Strike!

[krasnoludek]

So about the third day I was in France, I heard that the university was going to be on strike. Apparently, Sarkozy wanted to reform the higher educational system, especially its research component, to make it more competitive in the world. What he really meant was "privatize research" and build stronger connections between industry and academia.

Comments

[lingboy]

My postdoc is through the university, not through CNRS.

[easwaran]

Wait a minute, which similar changes were passed in the US? I don't believe the NSF or other sources were ever cut - they just never grew. And there certainly haven't been any governmental interferences with tenure here, as far as I know. Anyway, I hope these things work out well!

[krasnoludek]

you're right -- the NSF's budget was frozen at the 2005 level, I believe, all the way through 2008 because Bush refused to sign the budget bills and so the fiscal period lapsed and by default the organizations get the same funds they had the previous year. While it wasn't an official cut, it was effective cut, since the costs of already pre-approved projects were naturally increasing and projects that had been approved but not yet funded couldn't get their funding