Key Performance Indicators for Quality Assurance in Higher Education

The Case of the Department of Informatics at the Technological Educational Institute

of Thessaloniki, Greece

Kerstin V. Siakas

Aristea-Alexandra Prigkou

Stergios Draganidis

Balanced ScoreCard in Higher Education

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Quality Assurance in Higher Education

Open European Higher Education Closer cooperation between higher

education institutions Student and staff mobility Competitiveness of Europeans in the

international labour market Attractiveness of European higher

education in the world

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Objectives of the“Bologna Process”

More transparent and mutually recognised educational systems

A common frame for diverse national systems

Quality assurance including evaluation of programmes and/or institutions

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How we met the European challenge

A pilot internal assessment in order to: measure the current situation initiate a quality assurance program aiming to

the continuous improvement of the quality of education

The implementation of this process will be utilised by a software tool based on the Balanced ScoreCard methodology, which provides an integrated perspective on goals, targets and measures of progress

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Balanced ScoreCard: A Performance Management System

Clear mission, vision, objectives

linked with

a specific strategy

Aims to lead an organisation into future success in all sectors

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Balanced ScoreCard

Quantifies entities, such as the performance of employees the quality of results customer satisfaction

1. Increase the profit2. Ensure transparency and efficiency in every aspect 3. Identify the weak points in order to improve them

These measurements influence essentially the human behaviour inside and outside the organisation and emphasises a more holistic and complete set of measurement indicators

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The Four Perspectives of The Balanced ScoreCard

The organisation is viewed from fourperspectives in order to develop metrics

Assuming that each organisation is divided into four parts thatall together indicate a complete image: Financial Customer (Customer satisfaction) Internal Processes (The internal procedures of the

organisation) Education and Development (Ability of constant education

aiming at continuous improvement and competitiveness) If these parts can operate separately, the organisation willalso operate properly

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The Four Perspectives in Higher Education

Higher Educational Institutes Organisations

Customer = StudentFinancial = Profit in all SectorsInternal Processes = Teaching and Secretarial ProceduresEducation and Development = (System’s and Personnel's Continuous Improvement)

The main objective is: To define the critical success factors for achieving

our strategic goals in order to be able in the future to assess the actual performance against the measures

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Design of Key Performance Indicators

Analysis of each perspective by using the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) methodology The goals were determined Questions emerged to clarify the goals Determination of measures we will use in

order to indicate our strategic direction

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Goals

Customer (Student) Perspective High level of students Satisfied students Satisfied graduates

Financial Perspective Sufficient material infrastructure Accurate educational support

Internal Process Perspective Active Learning Competitive program of studies Accurate secretarial support Accurate communication (electronic services)

Learning / improvement perspective Continuous briefing on new products / technologies

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Questions

What is the level of educational personnel?

How satisfied are students?

How satisfied are graduates?

How satisfied is the educational personnel?

How satisfied are employers?

How accurate is the secretarial support?

What is the participation rate in research?

How many presentations / informative seminars are realised?

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Key Indicators Customer Perspective

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Key Indicators Financial Perspective

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Key indicators Internal Processes

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Key indicators Learning – Improvement

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Data Collection

Databases Student registers Staff databases Industrial placement databases

Questionnaires and Interviews Students Graduates Staff Employers

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Conclusion

This paper investigated the possibilities of introducing a measurement-based management tool for assessing the current situation in the department of Informatics at the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece, and for continuous use

Balanced ScoreCard was chosen in order to quantify the current situation in the department for focus on the weaknesses and continuous improvement

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Future work

Application of our metrics to the principles and concepts of the Balanced ScoreCard

A pilot study will be implemented by using a Balanced ScoreCard software tool

Analysis of the results

Continuous Improvements

Thank you for your attention...

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