EU ‘blue card’ The European Commission plans to unveil a Blue Card for skilled immigrants, based on the US Green Card. The card would allow qualified people to live and work within the EU.
The EU says it needs 20 million skilled immigrants over the next 20 years, and is short of expertise in engineering and computer technology. Commentators say another aim of the proposal is to deter the best brains from emigrating to the US to find work. The plan is controversial and some countries are expected to oppose it. To receive a blue card, new immigrants need to have a recognized diploma, at least three years professional experience and the offer of a job that could not be filled by an EU citizen. “To maintain and improve economic growth in the EU, it is essential for Europe to become a magnet for the highly skilled,” a European Commission statement said. The plan needs the approval of all member states to come into force. Some politicians in the Netherlands and Germany are hostile and the Austrian government has condemned the plan as “a centralization too far.”
Suspended
Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson has been suspended by his research institution in the US. Watson has drawn severe criticism over remarks he recently made in the Sunday Times, a British newspaper. In the interview, Watson was quoted as saying Africans were less intelligent than Europeans. Watson said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.”
Study costs
At four-year private universities in the United States, tuition and fees rose 6.3 percent to $23,712, again outstripping increases in financial aid and pushing students into more borrowing. Including room and board for students living on campus, charges at private four-year universities averaged out to be $32,307 per year. George Washington University in Washington, D.C. recently attracted attention for becoming the first major university with a published price, including room and board, of more than $50,000 per year.
Element 2007
The Element 2007 is a national meeting for professionals and students with an interest in molecular sciences and innovation. This year, the Element will be held on November 8 at the TU Delft. This is the third year the meeting will be held. The meeting is a combined initiative of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) and C2W, its official publication. The overall theme of the Element will be sustainable technology.
www.hetelement.nl
Thirteen months
Between now and 2010, employees of TU Delft will receive a 9.65 percent salary increase. This includes a higher end of the year benefit, which from 2009 will be the equivalent of a ‘thirteenth month’ of salary. The end of the year benefit will be raised incrementally: it’s currently three percent. Of the total 9.65 percent increase, one percent will be financed by the loss of two days off.
Accessible
The TU’s Botanical Gardens is the most accessible place in Delft for the handicapped. In honor of this, the gardens have been awarded the 2007 Accessibility Award. The other places nominated were the Army Museum and the new Delft library, DOK. The botanical garden received 68 percent of the votes. The jury praised the garden’s entrance, footpaths, invalid toilets and the service offered by the volunteers working there.
Ombudsman
The number of complaints received about the quality of the education offered at TU Delft dropped significantly in 2006, according to the ombudsman for students annual report. The ombudsman credited this decline to the attention that TU Delft’s Executive Board has given to improving the quality of education. According to the annual report, the reorganization that recently took place at TU Delft has also reduced the layers of bureaucracy within the university.
EU ‘blue card’
The European Commission plans to unveil a Blue Card for skilled immigrants, based on the US Green Card. The card would allow qualified people to live and work within the EU. The EU says it needs 20 million skilled immigrants over the next 20 years, and is short of expertise in engineering and computer technology. Commentators say another aim of the proposal is to deter the best brains from emigrating to the US to find work. The plan is controversial and some countries are expected to oppose it. To receive a blue card, new immigrants need to have a recognized diploma, at least three years professional experience and the offer of a job that could not be filled by an EU citizen. “To maintain and improve economic growth in the EU, it is essential for Europe to become a magnet for the highly skilled,” a European Commission statement said. The plan needs the approval of all member states to come into force. Some politicians in the Netherlands and Germany are hostile and the Austrian government has condemned the plan as “a centralization too far.”
Suspended
Nobel Prize-winning DNA pioneer James Watson has been suspended by his research institution in the US. Watson has drawn severe criticism over remarks he recently made in the Sunday Times, a British newspaper. In the interview, Watson was quoted as saying Africans were less intelligent than Europeans. Watson said he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.”
Study costs
At four-year private universities in the United States, tuition and fees rose 6.3 percent to $23,712, again outstripping increases in financial aid and pushing students into more borrowing. Including room and board for students living on campus, charges at private four-year universities averaged out to be $32,307 per year. George Washington University in Washington, D.C. recently attracted attention for becoming the first major university with a published price, including room and board, of more than $50,000 per year.
Element 2007
The Element 2007 is a national meeting for professionals and students with an interest in molecular sciences and innovation. This year, the Element will be held on November 8 at the TU Delft. This is the third year the meeting will be held. The meeting is a combined initiative of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) and C2W, its official publication. The overall theme of the Element will be sustainable technology.
www.hetelement.nl
Thirteen months
Between now and 2010, employees of TU Delft will receive a 9.65 percent salary increase. This includes a higher end of the year benefit, which from 2009 will be the equivalent of a ‘thirteenth month’ of salary. The end of the year benefit will be raised incrementally: it’s currently three percent. Of the total 9.65 percent increase, one percent will be financed by the loss of two days off.
Accessible
The TU’s Botanical Gardens is the most accessible place in Delft for the handicapped. In honor of this, the gardens have been awarded the 2007 Accessibility Award. The other places nominated were the Army Museum and the new Delft library, DOK. The botanical garden received 68 percent of the votes. The jury praised the garden’s entrance, footpaths, invalid toilets and the service offered by the volunteers working there.
Ombudsman
The number of complaints received about the quality of the education offered at TU Delft dropped significantly in 2006, according to the ombudsman for students annual report. The ombudsman credited this decline to the attention that TU Delft’s Executive Board has given to improving the quality of education. According to the annual report, the reorganization that recently took place at TU Delft has also reduced the layers of bureaucracy within the university.
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