HEI's attempt to stay relevant and viable through engaging effectively with society, government and the private sector at all levels. These objectives are achieved via renovating their vision, approaches to learning and teaching and developing relevant graduate profiles for employment in both public and private sectors. It has been recognised that…

Strategic planning has become increasingly important for setting the direction of firms and developing contingency plans for things like pandemics. It is also very important for institutions of higher education where strategic planning can be part of operating an academic unit, regional accreditation, and programmatic accreditation. However, the…

Appreciative inquiry is a strength-based organisational transformation approach developed in 1987 by David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve. It is based on the idea that organisational change is more effective when the approach focuses on the positive attributes and experiences within an organisation instead of the challenges. Several studies…

This paper is concerned with long term strategic planning in higher education and focuses on Ontario's strategic mandate agreement (SMA) sector planning framework. In 2012, the province initiated its new SMA planning process by requiring all higher education institutions to propose their own strategies for their academic visions, missions, and…

Colleges and universities spend considerable time and resources developing strategic plans, often using outside consultants. These efforts typically focus on identifying and replicating best practices of other institutions, rather than finding distinctive opportunities. This results in increasing conformity across similar colleges and universities…

Strategic documents are artifacts that can reveal evidence of an institution's teaching culture and, ideally, can influence how teaching is valued, rewarded, and resourced. This paper describes how an Institutional Teaching Culture framework based on six well-researched levers was applied to analyze strategic documents for indicators of teaching…

Public higher education institutions in Liberia have employed various mitigating measures to improve instruction quality and increase learning outcomes; however, little was known about remote instructional collaboration as a strategic approach in Liberian higher education classrooms. This qualitative study, based on Everett Rogers' Diffusion of…

Significant events such as severe weather, flooding, wildfires, and cyber incidents cause serious interruptions to the capabilities within institutions of higher education (IHEs) to perform established missions and achieve strategic goals and objectives. Previous research has investigated the effects of these significant interruptive events on…

Purpose: Internationalization is viewed as an important strategy in the context of a country in transition from central planning to market orientation. Efforts to internationalize universities are being carried out at both national and institutional levels. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there has been no study to investigate how…

This study reviews the implications of the 2014 reporting regulation for public higher education institutions (PHEIs) in South Africa. Guided by the monitoring and evaluation logical framework model and the theory of change, the research assesses the alignment between the regulation's outcomes and practical implementation. Employing a Document…

Purpose: Many higher education institutions have not invested in leadership succession planning despite suggestions for such action. In this article, the authors discuss the relevance of succession planning to the senior levels of leadership in higher education institutions, proposing that the role of succession planning and accompanying…

Strategic reset is the process of reassessing an institution's strategic priorities, making changes if warranted, and assessing whether the institution can effectively engage and respond to any "zeitgeist" in the future through agility, flexibility, innovation, and responsiveness to all key stakeholders. The prerequisite for strategic…

Increasingly, data collection and analysis are core functions of higher education institutions. However, an EDUCAUSE QuickPoll revealed that just one in four (25%) of respondents believed the structure of data functions at their institution was ideal for their analytics needs, and only 16% of respondents indicated that their institutional data…

The relationship between central and academic units can cause tension within an institution as there is a desire to define ownership over activities, policies, and processes associated with enrollment management (e.g., recruitment, admissions, academic scheduling). This article proposes a new enrollment planning model that can be used to navigate…

Distance learning technology continues to grow and undergo significant changes in higher education settings. Applying strategic planning methods from organizational behavior and operations management can act as a useful guide for the implementation of a sustainable distance learning program. Strong planning can help ensure the distance learning…