With huge financial challenges being imposed on higher education, some react to crises to make changes and meet financial requirements. Changes are made that would be unthinkable without imposed demands. Two examples of universities that successfully responded to limited budgets to make major changes in organization, structure, and programs are…

Public universities are not for-profit businesses with an easy-to-understand bottom line: their financial reports are not designed to convey information to the public fully or to reflect all the costs of teaching and research. Financial reports do track every dollar in accordance with the accounting rules required by auditors, but they do not…

When "crisis" and "extramural funding" are mentioned, most academics think about problems such as the low percentage of proposals funded by federal agencies (now approaching single digits in many fields) or inadequate indirect-cost recovery rates that fail to reimburse universities for all costs of research. These are great problems draining…

Nestled in the mountainous, southeastern Mexican state of Puebla, the University of the Americas-Puebla has been a distinguished institution with close ties to the United States. It was a popular study-abroad choice and enjoyed accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. However, under the tenure of Pedro Angel Palou Garcia,…

Certain higher-education institutions are at risk in 2007 and beyond, according to Moody's Investors Service, which gauges colleges' financial health. They include small private colleges with limited geographic draw, colleges with ambitious spending plans to improve their national reputations, and regional public universities that face heavy…

The pattern of management of Nigerian universities has remained unchanged despite major changes in the environment. While inadequate funding is perceived as the major factor in the present decline, those aspects of management which may have contributed to it are highlighted. (Author/MLW)

Discusses problems besetting faculty sabbatical programs in an age of general financial cutbacks. Suggests various types of faculty exchange programs as a means of substituting for the cutback in sabbaticals. (Author/DB)

Looks at the impact of budgetary problems on the University of Michigan, indicating potential cuts in natural resources (33 percent), art (25 percent), and education (40 percent). Science/engineering departments, however, will benefit from reallocation of funds, since improvements in research equipment has been given a high priority. (JN)

Crucial aspects of university finances in India are reviewed, including the pattern of flow of resources into the university system and the pattern of allocation of resources by the university between its different functions and faculties. (Author/MLW)

Once a financially healthy part of American universities, many academic health centers are struggling to survive. Many are merging with for-profit chains or declaring bankruptcy. The advance of managed care and insurance companies focusing on reducing costs appears to be affecting teaching hospitals more than community hospitals. (MSE)

Describes recent financial problems in support service provision faced by France's fourth largest university due to a steep rise in operating costs, a government mandate to maintain high academic and research standards, decreased resources, and efforts to improve resource use in the period 1977-81. (MSE)

Discusses the history of Alaska's higher education system, including the founding of its community colleges. Describes the 1986-87 restructuring of the colleges following the oil crisis in 1986, which left Alaska with one official community college. Indicates that universities have broadened their role to include many college functions. (19…

Discusses how colleges and universities with excess facilities should "rightsize" their campuses by divesting unneeded buildings and property. Such institutions should develop a comprehensive master plan, which includes a strategic plan, academic plan, space needs plan, facilities master plan, and financial plan. (MDM)

Rising costs, changes in the health-care system, reduced research money, and proposed cutbacks in funds for treating the poor are forcing academic medical centers to consider new ways to remain viable. Resulting actions being considered or implemented include administrative restructuring, worker layoffs, mergers, reduced physician hiring,…

Increasingly, professional schools are addressing the issue of whether a financially successful program has a responsibility to support other, less financially successful programs, and how university fund raisers can assure donors that their gifts will benefit specific programs and not be siphoned into others. Law and business schools, often…