Welcome, listeners; I’m Shawn Brackett. Beginning today, the Daily Dose of Higher Education will transition to a summertime schedule as the Weekly Dose. You can count on us for the week’s news in higher education through the summer; we will return to the Daily Dose in September. In this week’s news,
“Politecnico di Milano to offer graduate coursework only in English starting 2014″
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120509174302914
Politecnico di Milano (Milan Polytechnic), an Italian institution of 37,000 students, has announced its intention to offer all coursework toward the Master of Science (M.Sc.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in English beginning in the 2014 academic year. The Rector and other administrators see this move as a critical step toward an internationalized institution with a common language to share research and in which to teach; the Ph.D. students association supports this move. However, nearly 300 faculty members have signed a petition calling the English-only approach “un-Italian” and “unconstitutional,” fearing a “linguistic dictatorship.”
“Federal judge weighs in on debate over ‘fair use’ in higher education”
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/14/court-rejects-many-publishers-arguments-e-reserves
A federal judge ruled on Friday in favor of Georgia State University regarding its use of various electronic materials for teaching and established a new “fair use” standard allowing 10% of a work to be distributed without violation. Several academic presses had filed suit alleging the university had violated the legal doctrine of “fair use” through its provision of electronic materials for class discussions and the availability of electronic reserves accessible to a variety of students. Judge Evans ordered the publishers to come back with proposed remedies for the five works out of ninety-nine that were found in violation of “fair use.”
And, to end our Weekly Dose on a high note,
“Custodian and student of 12 years graduates from Columbia University”
http://news.yahoo.com/ivy-league-school-janitor-graduates-honors-182936684.html
Gac Filipaj graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics. Gac is a full-time custodian at Columbia who began work in 1992 after leaving war-torn Yugoslavia (now Montenegro). He described the importance of his degree as following the “spirit in which I was educated in my family–not to look for fame and fortune, but to have a simple, honest, honorable life.”
That’s it for today! Have a good week and I’ll see you on the 21st.
