Key Performance Indicators for Quality Assurance in Higher Education

1. Balanced ScoreCard in Higher Education 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

2. 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 Inspire 2005

3. 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 Inspire 2005

4. 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 Inspire 2005

5. 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 Inspire 2005

6. Balanced ScoreCard • Quantifies entities, such as • the performance of employees • the quality of results • customer satisfaction Increase the profit Ensure transparency and efficiency in every aspect 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 Inspire 2005

7. The Four Perspectives of The Balanced ScoreCard The organisation is viewed from four perspectives in order to develop metrics Assuming that each organisation is divided into four parts that all 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 will also operate properly Inspire 2005

8. The Four Perspectives in Higher Education Higher Educational Institutes Organisations Customer = Student Financial =Profit in all Sectors Internal Processes = Teaching and Secretarial Procedures Education 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 Inspire 2005

9. 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 Inspire 2005

10. 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 Inspire 2005

11. Questions How satisfied are graduates? How accurate is the study program (curriculum)? How accurate is the secretarial support? How satisfied is the educational personnel? How many presentations / informative seminars are realised? What is the level of students? How adequate are the teaching methods applied? How accurate is the study program (curriculum)? How accurate is the communication? How satisfied are students? How satisfied are employers? What is the quality of educational material? What is the level of the department? What is the participation rate in research? What is the level of educational personnel? Inspire 2005

12. Key Indicators Customer Perspective Inspire 2005

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17. Key Indicators Financial Perspective Inspire 2005

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19. Key indicators Internal Processes Inspire 2005

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21. Key indicators Learning – Improvement Inspire 2005

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23. Data Collection • Databases • Student registers • Staff databases • Industrial placement databases • Questionnaires and Interviews • Students • Graduates • Staff • Employers Inspire 2005

24. 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 Inspire 2005

25. 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 Inspire 2005

26. Thank you for your attention... Time for questions… ?