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Bournemouth University faces the same challenges as many other universities. These arise from the sector-wide agendas, such as widening participation, regional partnerships and international collaboration, in addition to increasing research activity and managing with reduced funding. A key priority within Bournemouth’s Learning and Teaching Strategy is to use learning technologies to address these challenges. Several incentives are being used to encourage lecturers to adopt online learning. These have as their common focus the need to value teaching activity on an equal footing with research. The strategies used include funding for learning and teaching projects, a Learning and Teaching Fellowship Scheme, the creation of a Centre for Academic Practice to focus on pedagogic research, payment for membership of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, and a staff development programme for Programme Leaders. These initiatives are possible because the University has take a strategic approach to using government funds for learning and teaching and human resources development (HRD) policies. However, putting in place such incentives is only worthwhile if they work, and research suggests that successful and widespread implementation of online learning depends on a number of factors (Johnston and McCormack, 1996; Steel and Hudson, 2001; Somekh, 1998; Spotts, 1999). This article presents findings from research in progress by the author which is investigating factors affecting the adoption of online learning by lecturers at Bournemouth and their motivation to change their teaching methods. The methodology used is action research and the article ends by briefly illustrating some of the issues faced by the researcher conducting research in her own organisation...
The purpose of this paper is to develop a strategy for PCT in the DRC, drawing from the experience of other countries that have gone through this triple transition. These experiences will be used to identify the tasks that need to be carried out in the DRC, to illustrate domestic policies that have worked and those that have failed, and to exemplify the financial and technical assistance that the international community could offer to facilitate the transition and the problems of integrating and coordinating such assistance.
Although a rigorous analysis of the political and economic developments in the DRC is well beyond the scope of this paper, a brief description of some of these developments is necessary to understand the daunting PCT challenges facing the DRC, as well as to draw lessons from previous experiences. At the same time, although the strategy for PCT in the DRC will focus on economic reconstruction, political and human rights issues will be mentioned in as far as they ...
Since 1990, research and teaching activities of academic staff in Spanish universities have been periodically assessed. There are national, regional and institutional assessments. Each evaluation is organized in a different way and the organisation itself reflects the importance given to each activity. In most cases, positive assessment are linked to a salary increase and other perk benefits. In this article, we analyse the evaluation system of teaching and research activities and how they could be, in fact, orienting to promote research activities and, as a consequence, to devaluate teaching activities.
- Waiting times for elective surgery are a significant health policy concern in approximately half of all OECD countries. The main objectives of the OECD Waiting Times project were to: i) review policy initiatives to reduce waiting times in 12 OECD countries; and ii) to investigate the causes of variations in waiting times for non-emergency surgery across countries. The first objective was addressed in an earlier report (Hurst and Siciliani, 2003; OECD Health Working paper, n.6).
- This report is devoted to the second objective. An interesting feature of OECD countries is that while some countries report significant waiting, others do not. Waiting times are a serious health policy issue in the 12 countries involved in this project (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Waiting times are not recorded administratively in a second group of countries ...
Finland is committed to high quality and extensive public services and a high level of income redistribution. The heavy tax burden these commitments require is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain due to tax competition and the need to harmonise certain taxes with other EU countries. These pressures on taxation combined with the fiscal effects of rapid ageing imply a need for continued restraint of aggregate expenditure and a need for further efficiency gains in the provision of public services. This paper, one of a series of OECD reviews on public expenditure, looks at how Finland is coping with this challenge. It concludes that the fundamental framework guiding public expenditure in Finland is sound. And, in many areas of public activity the country compares very favourably internationally. However, recent slippage in fiscal discipline needs to be addressed. Also it will be important to monitor, and if necessary follow up on, reforms of pensions and early retirement ...
This paper discusses major policy issues related to commodity dependence and export diversification in low-income countries. Contrary to some widely-held view, it argues that natural resources are not necessarily a “curse” — that they do not condemn low-income countries to underdevelopment but can provide rather a basis for sustained export-led growth. Natural resource-based sectors have potential for export diversification. The OECD “mirror” trade data suggest that many different routes to diversification exist, including resource-based manufacturing and processing of primary products. However, these opportunities are not being exploited in many low-income countries. This is because export diversification is typically a slow process, and this process needs to be sustained by an appropriate and coherent strategy, characterised by a combination of vision, co-ordination and management of conflicting interests. Moreover, the analysis of trade support services in two African countries ...
This paper presents estimates of the cyclical fluctuations of price-cost margins, following an extended version of the Rotemberg and Woodford (1991) approach. The results support the hypothesis of counter-cyclical price margins in most manufacturing industries, especially in the presence of downward rigidities of labour inputs. This is consistent with a growing body of empirical literature showing that economic booms tend to increase competition or decrease the incentives for collusion, thereby creating downward pressures on price margins. It also offers an appealing interpretation of the otherwise puzzling pro-cyclicality of real wages.
The paper first reviews the conceptual framework underlying different measures of structural unemployment as well as alternative empirical methods that have been used to provide estimates of them. Drawing on this review, it goes on to develop a method for estimating time-varying NAIRUs across a range of OECD countries using a Kalman filter. It then discusses the resulting econometric estimates, and the scope for their further refinement given the associated range of uncertainties. Recent trends in the NAIRU estimates are reviewed: they fell in many countries in the second half of the 1990s, although actual unemployment has remained well above the NAIRU for a majority of countries throughout much of the 1990s, particularly in Europe. Finally, the relevance of such measures to analysing inflation developments and monetary policy is discussed.
The purpose of this article is to assess the interaction between higher education and societal development. The question addressed is whether higher education engineers societal change or adjusts to global requirements. The answer is both. However, the impact of higher education is not easy to measure. It depends on the interventions undertaken by the stakeholders: the university, government, private sector, and civil society. These interventions may have contradictory effects. Education based on students’ desires can create highly skilled people who may not be required by society. The societal requirements of government, the private sector, or civil society may conflict. These conflicting requirements particularly can become conspicuous when higher education institutions perform in a global network.
This paper was prepared for the OECD-IEA Climate Change Expert Group (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) for the purpose of providing useful and timely input on specific topics relevant to international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The papers do not represent the views of the OECD, the IEA, or their member countries, rather they are Secretariat information papers intended to help inform countries as well as the UNFCCC audience on key technical issues in the international climate change negotiations.
This paper was prepared for the OECD-IEA Climate Change Expert Group (formerly called the Annex I Expert Group) for the purpose of providing useful and timely input on specific topics relevant to international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The papers do not represent the views of the OECD, the IEA, or their member countries, rather they are Secretariat information papers intended to help inform countries as well as the UNFCCC audience on key technical issues in the international climate change negotiations.
This paper analyses the main features of Sweden’s public expenditure and addresses some key policy issues. Public spending is high relative to GDP, reflecting the wide support for the Swedish welfare state. The institutional framework within which spending decisions are made has both strengths and weaknesses: the expenditure ceilings need to be reinforced, more prioritisation of expenditure is needed, and state agencies need to become more accountable for their performance. Outlays and outcomes are examined for childcare and education, health, caring for the elderly, and social insurance, where some aspects function very well and others need considerable improvement. Some tools and techniques for getting better results from public spending are also considered, including contracting out and user charges. More could be done to clearly set out the costs as well as the benefits of social choices ...
Public spending is very high in Norway, partly reflecting an extensive coverage of the welfare system and ambitious regional development objectives. Moreover, several institutional features contribute to dampening the cost-effectiveness of many public-spending programmes. Abundant oil revenues have so far mitigated strains on public finance. However, coping with the depletion of oil resources and the fiscal consequences of ageing would require to increase the cost-effectiveness of many public spending programmes, while leaving some room to cut the high tax-to-GDP ratio. This paper identifies the main sources of inefficiencies and suggests policy options. These include: supplementing the existing deficit rule by an expenditure rule; increasing flexibility in public sector wages and job tenure; reforming the funding system of local governments; raising the contestability of public service provision; intensifying the use of price signals and improving incentives to reduce the ...
Switzerland is a highly decentralised country with large spending and revenue-raising powers devolved to cantons and municipalities. The federal system, in combination with an extensive use of direct democracy, has contributed to keep public spending at a relatively low level in international comparison. It has also made it possible to tailor the provision of public services to citizens’ needs and willingness to pay and to experiment with a variety of policies. At the same time, several tensions have emerged and effective control of spending deteriorated during the 1990s. After identifying these tensions, this paper reviews recent policy initiatives and proposes options for further enhancing public spending effectiveness. These entail implementing a new fiscal rule which will allow the free play of the automatic stabilisers at the federal level and ensuring its consistency with other government levels’ behaviour; increasing transparency in public spending costs and ...
This document analyses the economic impacts of selected environmental policies in Austria with an emphasis on the use of economic instruments and incentives versus command-and-control measures. An important theme in a federation like the Austrian is the institutional complexity involved in many aspects of environmental policy, requiring a high degree of co-ordination between various layers of government, which could be furthered by a coherent ex ante and ex post evaluation system. Such a system could also be useful in the setting of abatement objectives and minimizing their associated cost. Greater use of properly designed instruments, examples being a unified taxation of fuels and the introduction of a CO2 tax, would improve the cost-effectiveness of policies to reach Austria’s ambitious CO2 emission reduction target. This would particularly be the case if economic instruments replace the widespread use of subsidies and command-and-control type measures. Such measures are found to ...
This paper analyses of some the key aspects of public expenditure policy in Denmark. The public expenditure to GDP ratio has abated markedly since the mid-1990s, reflecting both cyclical gains and the return on structural reforms. Nevertheless, the underlying upward pressure on government spending, notably from the demand for personal services, is generally perceived to be significant and expected to persist. The origins of such pressure, as well as means of containing it in the future, are discussed. With public consumption being very high by international standards, the paper advocates greater competition in the provision of services to individuals and more reliance on market signals such as client choice and user charges to enhance the efficiency of resource allocation. A particular feature of the Danish public sector is the fact that counties and municipalities have been assigned a wider range of responsibilities than in any other OECD country as well as extensive taxing ...
This document analyses aspects of natural resource and environmental policies in Australia, focusing on water resource management, salinity and climate change mitigation. The state and central governments have not made use of their taxation powers in these domains. The cap-and-trade system for water rights in the Murray Darling basin aims at better integration of economic and environmental reform. Still higher benefits could be reaped from trading if the various restrictions on trade were lifted, and if water pricing reform were accelerated in rural areas, so as to reflect economic and environmental costs. The rules for allocating flows for the environment also need to be clarified. To address dryland salinity, more co-ordination between the States and the Commonwealth is needed, for example to avoid the contradiction inherent in subsidising revegetation programmes while at the same time authorising further land clearing. Economic instruments could be used for intermediate ...