Research, Science and Knowledge

April 2017 Research, Science and Knowledge

Read the articles selected in April 2017

March for Science: why scientists are protesting worldwide

Source: http://www.eua.be/, 20 April

A movement for science started in Washington has organised demonstrations in more than 500 cities to criticize a spreading culture and decision making not more evidence-based and marginalising scientists , which impedes progress and and puts barriers to knowledge.

Transforming higher education’s creative capacity

by Patrick Blessinger

Source: University World News, 14 April

Creative learning is an integrative and interdisciplinary method that presumes the mastering of a discipline. Universities foster creative thinking through new curricula that prepare students in the world of the global knowledge, where executive tasks are more likely to be automated.

Updated EUA response to the European Commission proposal for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market

Source: http://www.eua.be, 9 February

Eua response to this proposed Eu Directive is in the perspective to ensure an open access to research publications, data and teaching materials in order to strenghten the European university sector. EUA therefore suggests to rephrase the proposal to broad the exceptions forecasted for research to all “data analytics”.

How do universities use big data?

by Holly Else

Source: Times Higher Education, 13 April

With the arrival of new data analytics technologies in education it is possibile to support students in their decisions that are critical for their success and to improve the graduation rates of an institution. Big data help students to learn mathematics on their own filling in their gaps.

Does the world need people who understand problems, or who can solve them?

by Dirk van Damme

Source: http://www.oecd.org, 11 April

Stakeholder and employers are always complaining the lack of the skills they need in candidates leaving education systems. Problem-solving is the ability most required, meant as a cross-curricular competence with an additional element of decision making and communication.

Fourth Arab-Euro Conference on higher education

Source: http://www.eua.be

The Fourth Arab-Euro Conference on higher education, that will be hosted by Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco on 24-26 April, will focus on research collaboration and capacity building among Arab and European universities, to tackle issues of regional and global priority like water and energy.

Call to end government research investment “inertia”

by Francis Kokutse

Source: University World News, 7 April

ARUA is a network of 16 top African universities with the aim to develop Africa’s contribution to global research and to emancipate the continent from research from other parts of the world with a limited knowledge of the native culture. Investing in higher education can trigger a renaissance in the continent.

Decolonising the African mind, one step at a time

by Matthew Reisz

Source: Times Higher Education, 8 April

Uganda’s Makerere Institute of Social Research intends to overtake the colonial model of African universities, based on a knowledge produced outside and not discussed. The goal of the institute and its PhD programmes is to think the world from Africa point of view, and not the opposite.

Preparing teachers for change- in and outside of the profession

by Andreas Schleicher

Source: http://www.oecd.org/, 4 April

Social reforms can’t succeed without engaging teachers as active agents for change. Education needs to be more responsive to social changes and more resilient to political change, and represents the idea that problems can only be solved by evidence and science.

Universities urged to tackle PhD mental health crisis

by Ellie Bothwell

Source: Times Higher Education, 13 April

A study conducted in four countries has highlighted that 51% of PhD students is at risk of developing a psychiatric disorder because of the constant sense of strain and isolation within the institutions, especially when associated with financial or job worries.

EU research “still failing to include social science”

by David Matthews

Source: Times Higher Education, 3 April

Despite multidisciplinarity is promoted as a key aim of Horizon 2020, there is still a lack in integration of humanities and social sciences with physical sciences and engineering, that is crucial to understand how technologies change our lives and can actually benefit people.

Higher education must prepare for the rise of the machines

by Nancy Gleason

Source: Times Higher Education, 30 March

Higher education institutions have to better understand the fourth industrial revolution. In the time of artificial intelligence and deep learning there is need for critical thinking, emotional intelligence and a learning ability that doesn’fit merely to content experts or information processors, but to creators and analysers.

EUA calls on governments to refrain from interference in university autonomy

Source: http://www.eua.be, 3 April

After the Hungarian government proposal to modify the high education law with an amendment which would affect the activities of the Central European University in Budapest, EUA calls upon governments to refrain from undue political interference in university autonomy and values.

Employment ins and outs in OECD countries

Source: http://www.oecd.org/, 30 March

The analysis of the flows in and out employment across OECD countries is important from a welfare and growth perspective. Not all job losses involve financial loss and failure for individuals and families, but could also be an opportunity for career development and higher pay. Education is crucial.

Brexit and European Higher Education

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

EUA has appointed a team of experts to assess the consequences of Brexit on the higher education sector and in particular on European research and student mobility. Reinforcing the ties between European and UK universities is of vital importance for Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+, as well for all research collaboration.

The role of universities in the post-truth era

by Ranjit Goswami

Source: University World News, 31 March

Post-truth, Oxford English Dictionary word of year 2016, is the feature of knowledge and critical thinking in the era of ubiquitous, easy accessible and more confused information. Post-truth welcomes in academic campuses all ideologies to give students a wider perspective of values and beliefs.

A lack of ideological diversity is killing social research

by Musa al-Gharbi

Source: Times Higher Education, 23 March

Both conservative and progressive researchers in social sciences tend to legitimate their findings on a more ideological than scientific basis, and to be partisan of the political trend which mirrors their identity. That promotes in contemporary research closed-mindedness and dogmatism.

President turns MIT’s research might to study of how people learn

by Ellie Bothwell

Source: Times Higher Education, 23 March

MIT’s teaching strategy combines online and face-to-face courses, to best harness the time in class. How teaching and learning is at the core of MIT’s research, that becomes in the perspective of a global community how knowledge can face the challenges of the future.

Finding and cultivating talented teachers: insights from high-performing countries

by Esther Carvalhaes

Source: http://www.oecd.org, 21 March

Students perform better if taught by certified teachers, and in fact the OECD countries with a higher average in science have an higher percentage of fully qualified teachers. A strong knowledge base in their subject area and a good training are needed to attune teachers with the aspectative of a changing world.

Is the brain drain always negative?

by Jamil Salmi and Katya Salmi

Source: World University News, 24 March

OECD countries have a high rate of highly skilled migrants. Brain drain has some negative effects on sending countries, and often depends on institutional and structural conditions. However, it can be beneficial for the countries of origin in terms of gross economic product and of brain circulation.

Last edit 04/04/2019

January Research, Science and Knowledge

Read the articles selected in January 2017

How student attitudes towards the value of education can be shaped by careers education – evidence from the OECD’s PISA study

by Antony Mann & Elnaz T. Kashefpakdel

Source: https://www.oecd.org/, 24 January

A multi-year OECD study of work-based learning aimed at youth at risk found evidence that the engagement of the working world in the educational process can improve both educational and occupational outcomes, increasing pupil motivation and application.

THE Alma Mater Index 2017: who educates the global business elite?

by John Elmes

Source: Times Higher Education, 19 January

After THE Alma Mater Index 2017, the universities that have educated the greatest number of chief executives of the richest companies present in the Fortune rankings, reflect the strength of their countries’ higher education systems and the central role that higher education plays in a country’s economic prosperity.

Closing global achievement gaps in MOOCs

by René F. Kizilcec, Andrew J. Saltarelli, Justin Reich & Geoffrey L. Cohen

Source: Science, 20 January

39% of students enrolled in MOOCs between 2012 and 2015 are from less-developed countries, but although the global educational gap is reduced through these courses, MOOCs do not spread benefits equitably across all regions because of the cognitive burden of one’s social identity.

On the cutting edge of Research: the Open Access challenge

by David Oliva Uribe

Source: http://eua.be/

Open Science and Open Innovation synthesize the EU engagement for the translation of innovation ventures, scientific knowledge and research results in tangible benefits for society. EUA is supporting universities in their transition to Open Science. Four articles collect expert opinions on the topic.

Un hub della ricerca al servizio della collettività

by Fabrizia Sernia

Source: http://www.rivistauniversitas.it/

Human Technopole is an Italian project of cutting-edge biomedical research with a multidisciplinary approach that includes the sciences of life, big data e nanotechnologies and intends creating a science sustainable and inclusive, for a better quality of life.

EU Copyright Reform: EUA and leading research groups push for more change

Source: http://eua.be/, 12 January

EUA has proposed to modify current EU copyright reform, in particular about Text and Data mining and the limitations in the use of information technologies, to give legal certainty to research activities related to data use and the new digital techniques.

VR: a new dimension in learning?

by David Matthews

Source: Times Higher Education, 5 January

Education is predicted to be a $700 million market for the use of VR by 2025. They explain the benefits of VR, in particular in medicine universities, not only with the 3D models' complexity but also with the hierarchy of experiences we do, where reading is less impressive than doing and saying.

Costs and benefits in vocational education and training

by Kathrin Hoeckel

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

This provisional study shows despite the methodological difficulties in comparing labor markets in different countries that individuals with VET qualifications are better paid than those without post-school qualifications, but this is evident only in relation to early school leavers.

Consulta l’articolo:

http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/41538706.pdf

Sat-nav neurons tell bats where to go

by Alison Abbott

Source: Nature, 12 January

Bats have cells in the hippocampus that determine the distance, direction, and angle of their flight to a goal. Since these vector cells are memory-based, rather than sensory-based, this finding seems promising for Alzheimer’s research.

Historians make the best healthcare workers

by Emily Michelson

Source: Times Higher Education, 22 January

Humanities and science complement each other. A historical analysis is important for a medical diagnosis and treatment. The study of history is important to argue and think critically, from the point a view not only of a doctor but also of a patient that asks his doctors.

The role of social scientist in an age of anti-science

by Victoria Herrmann

Source: University World News, 16 December 2016

Researchers have the task to prevent the climate change denial and to foster both in the public opinion and in policy-makers a genuine and common sense of responsibility about the environment beyond the communication of hard scientific findings.

Two –fifths of scholars “more likely to quit UK” after Brexit vote

by John Morgan

Source: Times Higher Education, 9 January

A survey in the UK found forty-two percent of British academics and 76 percent of European academics living in the country more likely to leave the UK after the Brexit vote, and a 44 percent turned out to have lost access to research fundings as a result of the referendum.

Universities must use metrics to prevent HE “catastrophe”

by Ellie Bothwell

Source: Times Higher Education, 19 December 2016

The higher education has become a system likely to be shut down if the institutions don’t get used to proving their objective value with deep, transparent and nuanced metrics that report what return of investment they produce for students and investors.

Structural reforms can be inclusive; it all depends on the details

by Orsetta Causa, Mikkel Hermansen & Nicolas Ruiz

Source: www.oecd.org, 5 January

Structural reforms can aim to target both growth and equity objectives. As important as the ability to increase the living standards for the majority of citizens is taking into account the effects of a reform at all points of the income distribution, including the bottom.

Equipping people to stay ahead of technological change

Source: The Economist, 14 January

As a date of fact, lifelong learning mainly serves skilled and advantaged workers. As a rule, it has to become routinely accessible, supported by governments and trade unions. Education in the schools should be not narrowly vocational, but adaptable, general and metacognitive.

Last edit 04/04/2019