RECENT TRENDS AND CURRENT PROBLEMS IN USA HIGHER EDUCATION

In the following article, Professor John D. Millett, Vice‐President of the USA Academy of Educational Development, points out major trends and problems of higher education in the United States, especially in the context of structural economic changes. Many issues discussed in this article will also effect American higher education in the 1980s.

The article is based on a paper Professor Millett presented at the International Seminar on Efficiency of Higher Education (Nieborow, 25‐28 September 1979), (Editor's Note: In No.1, January‐March 1980 of “Higher Education in Europe” other papers delivered at this meeting were presented, as well as the summary of the seminar's discussions.)     

EDUCATION FOR THE ELDERLY: TRENDS AND PROBLEMS IN THE 1980s

The 1980s will see a trend toward lifelong education and a resulting shift in educational emphasis to educating older people. As part of this trend, more people will reach retirement in good health and with high educational levels. Therefore the elderly will become a more notable group of educational consumers in the decade to come. This paper identifies four groups of elderly educational consumers based on their interests and needs. Each group is delineated, and problems inherent in meeting their needs are discussed.     

对李约瑟<中国科学技术史》若干问题的消解

已故英国名科学史家李约瑟博士对中国科学技术史进行了深入探讨，其所的《中国科学技术史》对中国古代科学技术作出了实事求是的总结与概括，并提出了一些极有启发性的独创见解，对世界了解中国，消除误解与偏见作了极好的宣传。他对中国科学技术史的研究不存在“拔高”或“说好话”的倾向。他的《中国科学与明》被译成《中国科学技术史》并无不妥。否定“李约瑟难题”缺乏理论根据。     

TRENDS IN EXAMINATIONS AND ASSESSMENT IN MODERN LANGUAGES

The article offers a survey of the problems peculiar to assessment and examinations in modern languages, pointing particularly to the lack of consensus among languages teachers about the relative weighting of the qualities sought in student answers. An indication of recent developments in examinations is given, with specific reference to examinations of the Royal Society of Arts, and the languages component of Higher National Awards of the Business Education Council.     

WOMEN AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN TURKEY

An examination of the statistics indicates that Turkish women have made great strides with respect to their recruitment to positions at all levels in the higher education institutions of their country, particularly in such fields as medicine, the hard sciences, and engineering in which women in very many countries are usually thought to be underrepresented. The author attributes this achievement to the Republican ideology of post‐1923 Turkey, the opportunities which were opened to élite women by the correspondence of the latter with the developmental needs of the country, the availability of domestic service provided by non‐elite women, and the existence of family solidarity networks. Women, however, have not been so well represented in such fields as law and political science which, were traditionally close to the loci of political power. In recent years, however, with the expansion of the higher education system, competition between men and women for posts has greatly increased, and economic change and urbanization have dried up the supply of inexpensive domestic help and have stymied family solidarity networks. Thus academic women are increasingly beset by conflicts between their professional and their family roles. This new situation has caused Turkish women to lose ground with regard to recruitment to prestigious positions in higher education and to seek conservative Islamic solutions to the conflicts in question. Reforms based on a renewed Republican ideal are needed to improve the situation and to enable Turkish women academics to build on their past achievements.     

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN CANADA: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE TRENDS

The Canadian academic environment is in many ways unique, affected as it is by the size of the country, its population, federal system etc. This situation, to a certain extent, had stimulated interest about educational technology and the directions of its applications.

In this context, we present the following article, written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Drs. Christopher K. Knapper and Barry L. Wills of the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It reviews the evolution of educational technology in Canadian higher education during the past decade, examines its current status and speculates on some possiblt future directions.     

WOMEN AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS

This is a summary, written for CEPES, of the background paper prepared for the study conference “Women and Higher Education” organized by the Study Centre OTO, October 29‐30 1980 in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands.

The article summarizes the principal currents of discussion in the Netherlands pertaining to the question of women in higher education, and draws an analytical picture of major obstacles encountered by women in Dutch higher education.     

CAREERS FOR MEN AND WOMEN IN BRITISH UNIVERSITIES: EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION

This article considers the position of women academics in British universities. It begins with an historical survey of the evolution of the university teaching career in the United Kingdom, with special reference to women. It then concentrates on the entry of women into academic careers, particularly after the Second World War. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of the latest trends in higher education in the United Kingdom, especially attempts to make universities more cost effective, to rate their performance via performance indicators, and to attune them to the needs of the business world. These trends may end up making academic careers in the United Kingdom relatively less attractive than they were in the past, while inadvertently providing for greater feminization.     

WOMEN'S CAREERS IN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

This introductory article by the Chairman of the Special Committee for Humanities of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO introduces the conference, the proceedings of which follow. The author gives a brief history of one of the co‐sponsors, the Institute for East and South‐East European Studies of Austria, following it with a few references to the admission of women to selected European universities in the mid‐nineteenth century. The question asked is whether or not a good university education suffices for a woman to be able to undertake a successful career in research and development (R&D).     

RECENT TRENDS IN CREATIVITY RESEARCH AND THEORY IN WESTERN EUROPE

Compared to the number of articles in the American literature, creativity is a relatively neglected topic in psychological/educational research and theory in Western Europe. There are no scientific creativity schools or research centres; progress depends more or less on the personal interest of researchers in creativity, leading to studies and papers which are scarce and dispersed in national (sometimes international) journals. To a high degree this work has been stimulated and influenced by developments in American creativity research in the fifties and sixties. Nevertheless, apart from the American oriented work there is a more or less typical European line of creativity research and theory. This review is based upon more than 200 articles published in the last two decades. Twelve trends will be formulated, emerging especially from recent creativity assessment and testing devices; other topics are creativity in everyday settings, in business and management, and different approaches in fostering and training creativity.