Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Oblivious of observation...


Today is International Students' Day. It is, obviously, an international observance of students: the day originates from the execution without trial of nine students and professors on the 17th of November in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia: during a student demonstration against the ocupation one student, Jan Opletal, was shot. He died later and his funeral procession became another demonstration; this was harshly put down and resulted in drastic measures being taken by the Nazis: all Czech colleges and universities were shut down and more than 1,200 students were arrested and sent to concentration camps, as well as the aforementioned executions. Interesting that the NUS had a demonsration last week and plan another next week but their website , where incidentally, they "Demand Extra", has no mention of the significance of today, in fact it doesn't mention it at all: the European Student's Union do [ESU] (and NUS are members); the ESU, make a big deal of the cuts being made in higher education budgets across Europe; additionally they have a 2011 project with the aim of comparing European funding systems in order to share best practices.
"This decrease has often been replaced by the introduction or increase of tuition fees. These fees have not filled the funding gap, but they have made it more difficult for people to participate in and complete higher education."
Anyway, just a thought. One would have thought that the NUS would have some mention of it...

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4 comments:

Paul said...

Nathalie got her NUS card yesterday. I don't think she's off to rampage through any buildings or riot on the streets, she was more impressed with the 10% discount at Staples facility!

Span Ows said...

Staples?!!! What about Pizza Hut and McDonalds!

;-)

Just back from Germany, can see why you like it.

Paul said...

Whereabouts did you go?

I'm hoping to go to Berlin next year, I was going to the north east coast but looked at the hotel and decided it was too good for one so we're going as a couple in 2012.

Span Ows said...

Mainly Hanover but in Dortmund and stayed at Minden and Westfalica (Kaiser Wilhelm monument very impressive...seen a similar mini version in Minnesota!)

Holiday Inn in Minden probably worth at least double what I paid.