27 March 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.
Denmark and Sweden have recently been linked with a massive
bridge-tunnel project, and universities on both sides of the newly bridged
straight are creating a cross-border learning region. According to an article by
Colin Woodard in the Chronicle of Higher Education, eleven higher
education institutions in the area have come together to create Oresund
University, a coordinating body to help forge a single economically competitive
metropolitan region across the national border. The institutions hope to create
joint programs, share classes, libraries and technical resources, and foster
closer connections with private companies and public sector institutions on
either side of the Oresund. Key institutions involved are Lund University, the
University of Copenhagen, and the Technical University of Copenhagen. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i27/27a04501.htm
Under a new Japanese government plan, scientists at
national universities would receive greater financial incentives to work on
projects that lead to patents, according to an article by Michael Chan in the Chronicle.
Under current Japanese law, faculty members at national universities must
transfer their intellectual property rights to the government. They can be
compensated up to a ceiling of $60,000 for work leading to a patent, but that
amount has not been sufficient to stimulate large numbers of patents – some
190 in 1999. The new plan would lift that ceiling, but the government has not
yet indicated how high the revised patent payments would go, nor how they would
be set. Cabinet ministers are expected to approve the plan, which would take
effect in 2002. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001032608n.htm
The British government has pledged to move to what it calls
“light touch” accreditation, according to an article in the Chronicle by
David Walker. Under a new system, higher education institutions that receive
high marks from accreditors in key areas will be exempt from further inspection
for up to five years. The key areas identified by the Quality and Assurance
Agency are curriculum, student support, learning, and assessments. The change is
expected to save some $30-million a year. See http://chronicle.com/2001/03/2001032306n.htm
The German research minister, concerned about a brain drain
of expatriate scientists and talented young researchers, has announced an
$82-million program of incentives to stem that flow. According to an article by
Robert Koenig in the 9 March 2001 Science, young German scientists have
complained about rigid university hierarchies and a dearth of jobs. A recent
study found that about 14% of German science students land graduate or postdoc
positions in the US, and up to a third of them do not return. New programs
include funds to attract professors and graduate students in science to Germany
from abroad, and efforts to give young researchers more independence within
German universities. See http://www.sciencemag.org
The Australian government is inviting top academics from
around the world to apply for new “Federation Fellowships”, according to an
article by Geoffrey Maslen in the Chronicle. Some 125 fellowships will be
awarded over the next five years for scholars to perform research at Australian
institutions. Each recipient will receive a salary of $112,000 a year for five
years, in addition to a matching sum from the host institution. The fellowships
are intended to attract and retain top researchers to Australia, where they are
expected to contribute to research efforts at the interface with industry. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001032104n.htm
The University of Delhi, one of India’s premier
universities, has decided to set aside a significant number of teaching
positions for members of that country’s lower-caste groups. According to an
article in the Chronicle by Martha Overland, the decision was made to
comply with India’s constitution which requires that 22.5% of all government
jobs be set aside for low-caste and aboriginal candidates. The university has
had a hard time attracting people from lower-caste groups to fill positions,
however – only 150 of the 7000 faculty members are currently from such groups.
The university’s teachers union is fighting the target, saying that it will
discourage other students from considering academic careers since job openings
for them would be severely reduced. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001031307n.htm
A pair of young tycoons in Russia have endowed a new
foundation to support that country’s impoverished scientists. According to an
article in the 9 March 2001 issue of Science, the $1-million pledged will
provide salary supplements of up to $10,000 this year to more than 200
researchers – as much as 10 times their annual salaries. In announcing the
foundation, the tycoons said that they were moved to act by the perilous state
of Russian science. The selection process for awardees has been conducted in
secrecy, leading to some complaints. It is not clear whether the foundation will
be able to raise money to continue beyond 2001. See http://www.sciencemag.org
The University of Tokyo plans to impose fixed term
contracts on both tenured and nontenured faculty members in agriculture,
engineering, and medicine who are 55 or older. According to an article on the Chronicle
by Alan Brender, the move is seen as a means of preventing many professors
from continuing in their present positions past age 60 – even though the
mandatory retirement age is being raised from 60 to 65. Under the new
regulations, professors will need approval from the faculty council to have
their contracts renewed after age 60. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001032205n.htm
Iran has adopted legislation allowing unmarried women to
study abroad on state scholarships, according to an article in the Chronicle by
Burton Bollag. The decision is a victory for supporters of women’s rights,
although it does require that the women obtain permission from their fathers.
Married women have been eligible for scholarships for foreign study, but need
written permission from their husbands. Supporters of the measure argued that it
was needed to allow young female scholars to pursue advanced degrees in
specialties not offered inside the country. See http://chronicle.com/2001/03/2001031407n.htm
A remote-sensing expert who has been in charge of promoting
high-tech enterprises has been chosen to head China’s Ministry of Science and
Technology, according to an article by Ding Yimin in the 9 March 2001 issue of Science.
Xu Guanhua will direct a rapidly growing science and technology budget that
reached $6.5-billion in 1999. His agency oversees state run scientific
institutes including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as funding for key
basic research projects, high technology development, scientific infrastructure,
and international collaborations. See http://sciencemag.org
South Korea’s Ministry of Information and Communication
will provide scholarships for more South Koreans to earn graduate degrees in
information technology in the United States, according to an article by Michael
Chan in the Chronicle. The ministry is increasing the number of
scholarships to 200, up from 50 last year – with 120 master’s candidates and
80 doctoral candidates receiving $20,000 a year. Priority will be given to
students in information security, digital broadcasting and content,
semiconductor design, and electronic commerce. Applicants must gain admission to
one of the top 35 US universities. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001031501t.htm
As Japanese universities reduce their enrollments in the
face of shrinking enrollments, foreign instructors are being given their walking
papers. According to an article by Alan Brendler in the Chronicle, the jobs of
foreign lecturers have been in jeopardy since 1992, when the Education Ministry
made foreigners the first target of cuts due to tightening budgets. Usually
foreign lecturers in Japan work under contract, and numerous foreign lecturers
have had contracts terminated as the number of 18 year olds has decreased due to
a declining birthrate. To some, the firings of foreign faculty members are
emblematic of the country’s 19th century posture when Japan was
closed to outsiders. Many Japanese people currently feel, however, that if the
country is to compete internationally it needs to interact more smoothly with
the citizens of other countries. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i28/28a04501.htm
The Russian MIR space station has been brought down in the Pacific after 15 years as a research platform. According to an article in the 9 March 2001 issue of Science, MIR served as both a test-bed for space hardware and as a platform for scientific research. More than 100 cosmonauts and astronauts from a dozen countries conducted some 23,000 experiments. Of prime research importance were studies of the effects of microgravity on living things, from wheat to people. Space flights as long as 438 days provide data for possible human flights to Mars. See http://www.sciencemag.org
Scholars in the US
are urging publications to make articles accessible online free, soon after
publication. In a viewpoint in the 23 March 2001 issue of Science, several
prominent scholars are urging a boycott of scientific and scholarly journals
that do not agree to post their content in independent repositories on the Web
six months after the journal issue has appeared in print. They go even further
in suggesting that a major public archive be created so that publications are
conveniently accessible in readily searchable formats. The editors of Science,
in a response, warn that such a proposal would put nonprofit, scholarly
publishers at financial risk – diverting online traffic away from their web
sites, where journal papers and other products are offered for sale. See http://www.sciencemag.com
Proposed new
legislation which would ease copyright restrictions on online instruction is
working its way through the US Congress. According to an article by Dan
Carnevale in the Chronicle, the ‘Technology, Education, and Copyright
Harmonization Act’ would put distance education on the same legal footing as
traditional instruction. Under current law, the same copyrighted material that
can be used in face-to-face instruction often cannot be used in an online
course. The bill is based on the recommendations of a recent Congressional
Web-based Education Commission. University representatives have praised the bill
in testimony, but a publisher’s organization has voiced opposition – saying
that the legislation does not protect publishers against misuse of copyrighted
works. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001031401u.htm
Governments and
other policy making bodies are facing an increasing number of issues that
require extensive knowledge of science and technology for effective decision
making, according to an article by Jon Peha in the March 2001 issue of IEEE
Spectrum. Issues such as health care, environment, energy, agriculture,
national defense, communications, and transportation are among those where
technical judgment is needed in the public policy making process. But there is a
great distance between forward looking scientists and engineers and elected
officials and their staffs at local, state, and Federal levels. Technologists
tend to measure success by what is produced, while policy makers are more
focused on the process used to arrive at a political decision. To bridge the
divide effectively, technologists need to recognize that timing is critical, and
that it is important to address appropriate issues at the right time in the
legislative process. They also need to learn to couch their inputs in terms of
general principles, leaving the policy makers to develop specifics. See http://www.spectrum.ieee.org
The National
Governor’s Association has begun a four year bipartisan project to put higher
education near the top of the agendas of state and national policy makers,
according to an article in the Chronicle by Jennifer Yachnin. Goals
included in the governor’s effort include increasing access to higher
education, creating additional opportunities for lifelong learning, developing
better learning assessment tools, and aligning academic programs with the
economic needs of states. Plans for the project call for the publication of
white papers, assistance to governors making policy changes, and visits to
states with innovative approaches. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001032101n.htm
While praising the
Bush administration budget proposal for another major boost for the National
Institutes of Health, scientists are expressing concern about the proposed
funding levels for the physical sciences. According to an article by David
Malakoff in the 9 March 2001 Science, science lobbyists are gearing up to
convince Congress to rewrite the budgets of the National Science Foundation and
other losers in the President’s budget priorities. Previous interagency
priorities such as nanotechnology and information technology have disappeared,
NSF and NASA are proposed for increases below the rate of inflation, the
Department of Energy and the U.S. Geological Survey are slated for cuts, and the
Advanced Technology program of the Department of Commerce would be abolished.
See http://www.sciencemag.org
Study abroad
programs sponsored by US universities are being re-examined in light of the
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Europe. According to an article in the Chronicle
by Alex Kellogg, agriculture schools in particular are canceling study
programs that would have involved visits to agricultural sites in countries
where the disease is present. Some schools also are barring visitors from
European countries from visiting agricultural facilities on US campuses, to
ensure that potentially contaminated visitors do not get near their animals
which are used in research. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001032001n.htm
The Immigration and
Naturalization Service has reported that the number of approved H1-B visa
petitions has dropped 30% compared with last year at this time, according to an
article by Carrie Johnson in the 21 March 2001 Wall Street Journal. The
visas for trained foreign-born workers have declined in number due to the
slowdown in technology spending and the resulting cutbacks by producers of high
tech products and services. Some 72,000 visa applications have been approved by
the INS since October 2000, compared with more than 100,000 in the same period
last year. Due to cutbacks at some US high tech firms, there are more qualified
technical people in the marketplace at this time. See http://www.wsj.com
A new study of college admissions tests has indicated that
students who receive coaching perform only marginally better – about 20 points
higher on the 1600 point SAT – than those who get no coaching. According to an
article in the Chronicle by Carolyn Mooney, the study was conducted by a
doctoral student with no connection to testing or coaching companies. Critics of
the study, including representatives of coaching companies, emphasized its
limitations – such as the fact that it did not distinguish between the various
types of commercial coaching programs available. See http://chronicle.com/daily/2001/03/2001032601n.htm
The Olin College of Engineering, first freestanding
undergraduate engineering college to be established in the US in nearly a
century, aims to shake up engineering education. According to an article by
Jeffrey Mervis in the 9 March 2001 issue of Science, the goal of the new
college, which is scheduled to open in 2002, is to produce graduates with the
ability to predict, create, and manage the technology which will shape the
future. Olin’s president says that current engineering education programs are
crammed with traditional courses, with little room for burgeoning areas such as
computer and bioengineering, communications and business skills. He also cites
the poor record of current engineering schools in attracting women and
minorities, even as these groups comprise an increasing share of the college age
population. The new school is funded by a $500-million grant from the Franklin
W. Olin Foundation. See http://www.sciencemag.org
A study at Cornell University indicates that wireless
technology for students can be a double-edged sword -- enhancing the learning
environment, but potentially harming grades. According to an article in the Chronicle
by Scott Carlson, the researchers recorded the amount of time each student
in the study spent surfing the Web, then compared that with the student’s
grade at the end of the semester. The study indicated that students who visited
more Web sites during class got better grades than others, but those who spent
more time online at home performed less well than those who spent little time
online at home. The researchers concluded that computers are an effective
classroom tool as long as students stay focused on class activity. Apparently
electronic distractions can be detrimental to academic performance, however. See
http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001032101t.htm
A shortage of engineering graduates going into the
construction industry has led companies to try new methods to attract potential
employees. According to an article by David Rosenbaum in the 19 March 2001 Engineering
News Record, some construction firms are resorting to large signing bonuses,
billboards in college classrooms, and recruiting through professor contacts
rather than traditional recruiting fairs at schools. Some firms have found that
internships prior to graduation are an effective mechanism for attracting and
retaining appropriate engineering employees. See http://www.enr.com
Little access to financial aid hampers very part-time students in progressing with college programs, according to an article by Paula Wolff in the Chronicle. More than a third of all college students are part time, and half of those take less than six credit hours each term. The typical very part-time student is a 30 year-old unmarried female with dependents who holds a full time job with low pay, who is struggling to get a degree to escape the ‘working poor’ status. Colleges often provide flexible class schedules and other academic support to such students, but financial aid is hard to come by. A 1995 study indicates that only 7% of part-time students receive financial aid. The author, former president of a nontraditional school, argues that federal and state governments need to make financial aid available to such students as part of dismantling the old welfare system. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i27/27b02001.htm
Assessment of student performance needs to be tailored to
their learning styles, according to an article by James Anderson in the March
2001 issue of the AAHE Bulletin. The author notes that ‘learning
styles’ refers to the preferred way in which an individual or group
assimilates, organizes, and uses information to make sense of the world. He
notes that learning styles differ in diverse populations, and that current
methodologies of assessment of student learning and performance do not take such
differences into account. The author suggests directions to be taken to improve
this situation. See http://www.aahe.org
One challenge facing the new Bush administration, one that
affects higher education, is the issue of the widespread use of racial and
ethnic preferences. According to an article in the Chronicle by Roger
Clegg, affirmative action in college admissions is much more extensive than
usually acknowledged, and a war against it is being fought on many fronts,
primarily at the state level. Political leaders at the Federal level are talking
very little about this issue, but affirmative action lawsuits are likely to
force the new administration to take positions. It has inherited a large body of
laws and regulations on this topic from the previous pro-preference
administration, and will soon be forced to state the new administration’s
position before the courts. See http://chronicle.com/weekly/v47/i28/28b01301.htm
The National Science Foundation has unveiled plans for a
new $20-million a year program aimed at improving career prospects for women
scientists and engineers in academia. According to an article by Jeffrey Mervis
in the 16 March 2001 issue of Science, the ADVANCE program will address
issues that have hampered its predecessor, Professional Opportunities for Women
in Research and Education: removing institutional barriers, and being vulnerable
to attack by foes of affirmative action. The new program will target the place
where academic women work, encouraging universities to reform their attitudes
toward such issues as dual career couples and those needing time off the tenure
track. NSF hopes to support the new program at planned levels for at least five
years. See http://sciencemag.com
Accreditation groups have issued recommendations for
distance learning programs, according to an article in the Chronicle by Dan Carnevale.
The recommendations cover five general categories: institutional context and
commitment, curriculum and instruction, faculty support, student support, and
evaluation and assessment. The recommendations are not yet accreditation
standards – each regional accreditation body will determine how to utilize
them. But since distance education often crosses regional boundaries, a need for
consistency is apparent. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001032301u.htm
For the original
documents on the recommendations see http://www.wiche.edu/telecom/Article1.htm
The potential for
expanding online education in Asia has led interested institutions to make
presentation on possibilities to audiences there. Representatives from such
organizations as the University of Maryland, the Western Cooperative for
Educational Telecommunications, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have
made presentations
The United Nations
Development Program and Yale University are using the Internet to help students
around the globe share knowledge about ways to improve the conditions of the
urban poor. According to an article by Burton Bollag in the Chronicle,
a one semester course which will be incorporated in degree programs at
19 institutions leads student to examine the use of public-private partnerships
to provide urban services like clean drinking water, sewage treatment, solid
waste management, and clean energy. Some course materials have been distributed
in hard copy, due to poor Internet connections in some developing countries. But
lecture notes and graphics are posted on the Web each week, and electronic mail
is being used to allow students to share information. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001032001u.htm
A special section
of the Wall Street Journal
recently covered how the Web is transforming education, and asked whether what
business opportunities this offered. Major articles included: ‘Old colleges,
new ideas’, ‘The college of the future – today’, ‘A personal
education’, ‘Low marks for Web-based education’, ‘Corporate training
goes online’, and ‘Reynolds Price talks technology’. A second section in
that 12 March 2001 publication focused on the Classroom, with articles on ‘A
campus connected’, ‘Tales out of school’, ‘Tools of the future’,
‘The leisure class’, ‘No substitute’, ‘On the job’, and ‘Writing a
new chapter’. An online version of the report is available at http://www.wsj.com
Royalties are
being used to entice professors to design web based courses at the University of
North Texas. According to an article by Jeffrey Young in the Chronicle,
the institution has policies that pay professors royalties when their
online materials are used by other instructors, and shares some of the tuition
from its online courses with the professors who create them. Administrators hope
that sharing profits will spur widespread development of online course
materials. North Texas is one of the first universities to develop a detailed
mechanism to pay royalties for online courses, though other institutions are
considering similar plans. See http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i29/29a04101.htm
Harvard
University, following in the footsteps of other universities, will offer a set
of free, online courses to the university’s alumni. The offerings are
described as tastings or vignettes, not full blown courses, according to an
article by Sarah Carr in the Chronicle.
First courses posted on the web
site are “Rediscovering Homer; Poetry and Performance”, and “Making Waves:
Quantum Billiards to Concert Acoustics”. Last year Harvard opted out of a
distance learning consortium with Princeton, Stanford, Yale and Oxford
Universities – deciding to put its own institutional stamp on any such effort.
At Princeton, some 500 alumni are already taking courses online. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001031201u.htm
Brandeis
University has announced a new undergraduate concentration in Internet studies,
to start this fall. According to an article by Scott McLemee in the Chronicle,
it is the first such undergraduate degree program in the country. It
follows Georgetown University’s masters degree focused on the Internet, where
enrollment has grown from 30 students in 1996 to 160 today. Individual courses
devoted to the Internet have been developed at many universities. And an
Association of Internet Researchers, started in 1998, has some 750 members. The Chronicle
article includes a list of key
works in Internet studies, and provides leads to key organizations in the field.
See http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i29/29a02401.htm
University of
California at San Diego researchers have built a wireless computer network that
could become a model for bringing high-speed Internet access to remote areas.
According to an article in the Chronicle
by Florence Olsen, the network was
developed to provide fast Internet links to several tribal reservations and
research sites that are up to 35 miles away from the San Diego campus. The NSF
supported $2.3-million project involves building a solar-powered, wireless radio
network. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001031201t.htm
A small,
inexpensive six-legged robot, Stiquito, provides an opportunity to learn about
the field of robotics. A recent book, “Stiquito For Beginners: An Introduction
to Robotics” (Conrad and Mills, 2000), provides a learning environment for
development of the skills and equipment needed to build this small robot and its
related electronic controls. The book includes a curriculum, experiments, and
projects – and is accompanied by a teacher’s manual with additional
experiments, science benchmarks, and national standards. For more on this book
go to http://shop.ieee.org/store/product.asp?prodno+BP7514
Ontario’s
Lakehead University is planning a large network using Internet standards to
carry voice calls. According to an article by Florence Olsen in the Chronicle, the advanced
network will carry voice, data, and video over a common wiring infrastructure,
replacing the university’s 15 year old phone system. The technology for
carrying voice conversations over Internet-protocol networks is relatively new,
and this 1900 Internet phone system will be the largest to date in North
America. Using headsets and a computer program called Softphone, students and
faculty will be able to use their computers as telephones. Each student will be
assigned an electronic address to which both e-mail and voice-mail messages will
be directed. The University’s partners in the project are Bell Canada and
Nortel Networks. The network and phones are valued at $3.9-million. See http://chronicle.com/free/2001/03/2001032201t.htm
The SEFI Working
Group on Continuing Education has posted the proceedings from its December 2000
Annual Conference at Helsinki on the Web at http://www.cfp.upv.es/conline/eventos/SEFIWGCEE/Helsinki2000.
The focus of the conference was to treat continuing engineering education as a
business, dealing with matter such as business models, marketing, client’s
satisfaction, best practices, and industry input. The Web site includes slides
summarizing the seminar, and copies of papers presented there.
CALIE’01, International Conference on Computer Aided
Learning in Engineering Education, will be held in Tunis from 8-10 November
2001. The conference is dedicated to all essential aspects of the development of
the global information and communication technologies and the computer impact on
engineering education. Topics will include Infrastructure, Tools and
Content-oriented Applications, and New Roles of the Instructor and Learner. For
further information contact Professor Mohamed Ben Ahmed at mouna.laroussi@insat.rnu.tn
or Professor Jean Michel at michel-j@mail.enpc.fr
From the 23 March 2001 Chronicle of Higher Education:
Ø Vice President Research, University of Alaska System
Ø Provost/ Academic VP, Colorado State University
Ø VPAA, Morgan State University, MD
Ø VP for Research, Michigan Technological University
Ø Vice Provost/ Distance Education, New Mexico State University
Ø
VPAA, Oklahoma State University
And from the 30 March 2001 Chronicle:
Ø
Multiple positions, Tech of Monterey, State of Mexico Campus
Ø
Dean of Engineering, University of Qatar
Ø
President, Cleveland State University
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