Manpower planning,rate of return analysis,and the university medical schools: The case of Australia

In this paper, an examination is made of some of the errors in educational planning arising from manpower forecasts. Using the Australian doctors manpower plan, 1975–91 (Committee on Medical Schools, 1973) as an illustration, the writer shows the large variation in results that can occur through the substitution of alternatively feasible coefficients. Rate of return analysis is then used to examine the economic feasibility of the recommendations to expand the Australian medical schools, the conclusion being made that rate of return analysis is required for the economic decision making, the manpower forecasting only being a thechnological. guide for varying, the returns of income differentials of the investment to allow for any rigidities in the education system or the labour market.     

Style and substance in education leadership: further education (FE) as a case in point

As governments worldwide articulate the rhetoric of a ‘knowledge economy’ traditional cultures of education management and leadership are found to be wanting. At the same time, growing recognition that market and managerial reforms have not improved levels of educational performance has increased government interest in the transformative powers of business and charismatic leadership. This paper considers this phenomenon with reference to the changing conditions of corporate leadership taking place in the further education (FE) sector. Whilst ostensibly a ‘very English’ case study, the paper draws attention to the wider implications of managing and socializing others in the self surveillance rules of corporate education culture. Drawing on data from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project the paper analyses the shifting discourse of leadership as it is experienced by principals and senior managers involved in the study. In so doing the paper seeks to examine how principals and senior managers mediate changing education policy agendas in a sector recovering from an intense period of financial crisis, industrial action and low staff morale.     

Changing functions of the university in Britain

Blau and Scott's typology of organizations is used to analyse the changing functions attributed to British universities during the twentieth century, and the implications that these functions have for the roles of various groups, in particular academics and students, in university government.This paper is based on the results of a larger study, The Changing Role of Students in Relation to the Government of British Universities, 1935–1968: A Sociological Analysis, submitted in fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Economics, University of London, 1969. The author wishes to thank J. G. H. Newfield for his assistance in the preparation of the thesis, and B. Webb and J. Lipkin for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The research was carried out with the support of a Canada Council Pre-Doctoral Fellowship and a Province of Quebec Post-Graduate Scholarship. This support is gratefully acknowledged.