This paper reports on the process involved in attempting to build a predictive model capable of indentifying students at risk of failure in a first year accounting unit in an Australian university. Identifying attributes that contribute to students being at risk can lead to the development of appropriate intervention strategies and support services. In this study, regression analysis was used to model the impact of individual factors on grade performance based on a review of the literature and using data extracted from a university's student information database for all students who completed a first year accounting unit in one semester. The overall findings were that while the explanatory power of the model was poor, a number of variables were found to have a significant impact on performance. These variables included: younger students, males, those enrolled in non-business majors, and those with English as a second language. Further research in this area is warranted with the overall aim of reducing student failure and subsequent student attrition as well as developing appropriate intervention strategies.

Incarceration costs are high; in Australia, for example, each prisoner costs an average of AUD 115,000 per year. Other countries are also feeling the fiscal pinch of high incarceration costs, and a number of jurisdictions are now closing some of their prisons. Most prison costs are non-discretionary (accommodation, meals, etc.). But some of the costs relate to discretionary activities, services and facilities (including schooling). In terms of correctional education, many prison managers try to invest any meagre correctional education resources available to them in those classes and courses which have proven to have the best results, such as improved labour market outcomes and reduced recidivism, minimising subsequent re-imprisonment. Course offers for prisoner-students include vocational training, adult basic education (ABE) and art studies. The two-tiered question this paper asks is: do art classes and courses produce these measurable outcomes and, if not, are there other reasons why they should continue to be funded? Addressing these issues, the authors argue that (1) these measurable outcomes are too narrow and do not reflect the complex but less quantifiable benefits to the individual and the community of studying art in prison, and (2) better measures of all impacts of art studies in prisons are needed, including qualitative and humanitarian aspect