cafebabel.com

German medical students head for Latvian university

('Sebastian Baciu',) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:00:16 -0000

Just under half of the 500 foreign medical students currently enrolled at Riga’s Stradina University come from Germany – but a medical education in a foreign country doesn’t come cheap

University initiation rites debate hits France and Belgium

('Amy Hargreaves',) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:36:06 -0000

In the UK at least three people had died by 2008 because of initiation ceremonies for undergraduates, whilst recent incidents in France and Belgium featuring physical abuse and comas have helped raise awareness about a dangerous student ritual

Jacques Delors: ‘pessimism is reason, optimism is will’

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:55:38 -0000

‘Young people and Europe’ is the reason why this morning’s private and exclusive meeting is taking place in a small room at the catholic institute of Paris. There are around twenty seats and a huge platter of croissants on the centre of the table. All (French) eyes are on one of the speakers, a mister Jacques Delors

Contentious Guéant circular rejects work visas in France

('Annie Rutherford',) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:07:12 -0000

France’s governmental memo on employment for their residing non-European students caused quite a commotion, and we’re not talking Jerry Maguire style. Graduates like Nabil Sebti are taking a stand against what could either turn into a long-term policy of sealing France off or be a strategy to gain votes in 2012 elections

Tips for taking a ‘laughter yoga class’ in Paris

('Katrina',) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:10:15 -0000

Laugh for the sheer pleasure of laughing. Laugh standing up, laugh sitting down, laugh lying on your back, laugh sprawled on your front, laugh during the day, laugh at night, and most importantly, laugh with someone else

Lucia Martin: Spanish youth are ‘you can see them coming’ generation

('Laura Simpson',) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:28:44 -0000

Stigmatisation and pity were the two main attitudes towards today’s youth until the 39-year-old Spanish journalist opted to say ‘enough’. This generation of young Europeans are drowning in short-term work contracts, never-ending internships and minimal salaries. Yet aren’t they just ‘precarious’ in a society which is brutally competitive?

Student duelling clubs in Europe: no Harry Potter magic in Germany

('Annie Rutherford',) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:03:54 -0000

In mid-June the Alte Breslauer duelling club in Bonn petitioned its national umbrella organisation to stipulate German descent as a criterium for accepting the currently 1, 300 students into these legendary student societies. In June, a society in Mannheim allowed a German of Chinese descent to join. The case drags the just over 100 German duelling clubs, which are accused of harbouring extreme right-wing ideologies, into a negative rather than magical light

French students in Shanghai make 'crepes by Johnny Depp'

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:09:32 -0000

Little did they know when these European architecture exchange students set up their own stall on the Chinese metropole of 23 million, that it’d lead to a mini-revolution in May

Why would you learn Hungarian?

('Silvia Alexe',) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:45:00 -0000

I could be daydreaming on the soft sand with a women’s magazine at my feet and a little sunburn on my shoulder. Unfortunately, it’s my Hungarian grammar book in the room I am sharing with two other students. They, too, decided to sacrifice their holiday month of July to improve their Hungarian

Nantes students eat on one euro

('ClaireWhite',) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:15:00 -0000

When doing their weekly food shop in the local supermarket, financial difficulties mean students don’t even consider buying dairy products, fruit and vegetables, meat, dried products or tinned goods, all part of a balanced diet. However these goods are sold for a token one euro (88p) at the French student solidarity association market in the western French city for the past decade

Book review Germany: 'degree Facebook internship' generation

('Carol Howard',) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:52:31 -0000

Generation X became generation Y and the ‘internship generation’ is a recurring topic. However, whichever letters or titles are selected for it, no one can really get a hold on us. Can we really all be lumped together, technically-speaking, in terms of a generation? German writers Manuel J. Hartung and Cosima Schmitt asked themselves this question in a 2010 book analysing the difficult future of a generation with no name

Ireland’s expat-emigrants: silver spoon diaspora

('Tim Mac an Airchinnigh',) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:27:15 -0000

Thousands left Ireland when it was rollicking at the dizzy heights of an economic boom, and when ‘diaspora’ sounded like a chapter heading from Angela’s Ashes. Now that the country has all but gone bust, those who left in the good times have been transformed from ‘expat’ to ‘immigrant’ overnight. In 2010 they were joined by 65, 000 others fleeing the Republic’s economic collapse

Vox-pop: Being a young journalist in Montenegro

('Jovana Zivkovic',) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:57:19 -0000

I want to intern at a fashion magazine. I want to stop the assassinations of Montenegro's journalists. I want to wake the people up to the freedom that they have. Three twentysomethings from the capital, Podgorica, explain honestly why they chose journalism in a sometimes bleak Balkan world

Why are students protesting in Bologna

('blackbird3',) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:30:00 -0000

With cries of 'block everything!', Italian students have been demonstrating for days against the university reforms currently being discussed in parliament. This report is from Bologna, where heated protests have even made headlines in the New York Times

German erasmus student on life in Istanbul

('Anneka',) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:00:00 -0000

Who speaks English? Why don't men look me in the eye? Why do people still wear headscarves? A score of questions hit the European newcomer studying in the Turkish city

Study philosophy in Europe: France’s discern is UK’s ticket to top

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:30:00 -0000

In the collective (French) conscience, it’s a lunar individual who studies philosophy, disconnected from the modern world and who brushes aside finance and marketing books. In reality their anxiety for the future remains a young one, choked by the crisis and demanding whether Socrates or Aristotle can really still mean something

Why do Germans sing 'Schland'?

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 11:59:53 -0000

In a week looking to Germany appearing in a world cup semi-final (and maybe a final), the new phenomenon comes in the form of an incomprehensible chant which drops the 'Deut' out of 'Deutschland' – are the Germans too drunk to hail their country?

University: German students cross the Austrian border

('Joana Cansado Carvalho',) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:54:23 -0000

It fills up pages in both Austrian and German newspapers. The EU’s court of justice has taken a stand on the subject. In some classrooms some say that there is no cause for concern, while others warn that tension is in the air. What is really going on?

Cheese People: 'European' face of Russian music

('Natasha Doff',) — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:12:33 -0000

From the banks of the River Volga just west of the Urals mountains, which mark the geographical border between Europe and Asia, a funky new band is making a big impact on the Russian music scene: an unsigned, energetic female-fronted quartet with a disco-punk sound. We meet backstage in Moscow

University-educated flee and woo Lithuania: emigration and erasmus

('Krisztian Gal',) — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:07:53 -0000

An increasing number of students are asking professor Žilvinas Martinaitis at the University of Vilnius to let them take their exams at the end of May. This would allow them to go abroad - most popularly, to the UK, Ireland or Scandinavia - to work, and return with some extra money in October, a month after the official term start. Lithuanian and eramus students, professors and politicians explain the phenomenon

‘University mafia’ cut corners in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and France

('Jude Lister',) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0000

On 1 February, a new rector was allegedly appointed to the Alexander Dubcek university of Trencin in western Slovakia, after a spate of corruption scandals forced his predecessor to resign. Fake diplomas are nothing new, but these events multiplied across Europe in 2009, with Miss Worlds and prominent politicians standing accused: how can such a reality be explained?

Marketa Tokova, 26: 'erasmus is too vague'

('Hayley Worsley-Carter',) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:00:00 -0000

Set up in 1989, the international erasmus student network is the largest and oldest. Results from a 2009 study into whether the celebrated European academic exchange programme is correctly recognised and understood between and in universities appeared negative; we hear from the president of the network on its virtues and faults

Discrimination: finding a place to live in Paris

('Aatish Pattni',) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:00:00 -0000

Real Parisians know it all too well; even they need several months and an agency, usually, to find a home within the city limits, on the commuter belt of one of the 20 Parisian ‘arrondissements’ (administrative districts). But then how do foreigners fare in the cut-throat Parisian housing market?

Mulled wine across Europe

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:10:28 -0000

Sugarloaves, Swedish punch and grog: how Europe drinks to stay warm in the chilly run up to christmas

Metro-run university of Paris 14 challenges French ‘anti-egalitarian’ education system

('Tim Mac an Airchinnigh',) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:29:55 -0000

The newly formed university is a mobilisation of students, teachers and researchers who aim to liberate education from the over-arching confines of the ‘institution’. Participants Emile Gayoso and Quentin Lade on neo-liberalism, the Bologna process and giving classes on public transport

The Wankin' Noodles, four boys from Rennes who sing about girls

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:09:24 -0000

Romain, Regis, Jean-Sylvain and Guillame went from being graphic design, cinema, information technology and literature students, to being backed by big names as France's latest post-teenage kicks band. Quick catch up with the twelve-eyed foursome at the Transmusicales festival in their hometown

In Greece, remembering Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15, with riots

('Mohsin Patel',) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:39:50 -0000

Since 6 December, millions of Greeks have been gathering in the country's streets in memory of the teenager who was killed by a policeman during the student revolts. Collisions between anarchists and 6, 000 police have resumed with renewed vigour. 'When will we listen to what the youngsters have to say?'

Sauna, an A-level in drinking beer: my erasmus semester in Tampere, Finland

('Ellie Banks',) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0000

Scandinavia is continuously highly rated in the Pisa classifications, and in between reindeers and Santa Claus, I recommend you all spend an erasmus semester in Tampere

University in Denmark is free for EU citizens, plus other fantasy-realities

('Alexandra Baxter',) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0000

The land of Hans Christian Andersen and Hamlet finds a place in the hearts of everyone who lives or studies there

Free movement of French and Dutch foreign veterinary, medical students in Belgium

('Tam\xc3\xa1s K\xc3\xa9ry',) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:59:13 -0000

A huge amount of foreigners study two of Europe’s seven officially regulated subjects in Belgium, but its foreign student population of 6.3%, the seventh highest in Europe in 2006, is not heterogenous. Insight

German students swoop down on Austrian universities

('Darren Thompson',) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0000

In some border university towns, the student population is as high as 12%, as German students escape the various clauses in their own universities and enrol 'abroad' for subjects like medicine and psychology. A common tongue and the abolition of tuition fees are the fundamental attractions

Ghostwriters in France: who’s writing your dissertation?

('Aatish Pattni',) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:00:00 -0000

They are paid to write dissertations and theses in the shadows for others. There is a punishment for this in France which is rarely applied. We meet 'Nicolas' in Paris

What communism means to three central and eastern European women

('Kate Robinson',) — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:00:00 -0000

Twenty years since the fall of the Berlin wall, what does communism mean to Cecilia, 22, from Bulgaria, Katharina, 20, from Slovakia and Anna, 28, from the Czech Republic?

65% of European students want free university

('Joss Corner',) — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:00:00 -0000

In Germany, students are threatening to strike. In France, certain universities are blocked for the long term. The question of end of year exams is looming. ‘Students and the further education reform?’ - perilous survey by the European commission

European citizenship saves me from a Polish train fine

('Kinia Adamczyk',) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:15:00 -0000

A debate over European law over Polish law kicks off in Gdansk, bringing a chance meeting with a Chechnyan heading to Warsaw. Conversations in the east

Middle-East: British students still mobilised

('Hayley Wood',) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0000

Fighting in the Gaza Strip may be over, but sit-in demonstrations organised via email and Facebook continue in 21 UK universities. Amongst other things, students demand bursaries for Palestinian students. This is a campaign which 'has only just begun'

Why the fridge would you do an internship at the European parliament?

('Sarah Gray',) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:45:00 -0000

Do you want to see the heart of Europe on a day-to-day basis? There’s no better way to do it than by becoming an intern at the European parliament in Brussels, with its maze of corridors, hemicycle and canteen. Well . . . if you can negotiate a decent salary and hours!

Erasmus testimony: a Greek student in Budapest

('Omiros Tsapalos',) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:58:50 -0000

In the final installment of a five-part series, a politics and public administration student from Athens, 21, confirms and rejects historical and linguistic stereotypes in the Hungarian capital. The student exchange programme has run for twenty-one years

Greece youth: violence in the name of education

('Elina Makri',) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:30:00 -0000

9 December. As the funeral takes place of a young boy, whose death led to days of continuous rioting in Greek cities three days earlier, a look at where the rebellion is coming from. Voice from Athens

£950 million to Erasmus Mundus

('Hilary Arrowsmith',) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:45:00 -0000

At the end of October the European Commission launched the study-in-europe.org website. The Study in Europe portal ‘promotes the attractiveness of European higher education to students from other parts of the world’ to non- EU citizens.

Erasmus testimony: a Spaniard in Grenoble, France

('Helen Moorhouse',) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:33:38 -0000

What happens to those Erasmus students who leave a relationship or partner behind? And those who can’t handle their beer? Does that mean they can’t go too? Tips for heartened and disheartened Erasmus students who find themselves in a different culture, pitfalls included

Studies without borders: from war-torn Chechnya to France

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:00:00 -0000

In its five year history, ‘Etudes Sans Frontières’ has enabled 190 students to go to university even if their country is involved in an armed conflict. Is it an answer to guaranteed peace in the future? President Aurélia Chaudagne says yes. Interview

Lisbon strategy: how does Europe fit into today’s world?

('Gemma Turner',) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:39:00 -0000

Europe’s privileged geopolitical situation is under threat. In the context of globalisation, climate and demographic change and the high cost of energy and food, Europe has to rethink its strategies

Fiesta: French graduates on the road in Belgrade

('Sarah Gray',) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:15:00 -0000

After finishing their studies and work placements, three French friends head to Serbia to meet their Balkan counterparts. What is it like to embark on your adult life at the other end of Europe? Partying - the first in a series of three of our Serbian travel diary

Overworked, underpaid in a French call centre

('Martyn Hawkins',) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Too many young Europeans are forced to work in bad conditions to finance their studies in France. Why a young Italian quit

Paris: squats in Europe's second most expensive city

('Alison Matthews',) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0000

Amidst an explosion of rental prices, the Macaq organisation squats unoccupied buildings to bring the lack of student housing into the public eye

Au pair Alices in washing up land

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

It’s an enticing experience which draws many young people abroad – but the catch lies hidden behind closed doors

Spot the Italian (or German) in South Tyrol

('Ed Saunders',) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

The fortunate can discover the possibilities of European linguistic diversity at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Multilingualism shows its true colours here – both good and bad

Daniel Porot: the advantages of a job abroad

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

We talk to the author of numerous books on career management and job-hunting in Europe, who also teaches in many European and American schools and universities

Paris-Japan-Dublin with Erasmus

('Angela Steen',) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

One voice amidst the 100, 000+ other Socrates students who traverse Europe and its borders