Among the many reasons why college and university costs are rising are factors internal to the institutions which hold down productivity. Most efforts to improve productivity usually fail because they do not introduce new energy or information from the outside. In order to improve productivity, formal, non-quantitative evaluation should include a…

Strategies used by Griffith University (Australia) to control quality, in response to increasing external pressure for accountability, are outlined. The central strategy involves devolving responsibility to faculties and schools, who must develop plans for quality control within their own academic cultures. Barriers to implementation, including…

A discussion of the use of performance indicators for evaluation and funding of higher education institutions by governments offers 10 lessons for governments and funding agencies, drawn from a study of the role played by performance indicators in the systems of Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. (MSE)

A Canadian public higher education official comments on the use of performance indicators for evaluating and funding higher education institutions. Focus is on putting the controversy over their use into perspective by narrowing the issues and arguments, clarifying them, and acknowledging inherent limitations of performance indicators. (MSE)

The principles of ratio analysis can help measure use of financial resources to achieve college mission by quantifying status, sources, and use of resources and the institution's relative ability to repay current and future debt. Business officers and boards can use these measures to measure institutional performance; ratios can also help focus…

Australia's recent experience with performance indicators for evaluation and funding of higher education institutions suggests principles concerning: selecting appropriate, relevant, and reliable indicators; providing expert judgment in interpretation of indicators; considering institutional context and priorities; providing incentives for good…

Although selecting goals and indicators is the most challenging task of performance funding, implementation requires development of other critical elements: success criteria to measure institutional performance; indicator weights for percent of funding allocated to each indicator; an allocation method for setting the relationship between…

Origins of Australia's university quality improvement program are outlined, and its design is examined. Issues discussed include implications of the program for individual institutions, its proposed method of redistributing research funds, and potential problems associated with performance appraisal. (MSE)

Discusses the time, personnel, resources, and aids needed to support six phases of institutional assessment: clarifying the assessment object and context, designing the assessment, collecting and analyzing data, communicating findings, using findings, and evaluating the assessment. (DMM)

A new model for financing Spanish universities is examined, looking first at the changing context of higher education in Spain and then at the structure and objectives of the model. Salient features include increased institutional autonomy, standardization of service quality, linking of costs to constituencies, implicit and explicit incentives for…

Discussion of performance indicators' use in government-institutional relationships and funding decisions for higher education institutions draws on experiences of five countries (Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom). Roles of political culture, educational funding system, and quality assessment procedures used for resource…

Discussion of performance indicators, used for evaluation and funding of higher education institutions by some governments, looks at what is meant by the term and their role in government-institutional relations. A series of propositions for their definition and use are offered, with supporting information drawn from the experiences of different…

Eight common objections to performance funding of public colleges are presented and answered. The arguments focus on the complexity of higher education's goals, diversity of institution type, subjectivity of educational quality, relative power of the allocation amounts linked to performance measures, politics of resource allocation, cost of…

The evolution of the Mt. Hood Community College (Oregon) effort to analyze institutional policies affecting high-risk students is chronicled from the early 1980s to the present, from the initial findings of program ineffectiveness to program improvement. Chronicle includes successes and limitations of several early-change strategies, and factors…

From 1980 to 1991, the University of Alberta undertook systematic reviews of all its academic and support units mostly for program improvement purposes, but also to acquire information for planning and budget decisions. This report responds to a 1988 request to examine the University's 1980-1988 experience with program reviews and to recommend…