Resource Allocation In Higher Education

Offers guidance for implementing reforms in the allocation of resources in colleges and universities

This book explores the resource allocation process in contemporary private research universities through six richly detailed case studies. It includes an extensive discussion of historical approaches to university resource allocation. The cases are based on in-depth interviews with university presidents, provosts, deans financial officers, and department chairs. The evolution of university resource allocation systems is discussed in relation to institutional history, mission, culture, priorities, leadership, and prevailing financial condition.

Conversations, debates, and policies toward higher education remain in an uncritical mode of normality on issues such as inclusion, exclusion, and equity. In addition, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has starkly highlighted the fragility of the higher education system and has raised salient questions related to inclusivity and quality in all aspects. Sustaining Higher Education Through Resource Allocation, Learning Design Models, and Academic Development fills a gap in the existing literature by introducing current practices and procedures in the face of the new normal as they affect the higher education sector. The book also addresses the various issues of current interest in the higher education sector relative to teaching and learning, student support, staff development, curriculum development, educational technologies, learning design models, and resource allocation. Covering key topics such as student engagement, assessment practices, and academic development, this premier reference source is ideal for administrators, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

The ways that British universities allocate their resources are discussed, with attention to different styles, techniques, and decison-making structures. Since the purpose is to describe institutional models of resource allocation, specific universities are not identified by name. After identifying the sources of income and the breakdown of expenditures for United Kingdom universities, attention is directed to procedures for allocating funds for academic purposes, research, central services, premises, furniture and equipment, and central administration. The resource allocation mechanisms used by the government and the University Grants Committee (UGC) are also reviewed, along with the effect of these mechanisms on the universities. In describing the funding of universities since the early 1970s, consideration is given to the universities' adaptation to financial stringency and adjustments to cuts in UCG income that resulted from the July 1981 allocation letters. The market-oriented approach adopted by the Cranfield Institute of Technology is also addressed. Finally, resource allocation procedures in U.S. universities are described and compared to those in Britain, and implications for British practice are considered. (SW)