23 februarie 2019

EXCLUSIV! Este cea mai TARE veste a noului an la Iasi. Intr-o ZONA DE LUX a ORASULUI s-a decis soarta unui TEREN de 12 HECTARE. Cine este PROPRIETARUL si ce vrea sa faca AICI

 Cu siguranta, intr-un oras aflat in plina dezvoltare imobiliara, aceasta este cea mai tare veste din acest an! • Astfel, intr-o urbe care necesita cat mai multe zone cu spatiu verde si protejarea locurilor - simbol, ceea ce s-a intamplat la mijlocul acestei saptamani va interesa intreg Iasul • Concret, intr-o ZONA DE LUX a Iasului, s-a decis soarta a 12 HECTARE • Dincolo de toate acestea, proprietarul terenului a mai reusit sa intre in posesia altor cateva hectare, chiar in zona Sarariei • Aici urmeaza a fi realizata o investitie unica in capitala Moldovei • In plus, proprietarul aflat in discutie si in urma cu aproximativ doua saptamani, are in posesie si una dintre cele mai mari cladiri din Copou • De asemenea, chiar de anul acesta, acelasi proprietar va demara lucrarile pentru realizarea celui mai modern camin studentesc, respectiv reabilitarea a trei imobile istorice

Intr-un oras aflat in plina dezvoltare imobiliara, aceasta este cea mai tare veste imobiliara din anul curent. Astfel, intr-o urbe care necesita cat mai multe zone cu spatiu verde si protejarea locurilor - simbol, ceea ce s-a intamplat la mijlocul acestei saptamani este de interes pentru intreg Iasul. Intr-o ZONA DE LUX a Iasului, "vanata" dupa 1989 de milionari in euro, s-a decis soarta unei suprafete de 12 hectare. Dincolo de toate acestea, proprietarul terenului a mai reusit sa intre in posesia altor cateva hectare, chiar in zona Sarariei. Aici urmeaza a fi realizata o investitie unica in capitala Moldovei.

"Am reusit (joi, 21 februarie 2019) sa mai intabulam 122.134 metri patrati, respectiv 12.21 hectare in Gradina Botanica «Anastasie Fatu», numarul Cartii Funciare fiind 161.538. Ne apropiem de 36 hectare si operatiunea de securizare juridica va continua conform legii. Gradina Botanica este de interes strategic pentru conducerea Universitatii «Alexandru Ioan Cuza» din Iasi si vrem sa ramâna o oaza de verdeata pentru ieseni. Daca este sa ne gandim ca vorbim de aproximativ 80 de hectare in total, in Gradina putem observa ca, doar in doi ani, am reusit sa intabulam 36 de hectare si nu ne vom opri aici! Vom continua procesul. De asemenea, o alta veste buna este si cea legata de intabularea altei suprafete, de data aceasta in zona Sarariei, care a fost a Societatii Nationale de Televiziune. Aici, in completare cu alt teren, intentionam sa realizam pe aproximativ zece mii metri patrati o ultra-moderna baza sportiva. Deja vom demara etape care sa realizeze proiecte tehnice pentru aceasta importanta si de durata investitie a noastra", a declarat, in EXCLUSIVITATE pentru reporterii Cotidianului BUNA ZIUA IASI (BZI), prof. univ. dr. Mihaela Onofrei, rectorul de la Universitatea "Cuza".

Cine sunt proprietarii pe parcele din Gradina Botanica

Interesant este ca, in actele oficiale, figureaza doar o mica parte dintre personajele care au mii de metri patrati in cel mai frumos si ravnit teren din oras - Gradina Botanica. Inclusiv un fost primar al urbei a pus mana pe aproximativ 11 mii metri patrati aici.

Concret, documentele inregistrate arata ca (in special pe strada Podgoriilor - n.r.) au proprietati urmatorii: 2.000 metri patrati - Vasile si Eugenia Gaburiac, 393.90 metri patrati - Livia Ana Saven, 1.511 metri patrati - Vasile Apetrei, SC Imobil Class SRL cu 1.300 metri patrati, SC Graniti Design SRL cu 1.000 metri patrati si inca o asemenea suprafata, Maria Florea - 1.000 metri patrati.

Pe de alta parte, fostul primar al Iasului, Ionel Onofras, cu fosta sotie Marina, detineau 10.902 metri patrati, transferate recent catre fiul Tudor Codrin Onofras.

De asemenea, 1.300 metri patrati sunt detinute de Anca Mariana Vlasin, adjudecate de Alina Estera Ifrim, iar 1.300 metri patrati, initial detinute de Gabriela Fechet si Valentin Iulian Botez, au intrat in proprietatea lui Andrei Rusu.
Pe langa toate acestea, inclusiv la acest moment exista cereri de punere in posesie pentru alte 44 de hectare in Gradina. Doi dintre mostenitorii boierului Badarau: Simona Missir si Dumitru Contoloru, alaturi de Medeea Schenller, solicita sa fie improprietariti cu 25 de hectare.

Cel mai frumos camin studentesc din Romania. Intra in reabilitare si doua cladiri istorice

De asemenea, chiar de anul acesta, acelasi proprietar va demara lucrarile pentru realizarea celui mai modern camin studentesc, respectiv reabilitarea a trei imobile istorice. Este vorba de Observatorul Astronomic din Agronomie sau Corpul E din zona Fundatiei. Mai departe, si la Corpul D din Toma Cozma sau Casa Universitarilor de pe Bulevardul Carol. In plus, proprietarul aflat in discutie si in urma cu aproximativ doua saptamani, are in posesie si una dintre cele mai mari cladiri din Copou.

"Da, avand in vedere faptul ca am terminat intreaga procedura ce tine de documentatie, pot anunta ca inca de anul acesta vom demara investitiile de reabilitare si modernizare la Observatorul Astronomic si Corpul E din Fundatie. Aici vorbim de milioane lei care vor fi investite. Avand in vedere ca am intabulat si Corpul B, vom demara procedurile si aici de reabilitare si modernizare. Planul intregii echipe manageriale, dupa anul 2016, si care acum coordoneaza cea mai veche universitate moderna a tarii, este acela legat de asigurarea proprietatilor UAIC, investitii in infrastructura si resursa umana. As vrea sa va spun ca, prin intermediul Companiei Nationale de Investitii, tot anul acesta vor demara lucrarile la construirea celui mai modern si frumos camin studentesc din Iasi", a mai reliefat rectorul Onofrei.

Urmariti, doar pe www.bzi.ro, un interviu amplu cu prof. univ. dr. Mihaela Onofrei pe toate aceste teme, dar si despre pregatirea Admiterii 2019 sau alte proiecte avute in vedere.

Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași

Conferinta "Un tablou al peisajelor romanice din Peninsula Iberica", la Universitatea "Cuza" din Iasi

Facultatea de Filosofie si Stiinte Social - Politice din cadrul Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" (UAIC) din Iasi organizeaza miercuri, 27 februarie 2019, la ora 12:00, în Sala "Ferdinand", conferinta intitulata "Un tablou al peisajelor romanice din Peninsula Iberica".

Aceasta va fi sustinuta de dr. Joan María Jaime Moya de la Institución "Milá y Fontanals" (IMF) - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spania.

Manifestarea este sustinuta de unul dintre cei mai apreciati specialisti pe aceasta zona stiintifica si va oferi detalii extrem de interesante despre civilizatia si mentalitatea actualului spatiu ce tine de Peninsula Iberica.

Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași

Cand vor intra in posesia burselor pe luna aceasta studentii Universitatii Tehnice din Iasi

Anunt important pentru studentii Universitatii Tehnice (TUIASI) "Gheorghe Asachi" din Iasi. Bursele pentru luna februarie vor fi virate pe cardurile studentilor miercuri, 27 februarie 2019.

Bursele sunt acordate pentru 17 zile, aferente perioadei din semestrul I, 1-17 februarie, conform structurii anului universitar 2018-2019. Bursele aferente perioadei 18-28 februarie vor fi virate în semestrul al-II-lea, dupa ce vom primi listele cu studentii bursieri de la decanatele facultatilor.

Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași

Burse în Polonia, de 3.000 de euro pe lună

Cercetătorii ieşeni care deţin titlul de doctor au oportunitatea de a pleca în Polonia să studieze, cu o bursă finanţată la nivel naţional de guvernul polonez. Astfel, Agenţia Naţională pentru Schimburi Academice din Polonia a pregătit programul Ulam pentru cercetătorii care deţin titlul de doctor. 

„Obiectivul programului Ulam este de a contribui la dezvoltarea carierei acestora prin intensificarea mobilităţii internaţionale, permiţând stabilirea unei cooperări ştiinţifice cu instituţii gazdă din Polonia. Vizitele în cadrul programului pot dura între 6 şi 24 de luni. Programul oferă finanţare pentru o bursă care acoperă atât costurile indemnizaţiei beneficiarului în legătură cu şederea la o instituţie gazdă, cât şi o indemnizaţie de mobilitate“, au precizat organizatorii. Cei interesaţi pot să îşi depună CV-urile şi formularea de candidatură relevante până pe 23 aprilie 2019 pe site-ul nawa.gov.pl, unde pot găsi şi mai multe informaţii relevante despre proiect. Conform informaţiilor prezentate pe site-ul proiectului, bursa va avea o valoare de circa 3.000 de euro lunar.

Publicație : Ziarul de Iași

Muzeul de Istorie Naturală va fi restaurat cu fonduri europene

Este vorba de 2,8 milioane de euro, din care constribuţia bugetului local este de 60.000 de euro * lucrările vor fi gata în toamna lui 2020

Primarul Mihai Chirica a semnat ieri, 22 februarie, cu Agenţia de Dezvoltare Regională Nord-Est (ADRNE) contractul de finanţare a proiectului „Consolidare şi reabilitare Muzeul de Istorie Naturală – Corp A”. Din partea ADRNE au fost prezenţi directorii Cristian Gheorghe Zamă (Direcţia Organism Intermediar POR) şi Nicolaie Burghelea (Direcţia Economică). Primarul Mihai Chirica a precizat că valoarea totală a proiectului este de 13.312.194,47 lei (circa 2,8 milioane de euro), din care asistenţa financiară nerambursabilă se ridică la 13.033.757,96 lei, contribuţia proprie din bugetul local fiind de 278.436,51 lei. „Muzeul de Istorie Naturală a fost de-a lungul timpului în jurisdicţia Universităţii Alexandru Ioan Cuza, după care, prin efectul legii, acest obiectiv a trecut în administrarea municipalităţii ieşene. Odată cu intrarea în proprietate am demarat procedurile necesare pentru întocmirea documentaţiilor tehnice, începând cu expertizarea acestui edificiu şi continuând cu proiectul tehnic. Într-un final am aplicat spre finanţare din fonduri europene pe Programul Operaţional Regional – Axa 5. Iniţial, pe această axă de finanţare am depus două proiecte, însă până la urmă am depus încă două, anume pentru Mănăstirea Frumoasa, Palatul Braustein, Centrul de Artă Contemporană (fosta Baie Turcească) şi Muzeul de Istorie Naturală. Salvarea, conservarea şi valorificarea potenţialului turistic, istoric şi cultural al Iaşului face parte din responsabilităţile noastre, mai ales după ce Iaşul a primit titlul de Capitală Istorică a României. Noi vom face tot ce este posibil ca implementarea acestui proiect să fie una rapidă şi corectă”, a declarat primarul Mihai Chirica.

Totodată, edilul a mai precizat că licitaţia pentru executarea lucrărilor de consolidare a Muzeului de Istorie Naturală este în plină desfăşurare.

„Nu am mai aşteptat semnarea contractului de finanţare nerambursabilă, ci am demarat din luna octombrie 2018 licitaţia pentru executarea lucrărilor. Valoarea estimată a lucrărilor este de 8.177.916 lei, fără TVA, iar data limită de depunere a ofertelor este 14 martie”, a precizat primarul Mihai Chirica.

În ce vor consta lucrările

Prin proiect se propun măsuri de consolidare a imobilului prin sistemul confinării zidăriei cu stâlpişori din beton armat, realizarea unui spaţiu administrativ în podul imobilului prin amenajarea parţială a acestuia, restaurarea elementelor artistice încă păstrate pe faţade şi refacerea decoraţiunilor şi profilatirilor ancadramentelor ferestrelor, a brâurilor interioare şi exterioare, precum şi modernizarea integrală a clădirii la nivelul finisajelor interioare, a finisajelor exterioare şi instalaţiilor.

Instalaţiile se vor reface integral, completându-se şi adaptându-se legislaţiei în vigoare cu privire la cerinţele de securitate la incendiu, siguranţei în exploatare, economia de energie, sănătatea utilizatorilor şi protecţia mediului. Se va urmări cu precădere asigurarea confortului personalului, vizitatorilor şi utilizatorilor bibliotecii Societăţii de Medici şi Naturalişti, dar şi condiţii optimă de păstrare a exponatelor. În acest sens vechile vitrine manufacturate vor fi înlocuite cu vitrine profesionale, care să creeze microclimatul propice conservării în condiţii optime a exponatelor.

În urma proiectului de restaurare şi modernizare se vor păstra suprafeţele construită şi desfăşurată, iar suprafaţa utilă a clădirii va ajunge la valoarea de 1469,98 metri pătraţi, astfel că indicatorii urbanistici – procentul de ocupare a terenului şi coeficientul de utilizare a terenului – nu se vor modifica.  Clasa de importanţă este „II” iar categoria de importanţă este „B” .

Monument istoric vechi de peste două secole        

Corpul A al Muzeului de Istorie  Naturală  este o clădire de patrimoniu, înscrisă în  Lista Monumentelor Istorice la poziţia 1094 cod IS - II - m - 03915, conform Listei monumentelor istorice  2015 şi se află amplasat pe bulevardul Independenţei nr. 16, având faţada principală orientată spre o frumoasă grădină cu stejari seculari, castani şi alte specii de arbori, între care se evidenţiază un exemplar naturalizat de Gingko Biloba. Această curte plantată  a servit cândva drept Grădină Botanică pentru oraş.

Corpul A al Muzeului de Istorie Naturală din Iaşi – fosta casă Rosetti –  a fost edificat probabil la sfârşitul secolului al XVIII-lea pe un teren de formă aproximativ dreptunghiulară, având deschidere la două vechi artere de circulaţie aparţinând tramei istorice a oraşului.

Suprafaţa construită actuală este de 852 de metri pătraţi, suprafaţa desfăşurată de 2.749 de metri pătraţi, iar suprafaţa utilă actuală este de 1293,80 metri pătraţi.

Muzeul de Istorie Naturală din Iaşi a fost înfiinţat în 4 februarie 1834, fiind primul de acest fel din Principatele Române. Instituţia muzeală deţine peste 300.000 de exemplare din colecţiile de insecte, moluşte, amfibieni, reptile, păsări, minerale şi plante. Interiorul clădirii care va fi reabilitată este compus din biblioteca Societăţii de Medici şi Naturalişti, sala de conferinţe a Societăţii de Medici şi Naturalişti, trei săli cu expoziţii de mamifere, două săli adăpostind colecţii ştiinţifice, o sală cu expoziţie de păsări, o sală cu expoziţie de nevertebrate inferioare, o sală cu expoziţie de nevertebrate şi insecte, o sală cu expoziţie mineralogie - paleontologie şi sala cu caracter istoric „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”.

În ziua de 5 ianuarie 1859, într-una din sălile de la etajul imobilului a fost ales domn al Moldovei colonelul Alexandru Ioan Cuza, ceea ce a însemnat declanşarea procesului unirii Principatelor Române, preambulul creării Statului Unitar Naţional Român.

Publicație : Evenimentul

Oxford University spends £12,000 on making College menus more diverse

Oxford University has spent £12,000 on making College menus more diverse, it has emerged.

Catering staff will be given training and a suite of resources to help them ensure their menus are sufficiently “inclusive” for students.

The move comes after Baroness Jan Royall, head of Somerville, demanded that octopus is removed from the menu as part of a drive to make disadvantaged students feel more “comfortable”.

The inclusive catering project will be spearheaded by domestic bursars from across Oxford’s colleges. They have formed a new working group to oversee the project, which has been awarded £12,000 from the university’s Diversity Fund.

The money will be spent on developing resources and a training programme for kitchen staff, and a series of student focus groups have been arranged with the assistance of a consultancy firm.

It is hoped that re-designing College menus will better cater to the tastes of students and staff from black or minority ethnic (BME) or international backgrounds, religious groups, or those who have dietary requirements based on ethical or health grounds.

Ellie Macdonald, vice president for welfare and equal opportunities at Oxford’s student union, welcomed the initiative, saying: “It is great to see this happening.

It’s vital that catering options reflect the diverse nature of the student body here at Oxford.” However, Mohamed Iman, a third year History student at Oxford said that it is a “wasteful” use of £12,000.

“Colleges differ so much that this scheme, whilst well meaning, is most likely to lead to the simple conclusion that halal, kosher and other dietary requirements aren’t being met in some places and are in others,” he said.

Oxford’s Diversity Fund spends £70,000 each year on initiatives aimed at “fostering an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected”.

Last month Baroness Royall, a Labour peer, said she wants to “change the culture” of her college to make sure it is “welcoming for all”.

She told how after receiving a complaint from a first-year student about an octopus terrine dish, she instructed Somerville’s catering staff to replace it with a less adventurous alternative.

Baroness Royall, the former Labour leader in the House of Lords, revealed the move in a blog post last month, titled “I am determined to move fast on widening access to Somerville”, which was published on the College’s website.

“One of our students told me of her bemusement at being served an octopus terrine at the Freshers’ Dinner,” she wrote.

“I’m sure the cephalopod dish was delicious, but it might not be quite right for everyone. I have asked our catering colleagues to ensure that the first dinner at the beginning of term features dishes everyone is comfortable with.”

Some Oxford colleges have removed formal hall altogether in recent years in a bid to become more inclusive, in 2014 Wadham College made the decision to replace it with a termly “guest night”.

An Oxford University spokesman said: “Eating together in college has always been a really important part of the Oxford experience for students and we want everyone to be fully involved. “Personal history and culture can be big factors in the kind of food and dining that individuals most enjoy.

“That’s why college chefs, food service staff and bursars are working with experts and students on this exciting project, which will help us understand how better to support our communities so everyone can enjoy dining here.”

Publicație : The Telegraph

Teachers and students stage mock climate classes in Whitehall

Traffic blocked at Department for Education during call for national curriculum changes

Teachers protest outside the Department for Education in London against what they say is the government’s lack of action on climate change. Photograph: Jonathan Watts/The Guardian

More than 100 teachers, academics and students have blocked traffic and staged mock climate classes outside the Department for Education in a protest against the underplaying of environmental problems in the national curriculum.

The demonstrators – who carried Teach the Truth, Rebel for Life and Climate: More Important Than Brexit banners – urged the government to make the climate and ecological crisis an educational priority.

The protest organised by the Extinction Rebellion group, which has been taking place during the half-term holiday, was also a show of solidarity for 10,000 pupils who missed classes last Friday to express their frustration at the world’s failure to reduce emissions, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who staged the first school strike.

The organiser, Tim Jones, a secondary school teacher from Lewisham in south-east London, told the gathering that the education system was failing to address the complex reality of climate change and biodiversity loss. He said: “The current system teaches children to conform, not to question things. This conformity breeds the denial that is exacerbating the problems. What we need now is action. That’s what we have seen from children and students and that is now what we need from adults.”

'Teach the truth': teachers and students join together in climate protests - video

The protesters met at Old Palace Yard in Westminster and marched to the DfE offices on Great Smith Street. They blocked the road and heard speeches from Prof David Humphreys of the Open University, Dr Anne Andrews of the University of Cambridge and Dr Alison Green, a former pro vice-chancellor of Arden University who recently organised a letter signed by more than 200 academics in support of the Youth 4 Climate Strike.

The teachers and students performed a pantomime lesson, with mock chairs and desk, and heaps of chalk, to highlight the curriculum’s light coverage of a topic that will shape the lives of young people.

The protesters claimed the UK government had failed to live up to the Paris agreement in which it pledged to enhance education on climate change. They said climate change was treated, at best, as a peripheral subject and that the weak emphasis on the topic meant some state students could go through all 11 years of compulsory education with just 10 classes on climate change out of a total of more than 10,000.

“Sometimes I wonder, what’s the point of teaching when no one is teaching the truth about the future?” said Andrew Thompson, a 33-year-old teacher.

Green said she was speaking on behalf of fellow academics in expressing solidarity with the student strikers. “Like them, I fear for the future of the planet,” she said. “Young people are striving at school to gain qualifications to fulfil personal goals and aspirations. They trust the government but the government is letting them down and squandering their future.”

The DfE said climate change was included in the curriculum. The education secretary, Damian Hinds, has criticised the young strikers. He said: “Missing class won’t do a thing to help the environment; all they will do is create extra work for teachers.”

Many were inspired by students. Edmund Stubbs, a secondary school science teacher based in east London, wrote in the Guardian: “Seeing young people abandon their studies for a day and claim to be taking their future into their own hands should make any teacher uneasy and it has led me to question my role as a secondary school science teacher.”

The demonstration is the latest in a wave of climate protests that are disrupting an increasingly wide range of locations and institutions.

Advertisement

On Monday, dozens of Extinction Rebellion activists held up traffic outside a London fashion event. In December, the BBC’s central London headquarters was put on lockdown after campaigners rallied outside to demand the national broadcaster declare a “climate and ecological emergency”.

More than 100 Extinction Rebellion activists were arrested in November when protesters blocked five London bridges and glued themselves to the doors of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. There have also been demonstrations outside the Scottish parliament and in the centre of Manchester.

Extinction Rebellion, which started in the UK less than a year ago, now has groups in dozens of countries and plans to stage a week of disruption from 15 April.

Publicație : The Guardian

Are university campuses turning into mini smart cities?

Universities are experimenting with AI and big data to improve how students live and learn on campus

Think of a university campus: it has its own roads, shops, residential areas, banks and transport links. It may be visited by tens of thousands of people each day. It is, in effect, a tiny city. Across the globe, these mini metropolises are increasingly opting for a smart city approach. This is a tech-driven model that’s used in places such as Barcelona, where street lamps react intelligently to surroundings to save energy; Seattle, where smart traffic lights respond to the conditions on the road; and even Milton Keynes, which has a real-time “data hub” sharing information about the town’s energy and water consumption, transport, weather and pollution.

Universities are taking notice. The US is leading the way, with on-campus innovations around energy (the University of Texas at Austin has a fully independent grid that provides all its energy), transport (the University of Michigan has introduced a self-driving shuttle system) and information (the University of Minnesota has installed 300 digital signage boards, updated with real-time data).

UK institutions are following suit. The University of Glasgow has been working with innovation centre Future Cities Catapult on a strategy to bring smart tech to the campus as it expands. The vision includes intelligent campus AI, an on-demand bus service and a data centre powered by renewable energy. It’s not yet confirmed if all of these will be implemented, but according to Gemmy Ginty, one of the designers who worked on the strategy, universities are uniquely well placed to experiment.

“Smart cities are kind of slow-moving,” she says. “Cities are so big, and there are so many players and stakeholders, it can be difficult. But universities have control over their estates. They own all the buildings, they own all the networks and they have a captive audience in terms of the students, so they can become like a living lab.”

Many UK universities are doing fascinating things with tech, she says, but are often operating in a siloed way, department by department, rather than in unison. It’s something that Manchester Metropolitan University is attempting to address with its own smart campus plan, which unites six projects including engagement monitoring, digital wayfinding, lecture capture and cloud access.

“The smart campus idea was first floated in spring 2016,” says Tori Brown, the university’s IT portfolio manager. “As more projects and initiatives kept coming to light, it felt right to bring these together to tell a story around student engagement and how we can use technology to support this.”

“It’s a continually evolving plan,” she continues. “There are possibilities around smart kiosks with personalised information, true cross-campus digital and personalised wayfinding. These include wearable tech like smart watches and phones. For example: ‘You have a lecture in 10 minutes in Room X in Building Y, here’s a map and directions’; ‘Have you remembered your assignment due in this class?’; ‘As you’ve got time, if you leave now you can also take back that library book that’s due for return tomorrow’.”

Deakin University in Victoria, Australia has built and implemented a similar system, named Genie. It’s a digital assistant, in the form of a Siri-style voice-activated smartphone app, with information on assignments, timetables, referencing and more. Because it runs on AI, it grows more useful as it is used.

The university has a large distance-learning cohort, with 25% fully online and “the other 75% act[ing] like they are”, according to Beverley Oliver, deputy vice-chancellor for education at Deakin. As well as getting smarter, the system is producing a huge amount of that most prized modern commodity: data. Oliver says the university has “a strong policy around not surveilling students, but using their data with their knowledge in order to help them”.

That’s also the driving force at the University of Nottingham, according to estates manager Andy Nolan, where they are using data to understand how the physical space of the campus is used and adjust planning accordingly.

“It’s still early days,” he says. “We want to do more research around human behaviour in particular, so we can start to use things like the wifi network to monitor the presence of people as a proxy for footfall in different areas of the campus. We’ve done some early piloting of data capture which was interesting, so we’re looking at how we can roll it out more widely.”

But any kind of monitoring does raise questions around privacy. Curtin University, in Western Australia, has joined up with Hitachi to turn the campus into a “data-gathering laboratory” , with 1,600 cameras linked to facial recognition and analytics software to gather information on building trends, study patterns and course attendance. According to the university’s chief operating officer, Ian Callahan, this will be used “to improve student experience and enhance learning”.

Universities need to remember that data isn’t a magic bullet, says Kathleen Armour, pro-vice-chancellor for education at the University of Birmingham. “I am not convinced by the suggestion that we need to collect mountains of data on everything a student does,” she says. “It’s easy to be carried away. Instead, we need to use anonymous data intelligently to ensure our campus, support and systems are made as effective as possible to meet students’ needs.”

Shân Wareing, chief operating officer and deputy vice-chancellor for education at London South Bank University, says it’s the ownership and application of such data that should be a vital concern.

“The data should belong to the students more than the organisations,” she says. “It should be made available, and students should be able to see what their attendance looks like compared to their peers, and how their attendance may relate to their overall achievement.

“But we should be really wary of universities owning that data, and making judgements and adjusting their provision in relation to that data. It’s part of the kind of surveillance society we don’t want to sleepwalk into. It’s paternalistic and not a true partnership, not enabling the students as adults. It’s not that the data isn’t useful, but we don’t know enough yet about how to use it carefully.”

Publicație : The Guardian

Nobel laureate: my legacy is mentorship, not research

Sir Fraser Stoddart says the most rewarding element of his work has been supervising research students, who supported him personally after his wife’s death

When Sir Fraser Stoddart decided to dedicate his career to “lock-and-key chemistry” back in 1967, he had no idea that his quest might spawn wonders as diverse as precision drug delivery, anti-ageing creams, cyanide-free gold extraction, scratch-resistant phone screens and longer-lasting lithium ion batteries – not to mention a Nobel prize in 2016.

But the best story never told about “molecular machines”, which Sir Fraser helped to design and synthesise, is not some astonishing novel application being cooked up in a lab. It is the self-replenishing “families” of junior researchers who delivered all these marvels.

“I’m talking about families [of] about 35 or 40 people,” Sir Fraser told Times Higher Education’s Research Excellence Summit: Asia-Pacific. “It’s a family that changes every two or three years.

“The most exciting thing about my whole career is the daily interaction with young men and women aged roughly between 18 and 32. There’s always change. There’s always new people coming in. There’s always the heartbreak of seeing the people who have succeeded, for the most part, leaving you.

“This is a huge privilege [for] anybody in research, at least in subjects such as applied chemistry, biology and, sometimes, physics. This is the major part of my life. This is what gives me the most satisfaction.

“In the fullness of time, I won’t be remembered for my research. I would like to think that I will be remembered for my mentorship and the people I launched into careers.”

Sir Fraser, the board of trustees professor in chemistry at Northwestern University in Illinois, said that he had often implored the media to “take on board” this dimension of researchers’ work. “The best I’ve ever got from any journalist is, ‘That could be a story for another day.’ And another day has never come.”

Sir Fraser, 76, said that the mixture of pride and grief that research supervisors experienced as they waved goodbye to departing doctoral students was almost parental. “It’s as if you have conceived 500 children,” he said.

“It’s a very human experience. I’m very close to my two daughters, but I’m just as close in some respects to some of the young men and women who have supported me through difficult times.”

Sir Fraser studied at the University of Edinburgh and worked at the universities of Sheffield and Birmingham before moving to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1997 and then to Northwestern in 2008.

He spoke of the support he received from those he supervised when his wife, Norma, died in 2004 after a 12-year battle with breast cancer. “The way some of these young people stepped into the gap and provided the support that I needed was absolutely amazing,” he said.

“That wasn’t a job that my daughters could do; they were distant and all the rest of it. Young people from Turkey or the United States or China served that role.”

Sir Fraser expressed affection for the young Chinese researchers who comprise about half his current “family” – many of them fresh out of Peking and Tsinghua universities, the country’s top institutions. “They’ve been drawn from 1.4 billion people, so they are extremely talented – and very charming to work with,” he said.

Sir Fraser has a research laboratory supporting young researchers at China’s Tianjin University. While his primary affiliation is with Northwestern, he has begun a part-time appointment at the University of New South Wales, which hosted the THE summit, and he plans to spend three months a year there.

Sir Fraser backed the advice of Australian Nobel laureate Peter Doherty, who last year exhorted fellow scientists not to allow themselves to become “some fuckwit in a white coat”. Professor Doherty said that television journalists invariably sought to film ageing scientists wearing white coats and looking thorough microscopes – things most had done little of for decades.

“I’ve been forced into these white coats one or two times against my better judgement,” Sir Fraser said. “I never feel comfortable because I feel I’m taking over the contributions of the young people who are usually in the lab.

“I haven’t worn a white coat for 40 years. If [the media] want to promote me in this context, let’s make it real; let’s not turn me into a stereotype. The world that wants to report our achievements has very fixed ideas.”

Sir Fraser also criticised a view that “applications are the only thing that matters”. He said that, for university professors, conceiving research ideas that led to applications was “a bit of a sideline”.

“Our first job is to teach young people at the undergraduate and graduate level. [They] express that creativity in research that – serendipitously, more often than not – will lead to applications. Many looking on from the outside, and from the political scene, think research can be planned. It can’t, most of the time.”

Publicație : The Times

UK union members vote to strike over pay but turnout falls short

Seventy per cent of voting UCU members support walking out, but 41 per cent turnout is too low for action

Seventy per cent of union members who participated in a fresh ballot for a strike over the pay offer to staff in UK universities backed walking out, but the turnout fell short of the threshold required for industrial action.

Eighty-one per cent of voting University and College Union members also backed action short of a strike in the dispute with employers, but the turnout in the vote was 41 per cent, shy of the 50 per cent minimum introduced by the government in 2017.

The result of the national ballot – announced on the first anniversary of the start of UK higher education’s 2018 pensions strike – closely mirrors the aggregate result of campus-level ballots conducted last year. In those votes, 69 per cent of voting members backed the strike, but the 50 per cent threshold was reached on only seven campuses.

The 50 per cent threshold does not apply in Northern Ireland, where 68 per cent of voting members backed a strike, and 82 per cent supported action short of a strike.

UCU has been locked in a dispute with the University and Colleges Employers’ Association for months over the minimum pay rise for 2018-19 of 2 per cent, rising to 2.8 per cent for the lowest paid.

UCU argues that the offer leaves many staff with below-inflation rises and does nothing to address the falling value of higher education pay, which it says has declined in real terms by 21 per cent since 2010.

The union’s membership has been swelled and reenergised by the 14 days of strike action at 65 universities last year in the separate dispute over reforms to pensions offered by the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

But the results are yet another indication that the 50 per cent threshold represents a significant barrier to sector-wide walkouts.

UCU said that its negotiators would meet on 25 February to decide on the union’s next step.

“The national ballot results show clear support amongst UCU members for action over pay and conditions. However, pernicious ballot restrictions, which single out trade unions for special treatment, mean no action can take place,” said Matt Waddup, the union’s head of policy.

“It is clear from this ballot that staff are angry about the failure of the UK bargaining machinery to deliver improvements to job security, workload and pay inequality and the union will be considering carefully how best we turn that anger into practical action to achieve change.”

A Ucea spokesman said that the ballot showed “the same low level of support for strike action” as the last vote, highlighting that it was “now more than half a year since university employees covered by the national pay negotiations saw pay increases of between 2 and 5 per cent, the average increase at sector level of 3.5 per cent sitting well ahead of last year’s inflation measures”.

“The great majority of higher education staff understand the financial realities for their institutions and have moved on from last year’s balanced and fair pay outcome,” the spokesman said.

“We trust that the trade unions will now, as universities are, focus on the many icebergs and uncertainties facing the sector and engage constructively in this year’s (2019-20) multi-employer negotiating round, which will open at the end of March.”

Publicație : The Times

« Le mal-être étudiant existe, les dispositifs de prévention sont dérisoires »

Etudiant en master, Réda Mérida témoigne de la détresse psychologique rencontrée par certains étudiants de son entourage. Selon lui, les moyens pour prévenir et soigner ces épisodes ne sont pas suffisants.

Les bureaux d’aide psychologique universitaire peuvent apporter un soutien aux étudiants en difficulté. Philippe Turpin / Photononstop / Philippe Turpin / Photononstop

Chronique de Réda Mérida, étudiant en master. A la jeunesse étudiante, on accole souvent un imaginaire fantasmatique de bonheur, de construction de soi et d’insouciance. Ce n’est qu’une vision des choses. Une étude de la Smerep publiée en juin 2018 a montré qu’un étudiant sur cinq avait déjà eu des pensées suicidaires au cours de sa vie. En France, le suicide est la deuxième cause de mortalité chez les jeunes de 15 à 24 ans. Cela peut ahurir plus d’un : comment des personnes au printemps de leur vie peuvent arriver à un point de désespoir tel que mettre fin à leurs jours semble être l’unique solution ?

Il m’a suffi d’interroger mon entourage, dont l’âge moyen ne dépasse pas 35 ans, pour me rendre compte que quasiment tout le monde a été touché directement ou indirectement par des épisodes de mal-être psychologique. Pour quelles raisons ? La transition adolescent-adulte rassemble des réalités individuelles si diverses qu’il est difficile de trouver des causes communes. Souvent, c’est à ce moment que l’on s’émancipe du cercle familial, qu’on se confronte à la réalité du monde, qu’on se construit socialement en tant qu’individu… Et qu’on fait des choix décisifs pour sa vie, ou du moins c’est ce que beaucoup d’étudiants pensent.

J’ai rencontré Raphaël, étudiant en master de droit à Aix-en-Provence, autour d’un café. Il a fait une dépression clinique il y a deux ans qui lui a valu des hospitalisations : « J’ai commencé par me sentir vide, triste tout le temps et je ne pouvais plus sortir. » Les symptômes qu’il décrit, quand ils s’étalent dans le temps et commencent à affecter les fonctions biologiques, ne sont pas anodins. « Puis, j’ai arrêté de manger, j’ai perdu une dizaine de kilos, continue-t-il à me raconter. Je me suis évanoui plusieurs fois à la fac. C’est ce qui a mis la puce à l’oreille de mes profs, avant d’être convoqué par l’infirmerie. Mes parents pensent que ce sont des histoires d’enfant gâté, des caprices pour attirer leur attention, donc je ne leur en parle plus. »

A la question s’il allait bien aujourd’hui, il me répond que pas totalement, il rechute dès qu’il arrête les médicaments. Il évoque une enfance difficile et des relations conflictuelles avec ses parents, « puis, j’ai été harcelé durant toute ma scolarité à cause de mon poids ; je n’ai jamais pu m’adapter, j’ai zéro ami ». Il détourne son visage du mien et s’arrête en tentant de retenir ses larmes. « Depuis que j’ai une copine, ça va un peu mieux, je ne me sens plus seul comme avant, poursuit-il. Et puis elle est compréhensive. » Par ailleurs, il est enthousiaste quant à la fin prochaine de ses études longues et fastidieuses de droit, qui, selon lui, l’isolaient encore plus à cause de la charge de travail nécessaire.

Les étudiants en médecine paraissent particulièrement exposés à ces difficultés. En juin 2017, quatre syndicats d’étudiants en médecine publiaient une étude sur l’impact des études sur les futurs professionnels de santé. On apprenait ainsi que, sur 22 000 répondants, 28 % souffraient de dépression, 66 % d’anxiété (contre 26 % dans la population française) et que 23 % d’entre eux avaient déjà nourri des pensées suicidaires. Ces chiffres n’étonnent pas Ninon, étudiante en maïeutique. « J’ai vu des étudiants sages-femmes vriller, raconte-t-elle. Certains faisaient des crises d’angoisse en cours, d’autres prenaient des kilos à cause de la boulimie et d’autres abandonnaient. J’ai surtout vu l’indifférence de l’administration et des professeurs. Comme si, pour eux, tout ça fait partie de la formation. » Younes, un ami étudiant en quatrième année de médecine à l’université Paris-Descartes, se rappelle également de cette atmosphère. Dès l’entrée en première année commune aux études de santé (Paces), « on réorganise toute sa vie autour de la médecine, tout ce qui peut y avoir en dehors ne compte plus », me dit-il. La pression du concours, la compétition entre étudiants et la charge de travail demandée font que « tout le monde est en état second ».

Les carabins ne sont pas les seuls à être concernés. Dalila, fraîchement diplômée en architecture, se rappelle de ses années de cours très chargées, de la remise en question constante quant à son avenir professionnel, du manque de bienveillance des profs. Elle se rappelle de ses soirées avec Vincent, son ami : « On buvait pour oublier. On prenait des drogues aussi. » Vincent s’était réorienté trois fois dans ses études avant d’atterrir en architecture. Une voie qui ne lui correspondait pas non plus. Eloigné de sa famille, il sombra dans une dépression qui lui arracha la vie, il mit fin à ses jours l’année dernière.

Sentiment d’illégitimité

Dans de nombreux cas, il semble que ce mal-être renvoie à un mal-être social. Pour celles et ceux qui viennent d’un milieu modeste, occuper les bancs de certaines écoles s’accompagne d’un sentiment d’illégitimité, à l’image de Sara, originaire de Haute-Savoie, et dont les parents sont employés dans un supermarché. Brillante dans sa scolarité, ses professeurs de lycée l’incitent à tenter les grandes prépas parisiennes. Elle postule « sans même trop savoir à quoi à quoi ça correspondait », m’explique-t-elle. Admise à Louis-le-Grand, à Paris, elle fut impressionnée par le vieil établissement, les dorures, la cour intérieure et les noms à particules qui l’habitent. Mais très vite, elle commence à se sentir étrangère à ce nouveau milieu. « C’était compliqué d’être boursière, il y avait un regard porté sur nous, même dans le comportement des profs, se rappelle-t-elle. Je me suis rendu compte que je n’avais rien en commun avec les autres. »Cette expérience d’étudiante transclasse, Sara la résume à une colère et une déception : « J’avais l’impression d’être une imposture. »

En deuxième année de prépa, elle se retrouve à habiter à une heure de Louis-le-Grand, car le Crous ne pouvait lui proposer une chambre proche de son établissement. Parallèlement à tout ça, elle cumule deux jobs pour subvenir à ses besoins. « C’était hyperdur physiquement mais j’ai tenu. » Quelques mois plus tard, une rupture amoureuse devient l’élément déclencheur d’un burn-out. Toute la pression et le stress des années d’avant lui retombent dessus. Son médecin la met sous traitement durant un an, à cause de « pulsions suicidaires ». N’ayant pas les moyens de se payer un suivi psychologique, elle s’adresse au bureau d’écoute psychologique universitaire (BAPU), qui propose un service gratuit pour les étudiants. Elle ne rencontre un psychiatre que deux mois plus tard, faute de place. Comment peut-on faire attendre autant des étudiants en détresse ? Une employée d’un BAPU de Paris évoque le manque de personnel et la demande croissante.

Le BAPU, Antoine l’a connu aussi. Il y a six ans, ses parents le rejettent alors qu’il n’avait que 18 ans. « Ils avaient des doutes sur mon homosexualité depuis longtemps. Un jour, mon père m’a clairement posé la question. Je n’ai pas répondu, il a compris », se rappelle-t-il. Ils ne m’ont pas mis à la porte mais ont tout fait pour que je quitte la maison, et quand je suis parti, ils ont arrêté les virements bancaires après quelques mois. » Tout l’entourage d’Antoine était catholique : « En un an, j’ai perdu tout mon monde, ma famille et tous mes amis d’avant. Dans ces milieux, tout se sait… »Il enchaîne les jobs étudiants mais peine à vivre : « Je me privais de manger pour payer le loyer, je mangeais un repas par jour, un jour, je dînais et, le suivant, je déjeunais. » Il s’est adressé au BAPU quand il a commencé à avoir des idées sombres. « Je travaillais comme livreur, et dès que je prenais la moto, j’avais une voix dans ma tête qui me disait de braquer le guidon en pleine autoroute pour que tout s’arrête. » Le conseiller du BAPU le dirige également vers une assistante sociale. Aujourd’hui, à 25 ans, la voix qui lui parlait s’est éteinte grâce à la dizaine de professionnels qui l’ont suivi durant trois ans.

La dépression, qui est une affection de la santé mentale courante, n’est ni un coup de blues ni un spleen. C’est une maladie, elle ronge les émotions de l’individu, mais aussi son corps et toutes ses fonctions biologiques. C’est une maladie qui, selon l’OMS, est la première cause de morbidité et d’incapacité dans le monde. Face à sa prégnance chez les étudiants, les dispositifs de prévention et de diagnostic semblent dérisoires. Aucune des personnes ayant témoigné dans cette chronique n’a bénéficié d’une action de prévention au cours de sa scolarité.

Publicație : Le Monde

Scuola, in tutta Italia studenti in piazza contro la nuova maturità

"Non siamo cavie", oltre 40 le manifestazioni da Trento a Palermo. Al centro della protesta anche il no all'autonomia differenziata e i tagli ai fondi per l'istruzione

ROMA - "Non siamo cavie". Questa mattina gli studenti delle scuole superiori sono tornati in piazza contro la nuova Maturità, cambiata in corso d'anno per introdurre il Latin-Greco al Classico, la Mate-Fisica allo Scientifico e le tre buste (per tutti i candidati) per avviare l'orale. Ci sono già state manifestazioni (seguite) a Padova e Perugia, Pisa e Genova, dove lo striscione d'apertura chiedeva alludendo al programma quiz del tardo pomeriggio Rai: "Maturità o l'eredità?". A febbraio sono state organizzate, tra l'altro, diverse occupazioni e autogestioni.

Questa mattina, a partire dalle nove, hanno preso l'avvio una dozzina di marce organizzate dalla Rete degli studenti medi (Venezia, Verona, Udine, Trento, Cagliari, Palermo e le principali città siciliane) e trenta manifestazioni annunciate dall'Unione degli studenti (Milano, Napoli, La Spezia, cortei in Friuli e in Puglia). "Siamo in settantamila", hanno dichiarato. Il Fronte della gioventù comunista ha rivendicato la paternità della manifestazione, la presenza di molti studenti a loro vicini a Roma, Firenze, Livorno e Cagliari accusando gli studenti medi di aver contrastato la partecipazione "fino al giorno prima". Simone Vial, annunciando per Fgc il corteo di Torino, ricorda invece: "La Legge di bilancio prevede una sottrazione di 4 miliardi di euro per la scuola dal 2019 al 2021".
Torino, corteo degli studenti: lancio di uova e spintoni davanti alla sede del Miur

Giammarco Manfreda, coordinatore nazionale della Rete degli studenti medi, ha detto: "Sostituire la tesina con il gioco delle tre buste e improvvisare l'interdisciplinarietà con la doppia seconda prova significa, per i maturandi, perdere un'occasione per esprimersi e affrontare una prova completamente slegata dal loro percorsi di studi. L'Esame di Stato è solo la punta dell'iceberg di un sistema scolastico che non funziona, ma è sempre la prima cosa a essere modificata. Non importano le ripercussioni sulla pelle degli studenti, importa che costi poco".

L'Unione degli studenti al popolare tema della Maturità ha affiancato la contestazione all'autonomia differenziata proposta dalla Lega a partire dagli istituti della Lombardia e del Veneto. "Saremo una costante spina nel fianco contro l'ennesimo governo che vuole distruggere il sistema nazionale di diritto allo studio", ha dichiarato la coordinatrice Giulia Biazzo, "la regionalizzazione della scuola ignora il definanziamento dell'istruzione pubblica nel Paese e conferma il tradimento di questo esecutivo". Diversi studenti maggiorenni, a giugno impegnati nella nuova Maturità, rivendicano di aver votato Cinque Stelle il 4 Marzo e di essere stati delusi dalle politiche sulla scuola del Movimento e dalla sua subalternità strutturale alla Lega del ministro Marco Bussetti e di Matteo Salvini.

In Campania, regione ad alto tasso di dispersione scolastica, c'è stata mobilitazione naturalmente a Napoli (approdo in Regione) e poi a Salerno, Torre del Greco, Castellamare, Pomigliano d'Arco. "Il ministro Bussetti", ancora l'Unione degli studenti, "ha vergognosamente dichiarato come per le scuole del Sud non ci saranno fondi e che dovranno essere i meridionali a lavorare e impegnarsi".

Scuola, Bussetti ai professori del Sud: "Vi dovete impegnare, lavorare e fare più sacrifici"

La protesta anti-Maturità è larga. Ieri il Movimento studenti di Azione cattolicaha scritto al ministro Bussetti: "La lenta pubblicazione di informazioni sul nuovo esame, dilazionate tra i mesi di settembre e gennaio, ha generato confusione e difficoltà. A questo si sono aggiunte le modifiche alla struttura del colloquio orale comunicate a gennaio e la pubblicazione degli esempi della seconda prova scritta solo per alcuni indirizzi. Non vorremmo che si stesse sperimentando su noi studenti un nuovo sistema scolastico".
Publicație : La Repubblica

25 februarie 2019

In studioul BZI LIVE este invitat profesorul care este responsabil de parteneriatul cu studentii care traiesc intr-unul dintre cele mai mari campusuri din estul Europei

Luni, 25 februarie 2019, incepand cu ora 15.00, in lumina reflectoarelor Studioului BZI LIVE este invitat, la un dialog deschis, de actualitate si impact profesorul care este responsabil de parteneriatul cu aproximativ zece mii de studenti, cazati intr-unul dintre cele mai mari Campusuri din Estul Europei - Tudor Vladimirescu din Iasi. Este vorba de conf. univ. dr. ing. Lidia Gaiginschi, de la Facultatea de Mecanica, validata la mijlocul acestei luni în functia de prorector responsabil de relatia cu studentii la Universitatea Tehnica (TUIASI) Gheorghe Asachi. Alaturi de domnia sa vor fi abordate problematici ce tin de acest areal academic, proiecte pe care intentioneaza sa le implementeze, activitatea de pana acum pe care a derulat-o.

Prorectorul Gaiginschi a precizat ca numirea o onoreaza din doua puncte de vedere: în primul rând, fiindca va face parte din echipa de management a Universitatii Thnice, si a doua pentru ca are oportunitatea de a continua munca "unuia dintre cei mai bun profesori si oameni ai Universitatii>>, prof. univ. dr. ing. Cezar Oprisan, care s-a stins din viata anul trecut. "A fost unul dintre maestrii mei; de la el am învatat ca într-o astfel de munca trebuie sa pui suflet, sa fii tenace si întelept, si sa tratezi problemele profund si cu mult echilibru. Am colaborat adesea cu echipa de conducere; în decursul actualului mandat, ei au reusit sa înceapa transformarea TUIASI într-un important brand universitar românesc. Ma alatur echipei cu multa determinare, cu resursele mele de experienta, pricepere si implicare", transmis  conf. univ. dr. Lidia Gaiginschi.

In acest context, mii de privitor vor urmari productia, transmisa IN DIRECT, pe platforma de Facebook BZI sau BZI LIVE si care se va axa pe o zona de maximum interes, nu doar pentru, comunitatea locala dar si pentru cea nationala. Cu totii ne dorim ca in Romania sa fie cat mai multi tineri riguros formati pe zona Ingineriei, o resursa umana de calitate, implicata, mobila si activa.

Toti cei care doresc sa adreseze intrebari conf. univ. dr. ing. Lidia Gaiginschi, de laFacultatea de Mecanica, o pot face la rubrica de comentarii sau in direct, accesand pagina de facebook.

Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași

VIDEO Ce spun studenţii despre corupţia din România şi care ar fi soluţiile: „Este o boală care angrenează societatea într-un proces autodistructiv“

Joi, s-a desfăşurat finala concursului studenţesc de discursuri „Nu corupţiei!”, organizat de Ambasada SUA în România. Din cei opt concurenţi, câştigătoare a  fost aleasă o studentă din Cluj-Napoca.

Evenimentul a avut loc la American Corner din Biblioteca Naţională a României, cu ocazia Zilei Internaţionale Împotriva Corupţiei. Patru fete şi patru băieţi veniţi din Bucureşti, Cluj-Napoca şi Târgu Mureş, s-au întrecut în discursuri “despre ce înseamnă România fără corupţie pentru ei”.

Juriul, alcătuit din Ambasadorul SUA, Hans Klemm, Anabella Costache de la asociatia Funcky Citizies şi domnul Bogdan Petrache de la firma Mega Company, a decis trei premianţi.

Primul loc i-a revenit lui Abigail-Florina Dan din Cluj-Napoca.

Ştiu că lupta anticorupţie începe cu mine. Începe cu acţiunile mele, cuvintele mele, atitudinea mea. Poate nu e mult, dar e un început. (…) Azi eu aleg drumul mai lung sau chiar mai greu, dacă asta înseamnă că nu voi face compromisuri”, a afirmat ea, în discursul prezentat în limba engleză.

Pe locurile II şi III s-au clasat Luiza-Maria Iordache, studentă în Bucureşti, şi Mihaela-Simona Zegreanu, studentă la Târgu Mureş.

Premiul întâi a constat într-un laptop, iar câştigătoarele premiilor II şi III au fost răsplătite cu o cameră video GoPro, respectiv o baterie externă performantă.

Publicație : Adevărul

Studenţii la Drept din Iaşi critică dur ordonanţa rectorului Tudorel Toader. „Ca viitori practicieni, privim cu îngrijorare şi indignare situaţia actuală“

Asociaţia Studenţilor de la Drept (ASD) de la Facultatea de Drept a Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iaşi, unde rector suspendat este ministrul Justiţiei Tudorel Toader, a anunţat că susţine demersurile judecătorilor şi procurorilor din ţară şi denunţă OUG 7/2019.

Membrii ASD susţin că „independenţa puterii judecătoreşti trebuie apărată şi consolidată cu fiecare demers de actualizare a legislaţiie, nu blamată şi pusă în umbra intereselor personale”, aşa cum urmăreşte modificarea legilor justiţiei întreprinsă de ministrul Justiţiei.

Studenţii se declară indignaţi de situaţia actuală şi consideră că aceste noi reglementări vor slăbi independenţa justiţiei.

„Ca viitori practicieni, privim cu îngrijorare şi indignare la situaţia actuală şi tragem un semnal de alarmă în ceea ce priveşte instabilitatea creată prin modificarea repetata prin O.U.G a legilor justiţiei şi incoerenţa legislativă care este de natura să slăbească independenţa justiţiei şi să creeze în societate o temere în ceea ce priveşte corectitudinea actului de justiţie”, arată membrii ASD.

Redăm mai jos conţinutul integral al comunicării:

Asociaţia Studenţilor la Drept a „Universităţii Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iaşi (ASD-UAIC Iaşi) se solidarizează demersurilor judecătorilor şi procurorilor din întreaga ţară şi achiesează la punctele de vedere exprimate de Forumul Judecătorilor din România, de Secţia pentru procurori a CSM şi de Uniunea Naţională a Judecătorilor din România cu privire la O.U.G 7/2019 referitoare la modificarea legilor justiţiei.

Aducem încă o dată în atenţie, importanţa dialogului permanent între puterea legislativă şi sistemul judiciar pentru a crea cadrul necesar unui stat democratic, ce protejează drepturile si libertăţile fundamentale ale persoanei şi denunţă ferm orice abatere de la normele legale şi de la principiile statului de drept. Independenţa puterii judecătoreşti trebuie apărată şi consolidată cu fiecare demers de actualizare a legislaţiei, şi nu blamată si pusă în umbra intereselor personale.

Ca viitori practicieni, privim cu îngrijorare şi indignare la situaţia actuală şi tragem un semnal de alarmă în ceea ce priveşte instabilitatea creată prin modificarea repetata prin O.U.G a legilor justiţiei şi incoerenţa legislativă care este de natura să slăbească independenţa justiţiei şi să creeze în societate o temere în ceea ce priveşte corectitudinea actului de justiţie.

Este important să rămânem critici la aspectele care definesc cadrul normativ din domeniul juridic şi să conlucrăm pentru a ajunge la idealurile pe care, cu mândrie şi asumare, ni le-au inoculat distinşii profesori.

Publicație : Adevărul

US-China trade tensions show the value of educational ties

So far the negotiations have had minimal impact on cross-border research opportunities, but any dismantling of education links would be detrimental to both countries, says Denis Simon

As the United States and China continue trade negotiations, companies and industries in both countries, including the education sector, will be hoping for a significant breakthrough that can lift Sino-US relations from the current morass and end the tit-for-tat trade war that has seriously affected exchanges of goods, technology and people between our nations.

For Sino-US joint venture universities, such as Duke Kunshan University, established by Duke University and China’s Wuhan University in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu, the ramifications of a further ramp-up in tension could be felt acutely.

Fortunately, the impact of the so-called trade war on these educational joint ventures has been minimal. But naturally there has been uncertainty surrounding the issuing of work and student visas (although the Chinese government has been quick to make assurances), while parents have raised questions about the sustainability of such projects were relations to sour further.

More than ever before, it is important to remember that joint-venture educational projects highlight the importance and value of true, mutually beneficial cooperation. Today, there is hardly a single major global problem for which the long-term solution does not depend on close collaboration between the US and China, respectively the world’s largest and second-largest economies.

While the US has long been an established powerhouse in multiple sectors, China is steadily transforming itself from a traditional manufacturing centre into a technology-driven economy capable of delivering higher-value products and services to serve its increasingly affluent, middle-class consumer base.

Recognising the pivotal role of colleges and universities in this process, China is making huge investments to strengthen its higher-education institutions, and is at the same time developing greater capabilities in science, technology and innovation. In the field of artificial intelligence, for example, Chinese president XI Jinping has laid out an ambitious plan to make China a world leader in this critical field over the next two decades.

Today, with rapidly improving academic systems, a clear focus on research, and a vast pool of high-calibre talent, Chinese universities are almost certainly at the forefront of defining the new and most innovative jobs of the 21st century.

This exciting trend, which will probably be unimpeded whatever the outcome of trade talks, means that there are tremendous opportunities for academics to work in China – and the appeal is much broader than the likely increment in salary and research budget. Many individuals are attracted by the intriguing possibility of using the next stage of their academic career to take on a new adventure and explore a new culture.

One key attraction for many academics is the chance to fulfil their ambitions in scientific research. And with China becoming a key driving force in so many key technology sectors, such as big data and AI, life sciences, clean energy and quantum computing, faculty members can quickly find themselves operating in a cutting-edge research environment, supported by a larger budget and more skilled support team than might be possible elsewhere.

This trend reflects steps by the Chinese government to make working in the country more attractive to overseas academics, including the Thousand Talent Plan, which was initiated in 2008 and has already attracted more than 7,000 overseas Chinese and 300 to 500 foreign experts.

While the FBI has raised some questions about the intentions of this programme, it is clear that the vast majority of the participants are largely interested in nothing more than open, mutually beneficial, cross-border research collaboration.

At joint venture universities, all full-time faculty members, irrespective of their nationality, are eligible to apply for domestic Chinese funding to support their research activities. With overall research and development expenditures in China growing at 15 to 20 percent annually over the past few years, this represents a major point of attraction for foreign scholars and faculty members.

While the experience of teaching on Chinese campuses is often different from the West because of the prevalence of a more traditional intellectual culture, the dedication of students and their zest for acquiring knowledge makes teaching a unique pleasure. Most faculty members find that their students are happy to adopt the Socratic methods favoured in Western education, encouraging a rewarding level of debate in the classroom.

An important factor that makes the process of adaptation easier for faculty members is precisely the existence of joint venture universities and other similar types of degree-granting collaborative projects, which allow them to remain within a Western-style administrative and academic structure while becoming embedded in a different culture.

Having a highly networked knowledge platform in China also provides scholars from international universities a chance to build bridges with Chinese counterparts, and to tackle problems together in a more cohesive manner, which is essential for addressing today’s pressing global problems.

So, while the governments of China and the US may exhibit discomfort with one another, it is clear that person-to-person education and research diplomacy will continue to provide a solid foundation for sustaining win-win academic projects. Any significant decoupling of the US and China in the education and research fields would prove detrimental to both countries.

In the globalised world of the 21st century, where international knowledge networks and cross-border collaborations have become the new norm, the US and China should be seeking to build more bridges, not dismantling them.

Publicație : The Times

Trailing spouse academics ‘face pay discrimination’

US study suggests hiring panels may offer worse terms to female scientists seeking jobs at their partner’s institution than to equally qualified solo candidates

Female scientists are likely to receive lower salary offers and smaller research start-up grants if hiring panels know that their partner has been offered a job at the same institution, research indicates.

With more than half of all US scientists believed to have a spouse or partner who is also a faculty member, many universities have begun to take into account the “two-body problem” faced by academic couples who wish to work in the same institution or region.

However, a new study published in the journal Equality, Diversity and Inclusion suggests that women may be disadvantaged, rather than advantaged, if selectors are aware that their partner is taking a job at the same university.

In a test to determine whether such “dual-career” candidates are treated differently, researchers asked 60 health science faculty members involved in recruitment to assess a range of applicants for an assistant professor position, explains the paper, written by Jill Allen, Jessi Smith and Lynda Ransdell.

The only difference between the applicants, who had near identical education, experience and publication records, was the inclusion of a note from a different university department stating that the candidate was “a partner of our finalist, who informed the committee of the need for an academic partner accommodation” before they could take a role at the institution.

While the note did not influence the male or female selectors’ willingness to make a job offer to the applicant, male selectors recommended lower salaries to them than they did to solo candidates, on average about $2,000 (£1,530), or 7 per cent, less.

Male evaluators also offered less generous research start-up packages to candidates with academic partners, recommending 40 per cent more on average to equally qualified solo candidates.

These differences in pay or start-up packages could “result in an accumulation of disadvantage” if the same bias is replicated over time, leading to a “death by a thousand cuts” in terms of career advancement, the authors argue.

Bias could be explained by the fact that some departments resented a faculty hire being “forced on” them as part of a “two-body hire”, despite the candidate’s suitability.

With some 84 per cent of female academic scientists and 54 per cent of male scientists having an academic partner, according to a 2008 study by Stanford University professor Londa Schiebinger, the paper suggests that bias training is needed to change “implicit attitudes” towards two-body appointments, “especially among men who are most often in positions of power to transform their institutions”.

Dr Allen, assistant professor of psychology at Drake University in Iowa, told Times Higher Education that the findings were “a call to action for academic science, including universities that are interested in attracting (and retaining) a diverse STEM faculty through dual-career and affirmative action hires”.

“When you consider the issue of dual-career hires as a two-body ‘opportunity’ rather than a two-body ‘problem’, the entire narrative shifts,” Dr Allen said.

“Such systemic change to reduce bias begins with policies and procedures that are consistent with institutional diversity initiatives, directly influencing individuals involved in the hiring process.”

Publicație : The Times

V-cs want rethink over ‘£38 million bill’ for subject-level TEF

Universities UK fears cost of assessment could nudge £250,000 per provider

UK vice-chancellors have called on ministers to reconsider whether to push ahead with the subject-level version of the teaching excellence framework, amid warnings that it could push the cost of the exercise as high as £37.6 million – equivalent to £246,000 per provider.

As it made its submission to the independent review of the TEF being led by Dame Shirley Pearce, Universities UK said that the cost of the current assessment, which makes judgements at institutional level, was around £4.1 million.

However, the addition of discipline-specific evaluations, which are being piloted this year before being implemented in 2019-20, could massively increase the workload and cost faced by universities, according to UUK.

Under the current TEF, universities can submit a 15-page written submission alongside student outcome metrics, which is used to determine their final rating of gold, silver or bronze. Under the subject-level TEF, they will also be able to submit a common two-page provider summary for panels making discipline-level judgements, plus a five-page statement for each subject area, of which there are 35.

This means that a university submitting the maximum number of submissions at the maximum length could hand in 193 pages of information, once a one-page submission on part-time students is included.

A UUK report, The Future of the TEF, published on 25 January, says that around 4,000 submissions could be compiled across the sector.

Providers with more than 500 students will be required to take part in the subject-level TEF. An estimate by the Office for Students, which operates the assessment, says that, based on the 229 institutions in this category taking part, the total cost to providers would be £15.9 million, or £69,000 per provider. If all 426 institutions that are eligible to participate took part, the cost would be £23.8 million, or £56,000 per provider.

But UUK’s analysis, which includes an estimate of the number and cost of the days put into producing TEF submissions, suggests that the cost could be as high as £37.6 million. This does not include ongoing investments made to support improvements in areas assessed by the TEF.

UUK says that the government should not proceed with the subject-level TEF until its costs and its value have been “fully considered”.

Debra Humphris, vice-chancellor of the University of Brighton and chair of UUK’s student policy network, said that subject-level TEF could “add complexity and considerable cost burdens to institutions”.

“This in turn could force a diversion of resource away from other investment programmes from which students benefit more clearly,” she said.

Publicație : The Times

Locals replace foreign students on some English campuses

Data analysis from THE suggests different drivers are coming together to alter universities’ UK-international mix

Student cohorts at a number of English universities located in smaller cities and towns appear to be shifting towards domestic students, new analysis suggests.

Changes to full-time enrolments since 2014-15, analysed by Times Higher Education, show that around 30 institutions saw their UK student numbers grow while international enrolments (from within and outside the European Union) fell by an average of 17 per cent.

The majority are located away from major cities and some are noticeably close to areas of the country that had a high proportion of people voting leave in the Brexit referendum, such as parts of the North East and Midlands.

Examples include the University of Lincoln, where international full-time undergraduate and postgraduate enrolments fell by around 450 students from 2014-15 to 2017-18 but UK numbers grew by more than 2,000 students, and the University of Sunderland, where international enrolments fell by nearly 1,500 and UK numbers rose by about 1,600.

It also comes during a period when student recruitment in the UK from outside the European Union has effectively stalled, a trend that has been blamed on visa restrictions imposed by the government in 2012 which have been only partially lifted.

Large research-intensive institutions from the Russell Group, which have been less affected by visa issues, are almost all absent from the list and have expanded both UK and international student numbers.

English universities expanding UK student numbers while non-UK enrolments fall

Canterbury Christ Church UniversityEdge Hill UniversityUniversity of HertfordshireUniversity of WolverhamptonUniversity of HullLiverpool Hope UniversityUniversity of KentUniversity of BrightonOxford Brookes UniversitySheffield Hallam UniversityUniversity of ChesterUniversity of BirminghamYork St John UniversityBrunel University LondonUniversity of BoltonBournemouth UniversityUniversity of EssexRoyal Holloway, University of LondonBath Spa UniversityUniversity of SalfordUniversity of West LondonTeesside UniversityMiddlesex UniversityUniversity of LeicesterUniversity of SunderlandUniversity of LincolnKeele UniversityAston University-50-40-30-20-100

Change in non-UK enrolments (%)

010203040

Change in UK enrolments (%)

Source: Hesa. Note: Full-time undergraduates and postgraduates. England only. Specialists excluded.

Andy Westwood, professor of government practice at the University of Manchester, said some of the universities shifting towards more domestic intakes appeared to be in areas with lower higher education participation. “In other words there’s plenty of slack to take up,” he said, compared with higher participation areas in London and other big cities.

This could be positive news, Professor Westwood said, if it indicated that these universities were becoming “more ‘civic’ and boosting access and qualification levels in traditionally lower participation areas. It’s also good news for local economies as the supply of high-level skills should increase too, if a decent proportion of graduates can be retained in these towns and cities.”

The data show there is separate group of around 10 English institutions that have seen enrolments drop over the past three years for both domestic and international students.

Mark Corver, co-founder of DataHE and a former director of analysis and research at Ucas, said UK student recruitment had become profoundly fragmented among institutions in recent years as the impacts of policies such as the lifting of the undergraduate number cap unfolded.

One aspect of this was that university location had become a more important driver of recruitment than it was when student number caps existed, presenting some institutions with major challenges.

Some universities were originally “conceived” as an “intervention” under a more regulated recruitment system to aid access to higher education in certain areas, and under a marketised system “those institutions might struggle because they might not have a coherent local catchment” of students, Dr Corver said.

He added that unique interactions between participation rates and demographics in different areas also meant “you can have two institutions that look superficially similar” but local conditions mean “one could be struggling and one could be thriving, but not really because of anything a university’s management is or isn’t doing”.

Publicație : The Times

Building a Career, One Academic Step at a Time

Candice Retas at work at Northwell Health in Manhasset, N.Y. She already has a degree and a certificate, and is working on a bachelor’s degree.CreditSarah Blesener for The

It wasn’t planned.

The path that led Candice Retas from an interest in studying music and the arts to a career in nursing was one that just unfolded.

“I definitely did not map this out,” Ms. Retas, 26, said with a laugh. “It was kind of one step at a time.”

Actually, it was one credential, one academic building block at a time.

The first was the associate degree from Nassau Community Collegethat Ms. Retas, who is from Elmont, N.Y., earned in 2012.

“I’d originally wanted to have a career in music and painting,” she said. “But then I took this biology class and really liked it, and did well in it.”

With her interest in medicine sparked by that class and subsequent science courses she took at N.C.C., which is in Garden City, she went on to earn a medical assistant’s certificate from a local campus of the Sanford-Brown Institute, which is now defunct. That led to a job as a medical office assistant in Northwell Health’s Division of Infectious Diseases in Manhasset, N.Y.

With the encouragement of her colleagues, Ms. Retas decided to pursue a bachelor of science degree in science, technology and society at Farmingdale State College. She expects to graduate in December, then go to nursing school — from there, it will be a master’s in nursing and ultimately a career as a nurse practitioner.

“It’s a lot of work, but I’m actually enjoying it,” said Ms. Retas, who takes her classes online and at night while working full time at Northwell, a major New York-area hospital system.

Although she stressed that her educational path was not carefully planned, this step-by-step accumulation of credentials — two-year degree, certification, bachelor’s degree — is part of what many in higher education view as an important trend, one that can lead to careers in STEM professions hungry for skilled workers and open doors for older and lower-income students.

Ms. Retas, who expects to graduate in December, has her sights set on eventually becoming a nurse practitioner.CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times

“The four-year undergraduate experience is often out of reach for large segments of our population,” said Kemi Jona, associate dean for digital innovation and enterprise learning at Northeastern University in Boston. Moreover, he said, “the idea of getting that one degree and you’re set for life doesn’t really hold water anymore. Then the question becomes, ‘how do we make it easier for working adults and people who need to pick up new kinds of tools and technologies?’”

The answer: stackable credits, which Cassandra Horii, director of Caltech’s center for teaching, learning and outreach, defined as “a more bite-sized piece of education that stands on its own and has value in the workplace.” But “if you continue on your educational trajectory, that piece fully counts towards your next educational step.”

The stackable term itself, noted Jimmie Williamson and Matthew Pittinsky in an article in “Inside Higher Education,” is “clever, invoking the image of Lego blocks and the metaphor of assembly.”

In addition to working full time, Ms. Retas takes classes at Farmingdale State College online and at night.CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times

The blocks being assembled, they wrote, are a “series of traditional degree-based and/or nontraditional credentials — certificates, certifications, licenses, badges, apprenticeships and more — that recognize achievements and provide an accurate assessment of knowledge, skills and abilities.”

The more credentials that are accumulated and stacked, the more marketable the candidate presumably becomes.

The generic term for this, Mr. Pittinsky said in a recent telephone interview, is “credential innovation,” and while he, like many others in higher education, is bullish on the idea, he pointed to one important prerequisite for its success: cooperation. And in the historically and notoriously insular world of higher education, that’s not a given.

“I’d originally wanted to have a career in music and painting,” Ms. Retas said. “But then I took this biology class and really liked it, and did well in it.”CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times

“This requires an unprecedented level of cooperation between colleges and universities with credential providers and industry associations and employers,” said Mr. Pittinsky, an assistant research professor at Arizona State University and chief executive of Parchment, an educational technology company. “That is ultimately going to be the major pacing factor for this trend.”

“It’s a different way for those of us in academia to think,” agreed Dr. Horii, who is also president of the POD Network, a 1,400-member organization focused on improving higher education. “We’re used to looking at a degree as this large monolithic thing.”

Industry seems to be embracing the idea. “Increasing the digital skills of current employees is a critical component of many companies’ digital strategies, and mini-credentials are integral to that strategy,” said Brian Fitzgerald, chief executive of the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington.

One school well known for its success in helping students compile a string of credits, particularly those from low-income communities, is Pasadena City College in California, through its acclaimed PCC Pathways, which Dr. Horri said “has been very successful with closing achievement gaps for students of color and speeding up time to graduate.”

Ms. Retas, far right, at a night class in microbiology at Farmingdale State College.CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times

The Pathways program helps students transition from high school to college, and with a number of “articulation” agreements in place with local four-year schools that recognize P.C.C. credits, the two-year college helps make transferring to the next rung on the academic ladder a smoother process.

That is how one former P.C.C. student, Anthony Lopez, began stacking the building blocks of his career.

Mr. Lopez and his younger brother were raised by a single mother in a tough neighborhood in Huntington Park, a city in southeastern Los Angeles County. He decided to attend P.C.C. after being rejected by eight schools. “It turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made,” he said.

Originally interested in accounting, he took a class in the college’s Design Technology Pathway — a concentration that typically leads to an engineering degree. Mr. Lopez, now 21, found both the professor and the subject so inspiring that he switched his major. He earned a certificate in computer aided-design software and went on to earn two associate degrees from the college — in engineering and natural science.

Mr. Lopez is now a junior at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he hopes to earn his bachelor of science in mechanical engineering next year. After that, he said, “I plan on going to grad school for my master’s or Ph.D.”

There will also, no doubt, be additional certifications he might need. But, like Ms. Retas, he said he doesn’t have a grand strategy. “I’ve never looked at it as stacking my credentials,” Mr. Lopez said. “I’m looking at it as trying to get my family out of Huntington Park and into a better life.”

Publicație : The New York Times

Important:

• Revista presei conţine fragmente preluate, fără nici o modificare, din articolele despre învăţământul superior ce apar în presa locală, regională şi naţională.
• Revista presei este o reflectare imparţială a presei educaţionale, cu misiunea clară de a prezenta noutăţile şi ştirile cu adevarat importante pentru mediul academic.
• Universitatea "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" atrage atenţia că nu îşi asumă responsabilitatea pentru corectitudinea informaţiilor apărute în presă, redate pe această pagina exact în forma în care au aparut în publicaţiile respective.
• Responsabilitatea juridică pentru conţinutul articolelor aparţine în totalitate autorilor acestora (sursei).

Serviciul de monitorizare a presei

Realizator: Dr. Bogdan Baghiu
Contact: promovare@uaic.ro