Performance through the lens of evaluation: How to stretch evaluative thinking with strategic decision-making tools

Abstract

Australian higher education continues to be plagued with decreases in funding and increases in regulation. This is leading to a reality within many universities where quality alone is not enough to consider academic programs viable and sustainable. Today, universities compete fiercely for students, as increasing or retaining market share is required to remain financially sound. Universities usually make these difficult decisions through an analysis of internal student data as a metric of performance. Factors such as declining student enrolments, high attrition rates, low progression rates and poor student feedback would typically strike university executives as alarming; however, this is often not the full picture. This process can often become political and not grounded in evidence-based informed decision-making, as strategic decision-making to reduce academic programs may have direct impact on academic employment. Moreover, these analyses often lack independent evaluation and consideration of the broader environment. This can lead to tensions between faculty and university administration, which may lead to political outcomes guided by passionate academic debate rather than strategic evidence-based decision-making. This theoretical article outlines how an internal evaluation team can contribute to this exercise to stretch evaluative thinking by applying a range of strategic decision-making tools to evaluate academic program performance.

Scoping recent investment in evaluation education in Australian universities

“…Similar to other universities, every Australian university is under increasing pressure to diversify their income streams and rationalise their product suite (Durrant & Eastmond, 1994; Harris & Alderman, 2022, this issue; LaVelle & Johnson, 2022; Phan, 2019). Therefore, consideration of how and when to enter a new discipline is a strategic executive decision that requires an evidence-based approach to ensure the endeavour is worthy of the investment (Alderman, 2022, this issue).…”

The Continuous Learning Framework: Applying accountability for widespread organisational change

“…After a brief overview of the development of the framework, this article discusses examples of the practical application of the quality element of accountability. The three other articles in this special issue explore the framework’s elements of improvement (Forbes et al, 2022, this issue), performance (Harris & Alderman, 2022, this issue) and investment (Quadrelli et al, 2022, this issue).…”