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The existing concept in the building rating scheme especially in developing countries was more focused on the environment, economic, social and culture. The new approach of the classroom condition index (CCI) assessment scheme has its uniqueness in environmental and social aspects because of high building performance in secondary school buildings. The requirements set by the Ministry of Education Malaysia include providing a conducive learning environment, especially for students who are considered as the main users of classrooms in school buildings. Currently, the school administration needs to manually record the condition of the classroom to increase its comfort level. The lack of a structured scheme for classroom assessment makes it difficult for school administration to focus on the overall classroom condition (physical environmental aspect) in the school building. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for classroom conditions by proposing a CCI assessment scheme for a secondary school building in Malaysia.

Mixed methods were used to carry out the study. The first stage of this study concentrates on developing a system for CCI that relates to physical elements in the classroom. This is done by reviewing the literature on the classroom physical performance, as well as a comparison between several building rating systems locally and abroad. The structure of the proposed CCI scheme is grouped into four main themes, namely, space management quality (SMQ), building condition (BC), indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and teaching and learning quality (TLQ). In addition, there are 12 categories and 23 indicators listed under this theme. The second stage focuses on formulating assessment categories with their relevant performance indicators. This phase undergoes a validation process by conducting a survey (questionnaire) toward the classroom’s main users, which are students and teachers. This is to ensure the accuracy of classroom conditions in the school building. A semi-structured interview was also conducted among building experts. They are building surveyors, building engineers, building designers and building performance experts to support the main findings in the second stage. Relative importance (RI) index approach has been applied to show the indicators weighting and ranking are used as data collections method by using Statistical Package of Social Science software to examine the RI of each category and indicator, respectively.

The findings show that prominent RI and balanced weights are formed from these four main themes. They are SMQ (19.9%), BC (26.6%), IEQ (33.2%) and TLQ (20.3%). The outcome of this study will contribute to a detailed assessment scheme for CCI at the secondary school building. The contribution of the CCI Assessment Scheme is more comprehensive and holistic than the conventional assessment process for BCs. It focuses specifically on classroom space as it is the most important area to achieve a high level of comfort comparing to other spaces in the school building. This holistic approach encompasses all types of classrooms. The concept of one tool fits all is seen as no longer a relevant adaptation in this context. This proposed tool is to be used only for the classroom (as the name CCI implies) and it cannot be used for the other types of spaces, for instance, teacher room, library, meeting room, toilet, canteen and, etc. This is because different spaces represent different physical indicators to be classified. This, in turn, contributes to a conducive learning environment for students in the school.

This paper provides the current information, knowledge and findings related to the classroom physical indicators in developing the assessment scheme for the classroom environment. It will assist both technical and non-technical experts to clarify the current condition of classroom physical performance that ideally may affect the students’ learning environment. The novelty of CCI development is not only on the adopted method but it also includes the ideas on next generation model of rating system that ideally need specific indicators and weighting to be generated into an intelligent computerized system.

In this paper a systematic and well-defined student participation assessment scheme for college courses is proposed. The scheme supports the involvement of students in a variety of areas of participation within and outside the classroom with the aim of improving their learning. The scheme addresses mostly the challenges related to the practicality of the structure and design of the assessment. It also addresses the subjectivity of grading student participations. Areas of participation are widened to allow the faculty more accurate information about the conduct of each individual student towards more objective assessment. In addition, it provides the faculty with the flexibility to select areas that best fit the learning outcomes, nature of the course, availability of time and resources, and class atmosphere. The proposed scheme is initiated and developed using feedback from the teaching staff of Nizwa College of Technology, (NCT) through a survey and open discussion. The results indicate that over two thirds of the surveyed staff show agreement with the concept of assessing participation and find the scheme design clear and systematic, while 82% of them perceive the scheme as effective in improving the motivation and learning of students.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a self‐assessment scheme and processes that are developed for and applied to a R&D organization based on ISO 9004:2000. The presented self‐assessment has been performed during internal audits based on quality management system in Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea.

In order to enhance the reliability of the self‐assessment, the preliminary works such as training, workshop, case study and pre‐assessment rating are performed in advance before self‐assessment. Furthermore, this paper evaluates the reliability of self‐assessment results using Cohen's Kappa coefficient and the observed agreement index.

The results of this paper present that an organization's performance maturity level evolves sustainably through self‐assessment scheme and processes.

These results and lessons learned will be very useful to the organization that intends to enhance the performance of its R&D projects and processes and improve its processes continuously.

ISO 9004:2000 presents the guidelines of self‐assessment for the organization that intend to continually improve its performance considering the effectiveness and efficiency of a quality management system. According to ISO 9004, the range and depth of self‐assessment should be planned in relation to the organization's objectives and priorities. This paper discusses a self‐assessment scheme and processes that are developed for and applied to a R&D organization based on ISO 9004:2000.

The purpose of this paper is to depict the developmental process of a buildability assessment model for use at the scheme design stage of building projects, which have a priority requirement for functional performance rather than aesthetic performance.

First, major decisions made at the scheme design stage of building projects were identified through pilot interviews and a questionnaire survey on designers. Second, these decisions were rated for their relative importance towards buildability through another questionnaire survey on contractors, analysed using the reliability interval method. Based on these results, a list of buildable and non‐buildable features and their impacts is compiled by interviewing major contractors. These findings were incorporated into a modified framework of buildability assessment for complete design, substituting information available at the scheme design stage. Validation was carried out using four sample projects and feedback from practitioners.

The results obtained from the Scheme Design Buildability Assessment Model have been demonstrated as reflective of actual buildability level. Buildable and non‐buildable features, as exemplified by typical building projects in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, have been identified.

This is the first model which provides a tool for use by the design team to evaluate the buildability of their designs at an early stage, so that necessary improvements can be made without affecting the development program.

There is a substantial literature describing the various methods of job evaluation, all of which are essentially concerned to rank different jobs in a pay hierarchy according to rational criteria. Also, the aims and effectiveness of job evaluation schemes in terms of labour cost containment and as an aid to economic growth have been extensively discussed and evaluated. Moreover, in an era of incomes policies and the relative decline of industrywide bargaining, commentators have explored the feasibility of national job evaluation or alternative procedures for the consolidation of consistent acceptable differentials or ‘relativities’ between different work groups and industries at the level of the economy.

Recognizes that universities are coming under increasing pressure from a number of sources to produce evidence of the quality of their teaching. Outlines the approach to evaluating teaching quality being implemented within The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. Shows how this is based on the use of a self‐assessment pro forma that enables staff to rate their performance against 28 basic criteria which characterize effective teaching and related activities. Describes how the scheme was piloted on a voluntary basis throughout the university during 1992‐93, and how subsequent evaluation indicated it had proved both acceptable to staff and successful in achieving its various design aims. Shows how the scheme is now being formally incorporated into the university′s Staff Development and Career Review Scheme, and is also being used to accumulate evidence of teaching quality for use in external quality assessments and audits.

Saudi universities have incorporated capstone projects in the final year of an undergraduate study. Although universities are following recommendations of the National Commission for National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), no detailed guidelines for management and assessment of capstone projects are provided by these accreditation bodies. Variation in the management and assessment practices of capstone project courses and analysis of the students' capabilities to align with industry demands, to realize Vision 2030, is challenging. This study investigates the current practices for structure definition, management and assessment criteria used for capstone project courses at undergraduate level for information technology (IT) programs at Saudi universities.

A web-based questionnaire is administered using a web service commonly used for questionnaires and polls to investigate the structure, management and assessment of capstone projects at the undergraduate level offering software engineering, computer science and information technology (SECSIT) programs. In total, 42 faculty members (with range of experience of managing/advising capstone projects from 1 to more than 10 years) from 22 Saudi universities (out of more than 30 universities offering SECSIT undergraduate programs) participated in the study.

The authors have identified that Saudi universities are facing challenges in the utilized process model, the distribution of work and marks, the knowledge sharing approach and the assessment scheme. To cope with these challenges, the authors recommend the use of an incremental development process, the utilization of a project-driven approach, the development of a national level digital archive and the implementation of homogeneous assessment scheme.

To contribute to the national growth and to fulfill the market demand, universities are recommended to align the capstone project courses with latest technology trends. Universities must collaborate with the industry and update the structure and requirements of capstone project courses accordingly. This will further facilitate to bridge the gap between industry and academia and will develop a win–win scenario for all the stakeholders.

Although universities are committed to increase innovative capacities of their students for enabling them to contribute to economic and social growth, it is still hard to know the knowledge creation and sharing at national level. Variations in the management and assessment practices for capstone projects further intensify this challenge. Hence, there is a need of smart assessment and management of software capstone projects being developed in Saudi universities. Incorporating latest technologies, such unified management can facilitate discovering the trends and patterns related to the domain and complexity.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on performance evaluation of small firms' financing schemes with a view to assessing their potential for improving small firms' access to finance.

An integrated methodology based on five commonly used methodologies is formulated to evaluate the performance of the three small firms financing schemes. This integrated methodology makes use of a number of selected performance indicators.

The findings reveal strong performance in favour of Kilimanjaro Cooperative Bank (KCB) compared to the other two schemes. Furthermore, KCB financing scheme is demonstrated to be an important actor in the financial sector particularly rural parts of the country where mainstream financial services are generally not available.

Further research on performance evaluation of small firms' financing schemes could considerably extend the stock of knowledge in this area. It would be interesting for example to know what might be the findings if more financing schemes are included in a replication study given the ongoing growth in the number of these schemes in Tanzania. Coverage of a longer period, which allows for the use of more data for the same three financing schemes, might also produce a more robust set of results. Future research may also wish to focus on the development of a methodology that contains fewer shortcomings in assessing the performance of small firms financing schemes.

The findings reported provide evidence on the possibility of improving small firms' access to finance in Tanzania through replication of KCB scheme/approach to other areas of the country where the environment is similar to Kilimanjaro region. The same might be applicable in other parts of Sub‐Saharan Africa.

The findings reported on in this paper consolidate the stock of knowledge on performance evaluation of small firms' financing schemes. The possibility that replication of a scheme could improve small firms' access to finance, provide policy makers with a new dimension towards poverty reduction. Finally the use of accounting and organisational/institutional indicators as a measure of performance evaluation strengthens the role accounting could play in the future in developing a standardised methodology for assessing the performance of small firms' financing schemes.

Dr Godfrey wrote on the matter of industrial assessment in our June issue. Below he reviews the situation at Woolwich.

First of a two‐part series. Examines current schemes for self‐assessment and their limitations. Proposes a new method of measuring organisational excellence and continous improvement. Suggests what is needed is an “assessment model” of the company′s quality goals and results, created and analysed through surveys and measurement.