A study based on data from Norway's four universities shows that administrative load for academics tends to decrease with increasing department size. However, large departments have relatively higher administrative costs than small ones, and in departments where administrative and office functions are poorly developed, academics spend more time on…

Increasingly, higher education institutions are using Total Quality Management (TQM) as a vehicle for delivering cost-effective programs and services. The TQM philosophy is that quality can be improved by ceaselessly improving the processes that support the institution's mission. TQM is applicable to institutional research and planning as well as…

The University of Montpelier I's 1969 statutes permitting maximum autonomy for the faculties of law and economics, medicine, and pharmacology resulted in a well-established division between the university's constituent parts and an unwillingness to pool resources to effect savings. (MSE)

General interest in decentralized decision-making in education is increasing in both Canada and the United States. This paper attempts a preliminary study of school-based management, which shifts some budgetary decision-making authority from the central office to individual schools. Although many academic specialties have explored decentralization…

Describes a survey that evaluated time management practices among directors of large academic libraries. Factors such as the ability to delegate authority, leadership style, and the most common time wasters are discussed, and topics are suggested for further research. (19 references) (Author/CLB)

A college's administrative services and support units must give attention to improving quality and service just as instructional units do. Greater efficiency and productivity among noninstructional units can have a significant impact on institutional feasibility. Cost reduction is most effective when there is a common understanding of core…

An overview of recent history of Nigerian higher education chronicles periods of phenomenal expansion, economic downturn and retrenchment, monitoring of efficiency and academic standards, continued uncontrolled expansion in the absence of basic facilities, recently improved fiscal management, revival of student aid, and proposals for the opening…

Internal institutional auditing can improve effectiveness and efficiency and protect an institution's assets. Many of the concepts and techniques used to analyze higher education institutions are qualitative in nature and suited to institutional research, including fiscal, operational, data-processing, investigative, management consulting,…

Investigates administrative metaphors and the school principalship in the current literature. Three metaphors--maintenance, survival, and vision--are explored through participant observation of the behavior of five principals. (MLF)

Educational reform depends more on clearly defined missions and operational efficiency than on improved teacher quality. This article defines adequacy, equality, equity, and efficiency; examines numerous production function studies of teacher characteristics and policy and administrative structures; and summarizes seven policy implications.…

Asserts that both efficiency and equity have been used as rationales for governmental support of postsecondary vocational education, but research has been hampered by inadequate data. Finds that postsecondary vocational education has positive effects on individual economic outcomes, but these effects are not found in all target groups. (CFR)

This paper presents a complex, hybrid, method of cost analysis of online courses, which incorporates data on expenditures; student/course enrollment; departmental consumption/contribution; space utilization/opportunity costs; direct non-personnel costs; computing support; faculty/staff workload; administrative overhead at the department, dean, and…

Following a management summary and introduction, chapters 3 and 4 of this report present findings and recommendations related to the Montgomery County, Maryland, Public Schools process of procuring supplies and equipment (food supplies, fuel oil, warehouse supplies, and maintenance parts) and contractual services (data processing maintenance,…