An investigation of assessment policy and practices in terms of broad social and educational purposes

Based upon relevant literature, this study investigated the assessment policy and practices for the BSc (Hons) Computing Science programme at the University of Greenwich (UOG), contextualising these in terms of broad social and educational purposes. It discusses Assessment, and then proceeds to give a critical evaluation of the assessment policy and practices at the UOG. Although this is one case study, because any of the features of the programme are generic to other programmes and institutions, it is of wider value and has further implications. The study was concluded in the summer of 2002. It concludes that overall, the programme's assessment policy and practices are well considered in terms of broad social and educational purposes, although it identifies and outlines several possible improvements, as well as raising some major issues still to be addressed which go beyond assessment practices.

An investigation into regional differences in educational performance in the National Child Development Study

The National Child Development Study (NCDS) is used to investigate factors which affect children's educational performance over time. Multilevel modelling techniques are used on a subset of the NCDS to investigate variation in educational performance in 11 regions in the UK, and in local education authorities within these regions. Social characteristics of the NCDS members are also analysed. Differences between regions and education authorities are found to be negligible, the main source of variation in achievement being due to differences in social background.

Comparative analysis of corporate risk management practices in Croatian and Slovenian companies

The paper explores differences as well as commonalities in corporate risk management practices and risk exposures in the large non-financial Slovenian and Croatian companies. Comparative analysis of survey results have revealed that the majority of analysed companies in both Croatia and Slovenia are using some form of risk management to manage interest-rate, foreign exchange, or commodity price risk. Regarding the intensity of influence of financial risks on the performance of the analysed companies, the results have shown that the price risk has the highest influence among the Slovenian as well as the Croatian companies. Croatian companies are more affected by currency risk than the Slovenian companies, while the interest-rate risk has been ranged as less important in comparison with commodity price and currency risks. The survey’s results have clearly indicated that Croatian and Slovenian non-financial companies manage financial risks primarily with simple risk management instruments such as natural hedging. In the case of derivatives use, forwards and swaps are by far the most important instruments in both countries, but futures as representatives of standardised derivatives and structured derivatives are more important in the Slovenian than in the Croatian companies.