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The paper presents findings from research aimed at identifying effective approaches to the recruitment and retention of child care workers, conducted to assist the UK Government's Childcare Strategy. The paper explores the practices and views of child care employers, Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) and child care workers in a range of settings (including day nurseries, playgroups and out-of-school care). Two key issues explored in the paper are the need for greater employer responsibility for increasing diversity in the child care workforce; and for a stronger emphasis on staff retention, through improved human resource practices in parts of the child care sector. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of changes in funding arrangements, and particularly in tuition fees, on universities and their strategic responses to these changes. Using data from interviews with senior managers in four universities, it finds the most prestigious, pre-1992, university largely unaffected by tuition fees and the others responding to changes in application patterns and intake. However, the effects of tuition fees on university strategy are not easily separated from other changes in the funding of Higher Education, and universities’ strategies were strongly influenced by the need to reduce costs and to generate income. A second major concern of all four universities was quality, both of inputs such as students and staff and of outputs, in degree results and ratings in employability, research, teaching and other activities. Marketing was assuming a position of increasing importance, with universities striving to develop a ‘brand’ to attract students, staff and funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]