Statutul si rolul primarului in administratia publica locala! Conferinta cu invitati speciali
Cercul de drept adminstrativ ''I.G.Vantu'' va organiza, marti 23 aprilie 2019, o conferinta cu tema ''Statutul si rolul primarului in administratia publica locala''. La aceasta conferinta invitat special este chiar primarul municipiului Iasi, Mihai Chirica, moderatorul acesteia urmand a fi lect. univ. dr. Constantin Mata. Conferinta va avea loc marti, 23 aprilie incepand cu ora 16.00 Amf. I.1 al Facultatii de Drept din cadrul Universitatii ''Alexandru Ioan Cuza''.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Politehnica ieseana se afla pe locul al doilea la nivel national in competitia proiectelor finantate in 2019 prin Fondul de Dezvoltare Institutionala
Universitatea Tehnica „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iasi a reusit sa obtina in acest an o finantare mai mare pentru cele sase proiecte depuse pe cele sase axe in competitia nationala de proiecte finantate din Fondul de Dezvoltare Institutionala destinat universitatilor de stat. In competitia organizata de Ministerul Educatiei Nationale, TUIASI a obtinut 2,16 milioane de lei pentru cele sase proiecte, o crestere cu 13% fata de anul anterior cand s-au obtinut 1,913 milioane de lei, in conditiile in care bugetul pentru aceasta competitie de proiecte a ramas acelasi.
TUIASI ramane si in acest an prima universitate din Iasi si pe locul al doilea la nivel national dupa pozitiile ocupate in urma clasificarii in ierarhiile celor sase domenii. In acelasi timp, proiectul depus pentru primul domeniu, privind cresterea echitatii sociale si accesul la invatamantul superior, a obtinut suma maxima ce putea fi oferita – 400.000 de lei.
„Politehnica ieseana si-a mentinut si in acest an pozitia de varf in cadrul competitiei FDI, fiind universitatea din Iasi cea mai bine plasata in ansamblul celor sase domenii ale competitiei. Astfel, punctajele acordate proiectelor noastre ne situeaza in zona cu procente maxime ale finantarii, cuprinse intre 90 si 100%, in functie de domeniu, din fondurile solicitate. Mai mult, media pozitiilor obtinute in ierarhia fiecarui domeniu considerat ne pozitioneaza pe locul 2 la nivel national din cele peste 45 de universitati participante. Sunt convins ca prin continuarea in 2019 a directiilor de dezvoltare incepute in universitate in anul 2017, primul an al competitiei, vom accentua aspectele privind calitatea aplicatiilor acestor proiecte si vom crea premisele depunerii altor proiecte, pe alte directii de finantare, pentru dezvoltarea universitatii noastre. De aceea ii felicit pe toti colegii mei care au fost implicati in elaborarea acestor proiecte pentru punctajele obtinute si pentru aceasta noua confirmare a excelentei Politehnicii iesene” a declarat prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, rectorul TUIASI.
Competitia este coordonata de Consiliul National pentru Finantarea Invatamantului Superior (CNFIS) care a evaluat proiectele depuse de universitati. In cadrul competitiei de anul acesta, au fost vizate pentru finantare sase domenii strategice, iar suma maxima care putea fi obtinuta de o universitate pentru fiecare proiect a fost de 400.000 de lei, cu doua exceptii, pe domeniul al treilea, doar pentru proiectele care privesc activitatea gradinilor botanice, puteau fi atrasi 500.000 de lei, in timp ce pe domeniul patru, cu privire la activitatea societatilor antreprenoriale studentesti – SAS, nu au putut fi solicitata o suma mai mare de 250.000 de lei.
Cele sase domenii FDI 2019 sunt:
- domeniul 1: cresterea echitatii sociale, in vederea incluziunii sociale si sporirea accesului la invatamantul superior, corelarea ofertei educationale cu cererea pietei muncii (inclusiv cele privitoare la consilierea si orientarea in cariera);
- domeniul 2: internationalizarea invatamantului superior din Romania;
- domeniul 3: asigurarea functionarii in bune conditii a gradinilor botanice universitare, a statiunilor didactice, a bazelor de practica si a altor infrastructuri de sustinere a activitatilor didactice din cadrul universitatilor;
- domeniul 4: sustinerea activitatilor societatilor antreprenoriale studentesti (SAS) din cadrul universitatilor;
- domeniul 5: imbunatatirea calitatii activitatii didactice, inclusiv a respectarii deontologiei si eticii academice;
- domeniul 6: sustinerea cercetarii de excelenta din universitati.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Reusita importanta a Politehnicii iesene. Proiecte de milioane de lei si un loc fruntas intr-un top al Ministerului Educatiei Nationale
Universitatea Tehnica "Gh. Asachi" din Iasi a reusit sa obtina intr-o competitie, organizata de Ministerul Educatiei Nationale, peste doua milioane de lei pentru mai multe proiecte derulate in diverse domenii • Fata de anul precedent, universitatea ieseana a reusit sa obtina o suma mai mare, în conditiile în care bugetul pentru aceasta competitie de proiecte a ramas acelasi
Universitatea Tehnica "Gheorghe Asachi" (TUIASI) din Iasi a reusit sa obtina în acest an o finantare mai mare pentru cele sase proiecte depuse pe cele sase axe în competitia nationala de proiecte finantate din Fondul de Dezvoltare Institutionala destinat universitatilor de stat.
În competitia organizata de Ministerul Educatiei Nationale, TUIASI a obtinut 2,16 milioane de lei pentru cele sase proiecte, o crestere cu 13 la suta fata de anul anterior, când s-au obtinut 1,913 milioane de lei, în conditiile în care bugetul pentru aceasta competitie de proiecte a ramas acelasi.
Universitatea ieseana ramâne si în acest an prima universitate din Iasi si pe locul al doilea la nivel national dupa pozitiile ocupate în urma clasificarii în ierarhiile celor sase domenii.
În acelasi timp, proiectul depus pentru primul domeniu, privind cresterea echitatii sociale si accesul la învatamântul superior, a obtinut suma maxima ce putea fi oferita, respectiv 400.000 de lei.
"Politehnica ieseana si-a mentinut si în acest an pozitia de vârf în cadrul competitiei FDI, fiind universitatea din Iasi cea mai bine plasata în ansamblul celor sase domenii ale competitiei. Astfel, punctajele acordate proiectelor noastre ne situeaza în zona cu procente maxime ale finantarii, cuprinse între 90 si 100 la suta, în functie de domeniu, din fondurile solicitate. Mai mult, media pozitiilor obtinute în ierarhia fiecarui domeniu considerat ne pozitioneaza pe locul 2 la nivel national din cele peste 45 de universitati participante. Sunt convins ca prin continuarea în 2019 a directiilor de dezvoltare începute în universitate în anul 2017, primul an al competitiei, vom accentua aspectele privind calitatea aplicatiilor acestor proiecte si vom crea premisele depunerii altor proiecte, pe alte directii de finantare, pentru dezvoltarea universitatii noastre. De aceea îi felicit pe toti colegii mei care au fost implicati în elaborarea acestor proiecte pentru punctajele obtinute si pentru aceasta noua confirmare a excelentei Politehnicii iesene", a precizat prof. univ. dr. ing. Dan Cascaval, rectorul TUIASI.
Competitia este coordonata de Consiliul National pentru Finantarea Învatamântului Superior (CNFIS) care a evaluat proiectele depuse de universitati.
În cadrul competitiei de anul acesta, au fost vizate pentru finantare sase domenii strategice, iar suma maxima care putea fi obtinuta de o universitate pentru fiecare proiect a fost de 400.000 de lei, cu doua exceptii, pe domeniul al treilea, doar pentru proiectele care privesc activitatea gradinilor botanice, puteau fi atrasi 500.000 de lei, în timp ce pe domeniul patru, cu privire la activitatea societatilor antreprenoriale studentesti – SAS, nu au putut fi solicitata o suma mai mare de 250.000 de lei.
Cele sase domenii FDI 2019 sunt: domeniul 1: cresterea echitatii sociale, în vederea incluziunii sociale si sporirea accesului la învatamântul superior, corelarea ofertei educationale cu cererea pietei muncii (inclusiv cele privitoare la consilierea si orientarea în cariera); domeniul 2: internationalizarea învatamântului superior din România; domeniul 3: asigurarea functionarii în bune conditii a gradinilor botanice universitare, a statiunilor didactice, a bazelor de practica si a altor infrastructuri de sustinere a activitatilor didactice din cadrul universitatilor; domeniul 4: sustinerea activitatilor societatilor antreprenoriale studentesti (SAS) din cadrul universitatilor; domeniul 5: îmbunatatirea calitatii activitatii didactice, inclusiv a respectarii deontologiei si eticii academice; domeniul 6: sustinerea cercetarii de excelenta din universitati.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
One hundred days of Bolsonaro and not much has changed
The academic persecution originally feared when Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil never materialised, but neither did his promised investment into science and research, says Justin Axel-Berg
When political outsider and far right firebrand Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil last September, after riding a wave of revolt against the country’s languishing economy and political classes, the warning signs for the higher education sector were many and obvious.
An unrepentant admirer of the brutal military dictatorship that persecuted, exiled, tortured and murdered university professors as part of an ideological war against a perceived Marxist threat, Bolsonaro being elected was a chilling moment for many older academics who had assumed that this past, which had been consigned to memorials on campuses, was coming back for a new generation.
At the same time, he promised to raise spending on research and development from 1 per cent to 3 per cent of GDP.
With the first trimester of Bolsonaro’s government finished, and a government in disarray, we can say that none of these predictions has come true. The fears of a new era of oppression proved unfounded, but the old problems of incompetence, mismanagement and stripping of higher education and research budgets continue.
The movement’s intellectual “guru”, self-proclaimed philosopher and astrologer Olavo de Carvalho, famous for his YouTube diatribes against leftism, formal higher education and his eccentric interpretations of Isaac Newton, was given three ministries to populate in return for his endorsement: education, citizenship and foreign affairs.
He selected as minister of education Colombian conservative theologian Ricardo Veléz Rodriguez, a man with strong ideological opinions on the supposed spread of cultural Marxism throughout Brazil’s education system, but no experience of educational management at any level.
A number of worrying challenges to academic autonomy hit the headlines, from reports of police invasions of university campuses to interrupt classes and meetings, to an anonymous denunciation hotline inviting students to film “leftist” professors and an extraordinary plan to introduce an “ideological test” to ensure that only conservative students would be able to access study abroad scholarships – all under the pretext of combatting the ideological infiltration of Brazilian universities.
While the initial moves by the new ministry were long on rhetoric and threats, and managed to fill the ministry with Carvalho’s acolytes, the new appointees were notably short on any type of relevant education, management or public policy experience.
This means that over the three months, not only has Veléz’s ministry failed to achieve any of his lofty goals, he failed to even produce working plans or projects for them. Whenever a new plan was proposed, it was brought down again just as rapidly for either legal or practical reasons.
The ideological fury of the early days of government has rapidly given way to mismanagement and incompetence. This was brought into sharp relief by Tabata Amaral, with a PhD in astrophysics from Harvard and a first-time congresswoman elected to campaign on educational topics, who excoriated Veléz for his lack of basic competence, planning and strategy in a video that went viral across the academic community. Veléz was sacked the following week.
Because higher education, research and funding of federal public universities is decided on the basis of an annual budget, the same sectoral vulnerabilities that have affected public higher education expose it to an even greater risk today.
From a federal budget for the Ministry of Science and Technology that was already the lowest in 14 years, R$5.1 billion (£99 million), the government has frozen 42 per cent, meaning that the entire sector has just R$2.9 billion (£57 million) for the year.
The Brazilian National Research Council and CAPES, the funding body for young scientists and researchers, are projected to run out of funding in July.
If this situation is not reversed, the consequences for Brazilian science will be catastrophic, leading to the cessation of a huge number of the country’s most ambitious research projects, and potentially setting science and research back years.
Luiz Davidovich, president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, said in a public address, “I have never seen cuts of the magnitude proposed recently. They are extremely heavy cuts, and if they are not reversed, will destroy Brazilian science. These cuts represent a serious attack on development and on national sovereignty itself.”
This all points to a longer-term structural problem for Brazilian higher education; when budgets are fixed and declared on a year-to-year basis, higher education becomes a pawn of political decision-making in which it is not an active participant.
Drastic year-on-year changes make it difficult or almost impossible to plan for the future in an ambitious way. The only exception are the São Paulo state universities whose budgets are fixed into law and have access to an autonomous funding organisation.
While the scare stories about the attack on academic autonomy have not proven as serious as feared, the old problems of a lack of financial autonomy persist, and are worse than ever.
Publicație : The Times
Singapore ‘fake news’ law ‘threatens academic freedom worldwide’
Academics fear global reach of new Singaporean legislation could result in censorship of international academic journals
New Singaporean legislation that is set to ban “false information” online hosted anywhere in the world poses a “severe threat” to academic freedom across the globe, scholars have warned.
Earlier this month, the country’s government introduced a draft bill for the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act. It would authorise any minister in Singapore to order “corrections” to online content hosted anywhere in the world if they deem that a statement is “false or misleading” in whole or in part, when that statement is made available online to one or more users in Singapore and it is deemed to be in the public interest to issue such a correction.
The bill, which includes maximum penalties of 10 years’ imprisonment or a S$1 million (£566,000) fine, defines public interest broadly to include protecting “the security of Singapore or any part of Singapore”; protecting “friendly relations of Singapore with other countries”; and preventing “a diminution of public confidence” in the government.
The bill also allows ministers to order internet service providers to block access to content in Singapore that the country deems false. Academics fear that international academic journals will issue corrections to prevent their content being blocked in Singapore and it could also make foreign scholars more reluctant to collaborate with Singaporeans.
The Ministry of Education said in a statement that the bill covers “verifiably false statements of fact” and “does not restrict opinion and will not affect academic research work. This is true regardless of what view the work presents.”
However, scholars fear that the bill could be used to censor academic papers across the world and university teaching materials both at institutions in Singapore and at foreign universities with links to the country, unless the wording of the legislation is amended to include a specific protection for academics.
More than 100 academics have signed a letter demanding that the education minister “ensures safeguards for scholarly research and its online outreach”, noting that “much academic work focuses on disputing apparently established ‘facts’”.
Several experts told Times Higher Education that the bill is likely to be passed – possibly as soon as the second week of May – given that the ruling People’s Action Party has an overwhelming majority in parliament.
Linda Lim, a Singaporean emeritus professor at the University of Michigan, and one of the coordinators of the letter, said that the global reach of the bill “poses a severe threat to academic publishing worldwide, especially if the bill sets a precedent that is imitated in other countries seeking to curb ‘fake news’”.
She said that the bill as it stands would allow ministers to require international academic journals to remove online articles “even if that violates our own internal editorial policy and peer review standards”.
“If we have the resources to mount an appeal to the courts, the penalties will be observed for the duration of the appeal. Few, if any, academic journals could survive this process, with the likely result that international academics, not just those from, in or writing about Singapore, will resort to practising self-censorship,” she said.
Linda Lakhdhir, a legal adviser in the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, who specialises in the criminalisation of speech, said that the “academic freedom...risks are high, particularly for scholars working on or teaching in Singapore”.
Michael Buehler, chair of the Centre of South East Asian Studies at SOAS University of London, said that the “tautological” definition of “online falsehood” used in the bill “gives the Singaporean government far-reaching powers to define what it considers ‘false’ or ‘misleading’”.
“Academics are concerned about this bill because the Singaporean government has a less than stellar record when it comes to protecting academic freedom,” he said.
Cherian George, director of the Centre for Media and Communication Research at Hong Kong Baptist University, who helped coordinate the letter, said that the “best case scenario we can realistically wish for is that the government will feel compelled to provide unambiguous assurances [to academics] during the parliamentary debate”.
“Such promises would be a poor substitute for amending the bill itself. But they could make it politically much harder for a government to abuse the law,” he said.
Publicație : The Times
Plans to end compulsory records on UK’s non-academic staff ‘shocking’
UCU warns universities minister that proposals in Hesa consultation neglect ‘crucial role’ of such staff in universities
Proposals to end the compulsory collection of data on non-academic staff in the key figures on the higher education workforce have been criticised as a “retrograde step” that neglects their “crucial role” in universities.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency, the designated data body in England, is consulting on the services that it offers to higher education providers.
The consultation on future data collection requirements for UK universities includes a proposal to make the gathering of information on non-academic staff “voluntary rather than compulsory”.
Paul Cottrell, acting general secretary of the University and College Union, has written to the universities minister, Chris Skidmore, to say that the union is “deeply concerned” by the proposal.
He says that the more than 217,000 non-academic staff in the UK play a “crucial role in the success of our universities” and that reliable data about their employment are “extremely important”.
There are concerns that the proposed change would “greatly reduce the transparency of our institutions” and undermine the government’s ability to fully represent the economic and social impact of the sector, he writes.
Mr Cottrell urges the minister to give a “clear direction to Hesa” that data collection on non-academic staff is “important and should continue to be compulsory” for all institutions in England.
The acting general secretary calls for an extension to the consultation, subsequently extended to 3 May, saying it is “regrettable” that it is taking place over the Easter period when many university staff are on holiday.
Ursula Kelly, a higher education analyst and director of Viewforth Consulting, said that she was “shocked” by the proposal on non-academic staff data.
“It is such a retrograde step. It takes us way back to the bad old days when there wasn’t enough data, nobody knew what higher education was actually about in terms of its importance to the economy,” she said. “How and why the [Office for Students] has decided to not look at non-academic staff is beyond belief.”
The “changes would represent a foolish act of self-harm by the sector,” said a UCU spokesman.
“People will have little redress when it comes to issues of equality as the data for huge numbers of staff on sex, ethnicity and disability is no longer collected,” the spokesman added.
A spokesman for Hesa said that it had a statutory duty to collect information required by the Office for Students for its regulatory functions.
The OfS’ data strategy, published in November, confirmed that it will not have a regulatory requirement for data about non-academic staff.
“There will therefore be no statutory obligation on higher education providers in England to include non-academic staff in the Hesa staff record,” the Hesa spokesman explained.
“We will continue to collect and disseminate data where sufficient higher education providers in England see the value in the collection and use of data beyond statutory and regulatory purposes,” the spokesman added.
Richard Puttock, the OfS’ head of data, foresight and analysis, said that it “aims to be a low-burden regulator”.
“This means we only impose regulatory burden on providers where there is a clear regulatory requirement to do so.”
The OfS encourages Hesa and providers to work together to “collect data beyond what is formally required for regulatory purposes where providers recognise value in the collation of such information”.
Publicație : The Times
UK v-c: ban on working with Huawei would infringe on academic freedom
Max Lu defends Surrey’s collaboration with Chinese giant, suggesting that UK government would ban ties if it had evidence of espionage
The head of a UK university with a major research link to Huawei has suggested that an institutional ban on working with the Chinese technology giant would run counter to academic freedom, adding that universities should “not be dictated” to by geopolitics.
Max Lu, the Chinese-Australian vice-chancellor of the University of Surrey, told Times Higher Education that it was not the place of universities to stop working with the company “unless there is a national policy” demanding such a move.
Huawei has funded a £5 million project at Surrey to develop the 5G mobile communications network.
“The [UK] government has not announced any policy that would rule out Huawei, and there is no pressure from government on universities saying you cannot work with Huawei,” he said.
“If there is a large body of evidence of activities of espionage or compromising national security, the government will make a decision.”
Several leading research universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oxford, have said they will refuse to accept new research funding from the company amid concern in some quarters that its products could be used by the Chinese government to conduct espionage or disrupt communications.
However, Professor Lu said that “any equipment from any supplier carries software risks” and the risks for Surrey in working with Huawei were very low because the partnership was centred on basic research.
He added that “academic freedom applies both ways”, arguing that if universities want to maintain their neutrality they “should not be affected or dictated [to] by geopolitics, which in its very nature is very transient”.
“The mission of universities is to change society, change lives and make the world a better place. If you’re going to change your research agenda according to geopolitics, you will not be able to make a sustained contribution to society, and you will become an instrument of politics,” he said.
“We should transcend national politics or international geopolitics. We should transcend all the other influences.”
Professor Lu spoke to THE at the THE Innovation and Impact Summit earlier this month.
The vice-chancellor, who serves on the board of UK Research and Innovation, also offered a relatively optimistic view of Brexit compared with many of his peers, claiming that “the Brexit effect on international education is very temporary and will not have a long-lasting impact”.
Even if students from the European Union will have to pay much higher tuition fees to study in the UK, “universities will still find a way to take and welcome EU students, and EU students will find a way to finance their study. They will still come because of the strength of the sector,” he said.
Regarding research, he added that collaboration between UK and European researchers was “more valuable than the money” from the EU.
“If we [leave the EU], then the collaboration and funding mechanisms will probably be in a different shape and form, but they will continue. There will be some mechanism set up to continue the collaboration post-Brexit,” he said.
Publicație : The Times
Open access: ‘no evidence’ that zero embargo periods harm publishers
Debate around embargo periods heightens as Plan S deadline draws near
Embargo periods for sharing open access articles put up “unnecessary barriers” for authors and could be coming to an end, according to experts who argue that removing embargoes has no negative impact for publishers.
As academic and publishing communities around the globe await the results of a consultation review of the incoming Plan S guidelines, a recurring discussion point has been around the value of green open access models – whereby authors must wait a set period of time after publication to share their work on open repositories.
Open access advocates including Robert-Jan Smits, the former lead architect of Plan S, are openly opposed to the green model, arguing that it delays access unnecessarily. But some commercial publishing groups and learned societies maintain that embargoes are necessary to protect business models.
At a public forum in Westminster this month, Tom Merriweather, executive publisher (open access) at SAGE Publications, said he had found “no evidence to say zero embargo periods negatively affect subscriptions”. To remove them completely, he argued, was “a friendlier policy”.
SAGE, which is independently owned, has never enforced embargo periods on its open access content. But speaking to Times Higher Education, David Ross, executive director of open access at SAGE, suggested that increasing numbers of publishing groups were following the trend.
“I think what is happening is that balance of the challenges facing the industry is changing and that may well may result in some people reassessing the relative risks and being a little more relaxed about embargoes,” he said.
The fact his own company had never enforced embargoes had stemmed organically from the philosophy, “let’s not put up unnecessary barriers to author sharing”, he explained.
“It’s hypothetically possible some libraries might cancel subscriptions with publishers as a result of authors’ accepted manuscripts (AAMs) being available with no embargo, but it’s not something we’ve experienced,” Mr Ross said.
In its public response to the Plan S consultation process, Springer Nature bosses have called for the use of six-month embargo periods to be allowed before versions of articles in highly selective journals are made freely available on other platforms.
“The majority of these high costs are incurred prior to article acceptance,” the company said. “This means immediately free and reusable access to AAMs puts at risk the ability of the publishers of these journals to sustain these investments via the subscription model and makes a Green OA approach without an embargo period very difficult and risky.”
Mr Smits, now president of Eindhoven University of Technology, said he thought the fuss around embargo periods was “much ado about nothing”, however.
“I have always been against embargo periods because they do not serve science,” he told THE. He asked what is "the benefit for the science system of having embargoes? Well, there is none. Embargoes are just there to serve the interests of the publishers.”
In 2017, Emerald made the decision to scrap embargo periods across all its titles, allowing all accepted papers to be immediately distributed for free. Tony Roche, publishing and strategic relationships director at Emerald, said the decision had been “a great step in [the company’s] progression” and prompted positive feedback from authors.
Most recently, the Wellcome Trust announced in its updated open access guidelines that medical research papers funded by the organisation must be made immediately and freely available even before publication – through pre-print form – in the interests of international health.
With a review of the feedback generated still under way, Robert Kiley, intermediate head of the coalition group behind Plan S, said the group hoped to publish its updated guidance to reflect the concerns of the community in late May
Publicație : The Times
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