· December, 2012

Stories about Education from December, 2012

This December, Russia's Kids Aren't Alright

RuNet Echo  25 December 2012

As billions of people across the world awoke today to open gifts and be with their families, three of Russian Duma Deputy Sergei Zhelezniak's four daughters rolled out of bed to find that intimate photographs from their social network accounts had been published in a muckraking attack on their father. Navalny's decision to target Zhelezniak's children has split the RuNet into camps of supporters and critics.

Hungarian Students Call for Nationwide Strike

  18 December 2012

Hungarian high school and college students, who are demanding that the government set university admission quotas to a reasonable level and help those from lower income households to access higher education, are calling for a nationwide strike on Wednesday.

Minister Wert Sparks Humour on the Net

  15 December 2012

An article on online newspaper Núvol with the title “Send up #Wert” [ca] collects discussions, cartoons, jokes and word games inspired by statements and the education law reform proposed by Spanish Minister José Ignacio Wert.

Presenting the Balkan Minorities

  13 December 2012

Fifteen young journalists from six different countries have produced a series of personal stories about representatives of the minorities (in a broad sense) from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, and Macedonia. The stories are available in English, German, and French on the Face the Balkans website.

University in Benin Changes its Name after Equatoguinean Dictator

  12 December 2012

You can now call him Doctor Teodoro Obiang  Nguema Mbasogo. MyGab.Tv reports that [fr] the Univesité internationale du Bénin UPIB is now called Teodoro Obiang  Nguema Mbasogo University after the Equatoguinean dictator. Teodoro Obiang  Nguema Mbasogo has been the benefactor of many schools in Benin [fr] and has received a doctorate degree Honoris...

Reflections on Teaching in Portuguese in East Timor

  12 December 2012

Valdir Lamim-Guedes, a Brazilian biologist, who blogs at Na Raiz [pt], shared an article he published together with Carlos Junior Gontijo-Rosa on the Global Education Magazine about their experience as visiting professors at the National University of Timor-Leste in 2012, focusing on the challenges of teaching in Portuguese. Despite being one...

Chinese-American Children Left Behind in China

  12 December 2012

Left-behind children is a term to describe a special group of children who are left in rural areas while their parents work as migrant workers in big cities in China. However, in Fujian province in Southern China, there are about 10,000 left-behind foreign children whose parents are illegal immigrants to other...

China's Weibo Guru Kai-fu Lee Talks About Higher Education Issues

  11 December 2012

Prominent figure in Chinese internet sector Kai-Fu Lee pointed out the problems in China's higher education. He tweeted on Dec 10[zh], translation here: China doesn't need so many universities. In order to meet the high expectations of parents, schools have expanded the enrollment. Many private universities have developed too fast...

The Struggle of 15-Year-Old Hukou Protester in China

  10 December 2012

C. Custer from China Geeks told the story of a 15-year-old girl activist, Zhan Haite, who struggles against the unjust household registration system in China. Zhan may be an interesting example of what I might term the “dissidentification” of Chinese protesters. I have noticed and mentioned before how people frustrated...

Journalism and Technology Scholarships for U.S. Students

  7 December 2012

The Online News Association is accepting applications for the AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship, which awards six $20,000 scholarships for the 2013-14 academic year to undergrad and grad students doing great work in digital news. Deadline to apply is February 8, 2013.

Brazil: Humanities Students Claim Right to Study Abroad

  4 December 2012

The announcement to exclude the humanities in the new government notice outlying the official rules for application to the federal program to send Brazilian university students abroad, Ciência Sem Fronteiras (Science Without Borders), published November 20, 2012, infuriated a number of students who have created an online campaign to reverse the decision.