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This study examined the costs of supporting Australian university students from different socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds and whether there are economies of scale. The mixed-methods research in 2018 and 2019 found that substantially higher costs applied for supporting students from low SES backgrounds. These were explained by the costs inherent in: increasing aspiration and capital prior to university; academic, personal and financial support provided while studying; establishing, maintaining and appropriately staffing multiple university campuses, particularly in highly disadvantaged areas; and supporting highly complex student needs. It was found that there are significant economies of scale where there are between 517 and 2584 fulltime undergraduate students from low SES backgrounds at a university. It follows that the average cost of supporting these students can be reduced if enrolment numbers are within this range, subject to caveats around the costs identified. Potential policy implications include: a redistribution of funding based on need; shifting emphasis from activity-based to mission-directed costing; applying the principles of 'cost compensation'; and conceptualising funding support for students from low SES backgrounds as a transformational investment that can improve outcomes for individuals, communities and society, rather than as a cost.

This paper presents findings from a research project which aimed to rank Australian higher education institutions on their 'equity performance'; that is, the extent to which they were accessible for, supportive of and benefiting students traditionally under-represented in higher education. The study comprised a conceptual consideration of how higher education equity might be defined and empirically measured, drawing on extant scholarly research as well as observations from key stakeholders, including equity practitioners, researchers, policymakers and higher education executives and institutional planners. Based on these findings, a theoretical framework for higher education equity performance was constructed, and performance indicators identified and subjected to systematic assessment for real-world application. The ensuing ranking system was populated with institutional data from the 37 public universities in Australia. The findings from this analysis indicate that a ranking system may not be the optimal method for assessing higher education equity performance and highlights the subjective nature of both higher education equity and higher education ranking systems.

Numerous studies have investigated economies of scale and scope in higher education as a means of providing public and private providers of college and university teaching, research and other services and their stakeholders with knowledge of the cost structures that underpin provision in this economically and socially important sector. However, debate continues on the precise nature of the economies of scale and scope in higher education given the mixed findings, largely because of significant institutional and other differences across studies. To address this, we employ meta-regression analysis to explore not only the overall level of scale and scope economies across more than 40 international studies conducted in Australia, the US, the UK, Italy, China, and elsewhere since the early 1980s, but also those factors that potentially affect their presence in the higher education sector. Our findings suggest that functional form and allowances for managerial efficiency have a significant impact on the estimated scale economies. In contrast, for scope economies, the key discriminating factors appear to be when the analysis was conducted, the diversity of the sample, and the national level of economic development.

In the past few decades, the additional revenues available via higher education exports (through both relatively higher prices and increased enrolments) have attracted the attention of providers in many developed countries, not least in Anglophone countries like the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia. However, while the revenue case is strong, the institutional cost structures underlying the provision of higher education services for international students remain relatively unknown at the sector level. Accordingly, we offer a comprehensive analysis of the cost economies underlying higher education provision for international students using a sample of 37 Australian public universities over the period from 2003 to 2012. The findings suggest that it is appealing to enrol additional overseas students given their lower average and marginal costs and the significant economies of scale prevailing in higher education generally. Further, while we find evidence of economies of scope for overseas students only in smaller institutions, there is no evidence of diseconomies of scope, implying the current number of overseas students and their joint production with domestic students at the least does not lead to unnecessarily higher overall costs.

Despite compelling qualitative arguments for scale and scope economies in university-level distance education, as distinct from traditional class-based face-to-face instruction, there is little rigorous quantitative evidence in support. In this paper, we explore the scale and scope economies of distance education using a multiplicatively separable cost function and a sample of 37 Australian public universities over the 10-year period from 2003 to 2012. The results suggest strong overall scale and scope economies and product-specific scale economies for distance education. Further, the economies of scope for distance education are increasing with mean output, suggesting an increasing cost benefit of producing distance education in conjunction with traditional class-based face-to-face teaching. This provides an important implication: when allocating places for different modes of attendance or considering further expansion of student numbers, there should be a priority on distance education as a means of achieving significant cost savings.

This study is concerned with the current job preparation programmes for special education students in Taiwan. Two hundred and three randomly selected special education teachers in Northern Taiwan responded to a questionnaire about job-related social skills. The relationship between teachers' demographic characteristics and their teaching of job-related social skills was examined. In general, teachers' pedagogical practices were found to focus more on the basic job-related social skills (such as proper attire, hygiene, punctuality and attendance) than on the advanced job-related social skills (such as cooperation and emotion management). Interestingly, teachers with a special education degree tended to nurture both dimensions of job-related social skills. Additionally, teacher experience was found to be a key contributor to the teaching of job-related social skills, with less experienced teachers more likely to downplay the teaching of such skills.

This paper gives explicit evaluations for two Ramanujan–Selberg continued fractions in terms of class invariants and singular moduli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: our research aim to study the role of AQP1 in the cardioprotective effect of remifentanil post-conditioning for myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury., Methods: Ninety Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into 6 groups: sham operation group (Sham group), myocardial ischemia and reperfusion group (I/R group), postconditioning of remifentanil group (R-post), postconditioning of remifentanil plus AQP1 inhibitor acetazolamide group (R-post +Ace), postconditioning of remifentanil plus opioid-receptor antagonist compounds (R-post +AC), postconditioning of remifentanil plus AQP1 enhancer arginine vasopressin (R-post +AV). All groups except the sham operation group were given 30 min ischemia in left anterior descending (LAD) coronary arteries. All groups were then given 120 min reperfusion to the LAD. Before reperfusion, the R-post, R-post +Ace, R-post +AC, R-post +AV groups were given 10 min remifentanil post-conditioning. Hemodynamic data were measured every 30 min after initiation of ischemia. The rats' hearts were exercised for detecting infarct size and water content in the left ventricle, and AQP1 expression were also detected., Results: The R-post group showed a significant reduction of the infarct size compared to the I/R group. The effect of R-post for reducing infarct size was slightly enhanced by adding acetazolamide to R-post, so significant differences could still be found when compared R-post+Ace group to the I/R group. The effect of infarct size reduction brought by R-post was blocked by the opioid-receptor antagonist compounds. This effect was also blocked by the AQP1 enhancer. Similar outcomes were found considering the water content of the left ventricle and the AQP1 expression., Conclusion: Cardioprotective effect of remifentanil post-conditioning may initiate through inhibiting the function of AQP1.