UK joins European debate on links between science and the arts
The UK's Council for science and technology (CST) has joined other European countries by publishing a report calling for links between science and technology and the arts and humanities to be strengthened. The CST is the body providing UK Prime Minister Tony Blair with independent advice on strategic issues concerning science and technology. In its report, 'Imagination and understanding', the Council stresses the increasing importance of linkages between the disciplines for education, research, business and society in general. Welcoming the report, the UK's Higher education Minister, Margaret Hodge, said 'The Council has provided a thought provoking report. It is important to look across the boundaries of disciplines in education and research. The arts and sciences do have much to learn from one another, and it must be right to enable education and research that bridges the gap.' The report emphasises that this is not only a British, but a European area of debate. Discussions are underway in Germany about the predicted sharp decline in the number of engineering and science subjects. In France, a government report published in 1998 outlined the ways in which institutions can be used to encourage cooperation between the creative arts and scientific and technological research in fields such as electronic music and image synthesis. The Dutch government's advisory council has meanwhile made recommendations on how to use more of the knowledge gained from the humanities and the social sciences in the 'traditionally science dominated sectors', and the Danish government has recently established 'Information Technology University', an objective of which is to encourage links between the two disciplines. The report recommends a broader education system, in order to encourage students to avoid neither science and technology nor arts and humanities, and suggests including elements of the French baccalaureate system, which involves instruction in a several mandatory core subjects. The council also calls on the government to encourage the provision of training in information and communications technology for arts and humanities students. Addressing research, the paper urges the British government to include the arts and humanities more fully in the discussion and implementation of national and international research priorities and to ensure that arts and humanities research has access to the infrastructure necessary to participate in innovative activities. 'One of the most important functions of the research councils is to contribute to the formation of national and European research strategies, and of priorities or themes for research which is expected to be of economic and social as well as scholarly importance. The development of research policy would be strengthened by the participation of the arts and humanities in these discussions, including the discussion of new information and communication strategies, and of their consequences for UK and global society,' states the report. Finally, the Council notes that the German concept of 'Wissenschaft' is a much wider notion than the English 'science', and denotes the systematic creation or shaping of knowledge. The French and German research councils are also more proactive in their funding of arts and humanities and social science research projects than their British counterparts. Lord Sainsbury, the UK's science Minister welcomed the report and said that it will be taken into account during the next spending review, and more generally in developing education and research policies.ommission plan
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