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UNIVERSITY

Education agency knocks college rankings

Sweden’s National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket) has criticized the ranking of different universities and colleges, arguing the lists don’t help students pick the right school.

According to the agency, the rankings do very little to help students distinguish between the differences in quality between different institutes of higher learning.

At the request of the government, Högskoleverket is in the process of surveying various methods for ranking educational institutions.

In its findings, released in a statement on Tuesday, the agency contends that most rankings should not be considered as useful consumer information because they don’t provide students the guidance necessary to help them choose the best possible education.

The lack of clarity is especially pronounced when attempting to compare entire institutions.

“If the rankings are supposed to facilitate the students’ choice, they must contain information which is relevant and multi-faceted and which clearly shows the difference in quality,” said Anders Flodström, head of Högskoleverket, in a statement.

“Therefore it’s better to have multi-dimensional rankings, ideally interactive, where students can themselves choose which criteria are important and relevant for them.”

Higher education minister Lars Leijonborg has made previous public statements in support of rankings as a way to give students guidance in choosing where to study.

ISLAM

Police probe opened after poster campaign against ‘Islamophobic’ lecturers at French university

The French government condemned on Monday a student protest campaign targeting two university professors accused of Islamophobia, saying it could put the lecturers in danger.

Police probe opened after poster campaign against 'Islamophobic' lecturers at French university
Illustration photo: Justin Tallis/AFP

Student groups plastered posters last week on the walls of a leading political science faculty in Grenoble that likened the professors to “fascists” and named them both in a campaign backed by the UNEF student union.

Junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa said the posters and social media comments recalled the online harassment of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty last October, who was beheaded in public after being denounced online for offending Muslims.

“These are really odious acts after what happened with the decapitation of Samuel Paty who was smeared in the same way on social networks,” she said on the BFM news channel. “We can’t put up with this type of thing.”

“When something is viewed as racist or discriminatory, there’s a hierarchy where you can report these types of issues, which will speak to the professor and take action if anything is proven,” Schiappa said.

Sciences Po university, which runs the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Grenoble in eastern France, also condemned the campaign on Monday and has filed a criminal complaint.

An investigation has been opened into slander and property damage after the posters saying “Fascists in our lecture halls. Islamophobia kills” were found on the walls of the faculty.

One of the professors is in charge of a course called “Islam and Muslims in contemporary France” while the other is a lecturer in German who has taught at the faculty for 25 years.

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