The National Education Council has locked horns with the Constitutional Court, which, on May 22, ruled to suspend sex education classes in primary and secondary schools citing “procedural errors” in the preparation of teaching materials.

According to the court, the government should have consulted parents’ groups before including the new course modules in the curriculum. In contrast, the Education Council insists that parents should not have power of decision over what is taught in schools and that the state should defend its values, which take precedence over the interests of private individuals.

Jutarnji List notes that the court was unusually quick to respond to a submission from parents’ associations closely linked to the Catholic Church, which, according to the daily, is evidence of the power of a “conservative wave” backed by the Church. In a parallel development, groups closely associated with the Church are petitioning for a referendum to include a restrictive definition of marriage as ‘the union of a man and a woman’ in the country’s constitution. They have already gathered close to 400,000 signatures.

Czech President Miloš Zeman has provoked a storm of criticism from academics, politicians and journalists by refusing a request from Charles University in Prague to confer the title of professor on literary historian Martin C. Putna.

The head of state has said that he has doubts about promoting the popular author of Homosexuality and Catholicism, because of his liberal opinions and participation in the Prague Pride gay parade.

“The president’s role in university appointments is a purely ceremonial one. The ritual signing of decrees [...] is a legacy of the Austro-Hungarian empire,” points out Lidové noviny, which believes that Zeman has exceeded his mandate.

Public school teachers staged a strike on May 9 in protest of reforms proposed by Education Minister José Ignacio Wert, which were to be presented in Friday’s weekly cabinet meeting but have been postponed. Organisers claim 72 per cent of teachers and 90 per cent of students joined the protest, but the government says there was only a 20 per cent turnout. In its editorial, El Pais says there was “no consensus” and that “a reform so roundly rejected should not be imposed.” The reforms would impose an estimated €6.7bn in spending cuts.

On February 11, Hungary’s universities were hit by several student demonstrations and sit-ins. The students are protesting against a government plan to amend the constitution so that recipients of public university funding will be obliged to stay in Hungary after they graduate or to reimburse the Hungarian state.

On the same day, several thousand people gathered in front of the parliament building in Budapest to demand the reform of the country’s labour law, which obliges the unemployed and inactive to engage in community service under harsh and degrading conditions.

“The EU has been cut from the National Curriculum amid fears that current lessons are effectively biased towards European integration,” thunders The Daily Telegraph on its front page following news that the UK’s geography education syllabus has dropped all references to the economic and political bloc. The document replaces the curriculum introduced under the previous Labour government in which primary and secondary school pupils were required to study the EU. The daily reports that Whitehall officials believe that as the Union is a political and economic group, it is should not be included in geography classes.

New history and citizenship syllabuses make reference to the UK’s relationship with Europe but make no mention of the EU itself. The disclosure is likely to delight Conservative Eurosceptics just weeks after David Cameron promised an in/out referendum on Europe if the Tories win the next general election.

It is well established that Asian schools get better results than their European counterparts. Now, however, data from two surveys, PIRLS 2011 and TIMSS 2011, published by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) on December 11, indicate that the gap between the two continents is widening. TIMSS evaluated the mathematical ability of 600,000 eight-year-olds in 63 countries, while PIRLS examined the reading skills of 300,000 nine and ten-year-olds in 49 countries. The TIMSS ranking is dominated by schoolchildren in Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong. In the PIRLS ranking, the top three places are occupied by Hong Kong, the Russian Federation and Finland. In their commentary on the results, newspapers in several countries voiced their disappointment.

Remarking on the poor performance of Spanish students, who scored below the EU average, La Vanguardia leads with a headline on “stagnation and mediocrity” in Spanish education. The Catalan daily goes on to point out that what is “most worrying” is that the results show “stagnation, or even decline in the skills of our schoolchildren.”

In the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad notes –

Over the last four years, the slide in Dutch students’ scores in languages and mathematics has abated. The fact that the Netherlands slipped in the rankings was due to the improved results posted by other countries. The survey showed that among all of the countries, the Netherlands has the best record of helping students with learning difficulties to acquire adequate skills. The downside is that the Netherlands has hardly any top performing students.

In its commentary, the Dutch newspaper takes issue with the “dominant trend for elitism” that disregards the fact that “poor students obtain relatively good results while [noting that] those of the best students are proportionally bad.”

The issue of elitism also features in German schools, with Tageszeitung criticising the country’s education system for not being a “shining example of fairness”. The left-wing daily goes on to point out that –

Children from deprived families are less likely to attend schools that prepare them for university than the children of parents who have completed higher studies. In recent years, children from backgrounds that are supposedly ‘distant’ from ‘education’ have had to contend with obstacles that are increasingly difficult to overcome. They are required to do much better than their classmates from the cultivated bourgeoisie to convince their teachers that they are capable of meeting the challenge of university.

“EU runs out of funding for Erasmus grants,” writes La Vanguardia. Brussels is said to have called on contributions from member states to save the successful student exchange programme, as well as other projects such as the European Social Fund, European Structural Funds and research programmes, imbursements for which are made in the final months of the year. The Barcelona daily notes that Brussels –

... has defended the symbolic cause of Erasmus in its battle with EU capitals and MEPs, drawing their attention to the problems implied by past and future cuts, especially in those countries with economic problems such as Spain, whose universities are the first for incoming EU students on grants.

Quoted by EUbusiness.com, Alain Lamassoure, head of the European Parliament budget committee, has warned that –

... the European Social Fund is bankrupt and cannot refund member states. Next week it will be Erasmus, the student programme; at the end of the month, the Research and Innovation Fund.

Lamassoure estimates the deficits at €10 billion, which makes it likely in the coming weeks that Budget Comissioner Janusz Lewandowski will ask member states for “several billion euros” extra to close the gap, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Although the European Commission has not confirmed the figures given by Lamassoure, La Vanguardia announces that a “substantial” modification to the budget will be passed on October 23 to avoid a "cessation of payments". Meanwhile, the Commission has already provided €420 million to pay the most urgent bills. According to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, it is highly unlikely that member states will assign the extra funds, as the problems faced by EU social programmes are caused by austerity measures running at 4 billion euros this year, introduced by the net contributors to the EU budget.

“Romania today sends to school a new generation of astronauts, of pilots and of every other profession one dreams of at 6-7 years old,” says Romanian newspaper Jurnalul Naţional in an editorial. “But beyond the 3 million children starting a new school year, the Ministry of Education is innovating by putting an end to a lie,” the Bucharest daily says. Thus, this year, “middle school (as of 11) will be extended by a year and high school (as of 15) will last three years instead of four,” the paper adds. “These changes show that the State has drawn the lessons from the disaster of the 2011 baccalaureate exams [more than half of the candidates failed] and will: monitor the presence of students and teachers; require the singing of the national anthem; introduce spelling classes in middle and high school to address the lack of comprehension of Romanian students,” the paper says, adding, “because all the exams have proved that the average Romanian student can read but doesn’t understand!”

“The children of middle class migrants are fleeing mixed schools in massive numbers,” reports De Morgen. According to the Brussels daily, the exodus has been prompted by “Moroccans who do not want their children in the same class as East Europeans.” For Antwerp University professor Paul Mahieu, who studies segregation in primary education, schools are faced with a “black flight” that is comparable to the more well known  phenomenon of “white flight,” in which parents from the indigenous population withdraw their children from schools with a large proportion of students from foreign backgrounds.

“The flight mechanism” is triggered when the threshold of 30% students from foreign backgrounds is exceeded, and this threshold is 50% for the parents of allochtoons,” explains Paul Mahieu. The researcher believes that the issue is first and foremost a psychological one, because “parents are convinced that teaching is of a higher standard in schools with a high proportion of students from the indigenous population.” He further warns that the phenomenon of flight from schools, which is set to continue, could contribute to social problems. For its part, De Morgen argues that “diversity” in schools does not necessarily amount to a problem. “If we believe that education should act as a driving force in social mobility, schools with a socio-economic mix will continue to be necessary."

"The true worth of the Google generation: academic disaster," headlines Evenimentul zilei. The Romanian daily reports that half the students who sat the state exam at the end of their secondary education have failed it -- some 100,000 pupils. "Who is to blame?" asks the paper, going on to nominate in equal part the education ministry, teachers and the pupils themselves.

Parents have objected to excessively difficult topics, but have also complained about 'police-style' test conditions after video cameras were installed in all examination rooms. According to teachers, "the level of aptitude among pupils has dramatically dropped over the past five years": they blame changing values, claiming that the new generation overlooks critically important things such as the satisfaction of learning. School inspectors, meanwhile, say that the results reflect the low level of exam preparation among students.

“Value of Inholland degrees questioned,” headlines Volkskrant in the wake of revelations that the Inholland University of Applied Sciences has distributed degrees to students who failed to meet required standards. In a report published on April 28, education inspectors have pointed out that four out of five training programmes (including communications and mechanical engineering courses) investigated at Inholland were not up to scratch. The programmes in question offered “alternative end-of-study paths” that allowed students to obtain credits recognised by the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) for work done at home, instead of standard exams. The newspaper also reports that “the level of four of the Inholland programmes was alarmingly low.” The Secretary of state for Education, Halbe Zijlstra, has announced that Inholland and other universities will now be subject to stricter controls, and institutions failing to meet standards will face fines.

“Who wants a laptop?” asks Gazeta Wyborcza. On its front page, the Polish daily reports on a government plan to provide all first-year primary school pupils (some 350,000 are expected to start school in September) with netbooks. The project, which aims “at evening out educational opportunities for children in small towns and villages and preventing digital exclusion” could cost the budget as much as one billion zlotys (approximately 250 million euros). A previous plan announced in 2008 by Prime Minister Donald Tusk had promised a ‘computing revolution’ and a PC for every high school student, but soon after it was launched the project was canceled amid the world economic crisis. The daily wonders if the new initiative could suffer the same fate, and notes that this time around, a significant proportion of the funds will be sourced from mobile phone providers who will have to pay the state some 900 million euros for 3G license fees by 2020. However, estimates from the Polish infrastructure ministry show that over 90% of families with school children have at least one computer at home. “So perhaps the main problem is not a lack of computers but the lack of Internet access, concludes the Warsaw daily.

Increasing numbers of foreign students are “coming to Slovakia to pick up a title” of doctor, reports SME. The Bratislava daily explains that around ten percent of the students in the country are foreigners, with specialisation by nationality: Germans study management, Czechs law, Austrians economics, and the Poles theology. The Germans are the most numerous. Most are writing their thesis from a distance and paying between three and five thousand euros for an annual course, which is a good source of income for Slovak universities. In a hard-hitting op-ed piece entitled “Academic Prostitution,” SME criticises the ease with which a postgraduate degree can be picked up in Slovakia, where it’s possible to buy one’s exams. “Some countries are geared to sex tourism; Slovakia is becoming a popular stop for those who would obtain satisfaction with an additional title."

“The new plan: schools to train pupils to succeed in competition with Chinese,” announces Mladá Fronta DNES. The Czech National Economic Council (NERV) has presented recommendations for a new education system designed to make future members of the Czech labour force capable of outranking  their rivals in China and South Korea, writes the Prague daily. The emphasis will be on a better knowledge of one single foreign language, English, as well as information technology, mathematics and a basic understanding of finance. “The government is preparing to change the education system as quickly as possible,” notes the newspaper. “The first generation to face global competition is now enrolling in schools,” remarks an economist quoted by the newspaper, who points out that education is an “absolute priority” in Asia.

“The government accepts the possibility of “black” schools,” a Dutch expression denoting schools where a majority of the students are from immigrant backgrounds, reports Volkskrant. In an interview with the daily, Education Minister Marja van Bijsterveldt explains that the fight to promote ethnic diversity in schools will no longer be a priority. As it stands, certain Dutch municipal authorities oblige parents to send their children to local schools, a measure that is designed to ensure racial integration in the classroom. The Christian-democrat minister insists that the main priority will now be the “the quality of teaching, which is more important than than the fact that a child is enrolled in a black or white school” – a position, which Volkskrant notes marks a “significant shift” in multicultural policy in the Netherlands.

“One in ten schoolboys has difficulty reading,” reports Aamulehti. In the wake of the publication of the OECD’s PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) survey of 15-year-olds’ education performance, the daily highlights disappointing results for Finland. While it remains the top-ranked EU member state, “(t)he 10% of boys with literacy issues will have trouble finding jobs,” remarks Aamulehti, noting that the country’s overall score is lower than the previous survey of 2000. “Finland’s success in the PISA rankings is due to the high performance of schoolgirls, 20% of whom demonstrate excellent reading and writing skills, as opposed to 10% of boys,” adds the newspaper.

"Green light to reform, universities in revolt," headlines La Repubblica after the lower chamber approved the law named after Education minister Maria Stella Gelmini that introduces new recruiting rules, including temporary contracts for researchers, aimed at making the system more meritocratic. On November 30 students marched in almost every university city in Italy, blocking motorways and railways stations, with further protests being held by Erasmus fellows across Europe. Opposition parties backed their claims that the bill will cripple education and research. However, Irene Tinagli in La Stampa argues that "the reforms won't hurt universities, but lack of funds will. The battle against cuts is another fight altogether and should not be used as a political football".

“This is just the beginning,” headlines the Guardian, after more than fifty thousand students marched in the UK capital on 10 November to protest the tripling of tuition fees to as high as £9,000 (€10,572) along with 40% cuts to university teaching budgets. The protest, “by far the largest and most dramatic yet in response to the government's austerity measures,” spiralled out of control as a group of protestors stormed Conservative party HQ. “Demonstrators shattered windows and waved anarchist flags from the roof of the building, while masked activists traded punches with police to chants of ‘Tory scum’” – an expression that harks back to the bitter protests of the Thatcher years. Writing in the London daily, a university lecturer argues “This protest – in both its peaceful and more violent dimensions – is a sign of a country unafraid to fight back, for the first time in a long time.”

"Change of course for K. U.Leuven,” headlines De Standaard. The Brussels daily reports that the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, one of Europe’s oldest universities, is planning to drop the “Katholieke” (Catholic) from its name. The management of K. U.Leuven wants to distance the institution from the numerous paedophile scandals that have tarnished the reputation of the Catholic Church, and also the Vatican’s stance on scientific ethics, which was highlighted by its criticism of the most recent Nobel prize for medicine. "The Catholic message is not appropriate for the university," explains K. U.Leuven rector Mark Waer, who points out that "a fifth of the students at the institution are foreigners." They need to know that "the Vatican has no influence on the management of the university," which plans to play an important role in genetic research.

“Non. Nein. No – The language crisis in British schools,” leads the Independent. For the first time ever, the London daily reveals, “French has slipped out of the top 10 of the most popular subjects at GCSE” (the General Certificate of Second Education, generally taken at the age of sixteen). Only one in four youngsters now take French, a drop from 341,604 students in 2002 to 177,618. In the same period German slumped nearly 50% from 130,976 to 70,619. “The decline in languages began at the beginning of the decade and accelerated as a result of the Government's decision to make the subject voluntary for 14- to 16-year-olds,” the Independent notes. The only postitive trend is an increased interest in Spanish – which is now taking over from German as the second-most popular language (after French) in schools. 

"Halt education chaos!"  headlines Der Spiegel, pleading for a unified educational system. The Hamburg weekly argues that Germany, which has as many education systems as federal states (16), is bogged down in educational idiosyncrasies that are imperilling its most important resources: brains and expertise. Between secondary education in Bavaria, eternally top of the list, and Berlin (15th place), teacher training, as well as the quality, content and duration of classes, fluctuate wildly. Result: parents living in poorly-rated states send their children to more highly-reputed ones, or pay for private schools.

Germany, Switzerland and Austria are “battling over schoolteachers”, headlines Die Presse, alarmed at dwindling numbers of teachers in all three countries. By 2025 about half of the state school teachers will be retiring – “and there’s no telling whether sufficient replacements can be found". The reason: meagre entry-level pay is impelling more and more rookie teachers to seek private-school posts. So Berlin, Berne and Vienna are vying for fresh graduates from neighbouring countries: hence the pedagogical brain drain from Austria, where, as the Viennese daily points out, starting salaries are rock bottom.

Could the European Higher Education Area reach the New World? El País reports on initiatives ongoing since 2005 to extend the Bologna process’ goals of student and teacher mobility to Latin America. “The process has been slow and difficult,” notes the Madrid daily. As a former Chilean minister of education explains, the notion of a common space for Latin America’s diverse and autonomous university systems was previously "unthinkable”. The project, however, is now receiving a boost with the III Rectors Meeting organised by Universia [a project financed by Santander bank] in Guadalajara, Mexico. Its aim is to create a European-Latin American Erasmus programme, which recognises parity between, and convergence of, educational structures on both continents.

"The court of Justice of the European Union (CJUE) approves quotas for foreign university students," headlines Der Standard. In response to a request from the constitutional court in Belgium, where the law stipulates that no more than 30% of students studying in the country may be of foreign origin, the Luxembourg based CJUE has upheld the right of national governments to establish quotas. Le Soir notes that the ruling, which took due note of the principles of the right to higher education, non-discrimination, and the free circulation of students, nonetheless acknowledges Belgium's right to establish quotas to prevent an influx of students that will reduce the quality of university education. Viennese daily Der Standard congratulates the court on its decision, which will have major implications for Austrian medical schools inundated by German students – as well as Belgian universities that have been forced to accept large numbers of French nationals – who were unable to find courses in their home country where entrance exams and numerus clausus provisions prevail.

Team up with another classmate and imagine you’re a household with an income of €1,000 per month: so begins an exercise in a new Czech textbook for primary school kids. The idea is teach schoolchildren to husband their resources and not to fall into debt later on in life. So “Recession yields new subject at school”, as the Czech daily Lidové Noviny puts it in the headline.  “Children can be ensnared by debts from a very early age,” warns Eva Zamrazilová, head of the Czech National Bank, who organises training seminars for teachers of economics and finance courses. According to education minister Miroslava Kopicová, the recession has hammered home the importance of covering this issue in school, seeing as the most heavily indebted age group in the Czech Republic is the 20–35-year-olds. Primary and secondary schools can apply for EU subsidies to fund these courses, adds the Prague-based paper.

What is a good education? Is it science-based, the ability to get a job, to be as well-bred as the Queen of England? Opinions vary hugely, but according to the Daily Telegraph, the British government has decided to make it a right. In her forthcoming speech to parliament, Elizabeth II will unveil “our”* government’s plan to create a set of pupil and parent “guarantees”. These will include “healthy eating, active lifestyles and mental wellbeing”. Parents, the London daily reports “will be able to complain directly to the Local Government Ombudsman if schools and councils fail to meet the guarantees.” They will also be able to take schools to court as a “last resort”. The UK Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has attacked the plan. “School leaders are extremely concerned that these ‘guarantees’ will turn into a whingers’ charter for the more litigious parents”, said a spokesman.

In a movement that is now in its third week, Austrian students once again took to the streets on 5 November to protest against poor conditions in universities and the reform of qualifications required by the Bologna Process. At the same time, authorities were seeking to set aside "another billion for universities," an initiative announced by a front-page headline in Die Presse, which is superimposed on a photo-montage of the main protagonists in the saga: the rector of the university of Vienna, Chancellor Werner Faymann, and the ministers for Research, Finance and the Economy. As funding for universities was the only item to be increased in the 2009 budget, the social-democrat Chancellor has promised that more resources will be made available... but not before 2020, explains Die Presse. However, if the conflict continues, given that the public is largely sympathetic to the students, it may develop into a widespread social movement, warns the Vienna daily.

The British Supreme Court is being asked “to take a view on exactly who counts as a Jew”, notes the Guardian. The case at issue concerns a wrangle over admissions policy at the Jews' Free School (JFS) in Kenton, London, which refused to accept a child who was brought up as Jewish, on the grounds that his mother was not of Jewish descent. Given that British equality laws classify Jews not merely as a religious minority, but also separately as an ethnic one, a previous decision of the court of appeal found that the application of the matrilineal rule by the JFS amounted to unacceptable race discrimination. Remarking that the Supreme Court will also need to decide if  “legislation drafted to protect minorities” should be used to condemn Jewish traditions, the Guardian wonders in an editorial if it would not “be better to separate school admissions from all questions of faith, and thereby free the law from religion.”

Austria has voiced concern over another wave of immigration. But this time the influx is coming from the north in the form of 18,000 German students, who have enrolled in Austrian universities, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung. Having been turned away from German universities, which insist on increasingly stringent selection criteria, these "numerus clausus refugees" now account for up 50% of students in certain Austrian institutions. Their presence may also be prompted by an economic incentive now that "Austria has abolished enrolment fees," explains the Munich daily. SZ quotes the Rector of the University of Innsbruck who wonders, "Can we ask the Austrian tax payer to provide university infrastructure for most of Central Europe, which has flooded us with students since we stopped charging fees?" Noting that a similar issue exists in Wallonia, which is attracting large numbers of French students, Berlin wants a European solution to the problem. Vienna needs the matter resolved quickly, because it will shortly come under increased pressure. Germany's decision to reduce the duration of its school curriculum from 13 to 12 years will double the number of German school leavers between 2011 and 2013 – and a sizeable proportion of them will apply to study in Austria.

Europe has taken over the US role as the educational hub of the world, enthuses Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. The list of 100 top universities published by the Times Higher Education Centre for the first time this year featured more universities from the Old Continent (39) than from the New World (36). Only a year ago the U. S. was clearly in the lead (42 to 36). What’s more, according to data revealed by UNESCO, in 2009 almost 800,000 candidates from outside of Europe took on studies in European universities, while the U. S. has managed to attract a tad over 620,000 overseas students. Why? European universities are cheaper than their American counterparts and focus on those areas of study that are currently in highest demand: bio and digital technologies, the daily points out. Moreover, harsh visa regulations introduced after the attacks of 9/11, effectively discouraged young people from studying in America. It is true that Harvard still tops the list, but it is closely followed by Cambridge University, with the famous Yale trailing behind. The first five also lists two London universities: University College and Imperial College, as well as Oxford University.

The French government is trying the carrot instead of the stick this time around. And not just any old carrot. As of 5 October three vocational schools on the outskirts of Paris are experimenting with the use of financial incentives to stop kids from cutting class. In monetary terms: each class gets a kitty of €2,000, which can be increased to €10,000 by the end of the school year if the pupils show sufficient diligence. The money can then be used to buy computer equipment, fund class trips etc. The news has sparked an outcry among parents and teachers’ unions, reports Libération: a justifiable reaction, opines the French daily, to a measure that “flies in the face of old-established principles of the French Republic, namely that school and knowledge are not for sale.”

Portugal spends considerably less on children under the age of five than other OECD countries, notes Diário de Notícias. In a report entitled "Childhood decides" published on 1st September, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development "concludes that as a general rule, the quality of life for minors in Portugal falls well short of the average level for developed countries," explains the Lisbon daily. However, Portugal's overall investment in childhood, "a spend of between 60,000 and 70,000 euros per child spread over the first 18 years," is  deemed to be reasonable with regard to standards of living in the country."

The OECD report  "is based on a wide range of indicators… not all of which are recent." Diário de Notícias reports that Portugal lags behind other countries in areas like child benefits and tax breaks for families. However, it further notes that "measures implemented by the current socialist government like the reinforcement of town hall schemes to assist schoolchildren in need have not been taken into account by the report."

“Romanian universities are poised to up tuition fees for non-EU students in Romania,” Evenimentul Zilei warns on its front page. The Romanian daily concedes that “new levies are needed for new times” and reminds us that the ceiling on tuition fees was set by the education minister back in 1994. From January 2010 the fees will be calculated in euros, not in US dollars any more, and will jump from $3,800 (about €2,660) a year to €5,000 p. a. for medical school – and to as much as €9,500 for Romania’s highly-reputed film school. At present, counts Evenimentul Zilei, over 10,000 students from outside the EU are enrolled in Romanian universities. They will have to fork out more than in Austria or Italy, to be sure, “but still less than in Switzerland”, where a year’s tuition comes to a whopping €11,000.

The discovery of a traffic in doctoral titles has prompted a wave of indignation in Germany. According to recent revelations in the press, which have led to the opening of a judicial inquiry, approximately 100 professors in a dozen universities are suspected of receiving sums of around 4,000 euros from students in exchange for the award of a PhD and the granting of the title of "Doktor." In most cases the recipients were already employed in companies where they hoped the prestigious title would boost their careers. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wonders "Does the affair really amount to a scandal?" The report in the daily goes on to ask whether "the professors accepted money to take on a task that would usually be considered part of their duties, or if they ignored questions of scientific quality and granted titles without demanding the necessary work?" In conclusion, FAZ argues that the story highlights the problem of "the definition of academic work in a vast universities eager to hold onto their international rankings, which depend on the number of successful graduates."

What are the views and lifestyles of today's young Germans? This is the question posed by this week's Spiegel in a feature entitled Children of the Economic Crisis. A survey of nearly 500 Germans aged from 20 to 35 shows that the current young generation is pragmatic, apolitical with no particular ideology or vision, and highly individualistic. It is a group that tends to focus more on "me" than "we." The current economic crisis has failed to inspire any spirit of rebellion, which has largely been superseded by anxieties about a lack of job security. Brought up in the carefree 1980s and 1990s, today's young Germans have graduated into a world of temporary contracts and unemployment, which has influenced their attitudes to the point where they might be dubbed "the worried generation." As for the future? The main and indeed the only focus is on obtaining obtain a good standard of living.

De Standaard interviews the teacher whose violence towards a disobedient pupil in a school for children in difficulty shocked Belgium two weeks ago. A video clip filmed by another pupil is up on YouTube. In a remarkable interview, the teacher, nicknamed "Cement Sadist" by Dutch daily De Telegraaf, tells all. Not only does he express his remorse and say that his "meltdown" was "disgusting", he reveals the trying conditions he works in. The class he teaches is "very difficult to manage …three out of ten pupils suffer from severe behavioural and emotional problems." Despite such difficulties, teachers have no dedicated back-up. He vents indignation at the statement made by education minister Franck Vandenbroucke "the school did not use sufficient means." "There are no means," retorts the teacher. "There is no budget for child psychiatrists. To have a psychologist wouldn’t exactly be an extravagance."