The Professions, Universities and the Civil Service; Mutual Interaction, 1975

THE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION

OCCASIONAL PAPER NUMBER XXXII

THE PROFESSIONS, UNIVERSITIES AND THE CIVIL SERVICEMUTUAL INTERACTION

REPORT ON A SEMINAR SPONSORED BY THE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION AT THE PROFESSIONAL CENTRE, JAMAICA JANUARY 13th-x8th,x975

Explanatory Note THIS

is the thirty-second in a series of 'Occasional Papers' -published under

the imprint of the Commonwealth Foundation. The aim is to ensure that the experience gained by citizens of the Commonwealth, to whom the Trustees of the Foundation make grants, becomes freely and widely available to professional colleagues working in relevant fields throughout the Commonwealth.

The views expressed in this Paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Trustees, whether individually or collectively.

Further copies of this Report may be obtained on application to the Administration Officer, Commonwealth Foundation, Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SWIY 5HU England.

MARLBOROUGH HOUSE

April 1975

TERMS OF REFERENCE AGREED MEMORANDUM ON THE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION (As published following the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Meeting of July 1965) A Commonwealth Foundation will be established to administer a fund for increasing interchanges between I. Commonwealth organizations in professional fields throughout the Commonwealth. It will be the purpose of the Foundation to provide assistance where it is needed in order to foster such interchanges.

2. The Foundation will be an autonomous body, although it will develop and maintain a close liaison with the Commonwealth Secretariat. Like the Secretariat, the Foundation will be accommodated at Marlborough House.

3. Within the broad purpose indicated above, the Foundation will include among its aims the following objects: To encourage and support fuller representation at conferences of professional bodies within the Commonwealth.

To assist professional bodies within the Commonwealth to hold more conferences between themselves.

To facilitate the exchange of visits among professional people, especially the younger element.

To stimulate and increase the flow of professional information exchange between the organizations concerned.

On request to assist with the setting up of national institutions or associations in countries where these do not at present exist.

To promote the growth of Commonwealth-wide associations or regional Commonwealth associations in order to reduce the present centralization in Britain.

To consider exceptional requests for help from associations and individuals whose activities he outside (s) the strictly professional field but fall within the general ambit of the Foundation's operations as outlined above.

4. The Foundation could usefully develop informal contacts with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. To avoid the risk of duplication with the activities of existing organizations concerned with cultural activities and the Press, the Foundation should not initially seek to assume any functions in these fields.

5. The policy of the Foundation will be directed by a Chairman, who will be a distinguished private citizen of a Commonwealth country appointed with the approval of all member Governments, and a Board of Trustees who should be expected to meet at least once a year. The Board of Trustees will consist of independent persons, each subscribing Government having the right to nominate one member of the Board. These nominees, even if officials, will be appointed in a personal capacity. The Commonwealth Secretariat will be represented on the Board of Trustees by the Secretary-General or an officer appointed by him.

6. There will be a full-time, salaried Director who will be appointed, initially for a period of not more than two years, by Commonwealth Heads of Government collectively acting through their representatives in London He will be responsible to the Board of Trustees.

7. The Director will require a small personal staff: general office services will be provided by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

8. It is hoped that Commonwealth Governments will subscribe to the cost of the Foundation on an agreed scale. Payments of the first annual subscriptions will be made as soon as the Director has indicated that a bank account for the Foundation has been opened. It is hoped that, in addition, private sources may be willing to contribute to the funds of the Foundation.

9. The accounts of the Foundation will be audited annually by the British Comptroller and Auditor-General, whose report will be submitted to the Board of Trustees. The financial year of the Foundation will be from July 1st to June 30th.

10. The budget of the Foundation will be subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees.

11. The British Government will draw up the necessary documents to set up the Trust and take any further steps needed to constitute the Foundation as a legal charity.

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE THE Seminar opened at the Professional Centre of Jamaica, Kingston, on the afternoon of January 13th, 1975, when a message of welcome was received from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Mr David Coore. The discussions ended on the morning of Saturday, January i8th.

Under the Chairmanship of Sir Hugh Springer, of Barbados, Secretary-General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, delegates were present from thirteen Commonwealth countries. During the first three days, members of the Seminar heard and subsequently discussed keynote speeches from the following: Sir Egerton Richardson, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Public Services, Jamaica, on 'The Civil Service as a Unifying Agent in National Development'.

Mr Walter Burke and Mr Edwin Carrington, of the Caribbean Community Secretariat, Georgetown, on 'Mutual Interaction for Integration'.

Mr Robert Steel, Secretary of the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy, on 'The Professions and their Contribution to Opinion Forming'.

John B. Macdonald, Executive Director, Council of Ontario Universities on 'Relationships Between the Professions and the Universities.'

At the close of the Seminar, the view was expressed that apart from the practical value of certain of the conclusions and recommendations arrived at, the meeting had had ,three further beneficial effects. Thanks to the initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation, it had been made possible first for expefts from a wide range of disciplines and countries to foregather; to take stock of and to search for answers to a number of the major problems which all faced.

Second, these problems had at the start been considered against the regional backcloth of the Commonwealth Caribbean and then more broadly. And third, the meeting had been held in one of the eight Professional Centres so far sponsored by the Foundation's Trustees thus giving delegates the chance of seeing its premises at first hand; meeting its helpful and hospitable staff and learning something of the Jamaican Centre's role in fostering professional links with its own government, university and community.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Terms of Reference of the Foundation Introductory Note List of Delegates

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Recommendations and Conclusions from the Seminar Seminar Proceedings

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Annex A Keynote address by Sir Egerton Richardson

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Annex B Address by Mr W. A. Burke and Mr E. W. Carrington

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Annex C Address by Mr R. Steel

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Annex D Address by Dr J. B. Macdonald -

Previous Foundation Publications

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34 46 58 74 85

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LIST OF DELEGATES

SIR HUGH SPRINGER

SIR EGERTON RICHARDSON

MR

W. A.

BURKE

MR

E. W.

CARRINGTON

DR JOHN MR

R.

B.

MACDONALD

STEEL

MR

A. L.

DR DR

D. K. AMIEL G. G. BOICK

ADU

PRO-VICE-CHANCELLOR L. BRAITHWAITE MR C. A. BURTON VICE-CHANCELLOR SIR GEORGE CARTLAND MR R. K. CHHABRA MR

S.

DR

L. FARRER-BROWN

MR

R. C.

GRIFFITHS

MR

0. L.

HENRY

EMTAGE

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Chairman Chairman, Commonwealth Foundation Lead Speakers.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Public Service Jamaica and former Ambassador to U.S.A. Director, General Services and Administration Director, Trade and Integration Caribbean Community Secretariat Executive Director, Council of Ontario Universities, Canada Secretary, Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy Other Delegates Former Commonwealth Deputy SecretaryGeneral, Ghana Chairman, Professional Centre, Jamaica Chief Technical Director, National Planning Agency, Jamaica University of the West Indies Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister, Barbados University of Tasmania Secretary, University Grants Commission, India Director, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Barbados Trustee for Britain, Commonwealth Foundation Director, Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister, Guyana

Managing Editor, Gemini News Service, U.K. University of Guyana and Resident Representative of the Commonwealth SecretaryGeneral.

Director-General, The Australian Development Assistance Agency. Former Administrator of Papua/New Guinea Director, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, U.K. Chairman, Professional Centre, Singapore Senior Liaison Officer, Non-Governmental Organizations Division, Canadian International Development Agency

MR D. INGRAM VICE-CHANCELLOR

MR

L. W.

PROFESSOR

D.

IRVINE

JOHNSON

R.

JOLLY

MR LEONG SlEW TIM MR J. W. MACNAUGHTON PRO-VICE-CHANCELLOR S. L. MARTIN H.E. THE HON. T. H. MCCOMBS

PROFESSOR MR

L.

G. E.

MILLS

HAMILTON-MURRAY

SIR FRED A. PHILLIPS PRO-VICE-CHANCELLOR L. ROBINSON MR C. B. SEARWAR DR TOM SOPER DR T. H. B. SYMONS MR

D. I. YANKANA

MR

J. CHADWICK

MR P. SCOON MR R. N. DAWSON

University of the West Indies New Zealand High Commissioner in London and Trustee for New Zealand and Western Samoa, Commonwealth Foundation. Former Chancellor, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Head, Department of Government, University of the West Indies Chairman, Professional Centre Trinidad and Tobago Former Governor of St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla

University of the West Indies Chairman, Professional Centre, Guyana Barclays Bank Group EEC Adviser Commissioner, Commission on Canadian Studies Permanent Secretary, Department of Public Corporations, Guyana Foundation Staff Director Deputy Director Administration Officer

Professional Centre Staff Miss EDNA TULLOCH Miss DONNA CARTER

General Secretary

Clerk-Typist Page five

Observers at the session on Professional Associations and Centres MRS A. ALBERGA DR MATHEW BEAUBRUN MRS C. P. FRAY MR B. NELSON MRS A. ROBERTSON DR M. SIEVWRIGHT MR K. WILLIAMS

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Secretary, Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Jamaica President, Commonwealth Medical Association Secretary, Commonwealth Library Association Treasurer, Institution of Engineers (Jamaica) President, Jamaica Library Association President, Nurses' Association of Jamaica Vice-Chairman, Professional Centre of Jamaica

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS FROM THE SEMINAR The week-long discussions of the Seminar took place against the background of an unremitting increase in the complexity of mankind's problems and of a world-wide need to restructure national economies in the light of the oil crisis.

The growth and application of knowledge in itself threw up problems to which individuals, however gifted, or single organizations, however powerful, could no longer alone find solutions. Inevitably, changes must occur in the economies of countries rich, and poor. This in turn posed problems for governments, universities, the professions and the business and financial sectors alike.

It was the view of the Seminar that, as the store of knowledge grew and problems increased in complexity, so governments would inevitably become more and more involved in the day-to-day lives of their communities. Their civil services could not hope, unaided, to advise. Hence, the need for increasing consultation and cooperation between Ministers, their advisers, university and professional experts and leaders from the private sector, including business and trade unions involved therein. Only through such interaction could governments ultimately take policy decisions based on the fullest understanding of the problems facing them, and in the widest public interest.

It was against this background that delegates addressed themselves to the questions how best mutual interaction could be initiated and improved; and what roles in what particular spheres governments, professions and universities and individuals within each could most usefully perform.

At an earlier Seminar held under Commonwealth Foundation auspices in 1973, it had been recommended that closer inter-university co-operation within the Commonwealth was needed, including a marked increase in the exchange of personnel. The theme for the current Seminar embraced a far broader spectrum of the national community. It thus seemed necessary to emphasize the role which universities could best perform in a rapidly changing world.

Members of the Seminar found themselves in broad agreement that a university's primary functions were: to provide teaching ranging from the highest to the undergraduate level; to educate generalists and potential specialists alike; to undertake pure and applied research.

While adapting themselves in the short-term to meeting urgent contemporary needs such as requests from Governments, public corporations and other sectors of the community for the loan of personnel or for advice in finding solutions to problems of the hour; the universities should not lose sight of their Page seven

primary long-term role of conducting education and research at the highest level.

Turning to the role of the professions and the part which their individual members, whether within or outside the public sector could play in increasing co-operation with governments and universities on the one hand and with public corporations, business and industry on the other, members of the Seminar recorded how impressed they had been by the achievements to date of the Commonwealth Professional Associations and National Professional Centres (at one of which their meeting had been held) in promoting increased co-operation between professional bodies and individuals, nationally, regionally and Commonwealth-wide. They were struck by the evidence presented of voluntary service by certain professional bodies to their own communities and by the support given to Centres by newer national bodies such as professional social workers, whose activities related closely to problems of lowerincome groups. At the same time, they noted the hesitation of professions in some countries to proffer expert advice to governments, and the apparent reluctance of the latter in other countries to seek such advice. The broad conclusion of the Seminar was thatin some countries a higher degree of co-operation currently existed between universities and governments than between governments and the professions themselves. They recommended that the professions should be prepared to commission expert studies affecting the development of their countries.

The Seminar then turned to consider how best mutual interaction could be furthered and agreed upon the following conclusions and recommendations.

To them, however, they added the riders that in the last resort each country must be left to work out its own solutions in the light of its own political, economic and cultural backgrounds and that, however admired, the British heritage and British conventions as affecting civil services, universities and professiôth alike, had proved when transplanted to be in need of modifications in varying degrees to suit local circumstances. x. Since the effective application of knowledge, experience and technical expertise by scarce personnel to complex problems affecting society was of paramount importance, it had become urgent to develop ways and means of co-ordinating programmes with the aim of encouraging greater mobility of scarce personnel among governments, universities, the professions, and business. This should take place at all levels: nationally; between more and less developed countries in the Commonwealth, and especially between developing countries themselves. z. It was clear, however, that even existing programmes or ad boc interchanges posed problems, particularly in the university field, which had to be Page eight

resolved before wider interchanges could be introduced. It was easier in some countries, for instance, to attract a civil servant to a university posting than vice versa, while in others, the reverse was the case. As the demands made on them by governments and public corporations grew, universities found themselves facing increased financial burdens. Temporary teaching replacements were difficult to find and inevitably proved costly. It was desirable that such establishment issues be examined urgently at both national and regional levels and early solutions found.

In an effort to foster mutual interaction and the identification and protection of the public interest, governments should be persuaded to accept that universities, the professions and business were concerned with the national development and planning processes. Thus, collectively or individually academics, professionals and businessmen should be invited to involve themselves at the earliest planning stage in policy formulation affecting the public interest and be encouraged to provide expert and unbiased advice. It appeared however to some participants that, while such a system of collaboration and consultation was highly desirable and was indeed practicable in sectoral planning, e.g., Education, Health, Agriculture, Tourism, nevertheless the possibilities of involving private organizations and personnel in the central process of formulating the overall plan would be limited in most cases by the logistics of the situation and by political constraints.

Recent changes within the world economy and the challenge to establish a new economic order presented all countries of the Commonwealth, richer and poorer, with the need to rethink current training, retraining and research programmes. Governments should invite the co-operation of universities and professions in adapting training courses and textbooks and in involving themselves in specific applied research programmes in order to assist in the shorter-term in a co-ordinated attack on the new and urgent problems now facing their communities.

From this it followed that all must take a new hard look at acceptable standards of competence in various professional fields and that all should bring laymen increasingly into government and non-government committees and councils involved with planning and decision-making processes affecting the pattern of development and the quality of life. Professional bodies should actively offer advice to governments instead of waiting to be consulted. Both professionals and academics would increasingly need to take part in public debates with a view to informing and influencing public opinion. Both professionals and academics would increasingly need to participate in public debate on important issues, through improved public relations programmes.

All appropriate steps should also be taken to inform the public about the .

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activities undertaken and the services offered by the professions and the Universities.

6. The use and movement within the Commonwealth of scarce manpower resources was a persistent problem requiring examination at the highest level. Leaving aside the reasons for, and the costs and benefits of, the brain drain, which differed in differing areas of the Commonwealth, it seemed clear that the more developed countries benefiting from the movement of skilled personnel in their direction should in return so adapt their aid programmes as to provide a measure of compensation and, where appropriate, assistance in the gap-filling process.

While recognizing that there already existed areas of co-operation between the universities and the professions the Seminar felt that there was need for even greater collaboration in filling manpower gaps. At the same time, government should be urged to review the use currently made of available skills, and to include in their advisory or implementing machinery those who had a contribution to make but were not as yet involved.

8. With the growing overlap between the public and private sectors, it was important that civil servants should be exposed to business administration and to problems arising in the areas of both national and international finance. Attachments to the private sector would give civil servants both experience and insight into these, matters which would add considerably to their competence in dealing with the critical economic problems that the world now faced.

The inter-disciplinary team approach to problem-solving was increasingly used in developed as well as in developing countries. As a means of ensuring the success of this approach the professions had a special responsibility for advising on the content of training courses for sub-professionals as well as for helping their sub-professional colleagues generally. Opinion was, however, divided as to whether such courses should be held in universities or in other educational institutions. While in the final analysis, each country would have to decide where such courses should be held, it was agreed that universities must be associated with them. io. To avert the danger of alienating public opinion, the professions needed to have increasing dialogue with the media. Unless there was some understanding on the part of the public of the role and work of the professions the latters' effectiveness, particularly in developing countries, would remain in doubt. To some degree similar considerations applied to universities. i i. With the rapid expansion of knowledge there was a need for enlarged programmes of mid-career retraining. These should involve high level .

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administrators, academics, professionals, as well as leaders in the business, commercial, banking and trade union fields.

To obviate the risk of a fossilization of standards, it was necessary for professionals, civil servants and academics to review what should be the acceptable levels of competence in various professional fields. This was especially important in developing countries where there was a tendency for professionals to be rigid in their demands that training standards be comparable, if not identical, with those obtaining in developed countries. The Seminar felt that one of the key factors in determining an acceptable level of training should be the current and foreseeable needs of the country concerned.

At the same time it was emphasized that while course content might differ from country to country, high standards must always be maintained.

There was need for both academics and professionals to concentrate their efforts on serving the public interest; the seminar noted the arguments for public representation on the governing bodies of the professions, and alternative methods (such as references to the Monopolies Commission in the UK) of dealing with practices that might operate against the public interest.

Finally, the Seminar endorsed three further recommendations emerging from the discussions: That it might be useful for the Commonwealth Foundation to take the initiative in convening a meeting of those concerned with or interested in the work of university grants committees throughout the Commonwealth with a view to examining and exchanging views and experiences on the structure and methodology of such bodies.

That the Commonwealth Foundation should consider the possibility of encouraging the growth of a new or modified type of Professional Centre suited to the needs of the professions and the public in remoter or less developed areas of the older Commonwealth.

That the Chairman and Trustees of the Commonwealth Foundation might organize, perhaps in 1976, a meeting of representatives of Professional Centres and others interested in this concept to review achievements, problems and mutual interaction in the professional field throughout the Commonwealth, including the inter-Commonwealth use of scarce skilled manpower resources.

At the conclusion of the Seminar Sir Fred Phillips expressed the sentiments of all those present in thanking the Commonwealth Foundation for its initiative in having brought together so mixed and skilled a group of experts. The meeting had helped a number of busy and influential men from widespread areas of the Page elpven

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Commonwealth to pause for a while: to take stock of the problems which all faced and to share each others' thoughts and experiences.

After the Chairman had expressed warm thanks to the President, Secretary and staff of the Professional Centre; to the ladies who had voluntarily assisted with the hospitality programme; to the Vice-Chancellor at the Mona Campus and to officers of the Foundation for the part each and all had played in ensuring the success of the Seminar Mr A. L. Adu, on behalf of the delegates, in turn thanked Sir Hugh Springer for his courteous and effective handling of the meeting.

Kingston, Jamaica.

January i8th, 1975.

SEMINAR PROCEEDINGS Opening of the Seminar In the absence of the Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Egerton Richardson read a statement on his behalf. In this the Deputy Prime Minister expressed his regret at his inability to be present personally at the opening of the ceremonies due to an unavoidable last-minute engagement. Through Sir Egerton, he welcomed the delegates to Jamaica. The Government were aware of and supported the Commonwealth Foundation as an agency for change and development. Its work was of great relevance to the Commonwealth and it was only recently that the Heads of Government had re-emphasized their confidence in its activities. Mr Coore would look forward to learning of the outcome of the discussions at the Seminar and hoped that they would point the way to closer co-operation between Commonwealth Governments, Professional Centres, Universities and Members of the Professional Community.

In his opening remarks the Chairman, Sir Hugh ipringer, requested Sir Egerton Richardson in the name of all delegates present to convey to the Deputy Prime Minister his and their thanks for his message, coupled with the regret of the meeting at his inability to be present personally. The Chairman then also welcomed in the name of the Commonwealth Foundation those who had travelled from many parts of the Commonwealth to attend. At the same time he conveyed the regrets of Dr James Maraj, of the Commonwealth Secretariat; Mr R. Bain, Secretary to the Cabinet, Bahamas; and of Mr Carrington and Mr McIntyre, of the Caricom Secretariat at their inability to be present. He went on to express the Foundation's warm thanks to the President, Secretary and Staff of the Professional Centre for all they had done to assist in the preparation of the Seminar.

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While not deliberately planned as such, the meeting should prove a logical follow-up to two earlier Foundation sponsored Seminars the first in Singapore in 1971 in the course of which the professions had taken a hard look at themselves and at their role in Society; and the second at Sussex where the Universities had considered their own responsibilities in relation to the professions and to the development process generally. It would be the task of this third Seminar to examine the inter-relationship between Civil Services, Professions and Universities within the Commonwealth.

The Chairman then invited Sir Egerton Richardson to deliver his keynote address.

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A. THE CIVIL SERVICE AS A UNIFYING AGENT IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT After Sir .Egerton Richardson had presented and summarized his paper (the text of which will be found at Annex A) a general discussion followed of which the succeeding paragraphs provide a summary.

Expressing the concerns of the less developed countries in the Caribbean Sir F. Phillips suggested that the shortage of professional manpower, particularly in medical and agricultural departments of the Civil Services, could be made good by secondments from more developed countries in the area.

For Guyana, Mr D. L. Henry commented that his Government looked on the national development process not only in material terms but in relation to education and social welfare. Thus, his Government saw a role for the University in the context of the national development plan. The question was how co-operation between Universities and Governments could be improved. The latter all too often tended to keep their Universities at arm's length until the need for advice had grown urgent. Such attitudes could only increase the academic's sense of isolation.

Continuing this theme, Sir C. Cartland saw four ways in which Universities cold be of broad help in the national development process First: by tailoring training programmes to current and foreseen civil service needs.

Second: by directing research effort to practical short-term issues.

Third: through the loan of academic experts to civil services notably, economists, scientists and agronomists. With this movement should go a counter-movement of civil servants into the University field, thus producing new stimuli and new viewpoints at mid-career on either side.

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Fourth: Universities could also assist with re-training in mid-career, particularly in relation to medicine. But such experiments could also bring in the generalist civil servant or even the generalist vice-chancellor. In the latter case, one might well ask to what degree older men in either the administrative or university services really understood the capacity of the computer.

For his part Dr T. Soper expressed the hope that the Seminar would also consider the problem of inter-changes between the civil service and the university world on the one hand, and the private sector on the other. Whatever was said in the key paper about the paramount role of civil services in newer and indeed older Commonwealth countries, there were still many such countries which operated primarily through a mixed economy. The private sector was involved in the decision-making process day by day in areas big and small.

It was his feeling that the key speaker had perhaps laid too much stress on the importance of the civil service and of the role of politicians in the development process. Continuing, Prof. Mills expressed his support for the views so far advanced on the need for further inter-changes. But in this respect it was essential to keep in mind that problems of staffing and conditions of service invariably arose when inter-changes were under consideration as between the civil service proper and statutory bodies.

At this point, commenting on some of the remarks made, Sir B. Richardson stressed that the gap between the public and private sectors was constantly narrowing, at least in the Caribbean experience, and that the civil services were gaining control increasingly over the developmental and social sectors. Even the broad areas of culture and the arts were being brought increasingly under Government control, if only because of the failure of the private sector to stimulate these types of activity. In relation to inter-changes, which he personally favoured, one had to accept that there was a number of inhibiting factors such as lack of parity of incomes, pensions agreements and so forth.

Mr Leong stated that Singapore faced problems on the inter-change front similar to those described by the key speaker and others. There was a growing feeling in the private sector in his country that civil service involvement in the day-to-day life of the Community was becoming excessive. The time might come where the private sector would have to stand up against the risks of yet further encroachment. This led him to inquire what should be the role of the professions at a time where a collision course between the public and the private sectors seemed unavoidable.

Returning to the question of the growth of statutory corporations Mr Yank.ana mentioned that there were 19 publicly owned corporations in Guyana. If this development had occurred, it was because the private sector did not itself move fast enough in e.g. the agricultural and timber industries. Nor was it Page fourteen

sufficiently alive to the need to modernize and expand the distributive and servicing industries. Even the provision of social benefits, such as insurance, was also of necessity increasingly becoming part of the public sector activities.

One problem faced by developing countries was how to assess the value and viability of these public corporations. There would clearly be cases where the capital return on investment -perhaps in regard to the supply of electricity to scattered communities would not be sufficiently attractive to the private sector. In such cases, there was nothing for it but for the State to intervene.

Speaking from his widespread African and International Agency experience Mr A. L. Adzi said that there had been throughout Commonwealth Africa the same movement as that described for the Caribbean in favour of an increase in Government intervention in the private sector. There had been a proliferation of statutory bodies. Increasingly the ideological view had developed that Governments must 'capture the commanding heights of society'. The effect of this broad movement had recently been that Governments were beginning to lag behind the economy if only through indigestion resulting from the swallowing of so many sectors of the economy itself. In his experience the institutional relationship between the Government Corporation concerned and the 'captured' sector of the private sector was extremely difficult to work out. Realizing this problem, the Government of Ghana, for instance, had recently appointed a committee of experts to examine the activities of the public corporations generally and to look for means of improving their efficiency. Against this background, academics and professional leaders had shown themselves eager to share in the national development process, but bewildered as to how precisely their advice could be fed into the state machine. It thus seemed to him a duty on civil services generally to bring the universities and the professions into the development processes. It had to be remembered that senior civil servants, despite the allegedly increasing power of politicians, did still take important decisions without first consulting ministers. There was thus all the more reason for such leaders in the administrative machine to take the initiative of consulting universities and professions as the need arose. It was perhaps true that academics made too great a fetish of 'academic freedom' and that they did not associate themselves enough with the development process. Nor sadly did students in Commonwealth Africa sufficiently concern themselves with the rural community development problems in their own countries. Academics must, to sum up, be seen to have become involved in national development problems.

As to the professional associations, his feeling was that these were not yet as well developed as they should be despite the efforts of the Commonwealth Foundation. They would grow in strength and stature only if they were consciously used by Governments and if they in turn became directly involved -

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in the process of development. To sum up, as Mr Adu saw it, the burden was on the public services of the Commonwealth as the best organized parts of the national communities to date to encourage Universities and Professions to play their full part in national development planning. Only in this way could the as yet meagre expert resources of the newer world be fully and efficiently mobilized. Here again the mobility of individuals, coupled with proper conditions of service and a greater ease of inter-change, would prove significant.

For his part, Prof. Irvine expressed his agreement with the views advanced

by Sir G. Cartland as to the desirability of inter-change between the private and the public sectors. Guyana had achieved some success in this respect. But it was clear that Universities must take a less archaic attitude regarding the make-up of their own governing bodies; and again inter-change must provide the necessary stimulus. Experience showed that it was easier to persuade civil servants to translate into the University field than vice versa. Again Universities should be invited to take part in development planning from the outset and not just at the stage where some particular research was called for.

Continuing, Mr Emtage reminded the meeting that professional associations were not just altruistic bodies. They had their own business interests to protect.

There was a further broad problem facing developing countries: namely, that civil services were under-staffed professionally and that many professional bodies still contained an undesirably high percentage of expatriate 'transients'.

Turning to the role of a regional university such as the University of the West Indies, which served 14 territories, Prof. Martin emphasized the need for members of all disciplines on all campuses to speak with one voice despite the theoretical advantages of academic freedom. This applied particularly when a staff member from a campus country was working in a noncampus territory. There were dangers of a collision developing between technocrats and academics. Problems also arose, as had been mentioned, regarding differentials of salaries, pension contributions etc. as between the civil service and the University. Some thought might therefore be given by the civil services concerned to the nomination of supernumeraries within Universities.

This would result in increased movement from the more highly to the less developed countries within a region. Or, again, small teams might be posted to non-campus territories from one of the campus countries. Such recommendations had recently been made by the U.W.I. but had been turned down by the University Grants Committee for lack of funds. The result had been a need to fall back on overseas technical aid. It would be interesting to know whether Caricom could prove of help in these particular areas.

Turning back to the role of the Civil Service Mr Grj71ths referred to changes in the make-up of administration at least in older Commonwealth countries.

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It was evident that the power of the old administrative core of policy formers had been declining at the expense of the proliferating quasi-professional civil servant, and at that of the public corporations. The good in this process arose in the sense of the handing over of managerial functions to experts outside the civil service proper. The bad in it lay in the tendency of treasuries to find an excuse for fudging their manpower figures.

Mr Murray referred to the need for a radical new look at the terms of civil service employment if proper movement between that sector and the professional and academic sectors was to be made easier. For his part Dr Symons suggested that some caution must be used before one accepted the assumption in Sir E. Richardson's paper that the public service was necessarily the best throughout the whole community. One could quote a number of examples to show that this was far from the case. The Civil Service in given circumstances could in fact be a great obstacle to public development. It would also seem that there had been an under-estimation of the role of the professions themselves. Certainly the public service was in the best position to 'capture the comanding heights'. But what was to happen when the only height left was in turn the public sector itself? Surely we should aim for a tripartite approach where the professional and university sectors grew in importance .Pari passu with the growth of civil services. The primordial role of a university remained that of producing the highly skilled manpower needed by society in general.

It was interesting to note how young people viewed the public service today, at least in certain of the more developed countries. It was no longer in their opinion the necessary shortcut to the commanding heights. On the contrary, it was increasingly looked upon as the new-style establishment which was trying to manipulate both society and the individual.

Sir G. Cartland suggested that we must remind ourselves that the State was also tending to move into the field of voluntary activity. This suggested a dangerous father-figure development. If prolonged, it could destroy initiative and goodwill, and finally erode the national character. Continuing, Dr Bonnick referred to the danger of the public service becoming a disunifying force through the sheer fact of bigness. This could lead to failure of responsiveness to the public's needs. There was thus a requirement for unifying and co-ordinating structures within each civil service as it grew in size. Here the University had an important watch-dog role as the civil service (which could not properly examine its own defects) continued to grow in size.

Replying to the points made in discussion, Sir B. Richardson asked himself what indeed was the nature of the Government service. Why and on what grounds did more parts of the private sector move into or become absorbed by the public service area? He would look forward to a time when the civil service embraced more and more people with differing outlooks and views.

Page seventeen

This would allow for broader and more continuing discussions with Universities and professions on such matters as conditions of service and would provide for expanded programmes of interchanges. He remained, however, unrepentant on his assessment that, in the Caribbean, Governments would encroach increasingly on the activities of the private sector.

B. MUTUAL INTERACTION FOR INTEGRATION A paper by Messrs Burke and Carrington After Mr Burke had summarized the paper, a discussion was opened by Mr Johnson who referred to the problem of elitism in the Professions and in the academic world. He felt that this trend inhibited the development process and created a yet wider gap between the affluent and the poor. This was particularly noticeable in, for example, the medical profession. In this area, less developed countries had no immediate need of the more sophisticated aspects of medicine compared with the provision of health care in the rural areas. There was thus grave danger that Governments and Universities might fall into the trap of continuing to train a small elite at the expense of the need of the middle and lower grades of society. This in turn raised the question of the further training of ancillaries and technicians of all kinds. It was here that effort should be primarily concentrated. Agreeing with these comments Pro-Vice-Chancellor Brathwaite mentioned the desire of the U.W.I. to start a new faculty of community health in the Eastern Caribbean as well as to enter the field of technician training in engineering. But in both cases Governments had turned down the proposals for lack of funds. This inevitably raised tensions between the Government machinery and academics, but such tensions were bound to remain inevitable so long as funds were insufficient. Meanwhile Universities must take the long-term view of problems arising in such fields as the environment. They alone were in a position to think so far ahead since it was widely accepted that Governments for their part thought no longer than the next election.

Professor Irvine, for his part, referred to the problems of a regional university faced with a non-integrated educational system within the units making up its particular region. It was from this angle that the Commonwealth Caribbean Secretariat should find an ample role to play.

Returning to the question of elitism, Mr Steel suggested that some of the critical comments made in paragraph 36 of the paper exaggerated this so-called problem. As to the failure of professional bodies in the newer world to present a good image of themselves, it had to be kept in mind that some of the professional societies were still small, young and inexperienced at running their own organization. Patience would therefore be required. Continuing, he Page eighteen

suggested that there was no need for the distinction between straight-forward professionals and technicians to be blurred. Both aimed at different goals through different levels of education. But it must be accepted that it was the technicians who needed the greatest help from Government, the Professions and the University world alike.

Sir George Cart/and said that all universities in the old and the newer world faced the problem how to tackle the training of the subordinate professions.

Should it take place outside the university area, for example, in polytechnics or within? There was the further problem that once a polytechnic was created the tendency was for it to seek to up-grade its status to that of a university.

Australia, for instance, was now thinking of training para-medicals alongside doctors in the university proper and it was his understanding that similar thinking or indeed courses on this joint basis were now being operated in a number of countries in Africa. Intervening, the Chairman remarked that medicine was a special case and quoted from the relevant passage from the report on the Sussex Seminar.

In the view of Mr Burton, based on earlier seminars held in the Caribbean area, universities should become involved with training at advanced levels.

The paper by Mr Burke did not take sufficient account of the integration of administrative services. There might, for instance, be a customs union within the area but so far there had been no move towards the inter-change of customs officers. It was essential to find means of promoting the movement of officers within the Commonwealth Caribbean at all levels. Otherwise the ideals of the Community would fail.

Dr Macdonald asked himself whether universities should be responsible for, as opposed to promoting, lower level training. Quoting Sydney Smith a university should be only those things, should do only those things which no other institution can do as well. He referred to the dangers of diluting efforts.

It should not be necessary in this day and age to talk in terms of elitism a pejorative phrase when it was the proper task of universities to produce the country's elites.

Dr Bonnic/e reminded the Seminar of the proximity of Jamaica to the North American market and to the effect that this produced on society, aggrai ating the problem of elitism and draining skills within the region. Another point related to the Government's attitude towards the universities. The idea seemed to be growing in relation to the development process whereby, in the name of development, the region could no longer afford the normal type of university and was beginning to insist on a multi-purpose institute concerned solely with development problems. This tendency worked against all hopes of better interaction and distorted the true duties of a university. This in itself made interaction all the more necessary.

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Speaking from Ghanaian experience, Mr Adu explained that universities in his country were in fact training the sub-professionals. Considerable experience had been built up in Ghana regarding diploma courses for engineers, horticulturalists, social service workers, hospital administrators, public administrators and in the fields of music and drama. But this extension of university activities had not in any way affected normal standards. There was, furthermore, experience building up in his country as the result of academics and professionals being brought on to policy planning committees and into central banking activities and the like. The academics had from his experience become 'sober and imaginative administrators'. The Civil Service in Ghana had also drawn academics, notably lawyers and accountants, into boards and corporations.

Such experiments had proved of real value to both sides.

Sir F. Phillips mentioned that on prestige grounds alone every country, however small, sought to draw its staff from within its own boundaries. But there was advantage in overcoming nationalism through the exchange of civil servants between larger and smaller territories. Regarding paragraph 37 of Mr Burke's paper, which referred to the efforts of professionals to improve their image, he would mention as a lawyer himself the work of the Organization of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations and its study on a proposed Caribbean Commonwealth Court of Appeal. This was merely to underline how active the legal profession throughout the Caribbean had been in co-operating with Governments and Universities.

For his part, Prof. Martin said that the U.W.I. was not averse to the training of ancillaries. The point was that many of the smaller territories were strongly of the view that technical education should form part of the national task. It was easier to inject funds nationally than into a regional university. There was also the danger of a university building up an unnecessary empire in its efforts to provide for training at sub-professional level. Here Caricom should be able to help by advising both Governments and Universities what type of aid could best be given at this level of training and by whom. There was also a need for national as well as regional surveys in the training fields. Furthermore, studies were continuously necessary on the problems of movements and inter-change which would involve the preservation of promotion prospects, salaries, pensions and the like.

Referring to the deployment of scarce manpower resources Dr Soper inquired what was meant by 'the State' in the paper from Mr Burke. How far did development of regional co-operation improve the deployment of resources or, on the contrary, how far did it worsen them by creating yet a further layer of need?

Turning to the involvement of Universities in sub-professional training, Mr Griths instanced the success of two Universities in developing countries Page twenty

which had been designedly created from the Outset to cover education at the diploma level. In one of them for instance, 90 per cent of the students, many of them working part-time, were studying for sub-degree courses. At the other extreme in Britain, it was now difficult to forecast what the university's role should be in middle level training. On the one side, the University was in competition with polytechnics over part-time technical training. The conclusion seemed broadly to be that differing countries would have to find different solutions to their individual problems. But the more underdeveloped the country the more necessary it became to seek high-level qualifications not necessarily at a level which would be automatically given international recognition. That in itself would avoid some of the brain-drain traps.

After outlining the grave economic problems which the non-oil world faced and which would involve a radical restructuring of economies in the old world and the new, Prof. Jol1'y singled out four areas of specific activity which would require urgent treatment by Governments, Universities and the Professions alike.

First, training courses at universities as well as textbooks on economics would require much re-thinking and revision.

Second, all three sectors of the community would have to prepare themselves for the introduction of training courses of a practical nature related to shortterm needs in the areas of negotiation, e.g. in relation to Government negotiations with multinational corporations.

Third, there would be an increasing need for international exchanges related to the above topic particularly as between third world countries. The recent failure on the part of the latter to exchange views and experience in the course of negotiations on bauxite prices was a case in point.

Fourth, in the area of research, universities and other groups would find an increasing role to play, e.g. in regard to mineral resources in Africa. Experience showed that companies with which Governments were negotiating preferred to sit across the table with people who were well informed rather than to face the uninformed and thus suspicious Government negotiator.

Fifth lawyers, accountants, etc., would find key roles to play in the new-style negotiating process with which the non-oil world was now faced. It was a question how far present training geared them to perform their duties in a world economy which was of necessity in the process of radical re-structure.

Prof. Robinson went on to describe Jamaica as a 'two-risk economy'. A little reflection showed that high standards of services had to be developed in the island, first in relation to the tourist industry and secondly to satisfy the demands of numerous Jamaicans who travelled to the North American Continent and -

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returned demanding better standards in all fields of life. Going on to mention the medical brain drain, Prof. Robinson suggested that the developed world was not fully facing up to its own responsibilities through failure to step up the home-trained intake to its own medical schools. There was, moreover, pressure on the U.W.I. to loan staff to non-campus territories. A recent survey on the Mona Campus showed that 5 per cent of academic staff were currently away from the University. Most of these people were key trainers and teachers and their absence inhibited the further training of those students whose skills would soon be solely needed in the less developed countries of the area. The dilemma for the University was whether to continue to respond to the pressures for the loan of staff from Governments who often offered far more attractive salaries, or whether at the risk of upsetting the integration aims some brake would have to be put on the secondment of university staff.

Dr Symons suggested that there should be further exploration of the problem of the migration of skilled manpower. It had now reached such proportions that it should really be tackled on an international scale. The brain drain and the availability of highly skilled manpower were in fact the common denominators of the Seminar, affecting as they did the State, the universities and the Professions. It was a matter of shock and surprise that 50 per cent of the doctors currently licensed in Canada were non-Canadians and 25 per cent of these came from the Commonwealth. It would seem, therefore, that a new form of economic exploitation had developed. This was unfair to both the developing countries suffering from the brain drain and to young Canadians seeking openings in the medical field in their own country.

At this point, the Chairman interjected his doubts whether the developed world should feel any sense of guilt at this type of development. There were advantages to be gained by those from the developing world through overseas experience. But in any case, specific solutions would have to be found to specific individual and country cases. There was need above all to provide the professional man in the developing world with the necessary underpinning of ancillaries. This would be one means of placing a brake on the current brain drain.

Referring to the remarks from Dr Symons, Dr Macdonald suggested that two problems arose in Canada on the medical front. One related to overseas students coming to Canada to graduate; and the other to already qualified professionals coming to practice (the latter proved an attractive and economical investment for the receiving Government). Basically, the question was whether one could more easily restrict the movement of the highly qualified professional man than that of the ordinary unqualified man in whose path no obstacles to migration were placed. Canada was, however, looking afresh at the matter of placing young qualified doctors, engineers, etc. It no longer seemed Page twentj-two

reasonable to allow complete freedom of choice at the start of his career to an expensively State-financed graduate. Thus minds were turning to the thought of bonding young graduates so that they would be obliged to work for up to five years in areas of need rather than in the big cities. Possibly, this policy could be adopted with advantage in the Caribbean.

Speaking from his experience in Singapore, Mr Leong referred to the problems faced by those in private professional practice in endeavouring to influence Government planning and the development process. Through failure by Government to consult the professions at a sufficiently early stage, the economy lost the benefit of their advice. This might partly be the fault of the professions themselves. But it had to be kept in mind that the office bearers of professional associations were quite often senior civil servants themselves who, for obvious reasons, did not wish to offend their Governments. His question was how professional man should, in the circumstances, behave.

Mr Murray for his part agreed that it was for the Professions to take the initiative in moving closer to Governments. Sometimes Government themselves did take an initiative in bringing in the Professions and showed readiness to accept recommendations relating to, for example, the content of training courses for technicians. In time, Governments would be likely to listen more closely to the Professional Community, but this would be subject to the readiness of the Professions themselves to move in at an early stage of the planning process and to show that their motives were altruistic and to the benefit of the community.

MrJohnson suggested that Government had the right to demand that graduates serve their community in return for the investment in their own education.

On this point Mr Adzi mentioned that the Ghana Government had always required students from overseas as well as those locally trained to remain in Government service and under Government direction for the first five years of their career. They were bonded and had guarantors to that effect. Failing compliance or return from abroad, the bond became forfeit to Government.

In the context of the brain drain, he suggested that developed countries should increase their own training facilities in national areas of critical shortage such as medicine. They might also think of re- structuring their aid to the developing world in order to supply increased local training facilities.

Prof Irvine suggested that Universities and Professions should lay far greater emphasis on the social responsibility of professional man and that this theme should find a part in training courses. Regarding bonding and the brain drain, his conclusion was that while a Government might find it easy to keep a professional man in his own country it could not force him to practise.

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Continuing this debate, Prof. Robinson referred to the National Youth Service in Jamaica under which Secondary School leavers were required to give two years' service to the community. Graduates were exempt until the end of their University education from this duty, but there was increasing pressure to persuade graduates to begin their careers at least in the civil service under Government direction. For his part, Dr Arniel referred to the frustrations experienced by students returning from overseas. These included lack of immediate postings and an attitude of mind on the part of politicians, who had rarely trained as professionals, to the effect that the young expert must mark time and not seek to express opinions until he had served his passage for some years. It also made for despondency and a desire to return overseas forthwith when the young graduate saw his political leaders surrounded with foreign experts, the assumption being that the young indigenous graduate was incapable of tendering proper advice.

At the conclusion of the debate and on the invitation of the Chairman, Mr Burke iep1ied to the questions posed by Dr Soper earlier in the discussion.

In referring to the 'State' in his Paper, Mr Burke had meant to imply the agency for implementing State policy, having available to it all the -skills within the country. As regards the interaction between national and international entities, his reference here was to the national entity, but 14 countries were involved in the Caribbean area and this alone showed that co-ordination of effort was required.

As regards the question of political cohesion, it had to be remembered that the failure of Federation was still fresh in political minds. There was no early way of bringing it back to life. Thus, Caricom could only proceed stage by stage by a series of functional steps involving economic, social and other types of non-political integration. It had, therefore, to be accepted against this background that there would in the shorter term of necessity be some apparent waste of manpower through the need to provide services through a nonpolitical and as yet not wholly integrating body.

C. THE PROFESSIONS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO OPINION FORMING AND NATIONAL POLICY MAKING

By Mr R. Steel After Mr Sleet had spoken to his paper the discussions which followed centred upon professional standards with implications for training and re-training as well as on the role of the professional in a consultative or advisory capacity.

The view was expressed that there was a tendency by professions, particularly in the more developed countries, to seek higher and higher standards of training.

This in turn forced the universities to demand higher levels of attainment at the student level and to set higher sights for their graduates. Mr Grffiths Page twenty-four

maintained that in recent years the professions had been doing much to force universities to push up their training standards. Dr Macdonald, from his North American experience, felt that professions did go through an evolutionary process. The current trend in training was to integrate rather than divide.

Mr Adzi, in describing experience in his country, warned of the danger of a fossilization of standards. The number of professionals in newer Commonwealth countries was still inadequate. Yet these trained people were rigid in their demands for standards of training comparable, if not identical with, those obtaining in developed countries. It was most desirable that professions, civil servants and academics should together take a hard look at what should be the acceptable standard of achievement in the various professional fields.

Mr Murray felt that the criterion for an acceptable level of training should be in terms of the needs of the country. In support, Mr Johnson stressed that in determining standards, one should look at the nature of the work which the professional would be called upon to do. Vice-Chancellor Cartland interjected that it might be of value to look at different ways of training rather than at extending courses. It was dubious whether there was more educative value in an extended course rather than in a more intensive course covered in a shorter period. Was it not better to know a smaller number of subjects well rather than to acquire a smattering of a large numbet?

Prof Joliji wondered whether the solution was not a return to the i9th century method of training professionals whereby actual on-the-job training was interspersed with academic studies.

Mr Steel was of the view that professions should in no way try to impose educational standards on the University. Instead they should work closely with the Universities, first to determine the nature and volume of work to be done by the professional and only secondly to agree on acceptable standards.

Prof. Irvine raised the question of the responsibility of professions to their sub-professionals, while Mr Ingram spoke of the danger of the gap between the professionals and the public. There was need for increasing dialogue between the professions and the media; otherwise there was the danger of alienating the public.

In support, Mr Steel expressed the opinion that the professions would never be effective in developing countries unless there was some understanding on the part of the public of the role and work of the professions.

The view was expressed that in varying degrees there was already a great deal of consultation between the civil servants and professionals.

Mr Adu told the meeting that in Ghana it was now a legal requirement that in order to practice, professionals must not only be registered but also be members of their professional organization.

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D. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE PROFESSIONS AND THE UNIVERSITIES by Dr J. B. Macdonald In the discussion following the presentation of this Paper, Mr Steel suggested that the picture painted of the situation in the professional world was not always relevant to countries outside North America. The critical comments made by the key speaker were quoted primarily from American or Canadian sources and were directed chiefly at the fields of medicine and law. Admittedly, professions in the North American area operated chiefly as pressure groups.

But this was not the case in Britain and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. So far as Britain was concerned, the public itself was protected under Royal Charters granted to the professional bodies under which the prime objectives of a professional society were described as the advancement of knowledge and the good of the public. Mr Steel went on to say that he was troubled by some of the broad conclusions at which Dr Macdonald had arrived, based on assumptions which to him seemed narrow. A reference, for instance, to the health services in Quebec would be quite irrelevant in so far as engineers, surveyors, accountants, etc., in Britain were concerned. Those bodies did not, in any sense, operate through a closed, monopolistic shop. They were not registered bodies and members of the professions concerned were in no way obliged to belong to their particular professional association. In Mr Steel's view, registration was only effective if it proved to be in the public's interest. Concluding, he remarked that the Monopolies Commission in Britain, while critical of some limited areas of the professional world, had found nothing fundamentally wrong with the professions themselves or with their conduct or relationships with the community.

At this point, Prof. Irvine having referred to the importance of Universities, Governments and Professions acting in the public interest went on to inquire who, in fact, defined what the public interest was? Was it the task of politicians?

If not, with whom did the duty lie?

Sir George Cartland following on from this intervention emphasized that basically the aim of the Seminar was to inquire into the question how best the public interest was served by Governments, Academics and Professionals alike. It would be interesting to debate how the interest of the public was to be assessed; whether public relations units should be employed by the triad referred to, in which case a useful three-way traffic could be developed.

For his part, Prof. Jolly referred to the danger of going to extremes in endeavouring to define within differing types of regimes who or what represented the public interest and through what particular means. Truth varied as between differing types of Governments. It was also dangerous to accuse Universities and Professions of acting solely in their own interest. The real dilemma was Page hi'ent'y-six

how the public itself was to become involved in matters affecting its fate.

Among other matters it was interesting to see from Dr Macdonald's Paper that Universities faced the same tensions and problems as did the Professions.

Dr Farrer-Brown suggested that what distinguished a Professional man from others in the community was the special relationship of trust based on acquired skills between him and his client. This was essential in building up and retaining public confidence in the Professions. As it was all three groups involved in the Seminar were engaged in the use of knowledge in the human interest. This alone should make for closer co-operation between members of the trilogy.

Prof. Robinson suggested that the Paper was not positive enough as to how Universities and Professions could put their respective houses in order. Who, for instance, imposed consultation of the public interest by Governments, Universities and Professions? Who provided the opinion for the public, say in relation to tenure of appointments at Universities? Should lay members of the community serve on University appointments Boards? How would such people be chosen and what particular public interests would they in turn represent?

Replying to some of these points, Dr Macdonald emphasized that no one individual had the right to define the public interest. Within democracies the public interest was not a fixed point on any issue at any time. Values changed and had continually to be re-assessed. Through this process, one might well arrive at a concensus from conflicting views and values expressed, for instance, on problems of the environment. Good leadership consisted in part of an ability to sense the consensus. Thus his own plea was for the creation and gradual broadening of task forces concerned with the identification of problems involving the public interest. Such task forces should include members of the professions, Civil Servants, Universities and Industry involved in the planning process who should be ready to tender impartial advice to Governments.

Continuing Dr Macdonald said that within Universities the same basic problems arose. How they were resolved depended partly on how faculties protected themselves, partly on how the University was governed. As to outside advice, it would seem desirable to draw on graduates no longer within the University field; on practising Professionals and on those persons of eminence in the lay areas who held contentious views. Indeed laymen should be welcomed as members of University Boards since they could add fresh viewpoints and broaden the thinking of all bodies on which they served, thus ensuring that the whole community was represented at the stage of decision-making.

Mr Henry suggested that, in the final analysis, the only body able to interpret the public interest was the Government. Thus the more sensible and outward Page twenty-seven

looking professional bodies and universities were, the less likely was the risk of government interference in their affairs. The dangerous problem areas were those in which the professions were seen to be sitting in judgement on their own members or where, for instance, they excluded students on social grounds alone. In cases of this kind, Governments might well be forced to intervene to correct injustices. Meanwhile it was salutary to see the Seminar examining and criticizing itself in terms of its membership of Governments, Universities and Professions alike. At this point Dr Macdonald intervened to say that the Government in the circumstances described by Mr Henry had two choices: either to intervene directly or to ensure that the structure of the offending organization was changed in such a way that such evils could not again occur.

Mr Murray suggested that it would be difficult indeed to find general answers to all the dilemmas discussed, for example, that of registration. In the last resort, Governments had to decide how far a Profession should be allowed to control itself. Clearly, Governments could not afford to allow the Professions to get into a closed shop state.

Sir E. Richardson for his part endorsed the greater part of Dr Macdonald's replies to criticisms made. Universities and Professions must simply respond to requests from the public to be allowed to sit on Advisory Boards as junior partners representing sections of the community. He made a distinction between Governments and Parliaments. In the latter case, there was one practical problem facing the public servant whose horizon was limited by acts of Parliament: namely how the average M.P. could be advised of public opinion on a particular Bill. It was well known that M.P.s were jealous of seeing civil servants intervening between them and the public. Thus one might explore how Universities and Professions could help in ensuring that an M.P. was properly informed on some matter affecting the community at large. Professional bodies must of course bring members of the public into their own opinion-forming processes. But they might take matters one stage further by inviting M.P.s to receive delegations or information so that knowledge and the necessary background material to pending legislation could be received by the M.P. who would then be better able to help Parliament in reaching an informed decision.

Sir Egerton's conclusion was that relationships with Parliament posed far greater problems in, for example, the Caribbean than they did in Britain.

Dr Symons expressed his entire agreement with the previous speaker and with the need for better representation of public interest in University affairs. The question was how to set about the improvement process. Who was to select the members of the public to serve on University Boards and how? If appointed

by Government then the risk arose of political intrusion and of a further extension of bureaucratic control. Government itself was a self-protecting unit.

One might thus end by serving the interests of a political party rather than of Page tweny-eight

the community at large. This in turn brought with it the risk of Government patronage. Indeed, such dangers had already arisen in newer Universities in certain of the Canadian provinces as a result of Government nominees sitting on Appointment Boards. The results had been peculiarly unhappy. The danger of political bias in respect of both University and Professional appointments must be continuously watched. In short, one faced the risk of creating a graver problem by trying to solve the existing one.

For his part, Mr Ada said that there was one particular issue not perhaps fully brought Out in Dr Macdonald's Paper; namely the effects of the British academic and professional heritage on many former dependencies. It was not necessarily transplantable and, while it affected only the minority of the highly educated in the community, it was difficult to employ it through those conventions of checks and balances which had been built up in Britain over many generations. Thus, what was needed was to see how the principles, which all would applaud, could actually be made to work in differing sets of circumstances. The Commonwealth contained a wide range of differing political systems. In Ghana, for instance, apart from those outsiders selected by Governments to serve on University and Professional Councils, the latter were now themselves looking for further laymen of distinction of their own choice.

Quoting The Times to the effect that 'Doctors in the UK were the miners of the middle classes', Dr Soper asked how non-Governmental Organizations could now best cope with the increasing, but not yet total Government power.

It would be an illusion to assume that Britain today remained in the traditional state of democracy in which it had so long lived.

Prof. Brathwaite added the thought that universities in the Caribbean had so far failed dismally in their efforts to get public opinion on their side. To this, Prof. Robinson added the failure of professions in the area to inform themselves on matters of public interest lying outside their immediate field. He suggested that the Professional Centres sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation might themselves identify issues of this kind and then aim to educate the various Professions themselves as to the problems with which they should be concerned.

Replying to the debate, Dr Macdonald said that the trilogy under discussion was not in practice a series of monolithic establishments. It was in some countries merely more homogeneous than in others. One of the major problems arising was the conflict of interest from within the trilogy. It was perfectly proper for a Professional Body to promote its own interest frankly. This was far better than masquerading as doing such things for the public good. He was impressed by the value of the Monopolies Commission as described by Mr Steel, but saw it as a supplement rather than an alternative to ways of Page twentj-nine

improving the Professional image. He also accepted Mr Adu's remarks as to the difficulty of transplanting elements of the British heritage. As to ways of keeping M.P.s informed, there was indeed a generally felt need for group involvement on problems affecting the public interest. Such groups, whether from Universities or Professions, might think of inviting M.P.s to sit as observers on their own committees and councils. This would make generally for far better informed parliamentary opinion.

Following a presentation by the Director of a summary of the seminar discussions to date Prof. Jolly said that it was necessary to strive for further representation of the public interest. The Civil Service was not necessarily an unbiased body. Such points should be emphasized in the final report. It would also be useful to have some mention of the international issues of the day and Their impact on the trilogy. There were also direct implications for the strengthening of regional as opposed to international activity. Mid-career training would in turn be affected by important international issues.

Vice-Chancellor Cartland drew attention to some omissions in the Director's summary which did not take sufficient account of the role of universities. The final report must be clear on definitions, e.g., the distinction between Civil Servants and Governments; between universities and their individual members and between public opinion and public interest. It was essential to see civil services, universities and professions in their proper context.

There was a function for universities in training. The gap between training for public administration and for business administration needed to be narrowed so that joint studies could be carried Out. Secondly, there was a need to understand the nature of the advice that universities could give. Academics tended to get problems of the wider world out of proportion. Here, the Civil Servant could help by taking the balanced view as between one specialist and another.

As to the role of a university, involvement in public policy was not necessarily its prime task. A longer term one was to be the guardian of national culture and the safeguard of the whole range of knowledge. Such tasks should not be overlaid by short-term issues. Other concerns of a university were with higher •and mid-career training for the longer term.

As to relations between universities and the professions, one must not overlook the fact that universities were also concerned with the training of generalists. This was of particular importance in relation to the impact of public opinion. From these remarks Sir George Cartland went on to inquire whether there was a general service duty on universities other than teaching and research.

How far could money be used on more general purposes in order to carry out duties to the public; for example by loaning staff to government bodies at a financial sacrifice? The question indeed arose whether universities were entitled to charge a fee to government for such services.

Page thirty

Referring to the supply of professional manpower, Mr Steel expressed the need for closer collaboration between universities and professions. They would have to get much closer together on manpower studies, courses, problems of recruitment and the filling of research gaps, e.g. as to the application of basic skills to basic problems. There was great need for mid-career updating and admirable opportunities here for university co-operation. Both sides needed to urge governments to make proper use of the skills available to them.

As to mid-career training, Dr Soper said that Civil Servants should be given a chance to get the feel of the business world, particularly in relation to international finance. They should be able to study such matters as investment flows, multi-national corporations, etc. through institutions and organizations.

The Plowden and Duncan reports had already made recommendations regarding the involvement of British civil servants in trade questions. But international finance was now of immense importance and there would be great benefit in posting diplomats in particular to finance institutions as stagiares rather than as trainees on a course.

Dr Symons referring to the brain drain suggested that the problem should, above all, be tackled from the angle of the use made of highly qualified manpower. This was a key link between the trilogy. Areas which could profitably receive attention in future in this context were first, the collection Of more data; and second, an attempt to find comparable bases on which such data could be assessed. The whole problem would be a profitable one for study and collaboration in a Commonwealth context in a broad search for a common policy. He then recommended a Commonwealth seminar on the subject as a step towards the presentation of recommendations to governments for consideration at a larger conference.

Mr McCombs pointed out, however, that quite minor changes in the national economic climate could easily throw manpower calculations out of gear. To this Mr Steel added that political decisions could bring about the same effect.

None the less, it was agreed that manpower planning studies would have to continue, however uncertain the future was.

Summing up the discussions, the Chairman then referred to the possible outcome of the seminar. It was clear that there was a wide range of circumstances in which all in the Commonwealth lived in the aftermath of the British heritage.

Substantial vehicles for inter-action already existed. Yet, inter-action between governments and universities on the one hand and between them and the professions on the other were not sufficiently advanced. Here, the Commonwealth Foundation's efforts through associations, centres and seminars should help to speed up the process. The Denman report on land economy in the Caribbean was an excellent case study example of how things could be advanced Page thir'y-one

through the trilogy. It showed how far existing skills could, in fact, go towards meeting needs provided that governments listened to recommendations from universities and professions and then came in with quite modest support.

It was important to note that professional centres themselves were primarily developing through the support given by the less wealthy professions. The Jamaican Government itself now seemed to be showing readiness to initiate regular discussions between the government and the professions through the local centre.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND CENTRES After the Director had provided details of such bodies outside the Caribbean area, the Chairman invited the Professional Centre representatives present to describe their problems and achievements.

Mr Murray said that the Trinidad Centre hoped soon to become a legal entity and to start on its building programme. Meanwhile, it was offering secretarial services to the professions, some of which would have office space in the building. Individual professional men were asking to be allowed to rent premises. Thus, the Centre faced no immediate financial problems. On the project front, the professional group was working towards an integrated contribution to the community. Dentists and doctors were now voluntarily helping with the health of school children while the engineers had offered their services to government in advising on community projects. There had also been a series of technical lectures, the most successful of which had dealt with town planning and its effect on land use and prices. The Centre was also urging its members to become involved in the drafting of legislation for Trinidad and Tobago.

Mr Searwar explained that the Professional Guild of Guyana had come into being in 1973 and had just obtained a lease of land from Government. A building appeal was now being launched. Shortly, a request for funds would come to the Foundation. Meanwhile, the guild was helping dentists and veterinarians to form their own bodies. The engineers were to do local work on a voluntary basis but there had been less success in persuading doctors and dentists to do likewise. Meanwhile, more co-operation between the professions was building up and other aims would be to produce greater integration on ethics, building codes and community health care throughout the Caribbean.

After outlining some of the work done by the Professional Centre of Singapore Mr Leong said that the time had come for a review of the work of the Centres against a background of their original objectives. Professional Centres clearly had some contribution to make in a rapidly changing Commonwealth.

They should address themselves to such matters as the social responsibilities Page tbirtji-two

of professionals and the contribution of professionals towards the economic progress of their country.

At this point, Dr Beaubrun spoke as President of the Commonwealth Medical Association and with reference to the Caribbean Medical Council. Both bodies were having success in influencing governments, particularly over the delivery of health care as a right rather than a privilege. He added that those most in need of professional centres were small territories such as the Windwards, whose professions would greatly gain from being able to work through a coordinating Secretary. There was, thus, an obligation on the member countries in the Caribbean to ensure that the smaller countries paid at least a token sum to the Commonwealth Foundation. There was need for an inter-disciplinary approach to medical problems at both professional and government levels and for further training in the organization of the professions. As to the Commonwealth-wide bodies, there was no right implied of interference in national affairs. But they could and did work to strengthen fundamental principles and to raise minds above national- prejudices, thus providing guidelines for the national bodies. The associations could also serve as mediators and repositories of information.

For the Commonwealth Library Association Mrs Fray expressed her anxiety to co-operate with other Professional groups. One danger experienced so far by her Association was that of professional identity relating particularly to the large number of professionals working in the Civil Services of the newer world. She supported points made earlier on the need for further sub-professional training courses and for support for Professional Centres. She also inquired whether Regional Commonwealth Bodies were essential in areas such as the Caribbean where international professional ones already existed.

Returning to the problems facing Professional Centres, Dr Amiel said that one apparent misconception which Jamaica had faced at the outset was that they had been geared to help the smaller, weaker bodies to consolidate their base and then to phase themselves out of existence. The Jamaica Centre had challenged this view, their own opinion being that centres must, on the contrary, be on-going bodies aiming at more and more professional integration.

The Centre had also had to combat the suspicion that it helped to submerge the identities of individual professional societies. One lesson learnt had been that there was a great lack of administrative know-how. This added to the need for a strong central secretariat to help with the administration and accounting tasks of many local societies. Continuing, he said that a Professional Register for Jamaica was in preparation. Following the consolidation of the Centre's base, the next stage would be to move onwards and outwards into the community with e.g., careers clinics which could be taken into schools throughout the island.

Page thirty-three

The Chairman then invited Dr Chhabra to speak on the problems of University Grants Committees. Dr Chhabra pointed out that there appeared to be no comprehensive view within the Commonwealth on the role of U.G.C.s, their function, etc. Possibly, the Commonwealth Foundation could think of organizing a seminar on this subject. Sir George Cart/and, Mr Grffiths and Dr Macdonald fully supported such a proposal. Further discussion suggested that the theme of any such meeting would have to be defined with care after full discussion with the Chairmen within the Commonwealth of the several committees or their relative equivalents. Particular points made were that there was variation in staffing, structure, systems and methodology among such organizations; that in Britain and Australia, U.G.C.s were drifting increasingly towards the Government viewpoint whereas in Canada, the reverse was happening. The broad conclusion was that subject to certain notes of caution, the organization of such a seminar, whether under Foundation auspices or with Foundation funds would be welcome but that it would be wise to restrict its remit to the mechanism of U.G.C.s throughout the Commonwealth.

There then followed a general discussion on the form which the final recommendations and conclusions of the Seminar might take.

Emerging from these discussions was the recommendation that the Commonwealth Foundation should in 1976 organize a meeting of representatives of Professional Centres primarily to review their achievements, problems and mutual interaction in the professional field throughout the Commonwealth.

It was also suggested that the Commonwealth Foundation might consider the possibility of encouraging the growth of a modified type of Professional Centre suited to the needs of the professions and the public in remoter or less developed areas of the older Commonwealth.

ANNEX A THE CIVIL SERVICE AS A UNIFYING AGENT IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Address by Sir Egerton Richardson, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Public Service It will be useful if participants in this seminar would read, or read afresh, four short works on the condition of the public services in the Caribbean region.

Not that these are the most useful, most accurate or least dated of the works on the subject it is simply that they bear very directly on aspects of the situation I have selected for comment in my address. These works are: -

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i.

2.

'The Environment of Commonwealth Caribbean Bureaucracies', by G. E. Mills, in International Review of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 39, 1973 No. i.

'Reform of the Public Services Problems of Transitional Bureaucracies',

by C. A. P. St Hill, in Social and Economic Studies, Vol. i, No. i, March -

1970. .

4.

.

'The Role of Statutory Boards in the Political Process in Jamaica', by Edwin Jones, in Social and Economic Studies, March 1970'Some Notes on Public Service Commissions', B. A. N. Collins, in Social and Economic Studies, Vol. x 6, 1967.

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT For the purpose of this address I propose to take the term 'National Development' in its widest sense. I take it therefore to include not only economic expansion and the achievement of higher standards of living, but also the achievement of a greater capacity by the majority of the people of the nation to make the decisions which determine the shape of their future economic and social environment. It includes the growth of a heightened awareness of national identity, a fuller recognition of cultural roots and a blossoming of cultural expression. In the Caribbean circumstances it must now obviously include also the process of effecting a fundamental change in the status and influence of particular economic and social groups within the society.

2. National development proceeds under the direction of national Governments. In the words of U.N. experts: is witnessing an extension of government 'The twentieth century functions beyond all precedent. The concept of the service State has been almost universally accepted. Governments have taken upon themselves the responsibility for the direction and utilization of manpower, natural resources and the fast-growing technology of the modern world for the creation of an environment conducive to widespread economic and social well-being. The demands of the peoples upon their Governments have become insistent. more and more, particularly in developing lands, the Governments are looked to as the agencies to meet these urgent demands and to devise new forms of public administration to overcome social and economic deficiencies.'

It is now widely recognized that the days of laisser-faire are long past when Governments, in developed and developing nations, could limit their roles to fixing and monitoring general rules of social relationships and to providing basic services and in-entives for entrepreneurs. The development .

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.

.

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process goes on, however, within legal and psychological frameworks which are :determined partly .by custom and partly by the political philosophies of successive governments, including but not restricted to the government of the day. It is particularly fashionable in newly independent states to speak of the traditional framework within which development must often proceed as though it were at best unnecessary baggage and at worst a positive hindrance to progress. Whatever opinion one may hold about the value of the framework we have inherited, we should beware of a facile dismissal of ideas that are ingrained in the minds of people, especially people whose effective performance is indispensable to economic expansion and often to social development also, so long As the legal and social framework remains largely unchanged.

THE MANAGEMENT OF DEVELOPMENT The development process must be managed. That part of it which. is in private hands has to be stimulated, regulated and directed into definite channels. That part of the process which Government itself chooses to operate must be run. The political leaders cannot single-handedly manage it by themselves. By tradition our system supplies them with cadres of permanent officials whose function it is to carry on the day-to-day management of public affairs in its varied aspects and ramifications.

The duties of a Member of Parliament are already virtually whole-time.

Certainly, if they are properly discharged they can occupy usefully the whole of his working time. The duties of Cabinet Ministers are certainly whole-time.

The Minister with portfolio who, in our system, must ordinarily be a Member of Parliament, already combines two virtually whole-time jobs, and it is against this background that we should examine the effort of the Minister who occasionally tries to operate:as though he were his own administrative chief.

In saying that the development process takes place within a framework determined by tradition as well as by the political philosophies of successive governments, I wish to emphasize the fact that it is not the philosophy of the current Government only which determines the pace nor even the direction at times of the current development process. So obvious is this fact that it is almost a truism to state it. Yet how often do we act and speak as though we have forgotten that no Government, however revolutionary, can change overnight the whole framework within which development takes place. An understanding of. the tradition which today infuses, or hinders, the development Process at any particular time is one of the contributions which the permanent Civil Service should bring to the management of development under any particular regime. .

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The permanent officials under our normal constitutional 'arrangements are. charged with the duty of. the day-to-day management of those public affairs which are entrusted to a Minister; This is not an artificial function, it is one which must be discharged in any organized society, and the discharge of this function requires an expertise entirely distinct from that ordinarily possessed by academics and not always possessed by members of the recognized professions, although the Public Servant's expertise, certainly that of the upper ranks of the Service, comes very close to professional expertise. I offer no apology for the Public Officer's image of himself, or for his view of the role 'which he discharges towards the rest of the community. We claim to be experts in the management of public affairs at the administrative level. We see ourselves, therefore, firmly installed at the centre of the development process. We do not believe there is a viable alternative - to the bureaucracy in the discharge of ,the management function. Other alternatives have been canvassed, we know, and from time to time attempts have been made to replace the bureaucracy with short-term Public Servants of another. We are convinced, however, that the longer the period the short-term employee spends in public service the closer will the pattern of his outlook and his operating methods approach to those of the established bureaucrat.

In the midst of his pressures the Caribbean bureaucrat tends to remind himself that his function is as old as organized Government, that his role had to be discharged in Egypt and in Babylon and in Persia, under Napoleon and under Hitler, as well as under Jamaican Chief Minister, Norman Manley.

Incidentally, the important part of that function is organizing and accountability for the conduct of public affairs, an element which is too often made light of until administrative disaster overtakes a government. It is interesting to note that the sacred chronicler in distilling for the record the essence of the duty which Daniel was assigned when he was made the first of the presidents in Belshazzer's kingdom, said it was ordered that the provincial governors should account to him so that the king's business might suffer no damage.

As a principal agent in the development process the Public Service can serve as a unifying agent in both formulation and implementation of policy, although its role in the formulation of policy is the less definitive. It is traditional in the Service to expect that political leaders will obtain their inputs in policy formulation from as many and as varied sources as they wish. The public service claims some proficiency in the balancing and synthesis of conflicting policy advice and likes to see full use made in this proficiency. I must admit immediately, however, that the coordinating and unifying role of the Public Service in policy formulating is often haphazard and inadequately discharged.

The reason is not far to seek. one - type or

securing

Page Ibirty-seven

Analysts and commentators on the process of public administration in times of change tend to make a simplistic distinction between formulation and implementation of policy, making formulation the responsibility of the political leadership and implementation the job of the Public Service. The situation in real life is not so simple. Seldom does a new Government come to office with much beyond broad policy ideas, whether for 'new projects and services, or to pursue new directions in existing services. Often these broad ideas are born of knowledge only of niin defects and inhumanities in in, existing service.

10. There often is a world of difference, however, between the delineation of broad lines of a new policy and the ability to begin implementation of that policy. The vital process of working out the details and the implications of the broad policy should always follow before implementation is allowed to begin.

In my view this working out of details is an essential part of the process of policy formulation. Great harm is done when the reality and necessity of this intermediate phase is glossed over, and when the time it demands is allowed to be ignored in the citizen's mind.

When the Public Service is encouraged to believe that formulation is the politician's exclusive preserve, and implementation that of the bureaucracy, when the public ignores. the intermediate phase of working out broad policy the Public Service often fails to take the initiatives it ought to, or to assume the leadership it should, in organizing the working-out process. Inputs from academics and professions are not always called for, or if invited are sought on an ad hoc and disorganized basis.

A wide opportunity exists to influence public opinion in this region about the vital necessity to work out the details and implications of broad policy, and about the opportunity offered by this process to the universities and the professions (as well as to the public and the pressure groups) to take part in this phase of the policy forumlation.

DEVELOPMENTS WHICH IMPOSE NEW DEMANDS ON THE PUBLIC SERVICE i i. From this view that the bureaucracy is ultimately indispensable, it follows that the Public Service must, be able to respond to each legitimate new demand which the direction taken by national policy may impose on the executive arm of Government.

It is a popular cry just now that Caribbean Governments need men, above all, 'who can manage change'. But Caribbean Governments do not need even now only men who can manage change. Stimulators and managers of change in certain areas of public affairs I agree; but those same Governments at this very Page thirly-e:ght

moment need men who in other areas of public affairs can manage conservation and secure the maintenance of the status quo.

I prefer therefore to express the challenge confronting the bureaucracies as a challenge to produce the personnel, the attitudes and the operating methods which are equal to each legitimate demand that is made on the Government. iz. Let us look quickly now at a few of the developments which impose new demands on the service. I will pass over developments in mere technology, such as the widespread use of computers in almost every area of modern life and activity, and I ask you to look at a few which, in my judgement, make peculiar demands upon the bureaucracy in the Caribbean region: the growing dependence of commerce and industry on government (especially on action by officials) for the day to day conduct of its own business; the rapid expansion in the areas of economic and social activity over which governments now assume direct control; the new militancy in trade union leadership and, to be truthful, also in trade union rank and file; the rapid spread of egalitarian ideas and their effect on the citizen's view of the kind of service he is entitled to expect from the Public Servant; the general political decision that national development is not truly development unless it effects a radical transformation of the society.

Since the last world war, business relations have grown in complexity and sophistication, and international developments have required that national governments answer more directly for the economic relations between their own people and those of other countries. The businessman therefore now progressively demands that our governments provide themselves with officials who are sensitive to business needs and who will instinctively endeavour to ensure that necessary control places the minimum of obstacle and delay in the way of the conduct of business.

As sectors formerly treated as the preserve of private enterprise have taken over in whole or in part, it is easy to see that the governments will need, in order to operate efficiently the enterprises taken over, men with knowledge and experience shaped in those identical areas of the private sector, and that the expertise required is unlikely to be found already in the possession of permanent officials. To my mind the logical measure which ought to be taken in such circumstances is, to bring the people with the expertise required into the ranks of the Public Service. The conditions of employment now ruling in the central Page thirty-nine

Civil Service will have to be. adjusted to accommodate personnel with this background.

Apparently, however, just the opposite course is often taken by government whichhas expanded its area of direct control in commerce or in industry. The reasons must have .little to-do with the conditions of employment of staff.. The widespread and continuing use of statutory boards or government 'corporations must be explained in 'political :terms.. Whilst the main' attractiveness at the official level of service in a statutory board is its freedom from parliamentary control from Government's financial and-personnel regulations, and its usual ability to offer remuneration above those ruling in the Central Government Service, I believe it' is important that the Collins analysis be taken further. In this process I should like to see a distinction made between those statutory bodies which offer an independent political constituency and those which do not.

15 . A new kind of Public Servant who displays both a new attitude towards organized labour and who can employ a new technique in the management of relations with workers is coming to the fore with the new developments I have mentioned earlier in the behaviour and demands of organized labour and representative Staff Associations. No longer too does the average citizen look to the public official, especially an official with whom he deals across the desk or the window day by day, as a benevolent dispenser of governmental favour.

He tends to demand every service as of right; and an attitude on the part of the public official consistent with the citizen's view of his rights an attitude free from patronizing overtones, is an essential part of' the equipment of those who now deal directly with the public.

Where policy decides that the power and influence of particular economic groups must change in favour of other groups; that, for example, the cost of ownership of property must increase and the returns from that ownership diminish; if the government decides to raise the real income of the lowest paid groups at the immediate expense of the rest; then a new challenge is thrown to the Public Service. This is not a challenge, however, to produce a new kind of expertise or 'to adopt a new technology. It is a challenge to make a change in technique, and adopt new attitudes towards traditional rights.

The new demands -being made on the Public Service which I have identified so far are demands which can be met by two kinds of response: (i) changes in conditions of employment to accommodate short-term entrants with special business or technical expertise; (a) re-education to produce changed attitudes towards rights,, new sensitivities towards people and an accelerated tempo in the conduct of public business.

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18. The last of the external changes to which I wish to draw attention as making new demands on the Public Service is the widespread adoption in business and commerce of modern techniques of management. The Public Service as a whole has been deficient in managerial expertise for a very long time, but the accelerated tempo in the conduct of business and the policy decision that society has got to be transformed have more starkly revealed this deficiency.

REFORM IN JAMAICA i 9. It can be said, I think, that in the Caribbean the Public Service is aware of its more glaring deficiencies, is searching out its faults with some outside aid and finding them.

Here in Jamaica, a programme of reform in the Public Service has begun.

It is a programme of self-reformation. A Ministry of the Public Service has been set up. A general classification of jobs in central and local Government has been carried Out and in the staff of statutory boards is almost complete.

The new structure brings together in one service-wide grouping top management posts whether administrative or professional in all Government Ministries.

Pay differentials are being subjected (against great odds) to rational examination.

Programmes of training for Public Officers at various levels have been stepped up. A corps of specialist Personnel Officers have received their first course of training. Plans to establish an Administrative Staff College are being worked on.

A standing committee of all Permanent Secretaries has been established with the duty to serve as a forum for discussion of the general process of reform, see that inter-departmental co-ordinating machinery is introduced where needed, keep watch upon the progress made in implementing Government programmes of major importance and advise the Cabinet where the advice of the executive departments as a whole is required.

Unfortunately the entrenched powers of the Public Service Commission, so fully analysed and explained in the Collins article, have not been touched.

Central personnel management is thus not yet integrated. It is left to the Commission and the Public Service Ministry to see how much integration of central control and what re-allocation of duties btween them they, can agree upon.

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CO-OPERATION WITH THE PROFESSIONS 23. I must not forget that the main concern of this series of Seminars is the role of the professions in national development. Since my subject today is the Civil Service as a unifying agent in national development, I have assumed that participants are primarily interested in the role the Civil Service can play in unifying the activities of the professions and the universities.

Some time has been devoted in this address to propounding the view that the Public Service is the central executive agent in national development, from which it follows that the professions and the universities can make a substantial contribution to that development by assisting the Public Service either to effect internal improvements or co-operate in the performance of tasks for which the Service carries the main responsibility.

I propose now to present a selected list of areas in which, in the view of the Public Service, assistance and co-operation from the Universities and the Professions are perceived to be needed. I hope that other participants from the Public Service will make their additions to this list. The participants from Outside the Public Service should then find it easier to form their own judgement as to whether our perceptions are adequate.

Let it be said at the outset that a substantial measure of co-operation in national development is already being provided by the Professions in the performance of professional work, advice on the framing of national policies and assistance in the implementation of national plans. When the role of the Public Service in working out the details of national policy is better recognized and allowed for, it is certain that the measure of assistance the professionals provide will increase. Speaking for Jamaica, we welcome the establishment of the Professional Centres and note with keen interest the number of constituent professional associations already identified with the two Caribbean Centres.

The management of the Centres should not be disappointed, however, if the views of the Centre as such or of all the professions as a whole, are not sought very often by Governments. The fact is that Governments are likely to invite the opinion of the Centre only on the very broadest questions such, for example, as the best means of establishing machinery for co-operation between Government and the Professions in preparing development plans.

Governments are more likely to seek the advice, from time to time, of a particular profession or group of professions. When such advice is sought the Centre can perform a valuable service to Government and to its constituent Associations if it can ensure: (i)

that advice is provided only after careful study is given by the professional body to the questions posed, and

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(z) the advice of the professional body is given entirely in the public interest - unless, of course, it is clear by the nature of the question itself that the Association is not required to advise for this purpose. z8. May I turn now to some of the areas in which the Professions can be of most value to the Central Public Service in the development process. (i) We expect them to keep abreast of new developments in the application of technology, to sift these developments and encourage our communities to adopt those which offer the greatest promise of improved efficiency. (a) We expect the professions to be continually concerned with the problem of managing the monopoly of knowledge they enjoy and to keep us assured that the draft on the national income, which is the price of access to this knowledge, is always a fair one and does not take advantage of monopoly positions. () The Associations are uniquely positioned to expand the professional role in national development through manpower preparation and use.

We would encourage each profession at the present time, except perhaps Medicine and Law, to propagandize young people while still of school age, to enter that particular profession. If they could be convinced that a normal distribution of a professional's working life is to devote the early years to Public Service, the middle years to private practice and the final years to Public Service once more, no co-operation or assistance in national development could be more valuable. We appreciate highly the contribution the professionals already make in the training of subprofessions in their various disciplines. We would like to see this contribution rapidly expanded.

(1) We would invite the Associations to keep up-to-date and organized data on professional remuneration and conditions of employment in the public and private sectors. () We would welcome their opinions, from time to time, on the relative value of particular professional schools in other countries.

(6) Ministries of the Public Service would be glad of the opportunity, from time to time, to compare public sector standards and work loads for particular grades of professional and sub-professional staff with those prevailing in the private sector.

Still in the area of assistance the professionals can offer in the performance of work, I would emphasize the particular importance at the present 29.

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juncture in Caribbean development of the effort that Governments must make at job creation. Most Caribbean governments are committed by policy to maximizing employment, yet the technology we have inherited seems to become year by year more capital intensive. If the policy aim of employment maximization is to be secured, two developments seem to be indispensable and in both the professionals can take a lead.

Governments need advice how to combine different levels of technology in the same project. We raised this question with representatives from the Government of China. They say their situation is simple: they have never had enough heavy equipment for any major project, so they have always had to supplcmcnt the large with the small machine, and the small machine with hand labour.

On the same project, therefore, they employ at the same time large bulldozers, heavy tractors, small tractors, wheelbarrows and men and women carrying earth in baskets. Caribbean developers need to evolve and disseminate a practice of our own in this respect. Perhaps our professionals who work on the physical environment should take a look at techniques employed to this end in other countries, particularly countries with developing economies.

30. Of the same order is another kind of research which is sorely needed research aimed at lowering the ratio of skilled and unskilled personnel on a project so as to spread the effectiveness of a single technician and allow more projects to be done and more unskilled labour to be gainfully employed with a smaller complement of skilled labour.

-

In the sphere of formulafion of policy the sector in which the most valuable contribution can, I think, be made by the professions is in the overall management of land resources. All Caribbean Governments need informed and impartial advice in order to establish the hierarchy of claims on the use of land. Professionals in town planning and land economy, in and out of Government, can make a signal contribution to national development if they will carry out joint studies and provide co-ordinated advice on this subject. i.

32. Closely allied to land management; is the protection of the natural environment from pollution. The number of professionals available to Governments competent to deal with broad problems of industrial waste, human waste and soil degradation, etc., is totally insufficient for the tasks at hand.

It is certainly insufficient for the pace at which values which have taken centuries to build up are now being destroyed. The improvement in the. quality of national life to which the preservation of natural amenities is essential, will only be secured if the adoption of policies is based on technically informed and technically sound advice.

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CO-OPERATION WITH THE UNIVERSITIES 33- It is scarcely practicable, and I doubt whether it would be desirable, that the major part of .the contribution by the Universities to national development should be made through the Public Service. The Universities will always be wary of too direct involvement in the day-to-day affairs of Government.

In any case the quality of national development in the long term is already theirs to determine, for with the growth of nationalism in the region their influence on the choices and standards of higher education will be paramount.

34. As in the case of the professions, however, a substantial measure of co-operation and help to Government Departments is already being provided by the Universities. The help is given for the most part on an individual basis where a particular Professor or member of Faculty serves as adviser to a Minister, consultant to a Ministry or participant in an ad hoc committee or working group.

3. In Engineering Agriculture and Law, the University contributes directly to national development through the professions. The Department of Government and the School of Management have embarked upon major programmes of modernizing Caribbean management and administrative techniques.

36. In the time which remains at my disposal I can do little more than list some of the areas in which it appears to me that the University contribution towards the specific needs of the Public Service can be most effective: (i) Periodic consultation should be organized between Public Service and the University administrations in forecasting manpower needs in the region for development and other purposes. Decisions on the University's own programmes of expansion should be influenced very greatly by such forecasts.

(2) We would like to see data maintained and organized about the employment preferences of University graduates and on the movement of Caribbean graduates in and Out of employment in the region. () The Government alway3 has a wide variety of subjects for study and analysis which could, without prejudice to academic independence, offer fields of inquiry for postgraduate and doctoral theses. The opportunity to recommend such fields of inquiry would be very valuable to the Public Service. () The Administrative Staff College, when it is established in Jamaica, will look to the University to provide it with some part of its teaching staff, and certainly to take care of the preliminary preparation which some Staff College students will require Page fortjv-five

CONCLUSION 37. Mr. Chairman, distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, you will certainly have discovered at this point in my address that the widest possible scope still remains for the joint study of means of co-operation between Government, the Professions and the Universities.

38. I am confident that a broad consensus will emerge from our Seminar that permanent machinery for co-operation should be established. I wish you a fruitful, as well as pleasant three days of deliberations.

ANNEX B MUTUAL INTERACTION FOR ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

By Walter A. Burke, Director, General Services and Administration, and Edwin W. Carrington, Director, Trade and Integration Caribbean Community Secretariat Introduction I must first apologize for the absence of my colleague and collaborator, Mr Edwin Carrington, Director of the Trade and Integration Division of the Caribbean Community Secretariat. As you are all aware, the countries of the Caribbean along with the African and Pacific partners are at the moment involved in the final leg of negotiations for association with the European Economic Community. Mr Carrington is therefore in Brussels as a member of the Secretariat's delegation at these negotiations.

2. The subject of this paper is one of tremendous interest to all of us in the Secretariat. In many ways the Secretariat may be considered to be the Civil Service of the Regional Movement serving the collective wills of the xz member countries. Naturally we come in contact with all the national Civil Services of the Region; but the role of the Universities and Professions in advancing economic integration is also of great relevance to our operation.

HISTORIC BACKGROUND 3. Economic integration has had a relatively short existence in the Caribbean, the first real steps having been taken less than ten years ago when in December 1965 the Governments of Antigua, Barbados, and Guyana signed an Agreement at Dickenson Bay, Antigua, to set up the Caribbean Free Trade AssociatiOn. In the interest of encouraging wider co-operation among all the Commonwealth Caribbean territories the implementation -of. this. Agreement was,. however, Page forty-six

postponed and eventually Heads of Government of the Commonwealth Caribbean Countries at their Fourth Conference held in Barbados in October 1967 decided to formally establish CARIFTA, .to include as many Comonwealth Caribbean countries as possible in a new Agreement based on the first Agreement which had been signed in 1965.

4. It was further agreed that CARIFTA would be the beginning of what was eventually to be translated into a Caribbean Economic Community. This new Agreement entered into force for the territories of Antigua, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago on May 1st, 1968 and was subsequently adhered to by Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St Lucia and St Vincent on July ist, 1968, Jamaica and Montserrat on August ist, 1968 and Belize on May 1st, 1971. Bahamas did not join the Association, although it contributed to the budget of the Association's Secretariat.

In keeping with the conception of the Fourth Heads of Government Conference that CARIFTA would in effect be the jumping-off stage for an eventual Caribbean Economic Community (Common Market), the Secretariat was entrusted with undertaking necessary research to devise the required necessary framework on which such forward steps could be taken. These studies revolved around three main areas: ensuring that the LDCs (or perhaps more correctly the More Under Developed Countries of the Region) secured adequate benefits from the Integration Movement; mechanisms for 'deepening' CARIFTA into a Common Market; the implications and timing for 'widening' CARIFTA. 6. These inter-related issues were the subject of several studies which were submitted to Governments over the first four years of CARIFTA and in this connection ready acknowledgement is given to the contribution of the Academics, and in October 1972, Heads of Government of the Commonwealth Caribbean Community at their Seventh Meeting held in Trinidad decided to transform CARIFTA into a Common Market and establish the Caribbean Community of which the Common Market is an integral part. The Common Market is a substantial advance on CARIFTA and constitutes a significant deepening of CARIFTA while providing additional special measures for the benefit of the LDCs. The draft of the Caribbean Community Treaty which encompasses the operations of the Community was in essence agreed to at the Eighth Heads of Government Conference in Georgetown in April 1973, and came into force for the Governments of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago on August 1st, 1973, the Heads of Government of these countries having .

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signed the Treaty at an historic meeting in Trinidad on the fourth of the preceding month.

8. All the other Governments who were members of CARIFTA have since signed and ratified the Treaty. Membership in the Community (and Common Market) is therefore now the same as existed in CARIFTA which it has superseded. The Bahamas which never joined CARIFTA has not yet joined the Caribbean Community although it is hoped that she will do so in the near future.

On the question of 'widening' the Secretariat is currently carrying out studies mandated by Heads of Government. These studies relate to a widening which could eventually include all the islands of the Caribbean Sea and Surinam.

It may be of interest to note that one non-English speaking territory (Haiti) has already applied for membership in the Common Market. .

WHAT DOES ECONOMIC INTEGRATION SEEK TO ACHIEVE? io. Any attempt at discussing the contribution which interaction between elements of the Community can make to economic integration in the Region should, however, have a further point of departure. There ought to be some assessment of what such a movement aims at achieving and indeed what methodology or mechanisms are considered necessary or desirable for procuring these results. First we look at what we hope to achieve. ii. Basically, economic integration aims at ensuring a better quality of life for all members of the Caribbean Community both at national and individual levels. Now, it must be conceded immediately that this cannot be achieved by economic integration alone in its strictest sense. It is for this reason that the Treaty establishing the Caribbean Community embraces such other areas as Common Services, functional co-operation, and co-ordination of Foreign Policy among Independent Territories. Indeed the very nature of zoth-century international politics make this latter a necessary corollary of economic integration. Some latitude is therefore craved where use of the term economic integration in this paper in effect relates to other areas of co-operation covered by the Caribbean Community Treaty. iz. At this stage it is useful to recall that the Commonwealth Caribbean comprises a number of small island states and mainland Guyana each subject to marked under-development and external economic dependence. We therefore need economic integration, first of all to create a wider and. adequately protected regional market so that the process of industrialization and agricultural development can be facilitated. This is provided for through a Common Protective Policy, the most important component of which is the Common External Tariff.

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Secondly, economic integration provides for the pooling of our natural resources with a view to achieving the complementary development of our national economies, due care being of course given to the special position of the LDCs. Individual territories differ in endowment of natural resources.

It has been shown that pooling of these resources creates additional production possibilities of somewhat greater feasibility than can be achieved on an individual basis.

14. Thirdly, economic. integration will promote the adoption of common policies leading to joint actions by the Region.vis-à-vis. extra-regional countries and groupings both national and corporate. Common sense indicates that.the Region as a whole has more 'clout' when bargaining externally than any one country in the Community.

1 5 . The achievement of these objectives requires the close co-ordination of national policies and a high degree of joint planning through which the natural resources of the entire Region may be combined to provide a useful basis for some degree (hopefully a high one) of sustained growth for the countries of the Region. If through Regional programming in the agricultural, manufacturing and mineral sectors in the Region, we can create linkages, between the various national economies, we will go a far way towards reducing the need for certain types of extra-regional imports, thus reducing our external dependence.

Concommitant with .this is the need for regional development, of technology. This can .take the form of either the. development of completely indigenous technology or the adaptation of foreign technology to suit the peculiar needs of the Region. Either way, it requires a much fuller development of our human resources.

Mention has already been made of the dependent nature of our economies in the Region. A marked feature of this dependence is the extent to which important sectors of these economies are foreign owned and/or controlled.

This can prove to be a seriously inhibiting factor in any attempts at co-ordinated planning. Foreign ownership and control of key economic sectors can prevent the creation of a genuine national economy, even though it may produce economic growth in the sense of a rise in total and per capita' income. When a country is dominated by foreign private investment for a long period of time, the effect is to distort development; to fail to produce linkages between economic activities and sectors; to cripple and discourage the development of local initiative, local entrepreneurship and local institutions for mobilizing savings; and to remove from national control powers of effective decision-making in economic matters. iS. Thus, an important element in regional integration strategy is a common policy towards foreign investment, which among other things seeks to .

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ensure that the gains from an integrated market accrue to nationals rather than foreigners.

In summary, economic integration is the vehicle for the overall development of the economies of the member states in the Community through fuller and more rationalized utilization of all the resources in the entire Region. This will be achieved by the reduction of the various forms of external dependence from which the Region now suffers, the development of co-ordinated policies and the improvement of our bargaining position internationally. This not only calls for some restructuring of the existing institutions, but also for significant changes in attitudes.

It should easily be acknowledged that if the restructuring referred to above is to be brought about, Governments must play 'a major role. It-is only Governments which have the competence to embark on co-ordinated policies for sectoral development on a regional level. Governments alone have the capacity for the joint planning which is necessary. In this connection, a comment made by Mr W. G. Demas, former Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community Secretariat, is of interest: 'In restructuring the economies of the Caribbean Countries as indeed of all Third World Countries, the State must inevitably have a large role to play. The power of the State as an institution must be mobilized and deployed on the external front in order to promote the interest of the country vis-à-vis powerful foreign government and powerful international corporations. It must also be mobilized on the internal front in the interest of general national economic development. zi. This is in no way an argument for a centrally planned economy. It simply recognizes the ideal position of Governments for restructuring economies, and indeed their responsibility to their people for doing so. One must however, not lose sight of the potential disadvantage underlying a movement like the Caribbean Community in which there is no supra-national political authority and in which practically all decisions are subject to unanimity. Such a situation demands the highest degree of collaboration and at times even compromise at the national level in the interest of the regional whole a derogation of formal sovereignty at the national level in the interest of more effective sovereignty for all.

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22. Since, however, Governments are elected and are therefore subject to the sovereign will of the people there is also an inherent responsibility for Governments to motivate the people, to use such means as are at their disposal e.g. mass media to educate their individual populations as to the wisdom of x. W. G. Demas - 'Power to the West Indian People'. Address delivered at the soth Annual Delegates Conference of the Guyana Trade Union Congress Saturday, September zoth, 1971.

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their actions at the regional level. It is perhaps in this area that we find the greatest deficiency in the Region.

23. To achieve these ends Governments must utilize all the resources at their disposal. They must know that they can have recourse to any category within the community in furthering their developmental aims. There must in short be mutual interaction.

THE UNIVERSITIES 24. Within the Caribbean the Universities and more specifically the University of the West Indies, have a peculiar contribution to make The University of the West Indies has the distinction of being perhaps the oldest regional body in the Caribbean, and spans the Region, with three campuses and its other university centres catering for approximately 5,000 students and having a staff of somewhat over 600.

The excellence of its contribution to the Region is unquestioned. It has over the years produced numbers of graduates of high calibre. In fact, the University of the West Indies, and to a lesser extent the University of Guyana have made significant contributions to Regionalism in another way. Their halls have become the centres in which potential leaders, both political and otherwise, have initially interacted. Exposure to each other's views in those formative years has in no small way contributed to easier dialogue when contemporaries meet later in life.

We think it is fair to state also that the Universities in the Region have not been totally unmindful of the need for gearing their programmes to the peculiar needs of the Region.

All of the Faculties show evidence of the efforts that are being made to develop curricula and research programmes which are uniquely tailored to the needs of the Region.

But are we going far enough, fast enough, to cope with the challenges and demands for a restructuring of the Society alluded to earlier? Are we not still preserving an 'elitist' position in respect of the traditional professions?

Are the universities fully accepting their role as motivators for change of attitudes within the Society?

There may well be need for the Universities to have a further look at their effectiveness in the Caribbean of today. Some of the traditional academic approaches may no longer be relevant or desirable. Maybe we need to develop Page fiftjy-one

alternative or ancillary programmes to those which now exist. For instance, is our present medical programme totally relevant? Do we not need to develop within the University larger programmes for the training of para-medicals, or, as it is more euphemistically called, training in Allied Health Sciences? is it worth while producing ten more doctors unless they are combined with say forty para-medicals?

30. Again, do we need more economists at the expense of perhaps a new programme in tourism and hotel management? Can we afford to produce engineers without supporting technicians?

P. Given the scarce financial resources in the Region these are questions which have to be faced squarely, and their solutions depend heavily on the Universities. This is one of the ways in which the Universities can make their contribution to opinion-forming at the national or regional levels. For only by positive reaction to the needs of the society can the Universities hope to play their part in Government's developmental strategies.

32. University education is no longer the prerogative of the privileged few.

Academics, therefore, now come into contact with larger sections of the population. They can accordingly also contribute to opinion forming in an indirect way through the residual influence they have on their students who after all, are part (and more often than not a vocal part) of individual national constituencies. There is therefore need for a continuing awareness of the goals of society as expressed through the State if the contribution which the Universities have to make is to be constructive.

This is no attempt to deny the Universities their independence nor does one suggest that they should directly involve themselves in the affairs of the State. They can nevertheless not afford to remain outside the mainstream of national' and regional life. The point has already been made that the State must have at its disposal all the resources available within the Region.

4. One further point. We have stated earlier that there is need for evolution of an indigenous technology. The Universities have their role to play here also.

They 'must be involved in research and development, and not only for devising new technologies, but in modifying and adapting foreign technologies which are amenable given the specific requirements of the Region. For research and development to be effective it must be within the context of the development plans of the Region. This can only be realized if there is a constant flow of information between the Universities and Governments. This two-way channel can itself become an avenue by which Governments' policies and plans may be beneficially influenced through inputs from 'the world of the academic.

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PROFESSIONS 35. In some respects, what has been said of the Universities. may also be said of the professions. Whether consciously or not, they have promoted in air of elitism with regard to the traditional professions. The negative effect that this has had on development within the Region may not be easily measured. One is conscious of it, however. Agriculture as a profession is still not fashionable, yet economists are clearly agreed that any meaningful development either at national or regional level must be underpinned by a sound agricultural base.

One also notes the clear line of distinction drawn between the professionals and technicians. One also hears of the restrictive practices within some professions by which the number of aspirants who qualify in any one year is limited. All these factors tend to reduce the effectiveness of the contribution which the professions can make to opinion-forming, and eventually to development. They also tend to distOrt motivation within the community through enhancement of some areas. of academic endeavour at the expense of others.

Professionals therefore need to make a conscious effort at improving their public images, perhaps through the establishment and effective operation of professional bodies, demonstrating to the community a professional objectivity and public spirited involvement without which their involvement in matters of public interest can easily be adjudged to be one of self-interest.

On the distaff side one is aware of the apparent distrust with which the civil servants tend to view professionals even where in some cases they may be of the same discipline. This is indeed unfortunate because in an area of scarce human and financial resources, Governments are scarcely ever in a position to retain all the professional advice which they need to promote development. They need to rely heavily on the assistance of non-GOvernment professionals and should be able to consult with them and have the benefit of their contributions at all times.

One way in which professionals might contribute is in assisting Governments in evolving programmes of training for technicians. Many professionals in the private sector do hold managerial positions in, the private sector and could within their organizations provide for on-the-job training and development at the technical level. These programmes could be developed in consultation with national governments and thus fill a void in the programme of technical education in the Region.

Professionals also have another vital, contribution to make to development and indeed :to opinion-forming on a regional basis Their fraternity extends beyond national boundaries and" can asist significantly in. cultivating an atmosphere of receptivity for te,gional programmes and development.

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CIVIL SERVANTS 41. The role of the Civil Servant is crucial to any discussion on economic integration.

42. In-depth examination of his functions and relationships with Universities and Professions have already been, and will be, treated by other distinguished speakers more competent than ourselves to do so. We should, however, make some mention of their role within the ambit of regional development.

4. Since economic integration aims at the co-ordination and development of joint policies, a heavy responsibility rests with the civil servant at the national level. Not only does he have this traditional role of principal adviser to his Government, and of course that of the conduit for implementation of Government policies, he is also in many respects the propagator of his Government's views at regional level. While obviously required to operate within politically demarcated policy guidelines, he nevertheless in consultation with his counterparts from other national Civil Services is expected to resolve technical difficulties and. roadblocks, thus paving the way for eventual political decisions on matters of joint policy.

The Civil Servant therefore has a dual role that of interaction with the other elements of society at the national level, as well as 'intra-interaction' with other Civil Servants at the Regional level.

45. We have so far, as it were, looked at the capacity of these functionaries the academic, the professional and the civil servant for mutual interaction.

The next logical step would appear to be that of examining their scope for Interaction. This will be taken in two sections the present scope, and possible areas for widening the present scope. .

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PRESENT SCOPE FOR INTERACTION 46. Probably the single most pervasive avenue for interaction between the intellectuals (through their Universities) the professionals (through their corporate bodies) and the civil servants is through the Caribbean Community Secretariat.

47. The Secretariat, comprising regional civil servants and technocrats, is the principal administrative arm of the integration grouping services all meetings of the organs and institutions of the Community. In servicing these meetings the Secretariat can suggest items for inclusion on the meetings' agendas.

In doing so, the Secretariat takes into account specific mandates from previous meetings, requests from member Governments, and matters which in Its own opinion are relevant and vital for consider' tion.

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48. The Secretariat is 'open' to any citizen, natural or legal, of the Community. Any professional agency, University, academic organization, etc., can approach the Secretariat with any issue which if in the opinion of the latter is of vital importance, can be placed on the agenda for discussion by the relevant organization or institution of the integration movement. Of course, any of the agencies referred to may also approach any national minister with a view to having him propose the subject-matter for inclusion on the agenda of a meeting of an appropriate organization or institution.

4. The procedure for submitting matters to such meetings involves a preparatory meeting of officials of all member Governments. Thus any submission of the type suggested above which reaches the agenda of a meeting of any organization or institution will have the benefit of examination and recom mendation by officials of the Secretariat and Civil Servants prior to Ministerial decision.

50. While this procedure does provide some opportunity for professional groups to interact with regional officials for the furtherance of national development through the process of regional economic integration, such opportunity is at best minimal, uncertain and unstructured and almost totally dependent on the initiative of the particular professional group. i. Rather more institutionalized arrangements do, however, exist within the economic integration movement with regard to both professional groups and academics. Hence we find that in agriculture both the Departments of Agriculture of the Universities and the Caribbean Agricultural Development and Research Institute (CARDI) are represented at regional meetings thereby providing for the continuous blending of the inputs of the academic/researcher, the practising professional agriculturalists and the national civil servants.

52. Similarly, in the area of monetary co-operation, not only regional officials, but regional commercial and central bankers as well as monetary theorists (academics) interact at different stages and levels in a process of devising policy upwards to a decision-making level by the Ministers of Finance.

y3. In the area of regional co-operation in taxation, regional practising tax experts have, both as a professional body (the Caribbean Organization of Tax Administration COTA) and as tax officials of member governments, with the assistance of academics in public finance and students of government, conS tributed significantly to the preparation of regional economic integration instruments such as the Intra-Regional Double Taxation Agreements. COTA has also been serving to improve the quality of their membership and to identify areas in which policy needs to be developed and adopted.

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54. Another area of regional interaction in economic integration is in the field of statistical services. Here, through the agency of the standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians, the development of regional statistical services without which the policies of regional economic integration cannot be properly devised or evaluated is pursued.

It is obvious, therefore, that in the area of economic integration some institutional structure exists for mutual interaction between the Region's professionals, academics and/or civil servants. There are in addition, other areas in which the Region's professionals, academics and civil servants interact in the furtherance of the goal of improving the quality of life for the Region. We refer to mutual interaction in areas such as education, culture and health, to name a few. In these areas where institutionalized structures have been established significant interaction has been taking place as an integral part of the integration movement.

6. An assessment of the institutional measures explicitly provided for in the regional integrating instruments would, however, lead to the clear conclusion that such provisions are at best modest. There is certainly need for institutional arrangements which can cater for increased levels of mutual interaction among these key functionaries in the process of regional economic integration.

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SOME POSSIBLE AREAS FOR WIDENING THE SCOPE FOR MUTUAL INTERACTION 7. One of the basic principles which should be expressly borne in mind in this brief pointer to new areas of mutual interaction is that interaction is a multi-flow process. This implies the need not only for the professionals and academics etc. to influence the process of regional economic integration for national development, but the reverse also.

8. The process of determining relevant university courses and syllabuses should equally involve the professionals and the relevant integration institutions' inputs, as the integration policy must be informed by the academic's and the professional body's inputs.

59. There also appears to be much greater need for inter-role panels, seminars etc. involving different classes of functionaries (not necessarily limited to the three under discussion) on general issues affecting the society. Existing audio and electronic media could serve a vital role in taking such exercises to the mass of the population. More limited and specialized activities of this sort at schools, universities, etc. should be mounted as a regular part of the civil servants', professionals' and academics' contribution to his society.

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6o. There is also dire need for professionals and civil servants etc. to be able to return for short sabbaticals to academic institutions, and for interchange with academics so as to give each other a deeper appreciation of the position of the others. Similarly, academics should be allowed to, and should avail themselves more of opportunities to be attached to regional and national institutions as a means of providing vital refresher inputs and of appreciating critical practical difficulties of having to functiOn in certain positions.

The Universities must also provide for senior retired outstanding political, academic and professional figures to contribute to the enrichment of the institutions, and through them, the society by catering for such contributions as they may be able to make in their later years.

Finally, at the level of the integrating Institution, formal machinery ought to be devised for providing for discussions between regional policy makers, professional bodies and academics so as to constantly enrich the movement through person-to-person contact between the Region's key resources its skilled personnel.

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CONCLUSION Advocacy of the ideas expressed in the preceding section is however inhibited by one strong factor. It must be recognized that in the final analysis, the degree of effective mutual interaction is likely to be not so much a function of legal provisions as of the spirit with which the whole process of integration, be it for national or regional development, is pursued. This in itself depends in large measure on the role which professionals and their corporate bodies, academics and the universities, and governments and their officials see each other as playing within the society.

Universities must remember that they are not the Government, academics that they are not minister and politicians, governments and politicians that they are not university vice chancellors and professors, and civil servants that they are public servants. They must all recognize that each is poorer without the proper relationship and functioning of the other; and, most importantly, that the countries of the Region cannot sustain these elites, as indeed they are, unless by such sustenance they ensure the rapid development of all the people.

Indeed their failure to do this might raise the question of the role of yet another class of functionary not so far considered the military. But this is another question for another time!

Sir Hugh Springer in a graduation address at the Cave Hill campus a few years ago made the following comment -

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'...there is a limit to what Governments and Statesmen can do. In a democratic society the quality of Governments reflect the quality of the people who elect them and who must bear the ultimate repsonsibiity for what they do. And the quality of a people is determined by the quality of the individuals who make it up."

66. The Commonwealth Caribbean is a democratic society. Professionals, academics and civil servants are important elements in this society.

ANNEX C THE PROFESSIONS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO OPINION FORMING AND NATIONAL POLICY MAKING

By Robert Steel, B.Sc., FRICS, Barrister at Law (Secretary of CASLE) INTRODUCTION 1.1. The Commonwealth Heads of Government established the Commonwealth Foundation in 1966 with the object of promoting the advancement of the professions in all Commonwealth countries. They had in mind that professional skills are needed to achieve social and economic progress and for the realization of national development plans'; and their aim was to help every country of the Commonwealth to acquire indigenous skills of the quality and on the scale that its local needs required.

1.2. In its turn, the Foundation has sought to improve the supply of professional manpower and the standard of professional competence by sponsoring three main forms of activity (i) the formation of Commonwealth Associations for individual professions (which facilitates pan-Commonwealth collaboration), (ii) the formation of national professional centres (which facilitates collaboration between all the professions in individual countries), and (iii) various promotions in the form of bursaries and grants designed to foster professional development, the provision and improvement of professional education, and the dissemination of professional information. i.

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This conference reflects a further important advance in the Foundation's thinking. It has recognized that the mere provision of professional skills is not enough; and that it is equally important to ensure that those skills are properly and fully used. The subject-matter of this conference has evolved out of earlier discussions on the role of the professions in a changing world, and on the complementary role of the universities; and the realization that the best 1.3.

i. Sir Hugh Springer K.C.M.G., C.B.E.

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Graduation Address, U.W.I. Cave Hill Campus

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results will only be achieved if these two reservoirs of experience and skill can be harnessed to the national effort by working in close accord with the civil service, both in the performance of professional work and in the provision of advice on the framing of national policies and the implementation of national plans.

1.4. I can say from my own experience that some countries make good use of their professional resources, but in many. others there is a considerable lack of understanding by governments. and public servants of the actual. functions of the professions and of the role they can play in the advancement of the- public well-being. It is important to recognize, in such cases, that governments will only be able to make full use of the professions if the professions themselves make a positive and successful effort to convey to those who make policies a clear picture of the services they have to offer. This need is not, I may say, limited to the developing countries, where some of the professions are-comparatively new; the lack of understanding is equally apparent in some of the developed countries. I speak not so much of the better known professions such as law and medicine, but rather of those that are less well known to the general public, and in particular the environmental professions of architecture, engineering, planning, surveying and land economy.

CASLE (or the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land 1.5 Economy, with which I have the honour -to be connected) has endeavoured to overcome this problem by publishing literature about the scope of its three constituent professions (land economy, land surveying and quantity surveying) and the services they are able to offer. It has also sponsored seminars in several countries for discussions with governments, the civil service and the universities, designed to cultivate a better understanding -all round, and to foster the academic provision that is needed both to produce professional manpower and to offer opportunities for research. I have to confess that this is occasionally uphill work, especially where the wish to inform and to help is misconstrued as an indulgence of self-interest by the profession itself. .

1.6. The Commonwealth Associations sponsored by the Foundation are a little more altruistic than that. Indeed, no profession is worthy of the name unless it has a positive desire, and takes positive steps, to contribute to human progress. A professional organization exists to serve the public as well as to serve its members. A national professional society provides a focal point for corporate activity, acts as the pace-maker in advancing professional skills, and serves as the channel through which the profession collectively places its experience and its advice at the disposal of governments. In the UK, the leading professional bodies work closely with government in all fields and it is my hope that this state of affairs also exists elsewhere, or if not that it will do so in -

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future, encouraged by events such as this conference. For that reason, among others, the conference could be an important milestone in developing the role of the professions in Commonwealth countries.

1.7. It may be relevant to observe, at this point, that in the modern world there seems to be an infinite number of vocations that aspire to be professions; To spare myself the task of attempting any precise and comprehensive definition, I adopt for my present purpose the proposition in the .Oxfo.rd English Dictiona.ry that a profession is. 'a vocation' in which a professed khowledge of some department of learning or science is used in its application to the affairs of others;' to which Sir James Currie added (in 'Professional Organizations in the Commonwealth') three specific characteristics, namely, that (i) terms of entry to the profession should be well defined, (ii) the profession imposes a discipline on its members, and (iii) before a member of the profession can 'practise he may have to submit his qualifications to-some statutory or authoritative body.

Even if it were possible to identify every vocation that possesses these attributes, I could not claim to speak for all of them; and I shall limit myself to those principally concerned with the physical environment or with the availability, ownership, use and development of land.

1.8. May I add, by way of further preamble, that these professions do not stand apart from the rest of society. They are, of course, distinguishable groups which have acquired special skills; and their codes of ethics occasionally give the impression that they aspire to,a monopolistic elitism; but the motivation of the true professional can only be to advance his skills and competence in the service of society, and to follow codes and ptactices which serve that purpose.

It might also be inferred ,from the theme of this conference that the civil service, , the universities and the professions operate as entirely separate entities.

In fact, many people trained in the professions work in the civil service, and many others work in the universities; which helps to in the efforts of all three sectors.

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THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROFESSIONS 2.!. The environmental professions are concerned with the circumstances in which people live, which in turn have a bearing on the social structure and patterns of human behaviour which interest many other professions as well.

But the use that is made of land, and the developments that take place upon it, are important economically as well as socially; so the professions to which I refer have a central role to. play. in a 'wide range of human activity. They are concerned with national and regional planning, with development policies and their implementation, and with the protection and improvement of the environment. In their day-to-day work, land surveyors produce the maps that are essential for the identification and exploitation of all natural resources; 2.

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engineers and surveyors provide the infrastructure required for all forms of development; planners, surveyors and architects are concerned with the planning of land uses and the construction of buildings; while surveyors skilled in land economy are concerned with the viability of what is planned, with the mechanisms that bring about its fulfilment, and with the overall management of land resources. National progress depends on making use of all these skills.

The environmental professions, of course, would not claim the omni2.2 science needed to solve all the problems that beset society. They are but part of a greater team which comprises sociologists, economists and a host of others.

Like society itself, they also have to cope with the rapid expansion of scientific and technical knowledge, the increasing pace of technological innovation, the phenomenal growth in world population, and the changing aims and aspirations for which society is striving. Their work therefore has an ever-changing novelty about it. Paradoxically, technological advance seems to be accompanied by a growing scepticism about the validity of long-term predictions and projects, and about many of the elaborate studies and techniques that have pervaded planning and development in recent years. Aspirations for economic growth and material wealth are being tempered by a realization that these do not necessarily mean an increase in human satisfaction, and by a greater interest in the quality of life itself. Indeed the techniques of evaluating the quality of life factor in development decisions are still in an embryonic state; and society is still struggling to find new philosophies and policies for making the best use of land, for conserving natural resources, and (of special interest to this conference) for improving the social and economic circumstances of the less prosperous countries of the world. In this evolving situation, the matters with which the environmental professions are concerned are inevitably the subject of public debate and controversy, which means that professional knowledge and understanding of the problems are important factors in assisting the public to reach conclusions on the basis of well-informed opinions.

In most developing countries, society establishes its objectives and 2.3. expresses its priorities through a national development plan. We are concerned here with provisions in the plan for the development of agriculture, forestry, minerals, water resources, industry, commerce, housing and social provision, and for orderly urban growth. Government (or the civil service on its behalf) will no doubt seek from its own advisers, the universities or elsewhere the best scientific advice on the policies that are necessary to increase food production or to ameliorate the social fabric through a programme of urban improvements. This is sometimes all the advice they do take, but it is not enough. Social and economic policies which depend for their success on the appropriate use of land and natural resources, will need to be based upon sound land policies, the provision of necessary infrastructure, the availability -

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of' development finance, and the existence of an effective development organization. Policy-making and implementation must be planned as one operation; and it is therefore important, at the policy-making stage, to achieve maximum involvement of those professions that will be responsible for implementing what is contemplated. It is also important to ensure that the necessary skills are available to carry through what the plan provides. A large dam which encloses the water supply for a power station is not merely an engineering project for generating electricity; it may inundate large areas of land that have hitherto provided homes and agricultural occupations for thousands of people who have to be resettled; it will almost certainly involve the acquisition or control of a much larger catchment area for which land use policies will be needed; and the project will therefore necessitate skills in land management, land resettlement and possibly also land reform. The same would apply to many other projects such as new settlement porgrammes under the land ceiling and land reform policies of India and Sri Lanka, or the large irrigation schemes at Lake Chad and elsewhere.

2.4. May I therefore repeat that there must be a greater public awareness of the services which the professions can provide and of their relevance to national needs and aspirations. There is a need also to make adequate provision of facilities for education and training where these are lacking or inadequate.

The omission of this provision is an all-too-common feature of national development plans; and this is one of the areas in which collaboration between governments, universities and the professions is absolutely essential. Only recently, in a conversation I had with the Minister responsible for one of the most comprehensive national plans in the Commonwealth, which involves a massive programme of land development, he conceded that the manpower provision for carrying it into effect took no account of people trained in surveying and land economy because the significance of their role had not been appreciated at the time when the plan was prepared. This was, of course, a failure on the part of the professions themselves, as much as of those who prepared the plan. z.y. Given, however, that the necessary skills can be secured, what are society's main objectives likely to be? In a country where standards of living are below average, it is natural to aim at a raising of standards through investment and economic growth. Schools, factories and houses are likely to be high on the list. The need to employ skills in town planning and the design of buildings may be self-evident; but, all too often, no use will be made, for example, of the quantity surveyor whose job it is to ensure that value is obtained for the money invested. By timely cost advice and by cost controls throughout each project, the quantity surveyor can effectively reduce the cost of buildings, as he has helped to do with quite dramatic results in the school building pro-

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gramme of the United Kingdom. In most countries, construction works account for more than 50 per cent of fixed capital formation; and, as there is never enough money to go round, it is obviously important to achieve the best use of resources by choosing projects which confer the greatest benefits, by choosing designs that are most economic, and by adequate financial forecasting and administration. Savings of even 5 per cent on construction expenditure would enable many more schools, factories or homes to be provided.

The development of individual projects must also conform to wider 2.6. land use policies. Physical planners sometimes see their tasks as an exercise solely in three dimensional design, to the exclusion of economic considerations; but no physical plan will succeed, or even be taken seriously, if it undermines the national economy. At all stages, therefore, physical planning must be integrated with economic and financial planning, and must take account of all considerations, including the means whereby what is planned can in fact be implemented, whether by state intervention and initiative or by facilitating and encouraging private action and enterprise.

In virtually every country, the so-called land problem is also central 2.7. to the process of development. Historically, governments have interfered increasingly with the traditional rights of owners to use and develop their properties. Some curtailment of private freedom is necessary to achieve effective control of the environment, to improve living and working conditions, and to facilitate public works. Modern society would be unworkable without some powers of public control and expropriation of private interests; and in some countries the public debate has even moved on to discuss the acquisition by the state of all land, or at least of land required for development. At the same time, private ownership whether by individuals or by various forms of private institutions, including the concept of the extended family is still a linchpin of the social structure- in a great number of countries.

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2.8 It will be clear from the foregoing that the environmental professions inevitably come face-to-face with important public issues, on which their professional skills and experience make them particularly competent to advise.

From their day-to-day work they can identify and anticipate problems of public concern and contribute to their solution. They can, of course, only help government in areas for which government accepts responsibility, but in almost every country this includes responsibility for the environment, and for land use and development policies. There is little doubt, however, that to achieve necessary environmental improvements, a great expansion of knowledge is needed, and this will only be possible through close collaboration between the professions and the universities in identifying matters for research, and in the development of new techniques. This need is particularly acute in Page sixty-three

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developing countries where skilled manpower is still in short supply, and where certain disciplines are so new to the academic world that there has been little opportunity so far to promote research and the academic expansion of the discipline in relation to local needs.

SOME EXAMPLES OF INFLUENCE ON OPINIONS AND POLICIES 3.1 . It may be helpful if I now give some examples of how the professions can assist the process of opinion forming and make a contribution to national policy making. As the state of development of the professions and their relationships with government vary considerably from country to country, it is unlikely that these examples will be relevant everywhere; they do however, indicate present practice in the UK, not with any implication that this is necessarily a mode for other countries to adopt, but because I know it best and because I believe it works. .

Channels of advice 3.2. Professional advice to government may be given by experts employed in the civil service, or by outside consultants, or by professional bodies in their corporate capacity. It will be helpful to look briefly at each of these categories separately.

3.3. Professionals concerned with land are normally required in those departments of government which manage the public estate; are responsible for land use policies and the control of the environment; determine policies for agriculture, forestry and the development of natural resources such as water and minerals; or which deal with national programmes for house building, school building, industrial development and so on. There may also be departments dealing with land reform, land taxation, and land registration. All too often, in these areas, governments act on theories and hunches, without sufficient knowledge of the practical issues involved, and this is where professional advice is most valuable. Individual professionals who work in such departments and are involved continuously in long-term thinking are perhaps best placed to influence public policy, provided they are in direct contact with the policy-makers and are not required to work through intermediaries. The environmental professions in the UK have had occasion recently to represent to government the need not only to employ the necessary professional skills but also to organize them in such a way that they can make an effective contribution to the government's own building programme and to the formulation of national land use policies. In many developing countries, the same sort of advice may no doubt be relevant.

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3.4. Outside consultants to government may be either academics or practising professionals. The former can obviously contributc to much of the fundamental thinking that underlies any national plan, and can also provide a useful research service to governments, private and public institutions, and to individuals, which can assist in the formulation of policies based on knowledge.

The practising professional, on the other hand, can bring to any problem the added dimension of his practical experience, which equips him to assess the viability of proposals and to advise whether what is proposed is capable of implementation. This sort of advice is often sought (though perhaps not often enough) by the government in the UK when it is considering matters affecting land and development, on which its own staff may not necessarily have firsthand experience. In developing countries, governments can nowadays resort more readily than before to indgenous experts who are familiar with local problems; but where expatriate advice is still needed, either by the government itself or by international aid agencies, it is important to ensure thatthe adviser has the flexibility of outlook, as well as the necessary degree of competence, to evolve solutions that are relevant to the local situation.

3.. As I have already mentioned, it is also customary in the UK (and increasingly elsewhere) for governments to seek advice from representative professional bodies. The views these bodies express are based on the varied experience of their members, who normally comprise employees of public bodies and practitinners from the private sector. The advice so tendered therefore derives a special significance from the breadth of experience on which it is based, and more especially from its impartiality and its freedom from selfinterest and political or partisan bias; in which respect, professional views usually differ materially from those of pressure groups and vested interests. For the avoidance of doubt I should add that this advice is also given free of charge, and in furtherance of the profession's obligation to serve the public weal.

Hitherto, this has been difficult to achieve in developing countries, where the professions have lacked a permanent secretariat and other resources; but this can be overcome where the professions have access to the back-up of a local professional centre through which, either separately or in appropriate cases collectively, they can advise on local problems and policies.

The professions and the environment 3.6, If the professions are to make their full contribution to the conservation and improvement of the environment, it is important that their skills should be employed wherever they are needed: in central government, in local government and in the private sector so that all decisions about land use and development are based on pertinent advice. In the private sector, it is also becoming increasingly recognized that professional advisers have an obligation to counsel -

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their clients on the wider public aspects of conservation and development projects as well as on their personal and private interests.

If the foregoing ends are to be served, the professions for their part must endeavour to ensure that their skills are available and are used wherever necessary. In support of this, they must ensure an adequate supply of manpower, and that their techniques for dealing with environmental problems are constantly advancing to meet new needs; which also means that they must find ways of inducing all practitioners to keep themselves up to date through midcareer training and in other ways. Universities, in collaboration with the professions, can obviously play an important part in the evolution and dissemination of new techniques, both through research and by the provision of mid-career courses.

3.8. The professional bodies are also becoming more active in expressing views on public environmental issues, such as the location of major airports, the routing of new motorways, policies for controlling urban traffic, the control of pollution, and policies for conservation all of which involve both social and economic considerations and have an impact on the quality of the environment. As an example of this trend, the surveying profession in the UK has been asked by the Department of the Environment to help in determining policies for managing the urban fabric, with particular reference to the choice between redevelopment and the rehabilitation of existing urban areas. This is a matter which has, in fact, been engaging the attention of the profession for some time, because hitherto the choice has been strongly influenced by financial considerations, and more sophisticated techniques are needed in order to bring into account the aesthetic, historic and quality-of-life factors involved.

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Those professional institutions in the UK which are interested in conservation have also established a multi-disciplinary council to improve arrangements for the planning, management and development of natural resources and the built environment. This body has produced a number of publications dealing with conservation activities, derelict land, the countryside and multiple land-use, education for conservation, and other topics. These serve a dual purpose of arousing public interest in all aspects of conservation and of advancing techniques for dealing with conservation problems.

3.10. In an endeavour to promote good standards of conservation and development, several of the professions also make awards for outstanding achievements, such as the annual awards by The Times and The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors for meritorious projects of conservation; and the awards by The Royal Institute of British Architects for good design.

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Legislation affecting land 3.11.

The professions regularly advise the government and members of Parliament on proposals for land use legislation. Examples include a critical review by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors of the practical operation of the principal town and country planning legislation, which led to major amendment of its financial provisions; recurring studies of land use policies and the associated problems of compensation and betterment, which have been major issues in the UK for the past 30 years; a critical review of planning procedures and the arrangements for dealing with planning applications and appeals; comments on the practical effects of the recent proposal by government for taking into public ownership all land which is to be developed or redeveloped.

The professions also scrutinize legislation placed before Parliament 3.12. which deals with property or development, and make proposals for improvement based on their experience of the problems with which the legislation deals. Recent examples have included measures for regulating the relationships between landlords and tenants; the taxation of property, the taxation of development gains, and the taxation of wealth; and legislation laying down standards for the design and construction of buildings, protection against fire, and working conditions in buildings.

In the course of their work, the professions may also become aware 3.13. of imperfections in the operation of existing legislation, and may themselves initiate proposals for amendment, which they submit to the government or to Parliament for consideration. Thus: (a) when rent controls were causing the progressive deterioration of controlled dwellings, proposals were made for amending the rent formula in such a way as to encourage repairs and maintenancc; and (b) when the basis of compensation for expropriation of property was causing hardship to certain dispossessed owners, proposals were again made for ameliorating the situation. In both cases, the proposals were adopted by the government and incorporated in new legislation.

Professional societies are also occasionally entrusted by statute with 3.14. some function in connection with the administration of law. For example, the Lands Tribunal Act (which set up a Tribunal consisting of lawyers and surveyors to deal with compensation and other matters relating to land) requires the Lord Chancellor, when appointing any surveyor to the Tribunal, to consult first with the President of the RICS. There are also several statutes which require the President himself to appoint arbitrators in specified circumstances; and in -

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addition he frequently makes appointments in private disputes where this procedure is agreed upon by the parties.

3.15. The professions work closely with the Law Commission in considering means of simplifying and codifying the law relating to property and development. They also give evidence to Royal Commissions and government committees appointed to study matters of public interest; and indeed it would be exceptional if any such body appointed to consider a problem affecting land did not also include one or more members from the professions conccrncd. They were also invited recently by the House of Commons Committee on Expenditure to comment on the current objectives of the new towns programme in the UK, the processes by which investment in the new towns is planned, the measures by which success in achieving objectives is assessed, and whether the new towns procedure could be used in other planning situations.

Building and development 3.16. The environmental professions are concerned with the construction industry, as well as with land use; and they again advise in a variety of ways.

They are, for example, strongly represented on the National Consultative Committee for the Building and Civil Engineering Industries, which advises the Minister of Housing and Construction on matters of policy in the construction field; including particularly the work-load on the construction industries and any steps that need to be taken to reduce the load or to stimulate new development as the case might be. They are also represented on the National Economic Development Council for the Building Industry, through which they have been able to introduce several new concepts for improving the operations of the industry. The professions are well placed to tender advice on such matters because of their first-hand and widespread knowledge of the industry through the letting and management of building contracts.

3.17. The professions also seek to improve the efficiency of the industry by producing codes of practice and guidance on professional procedures. Most notable in this context, perhaps, is the Standard Method of Measurement for Building, which provides the basis for arriving at an equitable price for building works in the UK and elsewhere. The importance of this publication, which has been regularly up-dated to reflect current precepts and practice, may be gleaned from the fact that the two sponsoring bodies are currently investing L8o,000 in yet another fundamental review.

3.18. The RICS also operates a Building Cost Information Service which collects, processes and disseminates comprehensive information about current building costs, which is invaluable in many policy decisions. It has also recently established, in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, a

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similar service for Building Maintenance Costs. The Institution has also played a major part in sccking to improve the efficiency of the construction industries through the development of computer techniques and in other ways.

Examples of other consultative arrangements The government and the professions have established liaison arrange3.19. ments for advising on the requirements of map users, as a guide to the government in its national mapping programme.

3.20.

The surveying profession has taken the initiative, in consultation with the government, the Stock Exchange and the Institute of Chartered Accountants, to lay down standards of practice for the valuation of company property assets. This was a matter on which some public disquiet had been expressed; the initiative taken by the profession has done a great deal to ensure that competent valuers are engaged for such work and to reassure the public that reliance can be placed on the valuations made.

4. THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH This brief review of relationships between the professions and the government brings me to the important question of the attitude of professional advisers to the political aspects of government policy. I have already explained that the environmental professions work in politically sensitive areas, in which it is important that they should proffer their advice with due political rectitude.

It is not their purpose to engage in party political contention. Political decisions are taken by Parliaments or governments; and professions should aim to remain aloof from the political arena. In matters of legislation and public policy generally, the primary role of the professions is to offer objective advice, based on the expert knowledge and experience of their members. They may be required to comment on the consequences or practical operation of existing or proposed legislation; or to make constructive proposals for dealing with an existing state of affairs which is considered to be unsatisfactory; or in such a situation they may even initiate proposals themselves if the government has no evident plans of its own for dealing with the matter. They may also have a role to play in creating a climate of public opinion that will foster necessary change and facilitate action to bring it about.

4.2. A profession should, however, be careful not to go further and to argue for or against political views as such. The importance of this principle is particularly apparent in those countries where the democratic system is prone to produce successive governments of different political outlooks for a 4.1.

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profession must make its advice available, without fear or favour, to all who seek it. A profession which demonstrably became the liege of any one political party could not expect to carry conviction with any other party, and its service to the community as a whole would then be seriously diminished.

4.. The philosophy I am putting forward was admirably expressed, although in a very different context, by Bernard Shaw in 'Major Barbara' in the passage where Cusins has agreed terms for entering the armament factory of Undershaft, his father-in-law: 'Barbara: Is the bargain closed Dolly? Does your soul belong to him now?

Cusins: No: the price is settled: that is all. The real tug of war is still to come.

What about the moral question?

Lay Britomart: There is no moral question in the matter at all Adolphus.

You must simply sell cannons and weapons to people whose cause is right and just, and refuse them to foreigners and criminals.

Undershaft (determinedly): No: none of that. You must keep the true faith of an Armourer, or you don't come in here.

Cusins: What on earth is the true faith of an Armourer?

Undershaft: To give arms to all men who offer an honest price for them, without respect of persons or principles: to aristocrat and republican, to Nihilist and Tsar, to Capitalist and Socialist, to Protestant and Catholic, to burglar and policeman, to black man, white man and yellow man, to all sorts and conditions, all nationalities, all faiths, all follies, all causes and all crimes.'

4.4. The professions concerned with land do not make arms, but they must keep an analogous faith. Their concern is to achieve the best use of land, through its prudent conservation, management and development. But the application of their skills to that end takes place within a legal framework whose form will be fashioned by the political philosophies of governments on such matters as land ownership, land reform or the taxation of development gains. In a democracy, the political will of the electors must prevail; and once opinions are formed and policies are made, the role of the professions is to put those policies into operation whether or not they agree, as individuals, with the political philosophies on which policies are based. On the other hand, until that stage is reached, the professions are entitled indeed they have a duty to take all appropriate steps to ensure that, in coming to their decisions, both the public and the government are fully informed about the iss..ies involved and the likely consequences (technical, economic and social) of any course they seek to follow.

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SOME ESSENTIAL PREREQUISITES 5.'. If a profession is to play its full part, it must be alert to six essential needs it must form and develop a strong and influential professional society, which can provide a focal point for its corporate activities; it must ensure that the profession covers the full range of activities in which its skills are needed; it must constantly foster the advancement of techniques and skills to ensure that these are adequate for dealing with the increasingly complex situations with which the profession will be confronted; it must ensure that the manpower resources of the profession are adequate to meet the demands for its services; it must maintain or cultivate an aptitude for giving advice that is objective and dispassionate, rather than subjective and emotive; and it must contribute to debates on matters of public interest on which its members are specially qualified to express an opinion.

5.2. A professional society can only expect to be strong and influential, if it represents all sectors of its profession and draws upon the experience of a representative range of its membership. High among its priorities will be the development of corporate skills and the attainment of high standards of conduct and integrity. By these means it can hope to raise the standing of the profession and command the respect of governments and the public in general. In such a climate, it is likely that the skills of the profession will be better understood and more widely used; and the public will be receptive to the corporate opinion which the profession may express on matters within its competence.

The field of interest of a profession is never static. As I have indicated, the frontiers of its knowledge are constantly advancing, and the application of that knowledge may require the development of new techniques or the refinement of existing ones. The profession must therefore adjust its horizons as necessary, and be alert to the need for new services within its compass. A notable example of this is the broadening interest of surveyors trained in land economy, whose original concern in the UK with the interests of individual landowners and the management of individual estates has widened to embrace, first, many aspects of land use planning, and more recently the even wider aspects of managing the environment as a whole. This evolutionary process does not occur simultaneously in all countries, and one of the advantages of pan-Commonwealth associations is that their work in the dissemination of knowledge and experience greatly accelerates the rate at which the professions in. the Commonwealth as a whole can now advance. .

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.4. By the same token, Commonwealth associations facilitate the advancement of techniques and the development of methods for dealing with novel situations, which enables the professions to be more effective and to provide a better service than would otherwise be possible. In particular this enhances the quality of the advice which a profession can offer to governments, because it can tackle novel situations with the benefit of knowing how they have been tackled elsewhere. This can be particularly helpful in developing countries where the profession may be relatively young and small in numbers, and be still in the process of developing its resources and its competence to advise government on important public issues; bearing in mind always, of course, that local problems usually need local solutions, and that solutions adopted elsewhere may not necessarily be suitable transplants.

To serve a community properly, a profession must obviously have the manpower resources which this requires. With some of the less well-known professions, like surveying and land economy, this is not easy to achieve. In most Commonwealth countries there is a serious manpower shortage in each of these fields, and the provision of additional facilities for education and training is usually a very slow process. This means that the 'CASLE' professions are often not providing the full professional services that are needed; and it means also that the small numbers of professional people who are available are so fully committed in their day-to-day work that they do not have enough time to devote to the service of their professional society in promoting its contribution to opinion forming and to national policy making. In this respect one must recognize that developing countries which are short of skilled manpower, and whose professional societies may not yet have developed a tradition of advising on public policy, may have to be patient in reaching that degree of collaboration that exists in other countries between governments and the professions. .6. It may seem unnecessary to stress the importance of professional views being objective and dispassionate, but I do so for two reasons. In the first place, if they are not so, they will probably be discounted or ignored by the bodies or individuals they aim to influence. In the second place, objectivity is more difficult to achieve than many people imagine. Through the nature of their work, individual practitioners may develop strong political opinions which, as private citizens, they are perfectly entitled to hold; and their familiarity with the status quo may arouse reactionary attitudes to new philosophies. When a corporate body seeks to express a view, however, it must eschew politics and concern itself with the professional aspects of the subject. This requires a positive effort to achieve a balanced professional view. There is no doubt that, in the past, certain professional organizations in the UK, which had their roots in the private sector and at the outset provided their services solely to private Page seventy-two

clients, are mistakenly regarded by the public (even today when the accusation is no longer valid) as being conservative in their attitudes and preoccupied with the protection of existing private interests. It is therefore important that any profession which seeks to participate in matters of public concern should be at pains to show that objectivity is its motivation. To achieve this it will also need to develop a perceptive understanding of public opinion and the influences which tend to form that opinion; and be able to anticipate public reactions to new situations if it is to help in steering opinion in the right dierction.

5.7. Professional societies, of course, are not primarily propagandists and their influence on public opinion tends to be indirect. Nevertheless, through the activities I have briefly described in this paper, the professions do influence public attitudes, although this is perhaps less pronounced than it might be. This is due in part to the widespread influence of the mass media, which tend to give greater prominence to the controversial views of protagonists and antagonists than they do to the sober judgements of the professionals. This is particularly noticeable in matters that are politically sensitive where, for reasons I have already noted, the professional tends to stand aside from the purely political arguments. Nevertheless, the professions are gradually making a greater contribution to public debates on issues concerning the environment, and this helps the public to be better informed and to form sounder judgements than might otherwise be the case. To be effective, the professions need to make use of all the media, including all arms of the press (national, provincial, local, professional and technical); radio and television; and personal contact through societies, conferences and similar channels. Influencing public opinion or informing specialized publics can only be successful, however, if the profession's views are of topical interest and if those views are both imaginative in themselves and imaginatively presented. This requires considerable effort and resources, and may often be beyond the means of small professional bodies in particular. In such circumstances, the effort may have to be selective, and more success may be achieved by concentrating on special groups that are likely to be particularly interested and receptive to informed advice.

5.8. The professions can also assist the public to understand complex issues by the publication of appropriate literature. In the UK, this covers such matters as the sale and purchase of property, property maintenance and rehabilitation, the letting of building contracts, and the interpretation of legislation affecting the ownership and development of land. They also seek to foster good practice by the publication of standard forms of contract, codes of prac. tice, and other documentation designed to promote efficiency in all aspects of professional work. This all contributes to a better understanding of environmental problems and an awareness not only of what is in the individual's person interest, but also of the wider public interest that is inseparable from it.

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6. CONCLUSION 6.1. The report of the Seminar sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation at the University of Sussex in 1973 suggested that the newer universities needed to move forward from their primary role of producing graduates into the role of problem-solving and become involved as agents in the development process in co-operation with the professions and with opinion formers and policy makers within the government machine. I venture to agree with that view. It was also suggested, however, that greater attention might be paid to professional advice emerging from the universities, rather than from the professions themselves because the outlook of the professions tended to make them resistant to reform and new ideas. I hope that what I have said in this paper justifies a different point of view.

6.2. University advice is not a substitute for the advice of professionals who actually practise their profession. There is a place for both, in dealing with tasks to which their respective skills and experience are best suited. Moreover, most developing countries are so short of indigenous skills that maximum use must be made of every potential contribution, whether it comes from the universities, the independent professions, or the government service itself.

ANNEX D RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE PROFESSIONS AND THE UNIVERSITIES

By John B. Macdonald, Executive Director, Council of Ontario Universities, Canada Professions and universities have much in common. Ambiguity about their nature is a case in point. Eliot Friedson observed that the word 'profession' is evaluative as well as descriptive. 'Virtually all self-conscious occupational groups apply it to themselves at one time or another, either to flatter themselves or to try to persuade others of their importance. Occupations to which the word has been applied are thus so varied as to leave nothing in common, save a hunger for prestige."

We began, perhaps, with medicine, law and the clergy. Now the professions are commonly thought to include librarians, social workers, psychologists, dental hygienists, experts in physical education, home economists, actors and football players. Exclusion from such a list may represent nothing more than a failure to organize. Indeed, the tendency is to identify certain occupations as r. Friedson, E., ProfessionofMedii-ine, Dodd Mead, New York, 170.

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professions and then to seek for their common characteristics in order to define the meaning of the term. As a result; a Quebec Commission looking at the professions concluded in frustration that 'the notion of professions has slowly lost its meaning or, in any case, no longer evokes a certain number of precise and exhaustive criteria which would make it possible to distinguish it from other types of occupation of the alleged 'non-professionals." As a consequence, the word profession is ambiguous.

Ambiguity is no less characteristic of universities. Originally highly selective institutions for the training of an intellectual elite, they were dedicated simply to the preservation, transmission and enlargement of knowledge. Today they are instruments of public policy being used in many countries as a means of enlarging social justice. Following egalitarian principles, they have acquired massive new audiences. Open access has become a political objective. Students view admission to university not as a privilege but as a right. And having been admitted, why should they not receive their degree without examination on the grounds that marginal improvement in the level of education for large numbers is more important than substantive performance by the intellectually talented who will in any case be successful? Such policies and thinking are becoming commonplace in the mass higher education countries. Concurrently, many universities have expanded their programmes into a very wide spectrum of activities, many of which are of doubtful or negligible intellectual content.

They have, in addition, become politicized, taken less and less responsibility for their students, have allowed the notion of a 'general education' to decay, and have neglected teaching in favour of other activities which for various reasons have seemed more attractive. What then is a university? Again, the answer is ambiguous.

Some resolution of these ambiguities seems necessary as a basis for discussing the relationship between professions and universities. Since common practice has applied the term profession so loosely as to be merely a synonym for a specialized occupation, and since that is not the intention of this Conference, a more limited working definition is necessary.

A. N. Whitehead defined a profession as 'an avocation whose activities are subject to theoretical analysis, and are modified by theoretical conclusions derived from that analysis'. He contrasted this definition with that of a craft which he described as 'an avocation based upon customary activities and modified by the trial and error of individual practice'.2 The distinction is useful but insufficient. It was broadened helpfully by the Committee on Legal Educai. Government of Quebec: Commission of Enquirj on Health and Social Welfare, Volume VII, Part y, Tome i, 1 970-

2. Whitehead, A. N., Adventures of Ideas, MacMillan, New York, z933.

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tion of the Government of the United Kingdom which stated that all professions have the following characteristics. (i) a highly complex body of knowledge combined with the ability to use intellectual processes which are, at least to some extent, peculiar to the profession; (2) certain practical skills and professional techniques without which this knowledge cannot be applied in the practice of this profession; () the capacity to use such knowledge, from day to day, in the service of other people's interests and to solve, or help them to solve, practical problems arising within the sphere of the profession; () a particular kind of relationship with clients or patients, arising from the complexity of the subject-matter which deprives the client or patient of the ability to make informed judgements for himself and so renders him, to a large extent, dependent upon the professional man; and a self-imposed code of professional ethics intended to correct the im() balance inherent in this relationship and to resolve inevitable conflicts between the interests of the client or patient and the interests of the professional man himself or of the community at large.'

Even these are not enough. Professions have emerged when the public consciousness has recognized the combination of a highly complex body of knowledge needed in the service of the public and the clients' dependence on the skilled persons providing the services and has therefore conferred autonomy or self-government on the occupation. It is at this point that professional status in its historical and traditional sense has been acquired.

Unfortunately the evolution of professions neither begins nor ends with this step. Autonomy brings derivative attributes. These include control of admission to the profession, control over the content and duration of the educational requirements for licensees, regulation of the conditions of practice, judgement of performance and application of sanctions and penalties against wayward members. Some would add that professional status confers a responsibility and a commitment to give first priority to serving the public interest. There seems to be little evidence to support the idea that such a service orientation is primary. Postulating such behaviour often seems to represent exhortation about how professions should behave rather than a conclusion based on empirical evidence. As we shall see, professions for reasons associated with their special status have frequently shown a disturbing blindness to the public interest. i. Government of the United Kingdom, Committee on Legal Education, Report, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1971.

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At the beginning of the evolutionary scale the appetite for professional status among groups that don't have it is strong. To quote the Castonguay Commission in Quebec: 'It cannot be denied that there is a race towards professional status in circles which do not have it. These circles begin by applying for incorporation in voluntary associations, then they seek compulsory membership with control over conditions of admission, and they conclude by seizing the regulation of practice conditions and the control of activity stemming from it. If these groups cannot be blamed for endeavouring to improve their status without preoccupying themselves with the social justification or the juridical, one is astonished, however, by the facility with which the legislator accepts such fragmentary argumentation and perspective and grants exorbitant common law systems, without undue concern for the social effects of "corporation" of professions and of the juridical disorder which this movement involves. In fact, applications for incorporation are inspired more by the desire to protect members of the profession than by preoccupation with the public interest."

One of the characteristics of professions which derives from their selfregulating status is that they establish powerful Associations. What I am about to say is critical of the operation and positions on policy frequently characteristic of these Associations. In expressing these criticisms I wish to make it clear that I am not criticizing the competence, integrity or dedication of individual professionals to their individual clients. My experience and impressions leads me to believe that at the level of the personal contract the individual professional person is more likely to be both able and honourable than in most other occupations.

The professional Association, however, frequently views its responsibilities from a position more sensitive to self-interest than to the public interest.

Criticisms of a wide-ranging nature have been directed at the professional Associations by many powerful and prestigious governmental or quasigovernmental bodies, to say nothing of the voluminous self-criticism stemming from members of the professions themselves. In Canada, for example, the Economic Council of Canada, a governmental Task Force on Labour Relations, the Ontario Committee on the Healing Arts, the Royal Commission Inquiry into Civil Rights, and other similar bodies, have made bluntly critical observations. If the professions are to fulfill their proper responsibilities the criticisms cannot be ignored.

William Goode wrote that 'three professions the clergy, the military and medicine almost isolate their recruits from important lay contacts for several -

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1. Government of Quebec, Commission of Inquiry on Health and Social Welfare, Volume VII, Part 5 Tome I, 1970. ,

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years, furnish new ego ideals and reference groups, impress upon the recruit his absolute social dependence upon the profession for his further advancement, and punish him for inappropriate attitudes or behaviour."

This phenomenon is not limited to the three professions named by Goode.

It is characteristic of all self-governing professions. It creates closed communities whose members show a primary allegiance to the community. Accountability is internalized. Members are responsible to their colleagues and their Association which sets the rules governing behaviour. All this is in the name of service and members come to believe that their policies are the expression of their idealism and their commitment to the public interest. In fact the professions face a conflict of interest. Which shall be served, the public or the profession?

Because professional societies tend to be closed, illusions come easily and members readily reinforce their convictions that what they are doing represents the best way to serve the public.

A few observations may illustrate how wrong those convictions can be if examined from the standpoint of public policy.

The American Medical Association, in the words of Michael Crichton., 'has worked to the detriment of the patient in nearly every way imaginable'.2 In 1930 it opposed voluntary health insurance such as Blue Cross. In 1932 it opposed prepaid group-practice clinics. In 1933 it began a campaign to block the construction of more medical schools and to limit enrolments in existing schools. More recently the AMA has fought bitterly against U.S. medicare proposals which were nevertheless implemented and brought health benefits to io per cent of the population. Similarly, the British Medical Association in the early 195 0s opposed the introduction of the UK National Health Scheme.

As recently as 1967 the President of AMA was publicly deploring the notion that medical care should be a right rather than a privilege. It is hard to separate these reactionary policies from the fact that although the U.S. spends relatively more on health care than any other country in the world, it is by no means the leader in terms of the health of its people. The U.S. ranks thirteenth behind several West European countries in infant mortality. The figure is similar for maternal mortality, deaths from heart disease, cirrhosis and a number of other indicators.

William Pincus, a lawyer, has written on 'The Lawyer's Professional Responsibility'.3 Among his telling criticisms he makes the following points about American law. The profession failed until recently to show any great concern s. Quoted by Waysylenki, D. 'A Skeptical Look at the Elitist Role of Doctors', Globe ô Mail, September soth, 1971.

a. Crichton, M., 'Have U.S. Doctors Worked Against The Public?' Globe & Mail, September 25th, 1970.

3. Pincus, W. 'The Lawyer's Professional Responsibility', J. Legal Educ. 22: 1-21. 5969.

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for the extension of legal aid to the poor. A few pressed the case and performed 'feeble but valiant deeds which kept the record of the legal profession from being altogether dismal'. The profession has neglected the introduction of cheap and efficient administrative procedures which could replace the need for expensive lawyers' services. The handling of litigation resulting from auto accidents remains a disgrace with most persons involved coming out of the process miserably. The profession has looked upon the handling of tax matters by accountants as a threat and has given little attention to the need to provide a variety of para-professionals who could offer services more economically than through the present arrangements.

The attitude of organized dentistry towards the use of ancillaries offers another notorious example of a profession deluding itself into believing that the public interest is being served when in fact the profession's policy represents a myopic approach to self-interest. Dental nurses in New Zealand have provided care for children for more than fifty years. The state of dental health of New Zealand children has been shown repeatedly to be much better than in countries which rely on the skills of the dentist which are generally expensive and in short supply. Yet the profession continues to resist the introduction of comparable schemes in other countries. In recent years dental organizations have been waging bitter wars against the right of technicians to deal directly with the patient in fitting false teeth. In spite of the dental lobbies, governments are gradually giving recognition to the claims of technicians. The resultant services have been generally satisfactory and cheaper.

These examples can be expanded by reference to certain common tendencies among professions which help to maintain the monopolies and add to professional prestige. Professions tend to require high standards for admission to educational programmes. Are they set where function demands, or are they artificially inflated to enhance prestige and to limit numbers? Curricula tend to be demanding and long. Is this because of the complexity of the subject or to prove the right to exalted status? Requirements for licensing are frequently based on considerations that extend beyond competence. Is this to protect the public interest or to guard against over-population of the profession or to maintain a unique professional image?

Turning to the universities, it can be said that their current ambiguities began with the enormous growth in enrolments which took place in the I95OS and i 960s. The result of growth is that higher education has been transformed from a small privileged elitist activity to a massive public enterprise. That fact has great significance because growth has brought with it and in its wake profound changes in the quality and character of universities. Before the growth period, universities were places for privileged minorities. They were perceived as a training ground for an intellectual elite. They saw their task as that of Page seventji-nine

identifying and cultivating intelligence. Little attention was given to the evidence that they were, in fact, serving a social and economic elite and that their student body was drawn disproportionately from the upper and middle classes. They simply sought from this aristocratic pool the meritorious, and cultivated them.

Growth has changed that situation. Entry is now looked upon in many countries as a right. The public is concerned about equality of opportunity and pressures have built to correct inequities. Student aid programmes have not been enough. Criteria for admission have been criticized on grounds of bias against the culturally and economically disadvantaged. Access on grounds other than academic performance have become commonplace, e.g., the use of quotas and affirmative action programmes to see that the composition of the student body reflects the composition of society in the distribution of minorities economic, ethnic, racial and sexual. Compensatory programmes for the unqualified are introduced making the university curriculum acquire some of the attributes of secondary and even primary school. Ultimately, open access is tried so that there is a complete departure from any dependence on prior performance.

When students are admitted in this way, as they have been, for example, at Vincennes University in France and at the City University of New York, the next logical expectation is equality of results based on the democratic principle that all social strata should share in leadership. Exams begin to disappear as students and junior faculty in the enthusiasm of participatory democracy begin to set standards and curricula and define educational objectives.

As these movements progress, governments, which in the beginning encouraged and supported growth and which retain a commitment to accessibility, become alarmed at the costs and concerned over performance. They see themselves as defenders of the public interest and begin to believe that they may be better qualified to manage and direct the universities than are the institutions themselves.

What I have described may seem like a caricature and certainly all of us can point to universities where none of these sequelae to growth is evident. Nevertheless the evidence is overwhelming that in many countries of the world the evolution of universities is taking this general form. The pace varies and the steps (many of which are omitted here) are not everywhere the same.

What will be the end result? How can we conceptualize universities in less ambiguous terms? That question cannot be answered with any certainty but if the very idea of a university is to survive some old values must be retained and some new values added. The universities must be places for the preservation, transmission and enhancement of knowledge if they are to be universities. They -

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must therefore be places of scholarship. At the same time universities must, be places committed to social justice, to equality of opportunity. The cause of the universities' dilemma is the difficulty of reconciling both scholarship and opportunity. In the name of opportunity, universities must find ways to lower the drawbridge. They must involve themselves in imaginative financial aid, give more attention to early education, propose ways of combating cultural disadvantage, provide generous admission policies for the disadvantaged and devise effective compensatory programmes to help the academically handicapped.

In the name of scholarship and their obligation to seek out and cultivate intellectual leadership, universities must reject the notion of equality of results.

All men are not equal. Abilities, talents, motivation, courage, determination and interests are highly variable. Universities must recognize and reward performance. The contrasting goals of scholarship and opportunity are not mutually exclusive, but they are not easily achieved. The unambiguous university of the future will be the university firmly committed to both goals.

Within the university the academic is a professional having virtually the same attributes as other professions. He deals with a highly complex body of knowledge; he exercises practical skills associated with this knowledge; he uses the knowledge in the service of others; he is a member of a largely autonomous group which is self-governing; he controls admission to the profession and determines the educational requirements for acceptance into the community of scholars. Like other professions, the academic has established powerful professional associations such as the Association of University Teachers in the UK, the Canadian Association of University' Teachers, the American Association of University Professors.

It should and does follow that the academic community has been as guilty as other professions of promoting self-interest. The academic profession has pressed for earlier granting of tenure and has allowed it to be used for the protection of the incompetent. The practice of adding courses of interest to highly specialized faculty members without considering their relevance to educational goals for the student is well known. The insistence that high staff/student ratios be maintained and that teaching loads be kept small serve the faculty but do they really serve the students and the public as claimed?

How much attention is paid to the quality of teaching in assessing eligibility for promotion? These and other problems prompted the participants in a seminar on Ontario universities to conclude that: 'The faculties of universities are, for the most part, composed of professional people concerned with high standards of professional conduct and service. In recent years, however, the academic profession like many others has appeared to be increasingly selfserving. The right of any professional group to complete autonomy and selfregulation is now under question and the academic profession can be no Page eigby-one

exception. The day when such complete autonomy and authority were possible has passed. The academic profession would do well to be conscious of and sensitive to public concerns about some of its practices and privileges."

That in fact is my conclusion. The practices and privileges of professions as conventionally organized do not serve the public interest as well as they could.

Some change is called for. Milton Friedman has referred to the poverty of our imagination in not devising alternative approaches to the organization of professional services which would serve the public better.2 As an example, he proposes a model which rejects the idea of licensure in order to eliminate the monopoly position of professions. He claims that licensure has not ensured professional competence and that reliance on market forces would be more reliable. He notes that persons 'do not now choose physicians by picking names at random from a list of licensed physicians'. Further, 'a man's ability to pass an examination twenty or thirty years ago is hardly assurance of quality now'.

Friedman's solutions are based on the operation of market principles and are not attractive. Among other difficulties, they ignore history. They were perhaps intended mainly to provoke consideration of the need for some modifications in the current approach.3 A more modest approach might be workable.

The key is to provide governance for the professions which is responsive to the public interest, and that means modifying the monopoly. The simplest way to do this would be to have the public generously represented on the governing bodies of the professions. Moves in this direction have been taking place in some countries but they generally have been token moves. In my view, the representation from the public should equal the representation from the profession. A balance of this kind would reflect fairly and properly both the wider interests of the public and the unique and important characteristics of specialized knowledge on which each profession is based. Professionalization involves a drive toward specialization with an increasing tendency to fragment knowledge.

Good planning and policies require expertise but as Harold Laski observed, the expert should be on tap, not on top. The perspectives of the specialist must be reconciled with those of the generalist.

A partnership of public and profession will aid both. The profession will gain the advantage of a better perception of public concerns and priorities than is the case when the profession is making unilateral decisions. In the latter i. Ontario and Its Universities, Higher Education Seminar, York/University of Toronto, 1973-74.

Friedman, M. Capitalism and Frcedom, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963.

It is worth noting that not all occupational groups sharing the characteristic of applying sophisticated knowledge to the clients' problems are organized as self-governing professions. Commercial airline pilots offer a notable example. They hold responsibility for the lives of hundreds of persons each time they exercise their specialized knowledge and skill. Yet they are controlled by the rules of the corporations employing them and by governmental regulations. Without the characteristic of self-governance they perform at a very high level of competence.

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instance professions commonly express bewilderment when their decisions made with innocent conviction result in public indignation. Conversely, the public too often has a simplistic view of the issues being dealt with by the professions and consequently unrealistic expectations about what is possible.

Participation in the deliberations leading to policy will have educational value for the public's representatives and will give assurance to the wider public that its interests are considered.

Partnership of public and profession should be approached sufficiently broadly that the boundaries between professions are broken down. To have lawyers, engineers and economists on the governing body of medicine can only enrich the capability and broaden the vision of that body. Society, in general, and the professions, in particular, are faced today with new kinds of problems which are larger, more complex, more dependent on the conflicting objectives of different interest groups, more demanding of an understanding of costs and benefits, notions of trade-off, and changing value systems among the members of society. Such problems are not so much new as newly-perceived.

They have been called 'meta-problems' by Michael Chevalier.' Examples include poverty, environmental pollution, energy, growth and population, health delivery systems, criminology and rehabilitation. All of these problems are exceedingly complex with multiple interrelationships. The fact that the interrelationships are beginning to be better appreciated results from better theoretical knowledge and new capacity to analyse information and predict consequences. Daniel Moynihan recently recalled the prediction of a Swiss historian that the twentieth century would be the age of the great simplifiers and that the essence of tyranny would be the denial of complexity. Moynihan observed that 'what we need are great complexifiers, men who will not only seek to understand what it is they are about but will also dare to share that understanding with those for whom they act.12 That is what we need from our professions, both in and out of the university.

It can be found only by breaking down traditional barriers and finding ways of working together. I have spoken of the need for broadly-based governing bodies for the professions but the opportunities go much further. The professions together, and with university, government and industry, can marshal the resources to establish planning task forces in order to address major problems. Each group and each profession with relevant knowledge should participate. Each will find the joint effort can be greater than the sum of the parts.

In these partnerships the university will have a special role. It alone embraces all the professions because the university is the birthplace of the professions.

Ch li ,M. 'A wide range of perspectives in the bureaucratic structure' Working Paper, Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. Ottawa, 5966.

2. Quoted by Ways, M. 'Don't we know enough to make better policies?' 83. 64: Fortune, 1971. .

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The university has, however, a unique role in the thoughtful study of the theory underpinning each profession. John Gardiner has said that 'every great modern university must balance its responsibilities to the worlds of reflection and action." We need in our universities opportunities for quiet and isolated scholarship. We need to preserve an environment where the disengaged scholar, artist, scientist, can live and flourish. We need to make our universities places where our students can have personal contact with great minds and where they are given not only vocational opportunity, but the chance to grow as human beings. At the same time, we must recognize at the other end of the spectrum that a university must bear an intimate relationship with the rest of society.

The ivory tower is no longer enough. Perhaps it never was. Today the university needs the professions, business and government, and they in turn need the university. The universities, while gaining strength through participation, must know that they have a duty to remain distinctive. They must, whatever the associations and whatever the pressures, remain devoted to a 'spirit of inquiry and creativity, to a search for truth. If the universities continue to respect and honour this central mission they can contribute to human welfare in greater measure. If they can simultaneously work more and, more closely with the professions which they spawn the partnership can release new sources of power for human betterment.2

x. G2rdiner J. W. 'The world of reflection and action'. Sdente 15 4 November i8th, 1966.

Macdonald, John B. 'Interaction of Universities, Professions' and Industry,' Annals N.Y. Acad.

7-I1 1968.

2.

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PUBLICATIONS OCCASIONAL PAPERS I 'Social Work Training Needs in East Africa.' Report on Regional Seminar in Uganda, December 1967. *No. II 'Medical Education in Papua/New Guinea (with special reference to the Teaching and Practice of Obstetrics).' Professor J. Lawson, F.R.C.O.G., November 1968. *No. III 'Professional Managers in Indian Industry.' G. J. West, F.ç.c.s., F.R.S.A., General Secretary, British Institute of Works Managers, December 1968. *No IV 'Mental Health Problems in the Developing World.' Report on Mental Health Workshops in Edinburgh (1968) and Kampala (1969). *No V 'Quality in Education.' Report on a Conference of Inspectors of Schools from the Asia/Pacific area of the Commonwealth, Singapore, 1969.

VII 'Speech and Hearing Problems in South East Asia.' 1969. *No. *No. VII 'East Coast Fever.' Final report of Edinburgh African Veterinary Expedition, 1969.

No. VIII 'Conference of Librarians from Commonwealth Universities in Africa.'

Report of Proceedings at Lusaka, August 1969. (Since reprinted.) *No. IX 'Work Study Practice.' Report on a Regional Commonwealth Work Study Seminar, Singapore, May 1970.

X 'Orthopdic Problems in the Developing World.' Report on a CommonNo. wealth Lecture tour by Professor R. L. Huckstep. Makerere University Medical School, July—September 1970. (Since reprinted.) *No. XI 'Manpower Planning in the South Pacific.' Regional Seminar in Fiji, July 1970. *No. XII 'Communications and University Teaching with particular reference to the Caribbean.' A Report from the Inter-University Research Unit, Cambridge.

No. Xliii 'The Role of the Professions in a Changing World.' Report on a Conference held at the Professional Centre of Singapore, October 1971.

No. XIV 'Human Ecology in the Commonwealth;' Report of a Symposium held in London in November 1971 by the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council.

No. XV 'Adult Education and National Development.' Report of a Commonwealth Planning Seminar held at the University of Manchester in October 1972. (Reprinted 1973.)

No. XVI 'The Commonwealth Foundation Race Relations Bursary Scheme.' Report on a Seminar, September 1972. *No.

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No. XVII 'The Application of Architectural Research to Practice.' Report on a Commonwealth Seminar at Edinburgh, January 1973.

No. XVIII 'The Organization of Science and Technology for Development.' Report on a 1973 Foundation Caribbean Lecture Tour by Dr K. F. Tupper, formerly Vice-President, Canadian National Research Council.

No. XIX 'Commonwealth University Co-operation.' Report on a Foundationsponsored seminar at the I.D.S. Sussex. August-September 1973.

No. XX Report on a Team Visit to Universities in Commonwealth West Africa from the Universities of the West Indies and of Guyana, 1973.

No. XXI 'Social Significance in Science and Mathematics Teaching.' Report on a Commonwealth Conference held at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. March 29th-April 2nd, 1973.

No. XXII 'Quality Education for National Development The Role of the Adviser.'

Report of a Regional Symposium held in Fiji, August-September 1973.

No. XXIII 'Orthopedic Training in Developing Countries.' An International Symposium sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation and the National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases. Oriel College, Oxford.

September 12th-15th, 1973.

No. XXIV 'Rural-Urban Migration in Tropical Africa.' Report on a Commonwealth Foundation Lecture Tour by Guy Hunter, C.M.G. No. XXV 'Meeting the Health Needs of our Developing Countries Past, Present and Future.' Report on a Commonwealth Foundation Lecture Tour by Professor S. R. A. Dodu, M.D., F.R.C.P., Dean, University of Ghana Medical School. October 1973-May 1974.

No. XXVI 'Adult Education and National Development.' Report of a Commonwealth Regional Seminar held in New Delhi, March 1974.

No. XXVII Surveying and Land Economy in the Commonwealth.

No. XXVIII Commonwealth Co-operation. The Role of the Professional Associations.

No. XXIX Rural-Urban Drift in Africa.

No. XXX Problems Confronting the Industrial Scientist.

No. XXXI 'Human Ecology and Hong Kong.' Report of a Conference held in Hong Kong in April 1972 by the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council. *Now out of print.

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First Major Publication 'Professional Organizations in the Commonwealth' (detailing upwards of 1,000 professional and learned societies and Commonwealth-wide associations). Published by Hutchinson of London, June 1970. 511 pp. Price £4•50 (Second edition now in preparation.)

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Printed in England by Staples Printers Limited at The Priory Press, St Albans, Hertfordshire