28 septembrie 2019
Noi DECIZII importante luate de conducerea Universitatii "Cuza" din Iasi
Senatul Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" (UAIC) a validat, in sedinta din 26 septembrie 2018, o serie de masuri importante pentru viitorul institutiei. In prim-plan a fost o informare cu privire la vacantarea unor locuri ale studentilor din Senatul Universitatii "Cuza". Au fost vacantate 10 locuri din Senat, trei din acestea fiind ocupate de reprezentantii facultatilor de Biologie, Filosofie si Stiinte Social-Politice si Fizica, care au candidat si au obtinut cele mai multe voturi, în ordinea descrescatoare a numarului de voturi obtinute, la alegerile desfasurate la începutul anului academic 2018-2019.
Pentru celelalte sapte locuri se vor organiza alegeri partiale. De asemenea, a avut loc aprobarea planurilor de învatamânt pentru studii universitare de licenta, master si doctorat, elaborate de facultati, departamente si scoli doctorale, pentru anul universitar 2019-2020, aprobarea listei cadrelor didactice asociate pentru anul universitar 2019-2020, respectiv aprobarea solicitarilor facultatilor privind delegatiile de predare în anul universitar 2019-2020.
"S-a derulat aprobarea decernarii titlului de Doctor Honoris Causa domnului Antoine Compagnon, profesor de Literatura Franceza Moderna si Contemporana la Collège de France din Paris si profesor de Limba Franceza si Literatura Comparata la Universitatea Columbia din New York. Pe de alta parte, s-a aprobat decernarea titlului de Professor Emeritus urmatoarelor persoane: prof. univ. dr. Dinu Airinei - Facultatea de Economie si Administrarea Afacerilor si prof. univ. dr. Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu - Facultatea de Psihologie si Stiinte ale Educatiei", a reliefat prof. univ. dr. Gabriel Ovidiu Iancu, presedintele Senatului de la "Cuza".
In final, s-a aprobat înfiintarea Centrului de Studii Coreene ROK, în cadrul Facultatii de Litere, aprobarea Metodologiei de organizare a alegerilor pentru structurile si functiile de conducere academica la "Cuza" pentru mandatul 2020-2024.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Cel mai TARE eveniment dedicat STUDENTILOR din Iasi, organizat in acest weekend de Universitatea "Cuza"
Începand de duminica, 29 septembrie, si pana marti, 1 octombrie 2019, Universitatea "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" (UAIC)) din Iasi deruleaza a noua editie a evenimentului intitulat "Bun venit la UAIC". Acesta este dedicat informarii si orientarii studentilor din anul I.
Pe parcursul a trei zile, "bobocii" vor gasi în fata institutiei zeci de standuri amenajate special pentru ei. Prima oprire va fi la punctul de informare central, unde vor primi gratuit o mapa cu informatiile esentiale de orientare în studentie. Aceasta contine ghidul studentului, harta campusului si materiale despre serviciile Universitatii, informatii despre oportunitati de angajare sau promotii.
În plus, tot pentru studentii din anul I sunt pregatite tururi ale orasului, vizite ghidate la Muzeul Universitatii, Biblioteca Centrala Universitara (BCU) "Mihai Eminescu", la sediul British Council sau Sala Germana de Lectura.
"Una dintre activitatile de amploare ale evenimentului va avea loc duminica (maine - n.r.), 29 septembrie, atunci când «bobocii» sunt asteptati sa îsi cunoasca mentorii, colegi din ani mai mari de la care vor afla tot ce au nevoie pentru începutul vietii de student. Dupa încheierea întâlnirii, toti studentii UAIC sunt invitati la concertul de bun-venit sustinut de solistul Mihail, pe Esplanada Corpului B, la ora 19:30. Studentii din anul I au la dispozitie o gama diversa de activitati pregatite special pentru ei. Zilnic, Serviciul pentru Studenti, Orientare în Cariera si Insertie Profesionala si Alumni organizeaza workshop-ul «Start în studentie», care îsi propune sa ofere «bobocilor» informatii, tehnici si ponturi utile pentru un plan inteligent de cariera. La standul «Servicii pentru studenti si absolventi», bobocii talentati la muzica vor putea sustine o auditie pentru un loc în Corala Universitatii. În toate cele trei zile de eveniment, la ora 13:00, studentii vor avea ocazia sa participe la turul ghidat organizat de echipa Iasi.Travel - o plimbare de o ora care îi va purta prin cele mai importante locuri ale Iasului studentesc. De asemenea, luni si marti, «bobocii» vor putea participa la o vizita ghidata la Centrul de Învatare al Universitatii", au precizat oficialii UAIC.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Ceremonia OFICIALA a deschiderii noului an academic la Universitatea Tehnica din Iasi
Luni, 30 septembrie 2019, de la ora 10:00, va avea loc ceremonia festiva de deschidere a anului universitar 2019-2020, la Universitatea Tehnica (TUIASI) "Gheorghe Asachi", în Aula Magna "Carmen Sylva", din Corpul A, Copou. Rectorul universitatii, prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, este amfitrionul manifestarii.
In acest context, de precizat ca institutia a avut o admitere de succes, programele de studii ale Politehnicii iesene fiind din ce in ce mai cautate.
"Am înregistrat o depasire cu circa 50 la suta a numarului de locuri alocate studiilor universitare de licenta si masterat. De asemenea, locurile la doctorat au fost ocupate în totalitate, existând si aici o depasire de circa 15 la suta. Trebuie sa subliniez faptul ca locurile scoase la concurs în toamna le-au inclus si pe cele alocate suplimentar de Ministerul Educatiei Nationale (MEN)", a precizat prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, rector.
Pe de alta parte, tot luni, de la ora 18:00, în Campusul "Tudor Vladimirescu", în curtea interioara a caminelor T9-T10-T11, este programat concertul sustinut de Gasca Chitara Grozavesti, fiind primul an în care studentii politehnisti sunt întâmpinati cu un concert în campus pentru a marca deschiderea anului universitar.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Oficial! Cand incepe anul universitar la Universitatea Tehnica ''Gheorghe Asachi''! Va avea loc si un concert pentru studenti
Luni, 30 septembrie, de la ora 10.00, va avea loc ceremonia festiva de deschidere a anului universitar 2019-2020, care va avea loc in Aula Magna „Carmen Sylva", din Corpul A, Copou. Rectorul universitatii, prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, va sustine o declaratie de presa de la ora 09.30 in Sala Pasilor Pierduti, inaintea inceperii festivitatilor.
De la ora 18.00, in Campusul Tudor Vladimirescu, in curtea interioara a caminelor T9-T10-T11, va avea loc un concert sustinut de formatia Gasca Chitara Grozavesti, fiind primul an in care studentii politehnisti sunt intampinati cu un concert in campus pentru a marca deschiderea anului universitar.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Profesorii si cercetatorii de la Universitatea Tehnica din Iasi au sansa de a pleca în Statele Unite ale Americii
Profesorii si cercetatorii de la Universitatea Tehnica (TUIASI) "Gheorghe Asachi" din Iasi au sansa de a pleca în Statele Unite ale Americii (SUA), pentru aprofundarea experientei didactice, respectiv de cercetare, la institutii de top de peste ocean, pe profilul activitatii în care s-au specializat.
Exista doua competitii lansate acum, Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award, cu deadline de înscriere pe 15 octombrie 2019, si Fulbright-RAF Scholar Award, cu deadline pe 2 noiembrie 2019.
De precizat, ca programul Fulbright este unul dintre cele mai valoroase si prestigioase din intreaga lume. Participantii sunt selectati in baza unor criterii extrem de dure. Bursele oferite ofera sasa de perfectionare la cel mai inalt nivel stiintific.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
STUDIU Câţi bani sunt dispuşi studenţii români să dea pe chirie
Peste jumătate dintre studenţi alocă între 100 şi 200 de euro pentru închirierea unei locuinţe. Cei mai mulţi sunt în căutarea unei garsoniere, arată un studiu realizat de o platformă imobiliară.
Aproape 90% dintre studenţii care au participat la studiul realizat de către o agenţie de recrutare din România, locuiesc în chirie. Doar 8 procente stau la cămin, iar 3% cu familia. Principalele oraşe în care aceştia studiază sunt: Bucureşti, Iaşi, Cluj-Napoca, Braşov şi Timişoara, conform rfi.ro.
Întrebaţi ce îi împiedică să locuiască în chirie, peste 80% dintre studenţii care stau în cămin s-au referit la costurile mari, în vreme ce 6 la sută spun că e mai distractiv să stea în cămin.
În ceea ce priveşte bugetele alocate pentru închirierea unei locuinţe, cercetarea arată că peste jumătate dintre cei chestionaţi au spus că şi-ar permite o chirie de 100-200 euro lunar. Mai puţin de un sfert ar putea acoperi o chirie cuprinsă între 200 si 300 de euro. 15 la sută dintre studenţi au un buget de sub 100 de euro.
Întrebaţi care sunt aşteptările de la proprietatea pe care o vor închiria, studenţii care au participat la realizarea studiului au menţionat costurile rezonabile, proprietarul, mai precis cât de prietenos este acesta, dar şi confortul. În plus, aproape jumătate dintre studenţi vor împărţi locuinţa cu un coleg, peste 30% vor locui singuri şi doar 8% vor sta cu doi colegi de apartament.
Studiul a fost făcut pe parcursul lunii septembrie, prin chestionar online şi a implicat 670 de respondenţi.
Publicație : Adevărul
Tinerii români care studiază în Marea Britanie beneficiază de aceleaşi condiţii de studiu în 2020, în pofida Brexit-ului
Interesul tinerilor romani pentru studiu in Marea Britanie este în creştere de la an la an. Ieşirea Marii Britanii din UE nu pune deocamdată probleme studenţilor români care învaţă la universităţile britanice.
Ambasadorul Marii Britanii dă asigurări că educaţia rămâne un element important pentru guvern. Cel puţin pentru anul de studiu 2020-2021, condiţiile rămân aceleaşi, indiferent de condiţiile Brexit-ului.
„Educaţia este deja un aspect absolut esenţial în legăturile dintre ţările noastre. Grupurile de studenţi (români - n.red) din Marea Britanie numără aproximativ 10.000 de persoane, fiind contingentul care creşte cel mai mult dintre naţionalitatile prezente în Marea Britanie. Pe de altă parte, peste 1.000 de români sunt profesori sau cercetatori în cadrul universităţilor britanice", a spus Andrew Noble, ambasadorul Marii Britanii în Romania, conform wall-street.ro.
În Marea Britanie, la universitatile de stat costurile variază în functie de regiune. În Anglia, acestea sunt de 9.250 lire/an pentru studii de licenţă, în Ţara Galilor, taxa este de 9.000 de lire/an, în Scoţia, de 1.820 lire/an. La universitatile private, costurile variaza intre 7.250 – 16.400 lire/an.
„Mesajul pe care il transmitem din partea universitatilor din Marea Britanie tinerilor care doresc sa studieze aici este unul de incurajare. Sectorul universitar britanic este unul international. Toate institutiile isi pastreaza deschiderea in ceea ce priveste mobilitatea romanilor la studii. De altfel, in acest an avem cea mai masiva participare a institutiilor de invatamant britanice atat la targul din martie, cat si la cel prezent, iar tot mai multi tineri romani sunt interesati de oportunitatile de studiu oferite de universitatile din Marea Britanie”, a declarat Nigel Bellingham, director în cadrul British Council Romania.
Publicație : Adevărul
Paleologu: Ar trebui reintroduse examenele de admitere la universităţi
Candidatul PMP la Preşedinţia României, Theodor Paleologu, acuză "probleme grave” în învăţământul superior românesc, acesta susţinând că trebuie reintrodus examenul de admitere cel puţin la universităţile de top.
Paleologu spune că nivelul universităţilor a scăzut dramatic, că există o "industrie a plagiatelor" în unele facultăţi, dar şi că la conducerea multor instituţii de învăţământ superior se află oameni politici, acesta acuzând că există o "imensă bulă de impostură" în învăţământul superior românesc.
Theodor Paleologu a declarat, vineri, că se constată o "scădere dramatică a nivelului universităţilor româneşti" care are drept cauze, potrivit candidatului PMP, faptul că nu sunt selectaţi studenţii la admiterea în facultate, "industria plagiatelor”, dar şi faptul că în unele instituţii de învăţământ superior concursurile pentru unele funcţii sunt "aranjate să iasă cine trebuie”.
"Consider că ar trebui reintroduse examenele de admitere, cel puţin pentru universităţile care aspiră la un statut de excelenţă. Apoi, intrarea în industria plagiatelor. Sunt întregi instituţii de învăţământ care nu fac altceva decât să promoveze plagiatul, cum este Academia de Poliţie, o adevărată industrie de teze plagiate, 75 la sută din cât am înţeles dintr-un raport al Corpului de Control al Ministerului de Interne. Un alt aspect este închiderea universităţilor româneşti care nu se deschid către competiţia internaţională. E nevoie de concursuri internaţionale şi de concursuri transprente pentru ocuparea posturilor în învăţământul românesc. Nu este acceptabil ca într-o ţară europeană, în 2019, concursurile să fie în continuare de ochii lumii, să fie nişte concursuri simulacru, şi ştiţi bine că sunt situaţii în care la un concurs este un singur competitor, aranjat dinainte, deci totul este aranjat să iasă cine trebuie. Aceste concursuri simulacru trebuie să înceteze pentru că decredibilizează total universitatea românească”, a afirmat Theodor Paleologu.
Candidatul PMP acuză, de asemenea, că multe dintre instituţiile din învăţământul superior românesc sunt conduse de oameni implicaţi în politică.
„Ce observăm este că în România proliferează o figură absolut dezastruoasă, toxică şi anume rectorul politician. Şi lista e lungă: Ecaterina Andronescu, Mihnea Costoiu, Sorin Cîmpeanu, Marilen Pirtea, Tudorel Toader, Gheorghe Popa de la Suceava, domnul Breaz de la Alba Iulia, sunt rectori care, de fapt, sunt politicieni. Şi nu e de mirare că aceşti rectori politicieni au distrus învăţământul românesc, clasa politică românească a antrenat învăţământul superior românesc în dezastrul pe care l-a creat, distrugând învăţământul, a distrus viitorul acestei ţări. Sunt foarte mulţi parlamentari care au câte o catedră în universităţile româneşti şi, credeţi-mă, nu au niciun fel de calificare pentru a preda. Sunt pur şi simplu nişte impostori, or, impostura trebuie denunţată. Este absolut consternant, de exemplu, că domnul Cumpănaşu s-a ocupat de etică în Ministerul Educaţiei, asta spune totul, cred, despre imensa bulă de impostură din învăţământul superior românesc”, mai spune Paleologu.
Candidatul PMP spune că România are nevoie de un cod de conduită diplomatică, dar şi că propunerea României pentru funcţia de comisar European, Rovana Plumb, este o persoană "extrem de polemică şi agresivă în manifestările sale publice", iar România trebuie să facă o propunere "care să nu stârnească controverse”.
Publicație : Adevărul
The way universities are run is making us ill : inside the student mentel health crisis
A surge in anxiety and stress is sweeping UK campuses. What is troubling students, and is it the universities’ job to fix it?
When he started working at Brunel University London 19 years ago, Terry Vass, who is now head of security, recalls that most of his work involved breaking up drunken fights outside the bars and nightclub on campus. Over the two decades he has been in the job, he has noticed a shift. Now, an increasing number of calls are for mental health incidents.
The worst times are at the start of term, when students are adjusting to being away from home, or over the holidays, when the small number who remain on campus may feel lonely and isolated. Increasingly, Vass’s security team are called out to mental health emergencies, sometimes accompanying suicidal students to A&E and staying with them. “We spend as much time as it takes,” says Vass. On occasion, he has spent six hours with a student in distress.
British universities are experiencing a surge in student anxiety, mental breakdowns and depression. There has been a sharp rise in students dropping out – of the 2015 intake, 26,000 left in their first year, an increase for the third year running – and an alarming number of suicides. In the 12 months ending July 2017, the rate of suicide for university students in England and Wales was 4.7 deaths per 100,000 students, which equates to 95 suicides or about one death every four days.
The crisis in student mental health hit the news in 2017 after a high number of suicides at Bristol University. Over 18 months, starting in October 2016, 12 students are believed to have killed themselves. While the university tried to tackle the crisis, it struggled to keep up with the rising demand for help. In November 2018, a group of students gathered on a chilly Bristol street holding placards demanding better access to psychological support. The students told reporters that despite promises of more investment in student wellbeing, services were still badly overstretched.
Ruth Day, who helped organise the protest, had been suspended for eight weeks under a rule which says students can be sent home if they are considered unfit to study, or their presence poses a risk to themselves or others. Day said being suspended made her feel “terrified” and “hopeless”. Just a few months earlier, in April 2018, Natasha Abrahart, a 20-year-old physics student at Bristol who suffered from severe anxiety, killed herself on the day she was due to have an oral assessment. Her parents said they would take legal action against the university for failing to offer Natasha an alternative to the oral test, which she saw as an unbearable ordeal.
Students around the country feel their universities are failing them. On World Mental Health Day in October 2018, students at University College London disrupted an open day with a demonstration about waiting times for counselling. In March this year, Goldsmiths students occupied Deptford town hall, calling for better access to counselling for BAME students. Student protests and demands for better mental health services are frequently dismissed in the press. “We just can’t cope with essay deadlines, and tests stress us out, moan ‘snowflake’ students,” read a headline in the Daily Mail in November 2017. In September 2018, the Times described today’s students as “Generation Snowflake” and suggested that “helicopter parents” had “coddled the minds” of young people. Meanwhile, some university staff worry that teaching is having to come second to supporting students’ emotional needs.
“One of the most worrying phenomena that many of us have witnessed in recent years is the rise of chronic anxiety, that afflicts some students so deeply that they feel unable to come to the campus at all,” says William Davies, lecturer at Goldsmiths and author of The Happiness Industry, a book about the commercialisation of wellbeing. “Above all, a growing proportion just seem terrified of failure, and experience the whole process of learning and assessment as an unforgiving ordeal that offers no room for creativity or mistakes.”
Given that about half of young people in the UK now go to university, the number of students seeking help inevitably reflects a wider crisis in young people’s mental health. One study found that six times more young people in England (aged four to 24) have psychological problems today than a generation ago, in 1995. Budget cuts to social work, youth services, the NHS and state schools over the last decade mean that many young people experiencing problems do not get any help at all before they reach university, where they meet a new set of challenges.
“Universities are just a reflection of what goes on in the whole society,” says Irene Stone, a counsellor at Brunel University. “There are a lot of demands on young people today. The pressure is shifting on how we work – now we don’t just have one job, we juggle three. There are pressures of technology, managing social platforms, forming relationships. It can all cause a lot of anxiety and stress.”
The University of the West of England, Bristol, recently released a report into the deaths of the 14 students who took their own lives there between 2010 and 2018. It found that half of the suicides occurred between January and April, when students were preparing for exams.
In the drive to make universities profitable, there is a fundamental confusion about what they are for. As a result, there has been a shift from prizing learning as an end in itself to equipping graduates for the job market, in what for some can be a joyless environment.
Expectations have changed radically over the last two decades – not least because students paying thousands of pounds in fees expect a certain level of service in return. I spoke to academics around the country who expressed their own anxiety that they might miss a vital sign that one of their students is struggling. “It’s extremely stressful to have this extra responsibility that we aren’t really equipped for, especially when many of us are already operating in an atmosphere of uncertain working conditions,” said one academic.
Of course, universities have a duty of care to their students, but as the situation stands, we are expecting them to fill the role of parent and therapist as well as educator. These are institutions under terrible strain, striving to adapt to new demands. The question is not only whether they can fix the crisis in young people’s mental health, but whether it is their job to do so.
Ever since Tony Blair pledged in 1999 to get 50% of young people into university, “widening participation” has been a political priority. It has more or less been achieved: in 2017, official figures showed that 49% of people in England entered advanced studies by the age of 30. University degrees have become a requirement for many jobs which previously allowed people to start as school-leavers and work their way up.
At the same time as access to university was dramatically expanded, spending on public services was slashed: in the decade after the financial crash, day-to-day spending on public services as a share of GDP was at its lowest since the late 1930s. This meant savage cuts to local authorities, schools budgets and NHS mental health provision. Figures released in November 2017 showed that two-thirds of under-18s referred for specialist mental healthcare in England were not receiving treatment, while there had been a 30% fall in hospital beds available for acute mental health conditions since 2009.
In search of a cause for the dramatic increase in mental health problems among young people, studies have looked at the impact of social media, or lack of sleep caused by electronic devices, as well as the effects of an uncertain job market, personal debt and constricted public services. In his book Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials, Malcolm Harris argues that far from the stereotype of young people being entitled and narcissistic, millennials are harder working but poorer than their parents’ generation. Harris identifies the pressures of the labour market, rising student debt and a target-driven culture as contributing to steep increases in anxiety and depression among young people. “Young people feel – reasonably accurately – less in control of their lives than ever before,” he writes.
With about half of 18-year-olds now going to university, inevitably that population will follow the same patterns as the rest of society. “And some of their cases are very complex,” says Steve West, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England and chair of the mental health working group for Universities UK (UUK), the steering body for British universities.
The Office for National Statistics produced a report on England and Wales last year which found that in the past, students were less likely than the general population to commit suicide, and that the recent spike had merely brought them more in line with the rest of the population aged under 24. If universities once provided a respite from the pressures of the world of work, they no longer do. Now they compete with one another for students and the hefty fees they pay.
In 1998, universal free higher education ended: fees of £1,000 per year were introduced, and maintenance grants were replaced with loans to be paid back when the student started earning more than £10,000 a year. Since then, costs have risen. In 2006, fees were raised to £3,000 a year. In 2012, this went up to £9,000. In 2017, the cap went up to £9,250, and is expected to keep rising. The average student now leaves university with about £50,000 of debt.
“Driving our universities to act like businesses doesn’t just cannibalise the joy of learning and the social utility of research and teaching; it also makes us ill,” wrote Mark Crawford, then a postgraduate student union officer at UCL, in a 2018 piece for Red Pepper magazine. When I spoke to Crawford, he reeled off a list of ways in which university, as it is structured, can worsen student mental health. “It’s self-worth being reduced to academic outcomes, support services being cut, the massive cost of housing,” he says.
Bristol University student Ruth Day helped to organise a protest demanding better access to psychological support. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian
When Crawford was working for the UCL student union – from 2016 to 2018 – it launched a petition for the university to improve mental health services, which got 2,000 signatures within a week. The campaign drew a direct link between the university’s large overall budgets and its low spending on mental health services. “Universities enact policies and a structure of learning that encourages poor mental health among students while at the same time underfunding services that could offset the consequences,” Crawford told me. After the students’ campaign, UCL agreed to hire three more counsellors.
But the problems cannot all be solved with more counsellors. William Leahy, Brunel’s deputy vice-chancellor, has been closely involved in his university’s efforts to improve mental health support. He points out that starting university might be the first time many students access any kind of psychological help. “We have seen unbelievable underfunding of secondary schools over many years – and not just schools but social services, youth clubs, all those services that used to be preventative, they’ve all gone.” This places an extra burden on universities to take on the responsibilities of the health or social services.
Successive prime ministers have urged more young people to go to university, with the promise of a better job at the end of it. But given the sluggish state of the economy since the 2008 crash, and the scarcity of graduate-level jobs, the connection is hardly clear. “The context of stagnating job markets can make university seem like a three-year job application,” says Crawford.
Many lecturers I spoke to noted that their students place intense pressure on themselves to get a first-class degree or to take on extra commitments so that they can stand out from the crowd. Some can’t keep it up. Dropout rates have increased every year since 2015, with high fees and lack of support for disadvantaged or troubled students cited as two possible reasons. At the worst affected universities one in five students drop out before the end of their first year.
“Clearly university and essay writing have always produced stress, but I do think something new has appeared since the fees and debt rose so sharply, which raise the stakes to a whole new level,” says Davies, the Goldsmiths lecturer. “Very few students respond to this as the government would like – as demanding consumers – and a large number simply shrink from the situation, or drop out altogether.”
Brunel University, on the outer edge of west London, is one institution where the shockwaves of government policy are felt. Built in the 1960s, it has been subject to all the drastic changes the university sector has undergone, but is not part of the elite Russell Group, so its student intake tends to be from a broader range of backgrounds, some with complex needs. Like other universities, it is struggling to deal with increasing mental health problems among students, and in the last few years it has been forced to rethink its mental health provisions, making it easier to access counselling and mentoring, and training lecturers and other staff in mental health first aid.
When Sean Cullen started at Brunel in 2014, he knew that he would need support: a serious motorcycle accident during his gap year meant that he could not walk. Before moving on to Brunel’s campus, he discussed wheelchair access with the university. “I was incredibly pleased,” he told me when we met at a bustling coffee shop on campus. “They had everything in place, so I didn’t need to worry.” He settled into university life, but the same day-to-day pressures that affected most of his peers – deadlines and money management – began to feel overwhelming.
“It was a combination of lots of different things at once,” he recalls. “Stress of studying, worry about the future. I found myself constantly feeling like I should be doing something, but the thought of doing any of those things made me stay doing nothing.” He tried to access the university counselling service, which at that point was run on a drop-in basis, so he could not make an appointment. There was a long queue and he wasn’t seen. In the end, despairing of seeing a counsellor face to face, he sought support from an online forum.
“Student terms are quite short,” says Lesley O’Keeffe, deputy director of academic and student services at Brunel. “If you’ve got a four- or five-week waiting list, it might not sound very long, but that’s half a term. The amount of living they can lose in that time is quite significant.”
Cullen, now 24, was struck by the contrast in the care he had received for his physical and mental health. “You can see physical disabilities, so it’s a lot easier to fix the symptoms. You’re in a wheelchair, you can’t climb stairs, so we’ll provide a lift: job done,” he says. “But if you’ve got anxiety and are struggling to go to classes – well, there’s no short answer.”
A greater number of young people arriving with more complex home situations, who have not managed to get help in the NHS, means that universities are facing a perfect storm. Joyce (not her real name) is 25, a second-year undergraduate student at Brunel. She is studying a science subject, which she likes partly because of the order it represents. “In life, you come across problems you can’t find a solution for, but when it comes to numbers and data, you normally always find a solution,” she told me when we met at Brunel on a snowy day in January.
In her own life, she has often experienced problems with no solution. Joyce, who grew up in London, had an abusive childhood, and is now completely estranged from her family. Undergraduate living has been challenging for her. At first, she moved on to campus, but found it intensely stressful living in halls, in close quarters to people in relationships, couples fighting, flatmates bickering – all the complications of cohabiting. “My adult brain had to deal with the childhood stuff that it had locked away,” she says.
Now she rents privately in the area. Her living costs are not covered by her termly maintenance loans, so she works several different part time jobs on zero-hours contracts. Added to the daily stress of exams and deadlines, this is a gruelling schedule. “At the moment, all I do is study and work,” she says.
Brunel, like most universities, has a range of social activities – from club nights to prayer groups. But over the last couple of years, Cullen and the rest of the student union staff have noticed a fall in participation. It’s getting harder to fill up events, most likely a symptom of the sharp increase in students living far away from campus to save money – over 50% of the student body now commute. Many opt to live with their parents, as much as two or three hours’ drive away, to save money. Others have limited time as they juggle studies with paid work. It is another sign of the pressure weighing on students that they allow themselves less time for fun.
Over the last two years, many universities have taken steps to reduce waiting time for counselling, launched courses on managing stress and anxiety, made support services easier to access, and tried to make students more aware of what is available – although Steve West at UUK acknowledges efforts are “variable”. Some, including Birmingham University and the London School of Economics, did not have a procedure for dealing with students’ mental health problems as late as last year. Some universities are increasing funding for wellbeing and counselling services: at Bristol, spending doubled from 2016 to 2017.
Counselling may be helpful for many people, but it can’t address the stresses built into university life, which can compound mental health problems or create new ones. For Cullen, money worries have been a grinding and ever-present aspect of his university experience. In addition to the £9,000 in tuition fee loans, he has received between £7,000 and £8,000 each year in maintenance loans for living costs. Generally, this just about covers the cost of rent, leaving little to live on. “You learn fast as a student what’s the bare minimum you can get away with,” he says. In his first year, he socialised more than he does now. But given that a single night out costs as much as a weekly food shop, he soon began to think twice about going out with friends. To complicate matters, the amount he receives from Student Finance England, the body responsible for student loans, changed year by year, with unpredictable amounts and repayment terms. “The financial aid is getting worse and worse, even though the cost of living is going up,” he says.
In 2017, Cullen was elected as the student union’s disability officer. As well as advocating for disabled students, this meant helping with the union’s Advice and Representation Centre, where students can come for advice on housing, mental health and academic or financial problems. He heard accounts of mental health problems from hundreds of other students, many of whose experiences chimed with his own. “I’ve not yet met a student that hasn’t experienced high levels of stress while studying, whether it’s because of deadlines, balancing paid work, or problems with housing,” he says.
Many universities have organised ‘therapy pets’ for exam periods – that students can pet to ease their stress. Photograph: Alamy
While many students survive more or less on their overdrafts, Cullen has noticed that many have mental health problems in their final year. “Nowadays, getting a degree doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a job, or not a better job than without one,” he says.
According to a 2014 report, a significant number of students (45%) do paid part-time work alongside their studies, with 13% doing a 35-hour week. Inevitably, this has an impact not only on academic performance but on students’ ability to fully participate in university life. “We sometimes get students coming to lectures having just done a night shift, and we can see they’re tired and might not be in the best frame of mind to be learning,” says Michael Thomas, a lecturer in social work at Brunel.
Students exhausted from working while studying full time, and still struggling to cover their basic living costs, are bound to be more anxious about deadlines and exams. “It’s all the environmental stuff that makes it more stressful,” says Thomas. “If you’re tired, you haven’t had time to study, you have to make a long journey to university, it’s all cumulative.”
Some of the more attention-grabbing measures that universities have introduced do nothing to address these fundamental questions. This year Bristol University introduced a course in the science of happiness, a unit that, alongside lectures, will include happiness “exercises” to be practised for a week at a time, such as sleeping more, meditation, savouring enjoyment and performing random acts of kindness. It can count towards a degree. In the past few years, Cambridge, Brunel, London Metropolitan and Warwick, among many others, have organised “therapy pets” for exam periods – dogs, cats and guinea pigs that students can pet to ease their stress. To augment overstretched counselling services, many universities run free yoga or mindfulness courses.
“Often these measures are being done instead of properly funding mental health services,” says Crawford, the former UCL student. “Universities are competing for students. Therapy dogs look nice and are cost-effective. It’s insulting.”
Even if they are helpful for some people, such measures can only provide short-term relief, as Leahy, the Brunel deputy vice-chancellor, acknowledges. “In one sense, the system inherently pressurises people, while at the same time you’re saying, ‘chill out, relax, it’s all fine’.”
After the rise in suicides, in 2017 a national strategy was launched by UUK, giving out new guidelines to help universities improve the way they handle mental health. The guidance gave a boost to work that was already being done at Brunel. While two years earlier Cullen had found the system hard to navigate and slow, the process had been improved. “Our waiting lists are better, students can see the right person quicker, or multiple people if that’s what they need,” says O’Keeffe.
While Brunel has made a concerted effort to invest in student mental health services and reduce waiting times, across the UK this is patchy. Former health minister and mental health campaigner Norman Lamb recently gathered information from 110 universities, and found that many do not even record their counselling waiting lists or budgets for support services. He told the BBC: “If we are operating in a fog, if we have no idea how long students are waiting ... this is putting students at risk. We know from the data that the longest waiting times could be over half a term for some students. We know also that there have been some tragedies among some student populations – students who have taken their own lives. If that happens while they are waiting for support, that’s utterly intolerable.”
When Leah (not her real name) started at Brunel in autumn 2018, she thought carefully about disclosing her history of bipolar disorder and anxiety. She was in her mid-30s and had spent much of the previous decade in and out of hospital. She had been sectioned more than once. Brunel, where she is studying for a postgraduate degree, was going to be a new start. “I don’t want to deal with other people’s prejudices as well,” she told me when we met in a quiet room on Brunel’s campus. “I’d rather just be accepted for who I am.”
This is not an uncommon dilemma: a key part of the new strategy is for universities to encourage students to disclose that they have a problem. Teachers and staff I interviewed said many of their students worry that telling the university about their condition might adversely affect their degree result. Leah, who rents a flat some distance from the campus, doesn’t talk to her peers about her condition, but she did disclose it to the university. When she started at Brunel, the new strategy for dealing with mental health had been in action for a year, and things went smoothly. She was set up with a counsellor and a mentor, who helps her manage her time and offers practical advice.
A few weeks after starting, Leah found herself sitting in the library, completely overwhelmed. Her mind was whirring: had she expected too much of herself by coming back to university? Should she quit? How would she bear the shame of telling her friends and family she couldn’t manage it? She spoke to her mentor, and in a very short space of time they had helped her to switch to a part-time master’s, meaning that her course would be spread over two years rather than completed in one. That also meant she could get a part-time job.
Leah’s problems first surfaced when she first went to university. She was younger then, and less sure about what help she needed or was entitled to. “It’s one thing needing the support, and another being aware that you need it,” she says. Although graduating was a triumph, the following eight years were often harrowing, with Leah in and out of hospital as she struggled to manage her condition.
Having decided to return to university, Leah was anxious about how she would cope with the stress – she likes to keep busy, but stress can trigger manic episodes. But she has been pleasantly surprised. It has actually been easier to access certain kinds of support than it was outside university. “There’s a lot of cuts in the community, and I’ve been on a waiting list for NHS counselling for years now,” she says. At Brunel, she sees a counsellor regularly.
When communication between university and health service works, it can provide valuable support. Leah is still supported by a mental health crisis team in her borough. The university is in touch with the team and can inform them if they have concerns about Leah, and vice versa. “No matter how well put together I am, that vulnerability is still there,” she says. “But I have a safety net to catch me if anything does go wrong.”
Everyone I spoke to in university administration around the country viewed mental health support as part of their duty to students, but they are struggling to meet the need. “We’re not residential care and we don’t have live-in staff,” says O’Keeffe at Brunel. “Sometimes there’s an expectation, even by our local services, that we can do more than we can do. We’re not here to give medical treatment or take the place of the NHS. Our aim is to get everyone to achieve the best they can. Everyone here at some point wanted to get a degree. If that desire is still in them, that’s what we try and work with them for.”
Yet even as university mental health provisions slowly improve, the particular stress of university life continues. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what a counsellor says to you if you can’t afford to pay your rent,” says Crawford. “The way universities currently operate is manufacturing conditions that create poor mental health. So at the very least, they should invest some resources so that everyone can be seen and supported.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
Publicație: The Guardian
We must build a data-driven generation of biomedical engineers
Major advances in our ability to acquire data on human health mean we now need to equip biomedical engineers with data science skills, says Frederick Epstein
Over the past half-century, biomedical engineers have helped surmount some of medicine’s greatest challenges, designing artificial limbs and organs, next-generation imaging machines, and drug delivery systems to combat many diseases and extend our life spans. By bridging the biomedical and engineering disciplines, biomedical engineers have not only been able to develop powerful solutions – but do so with a deep understanding of the physiological problems that they are designed to tackle.
Now, as we continue to navigate the 21st century and hand over the keys of medical advancement to the next generation of biomedical engineers, we must realise that they face even more intractable challenges, ranging from cancer and diabetes to dementia. To surmount these obstacles, they need to adopt a new approach, rooted in data science, quantitative analysis, and systems modelling.
Over the past decade, we have seen major advances in our ability to acquire data on human health – and a corresponding need to understand and utilise these data in ways that improve health care in America.
Our biomedical engineers now have the ability to explore how systems of cells operate; mine massive, complex datasets in our nation’s health records; utilise omics data (such as genomics and proteomics) to optimise patient-specific therapies; apply data science to medical imaging; and use cutting edge modelling techniques to explore the basic biochemistry related to cancer, diabetes, and other diseases.
Yet, many biomedical engineering departments across the country offer curricula that do not sufficiently prepare graduates to tap into these transformative capabilities. Our future professionals largely are not able to fully access foundational data science, systems modelling, and machine learning courses, even as an increasing number of jobs require these core competencies.
Earlier this summer, GE Healthcare posted 44 job openings for data scientists. Verily recently partnered with Google to establish a life sciences division, striving to leverage deep learning technology to study massive biological datasets related to disease processes.
And companies such as Medtronic and Novartis are racing to recruit the staff who can harvest the power of big data to inform their next waves of medical devices and drugs. Employment in the field is on pace to expand by 23 percent in the next five years in the US, a faster rate of growth than any other occupation in the country.
Biomedical engineering departments across the country must make changes if they hope to address this demand for a new crop of engineers who are fluent in biomedical data science.
At the University of Virginia Schools of Engineering and Medicine, we have made a commitment to hiring staff who work across disciplines and engage in research that builds on a deep-rooted, mathematical and computational approach to biomedical systems.
Beyond leveraging the power of data science in their research programmes, the 100 biomedical engineering departments across the country can structure curricula that emphasise linear algebra, statistics, systems modelling, signal processing, machine learning and deep learning, alongside cell and molecular biology and physiology. They can embed core data science within biological concepts across their students’ curricular pathways.
At UVA, we are acting on the imperative to promote data-driven, multidisciplinary, and modelling approaches across our undergraduate and graduate programmes, recognising that our future biomedical engineers need these opportunities to thrive in a rapidly transforming field.
Universities do not have to start this work from scratch. For example, the National Institutes of Health have already established a series of grant programmes for PhD students that encourage the intersection of biomedical engineering and data science.
Meanwhile, the National Science Foundation has launched field-wide dialogues on how to model biological systems and draw correlations between different datasets.
In addition to building on government-driven initiatives, schools of engineering can partner with some of the leading employers in this space to help structure curricula aligned to the skills they need, offer hands-on, project-based training opportunities, and create pipelines to the jobs of tomorrow.
It is a win-win-win: for the crop of healthcare and technology companies that need engineers trained with these skills and knowledge, for biomedical engineering departments that are better positioned to solve today’s medical challenges, and for our nation.
As we continue to develop biomedical technologies that generate ever more personal data, we must also consider data security and cyber threats. By equipping our future biomedical engineers with the tools to understand, navigate and leverage big data, we are well-positioned to launch – and help protect – the next wave of transformative, secure discoveries in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and medical imaging.
In doing so, they can take the baton and surmount this century’s greatest medical challenges – from curing cancer and ending diabetes to preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
Publicație: The Times
Comment vont être sélectionnés les futurs médecins
A la rentrée 2020, la très critiquée « première année commune aux études de santé » doit disparaître au profit de différents parcours qui permettront de rejoindre les filières santé.
Dans un premier temps, le nouveau système de sélection des futurs médecins risque d’être difficile à appréhender pour les familles et les lycéens. Une complexité à mettre sur le compte de l’objectif de cette réforme en cours de construction : « diversifier » les voies d’accès aux filières de santé et les profils des étudiants.
C’était l’une des grandes mesures portées par Emmanuel Macron : face au système de la Paces (première année commune aux études de santé), dénoncé de toutes parts pour les trois quarts des quelque 60 000 jeunes inscrits qui finissent l’année sur le « carreau » du concours, il a promis la fin du numerus clausus, ce nombre maximum, fixé au niveau national, d’étudiants autorisés à poursuivre dans les différentes filières que sont la médecine, la pharmacie ou encore l’odontologie et la maïeutique. Ce nombre sera désormais établi au niveau local, entre universités et agences régionales de santé, notamment. La suppression de la Paces a aussi été actée, et ce dès la prochaine rentrée en 2020, d’après la loi Santé promulguée cet été.
Par quoi sera-t-elle remplacée ? Une diversité de parcours doit lui succéder, comme le détaille un projet de décret en cours d’examen au conseil d’Etat, et un arrêté à paraître dans les jours qui viennent et que Le Monde a pu consulter. Au moins deux grandes voies seront ouvertes aux bacheliers. Une première année en santé, que les doyens surnomment « portail santé », comprendra des matières proches de celles de la Paces d’aujourd’hui mais aussi une « mineure » dans une autre discipline. Ce qui permettra, en cas d’échec aux épreuves sélectives pour entrer en médecine, de poursuivre dans la licence de cette autre matière.
Sélection en deux temps
Deuxième option pour les bacheliers : entrer dans une année de licence universitaire classique (en droit, en biologie, en économie…), avec une petite part d’enseignement en santé (une « mineure »), qui leur permettra aussi de prétendre aux épreuves pour rejoindre le cursus de médecine. Dernière possibilité : les candidats pourront passer par une formation de trois ans menant au diplôme d’auxiliaire médical, avant de tenter leur chance.
Les deux textes réglementaires posent des garde-fous chiffrés pour empêcher la reconstitution d’une voie royale unique : ainsi, un parcours de formation ne pourra pas offrir plus de 50 % des places en médecine.
Publicație: Le Monde
30 septembrie 2019
Universitatea "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi deschide noul an cu evenimente si o ceremonie spectaculoasa
Universitatea "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" (UAIC) din Iasi isi deschide portile pentru mii de studenti. Festivitatea de deschidere a anului academic 2019-2020 va avea loc astazi, 30 septembrie, la ora 11:00, în Aula Magna "Mihai Eminescu" din Copou.
La moment sunt asteptate oficialitatile orasului si invitati de la alte institutii de invatamant din urbe. Pe de alta parte, in perioada 29 septembrie - 1 octombrie, UAIC deruleaza si o noua editie a evenimentului intitulat "Bun venit la UAIC". Acesta este dedicat informarii si orientarii studentilor din anul I.
Pe parcursul a trei trei zile, "bobocii" vor gasi în fata institutiei zeci de standuri amenajate special pentru ei. Prima oprire va fi la punctul de informare central, unde vor primi gratuit o mapa cu informatiile esentiale de orientare în studentie. Aceasta contine ghidul studentului, harta campusului si materiale despre serviciile Universitatii, informatii despre oportunitati de angajare sau promotii.
În plus, tot pentru studentii din anul I sunt pregatite tururi ale orasului, vizite ghidate la Muzeul Universitatii, Biblioteca Centrala Universitara (BCU) "Mihai Eminescu", la sediul British Council sau Sala Germana de Lectura. Tot pe parcursul celor trei zile, la standul BCU Iasi vor fi oferite carti si reviste donate de catre edituri si personalul bibliotecii, special pentru acest eveniment.
De asemenea, vor avea loc vizite ghidate la sediul Bibliotecii în fiecare zi de eveniment. În plus, studentii UAIC vor putea participa la o tombola la care pot câstiga 120 permise de biblioteca, valabile pe parcursul unui an universitar, dintre care 20 de permise la Sala Germana de Lectura. Ligile si asociatiile studentesti vor fi si ele prezente alaturi de "boboci" înca din prima zi de facultate, cu activitati interactive de promovare a voluntariatului si a spiritului de initiativa.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Mii de studenti politehnisti revin la cursuri. Ceremonie eleganta, ASTAZI, la deschiderea noului an academic la Universitatea Tehnica din Iasi
Astazi, 30 septembrie 2019, de la ora 10:00, este programata ceremonia festiva de deschidere a anului universitar 2019-2020, la Universitatea Tehnica (TUIASI) "Gheorghe Asachi". Totul va avea loc în Aula Magna "Carmen Sylva", din Corpul A, Copou.
Rectorul universitatii, prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, este amfitrionul manifestarii. In acest context, de precizat ca institutia a avut o admitere de succes, programele de studii ale Politehnicii iesene fiind din ce in ce mai cautate.
Pe de alta parte, tot astazi, insa de la ora 18:00, în Campusul "Tudor Vladimirescu", în curtea interioara a caminelor T9-T10-T11, este programat concertul sustinut de Gasca Chitara Grozavesti, fiind primul an în care studentii politehnisti sunt întâmpinati cu un concert în campus pentru a marca deschiderea anului universitar.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Universitatea „Cuza“, în febra alegerilor. FEAA va avea un cuvânt greu de spus
Din 71 de locuri în Senat, 13 vor fi ocupate de reprezentanţi ai FEAA.
Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza“ din Iaşi va modifica în mod substanţial felul în care se va desfăşura următorul ciclu de alegeri, pentru perioada 2020-2024. În ultima şedinţă a Senatului, care a avut loc săptămâna trecută, joi, 26 septembrie, s-a eliminat un principiu al reprezentativităţii care a existat timp de 20 de ani în universitate: o echilibrare a numărului de senatori în forul de conducere al instituţiei de învăţământ superior, indiferent de mărimea facultăţii. De aceea, ani la rând au existat câte 3 membri de la fiecare facultate, indiferent că vorbim de Teologie Romano-Catolică, unde sunt maximum 300 de studenţi în toţi anii de studiu, sau de Istorie, Chimie sau Educaţie Fizică şi Sport. Principiul reprezentativităţii era menit să dea o viziune mai amplă asupra activităţii Senatului, şi să nu lase puterea doar în mâna facultăţilor mari.
Acum, însă, printr-o formulă de calcul stabilită în metodologie, se oferă garantat doar două locuri fiecărei facultăţi: unul pentru personalul de cercetare şi cadrele didactice şi unul pentru studenţi. Restul până la 71, numărul complet de senatori, se determină prin împărţirea numărului total al celor cu drept de vot - 785, la 53, şi printr-o nouă împărţire numărul celor cu drept de vot de la o facultate la rezultatul obţinut anterior, 14.81.
Noua redimensionare afectează facultăţile mici, care pierd un senator - la Istorie, Sport, Chimie, Teologie Ortodoxă vor fi 2 în loc de 3, la Teologie Catolică - unul singur, la Geografie 4 în loc de 5, şi câştigă Filosofie şi Fizica - 4 în loc de 3. Marele câştigător în reprezintă „facultatea-mamut“ a universităţii, cea de Economie şi Administrarea Afacerilor, care de la 6 senatori câţi avea, cei mai mulţi, la fel ca Literele, ajunge la 9. Iar la nivel de studenţi, fiecare facultate are un reprezentant, iar FEAA are 4. În total, din cele 71 de locuri din Senat, 13 sunt ocupate de FEAA. Economia capătă astfel 18% din puterea de decizie la nivel legislativ din universitate, după ce, în urma instaurării votului unanim, voturile de la FEAA contează aproximativ 20% din numărul total de voturi necesare pentru alegerea unui nou rector.
„Multe universităţi din ţară au un program similar, dar nu au aceeaşi configuraţie a facultăţilor precum UAIC. Nu sunt facultăţi care să capete o asemenea putere de decizie, de aceea era util fostul principiu folosit - limitarea unui număr minimum şi maximum de persoane care pot face parte din Senat de la o singură facultate. În felul acesta, dacă facultăţile deja mari se extind, poţi construi un Senat doar cu 3-4 facultăţi mari, care să decidă viitorul întregii universităţi“, a precizat pentru „Ziarul de Iaşi“ unul dintre evaluatorii care au analizat universitatea în cadrul ultimei vizite a Agenţiei Române pentru Asigurarea Calităţii în Învăţământul Superior (ARACIS).
Conducerea Senatului UAIC a precizat că această decizie corespunde prevederilor Cartei universitare şi că este o practică la nivelul universităţilor mari din ţară.
Calendarul alegerilor
Aceeaşi metodologie, care urmează să fie făcută publică, mai aduce o serie de modificări felului în care se desfăşoară alegerile. Astfel, cei care sunt interesaţi să devină membri ai Consiliilor departamentelor şi ale facultăţilor trebuie să depună un dosar de candidatură, la fel şi cei care vor să devină preşedinte al Senatului. Înainte se propuneau nume dintre senatori şi avea loc un vot direct în prima şedinţă, condusă de decanul de vârstă, însă acum, după alegerea Senatului, cei care doresc să fie preşedinte îşi vor depune un dosar de candidatură.
Odată cu metodologia, s-a stabilit şi calendarul exact al alegerilor. Astfel, candidaţii pentru funcţia de rector îşi vor depune dosarele de candidatură în perioada 24-28 februarie, turul I va fi organizat pe 11 martie şi dacă va fi nevoie de turul al II-lea, cu cei doi candidaţi care au întrunit cele mai multe voturi, acesta va fi pe 18 martie.
Senatorii vor fi aleşi pe data de 5 februarie, iar cei care doresc să devină preşedinte al Senatului îşi depun dosarele de candidatură în perioada 15-18 februarie.
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași
Ambasadorul Franţei a analizat la UMF consecinţele reformării învăţământului în Hexagon
Excelenţa Sa Michèle Ramis, ambasadorul extraordinar şi plenipotenţiar al Franţei în România, a discutat vineri, 27 septembrie, într-o vizită făcută la Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie „Grigore T. Popa“ din Iaşi, despre faptul că anul viitor s-ar putea ca „numerus clausus“ să fie sistat în Franţa. Acest sistem împiedică studenţii care vor să studieze medicina să mai dea încă o dată examenul de admitere, care se dă după primul an de studiu, dacă l-au picat în primă fază.
În cadrul vizitei, Excelenţa Sa a participat la o întâlnire cu studenţii francezi de la UMF Iaşi, prilej cu care i-a asigurat că Ambasada le va oferi tot sprijinul pentru ca aceştia să aibă un parcurs academic, social şi cultural cât mai bun în România. A avut loc şi o întrevedere cu reprezentanţii conducerii universităţii - prof.dr. Viorel Scripcariu, rectorul UMF Iaşi, prorectorii şi decanii instituţiei.
„Este al treilea an consecutiv de când primim vizita delegaţiei franceze şi mă bucur că avem o relaţie de colaborare între UMF Iaşi, Ambasada Franţei şi Institutul Cultural Francez extrem de productivă, şi că de fiecare dată avem un dialog deschis şi la obiect. De asemenea, putem vorbi şi de o dimensiune afectivă, având în vedere caracterul profund francofon al Universităţii“, a declarat prof.dr. Viorel Scripcariu.
La întâlnirea desfăşurată în Rectoratul Universităţii, s-a discutat, printre altele, despre reforma sistemului de învăţământ din Franţa, dar şi despre demersurile care se fac pentru ca studenţii din România să poată beneficia de accesul la platforma online de pregătire a examenului ECN („Examen classant national“), echivalentul rezidenţiatului în Franţa.
În anul universitar 2019-2020, vor începe studiile la liniile de predare în engleză şi franceză 450 de studenţi, din 26 de ţări.
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași
Studenţii încep oficial, marţi, 1 octombrie, cursurile. Când este programată vacanţa de iarnă
Studenţii din toată ţara încep oficial, marţi, 1 octombrie, cursurile din anul universitar 2019-2020. Cu toate acestea, anumite facultăţi au decis să deschidă noul an universitar începând de luni. Conform calendarului noului an universitar, studenţii vor avea vacanţa de iarnă pe 21 decembrie.
Potrivit calendarului pentru anul universitar 2019-2020, studenţii încep cursurile, oficial, pe 1 octombrie. Chiar dacă anul universitar începe pe data de 1 octombrie, unele facultăţi au ales să organizeze festivităţile de deschidere mai devreme, informează mediafax.ro.
De exemplu, cei 30.000 de studenţi de la Politehnica Bucureşti au început cursurile săptămâna trecută, iar cei de la Academia de Studii Economice Bucureşti participă luni, 30 septembrie, la ora 12:00, la deschiderea anului.
Şi Universitatea Bucureşti îşi deschide porţile tot luni, pentru cei 34.000 de studenţi.
Peste 22.000 de studenţi (6.500 la anul I) vor urma cursurile de licenţă şi masterat la ASE.
Studenţii vor avea, în perioada 21 decembrie 2019 - 5 ianuarie 2020, vacanţa de iarnă, iar sesiunea de examene pentru semestrul I este programată să înceapă pe data de 19 ianuarie.
Semestrul II începe pe data de 17 februarie şi se va încheia pe 28 iunie 2020, cu sesiunea de vară de examene
Publicație : Adevărul și Evenimentul
Universities provide ample fuel for gaslighters
Academics need to be more aware of this most insidious form of bullying, say Bailey Sousa and Alex Clark
University campuses, with their overt commitments to truth, transparency and collegiality, are probably the last places where bullying should occur. And yet we all know that it does. From silent treatment to overt intimidation, hundreds of instances of bullying are reported by academics, senior staff and students each year.
Yet another form of bullying is arguably more pernicious still, but which, by its very nature, is much less frequently reported.
“Gaslighting” entered the lexicon in the wake of the 1938 play Gas Light – and particularly the 1944 movie version starring Ingrid Bergman – in which the heroine’s controlling husband seeks to convince her that she is losing her mind. But it has risen to particular prominence in this post-truth era, in which international political leaders’ continual misdirection and flat-out denials of previous statements have led many to second-guess their own memories and judgements.
Gaslighting has become a concealed means to exert control and gain power over others in environments that lack official mechanisms to do so. But surely, you might think, universities’ highly educated workforces would be less susceptible than most to the mind games and trickery endured by Gas Light’s isolated young heroine? In fact, the pressurised world of higher education – where intradepartmental cliques often vie for dominance and precariously-employed staff seek protectors – particularly lends itself to this kind of abuse.
Gaslighting in academia isn’t evident in a single incident, but occurs in relationships over time. Most often, these relationships involve some actual or perceived power differentials, which the gaslighter seeks to amplify. This could start, for instance, with a senior colleague giving complimentary feedback in private, but then actively sabotaging the target’s reputation or career to colleagues via unfair criticism or groundless accusations of misconduct.
Academia provides countless opportunities for gaslighters – from questioning authorship on a paper despite past discussion and seeming agreement, to spinning previously approved budgets as being “seen for the first time”. Solving workplace problems gets mired in shifting accounts of what the real issues are. If you can’t seem to convince someone of your point of view despite repeatedly setting out the facts and evidence, and if your interlocutor responds by presenting issues that seem to be constantly shifting red herrings, you might be getting gaslighted.
Crucially, even when concerns are raised about the gaslighter’s conduct or motivations, perpetrators flatly deny any wrongdoing or poor intent – even in the face of directly contravening evidence such as emails, data, or past conversations. The idea that they, as reputable academics, would seek to inflict mental disintegration on a colleague is fanciful, they insist, and only reflects others’ paranoia or desperation.
From counselling hundreds of self-confessed gaslighters, Yale University psychoanalyst Robin Stern learned that the behaviours reflect a deep compulsion to control relationships, extinguish conflict, ease inner anxiety, and feel in charge.
Within academia, perpetrators focus on harnessing their power to assert that they themselves are the only people who can be trusted. More insidious than instantaneous, gaslighting is like the fable of the boiling frog; it relies on steady, relentless progress that cumulatively leads to overwhelming isolation and erosion of self-trust.
In gaslighting situations, Stern advises people to recognise and accept that a power struggle is occurring. Maintain your self-care and don’t lose confidence – these will be vital to getting through. Our personal sense of injustice can be powerful: why don’t others see what’s going on for what it is? It is tempting to dwell endlessly on what and who is right and wrong, but you cannot control others’ views, even when you believe you are right.
As Stern reminds us, when interactions lead to ever deeper self-doubts or disruptive emotions, preserving your psychological safety should be your priority. Analyse carefully where the truths and distortions are in the denial of your experience. Write about your thoughts and feelings to reflect on and better calibrate your own perceptions. Talk to trusted colleagues: have they experienced similar behaviours? Get a reality check from their views of your situation.
Ultimately, the best means to eradicate the gaslighting is to disrupt power. This could entail walking away decisively from an otherwise valued job or role, long-term relationship, or project. While this may mean giving up something important to you, crucially it allows you to stay aligned with your values and protects your wellbeing and self-worth. This removes the underlying dynamic that fuels this growing and insidious form of bullying.
Publicație : The Times
‘Research on research’ project aims to mend ‘broken’ system
Major international project involves large charitable and public funders of research from nine countries
A major international project that hopes to use “research on research” to help mend “broken” aspects of the global scholarship system has been launched.
The Research on Research Institute (Rori), founded by a group including the Wellcome Trust, two universities and the technology firm Digital Science, hopes to tap into the “huge scope” for how analysis of research systems can impact science policy around the world.
A dozen other partners – including national research funders in the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada, and non-governmental funding bodies in the US and Germany – have expressed an interest in participating in the project, which will be based for “for an initial two-year incubation phase” at Wellcome’s offices in London.
James Wilsdon, director of the new institute and professor of research policy at the University of Sheffield, one of the academic institutions involved alongside Leiden University, said he hoped that the consortium could, by conducting comparative analyses of research systems, unlock insights into best practice and efficiencies.
“Every country is grappling, by and large, with similar, if somewhat contextually different, challenges related to the funding and development of their research base, and I think there is huge scope to be better at capturing what is working well, what is working badly and transferring that knowledge around,” he said.
The project’s initial work will be organised under three main themes relating to research “decisions”, “careers” and “culture”, and will likely tackle a range of pressing topics affecting universities, individual scholars and the wider research system, including how research is funded, open access and the use of metrics.
Rori’s work will include a rolling programme of research seminars as well as regular reports, working papers and “high-quality rigorous peer-reviewed research”, with all findings and data made openly available.
Professor Wilsdon said there was no expectation of financial backing from the partners, whose numbers he hoped would expand in the coming months but which already include the Dutch Research Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation and UK Research and Innovation.
“What we want is access to their data or their commitment to share data or to undertake joint experiments and trials…and in that way to try to really scale up and generate more useful and applicable findings from this kind of work that can be of real strategic and practical use to decision-makers,” he said.
Daniel Hook, chief executive of Digital Science and a co-chair of Rori, said that while there was already a large amount of “research on research” both inside and outside academia, “what we’ve noticed is there is actually very little translation” of findings “into practice”.
The exact issues and priorities to be tackled will be determined through discussion between the organisations involved.
However, Dr Hook said, major aspects of the operation of modern research were “fairly broken, to be honest”.
“I think there are a lot of challenges and a whole stream of things that are connected,” he added, with a common thread being a disconnect between the use of “the paper” as the main way of communicating research and the growing use of data around that.
By improving how “research on research” was carried out and communicated, Rori could “make a tangible, productive, long-lasting impact on the way in which research systems are organised, funded and evaluated”, Professor Wilsdon said.
Publicație : The Times
Census data underline foreign student language concerns
Candid self-appraisals lend weight to doubts about English capabilities of learners coming to Australia
A new analysis has reinforced concerns about the English language skills of international students in Australian universities.
Tertiary education analyst Andrew Norton crunched data from Australia’s 2016 national census to evaluate persistent claims about students’ poor English skills. He tallied people’s appraisals of their own English, restricting his analysis to answers from non-citizens who had arrived in Australia between 2014 and 2016 and were studying full-time at university.
Nine per cent of these respondents indicated that they did not speak English well. When the analysis was restricted to people from mainland China, that figure rose to 16 per cent.
Mr Norton, who recently stepped down as higher education programme director with the Grattan Institute thinktank, blogged that this figure was concerning but “at the lower end of what we might expect given the negative publicity around this issue”.
To investigate further, he analysed a recent University of Melbourne international student survey. “A quarter of them described their English fluency as ‘moderate’ and 4 per cent as low or very low,” he said.
“Is moderate English really enough for successful academic study? Intuitively I am sceptical. We at least need a better evidence base.
“Despite reassurances from the regulator and universities, there is little publicly available evidence to support a conclusion that the language issues are not serious enough to be a major concern.”
Mr Norton said that universities should report language test information on their international students. “With English on admission data linked to enrolment data, we could find out much more about the relationship between language ability and subsequent performance such as course completion [and] subjects passed or failed,” he said.
“A national dataset would let us identify, and possibly explore, university-level results that differ substantially from the national norm. Without more evidence and better regulation, the English language proficiency of international students is an issue that will not go away.”
Meanwhile, recently released data confirm that India is on the verge of overtaking China as Australia’s top source of international students – and is already ahead in providing fresh applicants from overseas.
The new figures show that ‘churn’ is the only factor maintaining China’s position as Australia’s top education market, with enrolment growth coming from students who were already in Australia and applying for follow-up visas.
The figures, from the home affairs department’s 2018-19 student visa programme report, suggest Chinese enrolments are on the verge of a significant downturn. When enrolment booms peak, growth often continues temporarily – fuelled by people changing their visa status – even though the number of new arrivals is declining.
The report is the latest indication that Chinese appetite for Australian education, which has bankrolled new buildings and research facilities in some of the country’s biggest universities, has waned amid a souring of the bilateral relationship.
The report also shows a sharp increase in enrolments from the Philippines, both in higher and vocational education. The archipelago has become Australia’s seventh top source country for international students, rising from 15th in just a year.
The International Education Association of Australia said there had been a sharp increase in nursing enrolments by Filipinos, triggered by an upgrading of language requirements for commencing students. This had led to active recruitment of aspiring nurses in the Philippines, where English levels tend to be higher than in neighbouring countries such as Vietnam.
Publicație : The Times
PVC: subject-level TEF ‘risks freezing disciplines in time’
Birmingham’s Kathleen Armour emphasises need for collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries
Running the UK’s teaching excellence framework at subject level risks leaving academic fields “frozen in time” and could hamper interdisciplinary innovation, a sector leader has warned.
Kathleen Armour, pro vice-chancellor for education at the University of Birmingham, said that bringing disciplines together “in interesting ways will move us forward into new areas of knowledge”. However, attempting to assess educational standards based on traditional subject units would discourage institutions from innovating and making advances, Professor Armour told a panel discussion organised by Times Higher Education with software company Salesforce.
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, recently told the English regulator, the Office for Students, that he would like it to publish the subject-level TEF in 2021. Currently, universities are rated, with a gold, silver or bronze award, only at institutional level.
Universities have been particularly concerned by the Department for Education’s decision to drop plans to assess broad subject areas, or to assess individual departments only if student metrics suggested that their performance varied significantly from the overall institutional award – and to instead advocate conducting detailed assessments of 34 specific subject areas, alongside continuing institutional-level evaluations.
Concern has been heightened by Mr Williamson’s decision to push ahead with the subject-level TEF before the publication of a review of the overall exercise by Dame Shirley Pearce, the former Loughborough University vice-chancellor, which was expected to express concerns about disciplinary-level assessments.
Professor Armour said that one of the problems she had with the TEF was that “if we are not careful we will measure universities on subjects that have become frozen in time”.
“Yes, we can have a TEF, but don’t let it get it to the level where you are starting to drive what universities do, because we will be preserved in aspic, but the rest of the world won’t be. It’s not clever,” she said.
“If you look at where research is going – look at research council calls, for example – they are multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary,” she said. “If research is going there, it shows you that teaching needs to go there.”
Professor Armour added that there was still a place for traditional subjects, but “others will choose to put history, ethics and anything you care to mention together in interesting ways that will move us forward into new areas of knowledge”.
Universities have also expressed wider concerns about the subject-level TEF, focusing on the potential cost – put at an average of up to £246,000 per provider, or £37.6 million across the sector, by Universities UK – as well as the administrative burden, and the potential exacerbation of the exercise’s statistical shortcomings by the use of smaller sample sizes.
At the THE/Salesforce event, Professor Armour also said that she believed degree courses should move away from the traditional three-year model to one in which students accumulate qualifications over time.
“That requires the funding structures to allow that to happen. As soon as we move to per module funding, we’re there,” she said.
Professor Armour added that a lot of this lifelong learning would have to take place online and that universities would have to accept that they must put as much into maintaining and upgrading their digital infrastructure as they do their physical campuses.
Publicație : The Times
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