Jeg mottok dette fra en nylig pensjonert kollega. Han sier:
>Fant en litt uventet diskusjon i et USA-tidskrift (Electronic Design,
>July 10 2000 p. 70). Kanskje med relevans for norske forhold?
>Sender en kopi fra tidsskriftets arkiv under
>"http://www.elecdesign.com/" .
Diskusjonen kan ha interesse for flere. Det er jo en utbredt
"vi-må-bli-som-USA.-universitetene"- holdning ved NTNU, noe som gjør det
lettere å få gjennom de markedsorienterte forslaga fra Mjøsutvalget.
Se forøvrig Richard Sliwkas innlegg i Universitetsavisa nr. 5 i våres,
http://www.ntnu.no/universitetsavisa/0500/debat01.html
Merknad til det vedlagte: "EE" er "electrical (eller electronics) engineer"
(tror jeg).
Trond Andresen
**************************************
A Contrasting View On Universities
I ran into Lawrence J. Kamm's article "How To Improve Our Universities: Or,
The Tale Of Two Frauds" [May 1, p. 154]. I was wondering how you could state
that American universities are the best in the world? Have you studied in
several different foreign universities? Have you worked with engineers from
all over the world? Have you had a chance to interview domestic and foreign
EEs for an engineering position? I did all of this.
Although some U.S. EEs have a really good education--close to the best
Russian, Chinese, and European--the average quality of U.S. Engineers is
well below the average level of EEs from some other countries. Basically
it's due to the poor quality of American university courses, except for a
few schools, like Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley. In those cases, I believe
that for $30,000 each year it's a must to receive a good education. What's
the reason for the success of American high tech? Money and lots of foreign
EEs! Did you know that 50% of PhD degrees are assigned to non-U.S. students?
And, those students get them relatively easily while U.S. graduates struggle
to make it because they lack solid backgrounds?
Fabio Galli
Kamm replies: My own experience with foreign educated engineers is quite
limited, so I cannot compare based on personal situations. I do know that
there's a steady stream of foreign graduate students in American
universities. It cannot be because our tuition and living costs are cheaper.
For another opinion, I have forwarded your message on to a good friend who
received a PhD from Moscow University and has a broad experience with
engineers from countries other than the U.S.
His response:
My personal observations are in total agreement with Mr. Galli's. I have
interacted numerous times with engineers working for the advanced
technologies companies. An overwhelming number of these engineers have
received their basic education abroad. Almost invariably, when foreign
educated and American-educated professionals participate in a discussion on
the same subject, the Americans look very weak.
I have lived in the U.S. for the last 25 years, have worked here very
successfully, and continue to do so. I'm not an "America-basher." On the
contrary, I'm very concerned with maintaining the status of the U.S. as the
world leader. Unfortunately, and this is very painful for me to observe, the
fundamental decline in American education at all levels is an undeniable
fact. In my opinion, some reasons for this decline are:
1. The total lack of training in basic, disciplined analytical thinking.
This has become so poor that the majority of today's students, as well as
professors may not understand the depth of the previous sentence.
2. The curriculum of technical and scientific education isn't thought
through. Basic knowledge courses are not taught at all or just scanned
without any depth (this is even worse!). The question "why?" is never asked.
I could go on, but I'm sure that the picture is clear.
Vladimir Rodov
Independent Consultant
Redondo Beach, California
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