This research investigated strategic management in the postgraduate program at the Islamic Education Management School. It concentrated on strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation to assess the curriculum, operation, and competition. Moreover, it used a descriptive design and content analysis to develop SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,…

Quality assurance in higher education has become a global activity. In the European Higher Education Area, cross-border quality assurance has been heavily encouraged by the European Commission. Behind this, lies the belief that encouraging competition among quality assurance bodies and introducing a liberal 'market' logic into the sector would…

Given increasingly crowded education marketplaces, an emerging perspective views education as a marketable product and seeks to explain what drives loyalty of alumni. Satisfaction has been used as an indicator of education quality and resides in a complex relationship of factors pertaining to students and institutions. The nonprofit graduate…

Because funding for many higher education institutions is based on student persistence and graduation rates, and because competition for online student enrollments is fierce among public and private institutions, quality and competitiveness in online course development, instruction, and administration is imperative. Additionally, because distance…

This master data collection protocol describes the data that Mathematica collected for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Study of Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. This study was conducted for the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The data were collected from reviews of applications, documents, and…

This article introduces the issue of articles on research assessments and rankings. It focuses on the British Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs) and New Zealand's Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF). It contrasts these with systems that are not tied to funding formulas and emphasise quality enhancement rather than quality assurance. It…

Evaluates the voucher scheme for 4-year olds introduced during 1996 to 1997 in England and Wales. Overall findings suggest that the scheme encouraged unfair competition and "voucher maximizing behavior" in the maintained sector. The scheme failed because the Conservative government attempted to introduce too many market mechanisms into…

Information on a review of the decennial review process required by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) for every academic department in each Arizona university is presented as part of the final report by ABOR's Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competitiveness. Revision in the review process and eight policy statements are discussed, and…

The issue of the degree to which program duplication among two or three of Arizona's universities diverts resources from other priority needs of higher education is addressed as one of the working papers in the final report of the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competitiveness. Specific arguments for the…

An analysis of what is currently known about the benefits and costs of assessment programs from the general perspective of state higher education policy is presented as a working paper in the final report of the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competition. State and institutional approaches to assessment in…

As part of the final report of the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competitiveness, the Council of Presidents discusses academic degree program duplication. Current board policies are explained in regard to mission and scope statements (each university shall have a distinctive mission and scope, and no university…

The Skills Standards Projects have provided further emphasis on the need for benchmarking U.S. vocational-technical education (VTE) against international competition. Benchmarking is an ongoing systematic process designed to identify, as quantitatively as possible, those practices that produce world class performance. Metrics are those things that…

A study tested a procedure to identify and weigh various indicators of college faculty research productivity, as one measure of program quality. Eighty-six faculty in 34 Australian schools of education were surveyed. Highly valued indicators of research productivity included refereed journal articles, peer reviewed books, and major competitive…

Four key criteria used in academic program review (quality, centrality to institutional mission, competition, and demand) are defined and discussed. They are then applied to the process of strategic planning for an unspecified private university. Decision-making matrixes and their use are illustrated. (MSE)

A large central government providing numerous public services has long been a hallmark of Swedish society, which is also well-known for its pursuit of equality. Yet in the 1990s, Sweden moved away from this tradition in education, introducing market-oriented reforms that decentralized authority over public schools and encouraged competition…