Higher Education and Fair Employment in Northern Ireland

As equal opportunities are assuming greater significance in higher education this paper examines the issue of fair employment in the two universities in Northern Ireland. The development of higher education and the evolution of fair employment policy which seeks to promote greater equality of opportunity in employment between Protestants and Catholics, are outlined. The employment practices and profiles of Northern Ireland's two universities are considered. Under the 1989 Fair Employment Act employment monitoring is a legal requirement for the two universities. The paper concludes by noting that other UK higher education institutions should undertake monitoring as a means of implementing equal opportunities policy.     

Avoidance differences between rats and gerbils

Gerbils and rats learned equally well to discriminate the lighted, safe arm from the unsafe arm during Y-maze avoidance trials. Gerbils, however, were inferior to rats in initiating this response in time to avoid shock. Two subsequent experiments on passive avoidance did not support the interpretation of these data based on a greater incidence of shock-induced activity suppression in gerbils. In both experiments, gerbils required more shocks than rats to learn a staying response, indicating a pronounced locomotor response bias in gerbils that is not compatible with the required passive avoidance response. A fourth experiment, using a shuttlebox, found that the relative active avoidance performance by these species depends upon whether intertriai responses are permitted and punished. When they are, gerbils are inferior to rats, since their high level of locomotor responding is not compatible with the behavior required, i.e., staying during the intertrial interval and running during the CS-US interval. On the other hand, gerbils are not inferior when intertrial responses are prohibited, since their locomotor bias is not punished and is compatible with the required avoidance response.