Financial incentives play an important role in the behaviour of public institutions of higher education. Incentive-Based Budgeting Systems in Public Universities examines alternative uses of these financial incentives, and reviews the consequences of their implementation. The contributors to the book explore diverse areas including: * faculty behaviour in an incentive-based environment * effects on teaching, evaluation of decentralized approaches to budgeting * efficiency implications at the state level * the ramifications of revenue flux on institutional behaviour. Case studies from the University of Toronto, the University of Michigan and Indiana University are also presented, and the volume concludes with recommendations regarding possible implementation strategies. The first to analyse the implementation of various permutations of incentive based budgeting in public institutions of higher education, this book will be of enormous interest to policy makers, trustees, administrators and faculty members of these institutions. It will also appeal to those involved in higher education programmes offering courses in the economics and finance of colleges and universities.

"Going to College" tells the powerful story of how high school students make choices about postsecondary education. Drawing on their unprecedented nine-year study of high school students, the authors explore how students and their parents negotiate these important decisions. Family background, finances, education, information--all influence students' plans after high school and the career paths they pursue, as do the more subtle messages delivered by parents and counselors which shape adolescents' self-expectations. For high school guidance counselors, college admissions counselors, parents and teachers, and public policy makers, this book is a valuable resource that explains the decision-making process and helps adults to help students make appropriate choices.

The authors identify predisposition, search, and choice as the three stages in the student decision-making process. Predisposition refers to the plans students develop for education or work after they graduate from high school. The search stage involves students discovering and evaluating a variety of colleges and universities. In the choice stage, students choose a school to attend from among a list of institutions that are being seriously considered. Understanding exactly how students move through the predisposition, search, and choice stages of the college decision-making process can help students and parents prepare themselves for this process and consider a wider array of options. For education professionals, understanding this process can lead to new initiatives to guide students and families effectively--by providing better incentives for college savings, for example, or devising more effective early information programs about postsecondary education.

"Going to College"is the first book to seriously study over an extended period the decisions that have a pervasive and lasting impact on individual careers, livelihoods, and lifestyles. The authors conclude with important recommendations for improving academic support, exploring various financial options, providing early encouragement--in other words, for recognizing the factors that influence students' decisions, and knowing when to pay attention to them.