The limitation initiative, including the termination initiative, affects the universities to a high degree: it jeopardizes two bilateral agreements that are important for the Swiss universities: The free movement of persons and the European research framework programmes.
We would like to draw your attention to the following media release from swissuniversities:
DE: https://www.swissuniversities.ch/aktuell/nein-zur-begrenzungsinitiative-schweizer-hochschulen-sind-erfolgreich-dank-ihrer-vernetzung
FR: https://www.swissuniversities.ch/fr/actualite/non-a-linitiative-de-limitation-le-succes-des-hautes-ecoles-suisses-depend-de-leur-mise-en-reseau
IT : https://www.swissuniversities.ch/it/attualita/no-alliniziativa-per-la-limitazione-le-scuole-universitarie-svizzere-hanno-successo-grazie-alla-loro-interconnessione
The limitation initiative, including the termination initiative, affects the universities to a high degree: it jeopardizes two bilateral agreements that are important for the Swiss universities: The free movement of persons and the European research framework programmes.
We would like to draw your attention to the following media release from swissuniversities:
swissuniversities has adopted a new transformative pilot agreement with Elsevier for research access and Open Access publishing in Switzerland.
Please see the details of this operation here!
Our member ACIDUL at UniLausanne has responded to all the red-tape for prolongation requests and is clearly dissatisfied with the application process.
Please follow this link for detailed information on ACIDUL’s requests for a simplification of these procedures in support of all mid-level staff at UniLausanne.
The latest information bulletin INFO-18 from our partners at swissfaculty is now online. It features an article written by former actionuni co-president Salome Adam on why we need structural improvements for mid-level staff employed at Swiss universities.
Salome Adam, co-president of actionuni, recognizes the positive intentions of ETH-president Joël Mesot in a recent interview with züriost. Joël Mesot publicly apologized “to those affected by the unprofessional conduct of their supervisors” and presents a set of measures to improve prevention, leadership and the handling of conflict situations.
Read the full article here (German only).
Salome Adam, co-president of actionuni, was invited to comment in the Zürioberländer News on the recent cases of mobbing and plagiarism at EMPA, the independent materials, science and technology research institute of the ETH domain.
Salome states that the complex dependencies of young researchers from their professors aid to cases of exploitation. At EMPA, two professors are being accused of mobbing, inexplicable cases of dismissal of employees, and copying of material from Phd-theses for publication under their own name without citing of the original author(s).
Read the full article here (German only).
Salome Adam, co-president of actionuni, participated in a discussion with Prof. Aguzzi from University of Zurich on the misuse of power and mobbing at universities. Some real cases are reported but also ways are discussed of how pressure in research can be mitigated without compromising scientific quality.
The associations of non-professorial academic staff of the University of Zurich (VAUZ) and the ETH Zurich (AVETH) have published three reports on the situation of their doctoral and postdoctoral students based on surveys at both universities.
Please find the press releases and links to the reports here: VAUZ / AVETH
On 5 April 2017, the NZZ has published an extensive dossier on the situation of the non-professorial academic staff in Switzerland. Co-president Florian Lippke took part in a dispute with swissuniversities president Michael Hengartner; co-president Andrea Tamas via telephone interview gave additional positions on the situation of the non-professorial academic staff at Universities of Applied Sciences and Universities of Teacher Education. The full dossier can be found here.
Young researchers at the University of St. Gallen will give themselves a new organizational structure. A telephone interview by the responsible journalist from the St. Galler Tagblatt with Florian Lippke gave us the chance to welcome these new developments and to stress the importance of well-defined conditions for the researchers who are actively involved.
The article can be found here.