A discussion of the response of George Mason University (Virginia) to economic decline in 1989-92 looks at four stages in the downturn and examines a variety of planning and policy issues, including management of both unplanned and planned reductions, continued uncertainty, politics of decline, organizational communication and morale,…

Under traditional Confucianism, China's school system became authoritarian, rigid, and undemocratic. In recent decades, China had one national curriculum and one unified set of textbooks. Now, text publication is more varied, curriculum planning and writing is becoming more democratic, and Western ideas are incorporated to spur economic…

This qualitative study compares the development of student services at a major European university (University of Tartu) with American higher education in order to assess philosophical and organizational differences. Based on European and German models of higher education, the Estonian university has followed a pattern of emphasizing the cognitive…

The commoditization of low-cost hardware has enabled even modest-sized laboratories and research projects to own their own "supercomputers." The authors argue that this local solution undermines rather than amplifies the research potential of scholars. CIOs, provosts, and research technologists should consider carefully an overall…

This final report presents results of the first phase of an effort to develop in detail the resource requirements, operating procedures, and estimated costs for several centralized braille service options at the Library of Congress. Existing procedures and services were analyzed, and three models for centralized braille services were formulated.…

This paper investigates the challenges that Uganda and England have faced in beginning to reestablish community participation in the governance of education. It investigates starting points for the possible development of school-governance systems in both countries. Outlined first are the formats for community involvement that have been adopted in…

This paper overviews the evolution of rural society in Ontario (Canada) from the author's personal experience and research. The paper defines "rural" and "culture" and discusses how these concepts are relevant to social change and the resulting effects on technology, demographics, social organization, and community beliefs and…

At all levels in the Kingdom of Thailand, education has played various roles in the country's war on illiteracy. A strong commitment by the Thai government combined with a social value structure which has supported the concept of education has helped the people of Thailand achieve a near 90% literacy rate. To provide a model for similar countries…

Common variables that can be isolated to explain mergers of academic units within universities were investigated, along with variables associated with the potential and actual benefits of the mergers as perceived by faculty and administrators. Central tendencies were used to compute the similarities and differences in the external and internal…

The role of institutional self-evaluation is considered in the context of transition from central regulation to self-regulation in various higher education systems in Europe. A distinction is made between external steering, where regulations and decisions are made by a central state authority, to self-steering, where decisions and regulations are…

The six papers in this collection were presented at three sessions. The three presented to the Division of Management and Technology are listed first: (1) "The RLG (Research Libraries Group) Preservation Program and RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) System Support" (Patricia McClung and John Haeger, United States); (2)…

Both Brazil's and the United States's educational policies are influenced by centralization of administration and formal objectives mandated by law. Arising from a long division in Brazilian life between government and people, public schools have been seen to be the concern of the government, which has preserved the antiquated division of…

A new theme in the old tension between centralization and decentralization in the governance and administration of Australian higher education is explored. The argument is that the various major attempts to restructure Australian education systems both in centralizing and decentralizing forces have gained new strength, and that the recent stated…

The organization of local government in England underwent significant structural revision during the 1970s, creating centralized authorities focused on objectives and service delivery systems rather than on organizational structures and the separate services delivered. As the most autonomous local agency prior to reorganization, education was the…

The educational "excellence" movement is hindered by inconsistencies between goals and action and by difficulties in translating national and state goals into local policy; nonetheless, progress has occurred. Examples of "voodoo excellence," in which proposed policies will likely work against their stated objectives, are…