ABSTRACT
Instead of providing a ‘field’ of many possible combinations of specialties as in Kemp et al. (1992) or Toppen (1990), figure 13.2 provides a much more discrete division into four GIS courses. In certain countries only a few of the four will be possible or necessary, while other nations have sufficient demand for all. In the case of Spain, there is little demand for course type 4 (basic GIS education for computer scientists) due to the lack of research positions and system design/development. The majority of the university GIS courses in Spain are currently type 2 (basic, theoretic courses for biologists, geographers, agricultural engineers, etc.). The recent surge of university short courses (such as in table 13.1) fills the type 1 niche (teaching biologists or geographers how to use GIS packages). Type 3 courses (applications development using macro languages) are desperately needed in Spain, but perhaps should be taught only by vendors or the practical schools. The ability to emphasise certain courses over others should be facilitated so that in times of crisis courses 1 and 3 may be stressed (and better funded), while courses 2 and 4 may be stressed as the clouds begin to clear. Focusing only on traditional university education means that we necessarily suffer from a three-to fiveyear lag in our reaction to employment needs. Are we constantly out of phase?
