University of Minnesota hosts world’s largest medical devices conference

What: University of Minnesota’s Design of Medical Devices Conference
When: April 12-14, 2016
Where: The Commons Hotel, 615 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis and University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, Minneapolis
Medical device leaders from across the country in both industry and academia will converge at the University of Minnesota’s 15th annual Design of Medical Devices Conference April 12-14 at The Commons Hotel, 615 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis. The conference will address emerging trends related to medical device design, policy, engineering, education, and commercialization.
More than 1,300 people are expected to attend this year’s conference, making it the largest medical devices conference in the world. Additional walk-in registrations are welcome.
“The DMD conference continues to grow by all measures, illustrating the critical importance of medical devices and surrounding technologies, policies and clinical needs,” said Art Erdman, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor and conference co-chair. “Fifteen years ago we had a vision to establish an event where leaders from academia and industry would come together to share the latest issues in medical device design. This vision has become a successful reality and continues to exceed even our own expectations.”
The conference offers technical sessions on a wide variety of topics, including wearable medical devices, pharmaceutical delivery devices, robotics in health care, cybersecurity of medical devices, rehab technology, and much more. The third day of the conference will feature sessions on 3D-printed bionic and medical devices.
The conference also includes an interactive “A Heart to Learn” exhibit of real human hearts and two live clinical surgery cases that will be broadcasted from St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Penn. Lab tours will include the Interactive Visualization Lab, Medical Devices Center, Minnesota Nanotechnology Center and the Visible Heart Lab.
A scientific poster session will showcase more than 115 emerging topics in the areas of cardiovascular devices, nanotechnology, neuroengineering, surgical tools, orthopedics, computer modeling and simulation, urologic devices, human factors, rehabilitation, special devices, informatics and tissue engineering.
For a full list of speakers and workshops at the Design of Medical Devices Conference or to register, visit www.dmd.umn.edu.
The Design of Medical Devices Conference is presented by the University of Minnesota Medical Devices Center (part of the University’s Institute for Engineering in Medicine), the College of Science and Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Several corporations are also providing industry sponsorships including 3M, AccelLAB Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Computer Aided Technology, The Medical Alley Association, Medtronic, Inc., St Jude Medical, Institute for Engineering in Medicine, University of Minnesota and Ximedica.

Read More

Eindhoven University of Technology

Dutch students open world's first drone café

A flying drone bringing drinks to customers in the world's first drone cafe in Eindhoven, Netherlands
Photo: AFP

8

2

Published on Sunday, 24 April, 2016 at 16:15

Would you like a drone with your cocktail? The world's first café using the tiny domestic unmanned aircraft as servers has opened in a Dutch university.
The pop-up drone café will be serving up all weekend as part of celebrations for the "Dream and Dare" festival marking the 60th anniversary of the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The 20 students behind the project, who spent nine months developing and building the autonomous drone, aim to show how such small inside craft could become an essential part of modern daily life.
"It has potential as a useful tool for human kind. We see it as the next mobile phone. You choose and you programme it like you want," student and project leader Tessie Hartjes stated.
The drone, nicknamed Blue Jay, which resembles a small white flying saucer with a luminescent strip for eyes, flies to a table and hovers as it takes a client's order, who points to the list to signal what they would like.

More videos can be found on our video page
"The blue eyes of the first drone load" up by scanning the list to register the order, said Hartjes.
"Once it's fully loaded, then the order is ready. And another one comes with the order in a cup in the grip."
The café is offering four different alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails, which are either bright blue or green -- the same colour as the drone's "eyes."
The drinks are picked up and carried by a set of pinchers underneath the drone, in a bid to show that these aerial machines could be used to carry out delicate missions such as delivering medicines or even helping to track down burglars.

The Blue Jay is an intelligent bird that lives in complex, social environments  

Each drone has cost about 2,000 euros to build, in a project funded by the university which the students say aims "to give a glimpse of the future".
Thanks to sensors and a long battery life they can fly inside buildings and navigate crowded interiors, unlike other drones, which rely on a GPS system.
"The Blue Jay is an intelligent bird that lives in complex, social environments," the students say in a video presenting their work.
They believe the drone's applications could be endless: as extinguishers to put out fires, alarm systems to warn of intruders or mini-servants which would respond to commands such as "fetch me an apple."
"We believe that one day, domestic drones will be a part of society. One day, a drone could be a friend," says one of the students in the video presentation.

Get the latest news by signing up to our newsletter, following us on Facebook or Twitter.

8

2

Please note that the comments published on this site are carefully monitored and validated before publication by our staff. Saint-Paul Luxembourg will not be held responsible for comments and public reactions published by users on social networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.) relating to articles published on one of their websites.

Read More

Can a young university be a world-leading university?

Youth is not a bar to excellence, despite older institutions’ rankings success. Jack Grove analyses how some youthful contenders have risen in the ranks

March 31, 2016

Source: Alamy montage

---

When it comes to universities, students and academics alike tend to think that the older an institution is, the better it must be. But is that really true?
An analysis of the 800 institutions that feature in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016 suggests that it is – up to a point. Older universities do indeed tend to achieve a higher rank than newer institutions, and there is a weak correlation between the age of universities and both the citations they accrue and their performance on measures of teaching and research (especially their reputations in each). However, there is virtually no correlation between age and the other two main pillars of the rankings: industry links and internationalisation – except, in the latter case, a slight correlation between age and the proportion of internationally co-authored papers (see graphs, below).
Nor is it the case that the most ancient universities make up the most high-scoring demographic group. The 26 institutions in the rankings that are more than 600 years old include stellar performers such as the universities of Oxford (founded in 1096; second in the rankings) and Cambridge (1209; fourth), but also some relative underperformers such as Hungary’s University of Pécs (1367; in the 601-800 band).
In fact, it is the 20 universities between 500 and 600 years old that record the highest median overall score. These constitute a solid block of European powerhouses, among them Germany’s LMU Munich (founded in 1472; 29th), Belgium’s KU Leuven (1425; 35th) and Denmark’s University of Copenhagen (1479; joint 82nd).

---

The age distribution of top 800 universities

---

Another notable period for university foundation – especially when judged on the number of citations their modern incarnations accrue – was the 17th century. That group of 13 includes European top-100 institutions the University of Amsterdam (founded in 1632; 58th in the rankings), Utrecht University (1636; 62nd), the University of Helsinki (1640; joint 76th) and Lund University (1666; joint 90th). But the key factor is that this was the era in which American universities began to be founded: most notably, Harvard University (1636; sixth) and Yale University (1701; 12th). As there are just 13 institutions in the rankings that date from this period, these two institutions significantly skew the figures upwards – particularly if you look at means rather than medians.
The biggest wave of university establishment began in the 19th century: 278 universities in THE’s top 800 were created between 1817 and 1916 – almost seven times the number (42) established in the preceding 100 years. According to Michael Shattock, visiting professor in higher education at the UCL Institute of Education, it was primarily economic worries that drove the Victorian-era expansion. For instance, “people had come back to Britain from the Great Exhibitions in Paris [held between 1855 and 1900] saying: ‘We cannot match them in technology unless we start investing in education and our industrial base.’”
The epoch was one of the most fruitful periods in history for university foundation in terms of quality as well as quantity. Although the 278 institutions from that era in the THE World University Rankings have a lower overall median score than those founded in the 15th, 17th and 18th centuries, they considerably outpace every subsequent epoch. Many of the 19th-century institutions that perform particularly strongly are US state universities, often known as “land grant universities” after the vast swathes of land gifted to them by the 1862 Morrill Act, which was enacted shortly after the end of America’s Civil War, Shattock explains. That legacy guaranteed a degree of financial security and autonomy for the institutions – especially the University of Texas, whose 2 million acres of arid farmland turned out to be situated atop a massive oil and gas field that has yielded up to $1 billion (£705 million) annually in recent years.

Read More

Toyota And University Of Michigan To Expand World's Largest Real-World V2X Communications Test

As vehicles become more connected, cybersecurity is critical – (source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

Since 2012, Ann Arbor, Mich. has been the site of the world’s largest real-world test of vehicle-to-external (V2X) communications through the Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD) run by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). Toyota and UMTRI have just announced a significant expansion of that test program and opened it up to new participants.
V2X communications encompasses vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to everything else including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. The system uses a variant of the WiFi technology used in homes, businesses and mobile devices to transmit and receive short messages about position, speed, road conditions, traffic signals and driver activity such as emergency braking. The intent is provide real-time alerts about what is happening nearby that might not be within line-of-sight of the driver.
As semi and fully-autonomous vehicles are deployed in the coming years, V2X communications will also enable vehicles to communicate with each other about their intentions which should help avoid accidents like the recent collision between one of Google’s self-driving prototypes and a Mountain View, Calif. bus.
The original SPMD program in Ann Arbor was a three year test funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. More than 2,800 vehicles owned by residents of the Ann Arbor area were equipped with V2X communication devices and GPS sensors. In addition, traffic infrastructure in the northeast part of the city was equipped with similar radios. These devices transmitted position and speed data and were used to test and develop the communications protocols and security of the system as well as verify interoperability of equipment from several suppliers.
“As the original SPMD program wound up, we worked with our partners including Toyota to extend and expand the program,” said UMTRI spokeswoman

Read More

University rankings: QUT named among best in world

Queensland University of Technology has been named among the best young universities in the world by the prestigious Times Higher Education.
The list, which recognises universities less than 50 years old, ranked the top 150 universities in the world.

Queensland University of Technology has been named among the best young universities in the world. Photo: GLENN HUNT

QUT came in 28th place, making it the second-highest ranked university in Australia, narrowly beaten by the University of Technology in Sydney, which was ranked 21.
Times Higher Education editor Phil Baty said QUT's strong relationships with industry were a big part of its success in the rankings.
"I think the biggest factor pushing them in the rankings is they have really good industry links," he said.
"You get a really strong sense, as a tech uni, they are leveraging relationships with business and industry."

Advertisement

QUT's successful research and its international relationships also earned it accolades.
"They are doing work that has real-world applications that can be transferred out of the laboratory into the world," Mr Baty said.
"Plus also their international outlook - they are a globally facing university creating strong relationships outside Australia."
Other Queensland universities were also recognised in the list including James Cook University at 38 and Griffith University at 48.
Central Queensland University ranked outside the top 100 but within the top 150.
The Times Higher Education 150 Under 50 ranks universities against 13 performance indicators covering research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.
More than 10,000 senior academics from around the world are surveyed alongside the examination of more than 11 million research papers to assess research excellence.
Australia can boast of the second highest number of universities that made the list with 19 higher education facilities ranking among the top 150.
Mr Baty said Australia's performance in the rankings was impressive but also unsurprising.
"We have been producing this ranking for several years so we have been watching Australia getting stronger and stronger," Mr Baty said.
He said the diverse higher education institutions meant Australia was likely to continue performing well in worldwide rankings.
"The great strength is in the diversity in Australian education," he said.
"You have great universities in Melbourne that are older and the University of Queensland and the traditional older unis doing well but in Australia you also have universities from the '70s, '80s and beyond that are innovative and dynamic.
"They have a very strong international outlook, drawing in global talent, and have good relationships with the west but also with east Asian countries."
The highest-ranked young university in the world was École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
The rankings were announced at the Times Higher Education Young Universities Summit at Pompeu Fabra Univerisity in Barcelona, Spain, on Wednesday morning (AEST).
Next year Times Higher Education will bring the rankings announcement to Brisbane during a summit focusing on the strength of young universities to be held at QUT.

Read More

University of Notre Dame student wins the world moot comp Read more: http://www.afr.com/business/legal/university-of-notre-dame-student-wins-the-world-moot-comp-20160410-go2t83#ixzz46oUNiJj2 Follow us: @FinancialReview on Twitter | financialreview on Facebook

An Australian law student, Rebecca Lennard, 24, from the University of Notre Dame Australia, is a co-winner of the world's biggest commercial law moot, this year's Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.
Ms Lennard, who is completing her final year of a post-graduate Bachelor of Laws, tied for the Martin Domke Award for best speaker along with two  students from the Netherlands and United States. The competition brought 311 law schools together from across 67 countries.
It was the first time the university competed in the event which fosters study in international commercial and arbitration. Eleven other Australian universities also took part, among whom, University of Sydney reached the final eight teams and University of New South Wales and Monash University came among the final 16 teams.
Ms Lennard said she previously completed an undergraduate degree in international and global studies at Sydney University but chose to study law at Notre Dame for its more intimate student experience.

"The smaller class sizes means you get more time with the teachers, you get to know your peers better and the opportunities that come up are easier to take advantage of," Ms Lennard said.
This included mentoring programs that resulted in her tutelage by Geoffrey Watson, SC, and helped her land paralegal roles at two commercial firms before she gained a summer clerkship at Gilbert+Tobin which she just completed.
"In the legal industry, it's about getting the experience and meeting people who can help you get further experience, so it's been very valuable," she said.
A top level student, Ms Lennard said she participated in other extra-curricular activities to get her ahead in the search for graduate jobs especially given no one in her family was in the legal profession.

She was successful in obtaining a graduate position at Gilbert+Tobin.
Damian Sturzaker, the vice president of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Australia, which offers $1500 grants to participating universities to help support the teams,  said developing Sydney as an arbitration centre, required the fostering of local lawyers and this started at the law school level.
Mr Sturzaker said that along with the courts' continued encouragement of arbitration for commercial disputes, it was hoped that boosting Australia's profile would lead to more arbitrators seeking to develop their careers in the country rather than flock offshore for opportunities in top arbitration centres such as London, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Australia's distance from the major economic centres worked to its disadvantage but its stable judicial system and cost competitive practitioners could help change minds, he said.

The Notre Dame team were coached by lecturer Svetlana German and Angus Macinnis of commercial boutique StevensVuaran Lawyers.
Dean of Notre Dame Law School professor Michael Quinlan said alternative dispute resolution had always been part of the  university's law course and, while arbitration had not been something other law schools focused on in the past, they were now including it in their curriculums.
Professor Quinlan said the university admitted no more than 120 students a year for its law degree compared to up to 700 a year at top schools which gave students a more interactive experience in education.
"Students are better able to engage in dialogue in the course of classes. It's important students learn not only to analyse the law but also interpersonal skills, competence in public speaking, mediation to be successful as a practising lawyer," he sai

Read More

University Says Rainbow-Hued Nooses Were Part of Art Display

Six nooses arranged in the colors of the rainbow were part of an art display for a sculpture class at a Tennessee university and were not intended to be a political statement or hate symbol, officials said Tuesday.

Austin Peay State University President Alisa White told students at a forum that the FBI had interviewed the unnamed student and her art teacher and found no malicious intent with the project.

The nooses were hung from a tree near the art building at the Clarksville campus Monday afternoon. Campus police removed them after a complaint.

The art student issued a statement Tuesday saying the display was meant to invoke the cycle of death and rebirth represented by springtime. Before the statement, speculation about the meaning of the nooses had been rampant, with some students saying they were a statement about the high suicide rate among lesbian and gay youth and others assuming they were meant as a threat against African-Americans.

Even after the statement, some students at the community forum were skeptical that anyone would not know nooses would invoke slavery, segregation and lynching — rather than springtime — for many people.

"We all have taken history in high school," student Tony Morris said at the forum. "How could anyone be unaware that would be offensive to people?"

At the University of Mississippi recently, one student was sentenced to six months in prison and another has yet to be sentenced after they placed a noose on a statue of the school's first black student. They both pleaded guilty to intimidating black students and university employees.

A student who left a noose hanging from a tree at Duke University last year was disciplined but allowed to return to campus and not charged criminally. Duke said that noose was left as a result of ignorance and bad judgment.

At the Austin Peay forum, several students asked why the art student wasn't punished.

White said she hopes the issue helps foster a discussion that will ultimately make the university better, with the art student and others "thinking more deeply about what we say before we say it."

Student Shawn'na Darden said she was disappointed in the forum. She wished the art student had been present "to see how we were affected."

The statement from the student reads: "I did not take into consideration that nooses are a racially charged symbol, for that I am sorry. I cannot apologize enough for the pain that my art work has caused, it was certainly not my intention."

Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee Conference of the NAACP, said in a phone interview that black Clarksville police officers sued the city a few years ago over acts of discrimination that included a noose hung in a workstation at police headquarters.

"I'm deeply disturbed that you would even think of doing this in a racially charged U.S., with the climate that we've got, that you would even use that as an art project," she said.

Read More

University of Chicago, AbbVie sign cancer research deal

Leukemia patients got a ray of hope last week when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug that targets a subset of leukemia patients with a genetic abnormality that makes the cancer harder to treat.

Venclexta, which could help up to 1,500 patients a year in their fight against cancer, was developed in part by North Chicago-based AbbVie — but is based on research done 25 years ago at the University of Chicago.

Now a new collaboration between the pharmaceutical giant and the Hyde Park school aims to repeat that success, and to shrink the timeline between cutting-edge academic research and patients getting their hands on useful drugs.

Under the deal, AbbVie will pay an undisclosed amount to bankroll collaboration on cancer research at the university over the next five years and will have an exclusive option to license some of the university's discoveries.

Promoted stories from PoliticsChatter.com

Politicians who served time

19 things to know about FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly

Happy 420: 18 politicians who have used marijuana

Alan Thomas, associate vice president of the University of Chicago and director of its tech business development arm, UChicagoTech, said the quarter-century development time of Venclexta is "an example of something we'd like to speed up by a factor of two or three" under the new deal.

While universities have long worked with drugmakers, in the past the informal ties between them meant many opportunities weren't taken advantage of as quickly as they might have been, he said, describing the deal whereby university researchers will work with the hundreds of AbbVie scientists as unprecedented for the U. of C.

FDA approves drug for tough-to-treat type of leukemia

Dr. Gary Gordon, vice president of AbbVie's clinical oncology department, said the deal gives AbbVie coveted access to patients for clinical trials and allows both AbbVie and the university to focus on their strengths. While the university excels at groundbreaking research, AbbVie scientists specialize in developing a drug to the point at which it can be brought to market, he said.

"We've had these stellar academic institutions in our backyard in the Chicago area for years and the question for us was, how can we work with them?" he said, adding that he hopes that cooperation between AbbVie and the university will eventually extend beyond the oncology department.

A committee of three AbbVie executives and three university leaders will consider which research projects proposed by faculty to fund, under the deal. Thomas scoffed at the idea that the deal would turn the school into the private research wing of AbbVie, or would skew the goals of its researchers.

"If you've ever worked with faculty, you'll know they have no interest in things they're not interested in!" he said. While AbbVie will retain the intellectual property rights for any of the drugs it developed that are studied under the deal, "if the university invents it, the university owns it," he said, adding that the school was "scrupulous about not compromising its publishing rate" and would not delay sharing its findings to benefit AbbVie.

AbbVie previously has announced similar deals with Yale and the University of Texas to study autoimmunity, and with Science Foundation Ireland, which it funded to do research into Crohn's disease.

Read More

University Professor Mauled by a Brown Bear While Teaching

Students and teaching assistants have arrived back in Juneau from a remote mountaineering class that was cut short when one of their professors was mauled by a brown bear.

They said Tuesday night that they were tired and not yet ready to talk about Forest Wagner, 35, who was teaching the class on Mount Emmerich near Haines when he was attacked by the brown bear sow on Monday. The mountain is near Kicking Horse River in Alaska's panhandle.

A student hiked into cellphone range on the mountain and called Haines police, who reported it to the Alaska State Troopers. Haines police would not comment on the incident.

Initial reports were that Wagner had extensive injuries to his leg, according to a police report shared with the Washington Post.

Wagner arrived in Anchorage in critical condition, but he was later upgraded to serious condition on Tuesday. A hospital spokesman said he would not give interviews.

Wagner has been coordinating and teaching in the university's outdoor studies program since 2006, according to his biography. He teaches rock and ice climbing, backcountry navigation, glacier travel and mountaineering.

It took several hours to get Wagner from the mountain to the hospital. Troopers reported that they were called just before noon, but Wagner didn't arrive at the Providence Alaska Medical Center until after 4 p.m. Wagner was transferred between two helicopters and first reported to be headed to Juneau before he was taken to Anchorage. Haines is about 90 miles north of Juneau and more than 500 miles from Anchorage.

Troopers' spokeswoman Megan Peters said the delay is unavoidable when dealing with accidents in rural Alaska. In this case, a student had to hike down the mountain, then two troopers in Haines contracted with a helicopter company from Juneau that was used to take Wagner down into Haines to a waiting medical helicopter.

"People are used to being in urban places where it takes a matter of minutes to get that help," Peters said.

Troopers coordinated a helicopter rescue into Haines on Monday. None of the students were injured. They were, however, evacuated from the mountain. The bear, which had cubs, was spotted about 200 yards from the helicopter, and a trooper had to hike back in to provide security, according to the report shared with the Post. Bear sows can become aggressive if they think their cubs are in danger, experts say.

The group of 11 students spent the night in Haines with University of Alaska Southeast professor Kevin Krein, Bausler said. Krein did not return messages seeking comment on the situation.

Through a university spokeswoman, Krein told the Post that he was proud of the students and that they had applied their medical and wilderness training during the situation.

Details about the specifics of the attack had not yet emerged, Peters said.

"From what it sounds like, they were spread out," Peters said. "I don't know if anybody actually witnessed the mauling except for the person that was mauled."

Juneau is about 90 miles south of Haines and can only be reached from the capital city by boat or plane. The ferry takes about four hours to travel between the two locations.

University Chancellor Rick Caulfield was waiting at the Juneau ferry terminal when the students arrived late Tuesday evening.

He said administrators would make sure the students got counseling if they needed it. Students also would be able to take their end-of-semester finals which are scheduled to begin next week, Caulfield said.

Meanwhile, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist was seeking information on the attack and planned to interview the students upon their return to Juneau, spokesman Ken Marsh said.

Wagner is the second man attacked by a bear in Alaska within days. A 77-year-old bear hunter is recovering at an Anchorage hospital from injuries he suffered when a grizzly mauled him in interior Alaska on Friday.

Read More

Brigham Young University under fire for disciplining sexual assault victim for ‘honor code’ breach

Students at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are accusing administrators of using its strict code of conduct against sexual assault victims.

The Mormon school is the largest religious university in America, and its students must adhere to a rigid “Honor Code” that mandates living a “chaste and virtuous life,” “clean language” and abstaining from alcohol and coffee, among other things.

In other words, premarital sex is not allowed.

The honor code has long been an essential part of campus life, but some students say that disciplinary procedures surrounding the regulations can keep sexual assault victims silent.

Madi Barney, 20, told the Huffington Post and the Salt Lake Tribune that she filed a Title IX complaint against BYU with the Department of Education on Monday.

The suit alleges that BYU put Barney on academic hold after they learned that she reported an off-campus rape to the local police in September.

Her accused rapist, 39-year-old, Nasir Seidu, has been charged with undressing her and partaking in sexual intercourse without Barney’s consent. He has told police the sex was consensual.

The Washington Post does not generally identify victims of sexual offenses, but the individual in this case has chosen to go public with her story.

According to HuffPo, Utah County Deputy Sheriff Edwin Randolph, a former women’s track coach at the school, then passed the incident’s police file on to the university, which proceeded to launch an Honor Code investigation against Barney.

“We have received information that you have been a victim of behavior that is addressed in the university Sexual Misconduct Policy,” a BYU Title IX coordinator wrote to Barney, the Tribune reported. “We have also received information that you have engaged in behavior that violates the BYU Honor Code.”

Barney’s attorney advised her not to partake in the honor code investigation because it could impact her criminal case. When she refused the school’s request, Barney said, BYU blocked her from both registering and withdrawing from classes.

“Dealing with this hostile environment has been upsetting, re-victimizing, and discouraging, to say the least,” Barney wrote on a petition with more than 87,000 signatures. “It’s clear to me that BYU is not on my side.”

Her petition calls on BYU to give immunity to sexual assault victims so that they can come forward about their experiences without fear that it will prompt a separate investigation into their own behavior.

Other students spoke to the Tribune about similar encounters with the Honor Code Office.

“My case is not unique,” Barney wrote on her petition page. “Women have been put on probation and even kicked out of school for circumstances of their rapes and sexual assaults.”

She said she initially hesitated to report her rape because she feared that it would threaten her standing at BYU.

In statement on Tuesday, BYU President Kevin Worthen recognized the “inherent tension” between the school’s Title IX and Honor Code policies.

“A victim of a sexual assault will never be referred to the Honor Code Office for being a victim of sexual assault,” Worthen said. “Sometimes in the course of an investigation, facts come to light that a victim has engaged in prior Honor Code violations.”

Read More

Edinburgh University staff are now under surveillance, thanks to the Home Office

Another British university has been revealed as a mini GDR. And this time it’s not the fault of those speech-policing students’ unions. The University of Edinburgh – which recently hit headlines after its students association banned head-shaking – has been slammed for an Orwellian new practice designed to keep tabs on its staff.

Under a new scheme, reported in Times Higher Education, university staff will be required to report their whereabouts ‘when officially at work, but not in their normal place of work’. The provisions, originally meant to apply only to staff from outside the EU, have been extended to all 13,000 employees, in an effort to ensure they are applied in a ‘fair and proportionate’ manner. One staff member toldTHE that he was disappointed the reporting policy would ‘even apply when staff are visiting different parts of the university campus, such as the library or a colleague’s office’.

At first glance, this bizarre plan sounds like the brainchild of the sort of petty bureaucrats and form-fillers who have colonised modern academic life. But, in fact, this is the work of the UK Home Office. Under the conditions of Tier 2 and Tier 5 working visas, universities are required to put in place reporting mechanisms to monitor non-EU staff. Though the university’s decision to roll out this scheme to all staff was unique – the invasiveness of these restrictions was not.

In recent years, foreign-born academics in the UK have faced an increasingly precarious existence. Not only do many of them work on short-term, or even zero-hour, contracts, but attaining a working visa in the first place has become increasingly tricky. They have to go through lengthy and costly application processes – which they are often required to complete in their home country. This makes applying for stable, long-term work incredibly difficult. Even when foreign applicants are successful, their jobs still have to be advertised to EU applicants.

UK academia is an international business. According to HEFCE, as much as a quarter of UK academics are foreign-born. International students’ tuition fees, for which universities can more or less charge what they like, account for around an eighth of universities’ income. Universities minister Jo Johnson intends to increase education exportsto £30 billion by 2020, and yet the UK is becoming more and more hostile to those looking to study here.

The prospect for international students under the current government is particularly bleak. In 2012, the Home Office scrapped the post-study work visa, and since then the fetters have only tightened. Last year, Theresa May announced a suite of new conditions, including restrictions on international students doing low-skilled work during their studies, a hike in the amount of money they must have saved up before they arrive and a new tougher approach to those who ‘abuse’ the system.

May initiated a crackdown on student visas in 2014, after a Panorama report uncovered a scam at a single East London college – foreign students were being sold English-language qualifications, a requirement of their visa, off the shelf. As a result, as many as 19,000 foreign students were rounded up and deported on the suspicion that they, too, had cheated. But it was soon revealed that May had almost no evidence, other than the fact these students all took the same test.

At an immigration tribunal last month, two students, who had been subject to dawn raids and more or less treated like jihadists by the UK Border Agency, won an appeal, opening the door for thousands more to contest the Home Office’s decision. One of the appellants, Pakistani-born Ihsan Qadir, was praised by the tribunal for his ‘careful, pensive’ manner and ‘intelligible’ response to questioning. Clearly his English wasn’t all that bad.

International students and academics have found themselves caught between two key government pledges: to boost growth and to reduce immigration. They’ve become a political football, and in the ensuing kickabout between Osborne, Johnson and May, international scholars are being rinsed for all their worth, while their rights are being curtailed again and again.

Higher education is about the free flow of ideas – about a global process of producing and renewing knowledge. Edging out outsiders will only clip the horizons of the UK academy. But, more profoundly, anyone coming to work and live in a free society should not expect to be submitted to surveillance, extortion and deportation even when they do exactly as their told.

This is a species of campus authoritarianism we need to reckon with.

Read More