All posts tagged: students

Student visa rejected for not knowing number of trees on campus

Student visa rejected for not knowing number of trees on campus

Published by Sam Flores

The Home Office is refusing growing numbers of student visas for “crazy” reasons – with one applicant allegedly rejected for failing to name the number of trees on a university campus. In another case, a student was denied a UK visa after being accused of giving the wrong founding year for their university – but it later turned out the youngster was right. The Home Office has said it is cracking down on visa abuse after asylum claims from those entering the UK on visas more than tripled under the previous government. However, universities told The i Paper “bizarre” visa denials were crippling their ability to recruit overseas students, whose tuition fees subsidise the cost of educating Britons and keep many institutions afloat. They have called for decisions to be investigated. It comes amid wider pressure on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to water down hardline immigration reforms. The Government said all visa applications are “considered on their individual merits” in line with immigration rules. They said “cherry-picked extracts” from visa refusals “may not reflect the …

Ireland’s oldest student debating competition returns

Ireland’s oldest student debating competition returns

Published by Sam Flores

The Irish Times Debate, Ireland’s oldest and most prestigious student debating competition, has returned for a new season. Running since 1960, The Irish Times Debate is an all-island competition open to every full-time third-level student in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Its objective has remained unchanged for 66 years – to promote excellence in oratory and debating. This year, for the first time, the debate series will be run in partnership with global law firm DLA Piper, a leading full-service law firm. DLA Piper advises domestic and international clients as part of the company’s global business across more than 40 countries. Approximately 200 students entered the first round of this season’s competition, which involves participants speaking in teams of two. The successful speakers will progress to the 96 places available in the second round, at which stage each debate will be comprised of four teams of two people and four individual speakers. By early December, the starting field will have been whittled down to 48 students who will speak in the four debate …

FE News | Unique Austrian universities programme sources students from India to meet STEM shortfall

FE News | Unique Austrian universities programme sources students from India to meet STEM shortfall

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A partnership between three leading Austrian technical universities and one of the world’s biggest outsourcing companies is sourcing Masters students from India to help meet the shortfall in STEM students and ultimately help address skills shortages in the Austrian economy. Austria’s three leading Technical Universities — TU Wien, TU Graz, and TU Leoben – are partnering with VFS Education Services, an arm of VFS Global, an outsourcing company that works for 71 governments worldwide that processes visa and passport applications.   Although there are a number of student recruitment programmes run in other countries by universities, the Austrian programme is quite different to other international recruitment schemes in that all the required administration – such as visa checks, applications and the student verification processes – is undertaken on the universities’ behalf.  European universities and governments are targeting high-quality STEM students from abroad to solve structural crises at home. Fewer European students are choosing STEM tracks at university, which is having a knock-on effect in the workplace: European countries report some of the highest talent shortage rates across a range of sectors including science and …

PhD students who write dissertation with AI less likely to stay in academia

PhD students who write dissertation with AI less likely to stay in academia

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Roughly 30% of PhD dissertations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the United States this year contained AI-generated text, according to a working paper1 that reviewed the abstracts submitted to an online database since 2019. What’s more, the working paper, which has not been peer reviewed, found that PhD graduates who use artificial intelligence to help write their dissertations are more likely to work in industry and less likely to enter academia. Various studies have shown a marked increase in the presence of text generated using AI in scientific literature over the past few years. Researchers at the US-based non-profit organization the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) wanted to understand how PhD students use AI because insights into students’ training and capabilities will shape science over the next several decades. “If our students are only doing half the work and they’re dishing the rest to AI, do they really have the depth of understanding” to be good scientists? asks co-author Daniel Gross, an economist at NBER who is based in Durham. The …

The Cornell 7: Allegations spark fury over gang rape culture – The 51%

The Cornell 7: Allegations spark fury over gang rape culture – The 51%

Published by Sam Flores

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again Issued on: 02/10/2026 – 16:39 11:54 min From the show Reading time 1 min How allegations of a gang rape at an American Ivy League university have set social media alight, sparking widespread fury over the way colleges and universities handle sexual assault cases. Also the French parliament is currently debating a major new bill aimed at tackling violence against women and children. But does it go far enough? Annette Young asks Dr Andreea Gruev-Vintila, a social psychologist who assisted with the drafting of the legislation. Plus the king of Morocco names Marrakesh mayor, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, as the country’s first female prime minister.  By: Source link

Students in the UK: are you having problems with your accommodation provider?

Students in the UK: are you having problems with your accommodation provider?

Published by Sam Flores

Nearly 70 students in Dundee have been left scrambling to find new accommodation for the new academic year after a university housing scheme went bust. It is the latest in a string of issues with university housing schemes amid severe financial strain on the sector. We would like to speak to students in the UK who are having difficulty with their accommodation providers, in particular those that have gone bust. Have you been able to find alternative accommodation in time? Were you able to retrieve your stuff from your accommodation and have you been able to claw back any money owed to you? How are you dealing with the situation? Share your experience You can share your experience here  Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For alternative ways …

Teaching 9/11 to Students Who Weren’t Born Yet

Teaching 9/11 to Students Who Weren’t Born Yet

Published by Jenni Sidey

I was five years old on September 11, 2001. This year, the 25th anniversary of 9/11 fell on a day I was teaching my communication and composition course. Standing in front of a room of 18- and 19-year-olds, I realized we occupied very different relationships to the event. I was alive when it happened, but I was too young to understand the enormity of what I was watching. My memories are fragments, tangled together with everything I learned later from my parents, teachers, news footage, documentaries, photographs, memorials, and the stories our culture has continued to tell about that day. At this point, I’m honestly not sure what I actually remember and what I’ve reconstructed from everything I learned later. My students occupy an entirely different position… They didn’t exist yet. So, on the 25th anniversary of September 11, I decided we should spend at least part of class talking about it. For my students, 9/11 has always been history. And that raised a question that felt particularly appropriate for a communication course: How do …

The student loan scam looking to dupe already anxious students

The student loan scam looking to dupe already anxious students

Published by Sam Flores

You are about to start university and can’t wait but then you receive a worrying text message. It is a few days before the first student loan payment is due to land in your account and apparently someone has tried to alter your bank details. “Our records indicate that your bank details on your student finance account were changed on Friday 16th. If you did not do this please contact us immediately,” says the text. You click on the web link in the message and go to what you think is the website of the Students Loans Company (SLC), the government body that administers loans and grants. You log in to check that everything is OK, put in your bank details and the screen says: “Thanks for confirming.” But what you have done is supply this important information to criminals. Acting quickly, the scammers then use your log-in details to access your real account and change the bank account so that your student loan payment is diverted to them. Students are often stressed enough without …

1 in 7 US students now goes to a solar-powered school

1 in 7 US students now goes to a solar-powered school

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Solar power now powers more than 10,800 US K-12 schools – that means 1 in 7 students goes to a school powered by the sun – but battery storage hasn’t quite caught on yet. That’s more than 7 million students, according to the sixth edition of Generation180’s Brighter Future report, which tracks solar and battery storage at US schools. The data is current through April 2026. The number of solar-powered schools has nearly doubled from 5,450 in 2016, while their combined solar capacity has more than tripled to over 2.4 gigawatts. Generation180 says that’s enough solar to cover the annual electricity use of more than 450,000 homes – roughly every household in Austin, Texas. And for cash-strapped school districts, solar can mean a lot more money stays in the classroom. Roanoke City Public Schools in Virginia, for example, is installing nearly 9.4 megawatts (MW) of solar across 29 sites. The district estimates that solar alone will save it $46.5 million in energy costs over 35 years. “This report shows that school solar is no longer …

Sarawak orders two-day school closures as haze worsens, affecting around 200,000 students

Sarawak orders two-day school closures as haze worsens, affecting around 200,000 students

Published by Sam Flores

KUCHING: Sarawak authorities have ordered a two-day closure of 591 schools across 10 districts as haze conditions worsen in the East Malaysian state. The closure, which took effect on Thursday (Aug 20), affects primary and secondary schools in Kuching, Padawan, Bau, Lundu, Samarahan, Simunjan, Serian, Sri Aman, Lubok Antu and Betong, the Sarawak Education Department said in a statement on Facebook.  “The decision is a precautionary measure to protect the safety, health and welfare of students, particularly from the risk of exposure to unhealthy air,” said the Sarawak Education department.  A total of 197,323 students are affected, the department said – 107,590 students from 509 primary schools and 89,733 students from 82 secondary schools. Home-based teaching and learning will be implemented during the closure to ensure that the students’ learning remains uninterrupted, it added.  Further developments regarding the closure period and reopening of schools will be announced through official channels and respective district education offices, the department said.  It marks the second time this month that schools in Sarawak have been ordered to close due to the …