07 avril 2013
Taxpayers, universities face bills for foreign students
By Jan Petter Myklebust. Danish taxpayers will face a bill of DKK200 million (US$35 million) a year following a European Court of Justice ruling on the eligibility of foreigners to receive student loan and grant support. And Danish universities face fines totalling DKK97.5 million for enrolling more foreign exchange students than they send local students abroad.The Ministry of Education said in a statement that as a consequence of the Court of Justice ruling, citizens of European Union (EU) countries who have status as a worker – that is, if they start working before embarking on studies or work part-time while studying – could not be refused social welfare and were eligible for Danish student loan and grant support. Read more...
‘Low employment’ university courses not approved
By Yojana Sharma. Universities and colleges are coming under pressure to offer more relevant degrees, as graduate unemployment levels in China remain stubbornly high. The Ministry of Education said this week that it had refused authorisation for over 250 courses at 60 institutions around the country for which permission had been sought. These include golf industry management, global health studies, network security, geriatric care, and law enforcement, a notice on the ministry website indicated. Institutions hoping to start new majors must demonstrate a market need and demand. Read more...Opposition to opening universities to ‘other languages’
By Jane Marshall. Champions of the French language are opposing a measure that will open the way for universities to teach courses in languages other than French – notably English. The measure is included in the Higher Education and Research law, known as ESR, that is due to come into force later this year.Under legislation passed in 2000 to protect the French language, it is currently compulsory to teach university courses in French except in clearly defined cases – foreign language studies, or if the education is given by a visiting foreign academic. Examinations and thesis presentations must be in French. Some institutions manage to circumvent the rules, but they are technically breaking the law.
Geneviève Fioraso, minister for higher education and research, now intends to loosen universities’ linguistic shackles. In the hope of increasing France’s share of international students, the ESR act will allow universities to teach in other languages – which, everyone understands, means in English – when courses are part of an agreement with a foreign or international institution, or part of a European programme. Read more...
Niederlande wollen Bummelstudenten aussieben
Die niederländische Bildungsministerin sagt Langzeitstudenten den Kampf an. Wer sich im Studium zu viel Zeit lässt, soll exmatrikuliert werden. Die niederländische Regierung will den Leistungsdruck an Universitäten verschärfen. Nach den Plänen der sozialdemokratischen Bildungsministerin Jet Bussemaker sollen Studenten, die nicht schnell genug Leistungspunkte sammeln, exmatrikuliert werden. Ab September soll dies an Pilot-Universitäten erprobt werden.Schon jetzt können niederländische Unis – anders als in Deutschland – Studenten rauswerfen, wenn sie im ersten Jahr nicht genügend Leistungspunkte erreicht haben. Aktuell müssen Studenten an den meisten Unis im ersten Jahr mindestens 40 von 60 möglichen Creditpoints erreichen. Ab September sollen die Hochschulen auch Studenten exmatrikulieren dürfen, die bereits im zweiten oder dritten Studienjahr sind. Mehr...
Oxford auch für Arme
Bisher mussten Bewerber für ein Graduiertenstudium an der Uni Oxford nachweisen, über mehrere Zehntausend Pfund zu verfügen. Ein Student klagte dagegen – mit Erfolg. Für Graduierte, also Studierende mit Bachelorabschluss, war eine Bewerbung an der englischen Oxford-Universität bisher eine teure Sache. Mehrere zehntausend Pfund mussten sie vor dem Studienstart vorweisen können, andernfalls würde Oxford ihnen keinen Studienplatz im Master oder für ein Doktorandenprogramm geben. Die Eliteeinrichtung wollte so sicherstellen, dass Studierende die Studiengebühren sowie die Lebenshaltungskosten zahlen können. Doch jetzt muss die Uni die Zulassungsregeln überarbeiten. Ein Bewerber hatte zuvor das St. Hugh’s College, eines von 38 Colleges Oxfords, verklagt: Die "Auswahl nach Reichtum" diskriminiere Bewerber, die über nicht so viel Geld verfügten. Uni und Bewerber einigten sich jetzt vor Gericht, berichtet der Guardian. Mehr...Doktortitel-Inflation: Lasst das Promovieren sein!
Deutschland hat im internationalen Vergleich eine der höchsten Promotionsquoten, zeigt eine neue Studie. Doch der Forschung nützt das wenig, kommentiert Ferdinand Knauß. Deutsche Bildungspolitiker sorgen sich um nichts so sehr, wie über Deutschlands Abschneiden in internationalen Rankings. Da wird es sie freuen, dass Deutschland bei den Promotionen fast ganz oben steht. Unter allen OECD-Ländern produzieren nur die USA mehr. Nur in der Schweiz ist die Promotionsintensität – also die Neigung unter Absolventen eine Promotion abzuschließen – stärker ausgeprägt, wie die Autoren der aktuellen Studie "Promovierende im Profil" feststellen. 26.981 Menschen erhielten 2011 an deutschen Hochschulen einen Doktortitel, mehr als je zuvor in Deutschland. 6,9 Prozent der Hochschulabsolventen wurden 2011 promoviert. Mehr...Declining Teaching Loads Contribute to Growing College Costs
By Julia Lawrence. One way of tackling the increasing cost of college education would be to reverse the trend of declining teaching loads as described in a recent report from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and Education Sector. Titled Selling Students Short: Declining Teaching Loads at Colleges and Universities, the report argues that while faculty salaries compromise the biggest part of college spending, their workload has consistently gone down for decades. It’s difficult to get accurate information about teaching loads since the only recent survey conducted on the issue by the Department of Education provides no detail and only has aggregate data available to the public via its Data Analysis System. Not only is the information for a particular university impossible to obtain, there’s also a simple paucity of data since the survey has only been conducted four times since 1987 and not once since 2004. Read more...2013 taxes for Canadian postdocs: The goal is consistency
By David Kent. Each year, our site gets flooded with visitors looking for information on taxation policy with respect to Canadian postdocs. Of course, much of this enthusiasm was sparked by the decision in Budget 2010 of the Canadian Government to stipulate specifically that the 2006 scholarship exemption would not be applicable to postdoctoral fellowships. Some of our readers are no doubt part of that affected cohort (2006-2009) and may find information they are looking for in our previous entries:- 2012 Taxes for Postdocs: Dredging up the Past
- 2011 Taxes for Postdocs: At least we know the rules this year
- The CRA response to CAPS (guest blogger Carl Wonders)
- Let the Discussions Begin (guest blogger Marianne Stanford)
- 2010 Canadian Taxes: Did you get your T2202 and T4a?
- Budget 2010: Post Docs, be careful what you wish for…
UBC dominates B.C. university salary rankings
By Chad Skelton. Four of five highest-paid post-secondary employees work there. Four of the five highest-paid employees at B.C.’s universities and colleges work at just one institution: the University of B.C., according to The Vancouver Sun’s exclusive database of public-sector salaries. According to The Sun’s fifth annual salary database, UBC president Stephen Toope is the highest-paid post-secondary employee in the province with total remuneration of $531,088 in 2011-12. Toope’s salary went up slightly from 2010-11, when he made $528,504 and also topped the list of post-secondary employees. Toope announced Wednesday that he would be stepping down from his post next June. After Toope, the next three highest-paid post-secondary employees also work at UBC: dean of medicine Gavin Stuart at $499,150, radiology professor Francois Benard at $475,544, and business professor Dan Skarlicki at $435,847.The only non-UBC employee in the top five is University of Victoria president David Turpin, who made $430,760. And UBC’s generous compensation extends beyond the top five list. Read more...
How much is a B.A. worth? Universities don’t know
By Simona Chiose. Last week, I tried finding basic information about student outcomes on five university websites: The University of Alberta, York University, McGill, Simon Fraser and the University of New Brunswick. It was not a scientific study, just a rough and random approximation of what an undergrad and their family may do at this time of year, as they are weighing admission offers. Read more...
