Autonomisation, allowing public organisations greater freedom from central control, has been extensively debated in the public policy literature as a means of increasing their efficiency and effectiveness. The government of Vietnam has adopted autonomisation as a key policy in reforming public service delivery. This paper investigates the…

This paper seeks to conceptualize the processes of de-privatization in higher education. Trends of de-privatization (and contraction in enrolments) are highly interesting because they go against global trends of privatization (and educational expansion). De-privatization means a decreasing role for the private component in the changing…

Pressures facing higher education institutions regarding accountability and the implications of their responses for accreditation agencies and state governments are discussed. Much of the response of institutions to current or anticipated declines in enrollments or financial resources is defensive and/or negative. Some institutions plan against…

"Organized anarchies" is how Michael Cohen and James March have described American universities. The lack of rational-deductive organizational characteristics in higher education has encouraged it to be "playful" in a way that is "sensibly foolish." Budgetary pressures will force universities to become more…

Confronted with declining enrollment and budget reductions, schools of education have increasingly considered institutional merger as a possible approach to survival. This solution is currently being worked out in large education systems in Maine and Indiana. During the decade since the merger of two large institutions in Indiana, both problems…

Tenured faculty can be dismissed for reasons of financial exigency. If the employment contract provides a specific definition of fiscal exigency and the processes to be used in effecting retrenchment, then those terms govern in lieu of constitutional due process. In the absence of such guidance, courts are willing to allow dismissal for reasons of…

The consequences of planned and unplanned developments in higher education since 1968, such as the Open University, the Independent University, stagnation in student demand, and especially, the disintegration of the University Grants Committee system of financing in universities, are considered. (Author/JMD)

Higher education faces some difficult problems, caused by limited resources and declining enrollments, including planning for retrenchment, the competition between the private and public sectors, the protection of higher education's autonomy, and academia's role in school reform. But the end of growth can also mean a new opportunity for academic…

In a discussion of the organizational and presidential functions of the community college, four major influences forcing administrative changes are indicated: (1) the usurpation by governing boards of administrative functions; (2) increasing state and federal control with consequent movement toward centralized authority; (3) collective bargaining,…

Consequences of the first allocation of public aid to independent schools in British Columbia in 1979 and 1980 were explored in this study. Interviews and questionnaires were used to query principals, education committee (or school board) members in private schools, and superintendents and presidents of teachers' associations in public schools.…

Eight essays on financing policies and issues in higher education to be faced in the near future are collected. They include: The Political-Economic Context for Financing Postsecondary Education in the 1980's (Robert C. Andringa); The Political-Economic Context: A Reaction (Kay S. Cornaby); Financial Responses for the 1980's (Melvin D. Orwig); A…

Australian universities have entered a "steady-state" period in which enrollments and funding are being held with limits predetermined by government. The Tertiary Education Commission, as the federal system authority, sees a need for change in: nature of student population, funding, staffing, and procedures for coordination and…

The varying impacts of alternative financial-aid policies and delivery procedures on colleges and potential students are considered. It is concluded that there is little that financial-aid policy itself can do to counter enrollment declines, but that individual policy innovations do have some potential to redistribute enrollment. (Author/JMD)

The persons, groups, and agencies that share in the control of a public college/university or system are identified, and issues facing higher education and approaches to the problem of control are considered. The following higher education components are examined: the institution and its board of trustees, faculty bodies and student bodies,…

The problems created by declining enrollments and fiscal stringencies have brought about a "new reality" for postsecondary institutions in Ontario and other Canadian provinces. The lean future that institutions face requires clear articulation and communication of institutional goals, retraining and reallocation of redundant academic…