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THE UNIVERSITIES The universities trace their first beginnings to the thirteenth century as communities of teachers , scholars and students . A history stretching over seven centuries has given the universities an aura of immutability , but I do not suppose that the universities themselves would carry such an attribute to the extreme of resisting changes of methods of instruction and learning . Such changes might have to be considered by them because , first of all , the financial cut-backs that plague all the universities might make it unavoidable for them to consider a restructuring of some of their courses for undergraduates . If the school children are going through a learning system with an emphasis on guided self-learning , it would not seem indicated to make an undergraduate student revert to the erstwhile classroom situation with conventional teaching , blackboard and all . Today , each of the conventional universities offers more or less identical courses to its undergraduate students in the natural sciences , the social sciences , Jewish studies , mathematics , humanities and law . With the modern means of communication available to us , this would appear to be an unnecessary duplication . And educational technology has advanced to a point where it could ease the burden of the universities without detracting from the quality of study . phisticated and costly equipment , especially in physics , because the number of 'centres would be relatively limited . And because each group of pupils would be allotted certain slots of time for working in the laboratories or with the computers , the equipment would be used from early morning to evening and would thus be amortized in a businesslike manner . And last , the total number of highly qualified educators , technologists , instructors and laboratory aids required for 100 or 150 centres might well be lower than the total required for 500 schools . A further possible task for the centres might be the promotion of science education for adults . Illiteracy in science and technology will no longer be acceptable to forward-looking citizens .
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