Higher Education and Science Reform (HESR) Program Advances Materials Research in Estonia
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Higher Education and Science Reform (HESR) Program Advances Materials Research in Estonia Enn Mellikov and Andres Opik Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Estonia's higher-education system has been adjusting to the modern scientific and educational world where competitiveness is mostly related to the relevance and quality of a country's own input. Some very persistent shortcomings in Estonian science education dating to the beginning of the 1990s are still not completely resolved, preventing Estonia from being fully competitive internationally. The objective of the Higher Education and Science Reform (HESR) program initiated by the government of Estonia in 1996 and financed mainly by European Union (EU) PHARE resources (an EU aid program established for Central and Eastern European countries) is to overcome these deficiencies and prepare the Estonian higher-education and research systems for successful integration into the EU's research programs. The five most important of these shortcomings being targeted by the HESR program are as follows: 1. A very complicated system of scientific institutions and programs in the field of materials science and technology. Under the Soviet regime, several unintegrated groups carried out the research projects, the results of which were largely subject to secrecy. Dissertations, research reports, and authors' certificates were classified as "for institutional use" only. As a result, public information on the field of materials was inadequate. 2. Separate research institutions for the Academy of Sciences and the universities. Students did not come into contact with high-level scientists, and because the researchers were not educators, they had no contact with students. This situation led 6
to a lack of doctoral students and young researchers in Estonian scientific organizations and universities. 3. Outdated facilities and equipment. Much of the equipment in use by the Estonian research system was over 10 years old, dating from the previous Soviet period. Laboratories stocked with such old scientific equipment were unattractive to young people and this suppressed the number of doctoral students in materials science and technology. In the former Soviet system, scientific equipment was mainly purchased for research and educational institutions in Moscow and the largest republics, while the Baltic republics, such as Estonia, were very poorly financed. The low number of degree-level students led to a lack of young qualified specialists for Estonian industry. 4. The wide gap between Estonian and international educational institutions formed during the period of Soviet occupation. This led to incompatibilities between the Estonian and Western systems of higher education and science. Participation in scholarship programs and cooperation b e t w e e n Estonian and Western research institutions were practically impossible. Long-term academic isolation has resulted in outdated teaching programs, including a lack of modern literature, textbooks, and computer-aided education
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