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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.
This is the outcome of the government's 2016 budget which imposes huge savings on research and education.
You seem to have misspelled "cuts".
~Idarubicin
A 7% reduction (where over half are voluntary meaning only 3% actually get sacked) doesn't seem so unusual and by no means massive. In all companies I've been there has been cuts that were both bigger in absolute and percentage terms, hardly raised a headline. But now it's the public sector so it is somehow a disaster not only nationally but also news-worthy internationally?!
It seems in the past year, some danes have figured out that whenever the government does something they disagree with they can run to the international media with "Oh look how evil they are!" stories and easily have them printed. Even though the actual news content is utterly trivial, and in fact many other countries have been doing the same "evil" thing.
There has been a massive upsurge in hiring at University of Copenhagen in recent years. A tripling of PhD students over 10 years. Any half-decent grad student gets routinely offered 2-3 PhD positions if they finish, and can easily get research assistant and PostDoc positions after they finish, and then teachers, asisstant professors and what not after that. Everyone knows they are not all top scientists - quite far from it. In fact many of them couldn't make the cut at a private company, but yet consider themselves superior just because they got a trivial PhD degree.
So on balance, it seems only in order with a little clean-up - just as many other companies have to from time to time. By the way, the actual cut in funding was only 2% so it can't explain why they now have to fire 7%.
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.
uuuuhuh... Only one problem though, Europe isn't christian, the wast majority of our population is either atheist or agnostic. Nowadays anyone claiming to be a real believing and devout christian is regarded as being a little "funny"
Well, looking at the facts would change that view on denmark (in schweden your use case could possibly apply)
Numbers for Denmark
Refuges
2,000 (2014)
14,000 (2015)
on a
Population ~5,650,000 (for decimal weak people ~5,65 Million - 5,65*10^6)
which would mean for 2015 a huge 0,25% refugee intake ratio on the population.
Current Situation:
The right wing government with their anti-immigrant action increases the hostility towards imigrants and a bad climate for "progress" in general.
The ageing danes are entering a form of a "solid state society", which is simply wishful thinking because ageing is the progress that breaks the solid state.
People started leaving Denmark(since arround 2010) not because of the many (0,25%) refugees but because of the hostile right wing environment.
(I know nordic nordish danes that now live in germany that simply state: current danish society = narrow minded society = no fun, no progress, no interest in new things)
And the immigrants/refugees in denmark are faced with exclusion and right out xenophobia, leading to a big dependence on wellfare.
Thus generating a negative impact on forgeign investment into the country, now having an impact on the economy. The growing impact on the danish economy is the ageing of the population and with a hostility towards immigrants that won't change - and no the danish people won't start procreating "just because".
Conclusion:
Get a rightwing government and your economy pays the bill. Education isn't the prime directive for a rightwing government, but for a prospering country it is essential.
The Nordic welfare states are dropping like flies.
Eh? By "the Nordic welfare states" I'm assuming you mean Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland?
Let's examine that claim. Sweden is doing great, Denmark almost as great. Norway has the oil (and a *lot* of it) and has had the god foresight to save oil money from the good times to insulate against poorer times. Norway is doing exceptionally great. Which leaves Finland. Sure, Finland has challenges which can be attributed to a disrupted monoculture. But they are not dismantling the welfare state by any means. They're innovating. None of the Nordic countries are about to "drop" like a fly.
I don't know why you would try to paint a picture of the Nordic welfare states failing. They're not. Not by any stretch of imagination. Do you live in a place where successful welfare states would be an inconvenient counterpoint to your political point of view?
Yes - there's challenges in the Nordic elfare systems, like with any other model. Right now the Nordic welfare states (and the German welfare state) are under pressure because a lot of migrants would like to live in a place with generous social benefits, free education (and at least in Denmark you will even receive full state-paid scholarship all the way through college), free healthcare, retirement welfare etc.
Other countries have other challenges. In the US the average middle-class income has stagnated sinde the 1970ies. The wealthy are getting wealthier, the middle-class is struggling and the poor has gotten even more poor. US social mobility has degraded to a level where "the American dream" is but a distant fantasy.
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The refuguees number for 2015 is more like 30.000. And at least the same amount to come in 2016. Besides, it is expensive for a country to take in 0.75% or even 0.25% of citizens who do not produce but will live off the produce of the existing population (many of which are not productive either). Compare the ratio to other countries and their population size. I don't think the U.S. would have an appetite for taking in millions of people annually that would have to get free housing, food, healthcare etc. But this is what it would amount to should the U.S. take the same amount of refugees on a per capita basis. While good education system is a necessity for society to prosper, it doesn't mean that no cut backs are ever possible in education, just as society shouldn't spend an infinite amount of money on education. Giving people degrees that either lead to unemployment or only employment as PhD's teachers, etc within said field, or as administrative staff in the government in positions where the subject matter of the degree has no relevance, certainly won't benefit Denmark as a society. For instance, people take a 5 year degree in History and then people just an office worker in the government. But because of their degree they are now entitled to a salary as an acdemic even though their degree is not doing anything good in the position! If the same position had been filled by someone without a degree, the pay would have been about half. That's just crazy! Can't imagine it being like that anywhere else. That's just one of many, many things that will have to change in the coming years because it is costing a shit-ton of money and is outright counterproductive in terms of actually making people seek productive careers. Maybe the people you know who left in 2010 were just angry that there was starting to be a limit on the hand-outs (in terms of either welfare or "easy" public sector jobs). They better watch out, it seems suchs hand-outs are shrinking in just about all countries.
Just send all the Muslim refugees to college for free.
Oh, we will. You can count on it.
If they are accepted as refugees, after a few years they will be eligible for the same benefits as other citizens. Danish education - including college education - is free. Not only that, but we will even pay students scolarships of around DKK 5100 a month (apx $9200 per year) to cover living costs.
Universities have admission criteria, however. You'll have to be accepted. Most citizens with muslim background seeking higher education tend to go for the types of education that traditionally have high status in their culture: Law, medicine, dentists etc.
I have a high wage. I pay a *lot* of taxes. Do I mind that refugees seek education in Denmark and receive benefits? No, I do not. Any qualified young man or woman seeking higher education is *exactly* what we need. If they're qualified, I'm happy with paying my taxes so that they can receive an education even if they come of circumstances very unlike mine.
Right now we're receiving both refugees and migrants. We are well aware that the generous welfare systems in the Nordic countries and the economic opportunities (and welfare system) in Germany is attractive. Obviously, the Nordic countries cannot open the borders and let in every needy person in the world.
Bit the ones we *do* let in considered needy. And they *will* be eligible for the same benefits as the rest of us. And I'm kind of proud of that. And yes, I pay my high taxes with pleasure. Makes me feel good about it.
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Selective history much? The US didn't avoid Facism, we put a great many Asians and Germans into concentration camps of our own. We just didn't murder them all. Also keep in mind, that social security was born during this time. The country was decidedly more liberal than it is today. We were forcing people into military service and rationing materials as well as food.
You forget that rebuilding Europe is also what made the US economy what it is today. If we didn't do that these policies your espousing as superior would likely have lead to a different kind of failure in the U.S. economy. Laissez faire died when the stock market collapsed on Black Tuesday. We realized as a country that you need to regulate commerce or it will swallow the country whole. You'll end up with a great Chicago fire due to crappy construction and living conditions. That you need Unions to counter-balance business-owners single minded pursuit of the all mighty dollar no matter who gets hurt.
Germany's economy is quite strong and most decidedly not crumbling despite all influx of people. The UK's economy is also strong. Keep in mind, being jobless isn't the end of the world in those countries either. It certainly isn't an extravagant lifestyle but you'll also live and receive healthcare unlike in the U.S. where you will end up on the street or die trying to find a place to treat your illness.
Communism is never going to work, neither is unbridled capitalism, we need to find a sweet spot somewhere in the middle.
Your numbers are factually incorrect.
In Denmark, the number of asylum applications in 2015 was 18,492. That's applicants, the number actually granted asylum is significantly lower. So far, it seems the trend for 2016 will be less Syrian refugees (as most of those who are able to flee have already done so), and more refugees from comparatively peaceful countries in Africa and Asia (e.g. Afghanistan). Where almost all Syrian asylum seekers received asylum, that is not the case for refugees from other countries. As such, while the number of applicants might rise, the number of people actually granted asylum in 2016 is not expected to grow significantly.
When you then factor in that most of the expenses of receiving and processing these refugees is paid from money already allocated to foreign aid, it becomes quite clear that no, asylum seekers are not making a significant dent in the overall budget.
The Roman Empire was split into Western and Eastern portions in the late 3rd century, with the seat of power for the West being Rome and the seat of the East being Constantinople. The two halves were briefly reunified under Constantine I, but after that they were effectively two separate nations, linked only by history and tradition.
Starting in the mid 4th century, the Western empire was subjected to repeated invasions by Germanic peoples, most violently by the Visigoths and Ostrigoths. In 410, Rome was sacked by Alaric I, King of the Visigoths, and the Western empire was dismantled in 476 when a German mercenary, Odoacer, led an overthrow of Western emperor Romulus Augustus. For nearly two centuries after that, the Italian peninsula was a battlefield between Gothic, Byzantine and Italian forces.
Into the power vacuum stepped the Patriarch of Rome. It is around this time that the Pope assumed the title of Pontifex Maximum, a title held originally by the chief priest of Iupiter and latter held by the Emperors to represent their authority as the gods' divinely annointed representative on earth. It is also around this time that the College of Cardinals begins to take shape, when the now Christianized Collegium Pontificum (originally, an organization made up of the highest ranking priests and priestesses of pagan Rome) and the remnants of the Roman Senate merged and took responsibility over both religious practice and civil law. To this extent, the Catholic Church is, indeed, the inheritor of the Western Empire.