March Research, Science and Knowledge

Read the articles selected in March 2017

EUA and UUK welcome EU ambitions for research and innovation after Brexit

Source: http://www.eua.be/, 24 March

EUA underlines the importance for all our community to find after Brexit a new relationship within the EU system to continue the cooperation in research and innovation with UK institutions, for their major contributions in scientific terms and for our common values and interests.

Lectures: as archaic as bloodletting in an era of modern medicine

by Simone Buitendijk

Source: Times Higher Education, 19 March

Interactive learning seems work better, especially in scientific fields, for student engagement and understanding, but a lecture-based approach is still prevalent.

Power of e-learning for renewable energy sector

by Munyaradzi Makoni

Source: University World News, 17 March

After the latest study, although several universities in Africa offer study programmes in renewable energy, only a few offer e-learning courses in this field. The RECP program aims to train the next generation of energy professionals and promote renewable energy innovation in Africa.

Universities can nurture leaders of social change

by Paul Rigg and Brendan O’Malley

Source: University World News, 12 February

Universities don’t prepare their students to be transformative leaders, enlightening knowledge with ethics, empahty, and compassion. Transformative leadership expresses a deep concern for society, produces a social change and should be a priority for the institutions.

Continental European university model “under pressure”

by David Matthews

Source: Times Higher Education, 22 March

Standing to a report produced for the European Commission, even if the EU produces more scientific publications than the USA, USA universities universally recognized as excellent are more attractive for researchers in terms of research status and culture.

Linguistic battle sparks revolt against globalisation

by Rosemary Salomone

Source: UniversityWorldNews, 10 March

The Italian Constitutional Court has ruled about the constitutionality of undergraduate courses only taught in a foreign language, setting a limit of legitimity in the protection of the right of equal access to the highest education and asserting the principle and the intrinsic value of Italian as a modern-day cultural asset.

South Sudan’s universities are reaping the benefits of Western influence

by Kuyok Abol Kuyok

Source: Times Higher Education, 16 March

In higher education, the effect of international aid on South Sudan is positive without a doubt. Western experiences have shaped the strong academic background of universities leadership, that has widened access to education of youth and women, rendering other vital services to the whole polity of the country.

Model for the transformation of higher education in Africa

by Phillip L. Clay

Source: University World News, 16 December 2016

The key universities role to transfer knowledge to the civil society is in Africa underdeveloped. The opportunity for transformation of African higher education depends on a set of coordinated steps of international stakeholders working together in a Mondial project to kick-start a model for excellence.

University rankings and the battle for talent

by Anand Kulkarni

Source: University World News, 17 March

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index shows in the top two positions Switzerland and Singapore, two small and compact socio-economic systems where tolerance of immigrants and minorities, entrepreneurship, ease of doing business and gender parity form an environment favorable for brain gain.

Hunted, haunted, stateless and scared: the stories of refugee scientists

by Gunjan Sinha

Source: Nature, 1 March 2017

Displaced scientists have really few chances to not to lose their research. Some institutions offer fellowships and solidarity to refugee scholars, who are part of the intellectual capital of the international scientific community, and the future of ruined countries.

Key considerations for cross-border quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area

Source: http://www.eua.be/

Cross-border Quality Assurance activities allow institutions to identify an agency that best suits their mission and profile, strengthening their internationalization policies and their responsibility for quality, adding value to the recognition of their qualifications and the external acknowledgment of institutions’efforts.

Why do so many women want to become teachers?

by Dirk Van Damme

Source: http://www.oecd.org, 1 March

82% of primary and 63% of secondary school teachers are women because of female teachers wages, although they are the same of their male colleagues, are significantly higher than the salaries of other tertiary-educated female workers. Not only gender stereotypes do matter.

Science and gender: scientists must work harder on equality

by Meg Urry

Source: Nature, 21 December 2015

No motherhood, no incompatibility with having a life hinders participation of women in faculty jobs. Biases in favour of (white) men still determine authorship credit, paper citations, funding, recruitment. If women have always to be outstanding, it is to justify the ordinary discrimination.

What kind of careers in science do 15-year-old boys and girls expect for themselves?

Source: http://www.oecd.org/

In OECD countries a 24% of 15-year-old students expect to get a degree and a job in a “scientific” field, but among these, girls see themselves in health and care-related careers three times than boys, even if equally capable of performing at high levels in PISA in other scientific areas.

Doctors and nurses are from Venus, scientists and engineers are from Mars

by Francesco Avvisati

Source: http://www.oecd.org/

If today the majority of young doctors and students enrolled in tertiary health-related programmes are women, very few women have top occupations in science and in physics, as well in the emerging ICT. Countries need to fight occupational segregation and pay gaps to ensure that no talent is wasted.

Improving gender equality in research organisations

Source: http://www.eua.be

Addressing gender inequality is a crucial goal for research organizations. Gender equality and diversity is a resource that urges people to do their best to realize their own potentialities. This practical guide provides a menu of approaches useful to the broader research community.

Journals invite too few women to referee

by Jory Lerback&Brooks Hanson

Source: Nature, 25 January

Women of all ages have fewer opportunities to take part in peer review, less than their proportion as authors and as members of society, as well as they are disadvantaged in hiring or promotion decisions, awarding of grants, invitations to conferences.

Le sexisme ordinaire gagne les milieux universitaires

Source: https://www.letemps.ch/

In Switzerland, some university structures have been organized to fight the sexism consummated in acts or sexual harassment, as well as in an ordinary and public humoristic banalization and reduction of the other sex inside a social relationship with a professor or other hierarchically structured authority.

“Graduate jobs” in OECD countries

by Golo Henseke & Francis Green

Source: www.oecd.org

The rise of the proportion of tertiary- educated labor in the workforce has raised new graduates’ expectations for good jobs, but what is today the notion of a graduate job? The old cliché of an intellectual and professional occupation has been diluted with a broader set of occupations and tasks reflecting a deep global change.

Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European higher education area (ESG)

Source: http://www.eua.be

The ESG contribute to the common understanding of quality assurance for learning and teaching in the European tertiary education, increasing transparency and the trust in the institutions, in the qualifications and programmes they deliver, promoting a more student-centered approach.

Opening up education: innovative teaching and learning for all through new technologies and open educational resources

Source: European Commission, 25 September 2013

The use of digital resources in education expands knowledge among disadvantaged groups and across borders, delivers a better- skilled workforce, boosting EU competitiveness and growth, enhances personalization and collaboration in learning processes, promotes science and research.

Universities must find a way to challenge populism

by Paul Rigg

Source: University World News, 1 March

It’s a task of higher education opposing to the dominant populism the liberal values, the idea of freedom, equality and representative democracy, driver of progress and research. The Sustainable Development Goals can be used to educate global citizens, responsible and active.

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Pubblicato il : 19/12/2017
Modificato il : 04/04/2019

March Research, Science and Knowledge

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