If you want to improve something, you first need to measure it. Higher education recently began using advanced performance metrics to enhance several of its operations.
Universities and institutes use common key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify internal and external changes or progress to make comparisons with other areas or institutions.
However, these indicators are falling short of greater demands from students and society for educational quality and services, pressures to modernize academic programs, and requirements to operate more efficiently.
Thus academic institutions need to update evaluation strategies of internal processes with relevant metrics permanently.
In the following article, we explain the most common indicators to measure five management areas of an academic institution’s administration. We complement this information with education-focused KPIs to improve the data on the management of the institution.
The standard indicators in this area are:
Meanwhile, the followings KPIs provide greater insight into the performance of student administration:
Student-faculty ratio: It is a metric that varies from year to year and helps track whether students have enough attention from teachers. The lower this ratio, the better. According to Bridge-U, the closer the number is to 1:1, the more interactive and participative the relationship between student and educator.
Faculty-staff ratio: Similar to the above, it tracks if teachers receive enough support from the institution. If the ratio is low, there are usually issues coordinating schedules and classes, and inefficiency in paying salaries.
Applications vs. enrollment: Also known as the acceptance rate. It helps to determine how many applicants become students enrolled in the institution. It helps to keep statistics on the evolution of the student body and to anticipate changes in the allocation of resources.
Drop-out rate: This is the number of students that leave a course or study program at the end of a specific period (months, quarters, semesters, academic year). It is expressed as a percentage of the total number of enrolled students on the course or study program at the end of the period in question.
The key performance indicators usually used to evaluate this area are:
There are also KPIs to evaluate the performance of the curriculum in greater depth:
Percentage of students in specific disciplines: This metric informs about the number of students per teaching area, students per course level, etc., depending on your planning strategy.
Curricular sequence mastery rate: This indicator tracks how each curricular program performs per student by training area, learning approach, or by subject.
As for students, there are specific KPIs to assess the performance of faculty. The most common indicators to track this are:
The following indicators allow one to measure and control education quality in greater detail:
Percentage of faculty with advanced studies: Metric that identifies the number of teachers per student who have post-graduate qualifications (certificates, diplomas, master’s, doctorate or other skills). It is essential for the provision of social and monetary recognition, as well as the reputation of the educational institution.
Annual training: Indicator that measures the number of times that teachers receive training in teaching techniques, allocation of resources or updates on the use of Information Technology (IT). This metric gives an idea of the education quality provided by the institution.
Faculty and staff attendance rate: The lower this indicator is, the more negative the impact on the organization. It affects schedules, planning, allocation of resources and even the recruitment and hiring strategy of substitute teachers and temporary workers.
Faculty and staff retention rate: This metric tracks the number of personnel that stays at the institution between two comparable periods. The higher the percentage, the better the relationship between students and their environment. Also, it positively impacts the levels of operational costs, given that the institution avoids needing to hire and train new people on a regular basis.
Schedules and physical space planning is usually carried out by a specific area within the institution, and is centralized (main office) or decentralized (faculties or departments). Here the most common KPIs are:
Other KPIs provide more information on this area of institutional administration:
The average age of infrastructure: Tracking the age of an institution’s buildings and physical spaces ensures the infrastructure’s adequate and necessary maintenance so that it remains in use and safe over time.
Percentage of infrastructure that passes inspections: Ideally this indicator should be 100%. However, if a building, physical space or setting does not pass a municipal or the government regulatory agency’s inspection, or does but with restrictions, it is an important metric to take into account to improve quality.
Percentage of technology use: This indicator demonstrates the availability of technological tools in teaching to carry out activities and projects in class.
Percentage of faculty and staff that use technology: It is the number of faculty and staff that occupy technological tools to perform their tasks; from the institution's Wi-Fi network to personal computers and tablets.
IT department consultation rate: This productivity metric helps to know the intensity of use of technologies by individual faculty and staff by area or department.
Classroom use rate: This indicator examines the use of each space of the institution for the teaching of classes (from rooms to auditoriums and open spaces). It is measured by comparing each place with the number of students per section, or the number of hours assigned daily.
The most common KPIs to track an institution’s financial management are:
The following indicator also provides a greater understanding of this administrative area:
Cost per student/faculty: Shows the institution’s costs to educate each student or employ each faculty. This ratio includes infrastructure expenses, maintenance, administrative salaries, books and teaching resources, food, among others.
Each performance metric or KPI demonstrates in a specific period the performance of a particular variable against an organizational objective.
Thus, the result of the indicator reflects how aligned or distant that variable is with the institution’s internal targets.
Likewise, the use of these metrics should contribute to improving institutional strategic planning, as well as correcting specific problems.