Establishing a University's Undergraduate Engineering Laboratories in View of its Interaction with the Community

The basic roles of undergraduate engineering laboratories are usually stated in terms of how the laboratory experience serves the student. To these roles another is added: the continuing professional development of the faculty members. This added role gives great emphasis to laboratories concerned with new and developing topics in the discipline and moving the laboratory towards the ‘hands-on’ type of curriculum. This eventually will lead to more practice-oriented graduates.

To serve this added role, three main interactive factors should be involved; the appropriate development of the engineering laboratory, its practical touch with the surrounding engineering organisations in community, and realisation of involved individuals and their willingness to participate in this role. A case study was investigated in the State of Qatar to find the effect of these interactive factors in the development of engineering laboratories at Qatar University. Two different questionnaires were administered to two groups. The first was the faculty members supervising engineering laboratories at the university. The second group involved engineers in various administrative posts in both private and public sectors in Qatar.

The results of these questionnaires are presented in this paper. The analysis of these results reflected the essence of the added role. The surveyed groups showed awareness and willingness to participate in a co-operation programme to enhance that role. However, the survey revealed, in general, a lack of effective channels of communication and inadequate university laboratory facilities. That could lead, according to the survey, to a limited co-operation programme between the university's engineering laboratories and engineering organisations in the community.     

CANADA'S UNIVERSITIES AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: AN OVERVIEW

This article presents a brief overview of the many facets of the involvement of Canadian universities in international development. To begin with, questions of development are included in the international affairs and area studies curricula of a number of universities. A few universities have specialized institutes focussed upon development. A number of Canadian universities have linkages of one kind or another with universities in developing countries. Some of these are partly supported by the Canadian International Development Agency. Two university programmes directed specifically at technology transfer are cited. A number of foreign countries have expressed interest in Canada's vast experience in distance education. Finally, through the normal research and publication activities of Canadian universities and their faculty members, Canadian professors have undertaken projects of various sorts concerned with development, some of them funded to a greater or lesser extent by the Canadian International Development Research Center which has also funded the research projects directed at questions of development undertaken by certain Third World scholars.

     

UNESCO SEMINAR ON NEW TYPES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND PROGRAMMES IN.DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND REGIONS

The rôle of higher education in the process of socio‐economic development is widely recognised, but the particular institutional forms and programmes vary subject to the levels of socio‐economic development, needs and possibilities found in different countries. In this context UNESCO organized a Seminar on the Problems Involved in Setting‐up New Types of Higher Education Institutions and Programmes in Developing Countries and Regions (Paris, 5‐8 October 1976), which was attended by 10 participants from developing countries and observers from several international organizations.

New types of higher education establishment in developing countries were examined, and attention was given to new forms of study programme in existing institutions of higher education (eg. open universities, television universities, workers’ universities, correspondence and sandwich courses, etc.). The main trends and problems were identified and proposals were formulated for further UNESCO activities in this field.

Information on the main issues of the meeting is given below.     

Teacher Education in Israel: the present situation

After presenting the essential principles relevant to the education of teachers, according to which the Israeli educational system is organised, the article examines teacher education patterns in the various institutions in Israel. These are divided into institutions for the education of teachers in nursery schools and elementary schools run by the State, and schools of education in the universities which train teachers for secondary schools.

Ideological concepts divide the institutions of both kinds into those that train teachers for religious and non‐religious nursery schools and elementary schools.

The teacher training institutions in Israel (together with the whole educational system) have been immersed, during recent years, in a process of reform which reflects the changes that Israeli society has undergone since the establishment of the State.     

Theme D: interaction between engineering education and industrial development

Within a conference devoted to the interaction between engineering education and society, it was only natural to give a place to the contribution of engineering education to industrial development. This rich and undoubtedly delicate topic has been dealt with from three viewpoints:

— the contribution of educational establishments to the actualization of engineers' technological knowledge.

— the participation of industry in the precise definition of curricula.

— the contribution of engineering education to the industrial growth of developing countries.     

The Strategic Management of Information: an Essential Element in the Training of Engineers∗

Why should engineering students be trained in the effective use of information sources? How can this education and training be integrated into the curriculum within technical universities? What role can information specialists and librarians play for training future engineers in this field of information mastery?

This paper introduces a debate which is largely developed in some countries, specially in France, within the French Grandes Ecoles     

Young Children's Symbol‐Making Tools and Factors Influencing Their Availability,Selection and Use: An International Survey

Families and schools play essential roles introducing children to the tools of their culture, including pencils and other symbol‐making instruments. Child development and education specialists from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America confirm these roles and reveal that symbol‐making tools, as cultural artifacts, reflect countries’ levels of human development, including life expectancy, literacy, and purchasing power.

In countries of low and moderate levels of human development children are more likely to use commercial symbol‐making tools first in schools, not homes. The symbol‐making tools most widely available to young children are pencils and crayons. Yet, when commercial tools are unavailable, children create their own, using objects from the natural environment.

The pencils used by most young children are standard adult‐sized while crayons, brushes, and markers are more varied in size. In most countries children use symbol‐making tools freely and with adult direction. Nonetheless, adult‐directed tool use decreases and free use increases as human development levels rise.

Place of residence, socio‐economic status, teacher and parent educational levels, and commercial availability account for often wide within‐country variations in child access to and use of symbol‐making tools. Finally, symbol‐making tool design and use appear to be based on tradition rather than research.

     

A Comparison of the Australian and British Post Binary Higher Education Systems

Both Australia and Britain have recently moved from a binary system of higher education to a unitary system based upon the universities. In both countries change has been affected by an increasing emphasis upon higher education as a vital national economic resource and the need to make higher education institutions” more efficient.” As a result universities have a much closer relationship with government than ever before.

Yet there are important differences: Australia ended its binary system by consolidating its Colleges of Advanced Education into the university system. In Britain the trend has been to redesignate polytechnics as universities without amalgamation. Britain has evolved a much more competitive system in the allocation of resources which has had a profound affect upon the universities.

This article explores major similarities and contrasts in the Australian and British experiences.     

A Cross-section of Women Engineers in Italy

In Italy as in other European countries, the percentage of women who graduated with a degree in engineering is still very low. However, in past years, matriculation of women in engineering has been increasing, although the trend is still lower than in other departments, where an overall average of 50% increase is projected.

Using statistical data from the oldest and one of the most important universities in the world, the University of Bologna, we have analysed the historical and social reasons why particular careers for women,i.e. teaching and medicines, were chosen over other careers. Other data were used to study why women had difficulties being accepted at the University; who were the famous female teachers at the University of Bologna (18th century); who were the first female graduates in engineering in Italy (Turin, 1908) and in particular, in Bologna (1915).

In addition, we studied the distribution of women in the various fields of engineering. A survey was sent to a sample of woment graduates in engineering from the University of Bologna in which they responded to questions concerning their present status in the field, job possibilities, prejudices, problems, etc.     

Some Non‐Academic Developmental Correlates of Ability‐Grouping in Secondary Schools

Using data from the National Child Development Study, the relationship between certain non‐academic aspects of children's development and their school's ability‐grouping policy were examined.

The four areas of non‐academic development considered were: the young people's rating of their own ability in English, mathematics, science and practical subjects, their academic motivation, their plans for further education and occupational aspirations and their behaviour at school. However, in general there were no differences in any of these respects between children in streamed, setted and mixed‐ability schools.

The implications of these findings are discussed, in particular the potential differences which could arise between schools with different policies if more appropriate methods of teaching and organisation were adopted.     

Reproduction in Education: an elaboration of current neo‐marxist models of analysis

This paper represents an attempt to develop current understanding of reproduction in education.

Commenting on current neo‐Marxist models of analysis, we argue that more attention needs to be given to the universalising practices of schools if reproduction is to be fully understood. Drawing on evidence taken from a national study of Irish [1] schools, we show how the state's intervention in schooling can have universalising effects. However, we argue that the state has only intervened in the realm of educational provision, not in the realm of consumption, hence inequalities persist.

The second part of the paper tries to explain why state intervention in education is largely limited to provision. In effect, this means examining the processes of universalism and particularism within the context of the capitalist state. Here we argue that actions by state managers (particularly in response to resistances developing in schools) are restricted by an array of vested interest groups within the educational site. While contradictions lead to resistances in school, these resistances generate counter‐resistances from those class and/or status groups, which have their own agenda within the educational system. The managers’ need to reproduce both the skills and attitudes necessary for the capital accumulation which funds the state machinery is, of course, another powerful controlling force.     

The Ideology of Health Education in Schools

This paper examines the dominant themes which underlie many of the health education materials used in schools, and explores whether these are the most appropriate if health education is to make a significant contribution to either children's health or their education.

The overall approach to health education is identified as highly individualistic in its emphasis on individual responsibilities, attributes and skills necessary for achieving health. Contradictions, distortions and gaps inherent in this model are revealed. These contribute to identifying this kind of health education as an ideology, which serves least the needs and interests of those children who are likely to experience the greatest ill‐health.

The ways in which this approach is inappropriate for schoolchildren are illustrated by a case study, which compares the drinking experiences of a group of children with the alcohol education materials designed for them.

To conclude, improvements to both health education for slow learners and more generally to health education in schools are discussed. These include the development of an approach which is both child‐centred, and critical in locating individual choices about health within the social, economic and political contexts of local communities and wider society.

     

FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES IN U.S. RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

The present study aims at assessing faculty attitudes toward institutional competitive strategies in U.S. research universities and at exploring some of the correlates of these attitudes.

A stratified random sample of 40 U.S. research university departments, 10 each in physics, sociology, electrical engineering, and education was surveyed by means of a questionnaire.

The major findings of this study suggest that faculty members at research universities express non‐receptive attitudes toward university generic strategies, although, more productive,more satisfied and more committed faculty members are relatively more receptive toward university strategies than less productive, less satisfied and less committed faculty members.

The meaning and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

Reading and Writing the Small Print: the fate of new sponsored grant‐maintained schools

The 1993 Education Act introduced changes that encouraged the supply‐side of the quasi‐market of schools. As a result of that Act, since April 1994 it has been possible for groups of parents or independent sponsors to apply to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment in England or the Secretary of State for Wales to establish their own grant‐maintained schools.

This article traces the attempts of various potential sponsors to establish new schools within the state system. It is argued that the Funding Agency for Schools and the Department for Education and Employment have developed the detail of the new scheme in such a way as to make it almost impossible for potential sponsors to meet their requirements.

The implications of the policy and its implementation are discussed.     

Interaction in distance education — a case study: Teaching biology at two rural schools

There are many instances where distance education for children is in a state of upheaval and change. This is particularly true of Australia and, as earlier reports indicate, of Canada. Central planners often have abandoned the old ‘correspondence schools’ and established ‘open access’ centres; central schools have been de‐centralised; correspondence stuthes are offered to children in city schools; isolated children attend ‘classes’ vastly different from their old ‘School of the Air’ classes; etc. Some of these changes are the marks of progress; the quality of other changes is debatable.

This account is that of one country teacher operating in northern South Australia where distance education has now changed to be offered, Statewide, by a series of open access schools and has also been regionalised to be offered at the initiative of Education Department Regional Centres with a broad responsibility for education of children in their region. The article makes no pretence to being considered as ‘international research literature’ — some will question whether or not it is even distance education. It is being published at my request.

The teacher functions in an areaof small country towns 50 km apart and with 500 or so people. Not too much further north, into sparsely‐watered country, the towns are likely to have 50 or so people and are up to 500 km apart!

What the paper does highlight is that there are professional people ‘out there’ who see themselves as having a stake in distance education. Central administrators and those who regard themselves as scholars in distance education are only a part of the personnel in distance education.

Ed.     

ROLE OF RECTORS OF ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS ‐‐ FINAL REPORT OF THE CRE CONFERENCE

It is a generally recognized fact that the period of expansion of the university system that prevailed in Europe during the 1960 ‘s has by now come to an end. Economic and financial conditions have considerably changed. As a consequence most governments have felt that the financial support given to their universities must inevitably be limited. While in some countries the student figures are still increasing, mainly for demographic reasons, in others thèy are stagnating or even beginning to fall owing to deteriorating job prospects for university leavers.

University governing bodies are experiencxing difficulties in coping with this situation. They must try to keep or to regain the necessary amount of flexibility in their administrative and financial decisions; they have to reconsider their principles of selection of students, and ensure that, in spite of a restricted budget for teaching, research does not suffer.

These problems were discussed during the 16th Semestrial Conference of the Standing Conference of Rectors and Vice‐Chancellors of the European Universities (CRE), held from 27 to 28 April 1978 in Salamanca, Spain.

We present below an edited version of the final report of this meeting, reflecting the conclusions of this conference.     

Improving the Quality of Teaching and Learning in Indonesian Universities: Issues and Challenges

Academic leaders in Indonesian universities share a concern about the quality of teaching and learning in common with their colleagues in Western universities. Attention to the reform of teaching immediately raises questions of strategy.

Short courses in teaching skills and curriculum development have been conducted in the past but it is argued that the continuation of these alone will not have the desired impact on quality in Indonesian universities in the short‐term. A distinctive and profoundly unsatisfactory feature of universities around the world is that the majority of teaching staff have no training or qualifications in teaching. Means of addressing this issue, and the university culture that supports it, include the creation of educational development centres to provide a continuing focus for development and change, a reconsideration of what it means to be an Indonesian academic, and the careful linking of institutional needs, planning, and change with the professional development of all staff.     

CREATION OF A CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL CO‐OPERATION AND SERVICES AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

During the late 1960s the United Kingdom was one of many countries which faced a potential educational crisis arising from a growing demand for post‐secondary education linked with inadequate resources for its conventional provision.

“Distance learning” techniques, providing an alternative form of study based on multi‐media methods outside formal educational systems, have emerged in response to this new demand.

Within the sector of higher education the Open University of the United Kingdom is one of the most comprehensive distance learning systems.

Many requests have been made to the University for information on distance education and for advice and assistance in establishing similar ventures elsewhere. In response to these developments the University Senate has created recently a Centre for International Co‐operation and Services (CICS).

We give below information on the main functions of this Centre within the framework of the Open University activities.     

Teacher Education in Hungary: system,process, perspectives

The author sees the Hungarian teacher education system as being in a state of transition and development and identifies a number of the planning issues to be faced.

There has existed, traditionally in Hungary, the two routes through teacher‐training familiar to many Western countries, characterised as the e'cole normale/university dichotomy. This has revealed a familiar problem: the older the age‐range for which the student is being trained, the less emphasis on pedagogy in the training.

Hungarian teacher education faces other problems. There is still a shortage of teachers, despite a high level of demand for training; demographic problems weigh heavily.

Attempts at finding solutions through mergers of institutions at different levels meet resistance, and the conflict of values from universities and teachers’ colleges echoes similar debates in, for example, France and Greece. The problems encountered raise a fundamental question: who should decide the nature of the teacher‐training programme: the specialist academics and pedagogues, or the employing community? In Hungary, the debate continues.     

VALUING ACADEMIC RESEARCH: TOWARDS A POLICY FOR HONG KONG'S FUTURE UNIVERSITIES

This article makes a preliminary assessment of the general strategies required to foster and evaluate research and scholarship in Hongkong's higher education sector.

It is particularly concerned with the means to be used in the measurement of research productivity in the ‘emerging universities’, namely the two Polytechnics and the Baptist College.

In recent years a number of Polytechnic‐style institutions in Australia have undergone a process of ‘becoming universities’ and It Is proposed that Hongkong may be able to learn from their experience.

An Important focus in this paper Is on the development of equitable and realistic indices of performance that will be accepted by academic and administrative staff In calculating the merit and worth of their efforts in relation to research — which for a number of Polytechnic and College staff has not been a significant aspect of their overall academic role.