contents   inside international europa spezial cultur

international panierter student / studente impanato (dt/it) fremde federn (dt) miss landmine 2007 (en) les tribus maçonnes (fr) visto rifiutato (it) nuevo hombre (dt) short news

SHORT NEWS PEN FESTIVAL WORLD VOICES Authors from around the world, including Salman Rushdie and Dutch writers are participating in this year’s PEN World Voices Festival. They will be taking part in readings, discussions and panels, speaking their minds on the“Home and Away” theme and environmental topics. The festival takes place in New York April 24-29 and is worth a shorttrip to the “Big Apple”. | www.pen.org LIKE EUROPE A recent study states that there are consistent and dramatic disparities in research output at public and private higher education institutions in the United States. As top private institutions grow richer, public universities have found themselves unable to compete on the resource front, and so the competitive edge enjoyed by private institutions has ultimately spilled into research and all that results (journal articles, grants and books). | www.unrisd.org FINALLY FREE The arrested student leader Tineyi Mukweva from the University of Zimbabwe who was held in prison for more than a week was finally set free. He was arrested following the disturbances that occured at UZ for allegedly being one of those who is said to have led the students’ demonstration against the closure of dining and catering halls and for demanding that the government addresses the legitimate concerns by the striking lecturers and non academic staff. | www.zimbabwesituation.com WAITING The union of the Community College of Philadelphia, which represents between 1,300 and 1,400 employees, has criticized the administration for citing financial straits as a reason to bestingy, while simultaneously withholding financial data, particularly in regard to administrative salaries, and allocating funds toward what some union members consider to be questionable uses (such as $1.5 million for a recent public relations campaign). The annual $3,500 cost of attendance is substantially above the average $2,272 cost of two-year college attendance nationally. | www.ccp.edu WRONG NUMBERS Education Sector, a Washington-based think tank on education issues, recently came up with estimates of U.S. issued student Visas based on figures (from 1997-2006) that oppose the governments statements at the end of 2006. The Bush administration had stressed the fact that the U.S. are now welcoming foreign students in record numbers. ”I think they’ve been overstating the comeback”, said Thomas Toch, co-director of Education Sector.“There is no evidence that institutions or the State Department are taking this seriously enough.” | www.educationsector.org POWER OF PRIVILEGE Conventional wisdom and plenty of books tell a story of how the post-World War II years saw a great shift take place in elite higher education: A book just released by Stanford University Press challenges that perspective head on. In The Power of Privilege: Yale and America’s Elite Colleges, Joseph A. Soares does not only analyse, he demands reforms of admissions that are needed today. | www.sup.org EUROPARITÀ Il giorno 1º giugno 2006 la Commissione Europea ha simbolicamente proclamato il 2007 come l’anno europeo per le pari opportunità. Per promuovere quattro parole d’ordine: rispetto, rappresentatività, diritti e riconoscimento. 15 milioni di euro stanziati per 12 mesi di eventi, campagne di informazione e premi. L’istruzione ovviamente il settore piú ricco di iniziative, convegni, rassegne, seminari. Da aprile e maggio e da nord a sud si discuterà di identità culturale a Trieste, di università europea a Roma, di multiculturalismo a Catania... sperando che la parità non si fermi alla pura formalità! (ar) | Europa.eu.int/italia WHAT’S YOUR NEWS? _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ They are welcome! Write to: letters@work-out.org