Causes contributing to academic program audit and review becoming a means of resource reallocation in higher education are considered, along with principles relevant to its management, and major issues surrounding its development and implementation. The current interest in the audit and review of established academic programs is linked to…

Several hierarchical and sequential reduction options are discussed. The institutional shrinkage process implemented at the University of Michigan is described, including across-the-board cuts, reduction of nonacademic programs, long-range faculty reduction procedures, and program discontinuance. (Author/MLW)

Seneca College is the designated community college for the City of North York, in the Greater Toronto Area, and is the most culturally diverse college in Ontario, with over 70 languages spoken by students. It also offers the largest business and among the largest applied science programs in Canada. In November 1995, in response to severe…

Program discontinuance at colleges and universities is often linked to issues of program demand and quality. However, neither low demand nor low quality is sufficient for program discontinuance without a judgment on the criterion of the centrality of the program to the institution's core mission. Colleges' retrenchment and survival mechanisms…

Rowan College of New Jersey has adopted an "enterprise model" for strategic planning that is seen as central to attaining the mission of the college during a time involving a substantial decline in state support. Rowan pursued a strategy termed "growth by substitution." This new process was cast in a more entrepreneurial mold…

A nationwide process in the Netherlands is discussed in which a number of specific disciplines were concentrated in one or a few Dutch universities. The decisive roll of political arguments and consequences for future government and academic planning are addressed. Both universities and government believed that ongoing retrenchment could no longer…

This study examines, from an organizational perspective, decision rules guiding program discontinuance, testing the framework of decision rule rationality versus action rationality. A multi-site case study method was used; interviews were conducted with 11-16 individuals at each of four research I or II universities that had discontinued at least…

Results of a 1979 survey of 46 states on patterns of program reduction are presented, and the institutional shrinkage process currently being implemented at the University of Michigan is examined. Additionally, several hierarchical and sequential reduction strategies, including Balderston's budgetary strategies, are reviewed. At the University of…

Planning by the University of Wisconsin system for rational management of projected enrollment and fiscal decline is considered. It is suggested that a change in a college or university's mission may be an instrument for enabling a particular institution to meet unusual problems of declining resources. The elimination and consolidation of courses…

Single- and double-loop organizational learning are discussed in the context of higher education retrenchment. A model of the research university illuminates impediments to internal resource reallocation, program elimination, and integrative leadership, and suggests the need for alternatives to usual efforts to increase efficiency while retaining…

Effective ways to handle program discontinuance were studied based on experiences at 10 campuses. Two variables that were considered to be institutional approaches to financial difficulties are the degree of financial difficulty and the degree of control exercised by the institutional leaders. The study sample was drawn primarily from large public…

The process of economic retrenchment and institutional decline that occurred within the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1975-1976, a time of New York City fiscal crisis, is analyzed. Attention is directed to the public policy conflict between the policies of free tuition and direct student aid; the relative roles of state, city, and federal…

How institutional research can improve the quality of institutional performance of colleges and universities in the face of funding constraints is discussed. An example of the use of instructional research to assist in documenting institutional quality in Australia is noted. Institutional research uses data collection, analysis, and interpretation…