The workshop was opened by Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education and Science, Meglena Kuneva, together with European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, and the Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Cristian Popa. Other speakers included representatives from the Commission, the EIB 
, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), Bulgarian MEP Eva Paunova and local stakeholders. More...
A country of just 8.4 million people, Austria recently found its refugee camps, hostels and emergency shelters full to overflowing. To many the situation appeared impossible, but Austria’s academics demurred. Indeed, a most creative nationwide university-led initiative saw the light of day: the MORE project.
Interestingly, the participating universities area looking at the person’s needs holistically. MORE aims at providing a space for reflection to refugees where one can find out whether university studies are an option for the future. All universities offer non-bureaucratic ways to qualify students for individual courses. The lucky ones who partake in the programme, will be admitted as extra-curricular students, get a tuition fee waiver, are covered by the students’ insurance and get access to the university library. More...
By Tracey Burns. “I don’t actually have an attention problem. I just take the pill when I need to be sharp”. Legal drugs such as Ritalin, used for treating attention deficit disorder, are increasingly being repurposed by healthy students to feel sharper on exam day. More...
By Herman van de Werfhorst, Andrea Forster, Thijs Bol. A few years ago, Eric Hanushek gave a keynote lecture at a conference at the Amsterdam Centre for Inequality Studies. The talk was entitled "Is more vocational education the answer?" and spoke to debates in the United States about whether or not to strengthen the vocational education and training sector. The U.S. education system is much more “general” in nature than the German and Dutch education systems, which are more vocationally oriented. More...
Posted by . The recently published Second International Report for the Survey of Adults Skills, Skills Matter: Further Results from the Survey of Adult Skills, looks in detail at the extent to which proficiency in literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments matters for the well-being of individuals and nations. The answer that emerges is clear: proficiency is positively linked to a number of important economic and social outcomes. More...
Posted . Turkey’s economy continued to grow strongly despite substantial domestic and regional headwinds. However, external imbalances have widened making the economy vulnerable to external shocks. The 2016 OECD Economic Survey of Turkey calls for rebalancing to alleviate the enduring tension between growth and external sustainability. More...
Posted . The growing role of global value chains (GVCs) in international production processes is of critical importance for Turkey’s development. Participation in GVCs is one of the key drivers of successful productivity diffusion in a globalised world. Despite major progress, Turkey still lags behind most comparable countries in terms of exported value added per capita. More...
Posted . Costa Rica’s economic, social and environmental achievements are impressive. It has succeeded in combining rising living standards, virtually universal health care, pension and primary education systems with sustainable use of natural resources. Incomes per capita have nearly doubled in real terms over the past three decades and some well-being indicators (health, environment and life-satisfaction) are comparable with or even above the OECD average. More...
It’s not surprising that the private sector faces challenges in serving bottom-of-the-pyramid customers: the largest and poorest population groups. By definition, bottom-of-the-pyramid populations don’t have much income, making margins slim. More...
In 2015, when world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, we committed to the most inclusive, diverse and comprehensive and ambitious development agenda ever. By doing so, we acknowledged that development challenges are global challenges. More...
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