What are the key indicators for evaluating the activities of universities?

Abstract

In the last decades, there has been an upsurge in studies on the evaluation of universities using different indicator systems, which has resulted in a multiplicity of indicators. This paper tries to identify which are the most important indicators for the evaluation of higher education institutions, since currently there is no consensus on this. We use the Delphi technique to try to achieve some sort of consensus among a group of experts occupying senior academic and management positions in the Spanish higher education (HE) system, with in-depth knowledge of HE institutions evaluation. The paper contributes directly to both theory and practice by providing a list of prioritized critical indicators for the evaluation of HE institutions. Although the analysis focuses on experts from Spanish HE institutions evaluation, our findings can be generalized to other European HE institutions.