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In the following paper certain fads and tendencies in the field of university education in Sweden will be reviewed and some original findings reported, which all seem to have a bearing on the social role of universities in modern society. In one respect the situation in Sweden is by no means unusual though it raises important questions. Measured by student enrollment or similar statistics, universities are currently growing at a rate which has no earlier parallels. Another feature is less common and therefore deserves particular attention. There is relatively little selection between the senior secondary school stage and the university stage, a large proportion of those who graduate from the former proceed to a university or a professional school of equivalent status. There is selection social and intellectual at an earlier stage; the transition from the junior secondary school, or the new comprehensive school, to the gymnasium. In the earlier part of the paper statistical and other information will be offered which is national and overall in coverage, that is to say, describes the system as a whole or major branches of it. The later part will be based on a more intensive study of a panel of students in Lund, Canada who have been interviewed or approached by a questionnaire and followed through their first university years.

The article discusses the historical origin of the Canadian public education system. Section 93 of the British North America Act states that there are ten distinct education systems with additional activity on the part of the federal government. Canada is publicly-supported, provincially-controlled system of education. Public school education is free to all up to the end of the secondary level. Religion-oriented curricula has been substituted by a wide variety of academic cultural and vocational subjects. High school attendance has become the rule rather than the exception. Universities give their instruction in French, some in English, or both languages, and their types of institutions range from classical, arts, theological and other colleges to complex universities.

This article deals with a study discussing the role of national courses in the teaching and development of sociology. The study is based on data collected in 1971 from university departments across Canada in which sociology is taught. The article presents an empirical examination of the rapid and widespread increase in the past few years of university courses bearing the label "Canadian Society," the first having been introduced at Toronto in 1940. Various descriptions of this kind of course have been used such as an examination of Canadian society and its changing structure through the use of basic concepts, principles and methods of sociology. Its main characteristic is that it focuses on a general study of Canadian social structure as distinct from using Canadian data or examples in other sociology courses. One question which has been raised in regard to Canadian Society courses is the extent to which they are compatible with a nomothetic approach to social science. A number of possible reasons, including cross-cultural factors, are suggested for the inadequate sociological perspective of national courses; such as, nationalistic reactions to American influences on various Canadian institutions; educational values which stress the need for students to acquire a sound knowledge of their own society; theoretical developments in the discipline at large; and the increasing availability of Canadian social scientific data.

The article discusses the growth of universities in Canada. It mentions the problems of a new university and suggests that new universities as such seem to adopt no common pattern. Having described the expansion, compared two new universities, and suggested that universities everywhere are the beneficiaries of the American Revolution started at Berkeley, the article then reflects on some of the tasks facing by universities.

The article presents a study which aims to extend the description of college environments to include institutions for professional education in the U.S. and Canada. In a population of 100 medical schools, 28 characteristics were intercorrelated, and a principal component analysis was carried out. Four components were rotated to a final solution by the Varimax procedure and given titles such as Affluence, Canadian versus U.S. Admissions Policies, Size, and Emphasis on Hospital Training. For the 52 U.S. medical schools that are in the same location as their parent university, correlations were computed between medical school scores on the factors and university characteristics. It is noted that the size and affluence of medical schools seem to reflect characteristics of the parent university. Size is most related to quality of graduate education. The four rotated factors appear to provide a brief but fairly representative profile of medical school characteristics.

The article offers information on the Arctic Institute of North America. It is informed that it was founded by individuals in 1995 with an aim to disseminate the knowledge about the Arctic region gained during the World War II. It is also informed that the institute is now recognized by a charter of the Canadian government and in the New York state as a nonprofit organization. Information is also provided on the research work carried out in the institute along with its role in wildlife conservation and management.

Information about the symposium on circadian rhythms and physiological phenomena in plants which was held during the "Ninth Annual Scientific meeting of the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists" in Canada in June 5, 1968. E. Kendall Pye of the University of Pennsylvania talked about the biochemical mechanisms underlying the metabolic oscillations in yeast. It was set to discuss ideas formed the basis for experimental work on circadian time measurement in biological systems.