Category Archives: Higher education

Quitting EU Erasmus scheme would ‘blow a hole’ in UK economy

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Education and business leaders point to lost income for country and opportunities for students

Quitting the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme would “blow a hole” in the UK’s economy, taking away income of £243m a year and depriving 17,000 British young people of valuable work experience, according to a group of education and business leaders.

The group, including further education colleges and universities, is calling for the British government to make clear that continued Erasmus membership is a high priority in its talks with the EU.

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Academics refused permanent UK visas because of field trips abroad

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Ebola volunteering in Guinea and gender research in Bangladesh fall foul of hostile environment laws

When Dr Nazia Hussein spent six months researching class and gender identity in Bangladesh for her PhD at Warwick University in 2009, she had no idea that, a decade later, the Home Office would use this to refuse her application for permanent residency.

Hussein, a Bangladeshi expert on gender, race and religion, now a lecturer at the University of Bristol, was “absolutely shocked” when her application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) was rejected last year on the grounds that she had spent too many days out of the country during the 10-year application period. This was despite the fact she had submitted clear evidence that her PhD research constituted essential fieldwork and an unavoidable and legitimate absence.

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Students slam Cambridge over handling of sexual misconduct cases

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Don in charge of student welfare at Trinity Hall gave evidence on behalf of male student accused of rape

Hundreds of Cambridge students have accused the university of “a complete failure” to deal with complaints of sexual misconduct after an investigation that raised concerns about a conflict of interest among academics.

In a letter signed by more than 500 current and former students, Cambridge University Students’ Union Women’s Campaign has called for colleges to be stripped of their powers to investigate sexual misconduct complaints against their own members.

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How did an accused torturer end up teaching at the Sorbonne?

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Mario Sandoval charged with dictatorship-era crimes in Argentina – so how could he have worked undetected at a top French university?

Mario Sandoval had been living in France for 14 years when he became a lecturer at the Institute of Latin American Studies (IHEAL) at the Sorbonne in Paris.

The Argentinian security specialist was in his mid-40s, spoke good French and had recently obtained French citizenship. His credentials were impeccable – he’d spent the previous five years teaching international relations at another Paris institute, the Université Marne-la-Vallée – and he soon became a valued asset at the Sorbonne.

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Harvard and Yale students disrupt football game for fossil fuel protest

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Students began campaigning in 2012 for both universities to stop investing in oil and gas companies that contribute to climate crisis

Students and alumni from Harvard and Yale disrupted the annual football game between the two elite universities on Saturday, occupying the field in New Haven, Connecticut, at half-time and demanding the colleges divest from investment in fossil fuels.

More than 200 protesters stalled the high-profile game for around an hour, many chanting: “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!” The protest was briefly booed by some in a crowd of 44,989 and discussed widely on social media.

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‘Alarming’ Chinese meddling at UK universities exposed in report

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Chinese embassy appears to be coordinating efforts to curb academic freedom, say MPs

Universities are not adequately responding to the growing risk of China and other “autocracies” influencing academic freedom in the UK, the foreign affairs select committee has said.

The report, rushed out before parliament is suspended pending the election, finds “alarming evidence” of Chinese interference on UK campuses, adding some of the activity seeking to restrict academic freedom appears to be coordinated by the Chinese embassy in London.

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University vice-chancellor stands aside over blackmail claims in Pakistan

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Javed Iqbal denies involvement in scandal over alleged use of CCTV footage to extort money from students in Balochistan

The vice-chancellor of a university in the volatile region of Balochistan in Pakistan has temporarily stepped down from his role following the launch of an investigation into allegations of harassment and blackmail on campus.

Javed Iqbal said on Sunday that he was leaving his post at the University of Balochistan until the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) concluded its inquiry into claims that CCTV footage of students was used by university officials to blackmail them. Most of the students allegedly affected were female.

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Hong Kong protesters in UK say they face pro-Beijing intimidation

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Police have had to intervene and separate groups at events in university cities

Supporters of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests say they are being intimidated and harassed by pro-Beijing Chinese students and others at their events around the UK, forcing police to step in to separate them from counter-demonstrations.

Below-the-radar tensions have boiled over into incidents that include the arrest of a 19-year-old Chinese student after bottles were thrown at a Sheffield event, while police and university security have intervened in other town centres and campuses.

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Caroline Williams obituary

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My friend and colleague Caroline Williams, who has died aged 57 after a short illness, was a senior lecturer in Latin American history at the University of Bristol. A much-loved and respected teacher, research supervisor and colleague, she was also an award-winning scholar.

Caroline was born in Argentina, the third of the four children of Erik Hansen, a metallurgist from Cardiff, and his wife, Tricia (nee Gorman), a nurse. She was 14 when the military junta seized power in 1976. This provoked in her a profound and critical interest in both national and global politics and a lifelong concern for human rights.

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US academic given two weeks to leave UK after eight years

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Visa system for researchers is hostile and costly and risks jamming a pipeline of talent, universities warn

After eight years researching music history at Glasgow University, Elizabeth Ford hoped her request for a visa extension would sail through this summer. Instead, the Home Office gave the American academic two weeks to pack up her life and leave the country.

Ford has held a research fellowship at Edinburgh University – which, like Glasgow is in the elite Russell Group – and is due to begin a new research fellowship at Oxford University. But this is in jeopardy after a letter from the Home Office in July, which said that her leave to remain, granted a year before, was erroneous, and that she must leave within two weeks.

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Maths and tech specialists need Hippocratic oath, says academic

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Exclusive: Hannah Fry says ethical pledge needed in tech fields that will shape future

Mathematicians, computer engineers and scientists in related fields should take a Hippocratic oath to protect the public from powerful new technologies under development in laboratories and tech firms, a leading researcher has said.

The ethical pledge would commit scientists to think deeply about the possible applications of their work and compel them to pursue only those that, at the least, do no harm to society.

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White professor investigated for quoting James Baldwin’s use of N-word

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Laurie Sheck, who teaches at the New School, says inquiry followed a complaint that she had discussed Baldwin’s use of the slur

The Pulitzer-nominated poet Laurie Sheck, a professor at the New School in New York City, is being investigated by the university for using the N-word during a discussion about James Baldwin’s use of the racial slur.

The investigation has been condemned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire), which is calling on the New School to drop the “misguided” case because it “warns faculty and students that good-faith engagement with difficult political, social, and academic questions will result in investigation and possible discipline”.

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Edinburgh gives female medical students their degrees – 150 years late

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Victorian women who were prevented from qualifying as doctors are finally recognised

Seven women who were among the first females to be admitted to a British university have been awarded posthumous degrees 150 years after they started their studies.

The group, known collectively as the Edinburgh Seven, enrolled to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. But they faced substantial resistance from their male peers and were ultimately prevented from graduating and qualifying as doctors.

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Tree planting ‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle climate crisis

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Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide

Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could be planted without encroaching on crop land or urban areas.

As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving global heating. New research estimates that a worldwide planting programme could remove two-thirds of all the emissions that have been pumped into the atmosphere by human activities, a figure the scientists describe as “mind-blowing”.

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UK government among those exaggerating impact of aid

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Academics warn of ‘success cartel’ of powerful organisations seeking to influence aid evaluations

A “success cartel” of major donor agencies, including the UK government, is exaggerating its impact in the world’s poorest countries, hundreds of researchers have warned.

Writing in the journal BMJ global health, academics raised serious concerns about the independence of evaluations into global health and development projects, and called for greater safeguards to stop powerful bodies from influencing results.

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UK’s Prevent strategy ‘biggest threat to free speech on campus’

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Policy is disempowering and has chilling effect provoking self censorship, says Liberty

The Prevent strategy for curtailing extremism in the UK is the biggest threat to free speech at universities rather than media caricatures of “snowflake” students, according to a director of Liberty.

Corey Stoughton, director of advocacy at the human rights organisation, said the tactics of the strategy for monitoring campus activism had a “chilling effect” on black and Muslim students, provoking self censorship for fear of being labelled extremist.

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‘It was a no-brainer’: but does a degree from abroad really make a difference?

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As applications to study in Europe plummet before Brexit, we ask British students who’ve done it where they are now

Adam Hussain was about to go to university in 2013 when tuition fees in the UK nearly trebled to £9,000. With additional loans for living costs, he realised he would incur debts of £40,000. So when he saw a television report about an exodus of UK students to the Netherlands, Hussain decided to attend an open day at Maastricht University, where annual fees were €2,000 (then about £1,700). That year more than 1,000 British freshers started university in the Netherlands.

“I already wanted to live abroad; when the higher fees came in it was a no-brainer,” says Hussain, 24, who attended an east London comprehensive.

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English test students may have been wrongly accused, says watchdog

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Home Office ‘did not have the expertise’ to check data used to accuse students of cheating

A government watchdog has criticised the Home Office for failing to protect students wrongly accused of cheating in an English language test that they were required to sit as part of a visa application process.

About 2,500 students have been forcibly removed from the UK after being accused of cheating in the exam and a further 7,200 left the country after being warned that they faced detention and removal if they stayed. Many have protested their innocence; 12,500 appeals have been heard in UK courts, and so far 3,600 people have won their appeals.

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Canadiens and Canadiennes in uproar as student paper takes stand on gender

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A publication at the Université du Québec is ceasing to favour masculine over feminine in its language – not everyone is happy

The changes were slight, though Molière probably wouldn’t have approved.

Montreal Campus – the student newspaper serving Université du Québec à Montréal – announced in February that it would cease favouring the masculine over the feminine.

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Archaeologists discover ‘exceptional’ site at Lake Titicaca

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Underwater haul of Tiwanaku ceremonial relics is unprecedented, say academics

An ancient ceremonial site described as exceptional has been discovered in the Andes by marine archaeologists, who recovered ritual offerings and the remains of slaughtered animals from a reef in the middle of Lake Titicaca.

The remarkable haul points to a history of highly charged ceremonies in which the elite of the region’s Tiwanaku state boated out to the reef and sacrificed young llamas, seemingly decorated for death, and made offerings of gold and exquisite stone miniatures to a ray-faced deity, as incense billowed from pottery pumas.

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