University rankings are key drivers in national and institutional strategic planning. The increase in the number of university ranking systems and the diversity of methods and indicators used by these systems necessitate the development of an index that can measure a university's performance in all these systems at once. This article presents…

An explosion in access to electronic databases and digital information is changing the way we view source citation. While the original purpose of referencing--showing the reader exactly where the author got his or her input--is clearly more important than ever, citation is increasingly taking on other roles, ones that have little to do with good…

This report is first in a series of informational briefings developed as part of "The Guardians Initiative: Reclaiming the Public Trust," an effort to educate and engage trustees as advocates on key issues in higher education. While the tone of public criticism of higher education has sharpened, public understanding about the sector's…

The importance of school readiness to both the future of an individual child and society as a whole has given rise to several state-specific indexes designed to measure county-level risk for starting school unprepared to learn. One such index is the Oklahoma School Readiness Risk Index (OK SRRI), comprised of indicators known to be associated with…

With the global expansion of higher education in the last two decades, the maintenance of academic quality to meet requirements for international competitiveness has become a critical issue for policymakers and universities. In addition, the neoliberal emphasis on the market has increased the competition for global university rankings, and this…

Veterinary medical research traditionally focuses on animal health and wellness; however, research activities at veterinary colleges extend beyond these traditional areas. In this study, we analyzed eleven years of Web of Knowledge-indexed peer-reviewed articles from researchers at the twenty-eight United States American Veterinary Medical…

Why does tuition increase faster than inflation? And why does tuition continue to increase even when states increase their investments in public colleges and universities? These questions have perplexed policymakers and higher education consumers alike. Though tuition setting can be very complicated, one of the drivers for rising costs is price…

In measuring human development, one of the main concerns relates to the inclusion of a measure that penalizes inequalities in the distribution of achievements across the population. Using indicators from nationally representative household surveys and census data, this paper proposes a straightforward methodology to estimate a household-based…

Average resident undergraduate tuition and fees for the academic year 2013-14 at public two-year institutions in the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) region (excluding California) increased by 3.2 percent ($106) from the previous year, while published prices at public four-year institutions grew by 3.1 percent ($231). By…

We offer a straightforward framework for measurement of progress, across many dimensions, using cross-national social indices, which we classify as linear combinations of multivariate country level data onto a univariate score. We suggest a Bayesian approach which yields probabilistic (confidence type) intervals for the point estimates of country…

In order to compare the price of things over time, it is necessary to use a price index to adjust for inflation. The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) and the Higher Education Cost Adjustment (HECA) were designed to more accurately account for the spending patterns of colleges and universities. However, there are some methodological problems…

One of the aspects of knowing a word is the knowledge of which words it is usually used with. Since knowledge of collocations is essential for appropriate and fluent use of language, learning collocations should have a central place in the study of vocabulary. There are different opinions about the best ways of learning collocations. This study…

In times of economic uncertainty, questions of the purpose and value of higher education come to the fore. Such questions have particular relevance when directed towards the preparation of professionally qualified graduates who might be expected to contribute to the public good. However, definitions of the public good are contested and the role of…

This paper considers different ways of making comparisons between individuals in terms of deprivation and/or satisfaction. This allows the Gini index, the Bonferroni index and the De Vergottini index to be interpreted as social deprivation measures as well as social satisfaction measures. The inequality measures that belong to the [beta] family,…

The Commonfund Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) is an inflation index designed specifically to track the main cost drivers in higher education. Compiled from data reported by government agencies and industry sources, HEPI measures the average relative level in the price of a fixed market basket of goods and services purchased by colleges and…