The Education Cooperative (TEC) composed of nine contiguous Massachusetts towns (Dedham, Natick, Needham, Norwood, Walpole, Wayland, Wellesley, Weston, and Westwood) is exploring the possible development of a regional transportation system to serve the special education pupils within these communities. This report describes the planning required…

The present interlibrary loan system will need to be better organized and expanded to include centralized regional centers in order to meet the increasing volume of requests. Presently about 70% of 10 million requests are being successfully filled within regional and local systems. Two major problems of the present system are (1) unequal…

Focusing upon the central problems of effective community practice in town and country areas, the four speeches in this collection emphasize some key analytical notions in what has been termed an interactional or activity field conception of community. Among the ideas emphasized are the complexity/integration and the coordination/integration of…

University computing is in rapid and continuing change. What is needed are structures and procedures flexible and adaptable enough to capture new opportunities and stable enough to allow order in each transition. This must involve all parts of the institutional community and include both centralized and decentralized participation. (Author/MSE)

Two central features of Australian universities are a strong research base and structural organization reflecting a close relationship between teaching and research. Current policy deliberations have produced research policy recommendations for increased centralization, coordination, selectivity, and concentration of research and funding that are…

New technologies have made radical changes in the way work is done. This development has passed by German trade unions anchored traditionally among workers in industrial production and stuck in the old model of the full-time employee with a predictable career and a job for life. Consequently, between 1991-98, about 3 million out of the former 11…

The creation of the Massachusetts Board of Regents by legislative act in 1980 marked a major departure from a loosely coordinated system of higher education that had been in place in the state since 1965. The new public system created a central governing board with strong budgetary and program authority. (MLW)

While responsibility for curriculum development in Australia is devolving to the local level, the state systems, in the name of accountability, are retaining responsibility for curriculum evaluation. This article examines the curriculum centralization/decentralization patterns in Australia's states, points out the paradoxes in such systems, and…

The careers of George N. Rainsford, president of Kalamazoo College, and John T. Bernhard, president of Western Michigan University, and their commitment to institutional cooperation are described. Government control over institutions, the Kalamazoo Consortium, and private-public cooperation at the local, state, and national levels are discussed.…

Proposes that (1) during most of the nineteenth century leadership in public education primarily took the form of guiding a decentralized social movement; and (2) at the turn of the twentieth century much of the direction of the educational system devolved upon university experts and professional managers. (Author/DB)

By their blind advocacy of institutional interests as advanced by faculty and administrators, many college and university governing boards are assuring their gradual displacement by stronger coordinating councils or super boards governing a state system of public higher education. (Author/JMD)

Presents two case studies of problems faced by developmental program administrators and faculty. One case focuses on the problem of defining success for developmental programs and the repercussions for who defines it. The second case addresses the campus location of developmental programs and the issue of centralized versus decentralized programs.…

Describes a three-year project (1985-88) which established a training center for peer counseling that serves three school districts. An evaluation of the citywide project is reported, and the limitations of centralized training are discussed, along with speculations about expanding services and populations. (TE)

Presents a historical overview of selection mechanisms determining admission to higher education in Hungary. Discusses traditional centralized control of society and education, shifts in university admission criteria from family background and financial position to political reliability to knowledge and competence, and current trends. Contains 30…

Based on survey data from 70 universities, this study concludes that differences in the organizational structure of development offices have no significant effect on fund-raising efficiency. However, because decentralized offices may be able to expand their activities more rapidly than centralized programs, decentralization may facilitate overall…