EU
The French Presidency presents its policy priorities on the 26 and 27/01/2022. The agenda included the election of the chair and vice-chairs and developments in culture and education policies. In terms of education, the discussed topics were mobility, digitalisation, and Erasmus+.
European Parliament, 24/01/2022
European Commission proposes a strategy to significantly strengthen European Higher Education Area. It aims to strengthen cooperation between European higher education institutions in order to enhance the EU’s influence, both in terms of excellence and values, on the international scene. Some €80 billion will be spent on university education over the next seven years, including the European Year of Youth in 2022, said European Commission Vice-President Margarítis Schinás.
Agence Europe, 18/01/2022
European Commission wants to encourage the creation of a legal statute for alliances between European higher education institutions. A Recommendation to the EU Council was presented on Tuesday 18 January. “By mid-2024 the European budget will support up to 60 European Universities Alliances with more than 500 Universities across Europe”, said European Commissioner for Innovation and Research Mariya Gabriel.
Agence Europe, 18/01/2022
France
Increased demand for specialised 12-month master’s degrees. To meet the needs of companies and the demand of students, the Grandes Écoles are increasingly focusing on the specialised master’s degree, a lucrative course that requires little investment. International companies, particularly Chinese and Japanese, started to offer to bear the high cost of these programmes if future employees commit to staying five or six years in their company.
Le Monde Campus, 28/01/2022
Commentary by Hugo Harari-Kermadec (Professor for economics) and David Flacher (Professor for economics)
University fee-based systems have demonstrated the damage they can do around the world. On 13/01/2022, Emmanuel Macron presented a new series of reforms for higher education, including higher registration fees. However, the Constitutional Council recalled in a decision, on October 11, 2019, that the principle of free education applies in France from kindergarten to university.
Le Monde, 25/01/2022, paywall
Commentary by Jean-Pascal Gayant (Professor for economics)
It’s time to dust off the public post-baccalaureate system. The segmentation between the Grandes Écoles and the universities is “unfair and ineffective”.
Le Monde, 28/01/2022, paywall
Ministry of Education installed the Superior Council of Languages. Ministry of Education launched the higher council for languages (Conseil supérieur des langues) on 24/01/2022. It aims to improve the education on ancient and living languages, whether foreign or regional, focusing on Mediterranean languages. The goal is to enable pupils to become polyglots and be open to the world, declared Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquerduring a
videoconference. Carlo Ossola, philologist and professor at the Collège de France, chairs the higher council for languages Edouard Geffray, director general of school education (Dgesco), emphasised the importance of “enriching the training for teachers, whether initial or continuous”.
Le Figaro, 24/01/2022
Germany
Program for “Ausbildungsgarantie” announced. At the OECD conference, State Secretary Leonie Gebers announced the German coalition government plans to restructure the vocational training sector based on the Austrian model. Young people will be given the opportunity to start their vocational training as state-employed apprentices.
41 million Euros in EU funding will be for the labour market in Hessen. A total of 24 projects will be financed to mitigate the effects of the Corona pandemic on the labour market. Social Affairs Minister Kai Klose (The Greens) announced that the emergency program would be used to support disadvantaged young people, long-term unemployed or people with poor German language skills.
Welt, 27/01/2022
AfD-politician removed as education committee chair in Bavaria. The AfD is entitled chairmanship of the education committee, based on the division between the parliamentary groups after the 2018 state elections. The AfD is now planning to take legal steps.
SZ, 27/01/2022
Commentary by Thomas Will (Professor of Historic Preservation and Design at the TU Dresden)
English as a university language. More and universities want to make English the lingua franca. Is that a sign of cosmopolitanism?
Conclusion: The Anglicisation of the academic space pursued as “internationalisation” is thus not as harmless as its hopeful advocates believe. Academic elites benefit from it – others do not.
FAZ, 28/01/2022
Italy
Universities increase the number of scholarships. Ministerial decree: increases from 500 to 900 euros from 2022-2023. For off-campus and independent students the current amount is increased by 900 euros, bringing the value of the allowances to 6,157.74 euros per season. ‘Meritorious’ commuter students will see an increase of €700 and a value increased to €3,598.51.
La Repubblica, 27/01/2022, paywall
New alliances between European universities and the dream of a common university budget. The European Commission wants to increase the number of “European university cartels” from 40 to 60, involving a total of 500 universities. But the call for the Member States to do more comes up against the unevenness of budgets for higher education and research. Italy, for example, spends just under one per cent of GDP on universities, against 1.2 % of Germany and 1.5% of France.
Corriere Della Sera, 20/01/2022