Category Archives: Universities

Money for nothing: German university offers ‘idleness grants’

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Indolence project is serious look at societal values of success versus sustainability, says Hamburg arts college

A German university is offering “idleness grants” to applicants who are seriously committed to doing sweet nothing.

The University of Fine Arts in Hamburg advertised three €1,600 scholarship places on Wednesday to applicants from across Germany. The applicants can submit their anonymous pitches until 15 September and will have to convince a jury that their chosen area of “active inactivity” is particularly impressive or relevant.

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Gavin Williamson seeks to blame Ofqual for exams debacle

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Education secretary forced into humiliating reversal on A-level and GCSE grades in England

Gavin Williamson has tried to lay the blame for the exams fiasco at the door of the regulator Ofqual after a humiliating climbdown that overturned up to 2.3m grades but left thousands of pupils in limbo.

Two days after saying there would be “no U-turn, no change”, the education secretary apologised and ordered a complete reversal whereby pupils in England will be able to revert to the A-level grades recommended by their teachers, if those are higher.

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Priti Patel to unveil details of post-Brexit immigration plans

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Home secretary will announce the biggest overhaul of the UK system in decades

The home secretary is to unveil further detail on the future of immigration in the UK on Monday in an attempt to prepare businesses and organisations for the biggest overhaul of the system in decades.

The Home Office has previously revealed the core principles behind the forthcoming points-based system, which is meant to be introduced when the transition period from leaving the European Union ends on 1 January. Under the system, UK borders will be closed to so-called non-skilled workers and applicants will be have to show a greater understanding of English.

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Surgisphere: mass audit of papers linked to firm behind hydroxychloroquine Lancet study scandal

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Questions continue for Surgisphere and CEO Sapan Desai as universities deny knowledge of links to firm behind Lancet’s now-disputed blockbuster study

Dozens of scientific papers co-authored by the chief executive of the US tech company behind the Lancet hydroxychloroquine study scandal are now being audited, including one that a scientific integrity expert claims contains images that appear to have been digitally manipulated.

The audit follows a Guardian investigation that found the company, Surgisphere, used suspect data in major scientific studies that were published and then retracted by world-leading medical journals, including the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Oxford students to get anti-bias training after George Floyd ‘joke’ at hustings

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Candidate for ‘cake rep’ sparks anger after comparing killing of black man to flour shortages

An Oxford college has ordered staff and students to undergo training to combat racial bias after an undergraduate made a “joke” drawing a comparison between protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and flour shortages.

The comments, described as racist and trivialising by witnesses, were made during a virtual hustings event by a candidate for the position of “cake rep” – a welfare position on the junior common room committee at Christ Church college.

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Cambridge University moves all lectures online until summer 2021

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Institution first to announce virtual teaching for next academic year

Cambridge has become the first university to set out measures for the full 2020-21 academic year, announcing that it will move all “face-to-face lectures” online for the duration. The institution added that it was “likely” social distancing would continue to be required.

The university said lectures would continue virtually until summer 2021, while it may be possible for smaller teaching groups to take place in person if it “conforms to social-distancing requirements”.

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Universities brace for huge losses as foreign students drop out

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Call for a government bailout worth billions to help sector survive the crisis

Some universities are already expecting to lose more than £100m as foreign students cancel their studies, with warnings that the impact of coronavirus will be “like a tsunami hitting the sector”.

Several organisations are now planning for a 80-100% reduction in their foreign student numbers this year, with prestigious names said to be among those most affected. The sector is already making a plea to the government for a cash injection amounting to billions of pounds to help it through the crisis, as it is hit by a drop in international student numbers, accommodation deals and conference income.

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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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China cuts ‘freedom of thought’ from top university charters

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Inclusion of pledge to follow Communist party leadership sparks rare defiance at Fudan

Changes to the charter of one of China’s top universities, including dropping the phrase “freedom of thought” and the inclusion of a pledge to follow the Communist party’s leadership, has sparked fierce debate and a rare act of student defiance.

The changes to the charter of Fudan University in Shanghai, considered one of China’s more liberal institutions, emerged on Tuesday when the education ministry said it had approved the revisions for three universities.

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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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Revealed: rightwing push to ban criticism of Israel on US campuses

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Documents seen by Guardian show fresh attack on university debate under the guise of prohibiting antisemitism

Rightwing activists are attempting to spread new laws across Republican-controlled states that would ban criticism on public university campuses of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territory.

Related: Resigning MP claims Corbyn has failed to tackle Labour antisemitism

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Prince of Wales settles in at Cambridge university – archive, 9 Oct 1967

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9 October 1967: The Prince, who is reading archaeology, was greeted by 1,000 sightseers who had gathered outside the Great Gate

The arrival of Prince Charles at Cambridge yesterday to start his university career had all the appearances of a welcome given to a “pop” star.

Prince Charles, who will be 19 next month, was driven in a bright red mini to the gates of Trinity, where he will be for two years, and was immediately screamed and shouted at by more than 1,000 sightseers who had gathered outside the Great Gate.

The words of greeting from Lord Butler, Master of Trinity, were drowned by the cries of well-wishers, and the Prince, together with the Master and his senior tutor shot into Trinity Great Court as the college porters heaved the Great Gate shut against the crush of people outside.

Related: From the archive: happy 21st birthday Prince Charles

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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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Hong Kong students boycott classes as Chinese media warns ‘end is coming’

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School and university students call for democracy after weekend of violent clashes

Thousands of students in Hong Kong have boycotted the first day of the new term in a fresh wave of protests, after a tense weekend of violent clashes between police and demonstrators.

On Monday, university and secondary students marked the end of their summer break by skipping classes and holding rallies to call on the government to withdraw a controversial extradition bill, among other demands.

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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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The Venezuela uprising: the story so far – podcast

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Nicolás Maduro appeared on the brink of being forced from power in an uprising plotted by the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó. But key figures stayed loyal, allowing the president to begin reprisals. Tom Phillips in Caracas has watched it play out. Plus: Owen Jones on public schools and who gets to go to Britain’s elite universities

Juan Guaidó described his attempted uprising last month as the “final phase” of his plan to oust Nicolás Maduro. But after a day of chaos and confusion in which Guaidó’s mentor, Leopoldo López, was sprung from house arrest, the Venezuelan president was still in power and many of the plotters had gone into hiding.

The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, is in Caracas and describes to Anushka Asthana the sense of defiance among supporters of Maduro, and Guaidó’s mood of optimism in an exclusive Guardian interview.

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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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‘The magic of llamas’: furry friends help stressed university students relax

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Students at UC Berkeley have an unusual way to take the edge off before final exams. The Guardian was granted exclusive access to a petting session

Final exams are approaching at one of America’s elite universities, and the atmosphere might be tense – if it weren’t for eight hairy campus visitors.

On Friday, students flocked to UC Berkeley’s Memorial Glade for Llamapalooza, a human-llama social occasion on a sunny campus lawn. The eight animals were scattered throughout the crowd, munching grass while the adoring masses petted, fed and photographed them under the supervision of trained student volunteers.

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College bribery scandal: professors respond to our anonymous column

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We published one professor’s account of student entitlement, and the response from readers was enormous. Here, we share replies from other educators

“If you think corruption in elite US college admissions is bad, what happens once those students are in the classroom is even worse,” wrote an anonymous professor in the Guardian this week.

Related: What happens after rich kids bribe their way into college? I teach them | Anonymous

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