The hard choices that must be made to balance budgets at higher education institutions can be painful and have dramatic consequences that may linger for years. If enrollment projections and therefore tuition income/budgeting projections for future years are inaccurate, then the result may be unnecessary or insufficient budget reductions, both of…

Companies purchase computer systems to make their processes more efficient through automation. Some academic medical centers (AMC) have purchased computer systems for their institutional review boards (IRB) to increase efficiency and compliance with regulations. IRB computer systems are expensive to purchase, deploy, and maintain. An AMC should…

This AACRAO "60 Second Survey" asked respondents to identify the size, composition, name and level of decentralization for the Office of the Registrar. There were 1,389 unique institutional responses that represented 21 countries, commonwealths or territories, all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and 9 Canadian…

Quality measurement is essential in every form of research, including institutional research and assessment. This paper addresses the erroneous assumptions institutional researchers often make with regard to survey research and provides an alternative method to producing more valid and reliable measures. Rasch measurement models are discussed and…

Research into Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) tends to be repetitive, anecdotal, and derivative. A need exists for new lines of research into these institutions. One way to facilitate this is by using social scientific mechanisms to develop HBCU-specific theoretical models to describe, explain, and predict the full range of…

No matter the college, a class in the principles of microeconomics is likely to cover the discipline's greatest hits. Opportunity cost? Check. Supply and demand? Ditto. The same goes for such topics as comparative advantage, elasticity, and market structures. But these touchstones of the curriculum may only modestly influence what a student…

Australian higher education lags behind other western countries in relation to access and attainment of equity groups (Organisation for Economic Development [OECD], 2010). This is despite major policy reforms in the last two decades targeting better educational outcomes for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Australian Labor Government's…

This article presents the results of institutional research conducted at the University of the Free State during the course of 2010. The aim of the study was to explore the ways in which the National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) could be used to assist the university to better understand under-preparedness of first-year students, and to use this…

There is a steady line of research to understand faculty diversity and its impact on the work life quality of faculty and learning outcomes of students in the U.S. higher education systems. What makes this volume unique is that, rather than treating diversity as a static and simplistic concept, the chapter authors presented information to show…

In the last two decades, fundamental changes in information distribution, in the general economy, and in the behaviors of faculty, students, and library staff have problematized the question of an academic library's value and how it can be measured. This article reviews those changes and, drawing on research linked to the Collegiate Learning…

Institutional researchers (IR) and assessment professionals in higher education are living in interesting and challenging times, one might say in times of crisis. As federal and state coffers have shrunk in a time of rising costs of higher education, university budgets are tightening while at the same time calls for accountability are increasing…

The calls for more accountability in higher education, the shrinking budgets that often force larger class sizes, and the pressures to increase degree-completion rates are all raising the stakes for colleges and universities today, especially with respect to the instructional enterprise. As resources shrink, teaching and learning is becoming the…

While literacy interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in grades 3-8 is critical because it is often the best chance for students identified with earlier reading deficiencies to become ready for the literacy demands of postsecondary education and careers. States in both the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)…

When colleges look to compare themselves with others, they are not much different from high-school students chasing popularity: Everyone wants to be friends with the Ivy League, but the Ivy League is really picky about whom it hangs out with. Each year colleges submit "comparison groups" to the U.S. Department of Education to get…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into teaching practice of the University of al-Qarawiyyin, Morocco, with a particular focus on Islamic pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted daily participant observations of "teaching circles" over a seven-month period. The participant observation was achieved from…