Charter schools are public schools governed by an independent board of directors that come into existence through a contract with an authorized public chartering agency. This report, known as the Illinois Charter School Biennial Report, provides law and policymakers, educators, and the general public with information regarding the state of…

Purpose: While educators and students alike are increasingly moving to use on-line technologies, there is still much to be learned about how these tools influence student learning. The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative investigation of the online use of one undergraduate (UG) and two postgraduate (PG) student cohorts undertaking…

A discussion of the use of principles of business administration in university planning looks both at differences between businesses and universities and at broad and practical similarities, then presents a variety of corporate strategic techniques and suggests how they might be adapted to higher education. (MSE)

A survey of 49 university and other research administrators investigated attitudes concerning research productivity and measures to assess it. Results are compared with those of an earlier survey of research scientists, including a rank-order comparison of the relative importance of a number of productivity measures. Implications for demonstrating…

Two models of administering college and university alumni chapters--using volunteers or paid staff--are compared, based on comments from alumni directors who have addressed the issues. A flexible club structure, which integrates a fully structured, chartered-chapter model with two versions of predominantly staff-driven models, is proposed as…

Options in management style from corporate administration literature available to educational institutions include the choices of Theory X vs. Theory Y, the managerial vs. academic grid, management by objectives, autocratic vs. bureaucratic vs. participative vs. free-rein leadership styles, situational leadership, presidential role, leadership…

College and university fund raisers are encouraged to test various strategies for direct-mail solicitation by comparing variations of five factors that influence direct mail response: copy; timing; package; offer; and list. Suggestions include forming a hypothesis, testing one variable at a time, choosing test and control groups carefully,…

A study of fringe benefits requested by 19 research institutions on behalf of recipients of postdoctoral and junior faculty fellowships found differences reflecting varied institutional policies. It is suggested that, given current funding agency concerns about resource allocation, these and other costs might be more appropriately shared by the…

The evolution to date of the United Kingdom's Administrative Computing Initiative for universities, a program funding development of institutional management systems for both operations and planning, is described. The program divides universities into four families, each of which has adopted a different approach to systems development. (Author/MSE)

A comparison of the patent policies of 65 research universities focused on the equity rights of universities in employee inventions, procedures for distribution of patent policies and disclosure of inventions, and income distribution to inventors. Some historical perspective for these practices is offered. (Author/MSE)

A survey of 120 top independent national liberal arts colleges ranked in "U.S. News and World Report" compared the structure of their financial reports to those of publicly held corporations. Results indicate that the colleges' forms strongly resemble those of corporations, but are not as readable as the corporate forms. (MSE)

Four basic models of the organization of college and university communications offices are described: advancement, news bureau model, agency, and marketing models. Pros and cons of each are discussed, and the structure of this function at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) is presented as an ideal…

Argues that to make improvements in sponsored research administration, it is necessary to understand that: it is a system of interdependent components, and improvement requires systematic, highly integrated methods and a holistic view of the role of research administration in the larger research system. Provides a framework for…

A national survey of college and university chief research officers conducted in July 1996 provided comparative data concerning the characteristics of research administration in a modern institution, including funding levels and sources, facilities and staff resources, and other program information. Data are grouped by institution type and sector.…

Examines the case of Stern v. Sibley Memorial Hospital, in which hospital patients alleged trustees conspired to enrich themselves and financial institutions with which they were affiliated by favoring them in hospital financial dealings. Discusses two statutory approaches, those of the Revised Model Nonprofit Corporation Act and the Revised Model…