Opt milioane de lei câştigaţi de universităţile din Iaşi pe proiecte finanţate la nivel naţional
Universităţile din Iaşi au reuşit să câştige un număr impresionat de proiecte în competiţia derulată de Ministerul Educaţiei Naţionale cu privire la Fondul de Dezvoltare Instituţională.
Astfel, cele cinci instituţii de învăţământ superior din capitala Moldovei au atras împreună, prin cele 27 de proiecte ce vor primi finanţare anul acesta, circa 7,8 milioane de lei pentru a implementa diverse proiecte pe cele şase ramuri unde a existat concurs de depunere a proiectelor: creşterea echităţii sociale, internaţionalizarea învăţământului superior din România, asigurarea funcţionării în bune condiţii a grădinilor botanice universitare, bazelor de practică şi a altor infrastructuri de susţinere a activităţilor didactice din cadrul universităţilor, susţinerea activităţilor societăţilor antreprenoriale studenţeşti, îmbunătăţirea calităţii activităţii didactice, susţinerea cercetării de excelenţă din universităţi.
TUIASI, cei mai mulţi bani
Universitatea Tehnică „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iaşi (TUIASI) a obţinut cea mai consistentă finanţare dintre universităţile ieşene, circa 2,16 milioane de lei, aflându-se pe locul al doilea la nivel naţional după poziţiile ocupate în urma clasificării în ierarhiile celor şase domenii.
Mai exact, Politehnica ieşeană a obţinut o finanţare cu 13% mai mare pentru cele şase proiecte depuse faţă de anul anterior, iar proiectul depus pentru primul domeniu, privind creşterea echităţii sociale şi accesul la învăţământul superior, a obţinut suma maximă ce putea fi oferită, 400.000 de lei.
„Politehnica ieşeană şi-a menţinut şi în acest an poziţia de vârf în cadrul competiţiei FDI, fiind universitatea din Iaşi cea mai bine plasată în ansamblul celor şase domenii ale competiţiei. Astfel, punctajele acordate proiectelor noastre ne situează în zona cu procente maxime ale finanţării, cuprinse între 90 şi 100%, în funcţie de domeniu, din fondurile solicitate. Mai mult, media poziţiilor obţinute în ierarhia fiecărui domeniu considerat ne poziţionează pe locul 2 la nivel naţional din cele peste 45 de universităţi participante”, a declarat prof. dr. ing. Dan Caşcaval, rectorul TUIASI.
Competiţia de proiecte finanţate din Fondul de Dezvoltare Instituţională destinat universităţilor de stat – FDI 2019 s-a desfăşurat în perioada 19 februarie – 28 martie 2019. Consiliul Naţional pentru Finanţarea Învăţământului Superior (CNFIS) a evaluat şi selectat proiectele depuse de universităţi.
„Cuza”, cu 22% mai mult
Atât „Cuza”, cât şi Medicina şi Agronomia au obţinut finanţare pentru toate cele şase proiecte depuse, cu proiecte care au primit punctaje ridicate în urma evaluării.
UAIC, spre exemplu, va primi anul acesta cu 22% mai mulţi bani pe aceste proiecte decât anul trecut, în total undeva în jurul sumei de 2 milioane de lei, în timp ce Universitatea de Ştiinţe Agricole şi Medicină Veterinară „Ion Ionescu de la Brad” a primit suma maximă ce poate fi finanţată la domeniul privind internaţionalizarea, 400.000 de lei, iar la domeniul al treilea, cu privire la grădinile botanice, a avut al treilea proiect din ţară în urma evaluării, la egalitate de punctaj cu cel al UAIC, de pe locul al IV-lea.
Deşi pe Iaşi UMF a atras mai puţine fonduri decât celelalte trei mari universităţi, la nivel naţional, cu cei aproape 1,5 milioane de lei obţinuţi, se clasează pe poziţia a doua, la scurtă distanţă de UMF „Iuliu Haţieganu” din Cluj-Napoca.
„Acest fond pentru dezvoltare instituţională se adresează îndeosebi celor mai performante instituţii de învăţământ superior şi se alocă după criterii competitive bazate pe standarde internaţionale. Cu atât mai meritorie este performanţa Universităţii noastre, care, de trei ani, se clasează foarte bine în această competiţie. Finanţările obţinute ne vor permite să acordăm o atenţie sporită mai multor aspecte ale vieţii studenţilor noştri, principalii beneficiari”, a declarat prof. dr. Viorel Scripcariu, rectorul UMF Iaş
Publicație: Ziarul de Iași
„Galaxia iubirii“: Una dintre cele mai cunoscute picturi din Iaşi, un plagiat?
Prof.dr. Petru Bejan de la la Universitatea de Arte a ridicat semne de întrebare asupra originalităţii unei picturi realizate de Sabin Bălaşa în Aula Magna a UAIC. „În fapt, în lucrarea lui Bălaşa, personale sunt doar decorurile, acel peisaj cosmic întâlnit în lucrările sale”, arată prof. Bejan.
O dezbatere a fost lansată în spaţiul public ieşean după o postare pe Facebook a profesorului ieşean prof.dr. Petru Bejan, cadru didactic la Universitatea de Arte „George Enescu” din Iaşi.
Acesta a identificat o lucrare semnată de pictorul francez Albert Aublet, din 1880, care seamănă izbitor de mult cu opera realizată de artistul Sabin Bălaşa în Aula Magna „Mihai Eminescu” a Universităţii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iaşi.
Opera artistului francez ilustrează un nud feminin cu o mână aşezată în dreptul capului şi cealaltă ridicată în sus, aşezată pe conturul unui planete.
„Este o coincidenţă să-i spunem stranie”
Opera lui Sabin Bălaşa cuprinde acelaşi element central de proporţii similare, singura diferenţă notabilă fiind faptul că femeia din lucrarea aflată în Aula Magna a UAIC are capul îndreptat spre dreapta, şi nu spre stânga, ca opera lui Aublet.
La acest element central, Sabin Bălaşa a adăugat mai multe elemente cosmice, dimensiunile celor două lucrări fiind diferite, iar aranjarea în spaţiu fiind, la rândul ei, implicit diferită. Profesorul universitar a explicat pentru „Ziarul de Iaşi” că, deşi nu se poate vorbi de un plagiat ad litteram, lucrarea este departe de a fi originală.
„Este o coincidenţă să-i spunem stranie. Eu aş spune că nu este moral şi etic să te substitui autorului. E ca în cazul unei cărţi, dacă iau jumătate din versurile «Luceafărului» şi îi mai pun eu începutul şi sfârşitul, nu înseamnă că este textul meu. Poţi să propui ca fiind autentică sau originală lucrarea altuia? Este vorba de asumare, în cazul acesta mi se pare că Bălaşa nu a fost original. În fapt, în lucrarea lui, personale sunt doar decorurile, acel peisaj cosmic întâlnit în lucrările sale. Una e să faci bolovani levitând, alta e să asumi o temă şi un concept venind din altă parte. Este o chestiune de etică, nu vreau să sugerez să dăm cu var în aulă, cred că sunt mai multe astfel de cazuri şi mi-am propus să semnalez situaţii de genul acesta”, a declarat prof.dr. Petru Bejan.
Acesta a invocat însă că, indiferent de perceptele etice şi morale, nu se pot percepe sub nicio formă comisioane de ordinul a sute de mii de dolari pentru o lucrare „inspirată, dacă nu mai mult”, realizată de un alt artist. Ar fi fost moral, consideră criticul ieşean, să fi fost mai temperat în pretenţii dacă lucrarea propusă conţine astfel de „conicidenţe suspecte”.
„Artistul a cerut ceva mai multe, 400.000 de dolari, şi a rămas preţul la jumătate, 200.000 de dolari. Este o sumă destul de mare pentru o lucrare care nu prea pare originală. Nu pun în discuţie oportunitatea, în aulă dă bine, colorează spaţial, personalizează într-un mod agreabil. Dar dacă tot împrumuţi şi te inspiri din altceva, atunci moral ar fi să fii mai temperat în pretenţii. Aici s-a negociat foarte mult pe naivitatea celor care au negociat, dacă întrebau pe cei câţiva care se pricep, probabil altul ar fi fost rezultatul”, a mai punctat prof.dr. Petru Bejan.
„Murala de la «Cuza» a făcut-o pentru suma modestă de 200.000 de dolari”
Lucrarea lui Sabin Bălaşa a fost pictată în 2002, se intitulează „Galaxia iubirii”, iar pe site-ul universităţii se specifică faptul că pictura simbolizează iubirea ca sentiment universal şi iubirea la nivel de cunoaştere.
Lucrarea are o înălţime de aproape 11 metri şi o lăţime 5 metri, un total de 54 de metri pătraţi, fiind recomandată ca „o lucrare de artă impresionantă, având atributele unei lucrări spaţiale”.
În ceea ce priveşte negocierile cu privire la preţul lucrării, într-un material publicat de “Ziarul de Iaşi” în 2014, promotorul lui Sabin Bălaşa, de atunci, Dumitru Constantin, considera că preţul era chiar unul modest, nu mare, cum a fost considerat în Iaşi.
„Murala de la «Cuza» a făcut-o pentru suma modestă de 200.000 de dolari. Păi, gândiţi-vă, era o lucrare de 54 de metri pătraţi, asta ar însemna 100 de lucrări normale. Păi, ce, vindea Sabin cu 1.000 de dolari lucrarea?”, explica atunci Dumitru Constantin.
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași
Şefii marilor aeroporturi europene discută la Iaşi despre infrastructura „umană” necesară
„În ultimii 20 de ani, România a pierdut 20.000 de medici. Dar în acest timp a pierdut 200.000 de ingineri. Şi totuşi continuăm să «producem» medici şi ingineri, ba chiar să mărim numărul de studenţi. Acum sunt 30.000 de studenţi înscrişi în facultăţile tehnice din universitatea noastră”, a declarat, ieri, la Iaşi, rectorul Universităţii Bucureşti, Mihnea Costoiu.
El s-a adresat participanţilor la Forumul ACI EUROPE Leadership and Human Resources, reuniune anuală a membrilor Consiliului Internaţional al Aeroporturilor pe teme legate de resurse umane, care se ţine în premieră în aceste zile în România, mai exact la Universitatea ieşeană „Al.I Cuza”.
Peste 30 de participanţi din 16 de ţări vor discuta despre dezvoltarea industriei aeroportuare, prin schimburi de cunoştinţe şi experienţă în domeniu, dar şi prin crearea unei comunităţi puternice de resurse umane.
„Este o direcţie în care se concentrează majoritatea instituţiilor de aviaţie, deoarece e o viteză foarte mare de evoluţie a tehnologiei. De asemenea, e o evoluţie impresionantă a traficului de pasageri şi de marfă, şi toate aceste lucruri presupun, în afară de o infrastructură adecvată, şi o forţă de muncă pregătită pentru a putea să facă faţă provocărilor care au început deja şi care vor fi în perioada imediat următoare”, a declarat Sorin Eugen Zaharia, profesor la Facultatea de Inginerie Aerospaţială de la Universitatea din Bucureşti şi membru al Consiliului de Administraţie al Aeroportului Iaşi.
Publicație: Ziarul de Iași
Invitaţie la PatriotFest 2019!
Vrei ca proiectul tău să contribuie la securitatea românilor? Alătură-te comunităţii de inovatori care doresc ca realizările lor să fie utilizate şi în domeniul securităţii naţionale!
Prezentarea concursului naţional de inovare PatriotFest ediţia 2019 în regiunea Cluj va avea loc marţi 7 mai începând cu ora 10:00 în Sala de Conferinţe a Liberty Technology Park. Vor fi prezentate proiectele premiate la ediţia 2018, categoriile de concurs ale ediţiei curente, oportunităţile de networking din comunitatea PatriotFest, precum şi tipurile de finanţări disponibile în domeniul apărării şi securităţii naţionale.
Informaţii suplimentare la www.patriotfest.ro şi concurs@patriotfest.ro.
Publicație: Adevărul
Hundreds of students in UK sanctioned over racist or offensive online posts
Figures from 92 universities described as ‘very worrying’ amid concerns that more incidents are going unreported
Hundreds of university students have been disciplined or expelled for making racist, sexually explicit or homophobic comments on social media in recent years, it has been revealed.
A number of top universities have punished students for posting Islamophobic, racist, antisemitic, homophobic and transphobic comments, or pictures of offensive weapons being brandished and other offensive content online.
Data obtained through freedom of information requests from 92 universities in the UK shows 277 students have been sanctioned for this kind of behaviour in the past three years. This figure includes 104 in 2018–19.
University culture nurtures racism – I see it all the time
Experts have described the figures as “very worrying”, saying that universities must provide safe and inclusive places.
The universities with the highest number of disciplinary actions were the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Bedfordshire, with 22 students having been disciplined.
At Loughborough University, 18 students were sanctioned for posts categorised as indecent, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, offensive or deemed to be “pranks”.
The university’s chief operating officer, Richard Taylor, said: “We are proud to take a proactive role in tackling hate speech. There is no place for hate speech in our community in person or online.”
At the University of Surrey, one student was given a year-long suspension for racist and antisemitic “jokes” on Facebook. Another student was expelled for racist posts on Instagram.
Thomas Lancaster, a senior teaching fellow at Imperial College London, called the findings “very worrying”.
He added: “Racist and homophobic remarks can’t be dismissed. From my student support role, I know that students have enough challenges to deal with and they don’t need ill-thought-out, so-called pranks from their peers to add to these. If a student does feel that they’re being targeted on social media, I’d encourage them to let staff know so that we can address this.”
Lancaster said universities are meant to provide a safe, inclusive and welcoming space for all and that students need to think before they post.
Dr Omar Khan, the director of the Runnymede Trust, agreed the figures were worrying, adding they are likely “to be the tip of the iceberg, with many incidents going unreported”.
The abuse and hate I get when I speak out hurts – but shutting up isn't an option
Mehreen Faruqi
Read more
“The findings remind us that a university education is no inoculation against racism, and the extent of discriminatory attitudes and behaviours across society … The threat of racism on campuses is being downplayed in media-driven moral panics on free speech, and university administrators must ensure they protect BME students from violence and harassment.”
Last year a number of law students were expelled from the University of Exeter because of racist comments in the Bracton Law Society’s WhatsApp group. The students were sanctioned over a series of comments including racial epithets and messages such as: “If you ain’t English, go home,” “bomb the mosques” and “we need a race war” which were reported to university authorities by a fellow student, Arsalan Motavali.
The NUS Black Students’ officer, Ilyas Nagdee, said the data was not surprising and the union’s own research has shown that such language remains part of the day-to-day experiences of black, Jewish, Muslim and LGBT+ students across the country.
“Social media is often, sadly, a reflection of what is happening in the wider world,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “Universities should be inclusive environments where everyone has the opportunity to reach their potential … Inciting hatred of any kind is wholly unacceptable.”
A University of Central Lancashire spokesperson said: “The University of Central Lancashire promotes lawful, open debate, the discussion of varying views and academic freedom and has in place robust procedures to ensure this can take place … While not specifically monitoring individual student social media accounts, any potential issues or concerns linked to adverse comments are picked up, taken seriously and acted upon appropriately. In the last five years we have taken action in only 22 cases.”
Publicație: The Guardian
One in 15 US student loan recipients have considered suicide over debt, study suggests
2.8 million people owe £378 billion, as of March
The $1.6 trillion (£1.22 trillion) in US student debt may not pose a direct threat to the economy, but it’s causing anguish that goes far beyond financial concerns for the people who owe it.
One in 15 borrowers has considered suicide due to their school loans, according to a survey of 829 people conducted last month by Student Loan Planner, a debt advisory group.
Most student debt is held by people with balances on the lower end of the scale, with only 0.8 percent of the US population owing more than $100,000 (£76,350), according to Deutsche Bank economists.
Even more worrying is that it’s an increase of almost $61 billion (£46.6 billion) since the end of 2017.
Student loans are the second-biggest kind of debt in America behind home mortgages and often more expensive to service relative to the amount owed because interest rates are generally higher.
Not to mention that unlike buying a home, an education isn’t a tangible asset that can be sold.
It’s also turning into a hot political issue as next year’s presidential election approaches.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed a plan to cancel loans for many borrowers, while former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper addressed some of the knock-on effects for the economy in a presentation at the Milken Institute conference earlier this week.
“Of course millennials would love to buy a house,” Mr Hickenlooper said on 30 April in Los Angeles. But, “they’re buried in debt!”
The following scenarios show the monthly costs associated with different levels of student debt.
The first envisages a 10-year loan at six percent. To put the figures into perspective, a 30-year mortgage of $400,000 (£305,400) at current interest rates would cost about $2,000 (£1527) per month.
In the second scenario, loans are shown over a 20-year term with rates at seven percent.
Monthly payments are smaller but the overall burden is bigger, with total interest payments on $100,000 (£76,350) of debt rising above $86,000 (£65,660).
Bloomberg
Publicație: The Independent
How men can help combat misogyny in graduate education
Explicit or not, misogyny is commonplace in academia, write Nakissa Jahanbani and Charmaine Willis, who offer advice on how men can become women’s allies
Defined as the “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women”, misogyny is a hot topic on social media and in news stories. Much recent attention has focused on more egregious forms, but this means that common forms often go overlooked, despite their importance. Misogynistic experiences can exacerbate impostor syndrome – something that affects both men and women in academia – especially among female graduate students who already feel it at disproportionately higher rates and more often in minorities.
Studies have also noted that many graduate students experience high levels of mental health issues, with rates of depression and anxiety six times that of the general public. Misogynistic experiences can compound these mental health issues by reinforcing feelings of worthlessness, anxiety and other emotions associated with mental health issues.
These experiences can have a more pronounced impact on female graduate students who are also: persons of colour (POC), identify as members of the LGBT+ community, are not cisgender and/or are a member of another minority group. Here, we share our experiences as two cisgender females, one Caucasian and one POC, and both graduate students in an American political science programme.
The graduate student as colleague
In our experience, misogyny from fellow graduate students ranges from systemic gender-based slights of which perpetrators may not be aware to overt forms of discrimination. However, the consequences are the same: female students feel disrespected by their colleagues and question their own abilities.
Ingrained misogyny from male students can manifest in several ways, including “mansplaining”, speaking over female colleagues and a tendency to look to other male students for expert opinions. In one instance, we partnered with a male colleague for a class presentation. Afterwards, another man questioned the male presenter on the subject that we presented on, undermining our expertise on the subject.
The graduate student as instructor
Myriad challenges face graduate students as they enter the classroom at the onset of their academic career, including concerns about managing a classroom and being an effective instructor. Categorically, these challenges can be more difficult for women: a recent study found that students tend to evaluate female professors more critically than their male counterparts.
Students can engage in a variety of micro-aggressions and broader misogynistic behaviours that can undermine female graduate instructors’ ability to teach. Students often interrupt or talk over us, which sets a poor tone in class. In our experience, this happens far less for our male counterparts: one colleague admitted to having this issue only once or twice a year.
Therefore, female instructors may have to exert themselves more to dissuade students from talking over us. For example, we once had to ask a male student twice in one class not to interrupt us. Although he did not interrupt again during that class, we had to do this every week.
Administrators may unknowingly reinforce challenges surrounding misogyny and intersectionality in the classroom. One student repeatedly made one of us feel uncomfortable as a POC by ignoring her when she spoke in class and making disparaging comments about minority groups in full knowledge of her background as a minority female.
However, when we approached the appropriate administrator, they, as a white person, dismissed the possibility that we would be regarded differently by students, despite corroborating evidence. While this issue was not resolved, we recommend that students in this situation find an advocate in their administration who not only understands but believes the instructor’s experience.
Advice for male allies
We suspect that our experiences with misogyny will resonate with many female graduate students and faculty. But in our experiences, we have also worked with many supportive male colleagues, instructors and students. For such allies, we offer advice for supporting female graduate students.
First, be cognisant of the fact that women, particularly minorities, are more susceptible to impostor syndrome. Comments undermining their achievements reinforce feelings of worthlessness.
As students, our opinions may not be as respected as those of our male colleagues, even if we are as well informed. Allies can bridge this gap by making an equal social space for female graduate students in several ways. Call on their expertise in discussions: doing this supplants other voices (including their own self-doubt) that may demean their ability. Name them as subject specialists when describing or introducing them to other scholars.
Second, recognise that women may experience graduate school differently from their male counterparts. This includes the forms of misogyny mentioned previously, which can be difficult for even the recipient to identify.
Demonstrate respect towards female graduate instructors in front of their students; undermining them sends a message to students that they are not worthy of respect. In the case of female teaching assistants, faculty should consult with them on issues involving their students; by making them a part of the process, it sends a message to students that the TA’s opinion is valued.
Publicație: The Times
Greek reforms set to upgrade thousands of graduates’ degrees
New law merges technical institutions into universities, but critics suspect political motives in run-up to general election
Greece is to merge its technological education institutes (TEIs) into universities in a sweeping reform of its higher education system that could see the degrees of hundreds of thousands of graduates upgraded.
The government has argued that the changes will create “synergies” and allow all institutions to help drive economic reconstruction.
But critics see it as a poorly prepared reform attempt designed to inflate the qualifications and boost the salaries of many graduates ahead of a general election in October. Greece’s far-left Syriza government is currently trailing rivals in the polls.
“It’s 100 per cent political,” said Loukas Vlahos, a physics professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who has publicly criticised the changes. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Passed by 147 votes for to 100 against in Greece’s parliament, the country’s new higher education law is expected to open the door for existing graduates of TEIs to upgrade their degrees to full university qualifications.
This will allow those employed by the government, where pay is linked to qualifications, to command higher salaries, said Professor Vlahos. “It’s going to devalue the degrees of those who have [undertaken] enormous efforts to get into very prestigious schools,” he said. Universities generally require better exam scores for entry than TEIs, he explained.
One newspaper estimated there could be 400,000 such upgraded graduates, said Vasso Kindi, an assistant professor of philosophy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. One risk is that those working for the government will ask for backdated pay enhancements to reflect their degree upgrades, she said.
Kostas Gavroglou, Greece’s education minister, insisted that TEI degrees would not be automatically upgraded. Instead, it would depend on factors such as when graduates studied, he said, with the exact criteria worked out over the next six months.
Another concern of critics is that the mergers have promoted TEI faculty to full university professors. This has been done “overnight, sweepingly, without any assessment of their credentials”, said Dr Kindi.
The main aim of the reform was to “gain the support of students, faculty and their families associated with the technological institutions”, she argued.
Professor Gavroglou told Times Higher Education that although TEI faculty would become university professors, they could be barred from responsibilities like PhD supervision if their record was not deemed adequate by university assessment committees.
Had the mergers evolved out of discussion between universities and TEIs, they could have been “reasonable”, Professor Vlahos said. However, they have been forced through by the government, he lamented. In April, the senate of Aristotle University warned that the plans lacked a feasibility study and a clear strategy.
“We never saw a full plan,” said Professor Vlahos. The reforms will “destroy” Greece’s technical training structures and force them together with its research-oriented universities, he warned.
Dr Kindi agreed. “The new enlarged universities find themselves with numerous new departments whose academic programmes are not accredited and are practically unknown. They may overlap with existing departments. They may have no relation to the profile of the university or the faculty they are attached to,” she said.
Professor Gavroglou countered that in some cases TEIs’ research records outperformed universities, yet they still suffered from a public perception that they were second-class institutions – a situation the mergers would help rectify
Publicație: The Times
Baby boomers back on campus as US universities surf silver wave
Retirees increasingly being invited to live and take classes alongside younger students
Ruth Silin particularly likes the poetry courses she takes at Lasell College, a small university near Boston where she lives on the campus. When she is not in class, she keeps busy with extracurricular activities, most recently producing and modelling in a student fashion show.
But Ms Silin differs from her classmates in one important way: she is 95 years old, and among a small but growing number of affluent retirees being invited to live on or near US university campuses and avail themselves of the educational opportunities and facilities.
“I loved the fact that it was on a college campus and associated with a college,” Ms Silin said. “It’s a wonderfully stimulating thing. When you reach this age, you don’t want to just be surrounded by other grey-haired people.”
For the universities, which are often property rich, these older students can contribute more than just diversity: they can be a source of badly needed revenue and, potentially, generous bequests.
Ms Silin, for example, is among 220 retirees who live at Lasell Village, which is part of a small college with an enrolment of about 1,700 that manages the development and receives lease payments. The senior students pay an entry fee of between $440,000 (£341,000) and $1.4 million, depending on apartment size, plus monthly fees of between $4,000 and $9,500.
Other such communities are privately operated but lease land from institutions including Stanford University, whose faculty are paid to teach classes to residents. One at Duke University provides a licence fee to use the university’s name.
Enrolment of traditional-aged undergraduates in the US is down by 7 per cent since 2011, according to the Department of Education, while the number of older people – baby boomers who want to stay active in retirement – is soaring.
They comprise “a population to court both for potential degree-seeking students as well as for relationships to support the bottom line”, said Tom Meuser, director of the Center for Excellence in Aging and Health at the University of New England, who studies older learners.
“Competition is high for students of any age,” said Professor Meuser, whose own university has teamed up with a new housing complex for people aged 55 and over that is being opened in a former convent where, among other things, his centre will conduct research. “So schools are casting wider nets.”
Arizona State University plans a 20-storey residential building on its campus for people in their sixties and older, who will be able to take classes and also mentor younger students, guest-lecture, work as guides in the art museum and ushers in the performance hall, and even provide childcare for faculty. The site, ASU Mirabella, will not open until next year, but it has already sold 217 of its 252 apartments at an entry fee of up to $774,000 plus monthly payments ranging from $4,195 to $5,570.
Although the public university is reportedly getting an upfront payment of $7 million from the private company that is building the $270 million development, it “isn’t in this for the money. Other projects could have yielded much more money than that,” said Todd Hardy, managing director of innovation zones at ASU.
“What we’re interested in is every way that people can learn, regardless of their age,” said Mr Hardy. “Folks who are of this age today want to be contributing members of a community and give back and continue learning. We want to integrate what they can offer with the life of our community, so we can both learn from each other.”
Many of these older students are alumni. A quarter of the residents at Vi at Palo Alto, near Stanford, for example, are alumni of that university or former faculty or staff.
Universities could benefit from this institutional loyalty over the long term, said Mr Hardy; with 80 per cent to 90 per cent of those entry fees refunded when they die, some may choose to leave the money to their alma maters.
“There could be an element of building relationships” that could lead to financial support, he said.
It would, however, be cynical to think that that is the only motivation, he said.
“Some universities do this as a real estate deal,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anybody that’s done it for the reason we are, which is to make these folks part of our lives and vice versa.”
In fact, said Professor Meuser, if they are exclusively transactional, such efforts will founder.
“If you’re just going at it for the money, without providing the coordination or the exchange or the ways to engage, it’s just not going to happen,” he said. “It’s a whole package, and ultimately these relationships thrive when there are strong benefits for the institution, the students, the faculty and the older adults.”
As she speaks about her experience at Lasell, Ms Silin has just returned from an activity at which art students interpreted poetry written by her and some of her neighbours. In addition to taking classes, they can use the library, the shuttle bus and the gym, and they spend still more time with the younger students who make extra money working in their dining room.
“We don’t see our own grandchildren as much as we see the kids on campus,” Ms Silin enthused. “This is a great way to spend your final years.”
Publicație: The Times
How can universities reduce their gender pay gaps?
Experts debate merits of approaches including across-the-board rises for women and the longer, harder challenge of changing cultures
When the UK government announced in 2017 that all organisations with 250 employers or more would be obliged to publish figures on their gender pay gap, pro-equality campaigners rejoiced. And while it is safe to say that nobody expected such a move to solve the problem of gender pay disparity overnight, many will have hoped that the act of forcing employers to think about their own pay gaps would have had some positive effect in the time since.
Two years on, however, relatively little progress has been made in the higher education sector. Times Higher Education’s own analysis of the most recent pay gap figures – the second round of reporting since the legislation came in – shows that the gap has actually widened at 46 universities since the first reporting exercise.
It seems clear that too many institutions are still at a loss as to how to go about rectifying the centuries-old culture of employment that favours men. But there are also a number of success stories that can offer some guidance.
First, it is important to differentiate between pay equity – equal pay for equal work – and the gender pay gap itself, which is an average of the institution’s overall difference between male and female pay.
The University of Essex has been praised for achieving the former via its radical move to give all female staff an unconditional pay rise in 2016 to bring their salaries in line with those of their male peers. Essex’s vice-chancellor, Anthony Forster, explained that this had had a proven, immediate effect, and the university now says it has eliminated gender pay gaps within individual pay brackets. A university-wide pay audit ensured that professors are now paid the same salary for the same work regardless of gender and regardless of their ability to negotiate or sell themselves.
“We were impatient for years,” Professor Forster said. “We did not want to accept that in 10 to 15 years [pay equality] would work out. We believed as an institution that it could and should be done sooner, and if that comes at an initial financial cost to us, then so be it.”
This does not mean, however, that Essex has eliminated its gender pay gap overall because, like many organisations, it employs a significantly higher proportion of women in its lowest-paid roles (68.2 per cent women, compared with 31.8 per cent men).
Similarly, the number of men in the top-tier jobs is slightly higher, 59.9 per cent, which inevitably tips the pay balance in favour of men overall and leaves the institution’s female staff earning a mean hourly wage that is 17.6 per cent lower than that of their male counterparts.
While Professor Forster acknowledged that there was still “work to do” at Essex to reduce the average pay gap figure, he said that the move to ensure pay equity within pay brackets had also had the effect of shrinking the gender pay gap overall.
“In 2013, our pay gap was 25 per cent,” he said. “As of 31 March this year, that was reduced significantly. We are still not satisfied, but I hope that is evidence that reducing internal gaps can make an immediate difference.”
Despite the attention that Essex’s move garnered, no other university has publicly emulated it. And while that reluctance could be attributed in part to fears about cost, some argue that the effects will not be sustainable without an improved culture overall.
Dame Athene Donald, professor of experimental physics and master of Churchill College, Cambridge, said “grade segregation” remained one of the biggest challenges in this respect. “If a university has more female cleaners but more male professors, then boosting female professorial pay won’t make much of a difference overall,” she said, citing the example of the University of Cambridge, which moved to a single pay scale a number of years ago.
“Everyone had to get regraded on the new scales, and it was clear that this exercise made more difference to female salaries…it moved to close the gap,” said Dame Athene. She was doubtful that such measures were “long lasting”, however, “because some of the issues arise from the differential rates at which men and women appear to apply for increments…To change the gender pay gap in the way it is reported, we need far more female professors (and senior administrators), not just better paid ones, and a better balance in the bottom grades, too.”
While there is as yet no “proven” method of eliminating the average gap overall, a clear pattern emerges in THE’s analysis of the recent reported data in that universities with smaller gaps tend to demonstrate a much fairer balance of men and women employed across each tier.
An example can be found in the University of Worcester, which boasts the smallest gender pay gap for the second year running. It has a mean average gap of 2.1 per cent for the 2018 reporting year, compared with the sector average of 15.9 per cent in favour of men.
David Green, Worcester’s vice-chancellor, confirmed that the university had virtually identical proportions of female employees across each pay quartile, ensuring that men were neither significantly over-represented at the top nor under-represented at the bottom of the scale.
He also attributed Worcester’s success to “continuing good performance…based on values, culture and systems all supporting gender equality and fairness generally”. The institution reconfigured its promotions system in 2004 to take into account “fairness and equality” as well as individual merits, he added.
While Worcester might have actively changed its focus to account for fair gender representation, there are other examples – often at arts-based institutions – where the make-up of the staff body naturally tends towards a smaller pay gap.
Arts University Bournemouth, for instance, saw one of the biggest positive changes this year – shrinking its pay gap by 4.7 percentage points by mean average. Inspection of the proportion of women in each pay quartile demonstrates a fairly even spread – they occupy 52 per cent of the top quartile jobs and 45 per cent of the second highest pay quartile.
Goldsmiths, University of London, tells a similar story: its mean hourly wage gap sits at 5.2 per cent, significantly lower than at most universities, and women occupy close to half the jobs across each pay quartile (51 per cent of the highest-paid jobs overall).
University systems around the world are wrestling with the same issue, and may offer some insights.
The American University in Washington, which had the highest proportion of senior academics who are women (73.9 per cent) in THE’s recent University Impact Rankings, has been outspoken about its “data-informed, active recruitment methods, which elicit notably diverse candidate pools, where approximately one-half of new full-time faculty hires in recent years have been women”.
Western Sydney University in Australia came top for overall gender equality in the same rankings, based on measures of not only senior staff diversity, but also institutional research on gender and university policies in this area. A spokeswoman told THE that its showing was down to the university’s proactive measures used in recruitment – 50 per cent of all staff are now female, including 47 per cent of managers and 41 per cent of professors.
In light of this evidence, an institution hoping to close its pay gap might be tempted to start hiring more men in lower-skilled jobs. But Julia Buckingham, vice-chancellor and president of Brunel University London, said such a conclusion rather misses the point.
The pay gap reporting exercise is too limited in detailing workplace inequalities, she said, because “there are a lot of complexities. But the big difference is that lower quartile – the lowest paid jobs. How do you encourage people to develop, how do you raise and sustain aspirations?”
Universities should be reviewing their career progression pathways from top to bottom – and communicating to staff members their desire to see everyone to flourish, Professor Buckingham said, “channelling that idea that even the lowest-paid person at the bottom of the chain can have the opportunity to reach the very top”.
While she described Essex’s pay exercise as “interesting”, she said that as chair of the review of the Athena SWAN equality charter she championed the idea of “offering as many different options” for female employees in terms of support – be that networking and social events, careers workshops or mentoring.
“There’s no easy answer because it is nuanced. What works for one institution might not work for another. But I think we can all ask ourselves, ‘Are we really doing all we can?’”
As the gender pay gap debate continues, there is a danger that such initiatives can be written off as an ineffective box-ticking exercise. But to the naysayers, Professor Buckingham would “suggest they go along and try some”.
“Something interesting that has come up in our [Athena SWAN charter] review is the importance that people place on culture and behaviours, and I think the biggest difference we have seen is that women are starting to feel able to talk about these things in a way they had not before,” she said. It may take time, but this ability to encourage conversations around career progression and pay disparity does have a proven effect in encouraging women to put themselves forward for promotions, she explained.
Professor Forster argued that “support is not enough on its own” but agreed that pay rises were no straightforward solution, either. “What is really needed is a broad range of interventions that ensures there is consistent focus on core values,” he said.
The Essex leader made it clear that he did not feel it was his place to “tell other institutions what to do” with regard to improving gender equity. “But sometimes,” he said, “perhaps often, sticking to your values costs money, and we were prepared to do that.”
Publicație: The Times
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