¶ … Strategic and Financial Changes in private, not-For=profit higher education institutions in Jamaica A Quantitative Analysis of Strategic and Financial Changes in private, not-for-profit higher education institutions in Jamaica

Summary of Chapter 1 and introduction to chapter 2:

Researchers are of the opinion that SIHE is in danger of being affected by external forces such as innovation, competition, and other disruptive forces (Christensen, Anthony, & Roth, 2004; Kirp, 2004; Koblik & Graubard, 2000; McPherson & Schapiro, 1999; Roach, 2004; Townsley, 2002). They say that decreasing availability of the access to certain forms of higher education restricts and inhibits the options open to a growing segment of students at the undergraduate level (Hawkins, 1999; Hussar & Bailey, 2006; Townsley, 2002; NCES, 2005a). Based on empirical data and the process of resources allocation between SIHE strategies and implications, the study aimed to study the effects on higher education (Bower & Gilbert, 2005). The current study considered ongoing factors and how they would affect education in the future it also looked at external factors and the implications they posed.

This paper is meant for a quantitative analysis of strategic and financial innovational changes in small, private, not for profit higher education institutions in Jamaica. The main intent behind this paper is to evaluate the framework in which strategic and financial innovational changes in small, private, not for profit higher education institutions in Jamaica operate. They focus on the conditions which make financial investments more or less preferable to be adopted and indeed implemented in various contexts. In doing this we hope to lay smooth the path for any future studies conducted in the area or on the topic of financial investments with the associated implications. This would be rendering any future study and research a great service. It would give them a frame work with which to consult in all areas of dispute that could arise because of the various uncertainties in such tedious research.

Hence, it is important that before moving further, we understand how the current standing of Jamaica on the financial requirements of the educational structure.

Jamaica is a country with a focus of many of its resources on education, allowing it to develop into a first world country over the course of its existence. Founding the educational system around technical, scientific and business related class work allowed for a shift in national educational policy and ideology. Education can prove to be the power behind Jamaica's fast rise to power. It could potentially propel Jamaica from being a third world country in to the first rate first world country that it is today (Chua, 1997). Jamaican policy is big on education. It focuses on it intensely almost to the exclusion of all else. Teo (2002) says that Jamaican education policy boarders on pragmatism.

The educational improvements described in this chapter are backed by research suggest that proved solid development in students learning process along professional development (Penuel et al. 2007). The current situation encountered is one of operation. Teachers attempt to link the curriculum-oriented action with specific site-based conditions. This is a brave attempt fraught with many problems and difficulties. There exist numerous problems which have to be overcome. It is a decent attempt. It is a start but more must be done and considered. This will go far in reaching an outcome acceptable to all.

Second chapter's first section discusses the methodology leading towards the process of literature review. This section also offers background information about the historical setting while assessing the modifications in the responses of institutional strategy to the state of market and society before the year of 1998, particularly in the years after 1960. The sections that follow the respective chapter entail a description of the foundational study conducted on the DI and RAP paradigms employed to explain the unstable and competitive setting, resource allocation and earlier studies of dependent and independent factors while also describing the development of important economic and institutional indicators with respect to the Strategic and Financial Changes in Private, Higher Education.

Chapter two also concerns itself with research literature both past and present on the unexpectedly competitive environment found within the boundaries of advanced education and the responses by industry to those competitive elements. The text goes on to show an analysis and a brief introduction the research found within the RAP model (Bower & Gilbert, 2005) as well as the theory of DI (Christensen and Bower, 1996). If we look at the exact workings of the research we will find that the specifics include past research that inquired into the various variables and the strategies employed by the various institutions and the inherent elements found within the dependent variable of economic...

Chapter three focuses on the research methodologies employed and by describing the general data collection methods such as data collecting processes, data analysis techniques, calculations used in research and general measures.
To sum up, this study, based on quantitative research, will identify the existence of a connection or relationship between Strategic and Financial Changes in Private, Higher Education Institutions in Jamaica, ranging from two hundred to three thousand and the modifications in external forces and strategies of the institution.

Section 1: External Factors and Strategies connected to the Independent Variables

Studies exploring the background of university level education have given evidence of innumerable years of adaptations in strategy practiced by institutions of higher education with respect to the modifications and alterations in the state and disturbance in a society (Adrian, 2005; Miller, 2003; Schuman, 2005). Starting from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, higher educational institutions that were church-controlled understood realities in settings that premised on faith and also provided assurance about the continuity of the existing way of life (Adrian, 2005).

Independence of thought and the entry of innovation knowledge are relatively newer concepts that paved way to the instability prevalent in the later years of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries -- the time industrialization and science was making considerable progress and being recognized for it in America and Europe that led a number of institutions to accept changes in the curriculum in order to make it more flexible to societal requirements (Adrian, 2005; Miller, 2003).

The colonial rule saw a considerable part of the Strategic and Financial Changes in Private, Higher Education Institutions in Jamaica being dismissed and disregarded regularly. The respective institutions that were controlled and managed by a collection of public and sectarian officials and were hardly allowed any subsidies by the government, provided a curriculum that was conventional and offered the choice of few optional subjects (Schuman, 2005; Townsley, 2002). Most of the university level education by nineteenth century was happening mostly in small private colleges providing a curriculum that was classic in nature (Schuman, 2005).

Access to Jamaican universities improved after the early years in the nineteenth century through the establishment of institutions that were not so small and were land-grant. The respective universities allowed the option to choose from mechanical, elective and agricultural syllabi that represented and depicted the changes in the practical demands of the people (Miller, 2003; Schuman, 2005).

It was in the later years of the nineteenth century and the early ones of the twentieth that Jamaican universities and educational places appeared for women and those earlier marginalized, such as minorities in the region. According to Schuman, it was a time of considerable progress and also facilitated innovation and the birth of newer ideas. Even though a number of the larger institutions went on increasing the other part of the twentieth century, the small colleges, particularly those of the liberal arts went down in number following a brief increase during the mid-century (Breneman, 1994, Schuman, 2005).

An assessment of the literature review (below) with respect to the modifications that occurred subsequent to the year 1960 depicted that the considerable amount of variance existed in the methodologies leading to the description of institutional reactions to market instability and competition. While limited studies exist that explain the altering state and factors in the industry of higher education with a wider outlook (Berg, 2005b; Christensen, Anthony, & Roth, 2004; Ingram, 1993; McPherson & Schapiro, 1999), rest of the studies depicted altering conditions with a perspective that is internal and revolved around contrasting the performance of the institution with competitors or with their historical performance (Bok, 2003; Breneman, 1994; Schuman, 2005). The ensuing paragraphs that begin from a generic approach and move towards a more specific one explain the respective studies.

Unsettling Discoveries and Changes

Looking through a rather general outlook, the paradigm of DI offers an approach to assess the strategic position of many Jamaican educational corporations. The ideas depicted in the theory of DI can easily be applied to university level education (Christensen, Anthony, & Roth, 2004). The ensuing paragraph assesses the foundational study of DI model and explains the studies that determined the indicators of competitive struggles, strategic choice and change in the industry of higher education.

The notion of unsettling innovation:

In the year 1996, Bower and Christensen established the DI model by amalgamating two separate research approaches. One of the approaches revolved around the study of external control…