Student Press in Europe

Our cover page: Everything you always wanted to know about skiing but you didn’t know how to ask…

POLISH MUSLIMS
Islam becomes more and more popular in Poland, especially amongst young people. Is it their answer to the crisis of values in the contemporary world? This reportage is about Polish converts to Islam.

A FREAK’S CAMP
A winter night in a tent is something you cannot imagine as long as you don’t experience it…

STUDIES IN SWEDEN
Patrik Kronqvist from ‘Lundagard’ wrote for us about studies in Sweden – its advantages and potential problems. Hey, Spiners! Our readers would love to read as well about studies in your countries. Go ahead! You know my e-mail address

A few other topics:
> Report: e-learning - this system of studies has many disadvantages, but for some people it remains the only chance to continue their education…
> Trends: people and their sweethearts – wild spiders. Those, who raise them state they are like Pokemons – if you have one, you have to have them all!
> Culture: young Hungarian artists and their work come to Poland…
> Plus: Johny Cash, Truman Capote, Ang Lee and a certain Czech supermarket which does not exist…

Our Professors
We meet them almost every day for lectures or seminars. But who is the person at the other end of the room? We investigated in how professors are conceived by students and how they see themselves. We found out whether students profit from famous professors and how professors feature in literature and film.

A few other topics:
The race is on – and the Humboldt-University isn’t part of it. Although thought to be one of the favourites, our university did not reach the first round of competitors for the Elite-University-Competition. There is a second chance though – but hard work is necessary to be in a better position then.

Studying in Toronto – Does far away mean far better?

Elections for the student parliament – The same procedure as every year: Only six percent of those eligible to vote did actually do so.

Berlinale preview – Germany’s big film festival in Berlin: Which films to go to and where to get the tickets.

Fellow students at the Winter Olympics – Two students managed to get to Turin from a suburb of Berlin.

Check out our new website for further articles: www.unaufgefordert.de

PhD-students without rights
The authorities blame their existence on each other, and according to Lund University they do not exist at all. But Lundagård has met one of the so-called ”shadow-PhD-students”, who are not officially accepted to PhD-training but still, furtively, doing research with the help of a university supervisor. The shadow-PhD-students do not have any job security and are paid under the table, sometimes very small sums. The university has never made any effort to look into the problem – maybe understandably, since the research comes at a bargain price and the supervisors improve their qualifications.

Students’ money worth less
While rents have risen a lot during the last 15 years, the student grant and loan have stayed at almost the same level. Calculations show that one fifth of the students’ money used to go to paying the rent – now it is one third.

Not so lazy students
In our series about prejudices we rule out the idea that students of arts are the laziest of all students. In all, they study fewer hours than the others, but according to examinations made by the university all students use around 20 hours per week for independent studies. Students of arts just have fewer classes than the rest.

Carneval for dummies
We give the students of Lund all the information they need before the carneval in May. The most common tip from former actives is to be among the 5 000 people who sell beer, build the stages, dance in the carneval procession, cook food for the circus or do almost anything else.

On the cover: The voice of a generation
Paavo Westerberg is only 32, but he has achieved a lot. He became an actor at the age of seven. He had his fi rst child at the age of 16. And now, at 32, this scriptwriter, actor and director is for the fi rst time nominated for the national Jussi movie award for his screenplay for the movie Paha Maa. His play Ranta is currently running at the Korjaamo theatre.

The return of the coin entrepreneur
Eetu Hyppönen set up a successful company at the age of 17. His business idea was simple: he sold ordinary eurocoins to collectors. Hyppönen was celebrated as the frontman of a new generation of entrepreneurs. But things started to go wrong, and the company finally went bankrupt in December. Now Hyppönen is back in business.

Virtual life in bulletin boards
Bulletin boards in the Internet have become places for net users to meet like-minded people. In our feature, we interview four bulletin board users: one is a movie enthusiast seeking for likeminded amateurs for discussion and help. Another is a 21-year-old boy who hangs out in a bulletin board otherwise dominated by teenage girls. Why do these people use so much time in the net and what do they gain from it?

The short history of bullying
Bullying in schools has been discussed a great deal in the media since the beginning of the 90s. Teachers have been trained to deal with the issue, and many projects have been launched – but bullying hasn’t been reduced.