bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
From grundskolan to gymnasium
Authors: Bacon Frank
Published: February 2008

Until recently in Sweden there were seven years of compulsory schooling, commencing at the age of six, with opportunities for a voluntary additional year. There was also a somewhat complicated system of voluntary secondary education in general, technical or commercial gymnasia. As long ago as 1948 a special committee made recommendations for reform and 1949 saw the introduction of experimental nine‐year schools in various parts of the country. By 1962 these had been so widely established that half the children of Sweden were attending them. In the latter year a new education act made nine years of education compulsory for all children from the age of six and, on the basis of what had been learned in 14 years from the experimental schools, established a new school structure. The compulsory school is sometimes referred to in English writings as the comprehensive school, but since it is both primary and lower secondary it is better called by its Swedish name, the ground school (grundskolan). Extension of compulsory schooling is being introduced gradually and will not be completely established until the academic year 1972–73. A simplified system of gymnasium (higher secondary school) education is also being introduced. The extension and reorganization of compulsory education is partly an attempt to provide a firmer foundation for further education and to make possible a reorganization of the latter. The ground school, therefore, is divided into three departments, each covering three years of school life. In the lower department the foundations of learning are laid, with basic studies in Swedish, arithmetic, religion, local history, music and gymnastics, with handicraft introduced in the third year. In the middle department English is commenced, as being an accepted lingua franca, essential to a small nation if commerce and industry are to be developed. Boys and girls alike receive tuition in textiles, woodwork, and metalwork, with domestic science in the sixth year.
Films
Authors: Edmonds Chris
Published: February 2008

A new topical film, already attracting a lot of attention, is North Sea Strike (col, 21 min), the dramatic Esso story about natural gas. Until recently, the North Sea was good only for fishing, then the discovery of a vast pocket of natural gas in Holland and of smaller amounts in Britain started a search, the results of which we all know.
COMMENT
Authors: Arnold Benedict
Published: February 2008

It now seems certain that for the first time the salaries of teachers in technical colleges will become the subject of arbitration. The salary scales so determined are not likely to be settled before the end of November and teachers may expect a boosted cheque by Christmas.
School science
Authors: Edwards Russell
Published: February 2008

In School Science 2, in our November 1967 issue, Russell Edwards discussed building a home‐made back‐projector. This month he deals with molecular models in plasticine.
School science — 4
Authors: Edwards Russell
Published: February 2008

Last month Russell Edwards dealt with molecular models in plasticine. In School Science 4 he considers a first lesson in crystallography.
The one‐year integrated course in engineering
Authors: Spence H.
Published: February 2008

When the one year ‘off‐the‐job’ integrated course for first‐year engineering apprentices was established, it was hoped that every effort would be made to see that wherever it was held, and however it was organized, arrangements would be made to ensure that the industrial training and further education elements would progress hand in hand throughout the period of the course. In other words ‘training’ and ‘education’ taken together, and suitably inter‐linked, were to form an essential part of a boy's — or girl's — continuing education on leaving school, carried out in accordance with sound educational principles. At the same time, the whole would be an appropriate introduction to the world of work. He would not be asked to practise a basic skill, or to use a machine tool, unless he was also concurrent with it, learning about and beginning to understand the theoretical aspects of these matters. This is, we now realize, an ideal state to which all concerned with the courses should strive but it is unfortunately, one which, for various reasons, is extremely difficult to reach. The main reasons why full integration cannot be achieved at present can be summarized as follows.
Focus
Authors: MacArthur Brian
Published: February 2008

Undoubtedly, the major news of the month was the publication of the Dainton Report on the swing away from science in the schools. Although it said that, at present, the swing had been small, it suggested that the implications of the drift should not be underestimated:
COMMENT
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

It has for many years been a proud boast of the technical colleges and those responsible for them that they met whatever demand for further education presented itself. There may be overcrowding, there may be argument about which college should provide this or that course but come what may the demand would be met. It is astonishing that this open‐ended commitment should have continued for so long. But now, at last, it must come to an end because the country cannot, or will not, afford to meet the cost. Priorities will be decided and some students will be told: ‘We are sorry you cannot have the course you require.’ This must be done but it must not appear to be done. A rational determination of priorities must therefore give way to moves which deceive the eye.
Films
Authors: Edmonds Chris
Published: February 2008

The Central Film Library has recently published new 1968–69 editions of its ‘Main Catalogue,’ price 6s (post free), and its ‘Films for Industry Catalogue,’ price 4s 6d (post free). Both are indispensible works of reference for all serious users of film in the fields of teaching, technology and trade — whether they be managers, operatives or trainees or whether their interest lies in aircraft or arts, ceramics or ceremonial occasions, sports or safety, workshop practice or war. The ‘Films for Industry Catalogue’ has one very interesting innovation; it now lists a number of films produced by BBC Television within the last couple of years. Six series of those black and white tele‐recordings may be of particular interest to readers of Technical Education and Industrial Training.
Ruskin College
Authors: Digby‐Smith Peter
Published: February 2008

Jim is thirty‐one years old. The son of a railway worker in the north, he left school at fifteen and was a manual worker for the next few years. By the age of twenty‐one he was married and a fairly active young socialist. Now, ten years later, he has two children, is a capstan lathe operator in a local factory, a shop steward, and an active member of the local Labour party. He has attended a WEA course on British economic history and has been to a two‐week summer school on ‘Problems of the British Economy’. He has also done a little reading on his own on trade unionism and politics.
Levies, grants and manpower training for industry
Authors: Bell David , Coleman David
Published: February 2008

Echoing the Second Report of the Central Training Council, the Estimates Committee of the House of Commons has recommended that the first task of industrial training boards is to make “a comprehensive study of the long term needs of industry”. They also recommended, somewhat contradictorily, that the Manpower Research Unit of the Ministry of Labour should “carry out a comprehensive assessment of future manpower needs of every industry”.
Films
Authors: Edmonds Chris
Published: February 2008

Britain: a country where blowing your own trumpet is frowned upon and self‐denigration is commonplace. Now that the crunch has apparently come the need to export is vital, and we are discovering that hard selling of our ideas and goods is really not so sinful after all.
The parties — a view of ILEA politics
Authors: Render James
Published: February 2008

It now spends in current and capital costs more than £125 million every year. It bosses some 1100 nursery, primary, and secondary schools with 400 000 pupils and a teaching staff of close on 19 000.
Student counselling in Austria
Authors: Hoxter H.Z.
Published: February 2008

The period after the second world war was one of considerable hardship and widespread poverty in Austria; a time when many adolescents in technical colleges were found to be encountering learning problems and developmental difficulties, because of their deprived war‐time childhoods. During this period, in Vienna, a group of imaginative and far‐sighted people came together, prepared to dedicate their time and knowledge to sorting out, as far as possible, the problems of this large group of adolescents. The adolescent counselling services which arose from their efforts were the brainchild of Dr Ilse Scholer.
Management's use of P.I.
Authors: Brunsiröm C.K.M.
Published: February 2008

This paper outlines the principal problems confronting managers when they consider the use of programmed learning. The second part lists twelve steps which a manager should take to install programmed learning in his organization.
COMMENT
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

What is the teacher's duty when he arrives at the college to find that students have taken over? This question has no simple right answer and it has recently placed a number of college teachers on the horns of a dilemma. What is the teacher's duty to his students, to the local authority? Do his loyalties conflict? What is his legal responsibility, his moral responsibility, his professional responsibility — and are these in conflict?
The Solid State
Authors: Hogarth Cyril
Published: February 2008

Modern semiconductor physics has developed from the quantum mechanical work on energy band theory of charge carriers in semiconductors associated with the name of A. H. Wilson and his classic papers on the subject, and also with the name of Schottky who pioneered the atomistic approach to disorder phenomena in solids. This work dates from about 1930 and theoretical developments up to the beginning of the War were relatively slow. Semiconductor technology in the same period was represented by a few devices only. These included the copper oxide and selenium rectifiers which were in use in certain equipment and in the process of further development. The silicon whisker detector was being used for the detection and measurement of microwave power. It will be recalled that silicon carbide and galena had been used as detectors of radio waves before the common usage of the thermionic valve. The development of radar during the War, which required semiconductor devices for detecting and mixing microwaves meant that considerable work was carried out on silicon, and parallel work on germanium meant that by the end of the War high‐back voltage rectifiers, using germanium, were available in developmental quantities. Problems of thermal detection meant that photo‐conductive and photo‐voltaic cells were developed for this purpose based on the materials thallium sulphide and lead sulphide. Attention was also focussed on electronic processes in ionic crystals in terms of improving display screens for cathode ray and similar tubes.
Plowden in the Technical College
Authors: Mansell Jack
Published: February 2008

The first article in a series which will look at the methods and techniques used in technical teaching in an attempt to define a progressive approach in this sphere.
Courses and examinations for technicians
Authors: Bell John
Published: February 2008

Further Education has manfully struggled to implement the course and examination arrangements set up as a consequence of the 1961 ‘Better Opportunities’ White Paper. Criticisms have abounded — the G course is too rigid; the ONC is too strenuous; the new HNC Engineering has been down‐graded, etc — and industry generally has never been quite clear what was the function of a technician, or how he should be trained (educated?). In fact some industrialists regard the technician (as produced by the specific Technician Courses) as being a product of Further Educationalists more than a requirement of industry.
Focus
Authors: MacArthur Brian
Published: February 2008

A monthly column in which Brian Mac‐Arthur, Education Correspondent of The Times, reviews the month's news in education.
Films
Authors: Edmonds Chris
Published: February 2008

ICI made its first film for the educational market some 27 years ago, today thirty‐nine different titles have an estimated annual audience in British schools of nearly 1½ million children.
The computer in the school
Authors: Broderick Bill
Published: February 2008

In the United States of America and Canada the potential of the computer in secondary education has been, and still is being diligently examined by a number of teams of research workers. This research is being sponsored by Federal Agencies, Universities, and State Governments.
The programmers
Authors: Zell Julie
Published: February 2008

Computer programming as a job or profession was unheard of a few years ago. Now thousands of people work at programming. Newspapers are full of advertisements offering high‐paying jobs. Self‐styled institutes display posts practically promising to double your salary if you take their short course in programming.
Report, stage 1
Authors: Nash Roy
Published: February 2008

It was a memorable occasion, the day of publication of the Public Schools Commission report. Observers who lived through it may be forgiven for thinking of it almost in terms of some Telly‐revived old‐time silent movie: The Day the Report Came Out.
COMMENT
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

In spite of many efforts to terminate the pregnancy the Open University is about to be born and the technical colleges will have to put up with the squealing brat for many years to come. We must not allow our mistrust of its father or our contempt for the midwife to prejudice our care for the child; it will be with us long after they are gone and there is no reason why it could not become a healthy and pleasant child.
Focus
Authors: MacArthur Brian
Published: February 2008

Students managed to continue occupying the headlines throughout the month, and Britain's longest‐running sit‐in so far — at Guildford College of Art — did not finally end until July 29 when the small group of students still remaining at the college filed out quietly after taking down their barricades.
COMMENT
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

The press coverage of further education is strangely patchy. Education is now taken more seriously by editors than in the past but technical education is considered pretty dull stuff. Most newspapers now employ specialist education correspondents and they all become quickly aware of the magnitude and significance of the FE sector. Inevitably teachers are disatisfied with some of the stories that find their way into print and there are complaints about the preference the papers have for scandal and sensation. But on the whole the correspondents succeed in publishing a lot of material sympathetic and favourable to the colleges, often with little encouragement from principals and local authorities. Some newspapers and their education correspondents can justifiably claim great credit for the improvement in public knowledge about the colleges.
H.M.C
Authors: Nash Roy
Published: February 2008

As an exercise in political technology this year's annual meeting of the Headmasters' Conference must win a prominent place among the historical events of the post‐war educational world. Its handling of the Public Schools Commission report disclosed a tactical ability fit to be admired by those Left‐wing pragmatists its members have so generously donated to West‐minster over the past 30 years.
ANATOMY OF A STUDENT
Authors: Kemble Bruce
Published: February 2008

I left Cambridge in 1962 without having sat‐in, stayed‐out, marched or boycotted. By 1967 the protest jargon of Berkeley, the philosophy of Marcuse, and the revolutionary antics of foreign undergraduates had spread to Britain. We were told about ‘Teach‐Ins’ and ‘Love‐Ins’, and the student world will never be the same again. With customary arrogance and optimism I am going to attempt to explain how this change occurred and to describe the thinking of students in Britain today.
FOCUS
Authors: MacArthur Brian
Published: February 2008

A new Education Act is now being actively prepared by the Department of Education and Science and will probably be tabled during the 1969–70 parliamentary session. Preparations for the Bill are being overseen by Mrs Shirley Williams, Minister of State at the Department.
Audio‐visual aids
Authors: Edmonds Chris
Published: February 2008

The tremendous growth of the audio visual industry over recent years, coupled with the sheer complexity of the aids now being marketed, has made it imperative for the user to obtain authoritative, unbiased advice on what aids best suit his needs. So to whom can he turn for help? This article brings to light some of the founts of information on the subject and explains how the busy lecturer can keep an eye on the fast expanding audio visual scene.
Education and partisan politics
Authors: Chataway Christopher
Published: February 2008

‘If only education could be taken out of politics’, people say. It is an apparently widespread feeling and a sentiment that one hears expressed by teachers and parents alike. In fact, most people probably feel that education ought to be insulated to a greater extent than some other topics from the political struggle. But what exactly is meant by ‘taking education out of politics’?
FOCUS
Authors: MacArthur Brian
Published: February 2008

A monthly column in which Brian MacArthur, Education Correspondent of The Times, reviews the month's news in education.
PUBLIC RELATIONS IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES
Authors: Fielder Michael
Published: February 2008

It is now four years since the National Advisory Council on Education for Industry and Commerce (NACEIC) published its report The public relations of further education and the Department of Education and Science commended the report to local authorities (DES circular 17/64). Have public relations in further education improved since then? I believe they have, but there is still a lot of improvement possible. In this article it is intended to look at the subject particularly from the college viewpoint. It does not discuss directly the role of the DES, the RACs or the LEAs.
Methods in technical teaching — 3
Authors: Mansell Jack
Published: February 2008

Number 3 in a series of articles looking at methods and techniques used in technical teaching, in an attempt to define ‘progressive’ teaching in this sphere.
The Dons
Authors: Bagnall Nicholas
Published: February 2008

Public sympathy — whether you measure it by last night's cocktail party or this morning's letter columns — has not been noticeably strong towards university dons over the failure of their 15 per cent pay claim and the other passing insults offered them by the Prices and Incomes Board. It is not too hard to see why. A public brought up on the novels of Kingsley Amis and C. P. Snow, with perhaps Rowlandson's cartoons as a visual aid, is naturally going to think of dons as idle, bitchy and overfed. Television appearances add the impression that they are also overpaid.
Comment
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

At the beginning of February Mr Short, Lord Robbins and Sir William Alexander played their deplorable part in escalating the student troubles in higher education. In this they had enthusiastic popular support; the same sort of support that Mr Enoch Powell finds so readily available.
FOCUS
Authors: Fletcher David
Published: February 2008

During Brian MacArthur's absence in the USA, David Fletcher of the Daily Telegraph takes over this column.
FRELIMO
Authors: Gaster Polly
Published: February 2008

Mozambique extends along the southeastern coast of Africa. It has a population of around seven million Africans and 150 000 European settlers, not counting the 60 000‐strong army which enforce Portugal's claim to it as an ‘overseas province’. It may therefore seem surprising to hail it as a country in which an educational revolution is taking place, but what is happening there deserves the attention of anyone who is interested not just in formal education but in learning of every kind, and in particular in how it can be related to the needs of a developing society. In the two northern provinces of the country, which are now largely controlled by the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the foundations of Mozambique's future educational system are being laid.
Teaching Methods in Technical Education — 5
Authors: Mansell Jack
Published: February 2008

Number five in a series of articles looking at methods and techniques used in further education in an attempt to define ‘progressive’ teaching in this sphere.
THE PRESSURE GROUPS
Authors: Beard Roger
Published: February 2008

Professor Finer, in Anonymous Empire, defines a lobby as: ‘the sum of organizations in so far as they are occupied at any point of time in trying to influence the policy of public bodies in their own chosen direction; though (unlike political parties) never themselves prepared to undertake the direct government of the country’ — to such formalized organizations can be added less formal pressure groups, which may or may not employ sanctions to achieve their chosen ends.
Higher Education
Authors: Burgess Tyrrell
Published: February 2008

Higher education lacks the biggest pressure group of all — the electorate. Most voters have been to school: substantial numbers of them are parents and grandparents. So there is always a certain amount of electoral mileage to be got out of doing something for the schools. The state of school building was an issue in the 1964 election campaign. It rumbled on for a week, which is pretty good going. The end of selection at 11 plus has been a party policy for the last three elections.
Outsiders
Authors: Fletcher David
Published: February 2008

The painful process by which Britain started to come to terms with the effort of living within her income has been paralleled by an equally painful growth in the pressures on universities to show that they give a good return for the money poured into them. Cost‐effectiveness is a phrase that has crept into use with regard to higher education and for the first time pressures are being put on the universities to produce the sort of students the nation's economy needs. The ever‐closer link be‐between education and the country's economy became apparent in the Department of Education's annual report for 1968. It stated bluntly that the growth of education had been deliberately slowed down as a consequence of a decision to ‘divert resources from home consumption to overseas trade and industrial investment.’
Progressives
Authors: Bourne Richard
Published: February 2008

Educational pressure groups, in the form of national bodies pushing a particular view which has nothing directly to do with politics, religion or trades unionism, seem to be a new phenomenon in Britain. Their arrival has to do with the peculiar federal structure of our education system, its increasing diversity, the increasing interest that individuals and groups of all sorts are taking in it, the recognition that it is crucially linked to both personal belief and group ideology, and its long march of cost. In this perspective such varied bodies as the Comprehensive Schools Committee, the Careers Research Advisory Centre, the Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment, and the Advisory Centre for Education, may each give an insight into causes and effects.
Comment
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

A legendary don complained bitterly that so many of his colleagues demeaned themselves by appearing on television. When eventually he was approached to make such an appearance he was asked, ‘Would a fee of 15 guineas be satisfactory?’, and he replied ‘That seems reasonable. To whom do I make the cheque payable?’ This story has had wide currency because it sums up so well the attitudes of some of the contemporary defenders of the academic faith.
Development
Authors: Pratt John
Published: February 2008

The ten institutions called technological universities are an odd group. Two of them — the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST) and Chelsea College — are not universities at all, but colleges of federal universities. Only two of the remainder — Loughborough and Bath — have ‘technology’ in their titles. And Chelsea doesn't even concentrate on technology. The main thing they have in common is that they were all formerly colleges of advanced technology, and before that, technical colleges. The story of their development is one of the most remarkable in education. It is hard to find examples of where the intentions of founders have been so thoroughly submerged by the aspirations of their successors. The early ideals to provide educational opportunities for the working class, often allied with attempts to offer social facilities as well, have been increasingly eroded by the ambition of the colleges for self advancement and status. From technical colleges meeting local, social and industrial demands at all levels, they have developed into national institutions awarding degrees to an increasingly middle class clientele selected from the length and breadth of the country.
Comprehensive tertiary
Authors: Robinson Eric
Published: February 2008

The development of the colleges of advanced technology and the Diploma in Technology, between 1956 and 1964, coincided with the gestation of the ‘new’ universities of Sussex, East Anglia, Kent, Lancaster, Warwick and Essex. Of course, at the time, it was not generally assumed that the CATs would become universities and the differences of thinking in the CATs and in the new universities were substantial — generally the CATs were industrially based and technological whereas the new universities were dominated by the avante garde academics of the time and were heavily biased towards the social sciences. But it is worthwhile to notice the similarities between the CATs and the new universities because these institutions now constitute a terrible hang‐over of an idea of a university that was current in the late fifties and is now completely outdated.
Indian FE
Authors: Owen John
Published: February 2008

The educational system of the Indian subcontinent has to be understood in light of the historical background that produced it. The Hindu tradition of learning combined with the British regime to stress the teaching of rhetorical, literary, and humanistic studies with a view to the training of clerks for the government service. This type of learning still continues in the subcontinent, despite the desperate need for scientists and engineers.
Industrial training assessment 1
Authors: Godfrey D.E.R.
Published: February 2008

The preparation of this article was made possible by the assistance of the Arizona State University Grants Committee. The author served at Dacca University, 1960–63, under the Technical Assistance Programme of the United Nations.
Britain's unique deterrent
Authors: Kemble Bruce
Published: February 2008

The case against caning has been stated, proved and then ignored by the vast majority of teachers. This year has seen the stepping‐up of the campaign against corporal punishment but there has been little indication that the arguments are persuading staff in schools.
View
Authors: Boyle Edward
Published: February 2008

I wrote, in my May contribution to Technical Education, that I did not see any escape from the pressure of rising numbers seeking places in higher education. And I thought the right approach was to recognize that ‘more’, whether or not it means ‘worse’ (an unrewarding controversy), certainly does point to the need for greater diversity of provision.
COMMENT
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

After every teachers' conference I am depressed by the conservatism of the profession that makes educational progress so difficult. Much of this conservatism derives from fear and insecurity.
HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTORATE
Authors: Taylor Alan
Published: February 2008

Probably the criticisms now most frequently heard about the House of Commons revolve around its loss of control over the Government. Debates, it is argued, are largely lifeless, for the matters under discussion have already been thoroughly thrashed out in private party meetings. Furthermore, the Parliamentary timetable and limitation of debate are largely at the mercy of the Government of the day.
Industrial training assessment
Authors: Godfrey Derrick
Published: February 2008

Dr Godfrey wrote on the matter of industrial assessment in our June issue. Below he reviews the situation at Woolwich.
CAREERS‐ORIENTATED EDUCATION
Authors: O'Neill Hugh
Published: February 2008

There is today a great deal of criticism of the present examination system; on the one hand there are the educational theoreticians, who believe that most curricula are too specialized, and on the other the students who say that many courses are irrelevant to their needs. Possibly the fundamental fault lies in the attitude of mind of both the student and the educator, more particularly the latter. At all levels the examination is regarded as the terminal point and all studies are directly related to the final examination. In the present environment such an attitude is bound to create a mounting tide of dissatisfaction — not only amongst the educators and the students, but also in the worlds of art, commerce and industry who are, after all, the main users of the products of the system.
Comment
Authors: Bennett Gordon
Published: February 2008

The (Redcliffe‐Maud) Report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in England holds out a dismal prospect for further education. In return for reorganization and rationalization it proposes that local authorities should have greater freedom of action. In the provision of many services the gains of rationalization will greatly outweigh the losses of national co‐ordiation. In the case of further education the losses will greatly outweigh the gains.
AUDIOVISUAL 1
Authors: Beard Roger
Published: February 2008

Four years ago the University Grants Committee, the Department of Education and Science, and the Scottish Education Department published the Brynmor Jones report on audio‐visual aids in higher scientific education. It gained Brynmor Jones a knighthood, led to the setting up of the National Council for Educational Technology, stimulated marginal interest, and made no fewer than 56 recommendations. The most important of these, the establishment of a national centre under NCET, has never been implemented. On the other 55 recommendations, progress has depended very largely on the enthusiasm of particular university centres.
AUDIOVISUAL 2
Authors: Barlow Peppy
Published: February 2008

Audio‐visual aids begin, as all good followers of Edward Short will tell you, with talk, chalk and blackboard; and should never be allowed to end in a mass of blurting, blinking machinery. Taking in an array of sound arguments for not dehumanizing education, the traditional teacher attitude is, at base, the reflex of a profession bewildered by the mechanical tools which the commercial world seems determined to foist upon it. Machines often demand quite simple manipulatory skills for which teachers aren't trained, but more pertinently they suggest ordered, efficient teaching methods — a combination which leads to fewer, better trained teachers. It is not the A/V aids, however, which are the crux of the matter — the advantages of providing a more varied learning environment are largely accepted.
CCTV Portsmouth
Authors: Bradley Harry
Published: February 2008

The Portsmouth College of Technology is a Polytechnic designate. In this establishment there not only exist 13 departments but a whole range of courses at different academic levels.
The ‘free’ university
Authors: Salgado Gamini
Published: February 2008

In spite of a brief flurry of activity recently (in the form of a London conference and the announcement in The Times that ‘fund‐raising will now start in earnest’) it seems reasonably safe to assume that the Free or Independent university will never get off the ground. If this assumption is correct, one must be grateful for the rare opportunity thus offered to combine the writing of an epitaph with the heaving of a sigh of relief. Admittedly, as a solution to any of the problems of university education today, the whole project is about as significant as, say, the London Hilton considered as a contribution to the housing shortage. Nevertheless it is pleasant and may be instructive to speculate on two aspects of the whole affair; first, what kind of animal the new university might have been had it ever struggled into birth, and secondly, how it came about that a group of more or less sober‐minded academics could have conceived such a misbegotten chimera.
THE 16+JUNGLE
Authors: Roberts Francis
Published: February 2008

The proposals for educational reform suggested by Sir William Alexander in his recent book Towards a New Education Act have been put forward to stimulate informed discussion on the subject. This article is an attempt to consider the possible effect of such proposals on the one sector of our educational system which is in some respects the most affected by them, namely further education.
Personal
Authors: Nash Roy
Published: February 2008

So another education year looms ahead. This is a time when I recall the oppressive sense of gloom and despondency which used to settle upon me, as a boy, at the first shaky notes of ‘Once again assembled here’ or some such dirge for long‐term prisoners.
Focus
Authors: MacArthur Brian
Published: February 2008

About 25 000 students are expected to enrol for the first year of the Open University, which was presented with its Royal Charter on 23 July, when the Prime Minister made the first address to the university, and Lord Crowther was installed as its first Chancellor.
Audio‐visual review
Authors: Edmonds Chris
Published: February 2008

In the new venue at Olympia, NAVEX 69 was an undoubted success. But for the non‐specialist — for the person who simply wanted help in communicating his own subject to a class of pupils — was it overpowering? The exhibition's complexity and vastness set one the preliminary task of selecting which exhibits to see. It was almost impossible to get ‘a general view of what's new’ by just strolling round. There was so much on display, so many conflicting claims to be considered, so many different uses to which equipment could be put.
Development
Authors: Duke John
Published: February 2008

‘The application of computers to teaching and learning is a logical development in the evolution of educational technology, although at present the ultimate benefits can be but dimly foreseen. The realization of this potential will require concentrated research and development efforts which can only profitably flourish within the ambit of a national programme of work.’ So opens a recently published report of the National Council for Educational Technology addressed both to Ministers and to all engaged in the education industry. What lies behind this bald statement with its overtones of brash prophecy, veiled threat, and blatant jingoism? I would like to explore some of the reasons for thinking that a revolution in education, as far reaching as the Copernican revolution in astronomy, is now within the realm of possibility.
FACULTY
Authors: Kirk Alan , Zell Jules
Published: February 2008

AK During the past academic year the Computer Board, which is the controlling body for the financing of university computers, has issued its first report, covering the period up to October 1968, which was published as a Command paper in June 1969. Perhaps more significant, in its immediate effects, was that the Board introduced a procedure, in February 1969, whereby each university will be asked to submit, each year, forward estimates of its computing equipment requirements for each of the following three years. The first of such three‐year forward estimates were called for, by the end of the academic year 1968/69, to cover the financial years 1970/71 to 1972/73. Such a rationalization of the Board's procedures must be applauded warmly for it will certainly simplify the Board's own task of producing its five‐year programme. Inevitably though, it has been noticeable that specific applications already in the hands of the Board before the introduction of this new procedure have been held in limbo awaiting an overall assessment of university needs generally. The timing too, and the interplay of academic and financial years, has accentuated this delay.
Personal
Authors: Nash Roy
Published: February 2008

It may have been partly the effects of the Indian summer in Cambridge, but not for some time have I seen Headmasters of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools in such optimistic mood as they were at this year's annual conference.
The People
Authors: Barlow Peppy
Published: February 2008

The real issues in Irish education are, in the words of Sean O'Connor (Assistant Secretary to the Department of Education): ‘Equality of educational opportunity for all and the fashioning of education so that it is responsive to the, aptitudes of the individual pupil’. Perfectly standard aims, shared in theory at least even by the Black Paper brigade. The problem in Ireland is to find any significant level on which they are being discussed. Two major factors continually militate against it. The first is the power struggle between the State and the various participant religious bodies, in which all sides busily avoid confrontation. The State because it lacks the power to make its aims effective through a rationalization of the largely privately run sectors, and cannot therefore afford a political clash with those who control them, the controlling forces because they cannot fully accept ideas that imply a reorganization which would diminish, probably eliminate, their power.
Focus
Authors: MacArthur Brian
Published: February 2008

A major step towards the establishment of a fully qualified and trained teaching profession has been announced by Mr Short, Secretary of State for Education and Science. Speaking at Morecambe, he disclosed his decision that students graduating from universities after 1973 will not be accepted as teachers in state schools unless they have satisfactorily completed a course of professional training. The decision will apply to graduates entering primary schools from next autumn. It will not apply to graduates who got their degrees before 1970 or 1973, a point which many of the critics of Mr Short have overlooked.
Stone Cold Dead in the Market
Authors: Barlow Peppy
Published: February 2008

Peppy Barlow, herself a casualty of girls' education, returns to her home area to see what advances have been made in the past ten years.
View
Authors: Price Chris
Published: February 2008

The eternal argument about the overall pattern in which we organize our schools tends to induce a state of total complacency about what goes on inside them. The politicians prescribe the external label, but in Britain they have (very properly) no power to lay down much else. The curriculum, the ambience, the aims of the school are in the hands of the headmaster, and no one talks about them very much. Since to most parents the label is all, it is reputation rather than reality which matters. But in fact labels tell you little about the contents of the bottle. Antiquated educational ideas often flourish in supposedly revolutionized comprehensive schools, and some grammar schools have changed out of all recognition. The sooner the argument can be swung round to the purpose of education within the schools, the better.
The Training Page
Authors: Holman Valerie
Published: February 2008

I handed out the shopping cards to my pupils. ‘Can I have a hard one, Miss?’ ‘I'm going to be the awkward customer, Miss.’ ‘Can I be cashier, Miss?’ They got up from their chairs and converged upon the ‘bank’, collecting money for the purchases, whilst the triumphant cashier practised with the till. In the shop, the class chose their merchandise, prattled like housewives, argued incessantly with the cashier, and checked their change. Later we did some number work. Heads bent earnestly over addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The board was covered with visual aids. When it was time to go home, they took their special work books to finish: ‘See you tomorrow, Miss’.
A sorry affair for teacher unions and management
Authors: Dutton John
Published: February 2008

FURTHER EDUCATION PAY AWARD: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE MACHINERY AND PROCESS OF DISCUSSION THAT PRODUCES AWARDS LIKE THE RECENT TEN PER CENT? AND, DOES THE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT OFFER HOPE OR THREAT FOR TEACHER UNIONS?
Problems of the lecturer new to higher education
Authors: Evans Robert
Published: February 2008

In this article I do not propose to ‘describe and discuss’ the catalogue of desirable qualities that teachers at all levels should ideally possess but to concentrate on what seem to me some of the attributes needed especially by those entering the higher education sector and in particular the polytechnics. These attributes are, I am sure, different not so much in kind but only in degree from those of all teachers. I make no claim to objectivity. The observations made are based on some years' experience in both a college of further education and a technical college and during the last three years at the Polytechnic, Wolverhampton, on organizing the induction course for new staff and running a modest in‐service course for new staff without training for teaching or previous teaching experience.
Overseas: Canada
Authors: Munton Alan
Published: February 2008

To teach in a university in North America is always a confrontation with the possibilities of mass education. The numbers are enormous; the organization of teaching, for anyone brought up in the British system, becomes a disturbing administrative problem that is not always easy to work with, and which can destroy a compact sense of what one is supposed to be teaching. But if the university is odd, the ‘further’ education part of teaching — in this case in Montreal in Canada — is stranger still: the extraordinary variety of students, the consequence of an immigrant population, raises very sharply the question ‘Why do they want degrees?’, and beyond that, ‘What ought they to be taught?’
Who are the masters now?
Authors: Hewitt Stanley
Published: February 2008

The in‐service bandwagon is well on its way. But who is to be responsible for seeing that a good idea is actually put into practice?
The second tongue
Authors: Dunn Alison
Published: February 2008

A class clamouring for more English exercises, more homework and reluctant to admit their college life could ever come to an end. It's not a situation many teachers would recognise; but those at Bournville College of Further Education in Birmingham are finding enthusiasm a real problem. They need constantly to think up new teaching ideas to keep pace with their omnivorous students. And they dread having to tell an ambitious youngster that he won't make it to university.
Careers:
Authors: Engel Jeff
Published: February 2008

While Edge Hill College provides an annual residential course for those who can spare a week of their Christmas holiday, its chief contribution to in‐service training has been the full‐time courses which have been mounted since 1965. The earlier one‐term courses have now been superseded by the one year Diploma courses in counselling and careers work. The courses are open to qualified teachers who should normally have at least five years' teaching experience. There is, of course, no ‘ideal’ applicant. Some of those who have taken the course have had wide experience in and out of teaching, others are near the beginning of their careers. Whatever their background or age, group members bring a great deal to a year where study methods emphasise participation and the discussion of course materials in the light of their common experience.
Careers:
Authors: Guest David
Published: February 2008

Few people today would dispute the need for vocational guidance. Yet it has generally received a relatively low priority in governmental, administrative and educational circles. Can the more conventional forms of guidance ever hope to achieve a wide measure of success?
Careers:
Authors: Ford Geoffrey
Published: February 2008

Most traditional industries pass through a phase when massive re‐organisation is necessary for survival, and during that period have difficulty attracting either sufficient staff or staff of the right quality. In certain respects public prejudice may be justified. But that prejudice may also be based on generalisations which fail to examine present performance and future potential, or to distinguish between growth areas and areas where contraction (but not necessarily decline) may be inevitable.
Careers:
Authors: Collins Terry
Published: February 2008

The careers service covers such a range of activities, each brushing against those of so many other agencies, that it would be hard to find any two officers following the same job specification. This leads to a situation where external commentators are seldom able to identify the specific contribution of the careers officer. Careers officers themselves have the same problem — they attempt a little bit of everything over an impossible range of duties, alternatively they act out a role in response to a particular local need. There is almost always such a volume of work that standards inevitably fall in an attempt to meet all needs.
On the move
Authors: Mansell Jack
Published: February 2008

The Haslegrave Committee was set up in 1967, it reported in 1969 and TEC was set up in 1973. Many of the points put to and emitted from Haslegrave will therefore inevitably require re‐appraisal in the light of the additional experience and information that has become available in recent years. For example, since 1969 many ITBs have published training recommendations relevant to technicians and technician engineers; the Engineers' Registration Board (ERB) of the CEI has established criteria for the recognition of technicans and technician engineers; the school leaving age has been raised; fundamental changes are being mooted with respect to the whole examining structure at 16 plus; we have become members of EEC; the structure of manpower deployment in many engineering establishments has changed and not least the structure of the Industrial Training Act is about to be modified. Add to these a growing appreciation of the need to apply a more systematic approach to curriculum design and evaluation, and one perhaps obtains some idea of how Haslegrave, never a very exciting document anyway, has dated.