Goals, components, and factors considered in university development

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 topmanagement 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.

Pivotal qualities for effective university leadership on the basis of a modified Australian model: the application of FIMIX-PLS and IPMA in the Malaysian academic context

“…encompass main components such as finance, services, human resources, research, and infrastructure. Based on these plans, universities can deliberate on what they want to achieve, the way by which the tasks must be completed, the time of achieving the goals, deciding on who are accountable for carrying out the plans, as well as the required facilities and funds needed for materializing the aspired goals (Hussin and Ismail 2009). In this situation, effective leaders play a significant role in providing the necessary guidelines and taking crucial actions for effective implementation of the programs.…”

Higher education in Cambodia: Engendered, postcolonial Western influences and Asian values

“…The dichotomy between local historical, socio-cultural, and political development components of universities. In this case, policy reform generally focuses on academic programs, research and consultancy, post-graduate scholarships, research, instruction and learning, management, human resources management, finance, infrastructure and facilities, student services and development (Hussin & Ismail, 2009). This paper focuses on the cultural dimensions of both Asian and Cambodian history, traditional values, and socio-cultural aspects.…”

Assessing Human Challenges in Indian Engineering Education Institutes in a Globalized Economy

“…Student-focused goals enable learners to evaluate an unfamiliar event in a profession and acquire needed competencies for analysis, design, prototype development, testing, improvement, mass production, marketing, and maintenance and develop student-centered goals. Sufean Hussin, Aziah Ismail, and Jung Cheol Shin [19] stated that universities employ strategic development planning to identify the specific goals, components, and factors of development. Further, they concluded that a wellformulated strategic development plan will ensure synchronized development programs and activities throughout a university system.…”