The role of big data in university strategy and performance eco system: A case study

Abstract

Faculty members are the beating heart of any University around the world. They are one of the pillars of any University strategy that usually includes excellence in teaching, research activities and both university and community services. Over their academic service lifetime, faculty members produce huge amount of information and knowledge because of the above activities. Unfortunately, and for cultural, technical and management reasons, this information is never captured and maintained, and hence the opportunity of creating value and knowledge is lost. On the other hand, lots of effort are wasted in gathering and aggregating such information every time it is needed by the management either to measure the progress and achievements of the university, or even when the faculty member is applying for promotion. This paper describes the architecture of a knowledge management system that has been implemented, to help the University to harness knowledge out of the big data that is generated by various faculty members, but scattered around the University. The system, which was successfully piloted in College of IT, enables faculty members to set their objectives, track academic performance throughout academic lifetime and guiding them towards their promotion through the promotion dashboard. The system, which was built on the promotion bylaws, follows a point system concept. This makes it easy to measure performance of the faculty member at any time and in a real time. Upon full implementation, the system will enable the university’s top management to monitor the University’s performance at different levels (personal, department, college and management levels). Hence moving them, in a systematic structured way, towards common goals of the University.