Considerations in selecting quality novelty/variety entertainers to perform at colleges and universities are outlined. Advantages of this genre include newness, package marketing, affordability, ease of planning, great visual effects, ease of drop-by programming, custom tailoring, mass appeal. Concerns include limited individual interaction in…

It is suggested that approaches to research assessment vary according to national context. In the United States, higher education is dominated by market forces; in Britain and Australia, emphasis is on interinstitutional competitiveness; in northern Europe, focus is overall system efficiency. Performance indicators and peer review of research are…

Movements toward quality assurance in Australian and U.S. higher education systems are compared and found largely similar. One element, oversight of the federal government in this process, is seen as the principal difference. A national quality assurance effort is in place in Australia, but not in the United States. (MSE)

Total Quality Management is not a fad. Human resource development must be aligned with the culture of continuous improvement to make it work. Changes may be necessary in hiring, promotion, and performance appraisal. (SK)

The equity audit is a new tool with remarkable power to identify, analyze, and evaluate a given school districts' quality control. In three case study school districts located in urban areas of New York, North Carolina, and Arkansas, considerable inconsistency and incongruity were documented in student placement practices, promotion and retention…

Discusses reasons for the self-publishing trend in Canada. Topics addressed include changes in the publishing industry, desktop publishing, quality control, printing, publicity, reviews, marketing, and the future of self-publishing. Two sidebars discuss vanity presses and self-publishing and libraries. (32 references) (LRW)

The concept of quality in higher education is discussed, including ways of thinking about quality, its relevance to higher education, interrelationships, and philosophical/political bases. The relative nature of quality is examined, and five differing conceptualizations are identified: quality as exception, perfection, fitness for purpose, value…

A survey of 923 employee involvement programs (57%) yielded 10 themes: range of problem content, team staffing, team membership status, team resources, training practices, information access, financial rewards, performance management systems, goal-setting structures, and roles of job supervisors. (JOW)

The Japanese concept of Kaizen (continuous improvement) may be applied to higher education institutions. Focus is on improvement of the products produced, the process by which they are delivered, and the people involved in the products and the process. (SK)

Five papers on outcomes assessment and management in health care services are presented. The papers illustrate the different stages of outcomes assessment, including identification and selection of indicators, monitoring and pooling of data, description of variations and identification of problems, analysis of variations, and feedback and results.…

Educational research should closely reflect the relatively turbulent world of schools and the micropolitical processes therein. Common research themes in England include response to change, establishment of new working relationships and new roles for local education agencies, marketing influences, curriculum management reforms, and quality control…

An effort to enhance quality and efficiency at the University of Florida was designed to produce quick results without involving many employees and focused on the accounts payable department. Flowcharting identified inefficiencies and pinpointed opportunities for improvement in labor-intensive processes, mailings, check registers, reports,…

This paper provides an analysis of approaches to quality assurance and of the management of quality in general management literature and considers its application to public education systems. Key components of a fully integrated approach to quality assurance and quality management for school systems are listed. (SLD)

Describes an exercise to help advanced English-as-a-Second-Language students learn to edit their writing and stick to word limits. The paper explains how to set the word-limit parameters (limiting writing to 100 words), encourage self-editing, define the criteria of the assignment at the outset, and build a layering process. (SM)

Recent changes in Australian higher education have produced increased demands for accountability. Much of the current policy framework for higher education will survive, and educational-quality issues must be reassessed in this context. Suggested models for quality assessment include development of statements of purpose for individual…