Change for students in UK voter registration
According to research carried out by the UK Labour Party, an estimated 800,000 people have been removed from the electoral register in the UK, with students being the most affected.
This comes after a new system, independent electoral registration (IER), was introduced by the Conservative government in 2014. Under the old system the head of a household could register all eligible residents, but this practice has been stopped. This has had a significant effect on students living in university residences, as their universities are no longer able to block register them.
The results are most apparent in university towns such as Cambridge and Dundee, where voter registration dropped by 11 per cent, and Canterbury, where it fell by 13 per cent. There has been some speculation that the Conservatives brought in this system with the intention of putting a dent in the number of student voters, as they are, on average, more likely to vote for a liberal government.
Gloria De Piero, the shadow minister for electoral registration, in a letter to Cabinet Office minister John Penrose, suggested that universities should build voter registration into the enrolment process, a model that has been hugely successful in the University of Sheffield.
EU Mobility Grants Increase
Reaching the end of its first year, the Erasmus+ programme has been deemed a success. Set up by the European Union in 2014, it has awarded approximately 650,000 mobility grants in its first year alone, offering people the chance to study, train, work or volunteer abroad.
Of the 650,000, 400,000 grants went to third level students studying abroad. The programme is set to last until 2020, and has a budget of €14.7 billion, which is 40 per cent higher than that of its predecessor.
Grants vary depending on what country the recipient is going to. For example, in countries with a higher cost of living, such as Ireland, the UK and France, the grant is €400 per month. While some have criticised such a big spending increase, research shows that the grants are already having a positive effect across Europe.
According to the European Commission, “more students can now be sure that the qualifications obtained abroad will be recognised in their home countries – 85 per cent in 2014, up from 76 per cent in 2013.” The programme has also given additional financial support to 10,000 students who are less well-off or have special needs.
An Erasmus Regional Impact Study has revealed that those in Southern Europe who go on Erasmus are 50 per cent less likely to face prolonged unemployment than those who don’t, while those in Eastern Europe find it easier to rise to managerial positions.
Shanghai Universities inflate graduate employment figures
Universities in Shanghai have come under criticism for inflating graduate employment figures, after the publishing of a report by the Shanghai City Administration.
The report, first published on the city administration’s account on the popular Chinese social media website Weibo, claimed that the 17 universities in the Shanghai area had falsified the number of recent graduates who have entered employment or gone on to master’s degrees.
A report from June 2015 concluded that, out of the 177,000 graduates from that year, 95 per cent had received job offers or been accepted into masters degree programmes. This is an extreme jump from the statistics of the Shanghai Education Committee from the same month, which sets that number at 62.4 per cent.
A number of students have come forward claiming that they were forced to sign “employment agreements” before being allowed to graduate, with one graduate of the Shanghai Institute of Technology alleging: “to get our graduation certificates we had to sign employment agreements with the printer shop in front of our campus!”
It is difficult to discern the universities’ motivation for the inflation. While many have said that it was to boost their reputation, Shanghai universities already receive a surplus of applications. This year will see 178,000 students graduate in Shanghai, but due to China’s current economic situation, many will find it hard to find work.
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