THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY AND THE FREEDOM OF SCIENCE

In common with the Academies of Science of the other European countries, the Romanian Academy traces its origins back to a local scholarly society founded in 1795 in Sibiu to promote the study of the Romanian Language and of Romanian history. Such origins were as much influenced by Herder's stress on the importance of local culture as by Liebnitz's urging that all the great rulers of Europe create academies of science to be in the service of the state. In common with the Academies in the other eastern and central European countries, the Romanian Academy suffered under communism but was re‐established with a new lease on life after the collapse of the communist regime. The oldest international non‐governmental organization committed to international scientific co‐operation is the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) that was created in 1931. Its Standing Committee on the Free Circulation of Scientists (SCFCS), created in 1963, contributed to liberalizing science in the communist countries and in bringing about the rebirth of the Academies in eastern and central Europe after the collapse of communism. The Romanian Academy was a founding member of ICSU.     

THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ACADEMIES OF SCIENCE IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The political changes occurring in eastern and central Europe in 1989 and 1990 and the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991 fragmented a large area in which science and technology policy was more or less centralized and rationalized. Each country in this area, as a result, has had to develop its own science and technology policy in very difficult situations of transition. One of the attempts made to re‐establish some order and unity in science policy in the former socialist countries has been spearheaded by the International Association of Academies of Sciences, founded in Kiev in 1991. It is attempting, on a voluntary basis, to assume some of the functions of the former Soviet Academy of Sciences, and in particular, to re‐create the scientific space existing before 1989‐1991. Among its many projects are efforts in favour of young scientists and closer co‐operation with other international organizations of academies.     

INTERNATIONAL CO‐OPERATION IN SCIENCE IN THE FORMER USSR

The founding of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 1918 is evoked, It and its constituent institutes are continuing to function, despite the economic difficulties which have beset Ukraine since the break‐up of the Soviet Union. As an effort to internationalize its activities and to contribute to gaining back the united scientific space of the former Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Academy of sciences played an instrumental role in bringing about the creation in 1993 of the International Association of Academies of Sciences (IAAS) consisting of the now independent academies of many of the constituent republics of the former USSR. This organization is sponsoring a number of international scientific activities, including a publication programme for young scientists. It is also developing exchange mechanisms that can function without hard currency.     

REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ACADEMIES IN TRANSITION

The organizers and sponsors of the Workshop are listed, and the names of some of the high‐level participants are cited. There were two full days of discussion including opening and closing sessions and seven working sessions, the topic of each onebeing cited. All aspects of the roles of national academies of sciences were considered and discussed. Among the important conclusions reached were that academies still had major scientific roles to play in their respective countries, that they should collaborate closely with universities with regard to research and the training of Ph.D.’s, that they should collaborate among themselves on an international basis, and that they should combat the phenomena of brain‐drain, on the one hand, and take steps, on the other hand, to make scientific careers attractive to young people.     

ON EQUAL TERMS‐NEW PARTNERS IN INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

This article is an edited version of the Keynote Address given by the author at the Annual EAIE (European Association for International Education) Conference that was held in Budapest from 5 to 7 December 1996. It examined the question of the development of international educational exchanges on equal terms. Looking at the situation in Europe, the article suggests a number of preconditions that the author considers important in favouring the growth of partnerships on equal terms, referring, for example, to the different types of relationships that can exist and to the importance of the choice of partners. The question of financial inequality and what to do about it is evoked. The article also mentions different mechanisms available in Europe for building partnerships, concentrating on the impact of the enormous growth in European Union investment in higher education co‐operation programmes over the last ten years. The conclusions reached are that both institutional and individual commitment are crucial to the development of sustainable relationships, that each partner must contribute something of value to the relationship, and that the partners must have respect for and confidence in one another. Finally, co‐operation on equal terms must be seen as a work objective, one that is as much a challenge among western countries as it is between western countries and central and eastern European ones.     

清代归化、绥远城的书院及其历史地位

清代,归化城和绥远城共建有三所书院。即启秀书院（长白书院）、古丰书院、启运书院。形成了满、汉、蒙三学并立、分庭课徒的格局。三书院在课程设置等方面都显示了不同于内地书院的诸多特点。这些书院不仅在人才培养和繁荣当地的民族文化方面发挥了积极作用。在中国书院史上也应有其独特地位。     

INTER‐UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL CO‐OPERATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

The situation with regard to the development of academic co‐operation, both at the national and at the international levels, between European and Chinese universities, is introduced. Some suggestions are made with regard to the future development of such co‐operation.     

UNIVERSITY TEACHERS AND HIGHER EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS

Various types of international networks are presented. Those having been built by faculty members themselves within the European Union are particularly stressed. They might consist of specialized contacts or be related to a specific scientific field or to general relations, such as sponsors, ministries, the European Union, specific companies, etc. Three steps in the process of international network building are described: internal review, partner review, and the formulation of a business plan. Problems that may occur in international networking are evoked. Certain practical networking skills are analyzed, particularly those which are relevant when networking in culturally different countries such as those of central and eastern Europe or of Asia. The need to use electronic multimedia to facilitate international networking is discussed in the final part of this article.     

ACADEMY RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND UNIVERSITIES

Up until now, CEPES, the UNESCO European Centre for Higher Education, was more concerned about universities than about the academies of sciences in the countries making up the region it serves, even though both types of institutions do research. Although university teaching was traditionally linked to research as in the Humboldtian model of the university, the two functions became increasingly separate in eastern Europe. Now, as eastern and central Europe undergo transition to democracy and market economies, it is perhaps time to consider a redefinition and possibly a fusion of roles with academies and universities co‐operating closely for excellence in teaching and in research.     

FROM A DOMESTIC TO AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION: THE OPEN UNIVERSITY,THE UNITED KINGDOM,AND EUROPE

This article describes the change of the Open University of the United Kingdom during the 1990‐1993 period from being a domestic to an international organization, with the expansion of its provision throughout the whole of the European Union and a range of other European countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland. As a case study, it raises issues about the development of universities from the unique organizations which they have been in European society to international organizations which understand their roles in business terms, and suggests that distance teaching universities, because of their industrialized nature and volume of activity, may become leading examples of this trend.     

GENERATIONAL AND AGE DYNAMICS IN SCIENCE: ACADEMIES FOR THE YOUNG?

The article begins with a few remarks on the general organization of the structure of German science, which proceeding from a great deal of constitutional autonomy and independence, is essentially one of distributed power and great institutional differentiation. Next, the Max‐Planck‐Gesellschaft is briefly described. It is one of the four or five pillars in this differentiated organizational landscape of the sciences in Germany. The article concludes with a discussion of age and general dynamics in science and their significance for an academy of the future. Future‐oriented academies have a special responsibility to sponsor programmes for the young rather than the mature and established. This task should be undertaken in a manner that creates a fine balance between the generations that make up at any given point in time the population of living and active scientists.     

MATERIAL SPECTERS: INTERNATIONAL CONFLICTS,DISASTER MANAGEMENT,AND EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS

In this essay, Marianna Papastephanou discusses three books—Michalinos Zembylas's The Politics of Trauma in Education; Sigal Ben‐Porath's Citizenship Under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict; and Kenneth Saltman's Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools—from the perspective of the material causality of conflict and of the significance this might have for conflict resolution and the role that education may play in it. Setting out from the Derridean standpoint of spectrality, Papastephanou explores divergences and convergences of Zembylas's critical emotional praxis, Ben‐Porath's counterposition of belligerent and expansive citizenship education, and Saltman's critique of educational programs that capitalize on natural disasters and wars. Papastephanou examines various operations of ontology in an interplay with hauntology (to use Jacques Derrida's terminology) and thus puts forward a critical approach to the contribution of each perspective.     

ON THE PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVES OF THE ALBANIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE DIFFICULTIES FACING IT

A short aperçu of the Albanian Academy of Sciences is given. Its twelve institutes are grouped into two sections, one dealing with the social and human sciences, the other dealing with the natural and technical sciences. The work of the Academy has been seriously hampered by financial and social problems. Some financial aid has been provided by the SOROS Foundation, but much more is needed. The Academy looks forward to fruitful collaborative relations with other academies in the Balkans and in Europe in general.     

Achieving the Lisbon Goal: the contribution of Vocational Education and Training

This article summarises the main conclusions of the ‘Maastricht study’: Achieving the Lisbon Goal: The Contribution of VET ( Leney et al., 2004 ), which the UK Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), in collaboration with the Institute of Education and other international partners, prepared for the European Commission's DG Education and Culture in 2004. Based on the self‐assessment reports prepared by the Directors‐General for VET (DGVTs) of 31 European countries, and on independent expert reviews of the national and international literature on VET, the report analysed the contribution of VET to achieving the Lisbon goal and influenced the framing of the Maastricht Communiqué which the European education ministers agreed in December 2004. This summary of the findings of the report is organised under the following sections: 1) The potential of VET as an aspect of European cooperation; 2) The current state of play and progress of VET towards achieving the Lisbon goal; 3) Innovation in VET teaching and learning; and 4) Conclusions.     

ADOPTION OF THE CONVENTION ON THE RECOGNITION OF STUDIES,DIPLOMAS AND DEGREES IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE ARAB AND EUROPEAN STATES BORDERING ON THE MEDITERRANEAN

Increasing international attention to the need for mobility of per‐sons who are engaged in higher education has led to a number of developments at the international level. The international recognition of studies, diplomas and degrees is a necessary prerequisite for the broadening of international co‐operation in the field of higher education. The Convention on the International Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in the Arab and European States bordering on the Mediterranean, adopted in Nice on 17 December 1976, is an important step towards further expansion of international co‐operation in higher education.

We give below information concerning this convention and selected articles from the Convention itself relating to definitions, implementation, documentation, ratification, accession and entry into force.     

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Quite a large number of international meetings devoted to issues concerning higher education are organized each year. The problems of their contribution to the further development of higher education and research in this field are raised in a thought‐provoking article written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Professor E.A. van Trotsenburg, President of the European Association for Research and Development in Higher Education (EARDHE) and Director of the Institute of International Science and University Didactics, University of Klagenfurt.     

The progressive and non‐formal principles of Kibbutz education in Israel

This article explores the relationship between philanthropy and education in the context of eighteenth‐century Protestant Dissent. More particularly, it examines the intersection between philanthropy, fund‐raising and educational administration as they evolved within the institutional lifecycle of the collegiate Dissenting academies. It argues that individual academies experienced at least three of four life stages, each of which had its own unique challenges. All academies went through the first two of these stages, namely ‘foundation’ and ‘maintenance’. Whether or not an academy experienced the last two stages – ‘transition’ and ‘dissolution’ – depended on factors such as the financial strength of an academy and the reliability of its principal supporters. To illustrate these stages and their philanthropic subtexts, the article focuses on three institutional ‘traditions’, those of the Northampton Academy and its successors, the Warrington Academy, and Trevecca College and its successor Cheshunt College.     

LINKS BETWEEN ROMANIAN UNIVERSITIES AND THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY

Seemingly unlike the cases of the Academies of Sciences in the other eastern and central European countries, the Romanian Academy wishes to continue sponsoring state‐of‐the‐art‐research to be undertaken in its own network of research institutes. This decision comes both as a reaction to attempts made by the Ceauescu regime to destroy the Academy completely and the realization that other major models of national research policy, notably the US model, the western European model, and an intermediate one adopted in Mexico, are not easily adapted to Romanian reality. The specifically Romanian model chosen, of beginning with two major sets of government supported research institutes subordinated either to the Ministry of Science and Technology or to the Romanian Academy, of linking them to the universities, and of adapting them according to the dictates of a market economy and democratization seems to be the best option.     

THE EVALUATION OF RESEARCH AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A GRANT SYSTEM IN THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY

The Romanian Academy decided to conduct an evaluation of its research institutes based on facts, quantitative statistical data and indicators, as well as on qualitative factors specific to each scientific domain. A first report, concerning input data analyses (human, material, and financial resources), was issued at the beginning of 1995. A second one, consisting of a revised and updated version of input analyses, as well as an output evaluation (publications, patents, etc.) was due to appear in the autumn of 1985. During the spring of 1995, the Romanian Academy initiated a research grant system, open to all Romanian scientists and research groups, for the competitive funding of projects in fundamental and advanced research. Applications are screened and selected by four autonomous expert panels, after an ex‐ante evaluation; midterm and final evaluations (ex‐post) are also foreseen.