Archive for UK Government
don’t mention the children
Posted in Kids, pictures with tags Choose Love for, Don’t Mention the Children, Gaza, Gaza war, genocide, Israeli government, Michael Rosen’, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Palestine, poem, Save the Children, Stop the War, The Guardian, UK Government, UK politics, war crimes, West Bank on October 7, 2025 by xi'an
banKrUpt, franc’route
Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel, University life with tags bankruptcy, Brexit, college ranking, Coventry, COVID-19, foreign students, French government, French politics, inflation, Labour, Le Monde, Nature, PhD course, Russian invasion, Scotland, Shanghai ranking, student fees, tuition fees, UK Government, UK politics, UK universities, Université Paris Dauphine, University of Coventry, University of Warwick on November 14, 2024 by xi'anRead in both Le Monde (Sept) and Nature (26 Sept) concerning articles about the poor financial state of many higher education institutions in the UK, if not the most prestigious ones… (Warwick being so far preserved from that issue, if not the neighbouring University of Coventry.) Up to 80% of French universities—prestigious and less prestigious alike—are also facing repeated deficits, for several years in a row, if mostly for different reasons besides the after-effects of COVID and the economical crisis amplified by the Russian invasion.
The main difference (between France and Britain—minus bonnie Scotland!) is in the UK government not providing direct support to higher education institutions, treating them as businesses that must make a profit on average to survive. To add insult to injury, the short-sighted Sunak Government has strongly reduced the number of foreign students (that they considered immigrants) when those are a key component of the universities business models since they pay much higher fees compared with the capped fees for UK nationals. Surprisingly (to me), the new Labour government does not intend to change either policy. The more surprising (to me) when the first institutions to fail will be (are?) those concentrating students from less privileged backgrounds. Quite paradoxical for a party with social ideals and socialist roots. Besides, repeated reductions of the attractivity of Britain for higher education may reach a no-return point in terms of its (World first-tier) scientific productivity.
France is financing its universities for 60% of their budget, while tuition fees in national universities (that do no include Paris Dauphine) are nominal for EU students (and special cases like PhD programs). Progressive cuts have led to tighter budgets, more deficit, with limited alternative sources of financing, since raising students fees is completely taboo. Added to academic positions being little attractive (for offering comparatively low salaries), this abides poorly for France keeping being part of top higher education countries. (It already figures very rarely in the country comparisons produced by Nature on an almost weekly basis.) The new higher education minister is known for pushing towards more “autonomy” (read less financing) of universities and the current State deficit may prove the tipping point for cutting further State support for public higher education institutions at large and fundamental research.
psyclepaths….
Posted in Running, Travel with tags bike accident, Coventry, cycle path, Daily Mail, Garmin, Kenilworth, law, London, Porte de Versailles, psychopath, road accidents, road safety, sculpture, UK, UK Government, UK politics, urban cycling, Valencia conferences on August 31, 2024 by xi'an
“In the six days since a law to prosecute dangerous cyclists was announced, somewhere close to 30 people will have been killed on UK roads, none of them struck by bikes. About 500 more will have suffered serious, potentially life-changing injuries, with pretty much all connected to motor vehicles. Again, going on the statistical averages, over those same six days, slightly more than 1,600 people across the UK will have died due to illnesses associated with physical inactivity. Riding a bike cuts your likelihood of developing such conditions by about half.” Peter Walker, Bike blog, The Guardian, 21 May 2024
Indeed, the UK Government is creating a new offence of “causing death or serious injury by dangerous, careless or inconsiderate cycling”! Where dangerous remains to be properly defined and assessed. (As most cyclists have no speedometer, and the remaining ones may prove more dangerous checking their speed on their Garmin watch! As I am when going downhill to Porte de Versailles around 40km/h…, if not 52mph as hilariously denounced by the predictably cyclophobic Daily Mail!) Another illustration of overreaction, cheap fear-mongering, and electoralist populism based on a single horrific deadly accident, and mostly missing the elephant in the room, that is, the lack of proper uninterrupted bike lanes and other infrastructures that should not be shared with pedestrians, cars, or buses. And the intentionally hidden disproportion between car-caused and cycle-caused deaths. (Of course, I am totally biased towards cycling, while some will consider my running managing red lights wanton and furious! But I stand by the fact that cycling usually gets the worst of car and pedestrian regulations.)
As an aside, the pun in the title first came to me as a joke told by Tony O’Hagan, presumably told at a Valencia meeting decades ago. Apparently it is popular enough to be adopted by cycling enthusiasts.
Nature snapshots [10 Aug 2023]
Posted in Statistics with tags AI regulation, AI scare, Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, chatbots, ChatGPT, China, Elsevier, Hong Kong, mechanics, Nature, tuition fees, UK Government, visa on November 12, 2023 by xi'an
Plenty of AI entries, like Artificial-intelligence search engines wrangle academic literature (as an advanced Google Scholar) and Publishing companies (like Elsevier) developing ChatGPT-like search engines. (While trying to stay clear from fake references!). Plus a long enquiry on Rules to keep AI in check: nations carve different paths for tech regulation about the different approaches envisioned by the EU, the USA, and China, with little practical advance so far for the first two. (While the UK plans its own AI safety summit in Bletchley Park this Fall.)
And an article on how Chinese students are starting to feel less inclined to study abroad. And not only in connection with the COVID pandemic. Or the US growing restrictions on student visas. But mainly because of the quickly growing attractivity of mainland China and Hong Kong universities. (The article states that “For every 1,000 PhDs that have been denied [visa] by the US government, US institutions will lose nearly US$1 billion in tuition fees”, but this does not sound highly relevant since most PhD tuitions are paid from supervisors’ grants, while students from other country may substitute for those denied visa.)
Brexit and ERC funding
Posted in Books, pictures, University life with tags Brexit, Brussels, ERC, ERC Synergy Grant, European Research Council, Northern Ireland Protocol, Oxbridge, UK Government, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford on February 15, 2023 by xi'an
The Guardian posted Brexit causes collapse in European research funding for Oxbridge last weekend, yet another article on the negative impact of Brexit (or rather of the non-implementation of the Northern Ireland agreement) on UK research (and in particular Oxford and Cambridge), with the rather obvious remark that hardly any UK-based researcher is now receiving ERC funding. Actually, the only exception (mentioned in the article) happens to be an ERC-Synergy grant where the Oxford team is the only non-EU team in the synergy. This is not the case for our own OCEAN project, where Gareth Roberts at Warwick is funded by the compensation fund set (for now) by the UK Government. The article also mentions that, out of the 150 ERC grants allotted to UK-based researchers last year, about one in eight was activated by the rewarded researcher leaving the UK research sytem. Along with the collapse in foreign students attending UK universities (presumably moving to collapsing further since Sunak’s current government considers them as immigration figures to be curbed!), this state of affairs confirms the degree of absurdity of Brexit, undoubtedly the worst political move of the Century!
