Search results

Provides guidelines to facilitate the development of usable, efficient and maintainable spreadsheet models. Whilst primarily written for those who may be building models for a third party, the article should also prove of value to the casual modeller.

Examines the changing trends in higher education and the current movement in the UK towards a modular degree provision. Outlines how this move towards modularization often results in changes in the way undergraduate examination boards operate, universities often having to replace a series of small single degree examination boards by much larger committees operating under a two‐tiered system. Examines the changing requirements of the newer two‐tiered system with specific reference to where and how academic discretion can be applied. Concludes that discretion can rarely be supported on academic grounds within a modular degree system and that its previous use, in many cases, were symptomatic of some of the failures in the UK honours degree system.

Gives the background to human resource planning (HRP) and argues that HRP tools are still an essential management requirement. Looks, therefore, to HRP tools that are not so mathematically complex as to be of little use to the average practitioner. Provides an approach which harnesses modern spreadsheet technology to implement the previously esoteric tools of analysis ‐ “holonic modelling”. Holonic modelling recognizes that computer power and the flexibility of software packages allow problems to be structured in a flexible manner. Goes on to demonstrate the use of holonic modelling in the context of HRP.

On 2 December Sir Sidney Caine announced to the students of the London School of Economics that a committee comprising 50 per cent staff and 50 per cent students was to be set up to review college regulations. He also suggested that similar committees might be established for each department within the college. Whether or not he had heard the students singing in the corridor outside, he did not say. We do know, however, that this unprecedented announcement resulted directly from college action taken after Mr David Adelstein had written in his capacity as the students' union's president to The Times re Dr Adam's prospective appointment. The noise and Photonews notwithstanding, the students had won a minor victory in what used to be known as the alma mater of revolutions.

Between October and November 2001 the world witnessed the collapse of Enron, a major US publicly traded corporation with global operations. The Enron case highlights the impact corporate failure has on American society and capital markets and underscores the need for better enforcement of regulations and ethical business behavior. This paper discusses the role played by Enron’s senior management, its board of directors, Enron’s auditors, consultants, bankers, Wall Street and the government, in the spectacular rise and fall of this corporate giant. It also examines the impact of Enron’s failure on its employees, the employees of Andersen, and on thousands of ordinary Americans who invested in the stock via their pensions and mutual funds. This paper highlights the conflicts of interest that pervade the financial system and discusses the social and financial impact of a combined business and oversight failure. Students and teachers of finance, corporate governance, and business strategy may be interested in this paper as a pedagogical tool to teach undergraduate finance, business ethics, business strategy, and corporate governance.

THE monumental History of Criticism by Professor Saintsbury, and Mr. Hall Caine's lighter series of studies would be sufficient to put anyone on their guard against accepting as final many of the critical decisions of the important literary reviews. Mr. Caine's book particularly is a revelation of error and spite such as makes one wonder that anonymous literary criticism should be received with toleration by bookmen.

Using the threshold concepts framework, this paper aims to explore how differences in the ability to meaningfully apply relevant literature to one’s research are reflected in descriptions of graduate training undertaken in an academic year.

This paper used a sequential-explanatory mixed method design. Phase I analysis used quantitative performance data to differentiate research skill threshold crossers from non-crossers. Phase II analysis used qualitative interview data to identify common and differentiating themes across and between the two groups.

Participants identified coursework, research activities and teaching assignments as primary research skill development sites. However, only the patterns of mentorship and engagement with literature within the context of supervised research activities consistently differentiated threshold crossers from non-crossers. All non-crossers reported having full autonomy in their research endeavors, whereas all crossers articulated reliance on supervising mentor guidance. Similarly, most non-crossers did not frame research as incremental contributions to existing literature, while most crossers did.

The study sample size is small (n = 14), and the study is exploratory in nature.

The importance of exploring the factors that actually indicate and lead to research skill development is highlighted.

Few studies address graduate student research skill development, although this skill development is a core goal of many graduate programs. This study does so, using performance rather than self-report data.

Stories are powerful teaching tools because of their potential to stimulate the imagination of students and engage them with the material. The short story gives meaning to abstract concepts, aids memory, makes learning fun, and is time efficient. This article explains the approach to teaching information literacy through the use of short stories, including how to create vivid connections to the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Provides course instructors with examples of how the short story can be used as a platform to discuss information literacy standards.

Existing histories of the free kindergarten movement in South Australia scantily acknowledge the key role of Lucy Spence Morice in helping to found the Kindergarten Union (KUSA) in 1905 and subsequently guiding the organisation through financially troubled times, internal conflict with respect to the independence of the Training College (Adelaide KTC) from Education Department control, changes of directorship, and in accordance with its original mission. This article seeks to restore Lucy Spence Morice to a place in South Australian annals alongside that of her distinguished aunt Catherine Helen Spence: teacher, journalist, author, Unitarian Church preacher, philanthropist, political and social reformer, self‐styled ‘new woman’ of the late nineteenth century, and to niece Lucy a dear friend, mentor and inspirational role model. In the light of fresh evidence contained in the papers of Mrs Marjorie Caw (an early KTC graduate), and informed by the work of Caine, Lewis, Ryan, and Goodman and Harrop most especially, it re‐assesses Mrs Morice’s contribution to kindergarten reform from a feminist revisionist historical perspective. I utilise biographical methods and network analysis in order to point up the genesis of Lucy’s zeal for the cause of kindergarten education; also to argue that her informal but expansive social ties, plus her links to professional women and other activists in the fields of child health, welfare and education were central to her work for the Kindergarten Union.

This commentary surveys the current arguments for and against modifying the work of doctors and nurses by placing the main viewpoints – substitution and diversification – within the policy background, particularly that of the UK. We discuss the forces for modification: cost effectiveness, professional development, quality improvement and pragmatic management and how each provides a stand‐point for evaluation of the issues. Policy makers and managers in the health sector should be aware of the rather fragmented evidence base for doctor‐nurse substitution and should consider skill mix changes only when they are clear about: purpose, evidence base, acceptable risks, accountability and quality assurance. Doctor‐nurse substitution is not necessarily cost effective, nor is it unfailingly a gain in nurse professionalism or in quality of care. Of the management perspectives available – advocacy, skepticism or pragmatism – the current evidence and policy base favours pragmatism over evaluations of the rightness or wrongness of a general policy.