Student Mobility in the EU – Recent Case Law, Reflections and Recommendations
Now more than ever, it appears that both societal and political factors are supporting and stimulating student mobility in all its shapes and forms, most notably through various initiatives on the European level. The Bologna Process, the European Qualifications Framework and the Lisbon Recognition Convention are all examples of this commitment undertaken by the Member States of the EU as well as other European nations. However, upon taking a closer look at the practical reality, we see that many obstacles remain to exist. As EU law currently stands after the Forster and Morgan and Bucher judgments, mobile students do not have a right to maintenance grants, neither from their host state or their home state. Furthermore, the European Court of Justice has – albeit reluctantly – allowed an exception to the principle of equal treatment on grounds of nationality with regards to access to higher education in the Bressol case. Although the recent, somewhat more restrictive attitude of the European Court can be defended and perhaps even welcomed, it does illustrate the need for a discussion and potential action on the European level by the political institutions. This contribution includes a discussion of the recent ECJ case law on student mobility and some reflections on the desirability, feasibility and potential form and content of such future action.
Higher Education, Equal Access, and Residence Conditions: Does EU Law Allow Member States to Charge Higher Fees to Students Not Previously Resident?
This article looks at the law and policy issues surrounding the practice of charging uniform fees for higher education to home students and students coming from other EU Member States. It begins with the observation that within the EU such fees are heavily subsidised by governments and therefore amount to a financial benefit (or a disguised grant) to students. In the light of this, this article suggests that restricting that subsidy to students resident prior to their studies would be not only compatible with recent case law on non-discrimination but would also fit better with the underlying logic of free movement, which denies any right to benefits for non-economic recent migrants. Secondly, it looks at the policy, and finds that while equal fees have a number of very positive social effects, they also carry moral and economic risks. A better approach, less distorting of the market for higher education and more consistent with the wider EU approach to welfare migration, might be to require exportability of subsidies from the student's state of origin.
Preparation and performance evaluation of swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binder
Abstract In order to study the effect of the preparation process of swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binder on the rheological properties of the binder, the matrix asphalt and asphalt rubber were used as the control group, and swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binders were obtained by three preparation processes. Then the rheological properties of five binders were evaluated by rotational viscosity, DSR, MSCR and BBR tests. The results show that the addition of swine manure bio-oil to asphalt rubber is beneficial to the workability, but cause negative effect on its high temperature performance, fatigue performance and low temperature crack resistance. The preparation method of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder can reduce the degradation of high-temperature performance of asphalt rubber caused by addition of swine manure bio-oil to a certain extent. The fatigue properties of the three bio-binders are close, and the critical temperature is less than 25 °C. The process of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder will increase the creep stiffness and reduce the low-temperature performance. However, the low-temperature performance of the binder obtained by this process is still better than that of the matrix asphalt and can meet the requirements of use. Therefore, it is recommended to use the preparation process of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder to prepare swine manure bio-oil modified asphalt rubber.