Colleges sell themselves by the numbers—rankings, returns on investments, and top-ten lists—but these often mislead prospective students. What numbers should they really be paying attention to? High school and college students are inundated by indicators and rankings supposedly designed to help them decide where to go to college and what to study once they arrive. In Metrics That Matter, coauthors Zachary Bleemer, Mukul Kumar, Aashish Mehta, Chris Muellerleile, and Christopher Newfield take a critical look at these metrics and find that many of the most popular ones are confusing, misleading, and—most importantly—easily replaceable by more helpful alternatives. Metrics That Matter explores popular metrics used by future and current college students, with chapters focusing on colleges' return on investment, university rankings, average student debt, average wages by college major, and more. Written for students, their families, and the counselors who advise them, each chapter explains a common metric's fundamental flaws when used as a basis for making important educational decisions. The authors then draw on decades of scholarship from many academic fields to pair each metric with a concrete recommendation for alternative information, both qualitative and quantitative, that would be more useful and meaningful for students to consider. They emphasize that students should be thinking beyond solely using metrics when making college decisions—students should focus on their intellectual and academic education goals, not just vocational or monetary ones. Students' reliance on certain metrics has skewed universities away from providing high-quality education and distorted the perception of higher education's purpose, overemphasizing private financial returns over the broader economic and social benefits of universities. This book aims to facilitate important student decisions while reorienting public perceptions of higher education's values and how universities should measure their own success.

The last few centuries have seen paper-based documents and manuscript signatures dominate the way businesses enter into a contractual relationship with each other. With the advent of Internet, replacing paper-based contracts with B2B electronic contracts is a possibility. However, an appropriate technology and an enabling legislation are crucial for this change to happen. On the technology front this feature has the potential to enable business executives to sit in front of their computer and sign multi-million dollar deals by using their electronic signatures. On the legal front various pieces of legislation have been enacted and policies developed at both national and international levels to give legal recognition to such type of contracts. This book presents the findings of an empirical study on large public listed Australian companies that examined businesses' perception towards the use of electronic signatures in B2B contracts. Essentially, it identifies six key factors that create a disincentive to businesses to move from the practice of paper- based signatures to the new technology of electronic signatures. This book offers legal practitioners, academics and businesses insights into issues associated with the use of electronic signatures and suggests a number of measures to promote its usage in B2B contracts.

Measurements are a central institutional component of markets and economic exchange. By the nineteenth century, the measurement system in Britain was desperately in need of revision: a multiplicity of measurement standards, proliferation of local or regional weights and measures, and a confusing array of measurement practices made everyday measurements unreliable. Aashish Velkar uncovers how metrology and economic logic alone failed to make 'measurements' reliable, and discusses the importance of localised practices in shaping trust in them. Markets and Measurements in Nineteenth-Century Britain steers away from the traditional explanations of measurement reliability based on the standardisation and centralisation of metrology; the focus is on changing measurement practices in local economic contexts. Detailed case studies from the industrial revolution suggest that such practices were path-dependent and 'anthropocentric'. Therefore, whilst standardised metrology may have improved precision, it was localised practices that determined the reliability and trustworthiness of measurements in economic contexts.

The last few centuries have seen paper-based documents and manuscript signatures dominate the way businesses enter into a contractual relationship with each other. With the advent of Internet, replacing paper-based contracts with B2B electronic contracts is a possibility. However, an appropriate technology and an enabling legislation are crucial for this change to happen. On the technology front this feature has the potential to enable business executives to sit in front of their computer and sign multi-million dollar deals by using their electronic signatures. On the legal front various pieces of legislation have been enacted and policies developed at both national and international levels to give legal recognition to such type of contracts. This book presents the findings of an empirical study on large public listed Australian companies that examined businesses' perception towards the use of electronic signatures in B2B contracts. Essentially, it identifies six key factors that create a disincentive to businesses to move from the practice of paper- based signatures to the new technology of electronic signatures. This book offers legal practitioners, academics and businesses insights into issues associated with the use of electronic signatures and suggests a number of measures to promote its usage in B2B contracts.

This is the first socio-legal multi-jurisdictional study on hazing (ragging). This book considers four countries: the USA, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia. It states the legal position, identifies lacunas in law, and proposes possible legal solutions. Unfortunately, laws, regulations, and policies have failed to stamp out hazing from university campuses and residential colleges. Hazing has spiralled out of control in a number of countries. It has descended into a cruel, barbaric, and inhuman practice. The number of students subjected to hazing and sexual abuse is alarming. According to a 2022 survey, more than half (53%) of American students who were part of a fraternity or sorority experienced hazing. Students are murdered, harmed, abused, and suffer long-term trauma. The prevention of hazing is one of the most important responsibilities of 21st century universities. The theme of the book is that universities are in the best position to protect students from hazing and must play a vital role. As a sociological study, the book also considers why hazing occurs and what can be done to prevent it. Without engaging with the underlying causes, legal punitive measures continue to address the symptom rather than the cause. The book, therefore, explores how a more innovative approach to regulation can help tackle the cause. The book will be of interest to policy makers, regulators at universities, education and legal academics, and personal injury lawyers.

The stories in this collection draw variously on the themes of love and loss, Taoist metaphors, socio-political concerns, and the writer's place and role in the world. Literary and complex yet accessible and fast-paced, each story differs widely in style, motivation, philosophy, and denouement from all the others. The collection encompasses topographies and places from China to France, and Ireland to India.

In the second age of the world, a time of prehistory, a time of myth, Mandodari, queen of the demon king Ravana, invents chess to carve out a role for herself in a world where male, martial virtues are paramount. As a chess player, she can play at warfare; as queen, she can be the most potent warrior on the battlefield. The Queen's Play attempts to write the origin of chess into the narrative cycles of the Ramayana, one of the two formative epics of ancient India.The cursory mention of a chess-like game in the Ramayana lore offers interesting parallels and openings between the game and the themes of the epic poem. At the centre of it is a queen, first entering and then growing from strength to strength to become the most powerful piece on the board, inventing a game which closely parallels the epic battle taking place not far from the royal palace, a battle which she is not permitted to join, a battle where she will lose her king. Foregrounding certain episodes from the vast tapestry of the epic, the novel develops new narrative variations that feed back into the classical text with freshly imagined material.