How Different are Universities from Companies? Financial Reporting Perspectives and the Market for Vice Chancellors (Part 2)

The oldest university still in operation is approximately 1,750 years old (wordiQ.com, 2004). When compared to firms, universities have stood the test of time, while firms seem to lack longevity. The oldest listed firm still operating is around 225 years old (O’Hara and Mandel, 2004), a lifespan of approximately one-eighth that of the oldest university. Whilst this comparison involves extremes, it is still the case that the average university is much older than the average company. What distinctive features of universities promote their long lifespans? Summers (2003) argues that it is the importance placed on knowledge and ideas in universities that help them withstand the test of time. He goes further to suggest that corporations may do better in meeting their challenges if they adopt some of the features of the university model. However, over time, we have seen universities moving away from their traditional positions as nonprofit organisations to institutions that are concerned with their financial viability. To what extent are universities becoming transformed into corporations? There is evidence suggesting that earnings quality for universities has improved over time, consistent with the theory that universities face increased pressure to become more like corporates and for greater public accountability as they seek to raise revenue from non-traditional sources in the face of federal funding cuts to higher education. We look at two dimensions of earnings quality for Australian universities: one based on the adherence of financial statements to prescribed requirements and the second based on accruals and earnings persistence. Although universities are nominally nonprofit organisations, there is evidence that they behave like companies and have incentives to avoid reporting negative earnings results. However, there is little evidence of opportunistic accruals earnings management. How does leadership affect the dynamics of these organisations? We investigate this by looking at the workings of the market for Vice-Chancellors. A picture of the typical Vice-Chancellor emerges. We see that they are appointed at relatively older ages than CEOs in the private sector, although they do not have shorter tenure. On an international comparison between Vice-Chancellors, Australian Vice-Chancellors enjoy the highest real remuneration, favourable taxation arrangements and a better quality of life relative to their counterparts in the United States and the United Kingdom. There is also a large disparity between the remuneration of Vice-Chancellors and CEOs, with the discount associated with university top management positions at 60 percent relative to the private sector. The evidence suggests that on the spectrum of organisation type from nonprofits to corporates, the traditional way in which we view universities as predominantly nonprofits is not consistent with the underlying behaviour of these institutions. This raises interesting implications for the future of higher education in Australia and the quality of the public good provided.

How Different are Universities from Companies? Financial Reporting Perspectives and the Market for Vice Chancellors (Part 4)

The oldest university still in operation is approximately 1,750 years old (wordiQ.com, 2004). When compared to firms, universities have stood the test of time, while firms seem to lack longevity. The oldest listed firm still operating is around 225 years old (O’Hara and Mandel, 2004), a lifespan of approximately one-eighth that of the oldest university. Whilst this comparison involves extremes, it is still the case that the average university is much older than the average company. What distinctive features of universities promote their long lifespans? Summers (2003) argues that it is the importance placed on knowledge and ideas in universities that help them withstand the test of time. He goes further to suggest that corporations may do better in meeting their challenges if they adopt some of the features of the university model. However, over time, we have seen universities moving away from their traditional positions as nonprofit organisations to institutions that are concerned with their financial viability. To what extent are universities becoming transformed into corporations? There is evidence suggesting that earnings quality for universities has improved over time, consistent with the theory that universities face increased pressure to become more like corporates and for greater public accountability as they seek to raise revenue from non-traditional sources in the face of federal funding cuts to higher education. We look at two dimensions of earnings quality for Australian universities: one based on the adherence of financial statements to prescribed requirements and the second based on accruals and earnings persistence. Although universities are nominally nonprofit organisations, there is evidence that they behave like companies and have incentives to avoid reporting negative earnings results. However, there is little evidence of opportunistic accruals earnings management. How does leadership affect the dynamics of these organisations? We investigate this by looking at the workings of the market for Vice-Chancellors. A picture of the typical Vice-Chancellor emerges. We see that they are appointed at relatively older ages than CEOs in the private sector, although they do not have shorter tenure. On an international comparison between Vice-Chancellors, Australian Vice-Chancellors enjoy the highest real remuneration, favourable taxation arrangements and a better quality of life relative to their counterparts in the United States and the United Kingdom. There is also a large disparity between the remuneration of Vice-Chancellors and CEOs, with the discount associated with university top management positions at 60 percent relative to the private sector. The evidence suggests that on the spectrum of organisation type from nonprofits to corporates, the traditional way in which we view universities as predominantly nonprofits is not consistent with the underlying behaviour of these institutions. This raises interesting implications for the future of higher education in Australia and the quality of the public good provided.

The Market for Vice-Chancellors

How homogenous is the market for top managerial talent? We analyse data from university annual reports on Vice Chancellors’ remuneration for the period 1995-2002 and test to see whether there is alignment between the market for Vice-Chancellors and the market for CEOs in Australia. While the responsiveness of pay to institution size is not dissimilar, Vice-Chancellors receive on average about 60 percent less than CEOs. In addition, we also compare the remuneration of Australian Vice-Chancellors to those in the United States and the United Kingdom and find that the Australians receive the highest real remuneration when using purchasing power parity exchange rates. The remuneration of Australian Vice-Chancellors is even more attractive once taxation and quality of life factors are taken into consideration. We also construct a demographic profile of Vice-Chancellors, showing that relative to CEOs, Vice-Chancellors are appointed later in life and do not have shorter tenures. Regarding Vice-Chancellor backgrounds, there is an over-representation of Vice-Chancellors from social and pure sciences and an under-representation of Vice-Chancellors from management and commerce relative to the number of award completions in those areas.

Critical Behavior in the Rotating D-branes

The low energy excitation of the rotating D3-branes is thermodynamically stable up to a critical angular momentum density. This indicates that there is a corresponding phase transition of the ${\cal N}$=4 large $N$ super Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature. On the side of supergravity, we investigate the phase transition in the grand canonical ensemble and canonical ensemble. Some critical exponents of thermodynamic quantities are calculated. They obey the static scaling laws. Using the scaling laws related to the correlation length, we get the critical exponents of the correlation function of gauge field. The thermodynamic stability of low energy excitations of the rotating M5-branes and rotating M2-branes is also studied and similar critical behavior is observed. We find that the critical point is shifted in the different ensembles and there is no critical point in the canonical ensemble for the rotating M2-branes. We also discuss the Hawking-Page transition for these rotating branes. In the grand canonical ensemble, the Hawking-Page transition does not occur. In the canonical ensemble, however, the Hawking-Page transition may appear for the rotating D3- and M5-branes, but not for the rotating M2-branes.Comment: Revtex, 17 pages, minor changes, the discussion on the Hawking-Page transition and references adde

How Different are Universities from Companies? Financial Reporting Perspectives and the Market for Vice Chancellors (Part 1)

The oldest university still in operation is approximately 1,750 years old (wordiQ.com, 2004). When compared to firms, universities have stood the test of time, while firms seem to lack longevity. The oldest listed firm still operating is around 225 years old (O’Hara and Mandel, 2004), a lifespan of approximately one-eighth that of the oldest university. Whilst this comparison involves extremes, it is still the case that the average university is much older than the average company. What distinctive features of universities promote their long lifespans? Summers (2003) argues that it is the importance placed on knowledge and ideas in universities that help them withstand the test of time. He goes further to suggest that corporations may do better in meeting their challenges if they adopt some of the features of the university model. However, over time, we have seen universities moving away from their traditional positions as nonprofit organisations to institutions that are concerned with their financial viability. To what extent are universities becoming transformed into corporations? There is evidence suggesting that earnings quality for universities has improved over time, consistent with the theory that universities face increased pressure to become more like corporates and for greater public accountability as they seek to raise revenue from non-traditional sources in the face of federal funding cuts to higher education. We look at two dimensions of earnings quality for Australian universities: one based on the adherence of financial statements to prescribed requirements and the second based on accruals and earnings persistence. Although universities are nominally nonprofit organisations, there is evidence that they behave like companies and have incentives to avoid reporting negative earnings results. However, there is little evidence of opportunistic accruals earnings management. How does leadership affect the dynamics of these organisations? We investigate this by looking at the workings of the market for Vice-Chancellors. A picture of the typical Vice-Chancellor emerges. We see that they are appointed at relatively older ages than CEOs in the private sector, although they do not have shorter tenure. On an international comparison between Vice-Chancellors, Australian Vice-Chancellors enjoy the highest real remuneration, favourable taxation arrangements and a better quality of life relative to their counterparts in the United States and the United Kingdom. There is also a large disparity between the remuneration of Vice-Chancellors and CEOs, with the discount associated with university top management positions at 60 percent relative to the private sector. The evidence suggests that on the spectrum of organisation type from nonprofits to corporates, the traditional way in which we view universities as predominantly nonprofits is not consistent with the underlying behaviour of these institutions. This raises interesting implications for the future of higher education in Australia and the quality of the public good provided.

Depressed clad hollow optical fiber with fundamental LP01 mode cut-off

We propose a depressed clad hollow optical fiber with fundamental (LP01) mode cut-off suitable for high power short-wavelength, especially three-level, fiber laser operation by introducing highly wavelength dependent losses at longer wavelengths. The cut-off characteristic of such fiber structure was investigated. A Yb-doped depressed clad hollow optical fiber laser generating 59.1W of output power at 1046nm with 86% of slope efficiency with respect to the absorbed pump power was realised by placing the LP01 mode cut-off at ~1100nm

How Different are Universities from Companies? Financial Reporting Perspectives and the Market for Vice Chancellors (Part 5)

The oldest university still in operation is approximately 1,750 years old (wordiQ.com, 2004). When compared to firms, universities have stood the test of time, while firms seem to lack longevity. The oldest listed firm still operating is around 225 years old (O’Hara and Mandel, 2004), a lifespan of approximately one-eighth that of the oldest university. Whilst this comparison involves extremes, it is still the case that the average university is much older than the average company. What distinctive features of universities promote their long lifespans? Summers (2003) argues that it is the importance placed on knowledge and ideas in universities that help them withstand the test of time. He goes further to suggest that corporations may do better in meeting their challenges if they adopt some of the features of the university model. However, over time, we have seen universities moving away from their traditional positions as nonprofit organisations to institutions that are concerned with their financial viability. To what extent are universities becoming transformed into corporations? There is evidence suggesting that earnings quality for universities has improved over time, consistent with the theory that universities face increased pressure to become more like corporates and for greater public accountability as they seek to raise revenue from non-traditional sources in the face of federal funding cuts to higher education. We look at two dimensions of earnings quality for Australian universities: one based on the adherence of financial statements to prescribed requirements and the second based on accruals and earnings persistence. Although universities are nominally nonprofit organisations, there is evidence that they behave like companies and have incentives to avoid reporting negative earnings results. However, there is little evidence of opportunistic accruals earnings management. How does leadership affect the dynamics of these organisations? We investigate this by looking at the workings of the market for Vice-Chancellors. A picture of the typical Vice-Chancellor emerges. We see that they are appointed at relatively older ages than CEOs in the private sector, although they do not have shorter tenure. On an international comparison between Vice-Chancellors, Australian Vice-Chancellors enjoy the highest real remuneration, favourable taxation arrangements and a better quality of life relative to their counterparts in the United States and the United Kingdom. There is also a large disparity between the remuneration of Vice-Chancellors and CEOs, with the discount associated with university top management positions at 60 percent relative to the private sector. The evidence suggests that on the spectrum of organisation type from nonprofits to corporates, the traditional way in which we view universities as predominantly nonprofits is not consistent with the underlying behaviour of these institutions. This raises interesting implications for the future of higher education in Australia and the quality of the public good provided.

Self-gravitating spheres of anisotropic fluid in geodesic flow

The fluid models mentioned in the title are classified. All characteristics of the fluid are expressed through a master potential, satisfying an ordinary second order differential equation. Different constraints are imposed on this core of relations, finding new solutions and deriving the classical results for perfect fluids and dust as particular cases. Many uncharged and charged anisotropic solutions, all conformally flat and some uniform density solutions are found. A number of solutions with linear equation among the two pressures are derived, including the case of vanishing tangential pressure.Comment: 21 page