The Tunisian institution that is known today as the Institute of the Press and Information Sciences traces its roots to an experiment undertaken in 1956, the year Tunisia won independence from France.

In that year, a dozen students, recruited through a contest at the Institut des Hautes …tudes in Tunis, enrolled at the newly created Press Institute. The experiment was abandoned in 1958 but found new life in the Ali Bach-Hamba Institute, founded in 1964 with financial and technical aid from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.

In 1967, the Press Institute evolved into the Institute of the Press and Information Sciences, known by its French-language acronym of IPSI.

IPSI's twofold objective is to offer a higher education in the information sciences and to raise the level of professionalism in Tunisian journalism. The institute offers master's degrees in journalism and in communications. More than 1,000 alumni hold diplomas from IPSI.

The institute has a staff of 48 permanent teachers and 34 free-lance trainers. During their first two years, students study Arabic, English and French languages, the social sciences, and they are introduced to the communications sciences. This curriculum leads to a period of practical training of the students' choice in either print, radio or television or in communications.

Other activities of IPSI include international conferences and seminars on information and communications. In addition, organizations and institutions can request sessions for the improvement of working journalists. The Tunisian Review of Communication also is published at IPSI.

To learn more about IPSI, visit the French-language web site RИseau ThИophraste at http://www.theophraste.org/Guide/IPSI/Index.htm , or contact the Institute of the Press and Information Sciences, 7 impasse Mohamed Bachrouch-Montfleury, 1008 Tunis, Tunisia . Tel.: (216-1) 345-216. Fax: (216-1) 348-596. Telex: 15254 IPSI TN