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Two papers are presented concerning comparative higher education--one concerning its relevance for policymaking and the other reviewing a United States view. The first paper reviews comparative higher education in relation to studies of higher education, the use of comparative studies of higher education in policymaking, factors of relevance and obstacles to be overcome, and some research priorities as seen by policymakers. The second paper addresses the question: What non-U. S. trends, programs or developments in higher education would be of value to U. S. academics and policymakers and would justify a comparative approach to the study of higher education? Emphasis is placed on a number of areas where it can be demonstrated that foreign experience would be of current interest to U. S. higher education. These areas include: access to higher education, education-job link, techniques of educational planning, the professoriate, internal governance and management, and university-government relations. (MJM)

Because of the constant increase in knowledge, students can no longer be taught all they need to learn. The focus of education must therefore shift toward assisting them to learn how to learn, how to be independent, and how to equip themselves to cope with an ever changing environment. One of the nine papers presented describes a method by which teachers can facilitate learning. Another urges that teachers should give up their traditional role as purveyors of information and instead help students to define the objective of each learning experience and identify the methods of learning they must adopt. Teachers must also appraise each student's progress toward the educational goals set, and this raises the question of examinations, which is dealt with in another paper. There is also a discussion of the appraisal of the teachers themselves in the light of how they are perceived by the students, of the process of teaching, and of the end products of that teaching process. Other subjects covered included the teaching of large groups, the dynamics of learning groups, and an assessment of what has been achieved by educational science in a specific university medical school. (MJM)

Three papers concerned with internationalizing higher education in the U.S. are presented with a commentary giving a Swedish perspective. The first paper, The International Role of the University in the Decades Ahead, emphasizes the need for area studies that will contribute to the general and liberal education of students. The second paper, Reflections on the Internationalizing of Higher Education, suggests the need for universal values and stresses it is the university's responsibility to strengthen its capacity to direct its own internationalization and to educate governments and citizenries concerning the role and value of higher education. The third paper, Graduate Education, International Studies, and the National Interest, indicates that graduate education and international studies have become too far removed from the society that supports them. A viable relation with government and society is now the task of the modern university. (MJM)

This paper is a legal analysis of the constitutionality of the Office of Education criteria for defining a self-supporting student. The criteria suggest a student cannot have been claimed as an income tax dependent, nor received more than $600, nor have lived at his parents home more than 14 consecutive days in the year for which aid is received or the year prior to that in which aid is received. The "self-supporting" definition is measured against two constitutional requirements. Equal protection is the first. It is concluded that the rules impair no fundamental rights nor contain any suspect criteria. In addition, flaws incidental to the operation of the statute do not seem severe enough to overcome the presumption of constitutionality. The criteria seem to be a reasonable exercise of legislative authority. Second, the statute is analyzed to find whether due process of law is denied because an "irrebuttable presumption contrary to facts" is created. Despite the findings by the Supreme Court that a Food Stamp Act using a definition similar to one of the elements in the Office of Education rules was unconstitutional, it seems that the Office of Education criteria would pass judicial scrutiny. The paper concludes that if the system of allocating financial aid is to be reformed it must be done via the legislative process. One possible reform is an appeals board to provide funds for students who fall just outside the self-support criteria. (Author/MJM)

A 5-month project was undertaken at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education to do a preliminary study of the implications of growth policy for postsecondary education. The decision to focus on this level of education was based on the belief that the existing problems of growth and its limits have become too urgent to be left to future generations to solve. Educational responses to the needs of growth policy are particularly crucial at the postsecondary level, for it is the current adult citizenry and leadership that must be affected. A major objective of this project was to develop a conceptual framework for action in the field of postsecondary education in response to the challenges posed by "limits to growth." While many educators are concerned about the social, economic, and ecological problems associated with population and material growth, there have so far been no detailed and comprehensive plans developed to clearly define, create, and disseminate the kinds of educational innovations these problems seem to demand. This working paper is an initial attempt to respond to this need. The chapters of the paper cover: the equilibrium society; changing institutions, roles and skills; needs for innovation in postsecondary education; recommendations for innovation and change; strategies for innovation and change; and comments on the working paper. (Author/PG)

This volume, the seventh in a series, is the first yearbook published after the Southwest Reading Conference for Colleges and Universities was changed to the National Reading Conference for Colleges and Adults. All of the fourteen papers and reports presented at the annual meeting in December 1957 are included in this volume. Among topics covered by the papers are a summary of a decade of progress in college and adult reading programs, characteristic elements of the programs, the relationship of high school and college programs, television as a medium for improvement of reading ability, expansion of reading services in industry and the military as well as other government services, and recent research in reading. (JM)

In light of the new demands being made on higher education in the seventies, a six-step systematic change strategy is presented to implement needed reforms in educational institutions. The approach requires (a) recognition of an existing problems; (b) establishment of well-defined, assessible goals and objectives; (c) identification of constraints and needed resources; (d) selection and evaluation of alternative solutions; and (e) implementation of the selected procedure or practice. The author argues for combining the concept of systematic problem-solving with the modern management strategies of participative management. (Author)

To increase the supply of doctors, the government has become directly involved in physician education. Of the $673 million appropriated for health manpower programs in 1972, 55% was for medical schools. Legislation to date has emphasized expansion of medical education output in the aggregate, but increasing attention has been directed to the composition of the output with regard to the type and location of practice and to the equality of educational opportunity for ethnic minorities and women. This paper examines changes that have occurred in the medical education system concurrently with the growth of Federal programs designed to influence that system's output. The data indicate that the system has responded very favorably. Capacity is expanding rapidly, discrimination against women has apparently disappeared, medical schools are seeking out and admitting qualified individuals from minority groups, and financial barriers to medical education have been lowered. (MJM)

The Basic Opportunity Grants symbolize one approach to the financing of higher education. In this paper, the formula of the grant is tested against the theory and practice of negative income taxation. A key concept in both Basic Opportunity Grants and in other types of income taxation is that of the family unit whose income must be counted in calculating benefits. This concept is critical to the success or failure of the Basic Opportunity Grant in achieving the aims that have been set for it. The conclusion is that college students cannot be held in dependent status in many cases and that this means that some of the arguments for the Basic Opportunity Grants are questionable. (Author)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between two aspects of higher education: the liberal arts and experiential learning. The thesis is that a combination of the traditional liberal arts objectives with the methods of experiential education can result in a strengthening of liberal education at a time when circumstances severely threaten its existence. Experiential learning has a specific relationship to the liberal arts. Abstract curricula are meaningless to many of today's students unless we provide them with some reason, some motivating factor to appreciate and use the abstraction. This motivation can be a field experience. The college learning experience should simultaneously provide the means of generalizing on one experience to come up with a myriad of experiences, and a conceptual framework for those generalizations. The abstraction provides the individual with a reason to explore an experience, and when the idea and experience are thus observed they both have meaning. Having meaning they will be remembered, used again and again, oriented through their interaction with other ideas and experiences that have been generalized, and will enter the total being of the individual. (Author/PG)

This paper describes briefly general characteristics of the higher educational system in Poland and in Eastern Europe with emphasis on the features and characteristic elements that determine the organization and goals of higher education. Discussion also includes the functions, goals, and tasks of higher education; access to higher education; the system of adult education; the professoriate; and management and administration. (MJM)

This document reviews the state of medical and dental education in Texas, 1974-80. Recommendations suggest: (1) The Advisory Committee and the Task Force for Medical and Dental Education would be continued as planning bodies to be convened at least once every two years. (2) No new medical or dental schools are recommended since the state will be able to meet current demands for medical and dental manpower if: (a) the trends of the past six years continue, and (b) the presently approved medical and dental schools are expanded to their currently approved optimum capacities. (3) Increased State of Texas support is recommended to continue augmentation of primary care education in all Texas medical schools for undergraduate medical students, and resident physicians in hospitals and in other clinical facilities. Working papers in the document deal with additional manpower, medical and dental school admissions, underrepresentation of minority students in medical and dental schools in Texas, curricula and educational methodologies, cost and financial implications, and future studies. (MJM)

This paper describes a five-stage process for the development, implementation, and evaluation of counseling outreach programs. State I takes the reader from the formulation of a germinal program idea through the procedures of assessing need for the program, assessing of agency resources, building a program planning team, and conducting a thorough literature search. Stage II sequentially outlines how to specify and enumerate behavioral goals for the program, how to develop its delivery system, how to design evaluation procedures and what to prepare for running the pilot program. Stage III emphasizes the importance of effective program publicity, the necessity of developing staff training methods, some notes on actually conducting the pilot program and ends with a discussion of the importance of studying the pilot evaluation results before deciding to embark on Stage IV. Stage IV consists of offering the program on a regular basis with refinement of training and evaluation methodologies. Finally, Stage V includes the periodic re-examination of the program in relation to its target, purpose, method and changing agency needs. (Author)

This paper examines the speech performance characteristic of the college lecturer. One of the most organized forms of speech performance, the lecture functions as a referential monologue and has a necessarily topical focus. Specifically dealt with are the ways in which lecturers introduce new topics, link together topical utterances, and close out episodes. Various transitional tactics are examined as general features of speech that correlate closely with the transitional devices in written communication. The analysis is based on the assumption that connectives are normative features in lecture-type speech acts and that they are rule-governed according to the direction imposed by the speaker on the narrative. The three general rules for maintaining and directing relevance in speech are: (1) topic continuation, (2) topic recycling, and (3) topic change. The editing rule is at work when the lecturer interrupts himself to redirect the lecture. It is found that smooth transitions are attempted by all lecturers regardless of style differences in performance. Examples are provided in an appendix. (CLK)

This paper describes the use of literature in an English as a second language course, and the response of foreign students to such a procedure. The responses of 113 students from 20 different countries, speaking twenty-four languages, were compared with those of thirty-five American students having English as their first language. The course consisted of readings in poetry, drama, and short stories, accompanied by discussion and written analyses. Reading selections were from the recent past, so that they would be modern in language and content and related to current life, and yet far enough removed to be seen as a pattern and examined as such. Both multiple choice tests and essays were used for evaluation purposes. Tapes and films were also used to supplement instruction. It was found that students enjoyed the course and felt stimulated to read more. Students suggested having more discussion and student participation in the choice of test materials. Test scores indicated that reasoning and writing in English were the most difficult tasks encountered by non-native speakers. Scores also pointed to the relative importance of a given literary form in a given culture. (CLK)