Continuing Education: A Study of Opinions of University Faculty and Industrial Personnel.

Opinions were gathered from college faculty and industrial employees as to the number of college semester hours they felt they could take while employed full time. The sample included 268 randomly selected faculty members and administrators from seven universities in the western states, and 175 industrial personnel of eight firms in the area. Two opinionaires were devised, one for universities and one for industry. A Fisher's t for uncorrelated means was used to determine the significance at the .05 level. Roughly one-fourth of the university faculty members had no time for courses; the rest thought they could take an average of 3.5 semester hours without adversely affecting full time responsibilities. About 80% felt that all tuition should be free to the faculty. The industrial personnel felt they could devote 8.7 hours per week to continuing education and felt the company should pay three-fourths of the cost. A higher percentage of university faculty members than of industrial employees were working toward advanced degrees, but both devoted about the same amount of time to the job and community. More industrial personnel attended noncredit classes. (A bibliography and copies of the questionnaires used are included.) (author/nl)