international chemical education, 5
Chemical Education in Eastern Europe Lyle C. Hall University of Wisconsin, River Fails, WI 54022 The world has become a different place since the events former communist countries and there were branches in nearly all major cities. At the academies of science the best in late 1989 and in the early 90's when the communist regimes of Eastern Europe collapsed. Communism has now scientists engaged in basic research with the best equiplargely disappeared and many countries are now in disarment. The universities often lacked t h e sophisticated ray. This has implications for education all over the world. equipment found in the better universities of the West. The Soviet Union and the other countries of the Eastern Even though the students might not have had ex~erience Bloc orovided educational o.~.~ o r t u n i t i efor s manv " ~.e .o ~ l e on this type of equipment, in general, they were taught the all over the world. Students from other countries were theorv. In all these countries I found the level of universitv given opportunities to study in almost any discipline. The work high. Mans things about the socialist system did not policy of educating many students from Third World counserve the people~well,but education and the students were tries in Eastern E u r o ~ e~ r o b a b l vwill stop. not neglected. Most who studied chemistry also were Science and enginee;ing were important subjects in trained a s chemical engineers, so they received engineertheir schools. Well-trained people in these areas were iming deerees. Graduates generallv were able to find emulovportant for development, so considerable effort was made ment in large state industries, in research groups a t the to have sophisticated science research and engineering universitv. ",or in the academies of science. or a s hizh school projects. Scientists who had world class research were perscience teachers. Communism affected all aspects of life in mitted to go to international meetings to present their these countries, including education. The most striking exwork. Some eneineers went to develo~inecountries to ample of this was in Romania where Madame Elena work on development projects. ~ e m b & si f outstanding Ceausescu, the wife of the head of the government there, ~erforminea o u .m and athletes also had o.~.~ o r t u n i t i to es considered herself a chemist. She had a PhD in chemical visit other countries. engineering and was the chairman of the Chemical ReMy observation of old Eastern Bloc countries is based on search Institute. All papers from that Institute listed her two trips that I made in 1990 and 1991. On both trips I a s one of the authors. Other researchers had difficulty in visited 17 institutions (six were repeat visits in 1991) in getting papers published. I n all countries loyal party memCzechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, ~ o m a n i aand , Hungary. bers were given important positions a t universities and The attitude of the people in these countries changed draalso in the academies. Some were qualified and others matically from 1990 to-1991. My first trip was only a few were not. This type of influence was not common for elemonths after the collapse of the old communist regimes, mentary and secondary education and in many cases not but the old structures were still in place. There was a eueven a t universities and in the academies. phoria in their newly found freedom to express themOn my second trip to these countries in 1991, things had selves. I t seemed that the only people to have had outside changed dramatically. Many foreign visitors had now contacts during the 40 years of communist rule were in the come, so meet in^ someone like myself was not unusual. capital cities. I was the first Westerner that most students Thrir economic .&uation had detiriorattrd con;iidrrably had ever seen and talked with, so there was a lot of curiosand the euphemism 01'1990 had been replaced by a general itv to meet and talk with me. There were differences bepessimism. The pay of university proVessors ranged from tween the countries. Scientists in Hungary and Poland had much more contact with the West during the years of com3100 to $400 a month at the rurrent exchange rate. Whllc munist rule than those in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and salaries were somewhat the same a s before the change to Romania. There were also some differences between the democracy, the prices of shop items approached internaeducational structures, but in general there were more tional standards. Laboratory equipment, books, and joursimilarities. Science education be&ns in elementary and nals were scarce. Nearly all the universities were i n a continues through secondary school. Admission requiremode of restructuring, and the heads of departments were ments for science training a t a university are high. A scibeing changed. The status of the academies of sciences was ence or engineering degree requires five years of study changing. In some cases they were being phased out of exwith a requirement of a thesis. There were only a few uniistence or were being incorporated into a university proversities where there was a possibility to get a PhD degree, gram. I was told that fewer students were considering a but study for this degree could be done a t academies of scicareer in science, because job prospects seemed dim. More ence. These academies were a feature of science in all the people had decided that they would leave their country because thev saw a dark future. They were dismaved that even though the" were qualified forgraduate schcn,l in the Lyle Hall received his PhD in physical chemistry from the United States and associated tearhing assistantshios., University of Iowa in 1961. He did post doctoral work at the Unithey were not able to apply for them because of application versity of Minnesota from 1961-1965 and has been at the Unifees and exams such a s TOEFL and GRE that had fees far versity of Wisconsin-River Falls since 1965 where he is Professor of Chemistry. He has been involved in international too expensive for them. Chemical Education throughout his career. He has taught in India. South Africa. Australia. PueRo Rico. and Costa Rica. He Letter Typifies Prevalent 1991 Attitude also has visited universities in other parts'of Europe, Asia, and The following is from a letter I received in November of Latin America. 1990 from a student in Bourgas, Bulgaria. I t is typical of what I heard in 1991.
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and oral exam in chemistry as part of the admission. My elementary school results were also important for my admission. I studied mainly chemistry, mathematics, physics, and biology. The school day was eight hours.
Tiberiu Siclovan from Romania makes some interesting comments about secondary education. Specialization begins sensibly earlier than in the U. S. and usually starts with high school education, although a t this level a broad selection is still available. In this respect, each high school offers at least two types of "speeialized"farms, usually three to five. Some of these "profiles" are: math-physics, chemistry and biology, literature-languages, philasophy-historv,. arts-education. Arts have s~eciallvdedicated schools. uhrw young talented studmu are taught tw~qnn~rty w ~ t hprlmary educntion. Young, outrtandmg students have 3 1 sepa~ rate schouls of mathemstirs and spol-ts and tbllow a much different educational program which is performance oriented. .. .Although somehow specialized, high school education offers a hroad, compulsory selection of topics, aiming to set the basis for an intellectual, open-minded education (even under Cammunism). The system also compels students to think and make decisions a b u t their future. Many things American students are taught as college freshmen or sophomores, Europeans are taught or mme in contact with in high school. There is a specific cultural environment in high schwl, even if it is, far example, a math-physics high school, that doesn't neglect the humanities. I owe much of my arts knowledge, classical music understanding, history and geography knowledge to my high school education (also English and French and world literature). ~. It is likelv that a "baccalaureate" student knows that Htppocrilteli was no1 a pwm wriwr. Homer or (h,idiua werenot rmpcmrs, lconnrdo dr V~nriwns not 3 ptrzn h n k ~ ralthough he might have enjoyed it), Johann Sebastian Bach was not a powerful duke, Renoir was not a fellow physicist of Galileo or ~opernicus,etc., nor will he have problems locating La Paz or Bangkok on a globe. ~~
University and Tertiary Education Admission to tertiary education is selective and i s regulated by c x s m i n a t i o n s : ~for ~ high school, these exams a r e in mathematics and the reipectlve languagc, i. e., Bulgarian, Romanian etc. A chemistry e x a m ~ i srequired for~admission to chemistry, physics for physics etc. Probably most of t h e students who go on i n a n area of chemistry have attended one of these specialty high schools, so they a r e quite advanced when they enroll in tertiary institutions. There a r e two types of tertiary institutions, t h e traditional university a n d the technical university. An example of t h e first i s t h a t of t h e Institute of Chemistry a t Silesian University in Katowice, Poland. The Institute is part of t h e Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. It i s organized into t h e following sections: general chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, crystallography, inorganic and radiation chemistry, theoretical chemistry, chemical technology and chemical education. This institute employs 11professors and docents. and 95 iunior staff members a n d technicians. There are ;bout 306 undergraduate students. The duration of studv is five vears. and t h e Master of Science deeree is conferred to those individuals who have complete^ all courses, passed all required examinations and presented a thesis. Much of the tertiary education is done a t technical universities where t h e degree conferred i s i n chemical engineering. An example of this type of university is t h e Slovak Technical University i n Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. The Famltv of Chemical Technolow is one of six faculties of this &iversity. This faculty hi; 2 1 departments with 320 faculty. The faculty offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The total enrollment i s about 2,000 students. That makes a student to facultv ratio of six to one. which is typical and often i t i s less t h a n that. There a r e the tradi-
tional departments of Analytical, Inorganic, Organic, and Physical. The other departments a r e Automation and Regulation; Biochemical Technology; Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; Chemical Physics a n d Nuclear Techn i q u e ; Chemical Technology of P l a s t i c s a n d Fibers; Technology of Silicates; Technology of Petroleum; Technology of Saccharides and Food; Economy and Management of Chemical a n d Food Industry; Environmental Chemistry and Technology; Inorganic Technology; Organic Technoloev: Technical Microbioloev a n d Biochemistrv: Textile. P$ and Paper. I n the larzer cities both tvoes of institutions exist. I n the smaller centers, they may hk combined within t h e university where, i n addition to a Faculty of Chemistry, there i s a Faculty of Chemical Technology I n some cases there is a specialty technical university t h a t concentrates on one area such a s chemistry These exist i n Sofia and Bourgas i n Bulgaria and i n Pardubice and Prague in Czechoslovakia. I n addition to these two types of tertiary education, there a r e the pedagogical colleges t h a t train students to become secondary teachers, a n d several of these exist i n every country with perhaps one specializing i n t h e training of math and science teachers. U"
Konstantin Kostov from Bulgaria wrote the following. The entrance exams are usually an a higher level than the entrance exams for high school and to be successfulrequires at least half a "ear of intensive nre~aration. For chemistrv a list . . of topirs is provided )early tur, month^ before the euim and rwo of rhrm apprnr on rhr writwn exam. The topics cover the major clnsses u f u r n m w cumpounds w d thew renctlonr as well as general chemistry such as equilibrium, rate of reactions and so on. In my time there was also an oral exam, hut mast of the exams in other fields are written. The percent who are admitted varies depending on the field hut it is sometimes as low as 10%though usually it is between 1040%. In the end Bulgarian Universities are highly specialized-there are strictly Technical, Economic, Architecture, Mining, Medical and other universities. Music, Theater etc. are also taught in separate schools. The only exceptions are the Universities of Sofia, Plavidiv, and a few others where a broad range of disciplines in sciences and humanities are covered. Law, business (in the form that it exists) and medicine are taught as if undergraduate. Therefore, there are no professional schools in the American sense.
Tiberiu Siclovan from Romania writes the following: Students oRen must select a s~eoialtvof chemistrv , when rhcy lirsr mroll. This is pnnwularly trur of the technical unlversltles. Chemistry studmtn must apply to major in inorganic, organic, physical or analytical chemistry. In chemical engineering the choices are organic technology, inorganidmaterials science, polymer chemistry and technology and process engineeringlreador design. Admission exams to a university are usually written exams, except far univenities where oral examination is also relevant (arts, drama, TV production, music, ete.). Science universities have no oral admission exams. Four to six months before the scheduled admission exams (the same date for all universities in Romania) a hrochure is printed out, containing the discipline topics the appropriate exam covers leg. fur chernlitry-~nnraan~c. argnnle. phys~caland. whcrr nppmprinrr, some rrchnological part also: nnalstirnl rhrmistrv la: nut taucht in hich schoul,. Iisuallv. the& are three disckdines remired for the entrance examin:: lion. Chrmistry and Chentrcal Enkmeenng Depanmcnts require rhat rxnms hr pnascd in chrmistry, n>athemativ;i calrulus, alpbra and trigonometry and physwr themcdynamics, mechanics, optical physics and electricity):some basic knowledge of quantum physics is also required). In Romania, there are bath chemistry departments (socalled pure chemistry) and chemical engineering departments, but the latter have the lareer enrollments. Of the total number
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and institutes have only engineering departments while universities usually have only pure chemistry departments. Upon eraduation from a nure chemistrv the student is . denartment. . h~nntedthe r~tleof"chem~st"~organ~c, inorpnnlr, phys~cal,ere. whtlc a student & ~ a d u a t ~from n p a chrnnual enpnrermji depanmrnt i i given thc urlr of "chcmicnl mginccr". A chemist degree usually can be done in four years. There are less serious students who take five and six years. Achemical engineer degree requires a minimum of five years but some take six to seven years. Graduation with a chemical engineer degree reauires comnletian of a research oraieet (similar to undermad-
partment, I will point out some particular aspects of this department. Courses are common for all students for the first six semesters. Specialization occurs in the last two years. Therefore, there is some flexibility regarding major choice changes during these first three years. After that time, it is nearly impossible to make a change. The kind of chemistry studied is not different fram what is taught in the United States except that the first-year courses taught in the United States are a t a much lower level than in Romania. Exams far courses in the first three years are written and are administered at the end of the semester during the 'final month' when there are no classes. Four to six exams may be taken during a one-month period. During the fourth and fifth year there are mare oral exams than written ones, because an a r d exam allows one to probe deeper into the capabilities of the future engineer. For example, how quickly hdshe may respond to various problems and to make the appropriate decisions (important for process engineers). There are at least two faculty administerina the exam and if the student considers he or she has been dscriminated against in any way, that student has the right to apply for a second examination by a committee, where the previous examiners are not allowed to participate. In the chemical engineeringdepartment, the last semester is devoted exclusively to research and to writing the graduation thesis. The equipment for research is not always u p - t ~ d a t e . The policy was to have always some new equipment somewhere in the same town, for instance, if not a t the Technical University of Timisoara, then at the University of Timisoara or at the Research Institute of the Academy of Science or at a research center belonging to an industrial plant, like the quite well-endowed Center of the Petrochemical Works in Timisoara. Before graduating I was familiar with NMR experiments, HPLC separations, techniques of determining chemical kinetics and special polymerization techniques. Even during the communist regime, there was still some money left, not enough to buv a Varian or Waters chromatomanh far each lab or a ~ i m l f e NMR t for each institution, hui enough to buy each of these for one of the labs in town.
Konstantin Kostov writes t h e following about h i s uni-
that are going to be covered is distributed and a t the exam the student draws the number of one or two auestions fram this list and thar wll he those eovrrrd in hm cxnm. The student takri his timc
