Goals, components, and factors considered in university development |
| |
Authors: | Sufean Hussin Aziah Ismail |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Educational Management, Planning and Policy, Faculty of Education Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;(2) Science University of Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia |
| |
Abstract: | It is generally known that the general goals of universities are to produce high-quality graduates for the job market, to
continuously advance the frontier of knowledge in all the disciplines, and ultimately to advance human civilization. There
can, however, be numerous specific goals which differ from one university to the other. Whatever it is, in order to achieve
the desired goals, universities need to design a realistic strategic development plan, which must include, among others, the
important logistical components and factors of university development. In Malaysia, little is known about university development
planning process as a subject area. Annual reports and calendars published by universities do not provide sufficient information
about the elements and aspects of high priorities in their strategic development plan. As such, we decided to conduct a study
on eleven (11) foremost public universities in Malaysia—a country with a centralized education system—in order to examine
the goals, components, and factors considered by university top-management in planning university development. We administered
a checklist to 296 respondents, comprising deputy vice-chancellors or deputy rectors, registrars, deans, and directors. The
checklist required the respondents to rate the consideration level on a scale of 1 (least considered) to 5 (highly considered)
for each of the items on goals, components, and factors. This article reports the main findings of our study. Among other
things, the most obvious result revealed by the study was that universities were very concerned with the relevancy of academic
programs offered and their performance in research. It was rather surprising, however, that the top-management of public universities
in Malaysia placed the goal of providing quality infrastructure and facilities at the lowest ranking. Also, this study revealed
that the government, as a factor, exerted its prominence only in terms of university budget and research grants and the execution
of some policies of national interest, but university expansion and development was largely driven by the university organization
itself, i.e., on where, what, and how it wants to expand and grow. In this regard, public universities in Malaysia still enjoy
a large degree of academic autonomy and a strong support by the government. |
| |
Keywords: | Higher education policy University management University development Strategic development planning Decision-making process |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|