UAIC a inagurat baza de cercetare arheologică Acad Mircea-Petrescu Dîmbovița din Cucuteni
Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași
Situaţia admiterii: Politehnica a trecut de 3.000 de candidaţi. La UAIC, “bătaie” pe Drept şi Informatică
Universitatea Tehnică „Gheorghe Asachi“ din Iaşi a reuşit să depăşească pragul de 3.000 de candidaţi unici pentru locurile scoase la concurs la licenţă, după ce la nivelul săptămânii trecute şi-a ocupat toate locurile bugetate pe hârtie, numeric.
La închiderea ediţiei „Ziarului de Iaşi“, pe platforma de admitere a universităţii erau 3.000 de dosare depuse pentru locurile de la buget şi 107 dosare depuse pentru taxă.
Dacă se va susţine această creştere, TUIASI va avea cel mai bun sezon de admitere de la lansarea sistemului de înscriere cu un singur dosar şi o singură taxă la toate specializările.
De departe, cea mai mare concurenţă de anul acesta este la Facultatea de Automatică şi Calculatoare, unde aseară erau circa 1.285 de dosare, concurenţa fiind deja de 3 pe un loc, fiind mai multe facultăţi care se află în partea superioară a ocupării directe a locurilor de la buget.
La Construcţii erau 265 de candidaţi, la Electronică 297, la Mecanică 311 şi la Design, fosta Textile, sunt aproape 140 de candidaţi unici, care dacă vor confirma locul reprezintă un record al ultimilor ani, în condiţiile în care numărul total al locurilor bugetate este 156, iar admiterea se închide pe 28 iulie.
Şi la Universitatea de Ştiinţe Agricole şi Medicină Veterinară „Ion Ionescu de la Brad“, lucrurile merg foarte bine în ceea ce priveşte admiterea. Pe toate locurile scoase la concurs au fost depuse 1.400 de dosare la licenţă, 104 în cursul zilei de ieri. În total, la Agricultură sunt 464 de dosare la buget pe 274 de locuri, 125 la Horticultură pe 123 de locuri, 190 la Zootehnie pe 133 de locurişi 543 la Medicină Veterinară pe 93 de locuri.
La Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza“ din Iaşi au fost depuse până la finalul zilei de ieri 8.457 de dosare la licenţă, printre cele mai căutate facultăţi fiind Psihologia, cu 1.236, Informatica, cu 1.028 pe 274 de locuri, la Economie 1.900 de locuri, iar la Drept 999 de dosare pe 191 de locuri.
Concurenţe record vor raporta anul acesta Dreptul şi Informatica, în contextul în care au fost scoase examinările de la admitere, în contextul pandemiei COVID-19
Publicație : Ziarul de Iași
Martin Lewis accuses Student Loan Company of misleading graduates
Finance expert says borrowers are being pushed into making needless repayments
The Student Loans Company is giving graduates a “demoralising, damaging and dangerous” picture of their debts, according to the consumer finance champion Martin Lewis, who accused the company of pushing its users into making needless repayments.
Lewis, the founder of Moneysavingexpert.com, said a new version of the SLC’s repayments website exaggerated the status of outstanding loans of former students, and prioritised quick repayment options while failing to make clear that they make “diddly squat” difference to what most people need to repay.
“I will be writing to the Student Loans Company and the universities minister, Michelle Donelan, calling for the quick repayment facility to be removed immediately – it is far too flippant a tool for such a substantial and risky transaction – and calling again for a thorough overhaul of this misleading new government website,” Lewis said.
Users logging on to the SLC’s new online student loan repayment system – launched earlier this month after its move to the gov.uk domain – are shown an overall balance from the loans they took out as students, ignoring recommendations from Lewis and others that the figures should be presented with more context.
According to Lewis, the site underplays key facts about student loans in England: that repayments are fixed at 9% of a graduate’s income above £26,575, with the remainder written off after 30 years for university students from 2012 onwards.
“The first thing university leavers see when they log in, in a large font, is the amount of ‘debt’ they owe. This is demoralising, damaging and dangerous. Owing £30,000, £300,000 or £3m makes no difference to your annual repayments,” Lewis said.
“The only impact the amount of debt has is whether you clear it or not within the 30 years before it is wiped. And it’s predicted the vast majority – 83% – of university leavers won’t earn enough that their repayments clear it in full. They’ll keep repaying for the whole 30 years, like an additional tax – so the amount of debt for them is pretty irrelevant.”
In response, David Wallace, SLC’s deputy chief executive, said the new online service was the result of extensive consultation with its users, who wanted more up-to-date information about their outstanding balance, as well as holding two meetings with Lewis’s organisation.
“We think we’ve done a really good job here for customers, the feedback we’ve had was good. So we were really disappointed at the reaction from Moneysavingexpert,” Wallace said. “We’re providing the balances that the customers have asked for, and it certainly hasn’t put off any prospective students from taking out student funding for higher education. So we think we are doing the decent thing for customers by listening to them and responding.”
SLC said the online service provided context “on the unique nature of student loans and the conditions of repayment” and makes clear that graduates should carefully consider their financial circumstances before making voluntary repayments.
“The quick payment option also makes it easier for the small proportion of customers who have someone – such as a parent – making repayments on their behalf and for overseas customers who are required to make monthly repayments,” a spokesperson for SLC said.
The company said that “in the coming months” it would contact users to remind them that they were only required to pay 9% of their earnings above the repayment threshold, regardless of the outstanding loan balance.
Moneysavingexpert.com’s analysis found that while the new site has added more explanation on how income-contingent loans work, too much emphasis was placed on making extra repayments, which facility is offered to users even before they log on. “Whether the explainers will be seen and understood against the noise of the numbers provided is questionable,” it said.
Lewis said that despite his efforts to provide clearer explanations, backed by the Russell Group of leading research universities and the government’s review of student funding led by Philip Augar, the SLC persisted in highlighting “this scary, but often irrelevant” outstanding loan figure.
“That makes many think they should overpay like a normal debt. Yet, unless you’re making huge overpayments, for most people, overpaying does diddly squat – you’ll still continue to repay 9% of everything over the threshold for 30 years. Overpaying is a total waste of money,” Lewis said.
“So I was flabbergasted to see they went live with a ‘quick repayment’ system, without detailed warnings, cautions and explanation. That’s irresponsible and dangerous beyond belief – it’s doubling down on the damage.”
Wallace said a “technical glitch” meant that information about future repayments had not been displayed when users logged in to make additional repayments but that had been fixed after Lewis’s organisation had pointed it out.
SLC administers loans and repayments for nine million current and former students. Students who started university in England last year are forecast to accrue more than £40,000 in loans from the SLC, on average, by graduation. Last year the company’s income-contingent loans totalled £140bn, more than double the amount of five years earlier.
Publicație : The Guardian
All my safety nets went overnight’: how Covid-19 is isolating student care-leavers
Without financial help and emotional support, progress in getting more care-leavers into university could be undone
The day before lockdown, Lilly* travelled the hour’s journey from university to her mum’s house for Mother’s Day. She was intending to stay for the weekend but 10 weeks later, she was still there.
“I spent more time with my mum during that period than in my whole life. She left when I was four and I grew up in foster care,” she says. “The weird thing about it is that I don’t really know her. Most of my life I’ve really wanted a mum, I’m 20 now and I still feel like I need one, but I spent nearly all of my time there looking after my half-siblings.”
The hardest part was that it just didn’t feel right. “I didn’t feel like I was at home, I was just somewhere else.”
Coronavirus has had a huge impact on students across the board, but for those who grew up in care, problems have been felt more keenly. When lockdown happened, and most students packed their bags and got their parents to pick them up to go home and isolate, many were left behind in university accommodation. With part-time jobs lost overnight and no prospect of the work they’d normally pick up over the summer, some found themselves in financial trouble with no family to rely upon.
Others, like Lilly, were left without equipment and unable to get work done. “I didn’t get to bring any of my things from uni back and I wasn’t able to do reading as there was no space,” she says. “I spent most nights sleeping under my younger sister’s bed.”
Just 6% of all care leavers between the ages of 19-21 were in higher education in 2018 – compared with an average of 42%. Those that do go are far more likely to drop out than their peers. In recent years, though, the gap has been shrinking. But as universities struggle to mitigate the effects of Covid-19, experts fear progress is being undone and many will be unable to continue their studies, or indeed, begin them in the first place.
“Care-experienced students are already more likely to drop out than their peers. The financial instability and course disruption following the Covid-19 outbreak could be the tipping point,” says Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of Become, the national charity for children in care and young care leavers. Already, 62% of care leavers and estranged students are worried about being able to complete their course, and she says others are struggling to pay for food and essential supplies.
Neil Harrison, from the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, says universities need to step up to the plate and provide support. “Uni is predicated on the idea that you have a proper home somewhere, but if you don’t you’re in a very difficult situation. Where do you self-isolate when there’s nowhere to go?”
In May, the universities minister, Michelle Donelan, wrote to all universities asking them to provide care leavers with as much support as they could during the pandemic, including considering year-round accommodation and financial assistance. As a result, many universities are accessing emergency funds and making automatic hardship payments to help care-experienced students manage ongoing accommodation costs. Others are offering interest-free loans.
But students say it’s not just financial support they’re missing. Shaunna Devine, 22, who studies cognitive neuroscience at Liverpool John Moores University, was in foster care from the age of 13 and says she’s never felt more alone. While her friends were able to get their parents to pick them up, she’s been stuck in her flat without a support network. “I’m not usually one of those people who gets upset that I don’t have a typical family, but when lockdown happened it just reinstated that I don’t have that. It felt like all my safety nets went overnight.”
Over the past few years, some universities have taken it on themselves to look out for students without family support. Kingston, Manchester Metropolitan and the University of the West of England often come out top in terms of their care. The University of Sussex is seen as a leading light. They have strong relationships with the local authorities, which give young people the chance to meet staff and admission tutors, while current care-experienced students mentor other children in care. Students can also build relationships with local foster families and share regular Sunday lunches. But since lockdown, much of this is on hold or has been moved to a virtual setting.
With few services on campus left, universities say it is difficult to deliver the kind of support they normally provide. At York University, which has around 60 care-experienced students, they offer practical and emotional support from one person who stays in contact from the start of the application process through to graduation. “We have tried to provide alternatives such as virtual drop-ins and online meet ups but the current situation is making it very difficult,” says support coordinator Joanna Paluch-Edwards.
Students think progress has been undone. Sharome Bhatti is a second year psychology student who went into foster care at 15. “My uni is really good as they guarantee interviews for care leavers when becoming student ambassadors, but most of that work has been cancelled,” he says.
If a young person has been in care for a minimum of 13 weeks, some of which was after age 16, they are also entitled to continuing support from their local authority until they are 25. But this varies across the board. Jessica Pope*, a final year politics student at York University, describes her local authority in London as “absolutely useless”. Any help she’s received has been down to her uni. They brought forward a bursary when she said she was running out of money, and provided a storage unit for free.
Others have had a different experience. Sanna Mahmood, 24, a student at Huddersfield University, says her local council, Kirklees, have been a constant support during this time. “Technically they are your corporate parents and when they’re good, you come to rely on them for emotional support.”
Children in care often get the wrong impression about higher education and Covid-19 is only making it worse. Already, young people in care are feeling put off higher education and worried they will be kicked off campus with nowhere to go. Although specific open days for care-experienced students have moved online, and many local authorities, such as Oxfordshire county council, are attending the virtual meetings instead, prospective students say their excitement has turned to fear.
“I get really nervous around new people and doing everything online is harder. It’s made me quieter,” says Zara Clench, 18 from Devon, who hopes to study social work at Cardiff or Bath University. “I desperately wanted to see the campus and to meet the teams that specifically work with care leavers. I need to know that there will be someone to turn to if I’m having a bad day, and they’ll understand.”
Publicație : The Guardian
L’école du Louvre bénéficie d’un mécénat exceptionnel
Un riche mécène financera les travaux de l’Ecole du Louvre pour un montant de plus de 2 millions d’euros.
L’École du Louvre va bénéficier d’un important plan de restructuration. Cette école postbac sous tutelle du ministère de la Culture forme les futurs archéologues, conservateurs, anthropologues, professeurs et critiques d’art. Fondée en 1882 dans le palais du Louvre à Paris, elle est installée depuis 1972 dans l’Aile de Flore.
Confiés à l’agence Hart Berteloot architectes, les travaux pour un ensemble de 1300 m2 se dérouleront durant l’été 2021 pour une réouverture à la rentrée universitaire. Franck Riester, alors ministre de la Culture, Claire Barbillon, directrice de l’École du Louvre et Majid Boustany, mécène du projet, se sont réunis le 8 juin 2020 dernier. Il s’agit de rénover la bibliothèque, créer un centre de recherche, les services documentaires et la cafétéria.
Un tel projet n’aurait pu voir le jour sans le soutien de Majid Boustany, un homme d’affaires suisse d’origine libanaise propriétaire avec son frère de l’hôtel Métropole à Monaco. Le montant, qui s’élève à environ 2 millions d’euros est le plus important soutien jamais alloué à une institution d’enseignement supérieur du ministère de la Culture. La famille de Majid Boustany a depuis longtemps des projets philanthropiques. La Fondation Boustany, créée en 2006 par son père Nabil, est aujourd’hui gérée par son frère Fadi. En 2014 Majid Boustany a créé la Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation à Monaco, par passion pour l’artiste britannique. Ce mécénat en faveur de l’École du Louvre s’inscrit dans cette démarche philanthropique. Majid Boustany a connu l’Ecole du Louvre en 2016, lorsqu’il a créé une bourse de recherche sur le peintre Francis Bacon.
La directrice de l’école Claire Barbillon, Majid Boustany et l’ancien ministre de la Culture Franck Riester.
Pourquoi l’École du Louvre?
«L’école avait des besoins liés à la croissance même de l’École, aux évolutions pédagogiques, aux transformations des pratiques étudiantes, au déploiement de la recherche et au développement continu des technologies numériques», justifie Claire Barbillon, directrice de l’École du Louvre, déjà rénovée une première fois en 1997.
Quant à Majid Boustany, les raisons de son aide généreuse sont assez simples: «Lorsqu’en 2018 Claire Barbillon m’a fait part de son souhait de lancer un vaste programme de travaux, j’ai immédiatement été séduit par ce projet visionnaire. J’ai, peu de temps après, proposé de soutenir l’ensemble du projet». Et d’ajouter: «Ma décision vient également de ma passion pour le plus francophile des peintres anglais: Francis Bacon. Celui-ci était un visiteur régulier des musées parisiens et notamment du musée du Louvre. Il percevait d’ailleurs les Français comme les arbitres ultimes dans quasiment tous les domaines qui l’intéressaient». Le plus bel hommage fait aux Parisiens.
Publicație : Le Figaro
L’université française au point de rupture
Le Monde
Editorial. En raison d’un nombre d’étudiants plus élevés que les années précédentes et du taux de réussite exceptionnel au baccalauréat, les facs sont dans une situation périlleuse. Des dizaines de milliers de jeunes n’ont, à ce stade, aucune proposition d’orientation.
Editorial du « Monde ». L’enseignement supérieur est au bord de l’asphyxie. Le nombre de jeunes souhaitant y accéder ne cesse d’augmenter, mais les moyens consacrés à les accueillir ne suivent pas. Le phénomène n’est pas nouveau, mais il s’aggrave. Sur la dernière décennie, le budget par étudiant a ainsi chuté de 10 %, et la situation pour la rentrée 2020 s’annonce particulièrement tendue.
Les résultats de la plate-forme d’admission dans l’enseignement supérieur Parcoursup, dévoilés le 17 juillet, montrent que des dizaines de milliers de postulants restent à ce stade sans proposition d’orientation. Il s’agit d’un immense gâchis, qui risque de se perpétuer dans les prochaines années si la France continue de sous-investir dans son enseignement supérieur.
Le système est d’abord confronté à un défi démographique. Cette année, 20 000 lycéens de terminale supplémentaires se sont inscrits sur Parcoursup. Ensuite, le taux de réussite au baccalauréat, historiquement élevé avec 96 % d’admis, a ouvert les portes du supérieur à 48 000 élèves de plus qu’en 2019.
Engorgement
Les circonstances exceptionnelles dues à la pandémie de Covid-19 ont conduit à ces résultats inédits : l’épreuve terminale a été annulée, tandis que des consignes ont été données aux enseignants pour qu’ils fassent preuve de mansuétude. Par ailleurs, le millésime 2020 était particulier : il s’agissait en effet de la dernière génération à passer le bac « ancienne formule », ce qui rend les redoublements compliqués.
Cet engorgement conjoncturel amplifie les carences structurelles d’un système qui se retrouve régulièrement au bord de la rupture faute d’investissements suffisants. La France, dont le taux d’accès aux études supérieures se situe dans la moyenne des pays de l’OCDE, ne se donne pas les moyens adéquats pour accompagner sa jeunesse dans ses études. Depuis une dizaine d’années, les universités sont saturées. Les locaux ne sont plus suffisants pour faire face à la hausse des inscriptions, tandis que le nombre d’enseignants et de personnels administratifs stagne. Quant aux formations courtes susceptibles d’accueillir les bacheliers professionnels, la pénurie est patente.
Il serait illusoire d’attendre patiemment que l’afflux exceptionnel de cette année se résorbe de lui-même. La situation pourrait même empirer. La crise économique qui s’annonce devrait inciter les jeunes à prolonger ou à reprendre leurs études, faute de propositions d’embauche.
Comme dans de nombreux domaines, la pandémie agit comme un révélateur des fragilités existantes. L’encadrement des étudiants va être encore plus problématique, avec des jeunes qui entrent à l’université après une scolarité très perturbée par le confinement et qui n’a pas été sanctionnée par un examen final. Sans compter le nécessaire déploiement de l’enseignement à distance – notamment pour les cours magistraux – en raison d’une potentielle reprise de l’épidémie. Faute de moyens supplémentaires, les décrochages risquent d’être nombreux.
Tout le monde s’accorde sur le fait que l’enseignement supérieur représente un levier essentiel pour renforcer notre économie en matière de compétitivité et d’adaptation aux mutations technologiques qui seront au cœur des plans de relance. Encore faut-il que les efforts budgétaires consentis soient à la hauteur de cette ambition. Or, la loi sur la programmation pluriannuelle pour la recherche, qui doit être prochainement discutée, ne parle ni d’université ni de moyens supplémentaires pour répondre à ce défi de la formation de la jeunesse.
Publicație : Le Monde