“I first picked up on this one over four years ago in a rather dismissive post. It’s an exciting league table which aims to reflect the contributions of universities to educating the world’s top chief executives. Produced by the Ecole des Mines de Paris, or MINES ParisTech as they seem to prefer these days …” (more)
[Registrarism, 11 June]
“How does the French academic environment differ from the British, particularly for women? Each year a group of us convene at ESPCI (the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris in France) in the form of the International Scientific Committee (ISC) …” (more)
[Athene Donald's Blog, 26 November]
“A third of French universities are ‘illegally’ charging students for services that should be covered by statutory fees, claims Unef, France’s biggest student union. And students have criticised the new Minister for Higher Education and Research, Laurent Wauquiez, for his first ministerial decision – to raise their living costs …” (more)
[Jane Marshall, University World News, 24 July]
“A minimum of 1,500 teaching hours, programmes tailored to individual students and work experience for all students who want it are key features of the reformed licence, France’s three-year equivalent to the bachelor degree …” (more)
[University World News, 3 July]
“International rankings contributed significantly to the speeding up of France’s university reforms and paved the way for the French excellence initiative starting in 2010, according to university leaders. Professor Edouard Husson, Deputy Chancellor of the Universities of Paris and a former adviser to Higher Education and Research Minister Valérie Pécresse, said the ‘shock of the Shanghai rankings’ in 2003 generated the pre-conditions for changes …” (more)
[Jan Petter Myklebust, University World News, 29 May]
“The French National Assembly last night voted 73 to 33 to maintain the status quo of tight restrictions on human embryonic stem-cell (ESC) and embryo research. The regulations on such research are part of an ongoing revision of the country’s bioethics laws. The bill will now go before the Senate in June, and a final decision is expected by the end of the year …” (more)
[Declan Butler, The Great Beyond, 26 May]
“Valérie Pécresse, the minister for higher education and research of France, describes herself as ‘a prototype of the grande école’. Ms. Pécresse, born in the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, is the daughter of a prominent economist who taught at Université Paris Dauphine, a leading French business school, and now runs Bolloré Télécom. She studied law, first at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales and then at the École Nationale d’Administration …” (more)
[DD Guttenplan, New York Times, 22 May]
“French universities, long entirely dependent on the state for their finances, have set up 39 private foundations to receive donations, the country’s higher education minister, Valérie Pécresse, announced Wednesday. The initiative, made possible by a change to French law in 2007 giving universities more autonomy, is intended to allow donations from alumni and private individuals as well as from businesses …” (more)
[DD Guttenplan, New York Times, 18 April]
“The recent detention of a Sorbonne lecturer in the United Arab Emirates has rekindled the debate over the nature of academic freedom at Western institutions in the Persian Gulf region and the political impact those institutions, especially the high-profile new campus of New York University in Abu Dhabi, will have …” (more)
[David L Wheeler, Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 April]
“Valérie Pécresse, the French Minister for Higher Education and Research, visited Harvard University Monday to give a public lecture and question-and-answer session on ‘The New French University: An Opportunity to Cooperate with American Academics?’ …” (more)
[Derek Chang, The Tech, 15 April]
“The French Senate voted 8 April to explicitly allow research on embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and embryos, amending part of a bill revising the country’s bioethics law. The vote goes against the government’s original bill, passed by the parliament in a vote in February, which would have maintained the status quo of a partial ban on such research. The bill will now go to second readings in both parliament and the Senate over the coming year, so the final outcome remains unclear …” (more)
[Declan Butler, The Great Beyond, 11 April]
“More than 150 of the world’s foremost academics have intervened in a simmering row over the banning of debates on the Israel-Palestine question at one of France’s universities, calling the move a threat to free speech …” (more)
[Kim Willsher, Guardian, 21 March]
“According to Article 11 of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 16 August 1789, the right to free expression of ideas and opinion is one of the most precious human rights …” (more)
[Laurent Pech, EJIL: Talk!, 21 March]
“… But it’s hard to view the Mines ParisTech effort as anything but cynical. Yes, other global rankings have many shortcomings; there’s absolutely a case to be made that they don’t do justice to the strengths of certain French institutions, among others. Still, I don’t buy Mines ParisTech’s argument that it is simply engaging in the business-world equivalent of the academic honor-counting undertaken by the Shanghai rankers …” (more)
[Ben Wildavsky, Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 March]
“The attempted prosecution of Professor Joe Weiler by a disgruntled academic unhappy with a harsh book review has been dismissed by a French Court …” (more)
[William A Schabas, PhD studies in Human Rights, 5 March]
“On March 3, 2011, the Tribunal de Grand Instance de Paris issued its decision in the Criminal Libel Case brought against me based on a complaint by Dr Karine Calvo-Goller. It would appear that the Court ruled in our favor on all issues …” (more)
[EJIL: Talk!, 4 March]
“A journal editor who was sued in France for criminal libel because of a negative book review has won his case, he told The Chronicle today. Joseph HH Weiler, a professor of law at New York University, said that a French court had ruled against the complaint …” (more)
[Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 March]
“In a little more than a week, a court in Paris will decide whether a law professor in New York committed criminal libel by publishing a book review …” (more)
[Adam Liptak, New York Times, 21 February]
“The souvenir shops outside the Université Paris 1, also known as Panthéon-Sorbonne, have been hawking cheap ‘Paris University’ sweatshirts for years. In the coming weeks, though, the university itself will introduce its own official line of branded clothing, accessories and trinkets, and so join a growing number of French schools adopting one of the pillars of the American collegiate tradition: sales …” (more)
[Scott Sayare, New York Times, 20 February]
“My entire professional life has been in the law, but nothing had prepared me for this. I have been a tenured faculty member at the finest institutions, most recently Harvard and NYU. I have held visiting appointments from Florence to Singapore, from Melbourne to Jerusalem. I have acted as legal counsel to governments on four continents, handled cases before the highest jurisdictions and arbitrated the most complex disputes among economic ‘super powers’. Last week, for the first time I found myself in the dock …” (more)
[Joseph Weiler, EJIL: Talk!, 25 January]
