Ecco, lo scorso 18 gennaio all’indirizzo elettronico del rettore Sergio Caputi – alla guida dell’ateneo dal maggio 2017 dopo un ciclo di guai prodotti dall’azione disposta dal precedente rettore, Carmine Di Ilio, insieme all’ex direttore generale Filippo Del Vecchio – è arrivata una lunga mail. Trenta studenti di Scienze motorie chiedevano a Caputi, con nome e cognome in calce al testo, riservatezza: “Temiamo per il prosieguo del nostro corso di studi”. La mail raccontava di un docente che da quattro anni non era presente alle lezioni e che, questione che ovviamente limitava lo spessore didattico dell’insegnamento, inviava “in sua vece” colleghi giovani, in alcuni casi “non abilitati ad impartire lezioni di livello universitario”.
Una settimana dopo il rettore, realizzate le prime verifiche sulle indicazioni degli universitari orfani della formazione promessa, ha avviato un procedimento disciplinare avvisando anche l’interessato. Quindi ha convocato il luminare delle Scienze motorie, per due volte, ma il “prof” si è negato all’incontro: “Motivi medici”, spiega ora. Caputi ha passato il documento di accusa, a cui si era aggiunto nel frattempo un secondo esposto per mail, alla Commissione di disciplina (formata da tre professori ordinari).
Il professore accusato di assenteismo cronico attraverso il suo legale ha chiesto un accesso agli atti, per ora riuscito in maniera parziale. Il procedimento, come ricorda l’avvocato dell’ateneo Antonello D’Antonio, resta secretato. La posizione del docente, in un arco di tempo di 180 giorni, potrà essere archiviata o – di fronte a riscontri chiari – il rettore potrà scegliere di censurare formalmente il comportamento del professore o, in casi estremi, di avviarne il licenziamento.
All’accettazione del Centro universitario di Medicina fisica e riabilitativa le operatrici questa mattina rispondevano: “Il professore non visita più da noi, lo può contattare all’indirizzo mail dell’ateneo”. Pierfrancesco Zecca, il legale che tutela l’ortopedico-traumatologo, dice: “Le cose non stanno come pare sia scritto nella denuncia iniziale, che ancora presenta diversi lati oscuri. A noi la stessa università ha scritto che quelle trenta firme non ci sono. I nomi di quella mail e del secondo esposto ci risultano essere soltanto due: Mario Rossi e Gabriele D’Annunzio, che poi è il nome dell’ateneo. Le consideriamo, quindi, anonime. Il mio assistito”, prosegue il legale Zecca, “ha dedicato la sua vita all’università e io porterò questo procedimento, carico di vizi formali, prima al Tar e poi in procura. Negli ultimi due bienni il docente aveva un’esenzione in quanto presidente di una commissione dell’Abilitazione scientifica nazionale che sceglie i futuri docenti universitari e, nonostante questo, ha fatto molte ore di lezione. I suoi assistenti, poi, erano tutti regolari. Queste denunce sono una trappola che nasce dagli allievi del professore per bassi motivi di interesse locale”.
Publicație : La Repubblica