Editorial

European academic institutions specializing in the education of electric power engineers had experienced over the last number of years some difficulties in maintaining a high quality level of teaching. These difficulties arose from two factors acting in parallel: the first is related to the gradual increase in the economic constrains within the education sector, and the second stems from the negative image of the electric power industry created by the media, which often presented the powerrelated activities as "dirty" and "old-fashioned." Both factors led to a continuous reduction of the number of students interested in electrical power engineering. At the same time, cost reductions in teaching led to reductions in academic and technical staff, resulting in the closing of teaching and research laboratories, with the indication that computer simulations can replace them satisfactorily. This tendency, earlier initiated in the United States, was followed by some European counties.