This guest edition of the IDS Bulletin has been contributed by members of the Department of Administrative Studies, University of Manchester (DAS), which holds courses, of varying length, for public officials from developing countries.

Many of those who attend these courses are what used to be termed 'generalist' administrators, and a number of articles in the first part of this issue refer to problems of course construction, content and teaching methods, to be applied to a group whose only common feature would appear to be the state as paymaster. The 'business' or 'industry' of running such courses is the subject of worldwide debate: what does training actually mean; in what sense is it different from education; does training improve administrative capacity, etc. These questions are familiar to many readers of the Bulletin, and there is little doubt that the answers are as various as the people involved.