Limited research has been done to date on the extent of public funding of Open Educational Resources (OER) within basic education (K-12 equivalent) in South Africa. As claims have been made about the potential cost reductions that come with using OER, this study aimed to establish a benchmark of public spending on educational resources, uncover…

This note from the field reviews the sustainability of an institution-wide program for adopting and adapting open and alternative educational resources (OAER) at Kansas State University (K-State). Developed in consult of open textbook initiatives at other institutions and modified around the needs and expectations of K-State students and faculty,…

Background: Community colleges are the primary door to higher education for students of color and those from low-income backgrounds (Bailey et al., 2015; Calcagno et al., 2008). To raise attainment and reduce inequalities in completion, colleges have adopted many student success initiatives--from first-year experience programming and basic needs…

The State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report is produced annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) to broaden understanding of the context and consequences of multiple public policy decisions in each state. These decisions contribute to public higher education funding levels and funding distributions across…

This executive summary presents highlights from the annually-produced State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report for FY 2018. The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) publishes the yearly report to broaden understanding of the context and consequences of multiple public policy decisions in each state. These decisions…

The cost of textbooks has continued to increase with significant financial effects on students in higher education. Although many faculty express a desire and willingness to adopt and create open textbooks (and OER generally), few actually do. To better understand this gap between attitudes and practices, this phenomenological study builds upon…

In 2013 and 2014, the Australian Federal Government introduced the Gonski reforms and fee deregulation measures to reform the prevailing financing provisions for education sectors in Australia. The central proposition of the proposed new measures was to reduce the funding of public universities by the Federal Government. One likely consequence of…

Workforce development in the United States today is spread across higher education institutions (primarily public two-year and for-profit colleges), labor market institutions, and workplaces, with public funding from a range of sources. But outcomes for students and workers are weaker than they could be, especially among disadvantaged students and…

This study examined the social and spill-over benefits as motivating factors to investment in formal education in selected countries in Africa. The paper had three objectives, namely) to profile the key statistics of formal schooling; ii) examine the formal education and iii) link national goals of education with expectations in Ghana, Kenya and…

Since the first charter school law passed in Minnesota in 1991, over 40 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing the publicly funded, privately managed, and semiautonomous schools of choice. Ever since the first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1992, the battle for fair funding has raged across the land. On the one hand,…

This article is an attempt to build an empirical ground for supporting the increased role of public funding in higher education. The rationale for the same becomes pertinent in the current scenario when "public good" nature of higher education is rapidly eroding. Various measures like the proportion of GDP/GSDP spent and the trend of per…

In 2002 the Council of the Great City Schools and its members set out to develop performance measures that could be used to improve business operations in urban public school districts. The Council launched the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to achieve these objectives. The purposes of the project were to: (1) Establish a common…

In 2002 the Council of the Great City Schools and its members set out to develop performance measures that could be used to improve business operations in urban public school districts. The Council launched the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to achieve these objectives. The purposes of the project were to: (1) Establish a common…

Financial issues regarding the sustainable production, dissemination, and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education are reviewed and proposed solutions critiqued. Use of OER produce demonstrable cost savings for students. Yet OER development continues to rely almost completely on government and philanthropic funding. This…

Open access textbooks (OATs) and educational resources (OERs) are being lauded as a viable alternative to costly print textbooks. Some academic libraries are joining the OER movement by creating guides to open repositories. Others are promoting OATs and OERs, reviewing them, and even helping to create them. This article analyzes how academic…