23 martie 2019
Distincţii importante pentru Iaşi la Gala Naţională a Excelenţei în Asistenţa Socială
Premiul pentru Jurnalism a fost adjudecat de Maura Anghel, de la cotidianul Evenimentul Regional al Moldovei * prof. univ. dr. Nicu Gavriluţă a câştigat premiul „Personalitatea anului 2018 în promovarea educaţiei şi formării în asistenţa socială” * în Moldova au ajuns şase dintre cele 17 premii oferite la nivel naţional
În cadrul Galei Naţionale a Excelenţei în Asistenţă Socială, organizată cu ocazia celebrării Zilei Mondiale a Asistenţei Sociale, au fost premiaţi asistenţii sociali care s-au remarcat în anul 2018 cu rezultate deosebite, dar şi personalităţile care au susţinut profesia lor şi s-au implicat în plan social. Evenimentul a avut loc la Ateneul Român în prezenţa Alteţei Sale Regale Principesa Maria şi a numeroase personalităţi din mediul instituţional şi neguvernamental.
În Moldova au ajuns şase dintre cele 17 premii oferite la nivel naţional, pe scenă urcând Livia Aioane (Botoşani, Premiul pentru asistentul social din domeniul sănătate – servicii medicale), Oana Elena Bontea (Vaslui, Premiul pentru asistentul social din domeniul asistenţei sociale comunitare), Maura Anghel (Iaşi, Premiul pentru jurnalism), Adrian Solomon (deputat PSD Vaslui, Premiul politicianul anului), prof. univ. dr. Nicu Gavriluţă (Premiul personalitatea anului 2018 în promovarea educaţiei şi formării în asistenţa socială) şi Maria-Felicia Mihai (Botoşani, Premiul pentru întreaga carieră în promovarea asistenţei sociale). „Pentru mine a fost o recunoaştere a muncii pe care am depus-o în calitate de profesor, îndrumător al lucrărilor de licenţă, de master şi de doctorat timp de ani de zile cu absolvenţii de la AsistenţăSocială. O bună parte dintre ei lucrează în centre, sunt profesioniştirecunoşti la nivel naţional şi internaţional. Faptul că ei nu au au uitat peste timp întâlnirile noastre şi modul în care s-au format peste timp a contat enorm pentru mine. Premiul este o recunoaştere a muncii şi o obligaţie de a continua pe viitor. Vă mulţumesc frumos pentru voturi, susţinere şi încredere!”, a spus prof. univ. dr. Nicu Gavriluţă.
Gala Naţională a Excelenţei în Asistenţa Socială este un eveniment emblematic, ajuns la cea de-a VI-a ediţie. „Ca jurnalist, am avut ocazia să cunosc foarte bine comunitatea Iaşului şi a Moldovei, cotidianul având distribuţie regională. Am cunoscut lucrurile minunate care se petrec în această zonă a ţării, dar şi pe cele mai puţin plăcute şi aşa mi-am dat seama cât de mult ajutor se poate oferi. În acest mod m-am apropiat de domeniul asistenţei sociale, am văzut munca imensă pe care o depun asistenţii sociali, implicarea lor, zbuciumul intern. Am văzut la faţa locului cum nevoile şi sărăcia pot distruge destine, dar am văzut şi eroi care s-au ridicat de jos şi au mers mai departe, cu ajutorul comunităţii. Aici asistenţa socială are un rol crucial pentru că lucrătorul în domeniu poate fi singurul pilon pe care un om se poate sprijini ca să iasă dintr-un impas. Am decis să le ofer mereu sprijin”, a spus Maura Anghel.
Pentru ea, 2018 a fost un an-record, în care a iniţiat, susţinut şi finalizat nu mai puţín de 10 proiecte socio-culturale cu implicaţii multiple în Iaşi şi multe aşezări rurale.
Publicație : Evenimentul
Exclusiv! Lovitura de teatru! Unul dintre cei mai vechi directori din Iasi a renuntat la functie. Vezi ce l-a determinat sa faca asta
Este unul dintre cei mai longevivi directori dintr-o importanta institutie publica a Iasului • Dupa fix 30 de ani de activitate din aceasta postura, acesta a decis sa renunte la functie • Cu toate ca ar mai fi putut activa, el a considerat ca e timpul sa acorde mai mult timp familiei si sa se ingrijeasca de sanatate • „Acum, dupa atatia ani, chiar daca te simti tanar, iti dai seama ca fizic nu mai esti ca la 30 de ani… Cred ca e timpul sa vina altii, important fiind insa sa duca mai departe munca pe care am facut-o”, a marturisit, vizibil emotionat, directorul
Este una dintre cele mai longevive personaje din zona administrativa universitara ieseana! Chiar daca la conducerea celebrei institutii, unde a avut pozitie de conducere inca din anul 1990, s-au aflat figuri remarcabile din zona intelectuala, dr. ec. jr. Petru Condrea a colaborat cu toti acestia si a fost considerat o figura competenta care trebuie mentinuta in organigrama Universitatii Tehnice (TUIASI) „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iasi. Acum, Condrea si-a depus dosarul pentru a se pensiona. Ca simbolistica, de precizat ca a facut acest gest pe 21 martie 2019, avand in vedere ca, pe 21 martie 1989, se angaja la Institutul Politehnic de la acea vreme, actualmente TUIASI.
Acesta a facut o solicitare anticipata, avand in vedere ca implineste varsta abia in luna decembrie a acestui an si ar mai putea avea dreptul la prelungire. El spera ca, dupa plecarea sa, colegii care vor veni sa-si aduca aminte cu placere de munca depusa si sa o duca mai departe.
„Pe mine ma bucura faptul ca, daca la 21 martie 1989 ajungeam la institutia pe care am slujit-o mereu cu devotament si ocupandu-ma de varii domenii de activitate, acum sper ca oamenii pe care i-am avut alaturi de mine isi vor aduce aminte cu placere de munca mea si vor aprecia tot ceea ce am facut. Eu am incercat sa-i inteleg si sa-i ajut pe toti colegii pe care i-am coordonat. Am administrat si Biblioteca, am avut grija si de Campusul «Tudor Vladimirescu», am fost director economic, am facut achizitii si am dat concurs serios ca sa ajung Director General Administrativ la Universitatea Tehnica. Acum, dupa atatia ani, chiar daca te simti tanar, iti dai seama ca fizic nu mai esti ca la 30 de ani… Cred ca e timpul sa vina altii, important fiind insa sa duca mai departe munca pe care am facut-o. Chiar daca au fost si momente grele, alaturi de multe amintiri placute, va marturisesc ca mereu am facut totul pentru a proteja Politehnica ieseana, am pastrat patrimoniul si am luptat pentru ca Universitatea sa fie mereu racordata la ceea ce este nou. Am stiut cum sa ma adaptez la noile cerinte, fiind un perfectionist”, a marturisit, vizibil emotionat, directorul Petru Condrea.
Rectorul de la Politehnica: „Am fost surprins”
Pe de alta parte, rectorul Universitatii Tehnice, prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, s-a declarat surprins de decizia acestuia. De asemenea, profesorul a tinut sa arate ca seful DGA a fost unul dintre oamenii importanti care au condus Politehnica.
„Domnul Director Petru Condrea este, cu siguranta, unul dintre cei care au marcat evolutia Politehnicii iesene de dupa anii ’90, prin profesionalism si devotament. In mod evident, dimensiunea oricarei Universitati este conturata de componentele didactice si de cercetare. Insa, fuziunea optima a acestora este conditionata de existenta unui sistem administrativ functional, de fapt nu doar functional, ci perfect functional. Ori, domnul Director Condrea are abilitatea sa compenseze unele disfunctionalitati inerente prin decizii care refac normalitatea mecanismului administrativ. Este adevarat si perfect natural ca am avut unele discutii in contradictoriu, pe diferite subiecte. Este firesc, caci aceste discutii reprezinta nu doar premisa gasirii unor solutii mai bune, ci efectul schimbarilor periodice de management academic, care aduc cu sine diferente de abordare a problemelor. Am fost surprins cand Domnia Sa a venit cu cererea prin care solicita eliberarea actelor de pensionare, stiind ca mai sunt cateva luni, opt, pana la implinirea varstei. Am discutat, si nu doar acum, despre posibilitatea continuarii activitatii pentru inca vreo doi ani, respectand reglementarile legale in vigoare, in ideea finalizarii proiectelor Universitatii la care ne-am angajat cu totii. Nu pot sa spun ca am primit un raspuns clar, insa mi-a spus mai mereu ca a obosit. Si il inteleg. Dar mai am cateva luni sa il conving sa continuam, intr-o forma sau alta, sau mai are cateva luni sa ma convinga ca este momentul unei schimbari”, a conchis rectorul Cascaval.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Studentii si cercetatorii din cadrul Universitatii „Cuza” au sanse importante sa studieze in SUA
Joi, 28 martie 2019, la ora 11:30, studentii si cercetatorii din cadrul Universitatii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” (UAIC) din Iasi sunt invitati sa participe la prezentarea „Oportunitati de studiu si cercetare în Statele Unite„, organizata de Comisia Fulbright Româno-Americana.
Prezentarea va avea loc în Sala de conferinte Ferdinand, Corp A, et. II, Rectorat. Astfel, e o sansa pentru cei interesati in a se dezvolta stiintific si profesional pe aceasta zona si la cel mai inalt nivel academic tocmai in SUA.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Cum au devenit universităţile din România ţintă pentru Moscova: ambasadorul şi alţi oficiali ruşi, invitaţi la tot mai multe evenimente
În ultimii trei ani, vizitele la universităţile din România ale ambasadorului Rusiei la Bucureşti, Valeri Kuzmin, au devenit din ce în ce mai multe. Conform site-ului Ambasadei Rusiei în România, în perioada 2017-2019, Kuzmin a fost invitat să conferenţieze la universităţile din Bucureşti, Cluj şi Târgovişte. Universitatea din Craiova este şi ea scena unui parteneriat solid cu Rusia.
Ultima vizită a avut loc în urmă cu câteva zile, pe 19 martie, la Universitatea din Piteşti. „Pe 19 martie a.c., Ambasadorul Rusiei în România, Valery Kuzmin, a vizitat Universitatea din Piteşti, unde s-a întâlnit cu studenţii şi corpul academic profesoral universitar şi a participat la dezbaterea pe temă „România, UE şi Rusia – istorie, relaţii şi tendinţe moderne”, precum şi vis-a-vis de mai multe probleme din agenda regională şi internaţională”, arată Ambasada Rusiei într-o postare pe Facebook.
Astfel, începând cu 2017, prezenţa lui Kuzmin la evenimentele academice organizate de Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Universitatea Valahia din Târgovişte a fost, în medie, de două ori pe an, informează g4media.ro.
Pe 18 februarie, Valery Kuzmin a vizitat Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai din Cluj, unde s-a întâlnit cu studenţii şi profesorii departamentului de limbi şi literaturi slave, cu vicedecanul Facultăţii de Filologie Dorin Chira, directorul Centrului de Cooperare Internaţională Sergiu Miscoiu, precum şi cu personalul şi colaboratorii activi din cadrul centrului „Lumea Rusă” pe lângă Universitate. La cea din urmă dintre aceste întâlniri, au fost prezenţi şi reprezentanţii de la ONG „Vostok”. Ambasadorul a predat bibliotecii Centrului seria de cărţi „Scriitorii ruşi şi Ortodoxia”, ediţie a Fundaţiei Publice Internaţionale pentru Unitatea Popoarelor Ortodoxe. (sursă aici)
Cu câteva zile înainte de întâlnirea din Cluj, ambasadorul Kuzmin a participat la o festivitate dedicată aniversării a 29 de ani de la stabilirea Universităţii Creştine Dimitrie Cantemir, precum şi aniversării lui Momcilo Luburici, Preşedintele acestei instituţii de învăţământ.
La conferinţă festivă au participat discipolii sărbătoritului şi absolvenţii Universităţii: parlamentarii români şi funcţionari de stat, reprezentanţi ai ONG-urilor, ai asociaţiilor civice şi profesionale, ai instituţiilor de învăţământ superior din România şi din Turcia, diplomaţi ai ambasadelor străini acreditate în România, cadre didactice şi studenţi ai Universităţii.
Pe 31 mai 2018, Kuzmin a vizitat Universitatea din Bucureşti, unde s-a întâlnit cu studenţii şi profesorii Facultăţii de Sociologie şi le-a povestit despre pregătirea Campionatului Mondial FIFA de fotbal din Rusia, se arată într-un comunicat emis de Ambasada Rusiei, conform g4media.ro
Pe 16 aprilie 2018, ambasadorul Kuzmin a lansat Săptămâna Culturii Ruse la Universitatea din Bucureşti, la iniţiativa Facultăţii de Limbi şi Literaturi Străine.
La jumătatea anului 2017, ambasadorului Rusiei a vizitat Universitatea din Târgovişte „Valahia”, „unde a avut o conversaţie cu rectorul Călin Oros şi membrii Consiliului Ştiinţific.” (sursa)
În aprilie 2017, Kuzmin s-a întâlnit la Cluj cu rectorul UBB Ioan-Aurel Pop, actualul preşedintele al Academiei Române. În comunicatul emis de Ambasada Rusiei se arată că în cadrul întâlnirii „s-au discutat chestiunile de reînnoire a activităţii Comisiei comune ruso-române pentru studierea problemelor izvorâte din istoria relaţiilor bilaterale. De asemenea, în conversaţie a fost abordată tema de extindere a relaţiilor dintre universităţile celor două ţări.”
Şi Universitatea din Craiova este o gazdă predilectă pentru oficiali ruşi, prin intermediul Centrului pentru Politica Externă şi Studii de Securitate (o structură a Facultăţii de Ştiinţe Sociale a Universităţii din Craiova, condus de Florin Păsătoiu). În 2017, acest centru a organizat un eveniment extrem de controversat: l-a invitat să conferenţieze la Craiova, la sediul bibliotecii judeţene, pe Alexei Gromâko, diplomat rus şi directorul Institutului Europa din cadrul Academiei Ruse de Ştiinţe. Potrivit relatărilor de la eveniment, Păsătoiu – care a fost şi moderatorul conferinţei – l-a lăsat pe Gromâko să îşi expună doctrina anti-NATO şi anti-europeană fără a-i da vreo replică, mai mult, aprobând spusele acestuia (sursa 1, sursa 2, sursa 3), informează g4media.ro
Tot în 2017, centrul condus de Păsătoiu a invitat-o la Craiova să discute despre ”regionalizarea Euroasiei” pe Ekaterina Mihailenko, de la Departamentul de Relaţii Internaţionale din cadrul Universităţii Fedarale din Ural, Rusia.
Şi Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti (ASE) are o legătură trainică cu Rusia, aici fiind organizat Centrul Cultural Rus.
Nu în ultimul rând, la începutul lunii martie 2019, Patriarhul Daniel a scris prefaţa ediţiei în limba română a cărţii „Cugetări pentru fiecare zi din an” a Patriarhului rus Kirill, volum lansat deja la Baia Mare şi care urmează să fie lansat şi la Cluj. Potrivit unui afiş al evenimentului, volumul Patriarhului Kirill va fi lansat pe 2 aprilie la Facultatea de Teologie Ortodoxă a Universităţii Babeş – Bolyai din Cluj, în prezenţa Mitropolitului Andrei al Clujului şi a lui Vasile Stanciu, decanul facultăţii.
Publicație : Adevărul
University barred 10 students from campus during Queen’s visit
King’s College London to review security procedures as students explore legal action
King’s College London is to order an independent review of its security procedures after a group of students said they were singled out as troublemakers and barred from campus during a visit by the Queen.
The 10 undergraduates say they are exploring legal action against KCL after their security passes were blocked and they were unable to attend lectures or go into libraries on Tuesday morning and early afternoon.
The Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge visited the university’s Strand campus to open a new facility in Bush House, but at least one of the students was blocked by KCL’s security system from using his pass at the Denmark Hill campus several miles away.
The group say they were targeted because they are members of student political organisations, including Justice for Cleaners, which has successfully campaigned for the university to end its use of outsourced cleaners and security guards, and Action Palestine. Eight of the group are Muslim.
Nicola Phillips, KCL’s vice-president for education, said in an email to students on Friday: “Some members of our community have raised complaints about how arrangements for the Bush House opening, particularly those relating to access to buildings, were managed during the event.”
Phillips apologised “for the fact that this caused some disruption” and said KCL was “commissioning a full and independent review of the arrangements to assess the processes that were followed”.
The university did not respond to questions about why the students were barred from campus, how many were affected or how they were selected.
The barred students said KCL’s response was evidence that it was out of touch with what took place. “They have pledged to conduct a review of how this decision was made. This only demonstrates how incompetent or heartless they are, to have racially and politically profiled students and allude to not even knowing how they did so,” the group said.
“There can be no faith in that review if there is zero acknowledgement of the actual concerns that have been raised or actual engagement with the students affected.”
Several of the students said they attempted to get into university buildings to attend classes, only to discover their names appeared to be on a list of students barred from campus that day.
One of the students, Riobhca, who did not want her surname published, said she tried to enter KCL’s Strand campus on Tuesday morning to give a presentation as part of her coursework, only to find her pass was blocked while other students in her class entered as normal.
“I went up to reception and said my ID is not working. I gave them my student ID and the staff member looked it up and you could see something was wrong,” she said.
The staff member consulted a list of names and numbers, the student said. “Then she said: ‘I’m sorry, you can’t get into the building today until 2pm.’ And I said: ‘But I have a graded presentation to give at 11am – and the [course] guidelines say if you don’t turn up you get a zero.’ And she said: ‘I’m sorry, you can’t get in until 2pm.’
“I got really upset because I had a graded presentation and I really didn’t want to fail. It really upset me. I started crying and I said: ‘Please, you have to let me, I really do have a presentation to give, I’m begging you.’
“I saw some people from my class and shouted at them to vouch for me. I was literally watching people from my class go through security. I was just watching loads of people go through while I couldn’t.”
Eventually, after discussions with the university’s central security staff, the student was given a visitor’s pass.
Other members of the group made videos of KCL staff, including one said to be the university’s head of security, telling them: “We were under instructions from the Metropolitan police to refuse access to Bush House due to the event that was taking place. That is all I can say to you.”
Another video shows a KCL staff member telling students: “There are a number of protesters who have been visible at a number of protests over the last year, two years. You’re identifiable because you were on CCTV.”
The students said the university seemed intent on creating a hostile environment for activists, even as it embraced the campaign against outsourcing cleaning staff.
“In this specific case I think they were worried about even the chance of a protest and what publicity that might bring,” said Tom, another of the students. “And they thought it was just easier to shut people out.”
Publicație : The Guardian
Practical tips for overcoming the fear of failure – and success
Impostor syndrome, feeling misunderstood and pressure to stay on top can plague many academics. Magdalena Bak-Maier advises how to prevent them derailing your efficiency
Whether you’re in the first few years of your academic career or a seasoned professor, one thing never changes: rejection and failure hurt and chasing the next high of success will always come top on your agenda. The drive to prove oneself and be affirmed by one’s peers is deeply woven into the psychology of academic life.
But fear can can often get in the way of these ambitions. Consider these two scenarios: you open your email first thing in the morning to find a message telling you that your latest paper has just been rejected. Critical comments from reviewers make you feel personally attacked, worthless or, at best, deeply misunderstood. Did you really fail so badly at conveying the novelty of the work? Could it be that you made such gross omissions in your study? You may feel sick, disappointed and most of all demotivated: a difficult position to recover from and go on to have a productive day.
Or imagine you’ve been working on a project for a while but things are not going well. You can’t help but feel that your very survival is linked to the results so you can’t quit now. Instead you work harder and longer to the point that you’re actually making mistakes. Work is no longer fun – it is a race and you can sense something nipping at your heels: another competitor, the risk of being scooped, the threat of loss of status or credibility or maybe even the scorn and isolation that success may bring.
Every day, thousands of academics find themselves in these or similar situations. It’s no wonder that maintaining momentum as an academic is not an easy. Below are five tips that could help you overcome your fears and remain effective at work.
- Avoid starting the day by looking at your email. If you want to be effective and free from emotional hijacking, begin your day by focusing on something you want to do. Leave email for the afternoon.
- Make a list of what you want to achieve each day and keep it to two to three items only. Be specific and task-focused. Writing down vague goals such as “write a paper” are unrealistic and unhelpful. Instead, be more precise. For example, set out to brainstorm five killer titles for your next paper. That’s an important task because good titles help your citations and you can achieve it in less than an hour. Or, aim to tackle one specific section of the paper you’re working on.
- Learn to connect with your true feelings. Your mind may be telling you that you need to write a research proposal and so is your head of department. But if you examine how you feel about writing, you notice that your muscles weaken and you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. This is a perfect recipe for procrastinating without knowing why. Knowing and facing how you really feel gives you more options such as getting help to get started.
- Notice the internal narrator in your head and what it is saying. Fear of failure – and success – comes from the mind building a story around other fears. The voice could be saying “I will lose face” or “they will think I’m stupid” or even “I will be resented for saying the truth or grabbing the limelight”. Addressing the unconscious fears underneath these statements will stop them hijacking your thoughts and motivation.
- Avoid isolation. The most frequent and misguided assumption I see academics have is that “everyone else is somehow doing better than me” or that “this is only happening to me”. If the person is already successful, they often fear losing that momentum. If they are struggling, they worry about what will happen to them. Battling such thoughts alone is dangerous. Find someone you can speak to and seek practical help.
We wouldn’t expect Picasso to be Matisse, so dare to be you. Face your fears head on and remember that to be a scientist is to practise your art.
Publicație : The Times
New female principal investigators in UK ‘paid £5K less than men’
Female PIs awarded lower starting salaries than similarly qualified male research group leaders, survey suggests
Female principal investigators are being routinely appointed at lower pay grades than men taking up identical posts at UK universities, leading to a significant salary deficit, a new study suggests.
Drawing on a survey of 365 new research group leaders in the UK, of whom roughly 40 per cent were women, researchers found that “the majority of principal investigators were being paid less than their male counterparts”, according to a preprint recently published on bioRxiv.
That pay gap corresponded to a “£3,000 to £5,000 annual difference”, with a far larger proportion of female researchers falling into the £30,000 to £35,000 pay bracket than males, says the paper, titled “The Life of PI: Transitions to Independence in Academia”, which claims to have profiled a “significant proportion of new group leaders in the UK recruited over the past six years”.
The gender pay gap, which “cannot be explained by seniority”, was driven by the fact that female respondents are “more likely to be appointed at the lower of two possible grades” – either grade 7 versus grade 8 for lecturer positions, or grade 8 versus grade 9 for senior lecturer posts – than men, report the study’s authors, Sophie Acton, Andrew Bell, Christopher Toseland and Alison Twelvetrees.
That was crucial because “while it makes little difference to actual salary initially, it has huge implications for future career progression”, the paper states.
Dr Acton, a research group leader at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at UCL, said she was “surprised” by the survey’s results, which also covered areas around time spent teaching, job satisfaction and research funding.
“I genuinely thought the pay gap in academia was a seniority issue caused by having top-level jobs dominated by men and it would even itself out over time,” Dr Acton told Times Higher Education.
“But if we’re seeing this gap appear for relatively junior positions then that is disappointing,” she continued, adding it may be difficult to address such disparities because “employers will not want to move away from flexible and negotiated salaries [for principal investigators].”
The research, which found that principal investigators generally completed a seven-year postdoctoral period across two to three fixed-term positions before leading their own group, also suggests that women won “significantly lower” additional funding in overall value as principal investigators.
Thus, women’s careers are “more likely to stall [because they were] failing to gain momentum with funding and therefore recruitment [to permanent positions]”, says the report, which said female principal investigators should be “encouraged and supported to apply for more funding and build their teams in the same way as male new PIs” to combat what it called a “worrying trend”.
The paper also highlights how roughly three times as many men were recruited as principal investigators than women in 2013, which it called a “worrying statistic on gender disparity in recruitment [related to] the research excellence framework 2014”.
The “wave of recruitment [prior to the 2014 REF deadline] significantly, if not entirely, favoured male applicants”, it says, adding that this may have been driven by an “increase in direct head-hunting or more informal recruitment techniques driven by networks”, and that the “unacceptable” trend “warrants further investigation to understand why the disparity is so extreme”.
Publicație : The Times
Independent colleges ‘outperform university subcontractors’
Australia’s private colleges are lumbered with loan fee despite doing better than university partners
Australia’s independent higher education colleges, whose students incur a 25 per cent fee on their tuition loans, outperform universities’ partner colleges where students do not wear this cost.
New research into colleges’ success in educating “equity” groups – such as indigenous Australians, people with disabilities and those from socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods – has highlighted the unfairness of the fee, which applies to students at independent and foreign colleges but not local universities.
Students taught by organisations that subcontract for universities also avoid the fee.
The report explores non-university providers’ performance in admitting equity students and shepherding them through courses. While some of this information was already available in aggregated form, the researchers obtained customised data to explore equity outcomes in more detail, including at some individual institutions.
On average, independent colleges enrol and retain low socio-economic status students at roughly the same rates as universities’ “third-party” partners. But their success rates – the proportion of subjects passed – are about 10 percentage points higher.
Independent colleges also outscore public universities in the government’s student experience survey. Students rate them higher on teaching quality, learner engagement, student support and skills development, although universities are deemed to have better learning resources.
Simon Finn, chief executive of Independent Higher Education Australia, said that the loan fee should be abolished. “Our concern is that governments think that the value of student debt on a loan book is more important than equitable treatment of students,” he said.
The study was led by researchers at Melbourne’s La Trobe University. First author Matt Brett, now with Deakin University, cautioned against reading too much into the average findings given the “huge variation” in the performance of independent colleges.
Data on third-party provision were patchy and difficult to access, he added. “It’s likely that we just haven’t been able to pick up some, which might skew the results,” he said.
Nevertheless, some independent colleges achieved success rates considerably higher than many public universities, let alone their third-party providers. Co-author Naomi Tootell said that the best-performing independents were “all very focused on students”.
“We theorised that they had enough enrolments to have some sense of economies of scale but were still small enough to create a sense of belonging within their student groups and teaching staff,” she said.
Mr Brett said the report offered a “starting point” for policymakers to assess whether the loan fee was justified, and for high-performing colleges to argue why their students should be exempt. “What’s been sorely lacking in these debates is hard evidence,” he said.
The Education Department said that it did not collect data about universities’ third-party arrangements. It said funded institutions rather than subcontracted providers were accountable for the delivery of courses.
The government recently abolished the loan fee for private university students, in a political deal to secure the passage of legislation.
Publicație : The Times
L’École de police crée une chaire de recherche avec l’université Lyon 3 et l’UTT
Cette initiative allie l’Ecole nationale supérieure de police, l’université technologique de Troyes et l’université de Lyon III. Lancée vendredi 22 mars 2019, elle a vocation à plancher sur des propositions pour la sécurité.
C’est sous les ornements de la prestigieuse Académie des Sciences à Paris, que l’Ecole nationale supérieure de police (ENSP) a inauguré ce vendredi sa nouvelle Chaire de Sécurité globale. En partenariat avec l’université de Lyon III et l’Université technologique de Troyes (UTT), elle vise une «recherche scientifique appliquée et opérationnelle». Sa devise: «Anticiper et agir».
Pour cette inauguration en grande pompe, la secrétaire perpétuelle de l’Académie des sciences Catherine Bréchignac, mais aussi le secrétaire d’Etat auprès du ministre de l’Intérieur Monsieur Laurent Nunez, se sont joints aux directeurs des trois établissements. Le tout devant une salle remplie d’invités de marque, académiciens, sénateurs, chercheurs, directeurs d’établissement et présidents d’universités.
Une alliance «indispensable» entre la police et le monde universitaire.
La nouvelle chaire visera à produire des connaissances et adapter la formation des agents de sécurité aux nouveaux défis en matière de sécurité. «L’insécurité est devenue une préoccupation majeure de nos sociétés», a souligné Catherine Bréchignac. Elle évoque de nouvelles formes de criminalité, comme le détournement de nouvelles technologies «à des fins meurtrières». À son tour, le directeur de l’École nationale supérieure de police Luc Presson a manifesté l’importance de développer une «sécurité augmentée», et de «tirer profit des expériences passées» pour «proposer des solutions plus efficaces et visionnaires». Tous ont félicité cette nouvelle coopération «indispensable» entre le monde policier et universitaire.
Cette chaire est en partenariat avec l’ENSP, l’université de Lyon III et l’UTT de Troyes.
L’ENSP pourra s’appuyer sur les compétences développées dans les masters spécialisés des établissements partenaires. Les mastères Expert Big Analystics et métriques ou encore Expert Forensic et Cybersécurité de l’UTT, mais aussi les Master sécurité intérieure ou sécurité internationale et défense de Lyon III. Le Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam) et l’Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse, membres de la convention, participeront également aux travaux.
Parmi les projets déja menés à l’ENSP, le projet «Target» a permis de créer un simulateur consacré à l’entraînement des forces de l’ordre et la prise de décision dans des situations à risques, grâce à la réalité augmentée. Le projet «Netcher» a consisté dans le développement d’un réseau pour lutter contre le trafic d’art et protéger le patrimoine culturel européen. Le projet «IDFraud» a permis la création d’un logiciel de détection automatique des fraudes à l’identité.
Trouver un équilibre entre sécurité et liberté
La nouvelle Chaire n’a pas non plus vocation à foncer tête baissée dans l’innovation. Un de ses objectifs essentiels est de «trouver un équilibre pour sécuriser la liberté, un défi de la démocratie particulièrement en Europe», a souligné le président de l’UTT. Il appelle à développer un système indépendant et différent de celui des géants américain et chinois, qui exigent de nombreuses concessions sur la liberté individuelle. «La sécurité sera abordée sous le prisme des droits fondamentaux», a insisté le président de l’université Lyon III, rappelant que «la sécurité est un enjeu important» mais «ne peut à elle seule être un projet de vie».
Le «sceau» circulaire bleu en fond du logo est un symbole en allusion à la sécurité.
Pour le secrétaire d’État Laurent Nunez, l’esprit de cette Chaire «reflète parfaitement ce que nous devons faire au ministère de l’Intérieur». C’est-à-dire, «permettre une réflexion qui doit nous préparer à l’action», en alliant l’innovation et la protection face à ses dérives.
Faisant allusion aux perturbations récentes de l’ordre public avec le mouvement des «gilets jaunes», il espère que les travaux d’une telle chaire permettront de «comprendre ce qui peut animer» les groupes attaquant les institutions, «trouver une meilleure façon de les contrer», pourquoi pas grâce à des outils de reconnaissance faciale. Soulignant que les évolutions relatives à ces outils risquent de heurter la conscience des citoyens, il a invité les chercheurs à gagner une «bataille technique, juridique et éthique».
Publicație : Le Figaro
Brexit: les étudiants français en Erasmus préfèrent l’Espagne à la Grande-Bretagne
Devant l’impasse des négociations du Brexit, difficile de prévoir ce qu’il adviendra du Royaume-Uni au sein du programme Erasmus. Devant cette incertitude, les jeunes Français lui préfèrent maintenant l’Espagne comme pays d’accueil.
Le Brexit n’a pas encore été voté, et pourtant ses premiers effets se font déjà ressentir. Selon les chiffres annuels publiés ce jeudi, l’Espagne a en effet remplacé la Grande-Bretagne comme première destination des étudiants français dans le cadre du programme Erasmus+.
L’agence Erasmus+ France hésite à se prononcer sur les causes d’une baisse de l’engouement pour le Royaume-Uni. Le Brexit? «C’est un sujet qui nous occupe depuis le début et on a travaillé pour que les établissements diversifient leurs propositions aux étudiants et se tournent vers d’autres destinations, comme l’Europe du Nord ou l’Europe de l’Est», a déclaré Laure Coudret-Laut, directrice d’Erasmus+ France, lors d’une conférence de presse.
Profiter du programme tant qu’il est encore temps
L’avenir du Royaume-Uni au sein du programme est encore incertain après un éventuel Brexit. S’il est envisageable que le Royaume-Uni quitte l’Union européenne sans accord préalable, cela ne signifierait pas forcément le départ du pays du programme Erasmus. Actuellement, cinq pays hors Union européenne (Islande, Serbie, Turquie, Liechtenstein, Macédoine) participent pleinement au programme Erasmus. Sur l’année universitaire 2017-2018, 8.021 étudiants français se sont rendus au Royaume Uni dans le cadre d’Erasmus, une petite hausse de 3,3% par rapport à l’année précédente, mais leur nombre avait déjà reculé en 2016-2017 par rapport à 2015-2016.
Pour analyser cette récente hausse, il faut prendre en compte les effets de cette incertitude. Pour l’année universitaire 2017-2018, l’approche de la date d’une sortie de la Grande-Bretagne de l’UE pourrait avoir poussé les jeunes Français à profiter du programme «tant qu’il est encore temps», souligne l’agence.
Les échanges en Espagne en forte hausse
De son côté, l’Espagne a accueilli 8.298 étudiants français en 2017/18, en hausse de 6,3%. Parmi les cinq premières destinations Erasmus des jeunes Français, les hausses enregistrées en 2017-2018 sont de 3,3% pour l’Allemagne (à 4.956 étudiants), 15% pour l’Italie (3.192), 23% pour la Belgique (2.586) et 4,5% pour l’Irlande (2.566). L’Allemagne possède d’excellentes universités mais sa langue, moins parlée que l’anglais ou l’espagnol, et le coût de la vie, peuvent freiner son attractivité. Au contraire, l’Espagne a une langue parlée par de nombreux jeunes Français et un coût de la vie plus faible que d’autres pays. Le pays a également des universités très engagées dans ces programmes de mobilité étudiante, note Erasmus+ France.
Publicație : Le Figaro
Les recettes d’Ipésup-Prépasup pour briller dans le classement des prépas
REPORTAGE – Cette prépa «HEC» privée hors contrat affiche des résultats flatteurs aux concours d’entrée en écoles de commerces. La recette? Les étudiants sélectionnés avec soin, un fort encadrement et un système de double marque.
Légèrement enroué par le stress, Frank, en 2e année d’«HEC» option scientifique (ECS) à Ipesup, lit l’introduction sur les feuilles étalées devant lui. ll a une dizaine de minutes pour expliquer si «l’avenir de la Chine se joue sur la mer»… Dans la salle, plusieurs étudiants venus écouter l’exposé oral de leur camarade, la fameuse «khôlle», croquent discrètement dans leur sandwich. Une occasion supplémentaire de réviser avant le coup d’envoi des concours d’écoles de commerce, mi-mai. Installé face à lui, le professeur de géopolitique, Jean-Pascal Gay, lui fait signe de conclure. Suivent les questions pointues, en mode mitraillette: «Quelles sont les zones de piraterie les plus préoccupantes aujourd’hui pour la Chine? Et les enjeux en termes de sécurité informationnelle?». Verdict? «Pas mal en matière de connaissances, mais décevant sur le plan méthodologique, regrette l’enseignant. Le jour de l’oral [d’HEC], sur trois candidats vous vous retrouvez forcément entre la 2e et la 3e place, et face à quelqu’un d’H[enri]-IV, de Ginette ou de Saint-Jean de Passy, en 3e position…»
Un recrutement plus souple qu’à Henri IV
Créée en 1974 par Patrick Noël et Gérard Larguer, ipésup (Institut privé de préparation aux études supérieures) est une classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles privée parisienne, hors contrat. Elle a fait de cette pédagogie pragmatique, très axée sur les concours, sa spécialité. Avec en ligne de mire: les trois écoles «parisiennes» (HEC, Essec, ESCP Europe). Une marque de fabrique que Bertrand Léonard, ancien président de la fondation HEC et nouveau propriétaire de la maison, veut préserver.
«Nous acceptons des élèves solides, à partir de 14 de moyenne et nous les faisons progresser»Eric Duquesnoy, directeur de Prépasup
«Or contrairement à Louis-le-Grand ou Henri IV qui recrutent à partir de 17-18 en terminale, nous acceptons des élèves solides, à partir de 14 de moyenne et nous les faisons progresser», insiste Eric Duquesnoy, directeur de Prépasup. En 2018, parmi les 500 dossiers examinés, 170 candidats ont été reçus en entretien, 130 admis, et 95 ont finalement intégré. Les autres lui auront préféré des institutions publiques prestigieuses telles qu’Henri-IV,Louis-le-Grand ou Madeleine-Daniélou, privée mais moins chère. Il faut dire qu’une année à Ipesup coûte 11 400 € (10 900 € si on est déjà dans la maison).
Des bacheliers S trop légers en maths orientés dans la voie ECE
Autre spécificité, les S, qui ne sont pas assez costauds en maths pour suivre en ECS, mais «littéraires», sont directement orientés vers la classe d’option économique (ECE). Une astuce que les autres classes préparatoires publiques et privées sous contrat n’ont pas le droit de pratiquer. En effet, dans ces CPGE accessibles via Parcoursup, les ES sont forcément en section ECE, et les S en section ECS.
Plus d’heures de cours que dans une prépa publique
Autre différence avec les prépas publiques, le programme est plus costaud que dans une prépa ordinaire. Au programme: des horaires supérieurs à ceux d’une prépa publique, une khôlle (oral), quatre heures de DST (devoir sur table) par semaine, et des «reprises de copies» (correction détaillée de copie), en plus des trois classiques concours blancs. Les débuts peuvent être un peu rudes. «Les cinq-six premiers mois, je me suis un peu demandé ce que je faisais là, se souvient Tommaso, 20 ans, arrivé à Ipésup après un refus à Dauphine et à plusieurs prépas publiques. Mais j’ai choisi de travailler, et les efforts ont payé». «Un encadrement qui permet de gagner des heures de travail le soir, estime Maximilien, en 1ere année d’ECS, quand son copain Arthur, «préférerait pour sa part quelques heures de cours de moins, même s’ils sont passionnants, pour travailler en bibliothèque ou chez soi».
L’enseignement est très cadré.
À la fin de l’année, les «bizuts» qui n’ont pas joué le jeu sont remerciés: «Pas plus de 10 à 15 % d’une classe, et parfois beaucoup moins», rassure le directeur pédagogique, Gilles Barbet.
Des enseignants triés sur le volet
Mais la vraie force d’Ipesup, estime l’institution, c’est d’abord la qualité de ses enseignants, «bienveillants, mais exigeants» et de son encadrement. En deuxième année, les professeurs changent, et insistent encore plus sur la méthodologie: «En maths, ils s’attachent à la rédaction, en culture générale à l’originalité des idées, c’est très cadré…», analyse Esther, en deuxième année ECE. Du formatage intellectuel en somme? «Non, car on apprend à structurer sa pensée, affirme la jeune fille. J’ai vraiment confiance en mes profs: celui de culture générale, par exemple, nous buvons ses paroles».
Des classes spéciales pour les «Cubes»
L’Ipésup compte aussi beaucoup de redoublants. Tous les ans, une poignée d’élèves qui n’engrangent pas les résultats escomptés aux concours choisissent, à l’instar de Tommaso, de refaire une deuxième année, en intégrant l’une des deux classes de «cubes». Une majorité d’entre eux sont des transfuges d’autres lycées qui ont obtenu «au moins à l’écrit 80 % de la barre d’admissibilité à HEC, 85% à l’Essec et 90-85% d’ESCP Europe». Admissible l’année dernière à HEC après deux ans de prépa à Intégrale, Elise a décidé de retenter sa chance à Ipesup. «Dans ma prépa, l’oral avait été un peu délaissé. Ici, on a une khôlle par semaine, et les profs ont plus de temps pour les reprises de copies». «Cuber permet vraiment d’approfondir, et de gagner en maturité», se félicite Tommaso.
Une double marque pour briller dans les classements
Pour briller dans les classements, comme ses concurrents – Commercia, Initiale – la prépa pratique enfin la double marque. Un système qui revient à Ipesup, à inscrire les élèves, mélangés toute l’année en cours, sous deux bannières différentes aux concours: «Ipesup» pour les meilleurs, et «Prépacom» pour les autres. Selon les années, entre «40 % et 60 %» d’entre eux courent sous le dossard «Ipesup», qui affichait en 2018, 80 % d’intégrés aux trois «Parisiennes» en ECS et en ECE, contre respectivement 51,4 % et 35,9 % pour Prepacom. Si comme dans le classement des prépas du Figaro, on fusionne les deux marques, ces chiffres descendent à 53,1 % en ECE (3 ème) et 64,2 % en ECS (4 ème).
Publicație : Le Figaro
Copiare a scuola: per metà degli studenti un peccato veniale
Anche un terzo degli italiani non è un fatto grave, compresi mamme e papà. Lo afferma l’Istat in una ricerca sul senso civico dei nostri connazionali
Copiare a scuola durante i compiti in classe? Un peccato veniale per quasi metà degli studenti, ma anche per un terzo di tutti i cittadini italiani: mamme e papà compresi. E’ quello che emerge dall’indagine sul cosiddetto “Senso civico” condotta dall’Istat e pubblicata due giorni fa. Italiani possibilisti e tolleranti anche su evasione fiscale, raccomandazioni, corruzione e uso del cellulare durante la guida. “Per senso civico – spiegano gli esperti dell’istituto di statistica – ci si riferisce a quell’insieme di comportamenti e atteggiamenti che attengono al rispetto degli altri e delle regole di vita in una comunità”. E dall’indagine gli italiani non ne escono bene. Perché, una percentuale piuttosto alta, è disposta a perdonare anche veri e propri reati.
Per quasi un terzo degli italiani, adulti compresi, copiare a scuola è un atteggiamento “poco o per nulla grave”. “Copiare a scuola – si legge nel report – è ritenuto soprattutto un danno a scapito di chi copia e in generale un comportamento che danneggia tutti, perché contro le regole”. Soltanto l’8% ritiene che si tratta di un comportamento che lede il ruolo istituzionale dell’insegnante. E tra gli studenti iscritti ad un corso di studio la percentuale di indulgenti aumenta di parecchio: sale al 43%. Mentre donne e anziani si mostrano più intransigenti.
Publicație : La Repubblica
25 martie 2019
Liviu Antonesei la „Scriptor“. Întâlnirea va avea loc miercuri la BCU
Scriitorul Liviu Antonesei va participa miercuri la cea de-a 123-a ediţie a întâlnirilor Clubului de promovare a lecturii, cărţilor şi dialogului „Junimea – Scriptor“Întâlnirea cu scriitorul va avea loc de la ora 16.16, în Sala „B.P Hasdeu“ de la Biblioteca Centrală Universitară. Întâlnirea va fi prezentată şi moderată de critucul literar Bogdan Creţu, discuţiile urmând să aibă drept subiect principal volumul „Umbra mării nu este marea“ din colecţia Cuvinte migratoare.„În vreme ce mai toţi optzeciştii (deşi nu fără câteva excepţii relevante) dau semne vădite de oboseală ori s-au lăsat pe tânjala propriei poezii, Liviu Antonesei, din contră, pare conectat (reconectat) la o sursă de elan şi efervescenţă creativă. În ritm de vervă inspiraţională, el trăieşte – deopotrivă contemplativ şi senzual (cu o senzualitate sublimată ea însăşi în contemplaţie) – din seninătatea unui scepticism cristalizat într-o aforistică de înţelept. Culege, din panorama propriei vieţi şi din jurnalul de cotidiene, doar «clipele pe care le simţi ca pe nişte revelaţii», dar cu sentimentul că «ne topim, lunecăm/ ca o cenuşă moale în sudul clepsidrei». O viziune înţeleaptă, cu simţul imediat al concretului, produce scepticismul tonic al lui Antonesei“, afirmă criticul literar Alexandru Cistelecan pe coperta cărţii semnate de Liviu Antonesei.
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași
Proiect dedicat elevilor de liceu, care îsi propune sa îi învete principalele elemente ale Electronicii, la Universitatea Tehnica din Iasi
Studentii de la Liga Studentilor Electronisti din Iasi, împreuna cu Facultatea de Electronica, Telecomunicatii si Tehnologia Informatiei (ETTI) de la Universitatea Tehnica (TUIASI) „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iasi organizeaza si în acest an proiectul „ElectroStep – Primul pas în Electronica”, pana pe 20 aprilie 2019.
Proiectul, care este dedicat elevilor de liceu, îsi propune sa îi învete principalele elemente ale Electronicii, sa îi ajute sa adune informatii din acest domeniu.
„Întâlnirile vor avea loc în fiecare sâmbata, în intervalul orar 10:00 – 12:00, urmatoarele sedinte urmând astfel sa aiba loc pe 30 martie, 6, 13 si 20 aprilie. Elevii se vor întâlni cu studentii în incinta facultatii. Datorita evolutiei constante a electronicii, zi de zi evoluam si noi. Curiozitatile cresc, iar proiectul nostru «ElectroStep – Primul pas în electronica!», vine în sprijinul elevilor doritori sa adune informatii din acest domeniu foarte cautat. Ne dorim sa aducem un plus de cunostinte teoretice, dar mai ales practice”, au transmis organizatorii.
La finalul sedintelor va fi organizat si un concurs cu premii, unde elevii îsi vor putea testa cunostintele acumulate pe parcursul proiectului. „ElectroStep – Primul pas în Electronica” se afla la a III-a editie, prima fiind organizata în anul 2017, când în urma acestui proiect opt elevi au ales sa urmeze studiile Facultatii de Electronica, Telecomunicatii si Tehnologia Informatiei.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
University of Georgia fraternity investigated over racist video
Fraternity has been suspended after video surfaces showing some of its members mocking slavery and using a racial slur
A University of Georgia fraternity is being investigated over a video which circulated on social media and showed some of its members mocking slavery and using a racial slur.
The video shows a student hitting another with a belt while saying the words “Pick my cotton” and then a racial slur.
The UG Student Government Association said in a statement on Friday it was aware of the video of students “using racist language and engaging in behaviors that mock the suffering of enslaved peoples”.
The university said on Twitter the fraternity had been suspended by its national organization, and added: “The University of Georgia condemns racism in the strongest terms. Racism has no place in our campus.”
The national chapter for the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity said it was “disgusted, appalled and angered”.
“TKE will not tolerate any actions such as these that would be defined as racist, discriminatory and/or offensive,” the organization said, adding that the members in the video were not on chapter premises when the incident happened and were not taking part in a fraternity function.
Publicație : The Guardian
Universities to be fined for awarding too many top degrees
Education secretary Damian Hinds to take tough measures on institutions found guilty of artificial grade inflation
British universities must slash the number of top degrees they award or risk undermining their world-class reputation, the education secretary has warned.
Damian Hinds said there had been a steep and unjustifiable rise in the awarding of first-class degrees, urging universities to “reset the norm” by handing out a higher proportion of 2:1s. Offending universities could face fines, or even be prevented from awarding degrees at all.
His warning comes after recent evidence of grade inflation in higher education. In 2016-17, 27% of students obtained a first-class honours degree from English universities, according to the Office for Students (OfS). It marked a major increase from the 16% who secured the score in 2010-11. More than three-quarters of all university students (78%) obtain an upper degree, meaning a first or a 2:1, up from 67% in 2010-11.
The data found that 50.1% of students at the University of Surrey were awarded a first-class degree in 2016-17, while 37.9% received the score at the University of Huddersfield.
We owe it to the hardworking students who have earned those top grades to stamp out this unfair practice
Damian Hinds
The analysis also concluded that the increases could not be attributed entirely to increased pupil attainment and changing demographics. Hinds is demanding evidence that grade inflation is being tackled in the next academic year. Hinds has called on the OfS to challenge institutions showing clear evidence of artificial grade inflation.
“Our universities are world-class and world-leading, with four ranked among the top 10 in the world, and attracting thousands of international students,” he said. “At the heart of that global reputation is a trust in the quality and high standards of the education provided.
“Unjustifiable, artificial grade inflation threatens that. It cannot be right that students in one year are awarded higher grades for the same level of achievement than those in previous years. We owe it to the hardworking students who have earned those top grades to stamp out this unfair practice.”
He added: “I expect the Office for Students – when they have their full range of powers – to challenge those institutions that record an unjustifiable rise in the proportion of top degrees being awarded.”
The OfS is due to be handed new powers later this year, allowing it to levy fines of up to £500,000 or 2% of a university’s income. Moves are already being made by the sector to tackle the issue, including new standards to ensure all degree awards are consistent and fair.
Professor Dame Janet Beer, president of Universities UK, said institutions were determined to tackle unexplained grade inflation, but warned against confusing grade inflation with student and teaching improvement.
“The sector’s collective will to take ownership of this challenge is strong, as we recognise it is crucial that we keep the confidence of students, employers and the public in the value of a university qualification,” she said.
“It is important to draw a distinction between grade inflation and grade improvement, where increased investment in teaching and facilities, as well as students working harder than ever, are leading to legitimate increases in grades,” she continued. “Questions that are raised by this debate will not halt efforts to ensure that every student has the opportunity to get the best outcome from their study.”
Publicație : The Guardian
Foreign students who study at UK universities earn up to 50 per cent more than their British classmates
Foreign students who study at university in the UK go on to earn up to 50 per cent more than their British classmates, a report has found.
Maths graduates from the UK earn an average of £33,100 five years after they complete their degree, while their peers from outside of Europe earn £48,600.
Meanwhile, Economics graduates earn an average of £37,900 after five years if they are from Britain compared to £45,700 if they are from overseas.
In both subjects, students from other European Union (EU) countries earn more than their British classmates but less than those from outside the EU.
The report, published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), analysed data on the median earnings of UK and foreign graduates five years after they completed their undergraduate degree. Out of 21 subject categories, foreign students earned more than their British counterparts in all but six.
Nick Hillman, director of Hepi, said that students who come from overseas to study in the UK tend to be aspirational, hard-working and ambitious.
“You have to be a pretty extraordinary person to travel half way round the world to get a degree,” he said.
“We are talking about people who often have a lot of social capital, they are often applying to selective institutions and choosing to study in a language which is often not their first language.”
The report’s authors said that foreign graduates who get jobs in the UK typically do so in sectors that suffer from acute skills shortages.
“International graduates are supporting the UK economy by plugging skills shortages – and job vacancies – that would otherwise exist,” the report said.
Last week, ministers launched their post-Brexit international education strategy with an attempt to woo overseas students by extended the length of post-study work visas.
A Home Office white paper proposed to increase the post-study work visa for international students from four to six months for undergraduates and post graduates.
But Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, said that more should be done to “send a welcoming message” to international students, adding that the Government should extend the post-study work visa for graduates to two years.
“The UK’s immigration system should reflect the extent to which we value international students’ contribution,” he said.
The two year visa was scrapped in 2012 as part of a wider crack down on immigration. The move came amid concerns that foreign graduates were abusing the system and staying on to do unskilled work.
Migration Watch UK argue against the two year post-study visa on the basis that foreign graduates should not be allowed to “stay on to stack supermarket shelves”.
They point out that there is currently no cap on the number of foreign graduates who can stay on in the UK provided that they obtain a skilled job with a salary of at least £20,800 per year.
The Government aims to boost income generated by international education by 75 per cent to £35 billion per year by 2030.
Under EU laws, universities must charge European students the same level of fees as their British peers, but non-EU students can be charged at a higher rate.
Publicație : The Telegraph
Cardiff’s German link aims to protect funding access post-Brexit
New partnership with the University of Bremen will involve the cross-affiliation of staff
Cardiff University has launched a partnership with Germany’s University of Bremen in a bid to gain better access to research funding after Brexit.
The Bremen-Cardiff Alliance will enable academics to be affiliated with both institutions, allowing them to take part in long-term collaborative research projects, supervise PhD students at the two universities and apply for external national funding from both the UK and Germany.
The universities also hope that the partnership will increase staff and student mobility between the two institutions.
A dedicated collaborative fund will be open for the development of joint research between the two institutions in all disciplines, as well as the mobility of teaching, technical and professional services staff to share best practice.
Since 2012, the University of Bremen has been one of 11 German universities that has received funding through the country’s excellence initiative.
The two universities already have long-established research links in the areas of marine sciences and the interdisciplinarity of science and the humanities.
The new alliance will initially focus on media and communication sciences; marine and environmental sciences; and literary, social and historical studies, with the aim of adding semiconductor physics in the future.
Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, said that the institution was “responding to the complex demands of Brexit by strengthening relationships with one of our long-standing European partners and ensuring that our respective staff and students continue to have access to a wealth of exciting educational and research opportunities”.
“We are a global, outward-looking university that recognises international partnerships as a key enabler to achieving our strategic priorities,” he added.
“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to partner with an institution that shares this passion for international collaboration and staff and student mobility, and I look forward to working closely with our counterparts in Bremen in the future.”
Bernd Scholz-Reiter, president of the University of Bremen, said that the new alliance was “countering Brexit and the growing isolation in Europe with exchange and networking”.
Several leading UK universities have launched new, or strengthened existing, partnerships with European universities since the Brexit vote, while Lancaster University and Coventry University have announced plans for branch campuses on the Continent.
Publicație : The Times
Working-class academics ‘face discrimination throughout careers’
New association will seek to tackle class-based barriers prevalent in academia, says chair
Scholars from blue-collar backgrounds continue to face barriers to advancement in academia well into their careers, the chair of a new support group for working-class academics in the UK has claimed.
Geraldine Van Bueren, professor of international human rights law at Queen Mary University of London, said that the Association of Working Class Academics intended to provide advice and assistance for younger colleagues from socially deprived backgrounds, as well as students thinking about a career in academia.
“It remains very difficult to get into academia if you have a working-class background, given the costs of obtaining a doctorate,” Professor Van Bueren told Times Higher Education.
But older academics also faced adversity related to their lower-status backgrounds, insisted Professor Van Bueren, who is also a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford.
“I am not sure that the barriers faced by working-class academics break down at the middle stage of their careers,” she said.
Such barriers included “class prejudice about accent, less financial resources to attend conferences for postgraduate students, derogatory comments about class and the absence of any financial cushion”, added Professor Van Bueren.
These problems were often exacerbated by the fact that many scholars felt unable to publicly identify themselves in class terms, meaning that peer support was often hard to find, added Professor Van Bueren.
“People do feel reluctant to come out in this way – they feel vulnerable and don’t want to be accused of moaning about disadvantage,” she explained, adding that it was nonetheless “an important part of one’s identity that should be recognised”.
“Last year, a US academic wrote that it was easier for him to come out as gay in academia than to tell colleagues that he was working class, and people only seem to be happy talking about this topic anonymously,” added Professor Van Bueren, whose father worked in factories in London’s East End and was later a taxi driver.
“I’m a barrister and an honorary silk, so perhaps I am someone you wouldn’t immediately identify as working class, but I was also educated at a comprehensive and my first job as a child was working in Ridley Road market,” Professor Van Bueren continued.
“By making ourselves more visible, we would like to break down some of the stereotypes about working-class academics and also improve social mobility.”
The association, whose committee includes academics from both older and modern universities in the UK, as well as older and younger scholars, is also setting up a sister organisation in Australia.
It would also aim to improve the quality of data on the number of working-class academics in the UK, said Professor Van Bueren. Class is not considered a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act, so “it would be fairly challenging to find a way to report it accurately”, she said.
“We have written to Universities UK and to the universities minister to offer our assistance in working together to assist social mobility,” she said, adding that this work might include exploring ways in which the association could assist in mentoring both students and academics.
Publicație : The Times
UK business school leaders predict closures and mergers
Rapid change in the business school market is ‘almost unmanageable’, according to report from the Chartered Association of Business schools
More than half of business school representatives believe that growing competition in the sector will lead to closures or mergers in the UK.
A report from the Chartered Association of Business Schools says that UK business schools face an “increasingly sophisticated and diverse set of competitors”, as the international business school market improves, online providers offer cheaper study options, alternative providers at home expand into the market and political decisions affect the choices of students.
For its report, The Changing Shape of Business Education Provision, Cabs surveyed its members’ deans and senior managers and found that many believe the impact could be “dramatic” for some institutions. The survey showed that 61 per cent of respondents agreed that the growing number of alternative and international providers entering the marketplace was “likely to lead to closure or mergers of existing UK business schools”.
The survey showed that few UK business school leaders see recruiting international students as less of an opportunity for growth in the future. Only about 30 per cent of respondents saw postgraduate international recruitment as a future opportunity, with 25 per cent seeing promise in undergraduate expansion.
The report says that numbers of undergraduate non-European Union international students studying business in the UK have stayed steady around 44,000 in the last few years. Although postgraduate numbers increased by 8.9 per cent last year to 54,865, this was still less than the 59,170 studying in 2011-12.
UK schools’ ability to attract more international students will be affected by the growing competition from Australia, Canada, and across Europe in particular, the report says. Latin America was also making “steady inroads” with well-funded and staffed institutions and the increasing quality of Chinese business schools was also likely to affect UK recruitment of Chinese students, it says.
“If it was just one driver of change, even if that driver was Brexit, the changes required might be manageable, but when the change comes from international competition, government policy, technological transformation, new employer requirements and shifting demographics, the complexity of change becomes almost unmanageable,” the report says.
The total number in undergraduate and postgraduate students at UK business schools has been in decline since 2011-12, but had begun to recover in the past two years. In 2017-18, the total number of students studying for a business degree in the UK was 342,970, up by 2.9 per cent from the previous year.
Nearly all – 96 per cent – of respondents agreed that business schools would have to evolve the products that they offer to meet the rapidly evolving skills required by businesses. The survey found that 89 per cent were already offering or planning to offer blended degrees and 73 per are already offering or planning to offer online degrees other than an MBA.
Publicație : The Times
Canadian budget offers little extra for science
Despite thin pickings this time around, Trudeau’s Liberals have probably done enough to win the science vote in October’s election, says Creso Sá
Canada’s 2019 budget, delivered on 19 March, was not just business as usual for its ruling Liberal Party. Mired in accusations that the prime minister’s office sought to intervene on behalf of engineering firm SNC-Lavalin in a fraud case against it, the Trudeau government was desperate to steer the national debate towards something resembling good press for it. After all, there will be a general election in October.
Hence, there is something in “Investing in the Middle Class” for everyone. It is a campaign piece, clearly outlining the Liberals’ talking points and previous financial commitments. Science is a relatively small component, but it follows the general pattern. This is not a year of big ticket announcements, but, rather, of spreading money around a number of constituents.
There is new funding for 500 additional master’s scholarships and 167 three-year doctoral scholarships – although it must be noted that PhD programmes in Canada usually last four years or longer. Parental leave for scholarship-funded graduate students is increased from six months to a year.
We are reminded that last year’s budget included “the largest ever increase in funding for fundamental research through Canada’s granting councils” and that, since 2016, the government “has committed more than C$9.4 billion (£5.3 billion) to support Canadian scientists and researchers”. These points were echoed in a tweet by science minister Kirsty Duncan after the budget’s release. She also noted that, in the wake of the previous Conservative government’s perceived hostility towards science, “we have been working hard to return science and research to their rightful place. We unmuzzled scientists, we brought back the long-form census, and we reinstated the position of chief scientific advisor.”
Special allocations are made to a number of research organisations in fields such as cancer, neuroscience, genomics and atomic physics. Here, the budget veers from the course advocated in the 2017 Fundamental Science Review (FSR), which has been widely supported by scientists. Basically, the contention was that for decades the federal government created a scattering of flashy funding schemes that pulled federal research dollars in multiple directions, with varying levels of peer review and oversight. This has weighed on the budgets of the federal research councils, which are the main sources of funding for merit-based investigator-initiated research, reducing success rates and lowering the funding available for fundamental investigation. The FSR called for a halt in the proliferation of boutique initiatives, a rationalisation of award mechanisms and reinvestment in the research councils.
Budget 2018 made a credible case that the message had been heard, with multi-year commitments to fundamental research (although falling far short of the levels of the investment called for). However, this year clearly shows that when it comes to science lobbying, it is business as usual in Ottawa. An apparent mea culpa comes in the form of a Strategic Science Fund to be created in 2022, described vaguely as a “principles-based framework for allocating federal funding that includes competitive, transparent processes” to support “third-party science and research organisations”. Given the lack of urgency in foreshadowing this announcement, it can be read arguably as a promise that things will eventually be different.
All things considered, have the Liberals done enough to earn the science vote? Those Ottawa insiders embedded in the federal lobbying networks have a vested interest in the system, and a number of them have been quite successful in securing support for their organisations. I see no reason why they would be displeased, and this year’s budget delivered good news for many groups.
Conversely, those who judge the Liberals against their early lofty promises and the expectations raised by the FSR are bound to be disappointed. But will they be disappointed enough to cast their vote elsewhere? The Conservatives are currently the most serious challenger to Trudeau, but while the memories of how the last government dealt with science may not be insurmountable, the party’s conspicuous lack of any serious science platform does not inspire confidence.
One thing is clear: there will be no single science vote. Anyone’s pretence of speaking for “science” ignores the multiple competing and even contradictory interests at play in Canada’s scientific community.
Publicație : The Times