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EDUCATION

Copenhagen Uni seeks foreigners for ‘life under lockdown’ study

Copenhagen University is looking for foreigners living in Denmark for 'Where have all the people gone?', a sociological study on life under coronavirus lockdown.

Copenhagen Uni seeks foreigners for 'life under lockdown' study
An empty square in Copenhagen. Photo: Romina Forte Nerán

Séamus Power, Assistant professor of Sociology, generated the diary-like study to examine how people in Denmark are experiencing the life under the strict measures brought in on March 11. 

“These measures suddenly changed the daily lives for millions of Danes and raise an important question: How have the distancing regulations impacted social relationships, family life, well-being, and mental health?,” Power wrote in a page on the study. 
 

Anyone who wants to participate can apply here

 

 

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EDUCATION

Sweden’s Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

Sweden's opposition Social Democrats have called for a total ban on the establishment of new profit-making free schools, in a sign the party may be toughening its policies on profit-making in the welfare sector.

Sweden's Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

“We want the state to slam on the emergency brakes and bring in a ban on establishing [new schools],” the party’s leader, Magdalena Andersson, said at a press conference.

“We think the Swedish people should be making the decisions on the Swedish school system, and not big school corporations whose main driver is making a profit.” 

Almost a fifth of pupils in Sweden attend one of the country’s 3,900 primary and secondary “free schools”, first introduced in the country in the early 1990s. 

Even though three quarters of the schools are run by private companies on a for-profit basis, they are 100 percent state funded, with schools given money for each pupil. 

This system has come in for criticism in recent years, with profit-making schools blamed for increasing segregation, contributing to declining educational standards and for grade inflation. 

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Andersson called for a ban on the companies being able to distribute profits to their owners in the form of dividends, calling for all profits to be reinvested in the school system.  

READ ALSO: Sweden’s pioneering for-profit ‘free schools’ under fire 

Andersson said that the new ban on establishing free schools could be achieved by extending a law banning the establishment of religious free schools, brought in while they were in power, to cover all free schools. 

“It’s possible to use that legislation as a base and so develop this new law quite rapidly,” Andersson said, adding that this law would be the first step along the way to a total ban on profit-making schools in Sweden. 

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