The students-recruiting-students undergraduate engineering recruiting programme

The students-recruiting-students (SRS) programme is an outreach programme developed to recruit high school students into the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas. The four phases of this programme from development to on-campus, off-campus and post-admission recruiting are detailed in this paper along with 7 years of programmatic results. The goals of this paper are to introduce the SRS concept, encourage successful development of similar recruiting programmes and increase freshman enrolment in engineering. The SRS programme has more than doubled the department's freshman enrolment over the last 8 years.     

Confidence and Mathematics: A gender issue?

In the many studies undertaken on pupils' attitudes to mathematics, confidence has been recognised as a contributing factor to gender differences in participation. A number of issues have been identified which affect confidence. In this paper we discuss the 'confidence factor' and the part it plays in pupils' mathematics learning. We then outline three intervention strategies which may encourage girls to develop confidence, drawing on our own experience of using these strategies in Britain.     

The Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale: A Valid Criterion of Counselor Effectiveness?

Should the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale (CERS) be used as a criterion measure of counselor effectiveness in studies attempting to identify correlates of counselor effectiveness? The validity of recent recommendations regarding the use of certain factors of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) to select persons for counselor training programs, where the CERS was the criterion measure, is challenged. Relationships between the three scales of the CERS and levels of empathy, respect, and empathy offered in a counseling relationship were investigated; only one of the hypothesized relationships was found (p < .05).     

Costs,risks and benefits in improving access to journal articles

This paper reports on a study – overseen by representatives of the publishing, library, and research funder communities in the UK – investigating the drivers, costs, and benefits of potential ways to increase access to scholarly journals. It identifies five different but realistic scenarios for moving towards that end over the next five years, including gold and green open access, moves towards national licensing, publisher‐led delayed open access, and transactional models. It then compares and evaluates the benefits as well as the costs and risks for the UK. The scenarios, and the modelling on which they are based, amount to a benefit‐cost analysis to help in appraising policy options. Our conclusion is that policymakers should encourage the use of existing subject and institutional repositories, but avoid pushing for reductions in embargo periods, which might put at risk the sustainability of the underlying scholarly publishing system. They should also promote and facilitate a transition to gold open access, while seeking to ensure that the average level of publication fees does not exceed c.£2.000; that the rate in the UK of open access publication is broadly in step with the rest of the world; and that total payments to publishers from UK universities do not rise as a consequence.