Fast die Hälfte aller Doktoranden hat schon mal daran gedacht, die Dissertation abzubrechen. Die hohe Arbeitsbelastung und schlechte Betreuung machen ihnen zu schaffen.
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter in Forschungsprojekten oder an Lehrstühlen, die gleichzeitig an ihrer Doktorarbeit sitzen, denken häufig ans Aufgeben. 47 Prozent der Projektmitarbeiter, die bis zu drei Jahren an ihrer Dissertation arbeiten, haben schon einmal über einen Abbruch der Arbeit nachgedacht. Ähnlich hoch ist die Zahl mit 44 Prozent bei Mitarbeitern an einem Lehrstuhl. Bei denjenigen, die seit über drei Jahren promovieren, sind es sogar 49 Prozent (in Projekten) beziehungsweise 55 Prozent (an Lehrstühlen). Das geht aus einer jetzt veröffentlichten Studie des HIS-Instituts für Hochschulforschung in Hannover über Promotionsbedingungen in Deutschland hervor. Für die vom Bundesforschungsministerium (BMBF) geförderte Studie wurden 2850 Doktoranden in verschieden strukturierten Promotionsverhältnissen befragt. Mehr...

By Karen Seidman. With too few aboriginal students opting for a university education, the country's universities are launching a new online tool to make it easier for aboriginal students to succeed in obtaining a higher education. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada is launching an online directory of programs and services on Thursday to help aboriginal youth access the information they need to go to university. While this won't quell the growing grassroots Idle No More campaign that continues to highlight a tumultuous relationship between governments and Canada's First Nations, it was a little glimmer of welcome news locally at the Kahnawake reserve.
"It sounds positive," said Chief Kenneth McComber of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. "Education is a very big issue and something online would be helpful."
AUCC president Paul Davidson said the organization has made it a priority to "increase access and success for aboriginal students."
Aboriginal youth are one of the fastest-growing segments of the Canadian population. There are more than 560,000 aboriginals under the age of 25 across Canada, yet the university completion rate for the aboriginal population is eight per cent - about a third of the national average. Read more...

By Keith Bradsher. Zhang Xiaoping’s mother dropped out of school after sixth grade. Her father, one of 10 children, never attended. But Ms. Zhang, 20, is part of a new generation of Chinese taking advantage of a national effort to produce college graduates in numbers the world has never seen before.
A ponytailed junior at a new university in southern China, Ms. Zhang has a major in English. But her unofficial minor is American pop culture, which she absorbs by watching episodes of television shows like The Vampire Diaries and America’s Next Top Model on the Internet. Read more...

By Andrew Petter. Western democracies are ailing. Polls in many jurisdictions show citizen confidence in political parties and governing institutions has plummeted over the past four decades, while voter turnout in elections in North America and much of Europe has declined by up to 25 per cent over the same period.
Such trends have prompted American scholar Russell Dalton to observe that the most serious challenge to democracy comes not from external or internal enemies, but from citizens “who have grown distrustful of politicians, skeptical about democratic institutions and disillusioned about how the democratic process functions.”
The cure for what the Law Commission of Canada has called a “democratic malaise” must be an enthusiastic re-engagement of the public in the political life of the country. This will not be easy to achieve but, if we are to have hope, universities must play a critical role. Read more...

By Karen Seidman. Quebec universities say the gap between funding here and other provinces has soared to $850 million a year — a staggering amount that they assert has put our esteemed university system in jeopardy and threatens to derail Quebec as the pre-eminent research province in the country.
The last study, in 2010, showed a gap of $620 million, but the latest study, based on 2009-2010 figures and done in anticipation of the summit on higher education workshop on university financing later this week, shows what university rectors in Quebec said they weren’t at all surprised to see — a dramatic increase in underfunding. Read more...

By Léo Charbonneau. A Q&A with Concordia professor Vivek Venkatesh on the effectiveness of educational technologies. A recent article in University Affairs, “Students prefer good lectures over the latest technology in class,” struck a chord with readers. The article received nearly 10,000 page views and was shared on Twitter well over 100 times, as well as on Facebook and other social media. Many of the tweets were accompanied by an enthusiastic “agreed!” or “good to hear!”
The article also generated a high volume of online comments – some supportive of the conclusions, but many critical. Several readers argued the article didn’t accurately reflect, or misinterpreted, the report’s findings. In defence, it should be noted that the article – at less than 400 words in length – gave only a brief overview of what was a 64-page report based on an in-depth survey of more than 17,000 university students and teachers in Quebec. Read more...