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Quo Vadis Student Mobility? |
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bridges vol. 18, July 2008 / OpEds & Commentaries
by Florian Pecenka
Florian Pecenka
When we talk about student mobility in Europe, the first thought that often comes to mind is the EU's well-known student mobility program, Erasmus. This successful program supports students studying abroad - with a total of 31 European countries participating in it. The so-called Bologna process, an important facilitator of European student mobility, complements Erasmus by creating the European higher education area (EHEA) and making academic degree and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe.
This large-scale academic mobility of students and scholars raises issues such as the portability of grants and loans, and questions of how to deal with national social security and pension plans. These questions concern not only European policy makers but also researchers, mainly social scientists, who try to understand and explain the patterns that underlie various forms of mobility.
A conference was organized by the French Community in Belgium this May to bring together lawmakers and researchers dealing with mobility questions. The conference - Fostering student mobility: Next Steps? - was attended by about 150 delegates from government departments and higher education institutions, as well as from European and international inter- and non-governmental organizations. Together with the two key speakers, Ulrich Teichler from the International Center of Higher Education Research (INCHER) and Bernd Wächter from Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), the conference participants discussed different types of mobility to better understand their causes and consequences, especially the newest kid on the mobility block: asymmetric mobility.
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Austria Joins the European Southern Observatory – ad Astra per Aspera |
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bridges vol. 18, July 2008 / OpEds & Commentaries
by Rudof Albrecht, Paul Beck , Gernot Groemer, and Norbert Frischauf
 “Ad Astra per Aspera” – They say that the road to the stars is rough. This old Latin proverb could not be truer than for Austria’s long journey to finally accede to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in summer 2008. After the decision by the Austrian federal government to join ESO (on April 23, 2008), the ESO council also gave the green light on June 4, 2008. Now the only hurdle is the ratification by the Austrian parliament. When this ratification is complete, it will mark the successful ending of a 30-year-long astronomical zigzag course to join one – if not the – world-class astronomical organization.
At this point, we will stop for a moment and invite you join us in looking at this scientific thriller. We will do this from a variety of perspectives to shed light on the different questions, misunderstandings, and motivations that have emerged over the last 30 years. Our analysis will be three-dimensional, just like space is. With the help of an Austrian working at ESO, we will provide an inside-out perspective, trying to describe ESO in its fundamentals, what it does, and how it works. Next, we will add an outside-in viewpoint, offered by an Austrian astronomer who will describe why he considers the Austrian accession to ESO an important scientific step. And finally we will finish up by taking a look into the future, offered by an Austrian student who will realize his expectations as a student of astronomy.
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