Salford College: report from the Inspectorate (FEFC inspection report; 66/96 and 16/99)

The Further Education Funding Council has a legal duty to make sure further education in England is properly assessed. The FEFC’s inspectorate inspects and reports on each college of further education according to a four-year cycle. This record comprises the reports for periods 1995-96 and 1998-99

The Beginnings and Prospective Ending of “End-to-End”: An Evolutionary Perspective On the Internet’s Architecture

The technology of “the Internet” is not static. Although its “end-to- end” architecture has made this “connection-less” communications system readily “extensible,” and highly encouraging to innovation both in hardware and software applications, there are strong pressures for engineering changes. Some of these are wanted to support novel transport services (e.g. voice telephony, real-time video); others would address drawbacks that appeared with opening of the Internet to public and commercial traffic - e.g., the difficulties of blocking delivery of offensive content, suppressing malicious actions (e.g. “denial of service” attacks), pricing bandwidth usage to reduce congestion. The expected gains from making “improvements” in the core of the network should be weighed against the loss of the social and economic benefits that derive from the “end-to-end” architectural design. Even where technological “fixes” can be placed at the networks’ edges, the option remains to search for alternative, institutional mechanisms of governing conduct in cyberspace.

Understanding the policy instruments mix in higher education r&d : a policy scale development

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the policy instruments mix in higher education research and development (HERD) using structural equation modeling. This modeling helps us to understand the total structure of the factors affecting the policy mix as well as its main actors in a political system. Design/Methodology/Approach: Thirty two identified actors (official institutions) through upstream documents were designed by the method of social network analysis in the form of a political network and their role in policy instruments mix was investigated through their amount of centrality in the network. Also, indicators affecting policy instrument mix were identified using the view of 13 Iranian higher education policy experts. These indicators were categorized in the form of causal, contextual, intervening factors, main phenomena, mechanisms and outcomes. Structural equation modeling was used to confirm the model. Findings: According to the results, the lack of policy logic is the main reason for the lack of justice in the policy instruments mix. Choosing a logic or theory of justice that is the basis of all the instruments in research and development decisions can lead to the integration of concepts and instruments mix. Practical Implications: There is no doubt that the dominant range of thought can have a greater impact on politics in any state, but choosing observers from other aspects of thought will always lead to more effective policies. Originality/Value: How to form policy instruments mix in policymakers' mind has not been investigated in any study so far, and this study explores the indicators governing policy instrument mix.peer-reviewe

Weald College: report from the Inspectorate (FEFC inspection report; 66/95 and 29/99)

Comprises two Further Education Funding Council (FEFC) inspection reports for the periods 1994-95 and 1998-99

Gaining ground: a handbook for school improvement partners (National Strategies: school improvement partners)

This guide identifies some key quality standards for successful improvement planning for School Improvement Partners (SIPs)

Using cognitive work analysis to explore activity allocation within military domains

Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is frequently advocated as an approach for the analysis of complex sociotechnical systems. Much of the current CWA literature within the military domain pays particular attention to its initial phases; Work Domain Analysis and Contextual Task Analysis. Comparably, the analysis of the social and organisational constraints receives much less attention. Through the study of a helicopter Mission Planning System (MPS) software tool, this paper describes an approach for investigating the constraints affecting the distribution of work. The paper uses this model to evaluate the potential benefits of the social and organisational analysis phase within a military context. The analysis shows that, through its focus on constraints the approach provides a unique description of the factors influencing the social organisation within a complex domain. This approach appears to be compatible with existing approaches and serves as a validation of more established social analysis techniques