OXFORD, England - Oregon State University President Paul Risser will describe how technology has revolutionized higher education in an invited lecture on Thursday, Aug. 5, part of a week-long international symposium on leadership hosted by Oxford University.

The Oxford Round Table for University Leadership, scheduled Aug. 1-6, will bring together leading educators, politicians and other influential decision-makers to discuss innovation in education. It will feature higher education leaders from 12 countries discussing educational trends and policy in a "think-tank" environment.

Risser, who has been president of Oregon State since January of 1996, will speak on "Using Technology to Engage the Campus of a Land-Grant University."

In his talk, Risser will describe how the Internet and Web-based technologies are opening up new opportunities and methods of learning for a growing number of non-traditional college students. Those same technologies also are changing the way universities do business daily.

As an example, Risser points to the work of OSU education professor Mark Merickel, who designed a Web-based infrastructure to help teachers plan, develop and manage individual continuing education programs that meets all professional licensing requirements.

At the same time, the Web can be used for day-to-day activities, Risser added, pointing to OSU's student government election this spring, which was conducted entirely on-line.

Risser said he "was honored" to receive an invitation to speak at the prestigious conference.

"It will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase Oregon State University as an institution operating on the cutting edge of innovation in the Information Age," Risser said.

OSU recently was named by Yahoo! Internet magazine as one of the nation's most wired universities, and The Valley Library was named 1999 Library of the Year by the Library Journal, the first time an academic library had ever won the award. University faculty also are involved in a variety of innovative technological ventures, including the Internet 2 project, a Government Information Sharing Project, and an ambitious program called OSU Statewide that takes the resources of the university into every corner of Oregon.

The university also operates the most sophisticated supercomputer network in the world dedicated to research on marine science.

Source: 

Paul Risser, 541-737-4133

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