Conference Proceedings: Strategy Report of CEOS

EO Educational/Training Institutions - An Overview

To establish a frame of reference, institutions offering WGEdu has contacted EO Education and Training - and their programmes have been noted. The WG feels that there are quite a few institutions that offer professional EO Education and Training opportunities in the world. While almost all CEOS Agency countries and many other countries have national programmes through their school/university/institutional level, there are many international agencies that are involved in this activity. A summary of the programmes of some institutions (there may be many others that have not been referred here) is given in Annexure-V.

A recent development is the establishment of UN Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education in different regions of the world. These Centres provide opportunities for developing country scholars to undertake Post Graduate courses in Remote Sensing and GIS, apart from courses in Satellite communications, Satellite Meteorology and Space Sciences. The Centres also undertake short duration training programmes for professionals. The Regional Centres have been established by UN in Asia Pacific (India), Africa for French language and English language countries in (Morocco and Nigeria), Latin America and Caribbean (Brazil and Mexico) and is proposed to be established in Eastern Europe (place to be decided by UN). These Centres are already functional in India, Brazil/Mexico and Morocco/Nigeria.

An Assessment of Institutional Needs

Based on the interaction with the institutions, a broad assessment of the needs has been determined:

Need for EO data. With the variety of EO data increasing - covering visible, IR, microwave and other types, EO educational institutions mainly suffer from "drought" of EO data. With costs of data increasing, educational institutions have limited resources for procurement of EO data. Actually, space agencies could earmark specified number of EO data of their missions for EO educational institutions - this would ensure the outreach of the technology and applications to participant countries.
Faculty and Expert personnel availability. This is a critical need for institutions and space agencies are encouraged to offer experts. Experts could be on "loan" basis in different areas.

Teaching materials and aids - mainly books and exercises materials for a self-learning mode of classes for students. Multi-media teaching aids and materials and Projects and case studies are also listed. Apart from this, teaching aids - PCs, projectors etc are also listed.

Necessary curriculum development and standardization. Addressing issues of a reference curriculum and regular reviews would help institutions to tune their programmes and adapt to the changing trends in EO technology

Establishment of necessary facilities and laboratories. Lack of facilities and equipment is yet another difficulty faced by institutions.

Availability of Fellowships and travel grants. This is yet another major requirement. Getting students to attend the training requires support for travel and stay. While Un and other agencies do provide support, there is a need to address this issue on a specific basis for institutions.

Publication of materials - books Outreach with other institutions - Internet connectivity

The UN is making efforts to establish a special voluntary UN fund for the purpose of implementing the recommendations of UNISPACE-III, in particular the activities of the Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology and Education, taking into account the recommendations of the regional preparatory conferences. Building the UN fund and establishing a resource base for the Centres will require various kinds of support and CEOS agencies, through their national delegations, could canvas for support.