IN a recent trip to America I had the opportunity to sit in a postgraduate class at a university. I was invited as a guest of the professor and could not resist the chance to be a fly on the wall. I arrived at 8am for the 8.30 start and took position at the back of a steeply banked, horseshoe-shaped auditorium able to accommodate just over 100 students. There were no windows, it was quiet, clinically clean with excellent decoration, lighting, seating, ample desk space, power outlets and network access points for every seat. The room was also well-equipped for audio, visual and multimedia presentations.

Perhaps most important, the environment was conducive to interaction in every direction. Within 15 minutes the first students started to arrive, with breakfast (coffee and bagels), laptops, organisers, and pre-distributed electronic and paper notes. Each student displayed a large, desk-mounted nameplate and an array of technologies.

The room gradually filled, and an air of excitement began to build. The professor arrived with five minutes to go, and moved through the class, speaking pointedly with individuals and groups in turn. He was obviously priming groups and checking on progress since their previous class.

Promptly at 8.30 this interactive session began with an opening video, followed by an objective statement for the 60-minute period. The sense of expectation grew - this was obviously going to be a high-energy event. The interaction started with the professor calling students by name to contribute their interpretation of each postulate and demonstration. Almost running from student to student, he extracted the pearls of wisdom one at a time from individuals.

At the end of the class a homework assignment came up on screen and the students departed abuzz with the injection of an hour's knowledge, interaction and energy. At this point I began asking questions and unearthed some interesting facts about the class. Over 65 per cent of the students were from overseas, and predominantly European. They were all fee-paying at a rate of over $30,000 a year for tuition alone, for each of two years.

I asked a sample of the students why they had chosen this route for their education, and the answer was very clear: there is nowhere in Europe where you can get so much so fast and of such a high quality. I could only conclude that the use of on and off-line PC-based demonstrations, augmented by videos and direct student interaction, approached the best educational process we can realise today. It was clear that the student body attracted to this university was also top-flight, with good prospects for the future, and I find it hard to imagine that many will migrate back to their native countries.

Here then lies a major problem for the future. If Europe fails to come up to speed in its use of technology it will suffer an increasing loss of key people to America. In my experience, the equivalent courses in Europe are entrenched in the past, and worse, so are the students they produce. Perhaps it is no accident that America contributes 20 per cent to the GDP of the planet, while Europe does the same with over 100 million more population. I suspect we could learn a lot by going to school in the US.

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk