TY - JOUR
T1 - Juggling quality labels with centralised analytics: How the first Nordic triple-crowned business school does it
AU - Tran, Tri
AU - Kuula, Markku
N1 - Funding Information:
Aalto University not only pays attention to its tenure-track professors but also pays attention to its doctoral candidates. Specifically, Aalto BIZ has open admissions for all qualified applicants worldwide. The recruitment process for doctoral candidates is also highly transparent, and all criteria are specified on the school’s website. Once students enter, their performance will be constantly monitored and evaluated through the funding and employment system. Accordingly, only funding for the first two years of doctoral studies is guaranteed. From year three onwards, doctoral students must proactively search for funding opportunities or employment contracts from the school (). This system promotes progress in doctoral studies and increases the level of external funding for research and scientific activities within the school. The progress of doctoral studies and the involvement of doctoral students in teaching and research activities were also monitored through the school’s IT platform. Whether a doctoral student receives an employment contract is based on their performance quality, measured by the same criteria as those for tenure-track professors, and consequently, is also heavily data-based.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - Higher education (HE) is a challenging area for quality professionals because of its highly complex operational nature. While neither quality management (QM) in HE nor applications of analytics in QM is a new research discipline, few studies have examined the applications of analytics in the context of QM in HE. This study calls for more attention to bridge the gap between these two established research disciplines by conducting a systematic literature review and an in-depth single-case study. A systematic literature review illustrates the missing link of analytics in quality management in HE in the literature; however, in practice, highly ranked universities worldwide demonstrate various ways in which an HE institution can embed analytics and business intelligence into their QM practices. The first Nordic triple-crowned business school was selected as a single-case study to illustrate how analytics can be a powerful tool for QM in HE. This study found that analytics and business intelligence, enabled by a centralised information system, offer great tools for quality professionals at HE institutions to manage by fact and consequently allow them to make more fact-based, data-based operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. The centralised information system also alleviates the challenges associated with applying for multiple accreditations. As this is a highly contextual phenomenon, this study also calls for future research in other contexts, such as in other disciplines or in other regions where HE has significantly different operational characteristics.
AB - Higher education (HE) is a challenging area for quality professionals because of its highly complex operational nature. While neither quality management (QM) in HE nor applications of analytics in QM is a new research discipline, few studies have examined the applications of analytics in the context of QM in HE. This study calls for more attention to bridge the gap between these two established research disciplines by conducting a systematic literature review and an in-depth single-case study. A systematic literature review illustrates the missing link of analytics in quality management in HE in the literature; however, in practice, highly ranked universities worldwide demonstrate various ways in which an HE institution can embed analytics and business intelligence into their QM practices. The first Nordic triple-crowned business school was selected as a single-case study to illustrate how analytics can be a powerful tool for QM in HE. This study found that analytics and business intelligence, enabled by a centralised information system, offer great tools for quality professionals at HE institutions to manage by fact and consequently allow them to make more fact-based, data-based operational, tactical, and strategic decisions. The centralised information system also alleviates the challenges associated with applying for multiple accreditations. As this is a highly contextual phenomenon, this study also calls for future research in other contexts, such as in other disciplines or in other regions where HE has significantly different operational characteristics.
KW - analytics-enabled quality management
KW - business analytics
KW - business intelligence
KW - higher education
KW - performance monitoring
KW - Quality management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147653350&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03075079.2023.2172153
DO - 10.1080/03075079.2023.2172153
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85147653350
SN - 0307-5079
VL - 48
SP - 845
EP - 863
JO - Studies in Higher Education
JF - Studies in Higher Education
IS - 6
ER -