Mafia

In Leiden, it’s possible to conduct an entirely different kind of research than in Eindhoven. Mare wrote about the field research by a political scientist from Leiden University into the mafia in Mexico and on Sicily. “Fieldwork in Mexico, my home country, was a much bigger challenge than fieldwork on Sicily,” says Rodrigo Peña González.

In his dissertation, he compares the violence inflicted by the Mexican drug cartels to that of the Cosa Nostra on Sicily. “But there is a powerful anti-mafia movement as well. It’s fascinating to see how people in Palermo fight against extortion, for example. The protection money paid to the Mafia by shop owners is called Pizzo. There is a leaflet in circulation that tells you which shops pay pizzo and which ones don’t. So, you know where to buy gelato in a pizzo-free shop. It’s interesting to see how this fight will continue in Italy, perhaps they can export their anti-mafia measures to Mexico.”

Foreign adventure

An author of a column in Resource takes a critical look at ‘the exchange.’ Blogger Geert thinks it’s great that students have the opportunity to study abroad for six months. But, he warns, students who take that step should also prepare themselves for setbacks.“The concept of ‘exchange’ is by definition great, and it has to be presented as such. At least, that’s the prevailing stigma. And there’s no question that the opportunity to study abroad for six months at a university, and the fact that you get to choose from dozens of universities from all over the world, is a great privilege. But there’s a danger to that stigma as well: a student is practically socially obliged to have a great time during exchange, while you sometimes run into problems as well,” Geert blogs.

Assault

A student from Tilburg University was assaulted in a student complex Saturday evening. She was attacked by a group of men after she asked them to stop singing a carnival song about the coronavirus. The student stood in the elevator of student complex Intermezzo when a group of four or five men stepped inside, writes university magazine Univers. The men started to sing a carnival song about the coronavirus.When the student asked them to stop, the men started to push her. “Then they pulled out knives and said they would exterminate the coronavirus. The first thing I remember after that is waking up on the floor with several injuries.” The carnival song about the coronavirus was made and aired by a radio DJ of broadcasting company Radio 10. The Public Prosecution Service is currently investigating whether it’s possible to take legal actions against the DJ.

A 10 is for God

The Dutch grading system can be quite confusing to international students, according to Ukrant of the University of Groningen. Why don’t they score higher than an 8 when the teacher tells them they did an excellent job? In the Netherlands, you only get a 10 when your work is perfect.The problem is that grading is a matter of culture. "In France they jokingly say that 10 is for God, 9 for the professor, and 8 for the best student. You could say it’s the same in the Netherlands", says Director Rob Wagenaar of the RUG International Tuning Academy. The Netherlands, incidentally, isn’t the only country with a peculiar grading system. In Poland and the Czech Republic, 40 percent of students get the top mark, while in Germany, only 20 percent gets to 1, which is the highest grade. Wagenaar: "Every country has its own idiosyncrasies."

Artis

Folia has a section on secrets at the UvA. This time, the journalistic medium of the University of Amsterdam writes about the connection, which was established in 1877, between the UvA and Artis zoo. 2020 is the last year an Artis professor will work at the UvA. That chair will be suspended.  

Unfortunately most of the articles we are referring to in this overview are available in Dutch only.