Background

The need to address international standardization in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in academic curricula is an important factor in increasing the awareness and preparing the students in standardization activities as the students of today are the experts of tomorrow who will drive the standardization processes.

In this context, "education about standardization" is related not to technology topics, but rather to the activities that aim at providing formal information to students at undergraduate and graduate levels on all aspects related to international standards, standardization processes, standards development activities, standard strategy planning, standardization rules, and case studies involving standards and standardization activities.

Given the scale of the task, it is important to establish close collaboration among ITU-T experts in standardization, representatives of academia, as well as other standards development organizations that are also interested in the work areas of the ad-hoc group on education about standardization.

1. Terms of reference

• Develop guidelines for enhancing the involvement of the ITU-T Sector in the field of education about ICT standardization.
• Gather information on standards education activities in ITU-T, in universities, and in relevant organizations such as ISO and IEC in the context of WSC, other SDOs, and academic-led organizations.
• Review existing “gap analyses”, studies, surveys, and other research about standards education in academic curricula, and then perform a new gap analysis with the information gathered.
• On the basis of the previous analyses, propose and develop policy initiatives to fill the identified gaps, such as, and not limited to:
1. Review academic curricula that are already being used by existing efforts and groups to see if these can either be extended, built upon or otherwise refined for ITU’s purposes.
2. Develop one or more deliverables recommended for inclusion in academic curricula to be used by academia in standards education.
3. Identify strategies to facilitate adoption of credit-eligible courses in standards education in undergraduate and graduate programmes for different disciplines, and evaluate its success.
4. Contribute to a programme for a tutorial on standards education to be held during Kaleidoscope events, WSC events, etc.
5. Make proposals on webinars, seminars and workshops on standards education and related subjects of common interest to ITU and Academia.
• Encourage other research and academic institutions to join as ITU members.

2. Composition

The group shall be open to the members and non-members of the ITU-T and will work in an open, equitable, inclusive and transparent manner.

3. Working Methods

The Chair of the meeting is the TSB Director, or in his absence a person appointed by him. The group will decide its meeting schedule and works through electronic means as far as possible.