“A key international advisory group for UK higher education has warned that U-Multirank – the European Union’s EU multi-million euro alternative to commercial international rankings – may harm rather than benefit the sector …” (more)
[David Jobbins, University World News, 22 May]
“Europe’s Education Ministers today adopted Conclusions on the social dimension of higher education. The EU Council of Education Ministers in Brussels was chaired by Irish Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn TD …” (more)
[Department of Education and Skills, 16 May]
“Students might benefit in the short term but we risk falling standards and increased taxpayer costs, says Gill Wyness …” (more)
[Guardian Professional, 14 May]
“The government has warned overseas graduates who borrowed money to study in the UK that they cannot evade their obligation to repay by moving overseas. The response came after a Freedom of Information request by the Independent on Sunday revealed EU students owe the UK £50m in unpaid tuition fee loans …” (more)
[BBC News, 12 May]
“Recently University World News carried a report on the call by the European Students’ Union to scrap the proposed new European study loan guarantees and to use the funds instead for traditional Erasmus grants …” (more)
[Adam Tyson, University World News, 11 May]
“The consortium running the European Commission-backed U-Multirank is working to ensure the quality and reliability of the indicators it will use to measure universities, University World News has been told in an exclusive interview …” (more)
[Carmen Paun, University World News, 11 May]
“EU commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn made a strong pitch for the indispensability of the humanities in understanding issues such as climate change …” (more)
[Paul Gillespie, Irish Times, 11 May]
“The Department of Education & Skills has hosted the first meeting of the European ePortfolio project consortium. The project is a trial of the use of ePortfolios in teaching, learning and assessment. An e-portfolio, or digital portfolio, is a collection of electronic material which can include texts, electronic files and images …” (more)
[Department of Education and Skills, 10 May]
“Ireland must secure an EU-wide deal for research funding for the European Union’s new programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020 before the end of its term as President of the Council of the EU. That’s according to Minister Sean Sherlock …” (more)
[Carmel Doyle, Silicon Republic, 9 May]
“If there is one thing you learn in politics, it is that nothing ever stays the same. The world is constantly changing. And big changes force hard choices, especially for politicians. Science and research are invaluable for decision-makers, and it is usually the so-called ‘hard’ sciences that grab the headlines …” (more)
[Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Irish Times, 8 May]
“Around 300 senior representatives of industry, academia and government gathered at a two day-conference organised jointly by the EPO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Technische Universität München (TUM) to look at how to create markets out of research results …” (more)
[European Patent Office, 7 May]
“… However, while the overall attainment rates are higher for women, women are still a clear minority in the areas that are in high demand. In science, technology, engineering and math – the so-called STEM fields – there is a clearly larger share of male graduates, and this tendency has actually been increasing …” (more)
[HEDDA, 6 May]
“A new European project involving NUI Galway aims to develop a cross-European university teaching programme in the growing multidisciplinary field of prevention science in order to help prevent non-communicable diseases …” (more)
[Irish Medical Times, 1 May]
“Europe’s top research universities are pushing for more structured forms of student mobility, to build on the achievements of the Erasmus exchange programme, which they say is reaching its limits …” (more)
[Alan Osborn, University World News, 2 May]
“UK Minister for Europe, David Lidington, wrote to me expressing his extreme disappointment at developments reported in The Times, 2 April 2013 ‘Pay cut in half for British lecturers in Italy’ …” (more)
[Association of Foreign Lecturers in Italy, 4 May]
“The cost of liquidating the former Anglo Irish Bank and the rejection of Croke Park II are among the risks to this year’s Budget, the European Commission has warned …” (more)
[Colm Kelpie, Independent, 3 May]
“EU Ministers must focus on maximising job creation from the billions spent annually within the EU on research and innovation, according to Minister for Research and Innovation, Sean Sherlock TD …” (more)
[The Labour Party, 2 May]
“Ireland has the highest rate of third-level degree attainment in the EU, with just over half of all 30 to 34-year-olds in Ireland completing third-level education …” (more)
[Jason Kennedy, Irish Times, 29 April]
“… the city government is hosting a competition to start a new research university with the alluring title Amsterdam Metropolitan Solutions. The establishment of a new university in Amsterdam should first and foremost be seen in the light of supra-national policy goals set by the European Union …” (more)
[Jurjen van Rees, GlobalHigherEd, 26 April]
“In Brussels, yesterday, Androulla Vassiliou (European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth) announced that the ‘first pan-European’ MOOC platform will be launched on 25 April 2013 …” (more)
[GlobalHigherEd, 23 April]
