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Croatian universities are autonomous from the government, but the majority of universities are financially dependent on the state. Croatian universities function as public authorities and often ignore communication with relevant publics, which indicates insufficient integration of communication activities into the universities' development plans, i.e. a lack of strategic communication as an essential tool for achieving the organisation's goals. Heide et al. emphasised the importance of the human element in communication management as ‘a move from organizations based on hierarchies, rules and close supervision to organizations built on loosely structured networks’ (Heide et al., 2018, p. 453). This chapter examines the usage of strategic communication at Croatian universities in 2018 and 2020–2021 and compares communication in 2020–21 during the COVID-19 pandemic with communication during non-crisis 2018. This chapter uses Hallahan et al.'s approach to strategic communication, who defined it as ‘the purposeful use of communication by an organisation to fulfil its mission’ (2007, p. 3). This case study of strategic communication of Croatian universities used the following research methods: (1) content analysis of universities web pages, (2) in-depth interviews with communication specialists from universities and (3) comparison of their communication during 2018 and 2020–2021. Conclusion is that communication of Croatian universities is not strategic and can hardly serve as a management function. Reasons for this situation indicate a lack of the social impact of the universities, i.e. lack of the Triple Helix model of the Croatian universities. This chapter is the first research of the usage of strategic communication at Croatian universities.

Purpose – The purpose of the chapter is to provide an analytical overview of information research in the United Kingdom and of the role of the Research Assessment Exercises (RAE) in shaping the form and structure of that research.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach adopted is a detailed content analysis of the submissions made to the last UK RAE. This analysis is carried out in relation to four broad subject categorisations, and specific analysis of accounts of research carried out in the departments and research groups.

Findings – The RAE have played a key role in promoting research specialisms in library and information studies (LIS) research in the United Kingdom. The former general approach to research in information studies has been replaced by more focused research activities carried out in a variety of research groups spread across a diverse range of disciplines and departments, from LIS, to business and management, information systems, and computing and engineering.

Research implications – The prospects for general LIS research departments may be increasingly limited, as research becomes concentrated in sub-groups within larger organisational structures, subverting both departmental lines and conventional subject boundaries.

Originality/value – This overview provides a novel synthesis of information research in the United Kingdom in relation to four broad categories of research in information studies and information science, information management and social informatics, information systems and information interaction, and social computing and computational informatics. The account brings together a fragmented field of research in a compact and intelligible form.

Purpose of paper: A growing number of studies of the issues of budget process and budget participation have recently emerged in management accounting literature. This paper extends this literature by explaining budget process and budget participation. This research explores the budget process in JPUs, studies the level of budget participation in these universities, and highlights the views and perceptions of budget preparers about the government budget format.

Design/methodology/approach: Nineteen interviews were conducted in 11 universities in Jordan and in the Ministry of Higher Education during 2008.

Findings: The data suggest that the budget usage varies between JPUs, and budget participation in some universities is not consistent where management is centralized. Although respondents understand the importance of budget usage, most of them are dissatisfied with the ministry budget format.

Research implications: The influence of budget participation on the university's overall performance and on performance of head of department may consider one of the important topics to be researched in the future. While, studying the impact of the ministry budget format on the university performance, the reverse impact and relation might be of vital interest to verify the government's expectation about the universities’ compliance and to highlight the importance of implementing a unique standard for all Jordanian universities.

Originality/value of paper: This study contributes to the literature as prior studies have researched budget process and participation in commercial companies in developed countries; this study combines the budget process, participation level while researching the governmental budget format in HEIs in a developing country.