Across higher education there is a misalignment between the policies and practices of evaluation and the core values for which universities profess to stand. Values of inclusion, transdisciplinarity, and publicly engaged scholarship are routinely undervalued in university practices of evaluation. Shifting attention toward high-impact ends of…

Faculty-evaluation systems are critical to successful transformation in the culture of an institution or any division of it; but modifying the criteria and priorities that have traditionally defined the evaluation process is possible only if one understands and respects the dynamics, difficulties, trade-offs, and complexities involved, especially…

Twenty-five years ago, American sociologist Robert Neelly Bellah (Bellah, et al., 1986: 303) critiqued the growing isolation of intellectuals within universities and called for a return to "social science as public philosophy." Little seems to have changed. My thirty-seven year experience at the University of Alberta suggests that…

I use Burkean analysis to show how neoliberalism undermines faculty assessment expertise and underwrites testing industry expertise in the current assessment scene. Contending that we cannot extricate ourselves from our limited agency in this scene until we abandon the familiar "stakeholder" theory of power, I propose a rewriting of the…

Individual and institutional/environmental factors that distinguish "vital" professors from a "representative" group of their colleagues were investigated. Of concern was whether the faculty vitality concept discriminates among professors in meaningful ways (i.e., regarding their professional attitudes, practices,…

THIS 1962 CONFERENCE COVERED FIVE OF A DEAN'S MANY FUNCTIONS--(1) IN COOPERATION WITH THE FACULTY, HE MUST DETERMINE APPROPRIATE COURSES, ESTABLISH THEM, DEVELOP AND EVALUATE THEM, AND CHANGE THEM WHEN NECESSARY. (2) IN HIS DECISION-MAKING, HE MUST BALANCE CONFORMITY AND ANARCHY AND NOTE THE MODERN EMPHASIS ON MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS OWN…

Discusses effective tutor monitoring strategies based on experiences at the Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong. Highlights include key performance and strategic control points; situational factors, including tutor expectations and relevant culture; Theory X versus Theory Y leadership theories; and monitoring relationships with tutors. (LRW)

Periodic tenured faculty evaluation can be an opportunity for professional and personal redirection, revitalization, and renewal. The institution profits as much as the individual through better academic planning, teaching, and research. (MSE)

This book provides a comprehensive guide to the role of the academic department chair in a time when the chair's role is rapidly becoming more important and more complex. Part 1 describes the new roles chairs face, followed by a general discussion of their responsibilities. Part 2 is concerned with the department chair's work with people,…

This monograph explores the changing role of the academic department chair in the areas of leadership, influence, and faculty development. The paper uses research insights to explore the situation of an academic chair who is squeezed between the demands of upper administration and the expectations of faculty, staff, and students. Studies of the…

This digest explores the changing role of the academic department chair in the areas of leadership, influence, and faculty development. The paper uses research insights to explore the situation of an academic chair who is squeezed between the demands of upper administration and the expectations of faculty, staff, and students. Studies of the roles…

Ideas for improving quality, which evolved from a survey conducted for the National Commission on Higher Education Issues, are presented. Suggestions are given for retaining public confidence in higher education, improving accreditation practices, strengthening faculty and institutional performance, improving students' intellectual motivation, and…

A wide variety of individual and contextual factors, within and outside institutional control, can affect faculty research performance. These collective factors, the research culture, include policies and practices affecting recruitment, workload, evaluation, collegial communication, leadership, and structure. (MSE)

Evaluation of administrators and faculty is examined, including the identification of evaluation instruments and clarification of procedures. After a brief discussion of the rationale for evaluation and the need for acting on the outcomes of the evaluation, the process of evaluating the administrator is considered. The criteria of organizational…

Faculty development programs are designed to improve faculty performance in all aspects of their professional lives. Six areas of concern are presented: flexibility of approach; individual v corporate activity; new understanding of scholarship; personnel management; understanding student development; and administrative leadership and support. (JMF)