The ownership form of Air Navigation Service Providers varies across countries ranging from state agencies belonging to the Department of Transport, to government-owned corporations, to semi-private firms with for-profit or not-for-profit mandates. This research focusses on the link between the performance of ANSPs and their ownership form. A theoretical economic model suggests that effort to achieve cost efficiency will be higher in the case of public companies with a board of stakeholders composed of airspace users and in the case of private companies in which stakeholders are also shareholders. A stochastic frontier analysis estimation of the production and cost functions of 37 European air navigation service providers over nine years suggests that the public-private ownership form achieves statistically significantly higher cost and productive efficiency levels compared to either a government corporation or a state agency.

This study examines how far the establishment of an ultra-orthodox (Haredi) women-only curriculum and learning environment crafted for their needs, such as supplementary Biblical studies, fosters students’ enrollment and achievement in STEM. The methodology utilizes interviews with administrators accompanied by a Google questionnaire surveying students in order to compare the secular Azrieli College of Engineering with its new ultra-orthodox branch, Tmura Seminary, which aims to promote the acquisition by ultra-orthodox Jewish women of an engineering diploma so that they can find employment in the job market. This objective is significant because the ultra-orthodox community in Israel represents a unique family setting in which the men devote most of their workday to Judaic studies while the women are the breadwinners. The findings of the current study show that addressing the higher education gender gap by purposeful efforts to include ultra-orthodox women is indeed feasible. Still, it remains a challenging endeavor because besides being first-generation students subject to religious constraints, Haredi students are insufficiently prepared in mathematics and English before arriving at the campus, which requires that they participate in an intensive pre-academic preparatory program. The analysis of results showed differences between ultra-orthodox and secular students in their motivation for study, sources of information about suitable education institutions, balancing work and family life priorities, financial need for scholarships, and career path, which is directed toward finding a job in the high-tech industry rather than continuing after graduation to pursue a Master-level degree.