Headlines

The Olympus sport center is running a course in Tae Bo, butnobody is allowed to know. The course has been entered in thecomputer as NAR (New Aerobic Rage) since Tae Bo inventor BillyBlanks' Dutch lawyer announced last week that Blanks intends torecover royalties from unauthorized users of the Tae Bo name. Thenew rage, which consists of a fusion of karate, dance and aerobics,has conquered the Uithof. Last week Olympus organized a massworkout in the large sport hall, which attracted 110 participants.A one-hour class for 30 people is currently fully subscribed.

Computer scientists

Dutch computer scientists are figuring not very prominently inthe world rankings. The American Nec Research Institute hascompiled a league table of the top 5,000 most-cited computerscientists. It developed software designed to search the Internetfor academic articles and record the references they cite. Thehighest placed 'Dutchman' is number 91. American Andy Tanenbaum,who works for Amsterdam's Free University, has been quoted 1669times on the Internet. The Nijmegen computer science professorFrits Vaandrager has extracted a list of the top 50 Dutch computerscientists from these world rankings. Four academics who took theirdoctorates with Tanenbaum figure in the top 50. Utrecht has onerepresentative in this top 50, Professor Jan Bergstra, who lecturesin applied logic at the Faculty of Philosophy. He is numberseven.

Links

Universities and colleges of higher education can make moneyfrom education which links up well with high schools. EducationMinister Hermans has allocated NLG 400,000 for the best projects inthis area. The minister has put up the biennial prize of 400,000for the best contribution to the quality of higher education, halfto be allocated to a university, the other half to a college ofhigher education. This year's prize will be awarded to the twoinstitutions which come up with the best projects to improve thelinkage with secondary education. The prize's them is connected tothe concept of the "study space" (studiehuis), the new approach topre-university (VWO) and senior general secondary education (HAVO)introduced 18 months ago. One of the system's goals is to betterprepare school students for further education.