In this week’s news we speak about a new legislation in the Netherlands that requires teaching Dutch to foreign students, South African Minister's plan to safeguard the rights and dignity of all women at universities in the country and publicly-funded universities in Ireland that spent €1.5 million on luxury flights.
New legislation in the Netherlands requires teaching Dutch to foreign students
Inside Higher Ed reports that universities in the Netherlands will have an obligation to teaching Dutch to foreign students.
This controversial new legislation was designed as a response to rapid foreign admission and the rise of English-only courses.
The main idea is to promote Dutch not only for local, but also for international students. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science stated:
“This will enhance the students’ links with their host community and the regional job market, increase their employability and strengthen the position of Dutch as a language of scientific research.” Jo Ritzen, a professorial fellow at Maastricht University added:
‘’Forcing foreign students to learn the Dutch language is nationalism at its worst.”
South African Minister plans to tackle gender-based violence at universities
Sowetan Live reports that South African Minister Dr Blade Nzimande plans to implement measures that should protect the rights and dignity of all women at public universities.
The draft policy framework on gender-based violence will be finalized by the Ministerial Task Team (MTT).
Nzimande said:
“The work of the MTT is to analyze the status and scope of all the gender-based violence, sexual harassment and related policies and procedures that are currently in place across all public universities to ensure the protection of both students and workers.”
He expects that discussion on the report will be concluded at the next meeting in October.
Publicly-funded universities in Ireland spent €1.5 million on luxury flights
Irish Times reports that publicly-funded universities in Ireland spent €1.5 million on luxury flights in the last year.
The biggest spender was University College Dublin, that paid around €1 million for premium and business class flights of their academics.
The data shows that premium seats can cost more than €6,000 for a single person.
Trinity College Dublin spent around a quarter of a million euro on flights of their university staff. A spokeswoman of University College Dublin said:
“It is worth noting that we generally only approve business class flights for staff who are travelling long distances to recruit international students for UCD.”
Photo: Shutterstock
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