Notes and News*University of Rhodesia Vacation School,1972Ik yIn August the University held its fourthannual Vacation School. The School takesplace ever)' August and is a week-long pro-gramme of talks and discussions aimed at thegeneral public; and there are no entrance re-quirements and no examinations. Its aim fromits inception has been to provide a, wide-rang-ing programme of some fifty talks that areintended to be informative, stimulating and, attimes, provocative.The principal theme of the School was thecourse 'Academic Perspectives on Race', whichcovered historical, psvcho-biological, regionaland practical aspects of the subject. An inno-vation was the invitation of speakers fromoutside Rhodesia who are well-known ex-ponents of their country's policies in the racefield: Professor S. Ngcobo on Black Africa,Professor N. Olivier on South Africa, Mr. J. L.Ribeiro-Torres on Portugal, and Dr, R.Davenport on the historical background inSouth Africa: Senator W. R. Whaley spoke onRhodesia. It is hoped that a selection of thesetalks will be published. The other aspects werecovered by the University's own staff.There were subsidiary themes on 'Englishwriting in Africa' which considered DorisUniversity of Rhodesia*The Editor welcomes reports on events in Rhodesia,particularly conferences.Lessing, Chinua Achebe, West African andSouthern African literature, and included dra-ma and poetry readings; 'Resource Conserva-tion' which dealt with vegetation, big game,birds, water resources and fisheries; 'The Eco-nomics of the Public Sector in Rhodesia' whichsurveyed the growth of the public sector,fiscal and pricing policies, personal incomedistribution, immigration and developmentplanning; 'The Control of Human Behaviour'which dealt with conditioning, learning, physi-ology of behaviour, group pressures, control ofhappiness and recent advances in psychiatry;and 'Drug Abuse and its Treatment' whichexplained the nature of drugs and the controland treatment of dependence.Attendance figures reached a new highpoint: just under 1 400. which were spreadremarkably evenly over all the courses. Asmight be expected, the twenty scheduled talkson 'Race' attracted the greatest numbers.Questionnaires circulated among participantsindicated that a successful blend of technical,social and practical subjects had been achieved.Suggestions for future Vacation Schools are al-ways welcome (to be addressed to the Secretary,Vacation School, University of Rhodesia). Thedate of the School for 1974 is 26-30 August.N. J. AUSTIN81