This article discusses the use of bibliometric indicators for the assessment of individual academics. We focused on national indicators for the assessment of productivity in Polish higher education institutions. We analysed whether institutions (N = 768) adopted national templates for their own sets of criteria for intra-institutional evaluations.…

The demands on and expectations of Institutional Research (IR) departments at colleges and universities have continued to expand over the years, yet there have been no studies on cost effective ways to develop and maintain the knowledge and skills needed by professionals in the field. Using a survey and social network analysis, this study explored…

College student retention constitutes a long-standing and critical problem for many colleges and universities. Although the average national rate of first-to-second year persistence stands at 68.5%, rates for types of colleges and universities vary from a low of 56.4% for 2-year public colleges to a high of 81.5% for private PhD-granting…

As research administrators look to define their roles as professionals, the need to address perceived administrative burden becomes a valuable next step in improving research administration. A qualitative investigation into the causes of the perceived burden identifies local variability of research administration as regulatory burden for those…

In an environment in which libraries need to demonstrate value, illustrating how the library contributes to student learning is critical. Gathering and analyzing data to tell the library's story as well as identify areas for improvement require commitment, time, effort, and resources--all components of a culture of assessment. This paper presents…

We highlight three ways of conceptualising and enacting academic development: firstly as authentic, practice-based activity, secondly in terms of a new transformative paradigm for academic development units (ADUs), and thirdly as a space for disruption. We illustrate these conceptualisations through our investigation of the practice of internal…

In order to obtain an accreditation, the university management must implement a quality assurance system and be able to document that quality policy and procedures are followed and acted upon as appropriate. One element in this system is monitoring students' satisfaction. In this paper, we describe a method of acquiring the necessary information…

Organizations are thought to adopt or evolve to an organizational strategy that will improve organizational effectiveness. Familiar strategies in the business world include a production strategy, low cost strategy, and market orientation strategy. In the world of higher education however organizational strategies may take a different form such as…

Purpose: This paper aims to present an in-depth case study with student perceptions of service quality, discussing the relevance of these perceptions for the important issue of quality improvement in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents institutional research carried out in a multi-campus system in Spain made up of…

The following paper culminates a year of research conducted by researchers at E[superscript 3] Alliance and Texas State University and sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The following reports on promising practices observed and reported at Manor New Tech High School (MNTH), a Texas Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (T-STEM)…

As part of the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education (TLC) project, questionnaire data were collected from three consecutive cohorts of students in a wide range of learning sites, initially four in each of four Further Education (FE) colleges in England. This paper focuses on changes in perceived learning environment as mapped by…

This paper explores the nature and extent of outsourcing by higher education institutions, benefits and challenges associated with outsourcing, and the implications of outsourcing for effective management. The principal investigator conducted a national study of outsourcing by four-year colleges and universities at two points in time, 1998-99 and…

W. John Minter and Howard R. Bowen's annual report on "Financial and Educational Trends in Independent Higher Education, 1978" is examined. Problems in data reporting by college administrators that skew financial assessment reports are noted. A rating questionnaire for institutional quality is appended. (Author/LBH)