23 September 2002
Copyright © 2002 World Expertise LLC – All rights
reserved
A periodic electronic newsletter for engineering education leaders,
edited by Russel C. Jones, PhD., P.E.
International developments
1.
World
Summit on Sustainable Development
2.
Retired
professor data base
3.
Flexible
patent and copyright rules?
4.
Female
professors in Sweden
5.
Japanese
R&D funding
6.
Arab
countries higher education
7.
Shortages
at Peru’s universities
8.
Bangladesh
engineering school closed
9.
U.S. to
rejoin UNESCO
10.
Colleges
remember September 11th
11.
Department
of Homeland Security
12.
President’s
council recommends more S&T funding
13.
U.S.
government to look at retention and graduation rates
14.
Annual US
News and World Report rankings out
15.
Intellectual
infrastructure suffers from short budgets
16.
White
House guidelines on computer network protection
17.
Faculty
union seeks terms on distance education
18.
Open
source software challenges Microsoft
19.
Student
use of the Internet
20.
Twelve
hour rule to be revoked
21.
Study-abroad
programs remain strong
22.
Academic
freedom allows Koran book discussion at UNC
23.
Foreign
student tracking system to miss deadline
24.
Too few
minority faculty members in engineering
25.
Hispanic
student enrollments
26.
Minority
enrollments in Florida
27.
UK
institutions rated
28.
Undergraduate
research on the edge
29.
e-Technologies
in Engineering Education
30.
SEFI
annual meeting
31.
URI
colloquium on international engineering education
32.
Development
by Design conference scheduled
33.
Today’s Engineer available online
1) The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable
Development, recently concluded in Johannesburg, South Africa, received mixed
reviews on its effectiveness, according to an article in the 13 September 2002
issue of Science by Jocelyn Kaiser. The meeting did produce a 65-page
Plan of Implementation in which more than 100 governments agreed to work
together to protect the environment and reduce poverty. Commitments were made in
the areas of water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity
and ecosystem management. Critics pointed out, however, that there was a dearth
of concrete plans, fund commitments, and fixed timetables. There were some
significant commitments, however. Canada and Russia used the summit to declare
their intention to ratify the Kyoto climate treaty – votes that would allow it
to enter into force without the United States. In addition, countries agreed to
boost funding for the Global Environment Facility to $2.9-billion, and a
campaign was launched to save crop seed banks. The summit also generated some
concrete partnerships between governments, citizens group, and businesses – an
approach pushed by the United States. Many heads of state participated in the
summit; President Bush of the US chose not to participate. See http://www.sciencemag.org.
A three-page summary “Highlights of Commitments and Implementation
Initiatives” and the Plan of Implementation, among other documents, can be
found at http://www.johannesburgsummit.org
2) A new data base being developed in the United Kingdom
will help match retired professors with short-term positions at universities in
developing countries, according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher
Education by Kate Galbraith. The ‘Retired Academics Database’, started
by the Association of Commonwealth Universities, aims to collect information
from academics around the world that are interested in teaching overseas for
three months or more. The association will then match them to short term
positions in developing British Commonwealth countries – primarily in Africa,
Asia and the Caribbean. Although the focus of the program is retired scholars
and administrators, organizers are also interested in hearing from academics at
earlier stages of their careers. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002092004n.htm
3) Patent and copyright rules should be much more flexible
for developing countries than for the developed world, according to a report
cited in an article by Kate Galbraith in the Chronicle. The report by a
commission of the British government, “Integrating Intellectual Property
Rights and Development Policy”, addresses the disproportional needs for access
to medicine, publications needed in education, and intellectual properties in
other areas such as agriculture in developing countries. The report calls for
the “broadest possible exceptions to patent rights” for those in developing
countries. The report is independent, and does not reflect British government
policy. It is expected to be disputed by developed countries, which fear that
they would lose out under a looser global intellectual property system. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002091303n.htm
4) Efforts to increase the number of female professors in
Sweden have caused considerable public discussion, according to an article by
Burton Bollag in the Chronicle. Sweden has a long tradition of gender
equality and of progressive legislation to provide support systems for working
women. Forty-three percent of the members of Sweden’s Parliament are women, as
are half of the 20 government ministers. But critics say that universities and
industry are strong bastions of male domination. Women account for 14% of full
professors in Swedish institutions, up from 7% in 1994 – compared to 18% in
Finland, 20% in the United States, and only 5% in Ireland. The government has
set a goal of 25% women full professors by 2008, which will require that
considerably more than a quarter of new professors must be women. The debate
centers on the question of merit vs. equity. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i04/04a04001.htm
5) Japan’s ministries have presented budgets calling for
substantial increases in science-related spending, according to an article in
the 6 September 2002 issue of Science by Dennis Normile. Proposals call
for 36% to 44% increases in research funding in four economically strategic
fields. Unlike previous years where the ministries recommendations would be
closely followed, however, this year the prime minister’s cabinet office is
expected to hold overall science spending flat and to set its own priorities for
what to fund. The four fields identified for growth by the ministries are: life
sciences, information technology, the environment, and energy. See http://www.sciencemag.org
6) Higher education in Arab countries remains seriously
inadequate, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum described by
Daniel Del Castro in the Chronicle. The report, “The Arab World
Competitiveness Report, 2002-03”, warns that Arab countries are among those at
considerable risk of being left behind by the rest of the world if their
universities continue to produce low-level and unskilled graduates unsuitable
for the changing job market. While acknowledging laudable progress in expanding
access to and improving the quality of education throughout the Middle East and
North Africa in the last half of the 20th century, the report notes
that gains have not matched those of Europe and Central Asia. Among other
problems, Arab universities are hurt by poor secondary education in the region.
See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002091603n.htm
7) Peru’s public universities have suffered due to rebel
activity on campus, and by the government’s heavy-handed responses to regain
control, according to an article in the Chronicle by Michael Easterbrook.
Over the past 15 years, university budgets have been cut by the government as
guerrillas were agitating on the campuses. There is now a severe shortage of
books and computers, and faculty have been forced to supplement their incomes
with part time jobs away from the campus. In the meantime, expensive private
universities have developed to fill the void. The government of President
Alejandro Toledo has appointed a commission charged with recommending reforms
that will revitalize the public university system. It is expected to recommend
that universities trim bureaucracies and governing bodies, eliminate some of the
worst institutions in the system, and increase pay for faculty members. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i03/03a04101.htm
8) Officials have closed the Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology indefinitely after student protests there turned
violent, according to an article in the Chronicle by Martha Ann Overland.
The engineering campus has been tense since June when a female student was
killed by a bullet during a gunfight between two rival pro-government student
organizations. The decision to close the university came after a day of running
battles between students and police officers. The campus also faces a hunger
strike by students who have vowed to fast until death. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002091005n.htm
9) President
Bush has announced that the United States is rejoining the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, according to an article in
the September 13th issue of the Washington Post. The US
withdrew from UNESCO 18 years ago to protest its alleged mismanagement and
overly political policies. Bush said in an address to the UN General Assembly:
“This organization has been reformed, and America will participate fully in
its mission to advance human rights, tolerance and learning”. At the time of
its withdrawal, the US provided a quarter of the UNESCO budget. See http://www.washingtonpost.com
10) Colleges across the US commemorated the anniversary of
September 11th with events that intertwined solemn ceremonies and
spontaneous gatherings with weighty discussions on issues like bioterrorism,
globalization, and American foreign policy, according to an article in the Chronicle
by Megan Rooney. Lectures, religious ceremonies, tree plantings, and theater
performances were among the many ways that colleges chose to observe the
significance of the day. See http://chronicle.com/2002/09/2002091201n.htm
11) Congress is hammering out the final details of a bill
to create a Department of Homeland Security, according to an article by Anne
Marie Borrego in the Chronicle. College lobbyists pushed for changes in
the bill, while looking forward to the proposed $2-billion research and
development budget – most of which is expected to go to universities. House
and Senate bills currently have many dissimilarities, which will have to be
worked out – including which agencies and programs will be transferred to the
new Department. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i03/03a02301.htm
12) The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology are recommending that the physical sciences need a significant
research budget boost to close a ballooning gap with biomedical research,
according to an article in Science by David Malakoff. The recommendation
is intended to impact the White House 2004 spending proposal, soon to be
developed. At the request of presidential science advisor John Marburger, PCAST
changed its recommendation from talking about a ‘doubling’ of funds
to reaching ‘parity’ with the life sciences by 2009. The letter to Bush also
contains two other recommendations: a major new program to fund graduate school
fellowships for US students; and it urges the government to do a better job of
analyzing what it gets for its money, how the US compares with other countries,
and the future demand for scientists and engineers. See http://www.sciencemag.org
13) College leaders and lobbyists have taken strong
exception to one element of a plan by the US Education Department to improve
education, according to an article in the Chronicle by Stephen Burd. One
section of an 84-page document released in March suggests that colleges be held
accountable for their effectiveness in retaining students and graduating them in
a timely fashion. The report calls for colleges to report their performance on
such measures to the federal government and for states to incorporate the
measures into their own systems for evaluating colleges. Some fear that the Bush
administration is considering linking a college’s eligibility to award student
aid to its success in retaining and graduating students. Representatives of
state universities and community colleges object to such a policy change, saying
they should not be penalized for educating large numbers of low-income students,
part-time students, and older students, all of whom are at a high risk of
dropping out. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i04/04a02301.htm
14) The annual U.S. News and World Report rankings
of colleges are out, amid the usual complaints about their validity. According
to an article by Amy Argetsinger in the September 14th Washington
Post, schools heavily politicked each other to advance in the annual
ratings. The rankings depend heavily on a subjective reputation score derived
from surveying presidents, deans, and admission officers on their perception of
other schools. Campus leaders report that they are getting more and more
promotional materials from their peer institutions, with the apparent goal of
swaying votes. See http://www.washingtonpost.com.
According to an article in the Chronicle by Jeffrey Young, Princeton
University landed the top spot for the third year in a row, with Harvard and
Yale Universities tied for second. Five institutions tied for fourth place: Cal
Tech, Duke, MIT, Stanford, and Penn. Dartmouth was ninth, and Columbia and
Northwestern tied for tenth. The ranking method was unchanged this year. The
magazine did add a new feature, however – a listing of data on student
behavior from the National Survey of Student Engagement. See http://chronicle.com/free/2002/09/2002091302n.htm
15) Budget cuts for libraries, university presses, journals, and culture are combining to threaten the infrastructure on which professors and students depend, according to a special report by Scott Smallwood in the Chronicle. Budget items such as faculty salaries, tuition increases and construction have gotten wide attention – but the crumbling intellectual foundation is also being hard hit in the current economic downturn. In a world where universities have positioned themselves as economic-development engines to please state legislators, businesses or donors, technology and vocationalism have often been given higher priority than intellectual life. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i04/04a01001.htm
16) The White House has released a draft report calling on
colleges and universities to develop network safeguards to protect computers
from online attacks, according to an article in the Chronicle by Dan
Carnevale. The draft report is part of a developing national plan for protecting
computer networks from terrorist attack. With computers controlling utilities,
banking, and other crucial elements of the infrastructure, there are concerns
that online attackers could wreak havoc. The Critical Infrastructure Protection
Board released a draft for comment, prior to the anticipated final report in
November or December. In addition to protecting their own systems, universities
are expected to play a key role in network security research and development –
presumably with federal support. Academic officials have made recommendations to
the panel on how colleges and universities could play a role in protecting
computer networks. See http://chronicle.com/free/2002/09/2002091901t.htm
17) The faculty union at the University of Massachusetts
wants to create a collective-bargaining agreement to make sure that its
professors are not overworked or underpaid when they venture into distance
education, according to an article by Dan Carnevale in the Chronicle. Negotiators
on both sides are optimistic that they can agree on policies that will encourage
the growth of distance education while protecting faculty rights. The union
wants to assure that there is an incentive system for participation in distance
education, not a coercion system. Administrators appear ready to keep distance
education assignments voluntary for professors, and let faculty members retain
ownership and control of courses. Professors already are paid extra for
developing and teaching online courses. One point of contention is expected to
be class size – where the union is asking the university to cap enrollments in
online courses at 15, the same as for traditional courses. The university argues
that the latest technology allows professors to teach more students online
effectively, while the union says that quality education comes from small,
interactive classes. See http://chronicle.com/free/2002/09/2002091201t.htm
18) Sun Microsystems is throwing its weight behind the
‘open source’ software movement as part of an industry movement to offer an
alternative to Microsoft’s Windows and Office programs, according to an
article by John Markoff in the September 18th New York Times. Sun
is basing its challenge on the Linux alternative to Windows-based software, and
focusing on cost-sensitive markets like corporate call centers, retail banking,
and government and educational institutions. See http://www.nytimes.com.
Sun is specifically targeting the U.S. school market, according to an article in
the September 17th Wall Street Journal by Rebecca Buckman.
Since last spring it has offered its competing StarOffice product to U.S.
schools for $25, and now it is offering it free to schools throughout Europe and
South Africa. While StarOffice is not generally considered as full-featured and
easy to use as Microsoft’s products, Sun is apparently trying to destabilize
Microsoft’s dominance on the computer desktop by introducing its alternative
to the many children who first use such programs in school. See http://www.wsj.com
19) Many college students who regularly use the Internet
for academic purposes see cyberspace as a supplement to, not a replacement for,
traditional classrooms. According to research reported by Vincent Kiernan in the
Chronicle, in a survey of some 2000 college students conducted this
spring, 79% reported that the Internet has had a positive impact on their
college experience. Most frequent use is for e-mail messages to faculty members
to make appointments, discuss grades, or ask for clarification on assignments.
Three-fourths of the students said that they used the Internet more than the
library when searching for information. Sixty-eight percent said that they
subscribed to academically oriented mailing lists. Only 6% of the students said
they had taken an online course for credit, suggesting that they still value
traditional classroom settings. See http://chronicle.com/free/2002/09/2002091602t.htm
20) Distance education officials have been pleading for years to have the federal “12 hour rule” revoked, and it is now about to die, according to an article in the Chronicle by Dan Carnevale. The rule, which requires distance education programs to deliver at least 12 hours of coursework a week for students to be eligible for federal financial aid, was originally intended to deny fly-by-night course providers access to such aid programs. The Department of Education is proposing the requirement of “one day” of instruction a week instead. Critics of the change argue that the new definition is too vague, and could open the door to fraud. Distance educators also want another rule revoked – one that says that an institution must enroll no more than 50% of its students via distance education for its students to be eligible for federal financial aid. The 12-hour rule can be changed by the Education Department, but the 50% rule was created by statute and can only be changed by Congress. See http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i02/02a04301.htm
21) Study-abroad participation by U.S. students seems
unaffected in the aftermath of September 11th, according to a survey
conducted by the Institute of International Education. As reported in the Chronicle
by David Wheeler, studying abroad has become more popular than ever, and
foreign-student enrollments in the U.S. are generally holding steady. Two-thirds
of the 530 international educators who responded to the informal online survey
reported that applications for study abroad have either remained the same or
have continued to increase. This pattern follows a 61% growth in American
students studying abroad over the past five years. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002090505n.htm.
A similar survey by the American Council on Education indicates that overall
public, student, and faculty support for international education, study abroad,
and language training remains strong a year after September 11th.
Results of a telephone survey to 1000 adult Americans show that nearly three out
of four agree that higher education has a responsibility to educate the public
on international issues, events and cultures, and 79% supported international
course requirements in college. Surprisingly, one in four of the Americans
surveyed said that their formal education did not give them the knowledge to
fully understand current international events. See http://www.acenet.edu/,
and scroll down to “Of special interest”.
22) Freshmen at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, puzzled by the uproar over an assignment to read a book about the Koran,
found value in their first assignment, according to an article in the Chronicle
by Eric Hoover. Two-hour seminars of about 30 students each discussed the
book, after federal courts rejected attempts by a Christian group to block the
discussions. The Chancellor of the University declared: “Academic freedom is
safe in North Carolina”, as he described the book as “yeast for the bread of
discussion”. On a campus with relatively few Muslim students, the book was
seen as a good doorway into dialogues about Islam. Critics of the assignment,
however, said that the university was forcing answers on students. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i02/02a04801.htm
23) A Justice Department official has testified at a
Congressional hearing that the new system to track foreign students in the U.S.
is unlikely to be operational by the Congressionally mandated deadline,
according to an article in the Chronicle by Jonathan Margulies. The
Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (Sevis) will apparently miss the
January 30th deadline, because the Immigration and Naturalization
Service has been unable to fully develop its technical structure and to provide
adequate training to the thousands of college officers who will be using it.
College representatives at the hearings expressed concern that the new system
imposes significant burdens on colleges and universities. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002091901n.htm
24) “Facing the Problem”, the cover story in the
October 2002 issue of ASEE Prism, states that the puny number of minority
faculty members at colleges of engineering in the U.S. is ‘bleak, shocking and
appalling’. Author Margaret Mannix cites statistics: women comprise 8.9% of
tenure/tenure track faculty in engineering schools, with Hispanic professors at
2.9% and African-American professors at 2.1%. The article quotes many leaders in
engineering education who are trying to improve the situation. One says
“Unless we bring more women and minorities into science and engineering
fields, we will not have the intellectual capital to address the major economic,
environmental, health and security issues facing our nation. Developing our
underutilized human resources can be our competitive advantage”. The article
points out that the optimum solution lies in increasing the pipeline of female
and minority undergraduate students headed for graduate school. See http://www.asee.org/prism
25) Enrollments at Hispanic-serving institutions grew
rapidly in the 1990’s, according to a new report described in the Chronicle
by Jeffrey Brainard. The Department of Education report says that the number
of students enrolled in institutions with significant numbers of Hispanic
students grew by 14% over that decade, double the rate of increase for all
institutions. The report defined ‘Hispanic-serving institutions’ as colleges
where at least 25% of the students are Hispanic. Given the growth rates observed
and projected for the future, the study concluded that such institutions are
likely to continue to play an important role in providing Hispanic Americans
with access to postsecondary education. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002091601n.htm.
In a related report, an article in the Chronicle by Megan Rooney
indicates that while the enrollment rate of Latino-American students is high,
graduation rates are lower than for most other major racial and ethnic groups. A
study by the Pew Hispanic Center indicates that Latino-American students are
less likely to enroll in college during the traditional college-age years, are
the least likely of all college students to attend school full time, and are
more likely to attend two-year colleges – all factors that make college
graduation less likely. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002090604n.htm
26) The affirmative-action rollback in Florida, imposed by
Governor Jeb Bush in 1999, has apparently not hurt minority admissions. As
reported in the Chronicle by Vincent Kiernan, state figures indicate that
36% of new undergraduates at Florida’s 11 public universities are members of
minority groups this year, compared with 35% last year and 37% the year before
that. Bush substituted a plan that would admit the top 20% of the graduates of
every Florida high school to a state public university. The University of
Florida, which increased freshman class minority enrollment to 30% this year
compared with 26% last year, cited its techniques to achieve its increase:
fostering closer ties with three low-performing high schools and offering
scholarships to their top graduates, expanding the staff of the admissions
office, holding student-recruitment conferences, offering additional
scholarships, and purchasing a telephone system that automatically places calls
to prospective students. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/09/2002090901n.htm
27) The outcome of
the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) conducted for UK tertiary institutions
confirms that universities with a high research profile also have high teaching
qualities. Dr. Brin Lang of St. Andrews University in Scotland states that
‘Good researchers want to pass on their findings to a wider body of knowledge
- and to do that they have to be good communicators for the benefit of
students’. Highest overall rankings in the UK, for universities offering
engineering, including teaching and research assessments, are, in the order
of merit: Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, Warwick, Southampton, and
Lancaster. For details of the 2001 RAE see www.hero.ac.uk/rae
28) Science funding agencies are letting students
experience weightlessness and other opportunities ‘on the edge’, in hopes of
keeping them interested in science, according to an article in the 6 September
2002 issue of Science by Robert Service. NASA assigns a fraction of time
of its microgravity research airplane to undergraduates, and other agencies are
expanding such adventurous undergraduate research opportunities in an effort to
encourage students to choose careers in science and engineering. Astronomy
students, for example, have the opportunity through NSF to pursue galactic
questions at an observatory in Chile. According to NSF, such experiences elicit
interest in science and technology and reinforce student’s decisions to pursue
careers in these fields. See http://www.sciencemag.org
29) An Engineering Foundation conference on
“e-Technologies in Engineering Education” was held in Davos, Switzerland
last month. Well organized by Jack Lohmann of Georgia Tech and Michael Corradini
of Wisconsin-Madison, the week-long conference focused on the electronic
technologies that are being rapidly infused into engineering education as a
result of improvements in computing and communications capabilities, ease of
use, and declining costs. Approximately 100 educators from the U.S. and abroad
presented papers and discussed the effectiveness of e-learning for engineers,
achievements and challenges of e-tools for enhanced learning, interactive
learning tools, and assessing the impact of e-technologies. Details of the
conference, and eventually its output in the form of a white paper and summaries
of presentations, can be found at http://www.coe.gatech.edu/eTEE
30)The annual meeting of the European Society for
Engineering Education (SEFI) was held in Florence, Italy early this month.
SEFIrenze2002 had as its theme “The Renaissance Engineer of Tomorrow” –
particularly appropriate with the history of the venue. Major sessions
considered the historical development of engineering education, enhancing
engineering education in Europe (E4), mobility and the European education area,
the status of the employed engineer, unexpected vulnerabilities, and new
technologies and cultures in engineering education. Domenico Lenarduzzi,
Honorary Director General of the European Commission, was awarded a career prize
for his work in promoting student mobility throughout Europe. Alfredo Soeiro of
the University of Porto was chosen as president –elect, to succeed Tor-Ulf
Weck of the University of Helsinki at the next annual meeting of SEFI –
scheduled for September 2003 in Portugal. For details of the conference see http://www.sefirenze2002.unifi.it
31) The International Engineering Program at the University
of Rhode Island will hold its fifth annual colloquium on international
engineering education in Warwick, RI, on October 24-27. The interdisciplinary
meeting will focus on best practices and strategies to internationalize American
engineering education – for a supportive exchange of information among current
practitioners and those who seek to internationalize their engineering programs.
See http://www.uri.edu/iep/colloquia/2002/index.html
32) A second international conference on Development by Design – open collaborative design for sustainable innovation – will be held in Bangalore, India from December 1-2, 2002. The conference seeks to establish a critical dialogue towards collaborative and sustainable design innovation to tackle global challenges in the environment and underserved communities. See http://www/thinkcycle.org/dyd02
33) The September 2002 issue of the electronic journal “IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer” is available at http://www/todaysengineer.org. Its section on career features contains three important articles: Engineer to Entrepreneur, Making the Career-Enhancing Transition; Enhanced Skills for Engineers, Setting Yourself Apart with Soft Skills; and Successful Consulting, Make the Transition from Marketing to Paid Consulting as Quickly as Possible.
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