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Several injured as Spanish students clash with police over reform
Mar 18, 2009, 14:39 GMT
Barcelona - Several people were injured and six detained Wednesday as Spanish students clashed with police during protests against a Europe-wide university reform, police sources said.
Police expelled about 100 students from the vice-chancellor's office at Barcelona University, where they had been staying for four months in protest at the so-called Bologna reform.
The students protested the expulsion with a sit-in and marches, which led to demonstrators throwing objects, police using sticks and traffic coming to a halt.
The injured victims included five police officers and an unknown number of students.
A protest movement against the Bologna reform, which is based on a 1999 declaration and aims at creating a European higher education area in 46 countries, has spread through a string of Spanish universities.
Students fear that the reform aimed at modernizing and internationalizing university education will reduce state funding of studies, link universities more closely with private companies and threaten the study of subjects less useful for business interests, such as the humanities.
The Spanish government says the students have misunderstood the meaning of the reform.
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