78 Book Reviews/Comptes Rendus degrees from one institution to another. As a result, we have not had to contend with the plethora of-programs of questionable quality (or the need for institutional accreditation) as the Americans have or (as much as they) with the problems of hierarchical ordering, of different degrees in the labour market. On the other hand, thereiis some concern that changing patterns of demography and societal needs could be addressed more effectively by a system that is characterized by more institutional differentiation. To a considerable degree, the Canadian system has tniedi.to accommodate diverse social and labour market needs by increasing intra-institutional-diversity, which, as Birnbaum notes, is negatively correlated •with inter-ins.titutional diversity. Regarding the alternative of increased generalization within institutions, Birnbaum cites the Carnegie Commission's judgment .that (in the, United States at least) "differentiation of structures can better lead to. differentiation of treatment than can the combination of all functions within a single structure". Even if the latter should be deemed the most appropriate strategy for Canada, the capability of having many institutions respond to the same .diverse set of societal needs is being eroded rapidly by underfunding. In recognition of this fact, co-ordinating boards have been encouraging greater institutional, differentiation. However, there are strong systemic forces against institutional differentiation in Canada (including other actions of co-ordinating boards). If differentiation is to become a major goal in Canada, a re-thinking and re-formulation of higher education policies at the highest levels of policy making is. required.. Also required would be some solid research on diversity in Canadian higher education, using variables that are appropriate to the Canadian scene. .Professor Birnbaum's,book would be a useful primer for such research, as well as a highly readable stimulus to discussion of the appropriate role of diversity in Canadian higher education. Michael L. Skolnik .;•••.,. University of Toronto, OISE REFERENCE Leslie', P.M. Canadian Universities 1980 and Beyond, AUCC Policy Study No. 3 (Ottawa: • i Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada), September, 1980. Norman ,P. Uhl, (Ed : ), Using Research for Strategic jossey-Bass Publishers, Inc., 1983, 106 pp. Planning. San Francisco: This brief volume is the 37th in the quarterly paperback "New Directions in Institutional Research".sourcebook series published by Jossey-Bass. The publisher currently offers, seven such.series: The particular series represented by this book was one of the first established by Jossey-Bass nearly a decade ago in conjunction with the Association for Institutional Research. The Association regards this series 79 Book R e v i e w s / C o m p t e s R e n d u s as one of its most important publishing efforts and monitors quality through oversight by its Publication Board and a special editorial advisory board. The volume under review, like most of the preceding 36 issues, examines a broad topic of interest primarily to institutional researchers. A work this brief can only introduce the reader to the main themes and a sampling of the important literature in a topic as general as that indicated in the title. Thus, the challenge to the volume editor is to select subtopics that embrace the salient points and to commission chapter authors that can write knowledgeably and succinctly on those points. The editor typically introduces the topic in an introductory chapter, and reviews and synthesizes the contributed chapters in a concluding section. Uhl, an experienced institutional researcher, describes strategic planning as ". . .an analytical approach that encompasses an assessment of the future (usually five to ten years ahead), the determination of desired goals in the context of the future, the development of alternative courses of action to achieve those goals, and the selection of courses of action from among those alternatives" (page 2). He points out that strategic planning should include the following four phases: (1) analysis, including assessment of external and internal environments, (2) mission and goals, (3) objectives and plan for action, and (4) use of resources, analysis of current needs, and strategies for future expenditures. Evidently, the role of institutional research is seen primarily as providing data and information to strategic planners. The overall purpose of the book, then, is to provide guidance to institutional researchers on how this purpose can be achieved. The seven contributed chapters (the last of which is authored by Uhl) cover the following topics, respectively: Using results from studies performed by outside agencies, marketing of a new academic program as an example of how an institution can directly assess the outside environment, evaluating existing academic programs, analysis of campus facilities, assessing institutional goals, how to develop an institutional fact book, and, use of the Delphi technique in strategic planning. Three of the chapters are particularly strong and, in fact, each of the three comprises a handy primer on its topic. The first of these is chapter Six, entitled "Assessing Institutional Goals" by Linda K. Pratt and Donald R. Reichard. These authors review the importance of assessing institutional goals, the various approaches and instruments that can be used, and then give examples of goal assessment activities in three categories: (1) using existing institutional records, (2) assessments that require special reports or analytical studies, and (3) employing measures of attitudes and perceptions of various institutional constituencies. They conclude the chapter with caveats on data interpretation and give a valuable listing of additional sources. Their list of references is short but highly selective. The chapter contributed by Uhl (chapter Eight) is entitled "Using the Delphi Technique in Institutional Planning." Long regarded as an expert on this technique, he gives a general background to its development, and then describes how 80 Book R e v i e w s / C o m p t e s R e n d u s it can be used to forecast trends and to achieve convergence of opinions. Uhl then provides a step-by-step description of how to conduct a Delphi study. His list of references (37) is both comprehensive and current. In chapter Seven Glynton Smith describes the development and uses of an annual institutional fact book, using as a detailed example the book developed and Used at her own institution. This is a very well written chapter that is remarkable for the amount of detail provided in only fourteen pages. She provides tables and figures on such topics as the economic impact of the institution on the local economy, an institutional statistical profile, and a particularly interesting graph depicting classroom space utilization. However, it is not made particularly clear as to why a traditional type of institutional fact book would be specifically useful to strategic planners. The annual compilation of salient statistics would seem to be simply part of the planners normal environment of readily available facts and figures. Thus, the use to strategic planning would seem to be more incidental than specifically formulated. The remaining four chapters are, in aggregate, quite useful, but contain some anomalies. For example, chapter Two gives five references to a weekly newspaper (the Chronicle of Higher Education) among its sources of data from which to project changes in the external environment. The authors also recommend a forecast of changes in higher education published in 1972 as a "recent environmental assessment," and cite a 1973 handbook that "identifies research centers and researchers" as current information sources. However, most of the remaining references in the 37-item list are quite current and useful. Chapter Three goes the opposite direction from both the preceding chapter and chapter Four which offers 38 references. The author offers only one reference in the lively area of institutional research support for marketing, and that is sort of an afterthought in which he closes his chapter by advising the reader that the topic is discussed in one of his earlier works in more detail. However, this approach is possibly better than that taken in chapter Five on analysis of physical facilities: Only five of the 23 in-text citations are current or recent (1978 or later), and nearly half of the remaining citations are from the 1950's and 1960's. This treatment may well be an accurate reflection of the status of the research literature but does little to assure the reader that the topic is of current and vital significance to strategic planning. As is true of any collected work, there is considerable unevenness of approach and quality. The overall impact of the book, however, is that it provides a quite useful introduction to the general topic of strategic planning and, more specifically, how the institutional researcher can assist in such planning. It is a good representative of this fairly expensive ($35.00 per four issues) but generally timely and useful series. The discerning reader of this volume can find much information on how to begin an understanding of the topic. Robert H. Fenske Professor of Higher Education Arizona State University, Tempe