Development Education
The centre continues to retain an interest in the formal education system through its work with the 'O' level in World Development and with various in-school activities. The most notable in recent months have been the staging of simulation exercises by staff and students of the centre for sixth form students in Welsh schools. We are developing a package of such exercises which provide important tools for teaching about development in other than traditional ways. A 'U.N. game' devised by members of the Centre was staged with a large group of sixth formers from all parts of the North Wales in Harlech in April and this same game is now being used in a Open University summer school on Development studies. In early July the Centre hosted a one day conference on Religious Education and World Development with the West Glamorgan Education Authority which explored the ways in which development education can contribute to religious education and included practical examples of how this was actually being done in schools.
Goodbye...
Over the summer we are unfortunately losing Angela Reidy. Angela has been with the centre for the past 7 years and has made a major contribution to the reorientaions that have taken place in that time. She has primarily been associated with the social policy areas of our teaching and training. She will be greatly missed, both for her professional and intellectual qualities which enriched the centre's activities, and for her personal qualities which steadied many a faltering student and brought a refreshing realism into many debates. She is moving to London to join her husband, Gavin Kitchin and their new address will be: 7 Milmington House, Highbury Crescent, Highbury Fields, London 5. She asks that you keep in touch and wishes everyone goodbye.
Short Course - Planning Services for the Offender in the Community
Was held between 10th January and 11th April. Participants included the chief officer of the Sychelles Probation Service, three asssistant commissioners of the Kenya prison service, the Registrar of the Court of Appeal of Tanzania and a member of the Lesotho prison service. Apart from the academic part of the course, which included a comparative study of innovations in developed and less developed countries' criminal justice systems, participants had the opportunity to visit a wide range of U.K. services for offenders. The final two weeks were spend on placement in organisations such as community service, prisons and courts.
B.Sc (Econ) in Development Studies
This summer saw the graduation of our first group of undergraduates on this degree course, and the programme is now well established under the overall guidance of Chris Gerry. Applications for the coming year have been maintained quantitatively and improved qualitatively. The programme includes a fieldwork component. Last year the students spent the summer in India. This year they are going to work in Portugal.
Research Students
Juan Rusque successfully completed his Ph.D. in January of this year, the title of which was 'Labour absorption and the persistence of the peasant sectr; a case study of Canar Province Highland Equador! He left the Centre to take up a teaching post at the Nucleo de Altos of the West Kenya Community Health Project', hopes to complete by the end of the summer. We welcome Mr. Henry Simukonda, a lecturer in the department of Public Administration at the University of Malawi who has initially registered as master's research student with us but hoopes to work for a Ph.D., the title of which is 'Rural transformation and small-holder agriculture in Malawi; a case study of the Karonga rual development project.,