JB Letter

Computer Centre 17 May 1978 Professor J.C. Butcher Chairman Board of Computer Studies Mathematics Dept University of Auckland Dear John,
Developments in the teaching of Computing in the University
1.	Syllabus.
	I enclose a document which bears on our current deliberations in this area. It gives a basic syllabus which is deemed by the Association for Computing Machinery to constitute the minimum requirement for a bachelor's course in Computing.
	I would by no means suggest that we adopt this syllabus uncritically, but the ACM is a prestigious body, and we are bound to take its propos- als seriously. I find it gratifying, therefore, that the ACM syllabus is essentially the same as our own, as embodied in the existing Computer Studies courses. This gives strong support to the view that our present syllabus is well balanced, and a satisfactory nucleus for further develop- ment.
2.	Organisation.
	Unless the University decides to abandon any attempt to present Computing as an undergraduate subject, something in the nature of the present set of Computer Studies courses must either be maintained or developed. In either case, I believe that the experience of the last two years has shown that a more formal academic structure for teaching the subject is urgently needed. If Computing is to be developed into a full subject in its own right, then clearly a full Department must be established; if not (and perhaps as an interim measure in any case), a smaller "unit" within some existing department could suffice. The weaknesses of the current, very informal, scheme for presenting lectures in Computing are manifold, and are becoming more evident as the numbers of students taking the courses increases. The problems which arise range from the small (who should do what with all the students' photographs?) to the large (How shall we manage to keep the courses going next year?), but most stem more or less directly from one or two roots : there is no visible and effective centre to the "department"; and Were is no guarantee of permanence. A group cooperating on a task needs some sort of central body, or person, to be responsible for (among other things) co-ordinating activities, main- taining records and representing the group to other bodies. For a teaching group in the situation of those involved in Computer Studies, the position of centre would normally be filled by a senior academic with a primary commitment to the group; in fact, the Chairman and the Execu- tive Committee of the Board of Computer Studies all have prior commitments in other areas, and can function at best as part-time centres. In conse- quence, records are not kept as they should be, coordination between the lecturers in the group is poor (and not helped by their physical separat- ion into two subgroups), and communications to the "Head of Department" may be sent to any one of several people, or not at all. Many of the problems are, individually, pinpricks, but the cumulative effect is con- siderable; it amounts to (quite unavoidable) bad organisation, which militates against the orderly and coherent development without which any group lies in danger of disintegration through stagnation. The lack of central direction creates organisational problems which have their major impact on the academic staff teaching Computer Studies; on the other hand, the students are more directly affected by the continuing uncertainty as to what - if any - Computer Studies courses will be avail- able next year. With the situation as it is, nobody can help them : we simply don't know whether in fact we shall still have the services of a temporary junior lecturer (without whom we would have been unable to present four courses this year); and the Faculties are expressing their reservations about the continuing involvement of the Computer Centre staff in teaching.
3.	Conclusions. It seems that, at present, we are giving more or less the right courses under conditions which are hardly conducive to the survival, let alone the development, of computing as a subject in the University. To set Computer Studies on a firm footing, a minimum goal must be the establishment of permanent academic positions in the subject. The number of appointments needed, and the level at which they should be made, clearly depend on the level at which Computer Studies is to be supported; at a guess, assuming continual cooperation from the Mathematics Department and (perhaps at a reduced level) from the Computer Centre, one or two people would be able to present a slightly improved and consolidated version of the current syllabus. An existing department would have to act as host for the Computing staff member(s). (I assume that the possibility of the immediate establishment of a Department of Computing is sufficiently remote to be negligible.) There is no obvious a priori candidate for host; my own preference would be for the Mathematics Department, because of the superficial resemblance between the subjects (fairly abstract, "practical" work doesn't need lab- oratories), and - more significantly - because it is physically closest to several of the staff now teaching Computer Studies. A final note: I am finding it more and more embarrassing to have to explain to students that it is the University's policy not to present a full course in Computing; the usual reaction is a compound of incomprehension, amusement, and astonishment that the University of Auckland should not feel it necessary to provide instruction in perhaps the most rapidly advancing area of science and technology. In 1976, when the Computer Studies courses were first presen- ted, I believed that the device of offering the courses through the Board would provide a satisfactory alternative, at least in the short run, to the establishment of a Department of Computing; after two years' experience of teaching in an organising the courses, I have come to agree with the students that, even in the short run, only a Department, or (less satisfactorily) a properly established "unit", can cater adequately for their, and the Uni- versity's, needs. Yours faithfully, G. Alan Creak Senior Lecturer Enc:

an :	A typing error. This was in the days when letters to important people ( such as professors of mathematics ) were typed by secretaries. I can't remember the details, but I suspect that this was probably about the third draft, and I didn't dare take it back to June Magan for another go.
Comput... :	I tried hard to avoid the name "Computer Science", which I thought then ( and still think now ) is a silly name for the topic, with the possible exception of the theory-of-computing content. It did no good; "Computer Science" was fashionable.
Enclosure :	The Enclosure was a copy of the "Accreditation Guidelines for Bachelor's Degree Programs in Computer Science" from the ACM : Comm.ACM 20, 891-892 ( 1977 )
reservations :	Pettiness. Those concerned were Nevil Brownlee, Peter Fenwick, John White, and me. All of us had perfectly respectable academic doctorates; three of us ( not John ) were appointed as academics on the academic scale; I was explicitly appointed to teach.
Temporary Junior Lecturer :	Paul Lyons, who was working on a PhD under my supervision. Paul was able to claim that he was the first person appointed to an academic post explicitly to teach computing in an academic department.

Letter to the Chairman of the Board of Computer Studies

Notes.