Search

Recent developments in graduate programs are discussed in 15 papers from a 1982 conference cosponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Graduate Record Examinations Board. Attention is directed to issues associated with program presentations, program innovations in various disciplines, and industry/university cooperative graduate programs. Papers and authors include the following: "Opportunity and Impediment in Graduate Program Innovation" (Paul A. Albrecht); "Defining 'Innovative Graduate Programs'" (James B. Bartoo); "Innovations in Biological Sciences, Industry and Engineering" (Don H. Blount); "Innovations in Education/Cooperative Education/Continuing Education" (Mary Ann Carroll); "Innovations in the Social Sciences" (Averett S. Tombes); "Innovation in Graduate Education: The Issue of Quality" (Lewis C. Solmon); "Admission Criteria for Mid-Career Students: New Dimensions for the GREs" (Bernard V. Khoury); "Progress in the Midst of Poverty" (James Olson); "University/Industry Research Relationships: Myths, Realities, and Potentials: 14th Annual Report of the National Science Board" (Carlos E. Kruytbosch); "The View from Academia" (Kenneth H. Keller); "The View from Industry" (David L. Dotlich); and "The Industrial Affiliate Program" (James C. Seferis). (SW)

The obsolescence of university research facilities is addressed in this 1985 conference report. Seven of the major topics were potential action items for Congress and federal agencies, including approaches to facilities funding, such as acceleration of indirect cost recovery, provision of credit support, and federal funding of a national facility program. Other items concern the process for decision-making about federally-funded facilities, and changes in tax incentives for private sector support for modernization of academic research facilities. Possible actions for the states and colleges are also identified. Included are an opening statement by National Science Board Chairman Roland Schmitt and statements of working groups on: grants and gifts, alternative funding sources, partnerships, college policies and practices, the state role, and comprehensive merit review for facilities. Background documents are also provided: the text of a bill, "University Research Facilities Revitalization Act of 1985" (H.R. 2823), a paper on tax-exempt financing by David Clapp, a proposal concerning college construction loan insurance, and a paper on explicit rent charges by Robert Sproull. (SW)

This document summarizes the content and conclusions of a workshop focusing on the transformation of traditional science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SME&T) lectures and laboratories into more active learning environments. Presenters described innovative undergraduate courses in a range of SME&T disciplines. Using information technology (IT), these courses have been transformed in ways that appear to enhance learning for a diverse spectrum of undergraduate students, but workshop participants noted that the full educational potential of IT has not yet been realized. Several factors, including the difficulty of assessing student learning in technology-rich environments, the state of current technology, and cultural and institutional factors could pose barriers to rapid deployment of technology in SME&T classrooms. Many workshop participants thought that it is both possible and essential to begin planning for what the future might hold. The first section of the report, Innovations in Pedagogy and Technology, presents case studies of innovative courses and discusses evaluation and assessment challenges and cultural and institutional constraints to IT use. The second section, Planning for Uncertainty, summarizes steps that should be taken to make the best use of IT for future course development and the improvement of SME&T education. Four appendixes contain the background paper sent to participants before the workshop, the agenda, a list of participants, and biosketches of planning group members. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure, and 58 references.) (SLD)

Presented are selected analytical papers from a Workshop of Specialists in Forecasts of Demand for Scientists and Engineers, convened in 1979 in Washington, D.C. This workshop was part of a study by the Commission on Human Resources of the National Research Council charged with evaluating existing projections of the demand for young faculty in the various fields of science and engineering, assessing the potential damage to the research enterprise that might result from declines in the representation of young persons on science and engineering faculties, and recommending to the NSF and other federal agencies appropriate policies to counteract such damaging effects. Topics of papers in this volume include an examination of alternative approaches to modeling the demand for faculty, an analysis of the demand of faculty in specific fields of science and engineering, a critical review of the literature on age and scientific productivity, and an overview of issues raised in the volume and an assessment of the present state of understanding of those issues. (Author/CS)

The need to modernize deteriorating and obsolete research facilities at universities and colleges is of widespread concern to the academic research community and to government agencies and other organizations which support that community. On July 22-23, 1985, some 200 leading college and university administrators, researchers, industrial and government officials, and representatives of scientific and professional societies gathered at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., to discuss the issue. Their principal purpose was to identify and consider a spectrum of approaches that could help address the need at a time of tight constraints on the Federal budget. The conference was not designed to adopt consensus-based recommendations. The participants were searching for a comprehensive set of approaches that would meet facilities' needs on a continuing, long-term basis; recognize the diversity among research institutions and disciplines; and allow for the establishment of new research capabilities as well as the maintenance of existing strengths. This report summarizes those approaches and presents them as action items addressed to the Federal Government, to state governments, and to academic institutions. The conference agenda and the list of Planning Group members are also included. (Author/CW)