Editorial

Citation

Roberts, B.E. (2006), "Editorial", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 20 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem.2006.06020daa.001

Editorial

Welcome to the fourth issue of the International Journal of Educational Management, which contains papers from the USA, the UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, with the usual variety of academic subjects. From East Tennessee State University, Associate Professor Baryla and Professor Dotterweich contribute jointly to a work on “institutional focus and non-resident student enrolment”. The purpose of the paper is to use institutional characteristics and regional economic data to determine if an institutional mission helps to drive non-resident undergraduate enrolment. The study finds a significant positive correlation between non-resident undergraduate enrolment and tuition for both doctoral and baccaulaureate institutions. There is no significant correlation between non-resident enrolment and tuition for comprehensive institutions. The research implications suggest that non-residents undergraduate students are attracted to both larger flagship institutions, as well as to smaller institutions that are almost entirely focussed on undergraduate instruction. Comprehensive institutions do not generally experience this phenomenon, however, the more selective schools within this category are also attractive to non-resident students. Attracting non-resident students is an important issue for a higher education institution. This article suggests evidence that an institution’s mission may be a factor in non-resident enrolment. This may allow a higher education institution to garner excess returns when pricing non-residents tuition, and also allow some leeway in pricing resident tuition.

Dr Paul Greenbank of Edge Hill College of Higher Education writes on a related topic “institutional admissions policies in higher education; a widening participation perspective”. The article analyses how higher education institutions have responded to government policy to increase the participation rates of students from lower social classes through their admissions policies. The research found that admissions policies owed more to the nature of demand than attempts to widen participation. Old universities tended to ask for higher grades as a condition of admission and were sceptical about vocational qualifications, but were flexible where there was a low demand for courses. Less prestigious institutions tend to recruit more students from working class backgrounds because of the markets they were able to recruit in rather than a widening participation policy: Whilst the study is based upon a small number of cases, the evidence suggests that institutional admissions policies perpetuate the problem of working class disadvantage, but institutions are constrained by government policy which encourages a competitive and stratified system.

Michael Jackson is Acting Director of Teaching and Learning at the University of Sydney. His contribution is “Great classroom teaching” and more: awards for outstanding teaching evaluated”. In the paper the author evaluates teaching excellence awards with a view to improving them. To do so he receives the literature on awards and modifies an analytic framework from Canada used at the University of Sydney. Among the conclusions reached are that the Sydney award is supported even by those who have been unsuccessful in applying for it; that awards alone do not make teaching the equal to research, i.e. a university that identifies itself as a research university; awards that integrate into the university’s strategic direction are powerful and finally that awards that have a continuing profile ease that integration.

Again on higher education institutions comes a joint paper from Dr Sadiq Sohail, Salina Daud and Jegatheesan Rajadurai. Their topic is on the restructuring of higher education institutions within a developing country. The paper examines the re-engineering process of a higher education institution in Malaysia. The impact of cost reduction strategies linked to the overall performance of the organisation is discussed in comparison to the management system prior to restructuring, vision, mission and strategic direction, core business process, financial performance analysis, corporate and organisational structure, reorganisation of learning centres, courses offered, human resource policies and customers’ feedback. The study found that generally the HEI focussed on the cost cutting strategy. Consequently, there were increases in the utilisation of the learning centre occupancy, the number of home courses offered increased and there was a decrease in the employment of part-time teaching staff. There were also marked improvements in academic networks and partnerships that provide for knowledge exchange. Although a number of studies have been carried out on this topic in Malaysia few have concentrated on the restructuring process of HEIs. The study examines critically the restructuring process and the major gains of the HEI which embarked on a restructuring programme in order to meet fully its objectives.

A joint paper by Dr Mohammed Arif, Professor Fentey Scott and Dr Eman Gaad examines systems analysis of the United Arab Emirates’ education system. The authors state that for any system to succeed it is important that all elements are aligned towards a common goal. This paper examines three elements of the United Arab Emirates’ education system – the development, the delivery and the evaluation. On analysing the data it was felt that there was poor alignment as to what the system was developed for, how it was delivered and what was evaluated. In order to align this system significant efforts were needed to ensure that extensive documentation in terms of teachers’ guides, training sessions for teachers and supervision and relevant evaluation instruments need to be designed with systems thinking as the guide.

The final paper is again a joint author work by Professor Mark Haskins and Professor James Clawson of the University of Virginia. Their article describes one way for MBA committee chairs, programme administrators and/or task force leaders to galvanise effectively on educational programme change process. In particular, it introduces and describes the successful use of an assumption audit to challenge a variety of educational programme design and delivery assumptions of one top-ranked MBA programmes first year. As a result of the assumptions audits insights a successful educational change process was launched with high collegiality amongst the change teams and with a clarity regarding which changes to pursue or otherwise, all of which led to a much more efficient process in bringing about an agreed set of programme changes.

Brian E. Roberts