Noaptea Muzeelor la Muzeul "Universitatii Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi
Pe data de 18 mai (maine - n.r.) 2019, începând cu ora 19:00, Muzeul "Universitatii Alexandru Ioan Cuza" (UAIC) din Iasi îsi deschide portile pentru vizitatorii care doresc sa participe la evenimentul "Noaptea Muzeelor".
"Va propunem nu doar o incursiune în universul Civilizatiei Cucuteni si în istoria Universitatii iesene, ci si doua expozitii temporare. 2019 a fost desemnat «Anul Cartii în România» si, pornind de la acest context, organizam, în cadrul Muzeului Academic, expozitia «Editii princeps. Patrimoniu universitar - patrimoniu national». Cea de-a doua expozitie, intitulata «Razboiul de acasa. Fragmente de memorie», pune în valoare aspecte din trecutul nu foarte îndepartat al zonei în timpul razboaielor mondiale", au transmis cei de la UAIC.
Expozitia va fi organizata în Turnul de Apa al Universitatii. Ultimul vizitator va avea acces la ora 00:30.
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Sute de invenţii prezentate la Palatul Culturii
Inventatori din 40 de ţări participă la cea de-a XI-a ediţie a Euroinvent * invenţiileau fost grupate în 14 categorii şi ocupă 90 de standuri
Ciorapii cu ulei de dafin, care ajută la combaterea celulitei, ciocolată cu nanoparticule de aur, argint şi platină, roboţeii care pot aduce informaţii din zonele calamitate, o terapie revoluţionară pentru persoanele care au suferit accidente vasculare ori au diferite dizabilităţi, papucul care se încarcă singur ori tastatura care în loc de clape are banane sunt câteva din proiectele prezentate la cea de-a XI-a ediţie a Euroinvent, manifestare care a reunit la Iaşi cercetători şi inventatori din 40 de ţări. În cele 90 de standuri au fost expuse peste 650 de invenţii care au atras un public numeros încă dn prima zi. Prezent la festivitatea de deschidere a salonului, primarul Mihai Chirica a punctat faptul că „Iaşul este o gazdă bună”. „Este un oraş multietnic şi multicultural. Invitaţii noştri de peste hotare sigur vor pleca acasă cu limba română”, a glumit primarul Mihai Chirica. Oficialul a apreciat şcoala ieşeană de inventică şi pe promotorii ei, apoi a anunţat că luna viitoare vor avea loc două evenimente similare în Iaşi. Prefectul Marian Şerbescu a oferit o medalie organizatorilor şi a precizat că „perseverenţa de a ajunge la rezultatul dorit reprezintă cheia oricărei realizări a spiritului uman şi către progresul tehnic şi ştiinţific”. „România s-a angajat într-un proces temeinic şi îndelungat de reconstruire a industrie pe baze solide, iar acest efort are la bază cercetarea şi inovarea. Euroinvent, această expoziţie europeană de creativitate şi inovare este cel mai important spectacol al minţii din Europa Centrală şi de Est. Nu putem decât să ne bucurăm că are loc la Iaşi, ceea ce pune oraşul pe harta mondială a progresului tehnologic”, a apreciat prefectul Marian Şerbescu.
Premiu de 10.000 de lei
Universităţile ieşene au expus cele mai recent proiecte, foarte apreciate fiind maşinile construite de studenţii de la Facultatea de Inginerie Mecanică şi Mecatronică, la fel ca şi roboţeii. Unul dintre ei, realizat din piese Lego, ar putea fi folosit în zonele calamitate, ar putea aduna date de pe teren în caz de cutremure, inundaţii ori alte evenimente neplăcute. Roboţelul are cameră video şi poate fi comandat de pe calculator ori tabletă. Prof. univ. dr. Marian Poboroniuc a prezentat o terapie revoluţionară, care ar putea ajuta persoanele cu handicap neuromotor. În esenţă, este vorba despre o cască pe care sunt amplasaţi senzori care adună informaţii despre starea de sănătate a pacientului. Casa este conectată la un computer. „Cu ajutorul senzorilor eu văd pe computer dacă persoana gândeşte mişcarea şi dacă a făcut acest lucru, eu o ajut să facă mişcare prin electrostimulare şi astfel se reface legătura dintre creier şi mână, spre exemplu. Persoana stă în faţa calculatorului şi i se cere să se gândească la mâna stângă sau mâna dreaptă. Noi, doar dacă ne gândim ni se activează zona corespunzătoare de pe cortex. Folosind acest sistem, persoana cu probleme face un anumit număr de şedinţe, fiecare având în jur de 45 de minute”, a spus prof. univ. dr. Poboroniuc, care a realizat sistemul al cărui prototip se foloseşte deja la Spitalul de Recuperare. Poşetele din cauciuc natural, realizate de un inventator din Thailanda, la fel ca şi hârtia din alge au stârnit mult interesul, la fel ca şi produsele anti-aging pe bază de colagen, în cazul lor noutatea fiind legată de faptul că nu se aplică pe piele, ci se beau. Elevii de la Palatul Culturii au prezentat un dispozitiv care poate fi folosit de către persoanele cu dizabilităţi.
Invențiile și proiectele de cercetare au fost grupate în 14 categorii (mediu și controlul poluării; energie și dezvoltare durabilă; agricultură și industrie alimentară; medicină, sănătate, cosmetică; echipamente industriale și de laborator; inginerie mecanică, metalurgie; construcții și materiale de construcții; aviație, industria mașinilor și transport; industrie chimică și textile; tehnologia informațiilor și comunicațiilor; tipărituri și publicitate; siguranță, protecția și salvarea persoanelor; sport, jocuri și timp liber; altele).Vizitatorii pot putea vedea diverse dispozitive medicale, demonstrații ale metodelor terapeutice inovative din neurologie sau oncologie, ambalaje biodegradabile, metode de purificare a apei sau a aerului, noi soiuri de plante. Pentru al patrulea an consecutiv, cea mai bună invenţie va fi premiată cu 10.000 de lei.
Euroinvent a fost organizat de Forumul Inventatorilor Români, Asociația pentru Ecologie și Dezvoltare Durabilă, prin Centrul de Informare Europe Direct Iași, Universitatea Tehnică „Gheorghe Asachi”, Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, în parteneriat cu Universitatea de Medicină și Farmacie „Grigore T. Popa”, Institutul Național de Cercetare Dezvoltare pentru Protecția Mediului și în colaborare cu Universitatea Națională de Arte „George Enescu” Iași. Estesingurul eveniment din România care se desfășoară cu sprijinul IFIA - International Federation of Inventors' Associations și WIIPA - World Inventions Intellectual Property Associations, reprezentând un eveniment european de elită în domeniul inovării și cercetării.
Publicație : Evenimentul
Simulare de admitere la UMF în această duminică. Participă 2.000 de elevi
Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie „Grigore T. Popa“ din Iaşi, împreună cu cele cinci ligi studenţeşti care activează în cadrul instituţiei de învăţământ superior medical, organizează duminică, 19 mai, cea de-a doua ediţie din acest an a Simulării Concursului de Admitere.
„Simularea examenului de admitere este organizată bianual şi are scopul de a veni în ajutorul viitorilor studenţi, pregătindu-i pentru susţinerea concursului din luna iulie. Concursul simulat se poate da pentru următoarele specializări: Medicină, Medicină Dentară, Farmacie, Bioinginerie Medicală, Asistenţă Medicală Generală, Nutriţie şi Dietetică, Balneo-fiziokinetoterapie şi recuperare şi Tehnică Dentară“, au precizat organizatorii.
La această ediţie, aproximativ 1.850 de elevi s-au înscris la simulare pentru a vededa cum se desfăşoară o astfel de examinare, dintre care 1.440 au optat pentru Facultatea de Medicină, 200 elevi pentru Facultatea de Medicină Dentară, 70 participanţi pentru Facultatea de Farmacie şi 140 pentru Facultatea de Bioinginerie Medicală.
„Pe parcursul a trei ore, participanţii înscrişi vor susţine un test alcătuit din întrebări tip grilă de Biologie, Fizică, Chimie sau Matematică. Întrebările la care vor răspunde elevii au fost realizate de cadrele didactice ale UMF. Peste 150 de voluntari ai societăţilor studenţeşti din cadrul universităţii au fost mobilizaţi pentru a lua parte la organizarea simulării conform metodologiei actuale“, au mai punctat organizatorii.
Aceştia au afişat deja repartiţiile în săli şi o hartă a amfiteatrelor, fiind disponibile şi testele grilă şi răspunsurile de la ediţiile din anii trecuţi. Examenul pentru admitere la UMF va avea loc pe 24 iulie 2019.
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași
UK universities urged to adopt IHRA wording on antisemitism
Jewish students frustrated at slow pace of action at many universities
The government and Jewish student groups are urging universities to adopt an agreed definition of antisemitism to help tackle an upsurge in hate crimes on campus.
Jewish students say they are frustrated at the slow pace of action at many universities, as well as cases where Jewish groups have been billed by universities for providing security for on-campus events.
Chris Skidmore, the universities minister for England, said institutions should formally adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism – the same wording that caused controversy in the Labour party last year.
“There is no place in our society for hatred or any form of harassment and it is frankly appalling that the battle against antisemitism still exists,” Skidmore said. “It is unacceptable to oblige certain groups of students to incur additional costs because of their race or religion just to counteract the actions of others.
“Institutions like King’s College London are already displaying leadership in this area but I expect our universities, as vehicles of change, to show moral leadership and adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which shows that an institution and its senior leaders are serious about ensuring their campuses are tolerant environments where ideas and debate can flourish but persecution can never take hold.”
Daniel Kosky, the campaigns officer for the Union of Jewish Students, said a number of universities used the IHRA definition internally, and formal adoption would be “a practical step to allow them to really tackle antisemitism”.
The IHRA definition, a one-paragraph summary with 11 examples, was written in 2016 and has since been adopted by the UK government.
The definition states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Kosky said his organisation was aware of four or five instances in the last year of Jewish student groups being asked to pay for security for hosting high-profile events on campus. “We see that as unfair and we want to nip it in the bud,” he said.
Another issue is the slow pace of university disciplinary proceedings involving antisemitism and other hate crimes, with students complaining of cases dragging on for as long as 10 months and a lack of information on progress.
Universities UK (UUK), which represents more than 135 universities in Britain, said its work in the area was ongoing. “We recommend universities do all they can to tackle antisemitism, including considering the IHRA definition, whilst also recognising their duty to promote freedom of speech within the law,” a spokesperson said.
Opinion remains divided within UUK, whose board voted not to adopt the IHRA definition last year. Some members argued the decision should be left up to individual institutions rather than infringe on their autonomy.
Nick Hillman, head of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “The government is recognising that Jewish student groups face particular challenges. Given recent rises in antisemitism in the UK and elsewhere, it is right that the minister shows support for Jewish students in this way.”
Publicație : The Guardian
Student saving tips: how to stretch your loan until the end of term
From managing your bills to finding the best student discounts, here are some expert tips on making your money last
If you’re a student and you’re bad at making your loan stretch, you’re not alone. More than half of students regularly run out of money by the end of term, according to research by Campus Living Village. The same study of 2,000 people also revealed that almost a quarter struggled to buy food and essentials during that time.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of looking for quick fixes, such as loans or even gambling, says Eva Crossan Jory, vice president for welfare at the National Union of Students (NUS). This is dangerous because high-cost lenders may target students in the period before their next loan arrives. The Gambling Commission, meanwhile, estimates more than 100,000 students are in debt due to gambling.
“During exam season, managing money might be at the bottom of the priority list,” says Lee McLean, chief executive of Campus Living Villages. So we spoke to experts and students to get their money tips – here’s what they said.
Set a budget
Create a budget and don’t spend all of your loan as soon as it comes into your account. It’s a common mistake to make, says Eesha Mohindra, senior money analyst at Money Saving Expert. “It might seem like you’ve got loads of cash to splash at the start of each term, but you haven’t,” she says. “That money needs to last until your next instalment, so spend it wisely.” To do this, add up how much money you have, then “realistically allocate” how much you have to spend on each area of your life: household bills, travel costs, clothes, food, and social activities. “Don’t forget to include large purchases like Christmas presents, laptops and holidays,” Mohindra says. You can use a spreadsheet, a budgeting app or the Brightside student calculator.
Pay large bills first
You can budget more realistically if you pay big bills straight away. “Pay them at the beginning of the term, or at least the beginning of each month, as that’s when your bank balance will be topped up from the student loan payments,” Mohindra says. “Once your big bills are paid you’ll know what you have left for the other things, like clothing and socialising.”
Take out cash or use prepaid cards
Take out cash for the week and use that rather than paying by card. “It’s easier to manage and keep on top of your money that way,” says Gareth Pearse, vice chair of communications for the National Association of Student Money Advisors (Nasma) and student support coordinator at Bath Spa University. You could also use a prepaid card, such as Monzo, which lets you load money on to it and it has an app which monitors your spending.
Buy food in bulk and cook with housemates
Bulk buy food with housemates and cook together occasionally if you can. “At assessment time you’re not going to go out as much, so it’s a prime time do things like that,” Pearse says. Dawid Giermak, 21, a graphic design student at the University of the West of England (UWE), says initially he was bad with money, but he’s gotten better. One thing he now does is buy in bulk. “For some students it’s scary to spend £60 on a shop,” he says. “But if you divide it up for the day it’s nothing.”
Sammie Scott, 19, studying at the University of Gloucestershire, says she also tries to be as careful as possible. “My housemates and I have shared soap and washing up liquid,” she says. Scott also has a part-time job and avoids buying expensive brands. “Just get the cheapest versions of everything,” she says. “For the most part it tastes the same.”
Make the most of student discounts
A Totum card will give you discount at more than 200 stores and restaurants across the UK. It costs £12 for a one-year card, £22 for two years and £32 for three. It’s also a good idea to use food store cards in supermarkets, and to make the most of websites like UniDays which have discounts. Even if there’s not an obvious student discount, it’s always good to ask, Scott says. “It’s better to ask and be embarrassed for a second and for them to say no. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Ask your university for help
If you’re struggling, don’t panic. “There are places you can turn and ways to find help,” Mohindra says. Most universities have hardship funds, opportunity awards and emergency options available if your financial situation changes or becomes desperate. “The key message is to come forward and talk about things,” Pearse adds. Money can feel like a taboo topic, he says, but it’s definitely better to ask for help than to struggle alone
Publicație : The Guardian
Employability: panacea or Pandora’s box?
The purpose of higher education goes beyond just giving students economically valuable skills. It’s time universities challenge the employability narrative, says Audrey Songhurst
If we take it as axiomatic that an important aspect of higher education is to encourage students to ask deep questions and challenge existing assumptions, the sector itself must be seen to practice what it preaches. This means challenging the dominant employability discourse which fails to give equal weighting to notions of human flourishing, in other than financial terms, and which depicts a reductionist view of higher education and impoverishes the concept of employability.
Universities play a significant part in shaping student and graduate identity and this identity is increasingly aligning with the dominant discourse in terms of the accented importance of what is referred to in the 2006 Leitch report, “Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills”, as “economically valuable skills”.
While aspects associated with human flourishing are being advocated and implemented at a local level through learning and teaching strategies, universities do not appear to be raising concerns about the one-dimensional employability and skills discourse at a national level.
This failure to be critical of these assumptions behind policy and practice has allowed the broader debate about the purpose of higher education to be hijacked by a political employability and skills narrative which, to date, has failed to deliver on its claims.
This failure is acknowledged within a 2017 report produced by the Institute for Government which refers to further education and skills reform as “the worst failure of domestic British public policy since the Second World War [with] twenty-nine major reforms of vocational education since the early 1980s.
“In less than four decades, there have been 28 major pieces of legislation, 48 secretaries of state with relevant responsibilities and no organisation focused on skills policy has survived longer than a decade.”
Yet, although universities have, as part of their accepted remit over a number of years, engaged with and delivered against the employability agenda, they have not collectively sought to challenge the dominant discourse by creating a sector narrative that articulates and advocates both the quantitative and qualitative benefits of higher education.
In his book A University Education, former universities minister David Willetts states that: “Universities should not be afraid to analyse their own value, using tools they themselves have developed for others.”
The powerful and persuasive rhetoric driving the employability and skills narrative is a barrier to the message that personal formation and human flourishing is important finding its way into the dominant discourse. Those rhetoricians behind the dominant employability discourse could just as easily utilise their influence and rhetorical skills to advocate for the human flourishing elements of higher education as they do for the “economically valuable skills” argument.
But there are two reasons why they do not. The first is to do with the fact that, at a political level, there is currently neither the inclination nor the method to capture the non-economic contribution of the higher education sector to the individual and society. An October 2017 Times Higher Education article demonstrates that this view is also held at the highest and most influential levels, with no indication of imminent change. Andres Schleicher, the OECD’s director for education and skills, said that he accepted the criticism that the organisation puts too much emphasis on earnings returns in its evaluation of higher education systems.
“It’s a very narrow, very limited, very instrumental view. We are only capturing a fraction of the outcomes,” he said. The solution, according to Schleicher, is to measure learning gain directly, which would make it possible to gauge the social and emotional skills that people have as a result of university study rather than just the instrumental value.
However, as the article points out, the OECD’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes project which attempted to measure those skills “was blocked from implementation after key nations, including the UK, failed to support it”.
The second reason rhetoricians don’t advocate these skills relates to the determined push by government, in the face of ever increasing participation in higher education, to expand vocational education. The 2016 Enterprise Act announced the creation of a new independent body, the Institute of Apprenticeships, as well as the introduction of an apprenticeships levy. These initiatives aim to facilitate the implementation of the government’s commitment to create three million apprenticeships by 2020. The government’s prioritisation and publicity of apprenticeships is in stark contrast to consistently negative depictions of universities.
Indeed, higher education is currently under intense scrutiny on a number of fronts and the role of universities is changing rapidly in a pluralistic, global marketplace fraught with challenges and uncertainties.
Employability is now perceived to be an integral part of a university education, with the ever increasing emphasis on skills contributing to the perception that higher education is there mainly to improve the employability of students.
This shift in narrative has diminished almost to the point of extinction the holistic view of the purpose of higher education communicated in the 1963 Committee on Higher Education report chaired by Lord Robbins.
The absence of a sectoral counter-narrative reinforces the political positioning of employability as manifest common sense and perpetuates a dominant, neoliberal discourse that has infiltrated the collective consciousness, profoundly influenced our views about the fundamental purpose of higher education and has the potential to radically change practice.
Publicație : The Times
Trump tweets ‘directly cut foreign student interest in US’
‘Real-time’ data from recruiter’s website shows ‘travel ban’ tweets immediately put off Indian students, conference told
Online posts from the US president supporting a “travel ban” – referring to restrictions taken initially against citizens from six Muslim-majority countries in 2017 – were followed by immediate falls in the number of Indian students who said that they wanted to study in the US, according to Simon Emmett, chief executive of IDP Connect, a division of recruitment and marketing firm IDP Education.
“We can see it in real time...you can look at the impact of a tweet overnight,” he told delegates at the British Council’s Going Global conference in Berlin.
Since Mr Trump took office, US institutions have suffered two annual falls in newly enrolled international students, ending years of steady growth.
The IPD data provides direct evidence that this could be due in part to the president’s rhetoric, even though India was not targeted by the travel ban and is not majority Muslim.
Drawing on data from IDP’s website, where students enter their nationality and where they want to study, Mr Emmett showed delegates that in December 2015, the US was the most favoured destination for Indian students, with more than a 25 per cent share.
But since then, interest has steadily dropped – a decline that preceded Mr Trump’s election – with less than 15 per cent of prospective Indian students now saying that they were considering the US, fewer than for the UK, Australia or Canada.
After presidential tweets about the travel ban, “we saw the shift straight across from the US to Canada”, he said.
“As we know, tweets do matter,” said Paul Schulmann, associate director of research at international student assistance organisation World Education Services (WES), speaking later in the same conference session on recruiting students digitally. “They can have large geopolitical impacts, and they can have large impacts on student mobility,” he added.
Drawing on results from a survey of current, prospective and former international students in the US, set to be published later this year, an “astounding number” were concerned about gun violence in their local community – more than one-third – and more than a quarter were concerned about gun violence on campus, Mr Schulmann explained.
Violence in the US, particularly against Indian students, received huge media coverage in India, he said, adding that Mr Trump could be exacerbating worries by tweeting criticism of schools for being gun-free zones, alleging that this left them defenceless against shooters.
Nearly three-quarters of institutions said that they had or were planning to change their recruitment strategies as a result of changing international student interest, according to this forthcoming research. The most popular strategy – reported by nearly eight in 10 respondents – was to change how they use social media. “They’re fighting fire with fire,” Mr Schulmann said.
Last year, a WES survey found that close to half of US institutions said that they had been part of the #YouAreWelcomeHere campaign, which uses online videos, social media, events and branded products to welcome international students on campus.
Publicație : The Times
The university that took in 50,000 students fleeing Islamic State
Kirkuk hosted students from seven closed universities in captured territory, providing refuge from horror of executions and alternative to fighting for jihadists
When Islamic State began taking control of swathes of Iraq in 2014, seven universities were forced to shut. But 50,000 of the students displaced were welcomed by the University of Kirkuk, which provided support for them to complete their studies, a refuge from terror – some had fled with tales of people being drowned in cages by IS – and an alternative to the prospect of being forced to join the jihadists.
The remarkable achievements of Kirkuk, which had 26,000 students before its humanitarian expansion, won the university the Outstanding Support for Students category in the recent inaugural Times Higher Education Awards Asia.
Abbas Hassan Taqi, Kirkuk’s president, highlighted that a young university founded only in 2003 had played “a vital role in rescuing…students from IS gangs”, helping to address “big dangers for the whole world, not Iraq only”, given that students who remained in their home cities would have been potential recruits for IS.
“I don’t think there is any [other] university in the world that is capable of rescuing more than 50,000 students, hosting them, providing them with all the facilities, all the instruments in the labs, all the financial assistance, for…nearly four years,” he told THE.
The university opened its doors to students displaced from seven universities across three provinces of Iraq, including the universities of Mosul – Iraq’s second oldest institution – Tikrit, Anbar and Fallujah.
As IS rule wore on, increasing numbers of people sought to escape these provinces, often driven by horror at the “different, incredible ways of executing people” used by the jihadists, said Safwat Al-Bazzaz, head of the English department at Kirkuk and a member of the university’s team at the awards ceremony, which took place early this month in Abu Dhabi. “They [IS] were putting them in a closed cage [and] by use of a crane drowned them in a river…as we heard from our colleagues from the University of Mosul,” he added.
At the peak of its power, IS occupied about one-third of Iraq, encompassing territory with a population of 10 million.
The aim of IS “was to damage everything in Iraq”, said Dr Al-Bazzaz. “They know that the youth is the basic component of the society.” The choice that IS gave to young people was “either to join them or be punished”, he added.
To accommodate the influx of students, Kirkuk allowed its classrooms and labs to be used by counterpart departments from the seven institutions on its days of closure – Fridays and Saturdays – as well as at the end of normal working hours. Some Kirkuk professors worked after hours, without pay, to teach these classes.
Other displaced students were taught alongside Kirkuk students. The university’s libraries were opened to the newcomers. And the university constructed new buildings to cope with the expansion.
Students were provided with accommodation, often for free, and financial assistance as well as food thanks to donations. Some Kirkuk staff allowed displaced colleagues and students to live in their properties for free. Social events helped to combat any isolation the students, far from home, might feel and served “to raise their spirit”, said Dr Al-Bazzaz.
There was “a very successful and strategic plan to embrace all these students” that was supported by “a lot of administrative efforts to help them continue their studies”, he said.
“So instead of making [perhaps] 30,000 terrorists, we made 50,000 graduates,” he said. “This affects [Iraqi] society a lot. Instead of reinforcing the [IS] gangs, we reinforced education.”
Kirkuk is an ethnically diverse city, with a mixed population of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Assyrians.
Iraq’s ethnic mix has often led to tension and violence. But Dr Al-Bazzaz said that different populations could live together peacefully in Kirkuk, pinpointing this as a factor that allowed the university to welcome students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
Friendships and “even marriages” have blossomed between students at Kirkuk as a result of its hosting the displaced, he said. Students from Mosul and Tikrit, and from Mosul and Kirkuk, were married after meeting at the university.
With the displaced students now graduated and the IS “caliphate” ended, Kirkuk has returned to its normal level of 26,000 students.
But the new buildings and a new spirit will leave a legacy for the university, the city and the region, said Dr Al-Bazzaz. “Our capability improved during this time, and our experience in teaching improved in this time,” he said.
The hosting of the displaced students happened while the city of Kirkuk itself was close to the front line of conflict. “Kirkuk was in danger,” said Dr Al-Bazzaz. “But Kirkuk citizens didn’t leave the city…even though sometimes we were hearing the sounds of explosions near Kirkuk. But because of the high spirit of the citizens, of the Kirkuk University students, we remained there. We were able to continue our mission and our study.”
Publicație : The Times
Universities' journal costs still outstripping inflation
Despite attempts to renegotiate contracts, European institutions face an annual price hike of 3.6 per cent
Payments by European universities to big publishers are still increasing faster than inflation despite attempts to strike better deals, according to the latest figures.
Deals with the biggest five publishers – the American Chemical Society (ACS), Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature and Taylor & Francis – are rising in cost by 3.6 per cent a year, finds a report by the European University Association.
With university budgets not increasing at the same rate, this meant that an ever greater proportion of expenditure would go to the major publishers, warned Lidia Borrell-Damián, one of the authors of the 2019 Big Deals Survey Report, and director of research and innovation at the EUA.
The report estimates that collectively the 31 European university consortia surveyed would spend around €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion) on big deals with these five publishers over the next three years. Annual price increases are normally included in deals with publishers, explained Dr Borrell-Damián. Most commonly, these deals last three years, according to the report.
Of the five big publishers surveyed, the ACS is enjoying the biggest annual price rises, at 4.7 per cent.
The price increases are in spite of attempts in countries including Germany, Norway, France and Hungary to renegotiate their contracts with publishers to cut costs and spur open access. “Most consortia also report a clear intention to improve cost control or to eventually reduce costs”, the report says. It concludes that “universities are yet to exercise market power commensurate with their financial contributions” in big deal negotiations, possibly because the details of many deals remain confidential, meaning university consortia are unable to share information.
The “process and expenses” of such deals “must be thoroughly reviewed,” said Dr Borrell-Damián.
The report also reveals that cost of many universities’ deals with publishers are based on “historic” prices – that is, the price has been rolled over from a previous contract, plus an annual increase. In some cases this meant it was based on journal subscription deals dating back to the 1990s, said Dr Borrell-Damián.
“The prices for access must change, it can’t be based on [historic] subscriptions to entire journals,” she said.
More than half of existing deals with the big publishers have no provisions in them regarding open access, the report also found. But universities hope to change this: every consortium said that it would seek open access stipulations in future deals.
Most of the contracts the survey looked at were set to end last year, or will end in 2019, the report said. “We are in the middle of a change,” said Dr Borrell-Damián – though it was unclear exactly whether it would lead to a “transition” to cheaper, open access publishing universities hope for, she said.
Publicație : The Times
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