Relevance of the Residence Requirement / Daniel Alpert.

With the changes in undergraduate education and the growth of community colleges, the concept of the continuous residence requirement for the baccalaureate degree may be going out of style. There is also increasing demand for changes in residence requirements at the master's level, because many of those pursuing this degree hold full-time jobs. Changes are also necessitated by the technological revolution in education. At the University of Illinois, PLATO, a computer-based education system, is already in wide use, and there is every reason to believe that by the mid-1970's a statewide PLATO network will begin to break down the lockstep of the formal educational process. This will mean that the University will be able to reach over hundreds of miles, with persons completing courses without ever having been on campus. It will make residence requirements obsolete. At the graduate level the substantive reasons for residence requirements will have to be re-examined, for it is not so much that the doctoral student needs the institution, as that the institution needs the doctoral student, for graduate students play a vital role at the center of the university's intellectual life. The role of the graduate student is changing, as is the society he lives in, and this must be taken into account when resident requirements are being established. (AF)

Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.