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This study was carried out to determine public relations activities for improving students' enrolment in technical education programmes in Colleges of Education in Delta State. One research question and a null hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. An 18-item questionnaire structured on a five-point rating scale was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was face validated by three experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.80 was obtained with Cronbach's Alpha coefficient method. The population of this study was all 41 technical education educators made up of Dean, Head of departments (HODs), technical education lecturers/instructors, technologists, and technicians in the School of Secondary Education (Technical), Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State. The population for this study was manageable; hence, there were no sampling and sampling techniques in this study. The entire population was used as a sample in the study. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research question, while t-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings of this study revealed among others the public relation activities practised by the School of Secondary Education (Technical), Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State technical such as; having open talk-show with basic school pupils, creating awareness of technical education to the community organizations and visiting religious and social gathering to create public awareness on the need for technical education. Consequently, it was recommended among others that Considering that schools of secondary education(technical) in colleges of education are at the forefront of areas where public relations are most intense and the responsibility of public relations is in all stakeholders, pieces of training and seminars should be given to technical education educators (dean, heads of departments, lecturers/instructors and lab technicians).

The past few decades have witnessed a sea change in higher education in India. Rapid economic growth, globalisation, emergence of the private sector in higher education and an increasingly restive middle class have made the demand for quality education louder than ever before. Higher education is gradually being perceived as a private good with benefits accruing to the recipient of higher education. As higher education competes with other core sectors for public funds, the call for 'value for money' grows. In such a backdrop, it is necessary to have an effective and efficient quality assurance mechanism in place in the country. This thesis analyses the external institutional quality assurance mechanism in vogue in India as implemented through the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Particularly, it analyses the QA mechanism in the light of existing theoretical precepts and some global practices employed by different countries for quality assurance in higher education. The thesis is based on data collected through publicly available documents and through semi-structured interviews recorded of academics, administrators and a government representative belonging to the State of Gujarat, India. This ensured assessment of different perspectives on the QA mechanism in India. Convergence and divergence of their views on different issues related to QA in higher education in India has been presented. Analysis of the collected data suggests the need for a reform of the QA process in India to make it a more meaningful exercise. Analysis shows that, at present, the gains of the QA process are very limited. The process influences only the fringes of a healthy quality higher education. The thesis concludes with some recommendations that may be adopted by the Indian HE system. These recommendations include making the NAAC A&A process a mandatory exercise, placing a system of continuous evaluation in place and promoting transparency in the A&A process. There may also be a case for revisiting the approach of the QA process and shifting from the present stress on "improvement" as an objective to "accountability". The need for autonomy of the HEIs is also recommended. Keywords: quality assurance, higher education in India, NAAC, assessment, accreditation

This article describes five major themes that inform and highlight the transformation of continuing medical education in the USA. Over the past decade, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and other national entities have voiced concern over the cost of health care, prevalence of medical errors, fragmentation of care, commercial influence, and competence of health professionals. The recommendations from these entities, as well as the work of other regulatory, professional, academic, and government organizations, have fostered discussion and development of strategies to address these challenges. The five themes in this paper reflect the changing expectations of multiple stakeholders engaged in health care. Each theme is grounded in educational, politico-economic priorities for health care in the USA. The themes include (1) a shift in expectation from simple attendance or a time-based metric (credit) to a measurement that infers competence in performance for successful continuing professional development (CPD); (2) an increased focus on interprofessional education to augment profession-specific continuing education; (3) the integration of CPD with quality improvement; (4) the expansion of CPD to address population and public health issues; and (5) identification and standardization of continuing education (CE) professional competencies. The CE profession plays an essential role in the transformation of the US CPD system for health professionals. Coordination of the five themes described in this paper will foster an improved, effective, and efficient health system that truly meets the needs of patients.

AbstractResearch into state appropriations across the United States frequently examines the influence of socio-demographic characteristics and political characteristics on particular levels of funding. We extend this literature to examine the year-to-year volatility of funding in order to test hypotheses surrounding the interlocks among multiple actors in the political stage. Our findings suggest that, when state higher education leaders are politically close to governors and have no formal budgetary power they capture more revenue volatility.

Removed from abstract political principle and observed in the policies of historical educational regimes, changing ideas of community, equality, and liberty not only reveal the likeness and diversity of Anglo-American democracy over time but also constitute criteria for making judgements about its extent and quality