Correspondence on The Static Penetration Test and the Ultimate Resistances of Driven Piles in Fine-g

Mr. H.B. Gould (F) : Mr. President, we have heard an introduction to a very interesting paper. It occurs to me that in saying that the Institution would not wish to block the entrance of technicians into the professional side, Mr. Severn describes a position that the people concerned may not agree with. I am thinking here of people who, for example, were left outside in the cold when the regulations changed in 1973-people who were quite near to qualification. They may, for example, have taken and failed the Institution's final examination. They found then that to achieve chartered status it was necessary for them to start at university or polytechnics without any credit for the work they had done at the technician stage.

We have a request from Mr. K. T. John (M) written from Nairobi : I am currently engaged in the design of several large reservoirs for water schemes in various parts of Africa. Economy and ease of construction is extremely important as many of the sites are in remote areas and the labour is relatively unskilled. Verulam

An investigation of the ability of civil engineering students to understand the basic behaviour of structures is described. The study is based on two tests, each consisting of a number of two-dimensional structures. The candidate is required to draw the approximate bending moment diagrams. The results of tests on a number of student groups are presented and discussed. Based on these results, the authors conclude that the ability of the average student is less than should be expected. D.M. Brohn and J. Cowan