INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF UNIVERSITY OPERATIONS ‐ THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE

The Annual Conference of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) entitled “The Changing Conditions within the Universities” was held from 1 to 4 November 1976 in Regina.

The meeting mainly concentrated on the following issues:

• participation of the AUCC in public policy on higher education and research;

• problems facing the research community in Canada;

• the status of women in universities;

An important part of the conference was carried out in the form of workshops which had the following themes: ‐ the problems of changing growth rates;

• the nature and level of university research;

• international aspects of university operations;

• graduate education;

• the future of the community of scholars;

• the evaluation of performance in the university;

• continuing education.

The below article is based on papers presented at the meeting devoted to the international aspects of university operations in Canada.     

INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF UNIVERSITY OPERATIONS ‐ THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE

The Annual Conference of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) entitled “The Changing Conditions within the Universities” was held from 1 to 4 November 1976 in Regina.

The meeting mainly concentrated on the following issues:

• participation of the AUCC in public policy on higher education and research

• problems facing the research community in Canada

• the status of women in universities

An important part of the conference was cax'ried out in the form of workshops which had the following themes:

• the problems of ahanging growth rates

• the nature and level of university research

• international aspects of university operations

• graduate education

• the future of the community of scholars

• the evaluation of performance in the university

• continuing education

The below article is based on papers presented at the meeting devoted to the international aspects of university operations in Canada.

The traditional role of universities throughout the world has always been to:

• safeguard and preserve knowledge

• impart and disseminate knowledge

• expand the frontiers of knowledge

To this list was recently added a fourth dimension, which, implicitely, has always existed, namely:

• to contribute to the cultural, social and economic development of society

     

34th MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMITTEE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

The 34th meeting of the Council of Europe Committee for Higher Education and Research was held in Strasbourg from 3 to 5 November 1976.

The main points raised in discussions were as follows:

• the current situation and trends in tertiary education;

• the recognition of degrees and diplomas;

• the future existence of the Committee for Higher Education and Research;

• the current situation and trends in university research;

• the teaching of human rights;

• mobility of higher education staff and students;

• the future programme of the Committee.

The information presented below concentrates on some of the above points.     

34th MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMITTEE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

The 34th meeting of the Council of Europe Committee for Higher Education and Research was held in Strasbourg from 3 to 5 November 1976.

The main points raised in discussions were as follows:

• the current situation and trends in tertiary education;

• the recognition of degrees and diplomas;

• the future existence of the Committee for Higher Education and Research;

• the current situation and trends in university research;

• the teaching of human rights;

• mobility of higher education staff and students;

• the future programme of the Committee.

The information presented below concentrates on some of the above points.     

IAU SEMINAR ON THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION AND ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION

The right to education has been solemnly proclaimed by the United Nations and, in many countries, it is explicitly recognized in the constitutions or legislation.

The real problems are: the exercise of this right and the extent to which it can be seen to be a reality in different types of society; the international consequences of inequalities and differences in stages of development between countries in these matters.

Higher education is not a universal right and cannot be so in the foreseeable future, in many countries. An increasingly large proportion of the relevant age group already considers it “normal” to enter higher education and the time may well come when everyone will be expected to receive some post‐secondary education. Pressure may then be exerted to seek the transformation of this “normal” situation into a legal norm so that the right to education will then come to be interpreted as a right to higher education or post‐secondary education. Although this is not yet the case it may be wise to try to foresee the consequences of such an evolution both for the educational system and for society.

In this context the Vth Seminar of the International Association of Universities (IAU) which was held from 29 May to 2 June 1978 in Halle (GDR) concentrated its discussion on the following topics:

• the right to education for professional employment and the right to education for its own sake; the consequences for access to higher education;

• the specific role of the university in the exercise of the right to education;

• international aspects of access to higher education.

We present below an edited version of the Seminar's aide‐mémoire on its discussion.     

THE CONTRIBUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN EUROPE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHANGING SOCIETIES ‐ CEPES ROUND TABLE

The aim of the CEPES Round Table on The Contribution of Higher Education in Europe to the Development of Changing Societies (Bucharest, 21‐23 September 1976) was to exchange ideas and experience on the role of higher education in Europe in view of the general changes in present‐day society, and also with regard to the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Co‐operation in Europe. The following eleven participants took part in the meeting:

• Professor György Adam (Hungary), Rector of Budapest University;

• Professor Gunnar Adler‐Karlsson (Sweden), Roskilde University;

• Professor Hélène Ahrweiler (France), President of the University of Paris I;

• Professor Johan Galtung (Norway), Director General of the Inter‐University Centre of Post‐Graduate Studies in Dubrovnik;

• Dr. Stefan Kwiatkowski (Poland), Deputy Director of the Institute of Science Policy and Higher Education in Warsaw;

• Professor Mircea Malita (Romania), Bucharest University,’ Counsellor to the President of the Socialist Republic of Romania;

• Professor Manfred Nast (GDR), Secretary to the Council of Higher Education Institutions of the German Democratic Republic;

• Professor James A. Perkins (USA), Chairman of the International Council for Educational Development (ICED);

• Professor Branko Pribicevic (Yugoslavia), Belgrade University;

• Professor Ludwig Raiser (FRG), President of the Standing Conference of Rectors and Vice‐chancellors of the European Universities (CRE);

Professor Yuri Zhdanov (USSR), Rector of Rostov University.

Also at the meeting were observers and representatives from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Council of Europe, International Association of Universities (IAU), the European Cultural Foundation and Association des Universités Partiellement ou Entièrement de Langue Frangaise (AUPELF).

The meeting was opened by the Representative of the Director General of UNESCO, Mr. René Ochs, Director of the Division of Higher Education and of Training of Education Personnel.

H.E. Mrs. Suzana Gddea, Minister of Education and Learning of the Socialist Republic of Romania, addressed the meeting during the inaugural session on behalf of the Romanian Government.

We give below a summary of the discussions. This is not an official report of the meeting. (For further information on this meeting and its follow‐up see page 32 in this issue.)     

IAU SEMINAR IN ALEXANDRIA

The 4th International Association of Universities (IAU) Seminar took place in Alexandria (Arab Republic of Egypt) from 7 to 12 February 1977.

Discussions in the Seminar concentrated on the following themes:

• the structure of university teaching and research; their essential characteristics and innovations;

• the university and other forms of higher education; integrated and diversified systems.

Below we present some of the ideas discussed in the Seminar.     

FIRST MEETING OF THE STANDING CONFERENCE ON UNIVERSITY PROBLEMS

There are a number of international organizations or bodies, which create a framework for international co‐operation in higher education in the European region. (In some cases such co‐operation may involve only some of these countries, while in other instances it may cut across the outer boundaries of the European region).

In 1978 a new organization was created by the Council of Europe's Standing Conference on University Problems (CC‐PU) whose terms of reference are: “as a committee of experts under the authority of the new Council for Cultural Co‐operation (CDCC):

• to organize or encourage cooperation among European nations in the field of higher education and research;

• to propose activities to the CDCC for inclusion in the annual programme of activities;

• to promote relations among European universities and institutions

  of higher education and research”.

The first meeting of CC‐PU was held from 20 to 21 December 1978 in Strasbourg. Professor Dominique Rivier, Rector of the University of Lausanne was elected as its Chairman and as its Vice‐chairman, Professor Paul Sabourin from the Cabinet du Ministre aux Universites (France).

The following information concerns issues discussed during the first meeting of the Conference; these were the Council's Cultural Co‐operation (CDCC) activities in promoting student mobility in the countries of the European Community3 and interrelations between employment and training.     

SELF‐CONFRONTATION THROUGH VIDEO‐PLAYBACK: A STUDY OF LECTURERs' REACTIONS

This paper reports a survey of higher education teachers' reactions to taking part in a project which involved them in being video‐recorded while lecturing. The nature of their reactions has importance in the context of using television to enable teachers in higher education to lecture more effectively.

Material is included on teachers' anticipations prior to being video‐recorded, and on their reactions after the session, which include their comments on personal presentation, on the anxiety of the experience and on their teaching.

The findings indicate that:

1. first reactions to viewing the playback often include comment upon aspects of personal presentation (appearance, voice)

2. relatively little comment is made about their teaching as such'(teachers may need a ‘language’ for describing and evaluating their teaching)

3. steps need to be taken by staff developers to act supportively to reduce anxieties

4. the recordings were thought by participating teachers to represent typical samples of their teaching.

Some 471 students of the teachers involved in the project completed a brief questionnaire and the largest single response supports the teachers' view that the recording was typical.     

Quality assurance in engineering education on a national and European scale

Activity 2 of project E4, “Quality Assessment and Transparency for Enhanced Mobility and Trans-European Recognition”, included the working group on “Quality Assurance in Engineering on a National and European Scale”. Its report can be found in Part 2 of Volume D, final report of the E4 Thematic Network (Firenze University Press 2003).

The Report of this Working Group is formed by three parts.

Chapter 2 explores the horizon of evaluation, and briefly summarizes evaluation mandate, focus and procedures in the light of quality and quality assurance, accreditation, responsibility, with particular reference to higher education.

Chapter 3 explores the ideas from a number of European evaluation models for higher education, and shows that their contents can be read in the frame of four fundamental “aspects” or “dimensions” of quality:

• –?Requirements, objectives

• –?Teaching, learning, assessment

• –?Learning resources

• –?Monitoring, analysis, improvement

Chapter 4 underlines that a Programme should be evaluated on the basis of its ability to put into effect a policy focusing—clearly and distinctly—on the external and internal efficacy of the learning process: specify worthwhile learning goals and enable most students to achieve the established objectives. The set of “aspects” examined in Chapter 3 is expanded into a minimum set of “factors”, that the Programme should address in a stable manner before it is submitted to an external evaluation.

In developing this activity, a selection of a few representative models was examined, bringing out the essential structure that they have in common. The reference documents can be found in the References section of this article.

What follows is extracted from the conclusions of Chapter 4.     

POST‐COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN THE 1980s INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN LANCASTER

From 29 August to 1 September 1978 the 4th International Conference in Higher Education “Post‐Compulsory Education in the 1980s” was held at the University of Lancaster. The conference which drew some 250 participants from 25 countries and representatives of several international organizations concentrated on the following problems of higher education in the context of their implications for the future development in this field: structures of post‐compulsory education; higher education and working life; staff development; student learning; role of the media in higher education; and priorities for the 1980s.

The work of the conference was carried out in plenary and working party sessions. In the sessions of the working parties, each group discussed one of the above‐listed conference issues. During the plenary sessions the following addresses were presented:

• the opening address on the present problems of higher education and their implications for its situation in the 1980s, by Lord Briggs, Worcester College, Oxford;

• On “The many faces of academic coordination”, by Professor Burton R. Clark, Director of the Higher Education Research Group, Yale University;

• “Evaluating recurrent education reform or reforming recurrent evaluation in higher education?” by Professor Urban Dahllof from University of Upsala; and

• a summary of the work of the conference by Lord Vaizey,. Brunel University

The conference identified a number of problems, e.g. demographic changes affecting potential student populations in the 1980s, changes in the structure and content of university level education (mainly in the context of higher education systems in the developed countries. We present below the views expressed at the conference, concentrating on those given during the plenary sessions.     

Place et rôle des stages dans la formation initiale des enseignants en France

Preservice teacher education in France consists of:

subject oriented studies in a university,

recruitment by means of a state competitive examination which may be prepared in a university,

professional training in a training centre, including both subject oriented studies and practice periods in classrooms.

Preschool and primary teacher training includes two years at a university to obtain the required degree for competition and then two years in a college of education. Secondary level teacher training includes more years at a university as the level of competition is high. It takes at least three years to become a graduate, four years in the other case. But the preparation of the competition in itself requires more time for most people. When admitted to the competitive examination, the teacher has one year in a training centre.

This paper will present:

1. the legal basis, curricula, content, structure and aims of practical studies at the two levels (preschool‐primary/secondary levels);

2. the difference and convergence of thinking about practical studies at the two levels: the main principle seems to be that pedagogical and practice studies make up for a lack of theoretical knowledge, but that, consequently, they are not considered really useful for those who do have theoretical knowledge;

3. the difficulties of achieving the official objective concerning an integrated training with links between theoretical studies and practice periods,

4. an innovative approach to this problem by means of a case study which put into practice the hypothesis brought out in the research I have led at the INRP about primary school teacher training.

The organisational models and the place given to practice periods in the whole teacher education raise the problem of what is a professional teacher training and what is its aim.     

THE DECLARATION OF HELSINKI AND THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE

The 13th Bi‐annual Conference of the Standing Conference of Rectors and Vice‐Chancellors of European Universities (CRE), held on 21‐22 October 1976 in Athens, discussed the problem of co‐operation between European universities in view of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The participants put more emphasis on the removal of obstacles to existing forms of links between universities than on seeking new ways of inter‐university co‐operation.

Two papers were presented during the conference:

• “Necessity and evolution in the European Scientific Community” by Professor Zygmunt Rybicki, Rector of Warsaw University;

• “Difficulties in European Inter‐University Co‐Operation” by Professor Jean Tuscoz, President of Nice University.

The Bureau of CRE prepared a report “The Declaration of Helsinki and the Universities in Europe”, on which the information below is based, It gives an idea of the present state of development of relations between universities in Eastern and Western Europe.     

The Training of Teachers for the Compulsory Cycle in Spain

The author provides an overview of the training of teachers for the compulsory cycle of education in Spain. Within this overview, two facts stand out:

• the Education Law of 1970 integrates the training of primary teachers with the first cycle of university education;

• the University Reform Law of 1983 sets in place a new structure for the universities, organised around Departments which are seen as teaching, as much as research, units.

Certain concerns emerge when a more prospective view is taken. These include youth unemployment and the persistence of the economic crisis, the imbalance between the length of compulsory schooling and the accepted right to work, the failure to adapt training programmes to educational needs.

These concerns all point to a need for further changes in the education system and also in the training of teachers.     

THE USE OF TELEVISION IN STAFF DEVELOPMENT

This paper takes closed‐circuit television as a particular example of media services support and argues that it can, and should, play a major role in staff development in further and higher education. Three main areas of use will be considered:

1. (1) an “active” role for television in the acquisition of teaching skills, e.g. in microteaching and other simulation exercises;

2. (2) a more passive role in terms of television as a recorder of events, e.g. in interaction analysis and self‐evaluation;

3. (3) collaborative ventures between media service units and other members of staff, e.g. in the production of programmes on learning packages

     

TELEVISION IN LABORATORY GUIDANCE: PRACTICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL BASES

At the University of Electro‐Communications instruction is given on fundamental electricity in accordance with the educational principles derived from the philosophy of ‘Zen’. On the technical side, CCTV interphones and other audio‐visual aids are employed. In particular, we have inaugurated a remote instruction method called ‘TV‐Interphone’, abbreviated to T.I. method, through which we give personal guidance to students in the conduct of their experiments. Data from the experiments are fed into a computer which was installed in the laboratory for control processing

Three courses are provided:

1. 1. Electrical Measurements and Characteristics of Analogue and Digital Circuits.

2. 2. Electrical Measurements and Characteristics of Advanced Analogue Circuits

3. 3. Design and Experiment

     

HEIDELBERG: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON IMPROVING UNIVERSITY TEACHING

The Second International Conference on Improving University Teaching, sponsored by the University of Maryland in co‐operation with Heidelberg University, was held in Heidelberg (Federal Republic of Germany) from 13 to 16 July 1976. Approximately 130 educators and administrators, from 23 countries, discussed a number of problems concerning university teaching which were presented under the following headings:

‐ facilitating student learning;

• educational technology;

• improving teacher performance;

• assessing teaching effectiveness.

We give below information on some of the issues covered during this conference. (For information on CEPES participation at this meeting see page 31 in this issue.)     

EDINBURGH: 14th SEMESTRIAL CONFERENCE OF CRE

The 14th Semestrial Conference of the Standing Conference of Rectors and Vice‐Chancellors of the European Universities (CRE) on “Social Relevance of the University” was held in Edinburgh from 21 to 22 April 1977.

The following three subjects constituted the main points of discussion:

• the concept of relevance with respect to undergraduate and postgraduate courses;

• the role of manpower planning in relation to university admissions and curricula;

• the responsibility of universities for training the professions, for the needs of industry and public service.

We give below the main elements of papers presented during the Conference on these themes. (For CEPES participation in this meeting please see page 27 in this issue.)     

REFORM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN MALTA

>Higher education in Malta is in the process of substantial reform which, among other things, includes:

• transfer of a number of degrees and courses from the Old to the New University and as well as the creation of new courses and degrees in the New University;

• changes in the administrative structures of higher education institutions (Old and New University)

• introduction of a worker‐student scheme for university entry;

• changes in the distribution of authority on higher education.

The introduction of the reform is regulated by the Education (Amendment) Act, 1978. Outlined below are the main elements of this reform as they are introduced in the Act, with a special emphasis on the new “worker‐student scheme for university admission”     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ITALY ‐‐ PRESENT SITUATION AND PROBLEMS

The present tension in Italy's universities is attributable mainly to the following factors:

• the higher education system was changed during the 1960s to cater for the masses rather than just the élite, without there being any corresponding expansion of academic facilities, teaching staff and social services;

• changes in educational policies led to strains in the student‐professor relationship, and ‐ a sharp rise in youth unemployment has lowered student expectations and bred resentment among higher education graduates.

Below we present information analysing this situation, with special regard to the position of students, and including proposals for changes which would improve the condition of higher education in Italy.