CHRONICLE CONFERENCES AND

COMMISSIONS

F I F T E E N T H P U G W A S H CONFERENCE 1 The 15th Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs took place in Addis Ababa from 29 December, 1965, to 3 January, 1966. The conference, sponsored by the Halle Selassie I Foundation and the Haile Selassie I University, dealt with "Science in Aid of Developing Countries ". The continuing committee issued a statement in which it dealt with the work carried out by the five working groups. Groups 1-4 discussed aspects of the application of education, science and technology, while group 5 dealt with problems of security, including current conflicts. The conclusions of the first four groups are as follows: Education in Developing Countries Aid from developed countries, international organisations and foundations is necessary to implement a massive programme for the training of science teachers. Teachers' salaries and conditions should be improved. Science students should constitute a higher proportion of the student population in view of the crucial role of science in development. As many teachers, scientists and technologists as possible, and the teaching staff of training institutions as soon as practicable, should be drawn from the indigenous population. This is both politically and economically desirable and would increase the stability of teaching staff. Training colleges and universities can be strengthened by attracting good personnel, improving the quality of research, postgraduate training in developed countries and effective evaluation of qualifications so that appropriate positions are found for trained personnel. An important objective is to inculcate an inquiring and experimental attitude to all knowledge so that new ideas can be generated to help solve the problems of a developing country. This is specially important in the training of teachers. Organisation of Scientific Institutions and Research in Developing Countries Because of widely differing stages of development in science, education, and availability of scientific manpower and equipment, a standard plan will not fit all countries. For the planning and coordination of scientific development, the group considered that a body responsible only to the Cabinet and having representatives from government, industry and educational and research institutions was necessary; it should have a high proportion of active natural scientists and some social scientists. There are great advantages in a multi-disciplinary approach for the most effective and the most efficient use of available facilities. The organisation should lead to effective research and the frustrations caused by bureaucratic organisation, which does not devolve responsibility on working scientists, should be avoided. 1 Pug'wash Newsletter, III, 2 (October, 1965), III, 3 (January, 1966) and III, 4 (April, 1966).

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Science and scientists must be integrated into government. A better understanding in high governmental circles of the role of science should be fostered and scientists should acquire some insight into the problems of government.

Scientific Approach in Aid to Developing Countries The group stressed that aid should contribute to increasing the self-refiance of the receiving country and its capacity for independent growth. Aid should involve no interference in the internal affairs of the country nor be used for political advantage by the donor nations. Continuity of programmes should be ensured by training of personnel and technical development programmes and by the correct use of new educational institutions and their graduates. The best aspects of the indigenous culture and technology should be safeguarded to avoid a dull standardisation of cultural patterns. The following specific recommendations were made: Greater support for the UN and its agencies, particularly ECOSOC's Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology in Development; better organisation in the developing countries for the scientific survey of their needs; and formulation of requests for aid through a national planning authority and a scientific advisory council. The pairing of scientific institutions from East and West in giving assistance to programmes and institutes in developing countries was warmly endorsed.' Scientists from developed countries should be encouraged to work, at least for limited periods, in developing countries, without consequent damage to their own scientific careers.

Specific Problems of Developing Countries The rate of economic growth in developing countries is largely dependent on their own determination and effort. Economic assistance, taken alone, can have only a marginal effect. Industrialisation, through planning, scientific involvement, concentration of effort, coordination of industrial with agricultural development, is a key factor in development and necessary to accelerate industrial growth. Merely to maintain present standards of food consumption in the face of growing population, a great increase in agricultural production, through scientific aids and incentives to farmers, will have to take place. Food aid will have to augment local supplies. Protein deficiencies can be mitigated by scientific means and by the increased use of fish and wild animals. Technology, human effort and capital investment are needed in combination to support increased population from natural resources. Birth control alone is not the solution. Continued reliance must be placed on increased production and aid. The development of water resources, improved water management and cooperation among countries sharing riparian fights are needed. Developing and conserving natural resources is imperative. Cooperation on projects such as the International Biological Programme and the International Hydrological Decade is of great importance. SECOND OECD M E E T I N G OF M I N I S T E R S FOR SCIENCE Ministers responsible for science and technology in the Organisation for European Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries and Yugoslavia met in Paris on 12 and 13 January. Observers from Finland, the European Economic Community (EEC), European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), Euratom and the Council of Europe participated. The following topics were discussed: (1) the research and development strength of

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O E C D countries; (2) government policies for technical innovation; (3) fundamental research and government policies; (4) the social sciences and government policies; (5) problems of international cooperation in scientific and technological research. The ministers agreed that they would meet again within two years and that one of the main themes of future work should be the social and economic consequences of scientific and technological research in advanced and less developed countries. They also decided that a committee of senior officials responsible for science policy should be instructed to continue the work of the Interim Committee to implement recommendations reached and to prepare future discussions. II UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER LEARNED INSTITUTIONS: NEW FOUNDATIONS, EXPANSION AND REFORM

UNITED

KINGDOM UNIVERSITY

OF MANCHESTER

Sir William Mansfield Cooper, the vice-chancellor, writes: The institution of an honours school of Liberal Studies in Science in the University of Manchester has created considerable interest and I propose in this note to record some of the fines on which thinking has proceeded. A t the beginning, however, I would want to emphasise two overriding considerations. The first relates to name, the second to content. Both are as yet, in any final sense, undecided. As to the name, we are all agreed on its inadequacy and hope that it will be possible to discover something more suitable. W h a t we aim at is a kind of science " Greats " - - a discipline as fundamental as the older school of P.P.E. at Oxford. As to content, thinking is fairly advanced but quite experimental and will not be firmly determined until a director of studies is appointed. The university would want the director to have as much freedom of scope as possible within the basic aim of the school. That basic aim arises from a process of reasoning largely following these lines: universities must continue to produce professional scientists, economists, engineers and the like. But as society becomes more technologically based and technology more reliant for results on science, the difficulties of communication will increase. Thus the need for "interpreters " will grow. These "interpreters " may be teachers or journalists, members of parliament, civil servants, managers in industry and so on. H o w shall we produce them? Traditional courses in the science honours school will not suffice. W h a t is required is a skiffully integrated course with breadth, depth and the capacity genuinely to stretch the student's mind. A mosaic of traditional courses, with a little of biology, chemistry, physics, earth science and so on, will not, we are completely agreed, meet the circumstances. W e began, therefore, by asking what the kind of graduates we want to produce ought to know. In general terms the answer is not difficult. W e would want them to know about science, its powers, limitations, motivations, and its effects ' u p o n h u m a n thinking. They should know broadly the same about engineering, together with the nature of its differentiation from science. They should be cognisant of the scope, character and, indeed, the simplicity of the laws of nature. They should gather, from the course, the character of technological choice and whether it is better to put resources into project A

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411

rather than project B. They must have an appreciation of economic considerations as well as scientific and technological ones. But it is of little use to teach them how to reason unless they have the flexibility of mind and power of expression which the best arts courses are known to produce. A knowledge of a foreign language, though perhaps not absolutely essential, would nevertheless add materially to the students' equipment. The programme is perhaps heavy for a three-year course but we are convinced that we can devise one, for we believe that depth can come from looking at a few things in many ways as well as from looking at many things in one way. Within the new school, therefore, we contemplate the possibility of a number of courses. One might well stress the physical sciences with a syllabus emphasising engineering, economics and the history of science and using the concept of energy to unify parts of physics, engineering, chemistry and biology. This course would aim at reaching a position in which, during the third year, there could be substantial discussions of (i) power considered from the standpoints of available energy sources, power production and economics of power; and (ii) the impact of science and technology on ideas. Syllabi (but, as I have insisted, provisional) have been drawn up emphasising relationships between traditional disciplines but the detailed character of these is beyond the scope of this note. A second course would emphasise the "life " sciences. Here we should be concerned to (i) give training in the rigour of mathematics and physics; (ii) inculcate an appreciation of the origin and development of scientific concepts; (iii) give some training in those aspects of biology necessary to appreciate the biology of man and the effect of other organisms on the human environment; and (iv) give some indication of the nature of societies. This broad coverage is to be combined with depth in that the third.year would be devoted to substantial discussion of the utilisati0n of resources. A third possibility might be a course which bifurcated into physical and biological options. This would come as an amalgamation of elements from the first two courses. In the first year lectures would be common tO ,both options. They would be devoted chiefly to mathematics and basic science together with the development of scientific ideas illustrating the aims, methods, organisation and social implications of science and economicL In the second and third years the remaining content of the science project is divided between the two options, with common courses in mathematics, science and government, social psychology, philosophy of science and the impact of science and technology on ideas and natural resources. UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX The Unit for the Study of Science Policy at the University of Sussex was established, in January 1966, as a result of the initiative of a number of members of the teaching staff who have been keenly interested in problems of science policy. It is working under the general supervision of the interdisciplinary Arts-Science Committee, under the chairmanship of Professor Asa Briggs, and, in principle, is based on the joint research work of natural and social scientists. The director of the unit is Mr. Christopher Freeman, whose main work has been in the economics of research and development at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (N.I.E.S.R.) and at the Directorate for Scientific Affairs of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 1966 and 1967, research at the unit will be in three main areas:

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(1) The theory and practice of the endowment of scientific activities. This project, led by Mr. Roy MacLeod, a Harvard bio-,chemist/historian, will deal with t h e changing patterns of support for science and the criteria which have been used at various times to justify such endowment. While focussing primarily on the United Kingdom, it will include some comparative studies of science endowment in other countries, particularly the U.S.A., France and Germany. It will also deal with the institutional mechanisms used and their efficacy and with the influence of outstanding individuals in the formulation of policies for science. This project is supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education and Science. (2) Invention and innovation in capital goods in relation to the world market. This project is led by Mr. Christopher Freeman and is a joint venture with the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. It involves an assessment of the scale and effectiveness of the research and development activities of the principal British firms in several of the machinery and plant producing industries, in relation to their performance in world exports and to that of their principal competitors in other countries. Work has begun on the chemical plant industry and will be extended to several other product groups. The studies will be on similar lines to those carried out at the N.I.E.S.R. on plastics and electronics. 2 (3) International comparisons of science policy and resources devoted to scientific activities. This work will be concerned partly with the problems of science policy and measurement in developing countries and partly with comparisons between developed countries. One project will deal with science policy in India and in China whilst other work, in cooperation with the Directorate for Scientific Affairs of the OECD, will be concerned with comparisons between the U.S.A. and West European countries and analysis of the results of the International Statistical Year of the OECD. The unit will also act in a consultative capacity to the project on research and development in Soviet industry now being carried out at the Birmingham University Centre for Russian and East European Studies. The unit is anxious to extend its international contacts and reciprocal arrangements have been made for joint research work on some projects and for other exchanges, notably with the Studiengruppe [iir Systemforschung in Heidelberg, with CENSIS in Italy and with the University of Lurid in Sweden. Whilst the unit is primarily a research organisation, it will also contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the general area of science policy through the university's arts-science scheme, covering both arts and science students. It is also cooperating with the Science of Science Foundation in the creation of a specialised library on science policy within the University of Sussex Library. UNITED S T A T E S The department of political science of Purdue University, Purdue, Indiana, has instituted a programme on Science and Public Policy to encourage the academic study of scientific policy and of the social and political relations of science. The department held its first conference within 2 National Institute Economic Review, No. 26 (November, 1963), pp. 22-62, and No. 34 (November, 1965), pp. 40-91.

UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER LEARNED INSTITUTIONS

413

this programme, under the title of "Science and Public Policy: Evolving Institutions ", from 12-14 April, 1965. The report on this conference will be published shortly by Columbia University Press. The keynote and summary addresses were given by Sir Erie Ashby, Master of Clare College, Cambridge; Dr. Leland J. Haworth, Director of the National Science Foundation; Professor Edward Teller, University of California; Dr. Donald F. Hornig, Special Assistant to President Johnson for science and technology, and Dr. Frederick Seitz, president of the National Academy of Sciences. A grant of $45,000 to Professor Boyd R. Keenan and Dr. L. K. Caldwell will enable Purdue University to offer special postgraduate courses in the field of science and public policy and so encourage research in the subject. ZA MBIA

The University of Zambia ~ opened on 17 March. The chancellor is President Kaunda; vice-chancellor, Dr. Douglas G. Anglin, D.Phil.(Oxon.), former professor of political science at Carleton University, Canada; registrar, Dr. Lindsay Young, Ph.D.(Cantab.), who also acts as secretary of the university provisional council. Initial intake will be about 250 students, rising to 500 in 1967, and eventually rising to 5,000. In his speech opening the new university, President Kaunda said that besides providing the muchneeded manpower for Zambia, the university should be an important centre for biological, industrial, social and other kinds of research. He also said that he was giving much thought to the establishment of a National Council for Scientific Research which would coordinate research in various fields. III POLITICS

IN

THE

WORLD

OF

SCIENCE

AND

LEARNING

ALGERIA

In October, 1965, the directorate of the National Liberation Front (F.L.N.) and the Minister of Education, Dr. Taleb, appointed the executive committee of the Union nationale des gtudiants algdriens (U.N.E.A.). 4 The students objected to this as an imposition: they had already indicated their disapproval of the displacement of Ben Bella by Colonel Boumedienne and their resentment had been further increased by the government's reduction of their scholarships. In mid-January, 1966, the Algiers section of the U.N.E.A., which has about 8,000 members, elected a section committee. On 20 January, this committee introduced into the general assembly of U.N.E.A. a resolution condemning the government's interference in its affairs. On 28 and 29 January, Moroccan students in Algiers demonstrated against the kidnapping in France of Mehdi Ben Barka, the Moroccan opposition leader. Eleven Moroccan and four Algerian students were arrested but were later released. These events were used by the Algerian students as an opportunity for giving public expression to their opposition to the Boumedienne regime. On 29 January, 2,500 students demonstrated. They shouted "Boumedienne to the gallows " and "Boumedienne is an assassin ". The police intervened z Cf. Minerva, III, 2 (Winter, 1965), pp. 245-260. 4 C/. Minerva, III, 4 (Summer, 1964), pp. 537-538.

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and about 100 students were arrested, most of whom were later released. A number of students were injured. The students' committee sent a delegation of three to see M. Cherif Belkacem, the F.L.N. coordinator; they asked for the release of the arrested students and for permission to hold a demonstration protesting against the kidnapping of Ben Barka. Their requests were not granted. The following day, 30 January, the F.L.N. announced the dissolution of the Algiers section of the U.N.E.A. because of "counter-revolutionary activities ". The students refused to recognise the dissolution and, that evening, caUed a meeting of the section committee together with the faculty committees of the "Algiers Student Council ". It was decided to hold a three-day strike starting on 31 January, but, if possible, to avoid demonstrations or incidents. The strike, in which 8,000 students participated, was conducted in an orderly fashion and there were no incidents on the first morning. A placard was put up by the students at the university entrance; it read: After savagely suppressing the demonstration Saturday [29 January], the government now wishes to dissolve the Algiers section [of the U.N.E.A.] and eventually the whole national union. It threatens to act even more severely in the near future . . . . Students, demonstrate your opposition to the barbarism of the govemment. Later that evening, the Algerian Press Service distributed a "communiqu6 of students of the arts, science and law faculties ", expressing approval of the dissolution of the Algiers section committee and calling for the formation of a n e w student executive committee. It denounced the student's "nostalgia for the old regime ". On 31 January, the Minister of Education announced that 10 students, members of the Algiers section committee, had been deprived of their scholarships, excluded from their faculties, institutes or colleges and forbidden access to the student residential quarters and student restaurants. The ministerial communiqu6 contained a warning to "certain teachers, particularly certain foreigners, who were serving as evil counsellors to the students ". The strike ended on-2 February, even though the detained students had not been released nor had the decision to dissolve the Algiers section been rescinded. On 3 February, students began to attend classes again. Rdvolution africaine, the weekly journal of the F.LN., reported on 5 February that 13 students had been arrested following the demonstrations of 29 January. It said that the arrests had been made for offences against public order, for unauthorised demonstrations, for the drafting, drawing up and distribution of subversive pamphlets that were anti-party and government, for incitement to stay away from classes and for threatening death, intimidation and acts of violence against their fellow students. By 7 February, the number of arrested students had risen to almost 60. On 8 February, a meeting organised by the U.N.E.A. was attended by approximately 300 students. A member of the Algiers committee denounced the arrests and the official dissolution of the committee; he said that six of the 13 students arrested were members of the committee and they had been arrested at the secretariat of the F.L.N. when attempting to see M. Cherif Belkacem. The speaker also said that the anti-government slogans during the Ben Barka demonstration were the work of provocateurs employed by the government, which wanted " t o get rid of the Algiers committee of the U.N.E.A." in order to establish one which would be more compliant with its desires.

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415

EGYPT At the end of January, about 1,000 Muslim African students at the Islamic University of E1 Azhar, Cairo, joined in protest against poor food and living conditions at the "Islamic City ", the foreign students' residential quarter. A Senegalese student, M. Malaki, led a delegation to Tewfik Oweidi, the director, who rejected their complaints and called them "ungrateful barbarians " for not appreciating the generosity of the Egyptian authorities. M. Malaki was then arrested and taken to a police station. The African students responded by disarming the security guards at the university and taking over the students' residential quarters. They then marched to the police station and obtained the release of M. Malaki. M. Oweidi has been dismissed and a new board of directors of the "Islamic City" has been appointed. The students say that they will protest again if their demands for better conditions are not met. FRANCE THE PASTEUR INSTITUTE: PROPOSALS FOR REFORM On 16 December, 1965, Professor Charles Gernez-Rieux resigned from the scientific directorship of the Pasteur Institute of Paris following the refusal of the administrative council to accept his proposals for the reorganisafion of the institute. Professor Gernez-Rieux had proposed a closer relationship between the administrative and scientific councils, the inclusion of six scientists in the Institute's general assembly, which is nominated by the administrative council, and a salary scale similar to that current at the Sorbonne. Professor Pasteur Vallery-Radot, the only member of the administrative council who supported Professor Gernez-Rieux, described his services as "incomparable and irreplaceable ". In 1934, Professor Alfred Lacroix, the permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences and then chairman of the administrative council of the Pasteur Institute, had recommended the creation of a scientific council which would be closely associated with the administrative council of the Institute. No action was taken until July 1965 and even after its creation the scientific council remained without influence on the decisions of the administrative council. The latter body, consisting of 12 members, mainly non-scientists and including several former prime ministers and a distinguished diplomat, was chosen by a general assembly, itself selected by the administrative council. The Institute is a private organisation, the early endowments of which have been severely damaged by inflation. The Institute has been in financial difficulties for some time. It has had to seek some of its income from the sale of its vaccines and serums which it manufactured itself. Large-scale operations and a vigorous administration were required to meet the competition of private commercial enterprises producing the same types of products. Such administration was not forthcoming. This and the vastly increased scale and complexity of the fundamental research done at the Institute precipitated serious administrative difficulties. In 1964, the scientific personnel of the Institute formed a study group on the reform of the Institute. The study group prepared a plan for separating the research and teaching functions of the Institute from the manufacturing and commercial functions, while keeping them both within the Institute and assuring their intimate cooperation through reciprocal representation on the governing bodies of the two divisions

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and through a scientific liaison committee. The administrative council of the research and teaching division was to be constituted by four persons with legal, administrative and fiscal experience and eight scientists, of whom four were to be chosen by the scientific council of the Institute and four others chosen with regard to their experience in research administration. The chairman and the deputy chairman were both to be scientists. The study group said that, if no action were taken, the situation of the Institute would " s p e e d i l y assume tragic proportions and would render the Pasteur Institute unrecognisable, despite the retention of its name ". The reform proposal had the whole-hearted support of Professor ValleryRadot, the chairman of the administrative council. However, the administrative council took no action. On the same day that Professor Gernez-Rieux resigned, the general assembly of the scientific personnel of the Pasteur Institute issued the following communiqu6: For several years the scientific personnel of the Pasteur Institute have witnessed the deterioration of this Institute. Conscious of their custodianship of the Pasteur tradition, the scientists of the Institute are compelled to draw the attention of the directorate and of the administrative council to the inevitable decline and the moral and material failure which follow .the council's refusal to proceed with the necessary reforms. Maintaining its negative attitude, the administrative council has, at its last me~ting, repudiated its chairman, Professor Pasteur Vallery-Radot, and the director of the Institute, Professor Gernez-Rieux, who has decided to resign after a year of efforts to bring about the necessary reforms. In view of the seriousness of this new situation, the scientific personnel of the Pasteur Institute met in an extraordinary general meeting on 16 December, 1965, in the lecture ,theatre of the Pasteur Institute. They reaffirmed their confidence in Professor Pasteur VaUey-Radot, president of the administrative council, and in Professor Gernez-Rieux, the director, in seeking to bring about the necessary reorganisafion of the Institute. The scientific personnel affirm the urgent necessity to reform the structure of the Pasteur Institute. They call attention to the deficiencies of the administration, which is in no way qualified to represent the Pasteur Institute and which by its incompetence and its negligence is ruining this institution. The scientific personnel of the Institute regretfully regard it as their duty to demand the resignation of the entire administrative council. In addition, they declare that if Professor Gernez-Rieux persists in his resignation, they will not recognise the authority of another director named by the administrative council without the prior agreement of the preselit seienCJfie council of the Pasteur Institute. 5 The communiqu6 was drafted by Professors Lwoff, M o n o d and Jacob, who shared the N o b e l Prize in 1965, Professor Ltpine and M. Rist, the chairman of the Union of Scientific Personnel. Of the 149 persons at the meeting, 144 voted in favour of the communiqut. On 19 January, 1966, the administrative council handed in its collective resignation. A new council, a majority of whose members are scientists or connected with the scientific world, was appointed. The new council of 12 members has three members of the old council (among them the former prime ,ministers, M. Paul Reynaud and M. Antoine Pinay); it also includes Professor 5 Translated from text published in Le Monde, 18 December, 1965, p. 14.

POLITICS IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE AND I..EARNING Gernez-Rieux, mate relations vided for and A director has

417

Professor Pasteur Vallery-Radot and Dr. Andr6 Lwoff. Intibetween the scientific and administrative councils are now proit will now be possible to embark on the proposed reforms. still to be appointed.

On 5 February, a rule prohibiting students resident at the Cit6 Universitaire in Paris from participating in any form of political meeting was reintroduced. It had been strictly enforced during the Algerian war but had been considerably relaxed since then. There had been disturbances at Maison du Maroc following a debate on the kidnapping of Ben Barka. The university authorities said that the discussion of French politics or of the political problems of countries represented at the Cit6 Universitaire had long been a source of disturbance. Twenty Moroccan students entered the Moroccan consulate in Paris on 5 February. They assailed the Rabat government and General Oufkir, the Minister of the Interior, for his part in the Ben Barka affair. The ConsulGeneral, M. Hassan Kejaht, persuaded the students to leave before the police arrived9 On 7 February, the 80 Moroccan students in various faculties of Montpellier observed a day of fast as a protest against the kidnapping of Mehdi Ben Barka. They attributed the kidnapping to General Oufkir and associated Ben Barka with the struggle of the Moroccan people for democracy and social justice. The Association corporative des dtudiants en sciences de Paris, an oppositional movement to the Union nationale des dtudiants de France (U.N.E.F.), called a strike between 9 and 15 February to protest against certain of the reforms proposed by the government for the reorganisation of their studies, which they felt were contrary to the interests of students. The proposed reforms are to become effective only during the 1966-67 session. The association objected to the formation of jurys d'orientation which would stream the students after the first stage of studies to the licence course to be completed in one year or to a rna~trise course to be completed in two. Only 40 per cent. of students would be allowed to complete the ma~trise. The association demanded that all students having the aptitude and the will to do so should be allowed to continue their studies for the ma~trise. They also recommended that the training for secondary school teachers should take four years and not three as proposed by the government, that studies at technological universities should not be too specialised, that the careers of students affected by the reform should not be prejudiced in any way, and that courses should be arranged in such a way that employed students should not have to interrupt their studies. On 9 February, the majority of science students did not attend classes or laboratories. Outside several buildings pickets blocked any students who wished to enter. M. Marc Zamansky, dean of the faculty of science, published a statement: to inform students that all teaching activities will continue. Students staying away should know that courses, practical work and tutorials will be considered as having taken place and will not be repeated at any supplementary sessions. On 11 February, the Syndicat national de l'enseignement supdrieur, an affiliate of the Fdddration de l'dducation nationale, released a statement dealing with the proposed reforms, in which it: 9

418

c-~mo~cr~

appeals to the university teachers to support the action taken by the students and to do all they can for its success. The reform of higher education, its democratic extension and its adaptation to the development of scientific research has become essential. But the reforms for higher education defined by the government do nc~t satisfy these objectives. They tend to substitute an elite education for a mass education. They do not provide the means to improve and to extend .higher education. The refusal of the government to give all the necessary help long demanded by the university personnel puts them into a difficult position: in limiting the discussion of the reforms to technical matters . . . government policy tries to make them responsible for an antidemocratic policy of which they disapprove. The Syndicat national also said that it would hold public debates and organise a national conference at the beginning of May to discuss the problems raised by the reform proposals. 9 . . thus the university staffs will have a chance to specify the preconditions for reform; voluntary orientation, systematic training of maitres du second degrd, integration of university institutes of technology (I.U.T.) into higher education, the creation of new I.U.T.s, the establishment of new faculties. . . . 9

Although classes were held, attendance was for the most part very slight. The science faculty section of the Syndicat national de l'enseignement supdrieur replied on 11 February to M. Zamansky's statement of 9 February. we regret that a dean who has championed government reform and its quick application should use his influence to try to break the student strike; the failure to state grounds for this attitude gives the impression that students, like pupils at a secondary school, do not have the right of organisation; it has always been a university tradition, on the occasion of other strikes and student actions, not to consider striking students as being absent from practical work and to allow them to make up the sessions they have missed, 9

.

.

On 12 February, 250 students involved in the Certificat prdparatoire aux dtudes mddicales (C.P.E.M.) tried to enter the Maurice-Esclangon building for a practical work session. They were prevented from doing so by about 30 pickets. The C.P.E.M. was not to be affected by the proposed reforms and the students maintained that they were studying t o become physicians and not scientists. The Association corporative des dtudiants en sciences claimed that attendants and, later, the dean himself had checked on the identity of pickets and in some cases confiscated their student identity cards. The dean and the secretary general of the faculty demanded that the n u m b e r of pickets outside should be reduced and access allowed to the faculty buildings. In certain cases, as at the Esclangon laboratories, the pickets continued to prevent students from entering. The science faculty section of the Syndicat national said that it objected to the " pressure and intimidation . . . every attempt to break this strike by external means such as police intervention will lead logically to the teaching staff casting aside its reserve and joining in the students' action." The science students' strike ended on 15 February. Although various student organisations had disapproved of the strike, the Association corporative des dtudiants en sciences claimed that 95 per cent. of the students concerned had participated in the strike and that most classes had been cancelled. M. Zamansky, in a statement on 15 February, referring to a "coordinating committee of the Paris science faculty section of the Syndicat nationale de renseignement sup&ieur ", said:

POLITICS IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING

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A union coordinating committee, of dubious legal status and which is unknown to its colleagues, has made certain incorrect statements. The dean reminds them that he is responsible ,to the faculty assembly and not to any staff union. Certain students were able to prevent access to the buildings of the faculty and free movement within the buildings. These students who talk about democracy are acting in contradiction to the academic freedom which they pretend to defend by methods unworthy of a democracy. On 19 February, the Fdddration des groupes d'dtudes de lettres de Paris, an affiliate of the U.N.E.F., announced that it was organising a strike at the beginning of March to protest against the proposed reforms. The president of the Fdddration, M. Serment, said during a press conference: The reforms do not deal with the four fundamental problems: orientation (by a genuine i~ntroduetory course of one or two years), a proper university and social stares for students (by provisions which will allow students to study fulltime and to escape from family ties), modernisation of teaching methods (giving especially an introduction to contemporary methods of research and criticism) and the reorgauisation of degree courses. The Fdddration asked to be kept informed about the projected reform and announced that its demands would be presented to the Minister of Education and the dean of the faculty of arts in Paris. Following the proclamation by the U.N.E.F. of a week of agitation against the proposed reforms, the Association des dtudiants de lettres of the University of Lille, at a meeting attended by 500 out of the 5,000 students enrolled in the faculty, decided to call a strike from 1 to 3 March. The dean of the faculty then announced that no classes would be held during this period, because he did not wish to invoke the aid of the police and had no other means of preventing the kind of incidents which had occurred at "another university ". He said that, in future, strike action could only be taken after there had been proper consultation between the students and a secret ballot had been taken. On 10 February, 450 third and fourth year medical students of the faculty of medicine at Bordeaux refused to sit for an examination in surgical pathology which had been set in the " m u l t i p l e choice a n s w e r " form. The students claimed that this form did not allow their intellectual capacity to be judged and was particularly unsuited to examining the subject in question. They considered that the system was being used because of a shortage of examiners. The multiple choice form of question is widely used in many medical faculties, particularly during the first years of the course. G E R M A N D E M O C R A T I C REPUBLIC PROE. H A V E M A N N A N D T H E E A S T G E R M A N A C A D E M Y In a confidential communication to members of the East G e r m a n Academy of Sciences, the president, Professor Werner Hartke, made the following observations about Professor Robert Havemann 8 : The Academy of Sciences .has for some time been put into very embarrassing situations by Professor Havemann. Professor Havemann's assertion that the Academy did not accord him freedom of expression must be rejected. He could, for example, have expressed his Translated from the text which appeared in Die Zeit, No. 12, 18 March, 1966, p. 3. The footnotes are taken from the version in Die Zeit.