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Saksamaa on edukaim riik EIT KIC esimeses voorus
Suurbritannia: Money, money, money ...
Bulgaaria teadlased protesteerivad VAKi sulgemise vastu
Ungari tunnistas Lundi võitu ESSS asukoha pärast
Saksamaa: viis uut ektsellentsikeskuste klastrit valitud
USA ülikoolid sulgevad oma filiaale Dubais
Kõrgharidus
Thomson Reutersi ja THE ühisprojekt "Global Institutional Profiles"
Iirimaa rahvusülikool likvideeritud
India valitsus kavatseb sulgeda 44 ülikooli
Saksamaa kõrgkoolid kaklevad doktoriõppe pärast
Biomeditsiin
India teadlased dekodeerisid oma esimese inimgenoomi
Varia
Juhtivate teadusajakirjade uus lähenemine autorlusele
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Euroopa Liit
Saksamaa on edukaim riik EIT KIC esimeses voorus
Germany has been the most successful nation in participating in Knowledge and Innovation Communities, activities coordinated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, with the first three KICs all including German research institutes.
The innovative energy KIC, the information technologies KIC and the climate KIC all include German partners, and two of the three KICs will be led by Germany. The InnoEnergy KIC and the ICT EIT Labs KIC will be led by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Technical University Berlin respectively. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is one of the five main partners who lead the Climate KIC. KICs are clusters of businesses, universities and research institutions scattered across Europe, whose activities are overseen and partly funded by the EIT.
Allikas: Research Day Europe 5 January 2010
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Rahvuslikud T&A suundumused
Suurbritannia: Money, money, money....
The pressure on universities to reduce their financial reliance on the state has been illustrated by the University of Cambridge's decision to issue bonds for the first time in its 800-year history. Cambridge is planning to raise up to £400 million from the bond issue, following a trend set by Ivy League institutions in the US to turn to the money markets for funding. Andrew Reid, the university's finance director, said on 5 January that bonds were the best way to secure the huge sums required for two major building projects. Last month, the Government announced further cuts to higher education funding, which looks set to decline by up to 12.5 per cent over three years.
Allikas: THES 8 Jan 2010
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Bulgaaria teadlased protesteerivad VAKi sulgemise vastu
Bulgarian researchers are protesting against a law that would dismantle the country’s central degree awarding institution. The law, which is meant to boost Bulgaria’s science performance, would make universities responsible for awarding their own degrees. Researchers are worrying that the loss of the Higher Attestation Court, which awards advanced degrees and oversees placements, would reduce quality control of PhDs and postdoctoral research.
In the past 20 years, around 50 new universities were created in Bulgaria, which had only four higher education institutions after the fall of communism. An action group called the Civil Movement for Support of Bulgarian Science and Education argues that eliminating the HAC would give universities too much independence, and decrease academic quality.
The law, which passed its first reading in front of the Bulgarian parliament on 18 December, is expected to go through a second vote in the coming weeks.
Allikas: Research Day Europe 19 Jan 2010
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Ungari tunnistas Lundi võitu ESSS asukoha pärast
Hungary has finally dropped out of the race to host the proposed European Spallation Source and has joined the steering committee working to build the neutron source in Lund, in Sweden. The Lund bid became the de facto winner when it received the informal backing of a majority of European research ministers at a meeting in Brussels last May. But as recently as September Hungary claimed the race was still on. Then last month the country acknowledged Lund as the winner and agreed to help build the 1.5 billion euro facility in Sweden.
Laszlo Rosta, the Hungarian bid’s project director, says the exact form of Hungary’s “considerable contribution” will be decided at a meeting between the government and scientists on 14 January. The deal is likely to involve both cash and in-kind contributions to the project’s design review and construction.
Fourteen European countries have now joined the ESS steering committee. The team will now begin a three-year, 60 million euro review and update of the facility’s technical design, which is now around 10 years old. Sweden is to contribute 30m euros to the review, with the rest coming from the partner countries through in-kind contributions. The project will carry out a detailed audit of in-kind contributions to assess their value and keep track of the share of operating time each country will be entitled to when the facility is up and running.
The project is not expected to start construction until near the end of 2012, but ESSS says they already have informal pledges in writing to cover around 90 per cent of the construction costs.
Allikas: Research Day Europe 14 Jan 2010
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Saksamaa: viis uut ektsellentsikeskuste klastrit valitud
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced the five winners of the second round in the national Excellence Cluster Competition. Different from the German Excellence Initiative, that funds individual higher education institutions, the Excellence Cluster Competition was launched in the summer of 2007 under the slogan "Germany's excellence clusters - more innovation, more growth, and more employment". The selected clusters are expected to boost Germany's innovative strengths and economic progress.
The five winners, selected out of 23 applications, are
• Software-Cluster, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Baden-Württember
• Münchner Biotech Cluster, m4, Bayern
• Medical Valley, Europäische Metropolregion Nürnberg, Bayern
• MicroTEC Südwest, Baden-Württemberg
• EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen
There five clusters increased to ten the number of clusters selected so far.
Three rounds of selection were planned in total. In each round, up to EUR 200 million are made available to up to five excellence clusters, over a period no longer than five years, for the purpose of implementing ideas and concepts within their cluster. There is no restriction on the topics: those applicants who come up with the best strategies for future markets - in their particular sector - will be selected. The implementation envisages a matching level of financial participation on the part of businesses and private investors.
Vt ka German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Allikas: ACA Newsletter - Education Europe January 2010
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USA
USA ülikoolid sulgevad oma filiaale Dubais
American universities that rushed to open branches in Dubai are struggling to attract students following the collapse of the emirate's economy. According to The New York Times, outposts of Michigan State University and the Rochester Institute of Technology, which both opened in 2008, are suffering a shortage of students. Michigan State, with only 85 undergraduates, is now offering half-price tuition to the first 100 qualified applicants. George Mason, one of the first US universities to open a branch in the United Arab Emirates, closed its Ras al Khaimah campus in May, without producing a single graduate.
Allikas: THES 8 Jan 2010
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Kõrgharidus
Thomson Reutersi ja THE ühisprojekt "Global Institutional Profiles"
Work has begun between Thomson Reuters, the leading research-analysis company, and thousands of universities globally to build a unique database that will be used to create the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
THE announced in November that it would work with Thomson Reuters to develop a more rigorous and transparent version of its rankings. Today, Thomson Reuters launched its Global Institutional Profiles Project, which will gather an unprecedented amount of data “combining peer review, scholarly outputs, citation patterns, funding levels and faculty characteristics in one comprehensive database”. The aim is to help develop a detailed rankings methodology that will build a more sophisticated, balanced and accurate picture of the world’s top 200 universities than anything previously available.
In an open letter to university administrators today, Thomson Reuters says that it is seeking to “fundamentally change the way data are collected and analysed”.
The old rankings (2004-09) featured an opinion survey of academics as one of the measures, making up 40 per cent of a university’s final score. But response rates were low – fewer than 4,000 academics worldwide participated in 2009. For 2010, the opinion poll will be carried out by Ipsos MORI, a world-leading polling company. The survey will be targeted and responses will be more representative of global higher education demographics, with a target for at least 25,000 responses this year.
For further info: Global Institutional Profiles Project website; Read the open letter from Thomson Reuters to university administrators
Allikas: THES 6 January 2010
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Iirimaa rahvusülikool likvideeritud
The National University of Ireland (NUI), an umbrella body representing nine institutions, has been dissolved by the Irish Government. Batt O'Keeffe, Minister for Education, said the small number of administrative and academic functions still carried out by the NUI would be redistributed among its members, the RTE website reported. The umbrella body, which was established in 1908, awards qualifications up to PhD level from a range of institutions including University College Dublin and University College Cork. Brian Hayes, Fine Gael Education Spokesman, criticised the decision, claiming it was made without consulting the institutions.
Allikas: THES 28 January 2010
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India valitsus kavatseb sulgeda 44 ülikooli
Violent protests have met the Indian Government's decision to strip 44 institutions of university status. In a report to the Supreme Court, the Government said that a review committee "came across several aberrations in the functioning of some of the institutions deemed to be universities". Nearly 200,000 students are enrolled at the institutions. The Times of India newspaper reported that in one protest, 3,000 students at Vinayaka Mission University "blocked traffic and stoned buses", injuring a senior police officer. The institutions affected include three government-sponsored bodies: the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara in Bihar, the National Museum Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology in Delhi, and the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development in Sriperumbudur.
Allikas: THES 28 January 2010
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Saksamaa kõrgkoolid kaklevad doktoriõppe pärast
The fight for equality between Germany’s universities and its universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) is heating up six months after private Fachhochschulen first applied to host PhD students.
With the introduction of the bachelor/master system in Germany as part of the Bologna Process, universities and their applied science counterparts are now offering basically the same degrees. This has led to friction between universities, who want to remain distinct, and the Fachhochschulen, who are battling for equal recognition.
Last year, several private Fachhochschulen applied to the German science council for permission to award PhDs. Research, which was previously restricted to small-scale projects in Fachhochschulen, is becoming a major factor in the competition between the two types of universities. Some Fachhochschulen have managed to get accepted into the European University Association, for which a fundamental research base is a core requirement.
According to university unions, the introduction of bachelor and master degrees has increased competition. One union member, who did not wish to be named, said that Germany was witnessing the emergence of a top level of Fachhochschulen that do research of the same quality as universities. Universities, however, claim that doing research and giving out PhDs should be their exclusive right, said the union member.
Allikas: Research Day Europe 14 Jan 2010
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Biomeditsiin
India teadlased dekodeerisid oma esimese inimgenoomi
India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has completed the country’s first entire sequence of the human genome. Council scientists in Delhi used the CSIR’s supercomputing facility to sequence the genome of an healthy Indian citizen. Indian scientists say they hope the breakthrough will spur advances in disease diagnostics, treatment and affordable drugs and healthcare.
Allikas: Research Day World 14 jan 2010
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Varia
Juhtivate teadusajakirjade uus lähenemine autorlusele
An editorial introduces new procedures relating to authorship agreed by 'Science', 'Nature' and the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences', specifically the discouragement of "honorary authorships" through making each author on a paper list their contribution and a requirement for senior authors from each laboratory to confirm they have reviewed the data presented. It also notes that the role of journals in promoting mentorship is an important issue which has yet to be resolved.
Allikas: Science http://www.sciencemag.org/ 327 1 January 2010 p.12; SPIN 928 8 Jan 2010
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