Higher Technical Education in Foreign Countries: Standards and Scope. Bulletin, 1917, No. 11

Interest in technical education of the higher order has been greatly increased by the European war, and as a consequence numerous inquiries have been received at the Bureau of Education with regard to the higher technical schools of foreign countries. These inquiries relate in the main to the organization and conduct of the foreign schools, their courses of instruction and the relative value of their diplomas. The endeavor has been made in this bulletin to meet such inquiries, whether general or specific, by means of information drawn from official and other authoritative sources. In a broad survey of the subject it is seen that while the term technical is used often in a comprehensive sense, it is more generally restricted to schools which specialize in engineering and the mechanical arts that involve the applications of science. On account of the varying scope of technical institutions and the differences between countries in respect to classification, it is impossible to employ a uniform scheme of presentation for institutions selected as typical and equally impossible to institute exact comparisons between their programs and their standards. The institutions here classed as higher technical require the same entrance qualifications as the universities of their respective countries and confer diplomas that have equal value with the university diplomas. These two conditions afford a basis of classification which has been maintained in the bulletin. The matter presented includes therefore (1) a survey of the studies preliminary to the higher technical schools; (2) accounts of typical schools; and (3) statistical summaries comprising additional institutions of the same order. Contents include: (1) Germany; (2) France; (3) Great Britain; (4) Ireland; (5) Switzerland; (6) Italy; (7) Austria; (8) Russia; (9) Japan; (10) Canada; and (11) South America. A bibliography and an index are included. (Contains 5 plates and 3 diagrams.) [Best copy available has been provided.]