Many public university systems rely on their own institutional research (IR) offices, in addition to the IR offices from their member institutions, to help conduct the work of the university system. In this chapter, the author illustrates the type of work conducted by system-level IR offices using a nontraditional data source that can be used to…

This brief and accompanying Funder's Sustainability Assessment Tool is intended to help foundation leaders address the challenges of sustainability. The brief begins with a framework for thinking about sustainability, introduces an assessment tool funders can use in a variety of ways to support sustainability in their grantmaking, and concludes…

"A Blueprint for Excellence", New Jersey's long-range plan for higher education, adopted in 2003, aims to make the state stronger, more competitive, and a better place for all to live, work, and go to school. This document reports progress-to-date in achieving plan objectives: enrollment and the number of degrees awarded have increased,…

The author argues that the traditional defense of liberal adult education has always been inadequate and that, if adult education is to find its proper place among national priorities, then it will need new defenses and new forms of attack. (Author/CH)

Discusses three current prevailing uncertainties in the field of training the trainer: uncertainty as to the cultural foundation for training, uncertainty as to level of responsibility, and uncertainty as to the market for training. (NRJ)

Describes the role of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and its major priorities for 1981-82. (Author/LLS)

Reflects on the process used by the Society of Research Administrators International (SRA) to establish its 2001-2006 strategic plan, addressing such questions as: What are the underlying principles of strategic planning? What implications does a new strategic plan portend for an organization? (EV)

In response to the American Dental Association's (ADA) Future of Dentistry Project, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) provided perspective on the most critical issues facing the dental profession. ADEA responded in six areas, each corresponding to areas of focus in the ADA project. This report reflects comments provided to the ADEA…

In forming a strategy to deal with the severe economic downturn, President-elect Obama and his evolving brain trust of economic advisers should recall the largely successful and innovative efforts by the federal and state governments to avoid a projected steep post-World War II recession - in particular, the key role of higher education. Demand…

Institutions should not assume that since they can't predict the future they should not consider it. Instead, they can use their imagination to anticipate any number of possible, probable, positive, and even preventable futures. Attendees of the joint conference, "Campus of the Future: A Meeting of the Minds," in Hawai'i this past July--hosted by…

The European Students' Union (ESU) feels the need to face the current crisis and to foster the student voice of all students across Europe. In this context its main priorities for 2012 will be: (1) Education as a public good; (2) Internal development; (3) Social dimension; and (4) Bologna and European cooperation. It is of great importance for ESU…

This article is about how information is gathered in organizations to make decisions. There is actually a long history in economics on this topic, called the "economics of information," but this is a bare beginning on the topic for libraries, suggesting only a few patterns from observation and a few literatures that might help with the challenge.…

The lack of legal recognition of same-sex couples can leave partners vulnerable in a crisis or emergency. Advance planning is one strategy couples can use to establish legal rights. Analyses of data collected from both partners in 131 same-sex couples suggested that executing advance-planning documents (wills, powers of attorney for finance and…

The new Queensland "Mathematics Years 1-10 Syllabus" differs from previous syllabuses in that it has an outcomes structure that describes how students think, reason, and work mathematically. The main challenge for secondary teachers implementing the new syllabus lies in taking a more investigative approach to "working…

In this article, the authors explain a method that helps policymakers and educators to identify the forces and trends affecting education today and to project how they might conceivably play out in the future. They suggest that by asking "What if?" in a disciplined way, it might be better to imagine the possibilities of tomorrow in order to take…