| | | Annual Report 1998 | Contents | |
One of the main activities of UNU/IIST, as set out in its Programme, is that it should help universities in developing countries attain the highest quality education (including course curricula) in computing science and software engineering.
This activity began, under the "Curriculum Development" project, in 1996. In that project, professors or lecturers in computer science from universities in developing countries are invited to UNU/IIST, usually for three to six months, to study and develop material for courses on formal methods in software development. The material they develop, together with copies of the teaching material used by UNU/IIST when presenting its own courses on these topics, then forms the basis for the introduction of similar courses, either undergraduate or postgraduate, into the computer science curriculum of their home universities after they return. The material is also placed on UNU/IIST's internet server so that it can be used by others.
The Curriculum Development project is still continuing. However, the needs of computer science departments in universities in developing countries go significantly beyond the somewhat limited scope of this project. Indeed, there are urgent needs for the introduction into their curricula of a much wider range of courses in computer science than the ones UNU/IIST can offer directly, as well as for the adequate provision of teaching material (text books, lecture notes, etc.) to support these courses.
In order to meet these other needs, UNU/IIST is initiating in 1999 a new project called "University Development". The project aims to strengthen computer science teaching in universities in developing countries by training computer science teachers from these universities at partner universities in developed countries.
The lecturers from the developing countries will generally spend one semester at one of the partner universities, during which time they will study several (generally four or five) courses offered by the partner university. These courses may be at either undergraduate or postgraduate level. For each of these courses, they will receive from the partner university all the appropriate course material (lecture material, student's notes, course exercises, etc.), and UNU/IIST will provide them with recommended text book(s) for the course.
In order to be eligible to take part in the project, lecturers must have a good technical background in computer science and must be able to speak, read and write English to a sufficiently high level.
When the lecturers return to their home university, they will use the knowledge they have gained on the project together with the course material and text books provided to them as the basis for improving existing courses or introducing new courses into the teaching curriculum of their own university, thereby updating and expanding this curriculum.
In order to maximize the benefits from the project for any particular country, the project will be run on a "knowledge sharing" basis. The lecturers selected for the project will as far as possible study different sets of courses, and the knowledge and the course material and text books they acquire through the project will be made available to other universities in their country once they return home.
Specific details of how this sharing of knowledge will be implemented may vary from country to country, but it might be achieved by arranging for participating lecturers to travel to different universities to present the courses they have learnt directly to the students there or by arranging simply that they transfer their acquired course materials and knowledge to lecturers from other universities.
UNU/IIST has already approached a number of potential partner universities in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the USA regarding collaboration on this project and has received full agreement to act as partners on the project from several of them.
Initially, UNU/IIST will cover the fellows' costs (travel and stipend) while the partner universities in the developed countries will cover their own costs (staff time, computer facilities, overheads, etc.). In this initial stage, UNU/IIST intends to spend up to 20% of its Fellowship budget for this project.
In the first half of 1999, two lecturers from Vietnam and two from Mongolia will take up fellowships of 4-5 months to study in the UK (Queen's University, Belfast and the Universities of Leicester and York) and in Australia (University of Queensland).
Later, we plan to extend the project to Cameroon, probably in the first semester of the next academic year (i.e. around September 1999), and also to other developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. External co-funding will be sought for these later phases from bilateral and multi-lateral funding agencies in developing and developed countries, such as the British Council and equivalent agencies in Australia, Canada and US, as well as UNESCO and UNDP.
| | | Annual Report 1998 | Contents | |