Industry and Higher Education

The COMETT conference was opened by David O'Sullivan Head of Unit in the Task Force, Human Resources, Education, Training and Youth, the EC Commission Service that manages the COMETT programme. This paper gives a broad historical overview of the COMETT programme, from its inception at a meeting in Galway, Ireland, in 1984 to its prospects after the end of COMETT II at the end of 1994.

The author outlines key features of the Japanese approach to continuing technological education and points up the contrasts in skill-development experience in Japan and the UK. She then reviews recent trends in Japan in the development of multi-skilled engineers; describes government initiatives aimed at the promotion of university–industry cooperation; and finally addresses the important policy issue facing Europe and the USA of providing greater access to Japanese science and technology, especially through exchange of researchers and information.

To provide an overview of the US perspective on university–industry cooperation, the author focuses on four areas: (a) the roles of governments, the higher education sector, and industry in continuing technological education; (b) cooperation between higher education and industry in developing technological education; (c) areas in which Europe, Japan, and the USA can fruitfully cooperate in continuing technological education; and (d) major challenges for the short-term future.

Against the background of influential reports by the Industrial Research and Advisory Committee and the Round Table of European Industrialists which highlighted fundamental challenges for education and training in Europe, the author stresses the importance of the three-way relationship between company, individual employee and the providers of education and training. He points up key elements in the achievement of professional competence and in the way forward for continuing education. Focusing on the importance of international networking, he picks out COMETT's EuroPro programme as a path-breaking venture which benefits all participants. Successful teamwork across Europe, he concludes, is essential to global competitiveness and a key element in the solution that continuing education must provide to the European skills shortage.

This article describes the activities of a regional UETP in the PACA region in southern France. The article describes the results of a survey into future job needs and the effect this has had on universities' courses. The European dimension in the UETP's activities is stressed.

Strand B(i) of the COMETT programme covers student placements in industry in another participating state. Placements are organized by UETPs. In this article, a representative from a regional Austrian UETP describes a UETP's experience with this particular area of COMETT activity.

COMETT-sponsored University Enterprise Training Partnership (UETPs) fall into two distinct categories. Regional UETPs operate within geographical regions, while sectoral UETPs sponsor activities within a specific industry or scientific discipline. This article describes the activities of the UETP Environmental Engineering Education and the following article looks at the environmental engineering activities carried out by a related sectoral UETP, the European Polytechnic Environmental Association.

This article describes the activities of the Consortium for Training University-Industry of the Polytechnic of Turin (COREP) in the field of advanced training in environmental technology. COREP's activities in the context of the European Polytechnic Environmental Association are outlined, as are the new European masters course in environmental engineering, student placement programmes and TEMPUS activities.

This article describes a COMETT project in the field of artificial intelligence and expert systems. The project's transnational dimension, its use of innovative training materials and the development of a modular approach are all outlined. The article concludes by emphasizing the centrality of the human resource.

The forecast need for designers of Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits is described. The article then goes on to outline the support being provided for academic institutions involved with VLSI design training by the European Commission's Directorate General XIII.

Following the conclusions of recent IRDAC reports, an analysis is presented which considers the COMETT Programme objectives and the projected evolution of the education and the training systems in the European Community. The concept, praxis and the potential of University Enterprise Training Partnerships (UETPs) are measured against their role in promoting the growth and adaptation of these systems to the new needs of Europe.

This article stresses the importance placed on technology management at the International Institute for Management Development at Lausanne. The article underlines the role that control of R&D will have in the industrial environment over the next 20 years and suggests a number of ways in which COMETT can contribute to raising the profile of R&D in the commercial context.

This article is an edited version of the draft conclusions drawn up and presented by Ed Prosser at the end of the conference, and summarizing the significance of the discussions and analysis from the perspective of COMETT. Assembling the main conclusions of each discussion group, he structures his conclusions around the central topics of skills analysis; specific components of the COMETT programme; and ‘horizontal’ themes of special importance for university–industry cooperation but whose importance goes far beyond COMETT.