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The manufacturer who produces superior products is continually being confronted with the problem of how he can carry conviction to potential purchasers as to the superior quality of his products—a problem which is becoming increasingly difficult. In the present day something stronger than personal asseverations by a firm is required, in order to carry conviction, and independent scientific corroboration as to the quality of a product affords the only solution. The System of Independent Analytical Control and Approval was instituted in this country nearly forty years ago by the British Analytical Control, and the Gold Seal of Approval issued by the British Analytical Control is intended to afford authentic independent evidence in regard to the quality of a product, since it indicates that any product to which it has been affixed is Approved and periodically examined by an independent Scientific Staff consisting of well‐known Public Analysts. The System enables manufacturers and vendors of pure and high‐class products to submit those products to scientific examination, permanently applied, and carried out by an independent Consulting Scientific Staff of the highest standing. The approved products are thus placed before the public with authentic testimony as to their quality. A firm desiring to place an article with the British Analytical Control, Ltd., submits three samples of the article for scientific examination. The samples must be submitted in the unopened original packages, which must be properly labelled and securely sealed. If the results of the scientific examinations show that the composition and characters of the article are such as to justify the conclusion that it is pure, genuine and good in the strictest sense of those terms, the article is approved. A Certificate of Approval is issued upon those products or articles which are approved by the British Analytical Control, and the manufacturers or proprietors of such articles are entitled to use the Gold Seal, Official Label and Certificate of the British Analytical Control in connection with the products so approved. The officers of the British Analytical Control, Ltd., at irregular intervals procure samples of the articles upon which a certificate of approval has been issued, for scientific examination and for the purpose of comparison with the original samples.

This chapter traces the history of widening participation (WP) policy from 1992 to 2021, as seen largely from the point of view of a practitioner involved in policy enactment. After a brief overview of the history of widening access to higher education (HE), with its long tradition of outreach to adults, this chapter focuses on the significant shift to WP among young people in 1992. Following attempts to specify the problem and to provide the available evidence about it, a range of initiatives was introduced, designed to test appropriate interventions. This chapter identifies three broad strands of intervention – changes in the funding method, the requirement for institutions to produce WP strategies, and the development of collaborative programmes, all underpinned by a programme of research. Though the balance of these three strands has varied ever since, all have always been present. Underpinning all this intervention was a general assumption, again differentially emphasised, that widening access and participation to HE, though an ambition for the whole sector, would be an activity separate from and subordinate to the existing missions and ‘business’ of institutions and accepting the existing market hierarchy. From 2010 onwards, there was a sharper policy shift, which sought to make the existing market both a market in entry qualifications and a genuine financial market in tuition fees, with students seen as consumers, and a determination to ensure value for money for all and from all institutions. In spite of this, the three strands of intervention remained.

Earliest localism was sited on a tree or hill or ford, crossroads or whenceways, where people assembled to talk, (Sax. witan), or trade, (Sax. staple), in eggs, fowl, fish or faggots. From such primitive beginnings many a great city has grown. Settlements and society brought changes; appointed headmen and officials, a cloak of legality, uplifted hands holding “men to witness”. Institutions tend to decay and many of these early forms passed away, but not the principle vital to the system. The parish an ecclesiastical institution, had no place until Saxons, originally heathens, became Christians and time came when Church, cottage and inn filled the lives of men, a state of localism in affairs which endured for centuries. The feudal system decayed and the vestry became the seat of local government. The novels of Thomas Hardy—and English literature boasts of no finer descriptions of life as it once was—depict this authority and the awe in which his smocked countrymen stood of “the vicar in his vestry”. The plague freed serfs and bondsmen, but events, such as the Poor Law of 1601, if anything, revived the parish as the organ of local government, but gradually secular and ecclesiastical aspects were divided and the great population explosion of the eighteenth century created necessity for subdivision of areas, which continued to serve the principle of localism however. The ballot box completed the eclipse of Church; it changed concepts of localism but not its importance in government.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

Mr. H H. Bagnall, B.Sc., F.I.C., Public Analyst for the City of Birmingham, comments in his annual report on the work done at the City laboratory and on the still apparent need for standards and definitions of food, and of legislation to enforce their application in manufacture or in shops. Of the 5,472 samples taken in the city under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 4 per cent. were found to be adulterated, but he observes that misdescription of articles of food is much more common than actual adulteration. The number of samples taken during the year was larger, and the variety greater, than in any previous year. About 140 different varieties of foods and drugs were examined, and few, if any, foods were not sampled. It was reassuring to learn that the Minister of Health was considering the introduction of legislation on the lines of the recommendations submitted in 1934 by the Departmental Committee which enquired into the working of the law as to the composition and description of articles of food other than milk. Ice‐cream was a case in point. In fifty‐one samples taken, the fat content varied between less than 2 per cent. and 19 per cent. Roughly, the samples were of two classes. Those containing less than 4 per cent. were bought mainly from carts in the streets of parks, and were probably the products of smaller makers; those with more than 8 per cent. were manufactured on a large scale by a few well‐known firms. “It is obvious something is wrong here,” Mr. Bagnall reports. “Apart from any question of price, ice cream is, or should be, a valuable article of food, and the purchaser should have some means of knowing what to expect when he asks for it. At the moment he may get a substance which approximates to frozen custard (not made with eggs !) or he may get a really first‐class product containing a considerable amount of cream. The position is similar with respect to a number of other products, particularly compounded articles; and the beneficial effect of legislation in such matters is clearly shown in the case of condensed and dried milks. This kind of governmental interference with manufacture used to be thought of as grandmotherly legislation; but, when one remembers the sort of statement, bearing no relation to the contents, that used to appear on tins of condensed milk, one cannot but feel that there may be some virtue in these departures from laisser‐faire methods. At any rate, no one would wish to return to the old haphazard days when condensed milk was simply what the manufacturers chose to make it. It is curious that the law is far more careful that the composition of feeding stuffs sold for the use of cattle should be made known to the purchaser than that articles sold for human consumption should be sold under a guarantee of quality. If I buy, say, cotton cake for feeding cows, the vendor is bound to give me an invoice stating the amounts of oil, protein and fibre contained in it, and severe penalties are entailed if false statements are made. If I buy an infant's food, however, there is no compulsion on the part of the maker to give particulars regarding its composition. In fact, the label may contain statements entirely at variance with the analysis, but which, nevertheless, are of too vague a character to become the subjects of police court proceedings. It is surely as important that the mother of a child should know something of the composition of the food she uses as that a farmer should know the food value of his cattle cakes, and it is to be hoped that legislation on such matters may not be unduly delayed. The misdescription of articles of food is a much more common thing than adulteration. Under modern conditions of inspection and sampling, it simply does not pay manufacturers and retailers to risk the cruder forms of adulteration and substitution, but the wide use of advertising as an aid to sales, often leads to the use of exaggerated statements regarding the quality and food value of articles of diet. We are all familiar with the extraordinary claims put forward on behalf of particular foods of well‐known composition which seek to show that they possess unique properties not shared by other similar foods. It is often impossible for the food analyst to check such statements, and the public is deceived into thinking that a superior article is being obtained. Often it is only in the advertisements relating to the article in question that one finds these exaggerated statements, and when a tin or packet is bought it is found that the label gives a much milder description of the contents. Under the present law only statements appearing on the label can be made the subject of legal proceedings. It is desirable that false claims appearing in advertisements should also be brought within the scope of food and drug legislation.” During the year a number of samples of pasteurised milk were examined by the “phosphatase test.” Of 112 samples, fifty‐eight were efficiently pasteurised; in thirty‐six cases some technical error had occurred during the process, such as imperfect temperature or time control, or a small admission of raw milk; and in the remaining eighteen cases there was evidence of gross negligence. The samples were taken at selected times and places thought likely to yield abnormal figures, so that too much weight should not be given to the fact that about 48 per cent. of the samples did not pass the test.”

Widening participation (WP) has increasingly become part of the normal ‘business’ of English higher education (HE) providers during the last 25 years. WP entered the policy mainstream for the entire HE sector following the Dearing Review (NCIHE, 1997) and the election of a new Labour government wedded to notions of social justice but also concerned with ‘lifelong learning’ in the name of human capital growth. This book employs a dual usage of the term ‘business’ in relation to WP policy, practice and culture in the context of the marketised English HE system. The first, figurative, usage explores the ways in which WP has been drawn into institutional positionality as HE providers are encouraged to differentiate themselves in the market. The second, literal, usage explores the ways in which the business of WP has become ‘business as normal’ for the sector and institutions, increasingly intertwined with other activities and which play out variously, often in response to regulatory demands of the state. This introductory chapter first contextualises these developments with a brief overview of the evolution of the HE sector in England before proposing a multilevel model – the HE policy enactment staircase – as a way of thinking about how policy is made, enacted and implemented within the sector. This chapter then draws upon this model to acts as a structure for this book. It does this by moving from a macro-level exploration of ideological levels of policymaking, through National/Sectoral level right down to the issues at an institutional and operational levels. In doing so, this chapter creates a framework from which to understand how the various elements and levels of the business of WP play out within the English HE sector.

Financial service institutions design commercial lending mechanisms for small businesses with specific kinds of business owners in mind, that is, owners who already own or have access to both capital and productive resources. Given the conventional mechanisms devised by traditional lenders, individuals without productive capital appear to be costly, high risk borrowers. Today a new financial service institution called micro‐lending offers credit to just these high risk borrowers by constructing alternative lending mechanisms based on peer networks. These alternative mechanisms reduce the costs of lending to a higher risk population while providing access to business information and human capital skills, creating opportunities to build productive capabilities and other, less tangible resources, such as community networks. Using a case study of a neighborhood‐based inner‐city micro‐loan program in New England, I investigate how micro‐lending operates to reduce the costs of lending, as well as examine the group interaction that emerges among program participants.

Organizational ethics and related issues.

Graduate course on Strategic Human Resource Management and specialization courses in Banking.

This case details the account of a human resources (HR) manager of a multinational bank in India who “used” his position to bring on board his cronies to secure his position and utilize the inherent powers in the position to further his own ends. The case elaborates how the Manager HR went about his job soon after taking over and the consequences this had on the Indian operations and the morale of officers. The case requires the students to analyze and suggest ways in which this organization can prevent such occurrences in future.

The primary learning objective is to help the student understand the significance of organizational ethics values and react to issues arising from dealing with unethical practices. It will also make them aware of what can happen if systems are deliberately flouted and reporting protocol relating to information flows are ignored. Specifically, it will help them to select the right people, who are aware of the culture of the organization and what this culture implies in terms of working ethically. Communicate the working standards expected of its employees, especially newly trained ones. Analyze the challenges an employee can face when he or she tries to do things in the organization which are not ethical. Evaluate the different ways in which errant employees should be handled.

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