Student Press in Europe

Bologna process at the Faculty of geodesy at the University of Zagreb The main article of this issue deals with the results of the first year of the Bologna process at the Faculty as a analysis from a student perspective, interview with the dean deputy and the results of the survey among students.
19 geodesy and geoinformation professional articles
This issue has a record number of professional articles. Branches of photogrammetry, cartography, surveying, gravimetry and GIS are well covered.
E-learning analysis at the Faculty
A short introduction for the first year of LMS Moodle by an assistant professor
Sports at the Faculty
Soccer, basketball and rowing are introduced as well known sports on the University of Zagreb
Problems with the M.Sc. study admission
Many problems with the admission…

All articles are available online free of charge on the Portal of scientific journals of Croatia: http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?lang=en&show=casopis&id_casopis=96

Political aspects of EU enlargement
By including new countries, The European Union has proved that it does not represent a closed exclusive club and that it is ready even to take the risk of accepting into its ranks those countries that are far from majority of the current EU members in terms of their democratic tradition, character of their recent political systems, and level of development. Some analysts even believe that the whole process is jeopardized and definitely slowed down by this enargement. It seems however that the planners in Brussels do not share that opinion and that they have rendered possible the enlargement of the Union on the basis of certain mechanisms not jeopardizing at the same time the realizaton of the great project.
Economically, eastward enlargement may be exactly what the EU needs to return to higher growth. The availability of a large pool of low-cost, higly skilled workers at their doorstep has helped West European companies to better cope with globalisation. And the new members have gained from expanded cross-border private investment and surging business confidence.
Politically, however, The EU is still struggling to digest its biggest ever enlargement. On many of the big topics currently on the EU agenda, the new members’ positions differ from those of the big eurozone countries, which also, combined with the problematic ratification of the new Constitution, and the strain on the current EU institutions, suggests that there is still a lot of work ahead in creating „great“ Europe.
Nevertheless, there is no question that the enlargement process will continue to follow its course. The idea of European integration will definitely have wider repercussions and it will be attractive to all those countries that are waiting for the inclusion, but also to those that can find an inspiration for their activities in the European integration

YLIOPPILASLEHTI 1/07

Old Enough?
Finnish parliament is like a bar: you have to be old enough to get in.
In the general election of 2003 only six candidates aged under 30 got in. Is it going to be different this spring?
Ylioppilaslehti starts the election year by asking who is to blame for the lack of youth in politics.

The Conscience of a Drawer
Looking for happiness and loosing it all. Comic artist Ville Tietäväinen knows how it feels.
In his next album Tietäväinen draws a picture of illegal immigrants working in Spanish tomato farms.

Half of Finnish students are poor
According to a ministry of education study released 18.1. half of the Finnish students are still officially poor.
University students earnigs are unchanged compared to 2003. Still more and more students feel that they are able to support themselves only barely.

Defections are weakening the voice of students
The co-operation agency of the students’ union is at crisis again. Two of the unions want to leave the organization and now the voice of students is running a risk of being weakened — and at the same time politicians want to abolish the compulsory student union membership.
Read more.

New editions make course literature more expensive
New editions of course literature are continuously being published. This makes second hand selling more difficult. Is the latest edition always necessary though?

What food is best to eat during an exam?
Lundagård has a new feature called “the question”. This time the dietician recommends a regular meal with carbohydrates, protein and vegetables — and sweets are dismissed.

A big Nobel feature
We investigate how you can win, why Lund has not received any Nobel Prizes, and meet the students who are going to the banquet.

Internationally
One year on: What happened to the Belarusian student Tatiana Khoma who was thrown out of her university because of her commitment to the student movement?

Translation from Swedish by Carolina Wickander

The university accepted a student on false grounds
A student jumped the queue to get into the much coveted medical school in Lund by claiming that the dean had promised him a spot. The university customized a spot for the student without checking the claim.
– The rule of law has been eliminated says Mikaela Dolk, chairperson of the student union at the medical faculty.

Latin and Greek to be discontinued in Lund
Not enough students want to study Latin and classical Greek in Lund. The faculty of the humanities and theology has to save more than one million euro, and now the undergraduate studies in two of the oldest subjects of the university will be discontinued.
Read more here, here and here.

Old players on the pitch
More and more pensioners are applying to universities in Sweden. Lundagård has met three students who are past sixty-five.

Translation from Swedish by Carolina Wickander

Should Croatia Declare an Exclusive Economic Zone?
When trying to establish reasons why Republic of Croatia has not yet proclaimed its own EEZ, moreover why it has suspended it’s Ecological-Fishery Zone after that zone has already been declared and internationally notified (!), one must first look upon political reasons and current “eurostrategic” position of Croatia. According to Ibler, the answer to this question is foremost political and only alternatively legal question. The only legal question that can arise in this situation is the one of the EEZ’s delimitation procedure. There is no question about the fact that both UNCLOS and Croatian Maritime Code grants Croatia right to declare an EEZ. However, the Republic of Croatia never reached the level to be concerned with these problems.
At a certain point in time, Croatian authorities tried to argument the non-declaration of the EEZ with the fact that Croatian coast guard service does not have appropriate facilities to control the EEZ effectively. However, Ibler strongly disagrees with this argument noting that many countries have proclaimed an EEZ even though they are not even in a capacity to supervise their own territorial waters and not to mention the EEZ.
The necessity for Croatia to declare at least some of the sovereign rights in the sea zone exceeding territorial waters becomes more than evident if one should analyze a very recent occurrence of sea pollution performed by NATO air forces during the Kosovo conflict. Following a request made to NATO by the Secretary-General of the UN, Mr. Kofi Annan, in October 1999, NATO confirmed in February 2000 the use of depleted uranium during the Kosovo conflict and provided the UN with information consisting of a general map indicating the areas targeted and the total number of depleted uranium rounds fired. UN Environment Program (UNEP) was called to make an assessment study of pollution on the field. The UNEP results of investigation performed in November 2000 suggested that there was no immediate cause for concern regarding toxicity. However, the study also emphasized that major scientific uncertainties persist over the long-term environmental impacts of depleted uranium, especially regarding groundwater. Due to these scientific uncertainties, UNEP calls for precaution and stresses that there is a very clear need for action to be taken on the clean-up and decontamination of the polluted sites.
How does this UNEP environmental study for Kosovo relate to Croatian sea zone? It relates through NATO reports made in May 1999 where NATO confirms the existence of five zones with a diameter of 18 km, which were used for deployment of unused depleted uranium ammunition after an air strike in Kosovo. Four of these zones are in the Adriatic Sea (first is located between the river mouth of Pad and Novigrad, second between Cervij and Lošinj, third between Ancona and Dugi Otok, and fourth between Brindisi and Drač), while the fifth zone is in the Jonian Sea at the cape St Maria di Leuca. At the time of this NATO report, there was a strong reaction from the part of Italy regarding the environmental hazards of such deployment of the depleted uranium. The consequence of this reaction was that NATO made an assurance that it will reallocate the deployed ammunition. If Croatia had wanted to prevent deployment of depleted uranium in waters relatively close to the coast, it could have done it by referring to the protection of its EEZ. This way, NATO simply unloaded the toxic waste in the zone which was formally an area of open waters.
It is questionable where did disappear all the arguments presented by the Croatian Parliament at the time when the Ecological-Fishery Zone was introduced? Is it not necessary any more to attain a better preservation of living maritime resources, to ameliorate the protection of ecological biosphere, to enhance clean tourism? We can only hope that the maritime biosphere will not suffer too much on the account of the political decisions.