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DANISH NEWS IN ENGLISH VOL 21 ISSUE 01
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NEWS Two years for jetski rider who killed two US students
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Safe to come out Copenhagen gang war officially over after truce
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SHOOT TO KILL Academic decries situation facing foreign peers
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University of Copenhagen administrative director baffled by minister’s lofty Nobel Prize ambitions in light of the current set-up
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AR MORE needs to be done to address the bureaucratic nightmare faced by foreign academics in order for Denmark to have any chance of becoming a leading Nobel Prize contender, claims the administrative director of University of Copenhagen. The minister for research and education, Søren Pind, last month outlined his lofty ambition “to establish a strong enough scientific environment to compete in the race for Nobel Prizes”, but Jesper Olesen was quick to pour scorn on his plans.
Byzantine system “THE PROBLEM is that the system is extremely Byzantine. It’s simply unnecessarily complicated to obtain a work and residence permit. You have to send a lot of paperwork in and, if you make a mistake, you have to start all over again,” Olesen told Politiken. “When you come to Denmark, you have to produce vast amounts of documentation to show you have a job or are cohabiting. That takes an inordinately long time. The process is so comprehensive that it makes it difficult even for highly-educated academics.” In some cases foreigners have to wait months to get a Danish CPR number, getting trapped in what has been described as a ‘Kafkaesque system’.
Digital solution? PIND CONCEDES the problem must be solved. “I’ve asked my civil servants to be especially aware of the things that act as barriers to attracting clever researchers,” he told DR. A new digital pilot scheme is already underway to ensure applicants don’t have to turn up in person when applying for a CPR number. Other worries BUT OLESEN needs more convincing. “There are researchers who have been fined for making presentations in Parliament and for acting as external examiners for other universities,” he said. “We also have people struggling to get residence permits for their children, even though they have European passports.”
PM ditches tax bid DANISH PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen has given up on tax concessions for society’s highest earners in the 2018 budget – a measure Dansk Folkeparti was only prepared to back in return for draconian new rules on immigration. Low-paid workers look set to benefit from tax cuts, though, as does the health sector, the elderly and the police.
Murder series criticised A NEW E-BOOK series documenting the Kim Wall murder case has been pulled by Saxo. com after the first installment drew intense criticism for being inconsiderate to her family. The series is the work of Thomas Djursing, a journalist with extensive prior contact with Peter Madsen, the submariner accused of murdering Wall in August.
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