Introducing and Evaluating Key Performance Indicators and Generating Awareness of Competence among Inter-Departments for Quality Performance in Large Academic and Research Institutions

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This research article establishes the relationship between key performance indicators and the academic and research quality performance and quality assurance of any large multidisciplinary academic and research institution or university. The indicators being proposed are initially based on benchmarks, and then a strategy and method are proposed to publish results considering internal rankings. Key performance indicators (KPIs) in terms of qualitative and quantitative measures proposed which is specific forms of evidence for quality performance and quality assurance on various parameters defined below. This will certainly contribute to decision-making, follow-up, advanced planning processes, and continuous development and improvement. This will be considered as a new tool for monitoring the achievement of goals and objectives and to make comparisons between other participating academic and research departments within the large academic and research multidisciplinary intuition. Some tools are in place to assess the quality of performance, such as world university rankings, domestic rankings, accreditation, external peer review, academic and industry peer perception, and faculty self-appraisal. In this research article, we have discussed a set of KPIs derived and proposed to implement and evaluate the outputs and outcomes for each academic and research department once a year after the academic session is over. We have then proposed to calculate the scores of each sub-indicator under each major indicator, then scores of each major indicator and then overall score for each participating academic and research department on the parameters and weightages, then publish the internal ranking results based on percentiles and the rank obtained as an institution as a whole, and make the provision to nominate for awards and honours for the top three performers every year. Each large institution will have the freedom and choice to define appropriate weights for each major indicator, along with some sub-indicators, according to their regional, financial, and access-to-institutions factors. The whole process will require the entire institution to implement competitions and races among each academic and research department. The whole process will certainly put consistent pressure on each academic and research department to continuously improve their academic and research systems compared with the top three performers every year. In order to achieve this, the academic and research leadership of the large institute will have control and will monitor the quality of performance continuously. Depending on these indicators, it will also require sustainable, appropriate, and effective data collection to calculate these indicators in terms of scores and percentiles and then use them to judge the quality of academic and research performance and future planning. As a result, the whole process will project the institution as a good performer during participation in the world university rankings, domestic rankings, accreditation, and external peer review.