Polish higher education is no longer a driving force for social and economic change. Barriers to reform include funding, staffing, and inefficient management. It has become necessary to enhance the role of private institutions, increase age participation, and increase income through commercialization of services. Needs include greater…

Suggests college students preparing for medical school should be informed about how changes in the health care system, expansion of biomedical knowledge, and new technologies are affecting medical practice, medical curricula, medical school admission criteria and tests, and the shape of undergraduate preparation for medical education. Discusses…

Maintains that the continued acceptance of market principles combined with reductions in government services has created a selfish citizenry. In education, this is personified in the activist parent who is interested in his own child's education but indifferent to others. Discusses how civic education can respond to this. (MJP)

Develops a simple theoretical model to evaluate interdisciplinary differences in research productivity between economics departments and related subjects. Compares the research publishing statistics of economics, finance, psychology, geology, physics, oceanography, chemistry, and geophysics. Considers a number of factors including journal…

Shows how the Cournot-Nash and Stackelberg equilibria can be represented in the familiar supply-demand graphical framework, allowing a direct comparison with the monopoly, competitive, and industrial organization models. This graphical analysis is represented throughout the article. (MJP)

Described are the camps, competitions, and tests of the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad. International competition, local exams, participating high schools, and national exams are highlighted. A summary of test results from the 1988 national examinations are presented. (CW)

Decentralization is usually accompanied by central state organizations' renewed efforts to control schools through managerialist policies and accountability processes. In New Zealand, such mechanisms have been adapted from "agency theory." This article examines the central tenets of agency theory, the New Zealand approach, and…

Faculty in 40 research university departments of physics, sociology, electrical engineering, and education were surveyed about their attitudes toward universities' competitive strategies (clever adaptation, sudden changes, elimination of less attractive units, entrepreneurial ventures). More productive, satisfied, and committed faculty were found…

Dimensions of Type A behavior were studied in 990 healthy Finnish adolescents; and conceptualization was clarified in terms of achievement striving, self-concept, and sense of control. The two independent dimensions identified are discussed in terms of healthy adjustment and social maladjustment. (SLD)

Project Athena is a $100 million, eight-year project to install a large network of high performance computer work stations for education and research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Organizational, legal, and administrative aspects of the project allow two competitors (Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM) to work together…

To help public schools experience free-market competition, Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander and President Bush propose parental choice among private, parochial, and public schools, supported by public financing for program design and tuition grants. Sidebars highlight church/state separation concerns and school choice experiments in…

Most higher-education institutions cannot compete with business/industry for information-technology (IT) workers, but can level the playing field by capitalizing on workers' desire for professional-development opportunities. Strategies include using the appeal of the institution's mission and as a training ground for future IT workers; redesigning…

Connecticut State University has achieved success in recruiting and retaining information technology (IT) workers through six strategies: modifying the administrative structure to make positions and salaries more attractive; grooming students for IT positions; promoting benefits of university employment; transferring state civil-service employees;…

Examines the changing environment for serving adult learners, with special attention to new modes of delivering instruction: distance education; use of information technology; emphasis on convenience; focus on special markets; and emergence of large-scale, profit-driven enterprises. Argues that, to develop an effective response, universities must…

Under British school-choice systems, parental perceptions of school quality motivate considerable pupil migration. Headteachers are cast into managerial roles stressing their ability to retain catchment populations and attract pupils from elsewhere. A South Wales study shows that school location and local environment figure prominently in a…