Improving South African higher education must be considered in the global context of social, environmental, and industrial dilemmas. The policy challenge is translating the academic dimensions of efficiency and effectiveness (teaching, research, productivity) into social dimensions (social, economic, political, industrial, environmental, health,…

Evaluates a peer counseling program aimed at helping first-year students use computers in the University of Newcastle economics department. The scheme has not harmed students' abilities to use computers and, in some cases, has improved their skill. The scheme is inexpensive and provides significant potential savings in staff and hardware costs.…

Recent literature on Brazilian educational finance has documented low expenditure levels and problems of efficiency, efficacy, and equity. This paper analyzes financial data from Bahia state "municipios" and examines revenue and expenditure trends to explain variations in financial commitment across "municipios." Local interest…

This article describes the cost-of-quality model used at El Camino College (California), which formally measures the costs associated with process improvement activities. A case study illustrates use of the model in evaluating a new process for reimbursing faculty and staff attending conferences. (DB)

Teachers dislike faculty meetings that seem time-consuming and pointless. Principals can help make faculty meetings more useful by holding meetings with a purpose, talking about teaching, planning meetings that fit teachers' needs, setting realistic agendas with printed time allotments, and ensuring that meetings begin on time and stay on track.…

This article argues that nearly all college and university business and facilities officers can find utility efficiency projects on campus that have at least a 20 percent rate of return on investment, and successfully incorporate them into budgets. These projects are generally more successful when plant operations can retain some or all of the…

It is noted that federal deregulation of the electrical utility industry will allow colleges and universities to buy electrical services from suppliers who provide the best reliability and cost combination. Considerations are examined for the following options: purchasing an existing electrical substation, building a new substation, using on-site…

Examines production and cost structures of 28 Turkish universities to estimate their economies of scale and scope. Estimates multiproduct cost functions for teaching and research, examining social, health, and engineering sciences departments across 186 college faculties. Average incremental and marginal costs are highest for graduate instruction…

Research that served as background to the study reported in EC 604 974 is described, specifically research on use of the system of least prompts and on the rapidity with which various strategies produce skill acquisition. Unresolved issues concerning use of the system of least prompts with small groups are also discussed. (JDD)

This commentary on a paper by Douglas Detterman and others (EC 604 995), on assessing basic cognitive abilities in young adults with and without mental retardation, argues that variables measuring correct responding and variables measuring response latency or speed are two aspects of the same underlying continuum of speed and efficiency of…

Labor market planning techniques must take into account the dynamic nature of economies. A better approach than labor needs forecasting is use of labor market signals developed by monitoring wage and employment changes and evaluating training programs. (SK)

There are numerous historical precedents for today's demands for economic efficiency and accountability in schools. This paper examines comprehensive nineteenth-century accountability system ("Payment by Results") that endured in English and Welsh elementary schools from 1862 until 1897. The amount of the yearly governmental grant…

A study using microcomputer algorithms for more efficient management of six common pediatric care problems found improvements in all performance measures with computer algorithm use. However, use was discontinued after five weeks because the six physicians perceived the algorithms as too tedious for routine care. (Author/MSE)

The hypothesis that attentional demands of word recognition covary with other measures of reading efficiency was tested with 27 undergraduates performing naming and probe-detection tasks singly and in combination. Findings support the assumption that attentional demands of basic reading are a source of differences in reading skill. (SLD)

Increasingly, college textbooks written to the specifications of individual professors are being produced on demand by custom publishers, often prepared very quickly to contain up-to-date information. Students prefer them to photocopied packets of readings. The trend is a reaction to the emergence of information-on-demand computer networks. (MSE)