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In the U.S., it is well documented that many students enter universities unprepared, lacking the basic academic skills necessary for optimal, or even positive, outcomes. However, less evidence has been reported on this problem in Canada, and there appears to be a public impression that Canada's universities have higher standards, on average, than American universities. This perception is reflected in documents produced by the Ontario Government, but documents prepared by independent sources, such as Statistics Canada and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO), suggest otherwise. The present article adds to this independent literature, reporting on a new empirical measure based on a suite of questions assessing the basic academic skills necessary to meet the challenges of higher education. Seven sets of skills were identified, and through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, two forms of academic capital were identified, as were three clusters of students. Evidence for the validity of these measures was found in terms of hypothesized associations with student grades, satisfaction, and thoughts of dropping out. Demographic differences (e.g., family background, gender) were minimal. The results suggest that a majority of Ontario's university students are at risk of sub-optimal academic outcomes, including a sizeable minority that is likely dysfunctional in contexts in which using basic academic skills would be necessary to pass courses if it were not for grade inflation. These students report lower grades, greater dissatisfaction with the university experience, and more frequent thoughts of dropping out. Policy implications are discussed in terms of what governments, secondary schools, and universities might do to reduce skill deficiencies and the associated negative experiences with post-secondary education.

This study seeks to identify factors influencing East Asian international students' choices of Canadian graduate schools, to assess the strengths and dynamics of the factors influencing enrolment decisions, and to describe possible implications both for the Canadian government and for Canadian universities offering graduate education. The research sample comprised 140 students from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan who enrolled in graduate programs at two large Ontario universities. The research findings reveal the significant influence of academic, economic, environmental, and visa/immigration pulling factors as well as a set of negative pushing factors from third countries such as the United States. Activities related to internationalization of graduate education play a critical role in influencing the choice of a Canadian graduate school. The findings suggest that to attract the "best and brightest" international graduate students, policy makers and institutional administrators should focus on investing in research and ensuring the quality of graduate education while devoting efforts and resources to the internationalization of Canadian graduate education. (Contains 7 tables and 1 figure.)

This study seeks to explain why and how international graduate students from East Asia choose to come to Canada to pursue advanced education, to assess the strengths and dynamics of the factors influencing the enrollment decision, and to describe possible implications both for education-exporting countries and universities offering graduate education. A synthesis model is developed to explain their decision-making "process", while a push-pull model is used to understand the strengths of and relationships among various "factors" that influence the choice of a country, institution, program, and city. The research sample comprised 140 students from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan who enrolled in graduate programs at two large Ontario universities. The research shows a three-stage process, guided first by the focus of the program (i.e. research-oriented versus professional programs). Other factors--country, institution, and city--interplay simultaneously at the later two stages. The research findings reveal the significant influence of academic ("Academic Pulling Factors" and "Administrative Pulling Factors"), economic, environmental, and visa/immigration pulling factors as well as a set of negative pushing factors from third countries such as the United States. This research suggests that to attract top international graduate students, policy makers and institutional administrators should focus on investing in research and ensuring the quality of graduate education, while devoting efforts and resources to the internationalization of graduate education, as well as crafting a national marketing strategy to enhance awareness of and the overall image of their higher education institutions and programs. (Contains 2 notes, 5 tables, and 3 figures.)

This study seeks to explain why and how international graduate students from East Asia choose to come to Canada to pursue advanced education. A synthesis model is developed to explain their decision-making "process," while a push-pull model is used to understand the strengths of and relationships among various "factors" that influence the choice of a country, institution, program, and city. The research sample comprised 140 students from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan who enrolled in graduate programs at two large Ontario universities. The research findings reveal the influence of "Institutional Academic Pulling Factors," "Institutional Administrative Pulling Factors," the "Canadian Environment," the "Economics of Canadian Education," and the ease of "Visa/Immigration." The research shows a three-stage process, guided first by the focus of the program (i.e., research-oriented vs. professional programs). Other factors--country, institution, and city--interplay simultaneously at the later two stages.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted of the supply of skill groups and the output of junior colleges, colleges, and graduate schools in Taiwan. Discrepancies were identified between labor need of industry and numbers of graduates as well as between training expected by industry and supplied by schools. (SK)

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2006.10.035 Byline: Liang-Hsuan Chen, Fu-Sen Kang Keywords: Inventory; Production; Planning; Optimization; Integrated model; Supply chain management Abstract: The integrated inventory models usually have the advantage of reducing total cost. However, the way to allocate the cost savings from the integration to the buyer and vendor is critical to the success of the joint relationship between both sides. To deal with this problem, this paper develops the integrated models with the permissible delay in payments for determining the optimal replenishment time interval and replenishment frequency. Applying the models and considering the coefficient of negotiation and the maximum delay payment period, a simple solution algorithm is presented to resolve the allocation of cost savings in the integration model. The coefficient of negotiation is adopted to determine the compromise between the buyer's and vendor's cost savings. A numerical example is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed integration models. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to demonstrate some properties. Using the information from the proposed models, the buyer and vendor can achieve an acceptable compromise solution for both sides in the supply chain management. Author Affiliation: Department of Industrial and Information Management, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, ROC Article History: Received 10 March 2006; Accepted 5 October 2006

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2006.04.037 Byline: Cheng-Hsiung Chiang (a), Liang-Hsuan Chen (b) Keywords: Availability allocation; Availability optimization; Multi-objective genetic algorithms; Simulated annealing; Parallel-series system Abstract: Availability allocation is required when the manufacturer is obliged to allocate proper availability to various components in order to design an end product to meet specified requirements. This paper proposes a new multi-objective genetic algorithm, namely simulated annealing based multi-objective genetic algorithm (saMOGA), to resolve the availability allocation and optimization problems of a repairable system, specifically a parallel-series system. Compared with a general multi-objective genetic algorithm, the major feature of the saMOGA is that it can accept a poor solution with a small probability in order to enlarge the searching space and avoid the local optimum. The saMOGA aims to determine the optimal decision variables, i.e. failure rates, repair rates, and the number of components in each subsystem, according to multiple objectives, such as system availability, system cost and system net profit. The proposed saMOGA is compared with three other multi-objective genetic algorithms. Computational results showed that the proposed approach could provide higher solution quality and greater computing efficiency. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Computer Science, Hsuan Chuang University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, ROC (b) Department of Industrial and Information Management, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, ROC Article History: Received 17 October 2003; Accepted 25 April 2006

Fuzzy regression models are useful to investigate the relationship between explanatory and response variables with fuzzy observations. Different from previous studies, this correspondence proposes a mathematical programming method to construct a fuzzy regression model based on a distance criterion. The objective of the mathematical programming is to minimize the sum of distances between the estimated and observed responses on the X axis, such that the fuzzy regression model constructed has the minimal total estimation error in distance. Only several a-cuts of fuzzy observations are needed as inputs to the mathematical programming model; therefore, the applications are not restricted to triangular fuzzy numbers. Three examples, adopted in the previous studies, and a larger example, modified from the crisp case, are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed approach. The results indicate that the proposed model has better performance than those in the previous studies based on either distance criterion or Kim and Bishu's criterion. In addition, the efficiency and effectiveness for solving the larger example by the proposed model are also satisfactory. Index Terms--Fuzzy regression model, fuzzy sets, mathematical programming.