State-Funded Places At Univeristies In Ukraine Drastically Cut

Writing off student debt will be cheaper than expected

Previously quoted sum of £100bn by politicians in the UK will be significantly lower, reports the Guardian. The £100bn figure was quoted by the minister Jo Johnson, as well as by some other highly ranked officials. The Institute calculated that the cheapest way for writing off tuition fees debt above the £3,465 level of undergraduate fees charged before 2012 could set back government as little as £10bn. Immediate scrapping of the debt £20bn to government debt, but delaying this decision until 2022 could add £60bn. “Suggestions that debt would rise by £100bn are wrong. £100bn is the outstanding value of all tuition fee and maintenance debt since 1998 – it is not the answer to the question: what would be the impact on public debt of writing off fee loans accumulated under the £9,000 tuition fee regime?”, said the IFS in its report.

State-funded places at univeristies in Ukraine drastically cut

In line with Ministry of Educationa and Science proposals, the number of state-funded places at domestic universities in Ukraine has been cut by 17 percent. This means that one in six places has been axed. This measure is a part of the ongoing reform of the Ukranian national system of higher education that was left frozen in the Soviet approach to the structuring of higher education, and now is about to adopt more European Union standards. For the record, the specialist degree in the former Soviet Union is a five-year degree that is the only first higher education degree, and it remained generally preferred by employers. The head of the department of higher education of the Ukranian Ministry of Education and Science, said: “This year students will not be accepted to receive the degree ‘specialist’. We are leaving Soviet practice behind and moving on to the European one, which is built on three levels: a bachelor, a master, a doctor of philosophy. This will result in the cut of 17% of state-funded places at Ukrainian universities.”

Universities must curb extremist behavior among youth in Pakistan

Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Interior held a meeting with The Higher Education Commission (HEC) management and the heads of universities across the country where they discussed measures to counter extremist behavior and radicalisation among university students. Iqbal emphasized the significance of the university leadership in curbing these tendencies among students. Negative ideologies shared on social media are worrying for him, and the only way to fight against that is by using counter-narratives on violence and extremism in order to influence the minds of youth.

Photo: Shutterstock / Collage: Martina Advaney

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