Cele mai mari universităţi din ţară, reunite la Iaşi pentru a pregăti proiecte comune

 Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza“ din Iaşi a găzduit în perioada 21 – 23 iunie 2019 o reuniune a Consorţiului Universitaria, din care fac parte UAIC, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Universitatea „Babeş-Bolyai“ din Cluj-Napoca, Universitatea de Vest din Timişoara şi Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti.

În urma întâlnirii de la Iaşi, au fost dezbătute mai multe situaţii cu privire la starea învăţământului superior. Înainte de aceste dezbateri, membrii fondatori au decis, dat fiind faptul că se împlineau 10 ani de la prima întâlnire a grupului format din cele cinci universităţi, să se înfiinţeze „Fundaţia Consorţiul Universitaria“, cu scopul declarat de a „dezvolta şi de a susţine proiecte comune vizând activitatea de cercetare, activitatea didactică şi alte aspecte ale vieţii academice“.

La lucrări a participat şi prof.dr. Gheorghe Ciocanu, rectorul Universităţii din Chişinău, care a devenit din 2018 membru asociat al consorţiului.

„Consorţiul Universitaria a început demersurile pentru includerea universităţilor din România în analizele şi statisticile realizate de Asociaţia Universităţilor Europene (EUA). Directorul pentru guvernanţă, politici publice şi finanţare al Asociaţiei, domnul Thomas Estermann, prezent la lucrările din plen ale Consorţiului, şi-a exprimat dorinţa în acest sens, vorbind despre provocările cu care se confruntă astăzi universităţile în contextul global imprevizibil şi competitiv“, au precizat reprezentanţii UAIC.

La reuniune au participat, cu rol de invitaţi, reprezentanţi ai Grupului Russell, un consorţiu format din cele mai importante universităţi britanice, care au vorbit despre faptul că, indiferent de punerea sau nu în practică a Brexitului, colaborarea universităţilor din Marea Britanie cu universităţile de prestigiu din Uniunea Europeană trebuie să continue.

„Ne dorim ca această colaborare să se realizeze, pe cât posibil, începând de la firul ierbii – cu cercetători şi colective de cercetare, iar noi să îi sprijinim sistemic, logistic şi financiar“, a declarat Michael Arthur, preşedinte al University College London – Chair al Grupului Russell.

În cadrul lucrărilor, s-a propus înfiinţarea unui consorţiu al muzeelor universitare, având în vedere necesitatea unui cadru legislativ adecvat pentru acestea şi dorinţa introducerii unor linii de finanţare destinate acestor instituţii.

Libertatea de a decide dublele specializări

Dincolo de lucrările consorţiului, acestea au făcut şi o serie de solicitări Ministerului Educaţiei Naţionale. Au cerut ca finanţarea pe bază de competiţie din partea Consiliului Naţional pentru Finanţarea Învăţământului Superior să se facă după criterii predictibile, care să rămână la fel pe o perioadă de şase ani.

„Considerăm că ar trebui revizuită Hotărârea de Guvern nr. 457 din 4 mai 2011 privind aprobarea Metodologiei – cadru de concurs pentru ocuparea posturilor didactice şi de cercetare vacante din învăţământul superior, în sensul reformulării art. 3 alin. (1), care să prevadă o perioadă mai mică de desfăşurare a concursurilor, începând de la publicarea posturilor în Monitorul Oficial până la susţinerea probelor de concurs. Experienţa ultimilor ani arată că durata de desfăşurare a concursurilor este de peste două luni, validarea acestora în senatele universitare având loc cu câteva zile înainte de începerea semestrului“, au mai precizat reprezentanţii consorţiului.

Universităţile au blamat şi scăderea finanţării şi au cerut ca locurile pentru doctorat să fie furnizate până cel târziu în luna februarie din fiecare an, cerând totdată şi ca acreditarea studiilor de licenţă să se facă pe domenii, şi nu pe specializări, astfel încât universităţile să aibă posibilitatea de a decide cu privire la organizarea unor duble specializări în două domenii ce au fost deja individual acreditate.

Publicație : Ziarul de Iași și Bună Ziua Iași

Cele mai moderne tehnologii de fabricatie, dezbatute la Universitatea Tehnica „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iasi

Cele mai moderne tehnologii de fabricatie, dezbatute de 171 de specialisti din 24 de tari la editia din 2019 a conferintei internationale ModTech, organizata la Iasi.

Manifestarea a avut loc la Universitatea Tehnica (TUIASI) „Gheorghe Asachi„, în perioada 19 – 22 iunie 2019. Anul acesta au fost prezenti 171 de participanti din 24 de tari, iar pe lânga lucrarile care trateaza subiecte din domeniul tehnologiilor moderne de fabricatie a mai fost marcat un moment important: celebrarea a zece ani de la înfiintarea Asociatiei ModTech. Aceasta a fost înfiintata de cadre didactice de la TUIASI si persoane din mediul ingineresc iesean în 2009, s-a dezvoltat fulminant, având în prezent 355 de membri în total si noua filiale în strainatate, în India, Japonia, Coreea de Sud, Polonia, Turcia, Irak, Serbia, Republica Moldova si Mexic.

La deschidere au fost prezenti participantii la conferinta, organizatorii si reprezentanti ai conducerii Universitatii Tehnice, inclusiv rectorul, prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, si prorectorul responsabil cu relatiile internationale, prof. univ. dr. ing. Irina Lungu. În continuare, au fost sase prezentari în plen sustinute de profesori recunoscuti la nivel mondial.

„ModTech este o organizatie înfiintata în 2009 si concentrata pe prelucrari mecanice, tehnologii moderne în fabricatie. Si la aceasta conferinta au fost prezentate astfel de tehnologii, fie ca e vorba de printarea 3D sau diferite materiale inovative ce au fost prezentate de speakerii nostri plenari. Conferinta se organizeaza anual”, a transmis prof. univ. dr. ing. Dumitru Nedelcu, directorul Scolii Doctorale a TUIASI.

Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași

A society that relies solely on pedagogy is not kosher

The Augar review should prompt the creation of a network of secular synagogues devoted to adult peer learning, says Tom Schuller

Derivations of words throw up some significant curiosities. I knew that a pedagogue was originally someone in ancient Greece who led a child around, including to school. The term then took a professional turn, to refer to the specialised function of instructing children. But I had never noticed the – to me now rather obvious – etymological similarity between “pedagogue” and “synagogue”.

Apparently, a synagogue was originally a secular place of assembly, where adult males came together to socialise, discuss and learn from each other. It later became exclusively identified as the place where Jews could come together to read scriptures.

So far, so mildly interesting. But think what might have happened if the original meaning of “synagogy” had developed into a general way of organising learning, as pedagogy did. We could have seen, from the outset, a network of adult education centres accepted as an integral part of any modern society, as schools and colleges now are.

In the event, however, pedagogy has – to put it crudely – stifled synagogy. The education of young people has swollen to dimensions that crowd out the chance of a balanced system of lifelong learning. Imagine instead that the public commitment, and the resources, had been put into learning for all: to synagogy. In the UK, the recent Augar review of post-school funding has provided a rigorous basis for just such a debate.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates annual up front government expenditure on higher education to be about £17 billion, and participation rates are approaching 50 per cent. But who has benefited from all this expansion, all these shiny new university buildings popping up everywhere?

Some graduates from some universities do very well, moving quickly into highly paid work. But it’s not at all clear how much that has to do with what they have learned, as opposed to the signalling provided to employers by the selectiveness of these universities. Many graduates do much less well, and some poorly.

I don’t want to do down higher education. My point is simply to ask what the opportunity costs have been of all that investment. Even 20 per cent of £17 billion would give us about £3.5 billion. What might the consequences have been had it gone into promoting synagogy rather than swelling pedagogy (with all due respect to university students, the “ped” part of pedagogy does increasingly apply to them, as mature students in England have largely drifted away in the era of high tuition fees).

A big chunk of that £3.5 billion – perhaps half – could have been wisely invested in further education colleges, as Augar now advocates. But let’s say the remaining 10 per cent had been available for our secular synagogues. Imagine how many towns and villages across the country would now have well-designed local centres where adults could easily come to learn, sometimes from each other and sometimes from outsiders with the particular expertise or experience necessary to give the discussions shape and direction. How different the Brexit “debate” might have been, for instance, if older citizens had been educated and empowered in this way.

What more appropriate forum could there be to raise the level of civic debate? There, different generations might meet and learn from and about each other – with huge mutual benefits for our general health and well-being. The massive availability of online resources means that almost infinite content is there for the downloading. What is needed are spaces for these resources to be used collectively, with the proper professional support to make full use of the wonderful opportunities that new technologies offer.

This is the kind of balance that the Augar report opens up in prospect. What a missed opportunity it will be if, instead, it prompts only squabbles about the level of university tuition fees.

Publicație : The Times

USS whistleblower ‘sidelined’ and faces conduct investigation

Jane Hutton says that pension fund is trying to deny her ‘whistleblower’ status

The Universities Superannuation Scheme has launched an investigation into whether a trustee who turned whistleblower and raised concerns about the pension fund’s reported deficit breached its code of conduct.

Jane Hutton, a representative of the University and College Union on the USS board, told Times Higher Education that she had been sidelined after claiming that she had been obstructed in her bid to investigate an alleged error in the calculation of the scheme’s much-debated funding shortfall.

She said that she had not been given papers for the panel’s meeting on 20 June and that “I imagine if I turned up I would be removed”.

The row adds to the swirl of controversy surrounding USS, UK higher education’s biggest pension scheme, with about 200,000 active members. The deficit – now estimated to be about £3.6 billion – is at the heart of the fund’s proposals to increase contributions made by employers and university staff, which are being vigorously resisted by unions.

Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that the fund had been rapped by the Pensions Regulator for using “incorrect” wording to describe the watchdog’s view of USS’ position on discount rates, which are used to value pension plans’ liabilities.

Professor Hutton, professor of statistics at the University of Warwick, told THE that she had recused herself from last month’s meeting of the USS board, which she described as a “kangaroo court”.

“They brought in an external lawyer to the board meeting. Some non-executive directors tried to say directors are not allowed to whistleblow which is simply not true – the USS whistleblowers policy covers directors,” she said.

“USS has employed lawyers for an ‘independent’ investigation of alleged breaches of the directors’ code of conduct; they are trying to say that whistle-blowing isn’t allowed.”

Professor Hutton said that USS’ behaviour was “extremely stressful” and “extremely frustrating”. Her concerns about the deficit focused on an apparent error in the fund’s “retirement rate”, which wrongly assumed members were retiring earlier than they did in reality and hence inflated pension costs.

“My job is to use the skills that I have. I was appointed as an expert statistician, I am internationally recognised as such and I am basically not being allowed to exercise those skills,” Professor Hutton said.

“It seems they want experts who do what they’re told, not experts who actually try to do their fiduciary duty for the members and other stakeholders. It’s my job to question. Every time I ask questions, I get refused answers. Obviously I am going to carry on asking questions.”

Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary-elect, said that Bill Galvin, USS’ chief executive, and Sir David Eastwood, its chair, should resign.

Dr Grady told THE that, in light of recent revelations, it was difficult to “see how anybody is to have any confidence or faith” in the USS board’s conduct.

“It’s difficult to imagine how we can proceed to negotiate any settlement over USS with Bill Galvin still in place, and if I was David Eastwood I would be considering my position as well,” Dr Grady said.

She added that Universities UK, which represents employers in the pension negotiations, should join the call for Mr Galvin to quit.

A UUK spokesman said that an expression of no confidence in the USS board or executive “would be an irresponsible move”.

“It would delay the 2018 valuation, likely lead to regulatory intervention, and would result in higher contributions increases in October 2019 and April 2020, to the detriment of employers and scheme members,” the spokesman said.

A USS spokesman said: “Our primary duty is to pay the pensions of our members as they fall due and that remains our focus.”

Publicație : The Times

US labour board moves to ban graduate teaching assistant unions

Trump-dominated panel bolsters campuses that reject postgraduate unions

Labour strife in US higher education, already escalating in recent years, could soon worsen with new government plans to hinder unionisation among graduate teaching assistants at private institutions.

Despite escalating tuition costs and record student debt levels, US postgraduates who serve as tutors on many US campuses are not receiving what experts consider even the minimum basic wage necessary to cover costs of living.

It’s a longstanding complaint that is now contributing to a rise in strike activity. Last year alone, US universities saw 13 strikes, well above the averages of previous years, according to a research centre at New York’s Hunter College. Four of the 13 involved graduate teaching assistants.

Pushback for the workers has involved some of the country’s best universities. They include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Brown and Stanford universities, all of which have argued at some point in their bargaining approach that graduate students are not eligible to organise as workers.

Now an additional irritant is coming from Washington, where the National Labor Relations Board – a federal agency meant to guard against unfair labour practices – is making plans under Trump administration control to flatly forbid union rights among graduate-student teachers.

The move centres on the question of whether such teachers are in essence students or deserve the traditional legal protections of workers. The NLRB largely decides that for private colleges, as individual state governments often adjudicate such questions for their public universities.

In the past, the NLRB’s case-by-case answers to graduate student unions at private colleges have reflected the administration in the White House, given its ability to appoint board members.

Recognising that, some graduate student unions have sidestepped the NLRB by directly asking their university to consider recognition. And some of those – Cornell, New York, Georgetown and Brown universities – have granted it.

That hasn’t been a perfect solution, especially at Cornell, where graduate student organisers didn’t get enough votes among their own colleagues to move ahead with the idea.

And now, with no graduate student unions asking for federal recognition, the NLRB has announced plans to undertake the arduous process of rewriting federal regulations to apply its perspective on a more permanent basis.

“The NLRB realises that the cases are not coming to them,” said Risa Lieberwitz, professor of labour and employment law at Cornell University who serves as general counsel at the American Association of University Professors. “And so one could then reasonably surmise that the NLRB is reaching out and finding a way to address the issue in rulemaking rather than waiting for a case to come to them.”

Graduate students still could wage strikes without any federal recognition, said William Herbert, executive director of the Hunter College research group, the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.

“I’m not saying it’s nirvana” to have federal recognition, Mr Herbert said, “but it does have rules that the sides have to play by”, potentially protecting workers from retaliatory actions in contentious disputes.

One of the fiercest fights is at the University of Chicago, where students voted by a two-to-one majority to unionise and then went on strike this month, complaining about pay rates, poor healthcare coverage, unaffordable childcare and more.

The university has said it respects unions, but regards them as inappropriate for students. “Unionisation would fundamentally alter the decentralised, faculty-led approach to graduate education that has long been a hallmark of the University of Chicago,” the provost, Daniel Diermeier, said in a campus-wide letter. “Graduate students are students, first and foremost.”

Publicație : The Times

 Academics oppose advertising heads of department posts externally

Leeds accused of attempting to extend control of central management by ending practice of selecting heads of school from within the faculty

Academics at the University of Leeds are opposing plans to advertise heads of department posts externally, rather than selecting candidates from within the faculty.

Scholars have traditionally been heavily involved in the selection of heads of department – at Leeds and at many other UK universities – with the post often being rotated among senior members of staff, who hold it for a fixed term before passing it on to a colleague.

However, Leeds has decided to advertise heads of school posts internally and externally. The institution’s University and College Union branch said that it was alerted to the change only when an advertisement was placed to lead the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science.

The branch said that selecting heads of department from within the faculty helped to “create a collegial environment” and “helps to prevent the head of school role being primarily about delivering the managerial decisions of the university executive group”.

“To those in a different line of work, this might seem like a strange conversation, but there is a crucial issue for us is here regarding internal democracy and scholarly scrutiny. If academics, particularly subject specialists, have no opportunities to express their views on candidates’ research and teaching records, there is a real worry that that could lead to reputational damage for the department,” said Vicky Blake, Leeds’ UCU branch president.

“HR seem to want the role of head of department to have a more managerial perspective, but what is very important about leadership in an academic context is not solely the ability to ‘manage’,” she said, highlighting that a key focus for a head of school was the academic direction of their department.

“We are concerned that focusing on bringing in external candidates is a move to increase corporate and central control. It is also missing a trick in terms of looking at internal talent and the communities that have been built up in the department,” Ms Blake added.

Another academic told Times Higher Education that the move in effect sidelined the bulk of academics in the schools in question and “raises serious questions about the methods and aims of management”.

A university spokeswoman said that Leeds had “taken a more consistent approach to our recruitment process for heads of school across the university” as “part of our commitment to enhancing both our academic leadership and diversity”.

“Heads of school posts are open to both internal and external applicants, and interview panels have representatives from schools as part of our approach to ensuring academic alignment. Developing our internal talent is important, which is why we continue to invest in a series of senior leadership programmes,” the spokeswoman said.

Publicație : The Times

 Le doctorat, un diplôme qui ne tient pas toutes ses promesses

Baisse de l’attractivité chez les étudiants, hausse  de la précarité de l’emploi, désintérêt de l’administration, rareté des embauches dans la recherche publique…  Soutenir une thèse aujourd’hui vaut-il encore la peine ?

Décrocher un doctorat, diplôme le plus élevé de l’université, devrait ouvrir grand les portes des emplois hautement qualifiés et bien rémunérés à des postes à responsabilité, tant dans les entreprises privées que dans la fonction publique. C’est bien le cas en ce qui concerne l’accès à l’emploi : 90 % des lauréats sont en poste trois ans après leur thèse, estiment nombre d’enquêtes.

On trouve donc encore 10 % de chômeurs, un taux supérieur, par exemple, à celui des infirmiers. Les rémunérations, elles, sont correctes dans le privé, mais l’écart avec celles d’un ingénieur recruté à bac + 5 n’est pas toujours au niveau de l’écart de qualification et d’expérience. Et les salaires d’entrée dans l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche publique restent modestes, à peine supérieurs à 2 000 euros mensuels.

Surtout, c’est là que l’on trouve l’essentiel des 33 % d’emplois précaires trois ans après obtention du doctorat, une proportion en hausse constante, puisqu’ils n’étaient que 24 % en 2004, d’après le rapport 2018 sur « L’état de l’emploi scientifique en France » du ministère de l’enseignement supérieur, de la recherche et de l’innovation (Mesri). Cette précarité est souvent liée aux contrats « post-doctoraux », une main-d’œuvre décisive de la recherche publique censée déboucher sur l’emploi pérenne (universitaires, chercheurs ou ingénieurs). Mais la raréfaction des recrutements ces dernières années provoque des évictions douloureuses à 35 ans passés, absentes des statistiques, qui ne considèrent guère le devenir des docteurs au-delà de trois ans après la thèse.

Précarité confirmée pour les LSHS

Des chiffres « surprenants » pour Sylvie Pommier, directrice du collège doctoral de l’Université Paris-Saclay (UPS). Une enquête sur les docteurs de l’UPS révèle un pourcentage de chômeurs moitié moindre. Et de bien meilleurs salaires dans le privé. Effet d’une enquête plus fine ? Ou d’une université qui, avec celle de Paris-Sud à Orsay notamment (qui représente la moitié des docteurs de l’UPS), peut opérer une sélection drastique chez les candidats et offrir un encadrement parmi les meilleurs de France ?

Sylvie Pommier note que son université produit peu de docteurs en lettres et sciences humaines et sociales, catégorie qui rencontre le plus de difficultés d’insertion, et admet une « difficulté en droit, biologie et sciences de l’environnement ». Et une précarité confirmée, avec des contrats de travail de durée limitée fréquents : 75 % à l’étranger, où sont 36 % des docteurs ayant soutenu de 2015 à 2017 et 45 % en France, surtout des contrats post-doctoraux dans la recherche publique, un sas obligatoire avant d’accéder à un poste pérenne, en France comme à l’étranger. Les 55 % d’emplois permanents en France relèvent surtout du privé.

Publicație : Le Monde