FIG Commission 2

REPORT TO THE 22ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN FIG PC -MEETING IN SUN CITY JUNE 1999

Kirsi Virrantaus

1.General

Commission 2 has been working actively and according to the work plan. The planned seminar and meetings have been organized and information on these happenings as well as general news have been delivered via Newsletters and Web pages. Some minor changes have happened in the composition of working groups as well as in nominations of national delegates.

2. Work Plan

Commission 2 has followed the accepted working plan without any major changes. Working groups have been working as explained in the Chapter 5 of this report. 

The chair of Working Group 2 University Curricula will be changing - professor Jud Rouch will leave the chair to professor David Gibson. However Jud Rouch will continue as a member of the Working Group.

3. Annual Meeting

Commission 2 organized a successful annual meeting during the Brighton Congress on the 22nd of July. 22 participants attended the meeting. The main topics for discussion were the working plan as well as the new working groups. Four working groups were organized. The next annual meeting will be organized during the Sun City PC -meeting.

The tradition in Commission 2 is to organize the annual meeting during the congress or working week. A commission meeting is also held during the seminars which are organized between the congresses.

4. Other Meetings and Events

Commission 2 had also another meeting for working group chairs during the Brighton congress. The more detailed plans for working groups were made.

Working group 2 organized a seminar ?University Curricula, Teaching Method, Quality Assurance? in October 14.-16. 1998 at Wuhan Technical University. It was a successful seminar with more than 40 Chinese participants. Professor Stig Enemark (Com 2), professor John Parker (Com 1) and professor Kirsi Virrantaus (Com 2) participated . The seminar was organized by professor Liu Yanfang, the co-chair of Working Group 2. More about the seminar can be read on the web page of Com 2.

 Commission 2 had also a minor meeting in Oulu, Finland during the CLGE general assembly, March 1999. Professor Stig Enemark, professor Pedro Cavero, professor Kirsi Virrantaus and directror Markku Villikka met on the 27th of March. The topics dealt were mainly Sun City working week program, working group news, the situation of Web pages, the further development of the Educational Data Base and the coming seminar of Working Group 4 in Madrid in 2000 (?Surveying Curricula and Students in FIG?).

Kirsi Virrantaus also participated in the CLGE meeting during the discussion on the Educational report. A joint seminar is going to be organized, probably on the 17th of September, 1999.

5. Working groups

Working Group 1: Management skills, professional competencies and CPD policies
Chair: professor Chris Hoogsteden.

Contributions in Wuhan seminar (Stig Enemark) and Sun City working week (Chris Hoogsteden, Stig Enemark).

Working Group 2: Virtual acadmy - distance learning.

Chair: Professor Henrik Haggrén,
co-chair: Professor Esben Munk Sörensen

Contributions in Sun City working week (Esben Munk Sörensen, Bela Markus) An expert seminar/meeting will be organized on virtual academy probably during the next year.

Working Group 3: University curricula - content competencies, trends and assessment?

Chair: Professor Jud Rouch will give the chair to professor David Gibson.Liu Yanfang will continue as the co-chair.

Contributions in Wuhan (Liu Yanfang) and Sun City (Jud Rouch, Liu Yanfang).

Working Group: Surveying students

Chair: Professor Pedro Cavero.

Working Group has started a program of marketing FIG for students: already two meetings with students have been organized in which professor Pedro Cavero has given presentation under the title ?Why to study surveying - why to join FIG??. The presentations as well as general FIG-info meetings have been organized in Valencia and in Helsinki during the academic year 1998-99.

WG 4 will organize a seminar in 2000 on ?Surveying Curricula and Students in FIG?, the venue will be in Madrid. We try to activate students to attend that seminar.

6. Forthcoming events

Previously mentioned joint seminar with CLGE Working Group 4 in September 1999. Working Group 4 of Commission 2 will organize the seminar in 2000, Madrid. Working Group 3 of Commission 2 will organize a meeting/seminar during the next year.

7. Information

Commission 2 Web pages have been moved from Aalborg University to HelsinkiUniversity of Technology and linked to FIG pages (http://www.hut.fi/Units/Cartography/Fig2/). All information as well as documents of Commission 2 are now available there.

Two Newsletters have been sent to the national delegates (October, February). One more will come before Sun City and the fourth of this year will be just after Sun City. Newsletter will also be on the Web pages.

8. Other matters

A manuscript of a report on ?Quality Assurance in Surveying Education? will be delivered to Bureau to be accepted in Sun City.