Diversity of provision in higher education

The prevention and resolution of student complaints are critical factors in maintaining and improving the student experience. Rob Behrens looks at the wider context, drawing on lessons from beyond higher education, to examine the opportunities and possible pitfalls.     

Barriers to resource sharing among higher education libraries a report to the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP)

This paper describes the user-focused approach to information skills at MMU Library. It covers the following cycle: identifying training needs at three levels (organisation, group and individual); developing a training strategy and materials; marketing information skills within MMU. Specifically, it describes how we went about discovering what our users wanted, creating and delivering what they needed, and how we ‘sold’ it back to them.     

Resource Implications of Mergers: Are There Any Economies?

Academic observers have for some time been questioning whether industrial mergers produce identifiable economies of scale. They have found little evidence that efficiencies result from mergers. Is this also true in higher education? What does the evidence tell us about the practical implications of recent mergers? This paper examines this topic from a strictly empirical perspective. We begin by studying as an analogy, the recent mergers of professional accounting and consulting firms and me then turn to higher education and look in detail at the savings and the extra costs claimed from recent mergers.     

Artefacts at the liquid interface and their impact in miniaturized biochemical assay

Droplet microfluidic technology has the potential to significantly reduce reagent use, and therefore, lower costs of assays employed in drug discovery campaigns. In addition to the reduction in costs, this technology can also reduce evaporation and contamination which are often problems seen in miniaturized microtitre plate formats. Despite these advantages, we currently advise caution in the use of these microfluidic approaches as there remains a lack of understanding of the artefacts of the systems such as reagent partitioning from droplet to carrier oil and interaction of the biological reagents with the water-oil interface. Both types of artefact can lead to inaccurate and misleading data. In this paper, we present a study of the partitioning of a number of drug-like molecules in a range of oils and evidence of protein binding at the water-oil interface which results in reduced activity of a cytochrome P450 enzyme. Data presented show that the drug-like molecules partitioned the least into fluorocarbon oils and the interaction of the 1A2 cytochrome at the water-oil interface resulted in a lower or complete absence of enzyme activity. This loss of activity of cytochrome 1A2 could be restored by the use of secondary blocking proteins although changes in the pharmacology of known 1A2 inhibitors were observed. The artefacts described here due to reagents partitioning into the carrier oil or protein binding at the water-oil interface significantly impact the potential use of these microfluidic systems as a means to carry out miniaturized biological assays, and further work is needed to understand the impact and reduction of these phenomena.     

COSTING ETV OPERATIONS: A METHODOLOGY

The paper is presented as a case‐study in the costing of activities at the fictitious University of Barchester TV and Media Resources Centre.     

Monograph Interlending for the Higher Education Research Community

This article presents the findings of a small-scale study undertaken at a UK university. The purpose of the research was to investigate the perceived impact and value of the Academic Library Liaison service at the university. This was considered to be a critical issue of concern, in the light of drivers threatening the UK higher education library sector to de-professionalize—or worse, remove such services. A mixed methods approach was adopted, combining an online questionnaire disseminated to academic staff, resulting in 29 responses from three academic departments and in-depth interviews with eight members of academic staff. The results indicate that although academic staff do value the service provided by Academic Liaison Librarians (ALLs), there is scope to increase awareness of the range of services on offer. The study also demonstrates that academic staff prioritize the contribution that ALLs can make through the possession of in-depth subject knowledge, IT skills and well-developed communication skills, and the provision of advice on copyright matters and assistance with institutional repositories. This holds implications for curriculum design on the part of LIS educators.     

Flexibility in Setting Fees

In this paper we consider various issues relating to the fees which are charged to overseas students. The introduction of 'full-cost fees' by the Government in 1980 had a dramatic effect on the overseas student intake initially. Since that date there has been a steady, slow recovery in numbers. The home student position has also changed with an end to hopes of steady overall expansion of traditional students and the looming implications of the falling birthrate of the late 1960s and 1970s .
Against this background we consider three topics: experience so far in setting fees, the alternative approaches that are available and the theoretical and practical implications of each .