Since 2010, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has periodically administered the "Strong Foundations" survey, which documents the content, structure, and effective use of state postsecondary student unit record systems (PSURSs). This report highlights the results of the fourth administration of the survey,…

Education Scotland's publication, "External Quality Arrangements for Scotland's Colleges, Updated August 2013", specifies that HM Inspectors (HMI) will produce a number of subject aspect reports over the four-year period 2012-16. Colleges should act on the recommendations contained in these reports. College inspectors will monitor action…

This article describes the use of benchmarking in universities in the Czech Republic and academics' experiences with it. It is based on research conducted among academics from economics schools in Czech public and private universities. The results identified several issues regarding the utilisation and understanding of benchmarking in the Czech…

Globalization in the 21st century has brought innumerable challenges and opportunities to universities and countries. Universities are primarily concerned with how to ensure the quality of their education and how to boost their local and global competitiveness. The pressure from both international competition and public accountability on…

An increase of over 100% in program expenditures for the Pell Grant program over a five year period of time, from $14.7 billion in the 2007-08 award year to $33.4 billion in the 2011-12 award year, places an otherwise popular program under scrutiny. This article considers the factors and options informing federal policy related to the Pell Grant…

Higher education institutions worldwide invest significant resources in their quality assurance systems. Little empirical evidence exists that demonstrates the effectiveness (or otherwise) of these systems. Methodological approaches for determining effectiveness are also underdeveloped. Self-study-with-peer-review is a widely used model for…

In October/November 2009, the Forum on Education Abroad conducted its third State of the Field Survey. This survey provides an annual or biannual assessment of key education abroad issues and topics of interest to Forum members and the field of education abroad at large. Previous State of the Field surveys were conducted in 2006 and 2008. The 2009…

Weblogs are beginning to be used in educational settings in China, sending hope for changes in both learning and assessment. This article summarizes two recent Weblogs studies involving new ideas of student assessment in China. While these case studies focus on how Weblogs could facilitate innovation in the assessment field, they simultaneously…

This paper defines and clarifies aspects of the problem of measuring the outputs and objectives of higher education. The author proposes some standard terminology and introduces in a relatively unstructured way some ideas which may stimulate more systematic and critical thinking on the problem of measures of outputs and objectives. The attention…

Examination of how (and whether) particular types of institutional performance measures can be beneficially used in making resource allocation decisions finds that only easily verifiable "hard" statistics should be used in classic performance funding approaches, although surveys and the use of good practices by institutions may…

This paper presents an overview of the trends in the assessment of student performance that are emerging from learner-centered reforms. A conceptual typology of assessment includes the purposes of assessment, characteristics of assessment criteria, assessment procedures, and uses of assessment products. Learner centered reforms are discussed in…

This Critical Issue Bibliography (CRIB) sheet focuses on performance indicators in higher education. Performance indicators are concrete pieces of information about a condition or result of public action that is regularly produced, publicly reported, and systematically used for planning, monitoring, or resource allocation. The resources in this…

Two components of institutional performance are regarded as effectiveness, which is concerned with the congruence between outputs and goals or other criteria, and efficiency, which links output with inputs. The efficiency dimension is defined, and its relationship to the economic concepts of efficiency and productivity is examined. (Author/PN)

Instructional design issues related to the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of instruction are gaining increased recognition at the tertiary level in health science educational areas such as pharmacy. However, what has been lacking in the available literature on pharmaceutical education is a comprehensive review aimed at characterizing…

The Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) program of the City University of New York provides special services to economically disadvantaged students. Graduation data for SEEK students are compared to those for students who were eligible for SEEK, denied admission by random procedures, and entered the college anyway. (Author/GDC)