23 May 2001
Copyright © 2001 World Expertise LLC – All rights
reserved
A periodic electronic newsletter for engineering education leaders,
edited by Russel C. Jones, PhD., P.E.
A new French University in Egypt is seeking to challenge
English-language instruction there, according to an article by Daniel Del
Castillo in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The French University in
Egypt states that “the hegemony of the English language can give future
economic and political relations in Egypt a monodimensional character by pushing
it mainly toward Anglo-Saxon countries”. The university’s founding was
announced by France’s ambassador to Egypt, at a ceremony attended by Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak. With classes slated to open in September 2002 in al-Sharouq
City outside of Cairo, the new university hopes to attract 3500 students during
its first four years. Programs will focus on technology, engineering, computer
science, information systems, and hotel management. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/05/2001051503n.htm
A unique experiment to improve Russian science has been
granted $12.5-million by two U.S. foundations, according to an article
by Richard Stone in the 18
May 2001 issue of Science. The funding more
than doubles the budget of the fledgling Basic Research and Higher Education
Program, which aims to develop Centers of Excellence that bring top quality
scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences institutes together with
universities which often lack world-class scientists. Started in 1998, the BRHE
Program has already developed eight Centers, and the new funds will allow
funding for eight more. The initiative requires matching funds from the Russian
federal government and local authorities. See http://www.sciencemag.org
An Internet poll
indicates that the majority of Chinese students are not satisfied with their
studies and do not find them useful, according to a report on the China News
Service noted by Daniel Walfish in the Chronicle. Students
visiting a web site were asked “Are you satisfied with the curriculum and the
use of teaching materials in colleges and universities?” Of the 12,398
students who responded, 2% were fairly satisfied, 20% said “all right, but not
ideal”, and 77% were not satisfied. Unsatisfied students may have been more
likely to respond to the survey than satisfied students, and the results could
reflect such a bias. See http://chronicle.com/2001/05/2001051605n.htm
Representatives of
over 300 European higher education institutions met in Salamanca at the end of
March 2001 to prepare input on shaping the European higher education area for an
upcoming meeting of higher education Ministers in Prague. The assembled
educators agreed on a set of goals, principles and priorities, aimed at creating
a European Higher Education Area by the end of the decade. Topics covered in the
statement resulting from the Salamanca meeting included autonomy and
accountability, research based higher education, quality, relevance, mobility,
comparability of qualifications at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and
attractiveness. The full statement is available at http://www.unige.ch/eua
Dozens of private
colleges and universities in Japan are forming a holding company to take over
many of their administrative operations, seeking to cut costs. According to a
note in the Chronicle by
Michael Chan, more than half of the 121 members of the Japan Association of
Private Colleges and Universities plan to join the new venture. Private
universities in Japan have been hit hard by the nation’s declining birth rate.
The outsourcing of university administration will likely result in personnel
cuts at participating universities. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/05/2001050804n.htm
France is planning
a sweeping reform of its higher education system, aimed at giving some 1.7
million students greater freedom to study in other European countries. According
to a note in the 4 May 2001 issue of Science, the reforms
proposed by the Education Minister have to date received a tepid response,
however. The government ministry intends to take France into the European Credit
Transfer System, developed in the 1990s to help standardize course credits
between E.U. countries and to encourage student exchanges. See http://www.sciencemag.org
Community colleges
are becoming a force in developing nations worldwide, according to a major
review article by Beth McMurtrie in the Chronicle. In the U.S.,
community colleges have been well developed for a long time, with nearly half of
the students entering higher education choosing a community college. In
developing countries, however, community colleges are a relatively new
phenomenon. Universities there tend to be for the elite, with vocational
training typically provided at the high-school level. But with many developing
countries facing an explosion in the number of high school graduates, the
university systems are unprepared to handle them. Also, developing countries are
recognizing that economic growth requires a cadre of practically trained workers
to run high-tech equipment, start small businesses, and provide health care.
Community colleges in developing countries are less interested in providing
programs that are a stepping stone to a university degree – a pattern that is
typical in the U.S. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i37/37a04401.htm
Every year
thousands of engineers from Ireland and other parts of the world donate their
time and expertise to work on projects in disadvantaged areas, according to an
article by Claire Robinson in the May 2001 issue of the Engineers
Journal of the Institution of
Engineers of Ireland. Agencies such as the Irish Agency for Personal Services
Overseas promote service in the developing world, providing needs driven
connections between developing countries and appropriate engineers. The Irish
agency has provided services in some 50 countries around the world, averaging
about 100 assignments per year. The agency provides training programs to prepare
volunteers for their foreign assignments. See http://www.iei.ie
The Chinese
government is predicting strong growth in online education, according to a
report in the China Daily cited
by Daniel Walfish in the Chronicle.
The report states that the Chinese Ministry of Education plans to have
five million students in 50 to 100 online colleges by 2005. At present, 38
online universities with some 240,000 students are accredited by the Chinese
government to grant degrees. This expansion is part of a plan to increase the
percentage of the population receiving higher education from the current 11
percent to 15 percent by 2005. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001052101u.htm
As the Bush
administration considers what to do to address global warming, 17 national
academies of science have taken a stand endorsing the Kyoto Protocol. In an
editorial in the 18 May 2001 issue of Science, the group affirms
the conclusion that human activities are warming the planet, and urges the US to
ratify the Kyoto agreement. The statement was organized by the Royal Society of
the United Kingdom, at least partly provoked by President Bush’s recent
rejection of the Kyoto treaty. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences was invited
to sign, but did not, according to an article by Jocelyn Kaiser in the same
issue of Science. See
http://www.sciencemag.org
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has urged the
Immigration and Naturalization Service to delay imposing new fees on foreign
students until the agency develops a better system to collect the money.
According to an article in the Chronicle by Ron Southwick, college
representatives say that the proposed fee-collection system is unfair to
students from less developed countries who cannot pay via the Internet with a
credit card nor get access to a check or money order from an American bank. The
new fees are designed to pay for a computer system, which will collect
information on all foreign students in the U.S., so that the Justice Department
can assure that they are not staying beyond visa limits and to guard against
acts of terrorism. College lobbyists have said that the new system could hurt
American colleges in the increasingly competitive market for foreign-born
students. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/05/2001051501n.htm
President Bush outlined his National Energy Plan on May 17th,
saying that it was intended to counter “the most serious energy shortage since
the oil embargoes of the 1970s”. The 105 point plan calls for Federal agencies
to reduce regulations to encourage more output from coal fired plants,
recommends the construction of more than 1300 new power plants, and calls for
more gas and oil exploration. It also calls for an array of incentives for the
industry, and includes a package of tax and other stimuli designed to promote
conservation, energy efficiency, and wider development and use of alternative
and renewable sources of energy. Environmentalists, who say they were excluded
from the planning process, were unhappy with the plan. To see the report, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy
A report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy says
that the federal Hope tax credit has failed to expand access to higher education
for students from low income families, according to an article by Jennifer
Yachnin in the Chronicle. The tax credit, championed by President Clinton
and enacted in 1997, is worth up to $1500 per year for the first two years of
college. The report claims that the basic design of the program is flawed. Some
higher-education officials criticized the report, however, saying that the tax
credit was meeting its primary goal – providing financial assistance to
middle-income students. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/05/2001051602n.htm
Many states in the U.S. are spending less on higher
education due to less tax income in the slowing economy, forcing engineering
schools at public universities to rely more on research dollars. In an article
in the May-June 2001 ASEE Prism, Alvin Sanoff asks whether teaching will
suffer as the belt-tightening continues. Some deans have also expressed concern
about being able to attract new faculty members in such a climate, given strong
competition from industry for hiring Ph.D.s in areas such as computer
engineering. See http://www.asee.org
U.S. Representative Sherry Boehlert (R-NY), new chair of
the House Science Committee, is profiled by David Malakoff in the 11 May 2001
issue of Science. Boehlert has spent 34 years in congress – 15 years as
an aide, and since 1982 as a Representative. He has advocated environmental
protection, alternative energy sources, and abortion rights when many in his
party were going in the opposite direction. His accomplishments include helping
to write legislation that has boosted support for higher education, funded
research into nonpolluting cars and crime-fighting technologies, and committed
the federal government to restoring Florida’s Everglades. He has promised to
run the Science Committee “in a way that would make Einstein smile”. He has
expressed concern at support for science in the Bush budget, and promises to
work with his colleagues to start building up those budgets.
See http://www.sciencemag.org
Government agencies that sponsor research are trying to
comply with a new law that requires them to show how well they are using their
funds, but they are concerned that Congress will use their reports to justify
cuts in funds. According to an article in the Chronicle by Ron Southwick,
a committee of the National Academies of Science and Engineering and the
Institute of Medicine has issued a report expressing concern about how the
performance reports will be used. Because much of fundamental research may take
years to yield discoveries or useful technology, officials of the agencies have
complained that it is difficult or impossible to measure science the way other
functions are measured. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/05/2001050903n.htm
Speaking at a 7
May 2001 Government Affairs Conference sponsored by the American Association of
Engineering Societies, Joseph Bordogna of the National Science Foundation listed
that agenciy’s current priorities for research: biocomplexity in the
environment, information technology research, nanoscale science and engineering,
and learning for the 21st Century. He noted that advances in the
state-of-the-art of these fields due to research would also raise the levels of
the core disciplines, such as math and biology, etc.
Computer networks
contain a wealth of student data, and universities are struggling to preserve
the privacy of students by setting strict policies on who can see it. According
to an article in the Chronicle by
Andrea Foster, colleges should notify students of their privacy rights, have
policies governing if and when online activity is monitored, and inform students
about how their data will be used. Problems include hackers breaking into campus
systems, untrained staff members allowing inappropriate access to data, and
harassment of student by phone or e-mail after addresses have been obtained. See
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i35/35a03701.htm
Computer
technology has been used by a professor at the University of Virginia to expose
cheating in his courses, according to an article by Amy Argetsinger in the 9 May
2001 Washington Post. In a physics course that draws 500 students a semester, the professor
designed a simple computer program to sniff out plagiarism in term papers.
Looking for any common phrases in his 1500 term papers from the last three
semesters, he turned up 122 matches. UVA has a strict honor code, and the
student- run disciplinary system will deal with each case. Students who
graduated this week, and many who graduated a year ago, face penalties as severe
as revocation of their diplomas if found guilty. See http://www.washingtonpost.com
Study abroad is
moving from the academic margins to the core of U.S. higher education, according
to a major article by John Marcum in the Chronicle. A growing number
of Americans believe that going abroad to study gives students distinctive
learning opportunities that they cannot get at home or online – language,
culture and pedagogical experiences – that better prepare them for careers in
the global economy. A fringe benefit for the institutions that send students
abroad is more linkages, including scholarly research, shared data, and other
intellectual interactions. Today, less than 3% of U.S. undergraduates study
abroad – sending only 114,000 students abroad in 1999, compared with some
500,000 students from abroad studying in the U.S. The author exhorts faculty
members and institutions to encourage more students to go overseas, and to
remove the hurdles that often make that difficult. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i36/36b00701.htm
The academic world
converts enthusiastic faculty recruits into early-career doubters, according to
an article by Trower, Austin and Sorcinelli in the May 2001 AAHE
Bulletin.
Colleges are being
urged to play a role in ending the “senior slump” at the end of high school,
according to a note by Alex Kellogg in the Chronicle. Current college
admissions processes provide few incentives for high school seniors to work hard
during their final year, according to a recent report. “Overcoming the High
School Senior Slump” says that colleges could reduce the cost of remedial
education by dealing with this issue. The main problem is that college
admissions decisions are typically based on academic work only through the
junior year in high school. The report suggests that high schools link their
senior-year curriculum requirements to the general education requirements that
students are likely to encounter in their first year in college, and that
colleges and universities align their placement exams with high school
assessments and standards. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/05/2001051402n.htm
A new program
offering online Advanced Placement courses to high school students throughout
South Dakota has dramatically increased student access to the upper-level
courses, but high school teachers say that students are struggling to complete
the courses. This spring, 116 students in 31 schools across the state
participated in the program; at 26 of the schools, no Advanced Placement courses
had ever been offered. While high school teachers praise the program for
exposing their students to college level work, the say that many of their
students lack the motivation and discipline to work through the self-paced
courses on their own. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001050701u.htm
Students who
enroll in the online version of Brenau University’s master’s program in
early childhood education automatically get a $200-per-course scholarship,
according to an article by Jeffrey Young in the Chronicle. The unusual
incentive was created to attract students who might not otherwise be able to
afford the university’s distance education courses, which cost more than its
traditional ones. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001051001u.htm
A British Web site
teaches users how to find information in their disciplines, according to a note
in the Chronicle by
Karen Birchard. The ‘Resource Discovery Network Virtual Training Suite’
teaches users how to find reliable information quickly and easily on the Web.
Each of the self-paced tutorials takes about an hour to run through, and users
can personalize the sessions by downloading useful links. Some 40 tutorials in
various disciplines are available free. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001050801u.htm
Some providers of
online educational content are breaking their courses down into small chunks,
according to a note in the Chronicle
by Dan Carnevale. That way students
can take only those lessons they need, instead of sitting through an entire
course that may repeat information they already know. Institution that offer
such bite-size versions of course materials do not yet permit students to
complete a degree that way, but instead see them as teaching specific skills in
narrowly focused subjects. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001050301u.htm
Textbook
publishers are tentatively experimenting with e-books, according to an article
by Goldie Blumenstyk in the Chronicle.
By fall, traditional publishers
will be offering hundreds of their textbooks in digital formats, up from a few
dozen this past year. Some institutions – such as the University of Phoenix,
which hopes to become “bookless” – see e-books as a way to customize and
improve instruction. Because they worry that faculty and students will not buy
the new offerings, publishers are typically not investing in upgrading the
content with built-in multimedia elements that would make e-books a more
compelling teaching tool. Some students complain about the inconvenience of
using e-books, such as having to scroll to find sections – while others say
they found the e-book’s search functions easier to use than the index of a
printed volume. See http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i36/36a03502.htm
A new report
details options for paying for the technology expenses of colleges, according to
an article by Florence Olsen in the Chronicle. The report,
“Funding the Infrastructure”, says that traditional institutions need to be
more flexible about financing the information systems, personnel, and wiring
infrastructure required for the effective use of information technology. It says
that most colleges pay for information technology from year-end savings and
other budget breakages that do not produce sufficient funding to meet technology
needs. Several suggestions are offered for financing college’s
information-technology needs: revenue bonds, revolving funds, student technology
fees, group purchasing arrangements, and profit making subsidiaries. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001051001t.htm
The University of
South Dakota has announced plans to provide handheld computers to all of its
incoming freshmen this fall, according to an article by Sarah Carr in the Chronicle.
The institution, which may be the first aiming to provide every
undergraduate with a wireless handheld device, plans to have all undergraduates
so equipped after a four-year phase in. The goal is to provide convenience for
students, as well as improving the educational environment. Most of the cost of
providing the handhelds, made by Palm, will be paid by the University’s
Foundation, a fund-raising arm. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001050301t.htm
The University of
System Georgia is ending its pilot laptop lease program after three years,
according to an article in the Chronicle
by Florence Olsen. The state bought
8000 laptops in 1997, and leased them for $300 per semester to students at two
colleges. Officials found that they could not charge students enough to amortize
the costs, while keeping fees affordable. One of the institutions plans to keep
a requirement that all students use laptops, but will let students buy their own
computers. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/05/2001050901t.htm
The April 2001
issue of the ASEE Journal of
Engineering Education contains more
than a dozen papers on educational developments in engineering education. Paper
titles include: “Hands on Laboratory Experiments in Flexible and Distance
Learning”, “Integrated Learning – Paradigm for a Unified Approach”, and
“Ethics Instruction in Engineering Education – a (Mini) Meta Analysis”.
See http://www.asee.org
The May-June 2001 ASEE
Prism contains a special section on the 2001 ASEE Annual Conference, which
will be held in Albuquerque, NM, on 24-27 June. Full information is also
available on the ASEE Web site, at http://www.asee.org
From the 18 May
2001 Chronicle of Higher Education:
Ø
Chair, Department of
Human Factors and Systems, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, FL
Ø
Vice President (Chief
Information Officer), Duke University, NC
Ø
Vice President Research,
University of North Dakota – Grand Forks
Ø
Provost, Ohio University
– Main Campus
And from the 25
May 2001 Chronicle:
Ø
Dean, College of
Engineering, Akron University, OH
Ø
President, University of
Dayton, OH
From the May-June
2001 issue of ASEE Prism:
Ø
Chair, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Lamar University, TX
Ø
Head, Department of
Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University
Ø
Faculty positions in
Civil, Electrical, and Computer engineering, The American University in Dubai
Ø
Chair, Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, NC
Ø
Assistant Dean,
Cooperative Engineering Education, Northwestern University, IL
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