Higher Education Management

Higher Education Management covers topics that involve the management of an educational institution such as sustainability and competition with universities in the world in accordance with the requirements of the era. The social and industrial expectations from higher education are increasing and changing day by day. Starting with experiences, research and scientific facts in the system establishment and restructuring process in higher education, which is performed to keep up with these changes and meet expectations, plays a key role in achieving constantly evolving performance criteria.

Compliance with the law and budgeting are among the top priorities of higher education management. Maximizing institution's resources and diversifying income categories in higher education income management are significant for institutions that aspire to grow strategically. For those who want to control their own budgets, income potentials need to be monitored well and optimized accordingly. Therefore, correct pricing and quota planning are of great importance in higher education.

Efficient management of higher education financing brings success in the organization of income and expenses once it is incorporated into corporate culture and sustainability. Within this context, institutions have to put emphasis on system establishment and restructuring in higher education for successful management. The most valuable element of the system is human. In the process of branding and institutionalization parallel to institution structure and culture, it is significant to include academicians and staff, who are the main actors of human resources in higher education in a planned and efficient manner.

The success of an institution in human resources management is highly dependent on the competence, effectiveness of its employees and their ability of taking initiative. Employees represent the key part of an organization. Therefore, organizations should pay special attention to hiring right individuals and utilizing their capabilities at full potential. In this regard, the recruitment process is very crucial to a successful institution. On the other hand, human resource management is important especially for higher education institutions because the main product of universities, research and teaching, is conducted by academicians. Higher education institutions should have the best academicians to provide high quality education and research and  be competitive. It should be noted that the best academicians attract the best students.

Moreover, universities need high quality managers who can utilize the available resources efficiently and integrate them to provide the best learning environment. In this regard, universities should have a sound policy for the recruitment of both academic and non-academic staff. Correct practices are required to put the recruitment policy into practice and apply it in recruitment because recruitment policy implementation differs from university to university based on the social, economic, geographical, environmental and target context of the university. It is important to plan the steps to position other managers and those from the academia and to establish the corporate culture in the teacher-student relationship properly.

R&D and publication planning in higher education, formed with the right staff, as a training institution, plays a triggering role in achieving the goals as well as strengthening the “developing, scientifically evolving, socially beneficial” brand position of university. Providing the orientation and interaction among all stakeholders, from students to parents, members of the board of directors, to academics, staff, strengthening stakeholder communication and creating a common environment for dialogue contributes to the sustainable growth of the higher education institution. In this regard, additional resources are obtained in higher education finance and support is provided for income management in higher education.

Higher education management requires a comprehensive study in all aspects before and after planning. From this point on, determining the location of campus is an important topic. While choosing the location, it is necessary to take into account and plan how services for transportation, accommodation, dining and leisure activities will be offered on campus or in the surrounding areas in advance. The potential of the university should be calculated well, taking into consideration departments and programs that will be opened. In addition to the research and development areas of universities and educational institutions, its location should also be evaluated in terms of urban development and order. In our age, universities have a role that contributes to the social and cultural development of their environment, not only to education and research. Creating social benefits and seeing the contribution of the results to its environments have become important factors for scientific research.

Along with cultural transformation, higher education institutions carry their sustainability to different fields with their changing and transforming roles. For example; they can create more sustainable solutions with renewable energy, waste management, traffic and logistics solution plans for their own needs and communal needs. While building an institutional culture in higher education, guiding and leading roles should be supported in finding solutions to common problems around the university and in the country.

Strategic management has an important place in system establishment and restructuring processes in higher education. Short-, medium- and long-term plans are made with strategic management. Thanks to that, the long-term success of an institution, its ability to compete with internal and external institutions, crisis management, profitable sustainability and conversion of its profit into positive investments are put into a certain management and a target scheme. In shaping the path towards the goals of an institution, strategic planning has a key role in the positive evaluation of the opportunities.

Quota planning covers the process of involving students who are the main stakeholder of the university and constitute the primary link of the corporate culture. Keeping the university occupancy rate high can be achieved by determining and implementing a successful management strategy. A plan should be made by conducting research on education programs and departments targeted by the higher education institution. Future professions, students' past preferences, rising trends, ÖSYM preference data, regional and environmental factors, competent academics, university candidate movements, etc. affect many determinant quotas. A good analysis of these factors is required both to reach the occupancy rate of the quotas targeted by the university and to respond to the requests of university candidates. In highly preferred departments, quota increase or secondary education options can be considered. In less preferred departments, it is possible to investigate suitability for the age, reasons for not being preferred, and the performance of previous promotion activities. Being organized with external stakeholders, departments with high employment potential can be opened. Right stakeholder communication and analysis of the results will contribute positively to this process.

Setting occupancy targets correctly in the quota and the correct planning of these targets are also important for the control of higher education financing. With this planning, questions regarding the departments and programs to be invested, academic field and the budget to be allocated are answered. Setting the right number for the academic staff to be hired based on the quota also determines the pricing of the departments and programs. Thanks to this, universities and institutions can measure their sustainability and make their investments efficiently. Of course, it is also necessary to determine and increase the sources for financing while conducting income management in higher education. It is important that universities support the entrepreneurial spirit and invite internal and external stakeholders to this process while creating new funding sources.

Only with the orientation of stakeholders and efficient management of interaction, higher education institution can be ensured to have a constantly living and supportive community. Maintaining stakeholder communication among internal stakeholders such as faculty members, students, student clubs, administrative staff, and external stakeholders such as alumni, employers, occupational chambers, companies, investors, representatives of other universities will make the creation of ideas that will lead to success and bring new candidates that will prefer the university.

Institutions are able to achieve their goals by establishing and restructuring a system focused on quality and performance in higher education management. In this context, topics such as income management in higher education, finance of higher education, quota planning, pricing, corporate culture, human resources, R&D and publication planning, orientation, interaction and communication of stakeholders have  important roles for institutions. You can benefit consultancy services to focus on the future vision and opportunities.