The symptoms being experienced by higher education are well known: rising costs, declining public confidence and support, new competitors, and questions about quality and value. Do prescriptions exist to address these symptoms, or are they precursors to something more serious for higher education? The health-care metaphor, while telling, is also…

How do open and distance learning institutions review and renew themselves to ensure their continued fitness for purpose? Here we report on the work of a change team in the UK Open University, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning created to examine, innovate and improve student support. The existence of the Centre for five years from…

Purpose/Objective: This case study identified common elements of three diverse New England school districts that were real-world models of improving school meals. Methods: School districts that had greater than 1,000 students, [greater than or equal to]3 schools, and [greater than or equal to]40% of students who qualified for free- or…

In 2001, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a 10-year, multi-million dollar initiative, the Washington State Achievers Program (WSA), to increase opportunities for low-income students to attend postsecondary institutions in Washington State. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation granted funds to the College Success Foundation…

Educational facilities professionals are entrusted with the stewardship function of the largest capital asset on their campus, buildings and infrastructure. However, that stewardship role is only as effective as the institution's strategy of investment that supports it. To be an effective steward one must also be an effective educator and…

This is a personal account of the work of the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) in the 1980s and early 1990s. The contribution of the MSC, The Department of Employment and the Learning Technology Unit is not widely understood and appreciated. During that period, it was one of the major agencies for encouraging and funding the use of…

Very few teachers or administrators have had any formal training in grant writing. To that end, the GrantSuccess system, an efficient, four- stage, team-based approach to writing a successful grant application, was developed. In this article, the author presents four tips from the first stage.

This article examines the development of Australia's bilateral aid program to higher education in the South Pacific, specifically at the University of the South Pacific (USP). The premise is primarily historical, focusing on the important decades of USP's expansion and Australian aid policy development in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. This article…

In 2007, committees of key stakeholders in the five cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach developed Collaborative Action Plans focused on key strategies to ensure that children in each city "arrive at kindergarten healthy and ready to succeed in school, and in life." With leadership from Smart Beginnings…

The 2009-10 operating budget for the North Dakota University System is over $1 billion. Approximately 29 percent of operations are supported by the state general fund. The remainder of the operations of the University System are self-supporting through tuition and fees, room and board charges paid by students, and private and federal research…

Principal gifts are very large donations that take years to cultivate and potentially can have a major impact on an institution. Venerable private research universities have sought principal gifts for decades with well-staffed, systematic cultivation and stewardship programs. Until recently, however, principal gifts were not necessarily considered…

Facing diminishing budgets and increased operating costs, districts across the country must make some very difficult choices. Some districts are even at the point of having to close schools. One strategy that might help schools reduce operating costs and allow administrators to redirect those savings to salaries, facilities, and curricula is wind…

Even in difficult economic times, colleges and universities continue to invest in residence hall construction projects as a way to attract new students and keep existing ones on campus. According to data from "American School & University"'s 20th annual Residence Hall Construction Report, the median new project completed in 2008 was…

At Arts Advocacy Day 2009 in Washington, over 500 citizens educated, advocated, and lobbied for federal support for the arts and its positive impact on the U.S. economy. This year the Nancy Hanks Lecture was given by Wynton Marsalis, whose extraordinary address voiced the potential of the arts in this new era of hope. For dance educators, Marsalis…

The capital accumulation ratio (CAR) is commonly used in academic research as a measure of household portfolio quality. This study tested whether a higher initial CAR impacts change in wealth over a decade among households in the accumulation life cycle stage. Meeting the 25% CAR guideline resulted in a 28.1% increase in net worth between 1994 and…