Massive Layoffs Hit University of Copenhagen

jones_supa writes: University of Copenhagen is cutting deep into its staff to cut operation costs. Even though a great deal of the savings are aimed at administration and service, they are expected to affect the quality of education and research many years ahead. More than 500 teachers, researchers and employees in service and administrative jobs will be leaving. This corresponds to 7% of all staff. 209 employees can anticipate being laid off, while 323 jobs are either discontinued or terminated via voluntary redundancy. In addition to this, the university will have to reduce its PhD intake by 10% in the coming years. This is the outcome of the government's 2016 budget which imposes huge savings on research and education. As you might remember, we just heard about a similar situation in University of Helsinki in Finland.

Comments

About time

[Anonymous Coward]

They have an insane amount of lecturers, who creep along in acedemia always close to full unemployment, running seminars which are barely visited by students. Less PhD students is also a good idea, it's time to stop throwing a PhD out to anyone who writes something that superficially resembles a book without any real quality control. Half of all theses are not worth the paper they are printed on.

However, to fair, I'm pretty sure the current fascist government does it for all the wrong reasons and certainly not to improve science and education.

Re:About time

[paradigm82]

This! It used to be only the brightest of a class that got offered PhD's but thanks to the more than tripling of PhD's over the past 10 years you routinely see very "ordinary" students who study PhD. In fact, it seems to even be an attraction to some of the lazy ones so they can hang around with their friends at uni at 3-4x the income they had as students, compared to - say - going to the private sector where the salary might be higher, but the actual productivity requirements even more so. The Danish PhD instutition is a disaster - having a PhD in Denmark is at best a neutral indicator of ability, and probably bordering on the negative.

Doesn't need to be the end

[amightywind]

Europe can be fixed. First, realize that you are Christian and that the muslim colonizers wish to replace your society with their own failed ones. Fight! European Christians have fought muslim invasion for 1000 years. The war never ended. The Hungarians know that. Deny all muslims asylum, benefits, work permits, etc. They have the right to be arrested and held in camps until transportation home can be found. Next, all members must contribute to a real coast guard, and armed border guard. Obviously Greece and Italy can't handle the onslaught alone. Throw in an increase in military spending. Russia is also a lethal threat. Schengen is dead. Interstate travel should be freely allowed but not residency or work permits. They should be should be controlled by the host state. The Euro is also dead. It makes no sense for the less competitive economies of the south. Floating their own currencies will make them competitive. The end of the Euro will help reduce the political, and fiscal hegemony of Germany, the Euro's primary beneficiary.