Since the 1970s, the evolution of the OECD economies and societies, in particular the advent of information technologies, has made lifelong learning a key goal for education and training policy. Progress in technology and international economic integration is rapidly changing the economic landscape and putting an ever greater premium on the need to innovate, improve productivity and to adjust t...

Th is paper is concerned w i th the problem of dete rmin ing the indirect effects or ramifications of actions. We argue that the standard framework in which background knowledge is given in the fo rm of state constraints is inadequate and that background knowledge should instead be given in the fo rm of "causal laws." We represent "causal laws" f irst as inference rules and later as sentences i...

The relationship between entry qualifications and performance throughout the medical course was studied in individual cohorts of students admitted in the years 1977 to 1981. A modest but significant relationship with overall initial qualifications was found throughout the course. Students without biology showed a marked disadvantage in the first year but the effect did not persist. There were q...