Presents some major challenges facing employment counseling in Australia. Addresses strategic policy considerations. Outlines work of Australian employment counselors in organizations, single parents' work force reentry and rehabilitation to demonstrate different ways of reconciling the demands of efficiency, equity, and individuality. (Author/PVV)

An overview of recent history of Nigerian higher education chronicles periods of phenomenal expansion, economic downturn and retrenchment, monitoring of efficiency and academic standards, continued uncontrolled expansion in the absence of basic facilities, recently improved fiscal management, revival of student aid, and proposals for the opening…

Effective practice reviews (EPRs) are described as used in evaluation studies for the Office of Evaluation and Inspections, a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Examples are given of EPRs in addressing new problems, structuring and improving federal programs, and decreasing costs. (SLD)

Changes in the Chilean system of higher education brought and intended by reforms begun in 1980 are outlined, and their effects on system-level operation, institutional administration, educational quality, internal efficiency (enrollment and graduation rates, costs and expenditures), and equality of educational opportunity are examined. Mixed…

A Missouri school district found the most cost-effective means of designing, bidding, and constructing new facilities to be hiring a construction management firm. With a construction manager, the school district's interests come first, and the district can tailor project-delivery strategies to specific needs. Outlines how the process works. (MLF)

This article discusses the use of incentives for higher education institutions to become more efficient, effective, and responsive to government policies and offers examples of positive and negative incentives, the nature of relevant incentives, and the relationship between incentives and professional preferences. Suggestions for using incentives…

At the University of Akron (Ohio), research productivity was enhanced through improved information exchange, implementation of a systematic approach to securing funds, grant-writing seminars, reallocation of indirect-cost returns, establishment of a fund to cover unplanned expenditures, and other support activities. Creation and maintenance of a…

The principal characteristics and problems of financing higher education in a developing nation like Colombia are discussed, and several attempts to solve them are reviewed. Differences between the burgeoning private sector and the public sector, areas of inefficiency, and effects of public policy on tuition levels and payment are examined.…

The Venezuelan higher education system is described, and the principal efficiency, equity, and management issues are examined, especially for public universities. A pattern of explosive growth followed by recurrent funding crises has been a recent development. Strong resistance to change despite evident current shortcomings is characteristic.…

This study found that formal benefit-cost and effectiveness-cost analyses can help determine whether outcomes of particular special education services are being offered most efficiently. The study presents a conceptual framework for describing costs and benefits, presents data for two schools serving youth with severe mental retardation, and…

Describes steps in a process-improvement project for reserve book services at the University of Arizona Library: (1) plan--identify process boundaries and customer requirements, gather/analyze data, prioritize problems; (2) do--encourage divergent thinking, reach convergent thinking, find solutions; (3) check--pilot solutions, compare costs; and…

Increasingly, colleges and universities are privatizing housing, attracted to the limited financial outlay and involvement in management. Critics fear that institutions' financial positions will be compromised if the private developers have problems, and that institutions will lose control of financial aspects and quality of residence-hall life,…

The trend toward bigness and consolidation continues unabated, driven by political, economic, social, and demographic considerations, rather than extensive research attesting to small schools' educational benefits. School size influences social interaction and degree of student alienation. We need to reclaim the small school's sense of community,…

Assesses effects of five large city school districts' fiscal dependence on educational spending in New York State. Results suggest that spending levels may be systematically lower in fiscally dependent districts. Recommends re-aligning resource allocation and school governance responsibilities and using matching grants to reduce spending…

Since a large, underfunded urban Colorado district initiated ISO 9000 reforms, administrators and staff have reviewed 14 central-office departments' processes to improve efficiency and enhance student outcomes. Jefferson County has saved $900,000 annually on purchasing processes, developed a quality curriculum-development process, and improved…